After seeing the prosperity and long history of Guangzhou, Vasco da Gama and his entourage set off to the north again, and finally came to Shuangyu Port, although Shuangyu Island has some gaps with Guangzhou in terms of scale and prosperity, but as an emerging port, it is full of vitality, which is far from being comparable to Guangzhou and other places.

In the hall of the Governor's Palace, Zhou Zhong met with Da Gama and his party here, and he already knew in advance that in addition to Da Gama, even the famous Magellan was also in the mission, and he was also Da Gama's deputy, which made Zhou Zhong feel the wonder of the world.

"Governor Vasco came from afar, and Zhou couldn't meet him from afar, which is really rude." Zhou Zhong looked Da Gama up and down a few times, and said with a smile, Vasco is Da Gama's name, so Zhou Zhong will call him so.

Because of the language barrier, Zhou Zhong invited Priest Nader to be the interpreter, and as for Father John, he stayed in the church to entertain Father Dias and his party, who had just arrived in Malacca. Although Father John's church was established, there were still very few people who were willing to believe in religion, and Father John felt that there were only himself and Father Nader in the church, and that his missionary power was too weak, so he wrote to his friend Father Dias and asked him to help him accomplish this great cause.

Although Priest Nader was a Spaniard, he was fluent in Portuguese, so he quickly translated Zhou Chong's words, and da Gama bowed down and said: "Your Excellency the Governor is really too polite, as a defeated country, we are just here to beg for forgiveness from the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time hope that the Ming Dynasty can let those poor soldiers who were captured go home." Their gray-haired parents and young children are still waiting for them to come home! ”

Vasco da Gama was well aware of his situation. And through this period of understanding. He found that the Ming people had a natural sense of superiority over foreign races, especially those officials in the ruling class, who regarded themselves as the superior kingdom of the Celestial Empire everywhere, and looked down on these small overseas countries at all, so Da Gama had already made a decision before seeing Zhou Chong, that is, to position himself as the envoy of a small country and lower his posture as much as possible. As long as those Ming officials are happy, it should not be particularly difficult for them to pay some more price in exchange for the freedom of Alfonso and others.

I have to say that although Da Gama has not been in Daming for a long time, and there are not many Ming officials in contact, but he has a very accurate grasp of the mentality of the scholars in the upper echelons of the Ming Dynasty. I'm afraid that no one is more profound than Zhou Chong, and naturally he will not be easily deceived by Da Gama's few words of pity.

I saw Zhou Zhong smiled faintly after hearing this: "What Governor Vasco said is good. It is indeed a pity for the families of those soldiers, but you have spent some time in Malacca, where tens of thousands of people died at the hands of your Portuguese army, I wonder if in your eyes, those Malacca relatives who died in the war are also pitiful? ”

Da Gama didn't expect Zhou Chong's words to be so sharp, but after all, he was a person who had experienced strong winds and waves, and his face was not ordinarily thick, so he immediately replied: "Dear Governor, for the last war, our Kingdom of Portugal is also very sorry, that war was a mistake, this our Kingdom has realized its mistake, and now we are willing to pay 5,000 pounds of silver as compensation, and 10,000 pounds of silver, hoping to exchange for the Portuguese soldiers who were captured last time." ”

Although it is not the first time that Zhou Zhong has seen the shamelessness of the Portuguese, but this time he heard Da Gama's words and was angry again, a war that almost slaughtered the city, but in Da Gama's mouth, it was covered up by a light "mistake", and in the end, he only paid 5,000 pounds of silver, that is, less than 50,000 taels of silver, and the lives of 50,000 or 60,000 people were only worth this bit of silver, but they were willing to pay twice the price of more than 1,000 Portuguese prisoners of war they were captured. Each Portuguese is nearly a hundred times more expensive than a Malacca, and it seems that in the eyes of these Portuguese, the lives of foreigners are not worth anything at all.

Although he was very angry at Da Gama's shamelessness in his heart, Zhou Chong's face did not show it, but smiled faintly: "Fifteen thousand pounds of silver, together is only a hundred thousand taels of silver, not enough for the military expenses we sent last time, this money wants to exchange for our Ming's forgiveness, as well as the request for the release of prisoners of war, your calculations are too shrewd." ”

Hearing that Zhou Chong did not refuse his request to pay for the prisoners of war, this made Da Gama's heart happy, as for Zhou Chong's thought that the price he offered was too low, it was nothing, after all, Da Gama was just a tentative price, and even he knew that his price was too low.

"I wonder how much silver does Your Excellency think we should compensate in order for the Ming to calm down his anger and be willing to release the soldiers we were captured before?" Vasco da Gama then asked.

"If you want to appease the anger of our Ming Dynasty, it is very simple, you only need to pay the price of two million taels of silver, as for the release of prisoners of war, we need to negotiate separately, because we still need these prisoners of war, but that Alfonso and several other high-ranking officers can return it to you, each of them only needs fifty thousand taels of silver!" Zhou Zhong said with a smile on the surface, but his eyes were very cold, if there was no arrival of his own, these Portuguese would have committed countless crimes along the coast of Daming, and now he was just collecting some compensation for future generations.

"Two ...... Two million taels of silver? Hearing the price of Zhou Chong's big mouth, da Gama and Magellan behind him all opened their mouths in shock, they really didn't expect that Zhou Chong would increase the price more than ten times as soon as he opened his mouth, and if he wanted to redeem the prisoners of war, he would need to add additional money.

"Your Excellency the Governor, this price is too high, two million taels of silver is enough to buy a small country in Europe to be the king, we really can't agree to your conditions!" Before da Gama could speak, the Magellan next to him spoke very impatiently, in his opinion, Zhou Zhong was simply blackmail.

"Ha Lu Ha, since you don't accept my kindness, then please go back, anyway, now I still need some Portuguese prisoners of war to work, and in order to make up for the losses of the last war, our Ming goods will be sold to those Muslim merchants on the basis of the original increase of 20%, as for whether they will sell to you at the original price, then I don't care!" Zhou Da laughed a few times, and suddenly opened his mouth to threaten. He knew that the Portuguese needed the goods of the Ming Dynasty and the spices of the South Seas the most, and as Malacca fell into the hands of the Ming Dynasty, these two transactions were also controlled by Zhou Chong, and it can be said that now the lifeblood of the Portuguese has been grasped by Zhou Chong, so he is not afraid that the Portuguese will not give in.

"You ......"

Hearing Zhou Chong's threat, Magellan stood up in a fit of anger, and just wanted to speak and reason with Zhou Chong again, but was stopped by da Gama next to him, and then saw the new Indian governor smile at Zhou Chong and said: "Your Excellency the Governor, although we were at fault in the last war, the compensation of two million taels is not too much, and as a common practice in the war, we have the right to pay for the redemption of prisoners of war, but now you are only willing to hand over Alfonso and a few others, this kind of behavior is against morality!" ”

Speaking of this, I saw Da Gama take a breath and continued: "When I was in Europe, I heard that Daming is a civilized country, and when I really came to Daming, I also found that Daming is indeed a country of etiquette, and I believe that the Governor must also be a benevolent person, so our Kingdom of Portugal is willing to pay 500,000 taels of silver, hoping that His Excellency the Governor will forgive us for our previous war behavior!" ”

"Hmph, don't play tricks with me, I know that Spain has discovered a large number of silver mines in the Americas, and now the silver production there is extremely high, and countless amounts of silver are transported to Europe every year, so for you, silver is not very valuable, and two million taels of silver is not much, and this condition will definitely not change!" Zhou Chong snorted coldly and said, there is too much gold and silver in the Americas, and it has begun to be produced now, and it has even caused the price of silver in Europe to fall, so silver is not very valuable in Europe, which is why Zhou Chong dared to open his mouth.

Da Gama didn't expect Zhou Zhong to know so much about the situation in Europe, and even the situation in the Americas, which made him know that he might not be able to play any tricks in front of this young governor of the Ming Dynasty, and sighed at the moment and said: "Okay, we can compensate the Ming two million taels of silver, but the Ming must promise us a few conditions!" ”

"Oh? Let's talk about it! Zhou Zhong hugged his shoulders and smiled, he was not surprised that da Gama agreed to his terms, after all, the main goods of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean were spices and Ming goods, and they brought them huge profits every year, and now these two transactions require frequent exploitation by Muslim merchants, which has seriously affected their income, so Zhou Zhong is not afraid that they will not agree.

"Your Excellency the Governor, we can't pay off two million taels of silver at once, we need to divide it into two years, in the first year we will first deliver one million taels of silver, then the Ming must agree to our ships to enter the South Seas through Malacca, to purchase spices and Ming goods, in addition to our captured soldiers, you must also ensure their personal safety, the last is the redemption of the prisoners of war, I hope you can agree to agree that after we have paid two million taels of silver, agree that we will redeem all the prisoners of war!" Da Gama said with blazing eyes, these are also his bottom line, if Zhou Zhong does not agree again, then he can only go back to prepare for the war. (To be continued......)