At the invitation of Bishop Antonio and the executive committee of the Macau Council, Liu Xingzuo, the deputy envoy of the Guangdong Sea Road, changed into the clothes of a merchant and entered the Macao Island with two retinues on a sliding rod, and then was taken by Antonio and others into the Senado Pavilion at the foot of Persimmon Mountain.

Although the Portuguese have repeatedly claimed that they leased Macao Island only to stop ships to dry their goods, the layout of the buildings on Macao Island is obviously not as harmless as they claim.

Lying on the sliding pole, Liu Xingzuo seemed lazy and defenseless, but he had carefully memorized the surrounding terrain along the way. In addition to several forts scattered throughout the island and a large fortress on the hill, the Senado, which is the center of the residential area on Macau Island, is adjacent to several buildings, which enclose a rectangular open space into a square with a gap.

Obviously, if the foreign enemy attacked here, the Portuguese on the island would be able to place their homes in buildings surrounded by the square on three sides, and then rely on the buildings as a barrier to attack the enemy troops rushing into the square on three sides.

Liu Xingzuo, who had been in Guangdong for more than half a year, naturally knew that the power of the arquebuses in the hands of these Portuguese people, in such an environment of being attacked on three sides, it was estimated that even if the attacker had several times more men and horses, he might not be able to successfully capture this square, not to mention that there was a large fort on the mountain to support.

At this time, he also understood why the local government had been cutting off food and water instead of forcibly attacking these Portuguese in Macao, which was really forced by the situation. After seeing the architectural layout of the island of Macao, he was dissatisfied with the previous deputy envoys of the Guangdong Sea Road.

It would be a dereliction of duty to allow these Portuguese to build so many defensible buildings, forts and forts under their noses. Fortunately, the homeland of these Portuguese was too far away from China, and their national strength was not strong enough, otherwise with this bridgehead, an army would not be able to put up an effective resistance with the force of land in Guangdong.

For example, guarding the gate leading to Macau Island is just a simple wooden village, except for a few small cannons and a few bird guns, most of them are equipped with cold weapons. Moreover, the officers and men guarding the pass also lacked adequate training, the old and the young, and it was almost impossible to resist the attack of a well-trained army except for barely maintaining the law and order at the lower gate.

Liu Xingzuo, who was appointed as the deputy envoy of the Guangdong Maritime Road, never regarded this position as his last position. As far as his own thoughts are concerned, he still hopes to be able to return to the front line of resistance to the Houjin, so as to prove himself on the battlefield in the north, so as to gain a real foothold in the Ming border army.

For Liu Xingzuo, who followed Nurhachi's campaign, he looked down on the Guangdong officials and the Portuguese. For today's Ming soldiers, defeating 100 pirates in the south is not as good as killing 1 Tartar in the north.

Because the Tartars in the north threaten the capital of Guannai, and the pirates in the south, no matter how big the trouble, cannot threaten the Gonggong princes in the capital. Unless these pirates can't think of attacking the Jiangnan region and angering the powerful Jiangnan gentry and bureaucracy, that's another matter.

However, if you want to attract the attention of the emperor and transfer him back to the north, you must first make some contributions. Therefore, after Liu Xingzuo arrived in Guangdong with more than a dozen family members, he began to reorganize the officers and troops under his command, and re-recruited young and strong fishermen and peasants into the army as the capital for his meritorious service.

However, his training of the army has just improved, and the credit has not yet been earned, and the news has already come that the emperor personally repelled the Houjin invasion army. The news made him happy, but it also made him a little annoyed because he missed an opportunity to show himself in front of the emperor.

The imperial concubine Isabella's southward journey, and the emperor's edict brought by the accompanying eunuchs, asking him to assist Isabella in controlling Macau Island and mastering the armed forces and cannon foundries on Macau Island, suddenly made Liu Xingzuo a little excited. He desperately hoped that he could simply and beautifully complete Chongzhen's order.

In the Senton, after listening to the briefings of Bishop Antonio and the Mayor of Macau, Pietro, Liu Xingzuo not only did not get angry about Guo Dingbao's stubbornness, but showed his excitement to try his skills. He then said to the Portuguese present: "Your Highness will arrive at the Macao Gate again at noon the day after tomorrow, and this time Your Highness will probably not back down." As a Ming official, I will never allow His Highness's safety to be threatened.

If you have run out of options, then I will lead my army into Macau and disarm all armed forces on the island that do not swear allegiance to Your Highness, in order to welcome Your Highness's arrival. Do you have any comments? ”

After exchanging glances with the others, Antonio took the initiative to propose to Liu Xingzuo: "All of us here have sworn allegiance to Her Royal Highness Isabella, and we will do our best to cooperate with the General's proposals."

However, your Excellency, any forcible attack on the fortress will cause uneasiness among the citizens of Macao. The Turret's easy to defend and difficult to attack is also an extremely difficult task for your soldiers.

So I'm suggesting to you, maybe we can do a camouflage attack first. Although the fort was stocked with food and water, vegetables, fish and meat were transported every morning. Although the Guoding Bao closed the fortress and strictly forbade outsiders to enter, it did not cut off the transportation of these fresh foods.

My suggestion is that maybe we can send someone disguised as a vegetable vendor transporting food to trick the door of the Fortress into opening. A little below the Fortress is the church of our church, where the general can hide your army. As soon as the gates of the Fortress are open, you can let your army rush in.

Although Guo Ding Bao refused to submit to His Royal Highness Isabella, he did not have the courage to fight to the death with the Ming official army. His subordinates were also not prepared to die for the King of Spain. As soon as your army storms the Fort, we can convince the Nation to lay down their arms and surrender to you.

As long as the fort is in your hands, the other forts and forts on the island will be under the cover of your guns, and they will not dare to disobey your orders. ”

Liu Xingzuo only hesitated slightly, and then agreed: "Okay, just follow your idea, I will enter Macao Island with the army tonight." Tomorrow morning, if you succeed in opening the door, that's the best. If it doesn't work, then simply attack..."

On May 12, Isabella returned to Macau, this time without continuing to hear the news that upset her. Gokaus Teixeira led a troop of cavalry to clear the way in front of her carriage, and thousands of Macau citizens stood to greet her on both sides of the gravel road, some Portuguese men waving to Isabella's carriage, while some Portuguese women threw bouquets of flowers at her carriage and shouted her name.

Gokaus Teixeira took Isabella's carriage directly to the church of St. Domingo, which is dedicated to Our Lady of Fauxma, a single-storey wooden building surrounded by several wooden buildings, but further afield began to appear masonry and masonry walls.

Led by Antonio, Isabella first went to the Church of Our Lady to make a sacrifice, and after finishing her prayer in front of the image of the Virgin with a reverent face, Isabella stood up from the leather cushion.

She turned to Antonio and Pietro beside her and asked, "Where is Guoding Bao now?" Is there anyone still opposing my coronation on the island of Macau? ”

Antonio and Petro glanced at each other before whispering back to her, "Your Highness, things are going well. After our men successfully deceived the gate of the fort, the Chinese army rushed in, and most of the soldiers chose to give up resistance, only Guo Ding Bao and more than 20 guards fled into the tower to continue the resistance.

However, after General Liu planned to set fire to the building, Guo Ding Bao, under our persuasion, finally chose to surrender, and now he is imprisoned in the dungeon of the Fortress. After the Fortress was seized by us, the citizens of Macao, who were still opposed to His Highness, changed their attitude in time.

However, there are also some lone businessmen whose families are not in Macau who say that they have no objection to Her Royal Highness becoming the Queen of Portugal, but they are also unable to swear allegiance to you, so they want to leave Macau. ”

Isabella furrowed her slender and charming eyebrows, but soon she loosened her brows again, bowed slightly to the two of them, and said with a smile: "Thanks to General Liu's bravery, Macau has not been hurt more." You have prepared some gifts for me, and I will give you a good reward for this general.

As for those merchants who do not wish to remain on the island, they will be free to leave after I have convened the present day of the General Assembly and announced to the Portuguese subjects living in Macao that the Kingdom of Portugal has been formally restored and separated from the Kingdom of Spain. ”

Although the independence of the Kingdom of Portugal had been expected for a long time, the members of the council, including Bishop Antonio, still had a moment of mental trance after hearing the news. They really don't know in their hearts what awaits them after they embark on this road.

However, before these Portuguese could react, a eunuch who had been following Isabella opened his mouth and said to everyone: "The miscellaneous family is ordered by His Majesty, and there are still some things to explain to His Highness, so you should retreat outside the door and wait." ”

When Antonio and the others left the Church of Our Lady with a confused look, Isabella finally couldn't hold back her curiosity, and asked Huang Dong, the eunuch who had been with her since entering the palace, "Your Majesty still has an order for you to explain to me?" What is it? ”

After Huang Dong saluted Isabella respectfully, he cautiously replied: "Before this trip, Your Majesty specially called the ministers over to order some matters, if your Highness acts beyond these conditions, then you should stop it by speaking out, and please don't blame Your Highness." ”

"I know, just tell me, what did Your Majesty tell you?" Isabella interrupted him impatiently.

Huang Dong hurriedly compressed the content and said in a concise sentence: "Your Majesty means that this time Your Highness went south and announced that she had been crowned Queen of Portugal, which is okay; It is also possible to take control of Macau and ask the Portuguese living in Macau to submit to you.

But if His Highness declares the Kingdom of Portugal to secede from the Kingdom of Spain and become an independent state. Or they advocated a military revolt against the Spaniards, thus gaining the independence and freedom of the Kingdom of Portugal. If this item is not allowed, the minister must stop it immediately. ”