Zhou Yuji was a bright spot in the darkness of the Ming Dynasty, but the northern part of the Ming Dynasty was caught in a bleak wind and rain.

The Qing army marched directly to Shuyang (Shuyang, Jiangsu), only 400 miles away from Yangzhou on the Yangtze River, and the cavalry rushed forward, and it was coming in two days!

The southern Ming Dynasty also felt the pressure, if the Qing army went south, the strongest border army of the Ming State would not be able to defeat the Qing army, and those southern Ming generals who were nurtured by the fat powder of the Qinhuai River would be able to fight against the Qing army? Even the most stupid Akito can't believe them.

Even the most optimistic people feel heavy, of course, the Chinese people in Southeast Asia who are far away in the sunny zone will definitely not have such a feeling, they live a sunny life, there are battles in some remote areas, the army is fighting, and some people hang up, but on the whole, the island under the sun is a new home and a new paradise for the Chinese.

In the summer of 1642, two cruisers and one supply ship, which had been circumnavigating the world for more than two years, returned triumphantly under the leadership of Hong Xiguan, Kaustit, Yan Zhang, and Hao Sizhong!

Reporter Yao Wenqi recounted their voyage in eloquent notes.

…… After passing the Cape of Good Hope, our fleet sailed along the African coastline, with great hardships against the wind.

Fortunately, there are strongholds of Hongmaofan along the way, and often when the mountains and rivers are in doubt, they magically brighten another village!

Speaking of which, I would like to thank the deputy commander of the formation, Captain Costit, who had very good sailing skills and a good memory, and who brought us to the stronghold of Hongmaofan to repair and replenish our supplies from exhaustion.

Those red-haired fans treated us very warmly and especially loved to drink our rum......

In West Africa, Portugal occupies the Cape Verde Islands and has established trading posts in Sierra Leone, the Kingdom of Gumari, the Gold Coast, the Slave Coast, the Congo and Angola, and the rest of the Red Hair Fan, such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, are also vying to establish trading posts.

At that time, the interior of West Africa was very backward and primitive, but in the coastal areas, it was quite vibrant!

Take the Gold Coast, for example.

After the opening of the new shipping route, the Portuguese heard that Africa was rich in gold, but did not know exactly where it was. As soon as they arrived in Africa, they searched everywhere for gold. Soon after, they discovered that the coast of Ghana was rich in gold sand, and they named it "Mina", which means "mineral deposit". Later, it became known as the "Gold Coast", and countless riches were plundered from here to the European mainland.

The formation of diplomatic goodwill visits from the Southeastern Province reached the Gold Coast, and near the river, they saw a large number of slaves panning for gold under the supervision of white overseers.

Under the sun, they toiled through the river sand to extract gold.

The white overseers sat leisurely under the tree drinking tea!

Well, it's the Oriental tea that is drunk.

Reporter Yao Wenqi felt this scene, the "warmth" of Zhente M!

Well, there were no fences on either side of the river, and the white overseers didn't even have guns, and there were dogs, but they were pet dogs.

Those blacks worked honestly in the scorching sun, no one resisted, no one ran away!

They are so strong that if they run, they can't catch up with them, but they don't run.

Yao Wenqi felt incredible.

The formation was warmly welcomed by the local whites, and in fact, the three ships of the southeast had rarely encountered pirates during their more than two years of sailing, and they were greeted with a smile wherever they visited.

Yao Wenqi wrote: "The pirates and the red-haired fan have a lot of respect for our cannons and muskets! ”

Arriving at the Gold Coast, he spoke to the local governor, Correa, an old Portuguese man, who said: "Some blacks, who are smart, still resist and run away. ”

"They resisted, we had guns, they couldn't beat us."

"If you run away, unless you run back to your own tribe, but this is almost impossible, we are slaves imported from other places, and they can't find their way back. If they escape, the wild animals will kill them, because they can't open their eyes twenty-four hours a day, and at the same time, the tribes outside will also kill them, compared to the hard work here, at least they can live! ”

"But the most fundamental reason is that blacks are too lazy to think about how to escape and resist!" Correa pointed to his head and said, "They generally don't have this (brain)!" ”

Yao Wenqi observed carefully and found that this was indeed the case, those black slaves were very lazy and insensitive, as if they didn't think about anything!

On the Gold Coast, the Chinese painfully find their boat small!

The local gold is cheap, the Chinese exchanged spices, tea, tobacco, rum, and candy with the whites, and harvested a lot of gold, almost a pound of tea can be exchanged for a pound of gold, no wonder this route is so difficult, and the whites are also flocking to it.

The officers were very strict, checking the space and carrying weight of everyone on board, and everyone had to keep as much gold as possible.

This time around the world, Yao Wenqi got twenty catties of gold with one vote!

Another kind of local "cargo" was black slaves, a large number of black slaves were transported through slave ships, and Yao Wenqi learned that the destination was the New World.

"What are you going to do?" Yao Wenqi asked curiously.

"Go to the plantations and grow things and mine silver." Correa received him a pound of fine tea, treated him as a good friend, treated him as a guest, and talked about everything.

"In Barbados, black slaves cultivated tobacco, cotton, indigo, and other crops; In South America, they mine silver; Guadeloupe was the first to introduce tobacco; There are a large number of slaves growing sugar cane in Sao Tome, and I have heard that the Leeward Islands and Jamaica, Antigua and other islands are growing sugar cane, hehe, they don't produce enough white sugar to be so white and sweet as your Oriental white sugar! Correa said.

The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was intentional, and after Yao Wenqi returned to the ship, he recorded them one by one, knowing that the Southeast Mansion would encounter strong opponents in tobacco, cane sugar, and rum, and he had to send this situation back to the Rising Sun Harbor.

Yao Wen said in stiff Portuguese: "Don't you think that it is against God's will to be merciful to the world that you are trading in slaves in large quantities?" ”

The old Portuguese man looked at him strangely, and first pointed to himself and said, "I am human!" ”

Then pointed to Yao Wenqi and said: "You are also a human being!" ”

Then he waved his hand at the black slaves who were working next to him and said, "They are not people!" ”

"Oh, I'm human, it's my pleasure!" Yao Wenqi nodded.

Aha, Yao Wenqi finally understood, at that time, the social atmosphere was that white people did not think that the black slave trade was shameful, and the black slaves were treated like animals and had no rights.

From the end of the sixteenth century, this shameful trade was generally accepted by all countries, which protected the slave trade in order to enable the islands of the New World to be colonized more quickly and securely, which was a great business.

In the books of plantation owners at that time, black slaves did not belong to workers or servants, but were often listed with livestock, tools, etc., and were no different from other property. The number of black slaves owned by a plantation owner is even more a measure of his wealth than the size of his estate and the size of his production.

Yao Wenqi thought in his mind, whether the Chinese also got some black slaves to Southeast Asia?

No, no, no, in fact, the indigenous slaves in the southeast province are in the process of decreasing, many of them have been sold to the Spaniards and sent to the New World to mine silver, and more and more estates are cultivated by the Chinese.

Their efficiency, one Chinese top four indigenous slaves!

In this world, there is no worker like the Chinese, who are both diligent and smart!