In those days, Portugal had a name that was very difficult to pronounce: Franco.
Regarding the origin of this name, there is a popular saying that it is a misunderstanding of Frank by Easterners and is used to refer to all Europeans. When it comes to this, both Bai Langguan and Marco Polo burst into tears, because of their experiences,
Completely ignored by Eastern peoples.
The emperor of the Ming Dynasty first came into contact with Europeans. According to official historical records, it was the Portuguese Pilaizi ten years later. In 1518, after bribing Jiang Bin, he met Zhu Houzhao who was on a tour of the south.
However, the person Zhu Shou met today was not Pillaizi, but a Portuguese man named Xavi Alvarez Cabral. This man is not famous, but his brother is, Pede
Roberto Alvarez Cabral, the great navigator who discovered Brazil.
Savvy, who is thirty-eight years old this year, is one of the many heirs of the Cabral family. His entire wealth, converted into Ming currency, is probably less than twenty taels of silver.
But all Cabrals have one thing in common: they never give up.
Savvy is proficient in Western swordsmanship and navigation, and is very skilled and well-spoken. He once studied at Prince Enrique's Sagres Navigation School for several years and systematically studied navigation science and technology.
In 1500, King Manuel I of Portugal sent Pedro to command a fleet of thirteen ships and more than 1,200 people, setting off from Lisbon to India. Savvy seized this opportunity and went to sea with his brother.
After discovering Brazil and declaring its occupation, he arrived in Calicut, India, in September 1500.
"On the other side of the continent, at the end of the sea, there is a rich empire. It is full of gold. Even the roads and bridges are made of gold. Their emperor has tens of thousands of wives.
Their ministers have hundreds of darling wives, and their common people can also eat meat and bread for every meal, wear cotton and silk, and use ceramics. Even their toilets are made of smooth white porcelain!
"
Savvy heard this from an old Indian sailor. It is said that decades ago, the emperor of that empire once sent a general to lead a boundless fleet passing here.
"Those ships," the old sailor said with emotion, "you saw the mountain outside the city. The ships were taller and bigger than the mountain. They could race horses very fast on them! There were disobedient kings along the way, and they were all killed.
The general was caught on the ship and sent back to the empire to be beheaded."
This is bragging! This must be bragging! This was Savi's first reaction. How could there be a ship as big as a mountain? Isn't that ten times bigger than their largest flagship?
If there really was such a big ship, it would have unified the four seas long ago. He had just come out of Brazil and knew that the continent must have never been conquered and was as pure as a virgin.
However, regarding the old sailor's previous words, he really believed that the stories circulated in Europe for hundreds of years were all about the power and prosperity of the ancient empire in the East. Even the Pope once sent special envoys to the East.
Savvy, a descendant of the declining aristocracy, had a raging fire in his heart: I want to go to the east, all the way east, across the sea, to the place where there are countless women, gold, ceramics and silk!
Pedro poured cold water on his younger brother: "Stop dreaming, we are here to wipe Vasco da Gama's butt. Didn't you see that all his contacts in India were killed? Our fleet also encountered those
The siege of the natives, if you want to go east, I am afraid you will die in the sea before you can find that empire."
Savi replied firmly: "I have no money anymore, and I haven't made any money in India. Even if I go back to Europe, I will live on the streets sooner or later. It is better to take this life and go to the East to gamble my luck."
Pedro couldn't bear the death of his younger brother, but he was also unwilling to give up part of his power, so he had to give Savi a false position as the king's envoy, and then entrusted a maritime merchant from Malacca to send Savi to Manchuria.
Lajia, as for how Savvy got from Manluca to the Ming Empire, that is not a problem that Pedro can solve...
At this time, the Portuguese were deliberately trying to expand their colonies. Manchuria and other places were their next target of conquest. Therefore, Savi had another important task when he went east this time, which was to reconnoiter the geography of Manchuria.
situation.
Two years later, when Vasco da Gama once again led twenty-nine warships to reconquer Calicut, Savi had already done a lot of work in Malacca to accumulate funds to go to the Ming Dynasty.
The struggle history of the down-and-out nobleman Savi is actually the struggle history of many Portuguese people in the early 16th century.
Vasco da Gama's military victory in India undoubtedly gave Savi, who was in Manchuria, strong self-confidence. Although his status as the king's envoy was not valuable, it at least gave him some confidence.
In the second year of Zhengde, that is, 1507, Savi worked hard in Manchuria for six years, and finally got a merchant ship from the Ming Dynasty!
This year, Zhu Shou opened twenty treaty ports, and countless warships of the Ming Dynasty smuggling group were put on the table. The powerful organization of thieves and traders allowed the smuggling groups to quickly sweep across the entire Southeast Asian waters, and countless smuggling groups emerged.
Heroic deeds.
The Ming Dynasty became the masters of the South China Sea. The hard-pressed Sawi finally found a savior. With the power of the Portuguese caravan, he gained the trust of Mahmoud Shah, the last Sultan of the Manchurian Dynasty, and represented Portugal and Manchuria.
He went to Quanzhou on the pirate ship of Ming Dynasty merchants.
In October of the second year of Zhengde, Savi, who had been on the road for seven or eight years, finally made it from India to the Ming Empire. However, the high-spirited aristocratic young man seven years ago had long since become a scheming middle-aged man.
As for the empire full of gold, Savi also knew that it was nonsense. The only thing that was still burning in his heart was to be able to see the emperor of Ming Dynasty. This was his only chance to make a comeback.
The two identities of being the special envoy of the Frankish Empire in the West and the tribute envoy of the Kingdom of Manchuria made Quanzhou Donghai Company a treasure. The eunuch Luo Xiang, the chairman of the board of directors of Donghai Company in Fuzhou, put aside his strange habit of playing with his wife, and personally
Send Savi to the capital.
Who said that opening up the sea would be harmful but useless?
Look, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, have there been special envoys from the great Western empires, oh, no, tribute envoys? Eunuch Luo feels that this gift will definitely make Zhu Shou happier than the countless silver sent into the inner treasury every month
.
Besides, it’s been a long time since I’ve been back to the capital. I have to go back and flatter me, otherwise I’ll only see money but no people. No matter how deep the friendship is, it will be overthrown by those seven bastards. Boss Liu and the others have always been jealous of our position.
.
"From now on, you are the tribute envoy of the Franco Kingdom!" Eunuch Luo snorted from his nostrils.
Damn, you barbarians, how dare you claim to be emperor? When the group of treacherous civil servants are wiped out one day, I will learn from the three treasure eunuchs, personally raise the troops, go to your Franji, capture your king, and lock him up in the capital to be a monkey.
, let Long Live Lord be happy.
Although Savi was a foreigner, his ability to observe words and emotions was definitely not inferior to that of the Ming Dynasty's bureaucrats. Naturally, he knelt down and proclaimed himself a vassal, returning Portugal, which was originally a kingdom, to its own position.
Although Eunuch Luo didn't know how far away Franco was, Zhu Shou knew it. He was familiar with the Age of Discovery, and when he heard the word Franco, he immediately thought: This damn isn't true!
Then I thought again, I've traveled through time and become an emperor, what else can't happen? Twenty treaty ports were opened, and those who smelled the smell of blood were not just the smuggling groups, but also the Portuguese who had already invaded India, guess what?
The time has come.
So when Savi knelt down ten feet away from the dragon throne in his strange accent and shouted long live, an indescribable feeling emerged in Zhu Shou's heart.
I finally changed history!….
Savi did not speak fluent Chinese, so he had to rely on an interpreter from Manchuria to first translate into Manchurian, and then an interpreter hired by Luo Xiang in Fuzhou to translate Manchurian into Chinese before Zhu Shou could listen.
Understand what this Franconian is talking about.
Moreover, there was a set of cumbersome procedures for the emperor to receive foreign tribute envoys. Even if Zhu Shou had changed the meeting place to the New Leopard Room instead of the palace in the Forbidden City, this procedure was only a little simplified.
The emperor's etiquette is one of the unique cultures of China. All dynasties have attached great importance to this aspect, especially when receiving foreign guests.
This simplified version of the program fell into Savi's eyes, and it was a ritual war.
Not to mention the extremely luxurious decoration of the New Leopard Room, but also the palace maids waiting on the side, all of them are extremely beautiful. It is no wonder that after staying in a place like Manlajia for several years, everything I see is...
A dark-skinned woman would be shocked if she even saw a fair-skinned and beautiful woman, let alone the palace maid next to the emperor.
Sa Wei knelt on the ground and touched the floor tiles specially made by Suzhou Prefecture. They were smooth and cold. He knew that these tiles were worth their weight in gold, and no one except the emperor would dare to use them.
It was a major crime that killed the nine tribes.
Having been in the Ming Dynasty for several months, he has seen both impoverished people's houses and luxurious rich houses; he has seen scrawny hungry people and fat gentry.
This is true all over the world, whether it is Europe, India, or even the Ming Dynasty, everywhere there are people who are poor and helpless, and there are also people who are as rich as the country.
"The emperor heard that you came from thousands of miles away. I wonder how much time you spent on the road?" The words of Manlajia's interpreter came to his ears. This dark and thin short man was kneeling next to Savi.
, his body was covered with sweat, and even his voice was shaking.
The emperor's words coming from ten feet away first passed through three officials of the Ministry of Rites, who translated Zhu Shou's verbal words and decrees into written classical Chinese, with such gorgeous rhetoric that the literary youth vomited blood.
Then it passes through the officials of Honglu Temple and is passed to the interpreter hired in Fuzhou. From the Fuzhou interpreter to the Manlajia interpreter, it can finally be understood by Savi. There cannot be a single mistake in the middle. If someone accidentally makes a mistake,
Wrong, what awaits him is that he will be immediately pushed out of the Meridian Gate and beheaded.
And these people all knelt in a row, far away from the emperor, with several Han generals, eunuchs and maids in between.
What is pomp? This is pomp! The pomp of the emperor of the first empire in the world!
Savi did not dare to raise his head and replied respectfully: "Eight years!"
Zhu Shou was a little moved. Look, what a good comrade it was. It took him eight years to walk from Lisbon to Beijing. He decided to reward this guy generously and buy a horse bone with thousands of gold.
If you plant one Portuguese in the spring, you may harvest a large group of Portuguese in the fall.