That night, the exchange between Li You and Anthony continued until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. Li You asked his subordinates to give up a room for Anthony and Noretti to rest. The Portuguese apparently had no intention of sleeping, and quietly departed when it was just getting white.

Soon after the Portuguese left, everyone in the hotel got up. As Li You's adjutant, after Zhang Wuyi brought breakfast to Li You into the room, he couldn't help but ask his boss with some eagerness: "Sir, did you negotiate last night, when will we do it?" ”

After hearing this, Li You, who put a hot towel on his face to cheer himself up, immediately dropped the towel and said, "What kind of hands?" There is already panic in Goa City, and there is not much support for the Restoration Commission. If we act rashly, it will just confirm the rumors that the National Council and foreigners are colluding to plot Goa, and cheapen the opposition. ”

Zhang Wuyi suddenly collapsed and said, "Ah, then how long are we going to stay here?" It's so humid here every day, and even the clothes can't be dried, and I always feel like I'm going to get moldy in my room for the past two days. ”

After Li You drank a bowl of white porridge with the canned pickled cucumbers he brought, he put down the dishes and chopsticks and said to Zhang Wuyi: "The key to solving the problem is not here, just with a few of us plus those Portuguese from the Restoration Committee, it is a fool's dream to capture the two castles in the estuary and Goa City." Therefore, the best thing to do is for the Portuguese in Goa to hand over Goa to us themselves..."

Zhang Wuyi didn't understand how Li You wanted the Portuguese in Goa to personally hand over the city to them, but the obedience left by the long-term training made him not continue to ask, but packed up the dishes and chopsticks on the table and left. Zhang Wuyi believed that since the old boss had already made a decision, then they just had to obey the order and wait.

For last night's exchange with Anthony, Li You felt that he had gained a lot, at least he knew that Portuguese India was actually standing on the edge of the cliff, and these Portuguese people actually did not have many choices. Compared with the independence of the Kingdom of Portugal, most Portuguese living on the Indian continent were more concerned about the survival of Portuguese India.

The reason why the independence of the Kingdom of Portugal seems to be so supported by the colonial Portuguese is that many people naively believe that once the Kingdom of Portugal becomes independent from Spain, they will be able to end the state of war with the Dutch and return to normal life in the past.

Although the Dutch attacked Portugal's overseas colonies under the pretext of declaring war on Spain, it was the Dutch's greed for the Portuguese colonies that supported the continuation of the war against the Portuguese colonies.

Therefore, if Goa and the Portuguese Indian colonies were to be included in the Ming Dynasty, the battle for the Portuguese throne was not the point. The question is who will get Portuguese India out of the siege of the Dutch and the Indian kings. As long as this can be solved, then the majority of Portuguese people will change their attitudes.

He communicated with Anthony for most of the night last night, and finally reached a consensus, that is, under the contact of the Ming Dynasty, Portuguese India should hold an unrestricted meeting with the Netherlands, Britain, and the Ming Dynasty on the interests of the Indian mainland, and exchange the success of this meeting for the Dutch to stop fighting against Portuguese India.

Therefore, when Anthony returned to the inner city, he began to seek peace with the Dutch in order to win the support of a majority of the members of the Goan parliament. As soon as the wind blows, Li You can send people back to Colombo with the Dutch representatives, in order to seek a redistribution of interests among the Chinese, Dutch, British, and Portuguese outsiders on the Indian continent.

As long as the majority of the Portuguese chose to support the peace proposals put forward by the Renaissance Commission, there would be no further use of force against the remaining recalcitrant elements.

Li You did not think that this plan would be difficult to complete, and in fact all three countries, except for the Netherlands, hoped to reach such a peace agreement for the joint development of the Indian continent. As early as January 23, 1635, Portugal signed the Goa Agreement with England under the constant explanation and persuasion of the Governor of Portuguese Goa to King Felipe IV of Portugal.

The core of the agreement was that Portugal could use British ships to transport supplies to Macau and Malacca, which had been harassed by the Dutch; British ships would also bring copper and cannons from Macao back to Goa; The shipyards in Portuguese India were to build a number of ships suitable for coastal trade for the British.

As a result, China, Portugal, and Britain had already had some basic agreements, and now the Dutch on the Indian continent seem to be powerful, but they are only alone. If the Dutch still couldn't see the situation clearly, Li You felt that the Ming would have to implement a strategy of cutting off trade between Batavia and mainland India.

The implementation of this strategy may hinder the development of the Ming in the Indian Ocean, but it can destroy the foundation of the Dutch presence in the Indian Ocean. Without the support of trade profits, the Dutch colonization of the Indian continent would have been a source of water and a tree without roots.

Moreover, it was the Dutch East India Company that carried out colonization operations in the Indian Ocean on behalf of the Netherlands. The interests of the company's shareholders and not the Dutch Republic are guaranteed first and foremost by this commercial company. But for the Ming Dynasty, it was the opposite, and under the will of the emperor, commercial interests were also to give way to political purposes.

Li You's judgment was clearly correct, and the Portuguese in Goa were already tired of this war with no end in sight. Five years ago, no Portuguese would have seen the Dutch lock down Goa for so long. Yes, there were fortified castles and forts of all sizes on the estuaries and rivers leading to Goa, and the Portuguese believed that no such powerful navy could conquer Goa by force.

But what they didn't expect was that a port that had lost its trade would also slowly die. After a plague epidemic, port blockade and declining trade, Goa, once a city with a population of more than 30,000 and a city full of shops and handicraft workshops, is slowly turning into a jungle ruin.

Due to the local climate, once the range of human movement is greatly reduced, the cleared land that has been cut down will soon be reoccupied by all kinds of greenery. Due to the plague and war, the merchants from the Arab and Indian interiors gradually disappeared, and the craftsmen and merchants of the city continued to flee Goa in order to survive.

The largest number of people in the city of Goa today are not craftsmen, sailors and merchants, but beggars on the streets and soldiers in the barracks. Because of the declining trade, many merchants have even gone bankrupt in private, but in order to maintain their reputation and the livelihood of their families, they still maintain the pomp and circumstance of the past, riding luxurious carriages to borrow money from acquaintances to make ends meet.

By the time he arrived in the city, Goa's population had fallen to between 15,000 and 20,000, and there were no more than 3,000 Portuguese from the country, mostly Portuguese from the rest of the country, or mixed races. For these native-born whites and mestizos, Portuguese India is their homeland, and once they lose Portuguese India, they become homeless orphans.

As for returning to the Kingdom of Portugal, the natives who had flaunted their might in the colonies already despised them so much in the land of their birth. When they arrive in the kingdom, what kind of hospitality can they expect from them, who have nothing?

These native-born whites and mestizos are all they want to do is go back to the peacetime days of Goa, the bustling commercial city where multi-racial people live together.

The city was inhabited not only by European merchants, but also by clever and cunning Gujarati merchants, as well as pagan Brahmin and Indian merchants. The mixed descendants of Portuguese and local Indian women, they worked as barbers, doctors and carpenters.

As for the rest of the Portuguese, they lived a carefree life under the care of Indian servants. They were born with a life planned, either as colonial officials or as clergy of the Church, and never had to worry about living.

But the war ruined everything, because of the economic recession, they had to fire some of their servants, began to live a careful life, and some even began to pawn the family's valuable jewelry and furniture. The pampered nobles were now obliged to put on heavy armor and heavy swords, and patrol castles and forts with half-hearted Portuguese soldiers and cowardly native soldiers, fearing for their lives not to be lost to enemy shells.

These people cheered for the independence movement of the Kingdom of Portugal because of their dissatisfaction with the status quo. Their support for the Duke of Joao on the throne after the independence of the Kingdom of Portugal is the hope that a strong man can lead Portuguese India out of the current precarious predicament.

However, when Governor Antony briefed the councillors and merchants in the city, and prepared to make a proposal to the Netherlands to restore peace to the Indian continent in conjunction with China and England, everyone's attention was immediately seized by this proposal. Compared with the independence of the kingdom and the ascension of the Duke of Joao to the throne, this proposal put forward by Governor Antony is the best way to relieve the dilemma of Portuguese India as soon as possible.

As a result, Goa Justice Felipe, who has been advocating that only when the Duke of Joao ascends to the Portuguese throne, will Portuguese India be saved. Morality. Mascalé found that the number of people around him gradually began to decrease, and even the nobles no longer talked about the accession of the Duke of Joao to the throne all day long.

Right here in Felipe. Morality. While Mascalé was trying to find out why, Senator Sarmento suddenly threw up an issue in Parliament, arguing that Portuguese India should no longer continue to defend against the acts of war and pressure imposed by the Dutch and the Mughal Empire, and that Goa and the whole of Portuguese India would die, and that they should fight back and break the trade blockade between the Dutch and the Mughal Empire......

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