New Shun 1730

When Fazaklai entered Macau, officials from Dashun came to check the population and register them to ensure the jurisdiction over Catholics.

In the future, except for trade, Chinese Christians were not allowed to enter or leave.

Or, quit Catholicism.

Or, go to Macau.

This is the only place in Dashun where Catholic churches are allowed to be open, except for places such as Weihaihai Port.

The hands of missionaries are not clean. After the ban on Christianity, they would secretly accompany people to the mainland to preach and develop secret believers.

Japan has experience in this. There are endless missionaries who secretly sneak into Japan to preach. Just a company of Japanese missionaries who were burned at the stake by the shogunate and canonized by the church.

With Japan's defeat in the war and its tribute, Dashun also put forward opinions on the issue of banning Christianity and strictly guarded against local missionaries.

Conduct a population census, control the Chinese in Macau, and strictly prevent them from leaving Macau to preach. Western faces are easily suspected in the mainland and it is difficult to carry out missionary activities, and it is difficult for local Catholic Chinese to guard against them.

When officials from Dashun came, the church in Macau rang bells and kowtowed to the officials. Everything was in accordance with Chinese etiquette.

Fazaklei is used to this.

More than 20 years ago, there was a conflict in Macau over the issue of whether to kneel or not. At that time, the local officials from Dashun came to ask for rent and asked for bribes.

All the members of the Macao Council knelt down and worshiped the officials in accordance with the attitude of "subordinates meeting superiors", and finally saved 1,000 taels of special rent.

The newly arrived thirty-third governor, Ma Yu, was greatly puzzled and angrily accused these people of being boneless and kneeling down for a mere 1,000 taels of silver. Christians only kneel to God, not to pagans. Besides, what about the dignity of the country?

But the people in the council thought that I was here to make money, not to preach. Gold mines were discovered in Brazil. The Portuguese royal family is now rich, but it does not give a penny to Macau. Macau must also support the governor and soldiers sent by it. I don't want to kneel down. The question is, will you give me these 1,000 taels of silver? ?

So he told Ma Yu: What Mr. Governor said is very reasonable. Then, you can pay the 1,000 taels of silver. Then……

Macau does not cost the Portuguese royal family money, so the governor theoretically has no power at all.

Parachuted in from Goa, he was just a soldier. Moreover, the money spent on soldiers is also paid by the Macau Council, and the Governor is a piece of shit.

Dashun switch trade, Macao can no longer monopolize trade, and its status has plummeted, which is already difficult. Besides, if you kneel down, you can save 1,000 taels of silver. If you don't kneel down, the local magistrate will let you release 10,000 taels of blood.

Historically, in 1747, the 44th Governor-General Menezes wrote a letter to the Council, accusing the customs in Macau of flying the flag of the Qing Dynasty, and that they should have the consciousness to live and die with dignity at the cost of bloodshed. Cut off the Manchu flag and put up the Portuguese flag to declare sovereignty and show national dignity. But the Council laughed at this and sent a letter directly to Goa, telling this "patriot" to get out of here.

Four years before the kneeling incident, the 30th governor-general Dai Bingyu wanted more military pay, but the council refused to pay it. Dai Bingyu thinks this matter is simple. I'll organize another council and declare the previous council illegal, right?

So he took advantage of the meeting of the old council and led his troops to throw two grenades into the council hall, killing two members on the spot. Then the army brought artillery and surrounded the council, held guns to the heads of the council members, and demanded that they admit that they were an illegal council.

It's not the fault of Dai Bingyu for being reckless, it's mainly because of what he has done.

King Pedro II of Portugal came to power in a coup. He abandoned his brother and married his wife, and he had the potential to be a hero at first glance.

Sure enough, after taking office, he had good luck. A gold mine was discovered in Brazil. He even changed the inheritance law directly on the head of the aristocratic assembly, declaring that he and his sister-in-law's children had undisputed inheritance rights.

The above is like this, and the following is naturally different. But the problem is that Dai Bingyu has only scratched the surface. Pedro II dared to press the head of the parliament because Pedro II has Brazil's gold and does not need to look at the nobles' faces.

But Dai Bingyu was just a soldier, and without the gold of Brazil to back him up, the Governor-General of Goa had no choice but to compromise and transfer him away.

After this incident, there were actually two councils in Macau.

One is towards the "center" and the other is towards the "locality".

Macau actually has "three powers": military power, political power, and religious power.

There are three pillars of support. When the incident happened, the religious power and the political power were on the same side, and the military power was backed by the Viceroyalty of Goa.

But at this moment, the situation changed again.

Dashun began to ban religion.

Just from the fact that the people in the Macao Council knelt down to worship Dashun officials, it can be seen that the people in the Council did not want to provoke Dashun at all. They only wanted to trade and make money. As for whether to ban religion, they did not care at all, as long as other people Just take back Macau.

I didn't see clearly back then, I stood in the wrong team, and Macau almost disappeared. Now anyone who is not blind knows where to stand.

This led to a reversal in the power struggle within Macau.

As a local force, the regime wants to embrace Dashun. As long as Dashun guarantees Macau's current status and autonomous status, everything will be easy.

Are Macau citizens driven back to Macau and not allowed to stay outside to prevent proselytizing? Easy to say, accept it; demolish the church that the Chinese paid to build outside the legal concession in Macau? No problem, support; prohibit the sale and purchase of Chinese slaves, especially prohibit forcing Chinese slaves to believe in religion? Yes, release; a Baojia system to supervise Chinese Christians in Macau? Obey, cooperate.

The church thought that when Dai Bingyu brought cannons to besiege the parliament, if we hadn't brought the holy elephant to force Dai Bingyu to kneel, you would have been gone long ago.

Now you don't remember the old friendship? As expected, merchants are ruthless and bitches are ungrateful. They immediately decided to have a good relationship with the governor, hoping to use the power of the military to balance the power of the Council.

When Matteo Ricci came to Macau, he sighed: "Some Chinese who do business and sell food here have converted to Christianity. These people have stayed away from the darkness of paganism and touched the light of the Lord."

And now, Dashun has begun to ban religion in an all-round way, which makes the French king of Macau sigh at this time.

[God actually allowed the persecution of pagans to extend here. Several Chinese officials, under the order of the Jiedushi, demanded that baptism for Chinese slaves be banned. There is no doubt that the members of the Council did not see the viciousness of this order and the blasphemy of faith, and they actually accepted such an order. 】

With the development of Dashun's foreign trade and the stability of direct shore transactions in Songjiang, Zhangzhou, Guangzhou and other places by the Netherlands and other countries, Macau's economic status can be said to be an old lady's New Year, and it is getting worse year by year.

There was a period of time in the Ming Dynasty when only this place could trade with foreign countries, and it was naturally prosperous. But this abnormal prosperity was gradually broken.

In terms of maritime power and trade capacity, it could not compete with the Netherlands. At this time, Portugal's trade capacity with China can only be said to be slightly stronger than France.

In terms of commodity sales, in order to gain independence from Spain, Portugal signed the Methuen Treaty with Britain, reducing tariffs on British woolen textiles by half, and also reducing tariffs on other British goods. Portugal's own handicraft industry has been completely hit by British goods.

It is the British-French feud. In order to drink, the British reduced Portugal's wine tax. Now Portugal does not even have enough food, and many lands have been planted with grapes. The British people think, my textile industry can't beat India and China, and it can't beat you Portugal? Anyway, I don't produce wine myself, it's better to buy yours than the French.

Once Macau lost its status as the only transit port, Macau's pillar industry has been visibly heading in a strange direction in recent years.

That is the slave trade, or the human trafficking.

There are a large number of deformed populations in Macau, such as Catholics, who are monogamous and are not allowed to take concubines.

However, if I don't give a gift, then isn't that taking a concubine? As a result, a large number of "contract maids" appeared. They were not paid in one lump sum, but on a monthly basis. Since Catholicism did not prohibit the use of maids, this deformed "contract maid" became an important "trade" in the local area.

In addition to maids, there are also a large number of "boys", that is, Chinese slaves, who are generally bought children and used as slaves for the master's family. In addition to being used locally in Macau, because Chinese children are more clever and obedient, they are also "exported" in large quantities. The Chinese "children and slaves" in Macau are very popular.

In addition, there are two "recruitment companies" that traffic people from Macau to plantations and sugar factories in Southeast Asia and South Asia as slaves. In fact, it is slave trade, and Southeast Asia prefers Chinese slaves.

This is similar to some ship owners in Fujian who went to Batavia for trade.

The Dutch monopolized some of Batavia's trade goods, and the Dutch began to trade directly in Songjiang, Guangdong, resulting in little to sell in transit trade.

Many ship owners began to deceive people to go to Southeast Asia and sell them to local slaves to ensure that they would not have empty ships when they went there, and buy some tin blocks when they came back and send them to Suzhou Prefecture to make tin foil for the dead, so as to maintain their business.

Dashun pursued a policy of allowing Westerners to trade on land, which actually brought great changes to the entire Asian trade pattern.

It can be said that Macau's transformation towards slave trade and the surge in Chinese slaves in Batavia were all changes brought about by Dashun's permission for Westerners to trade on land. When the Ming Dynasty was closed, Batavia was polite to every Chinese ship that went there, giving money and gifts, sending woolen cloth when they left, and the governor invited them to dinner, hoping that they would come again next time.

Although the ship owners did not like to go to Batavia at that time, and preferred to go to Manila where prices were high, they did not think about "selling" people. Even if Batavia made less money, it was still more profitable than selling people, and this thing would also shorten one's life.

But once the industry with higher profits is no longer viable, most people would choose the former, whether to pursue profits or strictly abide by the moral bottom line.

For example, the Macau Council now supports Dashun's plan to "drive Catholics to Macau".

A large number of people came to Macau, a place where they can touch the "light of the Lord", for the sake of faith.

But Macau does not have so many jobs. With Dashun's opening and closing policies, Macau's export monopoly has disappeared and prosperity is no longer there.

People have to eat. With so many people, aren't they all potential "contract maids", "children and slaves", and "introducing you to a good job digging gold in Nanyang"?

If you do it well, how can you not exchange it for hundreds of thousands of taels of silver?

This will inevitably conflict with the church. After all, there are a few people on the church side who really have faith and may take care of these believers who "escape from the persecution of pagans".

There are a few people in the church who are too radical and do not approve of slaves, maids, children, slaves, etc.; while many people in the council are counting on this to make money.

The church hopes not to succumb to the pressure of Dashun and to maintain the missionary work under pressure; the council does not want to provoke the Dashun court at all.

The church hopes to give some benefits to new believers; people in the council ask where the money comes from?

In this way, the Council of Representatives directly broke with the church.

Today, the church was allowed to ring the bell to welcome the officials of Dashun, and the Council of Representatives' attitude of meeting the superiors as subordinates was done for Dashun and the church.

As for why the church was allowed to ring the bell, the reason was very simple.

Money.

The money for the church was allocated by the Council of Representatives, even the bishop's annual salary of 280 taels was also paid by the Council of Representatives.

Even the church bell ringers were paid by the Council of Representatives. Nowadays, Macau is in a state of internal competition, with so many Chinese Christians pouring in.

If you don't ring the bell, someone will do it for you. Ringing the bell is not a good job, but it is better than "introducing you to a good job of digging gold in Nanyang to make a fortune", right?

Although the church has approached the military governor, Dashun has a naval base and a marine garrison around Macau.

The Dashun government does not recognize that there is a "governor" in Macau, but only recognizes that there is a "president of the Yi people's chamber of commerce" in Macau. The governor in the Celestial Empire can only be appointed by the emperor, and the court officials do not remember that the emperor has appointed the governor of Macau.

Furthermore, the governors and defense envoys of Guangdong are also very sensitive to the title of "governor" - the seventh prince is the governor of the navy and military affairs, and is considered the legitimate governor of Dashun. You dare to call yourself the governor in a place under the jurisdiction of Xiangshan County? Don't we, the governors and defense envoys, care about our face? Besides, you call a county-level subordinate unit the governor, which is beyond the rules. According to this ratio, if a county-level subordinate unit is called the governor, then the governor must not be called the emperor?

The Council is now very strong-willed. It kicked away the church that had allied with them and helped them in the past, and stood firmly on the side of the interests of the local people of Macau.

In the official documents to the Dashun government, the governor was directly translated into "Dutou". Even the name of the current governor was translated in a very Chinese way - Gao Dianyu, Gao Dutou.

Fazaklai witnessed almost the entire farce and chaos, and understood why the Chinese insurgents in Batavia chose to meet in Macau.