Louis V. Almeida is the special envoy sent by Spain's governor in Asia, Lotz. However, as a merchant, he brought boxes of South American gold and silver to Penghu and received a ship through the strait from Chinese officials. The merchant ship must determine which port it wants to reach, whether it is to Shanghai, Ningbo, or Japan, Ryukyu. Different destinations have different ship guides. If there is no ship guide or the wrong ship guide is held, its ship is illegal. For example, if you take a ship guide marked to Shanghai, if you want to go to Japan after leaving Shanghai, you must go through additional procedures, otherwise the Ming Navy will have the right to conduct military disposal.

Almeida's ship crossed the Dayuan Strait, arrived near Ningbo in April, and verified the ship's lead in Zhoushan, and then drove to the estuary of the Huangpu River.

"The Chinese waters have become orderly." Almeida wrote in his diary: "It was the third time I arrived near Ningbo. When I first arrived, the prosperous Shuangyu was still there. When I arrived the second time, the entire East China Sea was in chaos. At that time, although we did not need to spend money to buy ships, we must always be guarded against pirates' attacks - even if we entered the port, we must be worried, because most of the harbors were in the hands of pirates, and pirates were the target of government attacks. Now we don't have to worry about all this. The government forces of the Ming Empire have controlled this vast sea, and most of the pirates have been driven to Japan and went to the South Ocean. The only danger left on the Chinese sea is probably the storm."

However, Almeida revealed a little regret: "Although we have gained security, we have also lost our freedom - we can no longer do whatever we want as we did in the past, and all things - including navigation and commerce, are carried out under the control of the Chinese. As for looting, no one in the entire East China Sea dares to challenge the authority of the Marshal of the Ming Empire - Li."

It is not possible to rob, which is fine for a maritime businessman like Almeida who already has assets, but it is undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for those Europeans who only brought one ship, brave and a few cannons. The reason why Almeida felt this way in his diary was that he had done such a thing that harmed the world before he became rich.

After entering Huangpu Port, there is a pier here for foreign merchant ships to dock. There is a land of about 300 acres next to the pier and circle it with a fence. This is the place for foreign merchants to live and stay after they get ashore. Shanghai people call this place Fantan.

There were originally some low and simple houses in this area, but these alone could not meet the needs of foreign businessmen. Not only was there a long shortage of numbers, but Almeida could not live in such houses.

So a smart businessman began to contract the projects in this area and was rushing to build inns, but Almeida could not enjoy these things. After he got ashore, he moved into a tent and went there for one night. The next day, he asked his assistant to queue up and submit a trade application to the authorities.

Most Chinese businessmen live in Shanghai county towns. As a large number of merchants flock here, Shanghai county towns have long been unable to live in, so they have to live in the suburbs. It can be foreseeable that the city where the General Administration of Maritime and Manufacturing Bureau will be expanded in the future.

There is another special zone between Fantan and Shanghai County. The official exercise is called Quoting. It is an area of ​​about 500 acres. In Chen Yuting's plan, fifteen commercial workshops will be established here. As the place for Chinese and foreign merchants' transactions, the houses have not been built yet, but they have only built fifteen areas with soil, such as ceramics, silks, cotton cloths, etc. The houses have not yet been seen. Most of the places are just open-air, but the merchants have already started trading after entering.

On the first day, Almeida went to the officials of the Navy Governor's Office, took out Zhan Zhen's letter of introduction and asked Li Yanzhi to see him. Then he went to the ceramic area. After seeing the samples, he snatched a hundred boxes of porcelain. The next day, he went to the Silk Area and ordered two hundred dans of raw silk. After ordering the goods, he reported the quantity and types of goods he ordered to the Secretary of the Maritime Department. Because the transaction goods were not registered, they were considered smuggling and could not be protected by the official. If they were inspected by the smuggling inspection team, they might be detained and confiscated along with the ship and goods.

Although several Chinese businessmen in the Quotation Site tempted him to say that he could secretly transport goods to his ship without registering and filing to avoid customs inspections and leaking tariffs, Almeida came first and felt that this was not safe, so he did not agree. In fact, before he arrived in Shanghai, more than a dozen similar scams had occurred in the Quotation Site - some profiteers lied that they could avoid tariff inspections and transport goods directly to foreign merchants' ships, but they fled after collecting the deposit. Officials of the General Administration of the Maritime Administration deliberately promoted such scams among foreign merchants. Almeida was also influenced by this public opinion and did not agree to the Chinese businessmen who promised that they would definitely be able to help him lose tariffs. Instead, they took the formal channels and paid the tariffs honestly - he calculated that as long as they could return to Europe safely, the tariff was simply not small compared to profits for him to take risks!

Almeida spent five days at the venue and ordered Oriental goods that could fill a three-masted sailboat. He wrote in his diary: "I never thought I could buy so many silk and ceramics here. Compared with Shuangyu in that year, Shanghai had undoubtedly more types and quantities of goods, and better quality, but not much higher prices. When I set out from Ma Yi, the investors who lent me money were nervous and worried that I would lose money on this trip, but now I regret it - I shouldn't be so conservative that day! Even if I brought ten times more money, I couldn't buy all the rare treasures on the market. Once these goods were transferred to Europe, the price would be at least ten times more. At that time, the Almeida family would probably become one of the richest families in Spain."

On the sixth day, the Navy Governor's Office received an echo, and Li Yanzhi agreed to summon him. Almeida had two identities this time. One was a merchant, representing a group of wealthy businessmen from South America and Ma Yi to come to Shanghai to purchase goods, and the second was to negotiate with the Chinese government as the special envoy of Governor Ma Yi. In the past few days, he rushed into the Silk Sea Taoshan Mountains at the scene. It was not until he heard the echo from the Navy Governor's Office that he thought about this official task again.

"The governor will have half an hour to meet you this afternoon, remember to arrive on time."

"We?" Almeida thought to herself, "Why isn't I the only one?"

That afternoon, he put on his most decent clothes and brought an exquisite gift - including ten quills, five-collar velvets and two mechanical clocks, and rushed to the Navy Governor's Office excitedly, but Li Yanzhi did not see him in the Governor's Office. The officials who came to pick him up took him to a schoolyard in the east of the city. Five teams of soldiers were on guard, and more than ten generals were lined up around. In the schoolyard, two of the most advanced artillery guns of the current Flang machine were placed! Almeida saw these two cannons.

I was already a little uneasy, and looked into the middle of more than ten generals and saw Li Yan sitting in the tiger-skin chair in the middle, chatting with a missionary. The missionary Almeida just recognized it, but it was the Jesuit monk Xavier V Francisco. A nun sat on Li Yanzhi's right hand as a translator. However, Xavier was quite familiar with Chinese language at this time, so there was no need for every sentence to pass through the nun. There was another person sitting next to Xavier, but the Portuguese captain Anton V Pereira.

Almeida was shocked when she saw him: "This guy seems to be a messenger of Portugal! I thought our Spain was better at this matter, but they did not expect that they would act faster than us!" He went forward to salute and presented a gift, saying: "The Holy Roman Emperor, His Majesty Carlos I, the King of Spain of our country, and Sir Loz, the governor of the Asian side of Spain, greeted the Marshal of the Ming Empire."

When Pereira heard it, he deliberately sneered. In fact, Almeida himself had never seen Carlos, and even Loz had never seen him. His words just now were just boasting that China and Europe were thousands of miles apart, so it was hard to know such details, but Pereira knew the details of Loz and Almeida. Although this sneer was low, Almeida also made Almeida's heart angry: "You guy, it seems that you were deliberately trying to ruin me!"

Lin Daogan stood beside Li Yanzhi. He leaned over and whispered a few times in his boss's ear. Li Yanzhi smiled and said, "Today is not a formal occasion. You are a guest from afar, please sit down." But he ignored Pereira. As he said that, he turned around and talked to Zapeluo again. Almeida listened carefully, without missing a word. Not long after, he heard that Pereira was indeed the governor of Manlacia and the governor of India in Portugal. Zapeluo claimed to represent the Vatican. Both of them brought gifts. Zapeluo was a monk, but he only brought a hardcover Bible and a cross inlaid with diamonds. The gifts brought by Pereira were even more expensive - in addition to the twelve carefully selected treasures, there were also the two cannons on the school ground!

Looking at the two cannons and looking at the gifts he brought, Almeida felt ashamed and regretful, and was left aside and had to blame himself. He remembered his experience in Japan, and the village said: "I was careless this time and I didn't make enough money from the beginning! The officials in the East like treasures, and the generals in the East like cannons and muskets. They both liked it!"

Before Almeida could start his diplomatic words, he was already at a disadvantage in this struggle without gunpowder. Li Yanzhi and Zabby became excited when they talked. Pereira occasionally said a few words, but Almeida couldn't even get into a single word.

"Marcedes-Master, my country's request, please consider it carefully," said Pereira. "What we request is to have a small island near Shanghai or Ningbo. In return, our country is willing to offer five hundred mezzanines and twelve most advanced cannons in Europe."

Almeda thought to himself: "The Portuguese are so brave! Such a large number of weapons can almost arm an army!"

But Li Yanzhi was not moved at all, and he was not even interested in speaking. Seeing that Li Yanzhi didn't say anything, Lin Daogan took it from the side and said, "In the world, is it the king's land, no matter how small the island is, we will not give it to outsiders. You can sell this clamp and cannon to us. If you don't sell it to us, we will build it ourselves."

After hearing the nun's translation, Perez said, "I also heard that the marshal opened an arsenal. The mezzanine produced by the Ming Empire is now very well-established, but when it comes to cannons, I am afraid there is still a certain gap with the top cannons in Europe." He pointed to the two cannons on the school ground and said, "For example, your country is afraid that these two cannons will not be built." He paused and said, "And we are not going to occupy your islands, we just want to rent them for fifty years to make it possible for our merchant ships to berth and repair them."

Li Yan looked at the two cannons directly following his fingers, and knew that what Pereira said was not false, but he was not moved by it, changed his words, shook his head, and said only: "There is no need."

His status was already high and he said it briefly, but Pereira was not able to understand his feelings. He saw Li Yanzhi turning to Zapelu again, as if he was more interested in Zapelu's proposal.

Seeing him like this, Pereira couldn't help feeling unhappy, but Shaburo secretly felt happy. He was a religious madman. Although he also attached the European monarchs and nobles to act in an attempt to do things, his position was different from Perez. Since he first met Li Yanzhi, he had been constantly selling the benefits of Catholicism to Li Yanzhi. This time he met Li Yanzhi through Chen Yuting's introduction. A few years ago, he had indirectly learned from the Poshan point of the mountain and had some knowledge and understanding of the teachings of Christ. In recent years, through various channels, he learned that Marshal Li was the most powerful figure in the entire Eastern world, and his power was still increasing. Some people even predicted that Li Yanzhi would become the ruler of half of the world in the next twenty years!

"If such a person can convert to my Lord..."

This is a tempting goal! Based on his years of missionary experience, Xavi knew that once the actual ruler of a country accepted Christ, the next step may be that the entire country would be affected by him to receive the gospel.

"Once China accepts the gospel, Japan, North Korea, and Siam may also be included in the arms of our Lord."

Zaberi came with hope, and Li Yanzhi's response did not disappoint him. Although the marshal always expressed that "the preaching act does not comply with the laws of our Ming Dynasty, and it must be approved by His Majesty the Emperor to make it possible", he was very interested in Zaberi's other proposal - setting up a church university.

"I can set up a Western-style university in Shanghai, and I have this authority." Li Yanzhi said: "I can also select outstanding talents to follow your merchant ship to travel and study. Well, actually, I also plan to go to Europe."

Zabber said happily: "If the marshal arrives in Europe, the pope and the monarchs of the nations will definitely welcome you."

In fact, there was still a certain misalignment in the words of the two. Li Yanzhi hoped to get a "Western-style university", but the nun still said "church university" when he translated the past. Li Yanzhi also had some understanding of the words of Folangji, knew some keywords, and heard the problems in it. Zabbello also knew some Chinese. In fact, both of them knew the misalignment, but they both deliberately ignored it.

After all, this is the first negotiation between the two sides, and they don’t want to bother each other on small issues so much that they have a stumble.

"But if you want to open a European-style university in Shanghai," Li Yanzhi said: "I hope that the teaching will be first-class talents, not second- and third-rate products."

"This marshal can rest assured." Zappello said with confidence: "In order to spread the gospel of our Lord, the best priests in Europe will not be afraid of the dangers of wind and waves."

Li Yanzhi smiled slightly and said, "The danger of wind and waves is on the one hand, and the funding along the way is on the other hand, but I hereby announce to you, [31 Novel Network                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      �

Shaburo was amazed when he heard this, but he was only verbally amazed. In fact, as an elite among the Catholic elites, he had long heard from his conversation with Li Yanzhi that he was more interested in the "trails" such as natural science. Eight or nine out of the ten sentences were asking about his knowledge about chemistry, physics, geometry, algebra, and even metallurgy, agricultural affairs, etc., but Shaburo was just perfunctory about the theological "trails". But Shaburo was not discouraged. After all, Li Yanzhi had accepted his proposal to establish a "church university", which was a good start for Shaburo, who had been running for several years without any achievements.

"In the future, all students who enter this university will definitely be Chinese elites or the smartest children among Chinese teenagers. As long as they enter university, we can make them convert to our Lord. After these teenagers have finished their studies, they will definitely become pillars of all aspects in China's society, and will quickly influence a large number of people to become believers of Christ."

He was already planning the setting of this church university, and more than 70% of the content would be to teach theology and how to spread the mystery of Christ. As for the remaining various natural subjects, it was mainly how to deal with Li Yanzhi's investigation, without having to really put it into consideration.

Li Yanzhi thought: "Although this foreign monk has good knowledge, he is devoted to preaching and will not teach him sincerely."

But Li Yanzhi knew that there was already a class of great scholars in the Ming Dynasty in this era who were both proficient in encyclopedias. For example, the great scholar he had just met recently, Tang Shunzhi, whom he had very profound mathematical attainments. The knowledge of these people is enough to accept or even expand the European discipline system.

"Mr. Tang and others are pure Confucian scholars, with sufficient academic knowledge and a high vision. If they really want to establish this Western-style university, they cannot let these foreign monks do it. They have to invite a few real scholars like Mr. Tang to Europe first, and choose a few real scholars who are not so crazy in religion. They can impress them with high officials, rich salaries, money and even oriental styles. They are invited to Shanghai, and then they can follow the clues and graft existing discipline achievements in Europe step by step."

Both of them actually saw through each other, but they had their own plans.
Chapter completed!