Lu Ming

Chapter 277 Promotion
"Mr. Alonso, it seems that you have made some mistakes in your cognition. Please note that the person sitting in front of you now represents His Excellency Cao Chuan; that is to say, you are dealing with the Ming government."

"So." Tang Xiaoqiao rubbed his chin while staring playfully at the Portuguese in front of him: "Pay attention to your wording and attitude."

Today is the second time that Alonso has come to the official office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to negotiate.

The initial negotiations between the two sides can be said to have broken up unhappy.After seeing the memo that could be described as "brain-dead" at first glance, Comrade Alonso, who was extremely shocked, immediately expressed his indignation and inability to understand this absurd document, and then he left the stage angrily.

You know, in name the Portuguese only occupy the small area of ​​Macau, but in fact the Portuguese are the sitters outside the Pearl River Estuary.Taking advantage of the ignorance and inaction of the Ming government, they not only monopolized Guangzhou's foreign trade, but also set up checkpoints to pump water at the mouth of the Pearl River, as if they were already an independent kingdom.

It is normal for the Portuguese, who have always been used to being arrogant, to be emotionally unacceptable after discovering that a group of even more arrogant villains suddenly appeared.

But here is a senior official, and no one cares whether the Portuguese withdraws from the negotiation. So after a few days, Alonso, who finally figured out the situation, could only ask for talks again.

The second meeting also did not go well.Alonso, who had already made up his mind to lower his attitude and speak well, couldn't help getting angry again when talking about those outrageous terms.

In fact, he is very clear about the semi-official nature of the time-traveling forces, so Alonso originally planned to use the tricks he used to deal with officials of the Ming Dynasty——speaking humbly and lowering his posture to solve the problem.Usually those Ming officials are very fond of this, as long as they show obedience on the surface, Ming people will give in on practical issues.

But this time he was wrong again.The crossing people were not those Ming officials who gave up the foreign trade port to outsiders, so after Tang Xiaoqiao unceremoniously and sharply dissected the core rights and interests of the Portuguese in Macau, Alonso had to be angry.

Resisting the impulse, Alonso stared at Tang Xiaoqiao and said slowly: "Tang, you now have official identities. But Mr. Cao Chuan is just a low-level general in the Fujian area, and Guangzhou does not belong to his defense zone. In fact, you have no control over it." There, isn't it?"

"Haha, your news is behind, Alonso." Hearing this, Tang Xiaoqiao leaned back on the chair triumphantly, and then stretched out a finger: "Let's talk about the first point, our BOSS was just promoted not long ago. gone."

The Fujian branch guarding Xiamen and other places in the Ming Dynasty was named Cao Chuan as acting deputy general of coastal defense, which is the newly released official position of Cao Daguan.

Since the coalition forces captured Li Kuiqi in late August and cleared the Zhangzhou Bay, Xiong Wencan and the urgent military documents from various Tibetan government offices in Fujian went to Beijing together with the heads of Li Kuiqi and Zhong Bin who had been suppressed by limestone.

As a rule, high-level military documents need to be delivered urgently.In other words, except for crossing the river by boat, the messengers galloped on fast horses during the rest of the time, and then changed horses at post stations every 20 miles, with a daily journey of about 300 miles.

In Daming in 1628, the postal industry had not yet been abolished by Chongzhen, and Li Zicheng, the first postal brother throughout the ages, was not unemployed; it took less than half a month for the urgent military situation to travel from Fujian Kuaima to the capital, usually about twelve or three days. .

Therefore, before the second negotiation between Alonso and Tang Xiaoqiao in early October, the imperial court's promotion documents had already been issued.

The official position this time did not exceed everyone's expectations: Cao Chuan's official was promoted to a level, from a guerrilla to a general.What is different from Zheng Zhilong in history is that this time there is an extra title of "acting lieutenant general".

"Proxy" means agent.Then Cao Chuan's current official position is: Commander of the Navy of the Xiamen Military Region and Deputy Commander of the Fujian Military Region.Of course, from the word acting, it can be seen that Cao Chuan, the deputy commander, is false, and the coastal defense officer who guards Xiamen is his real official.

Generally speaking, this position is still satisfactory to the people who travel through.You know, Chongzhen in history was mean and ungrateful, and showed no mercy to his subordinates who made mistakes; but now, in order to reward Cao Chuan for his efforts to wipe out the pirates in Fujian, the imperial court actually gave one more lieutenant general with the false title than Zheng Zhilong in history. It's not easy anymore.

In addition, unlike before, this time the official document of the court clearly pointed out Cao Chuan's garrison: Xiamen.

Before that, the guerrilla general Cao Chuan was an official, to put it bluntly, he was an empty commander: not only did the court not pay the soldiers, but even the garrison did not assign him people to recruit and surrender. It is not so easy to mix up the system.

This exclusion is very disturbing.Although Cao Chuan and Zheng Zhilong both have territory and subordinates, but they are private - a dignified guerrilla general, if Xiong Wencan hadn't temporarily transferred the Maweishui camp, theoretically Cao Chuan could only go to the General Military Mansion in Fuzhou City One of the offices in the .. is working, and this office is the site of Cao Guerrilla in terms of law.

But now it is different: in the Ming Dynasty, the real power general was the third rank, and the deputy general was the second rank, and both ranks were qualified to open a mansion and build a government office.This time, the imperial court finally stopped crowding out Cao, who had made great contributions, and directly allocated the established city of Xiamen Zhongzuo to Deputy General Cao—this is equivalent to crossing Ming Road, and the imperial court admitted that the vicinity of Xiamen is Cao Sichuan's territory is like the Guanning warlord stationed in Shanhaiguan.

The words are divided into two parts.

Tang Xiaoqiao, who was negotiating, would naturally not tell the Portuguese about the mere complications in Cao Chuan's new official position.He simply told Alonso: The big boss here, the Pirate King, has been promoted again, and the Ming Empire has officially sealed the area around Xiamen as the territory of Cao Chuan—this explanation is for the convenience of Europeans to understand.

After explaining this point, Tang Xiaoqiao stretched out his second finger: "Mr. Alonso, since your family is an aristocrat with a long history, you should be no stranger to the bureaucratic system."

After seeing the Portuguese nodding his head, Tang Xiaoqiao continued: "As far as short-term actions are concerned, we can completely pass through the bureaucratic system in Guangzhou and block the lotus gate. Let's starve you for a few days before we talk about it."

"As for the long-term behavior?" Seeing Alonso whose face turned pale, Tang Xiaoqiao made a fool of himself here: "You just need to know that by this time next year at the latest, when you stand on the city wall of Macau, you will be able to see It’s time for the fleet starting from Dayuan, hehe.”

"Tang, the conditions and threats you raised are beyond my authority. I think it's time for me to go back to Macau."

"It's good to leave."

The decadent Alonso finally had to leave to deal with the aggressive Tang Xiaoqiao.

(End of this chapter)