Although the sun has not yet fully risen in the early morning, Nanyang Town is already very lively, with the chamber of commerce personnel who get up early to catch up with work, the street breakfast vendors, and the women who get up early to buy vegetables in the vegetable market, intertwined into a lively picture. With the increase in population, Nanyang Town began to become more and more lively, and it is believed that it will not be long before a small city will be formed here.

Zhou Zhong walked to the lively street, looked at the pedestrians on the street, and was very satisfied, because the bustling town in front of him was built by him, and he believed that with the development of time, this Nanyang town will slowly expand to the entire Shuangyu Port in the future, thus forming a huge port city. Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but feel proud, being able to build a thriving city single-handedly, which he didn't even dare to think about in his previous life.

The reason why Zhou Chong went out so early today was mainly to visit the Chilawa family, intending to learn from them about Portugal's strength in India and other places, after all, the Portuguese will attack Malacca in a big way next year, and Zhou Chong will definitely not let them succeed at that time, so it is natural to learn more about the other party's intelligence now.

Speaking of Chirava, after the arrival of these European craftsmen, Zhou Zhong quickly classified them according to their talents, among which the craftsmen who built ships and knew how to cast cannons were naturally the first people to be reused, with the addition of these people, the first to make a breakthrough was the artillery workshop in charge of the Nader priest, and now they have found a way to improve the artillery, and even the Nader priest promised to come up with qualified artillery after three days.

Compared to the artillery workshop, shipbuilders such as Chilava joined the shipyard, but shipbuilding was a systematic project. A few of them alone will definitely not work. Therefore, Chirawa is now familiarizing himself with the shipbuilding techniques of the Central Plains. At the same time, combined with his own knowledge of Western shipbuilding technology, he was ready to design a more excellent ship according to the requirements of Zhou, at least better than the Clark ship that is now prevalent in Europe.

Zhou Zhong had wanted to visit the Chirava family for a long time, but during this time, Chirava ran around in order to design a new ship, and he didn't have time at all, and he didn't find a little time to see Zhou Zhong until this morning, so Zhou Zhong came to visit early in order not to delay Chirava's time.

Follow the lively streets of Nanyang Town all the way to the east. Soon they came to a relatively independent community, which was the residence of European craftsmen, and to the east of this community, there was a tall building, which was built according to the design requirements of Father John and Priest Nader, and every Sunday, all the European craftsmen would gather in the church to worship, which at first attracted a crowd of people, but as the days went on, the people of the town were not surprised.

Zhou Zhong walked to this area where European craftsmen lived. Compared to the previous stinking atmosphere, this place is now much cleaner. At least there is no more poop on the road, and the air is much cleaner, but you still can't go into the yard where the European craftsmen lived, they were already sloppy, and there were no women in the house, so the yard was dirty and dirty.

Zhou Zhong followed the road to the nearest house to the church in this residential area, which was the residence of the Chilawa family, Zhou Zhong stepped forward and knocked on the door, only to hear the familiar voice of Cila inside, and then saw the door open, and Cira, who was wearing a light blue dress, was standing in front of the door, with an excited smile on her white cheeks, although there was no strange smell on her body, but the smell of incense powder was still very pungent.

"Master Zhou, please come in, my father is waiting for you, and Father John is already here!" Miss Siela was not surprised to see Zhou Zhong outside the door, but greeted Zhou Zhong in a strange tone of Chinese, she was very attentive to the study of Chinese, every day she went to the town to talk to others in Chinese, although there were a lot of jokes, but she also made rapid progress, and now she can communicate with Zhou Zhong normally.

Yesterday, Sira knew that Zhou Chong was going to talk to her father about something today, so today she also got up early and dressed up, since the last conversation, she found that Zhou Chong was very knowledgeable, and learned from the people in the town that Zhou Chong was a talented man of Da Ming, very knowledgeable, so she wanted to find a chance to have a good conversation with Zhou Chong, so that she could know more about Da Ming.

"Miss Sila, you are so beautiful today, but you use a little more incense powder, and we think that a lighter fragrance is more attractive, so Miss Siella can use less incense powder in the future!" Zhou Chong walked into the courtyard and said with a smile, if it was a Ming woman in front of him, Zhou Chong's words would not only seem frivolous, but also offend people, but Miss Sila's concept is different from that of a Ming woman, and her advantages and disadvantages can be pointed out directly, and the other party will not mind.

Sure enough, Miss Siela heard Zhou Chong praise her beauty, and immediately showed a happy smile on her face, and when she heard Zhou Chong point out her shortcomings, she lowered her head and sniffed herself, and then said very puzzledly: "Is the smell of incense powder really strong, why didn't I smell it?" ”

Zhou Zhong smiled bitterly when he heard this, although Siela had already started to take a bath, she had long been used to the strange smell of herself and others, it can be said that her nose had long been smoked, and now she naturally couldn't smell the pungent smell of incense powder on her body.

Siela was very smart, and when she saw the wry smile on Zhou Chong's face, she immediately understood something, and said with a smile at the moment: "I know what I said, thank you Zhou Gongzi for the reminder, I will pay attention in the future." ”

Speaking of this, Siella paused for a moment, and then said with some distress: "Actually, I really want to learn how to make up with the women of Daming, and I also know that most of the women of Daming know how to embroider and other female workers, and I have always wanted to learn, but I have never been able to find someone to teach me." ”

At this time, Zhou Zhong had already walked to the door of the main hall, and after hearing Sila's distress, Zhou Zhongzhong moved, and then said with a smile: "Miss Sila, if you want to learn female workers and makeup, you can go to my house when you have time in the future, my wife and sister are at home, I will introduce you then, and then you can ask them some things about girls." ”

"Really, can I be a guest at your home?" Siala was also very surprised to hear this, with Zhou's age, his wife and sister must also be his own peers, if he can make friends with a Ming woman of the same age, he will definitely be able to better integrate and understand Daming, which makes Siala naturally very happy.

"Of course, my wife will definitely welcome you, and then you can tell me a little about European customs, and I'm sure they will be very interested!" Zhou Zhong smiled again and said that it is also boring for Jinxuan and Bang'er to stay at home, and it would be a good thing if they could have more new friends.

Receiving Zhouzhong's affirmative answer, Cira immediately ran away happily, saying that she was going to prepare tea for him, while Zhouzhong smiled, and then stepped into the living room, and sure enough, he saw Father John and Chirava sitting there chatting.

Seeing Zhou Chong come in, Chirava and the two immediately stood up, and Zhou Chong also had a few polite words with them, and then waited until Cira brought the tea, and everyone sat down separately, and then Zhou Chong told his purpose.

Father John was a Spaniard, Portugal had just broken away from Spanish rule, and the relationship between the two countries had never been very friendly. Chilawa was also not Portuguese, to be precise, he was supposed to be a Roman, and he had been persecuted by the Portuguese governor in India, so he had to take his family into exile in the Ming Dynasty. Zhou Zhong also knew the identity background of Father John and Chilava, so he decided to ask them first.

Father John and Chilawa were not surprised to hear Zhou Chong inquire about the strength of the Portuguese, after all, in their opinion, Zhou Chong was originally engaged in maritime trade, and now the Portuguese are menacing, and they are about to invade the Nanyang, where the traditional strength of the Ming merchants is strong, which naturally threatens Zhou Chong's interests, and now he wants to inquire about the strength of the Portuguese himself, which is also a very normal thing, and because both of them have different selfish intentions, they have told all the things they know.

Through the joint explanation of Father John and Chilava, Zhou Zhong finally learned that the Portuguese arrived in India about 12 years ago, that is, in 1498 AD, and that the captain who led the Portuguese fleet was also a famous person, this person is Vasco, who can be compared to Columbus in the history of navigation. Reach. Gamma.

Reach. When Gamma arrived on the west coast of India after a great deal of hardship, India was in a period of statehood and wars between countries. Taking advantage of this chaotic relationship with India, Gamma easily united with a local power and began to trade with India, with the result that when he returned to Portugal with Indian goods, they were worth sixty times the total cost of his fleet's voyage.

It is also up to . Gamma's successful arrival in India, coupled with the sky-high reward stimulated the entire kingdom of Portugal, so in 1500, Portugal again sent a large fleet of 1,200 soldiers, accounting for one thousandth of the total population of Portugal at that time, and 13 warships, their mission this time was no longer just to trade, but to establish a trading base in India.

This large Portuguese fleet was led by a nobleman who traveled along the Da. Gamma discovered the route, although it suffered some losses on the way, but the most successful end was to reach India, when the small states of India, Muslim merchants controlled the commercial trade, and when the Portuguese arrived in India, there was inevitably a conflict with Muslim merchants on both religious and commercial sides, and finally a war broke out, but the outcome of the war was beyond everyone's expectations. (To be continued......)