After drinking tea, they sat face to face and chatted for a while. Claviejo's face suddenly became serious. "Alonso, what on earth do you have to say to me? You can say it now. I think it must be something else."
Simple things.”
Hearing Claviyo's words, Quijano was startled for a moment, and then said as if it was true: "Gozelaizi, why do you say that?"
"Because you are too polite to me." Claviyo said: "Although our relationship was good in the past, you have never been so polite to me."
"Where am I being polite?"
"The first is to speak politely. You may not feel it yourself, but in the past because your title was higher than mine, and you will inherit the title of earl in the future, you would never speak so politely. For example, that's all, anyway, you speak more politely.
"
"Second, you took the initiative to pour me tea after entering the house. Even if the servants of the Ming Dynasty did not come to serve you, you still had attendants, and it seems that there were women who came to the Ming Dynasty with you, women who were ordinary people.
You will never refuse service to a nobleman."
"Third, you actually bought tea. You didn't drink tea before, you only drank barley tea (different from Chinese tea). I also saw that you still have barley tea in your house, which shows that your eating habits have not changed.
.And you also know that I like to drink tea, and you took the initiative to pour tea for me, which shows that the tea was specially bought for me."
"Because you are so polite, what you are going to say must not be a simple thing." Claviyo concluded.
Quijano smiled and said: "You used to observe everything very carefully, and you still do so now. Yes, what I want to tell you is indeed very important. But before I talk about it, there is someone I
I want you to see me." He then called an attendant in and whispered a few words. The attendant agreed and walked out of the room.
Claviyo didn't care what Quijano and his attendants said, he just sat on the chair and slowly sipped the tea in the cup. Although it was only worth three silver coins, his official position was not high, and his income was also low.
He was high, and because of the influence of the aristocratic life in Castile, he had to maintain his dignity and lived a hard life. Three silver coins of tea were worth spending.
At this time, there were footsteps at the door again. It sounded like two people. One of them had heavier footsteps and the other had lighter footsteps. It seemed like a woman's footsteps." Could it be that after listening to what I just said, he suddenly realized and decided to call a man from Europe?
Women from the Ming Dynasty serve us?' Claviyo thought to himself, and at the same time he looked up casually when footsteps entered the room. But when he saw the appearance of this woman, he was stunned on the chair.
"It's you, Isabel, you, why did you come to Mingguo?"
"It's me, my dear husband. You have never returned to Castile since 140 when you were ordered to go to the Timurid Khanate. I have always missed you very much. This time Alonso went to the Ming Dynasty to ask
Do you want me to come to Mingguo to find you? I will come." The woman stood in front of Claviyo and said excitedly.
"Isabel, my dear Isabel." Claviyo stood up and hugged his wife tightly, and his wife hugged him tightly. They hugged like this for a while, and then Claviyo slowly let go of the hug.
He held his wife's hand and said to Quijano: "I'm rude in front of you."
"This is normal. You haven't seen each other in nine years. It's normal to be so excited. If my wife and I hadn't seen each other in nine years, I would be even more excited than you."
"You husband and wife haven't seen each other for such a long time. You must have a lot to say. You go ahead and say it. I'll go out and wait for a while." With that, Quijano left the room.
"Thank you." Kraviy said thank you and hugged his wife affectionately.
After a while, Claviyo slowly calmed down, but he was still more excited than usual. He talked with his wife about the things he had seen over the years; Isabel also talked about what happened in Castile over the years.
.
"Where's Andrele?" Claviyo suddenly thought of his son and asked, "Why don't you bring him over here and let me take a look?"
"Andrel is sleeping." Isabel replied: "The road from Europe to the Ming Dynasty is really too far, and the road is not easy to walk. Andrel is not very old, so he seems a little unbearable on the road.
, I have been worried about whether he can arrive in Daming safely. Fortunately, he arrived safely, but he also needs to get enough rest."
"Okay, now our family is together again." Claviyo breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile.
It was already noon, and Claviyo originally wanted to have dinner with his wife, but then he thought again and ordered his wife to return to the house where she lived, pack her luggage, and then ordered the servants to prepare a sedan and sit down again.
"Ge Ze Laizi, congratulations on your family reunion." Jijano walked in and said with a smile.
"I should thank you." After Claviyo expressed his gratitude to him, he said: "I should also thank His Majesty the King, the Regent Prince Ferdinand and Queen Catherine, but when I think of what you will do to me in the future
The matter mentioned must be very important, and I will play a certain role in it, so I don’t think I need to thank you.”
Of course Clavier is not stupid. Prince Ferdinand and Queen Catherine who are currently in charge of Castile are not close to him and would not send his wife and children all the way to the Ming Dynasty in the East out of consideration for him.
They must have a very important thing that required his help to do this. Especially, combined with the fact that Quijano was so polite to him before, he had almost guessed what Prince Ferdinand and Queen Catherine were going to do.
I also understand how difficult this matter is.
Moreover, he vaguely thought of something, something that made him feel very panicked. As a result, he was even less willing to express his gratitude to the regent and queen.
"You are right. This matter you are asked of is indeed very important." Quijano said word by word: "Prince Ferdinand and Queen Catherine hope to propose marriage to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and marry the princess of the Ming Dynasty.
To His Majesty Juan. At the same time, the two countries sent troops to capture or control Egypt; then, they built a track connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea in the narrowest part of Egypt, that is, the Suez area, and even dug a canal in the future to completely open up the Maritime Silk Road.
road."
"I knew it was these two things." Claviyo said with a long sigh. These two things were exactly what he had guessed.
European countries are very accustomed to marriage. As long as they have the idea of increasing relations with a certain country, they will make a request for marriage. Moreover, this kind of marriage does not disadvantage the country where the daughter is married, because European cultural customs require that as long as the marriage is officially completed,
If the queen gives birth to a child, regardless of whether he is male or female, wise or foolish, or even a fool by nature, he will be the first in line to inherit the throne. Now that His Majesty Juan has no brothers and sisters, the queen's child will definitely inherit the throne. No matter how many kings there are in the future.
No matter how many illegitimate children the mistress has, they cannot affect the inheritance rights of the queen's children; even if these illegitimate children murder the queen's children, the king's closest blood nephew will inherit the throne, not the illegitimate children.
Capturing Egypt is now the best thing to do in Castile's national interests. The reopening of trade routes across the entire continent has made every European businessman excited, and all those who have invested in the Black Sea-Caspian Sea Trading Company have made a lot of money.
The pot is full, and some people's assets have even increased more than ten times.
But as time went by, these merchants operating the Ming-European trade became dissatisfied again. They hoped that the cost of trafficking goods from the Ming Dynasty to Europe would be lower so that they could earn more money. But now
This trade route was a very long transportation route within the Ming Dynasty. Actual measurements of the canal planned to be built between the Volga River and the Don River revealed that there was a height difference between the two rivers, and the cost would be very high.
In other words, the transportation cost of this trade route has been difficult to reduce; as for the purchase cost, haha, robbing the Ming Dynasty, haha.
Many expeditions have been sent to the north to explore new routes, but none have been discovered so far. Smart businessmen will not place their hopes on unknown things. They studied carefully and found that: the merchants with lower transportation costs
The only way to get through Castile is through Egypt.
Egypt is located at the junction of Asia and Africa, with the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the east. Whether you are traveling from the Mediterranean Sea to other parts of Europe, or from the Red Sea to the Ming Dynasty, there is no land barrier in the middle. You can use sea transportation throughout the entire journey, and sea transportation is known to be costly.
The lowest mode of transportation; at the same time, the Isthmus of Suez, which isolates the Mediterranean Sea from the Red Sea, is so narrow that even if a canal cannot be built, the length of land transportation is very short. Overall, the cost is lower than the current sea route.
As early as 1406, during his lifetime, Enrique III had personally studied the plan to occupy or control Egypt. Although his death from illness and the turmoil in the early days of Juan II's succession caused this plan to be shelved, in 1410 last year, the regent
Prince Ferdinand took up the plan again.
But he immediately discovered the difficulties in realizing this plan. First of all, with the national power of Castile, even if it unites with the national power of the Kingdom of Aragon, there is no guarantee of seizing or controlling Egypt; secondly, if the two navies of Venice and Genoa are united,
The powerful Republic is confident of winning, but the three countries must also want to monopolize Suez. They will not use all their strength when fighting the Egyptian regime. They will try to make their allies suffer as many losses as possible so that they can have a greater voice after the war.
Well, it’s hard to say how effective the Three Kingdoms Allied Forces can be.
When Prince Ferdinand was worried, Queen Catherine heard about this and said to him: "Since the two republics of Venice and Genoa are unreliable, let's find more reliable allies."
"There are many reliable allies, but these countries are not strong." Prince Ferdinand said.
"Don't just limit your sights to Europe. You have to consider, apart from European countries, which country can gain the greatest benefit from opening up this route?"
"Countries that control the Indian Ocean!" Prince Ferdinand's eyes suddenly lit up. "Seeking cooperation from countries that control the Indian Ocean. After one country controls half of the shipping routes, no one will suffer, and no one will threaten the interests of the other party. It's really good.
idea."
He and Queen Catherine immediately called Quijano and other envoys who had been to the East and asked which country controlled the Indian Ocean. Contrary to their expectations, everyone said: "The Ming Dynasty has the most powerful navy in the East.
The merchants of the Ming Dynasty had already controlled the route from the east coast of India to the mainland of the Ming Dynasty. And in our opinion, the reason why the merchants of the Ming Dynasty did not control the route from the west coast of India to the Red Sea was because it was low-profit and uneconomical for them.
Rather than being unable to.”
"I really didn't expect that the Ming Dynasty could maintain the most powerful navy in the world when it had the most powerful army in the world. But it would be better this way. As long as this sea route is opened, transportation from the east
If the cost of incoming goods can be kept to a minimum, then send people to form an alliance with the Ming Kingdom and open up this shipping route." Prince Ferdinand said.
But he immediately realized a problem. "For us, because Ming is the most powerful navy in the East, we have no choice but to form an alliance with Ming; but this is not the case for Ming. Venice and
Genoa's navy is not much worse than ours. The Ming Dynasty can choose one of these two countries to form an alliance, or at least use these two countries to strive for more favorable conditions. How can the Ming Dynasty not do this?"
"It is impossible for the Ming Dynasty to strive for better alliance conditions without favorable conditions, and the emperor of the Ming Dynasty is not stupid; but there is a way to only allow the Ming Dynasty to form an alliance with our country."
Queen Catherine said: "First, Castile is a monarchy, Venice and Genoa are republics, and the Ming Dynasty is also a monarchy. Monarchies are inherently closer to monarchies. As a monarch, especially
A dictator like the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty will definitely not like a republic. Second, we can propose marriage. A monarchy and a republic cannot marry. With these two advantages, as long as the conditions we offer are not worse than those of the two republics
If there are more, the Ming Emperor will definitely choose to ally with Castile."
"And, there is a third point. I don't know if you still remember that when Quijano returned from the East twice, he mentioned that the Ming Emperor could speak English, and English was the only European language he could speak. I
After thinking about it, I think the only possibility that he can speak English is that some knights from England among the knights stationed in Rhode Island went to the Ming Dynasty privately and became the teacher of the Ming Dynasty emperor, but did not return."
"And I am an Englishman. I can find nobles from England as deputy envoys to represent England to the Ming Dynasty. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty will definitely feel good when he hears the familiar English; this envoy will then suggest that the Ming Dynasty and Castile
It is easier for him to agree to an alliance with Leah, which is another advantage."
"Okay. We have these three advantages, which is enough. I will immediately send Jijano as envoy to the Ming Dynasty again to discuss marriage and seize Egypt to open up trade routes." (To be continued)
