The Rise of the European Emperor

Da Gama caught a fisherman who was familiar with the local sea routes in the coastal area and asked him to lead the way. He took his flagship "Prince Enrique" to Taiwan Island, and the other ships temporarily stayed at Meizhou Island controlled by the Portuguese fleet. standby.

Because of the invasion of the Portuguese fleet, most of the people on Meizhou Island retreated to the inland for refuge, and only a small number stayed. The Portuguese fleet, on the other hand, used the harbor on Meizhou Island to temporarily stop. However, because the Ming court ordered the control of timber and carpenters, it was difficult for the Portuguese to repair ships. The newly felled wood cannot be used to repair ships at all.

Coincidentally, Meizhou Island was the first place Kong Tai contacted when he was smuggling. Therefore, Da Gama found Lin Afu, a fisherman who knew the route of Taiwan Island, on the island. Lin Afu once followed the local rich man Li Wanwan to escort a group of smuggled cattle to the mouth of the Tamsui River on Taiwan Island, so he knew the route. In fact, when the government retreated to evacuate the island's population, Lin Afu wanted to follow suit. However, at that time he caught wind and cold and couldn't get out of bed, so he stayed and was caught by the Portuguese as a leader.

Under the guidance of Lin Afu, the "Prince Enrique" successfully arrived at Tamsui City at the mouth of the Tamsui River in the northwest of Taiwan Island. At this time, Tamsui City has become the largest trading port on Taiwan Island. Because the Tainan Plain and other places in the southwest of Taiwan Island have not yet been developed, the highest degree of development on Taiwan Island at this time should be the Taipei Basin that Marin led the army to personally seize.

Today's Taiwan Island, because of the large-scale development of the Taipei Basin, Kong Tai moved the Governor's Mansion into the basin, and built Guihua City in the Taipei area in later generations as the capital of Dongfan Island.

In fact, Guihua City was originally supposed to be the name of Hohhot in the Ming Dynasty. It was the city built by San Niangzi when she belonged to the Ming Dynasty, and was named "Guihua City" by the Ming Dynasty. However, that happened in the Wanli period, and there is no shadow yet. Guihua means "return to obedience and be educated by him". In later generations, outstanding athletes were often naturalized by countries that lacked such athletes.

In later generations, naturalization and naturalization are nothing but commonplace matters. However, in this era, naturalization is of great significance, representing the dynasty "conquering the world". Therefore, when Kong Tai applied to name the new city "Guihua City", Zhengde Longyan Dayue was more excited than Kong Tai presenting the Napoleon cannon. Because there are foreigners who are willing to naturalize, which proves that he is very successful as the emperor. Then, the Ming court relaxed a lot of restrictions on Kong Tai’s recruitment of artisans and refugees in Daming.

Then, Kong Tai took the opportunity to recruit many craftsmen and disaster victims. Right now, the Taipei Basin of about 240 square kilometers has reclaimed 80,000 mu of land, which has become the source of food for the entire Governor-General of Dongfan Island.

Guihua City is still very small, only 1 square kilometer, and only about 25 kilometers away from Tamsui City at the mouth of the Tamsui River. When Da Gama's "Prince Enrique" arrived at Tamsui City, the lord Van der Beek, who was in charge of guarding Tamsui City, immediately ordered to fire a warning. At the same time, he sent people to go to Guihua City 25 kilometers away to report to Kong Tai. .

The Tamsui City at this time is no longer the small fortress that was only 50 meters long and wide at the beginning. At this time, Danshui City, because of the role of the trading port, has built more than a dozen long bridge piers for berthing ships. At the same time, with Tamsui Fort as the center, a small town with a length and width of 500 meters was built. Because of its status as a trading port, it became more prosperous than Guihua City.

Strictly speaking, Tamsui City is currently a trading port, while Guihua City is the governor's residence. Although Guihua City is larger, its economic vitality is far less than that of Tamsui City.

In order to ensure the safety of Danshui Port, Marin ordered to transform the original Danshui Fort into an artillery fortress equipped with 20 artillery pieces.

Inside many windows on the second floor, there is an 18-pound Hongyi cannon.

Usually, these windows are closed tightly, but once an enemy ship approaches, these windows will open and fire outwards.

No, after Da Gama's "Prince Enrique" approached Danshui Port, Van der Beek immediately ordered to open a window and fired a cannonball into the sea as a warning.

However, Da Gama on the boat narrowed his eyes:

"The artillery is hidden in the window... No wonder there is such an artillery fortress in the Ming Dynasty. It turns out that it belongs to the state religion of Beihai!"

Thinking of this, Da Gama became angry:

"Bastards! These guys taught the Ming Dynasty to build artillery fortresses, and caused my great Portuguese Kingdom to suffer heavy losses. They must give an explanation!"

After speaking, Da Gama ordered the boat to be put down, and he took the boat directly to Danshui Port...

Under the vigilance of the guards of Tamsui Port, Da Gama stormed ashore and met Van der Beek, the lord of Tamsui City. Upon meeting, Da Gama revealed his identity and said:

"I am Da Gama, the commander of the Portuguese Eastern Fleet, and I want to see your Governor Conte!"

Van der Beek was taken aback for a moment. He was not a traditional son of aristocrats. He learned Latin later and was not very proficient. After trying to understand Da Gama's meaning, Van der Beek quickly saluted and said:

"Please wait a moment, I will send someone to inform Master Kong Tai immediately!"

He still knows Da Gama's name, and he was the first person in Portugal to discover the Indian route. Portugal has always insisted that Da Gama was the first person to discover India, and is unwilling to admit that it was Marin who sent Columbus to discover India. Therefore, Da Gama's reputation is also great.

Hearing that Da Gama came to visit in person, Kong Tai didn't dare to neglect, and hurried over from Guihua City to meet Da Gama.

Upon meeting, Da Gama asked:

"Governor Kong Tai, you taught them to build the artillery fortress at the Pearl River Estuary in the Ming Dynasty, right? Do you know how much trouble this behavior has caused to the Kingdom of Portugal? At the Pearl River Estuary, two ships in my fleet were destroyed by the enemy's artillery The cannon was wounded, and now I have to return to Malacca for repairs. Now, another ship on my side has been damaged and three ships are damaged. It is all your fault. Why teach them to make artillery and build artillery fortresses? I need a reasonable explanation! "

Kong Tai, after listening to Da Gama's questioning, asked calmly:

"My lord Da Gama, in the treaty signed between the North Sea State and Portugal, is there any provision that the North Sea State cannot sell artillery to the Ming State?"

Da Gama was stunned, and after thinking about it, he said helplessly:

"Maybe not……"

Kong Tai spread his hands and said:

"Isn't that enough? There is no provision in our treaty with your country that we are not allowed to sell artillery to the Ming country. We sell artillery to them, there is no problem at all! Let me tell you, the craftsmen of the Ming country are really amazing. I just sent them dozens of cannons, and they were able to imitate the 12-pound bronze cannon based on the samples they sent..." Kong Tai's words are equivalent to shunning the responsibility completely—I I didn't teach them how to cast cannons, they imitated them...

"What happened to the artillery fortress at the mouth of the Pearl River? Don't tell me they figured it out by themselves!" Da Gama rolled his eyes and retorted.

Kong Tai patted his head and said:

"Are you talking about this problem? Indeed, we have craftsmen who went to help them repair the artillery fortress. However, that was not sent by me, but was bribed and invited by Ming officials privately. Ming officials paid hundreds of gold coins privately. , that craftsman ran to help them repair the artillery fortress... Now, I have severely punished that unruly 'craftsman'!" The so-called "strict treatment" is actually a notice of criticism, and then deducting several months of salary . However, for the craftsmen who received a lot of rewards from the Ming court, deducting a little salary is really nothing...

"Severe punishment! Must be severely punished!" Da Gama said angrily.

But Kong Tai pretended to be embarrassed, and said in a low voice:

"However, what name should I use to punish those craftsmen? You know, Beihai Kingdom pays attention to 'ruling the country by law'. If you want to punish people severely, you must break the law first. But in my memory, they did not violate any laws, and they did not break the law. It did not violate any terms of the agreement signed by the North Sea State and the Kingdom of Portugal..."

Da Gama was so angry that he couldn't speak...

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