Chapter 2172 Flower Struggle (80)

Portugal has a parliament in Macao. Unlike the British colonial parliament in the United States, this parliament gradually weakened with the accession of Queen Maria I of Portugal and the outbreak of the American War. Correspondingly, the power of the Governor of Macao continued to expand, and the authority of the parliament continued to expand.

It is severely restricted that members of the Parliament are only responsible for the government affairs of Macau under the jurisdiction of the Governor, and all defense and law are responsible for the Governor of Macau.

There is a Portuguese stone tablet in front of the Parliament. Nick has seen it before when he traveled in other countries. For example, the one in Angola has the following words written on it:

In the 6681st year from the foundation of the world, and in the 1482nd year since the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most noble, distinguished and powerful monarch, King Joao II of Portugal, sent his gentleman of the court, Diogo Con, to discover this land and

Erect this stone monument.

This stone monument standing in Angola was actually erected in 1483, but it was carved in Portugal and placed on the ship by the expedition team. It was erected after nearly a year of travel. Diogo Kahn's mission

He led the fleet south along the coast of Africa to find a sea route to India.

At that time, Portugal was a small and poor country, excluded from European affairs. The Portuguese royal family was in great need of gold and spices, so they proposed to Jiaohuang to carry out such a voyage plan, describing it as a crusade. The royal family of Aves used Catholicism to

As a monarch, seeking legitimacy on the European stage, he could obtain financial and legal authorization from the Pope.

In China, there is no pope to be crowned, and the legitimacy of the emperor's power is supported by other things. In the middle period of Emperor Qianlong's reign, in order to maintain social stability, he deliberately created many unjust cases. This may be difficult for many people to understand. It was obvious that turmoil occurred because of the soul-calling case and the literary inquisition.

, why does it maintain stability instead?

This approach can prevent people from talking nonsense and imprison people's thoughts to a certain extent. Everyone is equal under the oppression of imperial power.

The vassal states that paid tribute to the Celestial Empire did not live in peace with each other. The first monarch the Portuguese came into contact with in the East was Vasco da Gama. Like Zheng He, he was eventually buried in Calicut. The ruler of this city at that time was Zamorin.

, he said to Vasco da Gama, since you come from a rich country, why don't you bring gifts? Where is the king's letter?

Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty had been to India. Although he had not been to Calicut, the story of him taking the customs clearance disk to the West to seek Buddhist scriptures has spread widely. Moreover, Zheng He also led the Xingcha fleet when he landed.

The emperor's edict will be read out.

Although Calicut is not in the tribute system, Zamorin knows "etiquette", and Vasco da Gama knows nothing, which makes him have to adapt to the situation and answer that this is a journey of exploration, and there will be more journeys in the future.

Bring more gifts.

There was a gilded Virgin Mary statue on the ship. Zamorin asked da Gama for it, but da Gama refused and insisted that it was made of wood. This made the atmosphere very tense when returning to the ship. When da Gama walked along the

An unpleasant attack occurred while crossing the Cape of Good Hope along the new route discovered by Dias. They landed in an open bay and used this opportunity to repair the ship, hunt for meat, and replenish fresh water. They recorded accurate records with an astrolabe.

s position.

The waves on the sea made it impossible to use an astrolabe. This was also the measurement tool Nick lacked on that isolated island. Here the Portuguese met the indigenous people. They were not friendly, and the Portuguese crew did not carry weapons when they came ashore.

, the two sides finally clashed, and Vasco da Gama was slightly injured by a native thorn.

It took them six days in the storm to successfully round the Cape of Good Hope. When they passed by the bay where Vasco da Gama was attacked again, they showed off their force, wearing breastplates and crossbows, ready to go. Then they landed again and placed a stone tablet similar to that of Angora.

Similar stone monuments were erected on the beach.

A few days later, the Portuguese, fearing an ambush, fired from the ship with their breech-mounted swivel cannon and drove away the natives on the shore. When they left the ship, they found that the natives were tearing down the stone monuments and crosses they had recently erected in order to vent their anger.

, while the Portuguese were sailing, they used cannon to bombard a group of seals and flightless penguins.

"What's the matter?" asked Bonaparte.

"The Cape of Good Hope is in the tropics, right?" Georgiana asked. "Are there penguins in the tropics?"

"Do you think there are no penguins in the tropics?" Bonaparte asked her strangely.

"Have it?"

He laughed.

She knew her expression at that time must have been stupid, but she still couldn't help but think, weren't penguins only found in the ice and snow of Antarctica?

According to Diaz's records, in order to go east around the Cape of Good Hope, they had to sail west for a while, so that the wind would help them. In 1483, while Kang was exploring south along the coast of Africa, Columbus came to the Lisbon court and proposed

He bypasses Japan and reaches the spice country of India with a new plan.

John II had known about his plan before that. Toscanelli, the famous Florentine mathematician and cosmologist, gave him a letter and a map. When most people in Europe thought that the earth was flat,

At that time, he believed that the earth was round, so India could be reached whether going west or east. But he made a fundamental mistake and underestimated the circumference of the earth. Columbus may have known the content of this letter, or perhaps

Having a copy of it, he asked the king to give him enough resources to try it, and the king said he would wait until Kang returned before answering Columbus.

Kang returned to Lisbon in 1484. He found the end of the African continent, but not the end of the world, and brought back reports about the extension of the African coast to the east. This meant that Columbus's hope was shattered, so Columbus went to Spain to lobby.

Isabella and Ferdinand used the rivalry between Spain and Portugal to lobby for their plans, and the Portuguese set sail again with more pillars.

These stone pillars are all over the African continent and continue along the coastline until Macau. However, the stone monument in Macau was inserted after Vasco da Gama. The discovery of da Gama’s route will mean that Venice and Genoa lose their monopoly on spices. This will

Threaten the interests of trade routes through the Red Sea, so they will do their best to undermine the Portuguese efforts.

Vasco da Gama had a Venetian spy in his fleet. A man with knowledge of the monsoons would never have sailed west in October. This terrible mistake caused da Gama's fleet to veer off course 600 miles after leaving India, and it was even worse.

What they encountered was a windless calm, which meant that the ship was motionless on the sea like molten zinc, and the stored fresh water gradually became smelly. In order to prevent the ship's wood from being cracked by the sun and making the ship unable to sail, they must

Keep pouring water on the board.

When people's despair was approaching its peak, a favorable east wind suddenly blew. For six days, the battered Portuguese fleet sighted the coast of Africa. It only took them twenty-three days to sail from Africa to India, but it took them 93 days to return.

The secrets of the monsoon can only be learned the hard way.

This is also the weakness of European sailing ships. If there is no wind, they lose power. Venice uses paddle boats, and the Chinese navy also has them. They can still have power when there is no wind, but this kind of ship is difficult to sail across the ocean.

The season and wind direction have a great influence. In summer, the southeast wind will blow along the coast of China. It is not suitable to go north at this time.

There are many typhoons in summer in China. Chinese sailboats have bamboo poles and are very suitable for wind resistance, although the speed is affected. European sailboats do not have such wind resistance, so they must be anchored in a harbor.

The Spanish galleon is characterized by its towering bow and stern decks, which allows two ships to jam each other side by side during naval battles and easily board enemy ships. Its scary castle shape also plays a deterrent effect, but they

The wind receiving area is too large, which also means that it can sail against the wind.

The Spaniards regarded warships as floating fortresses carrying armies, as did the Portuguese, who were the first to design such sailing ships. The British were unwilling to waste space and manpower on ships to carry land troops who did not understand naval warfare. They preferred

Rely on the broadside guns, and train your sailors to leave their positions or cast down rigging, wield lances and swords, board enemy ships, or try to drive the enemy away from your own ships.

The reason why the "Country ship" is daunting is that it has a ship tower that is higher than the sea. This height cannot be climbed by pirates with bare hands.

It is said that the "stars" of Zheng He's fleet were also very large, but they had disappeared for a long time when Vasco da Gama arrived in the Indian Ocean, leaving a power vacuum in the Indian Ocean that needed to be filled. Unfortunately, the exchanges between the Portuguese and Zamorin became

It was getting colder and colder. What Vasco da Gama didn't understand was that all merchants had to pay port taxes, and the pitiful goods they left on the shore were not even considered collateral, except for the gilded statue of the Virgin.

During the negotiation process, the two sides forged a grudge. When the Portuguese ships were unable to move because of the calm sea, the Calicuts chased them. The Portuguese shot stones to drive them away. At this time, an east wind and a storm appeared and blew them away.

Towards Africa.

The ability to build large ships is seen as a show of strength. Nick remembers Guo Xuexian's large ship, but it did not appear in the harbor of Hong Kong.

Small sailing boats also have their advantages, such as speed and agility, just like the piranhas of South America.

Nick could not forget the pirate who killed a big rooster and drank its blood as medicine. He said that he met the Forbidden Woman, a legendary monster in the South Sea. It was very dangerous and had long, black hair.

, it will be poisoned if touched.

European sailors have legends about the songs of mermaids. If you listen to their songs and are attracted by their beautiful appearance, you may suffer misfortune.

Therefore, sailors would survey and map every strange place they visited, using plumb lines to measure the reefs, and astrolabes to determine the longitude and latitude. They also recorded the local customs, whether there was fresh water, or other edible animals and plants.

Maps are storybooks for explorers and travelers. In the eyes of many people, these maps carry the temptation of gold, not only the rich resources along the coast, but also the treasure troves of pirates. The pirates must have a secret hideout that is not known to anyone.

, where the treasures he plundered were hidden.

The port is always full of exoticism and vitality. Lisbon in the 15th century was not just spices, parrots and sugar, it was also the frontier of navigation and cosmology. There was also a golden map there, and you could meet sailors there, who would tell people who were passing by.

People describe their thrilling stories of narrow escapes from death.

In 1493, Spain and Portugal held a meeting in a small town to bargain for the partition of the world. They wanted to draw a straight line from the North Pole to the South Pole, dividing the Atlantic Ocean into two, that is, moving the Papal Meridian to a new location. John II and his

The astronomers, who may have been more experienced and capable, drew a line between Cape Verde occupied by Portugal and the Caribbean Islands discovered by Columbus, accurately bringing the Brazilian coast into Portugal's sphere of influence.

If Spain had a more accurate map, or more accurate coordinates, it might not agree, so the dispute over this line continued until 1777.

Scientists participated in political struggles based on the interests of the secular state. Francis I sarcastically said, "Let me see if this is written in Adam's will."

In fact, in the Qing Dynasty, Zheng He also went to sea on the emperor's order, but he was not a eunuch, but Fan Yu, the governor of Guangdong. He once rode the monsoon to Japan and exchanged silk and other items for a large amount of copper ingots to be used in the Jungar War.

need.

There is a kind of stationery called "Water Prime Minister", which is a container specially used to hold water for grinding ink. However, copper is very strong, and both lake brushes and ordinary brushes will become brittle after being soaked. Therefore, "Water Prime Minister" can only be made of ceramics.

The Fan family was a well-known "imperial merchant". Because they were losing money in copper business, they used the profits from Changlu salt to make up for the shortfall. Later, they also lost money on salt, which led to them becoming insolvent and owing more than 1.5 million taels of silver. Fan

This was the end of his career as an imperial merchant, but Juren never thought that it had anything to do with him at that time.

The astrolabe was used by navigators to determine directions, and by astrologers to predict fate. The astrologers also chose an auspicious day when Vasco da Gama traveled.

"It's obvious that he didn't calculate correctly," Bonaparte said sarcastically.

Nick had seen local fishermen catch fish. They would put a collar around the cormorants' necks so that they could not swallow the fish they caught and could still breathe normally. There was also a string on the collar to prevent the cormorants from returning to the boat if they forgot to do so.

When it happens, they use strings to pull it back, and then the fishermen will let them stand on both sides of the boat to keep the boat balanced.

This fishing method is much better than fishermen using denser and denser nets. After all, they catch relatively large fish, and the fishing net does not even let out the fry.

There are very few fish in the Pearl River, so fishermen can only go out to sea, where they are easy to encounter, so pirates hide in this fishing port.

At the same time, it was also the "people" who reported the matter to the government. Juren took the opportunity to tell Nick the story of "Shui" and "Jun", but Nick did not agree with him very much.

Calm is not always good, and Vasco da Gama's fleet was delighted when the storm came, which not only brought fresh water, but also a favorable wind.

For at least seven or eight hours, Nick didn't know what to do, even though he didn't come voluntarily.

He wandered aimlessly and finally found the medical team, who were preparing the "golden sore medicine", and Nick joined them.

He was self-aware that his Spanish folding knife would be difficult to use in a naval battle, although he felt that the battle was probably a bluff and could not be fought at all.
Chapter completed!