On September 22, Chongzhen held a banquet for the members of the fleet and the Ming mission on this trip to Europe, including British merchants such as Methwold and Andrew.

Fu Xunji, vice president of the Society of Jesuits in China, will assist the Chinese mission in visiting the Holy See in Europe and the countries on the European continent that are willing to make good friends with China.

Fu Xunji was a Portuguese who arrived in Macao in 1620. Not only did he accept Matteo Ricci's missionary ideas, but he was also a supporter of the independence of the Kingdom of Portugal. Having him as an interpreter for the Chinese mission would obviously be of the greatest help to the mission.

The mission, consisting of a chief envoy and two deputies, and a number of clerks, was divided into two groups when they arrived in Europe, one with the English to England and the other to Rome to visit Pope Urban VIII.

After the banquet, the visiting delegation left the capital and rushed to the port of Tianjin. The visiting fleet consisted of four ships, two British and two Chinese, and the Chinese merchant ships were slightly smaller than the British.

The four ships were only partially loaded in Tianjin, and most of the rest would be loaded in Shanghai. And with the fleet set off was a pioneering regiment that was ready to establish a port in South Africa.

If you want to build a high-speed sailing caravan that takes advantage of the westerly wind belt, it is necessary to establish supplementary bases in South Africa and Cape Horn.

Zhu Youzhen originally thought that the Europeans should have established a supply port in South Africa, but after careful inquiry, he found that this place was still in a blank state.

Although South Africa is far away from China, Zhu Youzhen still tried to send a team of people, intending to choose a place in South Africa to build a port.

In addition, the ship was accompanied by several scholars from the Observatory, who were to arrive in South Africa with the pioneer groups and set up an observatory to observe the stars in the southern hemisphere.

After seeing off the fleet visiting Europe, Garcia and Valdes also took two merchant ships laden with Chinese cargo to Mexico via the Japan-North America route.

When García returns to New Spain, he will convince his uncle, who served in the Doge's Palace, to establish a network for smuggling Chinese goods.

On behalf of the Governor of Manila, Silva, Waldes will make a report to the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The content of the report was that His Excellency the Governor had finally concluded a trade agreement with China, and it was hoped that the Governor of New Spain would authorize this agreement.

After all, under this agreement, merchants from both sides could travel to ports under each other's territory for free trade, including the ports of New Spain and Peru.

Silva did not believe that the Gatupin merchants of New Spain would support the agreement, but he hoped that it would let the Viceroyalty of New Spain know that the Chinese were not now hostile to Spain and that Spanish troops could not attack Chinese merchant ships when they appeared on the Pacific coast.

In addition, Silva also asked Valdes to visit his friends in the Viceroyalty of New Spain to set up Garcia's smuggling network.

Although the Gatyuping merchants were trusted by the king and the upper nobles of the kingdom, they were also important helpers in the kingdom's plundering of the wealth of the colonies. But hundreds of years after the Spanish conquest of New Spain, the wealth of the local Indians had long since fallen into the hands of the colonists.

By monopolizing the necessities of life and plundering the super-profits of the colonial people, the Gatyuping merchants were plundering the wealth of the Spanish colonists, who had already occupied all the power in New Spain.

In New Spain, it was not the conquered Indians who hated the Gatyuping merchants the most, and their wealth had long been deprived by the Spanish colonizers, and even the Gatyuping merchants could not squeeze a little oil out of them.

The most hated the Gatyupine merchants were the native-born whites and mestizos, who were the backbone of the colonies of New Spain and occupied most of the colony, but a great part of the wealth they plundered from the Indians was deprived of it by the Gatyupins.

In this era, due to the impact of the price revolution, the price of similar goods in Europe is 2-3 times higher than in Asian countries. But in the Spanish American colonies, where the production of most goods was restricted, the prices of goods here were 2-3 times higher than in Europe.

The price imbalance caused by this state policy certainly made the Gatyuping merchants earn high profits, but it also caused the colonists in the colonies to complain.

Therefore, after entering the 17th century, the Spanish American colonies became the best smuggling targets for European merchants.

The Dutch and the British were the best of the smugglers, and the Dutch took advantage of the decline of Spain's maritime power to bribe the kingdom's important ministers to gain the power to transport goods to the colonies of New Spain on behalf of the Spanish kingdom.

After the Spaniards expelled the Jews and Moors from the country, Spain's handicraft industry plummeted, and it could not even meet the needs of the country, let alone the colonies in the Americas.

The monopoly of the colonies of the Kingdom of Spain in order to protect its own industrial and commercial interests ended up being cheaper than England, France, and the Netherlands, from which the merchants of the Gatupin received large quantities of goods, without ever thinking of setting up factories in the country.

The efforts of the Gatyuping merchants in this trade process were merely to set an outrageously high price, which naturally would not be recognized by the colonists.

In order to resist the raids of these Gatyupin merchants, the Spanish colonists of the American colonies were even willing to assist the enemies of the kingdom and help the merchants of the British, Dutch and other countries to smuggle into New Spain.

British ships loaded with European goods even sailed directly into the ports of New Spain on the pretext of sheltering from storms and replenishing fresh water. According to the Spanish regulations, ships that did not have permission to trade had to transport their goods to a warehouse on land for sealed storage in the event of an emergency evacuation to prevent the shipowner from trading privately.

However, with the tacit approval of the steward, the goods delivered to the land warehouses would be quietly removed by the smuggling partners in the city at night, and the silver and magenta paint would be put in there, and the smuggling transaction would be completed when the ships departed.

Since smuggling can be done so openly on the Caribbean coast under the strict supervision of the Spaniards, Silva feels that there should be no obstacles on the Pacific coast, where the Spaniards are not well supervised.

Among the goods shipped to Mexico this time, according to the advice of Zheng Zhihu and others who had just returned from Mexico, the proportion of iron tools increased to 30% of the total tonnage of the fleet. Although consumer goods such as raw silk, silk, and porcelain made in China were in high demand in New Spain, the most profitable products in the market were ironware.

Iron tools of labor and iron weapons were hard currency in short supply in New Spain and other Native Americans.

In New Spain, the best farming tool of the Indian peasants was a plough with an iron bolt embedded in a wedge made of wood, and a hoe with an iron head attached to a stick.

This was still the case in New Spain, which had been colonized by Spain for more than 100 years, and iron tools were even more scarce in those areas where the Spaniards had not yet arrived. As a result, in the Americas, the minimum profit of iron tools brought from China could reach more than ten times, and if it was exchanged with the Indians north of New Spain, the profit could be as high as hundreds of times.

And the best part is that the iron can be used as ballast and does not take up too much space on the ship. The two ships that went to Mexico were ships belonging to a trading company that cooperated with the Spaniards, and the other was a supply ship to replenish the port of Los Angeles.

Sending off two fleets of ships in a row finally made Chongzhen feel a little more relaxed. These two fleets were like the dice he dropped into the vast ocean, and he was expecting in his heart to be able to score a better number.

At the beginning of October of the second year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youzhen felt the most comfortable days since he ascended the throne, everything seemed to be on the right track, and there was no sudden bad news to stimulate him.

This year's disaster is much lighter than last year's, and if you evaluate it in the past 30 years, it can be regarded as an ordinary year. But even if it is an ordinary year, it can make Chongzhen and the people of the world breathe a sigh of relief.

After several months of running-in, Feng Quan's Yamen, the premier of customs and foreign affairs, finally established a basic framework. With this prime minister's yamen, the excessive power in the hands of the maritime association can finally be incorporated into a formal yamen.

As for Feng Quan himself, he is also very happy, his previous investment in Chongzhen's loyalty has finally paid off.

In fact, he was ousted from the position of first assistant to the cabinet, and his position was very embarrassing for a while. With his past identity, if he wants to resurrect in the court, he will not arrange the position of a cabinet minister, but at least the position of six scholars, otherwise it can only be a fictitious position with no position and only rank.

He is only in his early 30s, so he naturally does not want to hang up a false position and wait for death in the court. However, there are only a few positions in the cabinet and the six ministries, one radish and one pit, as long as no one retreats, it will not be his turn to go up.

Even Huang Liji, the eldest of these people, looked energetic, and it seemed that he would not think about it if he didn't do it for one or two terms. What's more, his first assistant was pulled down by Huang Liji, even if Huang Liji stepped down, he would definitely not be allowed to take over his position, so as to avoid Feng Quan from wearing small shoes for his relatives, friends and protégés after he came to power.

In the more than 200 years of court struggle in the Ming Dynasty, except for a few people, there has never been a so-called gentleman who does not hold grudges.

Since Huang Liji pulled him off the horse, expecting Feng Quan not to retaliate after coming to power is as unrealistic as expecting the tiger to change to a vegetarian diet.

Not to mention, it was the revenge of the eunuch party against the Donglin Party a few years ago, isn't it the revenge of those officials who were not Donglin party members who were suppressed by the Donglin party? Since the Ming Dynasty, the civilian clique has been competing with the imperial power and the military generals clique for the power of the imperial government, but the struggle within the civilian clique has been equally fierce and ferocious.

Since Chongzhen's accession to the throne, Huang Liji and other officials, who had resolved the crisis of liquidation by the Donglin Party, originally tried to reconcile with the Donglin Party in order to restore peace within the civilian clique before the Wanli Party dispute.

However, some Donglin party members were not willing to make peace with them at all, and always wanted to overturn the case for the persecuted party members back then, and then counterattack the ruling ministers in the court.

In addition, Feng Quan, who was suppressed by Huang Liji and others, returned to the court as the prime minister of the Yamen, and immediately posed a threat to Huang Liji.

Compared with Huang Liji, who was also trying to keep the cabinet independent, Feng Quan was a complete submissive minister of the emperor. However, Feng Quan's past status and literary name made his prestige among northern officials only Huang Liji.

Huang Liji also suddenly understood, this was actually a warning from Chongzhen to him. He was told that even if he backed down on the New Deal, the emperor still had a replacement for him.