When the Portuguese diplomats stationed in Shanghai saw these conditions, they all burst into a rage, and even some of them showed expressions of disbelief!

Let's not say that the current King Sebastião I of Portugal is not yet in charge because he is young, and the current Portuguese government is regent by his uncle, Cardinal Enrique, Duke of Vula.

And more crucially, Sebastião I is not married and has no children, in other words, the current Kingdom of Portugal has no crown prince at all.

Obviously, the ministers of the Tang Empire did not understand the current situation of the Kingdom of Portugal when they made the proton request.

However, this is also understandable, in the eyes of the important ministers of the Tang Dynasty, the Portuguese are just barbarians, and the mainland is just a small country, that is, there are more overseas colonies, and the sea power is stronger, and they control the route from East Asia to Europe.

Otherwise, it is a small country, where it is worth the Tang Empire to mobilize the army, and even specially engage in some kind of Malacca shelling incident.

Besides, the Tang Empire did not expect the Portuguese to agree to these conditions, and even if the Portuguese agreed, the Tang Empire did not give them the opportunity to agree.

However, these insiders were obviously unknown to the Portuguese, and in their opinion these conditions, either one or the other, were extremely harsh, and belonged to the kind that could not be agreed.

And more importantly, in their opinion, the time of the Malacca shelling was nothing more than a small clashes.

It wasn't even an official conflict, it was just the sinking of a merchant ship, which would have been an inconspicuous thing on a normal day, at most it would have caused a diplomatic protest and the Portuguese lost money.

Or maybe it's just nothing.

But now, the Tang Empire has put forward four conditions that the Portuguese will never agree to!

Therefore, it makes them even more suspicious that the Malacca shelling incident is not simple, and it is very likely to be a conspiracy, a conspiracy to provoke a war between the two countries.

Because the captain of the Spanish patrol ship that carried out the interception mission at that time and many sailors swore that the ship did not fly the Datang flag at that time, but the pirate skull flag, and they were the first to fire at the Spanish patrol ship.

Moreover, their return fire lasted only a few minutes, and although a cannonball hit the merchant ship, it was definitely not to sink it directly.

Thinking of the toughness shown by the Tang Empire and the speed of its response at this time, they naturally have great reason to suspect that the Malacca shelling incident is not simple, it is very likely to be a conspiracy!

The suspicions of the Portuguese are justified and correct!

The officers of the Military Intelligence Department who caused the shelling incident in Malacca are receiving commendations at the headquarters of the Military Intelligence Department in Jinling City!

The Malacca shelling incident they made this time was actually not that complicated!

They just found a merchant ship, and then casually caught a dozen pirates who looked similar to the Tang people, and then found a pirate flag, and then drove the ship into Malacca, directly hoisted the pirate flag, and then took the initiative to shell the Spanish patrol ship, and after the Portuguese warship returned fire, they directly left the bodies of a dozen pirates on the ship, and then detonated the buried explosives, burned the pirate flag, and by the way, hung the Tang flag and jumped into the water to evacuate.

In this way, there was a Tang merchant ship in the port of Malacca that was 'sunk' by the Portuguese warship!

And more than a dozen 'Tang people' died.

Immediately afterwards, the warships of the Datang Navy, which had been contacted and prepared for a long time, quickly arrived in Malacca, and received the evacuation of the Datang merchant ships and merchants in the port of Malacca, and the Portuguese did not understand what was happening at that time, they thought that they had just attacked a pirate ship, and then the pirate ship blew itself up inexplicably, and they guessed that it may have hit the powder keg and caused the explosion.

Then, the warships of the Datang Navy were more and more, and in the end it became a whole fleet, and more than a dozen warships appeared in the sea off the port of Malacca.

The whole incident is actually very simple, the Tang Empire just created an incident, just to detonate the war!

And the fundamental purpose of doing this is actually to confuse the Portuguese and the like, in fact, the civil and military leaders of the Tang Dynasty don't care about the Portuguese at all, they only care about the domestic reaction, this time the Malacca shelling incident, in fact, is only for the domestic people, not for the Portuguese at all.

And now, the Malacca incident was a great success!

The empire found an excuse for war, and the people at home also pointed the finger at the Portuguese, supporting the empire to wage war against the Portuguese in order to maintain the authority of the Tang Empire, but also to monopolize India and meddle in the interests of European trade.

Under these circumstances, the Portuguese diplomats stationed in Shanghai were desperate in their hearts, because they could not do anything at all, and even wanted to negotiate the conditions proposed by the Tang Empire, but no one paid attention to them.

Because after the diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent the Portuguese conditions, there was no follow-up, and they did not talk to the Portuguese at all, even if the Portuguese really wanted to agree, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would not give them a chance to agree!

So soon, the diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeared in front of the Portuguese diplomats again, and this time they presented an ultimatum!

The time-limited Portuguese replied within twenty-four hours, either promise everything or war!

Not to mention that there was nothing to do in these 24 hours, and these diplomats would not have had time to deliver the news to Malacca, let alone Portugal itself.

What's more, the diplomats of the Tang Dynasty disappeared without a trace after sending an ultimatum, and the Portuguese could not find anyone whether they wanted to negotiate or agree directly.

After twenty-four hours, the diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Tang Empire came to the door again, and then sent a declaration of war to these Portuguese diplomats!

At nine o'clock in the morning of August 3, the 22nd year of Xuanping, the Tang Empire and the Kingdom of Portugal officially entered a state of war!

Well, at this time, even the Portuguese in Malacca still don't understand what happened and how things are resolved, the fleet of the Datang Navy off the coast of Malacca is only about a dozen ships because the scale is not large, and there are only two cruisers, six frigates, and the rest are armed transport ships, and even temporarily conscripted armed merchant ships.

Therefore, the fleet of the Datang Navy did not actually enter Malacca, but only wandered far away in the open sea, and did not make contact with the Portuguese fleet, let alone blockade.

The strength of the fleet of the Portuguese is much stronger than the strength of the Tang Navy fleet currently in Malacca, and it is impossible to blockade this kind of thing.

However, many merchant ships in Malacca, especially those from other countries, smelled the crisis of war, and they all rushed to flee Malacca, so as not to be affected by the war between the Portuguese and the Tang Empire.

Portugal and the Tang Empire, the largest force in the South and Indian Ocean regions, fought each other, and these ordinary merchants still stayed away.

Anyway, for them, going to sea to trade is only for money, and it doesn't matter whether Malacca and even the entire Indian Ocean belong to Portugal or are controlled by the Tang Dynasty.

Although the Portuguese controlled Malacca, they also welcomed merchant ships from other countries to Malacca for trade, and the port of Banten under the control of the Tang Dynasty also welcomed merchant ships from other countries to trade.

So, whoever controls Malacca, for them, there is no real impact, and it is still business that should be done.

But those Portuguese merchant ships didn't think so, at the beginning, many Portuguese merchant ships had the foresight and drove away early, they were just ordinary Portuguese, not people from the Portuguese East India Trading Company, let alone official people.

But a few days later, as the situation became more and more tense, the number of Tang navies outside the port of Malacca gradually increased, and the Portuguese in Malacca finally realized that the inexplicable shelling of Malacca was very likely to turn into a war.

So they began to recruit all the merchant ships that were still in the port, and at this time, these ordinary merchants wanted to escape, but they couldn't escape.

Even the official Portuguese garrison in Malacca and the people of the Portuguese East India Company do not know that the Tang Empire has officially submitted a declaration of war to their diplomats, but judging from the abnormal behavior of the Tang Navy, they can also guess that war is not far away.

To this end, on the one hand, they were actively preparing for war, and at the same time, they sent clippers to India and even the mainland, reporting the matter and asking for reinforcements.

But even so, they remain extremely pessimistic about whether they can hold on to Malacca!

Most of them are based in Malacca, and the Portuguese have frequent business exchanges with the Tang Empire, so they can also know more about the situation of the Tang Empire.

Know that the Tang Empire is a terrifyingly powerful country, it not only prospers with many incredible technologies, but also has the most powerful military power in the world.

Even if they can't collect some inside information, they can still learn from the open Tang Dynasty newspapers that the Tang Empire's army number is as many as hundreds of thousands, and it also has a huge fleet.

This huge army once defeated the Ming Dynasty, the former master of China, and also defeated the Tatars, descendants of the Mongols, who once swept across Europe, and expelled the Tatars all the way to Central Asia.

Such a powerful army is enough to make these Portuguese people tremble and even despair!