In a Portuguese tavern in Macau, Ricardo is alone in a corner drinking the best wines of his homeland.

"Oh shit, I hate to die like this." Ricardo drank alone, cursing in Portuguese and cursing his current situation.

Born into Portugal's lower classes, Ricardo, like many of the lower classes of his time, grew up eager to break down classes and rise to the top of the class.

For this reason, Facundo was diligent and studious, and even if his family was not good and he was sent to a blacksmith shop as an apprentice, he did not forget to study and study.

By chance, he came across books related to Marco Polo's travels.

In the distant eastern land recorded in the books, there was a powerful empire, gold, silk, tea, and a lot of opportunities for development, in Facundo's view, this is simply a realistic version of the Garden of Eden.

As a young man, Ricardo was fascinated and determined to venture into the mystical East.

As he grew up, Ricardo became a full-fledged blacksmith with good skills, but these did not help him to rise through the ranks, and he was still a clever blacksmith with a small reputation, crafting all kinds of weapons and armor, or animal iron.

Just when Ricardo was extremely tired of such a boring life, the news came from the Portuguese government that this time he would organize a group of craftsmen to cross the ocean to serve the Portuguese troops stationed in the far East Macao, which attracted Ricciardo's great interest.

The germ of adventurism in his youth was thoroughly aroused.

Going to the East and being a pioneer like Marco Polo, such a belief was infinitely inflated, and Ricardo said goodbye to his relatives and was the first to sign up in the astonishment of others.

In the rough seas, Ricardo didn't know how many times he felt that he was going to be buried in the sea, to be swallowed by the endless ocean, and the last time he turned the danger into a disaster, and finally succeeded in reaching the mysterious continent of the East that he longed for.

When he saw on deck that this was what he thought of the Garden of Eden, he could not be happy or sad, hopeful or hopeless, for he felt that it looked like any of the busiest ports in Portugal.

There is no gold everywhere here, but Ricardo, who survived the sea, hopes that there will be more opportunities here.

After working on the shore, Ricardo was completely mentally broken, and he became an army blacksmith, earning only slightly more than he had in his hometown, but here he had to endure the loneliness of being far from home.

Ricardo was utterly desperate, he was a drunkard, drunk all day long, and he did not have the slightest appearance of a motivated youth.

In the tavern, he found that many of the young people who came to Portugal felt like himself had been deceived.

They joined a group to keep warm, and a dozen people often gathered together.

Slowly, after a long time, these Portuguese, who were always mixed in the streets of Macau, began to gradually learn some Chinese, and their lives gradually calmed down.

Li Jue was a friend of Ricardo, and they also met at the tavern, and he was impressed by this shrewd Chinese because Li Jue was able to speak Portuguese fluently.

Li Jue, with his understanding of Ricardo, directly led Liu Di to the tavern that Cardo frequented.

Familiar with the road, I found the place where Ricardo usually sits. After lifting the chair and letting Liu Di and them sit down, he also sat down easily.

Ricardo felt a group of people sitting next to him without greeting, quite displeased, and was about to raise his head to complain, when he suddenly saw a smiling Li Jue looking at him.

"Oh, it turned out to be you, my good brother, Li Jue, to Li Jue." Ricardo snorted with wine in his mouth and said to Li Jue.

Liu Di and the four of them were so pouted by the smell of this wine, the right person for this Li Jue said was such a drunkard?

Li Jue also saw the displeasure of the uncles next to him, and hurriedly said, "Yes, my good brother Ricardo, I am Li Jue." ”

"Ao, let me introduce to you, the four adults next to me are all adults from Daming, they are Liu Di, Liu An, Yang Tao, and Xu Lin." Li Jue stretched out his hand one by one to introduce.

Ricardo has been in Macau for a long time, and he also knows that Chinese pay attention to etiquette, so he also suppressed the smell of wine and nodded to the four people.

Then Li Jue focused on introducing the wine-tasting Ricardo to the four of them.

What kind of genius craftsman, Chinese language and other compliments and praises of Ricardo are churning in the stomach.

After the politeness, it's time to talk about the main points.

"Ricardo, today I have a piece of amazing good news for you."

"See? Four adults from Henan, the belly of the Ming Dynasty, want to recruit a group of skilled craftsmen who can speak Chinese and have the ability. ”

"My dear Ricardo, isn't that just you and your friends?" Li Jue said with his eyebrows fluttering.

When Ricardo heard this sudden opportunity, he also woke up most of the time.

"What do you mean Li Jue? Who are they? Why are we needed? What kind of benefits will we have? Ricardo asked.

"Ricardo, they are the officers and soldiers of Daming Henan. Their boss is the Ming Zheng Wupin Military Attaché, and now their army needs more sophisticated ordnance, so they need your joining. As for the treatment, you can talk to them in detail, I can only say that they are very sincere and will not let you down. Li Jue said these words word by word, making Ricardo think carefully.

"Government troops? Is the fifth grade official? Need ordnance? Generous salary? Ricardo himself silently pondered Li Jue's words just now.

Ricardo had also heard that the Ming Emperor had invited them Portuguese, but not to mention the average treatment, and usually did not pay much attention to them, this Ming military attaché, to invite them, what will happen?

Ricardo hesitated and didn't know what to answer.

As a shrewd businessman, Liu Di naturally saw that the person in front of him had concerns about treatment.

"Hello Ricardo, I'm Liu Di, I know what you're worried about, you have come to Daming thousands of miles away, naturally I hope to have a good harvest, let's put it this way, if your skills pass, as long as it's not too much, we will spare no money to make you satisfied."

"Also, our family is a very thoughtful person, as long as you are talented, he will definitely give you the environment you want."

"I used to be a small merchant selling goods, but now I will tell you the truth, I have become a manager of a large chamber of commerce with 100,000 taels of silver. This is the spirit of our adults. Liu's first sentence was a swaying mentality of Facundo, which made Ricardo want to know more about this opportunity.

"Four adults, I'm very happy, you can give me such an opportunity, I think I will seriously consider it, please come to my residence tomorrow, Li Jue knows where I live, and I will bring my other friends to talk to you in detail at that time." Ricardo was trying to take advantage of this sudden opportunity.

"Okay, we'll see you tomorrow" Liu Di also got up and nodded, and then led people out of the tavern.