Just when the advance fleet could already see the land of Siam through the clairvoyant mirror, Wang Hui walked to Xiao Ruxun's side and asked Xiao Ruxun in a low voice: "Admiral, those Francos are asking if they can participate in the landing ceremony together, what do you mean?" ”

Xiao Ruxun raised her eyebrows, and after thinking about it for a while, she figured out what these Portuguese meant. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In other words, why did there be Portuguese on Xiao Ruxun's fleet?

This matter has to start from half a month ago.

In the 36th year of Jiajing, the Portuguese officially obtained the right of abode in Macao from the hands of the Ming government, and in the 10th year of Wanli, the Ming government and the Portuguese signed a land borrowing agreement, and the Portuguese paid a tax of 500 taels of silver to the Xiangshan County Government every year, so as to obtain long-term residency.

The reason why the Ming government allowed the Portuguese to stay in Macao was that the Nanyang pirates were rampant during the Jiajing period, and the Ming government was tired of dealing with the southern and northern captives, and the strike force on the sea was really weak.

Fight pirates! Right! It's to fight pirates!

At that time, the Western forces close to China belonged to the Portuguese, and the Spaniards were bent on vigorously operating in the Philippine region, and there was no idea of getting involved with China for the time being, so the Ming government first came into contact with the Portuguese, and at that time, Wang Bai, an official of the sea route, was bribed by the Portuguese to allow them to land.

The Ming government asked the Portuguese to send troops to attack the pirates, and in return, they were allowed to live and do business in Macao, but the residence was restricted, the business was restricted, and the mission was even more restricted, and even the grain and fresh water were choked to death by the Ming government, which made the Portuguese very depressed, but they finally got a piece of territory, so they worked very hard to attack the pirates for their own development, and won a lot of merits.

But the arrogant Ming government did not trust them, nor did they intend to treat them as allies, as long as they had some complaints about the Ming Dynasty, they would be arrested and sent to the Guangzhou Yamen to play the board.

In this regard, the Portuguese have no way at all, since they were defeated by the Ming government twenty years ago, they have not dared to fight again, and at this time their maritime supremacy has also been severely challenged, not to mention that in the eighth year of Wanli, Portugal was forcibly merged by Spain, lost its independent status, and did not restore its independence until the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, and for the whole sixty years, Portugal was actually destroyed.

The Portuguese in Macao, which were dominated by the Spaniards, in fact maintained a certain degree of independence, and the Spaniards encouraged the management of the Philippines and did not pay much attention to Macau, and when the Philippine Governor tried to start a war against China, he was prevented by His Majesty the King, in fact, Spain was defeated by the British in the sixteenth year of Wanli, and the national strength was greatly damaged, although they still maintained military pressure on the British, but they no longer had the strength to officially start a war with the Ming Dynasty in Southeast Asia.

At this time, the Spaniards who actually dominated the region realized that although the Ming Dynasty government had never appeared here, its influence was everywhere, and the Spaniards after the defeat of the Armada had no confidence to continue to wage a full-scale war with the Ming government, and learned that more than 700 warships of the Ming army sailors went south. The Spaniards in the Philippines even thought that the Ming armada's armada was attacking by the way.

There was always concern and fear of an unfamiliar opponent, especially when the opponent was a behemoth, so the Spaniards instructed the Portuguese in Macao to take the initiative to contact the Ming army, inquire about their purpose, and get some information.

When Xiao Ruxun first received the request from the Portuguese, he was replenishing fresh water and food at the seaport near Macau in Guangdong, and by the way, he received thousands of wolf soldiers who had been recruited to board the ship, and while waiting for the wolf soldiers, he met the Portuguese missionary, the famous Italian missionary, Matteo Ricci, who spoke fluent Chinese, and accompanied by an old Chinese Confucian, Qu Taisu.

The two traveled together and came to the harbor of Xiao Ruxun's garrison to ask for Xiao Ruxun's reception, out of respect for Qu Taisu and interest in Matteo Ricci, Xiao Ruxun took a little time to meet the two of them on the shore.

Then Xiao Ruxun learned that it was the Portuguese in Macau who wanted to see him, Matteo Ricci was asked because of his reputation and previous experience of living in Macau, and Qu Taisu was the guarantee that Matteo Ricci could see Xiao Ruxun.

Matteo Ricci told Xiao Ruxun that the reason why he wanted to meet Xiao Ruxun was not only because he was asked by friends in Macau, but also because he admired Xiao Ruxun very much, was very interested, and wanted to have a good conversation with the general from Beijing, and get acquainted with him, and he did not shy away from his desire to go to Beijing to meet the Wanli Emperor, so as to obtain permission to preach freely in China.

Regarding Matteo Ricci's mission, Xiao Ruxun has no interest at all, even if the missionary is very persistent and has a good character, but for Catholicism, Xiao Ruxun is not interested in it at all, but for Matteo Ricci himself, Xiao Ruxun is very interested, this point, Xiao Ruxun and the scholars of the Ming Dynasty are the same, Matteo Ricci himself has a wealth of natural science knowledge, and his natural science knowledge is his most valuable place.

The scholars of the Ming Dynasty were far more interested in the knowledge of the natural sciences he mastered than in Catholicism, and the purpose of these missionaries was originally to spread Catholicism, but they did not intend to plant flowers and flowers, and they did not intend to plant willows and willows, and the missionaries did not let Catholicism take root in China, but let Western natural sciences take root and sprout in China, thus triggering the first trend of Western learning in the East.

Xiao Ruxun just urgently needed the knowledge of these systems of Western natural sciences to dispel some doubts, and also hoped to connect with the Portuguese, and get the advanced level of firearms and firearms knowledge they now mastered.

Xiao Ruxun suppressed his excitement and calmly started the first communication with Matteo Ricci.