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Zheng Haizhu walked out of the alley and hurried along the seawall to Guanyi.
After turning around a customs office that had just opened, I ran into a group of soldiers wearing armor and carrying swords.
Zheng Haizhu took a quick look and saw that the man among them was actually a civil servant wearing a scarlet robe with clouds and geese embroidered on his chest patch.
Although Yuegang's commercial and military status is important, administratively it is a small county, and the largest local official is just the county magistrate wearing a blue robe.
Zheng Haizhu, who had been given information about the reception banquet by Ma Xianglin in advance yesterday, immediately realized that the official in red robe should be Cai Feng, the deputy envoy of the Fujian Coast Guard who stayed to contact Liu Shimin, and was a fourth-rank official.
Zheng Haizhu hurriedly retreated to the side of the road and squatted down. His heart beat faster for a moment, then slowed down again.
This Cai Feng seems to be on patrol. If he really pays special attention to himself as Ma Xianglin warned, then this is the right time to find out whether he has any connection with the Zheng family.
It would be better to face him alone than to have the shrewd and sophisticated Eunuch Liu present.
As Zheng Haizhu's thoughts were racing with his eyes downcast, he saw the pair of official boots and stopped motionless in front of him.
"Are you the Songjiang cotton merchant who came with Eunuch Liu?"
Cai Feng asked, his tone carrying the seriousness of a fourth-grade civil servant, but also revealing a hint of kindness that recognized Eunuch Liu's follower. There was nothing unusual about it.
Zheng Haizhu respectfully replied: "If you go back to patrol, the cotton merchant is the owner of the grass-roots family. The cotton towels blended by Hefu were favored by the Weaving Bureau. The grass-roots people obeyed the owner's instructions and came south together to give them to the adults in the bureau.
Let’s start with a beating.”
Cai Feng looked past Zheng Haizhu, stared at it for a moment, and asked: "Why isn't the girl waiting for orders at the official post?"
"Oh, the grass-roots people are going to meet merchants with my father-in-law today. Because they are worried and afraid that they do not know enough, they first go to various docks to learn the market customs. If this does not comply with the rules of Yuegang, the grass-roots people will go back to the inn and ask Cai Cai
The guard will forgive you once."
"Haha," Cai Feng raised his sleeves, smiled and waved, "Girl, don't be frightened, I just asked casually. When I was transferred to Fujian last year, like you, seeing these cargo ships at the dock was very fresh.
You, please go back quickly, don't miss the important events of the court, otherwise you will really be punished."
After that, the high-spirited patrol officer walked forward with a group of soldiers.
Zheng Haizhu, like a few fishermen around him, waited with his back bent for a while before he dared to straighten up.
The exchange of just a few words made Zheng Haizhu feel a little more reassured.
What Cai Feng spoke was Cantonese Mandarin with a heavy accent. There was no Hokkien accent. He probably wasn't from the Zhangquan area. He also said that he had only been in Fujian for a year, and there was a high probability that he would not know the Zheng family from Longxi.
Miss Azhu, who once could not leave the county.
But Zheng Haizhu had new doubts.
When Cai Feng raised his sleeves just now, Zheng Haizhu smelled a compound scent of perfume.
It was not surprising that the robes of dignitaries of the Ming Dynasty had incense on their robes. What surprised Zheng Haizhu was that he could clearly tell that there was the smell of lavender in the fragrance on Cai Feng's clothes.
Lavender, a plant that grows in Arabia and Europe, has not yet been introduced to China. Could it be that with maritime trade, foreigners' lavender compound perfume was introduced to the Ming Dynasty?
But no matter whether he was at the Guangyue Nan Store in Songjiang Prefecture or browsing the goods in a large store in Yuegang yesterday, Zheng Haizhu had never seen lavender spice bags or perfume bottles.
…
An hour later, at noon when the sun was the brightest, Liu Shimin was sitting on the imperial chair in the middle of the courtyard of Yuegang Guanyi.
Magistrate Haicheng stood with his sleeves drooped, looking rather embarrassed.
He glanced at the red-haired foreigners beside him and carefully explained to Liu Shimin: "Father-in-law, I thought that the foreign businessman my father-in-law wanted to talk to was a Frankie, but I didn't expect..."
Liu Shimin stood up, walked a few steps forward, patted the magistrate's shoulder in a friendly manner, and said softly, "It's not a big deal, it doesn't matter, don't let your official authority fall."
Then he turned to the foreigners and asked the interpreter to tell them that the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were loyal to their duties and were always very wary of strange faces approaching the official post. Once they were familiar with each other, they would come a few times and there would be no more misunderstandings.
Already.
Under the elm tree in the courtyard, Zheng Haizhu, who had just arrived with a willow frame hanging a baroque dress, asked Fan Polu in a low voice: "What happened when you were putting up a handkerchief here just now?"
Fan Polu covered his lips with his hands and told in a low voice that the Hongyi people Liu Gongyuan was meeting came on time, but they were stopped at the pier outside the inn by some high-ranking patrol official and were not allowed to come in. One of them was younger.
Hong Yi's clothes were torn by the soldiers and they were beaten several times. Fortunately, General Ma heard that something was wrong and ran out with his soldiers, so the trouble did not get out of hand.
"Sister Azhu," Fan Polu pointed to a banyan tree behind him, "I climbed up and took a look. The red robe worn by the patrol officer was very rude to General Ma. When it comes to official positions, General Ma is the most powerful.
Or is the red robe bigger?"
Zheng Haizhu said vaguely, "The patrol road should be bigger," but he felt guilty in his heart. Today's Ming Dynasty is still in the last years of Wanli. Although it has become a common practice to control military affairs with culture, it is absurd for a third-level military general to kneel down as a seventh-level censor.
The situation was still several years away, and Ma Xianglin followed Eunuch Liu again. How could a civil servant like Cai Feng, who had already reached the fourth rank, be so impulsive and indifferent to military generals?
When we met at the beach in the morning, this man was quite peaceful.
Over there, the leader of several Dutch people, a tall and burly red-haired middle-aged man, had already brushed off his embarrassment, smiled broadly, kept saluting Liu Shimin, and even continued to speak as an interpreter.
Following the example of others, he led his companions to learn the Ming Dynasty's bowing gesture, showing respectful worship and enthusiastic integration.
Zheng Haizhu then put aside his doubts about Cai Feng and used the cover of distance to carefully look at the Dutch people in front of him.
After the opening of Longqing, due to the lingering power of the Jiajing Coastal Defense Edict, Yuegang prohibited foreign ships and merchants from entering the port for a long period of time. Only merchant ships from the Ming Dynasty were allowed to carry silk, tea, and ceramics accompanied by the government-run dental shops.
Waiting for departure.
More than forty years have passed, and no matter how strict the rules are, they are like a long-worn robe, full of holes.
Several big families in Yuegang, after controlling the travel promised by the imperial court, had already tacitly agreed with the local governor to allow foreigners to hire Chinese merchant ships to enter the port and land in Haicheng County to select public and private goods.
But Zheng Haizhu calculated the year and combined with what he saw and heard in time travel, he thought that the merchants who appeared in Yuegang were either Portuguese or Spanish. Unexpectedly, when he looked on the spot, there were already Dutch people, let alone...
The person who was brought to see Eunuch Liu by the tooth shop was also Dutch.
"Azhu, come."
Liu Shimin turned around and greeted.
Zheng Haizhu led Fan Polu and stepped forward generously. Instead of squatting, he bowed his hands to several Dutch people.
Before the red-haired middle-aged man in the lead put away the surprise in his eyes, Zheng Haizhu politely asked: "Dutdia pany, geor?"
At this time, the middle-aged foreigner's mouth, which had just been closed, opened even wider, and he tried his best to speak Chinese word by word, which he didn't know who he learned from: "Do you know Mr. Cohen?"
Zheng Haizhu knew that he was right to test.
First, the Netherlands, which had recently broken away from Spanish rule, became the world's earliest capitalist-backed regime. Those sea coachmen who came out to make a living could indeed understand English.
Secondly, I remember correctly. The current governor of the Dutch East India Company is the colonial businessman, Cohen, who swept across the Asian waters with the support of capital, defeated Spain and Portugal, and occupied Sri Lanka, Bengal, Siam and even the Gulf of Taiwan.