Although Li Hongyu's identity is just a translator, Mascolus attaches great importance to him and is very important to Li Hongyu.

The reason why Zhao Dawei came this time was naturally to talk to the Portuguese about the overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty, in case Li Hongyu played something unfavorable to the Portuguese when translating, then the matter would be bad.

The Portuguese have always sought to trade with the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming Dynasty practiced tributary trade, and the Portuguese were not vassal states that traded with the Ming Dynasty, so there was the Battle of Tuen Mun.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has finally opened foreign trade, the so-called building near the water has the first month, and the Portuguese naturally want to get a piece of the pie, and Li Hongyu's translation has played a role in the middle of the communication, and Mascolu naturally attaches great importance to it.

In fact, as a translator, Li Hongyu also has an official name, called "Tongshi", and he and Yang Li'er arrived in Macao with the fleet under the title of Tongshi.

When he arrived in Macao, Li Hongyu's most important place to visit was naturally the cannon foundry in Macao.

Around 10 years in Zhengde, a Portuguese cannon casting expert named Bugarao built a cannon foundry on a wasteland at the end of the village of Zhuzai in the foothills of the Guia Mountains.

It is worth mentioning that at that time, the Wannu trading house sold cannons together with Portuguese gunners, which was equivalent to artillery technicians, who were responsible for guiding buyers to use the products correctly.

In the first year of the Apocalypse, the Wannu Trading Company sent an experienced Portuguese gunner, accompanied by an interpreter, to the artillery arena in Beijing to demonstrate, hoping to show the power of the artillery in front of the courtiers, which was similar to the advertising of later generations.

At that time, Li Hongyu had already gone south and was not in the capital, including the auxiliary ministers of the capital, many court officials went to see the excitement, wanting to see how powerful Hongmaoyi's artillery was.

It's a pity that this time the test gun was unexpectedly accidental, and I don't know if it was due to quality reasons or improper operation, the barrel of the gun exploded during the test gun, resulting in the Portuguese gunner being killed on the spot, and the Ming officials watching from a distance broke out in a cold sweat.

For this accident, Daming and Portugal were silent, secretive, and unwilling to mention it to the outside world.

Portugal naturally felt embarrassed because of the failure of the artillery test, and was unwilling to mention this matter to the outside world, as for the Ming Dynasty, those officials of the imperial court have always regarded themselves as the superior country of the Celestial Empire, how can they let outsiders know that they have the intention of buying Western Hongmaoyi cannons, in that case, how can the face of the Ming Dynasty exist.

According to historical records, during the Republic of China, someone found the grave of the Portuguese gunner who died in a foreign country at Qinglong Bridge in Beijing, and the tombstone recorded the accident in detail in Chinese and Portuguese, and people knew that there was such a thing.

Li Hongyu later heard the news that the Portuguese gunners had failed to test the guns, and secretly felt sorry for them, and if the test was successful, the officials of the imperial court would definitely be shocked, and at least they would attach importance to Western firearms and see the gap between the two sides.

However, it is regrettable that this time the test artillery carefully prepared by Portugal failed, so that many officials of the imperial court will definitely despise Western artillery, how can the imperial court pay attention to it?

However, when the Later Jin captured Liaodong and threatened Liaoxi and Shanhaiguan, the imperial court purchased two batches of artillery from Wannuxing in the fourth year of the Apocalypse and the second year of Chongzhen in order to counter the Later Jin.

In the second year of Chongzhen, he purchased ten artillery pieces from Wannu Trading House, and on the way to transport the capital, due to the tight war in Zhuozhou, four of them were kept, and the remaining six were shipped to the capital.

After the Ming court purchased artillery from the Wannu Trading House twice, it felt that the artillery had superior performance and great power, so it still planned to continue to buy it to cope with the war situation in Liaodong and even the whole country.

Because the artillery of the Wannu Merchant House was the best in Asia at that time, this led to its strange goods, and the Wannu Merchant House not only demanded a high price, but the Portuguese Empire took the opportunity to put forward a demand for the sovereignty of Macao in exchange for artillery, which made the Ming court have to suspend the transaction.

On his way to the cannon foundry of the Wannu Trading Company, accompanied by Mascolu, Li Hongyu saw a number of Portuguese soldiers supervising the construction of fortifications by a group of Westerners dressed as prisoners.

Mascolu proudly told Li Hongyu that the prisoners were bandits sent by the Dutch East India Company to invade Macao and invade the Ming Dynasty, but were defeated by the heroic Portuguese army.

Li Hongyu knew that Masgarlu was talking about the Dutch attack on Macao not long ago, and he had a real big fight with Portugal, and finally saw that he could not defeat the Portuguese army that had been operating in Macao for a long time, so he turned around and invaded Penghu.

It was after this war that the Portuguese began to build a large number of defenses in Macao, so that the Dutch captives captured in the war could build strong walls, forts, and fortresses.

In the 18th century, there were seven military fortresses and more than 400 cannons on the Macao Peninsula of only two square kilometers, giving Macau the reputation of "the city of forts".

After more than half a century of exhibitions, Macau has transformed from a small fishing village into a Portuguese-style town, with Portuguese figures everywhere along the way, and some locals in Ming costumes, who work in Portuguese shops and factories.

Li Hongyu keenly noticed that some fortifications were built on the periphery of the town, all of which were artillery and Portuguese soldiers, and if these fortifications were connected, the town would become a fortress.

However, since the Ming court did not allow the Portuguese to build a city in Macao, they responded in this way and strengthened their defenses as much as possible.

In front of the cannon foundry, a well-dressed middle-aged Portuguese led a group of people to wait, gongs and drums, lion dances and firecrackers were ready.

The leading middle-aged Portuguese was the general manager of the Manu Firm, Bu Garao, the son of the founder of the Wan Nu Firm and the grandson of the founder of the cannon foundry, the elder Bu Garao.

After learning the news that the people from the Ming government were going to visit the cannon foundry, the shrewd Bu Jialao realized that the business opportunity was coming, and if the Ming Dynasty opened overseas trade, it would definitely need the escort of the sailors, and the ships of the sailors would definitely be loaded with artillery.

Bugarao has lived in Macao since he was a child, and naturally knows that the artillery of the Ming Dynasty is not as good as the artillery of Portugal, but unfortunately last year's test of artillery failed, and the opportunity to make a lot of money slipped away in vain.

If he can take advantage of the opportunity for the Ming to open overseas trade this time to persuade the Ming people to buy artillery, then he will make a lot of money from it.

Therefore, Bu Jialao attached great importance to the visit of the people of the Ming Dynasty, and put on a grand welcome scene in accordance with the customs of the locals.

When Li Hongyu, Ma Shijialu and others appeared on the street, Bu Jialao waved his hand, and the gong and drummers and lion dancers began to play and perform, and the firecrackers were also lit, crackling and crackling, and the atmosphere was very warm and festive.

"Master Tongshi, this is Mr. Bugarao, the general manager of Wannu Trading House." After waiting for Bugarao to greet him, Mascolu introduced to Li Hongyu with a smile.

"Mr. Bugarao." Li Hongyu bowed slightly to Bu Garao when he heard this, and said in Portuguese.

"Lady Tongshi." Bugarao was surprised to see that Li Hongyu's Portuguese pronunciation was very standard, and he also had a Lisbon accent, but then he was overjoyed and took off the top hat on his head to salute Li Hongyu.

In Bugarao's view, if Li Hongyu, who is proficient in Portuguese, can be brought over, then he will have a very big advantage when negotiating with the Ming government in the future.

Because those Ming officials did not know Portuguese, the information they learned was completely translated by Li Hongyu, and once Li Hongyu said more good things to the Wannu Firm, then he would vigorously promote the business between the Wannu Firms and the Ming court.

After a while of greeting outside the factory gate, Bu Jialao led Li Hongyu and Ma Shijialu into the factory, those private guards with muskets were particularly conspicuous in the crowd, and big businessmen like Bu Jialao naturally had their own armed forces to ensure the safety of their lives.

One of the most important tasks of the cannon foundry is, of course, iron smelting, and only by forging the right pig iron can it be possible to produce a gun with superior performance.

However, Bu Jialao did not mean to show Li Hongyu the iron-smelting plant, which was a commercial secret, and he naturally could not let others know.

Bu Jialao led Li Hongyu around the factory like a marquee, and then came to a warehouse, where more than ten cast artillery pieces were displayed.

"My lord, the Dutch invaded Macao this year, and our valiant soldiers of the Portuguese Empire defeated them with the artillery of our Ten Thousand Slave Trading Houses."

Glancing at the more than ten cannons, Bu Jialao said to Li Hongyu proudly, although this place is full of exaggeration, in the Far East and even in Asia, the artillery made by the Wannu Trading House is indeed the best.

"I heard that when I was testing the artillery in the capital last year, your artillery suddenly exploded, killing the gunner on the spot, which caused an uproar in the capital."

Seeing Bu Jialao's proud look, Li Hongyu said quietly while stroking the barrels of the guns in the warehouse with his hand.

"This incident was purely accidental, the gunner added too much explosives in order to be able to fight farther, so that the cannon blew up, and the cannon produced by our foundry has the lowest rate of bore in the industry!" Hearing this, Bugarao suddenly looked embarrassed, and then explained seriously.

"I've heard it said before that your Portuguese artillery is superior to that of the Netherlands, but the Dutch ships are better than yours." Li Hongyu didn't want to get entangled in this kind of thing, so he frowned slightly when he heard the words, and then said seemingly casually.

"The Dutch have the same skill in building ships as we do, but they have a tree in their country that is very hard and very suitable for the hull of a ship, and it is by virtue of this advantage that the Dutch have come to provoke us in Portugal."

At this time, Ma Shijialu Zhengse, who was standing on the side, explained to Li Hongyu, "If they really fight, they are not our opponents." ”

Masgar had to explain that now the Dutch were fighting with the Portuguese for the right to trade in the Far East, and they were fighting in Macau, so he naturally did not want the Ming to get close to the Dutch.

Li Hongyu couldn't help but flash a smile at the corner of his mouth when he heard this, knowing Ma Shijialu's thoughts, after all, there is competition to have pressure.

He was not going to let the Portuguese ask for a lot of money in future negotiations, to suggest that they were not the only Portuguese option, and that the Dutch and even the Spaniards and the British could cooperate.

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