***

After weighing the stakes, João IV's courtiers finally agreed to lease the northern port of Aveiro to Daqin, which is located at the mouth of the Voli River south of Porto, the second largest city in northern Portugal.

The rent was not expensive, only 1,000 dragon coins per year, but there were proviso: unless the Portuguese requested support, the number of Qin garrisons in Aveiro should not exceed 500 men, and the number of warships should not exceed five.

Qin then provided 500 rockets to grapes at a "low price" of 300 dragon coins each, and sold 1,000 69-style flintlock rifles with 100,000 rounds of ammunition to Portugal at a price of 30 dragon coins each

With these conditions, Earl Brewster sat down at the negotiating table again and started a second round of talks with Zhang Haoran.

As a result, as soon as his proviso was proposed, Zhang Haoran immediately said: "No, I only have a small amount of military equipment for the flintlock rifle in Daqin, which shows how limited its production is." It is simply impossible to sell to your country. Rockets are even worse, even if you come up with a price of 1,000 dragon coins, Daqin can't provide it;

Our 300,000-strong army is fighting in the Indochina Peninsula, which is full of deep mountains and dense forests, and the usual artillery is too heavy to enter. It is all about the lightness of rockets that can occupy an advantage on the battlefield;

Rockets are even more difficult to manufacture, the cost is high, my Great Qin does not produce much, if I sell another 500 rockets to your country, my Great Qin will sacrifice at least one or two thousand more young soldiers in the Indochina Peninsula, and may even lose the war in the Indochina Peninsula, therefore, I cannot agree to the conditions of His Excellency the Earl. ”

Zhang Haoran is righteous and strict, and what he said is the same as the truth. In fact, Great Qin does have nearly 200,000 troops fighting in the Indochina Peninsula, but they are all locally recruited servant troops, not to mention 10,000 dead, or 100,000 dead. Da Qin would not feel distressed, and even wished that they would die more.

The fact that rockets are not sold is not because the price of 300 dragon coins a piece cannot make money, this is completely out of the secrecy of yellow explosive technology.

Portugal is the country of the Ming Dynasty, which is what the Ming Dynasty called the Franco, and now on the warships of the Qin army, many are still using the thousand-pound Franco machine artillery, with their technology, no one dares to guarantee that the rockets will reach them, and they cannot imitate them.

So. Although Zhang Haoran wanted Aveiro Port, he still vetoed the proviso proposed by Earl Brewster.

Earl Brewster was very unhappy in his heart, Portugal was sending the princess and relatives, and leasing the port, so that Qin State could provide some advanced weapons, and it was not for nothing, isn't this giving money, or not, Qin State is not sincere at all.

Seeing him unhappy. Zhang Haoran didn't have much apology, and said calmly: "Your Excellency, don't forget, my Great Qin will garrison troops in Port Aveiro and Port Safi. Once Portugal is invaded by other countries, these garrisons of our Great Qin will be to support your country in the war;

I am only asking you to provide the necessary protection for our passing ships, and we are not asking you to send troops to support the war in the event of an invasion by another country. From this point of view, my Great Qin has already done his best.

As for the port of Aveiro, we will not force your country to lease it to me Daqin. On the contrary, it would be advantageous for your country to have troops here, and to establish a trading port here, which would not only give Spain some scruples, but would also make your country a commercial center for the whole of Europe. If your country does not want these benefits, we will go to England to lease the port, and we do not mean to force your country. ”

Brewster originally felt that Portugal had lost a lot, but after listening to Zhang Haoran's words, he had to admit that what people said was not unreasonable.

It is true that the Qin State did not force Portugal to lease the port, and people said that if you don't rent it, you will rent it from England. Although England may not be able to rent, who can guarantee that England will not rent.

Qin promised to send troops to support Portugal in the event of an invasion, but in turn did not offer Portugal the same conditions. From a point of view, it is still Portugal that takes advantage of Qin.

Earl Brewster was dumbfounded by Zhang Haoran's speech. In the final analysis, it is because Portugal has no leverage. Unless you don't want to form an alliance, the initiative is definitely in the hands of someone else.

"Your Excellency, this is good, we are willing to pay a little more"

"Your Excellency, the envoy has made it very clear that this is not a matter of price, if there is a sale, it can be sold to your country at cost price based on the alliance between the two countries, but there is really none."

Even if what Zhang Haoran said was true, Brewster was not willing to give up like this, because Qin's advanced weapons were too important to Portugal in a difficult situation;

If in a big war, hundreds of light and powerful rockets could be overwhelmingly bombarded, enough for Portugal to win a major battle.

In the end, Zhang Haoran was so hard that he couldn't do anything, so he promised that if Portugal encountered an invasion by other countries, Qin would sell the rockets that had been equipped to the army to Portugal at a price of 350 dragon coins each;

Of course, now Portugal has to pay to pre-order, sorry, this thing is out of stock, if you don't pay for it first, it won't be your turn.

In fact, this is equivalent to keeping these rockets in the hands of the Qin army in peacetime, and then helping you use them in wartime, and if you want to study them, there is no way.

Brewster can't think about it, although the Qin army promised to send troops to support, but if you don't book some weapons, then the ghost knows what the Qin army will take to support, and Portugal will be finished after losing the battle.

In order to win the war with Spain, pay in advance, pay in advance, and buy insurance for Portugal.

In this way, Daqin and Portugal formally signed an alliance and became allies according to the agreed terms.

In fact, from Portugal's point of view, this covenant is really not a loss for them. As soon as the Qin State garrisoned in Port Aveiro, no matter how many, it represented the powerful Great Qin Empire;

Spain, which posed the greatest threat to Portugal, suffered a great loss to the Qin army, and looking at the destruction of nearly 100 Dutch warships in the Indian Ocean, if you want to attack Portugal, an ally of the Qin Empire, you must always consider the retaliation of the Qin Empire.

If four Qin warships can come to Europe today, they will be able to come to a hundred, or even a thousand, in the future, and no one knows what the consequences of further stabbing that huge empire will be.

In terms of trade, this time the Qin State also provided national treatment to Portuguese merchants, exempted from additional tariffs, and merchants from the two countries competed on an equal footing.

After thinking about it, João IV felt that the advantages of this alliance still outweighed the disadvantages.

For this reason, João IV also took the initiative to send people to various countries to make a precursor for the Great Qin delegation to visit the countries.

As a result, Cromwell of Britain immediately couldn't sit still after receiving the news that Great Qin had formed an alliance with Portugal and that the emperor of Qin was going to marry the beautiful Princess Catalina as his concubine. On the same day, he sent four warships to Lisbon to meet the Great Qin Mission.

Although England's situation was not as difficult as Portugal's, Cromwell's own situation was not very good, he sent Charles I to the guillotine, but Charles I's son was still there, England's royalists were still fighting back, and the liberals in parliament had realized that he wanted to monopolize power and was actively resisting.

Years of civil war had devastated England's vitality and was in dire need of trade from the East to improve its current poor financial situation.

What's more, if England wants to protect India's interests, it must rely on the snort of Great Qin, and the Netherlands, which is the most powerful in India, was destroyed, and England's strength in India is less than half that of the Netherlands.

However, Qin also had a reason to target England in India, and England had a hot fight with the Mughal dynasty in India, and sold weapons to the Mughals. And the Qin state was supporting the states of Otesa in the south-central region to fight against the Mughals.

In this way, England and Qin are now in a hostile position in India. From the perspective of the Qin State, you help my enemy, who will you destroy if I don't destroy you?

Because of this, Cromwell was also very attentive to Qin's envoys.

It's a pity that Zhang Haoran is not in a hurry, some of the people he brought are still "collecting" in Lisbon, and it is not good to give up halfway.

In addition, it is the Chinese New Year, thousands of miles away in Lisbon, Zhang Haoran and others will also hold a grand "Wangque Yaohe" to celebrate the New Year to the emperor of Daqin.

British, let's dry it first. (To be continued......)