"Dear Queen Mother, only a noble, elegant and beautiful lady like you in this world is qualified to own this kind of peerless treasure. It is my Portugal's honor that you can accept it!"
Rhodes performed an aristocratic etiquette towards Zhang Yan, who was aloof from above, and couldn't help but admire her from the bottom of his heart.
He had seen many queens and princesses in Europe, but compared with the Queen Mother of the Ming Dynasty, those queens and princesses were simply servants.
And this magnificent palace and this magnificent hall also made him feel a little dazed, as if he was in a fairyland.
It’s no wonder that Rhodes lost his temper. After the Renaissance and the Great Navigation, Europe has indeed surpassed the Ming Dynasty in terms of thought and academics, and some technologies are also ahead of the Italian Ming Dynasty.
But after all, the time was too short. In other aspects, it was far from being comparable to the Ming Dynasty, a country with five thousand years of civilization. In terms of etiquette and clothing, it was by no means comparable to Europeans.
The so-called aristocratic etiquette in Europe was simply a symbol of barbarism in the eyes of the scholar-bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty.
But when Zuo Liangyu saw this red-haired ghost staring at the Queen Mother and saying such words, he immediately became furious and jumped out.
"Be bold!"
Although other civil servants and generals did not reprimand him out loud, they also had angry looks on their faces, thinking that this guy was too rude and was blaspheming the Queen Mother.
Rhodes also realized that this was the Ming Dynasty, not Europe, and this lofty Queen Mother was not the princesses in Europe.
My words and deeds just now may have offended the noble Queen Mother. Seeing everyone staring at me with anger, I was so scared that I trembled all over.
"Dear Queen Mother, please forgive me for my rudeness just now..."
"It doesn't matter. Foreign envoys don't know the etiquette of our Ming Dynasty. Those who don't know it will not be guilty."
Zhang Yan also couldn't stand this kind of naked praise. She frowned slightly, but she didn't get angry. Instead, she waved her hand and asked Zuo Liangyu to step back.
However, he did not intend to negotiate with the Portuguese envoy in person. After speaking, he was brought up and prepared for the Minister of Rites to negotiate with him.
Rhodes was also depressed. He didn't expect that he just praised him, looked at him twice, and was kicked out of the hall.
I really can’t understand. Aren’t beautiful things meant for people to appreciate?
After Rhodes was taken away, Zhang Yan conveyed Zhu Cihong's will.
That is, from now on, the Ming Dynasty will completely put down its pretense of being a superior country, and will not only trade with the Western countries on an equal footing, but also actively conduct exchanges with them in various aspects such as culture and commerce.
The reason why Zhu Cixiang made this decision was that the Chinese civilization had been dominated by one family for too long.
It has been so long that it has become completely blind, arrogant and arrogant. It is precisely because of this that for more than two thousand years, civilization has never made leaps and bounds. Instead, it has become more and more self-contained.
Although there are a very small number of sober people with open minds and broad vision, in this environment, they will eventually be wiped out by the public and will not be of much use.
That's why Zhu Cixiang wanted to trade on an equal footing with Western countries and strengthen exchanges, so that the scholar-bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty could wake up and let them know that in addition to Chinese civilization, there was also a Western civilization.
With the exchanges between the East and the West, with reference, those knowledgeable people will naturally realize the shortcomings and shortcomings of Chinese civilization itself, and then they will completely put down their airs and think about improving these problems.
This is much stronger than his forced ideological reform.
As for the Portuguese in Macau, civilians and merchants can still live and do business in Macau, but they must accept the management of the Ming Dynasty.
However, considering the differences in cultural customs, they are allowed to manage themselves in the form of civil societies as long as it does not violate the laws of the Ming Dynasty, but the taxes they should pay must not be less.
As for the army and officials, a consular area will be set aside in Nanjing to be stationed for a long time, and the governor will be changed to the Portuguese ambassador to the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, considering the harsh living environment at sea today, it is somewhat unrealistic not to allow merchant ships from various countries to carry weapons into the port. After all, the merchant ships of the three countries are now armed merchant ships.
In order to better develop trade, Zhu Cixi stipulated that Portuguese merchant ships could temporarily carry weapons and enter the Ming Dynasty's treaty ports, but they must report in advance when entering the port.
If warships and soldiers want to enter the port, they must lower the national flag. Except for soldiers in the embassy, other soldiers who want to disembark and enter the Ming Dynasty cannot wear military uniforms or carry weapons.
There was nothing Zhu Cihong could do to do this. Forget about the Netherlands and Spain. They had colonies and ports in Southeast Asia, but Portugal had none. If Portuguese warships were not allowed to enter the port, they might not even have a place to stay.
What's more, in this era, there was actually little difference between the warships and armed merchant ships of the three countries. If the Portuguese warships were not allowed to enter the port with the merchant ships to escort them, they would definitely be robbed by the Dutch and Spanish.
Before the Ming Dynasty navy could not provide enough strength, Zhu Cixi could only relax the policy to the maximum extent in order to maintain the stability of trade.
After all, the Ming Dynasty was definitely the beneficiary of the trade between the two sides. Eighty percent of the money mined by the three countries from squeezing slaves in America and Africa was shipped directly across the Pacific to Southeast Asia, and was eventually used to purchase porcelain, silk, tea and other supplies from the Ming Dynasty.
It can be said that in the next one or two hundred years, at least half of the huge wealth gained by European voyages will eventually flow to China.
Because Europeans are already inseparable from Chinese silk and porcelain, but their products have never been able to enter the Chinese market on a large scale.
If China's gentry and landowners didn't like to bury their money in the ground, inflation would have occurred and the economy would have collapsed.
Given the current situation of the Ming Dynasty navy and maritime merchants, it is not realistic to travel across the oceans to Europe for active trade. Therefore, for a long time, we can only rely on the three countries to actively trade.
Of course, the initiative in this kind of maritime trade must be held in his own hands, so Zhu Cihong planned to take four steps.
The first step is to trade with the three countries on an equal footing and allow merchant ships and warships from the three countries to enter China's trading ports. All it takes is to take back Dongfan Island and teach the Dutch a lesson.
The second step is when the Ming Dynasty's navy, shipbuilding industry, and navigation industry have gained some scale and experience, they will seize the Nanyang and expel the forces of the three countries from the Nanyang. The two sides will trade in the Indian Ocean, and the merchant ships of both sides will go their own way.
half.
The third step is to seize the entire Indian Ocean. The two sides will trade in Egypt and build canals to connect the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.
The fourth step is to completely control global trade.
Zhu Cixiang planned to complete these four steps in his lifetime. Each step will match the national power and maritime power of the Ming Dynasty and will not affect the exchanges and trade between the East and the West.
Simple and crude expansion and blind colonization will not have much effect on the overall development and progress of Chinese civilization.
Because Chinese civilization is a whole, while the West is a piece of fragmented sand, the two civilizations cannot be the same.