Bidding farewell to the old man Correa, the formation continued to the north, the voyage was monotonous, and everyone said that it was good to meet pirates!

The continent has changed from lush rainforests to deserts to hills.

It took about eight months for the Chinese diplomatic and friendly visiting group to arrive in Europe.

The first European port visited was Lisbon, Portugal, and there was an interesting incident off the coast of Morocco in Africa.

"There are two merchant ships ahead, and they're heading towards us!" On the flagship of the formation, the non-commissioned officer on duty reported to Officer Hong Xi, who was resting in the cabin.

While putting on his military uniform, Hong Xiguan asked, "Are they heading towards us?" ”

"Yes, the trend is very clear!" Duty Sergeant Road.

When Hong Xiguan went up to the deck, the deputy navigator Shi Lang pointed to him and showed him the ships of the other party, and there were two red-haired boats in the northeast direction of the party, one with a three-masted ship with the flag of Spain, and the other was a brig with the flag of Portugal.

The sails of the two ships were all open, and Hong Xiguan silently calculated the speed of the two sides in his hands, and it took about half an hour for the two sides to make contact.

In this area of waters, the wind direction is not favorable to the other party, but our ship is currently on the upper hand, what is the intention of the other party to go against the wind so much?

In that era when ships used sails, walked with feet, and relied on roaring for communication, it was difficult to contact each other, and there was no international unified flag, and the red-haired ship was a merchant ship without a gun (or less artillery), and a warship with multiple guns was a warship, although the other party's gun door was not opened, but God knows if the gun door would be opened when the other party approached!

"They want to hit us? Do it for a vote? Hong Xiguan asked.

"Who knows!" Shi Lang shrugged.

"If you really do it, the brothers are not afraid, but this prey is indeed a little bigger." Hong Xiguan ordered to be on guard!

"Dangdang!" The alarm bell rang for a long time, and the officers and men on the three warships mobilized to check the guns and ammunition, make preparations for damage management, and stand ready for battle.

And the battleship continued to move forward, without diating or fleeing.

Half an hour later, the two sides came into contact, the alarm was lifted, and the captains of the two merchant ships personally went to the southeast flagship, what were they doing?

One represents the Kingdom of Spain and the other represents the Kingdom of Portugal, inviting the southeastern province to visit the formation and be the first to visit their own land!

When asked, it turned out that both kingdoms had learned from the clippers returning to Europe that the visiting formation of the eastern powers was about to arrive, and in order to compete for the honor of being the first to receive the eastern powers, the two kingdoms both issued bounties to their respective captains, found the fleets from the east, and invited them to arrive in their own countries first.

This is related to the honor of the country, there is no need for the Chinese to say anything, the two captains say a few more words, and they will immediately use force and duel!

The victor will follow the Chinese fleet!

Seeing the two red-haired swords, they were ready to do it by themselves, and the Chinese people saw that their eyes were big!

The red-haired fan is really enthusiastic and unrestrained!

Hong Xiguan stopped them in Spanish: "We Chinese are here for friendship and don't want to see blood, so let's throw coins, use Chinese silver coins, and let your God decide which country we go to first." ”

"Sure enough, it's the demeanor of a big country in the East!" The two captains readily agreed, so Hong Xiguan took out a silver coin of the Southeast Mansion, one side was the portrait of Yan Changwu, and the other was the flag map of the Southeast Mansion.

The Spaniards asked for the portrait, and the Portuguese asked for the banner map, declaring that the upward side was the winner.

Hong Xiguan put the silver coin in his hand and threw it into the sky.

He didn't do anything, he just wanted to resign himself to fate.

The silver coin fell on the deck, and the flag was neatly drawn upward, and the visiting formation went to Portugal first!

The Portuguese captain jumped for joy and laughed, while the Spanish captain congratulated him!

After the victory, the Portuguese captain consulted with Hong Xiguan and sent two consuls to serve them on the 72nd ship in Kaohsiung, and the Portuguese captain bid farewell to Hong Xiguan and returned to his ship to continue his voyage.

The two Portuguese, one named López and the other Prado, were seafarers in their early thirties, young and vigorous, and had excellent seamanship.

They were also deeply amazed when they saw the Chinese's ship control skills, and they gave a thumbs up to say that it was definitely first-class!

They were on duty in two shifts, and when López wasn't on duty, with rum, Officer Hong quickly learned what he wanted to know.

It turned out that Portugal was at war with Spain, and the situation was unstable with England, and the Netherlands was at war with England, but the rule of France was still very strong.

Previously, Portugal and Spain were united, and the king was King Philip IV of Spain, but the two countries shared different dreams and did not live in harmony.

In November last year, the Portuguese aristocracy hatched a conspiracy and received official support from João, Duke of Bragança. In the early morning of 1 December, the nobles occupied the royal palace of Lisbon, executed the Minister of State, forced the Spanish garrison to surrender, deposed King Philip IV of Spain, and appointed João, Duke of Bragança, as the new king, as João IV.

Immediately after his accession to the throne, João IV convened a court council the following year, at which it was decided to raise taxes from the whole country in order to carry the war of independence to the end, and the tax revenue was used to form a standing border guard, build fortresses on the border, rebuild the navy, build a number of arsenals and shipyards, and so on.

So Portugal went to war with Spain, however, Spain was too busy fighting France in the Pyrenees, Belgium, Alsace, Italy and other places to take care of Portugal, plus the two countries were one before, the relationship was intertwined, many Portuguese nobles had family ties with Spain (even João IV's mother and wife were Spanish nobles), and the war between the two countries was not fierce.

"Small friction, border conflict!" Lopez, who was drunk, said that he had fought several battles with the Spaniards, all of which were against muskets at a certain distance, and after firing gunpowder and bullets, they each collected their troops, and not many people died in one fight!

"It was his bad luck who was killed, our commander told us to shoot them above the head, and so did they!" López told the truth.

"This is called war?" Hong Xuguan asked.

"Yes, when we go back, we said we couldn't beat it, and they said we couldn't beat it, so that's it!" López said.

In this case, it has become an important task to strive for the first formation of the eastern powers to visit their own country, which country the Chinese go to first, which country can add supreme brilliance, the Portuguese take this very seriously, López happily said that this is God's will, God bless Portugal!

With the help of López and Prado, the Southeast Province Expedition Fleet successfully arrived in Lisbon, Portugal, and was welcomed by the Portuguese!