I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 877: The Hongmen Banquet in Rome?
In the center of the quarrel in the room, Zhao Shizhen turned around and said to Shen Wanxiang and Wang Yongji with a chuckle, "I'm sorry to have worried the chief envoy and the deputy envoy. We are having an academic discussion.

Please take a seat, Dr. Wang, and ask the servant to serve tea to the two gentlemen."

"Academic discussion? What are you discussing?"

Shen Wanxiang asked curiously as he sat down with Wang Yongji.

Zhao Shizhen replied: "It is incredible that Portugal and Spain were the first countries to launch the Age of Exploration and find the route to Gensunzhou and India, even though the scientific atmosphere in Portugal and Spain was low and the religious environment was very enthusiastic."

"Incredible? Why do you find it incredible?"

"Envoy Shen, sailing thousands of miles is no joke. It requires excellent shipbuilding technology to build a ship that can withstand strong winds and waves; it also requires superb surveying technology to avoid getting lost in the vast ocean.

Our navy is able to sail around the world thanks to the foundation laid by Eunuch Sanhe during his seven voyages to Southeast Asia, and also thanks to the Emperor's great vision and his pointing the way forward for us in science and technology.

It was because of the prince's sailing ship, the longitude and latitude, and the theodolite that the Ming navy was able to ride the wind and waves and sail far on the sea. "

Having said that, Zhao Shizhen pointed to the scientific expedition team members sitting around him and said.

“We are well-educated people who know everything about astronomy and geography, but the further we go out to sea, the more we fear the scientific path that the Emperor has pointed out to us.

The ocean of science is endless, and we must keep exploring!

Therefore, we also deeply understand that science is a very important tool if we want to explore the world and find out the truth of this world.

It is just that we could never imagine that Spain and Portugal, relying on their desire for wealth and religious fervor, could have come so far with their eyes closed when science and technology were so backward. It is really unbelievable. "

Shen Wanxiang nodded: "I understand the basis of your argument. This reminds me of a few words that His Majesty the Emperor once said to us in the study class."

Everyone looked at him quietly

“Traveling a thousand miles is better than reading a thousand books, and taking one action is better than thinking a thousand times.

And practice is the criterion for verifying truth!

The science and technology of Portugal and Spain are not as advanced as our Ming country, and even in terms of religious fanaticism, they seem a little ignorant.

But they dared to practice.

Starting from the port of Golang on Ceylon Island, we crossed the South China Sea to the port of Suzaku, then went around the Cape of Good Hope to the Gold Coast, and all the way to the Canary Islands. Along the way, we listened to Marquis Marcelo and Baron Leon telling us how their ancestors bravely set sail to the unknown ocean.

Zhao Shizhen and the scientific expedition team members nodded.

"Ambassador Shen is right. The courage to practice is better than anything else! This is the advantage of the Portuguese and Spanish, and it is worth learning from!"

Wang Yongji said: "That's right, we must be good at learning!
We should learn from the ancients as well as from the moderns, from the winners as well as from the losers."

After chatting for a while, Shen Wanxiang joked: "Chang Ji, have you ever been to Lisbon?"

Zhao Shizhen waved his hands repeatedly, "Envoy Shen, you want to kill us! We finally escaped from that cesspool, why would you fall into the trap and go there again?"

"Don't you visit local scholars and libraries wherever you go?"

"I asked around, and all the famous Portuguese scholars are near the Sintra Palace. The area around here has become a small town, and there are also very famous monasteries and seminaries.

The reality in Duizhou is that scholars who are proficient in humanities, history, astronomy, geography, mathematics and languages ​​basically all come from seminaries, and many of them live in monasteries or in the town of Sintra.

We have asked Baron Leon's adjutant, Mr. Condorcet, to help invite them, hoping to discover some talents and learn some useful knowledge from them.

We also learned that the largest library in Portugal is not in Lisbon, but in a nearby seminary called Pena, which is also a famous monastery.
We plan to go check it out tomorrow.”

"Let's go check it out tomorrow?"

"We were so exhausted today that we don't even dare to go to the toilet for fear of the smell. Let's take a break, rest for a night, and go again tomorrow."

There are toilets in European castles, most of which are built somewhere high in the castle. In a room, there is a brick platform and a row of more than a dozen pits, covered with a wooden board with a round hole in it.

Europe doesn't know how to squat, it just sits on it and poops as much as it wants.

The excrement is attracted by the earth's gravity and pours down through the hollow channel under the brick and stone platform and is directly discharged into the cesspool or moat outside the city.

The 11th-century King Edmund II of England was killed when he was using the toilet by several Viking special forces who climbed up through the hollow passage and stabbed him in the anus with a spear.

A very heroic death!

Some toilets were built outside the castle.

A tall wooden shed was built on the moat, with people sitting on it and defecating in mid-air, and then a bridge was built to connect the wooden shed and the city wall.

But this is also very dangerous.

In 1100, King Eric I of Denmark attended a banquet and went to the suspended toilet to relieve stress. As a result, the wooden boards had been exposed to wind and rain and had already rotted away.

Poor Eric I fell into the mountain of feces and sewage below the latrine and choked to death in the sticky mixture.
Zhao Shizhen sighed: "From the living conditions in Lisbon, we can infer the conditions in other European towns. With such poor sanitary conditions, it is no wonder that diseases are prevalent.

Baron Leon said that two hundred years ago, there was an epidemic of the Black Death in Duizhou, and it was said that one third of the population of the entire Duizhou died.

Seeing the sanitary conditions in Lisbon now, we feel that the Black Death only killed one-third of the people, and their God really did his best. "

Everyone was talking and laughing and having a very happy time.

More than an hour later, Marcelo and Leon came to invite Shen Wanxiang and Leon.

"After discussion, His Majesty the King and other ministers feel that your country's conditions are acceptable, but we hope to have further communication on some details."

"What details?"

"For example, we still have questions about some details of the most-favored-nation trade clause you proposed. We need to confirm which Caribbean islands you will compensate us for after we withdraw from the Redwood Territory."

Shen Wanxiang and Wang Yongji looked at each other and said happily, "Okay! Let's discuss the details in depth."

Shen and Wang continued to communicate and discuss with Marcelo and others in a part of the castle. Zhao Shizhen led the scientific expedition team to have extensive and in-depth exchanges with the invited Portuguese scholars. Zhao Shizhen and others mainly recorded the academic thoughts of these scholars and investigated the current development of science in Europe in mathematics, astronomy, physics and other fields.

Although Zhao Shizhen and others listened more and spoke less, after more than ten days of communication, some of their remarks were still spread through the mouths of Portuguese scholars, first causing an uproar in the Pena Seminary and Monastery in the town of Sintra.

The senior priests of the seminary trembled all over after reading the scientific remarks of Zhao Shizhen and others compiled by some scholars.

I don’t know whether he was angry or scared.

"Such heretical doctrines are enough to send them to the Inquisition!"

"But they are guests of His Majesty King Sebastian. It is said that the Spanish navy is helpless against them and treats them with great respect. How can we send them to trial?"

"They just promoted astronomical theories and proposed new cosmological theories, which were incompatible with the geocentric theory we adhered to.

This is just an astronomical study. They are pagans and naturally do not believe that the earth is the favorite of God's creation and the center of the universe. "

"That's enough! This has shaken the foundation of our theology. If we allow them to spread it at will, where is the dignity of the Church? Where is the authority of the Bible?
Will there still be a place for us in the future?

Must be severely punished! "

"How can we punish them severely? Their warships and artillery are just outside the port of Lisbon, not far from Sintra. Maybe their artillery can reach us."

"We can sacrifice everything to uphold God's truth!"

"No, you are wrong. Stick to God's truth. We can burn everything, but we don't have to sacrifice everything."

"Yes, if we are asked to sacrifice everything, what is the point of being a bishop and a priest?"

There was a huge argument at the Pena Seminary, and most people were of the opinion that these damn pagans should be arrested or expelled immediately to prevent them from spreading their heresy.

But Sebastian I and his ministers refused without hesitation.

You are kidding. You just open your mouth and ask us to arrest someone.

Are these Ming people so easy to catch?

If we really take action to capture these people, it would be equivalent to giving the Ming Dynasty a reason to start a war.

When the sky falls, can you come to the rescue or can you call God over?
If Portugal goes to war with the Ming Dynasty, their naval warships may not be able to reach Lisbon for a while, but Portugal's interests in Africa and India will be lost completely.

When the time comes, we will have no money in our pockets, how are we going to support you useless people?

After being rejected by the "profit-seeking" kings and nobles, these bishops and priests had no choice but to write letters to Rome.

We have done our best. Now we will leave it to the College of Cardinals and the Pope to take care of this matter.

On this side, after more than 20 days of negotiations, the Ming envoys led by Shen Wanxiang and Wang Yongji and Portugal finally reached an agreement.

After accepting the Redwood Territory of Xunzhou (Brazil), the Ming Dynasty handed over the islands of Hispaniola (Haiti) and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea to Portugal, and the two countries continued to develop trade cooperation in Genxunzhou (New World).
The west coast of Kunzhou (Africa), the east coast of Kunzhou, the Arabian region, and the Indian region were jointly developed by Ming and Portugal, and the ports built and controlled by each country were open to ships from both countries to enter "harmlessly" and to be supplied and repaired for a fee.
The Ming Dynasty established agencies in Lisbon and Portugal in the capital to handle matters related to their respective nationals.

The Ming Dynasty and Portugal granted each other most-favored-nation trade treatment, which means that when purchasing goods at each other's trading ports, they enjoyed most-favored-nation preferential tariffs.

From this point of view, Portugal got a great advantage, and this was what Sebastian I and the noble ministers were most satisfied with.

It doesn't matter if the Spice Islands are lost. We will purchase from Ming merchants. The only thing that will increase is the cost, but we can increase the selling price and make up for the losses outside the dike with those inside the dike.

We can also purchase other best-selling products from the Ming Dynasty, such as silk, tea, cotton, cigarettes, porcelain, etc. As long as these things are shipped to Europe, we can double our profits.

The route from Africa to India is currently controlled by us Portuguese, and the most frequent ships are our Portuguese ships, so we must seize the opportunity to make money!

Portugal is different from Spain. Its monarchs and ministers are more realistic. They do not have the same overwhelming sense of "mission" as the Spanish monarchs and ministers, who are determined to spread God's glory throughout the world and conquer the world by the way.

Sebastian I and his noble ministers only wanted to keep the eastern route open and make money smoothly. Everything else was easy to take care of. They didn't have so many ambitions.

Portugal's strength does not allow them to have too many ambitions.

During this period, Shen Wanxiang and Wang Yongji met with several Spanish guests who came secretly to the town of Sintra, including Juan, Duke of Avar Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Marquis of Santa Cruz Alvaro de Bazan and Farnese.

Although Juan and Bazin were determined to bring about formal peace talks between the Ming Dynasty and Spain, the differences between the two sides were too great to allow anything to be discussed.

The only tacit understanding reached was that the Ming fleet would not attack Spanish ships in Spanish waters and the Mediterranean unless Spanish ships attacked Ming ships, whether they were naval or privateers.

After the talks in Portugal, a few followers were left behind to establish the Ming Dynasty's representative office in Portugal. Shen Wanxiang and Wang Yongji suddenly became the chief and deputy envoys of the Ming Dynasty to the Ottoman Empire.

The convoy was to escort them to Istanbul.

The people who were sent out by the Honglu Temple to accompany the envoys from the Ottoman Empire and Persia were not official envoys but only the advance team of the diplomatic corps.

As the team was preparing to depart from the port of Lisbon, a priest from the Pena Seminary in the town of Sintra sent an invitation.

The Pope and the College of Cardinals "invited" the diplomatic envoys to the port of Civitavecchia for a meeting, and also specified that the scientific expedition team headed by Zhao Shizhen must be present in full.

"The port of Civitavecchia? Where is it?"

Shen Wanxiang asked Marcelo curiously.

"It is located in central Italy, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, and is the closest port to Rome."

Shen Wanxiang and Wang Yongji looked at each other.

"This is probably the Hongmen Banquet. Qianhe, do you want to go?"

Shen Wanxiang laughed, "If they want to hold a Hongmen Banquet, they have to have the ability to do so! And we are not going alone."

Wang Yongji also laughed, "Yes, we have an escort fleet!
If they really dare to set up a Hongmen Feast for us, we will overturn the table for them!"

(End of this chapter)