I want to be emperor

Count Castelumellor, who launched a rebellion in Lisbon and seized control of Lisbon, sent people to the Chu army barracks outside the city early the next morning.

This time the envoy sent by the Portuguese appeared very respectful and humble.

And when they came up, they said that in principle, the market can be opened to the Great Chu Empire, not only the local market, but also the Brazilian market of their colony in South America can also be opened to the Great Chu Empire.

On the premise of expressing their willingness to open up the market, the representatives of Chu State are also willing to listen to some of their opinions.

In any case, the Great Chu Empire came to Portugal to do business, not to conquer cities and expand territories, at least not at this stage.

Under such circumstances, the Great Chu Empire naturally needs some agents on the Portuguese side. You can't expect the Chu people to send people to rule Portugal, and then just to sell goods...

Supporting several agents to sell goods and obtain the greatest economic benefits is in line with the interests and needs of the Great Chu Empire in Europe at this stage.

Now that the new representatives of the Portuguese interests can make concessions on the principle of opening up the market, Chu will not care too much about other details.

Immediately, the officials of the Department of Feudal Affairs in the delegation sent by Chu State, accompanied by Luiz and other translators, had a preliminary discussion with the Portuguese State.

In the morning, several preliminary cooperation intentions in principle were reached.

First of all, the Portuguese will fully open the market to the Great Chu Empire. The Great Chu Empire can freely export goods from Portugal and limit the tariffs on many important goods.

The tariffs on textiles and iron products shall not exceed 5.00%, and the tariffs on several other important goods, such as tea and porcelain, shall not exceed [-]%.

Tariffs on other types of goods shall not exceed [-]%.

The tariffs on specific goods will be followed by detailed negotiations between the representatives of the two parties to finalize the tariff ratio.

In order to ensure the smooth implementation of limited tariffs, Portugal will set up customs under the guidance of Chu State, and the main customs officials will be served and responsible by Chu State.

The tariffs collected, in addition to being used to repay the indemnity of the Great Chu Empire, the rest was transferred to Lisbon.

This indemnity is naturally the indemnity paid by Portugal to the Great Chu Empire in this war. In order to supplement the losses and military expenses of the Great Chu Empire in the war, Portugal needs to pay 800 million Chu Yuan to the Great Chu Empire at one time.

Portugal couldn't come up with so much cash, so the Great Chu Empire Finance Bank provided loans, and the Portuguese would repay them in installments over many years, with customs revenue as a guarantee and subsequent installments.

These are economic matters.

In addition, the Portuguese side will lease the local Setubal Port to the Great Chu Empire, with an annual rent of 99 Chu Yuan and a lease term of [-] years. The Great Chu Empire has the right to a permanent lease.

In addition, all overseas colonies were sold to the Great Chu Empire, including Brazil in South America, the Azores in the hinterland of the Atlantic Ocean, and the Madeira Islands on the coast of West Africa. deducted from compensation.

Chu people have extrajudicial power in Portugal. Chu people commit crimes in Portugal. Portugal can only arrest suspects, but they cannot conduct private trials. They must be handed over to a court set up by Chu people for trial.

In general, it is to open the market, limit tariffs, rule outside the law, cede a local port, and cede all overseas colonies.

The serious loss of power and humiliation of the country!
The Portuguese have been bullied by Spain for so many years, but they have never been so miserable.

But the Portuguese were not beaten so miserably before, and they were desperate. The fleet in Lisbon Port was wiped out in one day, and the coastal defense forts of later generations were beaten to pieces. The army stationed in Lisbon couldn't resist for a long time. He was hanged and beaten by a servant army of less than a thousand soldiers from the Chu army.

Seeing that the Chu army is about to enter Lisbon, the country is destroyed... To be honest, it is not easy to sign an alliance under the city at this time to keep the Portuguese state and the capital Lisbon from being destroyed and looted.

This means that the Chu people should not go too far for the sake of follow-up trade. Otherwise, they would switch to the previous method, which would be to go to Lisbon first, eat and drink enough, and then negotiate slowly.

It's just that the Great Chu Empire is not interested in these petty profits... Directly using trade to plunder the entire country's economy is much better than rushing in to grab some gold and silver.

How can robbery make a lot of money in business!
Furthermore, we must also pay attention to the influence. The actions of the Portuguese are also related to a series of actions of the European Expeditionary Force of the Great Chu Empire in other European countries.

If it goes too far on the Portuguese side, it is easy to arouse full-scale resistance from other countries, especially France and Spain, which are relatively large countries.

So it's almost the same after the goal is achieved, and it doesn't have to be smashed to pieces.

On the same day, after the two sides negotiated a preliminary agreement, in the afternoon and evening of that day, a group of Portuguese dignitaries in Lisbon naturally quarreled again, and even once triggered their civil strife. The sound of fighting lasted in the middle of the night.

It was not until the next day that the Lisbon side sent a clear reply. The dignitaries in their country had agreed to the negotiation conditions, and the two parties could formally sign the contract.

Without further ado, at about four o'clock in the afternoon that day, more than 20 nobles from Lisbon left the city, arrived outside the camp of the Chu army, and signed a formal agreement with the delegation of the Great Chu Empire. This agreement is also known as the "Chu-Portuguese Lisbon Treaty" ".

After the treaty was concluded, Commodore Song Yuanlong was satisfied to evacuate with his men, but he didn't go too far, but ran to Setubal not far to the south.

This place is already a concession of the Great Chu Empire, and it is said to be a concession, but because of the permanent lease, it is actually no different from a formal cession, but the Portuguese resolutely disagree with the use of cession for their own face. The term "territory" uses a lease, plus a perpetual lease.

The entire concession area is not big, in fact, it is only more than ten square kilometers. After all, the Chu people did not want this place for farming or immigration, but purely as a trading port and supply port.

A series of subsequent import and export trades against Portugal will basically be carried out in this port.

Considering that Portugal just had a fight with themselves, and their domestic opinions are not very unified, two wars broke out in Lisbon in just two days. In order to ensure the safety of this port, Song Yuanlong discussed with the army. After that, I plan to garrison here for a while.

As long as their squadron stays here, Lisbon next door will not be able to change the sky.

Since they plan to stay here for a while, the related construction of the port will also start.

For the construction of ports in overseas colonies, the Chu people have rich experience in this area. First, they went to the surrounding areas to recruit indigenous young people.

There is no need to worry about the surrounding indigenous people not coming, anyway, the Portuguese officials dare not stop them, and those young natives at the bottom have no sense of family and country, as long as the Chu people pay them wages, they are happy to work for the Chu people.

With the young and strong natives, first set up a simple wooden camp, so that more than 1000 people from the army have been living in tents, and a large amount of army supplies can only be placed in the open air.

Then expand a small local wharf, and first set up a temporary deep-water berth to moor the transport ship to facilitate unloading.

Then slowly build large ports, port warehouses, coastal fortifications and other infrastructure, and these will need to be done slowly in the future.

When Song Yuanlong led the construction of the second fleet, the news of the successful operation of this squadron in Portugal, including the signed treaty text, was also sent to Tangier along with the communication ship.

At this time, the city of Tangier is still in ruins - it was fun to fight at the beginning, but it is really troublesome to clean up now. There are not a few intact houses left in the whole city. Now this ruins are used as a supply of building materials. It's really useless.

Therefore, a large number of European expeditionary forces who came to land one after another and an equally large number of prisoners of war could only stay temporarily on the edge of the old city with a large number of military tents and temporary simple wooden houses.

A large number of prisoners of war are picking up some wood, stones and other materials from the ruins to the open space outside the city to build the port terminal and the necessary buildings in the early stage.

Because of the mess on the shore, a group of important figures in the European Expeditionary Force basically did not disembark, and they all stayed on the battleship Guiyang moored in the port.

The battleship Guiyang is the second ship of the Yingtian-class battleship, the main battleship currently in service in the Great Chu Empire.

The Yingtian-class battleships were originally the first batch of battleships in the Great Chu Empire to be equipped with the three advanced technologies of front-loading rifled guns, combined steam engines, and wrought iron armor.

The full-load displacement can reach [-] tons, and considering the stability of the combined steam engine and the larger hull bringing more coal, this class of ships also abandoned sails for the first time and used pure steam engine power to propel.

This is also the first ocean-going warship powered by pure steam engines in the Great Chu Empire.

It's just that the cruising distance is a bit poor. If the [-]-knot economic cruising speed is used, the cruising distance is only [-] nautical miles, which is not as far as the Jinzhou-class cruiser.

But the firepower is much stronger. There is a double-mounted open-air rotary platform mount on the front and rear of the central axis, and a total of four 25 mm 9000-caliber front-loading rifled guns. The maximum range of the guns can reach [-] meters.

Of course, the effective range is not that high, limited by the sighting and turbulence of the sea. Even if it is land shelling, the effective range is generally only more than 5000 meters. What a hit.

However, the same type of artillery is also deployed on land as a shore fire prevention artillery, relying on the ground for bombardment, and hot air balloons for observation and aiming. The maximum effective range of most battleships can reach 8000 meters, which is a very terrifying statistic.

So don't look at the Guiyang ship on the port that has been in service for many years. It is not a cutting-edge warship, but its combat effectiveness is still strong. It belongs to the active first-class warship in the Great Chu Empire Navy.

Of the four battleships sent to Europe this time, there are two Yingtian-class battleships, Guiyang and Kunming, and two old Suzhou-class battleships Suzhou and Fuzhou. The Suzhou-class battleships are the real old guys. They have been in service for more than ten years. When they were in service, they were even equipped with muzzle-loading smoothbore guns at the beginning, and then they were replaced with muzzle-loading rifled guns one after another.

Because the hull is old and small, only about 170 tons, and the design is not suitable for other problems. Even after the modification, the firepower is relatively poor. It is only equipped with six [-]mm front-loading rifled guns, and there is no wrought iron armor. The antique wooden hull is not even as protective as the Jinzhou-class cruiser. The Jinzhou-class cruiser still has a wrought iron armor and a coal bunker on the side of the ship.

According to the current standards of the Navy, this thing is actually not a battleship, at most it is an unprotected cruiser...or a large frigate.

However, this class of ships is really old, the hull is seriously aging, and the early steam engines installed are also full of problems. The navy has already started to retire this class of ships one after another, so naturally they don't bother to refit and reclassify them.

If there is no accident, at most three to five years, the Suzhou-class battleship will be completely retired from active service.

Now for the Great Chu Empire Navy, the most cutting-edge active battleships are six Taiyuan-class battleships with a full load of [-] tons, equipped with rear-loading rifled guns, and the new Jinling-class battleship of the [-]-ton class under construction.

The other old guys have basically looked down on them.

However, even old guys like the Suzhou-class battleships who have entered the retirement sequence are still full of deterrence overseas. The body of more than 4000 tons is placed there, and anyone in Europe will be afraid to see it.

Not to mention the larger, more than 6000-ton Guiyang.

As the flagship of the European Expeditionary Fleet, Guiyang, Commander of the Expeditionary Force, Imperial Baron, Vice Admiral Liu Yongxin set up his headquarters here.

At this time, in the large conference room inside the Guiyang, Vice Admiral Liu Yongxin and a group of senior generals of the expeditionary force gathered together, discussing the follow-up battle arrangements.

Vice Admiral Liu Yongxin, as the supervisor of the European Expeditionary Force Command, is also the commander of the European Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Chu Empire Navy, so he is naturally at the top.

The European Expeditionary Force Command is not a simple combat command organization. It not only has the Army and Navy Guards, the Western Trading Company, but also a deputy director in charge of European feudal affairs sent by the Feudal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Rites and Education. Supervision, its authority is very large, with a series of powers such as declaring war, negotiating, signing treaties, and commanding operations... In other words, all affairs in Europe, regardless of whether it is military affairs or feudal affairs, are temporarily under the command of the Expeditionary Force Jurisdiction.

A bit similar to the meaning of the European Governor's Palace.

Therefore, the title of Liu Yongxin's navy is not the commander of the European Expeditionary Force, but the governor... The full name is: "Supervise the affairs of the European military, politics, and feudal affairs by order."

This is a very special title, that is, Europe is too far away from the mainland. In order to allow the civil and military officials on the front line to have sufficient power to make temporary decisions, this special title was specially created.

This kind of situation has happened in Southeast Asia, India, Africa, and America before, with the names of governor, supervisor, commander, etc., but the names are different, but the authority is basically the same.

And this special position that combines civil and military powers is temporary and will be revoked after the war. Then the empire will set up formal institutions such as governors and garrison headquarters, and send civilian governors and generals to guard.

The European Expeditionary Fleet of the Navy, the European Expeditionary Force of the Army, and the European Expeditionary Force of the Guards are the arms command organizations in the conventional sense.

On the opposite side of Vice Admiral Liu Yongxin is the co-organizer of the European Expeditionary Force, the No. 20 Seventh Army of the Great Chu Empire Army, which is Lieutenant General Bo Jianan, the commander of the European Expeditionary Force of the Great Chu Empire Army... This person was last year, The senior generals directly dispatched from the mainland have full command of all the army units in the European Expeditionary Force, including the Guards.

When fighting overseas, although the Guards actually fight independently, for safety and convenience, they will basically be incorporated into a higher-level army organization. Command.

Of course, a large-scale mixed battalion-sized guard army that is going to Europe to participate in the war is still in South Africa, and it is estimated that it will take a few months to arrive by boat.

In addition to these two lieutenant generals, Dai Yu, co-organizer of the European Expeditionary Force of the Great Chu Empire and deputy director of the Department of Civil Affairs of the Ministry of Rites and Education, was present at the meeting.

He looks young, but he is a political supernova in the Ministry of Ethics and Education... Chengshun became an official with the number one examination in 23 years. Gyeonggi served as the director of a certain department of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and was later transferred to the director of the Southeast Division of the Imperial Examination Department of the Ministry of Ethics and Education. He was responsible for supervising and organizing the provincial examinations in the southeastern provinces... This position is noble and powerful. The super universities in each province are.

At the beginning of last year, he was transferred to the deputy director of the Department of Civil Affairs of the Ministry of Ethics and Education... This position is only used for transition, and I am afraid that it will not take long to become a third-rank official.

In his thirties, he became the deputy director of the third grade. Anyone who saw it knew that this person had a bright future.

In fact, this is indeed the case. If there is no accident, when the war on the European side is initially calmed down and the situation is entrusted, the Great Chu Empire will definitely set up a European governor here to handle colonial affairs and feudal affairs.

According to some unspoken rules of imperial officialdom, if promising officials are transferred to work in poor places overseas, then the promotion will be faster and they can be promoted by leapfrogging.

Looking at it this way, the future post of governor of Europe is basically created for the leapfrog promotion of this political supernova.

Otherwise, why didn't the upper echelons of the empire send someone with an appropriate rank, but insisted on sending someone who was only from the third rank to serve.

Looking at this man who is not yet 40 years old, but has half a foot into the ranks of high-ranking imperial officials, he will become a minister in a few years. A high-ranking official at the level of a local governor will even be able to challenge the position of a real cabinet minister in the future. Even Vice Admiral Liu Yongxin and Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an, the two military leaders, couldn't help being envious!

Although the two of them have high military ranks, they are both old. Liu Yongxin is in his fifties, and Bo Jianan is in his 60s. Retire from active duty!
The reason why he was able to get the position of the commander of the European Expeditionary Force of the Army and the commander of the No.20 Seventh Army was the retirement gift arranged for him by the bigwigs of the military...

Although Liu Yongxin is younger, he basically has no hope. After finishing this battle at the age of 58, he will have to return to his hometown to take up a spare position in order to make way for the latecomers.

The same battle to conquer Europe, for civil servant Dai Yu, is an entry step, a fast lane to overtake on a curve and go straight to the cabinet.

But for the two generals, this is their curtain call.

After fighting this battle, you have to go back to your hometown to take care of your baby!
If it wasn't for giving them a decent curtain call, the top military officials wouldn't have let them come.

In terms of ability and talent, the army commander is better than their generals, so why should they be them?

But anyway, he is a lieutenant general, regardless of other aspects, he is about to retire, and the dignity that should be given should be given...