In 1295 A.D., a magical book "Mark. The Travels of Polo appeared in the Continental, book, the Venetian Marco. Polo reported that in the summer of 1275, he came to the Yuan Dynasty with his father and uncle, and was welcomed by the feast of Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, and then he lived and served as an official in the Yuan Dynasty for 17 years.

Marco. The book was widely circulated in Europe, making all countries in Europe yearn for the mysterious Orient, and many people wanted to cross the ocean and explore the mysterious East.

It can be said that "The Travels of Marco Polo" is the key to the opening of the Age of Discovery. Polo's description of the riches and mysteries of the East was full of yearning, and many people began to look for routes to the East.

At the end of the fifteenth century, the Portuguese aristocracy reached . Gamma finally found a way to the East, and returned with a fleet full of spices and precious stones, which stimulated the nerves of the European continent and opened the prelude to the Age of Discovery.

Subsequently, Columbus, an explorer hired by Spain, discovered the rich American continent, and Spain gradually began to colonize the Americas and obtained huge profits, thus setting off a colonial frenzy that swept the world.

In the early period of the Age of Discovery and the Colonial Era, Spain and Portugal developed a large number of colonies with their advantages in navigation technology and familiarity with new routes.

In June 1494, the two countries signed the Treaty of Tordesirias, in which they stipulated a dividing line from the North Pole to the South Pole, the colonies found east of the dividing line belonged to Portugal, and the colonies west of the dividing line belonged to Spain, which was also the first time in the world to divide the colonies, and the countries participating in the partition were only Spain and Portugal!

These two continental powers were well-deserved maritime hegemons from the end of the fifteenth century to the end of the sixteenth century, and for nearly a hundred years they occupied an absolute dominant position in colonial activities, and almost all the places in the Americas, Africa, and Asia were colonized by them, and with the wealth plundered from the colonies, they multiplied their strength, and Spain developed especially rapidly.

In 1580, Spain annexed Portugal, Spain's national power reached an unprecedented peak, and the Habsburg dynasty they represented became a well-deserved hegemon on the European continent.

The so-called prosperity must decline, and the growing strength of Spain and Portugal by virtue of the wealth plundered by the colonies will naturally arouse the envy and jealousy of the rest of the European continent, and at this time, the old European powers have taken action and began to unite against the Habsburg dynasty represented by Spain.

In 1581, the northern part of the Spanish Netherlands declared its independence, a new maritime power, the Netherlands, was born, and the Habsburg crisis began.

Between 1588 and 1601, Spain organized five armada expeditions to England, but all of them fell short due to storms at sea, and the Spanish navy suffered a fatal blow, and the powerful Spanish Empire went into decline.

In 1600, the British East India Company, which had a colonial character, was founded.

In 1602, the Dutch East India Company, also with a colonial character, was founded.

In 1604, France was not far behind in establishing the colonial French East India Company, and the decline of Spain was accelerated by the colonial struggle between Britain and France, the old continental powers, and the new maritime power, the Netherlands, to start a worldwide colonial struggle with Spain.

In 1618, Britain, France, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and the Netherlands formed an anti-Habsburg alliance to engage Spain and the Holy Roman Empire in a war for hegemony in Europe that lasted for more than 30 years.

It was in this situation that Portugal got rid of the control of Spain in 1640 AD, that is, the thirteenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, and became an independent country again, and after so many ups and downs, the two old colonial powers gradually declined, and the two openers of the Age of Exploration and the colonial era withdrew from the ranks of superpowers and gradually became second-rate countries, while Britain, France, the Netherlands and other countries took advantage of the situation and gradually became European continental powers, maritime hegemons and colonial powers.

At this time, Portugal suddenly sent an envoy to ask for help from the Ming Dynasty.

To be honest, Zhang Bin is not very clear, since he drove the Netherlands out of the South Seas, he has put his main energy on the Ming Dynasty, in recent years, he has been fighting traitors, encircling and suppressing thieves, fighting with Jiannu, and plotting against Dongying, he has no heart to pay attention to the problems of the European continental powers, and when he just took some time to prepare to consider the problem of maritime hegemony, Portugal suddenly came to the door, he can know what is going on!

There was nothing to hide about this kind of thing, and after he gave the order, he got up and rushed to the imperial study, ready to inform Zhu Cihong of the matter, and at the same time discuss how to receive the Portuguese envoy.

Zhu Cihong still got up to greet him as always, Zhang Bin pretended to be polite, and then sat down and said solemnly: "Your Majesty, there is news from Guanghaiwei, the capital of Guangdong, that the Portuguese envoy has an urgent matter to see you." ”

When Zhu Cihong heard this, he suddenly looked confused,

It's not that he hasn't met foreign envoys, but they are basically here to pay tribute, or to celebrate some important event, and they have been arranged in advance, and it is the first time that he suddenly comes to the door like this.

He seems to have seen the Portuguese envoy, but it was Zhang Bin who invited him to celebrate his accession to the throne, and he was so busy at that time that he didn't pay much attention to it, and he didn't have time to meet the Portuguese envoy alone, so his impression of the Portuguese envoy was quite vague, and he didn't know anything about Portugal.

He was stunned for a moment, and then he was curious: "The Portuguese envoy asks to see, what do they want to do, master, do you know?" ”

Zhang Bin hurriedly explained: "Weichen is not very clear, listening to the news from Guanghaiwei, they seem to have something to ask Da Ming for help. ”

Zhu Cihong was still a little confused and said: "Portugal asks Daming for help? They seem to be some kind of continental country, far from Daming, right? ”

Zhang Bin nodded, then got up and flipped out a scroll of the latest world map from the bookshelf, slowly unfolded it in front of Zhu Cihong, and then pointed to the left side of the continent on the map and said, "This is Portugal." ”

Zhu Cihong looked at the map carefully, and then said dumbfounded: "This Portugal is afraid that it is tens of thousands of miles away from Daming, why did they come to Daming for help, should we go thousands of miles to help them?" ”

Zhang Bin nodded slowly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, if it's not too difficult, we'd better reach out and help them." ”

"Ahh , Zhu Cihong was puzzled and said: "Why should we help them? ”

Zhang Bin pointed to the American and African continents on the map and said: "Because they have many colonies, which are almost as big as the Ming Dynasty, and they are unable to guarantee the interests of the colonies, if we can help them, we will definitely get huge benefits." ”

Zhu Cihong looked at the place where Zhang Bin pointed and couldn't help but be even more surprised, a country that was not half the size of Beizhili had such a large colony!

He had heard Zhang Bin mention that the so-called colony means that the local indigenous people have been completely conquered by others and have to accept the rule of others.