Don Juan couldn't be more satisfied with Macau these days.

Look at this well-organized appearance, huh?

The shops are uniformly planned, the back streets of the shops are the streets where donkey carts and ox carts transport goods, the stone paved roads are cleaned and spotless, and the shops on the three streets are open to each market, with wood mills, iron mills, copper mills, cotton mills, and rice grain mills, all of which are Portuguese shops.

On the other side of the municipal square, the silk and satin workshop, the gold and silver workshop, the copper and iron workshop, the garment workshop, the Nanyang odd goods workshop, the wine shop, and the inn are all Ming merchants.

There are Ming warriors and Portuguese soldiers patrolling the streets, the camp of Portuguese soldiers under the fort not far from the town, only two streets away from the market, the Portuguese-style two-story buildings are lined up, most of them have inscriptions written in Chinese in front of the door, and there are five Ming army hundred houses in each direction to protect the port.

He even saw a beautiful Portuguese noblewoman smiling and smiling with her female companion dressed in armor in front of six Ming warriors in helmets and armor, and entered the goldsmith shop to choose ornaments.

Don Juan had received his father's true inheritance from his blood in the matter of his penchant for romance, and as soon as he took a step to follow into the craft store, he was dragged by Father Libera beside him.

"Those two are the famous Mrs. Lou of Haojing, Mrs. Lou is a Portuguese, who followed her father to Macao to do business in her early years, but was shipwrecked in Shanghai and lived in Macau; Lady Lou was a maid who used to work in a Portuguese tavern, and her husband was a regimental commander named Lou Qimai under General Chen. ”

Father Libera whispered to Don Juan, "In their tradition, noble women should not show their heads, but there is no one to care about them in Haojing, because the commander of the legion is ordered to participate in the battle in the hinterland of the Ming Kingdom, and those guards are assigned by General Chen, and the muskets and sabers on their waists can kill at any time, and anyone who dares to disturb them will be killed." ”

"Some of the Spaniards who had been captured from Luzon the year before last had been sent to work in Macao, and they said that General Lou's legions were invincible with devil-like iron armor in battle, and that their commanders had the same face as when they wore them."

"When the regiment commander fought with General Chen in his early years, he used the old guns of the Ming army to blow up his face and cut off his nose, and he survived with a fierce temperament." Father Libera dragged Don Juan and reminded: "Even if you offend them, you will be killed, don't you see the bones drying on the barrels of those guns in the shallow waters of the harbor?" ”

"General Chen is not as kind as he was at the banquet, and he will not punish his right-hand men for killing a Spanish dignitary, even if General Chen knows that killing Your Excellency and not punishing the murderer will definitely plunge Spain and Ming into another war."

Father Libera let go of Don Juan's arm and said, "With the Jesuit's knowledge of him, when war is inevitable, he will draw up an arrogant expedition plan before sending a goodwill messenger to Spain. ”

"As punishment for killing Your Excellency and starting a war—General Lou may take the lead in this plan."

Tang Juan's slightly open mouth slowly closed, stood in the municipal square and looked around, his eyes suddenly had great envy for the Ming man walking in the market, and said: "We have to cheat, they can actually have several wives?" ”

As a member of the Society of Jesus, Libera looked down on all the indulgent desires of the Western and Eastern nobles, but he did not argue with Don Juan, but explained: "This does not seem to be the case elsewhere in the Ming Kingdom, but in the place under the jurisdiction of General Chen, he is in charge of all the military nobles under his command, and at the request of the general, these officers must honor their parents and care for their wives and concubines, or they will be punished." ”

"Therefore, the people of Haojing always say that the atmosphere in Guangzhou is different from that in other places, a large number of officers prefer women who do not wrap their feet, and the concubines in those officers' families are not slaves but like sisters, so people prefer their daughters to marry into the Nanyang officers' families."

Father Libera shrugged his shoulders a little comically, "In the Ming Kingdom, it seems that a person in power can easily change the atmosphere of a place. ”

"Your Excellency had better be a little more restrained here, under the investigation of the church, although Macao is small, there are three Ming army commanders who have settled here, they are called commanders, in addition to the thousands of households in charge of a thousand soldiers, and the hundred households of a hundred soldiers, there are countless of them, I am afraid that Your Excellency does not know who you will offend."

Figuring out the stakes, the frivolity in Tang Juan's eyes disappeared, and he sighed and said: "If Seville leases General Chen a piece of land like this, it shouldn't be a bad thing, the Portuguese are well restrained here." ”

"I'm afraid things are not as you imagined, you can change Macau for Seville, but you can't exchange the Portuguese for the Ming and the Ming for the Spaniards." Libera differed from Don Juan's optimism, saying: "The Ming people of Macau, and the Ming people of Seville in the future, are nothing more than replacing the oppressed Portuguese with the Spaniards." ”

Father Libera found out that the reason why Don Juan had a good sense of Macau was that he put himself in the position of the victor, which was really the illusion brought to him by Chen Mu's good hospitality, and to be honest, as a Portuguese, he really didn't feel what was good about Macau.

Didn't he see it? However, all the shops opened by the Portuguese in Macao are raw materials for selling cotton, gold, silver, copper and iron, and the Ming shops across a municipal square process these raw materials and then put them out for sale, and the profits will increase several times or even dozens of times!

Where is it good?

No wonder the Spanish court went bankrupt!

"Huh?"

Tang Juan didn't have the heart to go any further, he asked Father Libera to take him into a restaurant, chose the upstairs where no one was around, looked at the municipal square with people coming and going outside the window, and then said solemnly: "Father, I understand, General Chen has been using the advantage of war to gain the advantage of negotiations, this is the case in Portugal and Macao, and I am also like this when I came here this time?" ”

Libera nodded and said: "This is not the case in Macau in the past, our explorers are like in Goa, in Malacca, looting and fighting, at that time they had few cannons, few muskets, and naval battles still rely on arson, although the brave fighting of the sailors is very scary, but in fact, they have always suffered more casualties than us, but they have more people, so they will fail." ”

"Later, I found out that their bureaucrats didn't understand anything, and they restrained us like their own people, so they relied on deception and bribery to get the power to live in Macau, open artillery factories, build ports, smuggle and trade, and the pirates found that the Ming men were not easy to deal with, but their women were very well-behaved and easy to deceive, just like in Africa."

"Before General Chan arrived, we built a university, a hospital, a municipal square and appointed municipal magistrates, the merchants had their own armament and even a cannon foundry, and the Paul Cathedral was built in no time, and the missionary business flourished, just as in Goa or elsewhere in Portugal. But now, what you see is the mirror of the Ming Dynasty, not the Macau of Portugal. ”

Father Libera poured Don Juan a bowl of wine and lit his pipe by the dim candlelight in the tavern, "If you want to know how this happens, I'll tell you." ”