I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 865 I am useful to the Ming Dynasty!
Drake stared, not understanding what was going on.

I dont understand.

Wang Fengju also realized this problem, and turned to the interpreter who was called over and asked: "Captain Wang said they understand Spanish, ask him in Spanish."

"Yes."

At this time, Spain is the beacon of Europe, the Spanish royal family is the top of Europe, and Spanish is naturally the fashionable language in Europe. All nobles and aspiring commoners will learn Spanish.

Moreover, Spanish comes from Latin, so if you learn Latin, Spanish is not difficult to learn. Latin is also the standard language for Christian priests and missionaries, whether they are Catholic or Protestant.

The loop is closed!
The interpreter asked in Spanish and Drake nodded repeatedly.

I am Drake, absolutely.

"This admiral is very interested in you, and Director Huangfu is also very interested in how you got on this path. Tell me about your resume, starting from your place of origin. The more detailed the better."

Wang Fengju paused and continued, "The Ming Dynasty severely punishes pirates, especially pirate leaders, who will be beheaded and their heads will be hung at the port for public display.

He actually dared to lead his ships to attack our Ming Dynasty ships, which was regarded as an act of piracy.

He must tell the truth and he can avoid death. If he lies, we can ask his confidants and fellow villagers and find out the truth. Then he will be punished more severely. Then he will be punished by Jinyiwei and know what it means to live a life worse than death! "

After hearing what the interpreter said, Drake swallowed hard and said quickly, "I must tell the truth. I swear to God, everything I said is true."

Wang Fengju stretched out his right hand, indicating that he could elaborate.

"My Lords, I was born in Tavistock, Devon, England, near Plymouth Harbor, in 1540. My father was a self-employed farmer and a Protestant."

"Protestant?"

"Yes," Drake quickly proved himself when he heard the doubt, "In 1549, the year of Jesus' birth, Catholics in Cornwall rebelled against King Edward VI's decision to use the English prayer book.

The rebellion spread to Devonshire, and my father took our family to Plymouth Harbor, where there were mostly Protestants. However, several of my relatives were still killed by Catholics.
I was still young at that time, and I deeply felt the terror of the Catholics. "

Wang Fengju and Huangfu Tan looked at each other. This Drake was quite interesting and very smart.

The Ming Dynasty is competing with Spain for Genxunzhou and they are now mortal enemies.

Spain is now the leader of the Catholic Church in the Christian world, and is suppressing Protestant forces everywhere with its army and navy. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the Protestants, who are Spain's mortal enemy, have a common language with the Ming Dynasty, which is also Spain's mortal enemy.

In order to save his life, Drake came up with such a trick of making flowers bloom on the tree.

Let's see what he says next.

Wang Fengju continued to ask in a noncommittal tone: "The Spanish say that you have excellent navigation skills, are good at strategizing, and are cruel and vicious."

Drake's eyes flickered downwards involuntarily, then he raised his head and explained calmly: "My dear lords, my father later took our family and moved to Gurlingham near the mouth of the Thames River to work as a worker at the Chatham Shipyard and also as a temporary pastor for the workers and sailors.

When I was ten years old, I was introduced to Captain Wetland as an apprentice sailor, traveling between the coasts of France and the Netherlands.

Captain Wetland is a kind elder and an experienced and excellent captain. I learned a lot of navigation skills from him.

At the age of seventeen, he was introduced by Captain Wetterland and became the captain of a small sailing ship on the English coastal route.

At this point, Drake straightened up proudly.

"When I was 27 years old, my cousin Hawkins opened up the triangular trade between England, West Africa and the New World. He made a fortune through two routes. So I took out all my savings, bought a 50-ton sailing ship, the Judith, and joined my cousin's team.

We never expected that everything went smoothly at first, but when we reached the central Caribbean Sea, we encountered a hurricane and were blown to the southwestern Gulf of Mexico.

The ship was badly damaged and had to enter the port of Veracruz for repairs.

The hateful, greedy and vicious Spaniards wanted to seize our wealth and broke their promise, so they suddenly attacked us, killing more than 300 of our sailors and sinking or capturing three of our ships. My cousin and I drove the remaining two ships and returned to England after untold hardships.

Since then, I have had a deep hatred for the Spaniards.
After my cousin and I returned to England, he inherited the wealth of his father, my uncle, and handed over the overseas trade to me. I lobbied and persuaded several nobles to invest, bought four ships, and came to the Caribbean again.

God bless you, we rushed out because we saw the flag of the Spanish ship. We thought your ship, the Shamrock, was also a Spanish ship.

Please believe me, I have a deep hatred for the Spanish. We are mortal enemies, and we will never reconcile with each other in our lifetime! "

Huangfu Tan turned his head and whispered in Wang Fengju's ear: "The confessions of the captured Spanish nobles and officers mentioned this matter. They said that Hawkins's triangular trade was to transport goods from England to Xikun Island in exchange for ivory, gems and other goods, and then send armed sailors to capture blacks, transport them to the north of Xunzhou and the Xiruo Islands to sell them as slaves, and then buy ginger, animal skins, sugar and jewelry from there and transport them back to England.

The Spanish said that they trafficked blacks from their origin to their destination, and that only 50% of them were alive. Moreover, they traded in northern Sunda and the Western Rushou Islands, which was considered an illegal smuggling activity by the Spanish to evade taxes.

"Smuggling?!" Wang Fengju stared at Drake, "They dared to smuggle and evade taxes! It's incredible that they could escape from the Spanish.

I am still alive today, and I can still hang around in front of Spanish people’s doorsteps. I can only say that the Spanish are too kind.”

That's right, smuggling and tax evasion in the Ming Dynasty is a violation of the law! Especially for the Ming Navy, this is simply shitting on their heads, and it's the kind of diarrhea!
If anyone dared to smuggle in Ming Dynasty and evade Ming Dynasty’s customs duties, the Ming Dynasty’s navy would have been destroyed long ago. How could it have developed to this point today!

"Admiral, these British people are selling black people to Xunzhou as slaves. According to the ancestral law of our Ming Emperor Taizu, anyone who buys and sells good people as slaves shall be executed.

The Holy Emperor hated human traffickers who sold women and children. Many people were killed in the two capitals, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Datong and other places because of the trafficking of women and children.

These British barbarians have grass three feet high on their graves in my Ming Dynasty!"

Drake became nervous when he saw Wang Fengju and Huangfu Tan whispering together with flickering eyes.

My life is in their hands, and they can kill me with just a little force.

I want to live!

I still have a bright future and a wonderful life!
Drake's mind raced, it seemed like the value I had demonstrated was not enough!
What else am I worth?
Superb navigation skills, good fighting skills, cunning and fierceness, these are nothing to the Ming people on the other side. In their eyes, I am a pirate, and the more cunning and good at fighting, the more likely they will execute me.

Then what value do I have to them?
They are currently competing with the Spanish for the New World. They are attacking from the west coast and are defeating the Spanish.

They unceremoniously seized the Spanish silver mines in Peru, the important isthmus connecting the north and south of the New World, and advanced step by step into the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Spanish silver mines in Mexico were also in danger.

Now that their fleet has arrived on the east coast of the New World and in the Caribbean, the Spanish will surely struggle to the death. When I set sail from Europe, I heard that King Philip II of Spain was planning to send his invincible fleet to the New World to recapture Spain's precious silver mines.

This kind of talk can only fool ignorant people, I would never believe it.

Philip II is now the protector of the Christian world. There are too many places he needs to protect, including the Netherlands, Italy, and he also has to compete wits and courage with France, which is jumping back and forth between Protestant and Catholic religions. His invincible fleet is needed everywhere.

Without the Invincible Armada, his Spanish phalanx army that swept across the European continent would have been unable to advance.

Without the Invincible Fleet, the Netherlands, which had become the Protestant stronghold, was the first to rise up in rebellion and joined forces with the German Protestants.

Without the Invincible Armada, the bankers in Venice, Florence and Genoa would not have lent him large amounts of money to support his brilliant military achievements and extravagant life.

The Invincible Armada was the lifeblood of Spain.

Spain can hold out for a while longer as the leader of Europe, but its glory will only slowly fade.

If they were sent to the New World thousands of miles away to fight a decisive battle with the powerful Ming Navy, even if they won, it would be a pyrrhic victory, and they would no longer have the energy to suppress the chaos in Europe.

How to choose?
No matter what Felipe II chooses, I will definitely choose the side of the winner.

So how can you make the winner accept you?

Drake's thoughts slowly became clear.

He raised his head and said sincerely: "My dear lords, in fact, in the New World and the Caribbean, the Spanish are most troubled by French pirates rather than English pirates.

Most of these pirates were Huguenots, Protestants, and sworn enemies of the Catholic Spaniards. They owned a large number of ships distributed among thousands of islands in the Caribbean Sea. They often attacked Spanish fleets and ports, causing heavy losses to the Spanish.

I understand French and I am a Protestant. I share the same beliefs as these French pirates, have a very close relationship with them, and have received a lot of help from them.

My Lords, we also have a common enemy, the Spaniards.

I am willing to contact them and let them become the arm of Ming Dynasty to fight against the Spaniards together."

Wang Fengju nodded, "Lao De, you are a smart person, and we all like to deal with smart people.

You go down first. We need to discuss your proposal and your fate again."

Drake quickly said respectfully: "Following the winner is my lifelong pursuit."

After Drake was taken away, Wang Yiping and other officers also left, leaving only Wang Fengju, Huangfu Tan and Zhu Jingfa in the captain's room.

Wang Fengju asked: "What do you think of Drake's proposal?"

Huangfu Tan replied: "I think it is feasible. The current situation is that Genxunzhou is too big and we have too few people.

This place is too far away from the Ming mainland, thousands of miles away, and it is impossible to send large numbers of naval warships and agricultural reclamation troops like to the South China Sea region.

We need some help right now.”

Zhu Jingfa hesitated and said, "These guys are greedy for profit and forget about morality. Can we trust them?"

Wang Fengju said: “If they were all loyal to the emperor and patriotic, we would have given them a chance to serve their respective courts and hung them all on the mast.

Just now, Drake said something very interesting before he left. "

"Admiral, is that the line 'Following the victor is my lifelong pursuit'?"

"Yes. As long as we are strong enough, we will not be afraid of these evil wolves and jackals baring their teeth at us. We should control them first and speed up the destruction of the Spanish forces in Genxunzhou."

Huangfu Tan and Zhu Jingfa looked at each other and nodded, "We agree."

"Okay, adjutant, call that Drake."

After a while, Drake was brought back.

There was a constant flash of anxiety and surprise in his eyes, and panic and joy appeared alternately as the corners of his mouth trembled.

Wang Fengju said straight to the point: "The Ming Dynasty needs talents like you, and we are willing to recruit pirates like you to serve the Ming Dynasty.

But according to the rules of our Ming Dynasty, you have to submit a letter of surrender!"

"A certificate of nomination?"

After listening to the interpreter's translation, Drake was stunned.

What is this stuff?
The interpreter explained for several minutes, and Drake finally understood.

"You cut off your own path and tied your fate firmly to that of the Ming Dynasty?"

"Smart! Then tell me, what kind of pledge are you going to give us?"

(End of this chapter)