Manuel I's eyes were red, he grabbed the visitor and asked fiercely, like a wild beast that chooses people to devour.
"Lost~"
"It was the Japanese who did it. Their two fleets attacked Lagos and Luanda. Our two most important Portuguese colonies on the Gold Coast were gone."
The minister nodded and replied, his heart bleeding.
Portugal's overseas colonization and overseas trade are generally supported by the royal family or big nobles, and big businessmen. They all have shares in these overseas colonies.
Now that it has been robbed by the Japanese, it is equivalent to losing important property all at once.
"Japanese people~"
Manuel I quickly came to the map and found the location of the east, and soon found the location of the Japanese country.
"Forget about robbing us of Sao Tome Island, now they are robbing us of Lagos and Luanda, and they are also selling us Portuguese as slaves to the Ming Empire."
"They made the stupidest decision, and I will definitely make you regret it!"
When Manuel I said this, he almost gritted his teeth with hatred.
Portugal has very few colonies left in West Africa, and these remaining colonies and colonial points are the most important wealth in Portugal's hands.
All of a sudden, São Tomé Island disappeared and was occupied by the Spanish, and then Lagos and Luanda disappeared and were occupied by the Japanese.
What's even more disgusting is that in the past, according to the Papal Meridian, the area east of this meridian belonged to Portugal's colonies, and the area west of it belonged to Spain.
Now, everyone is flocking to the African continent to the east. Portugal, which is small and weak, cannot compete at all. It can only watch other countries' colonial strongholds and colonies blooming everywhere in West Africa and North Africa.
own colony and trading space.
Originally, Portugal could live a good life happily relying on overseas trade and overseas colonization. However, now, Portugal, which does not have any advantages, is in an increasingly difficult situation.
"Everyone, let's talk about how we can take back our own colony?"
After the anger, Manuel I quickly regained his composure.
Anger has no effect. Only when you calm down can you find a way to take back everything that belongs to you.
"Your Majesty, for the current plan, the only way is to form a powerful maritime fleet as soon as possible. Without a powerful maritime fleet, we are not qualified to take a share of the golden coastline."
Duke Afonso thought for a while and said.
"Hmm~"
King Manuel I nodded solemnly, but when he thought about the cost of building a ship and the huge amount of money it took to build a fleet, he couldn't help but feel sad.
Portugal is so poor!
At least Portugal during this period was really poor.
The previous two wars were defeated by Spain. Although the father-in-law did not embarrass Portugal too much for the sake of his son-in-law, he only gave some symbolic land and some compensation. If, like England, it faced huge war compensation, Portugal would
Even worse.
But it was still a huge expenditure, which put huge pressure on Portugal. What's more, the cost of the two wars was very huge, and the military expenditure was not a small amount.
Portugal doesn't have much money right now, so it can still earn some money through overseas colonization and overseas trade. Otherwise, if you want to build a new fleet, just dream.
"It is definitely necessary to form a new fleet~"
"Without a powerful fleet, we can only shout angrily on the Iberian Peninsula."
Manuel I thought for a while and then said: "Since the Spaniards and the Japanese did not follow the rules and the principle of first come, first served, they attacked wantonly and seized other people's colonies and wealth. They first committed piracy, then
Don’t blame us for being rude.”
"With the loss of Lagos and Luanda, we also have several colonies in West Africa, and we have nothing to lose. In this case, let's just do it. If you don't follow principles, then we won't follow principles either."
"Contact me England and France, as well as the Netherlands and Denmark."
"If you eat what we Portuguese eat, I will make you spit it out twice as much."
"Your Majesty, you want to learn..."
When Duke Afonso heard this, he immediately understood what Manuel I meant.
Who are the English people?
In this era, the word "pirate" is still used behind the English people. They are the object of everyone's contempt. When people criticize the English people, they say they are English pirates.
As for the Netherlands and Denmark, they are all descendants of pirates, descendants of Viking pirates, so naturally there is no need to say more.
As for the French, they claim to be the descendants of the Knights. However, the French king and the French nobles coveted the huge wealth owned by the Knights Templar, and even ransacked the Knights Templar regardless of their shame.
Hypocrisy, scoundrels, and shamelessness are synonymous with the French. When French merchant ships face weak areas, they are more ferocious than pirates and will eat them without even spitting out their bones.
By contacting these people, wouldn't it mean doing some business with the pirates?
Thinking again about Portugal's current situation, Duke Afonso nodded solemnly.
Losing its powerful fleet meant that Portugal temporarily lost its powerful maritime power. Without a fleet, you would not be able to compete head-on with powerful countries such as Spain, Japan, and the Ming Dynasty.
In the process of fighting for the colonies in West Africa, you will fall behind others and be unable to grab them.
In this case, it is better to imitate the English pirates and engage in sneaky things.
You Spaniards have worked hard to plunder wealth in the colonies, so I will directly rob your merchant ships. Robbery of a merchant ship is equivalent to robbing the wealth produced by a colony over a period of time.
In the past, the English and French were very vigorous in this business.
In the past few years, the Ming Empire's Hong Kong Fleet, Mediterranean Fleet and Atlantic Fleet patrolled everywhere to hunt down pirates, which seriously affected their business. Otherwise, the English pirates would have made a fortune long ago.
It's definitely impossible not to grab it.
It's definitely not okay to watch other people eat meat and go hungry yourself.
To reorganize a fleet also requires a lot of funds. Without colonies, where will the funds come from?
Of course we have to snatch it back from the sea.
The key is that you can also focus on the Spaniards and Japanese during the robbery, take revenge on them, and cause them huge losses. This is the most enjoyable way.
"Just go and do it~"
"We should also learn from England and issue privateering licenses to some people~"
"They messed up the rules and disrupted the order first, so don't blame us."
Manuel I said lightly, as if he saw the turbulent storms in West Africa, the Mediterranean and the waters of Western Europe in the future.
It was as if I saw countless pirates galloping on the sea, and saw merchant ships loaded with gold and silver being robbed cleanly by the pirates.
It seemed as if I saw Spanish colonies, Japanese merchant ships, etc. being robbed by Portuguese pirates and fleeing desperately on the sea.
Well, the richest people are the Ming people. You can get more wealth by robbing the ships of the Ming people.
But soon, Manuel I came to his senses again.
The people of Ming Dynasty are not easy to mess with and cannot be messed with.
If you really rob the ships of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty fleet will probably go straight to Lisbon. The Ming Dynasty people will not care about you so much. It will be a disaster if you have a run and gun attack.
"Your Majesty, this is really a good idea~"
"I think they would be very happy to work with us."
Duke Afonso smiled and quickly started to handle the matter.
…
In London, England, Henry VII looked at the Portuguese envoy in front of him, pondered carefully and smiled and said: "I am very interested in the proposal of His Majesty Manuel I."
"We in England are willing to form an alliance with your country to jointly defend our interests at sea and jointly develop more colonies overseas!"
The Portuguese envoy returned happily after receiving a positive reply.
As for Henry VII, he fell into deep thought.
His life was difficult. Compared with Manuel I, his life was even more difficult.
The disastrous defeats in two consecutive wars caused England to not only lose two important pieces of land, one to the Ming Dynasty and the other to Spain, but it also suffered heavy war reparations.
The annual war compensation of millions of taels is undoubtedly a heavy mountain for poor England.
For this reason, Henry VII had to ask the Holy See for help, borrowing money from the Holy See to form an army, and then using the domestic noble rebellion as an excuse to gradually clean up these large feudal nobles in the country and rob them of their
Wealth can barely sustain it.
But the nobles will always run out of loot. The key is to find ways to increase external income and support pirate robbery. This is England's long-standing cunning operation.
Now it would be even better if we could form an alliance with the maritime power Portugal.
In the wave of carving up the colonies in North Africa and West Africa, the English were lagging behind, with only two pitiful colonies in West Africa.
However, even the two colonies allowed Henry VII to taste the sweetness of plundering the wealth and population of the colonies, and he would not let go of the opportunity now.
At the same time, Louis XII of France also received the Portuguese envoy at about the same time to discuss Portugal's proposal.
The French also expressed a strong interest and readily agreed to form a maritime robbery alliance with the Portuguese. They also agreed to cooperate in developing colonies in West Africa and North Africa, working together, sharing benefits, and sharing the proceeds equally.
As for the Danes and the Dutch, they readily agreed to the Portuguese proposal.
These two small countries are weak and unable to seize colonies and wealth overseas on their own. Now that someone is taking them, there is no reason to disagree.
So very quickly, in less than two months, a pirate alliance was quickly established, and soon they were ready to make a big deal.