The sound of ping-pong was incessant, and Fernando, who was still salivating over shaved ice, let the ice residue in his bowl turn into water, and didn't have the heart to take another bite. Garcia, who was standing next to him, stood on the ground, staring in horror but greedily at the musket that was still smoking not far away.

Everyone's eyes were on the two young men in front of them, each holding a rifle and aiming at the target two hundred meters away, this was the last bullet, and the winner would be decided after the shot. Different from the nervous feeling of the audience, Liu Baokai, who was standing in the shooting position, took a deep breath and slowed down his heartbeat as much as possible. But for Liu Se @ Wolf, who has been accustomed to all kinds of weapons since childhood, this is the time to show real kung fu. As for his opponent, the fake prince who has always been better than himself, although he can be regarded as both civil and military, but it is impossible to defeat Liu Baokai in military quality.

"Bang!" Without unnecessary hesitation, when the pervert felt that the muzzle of the gun had been firmly aimed at the target, his finger gently hooked, and a bullet was discharged.

Everyone knew the final result, because Wu Yuan's last bullet missed the target. By the way, even if a large number of advanced designs were used, the rifles of this era still could not be compared with the accuracy of later generations, so they used a fragile target, as long as the target was broken, it was considered a victory, and in the end, Wu Yuan lost the competition by 8 to 10.

Jiang Tian took the lead in applauding, two hundred meters is not far away, but in this era, he can hit ten shots, which shows that Liu Baokai does have extraordinary strength, the only thing that surprised him was that Wu Yuan could hit eight shots.

When the two of them walked back to Jiang Tian with different expressions, Garcia, who couldn't wait, really couldn't care about any etiquette, and hurriedly grabbed Jacob's clothes on the side and shouted. The pervert who was about to make a winning speech was completely inspired, so he could only tilt his head and frown at the bearded man.

Fernando was also brought back to his senses by Garcia's loud voice, and while hurriedly stopping such a vulgar act, he looked at Jiang Tian apologetically: "This subordinate of mine is really unruly, but please forgive him for being unreasonable, after all, you can't expect a soldier to behave like a nobleman." ”

After listening to Jacob's translation, Jiang Tian just smiled slightly: "You don't have to worry, in our country, soldiers are precisely respected, maybe they don't know how to express their opinions elegantly, but at least they won't beat around the bush." ”

Jiang Tian certainly knew the reason why Garcia was so excited, so he waved his hand to make the pervert hand him the rifle. The bearded man didn't react at first, but after he understood that Jiang Tian didn't mean to play with him, he took the rifle carefully, gently stroked the body of the gun, and carefully observed every detail.

Looking at his performance, even people who don't understand military affairs know that Garcia is a real expert, and although Fernando is also surprised by the performance of this rifle, there is no fire in his eyes like seeing a lover. Taking advantage of this time, Jiang Tian celebrity changed another bowl of shaved ice for the Spaniard: "Lord Viscount, I think we can talk about your true intentions now." ”

Fernando looked at the bucket that was obviously only water just now and was filled with a layer of ice slag, and the shaved ice in his bowl was a masterpiece of scooping up these ice slags, of course, he didn't know that this should be called slush in the strict sense, but no one in this era knew what it was, and Jiang Tianai could call it whatever it was.

The relieved Spanish nobleman, with a somewhat trembling voice, stumbled: "Dear lord, I must admit that in many respects your country has exceeded my expectations, but I can be sure that I have received orders from our great king to enter into friendly exchanges and trade with your country!" ”

Even if you can't understand Latin, the Chinese on our side can see that this Spaniard is timid, no wonder Fernando's performance is unsatisfactory, after all, when Wu Yuan and those students saw Jiang Tian conjuring up broken ice in a bucket of water, the shock in their hearts was not much smaller than that of the Spaniards, even if they all thought that it was normal for this to happen to Jiang Tian, but they could see with their own eyes that the freezing process could be miraculously seen in the three volt days, which would indeed have a devastating blow to some people's already ingrained concepts. The Spaniards may have suspected that Jiang Tian had made some kind of deal with the devil, and Fernando's only sober sanity told him that it might not be easy for him to complete the Haikou he boasted about before his trip, but at least the sense of honor of the nobility kept him from losing his temper, because his homeland and his king wanted to gain enough from this mysterious and powerful country to maintain its shaky European hegemony.

Jiang Tian, who still kept smiling, was noncommittal about this, because he knew that Europe could not say anything friendly until it understood how big the gap between the two sides was. These sub-racist colonizers firmly believe that they are the best, and that the peoples of other places should be inherently enslaved by them. That's why Jiang Tian won't believe this kind of nonsense, and although he also hopes to disrupt Europe by supporting the decadent Spain, this attitude can't be seen by the other party.

"We have just experienced a war of restoration, naturally we also hope to live in peace with other countries, although we do not lose to any country in the determination to defend our homeland, not long ago in the Northern Expedition, there were more than a dozen battles with more than 10,000 casualties, but we still drove all the robbers out of their lair. As for the trade you mentioned, I don't think we've been trading all the time. Your country's Spanish treasure ships have crossed the Pacific with silver coins, and we certainly welcome such powerful traders. ”

Fernando heard the threat in his words, and he also believed that even if Spain was adjacent to the Chinese Empire, it would be impossible for them to defeat this huge country with their proud Spanish phalanx, not to mention that the musket used to play just now could cause the phalanx with spears to collapse directly, not counting Gustav, who had already made the Spaniards vomit blood. This Spanish nobleman, who is not at a high level, actually saw an opportunity, that is, China was too far away from the European continent, his formidable army could not swim such a long distance to invade Europe, and its products were heavily dependent on European merchant ships, so even if he could not get a grand reception from the Chinese emperor, as long as he brought enough profits to his king, then there would be no nobleman who could not get along with himself on the issue of face.

Although he was still a little apprehensive in his heart, Fernando still tried to maintain his image of neither humility nor arrogance: "Dear lord, I think that as you said, only our merchant ships of the Spanish Empire can bring so much silver, and only we can buy so many goods, I think we may be able to cooperate more deeply." ”

Garcia, who had been studying the rifle for a long time behind him, had little hope, and with his professional eye, he didn't even know how the rifle fired, because he didn't see the arquebus, flint, or ignition holes, and he didn't understand what the uneven lines in the chamber were for, but he knew that the other party was willing to show himself this powerful weapon that could smash targets at a distance that other muskets couldn't hit, which proved that people didn't care about leaks, or that they didn't treat this kind of thing as a treasure at all. So can you reap the benefits of just saying a few empty words with one mouth?

Sure enough, after listening to the translation, Jiang Tian only maintained that polite smile, and did not express any opinion on the so-called friendly relations or trade privileges, and then said as if to himself: "I heard that the Spanish nobles do not know how to use the stolen gold and silver to develop the country and economy, and they can be said to have not contributed their due strength to their king except for extravagant enjoyment and persistent religious enthusiasm, so if my information is not wrong, Your nation's wealth is being lost to the Low Countries like a wounded man with an artery cut, not counting the ones that are stolen by English pirates in the Caribbean every year. Not to mention that the Thirty Years' War has almost exhausted your best soldiers, and if it were not for the accidental death of King Gustav Adolf of Sweden, I am afraid that the entire Habsburg family would have been uprooted, how can I believe that your country will be able to protect my country's interests from loss? ”

This is a slap in the face @naked @naked@ when he says this, even if Fernando tries his best to maintain his demeanor, his tense expression and somewhat trembling body still betray him. Although he was angry that the Chinese official despised his great motherland so much, he was even more surprised that people had such accurate information, although it was not a secret in Europe, and any businessman or missionary could tell them, but his own side did not know China at all, so he could not see the slightest hope in this confrontation.

This is the difference between mediocrity and genius, why can Zhuge Liang talk about the Confucianism and bring allies for Liu Bei? It is because of heaven that we can find a breakthrough point in the seemingly insurmountable adversity. Why did Jiang Tian risk provoking the other party to say such a faux pas, if Jiang Tian was facing Cardinal Richelieu, then the French at this time would definitely be happy to find that Jiang Tian was trying to help him and made a price.

Fortunately, Garcia, a seemingly vulgar person, still seized the opportunity, he held the musket in both hands and respectfully placed it in front of Fernando, and then said in a voice that only they could hear: "I think the other party is testing us, this kind of information is easy to obtain, but he deliberately provoked you to wonder how much sincerity we have!" ”

After saying this, Garcia naturally placed the musket on the table: "It's really a beautiful work of art, but unfortunately I don't know how to use it." Do your country's armies use this art to fight? ”

Jiang Tian also saw the problem, this bearded man like a bodyguard is not so simple, maybe more like the other party's think tank, but no matter what, it seems that it is not easy to reach any consensus today, and the purpose of showing force on his side has also been achieved, so he took the initiative to say: "This is just an ordinary standard rifle, just for today's game, these two guns have been selected." Now that the misunderstanding between us has been resolved, the matter of friendship between the Chinese Empire and the Spanish Empire cannot be discussed in the barracks. I think it's better for us to use Chinese rules and talk while eating. ”

Jacob knew that this was an invitation to the other party's banquet, so he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, obviously Jiang Tian didn't hate these Spaniards, so he also picked some words that the other party could understand when translating.

Jiang Tian saw that Fernando seemed to be a lot more sober under the reminder of his subordinates, so he turned his head and said to Liu Baokai: "I will trouble your restaurant when I go back." ”

Of course, the pervert @wolf has no opinion on this, where can this kind of public banquet paid by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs be cheaper for outsiders, so he didn't have to go home to ask for instructions, so he agreed: "Sir, don't worry, I'll let them clean the backyard when I go back." ”

"Don't bother." Jiang Tian shook his head: "To deal with these ignorant guys from Europe, just pick the luxurious room on the third floor of your house to deal with the rich man." ”

Of course, Jacob heard this, and just when he blinked his eyes and didn't know how to translate, he saw Jiang Tian turn his head and look at himself and say, "This sentence doesn't need to be translated!" ”

It's not that Jiang Tian looks down on Europeans, but Europe in this era is generally still in the stage of nouveau riche, and he can't understand the elegance and low-key in the artistic sense at all. The funny thing is that many of the pioneers of the Enlightenment admired Chinese culture and thought, which can be regarded as a foreign version of Guanzi's sentence "Cangli is honest and knows etiquette". Because of this, the elegant garden in the backyard of Liujia Restaurant will definitely not be appreciated by Europeans at this time, who like neat symmetry, golden splendor and complex and expensive decoration. Then the third floor of the Liu family, which is specially used to entertain rich buns, is an ideal place to go.

Jacob did not know what the Spaniards were planning in private, but he also received an order to help the Habsburgs gain more benefits at all costs, because this staunch supporter of the Holy See had an immeasurable role in saving the position of Catholicism in Europe, and if Spain and the Holy Roman Empire really fell, it would mean that Rome had lost its dominance over European religions. Therefore, even if these two countries can't support Adou, the Holy See must find a way to make them hold on and not lie down, otherwise there will be some small countries with insufficient strength and countries like France. And the Jesuits also needed the Spaniards to maintain their power so that they could use each other to suppress the expanding Protestants in Asia.

So this time Jacob learned smartly, he came to the post house early, and taught these two Spanish buns some Chinese etiquette, as for the velvet dress used to cover the prickly heat, he didn't need to wear it, just changed into a silk imitation European court dress, and then removed those useless decorations. This made Fernando feel a lot cooler. Servants could also be brought to such informal banquets, but the Spaniards were adamant about bringing in those with uneven teeth who looked unappetizing, and declared that there were more elegant men to serve the adults. Jacob's various suggestions surprised the Spaniards, feeling that there are so many rules for this banquet, what to press the table, appetizers, and even eat the main course, and the habits of the Chinese are the opposite of the West, China takes the left hand of the host as the precious, but Europe is the right hand, knowing these in advance also saves the other party from misunderstanding that the other party is despising themselves.

Even if they knew so much knowledge in advance, when they climbed to the third floor of the highest Liujia Restaurant, they still felt a little helpless like children who had never seen the world. Although the Liu family did not use the backyard this time, the entire third floor was also redecorated again, and the third floor, which was already magnificent and extravagant, used a pile of gold and silver products to pile up a kind of local tyrant to show off his wealth. The original glazed vases were all replaced by gilded bottles, in addition to the silk gauze curtains on the windows, there were also gold and silver wind chimes hung on the windows, and the huge candles with thick arms shook the same huge flames, even if it was dark until eight o'clock in the evening in summer, but dozens of such huge candles reflected the room and turned brighter than the day, but so many candles had to be radiated after all, so in order to cool down a kind of water curtain cooling fan designed by Jiang Tian, it was constantly rotated by the well-dressed but very strong servants. The only drawback to this kind of thing that copied the air conditioning fan of later generations is that it requires manpower to operate.

Jiang Tian, who was just wearing a Confucian shirt, saw the two Spaniards who were a little sluggish, and smiled and asked Jacob to translate for himself: "Today is just my private banquet for the two of you, so you don't have to be restrained or care about etiquette." ”

Although he still used the plate system, Fernando was surprised to find that his table with a snow-white tablecloth had shiny knives and forks. Not only this detail, but the magnificence of the whole room dazzled him a little, and although the maids standing around were petite, their image was indeed much stronger than those he brought. What's more, behind the bamboo curtain not far away, there is always a small band playing some tunes that he has never heard, and the magical machinery that keeps blowing a cool breeze makes him even more puzzled. Just as he was still shocked by the specifications of this private banquet, something even more surprising came to him.

Jiang Tian saw that he had sat down, so he nodded to Jacob and said: "Before the feast, I have a few words to declare first, my country always welcomes people of different countries, nationalities, beliefs, skin colors and political tendencies to live in peace, as long as we abide by our laws and customs, and without conflict with the existing laws, our country will also promise that everyone within the territory has their own freedom of belief, let alone interfere with the propaganda and preaching between religions and sects, so in order to reflect the authenticity of this promise, I have chosen this place to entertain you, because it is the private property of my lord, and this duke is a Mu@Si@Lin@believer of Persian ancestry! ”