April 6, 1641

Liu Yun took the Zheng family sailing ship to the 17th century of the Ming Dynasty in Quanzhou, Fujian, as one of the important wharves on the southeast coast, here is also an important coastal town of the Ming Dynasty's foreign trade, at this time Quanzhou has been under the rule of the Zheng family, as early as last year Zheng Zhilong was canonized by the imperial court as the governor of the Fujian General Military Administration, and rightfully became the largest military head of Fujian.

For the visit of Liu Yun, the ambassador of the Republic of Australia to Batavia, Zheng Zhilong sent his younger brother Zheng Hongkui to receive him, and he had already understood the identity of Liu Yun, the ambassador abroad, which was equivalent to the Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple in the Ming Dynasty.

"Ambassador Liu has been tired all the way, and in Zheng Hongkui, he has arranged accommodation for the ambassador and his entourage in the city, please follow me to the carriage."

As soon as the person came up, he was very respectful and hugged his fist at Liu Yun, and introduced himself in a regular manner, to say that this Zheng Hongkui is also a historical celebrity, but too much glory with the Zheng family in history has been occupied by Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong, so the people of later generations are not very familiar with Zheng Zhilong's other brothers.

Since people introduced themselves so respectfully and formally, and said the font name, it stands to reason that Liu Yun should also be introduced like this, which can be considered compliant, but now people have long since lost any words and numbers, Liu Yun smiled, and clasped his fists with both hands, "Under Liu Yun, currently serving as the ambassador of the Republic of Australia to Batavia, the Netherlands, the ancestors have been in Australia for a hundred years, and their customs and culture have changed. ”

After some explanation, Zheng Hongkui finally understood that the feelings of the Australians who were living in the barbarian land had long lost their kinghood, and even the way of Confucius and Mencius had been almost lost.

As early as when investigating the origin of Australians, Zheng Hongkui heard that Australians have short hair, originally thought it was just a few people, after all, it was from the former Song Dynasty, and the culture and customs were naturally not too different from the current Ming people.

"Ambassador Liu, please," just after a short period of thought, Zheng Hongkui politely invited Liu Yun and the others to the carriage arranged at the dock, and then he also got into a carriage.

The people sitting in the carriage, not to mention that they really can't stand the bumps, the carriage of the Ming Dynasty is two-wheeled, although it is driven on the ground paved with bluestone slabs, but this two-wheeled carriage is famous in history for not being shockproof, compared to the four-wheeled carriage of the West, it is slightly better than the West in terms of shockproof.

At the beginning, the boys never understood, and there were four-wheeled carriages in ancient history, but why do you like to make these two-wheeled ones.

"Minister, this carriage is a little bumpy, is this Lao Zheng deliberate." Zhang Tianwen said with some indignation, looking at Liu Yun, who was calm, he didn't seem to react because of the bumps in the carriage.

"Hehe, don't talk nonsense, in addition to walking without bumps, it's the same as sitting in a sedan chair these days, so you have to try to accept it, just don't think about anything at the end of the year."

After the carriage traveled for about ten minutes or so, it stopped in front of a large mansion with obvious southern Fujian architectural style, after getting off the carriage, the building that greeted everyone's eyes was completely different from the blue bricks and white tiles of the Hui school building, although the style of southern Fujian architecture was also mainly a brick and stone structure, but most of them used white granite, not only as a pedestal, stepping stone, pillar stone, door frame, but also as a skirt wall (locally called the foot of the wall) to full chest height, followed by red bricks and red tiles.

Under the leadership of Zheng Hongkui, everyone was brought into the front hall of this courtyard and sat down, and called the next person to tell Liu Yun and others about the accommodation arrangements, and asked him to step back, Zheng Hongkui was not in a hurry to leave, and it can be seen from the fact that he sat on the main seat in the living room, obviously still wanted to have a conversation with Liu Yun, and at this time there was a young man in Chinese clothes standing beside him, who had been following Zheng Hongkui since the pier, and he didn't look like a subordinate.

"Ambassador Liu came to my Ming Dynasty this time to pay tribute, and if it is a tribute, this official can report to the imperial court to petition on his behalf."

Tribute, Liu Yun was a little confused by this sudden question, he didn't come to pay tribute, he came to talk about cooperation with your Zheng family, but when I thought of the current history of the Ming Dynasty, if there were still overseas countries of Fanbang to come to pay tribute, I would definitely make a close-up of the literati and inkmen, and Fanbang's tribute was a matter that showed the grace and power of the Heavenly Empire.

Since asked, Liu Yun simply responded: "The main purpose of coming to Daming is to negotiate cooperation with Lord Tongzhi, as for the tribute, it is only secondary, if the adult can petition on his behalf, it would be better, coming from afar, Liu did not bring any gifts, so he sent a little Australian specialty items to the adult." ”

As he spoke, Zhang Tianwen opened the box he was carrying, and saw that inside the box was a set of crystal clear glasses, and the perimeter of the cup was padded with cotton to prevent it from breaking on the boat due to bumps.

Seeing Liu Yun offering such a valuable gift, Zheng Hongkui was also a little embarrassed: "Ambassador Liu, such a valuable thing, I'm afraid my brother can't afford it, how about Zheng taking it and presenting it to the court." ”

"No, no, Lord Zheng is polite, this set of cups is for you, and we have prepared for Lord Tongzhi, as for the court, Lord Zheng can offer this set of glass crystal cups with dragon and phoenix carvings."

Originally, I thought that such a valuable glass, the Australian was going to give it to my brother Zheng Zhilong, but now I heard that it was given to myself, and I also prepared it for my brother, it seems that this Australian is worthy of being a descendant of the former Song Dynasty.

"In this way, thank you Lord Liu, my brother is busy with official business and is in Fuzhou at the moment, so I can't leave to greet Lord Liu in person, please forgive me." After receiving such a valuable gift, he gave another one to his brother in addition, so he had to be polite and polite, although Zheng Zhilong did not come in person because he felt that Liu Yun's grade was not enough.

"Hehe, it's okay, it's already Liu's honor to be personally connected by Zheng Commander Shi at the dock, how dare you blame Lord Tongzhi, I don't know who this son is next to this adult," Liu Yun asked the young man standing behind Zheng Hongkui with a smile.

Zheng Hongkui glanced at the young man behind him and motioned for him to introduce himself, and the young man stepped forward, clasped his hands into fists and saluted, "Under Zheng Sen, the words are clear, and I also ask Lord Liu for more advice." ”

It's really the surname of the country, but I didn't expect the surname of the country to be a beautiful boy with red mouth and white teeth, although it is similar to what I guessed, but when I heard the introduction of the famous person in history, Liu Yun was still a little excited.

"Zheng Gongzi is serious, he doesn't dare to give advice, we can learn more from each other in the future." Liu Yun said with a meaningful smile.