No ticket requests this month, and the monthly ticket seems rather bleak. If you have any tickets in your hands, please give me a few...

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In the fourth year of Longqing, a Portuguese merchant ship returning to Malacca from Manila was found to have any prohibited items when passing through the Port of Brahma Port. The Port Maritime Bureau immediately seized the goods according to the law, fined the merchant ship class, and detained the captain at the Port of Brahma Port for three months, and only allowed the first mate to drive the ship back.

This is actually a "routine" incident. After the Ming Navy controlled the South China Sea, the three ports Manila, Palawan and Bharat have always done this. Although the foreign merchant ships who were punished in the past were not happy, they had nothing to say. First, the Ming Dynasty's national power was intimidating, and second, the Maritime Bureau of each port also did the same to Chinese merchant ships. It was treated fairly, so everyone had nothing to say - but something happened this time.

The banned goods on this ship were intended to be transported to Sousa, the governor of Asia in Portugal. The captain was Sousa's nephew. The merchant ship returned to Malacca. When Sousa heard about it, he was furious and immediately sent someone to Singapore to negotiate with the sinking gate, asking him to return his nephew and return the seized goods in full.

Of course, Chenmen could not agree to this matter. Not to mention that the Bharat Port is not under his control, he would not agree even if he is under his control. If the Portuguese were given special treatment when they were yelled, the Ming Navy would not be able to gain a foothold in the South China Sea in the future. In addition, Chenmen has also wanted to cause trouble recently, so he refused rudely.

The distance between Malacca and Singapore is very close, and the boats are convenient to travel. You can even reach it by land and cross a shallow strait by boat. Sosa sneered after hitting a wall at Shenmen, "Okay! You dare not let people return the goods! Then I will go and ask for it myself!"

One morning three days later, the morning mist had not dissipated, and the sailors on the routine cruise ships in Singapore were still unable to open their eyes. Suddenly, a lookout hand shouted: "Boat! It's weird!"

The captain on the patrol boat became alert and drove in a tentative manner, then suddenly realized that a very large fleet appeared in front of him!

The fleet in the mist was afraid that there would be dozens of sea boats of all sizes, all of which were half sails. The speed was not fast. I guess I had walked here at night and had not returned to the state of walking during the day.

"Wow! So many ships! Could it be that people from Manila come? It's impossible! The direction is wrong! The boat style is not right! I'm afraid it's an enemy attack! Warning! Warning to the port!"

The patrol boat quickly turned around and drove towards Singapore.

This fleet that suddenly appeared was Sousa's army. He had been mobilizing these ships for a long time, but he kept holding back. It was not until today that he suddenly rushed over and caught him off guard to kill the Ming Navy!

The patrol boat returned to Singapore first, but it failed to gain much time. The Portuguese fleet had already covered up on a large scale. Sousa sent the most powerful "Santa Maria" and "Colombia" to sideways shell the port entrance and exit, sealing the port's entry and exit, and then sent two Indian warships as cannon fodder to carry two hundred Indian troops and rushed into the port, and then the "Nina" with the most well-prepared combat as the main force of the attack.

The garrison troops in Singapore seemed to have been fooled, the port quickly fell, and ships of all sizes caught fire under the dense artillery bombardment. The sailors and soldiers didn't care about driving the ship and fought back, but they all fled ashore - they fled faster than flying!

At this time, half an hour had passed since the Passing Sea Boat discovered that the Portuguese fleet had been attacking. The sun was getting higher and the mist had dissipated. Sosa stood at the bow of the ship and saw the Chinese soldiers running away in a mess in the port. She couldn't help laughing: "I just said, these Chinese barbarians are not the opponents of our Portuguese soldiers? Even if the local soldiers we trained were much stronger than their regular army!"

The harbor battle did not last long, and it ended with the Portuguese victory. Sousa ordered the landing, but when they landed, Shenmen had already fled with soldiers. Some were scattered to the rural areas outside the Singapore Port City, and some fled directly to the Malay Peninsula by boat. Most of the people left in the port city were non-Chinese. When these people saw that the Portuguese defeated the Chinese, they fell over without thinking. Anyway, they were just doing business, and it would be the same if the owner of the port was changed.

Sousa occupied Singapore without much effort. Victory came so easily that many Portuguese generals and captains were surprised. Only Sousa thought it was normal. Two hundred Europeans defeated the army of tens of thousands of "pagans". He had seen this kind of thing many times in the Americas, so he became accustomed to it.

"In front of our European sea knights, all pagans are just scheming!"

When Li Yanzhi developed the South China Sea, the policy he adhered to was different from that of European colonial policies. The first thing Europeans had to do to open overseas commercial roads was to occupy key points of the route to protect the waterway. Li Yanzhi was different. After he selected the stronghold, he used the strengths of Chinese farmers and first carried out rural construction. Although Singapore Island was small, it still had more than 600 square kilometers. Before the port boom, more than a dozen villages lived in tribes were opened. After Sosa occupied Singapore, he sent troops to attack the two villages closest to the port city. As a result, as soon as the troops arrived, the villagers fled and fled to other villages. Therefore, these two troops only caught some cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks. The rice in the fields was not yet mature, and it was useless to see it.

"These Chinese people are useless and will run away!"

These two villages were occupied like this.

At this time, the Portuguese captain who had experienced the battle of the great men urged Sousa to sweep the countryside of Singapore and clean up the island, but Sousa gave up after calculating the time account.

Except for the two rural areas closest to the port city, the other rural areas are far away. The sea boats cannot reach and the roads are difficult to walk. It will probably take six or seven days to wipe out and sweep them one by one. If you want to fully occupy them one by one, the nine thousand people brought by Sosa will not have to do anything else. As for plunder, it is obvious that Shanghai, officials, Quanzhou, and Luzon are the more ideal targets of plunder. There is nothing valuable in the rural areas of Singapore that can arouse the interest of these robbers.

"There is no need for this." Sosa said: "I heard that the Shenmen had fled to the peninsula, and there was a group of farmers left, and no organization could do anything. Our goal is not Singapore. It is enough to occupy the port here, and we cannot waste too much time here."

Just then, several village chiefs sent letters saying that as long as the Portuguese masters do not infringe on their village, they are willing to pay taxes every year and pay food during the holidays.

"But if the men must come to attack us, we dare not resist, so we have to escape to the peninsula and go to Ansheng."

"Haha, have you seen it?" Sosa said proudly: "A such a cowardly race is not worth fighting at all."

The nations in the Mediterranean world have formed a law of navigation since the Phoenicians, that is, occupy the waterway to protect the trade routes. Therefore, the so-called control of India in Portugal is actually just to find a stronghold in southern India that can guarantee the waterway. The world outside the stronghold has neither the need to go deep nor the ability for them to go deeper. After all, their population is too small, and they cannot move thousands of people to every island like the Chinese. A country like Portugal that has risen by navigation and commerce is really a demanding task to make them fully realize the importance of the countryside. It is impossible to bring a team of 8,000 people to sweep and occupy one village after another.

So after Sousa occupied Singapore Port, she felt that the big thing had been done, so she ordered a captain to be the mayor of Singapore Port City, and set sail the next day and rushed towards Brahma Port.

Before the Portuguese arrived, Bharat Port had known the fall of Singapore. It was logical that it should be prepared, but its resistance was not much more intense than Singapore. At this time, the three ministers including the Commercial Bank, Zhang Juzheng, Hu Zongxian, etc. had already run back to Luzon. Yang Zhou, who was left behind, led his soldiers to retreat into the inland. The location of Bharat Port Port was close to today's Brunei, and it was backed by a large island that was much wider than that of Fujian Province. When the Chinese hid in the inland, they would be even more invisible.

After winning twice in a row, not only did the Portuguese people get angry, but even those non-Chinese people are surprised that the Ming soldiers retreated quickly, and the Spaniards in the south are particularly inspired!

"So the Ming Navy is just a paper tiger!"

Spain's governor Lopez said to his subordinate Luis V. Almeida: "If Singapore is just being defeated, it can be said that the Sousa attack is effective, but Brahma also changed hands so quickly, then it must be a problem with the Chinese."

"Would that be a trick?" said Louis V. Almeida.

"A trick? Even if there is a trick, it is impossible to give the vital ports to others twice in a row. Think about it, if you were the king of Portugal, would you give Lisbon to others? If you were the Grand Duke of the Netherlands, would you give Antwerp to others? Will the French give Nianda to others? Will the Italian give Venice to others?"

"Of course not." Louis V. Almeida said: "A port city is the life of a country. If you lose the key port, you will lose the route, and if you lose the route, you will be finished!"

What he said is exactly the natural idea of ​​commercial navigation countries.

"Yes!" Lopez said: "So there is only one answer: the Chinese are actually paper tigers, and we have been fooled by them for too long."

In order to test his speculation, he sent a fleet to attack Palawan as pirates. As Lopez expected, Palawan was also vulnerable to the pirate fleet disguised as the Spanish Navy! After receiving the port, Lopez confirmed that his guess was completely correct!

"China is a fat sheep! The fat and weak fat sheep are waiting for us to cut it!"

After entering Palawan, Lopez felt that there was no need to disguise pirates. They tore off the fig leaf of the skeleton flag and let the Spanish flag flutter above the port without any hesitation.

When he heard that Palawan fell into the hands of the Spanish, Sousa was so angry that she jumped: "Lopez, this fat pig! He dared to come and grab me! Asia is Portugal, it is me Sousa! Did he forget the Pope's Meridian? He actually ignored the Pope's president's infringement on the interests of our Portugal!"

The so-called "Popular Meridian" refers to the dividing line drawn by Spain and Portugal under the arbitration of the Pope when they were competing for the scope of the colony. After the two countries recognized the arbitration of the Pope, they signed an agreement, using the meridian line 370 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands as the dividing point, which is the "Popular Meridian line". According to the agreement between the two countries, all newly "discovered" lands belong to Portugal to the east of the meridian and to Spain to the west.

The determination of this meridian occurred before Magellan's voyage around the world. After Magellan proved that the earth was round, Spain and Portugal had another conflict around the Mai Islands (European name: Moluca Islands), which Magellan arrived. Finally, the Vatican made a second arbitration, this time a new dividing line was drawn as a supplement.

The port of Palawan is located west of this dividing line, so Sousa takes this port for granted to Portugal.

However, this kind of false text on paper is just used to quarrel and really occupy the port. Who would honestly hand over it for the agreement? Lopez was too lazy to respond to Sousa's criticism, and Sousa didn't have much time to deal with this matter. They all turned their attention to the third important stronghold - Manila!

"After capturing Manila, there will be a dock to attack China!" Lopez shouted in Palawan.

Luzon is the place where China operates the longest in the South China Sea. Due to its deep development, it produces the most goods and grain. "We must conquer Manila before the Spaniards. With Manila, Palawan becomes a redundant burden." Sosa issued a death order!

Because you can fly directly from Manila to Balakura, you don’t need to stay in Palawan at all. At the beginning, Li Yanzhi’s main purpose was to build a buffer between Manila and Ma Yi, and he did not intend to use it as a transfer station between Manila and Balakura.

Sousa's expedition fleet was originally coming to Palawan, but after hearing the news, it slightly changed its course and headed straight to Manila Bay.

All the Europeans in the South China Sea were in a state of excitement. They suddenly realized in just one month: It turned out that the prestige established by the Ming Dynasty after operating in the South China Sea for so long was actually paper-based! It was knocked down!

In this case, how can you not be moved by those restless Europeans? For a moment, both merchants and pirates were mobilized, either relying on Lopez or Sosa. When the plunder can be successful, they will not do business!

"Nature, nature!" A month later, Chen Yuting, who received information in Shanghai, sighed: "I always thought that there were so many real gentlemen under the cross! I didn't expect that they were all wolves in sheep's clothing!"

In Zhehe Port, Zhan Yi also sighed: "As soon as the governor is gone, these ghosts will become presumptuous! The agreements signed with us before have become bullshit!"

"It's just shit!" Hu Zongxian sneered: "Have you ever taken it seriously?"

Just as they were talking, Sousa's fleet had already arrived in Manila Bay. At this time, all the merchants who wanted to take advantage of the chaos, pirates gathered like ants, and Sousa was happy to take them under his command. This increased the invading force to two hundred ships and more than 25,000 people at once! Seeing his unprecedented strength, Sousa couldn't help but be proud and said to the captain Francisco V Toscano: "China is the second America! After conquering Manila, I will let you be the sub-governor here." Because Toscano helped him a lot in raising fleets and war supplies.

After Francisco V. Toscano came out of the captain's room, his cousin Floyd V. Toledo whispered to him: "How about it? Do you think the Ming navy is really so weak?"

"Hehe, I'll know tomorrow." Francisco V Toscano said.

"tomorrow?"

"We will enter Manila Bay tomorrow. If the Chinese are really resistant, we will fight here. Let's pull the ship a little bit to see the situation."

"What if the Chinese lose?" Toledo asked.

"Then the Chinese are really useless. At that time, I will be my governor in Manila comfortably. You can go to the senior officials for a walk, and there is also a gold pit."

"If the Chinese block our attack..."

"Then let's go find Zhan Jin," Francisco V Toscano smiled: "It doesn't matter who loses here. Once the channel of the Strait of Malacca is cut off, the prices of Chinese goods and spices in Europe will rise sharply. Once the silk we have accumulated is shipped, it will be enough to buy half of Portugal."

He laughed loudly, and the last sentence might be a bit exaggerated, but Toledo felt that his cousin's description was not too much. (To be continued. If you want to know what happens next, please log in.qidian., more chapters, support the author and support genuine reading!) (To be continued)
Chapter completed!