"Let them come up!" Alfonso, who was sitting on the bow of the ship, gave an order, and the soldiers below immediately agreed, and after a while, he saw a group of merchants from the Ming Dynasty accompany the soldiers to the ship, most of them had a worried look on their faces, but the short and stout young man at the head was calm, but when he saw the weapons and soldiers on the Portuguese warship, the young man's eyes flashed with a little surprise.

"The grass people meet the general!" When these Ming merchants saw Alfonso sitting there, they immediately stepped forward and saluted, after all, they were now in the hands of the enemy, so naturally they could not lack courtesy.

Alfonso also made full preparations for coming to Malacca this time, with an interpreter who knew various Chinese dialects, and after listening to the interpreter's words, he smiled and asked knowingly: "You Daming businessmen don't have to be polite, I have always longed for Daming, but unfortunately I have not been able to go, it is really a pity, I don't know what you can do when you come today?" ”

Seeing Alfonso knowingly ask, those Ming merchants were stunned, and they glanced at each other at the moment, and everyone at the back looked at the short and stout young man at the front, after all, the reason why they dared to come this time was precisely because of this young man.

I saw that this young man did not shirk, and immediately stepped forward and bowed down and said: "General, the villain is Sun Pinghai, the steward of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce in the Ming Dynasty, this time he went to India with fateful goods, and he just came back, and he was about to turn back to the Ming Dynasty, but he didn't expect to meet the general and the Kingdom of Malacca, so he was blocked in the port, and please let us go!" ”

Sun Pinghai's tone when he spoke was neither humble nor arrogant, and his expression was calm, much stronger than those businessmen behind him. But that's not surprising. Because behind Sun Pinghai stood the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce. As the largest smuggler chamber of commerce in the Ming Dynasty. There is Zhou Zhong's backing, so he is naturally full of confidence.

In addition, Sun Pinghai's identity is not simple, his father is Sun Tong, one of the three elders of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, Sun Tong and Sanniang, Uncle Camel are Zhou Chong's most trusted people, almost all of the smuggling fleet of the Chamber of Commerce were managed by Sun Tong, and later Zhou Chong recruited some people from outside to share Sun Tong's management of the fleet, but Sun Tong's position in the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce is still irreplaceable, Sun Pinghai as his son. Having lived at sea since childhood, he already had a wealth of sailing experience in his twenties, and now he can take charge of the captaincy of a fleet.

Although he had long known that the Portuguese would attack Malacca again on July 1, he underestimated the shamelessness of the Portuguese, and he did not expect that the other party would block the entire port and prevent the ships in the port from leaving, otherwise if he had known about it, he would have informed the merchants of the Ming Dynasty not to stop at the port of Malacca on July 1.

Alfonso heard Sun Pinghai's words. Seeing that the other party was neither humble nor arrogant, he also asked with some curiosity at the moment: "Is the power of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce very strong?" How many people are in your chamber of commerce? ”

Hearing the general in front of him directly ask himself about the power of the Chamber of Commerce, Sun Pinghai was also stunned, but he quickly reacted, and immediately said: "General Qiyu, I don't know exactly how many people there are in our Chamber of Commerce, but there are at least three or four thousand people, as for the strength of our Chamber of Commerce, it is no exaggeration that in our Ming Chamber of Commerce, except for a few, there is no Chamber of Commerce that can compare with our Nanyang Chamber of Commerce." ”

Hearing that a small chamber of commerce actually had three or four thousand people, this made Alfonso unacceptable for a while, knowing that the army he brought this time did not exceed two thousand, and even their Kingdom of Portugal only had a population of one million. However, Alfonso quickly thought of the description of the Central Plains Dynasty in Marco Polo's travels, and it was not surprising that these merchants came from that prosperous country, and it was not surprising that they could have such a large chamber of commerce.

"I see!" Alfonso nodded to himself at this time, and then he said with some curiosity: "Your Chamber of Commerce has so many people, then the owner of the Chamber of Commerce must be very rich, I wonder if the owner of your Chamber of Commerce is the richest person in the Ming Dynasty?" ”

As far as Alfonso was concerned, he didn't mention the matter of letting them go, and he always asked these inexplicable questions, Sun Pinghai was also very helpless, so he could only answer patiently: "General Qiyu, the proprietor of the Contempt Chamber of Commerce is indeed very rich, but our emperor of the Ming Dynasty is rich all over the world, so His Majesty the Emperor is the richest person in the world!" ”

When he said this, Sun Pinghai hesitated for a moment, and finally gritted his teeth and continued: "In addition, the proprietor of our Chamber of Commerce is also working for His Majesty the Emperor, and now he has been promoted to the Governor of the Four Seas by His Majesty the Emperor, and is in charge of all maritime affairs of my Ming Dynasty, so it can be said that he is deeply trusted by His Majesty the Emperor, if the general can go to the Ming Dynasty in the future, the villain can introduce our proprietor to the general!" ”

Alfonso originally just wanted to learn about Daming through Sun Pinghai, but when he heard that the master behind the other party turned out to be an official of Daming, and he was also in charge of all the maritime affairs of Daming, he was also shocked and stood up from his chair at once, and looked at Sun Pinghai with a cloudy face.

The Portuguese kingdom still has a cautious attitude towards entering the South China Seas, after all, they also know that the South Seas belong to the power of the Ming Dynasty, and they don't dare to go too far before they understand the attitude of the Ming Dynasty. Alfonso also had a reverent attitude towards the Ming Dynasty, at least when he was in full control of the South Seas, and Alfonso did not want to offend the Ming Dynasty too much.

It was with this idea that I saw Alfonso walking back and forth on the deck a few times, and finally raised his head and said to Sun Pinghai with a smile: "I didn't expect the master of your chamber of commerce to be an official of Daming, I have admired Daming for a long time, and I will definitely visit Daming in the future, if I can see your master, it would be great!" ”

"Hehe, our proprietor likes to make friends within the four seas, if the general goes to Daming, the proprietor will definitely set up a sumptuous banquet to entertain the general." Hearing this General Franco's tone relaxed, this made Sun Pinghai secretly relieved, he moved Zhou Chong's identity out is already his most hole card, and the bet is that the other party should be afraid of Daming's deterrence, and now it seems that it is really effective.

Alfonso was afraid of Zhou Zhong's identity, and he had already decided to let these Ming businessmen leave, after all, in his impression, Daming was the overlord of this part of the Nanyang, not to mention that the owner of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce turned out to be a Ming official in charge of maritime affairs, whether this matter was true or not, it made Alfonso very scruples.

However, before letting Sun Pinghai and them leave, Alfonso asked the other party some about the situation of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce and Daming, and Sun Pinghai also answered one by one, but he also knew that the other party would release people because he was afraid of the strength of Daming and the Chamber of Commerce, so he naturally exaggerated the strength of the Chamber of Commerce and the military strength of Daming, for example, Zhou Chong only had 10,000 sailors in his hands, but in his mouth, it suddenly became 100,000.

Although Alfonso knew that there must be water in Sun Pinghai's words, at least a considerable part of it was credible, especially he also confirmed from Sun Pinghaikou that the territory of the Ming Dynasty is indeed very vast, and it will take at least a few months to walk from east to west, and the number of domestic populations is very large, according to Alfonso's estimates, the total population of the Ming Dynasty is definitely more than the total population of Europe, which also confirms Europe's speculation about the Central Plains Dynasty, and at the same time makes Alfonso more in awe of the Ming Dynasty.

After getting the information they wanted, Alfonso finally nodded and agreed to let Sun Pinghai and them leave, but they had to pay a tax to Alfonso, because according to Alfonso's explanation, when their warship arrived at the port of Malacca, it was already part of the territory of the Portuguese, and Sun Pinghai and their ship were anchored in the port, so they naturally had to pay taxes to them.

For Alfonso's explanation, although Sun Pinghai and the others scolded the other party shamelessly in their hearts, they could only smile and hand over the money on the surface, after all, compared with the people and goods on the ship, a little tax is nothing at all, as long as the ship can be driven away safely.

In this way, Sun Pinghai and they left the port of Malacca after paying an extra tax, and some of them originally planned to go to India through the Strait of Malacca, but now seeing that the Malacca side is about to start a war, God knows whether the shameless Portuguese will block the strait in the future, so they dare not go to India again.

Maybe it was to see the Ming merchants' ships leave, and the merchants of other countries in the port also saw hope, and they also united their own merchants to ask to see Alfonso, hoping to leave the port, but Alfonso was afraid of the strength of the Ming Dynasty, but he was not afraid of other countries at all, so he refused the requests of these merchants, and even a few merchants wanted to make trouble because they were not satisfied, and as a result, Alfonso ordered people to sink the other party's ships, and now the merchants in the port were all honest, and they did not dare to stay on the ship anymore. They all took refuge in the city of Malacca, and at the same time put pressure on the Kingdom of Malacca to drive the Portuguese away as soon as possible.

Alfonso also had an unexpected patience for this attack on the city of Malacca, he was outside the port for more than half a month, until July 24, Alfonso organized a tentative attack, and he also tried to drive the battleship to the Malacca River next to the city of Malacca, so that he could directly bombard the city of Malacca with the ship's artillery, but unfortunately he could not grasp the time of the local tide, and the Malaccans relied on the bridge over the Malacca River to resist resolutely, and finally Alfonso could only order a retreat.

However, the first defeat did not discourage Alfonso, and after half a month of rest, Alfonso, who was well prepared, organized a powerful attack again, and this time he was determined to win! (To be continued......)