A Spanish galleon flying the red fork flag (Burgundian tenth flag) slowly sailed into Wusongkou. The Shanghai commercial port, which was only built four years ago, is now quite large-scale.

On the west bank of the Wusong River, the wharves are lined up one after another, and the Western-style manpower runner cranes are densely arranged on the wharves, and the shore is full of warehouses and warehouses. Chinese dock workers with a bun on their heads and sweat towels around their necks carry the goods unloaded from their ships on wheelbarrows, or on their shoulders or on a slender pole.

At the berth of the wharf are sailing ships from all over the world. There are all kinds of styles, with four masts and a very high stern Spanish Galen ship, light small and medium-sized Galen ships from the Netherlands or England, Chinese Fu boats, Canton boats, bird boats and sand boats, Arabian sailing ships with spinnakers, and old lock boats with Western-style hulls and Chinese hard sails.

Traditional Chinese buildings are mixed with Portuguese or Dutch buildings, and many buildings are half-built, scaffolded, and workers can be seen busy in the distance.

On the east bank of the Wusong River is a new handicraft area. The docks and slipways of the shipbuilding are lined up on the bank of the river near Wusongkou, and you can see the timber piled up like a hill near the dock and slipway. The dockyard and slipway were busy, and I don't know how many ships were being built at the same time.

Manila Justice Sebastián Caballero stood on the high stern platform of the Spanish galleon, looking curiously at the hottest port of the ancient empire, which seemed to have suddenly awakened and began to catch up with the tide of the Age of Discovery.

Shanghai, which has only been open for four years, has now shown extraordinary development momentum, and it is probably only in England and the Netherlands that you can see a similar booming development scene, right?

Anyway, Caballero couldn't imagine any city in the Spanish world empire that would grow up in the blink of an eye like Shanghai, as if using magic.

He stared blankly at everything in front of him, and the face of the Governor of the Philippines was full of sorrow and trepidation suddenly appeared in his mind.

Maybe he was right to be worried!

The dragon of the East has awakened!

It will surely challenge the hegemony of the Spanish world empire in the Pacific!

Looking at this vigorous and fiery scene before him, and thinking about the stagnation of the Spanish Empire for more than a hundred years, he felt a sense of urgency that he had never felt before.

Spain, the empire that "owns the world", always invested the wealth plundered from the New World in the Habsburgs' wars for hegemony. Countless gold and silver were lost, but Spain had nothing but heavy debts and countless orphans and widows......

In the midst of his thoughts, the Spanish sailing ship with the red forked flag had docked at a pier under the guidance of a fast sentry ship used for pilotage. There were already some people waiting on the pier, led by a Ming Dynasty official wearing a crimson official uniform and a black gauze hat. Standing with him were two men dressed in Western costumes. The three of them were talking and laughing, and they seemed very enthusiastic. There were also soldiers in plate armor, helmets, and spears or arquebuses, standing in a straight line, as if they were facing a great enemy.

Judging by their queues and military appearances, they seem to be slightly stronger than the Spanish soldiers in Manila!

De Belasco, the captain of the Spanish-style Galen Manila on which Caballero was traveling, walked over quickly, "Your Excellency, we are greeted by the Mayor of Shanghai, who is also the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Commerce. ”

When the Manila enters Wusongkou, there are fast sentry ships from the customs that go to the customs to take charge of piloting and registering - if the Manila is a merchant ship, it will be taken to an empty commercial dock to berth, or wait in line near the commercial terminal.

After the merchant ship has finished docking, there will be a customs tax officer who will come and collect taxes according to the size of the ship (calculated according to the length and width) - now the customs tariff of the Ming Dynasty is collected from the ship and collected at the port. The tax rate is not high, but it is double-taxed. Merchant ships could pay for precious metals such as gold, silver, copper, or rice, or wheat. Because the discount of rice and wheat is relatively high (based on the grain prices at various ports in the Ming Dynasty, but the price is certainly much more expensive than the grain-producing areas of Nanyang), ordinary merchant ships will load rice into the customs to pay customs duties.

However, the Manila was not a merchant ship, but a warship on a diplomatic mission. Therefore, there is no need to pay customs duties (and no large commercial transactions are allowed), and you cannot dock at the commercial berth at will, but at the berth dedicated to the Shanghai Sailor School.

Those soldiers who wear military uniforms and iron armor as honor guards are the students of the Sailor Academy.

At the same time that the Manila docked at the dock of the Sailor Academy, the official messenger of Shanghai Customs informed the news of the visit of the Spanish envoy to Luo Dagong, the prefect of Songjiang and the ambassador of Shanghai Overseas Transportation.

The current Ming Empire still does not have a foreign ministry, but divides foreign affairs into foreign affairs and foreign affairs. Among them, the affairs of the foreign domain are managed by the Ministry of Rites and Guests, while the foreign affairs are managed by the Ministry of Foreign Communications.

The Shanghai Foreign Trade Ambassador is one of the five Trade Ambassadors under the Department of Foreign Trade and Commerce of the Ministry of Household Affairs – the other four are Guangzhou Trade Ambassadors, Quanzhou Trade Ambassadors, Ningbo Trade Ambassadors and Lushun Foreign Trade Ambassadors.

Foreign trade ambassadors can be full-time or concurrently appointed by the chief officials of the five major commercial ports. Luo Dagong's ambassador for foreign trade and commerce is a part-time job, and his current position is to know the affairs of Songjiang Prefecture, which was first under the management of Shanghai County. However, in the past three or four years, the business market has developed rapidly, almost one day at a time, and it has changed greatly in three years. A small Shanghai county can no longer manage this big commercial port of Shanghai. Therefore, the commercial port was transferred to the direct management of Songjiang Prefecture, and Luo Dagong's own duties were changed from Shanghai County Decree to Songjiang Prefecture.

After being promoted to the prefect, Luo Dagong asked the imperial court for approval and moved the Songjiang Prefecture from Huating County to the Shanghai commercial port, which was located on the Bund Street, not too far from the dock of the Sailor Academy.

Therefore, when the Grand Duke Luo was informed, he immediately called two foreign advisers (general officers) from Songjiang Province, the Portuguese Mardimo and the Dutchman Bass. Brink, let's go to the docks to meet the Spanish envoys.

And Zheng Jiangong, who had just returned to the Navy Academy after his trip to Champong, also took more than 100 students of the Navy Crash Course to show the majesty of the Ming Army and Navy on the dock!

The sailboat with the Spanish red flag had just stopped, and the sailors on board had skillfully dropped anchor and lowered the cables, and the gangplank was quickly lowered. A squad of Spanish escorts in plate armor and helmets disembarked from the ship and lined up in two lines under the gangplank, before the fat Judge Caballero and the captain of the Manila, de Belasco, stepped off the ship.

"Welcome, Mr. Chancellor!" The Portuguese, Martimo, was sent to Shanghai by the Macau Council, a Portuguese nobleman loyal to João IV.

The Portuguese's enemy in the East, however, was not Spain, but their European ally in Europe, the Netherlands, at a time when the European powers had a high degree of autonomy in their overseas colonies, and their military and foreign policies were not necessarily the same as those of their home countries.

"Mr. Justice, this Ambassador Luo, who represents His Majesty the Ming Emperor." Brink, a Dutchman, was a retired captain who was in debt because of the failure of speculating in tulips, so he didn't dare to go back to the Netherlands, so he bought a house in Shanghai and settled down, and also found a job in the Sailor School, and was also hired by Luo Dagong as a consultant.

He also showed a friendly enough attitude towards the visiting Spanish justice, smiled and introduced Grand Duke Luo to the Spaniards, and then said with a smile: "The Ming Emperor has been waiting for New Spain's reply, are you here on behalf of New Spain this time?" ”