The Rise of the European Emperor

Najib's itinerary went smoothly. After arriving in Mersing through the jungle, Najib forcibly confiscated several large fishing boats, and then sailed north along the coast of the Malay Peninsula and arrived in Siam (Thailand).

Then, Najib led the fleet and entered Ayutthaya City (later Bangkok North) from the Chao Phraya River, and asked to meet Rama Tiephudhi II, the king of the Ayutthaya Dynasty of Siam, to meet Najib, but learned that Najib was actually riding He was very surprised that the fishing boat came over. After all, the Kingdom of Malacca is also considered a powerful country. In terms of wealth, it is no less than the Kingdom of Siam. Even, because it controls the traffic arteries of the Strait of Malacca, it is richer than Siam. And Najib took a shabby fishing boat this time, which does not fit the image of a local tyrant in the Kingdom of Malacca...

"Your Majesty, I'm here to warn you!" Najib was very smart, and instead of calling for help directly, he said to warn you. Sure enough, Rama Tiephudhi II no longer thought about why Najib came here on a small broken fishing boat, but asked what happened to the Kingdom of Malacca.

Then, Najib launched the Dafa of flickering, and described to Rama Tiephudhi II the terrible "fact" that a group of "yellow-haired, green-eyed" monsters broke through the city of Malacca with a 500-jin sledgehammer...

Rama Tibodhi II swallowed his saliva in fright, and asked:

"Those evil spirits are really so powerful?" Siamese believe in Buddhism, and the most terrifying thing in their eyes is probably evil spirits.

Najib nodded fiercely:

"Of course, Your Majesty also knows that the capital of our country has an army of 30,000. But in the face of thousands of yellow-haired evil spirits, he had to retreat into the dense forest after only holding on for more than a month. There is Chao Phraya in the capital of your country. The river leads to the sea, and those yellow-haired demons like to drive a big boat ashore to burn, kill, and loot."

"Then your envoy came to seek help from Siam?" Rama Tiebodhi II asked nervously. He is now engaged in a fierce ideological struggle in his brain. Should he send troops to rescue Malacca?

Najib shook his head and said:

"To deal with this group of yellow-haired evil spirits, we may need to rely on the power of the Shang Kingdom. This time, I passed by Siam to purchase some tributes and send them to Daming, the Shang Kingdom, to request the Shang Kingdom to send troops to restore the country."

"Okay, that's a good idea!" Hearing that there was no need to send troops to Siam, Rama Tiephudhi II immediately agreed.

"Then the minister is purchasing items in Siam to pay tribute?"

"No problem, I will send officials to accompany you to purchase, and I promise to get them at a low price!" As long as Siam is not allowed to send troops, Rama Tibodhi II will not care about anything else. Moreover, he also hopes that the Malacca issue can be resolved. Otherwise, the Kingdom of Malacca will really perish, and Siam, which is adjacent to the Kingdom of Malacca, will also suffer.

Then,

Najib bought a lot of Southeast Asian specialties at low prices in Ayutthaya. Then, he also borrowed two large ships from Rama Tiebodhi II to go to Guangzhou as a tribute ship.

...

When he arrived in Guangzhou, Najib knelt down and cried like he saw his own father.

It is somewhat inexplicable for the Guangzhou Shipping Department to promote Ding Haishan:

"Your envoy, didn't you report the death of your country's lord to the court last year? Why are you crying again this time?"

"My boss doesn't know, the capital of my country, Manchuga, was overrun by a group of ghosts!"

"What?" Ding Haishan was taken aback. Then, start asking about the situation in detail.

Naturally, Najib did not talk nonsense like scaring Siam, but honestly explained the situation, showing that the enemy is strong, but not invincible. Otherwise, it would be bad if Ming Chao was too scared to rescue.

Ding Haishan didn't dare to make his own claims, and after consulting the Chief Envoy of Guangdong Province, he dispatched a courier to send the news back to the capital.

But the Ming Dynasty was a little overwhelmed at this time, because the Liu Liu Liu Qi peasant uprising broke out in the fifth year of Zhengde. The imperial court mobilized 100,000 troops to suppress it, but it has not been suppressed yet. Therefore, there is no time to take into account the use of foreign troops.

Therefore, according to Li Dongyang's opinion, Zhengde decided to send officials from the Ministry of Rites to Malacca, hoping to "repel" the Portuguese.

Considering that Kong Tai, who presided over the affairs of Dongfan Island, was also a "Western Yi", Huang Qinghe, the chief guest officer of the Ministry of Rites who was in charge of the mission to Malacca, stayed in Quanzhou and sent someone to invite Kong Tai to act as an interpreter. Of course, he was ordered by imperial edict, otherwise, as a doctor, he is not qualified to ask Kong Tai to be his interpreter.

Kong Tai, who received the imperial edict, was a little surprised at first. But soon, he happily went to Quanzhou to help out as a guest translator...

Because, Kong Tai remembered what Marin said-to find a way to worsen the relationship between Daming and Portugal. And as a translator, it's easiest to use your hands and feet...

...

To give a simple example, when the leaders of the two countries meet, and one leader says "Hello", the translation is fine if the translation is normal, but if it is deliberately translated into "Nima coins", then there will be a big mess, and the worst may explode Civil war.

Think about it, Putin said "Hello" to Trump in Russian, and the translator said to Trump, "Putin said 'grass mud paralysis'"... This depends on Trump's violent temper, and it is estimated that he will fight on the spot...

Coincidentally, no one in Ming Dynasty knew Portuguese, and no one in Portugal knew Chinese. As the only bridge that can communicate between the two parties, it is too easy to do something in the translation process.

Of course, Kong Tai must not deliberately translate the greetings of the two parties into curse words like "Nima coins". After all, both parties are educated and highly intelligent people. If it is translated like this, even a fool can see the problem.

However, it's okay to express the meaning of the two sides' words in different tones...

...

No, when the fleet arrived in Malacca, Albuquerque personally brought people to welcome the Ming envoy Huang Qinghe. After all, Portugal also hopes to conduct normal trade with Ming Dynasty.

Albuquerque extended his hand enthusiastically, intending to shake it. But Huang Qinghe didn't respond, just cupped his hands...

This is also normal, the etiquette in the East is like this, hand in hand to each other. But Albuquerque's face was a bit ugly at that time, he stretched out his hand and didn't respond, it's embarrassing, isn't it?

So, he turned his questioning eyes to Kong Tai, who played a guest translator. Comte explained in Latin (the common language of European nobles):

"This is the custom of the Ming Dynasty people... well, they think shaking hands is too dirty, so the hands of the two parties do not touch each other, they just clasp each other at a distance..." Most of Kong Tai's words are fine, but the sentence "dislike Dirty handshake" was what he added on purpose.

Sure enough, when Kong Tai said that the other party thought the handshake was dirty, Albuquerque's face darkened suddenly, feeling insulted...

After the official negotiations started, Kong Tai acted like a demon again...

"Where did you and other Fan people come from? Why do you want to occupy the capital of our Ming Dynasty?" Huang Qinghe asked politely.

Konta's translation is less polite:

"Where are you barbarians from? Why did you attack my territory of the Ming Empire?" The meaning of this translation is similar, but the tone is very different.

Albuquerque was indeed a little annoyed:

"Barbarians? We are great Portuguese, not barbarians. Please respect our Kingdom of Portugal, we are equal!"

However, when Kong Tai translated it to Huang Qinghe, it became:

"We are not ordinary people, but civilized people, no less civilized than Ming Dynasty. Our Kingdom of Portugal has the same status as Daming! The Portuguese monarch has the same status as the Emperor of Ming!" There is nothing wrong with this translation, even Said very pertinently.

But the bad thing is that the Ming Dynasty people don't agree...

"Hmph!" Sure enough, Huang Qinghe was dissatisfied.

You must know that people in the Ming Dynasty had a deep plot of "Going to Heaven". Especially the scholars of the Ming Dynasty naturally had a feeling of "superior". For Portugal, a "small country of Zur", dare to say that it is equal to Daming, it is simply an offense to Daming!

Moreover, at this time, Kong Tai kindly told Huang Qinghe that the territory of Portugal was about the same size as the Ming and Zhejiang provinces...

Well, now Huang Qinghe is even more unhappy. Even a power as big as several provinces like Mongolia still wants to be a vassal to Ming. You, a small country that is only equivalent to the smallest province of Ming, actually want to be on an equal footing with Ming.

So, Huang Qinghe said angrily:

"Portugal is only about the same size as the smallest province of Ming Dynasty. The king of Portugal is roughly equivalent to a governor of my Ming Dynasty. What qualifications does he have to be equal to my Ming Dynasty?"

Comte then translated it "truthfully" for Albuquerque:

"He said that the king of Portugal is only equivalent to the governor of a province in Ming Dynasty, and he is not worthy to be compared with the emperor of Ming Dynasty in dozens of provinces..."

There was nothing wrong with the translation, but Albuquerque was outraged. After all, Portugal was his homeland, and the King of Portugal was also his sovereign. To look down on the King of Portugal is to look down on him. Moreover, Portugal also has provinces. However, a Portuguese province is only equivalent to a state or a prefecture in the Ming Dynasty, and a provincial governor, but it is equivalent to the mayor of a prefecture-level city in later generations. Using the provincial governor to describe the King of Portugal is indeed somewhat contemptuous. And Albuquerque didn't know that Daming is a province bigger than Portugal...

So, the two sides quarreled in different languages. Kong Tai was caught in the middle, seemingly persuading the fight, but actually fanning the flames without leaving any traces...

As a result, the talks between the two sides naturally collapsed. Albuquerque finally stated that the city of Malacca and Kuala Lumpur are already the land of the Kingdom of Portugal and will never be returned. And Huang Qinghe also threatened angrily - wait for the heavenly soldiers to arrive, and then walk away...

Before leaving, Conte helplessly spread his hands towards Albuquerque and said:

"I can't help it, people in the Ming Dynasty are so arrogant..." Then in a blink of an eye, they followed Huang Qinghe away like a dog's leg.

"Bah, what the hell?" Albuquerque didn't know how much his impulsiveness had caused Portugal today. If it were the Portuguese Foreign Minister Ricardo, he would not be as rigid as him, and he might pretend to compromise. But Albuquerque is a general and likes to go straight. Coupled with Kong Tai's secret provocation, it is inevitable to turn against Ming Dynasty...