The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 243 The Greedy Mingren

Portugal, as the first country to kick off the era of European voyages, was also the first western country to come to Ming Dynasty from the sea. According to Shenwu three years ago, it has been several decades.

Among the Three Kingdoms, he was the one who knew the situation of Ming the most. After the Portuguese came to Ming, they were shocked by the richness of Ming. They also tried to conquer Daming like America.

Fortunately, the Portuguese still had self-knowledge. After learning about the territory and population of Ming Dynasty, they immediately killed this crazy idea, and instead made friends with Ming Dynasty and started trade.

Since the Jiajing period, the Portuguese have been implementing this concept. They not only presented many strange things to the emperor of Ming Dynasty, but also helped Ming Dynasty build artillery and firearms.

Later, the Spaniards and the Dutch also came to Daming successively, but under the instigation of the Portuguese, the two countries had conflicts and misunderstandings with Daming from the very beginning, and the Ming Dynasty also refused to start trade with the two countries.

In addition, Spain's national power is far stronger than that of Portugal, and it once made a plan to conquer Ming Dynasty. The Netherlands also had such thoughts, but later, under the ridicule of Portugal, and the two countries gradually learned about the situation of Ming Dynasty , Only then did the flag die down.

Although the sea merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have been secretly smuggling and transporting a large amount of silk and porcelain to Southeast Asia for trade with the Spaniards and the Dutch over the years, the price is twice as high as that of the porcelain and silk purchased by the Portuguese.

As a result, in the European market, the Portuguese porcelain and silk have always had a price advantage, so the two countries have always been worried about not being able to directly trade with Ming Dynasty. Of course, the Portuguese hindered it during this period.

No way, the Portuguese came first to take the lead. Not only did many people learn Chinese, they were also familiar with the rules of the Han people, and they could get acquainted with a large number of high-ranking Han officials and wealthy businessmen.

However, since the Spanish and the Dutch had no direct accommodation in Daming, they were still unable to directly contact the officials of Daming. Almost all the envoys they sent were driven away, and it was even more impossible to go to the capital.

The two countries naturally know that all this is the work of the Portuguese, so they have always been annoyed with Portugal, and they are even more salivating at Macau occupied by Portugal.

At the moment, in the Governor's Mansion in Macau, the Governor of Portugal, Omes, has a gloomy and gloomy face.

But the Spanish envoys and the Dutch envoys opposite him had expressions of gloating. They had obviously inquired about the difficulties Portugal was currently facing, and they came to Macau from Dongfan Island.

"Governor Omes, my lord governor deeply sympathizes with the plight you are facing. As long as you are willing to form an alliance, our country and the Netherlands can immediately send a fleet to Macau to help you resist the invasion of Ming Dynasty."

The Spanish envoy spoke slowly, and the Dutch envoy also nodded.

"I think you two have misunderstood. There will be no war between the Kingdom of Portugal and Daming. At present, there are only some disputes over the contract. The relationship between our country and Daming will be resolved soon. Otherwise, I will not be able to receive the two parties now." seat."

Omes said coldly, the two of them didn't know about Da Ming's situation in the past two years, but he knew it perfectly.

Unless his brain is cramped, he will form an alliance with the Governor of Spain and the Governor of the Netherlands to fight against Ming, but he does not intend to remind the two of them, and he even wishes for the death of the Netherlands and Spain.

The two of them had made sufficient preparations this time. They knew that the South of Ming Dynasty was implementing a new policy and wanted to take back Macau leased by the Portuguese. Seeing what Omes said, the Spanish envoy continued: "Your Excellency, don't deceive yourself anymore. It is said that this time The highest official in Guangdong has personally written a letter about Macau to the capital of Ming Dynasty. I am afraid that it will be difficult for your country to directly start trade with Daming through the lease of Macau. However, your country’s strength in the Far East alone cannot guarantee its own interests. Yes, so only the three countries can unite to force Daming to compromise!"

"Oh, is it possible that you, the Netherlands and Spain, still want to conquer the Ming Dynasty?"

Omes sneered, but he was shocked in his heart. He didn't expect that the two of them even found out about the letter written by the governor of Guangdong. If this continues, Portugal's advantage will become less and less.

"No, no, your Excellency misunderstood, Ming Dynasty is too big, it is too big to make people hopeless, it is impossible to conquer, but we don't need to conquer it, we just need to ensure our own interests, if our three countries are in the Far East Combined with our fleet, we can still do this.”

The Spanish envoy quickly shook his head, and then explained that the plan they made to conquer Ming Dynasty was now regarded as a joke by the whole of Europe, and Spain would naturally not humiliate itself and bring up this topic again.

"Let's talk about your plans first."

Omes thought about it, and asked calmly.

He naturally knew that the reason why the governors of the Netherlands and Spain wanted to join forces with Portugal to force Daming to compromise was because the prices of silk and porcelain in Daming had been increasing since this year, especially the price of silk had doubled.

The prices of the porcelain and silk they purchased in Macau have doubled, and the prices of silk and porcelain purchased by the Dutch and Spaniards in Nanyang can be imagined.

As for why the prices of Daming's silk and porcelain rose, he also knew some reasons, so if the two countries could force Daming to lower the prices, he would be very happy, but if he wanted the Portuguese to participate together, that would be impossible.

"Your Excellency, although the army of Ming Dynasty is very strong and there are many, their navy is very weak. If the fleets of our three countries can unite and go directly to the outer waters of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions of Ming Dynasty, and then follow their Yangtze River, we can directly reach Their capital, I believe that even if the emperor of Ming Dynasty is arrogant, he should sit down and negotiate with us, right?"

The Spanish envoy hesitated, but in order to allow Portugal to participate, he still spoke out the plan.

"That's right! We've already learned about the situation on the Yangtze River in Daming, and it can accommodate our biggest warships. Except for the Zheng family in Fujian, Daming hardly has any naval warships!"

The Dutch envoy also said confidently.

Obviously, the two countries have also spent a lot of money this time.

No way, last year Zhu Cihong established the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, which split the maritime merchants of the two places and the big landowners who controlled the mulberry fields, causing the price of raw silk to skyrocket.

In addition, five more shipping companies were established to collect tariffs. In the end, all the additional burdens were paid by Spain and the Netherlands, and the price of a piece of silk rose to 200 taels.

Even though the two countries have a large number of colonies and silver mines in the Americas, as well as countless black slaves mining, the silver shipped to the Far East is still not enough.

This made the governors of the Netherlands and Spain couldn't bear it anymore, but they didn't dare to make things difficult for those businessmen, so they planned to unite and go to Nanjing to show their force, so that the greedy Ming people would stop.

"Two, for your proposals and plans, the governor needs to carefully evaluate the feasibility before giving a response. It just so happens that it will take time for you to assemble the fleet."

Seeing that both of them were waiting for his response, Omes said slowly, neither agreeing nor refusing.

The two looked at each other, and could only nod: "Okay, then let's go back and let the fleet gather in Macau."

"No, no, your fleet can't come directly to Macau, otherwise it will arouse the suspicion of local officials."

Omes was taken aback and said quickly.

It was right for the two of them to think about it. Fortunately, both countries have ports in Dongfan Island, so they didn't say anything.

(End of this chapter)