In order to find out the strength of the Portuguese in India, Zhou Zhong chatted with Chilawa all morning, in addition to being their translator, Father John also told some of the information about the Portuguese that he knew, so that Zhou Chong's information was more comprehensive, and he knew that his current strength could not be compared with the Portuguese, and if he wanted to prevent the other party from occupying Malacca City next year, he could only ask the Ming court for help.

At noon, Zhou Chong stayed at Chilawa's house to eat a Mediterranean-style lunch, although the dishes were a little simple and the taste was a little strange, but it was novel, so Zhou Chong was also very happy. In fact, according to Chilava's habits, they would prefer to invite Zhou Zhong to dinner, but now Zhou Zhong and Chirava are very busy, and today they finally found time to sit together, and by the afternoon, they both had their own things to do, so they could only have a casual lunch.

Taking advantage of the time of lunch, Zhou Zhong first asked Chirawa if they had any habits of living in Nanyang Town, and the other party said that he was very satisfied with his current life, the only problem was that his Chinese was too poor, and he could not communicate with others for the time being, and Father John could not follow him as a translator together, which brought a lot of trouble to his life and work.

After all, learning Chinese not only takes time, but also requires talent, and the reason why Miss Siela can master Chinese so quickly is that she usually has a lot of free time and is willing to use Chinese to communicate with others. Second, she is also very talented in languages. Chilawa is not as good as his own daughter.

Then Zhou Zhong took a second interest in Fr. John's missionary work. Ask him if he has developed new believers in Shuangyu Port? As a result, the other party said a lot very happily, which probably means that since the establishment of the church, the people of Shuangyu Port have also had a little more respect for him, a foreign monk, although there has not been a development of Protestants for the time being, but when they preach, a few people have no longer shown a very repulsive appearance, which is undoubtedly great news for Father John, and at the same time makes him full of confidence in the future missionary career. Even he was already seeing that the bishopric seat of the Central Plains Region was already beckoning to him.

Seeing Fr. John's excited appearance, Zhou Zhong was noncommittal about his development in missionary work, in fact, he did not have a good impression of Catholicism and Christianity, it turned out that those priests in history used the name of missionary service, but they served as the vanguard of Western colonizers, they spied on the information of the missionary area, and opened the way for those colonists, and the reason why China in later generations was reduced to a semi-colony also has a lot of credit for those priests.

At present, however, Fr. John shows no signs of seeking information, and he is now only carrying out his ordinary missionary activities. And he didn't do anything to endanger himself or the Ming Dynasty, so Zhou Chong's normal preaching to him would not be stopped. Even sometimes he needs the help of Father John, at that time he has to help the other party as a condition, such as the recruitment of European craftsmen and the establishment of churches, this cooperation is beneficial to both parties, and Zhou Zhong asked himself to take a big advantage, after all, the arrival of those European craftsmen will have an immeasurable great help to himself, and may even affect the development of the Ming Dynasty, which is naturally more important than a mere church.

In addition, Zhou Zhong is not optimistic about Father John's missionary career, although the historical Catholicism has been introduced to China in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, but after hundreds of years of development, until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the influence of Catholicism in the Central Plains is still very small, until later Western colonizers bombarded the country with cannons, resulting in the national spirit of the entire Central Plains fell into a trough, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism also declined, which made Catholicism in China have a lot of development, but even so, Catholicism in China is still not the mainstream.

Come to think of it, hundreds of years have not been able to make Catholicism in the Central Plains region get any great development, now only rely on Father John and Priest Nader, who ask for money and no money, and no one wants people, and in religion is not better than Buddhism and Taoism, not to mention that Buddhism and Taoism have a long history in the Central Plains, which is not comparable to the newcomer Catholicism.

Of course, although Zhou Zhong knew these things, he would not tell Father John directly, but encouraged the other party to work hard to preach, so that when Father John encountered difficulties, he would have to ask for himself, and then he could also get more benefits from the other party.

After lunch, Zhou Zhong and Chirava went to the shipyard again, and Father John could not go because he had something to do, so Chirava called Miss Syrah to be his interpreter.

Speaking of Zhou Chong, he hasn't been to the shipyard for a long time, the last time he came, the shipyard had just been expanded, but this time when Zhou Chong came, he found that the entire shipyard was more than twice as large as the last time he came, although the number of docks has not increased, but it is much larger than the original, hundreds of shipbuilders are busy in the dock, although there is a lot of water in the shipyard, but most of them are craftsmen hired by the Chamber of Commerce from Daming, and they can't really be regarded as people in the Chamber of Commerce. Only a few managers and important technical personnel in the shipyard will be absorbed into the chamber.

I saw several huge fortune ships standing there in the dock, it seemed that they were about to be completed, and unlike ordinary fortune ships, these ships had left artillery fire in advance, and when the artillery workshop cast the guns, they would be installed on these new ships first.

However, Zhou Zhong is not here to visit the shipyard today, but to see the design progress of the new ship in Chilava. There is a row of rooms on the east side of the shipyard, which is where some important personnel of the shipyard work, and Chilawa also has his own room here, when he enters here, Zhou Zhong immediately sees a drawing on the table, on which a side view of a sea ship is drawn, which aroused his interest, and he immediately walked over and looked at it seriously.

Seeing that Zhou Zhong was so interested in the ship he designed, Chilawa was also very happy to explain to him, and Miss Cila next to him translated: "Zhou Gongzi, the main body of this new ship is still our most advanced Clark ship in Europe, but I have absorbed some advanced shipbuilding technology from Daming and made some improvements, such as this new ship uses a watertight compartment on the side of Daming, which makes the ship safer, and also changes the original round stern to a square stern, while reducing the height of the bow tower and lengthening the length of the hull, This increases the speed of the new ship a lot, and the sailing is also smoother, which is definitely more suitable for ocean sailing than the original Clark ship! ”

Zhou Zhong also nodded again and again when he heard this, the drawings drawn by Chirava were not as complicated as those of later generations, so he could also understand them, coupled with the other party's explanation, he also felt that the size of this new ship was more scientific, not to mention anything else, just reducing the height of the bow tower could make the center of gravity move downward, which could increase the ship's ability to engage in wind and waves.

Speaking of Zhou Zhong does not know how to build ships, but after all, he has hundreds of years of knowledge more than the people of this era, and some physical things are more difficult for him, so he listened to Chilava's explanation, while putting forward his own theoretical opinions, many things are unheard of by Chilava, but when he thinks about it seriously, he feels very reasonable, which makes him awe of Zhou Chong, Miss Sila next to him also did not expect Zhou Chong to know so many things, and a pair of wonderful eyes can't help but look Zhou Chong up and down, His eyes were filled with curiosity.

Zhou Zhong had only been in the shipyard for more than an hour, and he put forward all the improvements he could think of for the new ship, although some of them were too idealistic, at least the current skills could not be reached, but there were also quite a few very pertinent opinions, which opened Chilawa's eyes, and promised that he would try his best to apply these improvements to the new ship.

Then Zhou Zhong said goodbye to Chirava, and Miss Cila sent him out, and when they separated, Miss Cila suddenly said: "Master Zhou, does it count if you invite me to your house as a guest today?" ”

"Of course it counts, as long as Miss Sila is willing to come, I am naturally very welcome!" Zhou Chong said with a smile, he also has a good impression of this young girl from a foreign country, especially the other party admires the culture of the Central Plains very much, which makes Zhou Chong have a sense of pride, and he also hopes that Bang'er and Jinxuan will have more friends.

Miss Siela was also very happy to get Zhou Chong's affirmative answer again, but then she asked again: "Then I don't know when you are free, Gongzi Zhou, when I will visit your home, can you also help me introduce me?" ”

Zhou Zhong heard this question that Miss Sila originally asked, and immediately smiled and said: "I will be at home in the past few days, even if I have something to do, I am usually in the front yard of the Chamber of Commerce, so you can come at any time, and then I will have people prepare sumptuous Central Plains food for Miss Sila to taste!" ”

"Great, the wine banquet when we received the wind last time was very delicious, but unfortunately I haven't learned to cook yet, the food cooked in the restaurant at the port is also delicious, but the price is really expensive, we didn't bring much money when we came out, and you haven't paid your father's wages yet, so we only went once and didn't dare to go again." Miss Ciara said happily that she was only half-truthful and half-truthed and urged Zhou Zhong to pay his father's wages quickly.

Zhou Chong also said with a smile when he heard this: "The dishes cooked by the chefs in my family are much better than those in the restaurants, as for your father's salary, it will be settled at the end of this month, and your father's salary is not a small number, even if your family of three eats in the restaurant every day, I am afraid it will not be able to spend." ”

Zhou Zhong said that he was also a little distressed after the worst, in order to let Chirava do his best to work for himself, he not only promised the other party that he would give him a boatload of porcelain after ten years of work, but also had a good salary every month, this kind of treatment can be compared with Sanniang and their stewards.

"Hehe, then thank you Zhou Gongzi for your generosity, I happen to be free tomorrow afternoon, and I will definitely visit the house then!" Miss Ciara said with a grin, looking forward to tomorrow's visit. (To be continued......)