It was a ship carrying construction supplies, and the entire cabin was filled with pieces of red bricks. The four of Blanco sat at the bow of the boat, looking at the scenery on both sides of the river.

It's already late autumn and early winter in South America. The farther away from the walls, the more desolate the banks of the river become.

When you first get out of the city wall, you can see that many wooden houses have been built along the banks of the river. Blanco was sharp-eyed, and he noticed that most of the people living in the cabin were Indians, in addition to a small number of white Norsemen. These people cultivated wasteland outside the city walls and relied on the construction of aqueducts or rainwater harvesting ponds for irrigation and vegetable cultivation.

"They were slaves in the service of the Tatar nobles in the city." Carlos, a merchant who had been silent, suddenly spoke, "These Indians may have been captured by them. Perhaps we can consider buying some slaves from them, the plantations in Brazil are forever short of labor, and more and more blacks have been running away lately. ”

"The Indians were not suitable slave candidates." Ricardo interjected: "In fact, they are liberal, aggressive by nature, and not strong enough, far worse than the blacks." ”

Blanco was not interested in intervening in their conversation. "What's that?" He suddenly saw a strange building, and there were many people surrounding the building, both Indians and whites, who seemed to be performing some kind of ceremony.

"God! Heathen! Father Simão recalled, exclaiming, and kept making a cross on his chest. Having been in China for many years, it was natural for him to know Taoist temples, which are very common in China.

"It seems that they are really not Tatars, but from the East." Blanco is not a priest, and his faith is not religious enough, so naturally he does not make a fuss like Father Simão.

As the ships went farther and farther, the farmland and Taoist temples gradually disappeared, and the scenery on both sides of the river began to become the same barren grass. There are many salinity-tolerant pear, jujube and locust trees planted on the banks of the river, and the trees are not large, and it seems that the planting time is still short. Occasionally, sheep can be seen in the barren grass, but other than that, it is like a deserted virgin land, full of desolate colors.

The ship continued to sail slowly. It was nearly noon when the two German boatmen who were holding the boat began to light a fire on the boat and cook their meals. They invited Blanco and the others to taste their food together, and the four Blanco, who had long been hungry, gladly agreed.

The staple food was still the coarse steamed potatoes, but there was also the unappetizing salted fish, and at the end Blanco was a happy one: a soup of some unknown vegetable and some unknown white lump. As he ate, Father Simão told Blanco that both were traditional Chinese foods, cabbage and tofu.

After lunch, everyone was a little drowsy, and just when Blanco was half asleep, he suddenly heard a faint burst of cheers in the distance. Blanco lifted his spirits and looked up, only to see that the desolate scenery on the roadside had disappeared at some point, and was replaced by large areas of flat farmland. The farmland has been harvested, and two neat rows of red-brick and blue-tiled houses stand on the edge of the farmland in the distance. The house is surrounded by a wooden fence with two watchtowers, one on the left and one on the right.

Outside the fence to a clearing on the bank of the river, there were many people sitting around at this time. The men appeared to be assembling or performing some kind of religious ceremony, with occasional bursts of applause.

The wooden boat is docked on a rudimentary wooden trestle on the bank of a river. There was a small wooden house on the trestle, and two militiamen with arquebuses and sabers on their backs came up, and after talking to the boatman for a while, one of them left to report to his superiors.

Soon, the soldier who had left returned, this time with an Oriental with him. The Oriental took the list that Blanco had given him, looked at it for a while, and then asked in English, "Mr. Blanco Sosa de Almeida?" ”

Blanco nodded reservedly: "Yes, honorable sir, I am Blanco from San Vicente. ”

"Then come with me, gentlemen." "With all due respect, I'm not optimistic that we will be able to make this deal, and the deal with yours is too sensitive. Gentlemen, please come here. ”

On the drying field of the 1st production team, a grand harvest celebration ceremony was nearing the end at this time. Due to the significance of this bumper harvest, all members of the Executive Committee were present. The ceremonial process, as in the traditional Chinese meeting, culminated in the award ceremony, where Ma Qianzu, chairman of the executive committee, presented three yuan to each of the five most productive families and solemnly announced that they would be granted freeman status.

After hearing the words of Grote's on-site translator, the five families immediately cried with joy, which made the others red, and secretly regretted why they didn't work hard to farm. The thought that these five neighbors who had been with each other all day and night would soon be able to receive their wages and redeem their land made their hearts feel even more frustrated. I can only secretly encourage myself that I must work hard in the next planting season and strive to obtain the status of a free citizen as soon as possible.

After the ceremony, Ma Ganzu and other members of the executive committee met with Blanco and his party in the production team.

"Mr. Blanco, I have heard that the Governor of Bahia is struggling with his mind as to what to do with the Dutch. The Dutch have already seized a large part of Bahia, and it is difficult to say whether they will have any interest in Rio de Janeiro or Maragnon next. "I think we should strictly abide by the principle of neutrality and impose an arms embargo on both sides of the war at such a sensitive moment." It would be extremely unwise to rush into such a war in which we have no benefit. ”

"We can sell slaves to you. I know that you are very thirsty for labour, and that we can ship slaves from Congo, Angola and Mozambique to your ports. Blanco's face remained unchanged, and he knew that now was the time for the two sides to bargain. It's true that these Orientals are not very keen on selling weapons to their side, especially when São Paulo and Uruguay are not far apart. But nothing is absolute, and Blanco feels that he should at least try to convince these Orientals.

"You still have a surplus of black slaves to sell?" Gaumore looked at Blanco mockingly: "The black fugitive slaves hiding in Palmares even formed a state. They attacked your armies and farms behind your back, got plantation slaves to escape, formed alliances with the Indians, ha, I don't see how many slaves you have left to sell us. ”

Blanco's face turned white all at once. Damn the Orientals! How could they know so much about the gang of black fugitives hiding in the Palm Jungle (Palmares)? Could it be that the Dutch told them? How could they be so close to the Dutch? No, it's not! They may have just heard some rumors from some sailors.

Blanco managed to calm his mood for a moment, then smiled at Golmo, "As you know, those fugitives formed the so-called Palmares Loose Alliance. However, this does not affect my commitment to you. Portuguese merchant ships sailed throughout the world, we had the most experienced sailors in the seas, and we had ports all over the route to the East. Even if you don't want black slaves and want to immigrate from the Ming Kingdom, I don't think you can't do it. ”

Now it was the turn of the members of the Executive Committee to be speechless.

The latest population of the Travelers is 2,852 (excluding slaves). Among them, 567 people crossed the crowd, accounting for 20%; Then the second most were Germans, with 18%; followed by Czechs with 13%; Norwegians, 11%; Finns, 9%; Irish, 7%; Ukrainians, 6%; French, 5%; 3% each from Estonia, Latvia and Samogithia; The remaining 2% of the population is more dispersed. In addition, there were 497 slaves, including 305 charrua slaves and 192 European prisoner of war slaves.

Although the cross-border people have used various means to erase the original national and national colors of the immigrants, they have indeed achieved some results and strengthened cohesion. However, if someone tells you that there is now an opportunity to immigrate from the Ming Dynasty to Uruguay, then it would be self-defeating to say that everyone is completely unmoved.

"From Macau via Goa, to Lorenzo-Marques, and then across the Atlantic to the port of Tatan. The route is difficult and dangerous, and you spend so much money and energy just to want us to sell you some weapons? Golmo looked at Blanco with incredulous eyes, meaning don't take us for idiots.

"Of course, you need to pay for this, and we can negotiate the specific price later." "Of course, this is only my personal opinion, and I can suggest it to my superiors, but it does not mean that the governor will approve of my suggestion." ”

"Of course the Governor will not agree to this ridiculous suggestion!" After calming down, Gomo analyzed it a little, and felt that at this stage, as long as the IQ of the governor of Bahia was normal, he would not have convulsions to the East to transport immigrants to the Americas. In addition to the high risks at sea, this kind of thing may also anger the Ming government. If the Ming government had banned trade with Macau in anger, the Portuguese would have suffered a great loss. Therefore, Gaumo felt that this could only be a beautiful legend for now, unless something big happened that might change the governor's mind.

"I can convince the Governor to open up trade in Brazil. We can export the meat products, cheese, tallow, fur, sugar, tobacco and other materials that you urgently need, and we can also sell the products you produce to Brazil. So far, only some companies in the UK have been able to enjoy this type of distinction. Blanco made one more condition.

Damn, it's a blank check again! Golmo was a little skeptical that this Blanco had come to make trouble. While this may sound like a good suggestion, it is anyone's guess whether the Brazilians will regret it, and the EC only believes in tangible benefits that can be seen and felt.

"We might be able to add one more condition." After a few more whispered deliberations among the members of the Executive Committee, Gaumo suddenly said, "We can clarify the geographical boundary between Brazil and the East Coast Company." To the west of Lake Patus and to the south of the Gérard Mountains, it must be legally recognized as the legal territory of the East Coast Company. ”

"I'm sorry, but I can't call the shots on the territorial issue." Blanco replied quickly.