open sea

Chapter 954
If Madrid were compared with Seville, the latter certainly seemed more worthy of the capital of a kingdom as vast and rich as Spain.

In Li Dan's eyes, Madrid is full of decay. Although the buildings are magnificent, the uniform rustic tones and the depressing clothes and faces of people come and go. accelerate.

He thought that the first place they would go after entering Madrid would be a palace or something, but he didn't expect that the place they were going to was a convent.

El Escorial Palace.

Philip built himself a monastery that combined churches, palaces, and mausoleums.

Here, Li Dan met the famous Fei Laoer of the Eastern Military Mansion, and just after the guards opened the heavy palace door for him, he heard the words of the king who once governed the world's oceans and lands.

"For your father's sake, you don't need to be polite, please sit down."

The dusty Li Dan could never have imagined how much His Highness Philip had put in effort for this meeting, and he almost spared no effort in hoping that he could retain the majesty of the defeated king.

From how to speak to avoid the embarrassment of Li Dan’s refusal to kneel down, to which wig to wear at a high price from an English businessman to hide the increasingly desolate hairline, and even which pair of boots to wear to make the Ming Dynasty Man knows his wealth.

From England to Spain, from Spain to Italy, from Italy to the Ottomans, and from the Ottomans to the Ming Dynasty, the etiquette of kneeling is popular all over the world, and it is not exclusive to China.

This remark was not bad, and it made Li Dan, who was half-handed, a little embarrassed, but he still confessed. After all, in the context of Ming people, "don't be too polite" is just a polite saying. To say hello.

The wig was also chosen very well, which made Li Dan secretly wonder how Fei Laoer looked different from the painting he saw in Seville before, and his hair grew so fast that even the color changed .

The only thing is that the boots were not chosen well, which is a bit embarrassing, because His Royal Highness Philip received the news from the Duke of Alva when Li Dan was still floating at sea half a month ago, and he began to prepare for the meeting It turned out that no matter what he was wearing, it was difficult for Li Dan, who had the function of an envoy, to identify the goods.

Regardless of whether it was sheepskin boots from Spain, stocking boots from England, or precious shoes and hats from Milan or Venice, people in the Ming Dynasty could not tell.

In the end, he absolutely should not have chosen a pair of Ming-made leather boots given to him by the old Governor of New Spain, Almansa, with blue satin as the face, decorated with three leather back seams on the front stem; rawhide as the bottom, and eight layers of decoration The leather welts are beautiful, majestic, comfortable and breathable, but there is only one bad thing - I bumped into Li Dan's shoes.

These boots are worn by third-rank officials. This pair of leather boots should be the only ones that flowed out from Changsheng. They were given to Almansa by Chen Mu. After all, he is the vice-governor of New Spain; other than that, the border trade has never been sold again. Long leather boots, only short boots with leather jacket.

The so-called piza leather xi is to tie a leather tube around the calf outside the short boots, and tie it inside the linen. Because ordinary people in Ming Dynasty cannot wear boots, even in Beiyang, officers above the small flag wear boots, and the flag army wears leather boots. Xie shoes.

When Li Dan took office in the leased land of Seville, he took the official position as the commander of the Saichengwei of the Eastern Military Palace, and led the governor of Seville with the third grade.

This situation made him happy when he saw Fei Lao Er's shoes: Hey, bro, we are on the same level!
Philip, who wears a fake shawl and hair, doesn't know the twists and turns of the Ming Dynasty's clothing system. He also thinks that the shoes he picked are pretty good, you see, they are the same as the messenger.

"I heard from the monk that it is your habit to talk about important things during meals. How about we chat first and prepare a banquet for you later, and then we will talk about state affairs?"

The so-called monk is naturally Acosta, but Li Dan shook his head and rejected the proposal. He really felt that the Spanish banquet was quite boring, and he had to walk around by himself, which made him feel like moving the king's tent of the Mongolian Khan. to the palace.

"His Royal Highness, that's not our habit. It's just that my adoptive father has so many things to do every day. He is usually busy with other things and has no time to listen to others, so he is used to talking about things during meals."

Sitting on the chair, Li Dan spread his hands and said, "I'm fine. We can talk about business now. His Royal Highness should know how much we have done to come to Spain to collect this leased land."

Philip has already felt that the earliest candidates sent overseas by the Ming Empire may be of the same height as Spain... Maybe he will never be able to meet the real elites of the Ming Empire in this life.

This elite is not talking about combat elites.

Even if you just look at it with your eyes, you can see that Li Dan is not from aristocratic background.

"Don't worry, young man." Philip asked with a smile: "Please tell me, what benefits will it do me and my kingdom to lease the land to Ming?"

As if he had already guessed that Li Dan's answer might be 'no benefit', Philip raised his hand and said, "Don't rush to answer, the contract doesn't specify how big the leased land is, and Seville is so big, you have to Knowing that there are not suitable coasts and ports everywhere, it is up to us to negotiate a good outcome for both parties...you are very good at this."

There was no irony in what Philip meant by being good at it. Until Alva led his army back to Portugal, the king never thought that he would also be the beneficiary of the Second War in Mingxi.

He and his country, enemies, and empire benefit from the war, so who loses from it?Some of the new nobles, some of the businessmen, anyway, he made money on his second child.

Now he wants to earn more.

"Since the king wants to ask, the first benefit is that your country doesn't have to be an enemy of Ming Dynasty; we don't go to sea to rule anyone. Although we can, we really don't want to. We just want to make friends and make money."

"The second benefit is that we have gained an ally like Daming. Although in order to avoid your country's fear, the adoptive father only decided to station a banner army of one thousand to five thousand households in Cyprus, but we can protect the king very well. There have been too many palace coups in the long history of our country, and the king often does not have a trustworthy army, but His Royal Highness can absolutely trust our army."

"The third benefit is the income of the royal family. According to the treaty, three of the goods sent by the merchants in the Ming Dynasty became the monopoly of the king. The more goods imported from the leased land, the higher the income of the king's court. In addition, there are taxes related to the city. The amount of goods tax is [-]%, one of which is used for the construction of the leased land, one is the income of the Ming Dynasty, and the other is the income of the King.”

"The fourth advantage is that Ming Dynasty can bring support to the king's war. As long as the royal family pays, the fleet across the ocean can bring muskets, artillery, military uniforms, armor, flags, tents, water bottles to the king every year... ...All the utensils that the king can imagine, at the same price, the king can buy the best things in the world."

"As for the last fifth benefit... Your Highness, do you know that I, Li Dan, the Governor of Seville in the Ming Empire, is also a devout Catholic. When there are no Beiyang Banner troops around me, Your Majesty can call me An Delia Didys."

Li Dan didn't blush when he said this, he sat upright and clenched his fists very seriously.

He didn't feel that he had cheated his pious second brother, he really felt that he was very pious, and he would pay respects seriously every time he went to sea, and he never left anyone behind.

Uh, the reason why no one is left behind is because he is not only a devout Catholic, but also a devout Mazu believer, a devout Mantian God and Buddha believer, and an extremely devout Dragon and Tiger Daojun follower.

For those who truly believe in it, they will get even the rain and the dew!
　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)