Ming Dynasty: Tanks blocked the door and you said to me, "Long live Ming Dynasty"

I have never seen the world!

"Hahahaha, Governor Luo Bao is thoughtful!"

Zhu Youxiao smiled and handed the medicine back to Youtong.

But then, his expression turned serious.

"Governor Luo Bao, I heard that one of my officials took the initiative to lease Macau to your country's garrison. Is this true?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Luo Bao's body suddenly stiffened. His old face, which was still smiling obsequiously a moment ago, looked as if someone had pressed acupoints on it. He didn't know whether to close his grinning mouth or not.

"Your Majesty, the Respected Ming Emperor!"

"You, you can't do this..."

"That lease was signed by you personally, and it even has your country's seal on it."

As he spoke, he took out a letter from his arms, opened it and handed it to Youtong.

"This is the lease agreement. Please review it, Your Majesty."

Zhu Youxiao: ? ?

This guy actually carried the lease with him?

But when I thought about it, I understood that I had told Basil about the lease before, and he had also revealed his intention to take back Macau.

Obviously, this was the real purpose of Basil sending someone back to deliver a message to Luo Bao!

After taking the memorial from Youtong and reading it carefully, Zhu Youxiao suddenly became furious.

He guessed it right!

There is no seal of the Secretariat or the Imperial Household Department on this lease, not to mention the seal of Tianqi!

Yes, it’s just the official seal of the Governor of Guangdong!

"Sir, please take a good look at this lease. I will not recognize the legality of this lease."

He casually threw the lease to Luo Bao, then stood up and spoke in a sonorous voice.

"Every inch of the Ming Dynasty's land was bought with the blood of our ancestors."

"Therefore, leasing the territory to others is absolutely impossible!"

"Of course, if you want to stay in Macau to do business, I welcome you with open arms."

"But all Portuguese entering the Ming territory are prohibited from carrying any weapons!"

"At the same time, customs duties must be paid without any reduction!"

"If any Portuguese commit a crime, they should be handed over to the Xiangshan County Court for punishment according to the Ming Dynasty law."

Luo Bao was kneeling there, and when he heard the first few sentences, he was completely stunned.

Macau is a treasure trove for Portugal!

Countless goods from the Ming Dynasty could earn at least ten times the profit by simply shipping them to Malacca!

And this is the main reason why they are willing to pretend to be grandsons!

If he lost the precious land of Macau during his tenure, Luo Bao didn’t even dare to think about what would happen to him after returning to China…

But Zhu Youxiao's subsequent words gave him some hope.

Withdraw troops, pay taxes...

He couldn't believe his ears, so he raised his head and looked at Zhu Youxiao with wide eyes.

"Your Majesty, is this really all you have?"

Zhu Youxiao raised his lips slightly: "Of course, the premise is that you can accept a 30% tariff!"

"And you can only trade with the business I designate!"

"If I find out that you are trading with other civilian caravans, you will completely lose the Ming Dynasty market!"

...........

Chapter 172: Ming Fans? Ming Haters?

There are some things that I find I must explain.

First of all, I would like to state that I am also a fan of Ming, but not a brainless fan, nor a Ming hater.

It all started with a bowl, and the whole country was conquered by chopping down the pieces. The Ming Dynasty was the last feudal dynasty ruled by the Han people. Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Mongols from a beggar. This process deserves everyone's admiration.

King Chuang entered Beijing and Chongzhen was hanged on Coal Hill.

Sangui opened the border and the Jurchens entered the Central Plains.

It sounds heroic that a king dies for his country.

Some documents say that he never thought of escaping and just hanged himself.

But there are also documents saying that he wanted to escape, but no one opened the city gate for him, and finally he had to be hanged on Coal Hill.

Which one is right?

Without personal experience, no one can guarantee it!

Therefore, everything has two sides and we should look at it rationally.

What's more, this is just a novel, not history!

I never said that some of the details written in the book are necessarily true, because the information I could find was limited.

My sources of information are mostly physical books, or Baidu Library, Zhihu Library, Baidu Encyclopedia, etc.

Different channels give different answers to the same thing. Which one should I believe?

As everyone knows, 90% of the history of the Ming Dynasty was tampered with by the Qing Dynasty, but who can be sure that what they see is the correct version?

Just like the question about the displacement of a sea vessel, some information says that one ray of fire is equal to 0.325 tons, but some say that one ray of fire is equal to 0.5 tons, and some say that one ray of fire is equal to one stone. Which one is correct?

For example, regarding the treasure ship, some records say that the treasure ship used a steel keel, while others say that the treasure ship used a huge tree as its keel. Which one is correct?

Each statement has corresponding evidence. Which one should we believe?

Maybe you will choose to believe A, and he will choose to believe B. Before communication, you will think that others think the same as you do.

So, I never said that what I wrote is necessarily correct.

When writing, I can only choose the answer that best fits the direction of the plot.

Perhaps this answer may be controversial.

But, this is just a novel...

I admit that Zhu Yuanzhang was ugly, and I have a joking attitude towards this.

But it cannot be denied that most of the portraits of Zhu Yuanzhang that can be found on the Internet are ugly.

Whatever the reason, the portraits have survived.

Although some of them were painted by an emperor of the Qing Dynasty, most of them date back to the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang had people paint him, and Zhu Di also had people paint him.

Since it exists, it has rationality.

The Zhu family has no objection, so why can't I write about it in the book?

If you have any questions, please point them out and I can correct them.

Readers who came from Datang should all know that revising the text has never been something unacceptable to me.

Including the first 100,000 words of this book, no less than a hundred revisions have been made so far.

It's a matter of principle and a reasonable setting. If it's pointed out, it can be changed. It's no big deal.

But what I cannot tolerate is that when there is a slight problem, it turns into personal attacks.

Once there is something different from one's own understanding, they will criticize and scold it.

Who can be sure that their perception is correct?

Is this interesting?

I write novels to make money, not to serve others.

Likewise, you come to read novels for entertainment, not to get angry.

So, if you can’t finish reading it, just abandon the book and move it out of the bookshelf. There’s no need to waste any more words.

In the future, I will no longer make statements on controversial issues. I may revise the article based on your comments, or I may simply pretend that I didn’t see them.

that's it!

Note: This statement does not take up the word count for today's updated chapter.

------------

Originally, Zhu Youxiao thought that after he stated his conditions, Luo Bao would put forward some conditions.

But what he didn't expect was that this guy agreed without even thinking about it.

"Your Majesty, as you wish!"

"After I return, I will order the navy to withdraw from Macau. From now on, unless the Ming Dynasty needs to eliminate pirates and Japanese pirates, they will stay at sea."

Zhu Youxiao came to Macau with only two purposes.

The first was to drive the Portuguese troops out of Macau, and the second was to take back the Ming Dynasty's foreign trade rights.

But Luo Bao's cooperative attitude made him feel a little embarrassed.

He stroked the fuzz on his chin and pondered for a moment, then burst into laughter.

"It's easy to talk to a smart guy like Governor Robaud!"

"But I never do anything that would put my friends at a disadvantage."

"I heard that things haven't been very peaceful over there in recent years. Is that true?"

Upon hearing this, Robben nodded repeatedly. Portugal and Spain now share the same king. Spain is mired in the quagmire of war, so how can Portugal stay out of it?

"Your Majesty, your vision is as sharp as an eagle. You are in the Ming Dynasty, but you can see the situation in Europe. It is really admirable."

Zhu Youxiao asked again: "I heard that when you are at war, you like to hire others to fight for you?"

This question made Luo Bao's expression become a little unnatural.

To put it bluntly, the reason why mercenaries have a market in Europe is that the population of those countries is too small!

Whether it was Spain, Portugal, or Germany and France at that time, their native territories were not even as big as a province of the Ming Dynasty.

Coupled with the long-term war, their population is almost pitifully small!

If you pick out any country at random, its population is probably less than one million!

The population base is here. Even if everyone becomes a soldier, how many people will be left if we remove the elderly, the weak, women and children?

Seeing Luo Bao nod awkwardly, Zhu Youxiao smiled and pointed at Sun Kangwang, Zheng Zhilong and others.

"Governor Luo, you should. My Ming Dynasty lacks everything except people!"

"If your king has no objection, I can send a 20,000-strong mercenary army to Europe to help!"

"What?"

Luo Bao's eyes widened when he heard this.

Twenty thousand people!

This number shocked him!

Portugal was once very glorious, but after its defeat in the Battle of the Three Kings in 1578, it was severely damaged.

Later, it was defeated in the Spanish-Portuguese War and annexed by Spain. Although it still retained its independent country name, it was already considered a part of Spain by European countries.

Today, Portugal no longer has a regular army in its mainland, and even its overseas colonies are barely maintained.

As far as he knew, the total number of troops in Portugal and its overseas colonies was less than 6,000!

The indigenous peoples of the colonies not only failed to become their source of soldiers, but would also cause riots every now and then, pinning the army down there and making it impossible for them to extricate themselves.