Zhou Qingfeng and Guo Jiao stayed on the roof of St. Paul's Church for the night, and nothing happened. Guo Jiao is allowed to hug at most, and if she wants to go further, she will resist desperately, and even bite.

At dawn the next day, the port of Macau was busy again. Zhou Qingfeng took his sister around the Western-style city, ready to find out how strong the Portuguese are in the Far East. Guo Jiao followed behind, and after last night's close confrontation, she returned to her innocent and relaxed posture in the past, no longer cowering at Zhou Qingfeng, and even daring to bare her teeth at him.

Macau is not actually a city, but a large commercial bazaar. The Portuguese business was not limited to silk and porcelain, and the shops in the bazaar also sold pepper, cloves, camphor and sumac wood brought from Southeast Asia. Among them, the business of pepper is very good, and Chinese merchants are in great demand. In addition, homespun cloth shipped from India was also popular and became a fist commodity of the Portuguese.

Zhou Qingfeng walked into several Cantonese-owned shops and also came into contact with some Portuguese businessmen. Although he didn't understand either Cantonese or Portuguese, the interpreters in the bazaar conveyed enough information to him.

Macau is the largest trading point for the Portuguese in the Far East, and it can be said to be the only pillar. Dozens of galleons come from India every year, and the volume of cargo is far less than Zhou Qingfeng imagined. The biggest problem for Portuguese merchants was the availability of goods, and the whole of Guangdong and the southeast coast could not satisfy their appetite for shipping.

Zhou Qingfeng asked a Portuguese merchant who knew Chinese why he didn't go to the north to trade. The answer is: they were not welcome in the Ming court, and they were not familiar with Northeast Asia. Moreover, the Portuguese have limited ability, and in addition to stabilizing Macao, they are also unable to expand externally.

"What if a merchant from the north could bring you goods?" Zhou Qingfeng asked.

"We can swallow countless silks and porcelain, which can make a lot of money even if they are shipped to India." The Portuguese businessman reminded Zhou Qingfeng that there are currently a large number of super-rich soil kings in India. These kings have amassed vast wealth by exploiting the untouchables, and they have incredible purchasing power. India's cotton and grain can also be exported in large quantities and are in abundant supply.

Both Britain and the Netherlands had East India companies, and the European powers projected their power into India, all for good reason. That is, India is weak and rich, and everyone wants to pounce on this piece of fat and bite it.

"Read 10,000 books and travel 10,000 miles." Zhou Qingfeng felt that it was right for him to come out for a walk, otherwise he really didn't know that India is actually a huge market now. However, there is also a frustrating news that there is no slave trade in Macau, and there is no one to sell horses. Because horses were very delicate, the mortality rate of ocean transportation was too high, and no one brought them to the Far East.

As for the maritime power of the Far East, the Spaniards were naturally the strongest, the Dutch second, the Portuguese third, and the British the worst. But even the worst of the British could mobilize a fleet of five or six gunboats to sweep through the entire Southeast Asian countries at any time, and there was no opponent at all.

Zhou Qingfeng frowned at this, the fleet of the 'revolutionary army' was being launched at the rate of one standard steam ship per month. If by next year, with more skilled workers, this rate will be doubled. But there are more and more ships, but the sea power of the traverser is still very weak.

"The martial arts chessboard and the training results of the Cave Heaven Blessed Land are combined, and they are tilted a little in the direction of the army." Considering that the great powers in Southeast Asia are all navies, Zhou Qingfeng felt that he had to strengthen his navy accordingly. Otherwise, if these grandsons come over, the fun will be great.

Several large armed merchant ships are docked on the docks of the port of Macau, all of which have a large number of sails and countless sail cables hanging densely on the hull. The largest sailing ships have a displacement of at least a thousand tons, a hull of more than fifty meters, and a mast of twenty or thirty meters high, which is very huge.

When Zhou Qingfeng got closer, he could feel that this large ship had a power similar to that contained in a church, and it seemed to be blessed by some kind of magic, and it had quite strong combat power. Every ship is like a castle on the sea.

Every year in May and June, the Portuguese set sail from Goa to Macao with goods from India. They sold their goods in Macao in exchange for raw silk and other goods, and then went to Nagasaki, Japan, in the early summer of the following year, exchanged for Japanese silver, and returned to Macao in the autumn of the same year. They would return to Goa in the autumn of the third year with silver to buy silk and porcelain.

Don't look at such a voyage, it takes three years to go back and forth. But as long as you run once, the money earned is enough for a boatload of people to live a lifetime without worrying about food and clothing, but this is too slow to rely on the efficiency of monsoon transportation. Changing to a steamboat, not running two or three times a year has insulted the reputation of the traverser.

This is a golden route!

Zhou Qingfeng inquired about the situation in the direction of Goa, and learned that there were indeed slave traders and Arabian horses for sale there—the kings of India were extremely poor and luxurious, and they were very fond of buying beautiful female slaves and sturdy male slaves, and they were also very fond of fine horses, and were willing to spend a lot of money on them.

"Do you want to go to Goa to buy slave girls and Arabian horses? Hahaha...... no Ming people ever wanted to go to Goa. But if you really want to go, you can go to my brother. He was a priest and had his own monastery in Goa. Meet a lot of big names in high society. ”

The Portuguese who informed Zhou Qingfeng proudly introduced him to the contact person and briefly explained the situation in Goa. Listening to his words, it is obvious that he is very proud of his brother. However, Zhou Qingfeng patted the other party's shoulder with a smile and said, "From now on, you also know a big person." ”

After speaking, Zhou Qingfeng took out a gold coin from his pocket and bounced it into the Portuguese man's hand. His youth makes it easy to think that he is a gentleman who runs around with a beautiful maid. But in fact......

The Portuguese watched Zhou Qingfeng leave stunned, and then looked at the gold coin in his hand, which was so strange. It wasn't until he took a closer look at this never-before-seen gold coin – the stamped gold coin was very beautiful, and the pattern was so rich and intricately detailed that it far exceeded what could be seen on the market. The avatar on the coin face......

"This man actually put his portrait on a gold coin?" Portuguese merchants expressed amazement. There are only a handful of people who have this ability these years.

The four flower coins of the "Revolutionary Army" of "Meilan Bamboo Chrysanthemum" have been widely accepted by the market. The problem of inconvenient carrying of metal currency has also begun to become prominent, and more convenient currencies are needed in large-value transactions, so the 'revolutionary gold coin' naturally appeared - this time the coin is stamped out of Zhou Qingfeng's own head, and a sentence is printed on the back......

"The forces of revolution will whip the whole world!"

"Big shots, this is definitely big shots." The Portuguese holding the gold coin was very excited, and he hurriedly chased after Zhou Qingfeng's back as he left, wondering why he couldn't hug this thigh tightly? These are thighs made of gold!

And when the Portuguese businessman chased him out of Macau, he saw a biplane soaring into the sky. He screamed in amazement, drawing crosses on his chest and shouting the name of God. Only then did he know that this big man was definitely bigger than he imagined.

Zhou Qingfeng left Macao and flew 2,000 kilometers west in a straight line to the vicinity of Yangon, near the Indian Ocean. After a night's rest in pristine Yangon, the 2,300-kilometre flight across the Bay of Bengal and across the Indian subcontinent to Goa. He flew over a voyage that would have taken a year for others to complete, in just four or five days.

When Zhou Qingfeng walked into the Portuguese-colonized city, the bell was ringing at the Cathedral of Santa Catarina in the city. The big bell called the 'Golden Bell' made a melodious sound and spread throughout the city. But......

"It's a big slum." Zhou Qingfeng and Guo Jiao both changed into robes that covered their heads and faces, and when they walked into the capital of Portuguese India, they were greeted by a cluster of low-rise houses and streets strewn with sewage. The streets were filled with poor untouchables scurrying, begging, chasing passers-by and stealing.

Zhou Qingfeng didn't like this kind of dirty environment the most, and he complained: "Sooner or later, there will be a great plague in this place, and then the whole city will be destroyed." ”

From time to time, 'flat hair' flew up from Zhou Qingfeng's shoulder, driving away the untouchables who were watching the excitement behind. These skinny black guys can't even be called 'humans'. They have no dignity or status, they live like nasty bedbugs, living on the scraps thrown away by the rich.

Zhou Qingfeng had just arrived, and he couldn't understand his words, so he was a little dazed after entering the city. Based on the geographical location he had determined as he flew through the air, he walked through the streets of the city in search of the Chinese-speaking priest brother of the Macau merchants.

It is said that the priest had a monastery in Goa – but Zhou Qingfeng was inherently opposed to such a religious institution, and the cross on the roof of the monastery was strongly resisting his approach. It's just that......

"This monastery is not very strong." In those days, there were no street signs, let alone tour guides. Zhou Qingfeng, who was wearing a turban to cover his face, spent two or three hours, relying on the positioning and wayfinding of 'flat hair' in the air to finally find this somewhat dilapidated monastery.

There was no one in the monastery, and Zhou Qingfeng walked directly through the gate. The shattered sight almost made him think he was in the wrong place. But a middle-aged man with a big nose with a bald head came out of the front yard of the monastery, and when he saw Zhou Qingfeng, he came up very warmly to greet him, and said a lot in Portuguese.

"I'm from China and don't know Portuguese." Zhou Qingfeng said, "Does anyone here understand Chinese? ”

Hearing Zhou Qingfeng's words, the middle-aged man was stunned for several seconds. It wasn't until Zhou Qingfeng slowly untied the headscarf that covered his face that he didn't speak a few words of Cantonese fluently, with a few words that sounded like Japanese in between.

Ancient Cantonese is also difficult to understand, and Zhou Qingfeng feels that he is simply talking like a chicken and a duck. Just when he felt that his trip was going to be ruined, an eleven or twelve-year-old boy came out from behind him and greeted him in a non-standard but acceptable Chinese dialect: "Master, do you have any instructions?" ”

The little boy's face looked like that of a mixed race, dark and thin, and visibly malnourished. He had a big head and a small figure that didn't match, and his hair was yellow and messy, but his eyes were big and bright. When he came out, he humbly bent down and bowed as a servant.

"Are you Han?"

"No, I'm a man with thorns. I've traveled a lot with my father since I was a kid, so I know more than a dozen local languages. Presumably you need an interpreter. Hire me, I'm cheap. Just give me something to eat, and it would be nice if you could give me some money. ”

"What's your name?"

"The locals call me Santos. Or you can give me a name. ”

"It's okay, I'll call you Santos. I hired you. ”