From Chief to Ball

Merchants from other countries will choose to conduct transactions from the oil port now. Soon the Nanyang Trading Company's fleet will join and the repaired fort fortress will keep it from being harassed by pirates and small-scale troops, so there is no need to worry.

The subsequent development will depend on the people of the Nanyang Trading Company to respond accordingly.However, there will be no major problems in the past two or three years. The British can't reach out for the time being, and the Dutch are still busy preparing for naval battles in Europe and Spain.

In his letter, he suggested to the Nanyang Trading Company that in the past three years, he should focus on familiarizing himself with the language, wooing relationships, bribing colonial officials, and a small amount of smuggling and port trade. One priority.

Don't be in a hurry to do big things, and be careful not to conflict with the Spanish fleet for the time being.

When Wei Yuan returned from Goddess Island, he brought back a few employers who were familiar with the sea routes along the European coast and the servant translator Chen Jian wanted.

These people boarded the fleet's sea soul shirt and mixed in the fleet.

After dealing with these smuggling matters, Chen Jian removed his title as the governor of Nanyang Trading Company, and took on the role of the Council of the Republic and the commander of the Global Fleet appointed by the king.

All the ships in the fleet lowered the flag of the blue-and-white ship of the trading company, hoisted the double flag of the Yin-Yang fish and the winding dragon, and headed for the Spanish port of Holy Friday.

This is the first official official foreign exchange, and it can be regarded as the official start of circumnavigation.

He needed an envoy from the governor of the colony to accompany the ship, because he needed the Spanish envoy to see him sail first to Amsterdam or Plymouth.

Chapter 24 Two Letters, One Book

It was one o'clock in the afternoon on sunny Holy Friday Harbor, and the sea breeze was blowing in from outside.

As usual, the governor of the jurisdiction is enjoying a leisurely afternoon tea. The strong aroma of cocoa, which most nobles do not like, echoes in the gorgeous room, and occasionally there is a pleasant jingle of sugar spoons colliding with expensive Chinese porcelain.

On the bookcase next to it was a brand-new book, a letter from the Viceroyalty of Peru, and a bright mirror that could be considered a luxury in European courts.

The brand-new book had a bookmark on page No. 30.

In the eyes of the governor of the district, this is a new and unique chivalry novel that is interesting and makes him angry. The protagonist of the novel is a nobleman with Tang in his name.

This is a novel that was brought over by the fleet from Seville years ago when it was delivering goods. It was just published in Spain last year, and it was very popular very quickly.

The author of the novel, the governor of the jurisdiction, has the impression that he participated in the Lepanto naval battle. In the naval battle, his left hand was crippled and amputated. He was plundered by the Moors as a slave. Later, he was imprisoned for corruption as a quartermaster.

When the governor of the jurisdiction took office, this man happened to go to the capital to avenge himself.

I have to say that such a legendary experience makes this novel charming, and the enthusiasm of the golden age shown by Spain in the whole era makes this novel feel different.

In a word, it is an era.

When this crazy knight named Don Quixote said to the ignorant villagers: "Don't worry, go out with me, because there may be an unexpected adventure, and you will conquer a lot of islands in the blink of an eye, and I will let you be the island." "Governor on board", the villager happily followed the knight master and set off.

And this kind of dreamlike words, in the face of the deeds of Pizarro, Korst, Pizzano and others, can be believed by a villager.

This seemingly delusional discourse is no longer a delusion in the face of the times, but a possible reality.

The people's enthusiasm for wealth and desire for conquest are imprinted on every ironic story.

Next to this brand-new novel is a letter with a friend's personal seal on it.

The origin of this letter originated from the bright and expensive mirror next to it.

The mirror was contraband, that was obvious.

In addition to this mirror, the same batch of smuggled goods that suddenly appeared half a year ago also included glasses, cotton cloth, silk, and porcelain.

The governor of the jurisdiction doesn't care about this kind of thing. Countless smuggled goods flow in every year, and only one-fifth of them normally go to the port and monopolize the trade fleet.

But the governor of the jurisdiction was very interested in the story behind this mirror.

It is said to be a group of strange people from the kingdom of Satan's Sea in the north.

That sea is unknown and full of storms.For decades, no one has been able to set foot in it, and it is full of mystery.

Mysterious stories sometimes need an ancient legend. Someone dug up Plato's records about Atlantis and swore that the sea area was the sunken Atlantis.

But there will be no living people on the sunken Daxizhou, so people believe that there is a piece of land there.

The story caused by this mirror soon caused an upsurge in this archipelago and the two governorships, especially for some navigators who yearned for honor and wealth.

The letter from a friend on the desk originated from this.

However, the fleet joined by friends did not go to that mysterious sea, but set sail from Peru to find the mainland in the southern hemisphere.

Stories and legends began with Atlantis in ancient Greece, and the rest of the legends or "science" of that era also became popular.

Just like the huge part of the world map at this moment, including the complete map of all nations that has been handed down to the distant Ming Dynasty, there is always a vast and boundless unexplored continent in the southern hemisphere.

No one has ever seen that continent, but everyone believes that there is a continent in the south.

This stems from... "science".

People believe that the earth is round, and it has been verified, so they also believe in some so-called "science" in the ancient Greek era.

The earth is rotating, so the northern continent and the southern continent should be about the same size, at least symmetrical in area.

Otherwise, the earth would turn somersaults, but the earth did not turn somersaults, which proves that there must be a vast continent in the south.

This story has undergone some changes in this era due to changes in the world line.

The discovery of Africa and Hispanic America, uncharted territories riven and storm-shrouded, balances everything.

Therefore, it seems that, as the ancient Greeks said, the land in the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere are the same. land.

However, with the appearance of that batch of smuggled goods, the navigators and explorers in the Spanish Viceroyalty became excited again.

According to the strange ancient Greek theory of symmetrical beauty, there must be a continent in the southern hemisphere, so after hearing this rumor, Fernand Queiroz, the navigator of the Viceroyalty of Peru, decided to set off from Peru and sail in the Pacific Ocean in the southern hemisphere. Exploration, which has the support of the Viceroy of Peru.

The friend of the governor of the jurisdiction also participated in Queiroz's expedition to the southern hemisphere, and expressed his infinite longing in the letter: "If there is a land as large as Peru, New Castile and Brazil in the Pacific Ocean, we The glory of conquering here can be reproduced back then. God bless Spain... For the conquest of the southern continent, we must go ahead of everyone..."

In the normal world line, Queiroz discovered Vanuatu and thought it was the legendary southern continent.So he left the rest of the boats and galloped back to Peru with one boat to receive the reward, but it became a joke when the fleet came back because it took the abandoned fleet two days This "continent" has come full circle.

In any case, a book or a letter is enough to explain the strength of Spain at this time.

Books are culture and a manifestation of the psychology of ordinary people.In addition to the ridicule of the nobles and the feudal church, there is more of a desire for conquest, colonization and wealth of the whole people.

And that letter proves that Spain still does not forget to look for new continents and new routes at this time, so as to maintain its advantages in the sea and colonies.

From Columbus's discovery of this continental archipelago to the present, there is no time when the governor of the jurisdiction is more comfortable, more beautiful, more relaxed and safer than at this time.

20 years ago, Italian engineer Battista was entrusted by Philip II to improve the coastal defense of the archipelago with advanced engineering. New forts and fortresses began to be built, and a complete defense system guarded several important ports and transit stations. .

The special location of Holy Friday Port made Batista pay more attention to the defense here. It took four years to build a complete fortification, and it was no longer a place that could be easily burned and attacked by pirates many years ago.

Ten years ago, Drake, Spain's most wanted pirate and symbol of the British fleet, died in the archipelago.

Facing the unsatisfactory attack of the new defense system, the British landed in some small port fishing villages, burned, killed and looted.Catholics on St. Friday Island celebrated mass, and if Drake failed, another church would be built in St. Friday Harbor.