Daming Military Empire

Chapter 318 Request from the Allies

The so-called "icing on the cake is worse than giving charcoal in the snow", the reason why Zhu Cijiong attaches so much importance to Portugal is mainly because of Portugal's current national conditions. Their homeland has been annexed by Spain for almost 60 years. The country can be said to be on the verge of extinction, but they occupy nearly half of the world overseas. The colonies that are almost extinct are naturally unable to protect these colonies, so they must urgently need a strong ally.

The visit of the Duke of Braganza once again proved that Zhu Cijiong's judgment was correct. Portugal is now desperately seeking foreign support to jointly fight against Spain and keep its overseas colonies.

No, as soon as he entered the study on the second floor, the Duke of Braganza said eagerly: "Your Majesty, I feel that our two countries should strengthen cooperation."

Zhu Cijiong calmly asked them to sit down, and asked with a smile: "His Royal Highness, which aspect are you referring to?"

The Duke of Braganza subconsciously sat on Zhu Cijiong's left side, and said excitedly: "Your Majesty, I mean all aspects, including economics, military affairs, development of colonies, utilization of resources, etc., all aspects .”

This row of seats is a very important link in all kinds of meetings. The position you sit in generally represents your status. For example, when holding a conference, the person sitting in the middle must be the leader, and when holding a small meeting, the person sitting at the top It must be the leader. During the negotiation, the representatives of both sides sit facing each other, and the leaders of both sides usually sit in the middle.

Zhu Cijiong invited them to sit at a small long conference table, with one seat on each side of the vertical and three seats on each side of the horizontal. He habitually sat on the main seat in the vertical direction. According to his suggestion, the Duke of Braganza should be Sitting in the opposite guest seat, sitting opposite each other, means that they are equal to each other. As for Shivela, he can sit in any of the six horizontal positions. Anyway, he is a subordinate to both of them.

Now, the Duke of Braganza took the initiative to sit on Zhu Cijiong's left, which means that he acquiesces in his heart that Ming is in a dominant position. Zhu Cijiong is very satisfied with his performance, so he is also interested in his proposal and fully cooperates. OK!
Zhu Cijiong continued to smile and said: "Well, comprehensive cooperation is a good idea, but I would like to ask, why do you want to fully cooperate with Daming? After all, you are a European country, and you are tens of thousands of miles away from Daming."

Upon hearing this, the Duke of Braganza said bitterly: "I have also tried to contact European countries. I have sent people to contact the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark and Rome, and even expressed that Portugal is willing to join the French-led Poland." The Pang family group is fighting against the Habsburg family group headed by Spain. But they have no interest in the olive branch extended by us in Portugal, and no country is willing to help us until now!"

When Zhu Cijiong heard this, he couldn't help wondering: "Oh, why is that?"

The Duke of Braganza sighed: "Oh, I know what they think, we Portugal has too many overseas colonies, if they form an alliance with us, they can't seize these overseas colonies, if they don't congratulate us for an alliance, they can Unscrupulously robbing our colonies, so they all hope that Portugal is their enemy, not their ally!"

Haha, these big powers, are they really ruthless, a country that has been annexed even its homeland, they still want to trample on it like this!
Daming is not like this, he joked: "Aren't you afraid that I will snatch your colony?"

The Duke of Braganza said sincerely: "We all know that His Majesty is not this kind of person. We have seen His Majesty's performance in the Portuguese Far East colony. Not only did His Majesty not rob a colony as large as the South Asian subcontinent, but he also sent troops to help us garrison it. For an island as big as Ceylon, we simply cannot fully occupy it. It was His Majesty who sent troops to help us defeat all the natives on the island and truly occupy Ceylon. It can be said that Ceylon is now completely under the control of the expeditionary force of the Ming Empire. But His Majesty never robbed any resources on it, but let us grab them all. The Ming Empire is our real ally, and all Portuguese nobles unanimously recognized this."

Zhu Cijiong felt a little embarrassed about this flattery, but the big powers really don’t have such morals as Ming Dynasty. For example, the South Asian subcontinent was originally dominated by the Portuguese from the beginning, and almost all the colonies on it were pioneered by Portugal. But when the Dutch came to snatch it later, Portugal couldn't resist it and asked the British to help. As a result, the entire South Asian subcontinent became a British colony, and Portugal kept Goa, a colonial stronghold!

Cooperating with great powers is tantamount to seeking skin from a tiger. Portugal knew this from the very beginning, but in history, they had no choice. At that time, the Ming Dynasty was dying, and they had the ability to help them. They had to go to the great powers for help. , As a result, almost all the meat was robbed, and there were not many skins left. An extremely huge colonial empire declined!

Of course, if Emperor Chongzhen was in power, even if Ming was strong, he probably wouldn’t take care of Portugal, but now that our Chongzheng Emperor Zhu Cijiong is in power, he certainly wouldn’t leave this rare little brother behind.

Zhu Cijiong thought about it for a while, and replied solemnly: "I agree to cooperate with you in an all-round way, but this cooperation must be promoted slowly. Ming Dynasty is also in the development stage now, and it is not yet capable of helping you resist the invasion of European powers on a global scale."

The Duke of Braganza didn't show any disappointment when he heard the words. It would be great if he agreed to help. How could it be possible for him to help you desperately.

He stood up, gave a chest salute, and said solemnly: "Then thank you, His Majesty the Emperor."

After all, he took out a map from his pocket, spread it out on the table, pointed to it and said: "Your Majesty, look, this is the map of all our Portuguese colonies, mainly concentrated in Africa, South Asia and South America. Now The Netherlands and the United Kingdom are seizing our South American colonies, the Netherlands and France are seizing our African colonies, and South Asia has His Majesty's help. The Netherlands, Britain and France have not done anything yet, but I guess they will not be able to bear it sooner or later. Now their main energy They are still concentrated in Europe, and once the war in Europe is over, they will definitely attack in an all-round way. At that time, whether these colonies can be kept or not depends on His Majesty."

Zhu Cijiong looked at the map carefully, nodded and said: "You can rest assured that they will continue to fight for a while. After they finish fighting, Daming should have almost developed. At that time, Daming will send troops to help you defend all the colonies." .”

The Duke of Braganza said excitedly: "Thank you so much, Your Majesty. Please rest assured, we will not let the Ming Empire suffer. In the future, all Portuguese colonies in Ming Dynasty will be able to trade freely. Can mine with us."

Well, thank you for your kindness, it seems that the Duke of Braganza is not bad, and he is a good partner for cooperation.

(End of this chapter)