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Zheng Haizhu walked out of the alley and hurried to the official post along the edge of the sea pond.

Turning around a tax gate that had just opened, he was confronted by a group of soldiers wearing armor and knives.

Zheng Haizhu glanced at it, and the person in it was actually a civil official wearing a scarlet robe with a cloud goose embroidered on the patch on his chest.

Although Yuegang's commercial and military status is important, it is administratively a small county town, and the largest magistrate is only a magistrate in a blue robe.

Zheng Haizhu, who had been informed by Ma Xianglin of the reception banquet in advance yesterday, immediately realized that the red-robed official should be Cai Feng, the deputy envoy of Fujian Patrol Road who stayed to contact Liu Shimin, and the official residence of the fourth grade.

Zheng Haizhu hurriedly retreated to the side of the road, squatted for a thousand blessings, and his heart slowed down after an instantaneous acceleration of beating.

This Cai Feng seems to be patrolling, if he is really as vigilant as Ma Xianglin is vigilant, and pays special attention to himself, then it is time to find out whether he has a relationship with the Zheng family.

Facing him alone, it's better than the shrewd and spicy father-in-law Liu is also present.

When Zheng Haizhu's thoughts were flying, he saw the pair of official boots and stopped in front of him.

"Are you, a Songjiang cotton merchant who came with Grandpa Liu?"

Cai Feng opened his mouth to ask, his tone was tinged with the solemnity of a four-rank civil official, and there was a hint of kindness that recognized Gonggong Liu's followers, and there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Zheng Haizhu replied respectfully: "If you go back to patrol, the cotton merchant is the master of the grass people. The cotton towels blended in the house were favored by the Mongolian Weaving Bureau, and the grass people obeyed the instructions of the head of the family, and came south together to give the adults in the bureau a hand. ”

Cai Feng's gaze crossed behind Zheng Haizhu, looked at him for a moment, and asked, "Why is the girl not waiting at the official post?" ”

"Oh, the grass people are going to meet with their father-in-law today, because they are afraid of not knowing enough, so they first come to various wharves to learn the market customs. If this move does not conform to the rules of Yuegang, the grass people will return to the post station and ask Cai to patrol and forgive you once. ”

"Hehe," Cai Feng raised the sleeves of his robe and waved his hand with a smile, "Don't be shocked, the girl is just asking casually." When this official was first transferred to Fujian last year, just like you, he looked at these wharf cargo ships, which were very fresh. You, go back quickly, don't miss the major affairs of the court, then you will really have to be punished. ”

After that, the majestic patrol officer walked forward with a group of soldiers.

Zheng Haizhu, like a few fishermen around, bent his back and waited for a while before he dared to straighten up.

The exchange of just a few words made Zheng Haizhu a little more reassured.

Cai Feng spoke Cantonese official dialect with a heavy accent, and there was no Hokkien accent, so he should not be from the Zhangquan area. He also said that he had only been in Fujian for a year, and there was a high probability that he would not know Miss Azhu of the Zheng family in Longxi, who had never left the county.

But Zheng Haizhu had new doubts.

When Cai Feng raised the sleeves of his robe, Zheng Haizhu smelled a compound perfume.

It is not strange that there is incense on the robes of the dignitaries of the Ming Dynasty, but what makes Zheng Haizhu strange is that he can clearly distinguish that there is a lavender smell in the fragrance on Cai Feng's clothes.

Lavender, a plant that grows in Arabia and Europe, has not yet been introduced to China. Could it be that with the sea trade, the lavender compound perfume of foreigners has been introduced to the Ming Dynasty?

But whether it was in the Guangyue South Goods Store in Songjiang Mansion, or the big shops in Yuegang yesterday, Zheng Haizhu had never seen lavender spice packets or perfume bottles.

……

An hour later, at noon when the sun was the brightest, in the middle of the courtyard of the Yuegang Guanyi, Liu Shimin sat on the Taishi chair.

Haicheng Zhixian stood with his sleeves down, his face quite embarrassed.

He glanced at the red-haired foreigners beside him and cautiously explained to Liu Shimin: "Father-in-law, the lower official thought that the foreign businessman that the father-in-law wanted to talk about was a Francisian, but he didn't expect it to ......."

Liu Shimin stood up, paced a few steps forward, patted Zhixian on the shoulder with a pleasant face, and said softly, "It's not a big matter, it's okay, don't fall into official authority."

Then he turned to those foreigners and asked the interpreter to tell them that the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were loyal to their duties, and they had always been very vigilant about the strange faces who wanted to get close to the official post.

Under the elm tree in the courtyard, Zheng Haizhu, who had just arrived with a willow shelf with a baroque dress hung, asked Fan Poyu in a suppressed voice: "You put a handkerchief here just now, what happened?" ”

Fan Poyu covered his lips with his hands, and told in a low voice that the Hongyi people that Liu Gonggong had seen came on time, but they were stopped by some patrol officer at the dock outside the post station, and were not allowed to come in.

"Sister Azhu," Fan Poyu pointed to a banyan tree behind him, "I climbed up and looked, the red robe worn by the sea patrol officer was very unkind to General Ma." If you talk about official positions, is it General Ma who is big, or is the red robe big? ”

Zheng Haizhu said vaguely, "It should be bigger to patrol the sea road", but he muttered in his heart, today's Ming Dynasty is still the last year of Wanli, although it has become a common practice to use literature to control martial arts, but it is still a few years away from the absurdity of the three-rank military generals to kneel in the seven-rank imperial history, Ma Xianglin came with Gonggong Liu, Cai Feng, a civil official who has been mixed with the fourth grade, how can he be so impulsive and blind to the generals?

When we met at the beach in the morning, this man was quite peaceful.

Over there, the leader of several Dutchmen, a tall and burly red-haired middle-aged man, had already brushed away his sorrow, smiled all over his face, kept saluting Liu Shimin, and even led his companions to learn the gestures of Da Ming under the demonstration of the tooth man who also acted as an interpreter, looking respectful and enthusiastic.

Zheng Haizhu put aside his doubts about Cai Feng, and carefully looked at the Dutchman in front of him under the cover of distance.

After the opening of Longqing, out of the aftermath of the Jiajing Coastal Defense Edict, Yuegang forbade foreign ships and foreign merchants to enter the port for a long time, and only allowed the merchant ships that were obtained by the ship in Daming to carry silk, tea, ceramics and other goods out of the port accompanied by the government-run dental bank.

More than 40 years have passed, and no matter how strict the rules are, they are like long-worn robes, full of holes.

Several big families in Yuegang, after taking control of the Yaxing promised by the imperial court, had already tacitly agreed with the local governor to allow foreigners to hire Chinese merchant ships to enter the port, land in Haicheng County, and select public and private goods.

But Zheng Haizhu calculated the year, combined with what he saw and heard when he crossed over, he thought that the merchants who appeared in Yuegang were either Portuguese or Spaniards, but he didn't expect that when he saw it on the spot, there were already Dutch, and he didn't expect that the person who was pulled by Yaxing to see Liu Gonggong was also Dutch.

"Azhu, come."

Liu Shimin turned around and beckoned.

Zheng Haizhu led Fan Poyu and stepped forward generously, not squatting Wanfu, but arching his hand towards a few Dutchmen.

Before the red-haired middle-aged man in the lead put away the surprise in his eyes, Zheng Haizhu had already politely asked, "Dutdia Pany, Geor?" ”

At this moment, the middle-aged foreigner's mouth, which was just about to close, opened wider, and tried to spit out the Chinese that he didn't know who he learned from, word by word: "You, know, Lord Cohen?" ”

Zheng Haizhu knew that she had the right temptation.

First, the Netherlands, which had just been freed from Spanish rule, became the first capitalist-supported regime in the world, and those sea coachmen who came out to roam did understand English.

Second, I am indeed not mistaken, the current governor of the Dutch East India Company is the colonial trafficker who swept through the Asian seas with the support of capital, defeated Spain and Portugal, and occupied Sri Lanka, Bengal, Siam and even Tai Bay, Cohen.