Jaén Putmans attended Zheng Sen's birthday party as an assistant to a Spanish businessman surnamed Franco. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info Yes, a Spanish businessman. Although, on the whole, from any point of view, politically, and economically, Spain and the Netherlands were enemies, even in the Far East; But this does not mean that a particular Spanish merchant and the Dutch cannot cooperate and friendship based on cooperation. Just like from any point of view, my Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty are enemies, but this does not prevent some businessmen of the Ming Dynasty from having a sincere friendship with my Qing Dynasty. For some businessmen, business is business.

Franco had not been in the Far East for long, and his business was not very large. Of course, if his business was big, then he would never help the Dutch, because the contradiction between Spain and the Netherlands was essentially the contradiction between the big businessmen on both sides. Franco came into contact with Zheng Zhilong through his church connections. To be honest, although Zheng Zhilong has been baptized and believes in Catholicism, in terms of the degree of piety of his faith, he should definitely be regarded as a false believer or even a heretic. In Spain, I am afraid that it has long been tied to a pillar by the Inquisition and made a barbecue, but in the Far East, because of the lack of strength, Catholicism is much more tolerant and moderate than in Europe. And Zheng Zhilong is actually regarded as an "important devout believer" and is highly valued by the church. Franco, on the other hand, received the help of the church by donating a sum of money for the missionary work of the church and climbed into the relationship with Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Sen's birthday party began at noon on this day, and Zheng Zhilong set up hundreds of tables of flowing water seats on the streets of Anping in one go, not only the residents of Anping, but also the merchants who came to trade, and the sailors and soldiers under Zheng Zhilong's command. The dense crowd of human heads crowded the short street of Anping.

At noon, Zheng Zhilong took Zheng Sen out of the mansion and thanked the people who came to cheer, Anping's fathers, Zheng Zhilong's soldiers and sailors, and those merchants and sailors who came to do business also cheered, and the oily light on the side of his mouth wished Zheng Dagongzi a long life of 100 years.

Most of these blessings are very sincere. Due to the existence of Zheng Zhilong, Anping has become one of the important ports and has become more and more prosperous. And "every year there is today, every year there is today", that also means that every year you can eat a good meal with your belly open. Before the Industrial Revolution, before the popularization of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the living standards of ordinary people were quite low. is the so-called landlord, there is often no surplus grain at home, and at the end of the year, he can only eat some meat during the New Year. Most people are very satisfied with being able to eat such a big meal of fish and meat for nothing.

In fact, in that era, there were very few real families who gave their children a big birthday. Because it is said that doing so may cost the child's longevity. It's just that Zheng Zhilong's family is a nouveau riche with buns, and they don't understand these particularities at all. Zheng Sen is a modern person who has crossed over, and he doesn't understand these things at all. Of course, it's not that no one knows these exquisiteness, for example, Daoist Zhang who calculated the auspicious day of the zodiac for Zheng Zhilong, Daoist Zhang, is definitely an expert in this area. It's just that Daoist Zhang has his own considerations, because for a birthday or something, it is inevitable to prepare peace charms, amulets, and do all kinds of blessing rituals, which cost a lot of money. Generally speaking, a wealthy man like Zheng Zhilong can take the opportunity to make a lot of money by giving his son a big birthday, so Daoist Zhang will never say it. As for the folding of Fushou, it is not the Fushou of his Taoist Zhang, besides, there is his Puxiang real person on the altar, and the peace charm and amulet he invited, naturally there is no need to worry about this kind of pediatric problem. If you don't believe it, you see that the monk Kongming didn't mention this matter, but sent a string of Bodhi seeds that are said to enhance wisdom and avoid evil. Moreover, just such a string of bodhi seeds, he actually took away more than a hundred taels of silver from Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong took Zheng Sen around outside and went in, after all, the most important guest was still in the mansion. Zheng Zhilong is a military attaché, and he is only a son's birthday, so naturally there are no civil officials to support him, and he does a lot of things for a child, and many civil officials are also laughing at Zheng Zhilong in their hearts. However, it is said that the governor Zou Weilian was very satisfied with Zheng Zhilong's performance in the recent battle and had the intention of promoting him, so the local military attache in Fujian came very well. But in a sense, this is also a good thing, otherwise, I am afraid that this peace matter will have to find another place. Zheng Zhilong took Zheng Sen to take a turn among these non-descendant military attachés, and everyone also toasted and flattered them. After saying a few words, Zheng Zhilong took Zheng Sen and transferred to a large group of missionaries and foreign merchants.

"God bless you, my friend. Nikolai, this is your son, right? He's really good-looking, what a handsome young man. In the royal family of Europe, there are few such handsome little princes. Seeing Zheng Zhilong coming with his son, a missionary stood up and said to Zheng Zhilong with a smile and a smile in Chinese, which was quite fluent. It can be seen that he is Zheng Zhilong's old friend.

"Pastor Peter, thank you for the compliment. Arsen, this is Pastor Peter, an old friend of his father, and a poor friend of his father. Zheng Zhilong first responded to Pastor Peter, and then lowered his head and said to Zheng Sen.

"Hello Pastor Peter." Zheng Sen also bowed to Pastor Peter obediently.

"You're good, our cutie." Pastor Peter also responded with a smile, and made a gesture that made Zheng Sen very depressed - he reached out and pinched Zheng Sen's face pocket. This action immediately reminded Zheng Sen of the special love that Catholic priests have had for the cute little Shota since ancient times, so Zheng Sen immediately had a large goosebump all over his body, and he hurriedly took a step back to stay away from this guy who might be an old pervert.

"Haha." Seeing Zheng Sen's reaction, Pastor Peter thought it was amused and laughed. Then he pointed to a few people around him and said to Zheng Zhilong: "Nikolai, this is the Spanish merchant Franco, he was the one who sent a beautiful model of the ship to Assen through me last time. He was also a devout Catholic, having just arrived in the Far East, where he had previously sold mainly Japanese goods, and had recently become interested in Chinese tea and porcelain. I know you have a lot of influence in this area, so I'm going to bring him to you. You know, the Tokugawa shogun in Japan has had a lot of misunderstandings about Catholicism lately. At this, Pastor Peter frowned.

This is also what Zheng Zhilong knew, since the Amakusa Rebellion, the Tokugawa shogunate's antipathy to Christianity has increased day by day, and it began to move towards seclusion step by step. However, the object of locking the country does not include Daming, so Zheng Zhilong is completely happy to see this kind of thing. Because the need for trade does not disappear because of Japan's seclusion, Japan's seclusion is nothing more than a direct trade with European merchants into trade with Europeans through Chinese merchants. And this means that Zheng Zhilong can monopolize trade with Japan without much effort.

"Mr. Zheng, it's a pleasure to meet you." Franco hurriedly spoke in Spanish, while a large man who was with him hurriedly translated it into Chinese in his less proficient Chinese.

"Mr. Franco, I am also a businessman, and businessmen want business to be good." Zheng Zhilong said, "After the banquet for a while, we can talk in detail. ”

"Okay, Mr. Zheng, I'm looking forward to it." Franco hurriedly said.

After turning around like this, Zheng Zhilong took Zheng Sen back to the chairman, and the banquet officially began.

There was nothing to say about the banquet itself, it was nothing more than a large number of uncles who said all kinds of blessings, and sent a lot of things to eat and play afterward. If Zheng Sen was really just a ten-year-old child, he would probably be so happy that he couldn't keep his mouth shut, but ......

The main event is actually after the banquet. After the banquet, Zheng Zhilong met Franco and Hahn Putmans, who had come as his correspondent, in the small living room.

"General Zheng, this is Mr. Hahn Putmans, the representative of the Dutch East India Company." Entering the small living room, Franco immediately revealed to Zheng Zhilong the true identity of his "follower".

"Hello, General Zheng, I have been instructed to explain some of the tragic misunderstandings that occurred between our company and your country not long ago, and on behalf of our company, to express to you the sincerity of peace." Hahn Püttmans immediately straightened up and said to Zheng Zhilong.

However, Zheng Zhilong didn't pay attention to him, but smiled at Franco: "Mr. Franco, it seems that your business is not just porcelain and tea. I'm also in the tea business, and I happen to have some samples on hand, so if Mr. Franco is interested, you can go and see them and taste them for yourself. ”

Franco knew what Zheng Zhilong meant, Zheng Zhilong's negotiations with the Dutch East India Company were highly confidential matters, and Zheng Zhilong felt that he should not know these things, so he used this word to imply that he should leave. So Franco hurriedly said, "General Zheng, I'm very interested in this. ”

So one of the servants came in and took Franco out. Zheng Zhilong then turned to Hahn Putmans and said to him: "You said a tragic misunderstanding just now, what kind of misunderstanding is this, we can talk about ......"