prosperous age

Wei Guangde instinctively wanted to refuse Robert's request, but when he thought of the gifts, he hesitated again.

In fact, Wei Guangde thought that he had a bottom line, just like the young cabinet minister, that is, he would accept various New Year gifts, but if the other party asked for something, Wei Guangde would just take the money to do the job.

Of course, the premise is that the matter cannot exceed Wei Guangde’s bottom line.

In Wei Guangde's opinion, Robert's request did not touch the bottom line.

In fact, until the end of the Chongzhen period, the Ming Dynasty had never signed an equal diplomatic agreement with other countries, and almost all countries that established diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty were vassal states.

This is different from the Tang Dynasty.

At that time, the Tang Dynasty only exerted its power on neighboring countries to make them submit to it.

Most of those who were unwilling to surrender were destroyed. The only kingdoms that were not destroyed were those that the Tang Dynasty could not deal with, such as Tubo.

However, the Ming Dynasty did not have such an equal diplomatic agreement. Although they had contacts with Portugal, they were limited to very low-level contacts and could not even reach the level of establishing diplomatic relations.

One of the important tasks for the envoys from the three European countries who came to the Ming Dynasty this time was to sign an agreement to establish diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty.

The gifts given by the British included the two table clocks, two couple's pocket watches and many valuable jewelries. In fact, the processing technology of European jewellery was very advanced at that time.

Xu Jianglan liked some of the jewelry very much.

The gifts sent by Spain and Portugal were also good. The three countries might have communicated with each other before sending gifts to Wei's Mansion. They all used the most valuable handicrafts in Europe at that time as gifts to present to Wei Guangde.

No matter who Wei Guangde meets first, everyone's goal is the same, which is to sign an agreement to establish equal diplomatic relations and establish commercial ties between countries.

Wei Guangde soon had an answer and said with a smile: "I will speak for you in the cabinet on this matter."

"Thank you very much, Your Excellency. Our country will certainly appreciate your help."

Robert was very excited to hear that Wei Guangde was willing to help, and he couldn't help smiling. Drake, who had been silent, also had a smile on his face.

It can only be said that their preparations were very thorough, and now they are very familiar with the operation of the Ming Dynasty court.

The nominal emperor of the current Ming Dynasty does not actually interfere in state affairs. This is actually very common in the West. When the king is young, he manages state affairs through regents.

The regents of the Ming Dynasty were the chief minister Zhang Juzheng, the second chief minister Wei Guangde and the prime minister Feng Bao.

As long as we can deal with these three people, achieving our goal will be almost certain.

There was naturally a division of labor in this secret meeting among the three countries. The Portuguese had the most detailed understanding of the Ming Dynasty, so they chose to focus on Zhang Juzheng. The Spanish were responsible for dealing with Feng Bao, and the target of the British lobbying was Wei Guangde.

Europeans did not quite understand what the term "yinren" meant and only regarded Feng Bao as the palace steward and the minister of the interior. Although he did not have much power, he was close to the emperor and was an important adviser and aide to the emperor in making decisions.

Such a person is also very influential in the West, and his position is naturally more important than that of the second assistant Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde had no idea what the Europeans were planning, he had just thought of a solution.

Although the Ming Dynasty did not have a precedent of signing an equal agreement, the Tang Dynasty did.

The system of the Ming Dynasty was largely based on the systems of the Tang and Song Dynasties. The Tang Dynasty signed equal agreements with the Middle Eastern countries such as the Arabs. At that time, the Middle Eastern countries' visits to the Tang Dynasty were normal interactions between countries and they were not considered vassal states of the Tang Dynasty.

Wei Guangde planned to report this to the Ministry of Rites. When the court summoned nine ministers to discuss the matter, he would cite the old precedents of the Tang Dynasty to persuade others to accept such a treaty.

Of course, Wei Guangde believes that it is also necessary to send ambassadors to Europe.

It is particularly important to closely understand the development of Europe at that time and collect Europe's advanced science and technology at that time.

Wei Guangde was more or less influenced by later generations. It was not that he believed that foreign monks could chant sutras, but he believed from the bottom of his heart that European technology at that time might have surpassed that of the Ming Dynasty in many aspects.

Although China's technology has been very advanced in later generations, in the eyes of most Chinese people, Western technology may be more advanced, but it is kept secret and not announced.

Wei Guangde planned to take this opportunity to send a group of officials and Jinyiwei spies to Europe, one to collect intelligence on the political situation in Europe at that time, and the other to collect information on the progress of other scientific research in Europe.

It is difficult for Orientals to hide when they suddenly appear in Europe.

By taking advantage of the opportunity of establishing diplomatic relations with Britain, Spain and Portugal and sending an embassy to those places, he would not attract attention and could well complete his plan of collecting intelligence.

Both parties achieved their goals, and the subsequent conversation naturally became intimate.

Robert introduced to Wei Guangde the national conditions of Britain at that time, the thriving development of Britain under the management of Queen Elizabeth, and the great achievements made by Deputy Envoy Drake.

After hearing Drake's past experiences, Wei Guangde suddenly began to take this person seriously.

Well, actually, this pirate officer is still very famous in China in later generations. First, he made a fortune by robbing Spain, and used this wealth to exchange for British aristocratic status. Second, the British naval mobile force he commanded dealt a heavy blow to the Spanish Invincible Armada.

This style of fighting is actually exactly the same as the tactics used by the Japanese Combined Fleet against the Beiyang Fleet later. Both of them won by relying on the tactical idea of ​​"using speed to defeat slowness and using agility to defeat weight."

However, Japan had higher technical execution capabilities due to the achievements of the Industrial Revolution, namely more advanced rapid-fire guns and steam power, while the Qing government's corruption and lax preparations for war magnified the Beiyang Fleet's disadvantages, causing it to repeat the failure of Spain due to disorganization.

Wei Guangde had read such an analytical article, which made him curious about Drake and he learned about this legendary pirate.

He really didn't expect Drake to appear in front of him, so he was still very shocked, especially when he knew that the Golden Hind driven by Drake had been to Old Port last year and then returned home.

Naturally, Wei Guangde led the topic to America, especially America occupied by the Spanish, and how Drake escaped.

Based on Wei Guangde's little knowledge of history, he thought that except for the Portuguese colony in northeastern South America, all of America had been occupied by Spain at that time.

But it was obvious that Drake told Wei Guangde the truth, that is, Spain actually only occupied about half of the land in North America. The Spanish did not station troops in the northern part of North America, so there was naturally no question of occupation.

Then they headed south. According to human living habits, the Spaniards conquered warmer areas and occupied the northern part of South America, the land outside the Portuguese colonies.

Of course, the Spanish also established a military port in the southernmost part of South America and blockaded Magellan to prevent ships from other countries from passing through here to reach the Pacific Ocean, thus bringing the entire Pacific Ocean under their control.

After seeing Robert and Drake off, Wei Guangde sat in the study for a long time before he figured something out.

Although he still did not think it was necessary for the Ming Dynasty to colonize America and acquire the land there, Wei Guangde also realized a problem, that is, the Great Lakes region in North America did not seem to be controlled by the Spanish, and the British had no foothold there.

Well, Wei Guangde knew about that place because he had read reports on the Great Lakes region and knew that it was once the most important heavy industrial center in the United States.

The Great Lakes region of North America is the largest freshwater lake group in the world and is known as the "Mediterranean Sea of ​​North America".

There are five world-famous freshwater lakes, namely Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

The Great Lakes region located in the northeast can be said to be the starting point of American industrialization.

From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, the Great Lakes region of the United States became a center of heavy industry because of its convenient water transportation and rich mineral resources.

Industries such as steel, glass, chemicals, logging, mining, and railroads emerged one after another, and industrial cities such as Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Milwaukee, Dayton, Cleveland, Chicago, Harrisburg, Bethlehem, Buffalo, and Cincinnati were also once quite developed.

The Great Lakes region of the United States, the Ruhr area of ​​Germany, and the industrial area of ​​London were once among the industrial leaders of an era.

The rich and beautiful Great Lakes region has vast fertile lakeside plains, complex and diverse terrain, and abundant resources.

The local underground resources are quite rich, with large reserves, many varieties, good quality, and convenient mining conditions. The Appalachian Mountains to the east of the lake are the most important coalfield in the United States, accounting for half of the country's reserves.

The west and south of Lake Superior are important iron ore producing areas in the United States, accounting for about 80% of the country's reserves.

There are also rich mineral resources such as limestone, manganese, uranium, gold, silver, copper and salt along the coasts of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.

Wei Guangde felt a little disappointed when he thought that no one was coveting such a huge industrial center in the future.

All we can say is that America is too big, and Spain’s appetite is really small, so it couldn’t eat this big cake.

"Someone is coming."

Wei Guangde shouted outside the study.

Soon, a servant came in and bowed to receive orders.

"Go call Zhang Ji over. I have something to say."

Wei Guangde ordered.

Not long after, Zhang Ji came in and respectfully lowered his hands in front of Wei Guangde to receive his orders.

"Send someone to inform Lord Yu later, telling him that I want to see him tomorrow and ask him to come over during the day."

Wei Guangde gave an order and waved his hand to let Zhang Ji go down to do the work.

This time, Yu Dayou followed the emperor back to the capital, while the navy was temporarily led by Xu Qiaoan, the commander of the East China Sea Navy.

"Master, there is one more thing."

However, Zhang Ji did not leave after Wei Guangde spoke, but spoke in a low voice.

"what's up?"

Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Ji curiously and asked directly.

Zhang Ji took a half step forward and whispered in Wei Guangde's ear: "This afternoon, Admiral Yu sent someone to contact me, saying that he had some local specialties to give to you, and asked me to find a house to store them."

Although Wei Guangde knew that Yu Dayou would definitely gain a lot from his trip to the sea, he hadn't heard Yu Dayou mention it in Tianjin in the past few days. He didn't take it seriously at the time, thinking that he was waiting here.

"Haha, what local specialties, have you arranged them?"

Wei Guangde smiled.

"It has been arranged. It is in the large courtyard in Chongbeifang, the outer city."

Zhang Ji continued in a low voice, "There are a lot of things. Why don't you go over and take a look tomorrow, sir?"

"what's the situation?"

Wei Guangde saw that Zhang Ji was acting mysterious and became even more curious.

"In addition to some gifts brought back from overseas, Lord Yu also sent eight Western women."

Zhang Ji lowered his voice and spoke into Wei Guangde's ear.

"what?"

When Wei Guangde first heard that Yu Dayou brought back several Western women from overseas, he opened his mouth in surprise.

"Black and white?"

Subconsciously, Wei Guangde asked.

The slave trade is a notorious business known to the world, so Wei Guangde naturally thought that Yu Dayou bought the black slaves from human traffickers.

Well, this era seems to be the most rampant period of the slave trade, and Drake has been in this business before.

Well, even if it was a female black slave, I’m sorry, it’s not in Wei Guangde’s aesthetic point of view.

Although, it seems that in ancient China, especially during the Tang Dynasty, Kunlun slaves were still very popular.

But Wei Guangde has no shortage of slaves, so of course he doesn't need Kunlun slaves to help him do things.

Modern Western colonial expansion began in Africa. Portugal and Spain were the first countries to carry out colonial activities, and Portugal was the first country to engage in the slave trade.

In modern human history, the slave trade has written the most shameful and despicable page.

The greedy European colonists targeted African blacks, who were numerous, had the technology to grow tropical crops and could adapt to tropical labor, as slaves.

In the vast area from the mouth of the Senegal River to the mouth of the Congo River, slave ships from European colonial countries were anchored one after another. The black bows of the ships were like open bloody mouths, waiting to devour human flesh.

Of course, if we restore history, it was not Portugal but the Arab Empire that first started the slave trade.

The Arab Empire was an Islamic empire established by Arabs in the Middle Ages.

The Arab Empire lasted for 626 years, mainly including the periods of the Four Caliphates and the two hereditary dynasties of the Umayyad Caliphate and the Abbasid Caliphate. Chinese historical books since the Tang Dynasty have referred to it as "Da Shi", while Western Europe is accustomed to calling it the Saracen Empire or the Caliphate.

From the second half of the 9th century, the Abbasid Dynasty entered a period of division and gradual decline, with feudal lords or governors in various places ruling their own countries with their own troops.

By 1258, Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, was captured by Hulagu, the last caliph of Baghdad, Mustasim, was killed, and the Arab Empire was destroyed.

The Abbasid Dynasty had been importing black slaves from East Africa since its founding and taking them to Mesopotamia for agricultural production. It was also during this period that Kunlun slaves appeared in China.

However, the slave trade only refers to human trafficking in modern times, which was initiated by European colonists.

"He's not black, he's quite white, a bit like an Elijah messenger, no, he should be a Spanish messenger."

When Zhang Ji heard Wei Guangde asking about black people and white people, he immediately answered.

Well, speaking of which, because of the foreign delegations coming to Beijing, Zhang Ji has seen what black people look like. They are really dark, almost as black as charcoal.

"What's going on? Did Master Yu tell us about the origins of these people?"

Wei Guangde knew that Zhang Ji was a smart man and would not accept a "gift" casually.

If he had been a less tactful person, Zhang Ji would have been kicked out by Wei Guangde long ago.

This is the Fortress of the Emperor, and if you don't have a good eye, you will definitely cause trouble for him.

"Master, I asked, this is what happened."

Zhang Ji immediately explained in detail the origin of Yu Dayou's story. (End of this chapter)