Seeing Lu Lao, they were all a little hesitant, and Zhou Chong also knew what they were afraid of, and said with a smile at the moment: "Everyone, I know that you are worried that the Ming Dynasty will not be able to garrison in Malacca for a long time, if you come forward to serve in the port now, in case we withdraw our troops in the future, you will not be able to gain a foothold in the Kingdom of Malacca." ”

Hearing Zhou Chong directly say what he was most worried about, Lu Lao and their faces were a little embarrassed, indeed, what they were most worried about was the problem that Zhou Chong said, if they did their best to help Zhou Chong at this time, then in case the Ming Dynasty withdrew the army, they would not be able to leave, after all, their family business was all here, and if the Kingdom of Malacca blamed them for this incident, then who would they go to?

I saw Zhou Zhong smile at this time, looked at the expression on Lu Lao's face and said with a smile: "Actually, for this problem, you don't have to worry at all, you are deeply favored by the emperor, long before sending troops, you have already explained the danger of the Portuguese to Your Majesty, and after your Majesty and the cabinet discussed, the most finally decided to keep the Portuguese out of the South Seas, Malacca is the gateway to the South Seas, so the imperial court will never give up here, and even the Admiral has already mobilized officials from the Ming Dynasty, In the future, the port will be managed as the territory of our Ming Dynasty! ”

Zhou Chong's words were already very explicit, and they almost said directly that the Ming Dynasty was going to occupy the port of Malacca, Lu Lao and several of them were human spirits, so they naturally understood the meaning of Zhou Chong's words, and what surprised them was that the occupation of Malacca was actually an order personally issued by His Majesty the Ming Emperor, which made them also dispel the most doubts in their hearts, and they finally said together: "Thank you Lord Admiral for your appreciation, we will do our best to assist your Excellency in managing the Port of Malacca!" ”

Seeing Lu Lao, they finally agreed. This made Zhou Zhong also breathe a sigh of relief. But Lu Lao, they don't know what to do. Zhou Zhong lied just now, Zhengde and the cabinet only asked him to aid the Kingdom of Malacca, but did not let him occupy other people's ports, this matter was completely his personal decision. But this is nothing, after all, as the governor of the four seas, he has the power to make his own decisions according to the situation, and after the port of Malacca is on the right track, he pays a large amount of taxes to the court every year. I believe that even the stubborn ministers in the cabinet will turn a blind eye.

After getting Lu Lao's promise of help, Zhou Chong then visited Lu Lao's residence of these overseas Han people, and also asked about the living conditions of some ordinary people, and even walked a few steps with a cute child in his arms, and learned the tricks of politicians and people in later generations, and the effect was good, at least Lu Lao and they all felt that Zhou Zhong was an approachable and good official.

At noon, Lu Lao and they set up a banquet, and they were very enthusiastic to entertain Zhou Chong, and in the afternoon, they were accompanied by Lu Lao and they went to visit the Baoshan Temple in Sanbao Mountain. There is a statue of Zheng He in the temple, and the surrounding walls are painted with murals of Zheng He going to the West. Although the whole temple is not particularly tall, it is very exquisite, and the incense is so prosperous that almost every Han Chinese who comes to the port of Malacca will come here to burn a pillar of incense, which is said to bless the safety of the ship at sea.

For Zheng He, Zhou Zhong is also very respectful, so he also solemnly put incense on Zheng He's statue, and at the same time meditated in his heart, hoping that the other party's spirit in the sky can bless the Ming navy to go to the world again, and reproduce the grand occasion when all countries came to the court.

After visiting the Baoshan Temple, Zhou Zhong went to the tomb of Princess Han Baoli again, before Princess Han Baoli died, he specially told him to bury himself in Sanbao Mountain, after all, compared to other places, Sanbao Mountain may be the closest place to his homeland in the hearts of overseas Han people.

Although Princess Hanbaoli's son Alec failed in the coup, her cemetery was protected by the Kingdom of Malacca, and there was even a special tomb keeper before, but unfortunately because of the war caused by the Portuguese, many people in Malacca City fled, and now Princess Hanbaoli's tomb has no guardians, but fortunately, the artillery fire did not involve here, when Zhou Zhong came to the princess's tomb, I saw that the beautiful princess tomb is still standing quietly here.

Although Zhou Zhongzhong firmly believes that Princess Han Baoli's identity is fake, one thing should be true, that is, she should be a Han woman, and she married overseas at a young age, and now there are so many Han people living in the Kingdom of Malacca, which is inseparable from this weak woman, and even in essence, she is not much different from Wang Zhaojun of the Han Dynasty, and she is also a hard-working woman.

Just because of the above, Zhou Chong felt that he should come to worship, and even asked Lu Lao and them to help him prepare various sacrifices, and worshiped this princess very respectfully.

After the most Lu, I saw Zhou Zhong let Wu Shan and the others around him retreat, and stood in front of the tomb of Princess Han Baoli for a long time, and finally slowly spoke: "Your real name may no longer be known, let's call you a princess, although I don't know why you pretended to be a princess to marry the kingdom of Malacca, but presumably like Wang Zhaojun, my heart is full of unwillingness, but the past is gone, now the Han people in Malacca gather, among them are also princesses Your credit, as a reward, if Zhou can find the Huang family in the future, Knowing your real name and identity, he will rebuild your tomb and engrave your deeds on the tombstone, so that future generations will know your merits! ”

When Zhou Zhong talked about the most reluctant, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart, although he was close to the ancients, but as a modern person, he hated this way very much, after all, how can the relationship between countries be maintained by a woman? Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty did a better job of this, and the ancestors of the Ming royal family taught that the Son of Heaven guards the country, and the king dies. And the emperors of the Ming Dynasty have also done it, which is what Zhou Zhong is most satisfied with in the Ming Dynasty.

After worshipping Princess Han Baoli, Zhou Zhong said goodbye to Lu Lao and them. The next morning, many young children of these families came to the port to ask to see Zhou Chong, they were all willing to serve in the port, and these young people were literate, it seems that these overseas families are also very strict with the education of their children, which made Zhou Chong overjoyed, and immediately arranged for them to be probationary for their respective positions.

The port has the addition of these overseas family children, coupled with the support of Lu Lao and these people behind the scenes, so that the entire Malacca port soon got on the right track, more than a month later, the city of the port to promote Yang Tong personally rushed to the port of Malacca, and presided over the transformation of the entire port, after all, the construction and management of the port of the Kingdom of Malacca are too backward, can not fully play the role of Malacca this traffic artery, so Zhou Zhong has already had the intention of transforming the port after occupying here, Yang Tong as the city of the port to lift, He is very familiar with the port, and he is careful and steady, so it is naturally best for him to do this.

In addition, in addition to Yang Tong, he also came with Tang Bohu and some technical officials, among which the technical officials naturally needless to say, they are responsible for the specific planning of the transformation of the port, as for Tang Bohu is here to learn, because Yang Tong cannot stay overseas for a long time, after the transformation of the port, he still has to Shuangyu Port, so Malacca needs an important city official to be in charge, and he finally gave this task to the younger Tang Bohu.

With the arrival of Yang Tong and Tang Bohu, it also marked the official entry of the Ming government's government agency Shibosi into Malacca, and it also marked that although the port of Malacca nominally belonged to the Kingdom of Malacca, it was actually completely controlled by the Ming Dynasty. Later generations regarded this incident as a landmark event for the Ming Dynasty to lift the sea ban and officially embark on the road of maritime expansion.

With the arrival of Yang Tong and them, Zhou Zhong also completely got rid of the heavy port management affairs and began to focus his energy on the military support of the port. Although the Portuguese were repulsed, Zhou Zhong did not dare to guarantee when the other side would come again, so the military facilities in the port had to be built as soon as possible.

In Zhou's planning, in order to ensure the safety of the port of Malacca, he planned to build a strong fortress on the port, as for the style of the fortress refers to the fortress that has just appeared in Europe, that is, the polygonal fortress, this fortress structure can effectively improve the blockade area of artillery, the Portuguese have built a lot of such fortresses in the ports of India and other places, although this kind of fortress that has not yet fully evolved still has blind spots, but it is much stronger than the previous square or round fortress.

However, although the plan was good, the plan for the construction of the fortress could not be implemented immediately, because Zhou Zhong was short of money. Although the plan to attack the Portuguese was very smooth, there were hundreds of casualties, and the soldiers who were killed or injured naturally needed subsidies, and Zhou Zhong wanted to let the soldiers use their lives, so the subsidies for casualties were very heavy, for example, if a soldier died in battle, the subsidy to their family was enough for the family to buy more than ten acres of fertile land, or rent or farm, and it was certainly not a problem to feed the family.

It is also the generous casualty subsidy, coupled with the previous attrition, that Zhou Chong's previous military salary donated by Zhengde's hand is a little tight, and he can't use his own money as a military salary at will, otherwise there will definitely be a royal history to participate in his misdeeds, or even an attempt to rebel, so now Zhou Chong can only pin his hopes on the taxes of Shuangyu Port and Malacca Port, but now the time for the two ports to take over is too short, and the tax is also very limited, it is estimated that it will take at least a few months to do it, but the construction of the fortress is naturally as early as possible. So Zhou Zhong really can't wait.

Just when Zhou Zhong was having a headache with the financial problems of the Governor Yamen of the Four Seas, on the coast of Jinzhou opposite the port of Malacca, a small boat left Jinzhou slowly and headed straight for the port of Malacca. (To be continued......)