I'm really not doing business

Chapter 177 The Unceremonious Envoy of Ming Dynasty

Information cocoons are everywhere.

The courtiers built an information cocoon to deceive the Holy Majesty; and the Holy Majesty united with the Duke of Ming to form an information cocoon to monopolize the power of his subordinates; Daming relied on the information cocoon of granular gunpowder and the confidentiality mechanism to ensure Daming’s firearm advantage; The famous Minggongs used their right to interpret knowledge to further deconstruct the teachings of saints and monopolize local power.

This kind of information cocoon is everywhere, and it seems that there are indestructible barriers to ensure that information cannot be effectively disseminated. However, the universal connection between infinite things allows the news in the information cocoon to spread around silently.

However, Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan's understanding of the Atlantic Ocean is outside the information cocoon, and they know nothing. They will soon see the cruelty and terrifying power of nature. The violent Atlantic Ocean will make Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan remember their lives .

Gao Qiyu, Xu Fan and others boarded a new boat, changing from three to five. This kind of sailing boat is five feet eight feet five inches, about a quarter of the four-masted oceangoing ship rebuilt by the Ming Dynasty. The width is no more than one foot and eight feet, the aspect ratio is 3.25:1, and the draft is one foot and two feet. It is a three-masted sailing ship called a Galen ship.

"You see, this terrible and poor sanitation, Father God, why are there such creatures as rats and fleas in the world?" Antonio looked at the rats that did not avoid people at all, with a painful expression on their faces. The world has brought many diseases, and these diseases have claimed the lives of indigenous people time and time again.

"Why do you want to change to a smaller boat? Is it safer to use a smaller boat?" Gao Qiyu can understand the choice of land in order to save water, but he doesn't quite understand why he didn't use a big boat.

"Because the big ship is expensive, the ship is expensive, and the sunken cargo of the big ship is expensive. We use a small boat to share the risk. If you choose between profit and life, profit is obviously more expensive than life." Antonio said a silent sentence.

Gao Qiyu couldn't help but think of the little emperor's words, one punch is three renminbi, ten punches is fifty renminbi, one tael of silver is not even needed for killing a person, no one will punish him, someone will cover up the aftermath for him, and do evil If you don't know it, then there is no such thing as being rich and polite.

When human life is marked with a price, and even the marked price becomes a luxury, is there still order in the world?
But now, Gao Qiyu found that he had encountered such a thing. Confucianism in the past could not explain this extreme phenomenon at all, and needed to use a new methodology to explain this problem.

It just so happened that his former husband, Zhang Juzheng, had a methodology that could explain this phenomenon, the theory of contradiction.

Gao Qiyu still can't think clearly what kind of contradictions gave birth to this fact that the rituals are broken and the music is broken.

He soon lost his ability to think.

Because the ship set sail, the turbulence of the Atlantic far exceeded Gao Qiyu's imagination.

The wind was high and the waves were rough, all the crew members were desperately hoisting, lowering, curtailing, and adjusting the sails, and Antonio didn't care about rats. Sweat, rain, and sea water were mixed together, and people seemed to be trapped by a giant wave. Grabbing his feet hard, swinging them back and forth, the person is still there, but the soul has already flown.

This is a brand new experience for Gao Qiyu, Xu Fan and other Ming people.

Gao Qiyu thought he had fully adapted to sea voyages, but he didn't know what seasickness is until he boarded this ship.

He couldn't even drink water. After sailing for twelve hours, he drank water for the first time. Eight hours after sailing No. 20, Gao Qiyu began to eat for the first time. Xu Fan's situation was similar, even The experienced sailors all vomited in a daze, and the situation was a little better than Gao Qiyu.

Under this kind of windy and rough weather, the most difficult thing is to control the ship. The wind is too strong. The continuous strong wind makes the five ships uncontrollable like wild horses running wild. The trade wind is very unstable. It seems to be moving forward, and it seems to be retreating, especially on the ocean, it is even more indistinguishable.

Everything depends on the command of the captain.

The ship kept making various creaking noises in the violent wind and waves, as if the next moment, the ship would fall apart in the wind and waves.

Only on the third day of departure, a water seepage incident occurred in a boat, and Gao Qiyu watched the boat helplessly. After struggling for a day, he began to fall behind. Although the remaining boats tried to approach several times, they failed in the end. They succeeded, and some crew members jumped into the ocean in desperation, and were subsequently submerged by the wind and waves.

That ship sank.

Antonio's complexion became extremely bad. He was extremely lucky in the Pacific Ocean. Two yaw ships caught up with his flagship along the ocean current. He was extremely unlucky in the Pacific Ocean. Just as he set off, a ship sank into the sea. .

The sailors, whose names no one remembers, disappeared over the ocean with Antonio's cargo.

Ocean trade is still an extremely dangerous thing at the moment. In comparison, people prefer the Lisbon-Cape Verde-Cape of Good Hope-Goa-Malacca-Macao-Nagasaki trade route, which does not have to face violence the Atlantic Ocean; in comparison, the Indian Ocean is as warm as a little girl.

Antonio's misfortune continued, and news of water seepage soon came from another ship, and this time, the black man at the bottom of the ship tried his best to block the leak, so as not to repeat the same mistakes. After sailing for 56 days, they arrived in Cape Verde.

Cape Verde, the Cape of Liberty, as long as you have silver and gold, you can get everything you want here. This is a place that even the gods have abandoned. There is no etiquette, shame and order here. Force and money are the greatest violence. , is also the largest order.

The most popular commodities here are spirits, tobacco, women, and slaves. Chaos here is order. Anyone may be sold at a clearly marked price. You can even see those black-haired noble women. Cause mad rush and fire.

Cape Verde is divided into Windward Islands and Leeward Islands. There is an army of Francois on the Windward Islands, while the Leeward Islands are a paradise for pirates. They continue to rob and blackmail all passing merchant ships under various names. Tall The city walls of the city have witnessed countless attacks and defenses in history. Almost all the ports here have bastions deep into the ocean, surrounding the ports.

Almost all harbors have a specially built brothel, but the pattern of these brothels is a series of cramped small rooms, and those gypsy women don't seem to mind their skin being exposed at all. , unscrupulously lying on the railing to attract customers, and occasionally scolding some sluts for a prosperous business.

When the crew got off the ship, they went straight to these brothels. The long voyage made them suffocate.

There are many legends circulating here. According to legend, a pirate named Dugue Truin once took [-] pirate ships composed of Frenchmen and slaves, captured a port in Portugal with [-] ships, and demanded a large sum of money. Ransom, this is the myth of force; it is said that someone here once dug up boxes and boxes of gold coins overseas. Those gold coins were obtained by pirates who robbed merchant ships before. This is a myth of wealth.

Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan couldn't adapt to all of this at all. Of course, Daming also had a flesh and blood business, but the Daming brothels that Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan visited were all about the same style and atmosphere. Although the purpose was the same, it still had something to do with poetry and poetry .

But here, unscrupulous.

Antonio stayed here for nearly half a month. He had a very wide network of contacts here, and the goods he brought were sold to smugglers at an extremely high price. It became a tragedy of being buried in the ocean.

Antonio kept some of these silver coins in his hands, and distributed the rest equally to all the sailors. If they all took the benefits, they would all keep their mouths shut and would not report to Felipe II.

Even Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan, the 29 envoys, were assigned a share.

Inside each copy, there are a total of 350 seven eight real silver coins, equivalent to about 300 taels of silver.

Zhang Juzheng gave Feng Baofeng a red envelope of only 100 taels of silver, and 1000 taels of silver can support the Quanchu Guild Hall for one year, which means that this dividend can support the Quanchu Guild Hall for nine years.

"Facts have proved that tax collection is still reliable. Even if they refuse to pay, the inspection departments all over the Daming sea area can still check one or two. This kind of monopoly trade of official ships and official trade itself is an opportunity for people to steal wealth. "Xu Fan said in amazement, of the four boats, Antonio himself ate one.

Gao Qiyu thought for a while, recorded this scene and said: "Philipe II should know this well, so he only asks for his share of interests, and the sinking ship is also Antonio's own interests. , otherwise he, the captain, would not need to do it.”

"Similarly, the design of the watertight cabin is really important, so that even if there is water seepage, the ship will not sink and no particles will be collected."

In the corner of Liberty, this place abandoned by God, Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan feel very bad, it is too dirty, there are human and animal feces everywhere, nearly [-] people are crowded in a fortress of a seaport, it is so bad The hygienic environment, plague can be seen everywhere.

In Daming, excrement could be sold for silver. Even Song Gaozong, the first emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, made money as a dung Taoist!
Deshou books are famous all over the market, and one Ding is worth three thousand Fu.There is no need to ask more about the brocade of lanterns, the flag of Yiyi Palace and the boat of dung.

Gao Qiyu kept these people at a respectful distance, fearing that he would catch some plague and would never be able to return to Daming in this life. After half a month of waiting, Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan set sail again to Seville.

Seville is the trading house of the Indies, and the distribution center for the entire New Spain and the New World. It includes almost all goods from the New World. The reason why it is called the Indies is because of a misunderstanding.

When Columbus was on his voyages, he thought he had arrived in India, and called the people there Indians, so he called the New World Trading House the Indies Trading House.

And Seville is extremely prosperous as the trading house of the New World, which Antonio has repeatedly emphasized.

In the eyes of Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan, this kind of prosperity is nothing more than that, because the population is too small, and the resident population is only 15. No matter how much Antonio praises the splendor of this city, in Gao Qiyu's opinion, it is just a bigger city .

Machines are still not widely used in today's West and West. Handwork is still the main mode of production. Handcraft workshops are the most important industry and commerce. There are only 15 people. No matter how developed the handicraft industry is, where can it go?
Take Linqing, Shandong Province as an example. In the 14th year of Zhengtong, the city wall of Linqing was nine li, and in the sixth year of Zhengde, it was expanded to twenty li. In the 21st year of Jiajing, it was expanded again, and the city wall was thirty li. Expansion, this time around forty miles.

And Linqing is on the side of the canal, so there are not too many merchants and gentry. According to general estimates, the siege of forty miles is about 30 people, but there are endless grass markets outside the city of Linqing, so it should be around 50 people. More than ten thousand, or even more.

According to Hongwu's 26-year yellow book, Suzhou prefecture has jurisdiction over 7 counties, with a total of 491514 households and 2355030 populations, and Suzhou City alone has more than 100 million populations.

However, Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan did not have very high expectations for the Trading House, and after arriving, as Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan guessed, for Daming, this place is indeed a small town.

Although the cathedral is indeed magnificent, compared with the glazed pagoda of Daming, the cathedral is not worth mentioning.

There is a huge amount of gold and silver here, so prices are increasing rapidly at an incredible speed.

Gao Qiyu quickly found out the source of these massive amounts of gold and silver.

The first aspect comes from the central part of Western Thailand. The main production areas are east of the Alps, Austria, Germany, Bohemia, and Saxony. The annual silver production in these places exceeds 275 million taels;

The second part came from Portugal. What they brought back was gold from the coast of West Africa. This number has always been kept secret, and Antonio, the heir to the Portuguese throne, revealed the specific number. More than 12.5 taels of gold were brought back from West Africa every year;
And the silver brought back from the New World exceeds 400 million taels every year.

In terms of conversion, more than 1000 million taels of silver appear on the entire ground of Taixi every year.

As far as Seville alone is concerned, the rate of price rise has more than quadrupled in the past ten years. This is an unacceptable status quo for Felipe II. He must find a way However, even if a large amount of silver is concentrated, it is better than circulating in commerce, so that prices will take off again.

So, fine silks entered the New World House of Trade, even though Felipe II and Antonio had done their best to sell them at a price so insane that Antonio wondered if he would screw up the errand up.

Because Felipe II set the price of silk as equivalent to gold.

But silk sales are still excellent.

97960 pieces of silk, one piece is about five and a half catties, and the total weight is 538780 catties. Daming earned 123 million taels of silver from this batch of silk. Sell ​​it at a sky-high price, equivalent to gold!

Felipe II wants to sell 862 million taels of gold or equivalent silver.

After Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan got the news, they always felt that Felipe II was crazy, but soon Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan realized that the two Confucian scholars didn't understand business and trade, and they didn't understand Taixi at all.

Felipe II's silk sold very well, 60 pieces were sold on the first day, 120 pieces on the second day, and then maintained at about [-] pieces, and these silks were sold at a terrifying speed .

Gao Qiyu didn’t understand Western culture, let alone the current customs of Westerners. With the fall of Constantinople, the demise of Rome, the end of the Middle Ages, and the arrival of the Renaissance, there was a feeling of anti-Romanism throughout Western Europe. yearning, and the Romans admired silk very much, and the silk from Taixi was neither exquisite nor durable, but the silk from the Ming Dynasty attracted the people of Taixi.

With the decline in sales, Felipe II gradually adjusted the price of silk. One month later, at the end of March in the fourth year of Wanli, the price of silk was still not sold by piece, but by weight, and finally equal to silver. Sales gradually stabilized, that is to say, the 900 bolts of silk brought Felipe II at least an income of more than [-] million taels of silver.

There must be a price increase!
This is the biggest feeling of Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan, all the white money is earned by Hong Maofan, isn't this a crime!
How can it work!

Felipe II received the envoys from the East with the highest etiquette of the Spanish royal family. Driven by the shepherd officer, [-] ibex came to Seville. With the support of the sheep, the Ming envoy went to Spain. Capital Madrid.

The Spanish Empire is a kingdom on the back of sheep, and the reception of the ten thousand sheep is indeed the highest etiquette in this country.

The Royal Palace of Aranjuez is located on the banks of the Tagus River. The river flows quietly under the cover of dense forests. The red and white walls are looming through the gaps in the trees. The first thing you see is the round tower, which connects Mortars were placed on the city walls and round towers, and the black barrels were aimed at the direction where the enemy might attack.

Gao Qiyu looked at the round tower and the city wall on the city wall. The city wall was divided into three layers, with gunners, archers, and a group of spearmen standing on it. This is a very interesting way of building a castle. Gao Qiyu noticed the uniqueness of this castle. defense ability.

And today, it was the day when the Aranjuez Palace met guests, and all of them wore the king's coat of arms with solemn expressions.

Standing at the gate of the city to welcome Gao Qiyu, Xu Fan and others was a general.

This strong man with black hair, deep eyes, and a high nose bridge said solemnly: "Dear envoy, please allow me to introduce myself as a special envoy to welcome the arrival of the two envoys and all the warriors."

"I am the younger brother of the Emperor of the Empire on which the sun never sets, the lord of the Dominion of Barcelona, ​​the nightmare of the Barbary pirates, the fear of the Moors, the commander-in-chief of the Holy Alliance Navy, the victor of the Battle of Lepanto, the great leader of the Knights of Ukles, the cardinal Lion of Styria, Guardian of the Empire on which the sun never sets, Don Juan."

"I got a good education because of the honor of my blood, and with the sword in my hand, I guarded the glory of the empire on which the sun never sets and the Holy See."

If you can understand this long list of titles, you can understand how powerful this person is.

He is the half-brother of Philip II and the lord of Barcelona. He wiped out the Barbary pirates and quelled the rebellion of the Moors. The commander-in-chief of the Tessi United Holy Fleet, he completely defeated the Ottoman intrusion on Tessie, and was the head of the Spanish Knights Ucles Knights conferred by the Pope.

There is a lion on the coat of arms of the Spanish royal family, and that lion represents the Kingdom of Leon that constitutes the Spanish Empire. He said that he is a lion, which represents his existence and maintains the peace of this Leon province.

The Empire on which the sun never sets is the Spanish Empire, and the Guardian is the title given to his younger brother by Felipe II.

"Thanks to the goods gifted by the noble emperor of the Ming Empire, a price war that is likely to spread throughout Thailand and the West can finally be alleviated." Tang Juan saluted again, and thanked the envoy from afar very solemnly.

The price war is due to the emergence of precious metals like a flood, which makes the prices of the whole of Thailand take off, especially the price of food, because all things are rising rapidly, social contradictions are rapidly intensifying, and everyone is trying to find a way to send out With his own angry voice, he gathered these precious metals and found the flood outlet.

Felipe II found it in Daming.

Antonio didn't speak. He knew that Ming's envoys could understand. These Ming people only spent three days in Seville, and they figured out everything they wanted to know. Even those big-armed guards could use Fluent in Latin, he pretended to be a descendant of the Roman nobility.

Antonio even thought wickedly that these guards said they were Constantine XI, the last emperor of Rome, and a large number of people would believe that they were really King Castel XI.

Gao Qiyu looked at Tang Juan, nodded and said: "Alas! There are many people in all directions, and I will listen to one person. But your majesty, I will be sincere to all people. If there is perseverance, I will be the queen."

When Antonio heard this, he was stunned for a long time and said, "High Envoy, can you speak again in words that I can understand? I don't understand what you said, and I don't know how to translate it."

Antonio is a general manager and is responsible for the translation work. Gao Qiyu's sentence directly made Antonio unable to fix it.

You open your mouth and shut your mouth like this kind of words that you don't understand, how can you translate it!
Xu Fan thought for a while and said: "That is to say, the people of Wanfang must obey the orders of one person, that is, Your Majesty. Your Majesty is good at all people in the world. It is your Majesty's duty to obey the people's routine and make them live in peace. That is to say, you need goods, but we need silver, and everyone can live in peace, which is what His Majesty wants to see."

Xu Fan translated it carefully, and Antonio understood it now, and translated in a chattering voice.

"The two envoys from afar, do you know Latin?" Don Juan, as the commander-in-chief, could of course see their communication. These envoys from Ming Dynasty could understand Latin.

Both Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan nodded. They are the envoys of Ming Dynasty. On any formal occasion, they must speak Chinese. Etiquette cannot be lost.

"You two, the emperor of the empire on which the sun never sets has been waiting for your arrival." Tang Juan walked into the castle with a group of envoys.

Gao Qiyu communicated with Xu Fan and Antonio about the etiquette. In the court ceremony of Spain, only loyalty is required to kneel down. However, it is obviously impossible for the two envoys of the Ming Dynasty to be loyal to Felipe II.

The red and white Miyagi appeared in front of everyone, and in front of a huge square, there were many soldiers of Western tooth extraction.

Holding a letter of credence, Gao Qiyu walked up to Philip II step by step. After bowing and saluting, he handed the letter of credence to Philip II's secretary and said, "My Emperor Ming sent the letter of credence. , to show the virtue of being soft and distant.”

The content of this letter of credence is not much different from the letter of credence sent to Daming by Felipe II. There is a lot of rainbow fart at the beginning, and then there is a fixed trade agreement, and it also explains The ban on raw silk was introduced, but the letter of credence did not mention a single word about the conflict in Luzon.

Felipe II is 49 years old, and he is still in good spirits. He flipped through the credentials. There are two copies of the credentials, one is written in Chinese and the other is in Latin literature. The reason why he wrote this The letter of credence in Latin was granted because Taixi did not understand Chinese. If there was an error in the translation, it would be difficult to correct it due to such a long distance.

The implementation of the government decree of the Ming Dynasty and the widespread money shortage in the Ming Dynasty required silver from Taixi.

"Two envoys, please sit down. I heard that Ming is a powerful country. Is my country as strong as mine?" Felipe II put down his credentials, motioned for the envoys to sit down, and said with half-raised head: "The coat of arms The warriors under you can use the weapons in your hands to conquer all places that need to be conquered."

"My brother, for the messenger from afar, practice the invincible Spanish phalanx."

"Yes." Don Juan was wearing iron armor, and he was ready to perform martial arts. When Felipe II gave the order, Don Juan came to the sergeant.

Gao Qiyu sat down and did not immediately refute, but watched the entire Spanish phalanx drill very seriously.

"Is the king too confident?" After reading it, Gao Qiyu looked at Felipe II and said calmly, "My Ming has more than [-] million people. The king wants to use this square formation to attack my Ming." Are you daydreaming?"

Gao Qiyu was in a foreign country, without any cowardice. When Felipe II showed his aggressiveness, Gao Qiyu directly said that the Spanish phalanx that stretched across the West was nothing more than that.

Antonio is completely numb!

He is going crazy!

Felipe II is a king who likes to resort to force, and his favorite thing to do is war. Silk can be called a terrifying profit, which gave Felipe II the idea of ​​​​conquering Ming, and Gao Qiyu, as an envoy of Ming Minister, what you said was very, very rude.

Aren't you afraid of this war lunatic and directly killed this envoy of Ming Dynasty?

Antonio wanted a tactful translation. When he was considering the words, he saw Xu Fan speak in proficient Latin, expressing Gao Qiyu's words so completely that he was daydreaming.

Gao Qiyu went on to say: "I heard that the governor of Luzon of your country, Francisco, said that he would use 40 people to conquer Ming Dynasty, and then increased to 3000 to 2 people, and finally increased to [-] people. This number, as the understanding of Daming continues to increase, I'm curious, how many people does the king plan to use to attack Daming? Or, as the understanding of Daming increases, how many people will it increase to?"

"One hundred thousand? One million? Ten million?"

　The house I bought today was handed over, and I went to collect it, and it was already 8 o’clock in the evening when I got home; Spain is a kingdom, not an empire, but they themselves claim to be an empire; the ancient Chinese envoys were rude in words and even more rude in their actions, not today’s diplomats , When you become a foreigner in a few years; ask for a monthly pass, woo! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
　　
　
(End of this chapter)