Invincible urban management

"... On October 1519th, 10, I woke up this morning and found myself sweating profusely. I felt that my body seemed to be much better. At least the fever had basically subsided. The small white pills sent by the Chinese (antipyretic tablets, oral penicillin , ifloxacin capsules) and the ointment (erythromycin anti-inflammatory ointment) contained in a soft tin tube, although they were said by Father Aguilar to be the stuff of the devil, they are indeed very effective.

However, the chief culprit who caused many of us to die with injuries and illnesses is also these Chinese people who arbitrarily provoked conflicts.

This fact makes people feel very complicated. I don't know whether to thank them or hate them. At least I feel very resentful.

But most of my subordinates were very happy, because although the Chinese took our gold, silver and jewels by force, they also gave us a lot of rich rewards.Many people have already cut all kinds of clothes and cloaks out of the Chinese silk they have just distributed, and they are wearing them to show off with great joy, and even touch each other. It has to be said that these silks are really gorgeous. The colors are as gorgeous as a dream. "

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"...On October 1519th, 10, although the Chinese medicine was surprisingly effective, there were still more than 25 wounded patients who had not yet fully healed. , carried by horses or companions, making the team move very slowly.

Fortunately, the march of the Chinese is also very slow these days, because they are busy selling various oriental specialties along the way, they only walk for about two or three hours a day, and the rest of the time is used to set up camps and open temporary markets .So we can still easily keep up.

According to the legend of the local Indians, there is a "legendary bazaar" called "Yiwu Small Commodity Market" in the land of the Chinese, where you can trade with the gods and buy many things that mortals can't make or even imagine. Artifact'...

Indeed, according to Marco Polo's travel notes and Da Gama's knowledge, the Chinese live in a rich country that lacks almost everything, but produces things that countless Europeans are extremely envious of.Groups of European navigators crossed thousands of miles of waves just to seek the tea, silk, spices and porcelain that intoxicated the whole of Europe.

And once the Chinese walk out of their homes with their wares, they can instantly turn wherever they go into legendary bustling bazaars.

For example, this time the temporary market held by the Chinese missions at the campsite along the way, although the scale is small, with a maximum of a dozen stalls, it seems to be legendary enough - because what they sell are all unique oriental goodies. thing.

As far as I saw with my own eyes, one of the largest stalls displayed all kinds of exquisite porcelain, such as bottles, cups, plates, cups, pots, saucers, spoons, pots and colorful porcelain statues full of artistic atmosphere, as many as hundreds The variety and specifications are dazzling.Among them are several large vases with luxurious glazes. I have seen similar styles in an auction house in Venice. currency).Here we can get a pair for about sixty florins.The price difference and huge profits involved in this, even me, who is not very good at doing business, is moved by it.

At another booth, the Chinese launched thousands of steel products, ranging from weapons such as axes, knives, and daggers to tableware such as spoons and cups, and they were sold openly. It seemed that they were not worried about these weapons. Cut off their own heads—In the island of Cuba, which has been taken under the Spanish Kingdom, we will not allow any Indian to have a steel sword, lest they use it to start a rebellion.But here, the Chinese let people carry steel knives and axes to every village and town they saw along the way to sell them, lest they sell not enough!

This made me feel very worried. It's not that the Indians have no warriors, but their stone knives and axes can't pierce the armor of European warriors at all, which allowed our army to fight all the way from the sea to here.But the Chinese unscrupulously sell steel knives and axes to the Indians everywhere, and the quality is even better than the long swords and axes in our hands...

Besides, to our surprise, the Chinese also sell many rather exquisite glassware.Among them, there are completely transparent and colorless ones, as well as red, green, gold and blue ones, as well as gorgeous utensils composed of a variety of colored glass, each of which is complicatedly decorated and extremely luxurious in shape.There are also glass mirrors sold together, which are also better than similar products of Venetian artisans, and sell for a lot less.The glass beads we brought from Cuba can be exchanged for emeralds and gold in the Mayan tribe, but here they can only be exchanged for a little fruit and vegetables.

Although the above-mentioned oriental specialties are impressive, in the bazaars opened by the Chinese, the most popular products are pure Jing salt, crystal white sugar and small sticks called 'matches' for making fire. And a strong shochu sold by the Chinese in clear glass bottles.While it was nothing like the whiskey and brandy I'd ever had (this was before rum was invented), it also tasted different.

What's even more crazy is that in Spain, it is usually sold grain by grain, and even the nobles are only willing to use a handful of high-quality pepper in feasts. At this moment, it is actually ground into a very fine white pepper by the Chinese. Se or black powder, packed in a small transparent glass bottle, sold together with sugar and fine salt.There are also various other spices such as cloves, peppercorns, nutmeg and cinnamon, and the prices are also shockingly cheap.

These dazzling array of gorgeous goods made every soldier salivate.But the Indians in this wild land of Mexico don't seem to know much about goods.The Chinese sold steel knives and axes, silk cloth, matches, salt, sugar, ceramic and glass tableware, as well as shochu and small mirrors, but they sold a lot.But few people care about spices and tea, even if the Chinese have lowered their prices several times, they still cannot be sold.

Seeing this situation, some Spanish soldiers exchanged all the gold and silver they secretly hid in Cholula City for tea, pepper, cloves and other oriental spices, as long as a piece of gold the size of a finger can be exchanged for a Big bags (70 yuan a kilogram for cloves and 40 yuan for pepper on the modern Chinese market), a fraction of what Venetian and Portuguese merchants are offering, are maddeningly exciting.

It's a pity that the Chinese people don't seem to have many spices, and they are sold out quickly, which makes the unresponsive people feel regretful.

I also bought some fairly pure fine salt from the Chinese, and at dinner today, I sprinkled it with pepper in polenta and chicken soup, and it seemed to be much more delicious. "