My British Empire

As the 10,000-strong army of the Saad dynasty continued to approach, the Berbers finally chose to surrender. They decided that after paying the Ten Peaks gold, if they won, they would cede the area near Ceuta to the English.

And if it goes well, after this war, the area of ​​Ceuta will soon reach 60 square kilometers, equivalent to two Macau regions, which will greatly expand the influence of the English in the Mediterranean.

As the other party to the contract, the English need to provide 500 matchlock guns, 5 bronze cannons, and recruit 1,000 mercenaries for the Berbers. Of course, the wages are paid by the Berbers themselves.

Although muskets and artillery cost a lot of money, England's munitions production has matured, and matchlock guns have begun to be phased out, and their prices have plummeted. His Majesty the King is ready to dump them all over Europe.

So, excluding these expenses, England earned a total of nearly 10,000 pounds in profit, which is really amazing.

However, this also made the English understand one thing, Morocco has a lot of gold.

With the help of the English, the Berbers quickly organized a joint army of 5,000 Berber tribes and a 1,000-strong German mercenary army, waiting for the Assad army.

At this time, the Portuguese soon learned that the English had occupied their port of Ceuta, and the Portuguese ambassador personally met His Majesty the King.

"Your Majesty, your country has invaded our territory for no reason. Does this mean that your country is preparing to fight against me, Portugal!"

After the Portuguese ambassador saw the young king, he raised his sexy beard and said straight to the point with a heavy tone.

He probably thought that Portugal was in the period of great empire decades ago!

His Majesty the King smiled inwardly.

"Your Excellency, come, please have a sip of tea, sit down, and let's talk slowly!"

His Majesty Edward had a very good attitude, and he didn't care about the ambassador's domineering attitude, but spoke very kindly.

As the saying goes, if you stretch out your hand and don't hit a smiling face, Your Excellency the Ambassador will treat the king of a country like this, and his previously stiff face immediately relaxes a lot.

"Your Excellency, the Port of Ceuta was taken from the Berbers. How can it be said that it is an invasion of your country's territory?"

After taking a sip of tea, Your Excellency the Ambassador said in an orderly manner to King Edward's explanation:

"Your Majesty, the Ceuta region is only temporarily occupied by a group of heretics, but legally it is still our Portuguese territory. It is extremely rude for your country to invade for no reason!"

"Hehe! Your Excellency is too unreasonable to make trouble. We in England don't know whether the Ceuta region belongs to the Portuguese. Anyway, we took it from the pagans, but we didn't see half of the Portuguese at that time!"

His Majesty Edward sneered, without the kind expression just now, but with a mocking expression on his face.

"Does your majesty think that our country is easy to bully? Our hundreds of warships in Portugal are not for display!" The ambassador immediately jumped up and said angrily.

"Hmph!" The young king also stood up, raised his chin, and said dismissively: "Our United Kingdom is not a vegetarian. In the past few years, if nothing else, hundreds of warships can be produced, or even thousands of tons. There are also many battleships!"

"The strength of our two countries is almost the same. If we fight, we will lose. Your country does not have the English Channel! And Spain has been coveting your country for a long time!"

In the face of His Majesty Edward's making things difficult, His Excellency the Ambassador was a little impatient, and he said loudly:

"Although the warships are equivalent, we have more skilled sailors in Portugal. Naval battles don't just need ships!"

Your Excellency the Ambassador spoke the truth with some pride, which made the young His Majesty blocked for a while.

"Even so, your army is no good!" His Majesty the King said calmly.

"Our Portugal has a lot of money and can hire a lot of mercenaries!"

"Your army can't do it!"

"We Portugal are united!"

"Your army can't do it!"

………

No matter what the ambassador said, His Majesty the King still smiled and said a word, directly rebutting.

Portugal is a country where the navy and merchants occupy a large population. Not only is the agricultural population missing, but even the army is incomplete.

With a population of 2 million, the army only has 20,000 people, and most of them are sent to protect the colonies around the world. The local strength is extremely weak.

And its neighbor, Spain, has the most elite army in Europe, and the number has reached 200,000. What a frightening number.

Therefore, Portugal would rather lose some interests than lose its military power, not even the navy.

After all, the Spanish Navy is number one in the world.

"Your Excellency, I have a method here. I wonder if you are willing to adopt it?" His Majesty the King looked at the Portuguese ambassador with a constipated expression in front of him, and said in his heart.

"Please speak, Your Majesty!" the ambassador said with a little dodge in his eyes, and he did not see the domineering at the beginning.

"The United Kingdom is willing to invest 5,000 pounds to buy the Ceuta region from your country! Moreover, if noble merchants stop at Ceuta Port, they can enjoy the most-favored-nation treatment!"

"Most Favored Nation?"

"In other words, among all foreign businessmen, Portuguese businessmen enjoy the lowest tax rate!"

After hearing this proposal, Your Excellency the Ambassador couldn't help but fell into deep thought.

"Your Majesty, I have no right to make decisions, please allow me to report to the country!"

"Okay, I'm waiting for your good news!"

bingo! Mission accomplished!

Looking at the departing Portuguese ambassador, Edward could not help but celebrate in his heart.

With five thousand pounds in exchange for the Ceuta region, the group of mercenary and cowardly Portuguese will, in all likelihood, agree.

Although they lost the Ceuta region, the Portuguese, who have been lying down and making money, don't want to try if they want to throw their arms and fight the English, especially when their strength is not much different.

His Majesty Edward proposed to buy the Ceuta region with money, which not only saved the face of the Portuguese Empire, but also made up for some of their losses.

In particular, the subsequent most-favored-nation treatment comforted the wounded hearts of Portuguese businessmen. Under such circumstances, how could they not agree.

Sure enough, as Edward had expected, the Portuguese generally agreed to the United Kingdom's proposal, but asked the United Kingdom to also apply most-favored-nation treatment to several Portuguese commodities.

In this way, His Majesty Edward did not continue to do two things, and simply proposed that the two countries form an alliance and treat each country with most-favored-nation treatment.

Subsequently, the foreign ministries of the two countries conducted consultations for a month and finally reached an alliance agreement.

Among them, in addition to the most-favored-nation treatment, the most important one is that if an allied country is attacked by another country, the other country must unconditionally launch a military counterattack and automatically join the ranks of confrontation.

Portugal is looking for an ally in order to prevent the Spanish from invading.

And England is not only for Portugal's gold market, but also to prevent it from being attacked by the Armada in history. It can only helplessly defend and counterattack, and it is still fighting alone.

This treaty, which is beneficial to both countries, was unanimously adopted by the two governments.

Of course, in order not to arouse the dissatisfaction of a certain big country, the military content was naturally hidden and became a secret agreement.

The treaty was signed in Lisbon, Portugal, known as the Treaty of Lisbon.

And because the treaty began in King Edward's study, the "Treaty of Lisbon" is also called the "Treaty of the Study".

Internationally, the sudden reconciliation between Britain and Portugal, which hadn't even begun to appear just now, has left many European countries puzzled.