As night fell, butter candles were burning in a fort near the port of Hong Kong Island, and the commander of the coalition forces, Pires, was holding a round table, but the representative of the French fleet, Oulenc, had not yet arrived, and everyone was waiting for him.

After another moment, Orranke still did not appear, Pires took out his pocket watch and glanced at it, and found that it had been two quarters of an hour past the appointed time, and couldn't help frowning, and was about to send someone to urge, but a Portuguese soldier ran in and reported loudly: "Your Excellency Pires, Captain Aulenc has left with the French fleet, and this is a letter from Captain Aulenc. ”

As soon as these words came out, the audience was in an uproar, and the Spanish representative even scolded: "The cowardly Frenchmen, they are always like this, I should have expected them to escape." Grass - Orank! Grass - France! Grass - François (then King of France)! Grass - all the Frenchmen! ”

Pires took Aullanck's letter with a dark face, tore it up without even looking at it, and pretended to shrug his shoulders lightly: "Now, the French have run away, but who cares?" They only had three warships and three hundred soldiers, and they were all cowards, and they couldn't help if they stayed, and they were given a piece of the pie. Come, let's have a toast and celebrate these cowards running away. ”

After Pires finished speaking, he elegantly raised the glass of wine, and the representatives of the three countries present laughed, and touched the wine glass, and the British representative laughed: "I dare to bet, when we defeat the sailors of the Ming Kingdom, the coward Ranfasi will definitely run back with a dead face, kneel there to save us and share his share, it must be, it must be the same!" ”

The crowd burst into laughter again, and the Spanish representative snorted coldly: "No way, unless the great François I marries his two princesses to me." ”

"Quite possibly!" Pires is serious.

Everyone laughed again, but after laughing, there was silence, because each of them knew very well in their hearts that it would be good for them to be able to defend Hong Kong Island, and it would undoubtedly be a fool's dream to defeat that powerful Ming army.

Charles, the representative of the British fleet, said in a deep voice: "Your Excellency Pires, I think you should ask the Governor Abel for help, as long as you send another fifty bows...... No, no, no, thirty warships are enough, and we will definitely be able to completely defeat the sailors of the Ming army. ”

It is said that during the Ming Dynasty, Europe was in the era of maritime discovery, and European countries were actively exploring on the sea, among which Portugal was the pioneer, and as early as the Hongzhi period, the Portuguese had established a colony in India, and the Indian governor at this time was named Abel Krk, and the order of the Portuguese fleet to invade Malacca was issued by the Abel governor.

At the mention of Governor Abul, Pires suddenly showed respect, nodded and said, "I will definitely ask His Excellency the Governor for help, but only if we can hold out until reinforcements arrive, which will take at least three months, or even longer." ”

The Spanish and British delegates were silent when they heard this, and the current currents and monsoons were only suitable for returning from the Ming Dynasty to the Indian Ocean, and the fleet had to come to support from the Indian Ocean at least until the southwest monsoon blows in April and May.

"My God, in three months, if the Ming army and the navy attack strongly, it is estimated that we will not be able to hold it for a month." The representative of the Spanish fleet lamented.

Charles, an Englishman, said in his heart: "Maybe we can try to negotiate with the Ming army and delay time as much as possible." ”

The Spanish representative Codillon's eyes lit up and said: "Yes, negotiate with them, just do it, if necessary, we can make certain concessions, delay him for a few months, and when the reinforcements arrive, then the initiative will be in our hands." ”

Pires was also frightened by the strength of the Ming army's sailors today, and he was not confident that he could hold Hong Kong Island for three months, so he nodded when he heard the words and said: "I agree to negotiate, but who should be the negotiator to contact the Ming army?" ”

As soon as these words came out, the audience fell silent, this is obviously a very dangerous task, if the officials of the Ming Kingdom do not want to talk, and directly order the negotiators to be cut down?

Seeing this, Pires shrugged his shoulders and said: "Don't worry, the people of the Ming Kingdom have always regarded themselves as the country of etiquette, and they have a very civilized tradition, and the two countries will not fight each other. Two years ago, I crossed the entire Ming Dynasty, arrived at the capital of the Ming Kingdom, and met their emperor.

Although the Ming Emperor did not agree to open trade, and the exiled prince of Manraka even sued me, in the end the Ming Emperor still let me leave the country. Therefore, there is no need to worry about personal safety when negotiating with the Ming people, on the contrary, they will greet them very thoughtfully.

Haha, let me tell you, the officials and emperors of the Ming Kingdom are very face-loving, as long as you respect them, it would be better if you could say some nice compliments to them, and they will never embarrass you. Maybe I'll be glad to reward you with a lot of treasures. ”

Charles said with a smile: "I have also heard that the people of the Ming Kingdom are indeed very face-loving, and the surrounding small countries are very willing to go to the Ming Kingdom to pay tribute to their emperor, because the return of the Ming Emperor is often very rich, usually ten times or even dozens of times the value of the tribute items." ”

"Haha, what a generous Ming countryman, if I can, I would like to go to pay tribute to worship their emperor." The representative of Spain, Codillon, laughed.

With such a gag as Pires and Codillon, everyone felt that being a negotiator was nothing to be afraid of. At this time, Pires patted again: "Okay, now to elect a negotiator, who do you think is the most suitable?" ”

The Spanish representative, Codilón, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Don't you think Your Excellency Pires should give some benefits?" ”

"A hundred taels of silver." Pires said cheerfully.

As soon as this statement was made, several people raised their hands and offered to act as negotiators, including the Spanish businessman Rona Dao (Simon Toshihide).

"Your Excellency Pires, I have a good relationship with one of the leaders of the Ming army's naval divisions, this person is willing to be a pirate, and later surrendered to the government, and was reused by Xu Jin, the governor of Zhizhejiang, so I think it is most appropriate for me to be the negotiator, and my Chinese is also very strong." Ximen Junxiu was very active in introducing his advantages, and he earned this hundred taels.

In the end, the representatives of the fleets of the three countries agreed to have Ximen Toshihide as the negotiator.

……

Today is the fourteenth day of the first month, tomorrow is the Shangyuan Festival, the Shangyuan Festival is the biggest festival of the Ming Dynasty, the whole country celebrates, all government agencies should be on holiday, but this year's Nantou City is not a holiday, because the governor led the army here, the whole city is in a state of war, and all vacations have been canceled.

The department that was busy in the city was the Armory, because early in the morning, the officers and men of the fleet sent a batch of bombed Franc cannons to the Armory, and the Governor himself gave instructions to find out the cause of the bombing and to come up with a remedy as soon as possible.

Early this morning, He Zhi'er returned to work in the armory field as usual. Due to the accidental death of the best skilled Ma Bantou yesterday, the armory field is now dominated by the Huang Bantou.

At this time, Huang Bantou was both happy and sad, happy that he had finally become the boss, and sad that he had just become the boss and encountered such a major task. If the task is completed well, it is naturally a great achievement, and if it can't be completed, then it is estimated that there will be no need to mix it up in the future!

The instructions given by the Governor Governor himself are under great pressure, so Huang Bantou can only bear it hard-headed now, and if he doesn't succeed, he will become a benevolent!

As soon as He Zhi'er entered the courtyard of the armory, Huang Bantou's eyes lit up, and he beckoned and shouted, "Xiao Mo, come over and help, measure the size of this cannon chamber." ”

He Zhi'er's Lao Tzu turned out to be a firearms craftsman, and she was extremely sensitive to firearms since she was a child, and she was also extremely talented, and it was because of this that Ma Bantou took her back to the arsenal as an apprentice.

He Zhi'er has been with Ma Bantou for two years, and now her level in firearms is even more impressive, the real blue is better than the blue, and now her level is even higher than that of the yellow team.

Of course, He Zhi'er is introverted and deliberately clumsy, so except for the late Ma Bantou, no one in the armory knows her depth, at best, she just thinks that this kid's skills are okay, and no one thinks about the level of a master craftsman. Therefore, He Zhi'er, a junior apprentice, is like a hidden sweeping monk in Jin Daxia's pen.

"Oh!" He Zhi'er agreed sullenly, picked up the ruler and began to measure the size of the cannon chamber.