Chapter 177 The You’re Welcome Envoy of Ming Dynasty
Information cocoon rooms are everywhere.
The courtiers built an information cocoon to deceive the Holy One; the Holy One united with the Ming Dynasty to form an information cocoon monopoly over the subordinates; the Ming Dynasty relied on the information cocoon of granular gunpowder and the confidentiality mechanism to ensure that The Ming Dynasty had the advantage of firearms; the Ming Gongs of the Ming Dynasty used their power to interpret knowledge to further deconstruct the teachings of saints and monopolize local power.
This kind of information cocoon is everywhere. It seems to have impenetrable barriers to ensure that information cannot be effectively transmitted. However, the universal connection between infinite things makes the news in the information cocoon, Spreading around silently.
Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan know nothing about the Atlantic Ocean outside the information cocoon. They will soon see the cruelty and terrifying power of nature. The violent Atlantic Ocean will make them Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan will remember their lives.
Gao Qiyu, Xu Fan and others boarded new ships, from three ships to five. This kind of sailing ship was only five feet, eight feet and five inches. It was probably a four-masted ocean crossing ship rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty. A quarter of the ship's size, the width is only one foot and eight feet, the length-to-width ratio is 3.25:1, and the draft is one foot and two feet. It is a three-masted sailing ship called a Galen ship.
"You have seen this terrible and terrible hygiene. Father God, why do creatures like rats and fleas exist in the world?" Antonio looked at the rat that did not avoid people at all, with a painful look on his face. , these rats brought many diseases to the New Spanish world, and these diseases claimed the lives of the indigenous people again and again.
“Why do we need to change to a small boat? Are small boats safer?” Gao Qiyu can understand the choice of land route to save water, but he doesn’t understand why not to use a big boat.
"Because big ships are expensive, ships are expensive, and the goods that sink in big ships are expensive. We use small boats to share the risk. If we choose between profit and life, profit is obviously more expensive than life." Antonio said A silencing statement.
Gao Qiyu couldn't help but think of the little emperor's words: One punch costs three cents, ten punches cost fifty cents, and killing a person costs one tael of silver, or even one tael of silver is not used. No one will punish anyone if he kills someone. If you cover up the consequences for others and do evil without knowing it, then there is no such thing as being rich and polite.
When human life is marked with a price, and even marking a price becomes a luxury, is there any order in the world?
Now, Gao Qiyu found that he had encountered such a thing. The past Confucianism was completely unable to explain this extreme phenomenon, and a new methodology needed to be used to explain this problem.
As it happens, his former husband Zhang Juzheng had a methodology that could explain this phenomenon, the theory of contradiction.
Gao Qiyu still couldn't think clearly about what kind of contradiction caused this kind of collapse of etiquette and joy.
Soon he could no longer think.
As the ship set sail, the bumps in the Atlantic Ocean were far beyond Gao Qiyu's imagination.
The wind was high and the sea was rough, and all the crew were desperately raising, lowering, reefing, and adjusting the sails. Antonio couldn't care about things like mice. Sweat, rain, and sea water were mixed together, and people were confused. It's like being grabbed by a huge force and swinging back and forth. The person is still there, but the soul has flown away.
This is a brand new experience for Ming people such as Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan.
Gao Qiyu thought he had completely adapted to sea navigation, but only after boarding this ship did he realize what seasickness was.
He couldn't even drink water. Twelve hours after sailing, he drank water for the first time. Twenty-eight hours after sailing, Gao Qiyu started eating for the first time. Xu Fan The situation was similar. Even the experienced sailors were vomiting in confusion. The situation was a little better than Gao Qiyu.
In this kind of windy and rough weather, the most difficult thing is to control the ships. The wind is too strong. The continuous strong winds make the five ships difficult to control like wild horses. The trade wind is very unstable, and the ships seem to be drifting. It seems to be moving forward, but it also seems to be retreating, especially above the ocean, it is even more difficult to tell.
Everything depends on the captain's command.
The ship kept making various squeaking sounds in the strong wind and waves. It seemed that the next moment, the ship would fall apart in the wind and waves.
On only the third day after departure, water leakage occurred on a ship. Then Gao Qiyu watched the ship helplessly. After struggling for a day, it began to fall behind, although the remaining ships tried several times to They came close, but ultimately failed, and some crew members jumped into the ocean out of desperation, and were subsequently drowned by wind and waves.
The ship sank.
Antonio’s face became extremely different. He was extremely lucky in the Pacific. Two deviated ships still caught up with his flagship along the ocean current. He was particularly unlucky in the Atlantic. As soon as he set off, there was a The ship sank.
The sailors, whose names no one remembers, disappeared over the ocean with Antonio's cargo.
Ocean-trading trade is still an extremely dangerous thing nowadays. In comparison, people prefer the Lisbon-Cape Verde-Cape of Good Hope-Goa-Malacca-Macau-Nagasaki trade route. The road does not have to face the violent Atlantic Ocean; in comparison, the Indian Ocean is as gentle as a little girl.
Antonio's misfortune continued, and soon there was news of water leakage from another ship. This time, the black man on the bottom of the ship tried his best to block the leakage, so that he did not make the same mistake again. After stumbling, In , four ships arrived in Cape Verde after fifty-six days of sailing.
Cape Verde, the corner of freedom, as long as you have silver and gold, you can get anything you want here. This is a place that even God has abandoned. There is no courtesy, justice, integrity, order, or force at all. And money is the greatest violence and the greatest order.
The most popular products here are spirits, tobacco, women and slaves. The chaos here is order. Anyone may be sold at a clearly marked price. You can even see those black-haired aristocratic women. Every time they appear, they will Causing mad looting and firefights.
Cape Verde is divided into the Windward and Leeward Islands. The Windward Islands have an army of Francois, while the Leeward Islands are a paradise for pirates. They continue to rob and extort under various names. All the passing merchant ships and tall city walls have witnessed countless attacks and defenses in history. Almost all ports here have bastions deep into the ocean to protect the ports.
Almost all seaports have a specially built brothel, but the layout of these brothels is a series of cramped small rooms. Those gypsy women don't seem to mind their skin at all. Naked, they were naked, leaning on the railings to solicit customers without any scruples, and occasionally scolding some bitches for their prosperous business.
As soon as the crew got off the boat, they went straight to these brothels. The long voyage made them exhausted.
There are many legends circulating here. It is said that a pirate named Duguay Trouin once took 8,000 pirate ships composed of Frenchmen and slaves and captured a port in Portugal with 400 ships. , demanding a large ransom, which is a myth of force; it is said that someone here once dug up boxes of gold coins overseas, and those gold coins were obtained by pirates who robbed merchant ships. This is a myth of wealth.
Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan were completely unable to adapt to all this. Of course, Ming Dynasty also had a flesh and blood business, but the brothels of Ming Dynasty that Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan visited were all about the same style and atmosphere. Although the purpose was the same, they still had the same purpose. It has something to do with poetry and poetry.
But here, there is no scruple.
Antonio stayed here for nearly half a month. He had a wide range of contacts here. The goods he brought were sold to smugglers at an extremely high price, and then the ship was short-sold. The ship, in the ledger, became a tragedy that was buried in the ocean.
Antonio kept some of the silver coins in his own hands, and distributed the rest equally to all the sailors. If they all got the benefits, they would keep their mouths shut and would not report it to Felipe II.
Even the twenty-nine envoys Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan received a share.
In each portion, there were a total of three hundred and fifty-seven eight real silver coins, equivalent to about three hundred taels of silver.
Zhang Juzheng gave Feng Bao a red envelope for only one hundred taels of silver. One thousand taels of silver for the Quan Chu Guild Hall could last for one year, which meant that this dividend could support the Quan Chu Guild Hall for nine years.
“Facts have proved that tax collection is still reliable. Even if they refuse to pay, the inspection departments all over the Ming Dynasty can still inspect one or two. This kind of monopoly trade of official ships and official trade is itself a source of trouble for people. An opportunity to steal wealth." Xu Fan said in amazement. Antonio ate one of the four boats.
Gao Qiyu thought for a while, recorded this scene and said: "Felipe II should know this very well, so he only asked for his share of the benefits, the sunken ship , It is also in Antonio’s own interest, otherwise he, the captain, would not need to do it.”
“Similarly, the design of the watertight cabin is really important, so that even if there is water seepage, the ship will not sink and nothing will be recovered. "
In the Corner of Liberty, a place abandoned by God, Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan felt very bad. It was too dirty, with human and animal feces everywhere, and nearly 10,000 people crowded together. In the harbor fortress, the sanitary environment was so poor that plague could be seen everywhere.
In the Ming Dynasty, excrement could be sold for money. Even Song Gaozong, the first emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, made money by becoming a dung master!
Deshou's book is famous all over the world, and one ding is like a poem of three thousand. There is no need to ask more about the lantern brocade and the winged palace flag inserted into the dung boat.
Gao Qiyu stayed away from these people, fearing that he would catch some plague and never return to the Ming Dynasty. After half a month of waiting, Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan set sail again to Seville. Ya.
Seville is the trading home of the Indies, the distribution center for goods throughout New Spain and the New World. It contains almost all goods from the New World. The reason why it is called the Indies is because of a misunderstanding. .
When Columbus made his voyage, he thought he had arrived in India and called the people there Indians, so he called the New World Trading House the Indies Trading House.
Seville is extremely prosperous as the home of trading in the New World, which Antonio has repeatedly emphasized.
In the eyes of Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan, this kind of prosperity is just that, because the population is too small, with only 150,000 permanent residents. No matter how much Antonio praises the splendor of this city, in Gao Qiyu’s view, It's just a bigger city.
Machines are still not widely used in today's Thailand. Handicrafts are still the main mode of production. Handmade workshops are the most important industry and commerce, with only 150,000 people. No matter how developed its handicraft industry is, it can still be developed. Where have you been?
Take Linqing, Shandong Province as an example. In the 14th year of Zhengtong, the city wall of Linqing was nine miles. In the sixth year of Zhengde, it was expanded to 20 miles. In the 21st year of Jiajing, it was expanded again and the city wall was thirty miles. In the third year of Wanli, Linqing once again requested expansion, this time to a perimeter of forty miles.
Linqing is on the side of the canal, so there are not many merchants and gentry. According to general estimates, the siege of forty miles is about 300,000 people, but there are endless stretches of people outside Linqing. It is a grass market, so it should be more than 500,000, or even more.
According to the Yellow Book of Hongwu in the 26th year, Suzhou Prefecture governs 7 counties, with a total of 491,514 households and 2,355,030 people. The population of Suzhou City alone exceeds 1 million.
Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan did not have great expectations for the Trading House. After arriving, as Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan guessed, for Ming Dynasty, this place was indeed a small town.
Although the cathedral is indeed magnificent, compared with the Ming Dynasty's Glazed Pagoda, the cathedral is a bit worth mentioning.
There is a huge amount of gold and silver here, so prices are increasing at an incredible speed.
Gao Qiyu quickly discovered the source of these massive amounts of gold and silver.
The first one comes from central and western Thailand. The main producing areas are east of the Alps, Austria, Germany, Bohemia, and Saxony. The annual silver production in these places exceeds 2.75 million taels;
The second part comes from Portugal. What they brought back was gold from the coast of West Africa. This number has always been relatively confidential, and Antonio, the heir to the Portuguese throne, revealed this specific number. More than 125,000 taels of gold are brought back from West Africa every year;
The silver brought back from the New World exceeds 4 million taels every year. Calculating this, more than 10 million taels of silver appear on the ground throughout Europe and the West every year.
As far as Seville is concerned, the price of goods has soared more than four times in the past ten years. For Felipe II, this is The current situation was unacceptable. He had to find a way. Even if a large amount of silver was concentrated, it would be better than circulating it in commerce to make prices take off again.
So, the exquisite silk entered the New World Trade House, even though Felipe II and Antonio had tried their best to sell it at a terrible price. The price was so crazy that Antonio doubted that he would Won't screw up the errand.
Because Felipe II set the price of silk to be equal to gold.
But the sales of silk are still very good.
97,960 pieces of silk, one piece weighing about five and a half kilograms, with a total weight of 538,780 kilograms. The Ming Dynasty earned 1.23 million taels of silver from this batch of silk. This made everyone inside and outside the court feel happy, and Feili Pei II wants to sell them for a sky-high price, equivalent to gold!
Felipe II wants to sell 8.62 million taels of gold or equivalent silver.
After Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan got the news, they always felt that Felipe II was crazy, but soon Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan realized that the two Confucian scholars did not understand business transactions at all, and they did not understand the West at all.
Felipe II's silk sold very well, with 60 pieces sold on the first day, 120 pieces the next day, and then maintained at around 200 pieces, with a terrifying The silks were sold at a rapid pace.
Gao Qiyu doesn’t understand the West, let alone the current fashion of the West. With the fall of Constantinople, the fall of Rome, the end of the Middle Ages, and the arrival of the Renaissance, the entire West has There is a yearning for Rome, and the Romans admire silk very much. The silks of the West are neither exquisite nor durable, and the silks from the Ming Dynasty make the people of the West flock to them.
With the decline in sales, Felipe II gradually adjusted the price of silk. A month later, at the end of March in the fourth year of Wanli, the price of silk was still not sold by pieces, but by weight. In the end, it was as heavy as silver, and sales gradually stabilized. In other words, these 90,000 pieces of silk brought Felipe II at least more than 9 million taels of silver in income.
The price must be increased!
This is the biggest feeling of Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan. All their white money has been stolen by the red-haired fans. Isn’t this a crime?
How can it be done!
Felipe II received the envoys from the East with the highest etiquette of the Spanish royal family. Driven by the shepherd, 10,000 ibex came to Seville. Supported by the sheep, The Ming envoy went to Madrid, the capital of Spain.
The Spanish Empire is a kingdom on the back of a sheep. The welcome of these ten thousand sheep is indeed the highest etiquette in this country.
The Royal Palace of Aranjuez is located on the banks of the Tagus River. The river flows quietly under the cover of dense forests. The red and white walls are looming through the gaps in the trees. The first thing you see is the round tower, which is connected to the Mortars were placed on the city walls and round towers, and the black barrels were aimed at the direction in which the enemy might attack.
Gao Qiyu looked at the round tower and the city wall on the city wall. The city wall was divided into three layers. There were gunmen, archers, and a group of spearmen standing on it. This is a very interesting way to build a castle, Gao Qiyu Pay attention to the defensive capabilities of this castle.
Today is the day to meet guests at the Aranjuez Palace. Everyone is wearing the king's coat of arms and looks solemn.
Standing at the city gate to greet Gao Qiyu, Xu Fan and others was a general.
This strong man with a full head of black hair, deep eyes, and a tall nose said solemnly: "Dear envoy, please allow me to introduce myself as a special envoy to welcome the two envoys and The arrival of all the warriors."
"I am the brother of the Emperor on whom the sun never sets, Lord of the Dominion of Barcelona, the nightmare of the Barbary pirates, the fear of the Moors, the Commander-in-Chief of the Holy Alliance Navy, and the winner of the Battle of Lepanto. Don Juan, the great leader of the Knights of Ucles, the Lion of Castile, and the guardian of the Empire on which the sun never sets."
"I received a good education because of the nobility of my blood. , and I used the sword in my hand to guard the glory of the Empire and the Holy See.”
If you can understand this long list of titles, you can understand how powerful this person is.
He is the half-brother of Felipe II and the lord of Barcelona. He destroyed the Barbary pirates and put down the Moorish rebellion. In the Mediterranean war that changed the entire West, Lepanto In the naval battle, he was the commander-in-chief of the entire United Sacred Fleet of the West. He completely defeated the Ottoman invasion of the West. He was the head of the Spanish Knights of Uccles, a knight canonized by the Pope.
There is a lion on the coat of arms of the Spanish royal family, and that lion represents the Kingdom of Leon that makes up the Spanish Empire. He said that he is a lion, which represents his existence and maintains the peace of the province of Leon. .
The Empire on which the Sun Never Sets is the Spanish Empire, and the Guardian is the title given to his younger brother by Felipe II.
"Thank you to the noble emperor of the Ming Empire for the gift of goods, which has finally eased a price war that may have spread throughout Europe and the West." Tang Juan saluted again and solemnly thanked the envoy from afar.
The price war is due to the emergence of precious metals like a flood, which has caused prices to soar throughout Europe and the West, especially food prices, because everything is rising in price rapidly, and social conflicts are intensifying rapidly. People are trying to find ways to express their anger by gathering these precious metals and finding a flood outlet.
Felipe II was found, in the Ming Dynasty.
Antonio did not speak. He knew that the envoys of the Ming Dynasty could understand. In just three days in Seville, these Ming people figured out everything they wanted to know, even those who were big and round. The guards could also pass themselves off as descendants of Roman nobles with fluent Latin.
Antonio even thought in a wicked way that if these guards said that they were Constantine XI, the last emperor of Rome, a large number of people would believe that they were really Constantine XI.
Gao Qiyu looked at Tang Huan and nodded and said: "Hey! There are people from all over the world, and they are listening to one person's edict. But Your Majesty, I am willing to surrender to all people. If there is perseverance, Kesui will be the last to follow."< br>
When Antonio heard this, he was stunned for a long time and said: "High Messenger, can you say it again in words that I can understand? I don't understand what you said, and I don't know how to translate it."
Antonio is the general manager and is responsible for the translation work. Gao Qiyu's words immediately put Antonio to death.
If you open your mouth and shut up, you are talking incomprehensible words. How do you translate this!
Xu Fan thought for a while and said: "That is to say, all the people must obey the orders of one person, and that is Your Majesty. Your Majesty is good at all people in the world. You must obey the people's normal nature and enable them to live in peace. This is your Majesty's duty. That is to say, you need goods, and we need silver, so that everyone can live in peace, which is what your Majesty wants to see."
Xu Fan translated it carefully, and Antonio understood. Jili Guala translated a meal.
"You two distant envoys, do you know Latin?" As the commander-in-chief, Tang Juan could certainly see their communication. These Ming envoys could understand Latin.
Gao Qiyu and Xu Fan both nodded. They are envoys of the Ming Dynasty. In any formal occasion, they have to speak Chinese. This involves etiquette and law. The major events of the country are enshrined in Rong, even if they are numbers. Even if you are thousands of miles away, you cannot throw away etiquette.
"Please, you two, the emperor of the empire where the sun never sets has been waiting for your arrival." Tang Juan led a group of envoys into the castle.
Gao Qiyu, Xu Fan and Antonio discussed etiquette. In Spanish court ceremonies, only those who are loyal need to kneel down, and it is obviously impossible for the two envoys of the Ming Dynasty to be loyal to Felipe II.
The red and white palace city appeared in front of everyone. In front of a huge square, many Spanish soldiers stood.
Gao Qiyu held a letter of credence and walked step by step in front of Felipe II. After bowing and saluting, he handed the letter of credence to Felipe II’s secretary and said: "I am the Ming Dynasty. The emperor sent a letter of credence to show the virtue of being a distant man. "
The content of this letter of credence is not much different from the letter of credence sent by Felipe II to the Ming Dynasty. The first paragraph is full of rainbow farts, and then there is an agreement to fix trade, and it also explains the ban on raw silk, but the letter of credence does not mention a word about the Luzon conflict.
Felipe II was forty-nine years old, and he was still in good spirits. He looked through the credentials. There were two copies of the credentials, one written in Chinese and one written in Chinese. Latin literature, the reason why I wrote this letter of credence in Latin is because Taixi does not understand Chinese. If there is an error in translation, it is really difficult to correct it due to such a long distance.
The implementation of the Ming Dynasty's one-whip decree and the widespread money shortage in the Ming Dynasty required silver from the West.
"Two envoys, please sit down. I heard that the Ming Dynasty was a powerful country. Is my country as powerful as mine?" Felipe II put down his credentials and motioned for the envoys to sit down, half raising his head. Said: "The warriors under the coat of arms can use the weapons in their hands to conquer all places that need to be conquered."
"My brother, let the envoys from far away practice the invincible Spanish method." Formation."
"Yes." Tang Juan was wearing iron armor and was ready to perform martial arts. When Felipe II gave the order, Tang Juan came to the sergeant.
Gao Qiyu sat down and did not immediately refute, but watched the entire Spanish square formation drill very carefully.
"Is the king too confident?" After reading, Gao Qiyu looked at Felipe II and said calmly: "The population of my Ming Dynasty exceeds 100 million. The king wants to use such a Phalanx, is it a bit of a daydream to attack the Ming Dynasty? "
Gao Qiyu was in a foreign country and had no cowardice. When Felipe II showed his offensive nature, Gao Qiyu directly said that he was going to conquer the West. The Spanish phalanx is nothing more than that.
Antonio is completely numb!
He is going crazy!
Felipe II was a king who liked to resort to force. His favorite thing to do was war. Silk was a terrifying profit, which gave Felipe II the idea of conquering the Ming Dynasty. As an envoy of the Ming Dynasty, Gao Qiyu's words were very, very rude.
Aren't you afraid of this war madman and directly kill the Ming envoy?
Antonio wanted to translate euphemistically. When he was thinking about the words, he saw Xu Fan speaking skillfully in Latin, expressing Gao Qiyu's words so completely that he could even curse in his daydream.
Gao Qiyu continued: "I heard that Francisco, the governor of Luzon in your country, said that he would use forty people to conquer the Ming Dynasty, and then increased it to two to three thousand people, and finally increased to 20,000 people. This number, as the My understanding of the Ming Dynasty continues to increase. I am very curious, how many people does the king plan to use to attack the Ming Dynasty? Or, as the understanding of the Ming Dynasty increases, how many people will it increase to?"
"One hundred thousand? Millions? Tens of millions? "
I bought the house today and went to take possession of it. It was already 8pm when I got home; Spain is a kingdom, not an empire, but they themselves call themselves an empire; what the ancient Han envoys said You are welcome, and you are even more rude when doing things. You are not the diplomat you are now, but you will become like a foreigner in a few years. Please give me a monthly pass, ow! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
(End of this chapter)