Lu Ming

Chapter 545 Portuguese Preparations for Anti-Japanese War ([-])

Now that the tone of the "National War of Resistance" has been set, there is nothing to hesitate, just do it.

The gentlemen of the Macau City Council made a series of deployments after unanimously passing the proposal to defend their homes that day.

First of all, the parliament authorized the governor of Macau, Jeromeno Shivela, and ordered him to immediately assume the post of commander of the city defense, and unified command of all armed forces on the island.

Jeromino Shvela is the third governor of Australia.This man succeeded his predecessor, Philip Robau, only last year, in June 1630.

The difference from the real history is that in the plane of the traveler, the "expatriate" governor and the local council, who were originally not harmonious, put aside their differences and contradictions at this moment and reached a consensus.

This is a helpless choice.

No matter what contradictions there are among the Portuguese, in the current situation of facing catastrophe, if there is no sincere cooperation, there will be nothing.Once Macau is lost, the lords of the local council will of course have their families destroyed and displaced, and the governor will also end badly.Not to mention the ominous words "coexist with the city", even a title like "the third and last governor of Macau" probably doesn't sound good?

The word governor itself represents the territory and the responsibility to defend the territory.Officials of the Ming Dynasty are not clear, but in the Western world, the action of sending a governor means that from the perspective of the suzerain country, the country has king-like rights over the local area and needs to send representatives to implement the suzerain rights.

Therefore, Governor Shivela was in the parliament that day and successfully took over the important task of guarding the land.The early Australian Governor's power was mainly military power, so it was called "Bingtou".It was not until 1652, when the King of Portugal set up the Overseas Committee to assist in the management of overseas colonies, that the powers of the Governor increased.As a soldier, war was originally the governor's purview, and Shivela's governor's residence was right next to the fort.

After placing the most important military power, the parliament also made many follow-up decisions.This not only included a series of preparations for the battle, but most importantly, the parliament also sent multiple envoys and messengers to try to save the situation at the last moment.

The most important thing here, of course, is to work with Ming. To be precise, it should be with Cao.

In fact, from the beginning, the Portuguese have not stopped this work, but the effect is not obvious.

As explained above, the issue of the status of Macao has been the core diplomatic issue of the "Portuguese and Cao" two years before this.

"How can you allow others to sleep soundly on the side of the couch."In the eyes of the arrogant and arrogant people who are digging their feet at the world map to divide their private estates, the group of Portuguese in Macau are the little hooligans who came to give the master eye drops.

So even when he was still nesting in Yizhou, the Cao family made public his policy towards Australia, showing his hostility towards the Portuguese nakedly.

The Portuguese certainly did not take this hostility lightly, not from the start.After all, this is a large local pirate group with mysterious power that miraculously rose rapidly and defeated Zheng Zhilong and many pirates.In the East Asian ocean where the weak prey on the strong, no one will underestimate such a force.

However, all the diplomatic efforts of the Portuguese failed in the end, because the core contradiction between the two sides could not be reconciled-the Transiters want to take back the sovereignty of Macau and turn the Portuguese into foreign guests applying for green cards, while the Portuguese want to occupy Macau for a long time and make it Become your own colony, just like they did in the other world.

There is simply no way to reconcile this fundamental issue of sovereignty.Although in the past year or so, the Portuguese have made various efforts and concessions in the face of the increasingly powerful crossing forces.

And today, when everyone has a showdown, the Portuguese Parliament has no choice but to respond again: send envoys, send all people who can communicate with the Ming government and Cao's forces to be lobbyists, and offer all kinds of promises and bribes, just asking for one opportunities for peaceful resolution.

So after the meeting, multiple envoys set off from Haojingao on the same day.Some of them take a boat, and some go directly by land through the lotus stem gate. The gate is still open at this moment.In fact, the traversing crowd did not create a tense atmosphere, at least from the perspective of the 24 hours after the ultimatum was issued, the gate was closed as usual.

Three days later, news came from all over the Ming Kingdom.

First of all, Zhangchao Zongbing Yamen, with the toughest attitude, rejected all the arguments of the Portuguese as always, and told the envoy with righteous words: Only by fully agreeing to the conditions put forward by the cross-border people during the previous negotiations between the two sides, the Portuguese can avoid this. war.Otherwise, "you will lose everything."

The Portuguese were not surprised by this result.After all, the two sides had negotiated N times before, and the Portuguese were deeply impressed by the arrogance and uncompromising attitude of the people who traveled through the country.

Followed by the indigenous officials of the Ming Dynasty.

In the long years before, from the first time when the Franji people set foot on the land of the Ming Dynasty to "borrow the land to sell goods", bribery, a tactic that travels through multiple planes, has repeatedly demonstrated its power.

The series of countermeasures taken by the court of the Ming Dynasty, especially the official circles in Guangdong, against Frangji were all inseparable from the word bribery.Of course, the word "Gongqian" should be added here.

You must know that among all the colonists, the Franji people have the best attitude when dealing with Ming officials.This undoubtedly hit the itch of the officials of the Ming Dynasty who were full of thoughts of "the heaven above the kingdom".Therefore, compared with other colonists, the Portuguese got the biggest benefit from the Ming Dynasty: Macau.

This time, however, it was different.

No matter whether they were high-level or low-level officials in Guangdong in the Ming Dynasty, after the Portuguese envoys came to the door, most of them closed their doors and pretended to be sick.

The few officials who were not in the way of the affection in the past and the respect of the present, when they met secretly, they also persuaded the visitors with earnestness/fear and caution: "That man has killed countless Tartars. Now the emperor must pinch his nose and pamper him, and be with him again." The one named Xiong wears a pair of trousers, and he looks like a devil in the world of Fujian and Guangdong! Go back and tell your master Diego, don’t be right with the big bug, this person can’t go forward or reverse. Let’s go along, there is more or less a way to survive .”

After all the news came back, I knew that if I conceded or lost the war this time, the gentlemen would not only lose their homes, but also their trade privileges in East Asia, so everyone put aside all distracting thoughts and prepared for the war with peace of mind.

Next, a large number of families flocked to the sailboat docked in Macau's inner harbour.

The war of resistance does not mean that women and children should block bullets.While the Portuguese were frantically preparing for the war, they naturally had to send their family members away from this tiny place first.

No matter how loud the slogan is and how high the morale is, the Portuguese executives still know in their hearts: this war is more ominous than good.

So the women and children must be sent away first.

In the years before this, due to coveting the key role of Macau in the trade with Ming Dynasty, the colonists of other European countries organized landing wars more than once, trying to seize Macau from the Portuguese.

Among them, the Dutch are the most enthusiastic.

The Dutch invaded Macau five times between 1601 and 1627, among which the one that occurred in 5 was the largest.

At that time, under the order of the governor of Batavia Cohen, the Dutch gangsters united with the British gangsters. The two sides, with Admiral Lai Gechen as the commander, put together a Macao landing force composed of twelve ships and 1000 soldiers, and once broke through the city wall of Macao.

However, the Anglo-Dutch hooligans were eventually thwarted by the heroic Portuguese soldiers and priests.

Therefore, if you encounter a war launched by other forces, the Portuguese are not in vain.

But this time is different.This time, it was the mainland of Ming that started the war.Although the Portuguese knew very well that the actual planner and promoter of the war was not the Ming emperor, but the ambitious pirate Earl Cao.

However, this is the reality: since Cao can push the Ming court to agree to his war plan, then this means that the Portuguese will soon face the endless manpower of the Ming country. Of course, there are also the elite army and navy under Earl Cao.

No Portuguese top brass can keep up with realistically optimistic forecasts.This is not the 1000 people put together by the Dutch hooligans. This is the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty with unlimited logistics in units of [-].

Therefore, the women and children must be sent away first, and then use the solid city defense and God-given courage to win a decent post-war agreement.

In the face of those large and small ships leaving Macau in a hurry, the passing crowd will not stop them.

The purpose of crossing the public is only to occupy Macau and resume the exercise of sovereignty, and then gradually shift the center of gravity of East Asian trade to the Guangzhou New Area.As for whether the Portuguese ran away or died in battle, it didn't matter to the people who traveled through.After all, after the war, Europeans still need to come back and spend money to digest those products on the assembly line.

So in the last few days of the seven-day deadline, two streams of people appeared in Macau.The first is the fleet of ships leaving Macau one after another.There are various types of ships, from Chinese style boats to Western style sailboats, and they are full of Portuguese women, children, old and weak.

As for the whereabouts of the ships, is there any need to ask?Naturally, it is the Philippines, the new territory of the Portuguese great new emperor Philip in East Asia.Is it possible to go to Batavia, where the Dutch are entrenched?Aren't you afraid that Dutch hooligans will take women and children hostage?
The second flow of people in Macau is towards Daming.

There are a large number of merchants from the Ming Dynasty and their families in the city of Macau. Those who carry live goods, sedan chairs, sailors, vegetable sellers, fishmongers, etc., as long as they are yellow-skinned and black-haired, they will all carry their bags in the last few days. , Passed through the lotus stem gate in an endless stream.

Soon, in the small city of Macau, there were only Franz and their servants left.

The total number of left behind is still quite a lot.After decades of reproduction, the number of native Australians has exceeded 2000, even without counting traders and sailors like migratory birds.This is not counting their servants - a large number of Japanese, Indians, blacks, and slaves of different races, colors, and beliefs trafficked by colonists from all over the world.

(End of this chapter)