At the mouth of the Yangtze River, a Galen ship is slowly sailing into the mouth of the Yangtze River, this Galen ship is flying the Portuguese flag, there are many gun windows on both sides of the ship, but at this time these gun windows are closed, and there is also an offshore patrol ship with the flag of the Imperial Navy on one side to follow the voyage.

This is a Portuguese armed merchant ship that departs from Malacca and travels to and from the ports along the coast of the empire all the year round, and its displacement of more than 600 tons is not very conspicuous in the coastal areas of the empire, and the Galen ship is not special, just a large number of armed merchant ships that trade between the coast of the empire and the South Seas.

In recent years, the empire's own maritime trade has developed rapidly, and at the same time, the maritime trade with the Portuguese and the Spaniards is also increasing, in addition, some indigenous countries in the South Seas, the indigenous states of India, the Persian Safavid Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire and other places will also come to the empire to trade, and even in the last year or two, you can occasionally see ships from other European countries running thousands of miles to the empire to trade.

The empire's maritime trade was already very famous in the world, and merchants in many places knew that in the Far East there were countless goods, spices, silk, porcelain, tea, and exquisite weapons of all kinds, as well as many other industrial manufactures, such as cloth and wool.

As long as you have the courage and strength at the same time, then you can cross the ocean and then go to the Tang Empire to trade!

Although the Portuguese are very strong on the east coast of Africa and the coasts of India, and they do not welcome or even intercept merchant ships from other countries to trade along the Datang coast, the Portuguese are not immortals, and it is impossible to completely blockade the above-mentioned sea areas with the current backward navigation technology, at most they do not allow merchants from other countries to use the ports under their control for supply or trade.

Under the blockade of the Portuguese, the Western trading companies of the Tang Empire were able to live very well, and although other countries were more difficult, they were not impossible.

Sailing all the way from the west to the Tang Empire, its biggest obstacle was not the blockade of the Portuguese, but the challenge from nature, and the wind and waves along the way were their worst enemies.

However, despite the many difficulties, there is still an endless stream of people who want to win wealth in danger, so over the years, more and more foreign merchant ships have appeared along the coast of the Tang Empire.

The Tang Empire adopted a policy of opening the sea, except for the complete blockade of Japanese shipping routes and the entry of merchant ships from other countries, other sea areas did not blockade foreign merchant ships, and those foreign merchant ships could choose to enter some ports under the control of the Tang Empire according to their own trade routes.

These ports are treaty ports!

In fact, there are currently more than 20 treaty ports in the Tang Empire, basically covering the main ports and economic regions along the coast of the empire, so although trade is limited to more than 20 ports, it is actually not much different from fully opening up trade.

However, the only thing is that foreign merchant ships going to the empire for trade must be inspected by the imperial navy patrol vessels, and at the same time, after entering the imperial territorial waters, the gun windows must be closed, and all guns and cannons must be sealed before entering the port, otherwise, they are not allowed to enter the port to anchor and trade.

Most of those foreign merchant ships came to the Tang Empire to trade, and they were all for money, and in recent years, the reputation of the Imperial Navy has also been played, so except for a very small number of merchant ships that came for the first time, other merchant ships, without being reminded by the Imperial Navy, after they entered the coastal waters of the Empire, they would take the initiative to seal their guns.

As for those first-time and more stubborn maritime merchants, after seeing the warships of the Imperial Navy, they basically sailed honestly in accordance with the regulations and other rules.

Under the many policies, it has also led to the increasing number of merchant ships from various countries along the coast of the empire, but the number of these foreign merchant ships is still far from being comparable to the merchant ships of the empire itself.

The empire has been open to the sea for less than 20 years, but in the past ten years, the empire's maritime trade has developed rapidly, and its maritime transportation has been thousands of miles a day, and the reason for this is not actually because of overseas trade, but the demand for material transportation in the empire's own territory.

The empire itself is actually the largest production base and market for various products, and many merchant ships are specialized in domestic coastal transportation, and they are too lazy to run any overseas routes.

Every day, the major coastal ports have countless materials waiting to be transported to other parts of the country, especially Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, the three representative coastal ports, and the demand for cargo transportation between each other is very large.

Therefore, this Galen ship of more than 600 tons departing from Malacca is not very conspicuous in the mouth of the Yangtze River, but in this inconspicuous merchant ship, in addition to carrying many kinds of goods required by the empire, there are also seven or eight special people.

These were the official diplomatic envoys of Portugal, and this time they were going to replace the other diplomatic staff of the Portuguese who had been stationed in Shanghai.

The empire and the Portuguese had already established formal diplomatic relations and sent diplomatic envoys to each other, but only in Malacca, Guangzhou, and Shanghai, and the Portuguese did not set up any embassies in Jinling City, and similarly, the empire did not send ambassadors to the Portuguese mainland.

Because of the lack of means of communication, if the Tang Empire wanted to get official information from the Portuguese mainland, the waiting period would have to be at least a year, or even longer, because the distance was too far, so the contact between the empire and the Portuguese was actually limited to East Asia.

And today, this line of Portuguese diplomatic envoys is ready to replace the Portuguese diplomatic envoys stationed in Shanghai before, in addition, these people also have an official mission, that is, they hope to set up a real embassy in Jinling City, the capital of the Tang Empire, they Portuguese hope to be able to directly contact the upper echelons of the empire at a closer distance, but unfortunately the Tang Empire has not agreed to their request.

Because diplomacy is reciprocal, if the Portuguese go to Jinling City to set up an embassy, then the Tang Empire will have to go to Portugal to set up an embassy.

Unfortunately, however, the Tang Empire did not have the intention of setting up an embassy on the Portuguese mainland, at least not before.

The Portuguese diplomats were now standing on deck, waiting for the ships to slowly enter under the guidance of the Tang naval vessels, and then undergo a full inspection before being allowed to enter the Huangpu River and go to Shanghai.

Soon, in addition to the offshore patrol ships of the Datang Navy, a small patrol ship came, with naval inspectors and customs officers on board, who would be on board to conduct various inspections in advance.

Just as they were waiting for the official personnel to come on the ship for inspection, suddenly, an exclamation came from the direction of the bow of the ship, and immediately, the eyes of several people were cast to the bow of the ship, and someone asked, "What's wrong?" ”

Then one of the crew members in the bow of the ship made a fuss and said, "Look, what is that?" ”

As the crew looked in the direction they were pointing, they saw that on the sea, a fleet of medium size was slowly approaching, and the course of this fleet should be Wusong Port at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

There were eight ships in front of and behind this fleet, several of which were warships at a glance, and they were also warships unique to the Tang Navy.

The warships of the Tang Navy are more special, compared to the Galen ships, the carat ships are much more slender, and unlike many traditional Chinese hard-sailed ships, the ships of the Imperial Navy are the same as the Western ships with soft sails.

If you see a soft-sailed ship with a beautiful body and a very fast speed on the sea, then you can basically conclude that this is a military ship belonging to the Tang Navy.

However, if it is just an ordinary Datang Navy ship, it will naturally not cause these Portuguese to be surprised, people are all going back and forth to various seas in the South China Sea all year round, and the battleships of the Datang Navy have seen a lot, but the fleet they see today is full of weirdness.

Two of the ships that fell behind were fine, but the six ships in front were all emitting black smoke, and the sails were all down, and more importantly, these ships that lowered their sails were constantly moving forward with black smoke, and their speed was even faster than the two ships with sails behind them.

This kind of thing appeared in front of the eyes of these Portuguese, but it caused them to pay great attention.

"What the hell is this? How can you run so fast even after lowering the sails? Someone immediately asked.

However, among the Portuguese on this ship, there were still well-informed people, and one of the crew members immediately said: "This should be the steamship of these Tang people!" ”

"Steamship? Are you sure this is not the devil's ship? ”

"Yes, it's a steamship, anyway, that's what they Datang people say, and the last time I came to Shanghai, I had seen these steamships a few times!"

"How did they get moving? Could it be that someone is paddling inside? ”

"No, I heard that it is powered by steam, and I don't know very well!"

The steam engine of the Tang Empire and related trains and ships are not secrets, on the contrary, the Tang Empire is still publicized in the Tang Dynasty newspapers.

When the Jingzhen Line was opened, it was directly reported on the second page of the Tang Dynasty Newspaper, and the steamships were not hidden, and they basically appeared in public.

However, this is only limited to appearances, and it is difficult for an outsider to understand what the steam engine is all about if he does not have a deep understanding, and even if he understands it deeply, at most he knows that trains and ships are propelled by steam engines.

In the case of steam engines, people know at most a general idea, and the specific technology is a trade secret.

But just these things on the surface, the shock is already big enough!