The Portuguese sent messengers. Zhou Zhong on the ship was also very surprised when he received this news, he originally thought that after defeating the Portuguese, the other party would soon send someone to discuss the issue of prisoners of war, but he didn't expect that he had been waiting for a year, but he didn't even have any information.

Listening to those Muslim merchants in India, after the Portuguese lost most of their troops in Malacca, they immediately shrank their forces in the Indian Ocean, and they were no longer as arrogant as before, and Zhou Zhong thought that those Portuguese had given up Alfonso's prisoners of war, but he didn't think that it had been a year, and the other party actually sent a messenger, and now the people are in Malacca, waiting for Zhou Chong's consent, they will come to discuss with Zhou Chong about prisoners of war and war compensation.

After receiving this news, Zhou Zhong stood on the deck and thought about it for a moment, and finally decided to agree to meet this group of Portuguese envoys, after all, he also needs to know what kind of attitude the Portuguese have towards Da Ming after the defeat of the war? In addition, with the end of the last war, there was no direct trade between the Ming and the Portuguese, and the Ming merchants were worried about the retaliation of the Portuguese, so the goods of the Ming Dynasty needed to be transshipped to India by the Muslim merchants and then sold to the Portuguese.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong immediately sent someone to send a message to Malacca, asking them to send a ship to escort the Portuguese mission to Malacca, as for whether these missions enter Beijing, it depends on the sincerity of the other party and the mood of Zhengde.

In a compound not far from the military camp in the port of Malacca, the Portuguese mission had been arranged here since they had come to Malacca. It has already been subjected to more than a dozen waves of conflicts at different levels. After all, the Portuguese killed the natives of Malacca too hard last time. Almost every household has people who died at the hands of the Portuguese, so these days there are often natives who come to the Portuguese to make trouble, and some people even stab the Portuguese who go out, and thanks to the military camp next to the place where they live, this makes those natives dare not make too much trouble, otherwise these Portuguese envoys would have been torn apart by the local natives.

In the hall of the Mission's residence, a Portuguese man with a large gray beard sat and was discussing matters with two men beside him. I saw him frown and speak: "Father Diash, do you think that the young Governor of the Ming Dynasty will agree to our request after seeing us?" ”

The priest in the priest's robe, who was sitting in front of the bearded Portuguese, immediately bowed down and said, "Don't worry, Lord Governor, I received a letter from Father John some time ago, in which he introduced the situation of the Ming Dynasty and his acquaintance with the Governor of Zhou, and in my opinion, the young Governor of Zhou was a wise and rational man, and he certainly did not want to have a long war with us. So as long as we show enough sincerity this time, plus Daming's goods also need to be shipped to Europe through us. So I'm sure Governor Zhou will make the right choice. ”

The reason why he came to Malacca with Portugal was mainly because he was invited by Father John to come to Daming to preach, and he happened to meet the Portuguese mission on the way, so he traveled together, and by the way he told him something about Daming that he had learned from Father John.

"Father Dias is right, in the past, there were merchants of the Ming Dynasty who went directly to the west coast of India to trade with us, but now they are all gone, and the goods of the Ming Dynasty need to be transshipped by those greedy Muslim merchants, and the price has also increased several times, this situation is abnormal, so I also believe that the Ming Dynasty also hopes that the relationship with us can return to the normal track!" At this time, a Portuguese officer in his thirties sitting on the other side also spoke.

The bearded Portuguese who was called the Governor heard the words of Father Dias and his subordinates, and finally nodded reassuringly: "I hope so, Alfonso is the person I value the most, he lost this time, I am also very sad, but fortunately he is still alive, as long as we can save him, then we still have the ability to start from scratch!" ”

This white-bearded Portuguese man was not simple, he was the famous Vasco in the history of navigation in later generations. Reach. Gamma, more than ten years ago, led a fleet of ships to be the first to bypass the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, open up the route from Europe to the Indian Ocean, and through warfare and other means, opened up a Portuguese trading point on the Indian Ocean coast.

It is also this series of actions above da Gama, so that the Kingdom of Portugal and his private income of huge wealth, in recognition of his merits, the King of Portugal gave him the title of "General of the Sea in the Indian Ocean", and he also used the wealth obtained by sea trade to buy a large amount of land, becoming the real power of Portugal second only to the royal family. Gamma's successor in India, and in Alfonso's fleet, da Gama also invested a lot of sponsorship, but unfortunately all of them were lost due to defeat.

Originally, da Gama withdrew from the fleet after two European voyages to India, bought a large field in Lisbon and lived the life of a rich man, if according to the original history, he would go to India for the third time in more than ten years, and died there at the very end, but unfortunately this time because of Alfonso's defeat, the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean were greatly damaged, and the Indians and Arabs were also ready to move, so Da Gama was ordered to come to India again to serve as the governor of India, At the same time, he was also responsible for sending envoys to the Ming Dynasty, redeeming prisoners of war and resuming the trade with the Ming Dynasty again.

"Ferdinand, when we came, we saw those warships captured by the Ming Dynasty, I heard that there are still our Portuguese prisoners of war on it, the Ming Dynasty asked them to teach the Ming army to operate these warships, do you have a way to get in touch with those prisoners of war on the warships, they have been with the Ming army for so long, they should know a lot of things we don't know." Vasco da Gama then again said to the Portuguese officer, who he had found in the Portuguese army since he came to India, and who had now been promoted by him to be his lieutenant to help him with some very difficult matters.

"I'm afraid this is difficult, I have already tried it once last time, but the general of the Ming Dynasty Qu strictly forbade our mission to approach those few warships, and the prisoners of war on it are also forbidden to contact outsiders, so I think it will be difficult for us to contact the captured soldiers before the official consent of the Ming Dynasty." The officer, Ferdinand, replied.

Ferdinand. Magellan, is the full name of this young officer, yes, he is the Magellan who made the first circumnavigation of the world, but he is still in the Portuguese army, and has been in the Indian Ocean before, and has personally participated in many suppressions and massacres of local natives, this time when da Gama came to the Indian Ocean, he met Magellan by chance, and admired his talent very much, so he promoted him to be his assistant.

Hearing Magellan's answer, da Gama couldn't help but sigh, originally he was very optimistic about Alfonso, and even agreed with Alfonso's attack on Malacca, but he never thought that Daming would intervene without warning, which was completely different from the conclusion they had reached in their previous investigation, so he couldn't figure it out until now.

In addition, Alfonso's defeat also caused da Gama's prestige to suffer a big blow, many people have been questioning his previous South Sea strategy, and it is under this huge pressure, but also in order to wash away the shame on his body, so da Gama agreed to serve as the governor of India, but when he arrived in India, he found that the Ming Dynasty had completely mastered the Strait of Malacca, and the combat effectiveness of the army was very strong, not worse than their European army, so he had to give up the previous plan to solve it by force, Personally came to Daming to prepare to settle the dispute with Daming through negotiations.

Soon da Gama received the news that Zhou Zhong was willing to meet them, which made the entire Portuguese mission overjoyed, and after packing up, da Gama led the entire mission to finally leave Malacca, which made everyone in the mission breathe a sigh of relief, after all, it was not easy to stay in a place like Malacca, which was hostile to them.

Da Gama brought a total of two warships this time, and there were more than 200 envoys and soldiers accompanying him, in order to protect, but also to monitor Da Gama and others, the defender of Malacca, Qu Lie, sent four warships to escort them, and two of them were Portuguese warships captured before, which made the people in Da Gama's mission look very uncomfortable, but they didn't dare to say anything, after all, they were now in a weak position, and they didn't dare to make any excessive demands on Da Ming.

Da Gama their warships in the Ming warship under the guidance, all the way to the north, during the period in addition to the Champa and other places to replenish the water, did not stay, until the port of Guangzhou, Da Gama they landed again, this is also the first time they landed on the territory of the Ming Dynasty, but when they saw the prosperous city of Guangzhou, they were immediately shocked beyond measure.

Guangzhou as a thousand-year-old port, even after experiencing the sea ban, the port is still very prosperous, especially after the establishment of the Zhou heavy governor of the four seas, has actually broken the sea ban, so the fleet in Guangzhou port in addition to tribute ships, is also full of ordinary merchant ships, the daily cargo throughput is also very amazing, even stronger than Shuangyu Port, after all, Shuangyu Port is only a new port, and Guangzhou such a thousand-year-old port is still incomparable.

The first stop of the Portuguese mission was arranged in Guangzhou, and Zhou Zhong specially explained at this time, in order to shock these Portuguese with the prosperity of Guangzhou, so that they could understand what a prosperous and huge empire they were facing, so as to have the effect of preempting the people and facilitate future negotiations. (To be continued......)