When the Portuguese diplomats stationed in Shanghai saw these conditions, they were all furious, and some even showed expressions of disbelief!
Not to mention that the current King of Portugal, Sebastian I, has not yet taken charge of the government because of his young age. Today, the Portuguese government is regent by his great-uncle, Cardinal Enrique, the Duke of Vura.
What's more important is that Sebastian I is not married yet and has no children. In other words, there is no crown prince in the current Kingdom of Portugal.
Obviously, the ministers of the Tang Empire did not understand the current situation of the Kingdom of Portugal at all when they made the request for protons.
But this is understandable. In the eyes of the important officials of the Tang Dynasty, the Portuguese were just barbarians, and the mainland was just a small country with more overseas colonies, stronger maritime power, and control of the route from East Asia to Europe.
That's all.
Otherwise, it is just a small country, and it is worthy of the Tang Empire to mobilize troops and even stage a bombardment of Malacca.
Besides, the Tang Empire had never expected the Portuguese to agree to the conditions proposed by the Tang Empire. Even if the Portuguese agreed, the Tang Empire would not give them a chance to agree.
However, the Portuguese obviously do not know these inside stories. In their view, these conditions, no matter which one they are, are extremely harsh and cannot be agreed to.
And more importantly, in their view, the shelling of Malacca was just a small conflict.
It's not even an official conflict, it's just a merchant ship being sunk. On a normal day, this would be an inconspicuous thing. At most, it would cause some diplomatic protests, and then the Portuguese would lose money.
thing.
Or maybe just let it go.
But now, the Tang Empire has put forward four conditions that the Portuguese will never agree to!
Therefore, it made them even more suspicious that the Malacca bombardment incident was not simple. It was most likely a conspiracy to provoke a war between the two countries.
Because the captain of the Spanish patrol ship and many sailors who performed the interception mission at that time swore that the ship did not fly the Tang flag at that time, but the pirate skull and crossbones flag, and they were the first to report to the Spanish
The patrol ship opened fire.
Moreover, their counterattack lasted only a few minutes. Although some shells hit the merchant ship, they definitely did not sink it directly.
Considering the toughness shown by the Tang Empire and the speed of its response, they naturally had great reason to suspect that the Malacca bombardment incident was not simple, but was most likely a conspiracy!
The Portuguese's suspicion is justified and correct!
The officials of the Military Intelligence Department who were responsible for the Malacca bombardment were currently receiving commendations at the Military Intelligence Department headquarters in Jinling City!
The Malacca shelling incident they caused this time was actually not that complicated!
They just found a merchant ship, and then randomly captured a dozen pirates who looked similar to the Tang Dynasty people. They also found a pirate flag, and then drove the ship into Malacca, directly hoisted the pirate flag, and then actively bombarded them.
After the Spanish patrol ship waited for the Portuguese warship to fight back, they left the corpses of a dozen pirates on the ship, then detonated the buried explosives, burned the pirate flag, and hung the Tang flag before diving
Evacuate.
In this way, a Datang merchant ship that was 'sunk' by a Portuguese warship appeared in the port of Malacca!
Moreover, more than ten people from the Tang Dynasty died.
Immediately afterwards, the Tang naval warships that had been contacted and prepared quickly arrived in Malacca and assisted the Tang merchant ships and merchants in the Malacca port to evacuate. At that time, the Portuguese did not understand what was happening. They thought it was just an attack.
They captured a pirate ship, and then the pirate ship exploded inexplicably. They speculated that it might have hit a gunpowder barrel and caused the explosion.
Then, the Tang Navy had more and more warships, and eventually it became an entire fleet. More than ten warships appeared outside the Malacca port. In order to prevent accidents from happening, the Portuguese also dispatched a fleet to be on guard.
The whole incident was actually very simple. The Tang Empire just created an incident just to trigger a war!
And the fundamental purpose of doing this is actually to confuse the Portuguese. In fact, the high-level civil and military officials of the Tang Dynasty did not care about what the Portuguese thought at all. All they cared about was the domestic reaction. This time, the shelling of Malacca was actually just
It is for the domestic people to see, not for the Portuguese at all.
Looking at it now, the Malacca incident was very successful!
The empire found an excuse for war, and the people in the country also targeted the Portuguese, supporting the empire in launching a war against the Portuguese to maintain the authority of the Tang Empire, and to monopolize India and interfere with the interests of European trade.
Under this situation, the Portuguese diplomats stationed in Shanghai felt desperate because they could not do anything at all. Even when they wanted to negotiate on the conditions proposed by the Tang Empire, no one paid any attention to them.
Because after the diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent the conditions to the Portuguese, there was no follow-up. They did not talk to the Portuguese at all. Even if the Portuguese really wanted to agree, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would not agree to them.
Chance!
So soon, the diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeared in front of the Portuguese diplomats again, and this time they presented an ultimatum!
The Portuguese were given a time limit of twenty-four hours to respond, either agree to all terms or go to war!
Not to mention that nothing could be done in these twenty-four hours. They diplomats had no time to send the news to Malacca, let alone the Portuguese mainland.
More importantly, the diplomats of the Tang Dynasty disappeared without a trace after sending the ultimatum. Whether the Portuguese wanted to negotiate or agree directly, they actually could not find anyone.
When the twenty-four hours passed, diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Tang Empire came to the door again, and then presented a declaration of war to these Portuguese diplomats!
At nine o'clock in the morning on August 3rd, the 22nd year of Xuanping, the Tang Empire and the Kingdom of Portugal officially entered a state of war!
Well, at this time, even the Portuguese in Malacca still couldn’t figure out what happened and how the matter was resolved. The Tang Navy’s fleet off the coast of Malacca was not very large, only about ten
There are only two cruisers and six frigates. The rest are armed transport ships and even temporarily recruited armed merchant ships.
Therefore, the Tang Navy's fleet did not actually enter Malacca, but just wandered far away in the outer sea. It did not come into contact with the Portuguese fleet, let alone blockade it.
The Portuguese fleet is much stronger than the Tang Dynasty naval fleet currently in Malacca. Blockade is impossible.
However, many merchant ships originally in Malacca, especially merchant ships from other countries, sensed the crisis of war and rushed to flee Malacca one by one to avoid being affected by the war between the Portuguese and the Tang Empire.
Portugal was fighting with the Tang Empire, the largest force in the Southeast Asian and Indian Ocean regions, so ordinary merchants like them had better stay away.
Anyway, for them, overseas trade is just for making money. It doesn't really matter whether Malacca and even the entire Indian Ocean is controlled by Portugal or the Tang Dynasty.
Although the Portuguese controlled Malacca, they also welcomed merchant ships from other countries to trade in Malacca, and the Banten Port under the control of Datang also welcomed merchant ships from other countries to trade.
Therefore, no matter who controls Malacca, it has no real impact on them. Business is still business.
But those Portuguese merchant ships didn’t think so. At the beginning, many Portuguese merchant ships were forewarned and drove away early. They were just ordinary Portuguese, not Portuguese East Indians.
People from trading companies, let alone official people.
But after a few days, as the situation became increasingly tense, the number of Tang naval forces outside the Malacca port gradually increased. The Portuguese in Malacca finally realized that the inexplicable shelling of Malacca would most likely turn into a
war.
So they began to recruit all the merchant ships still in the port. At this time, if these ordinary merchants wanted to escape, they would not be able to escape.
Even the Portuguese official garrison in Malacca and the Portuguese East India Company don't know yet that the Tang Empire has officially submitted a declaration of war to their diplomats, but judging from the abnormal behavior of the Tang Navy,
, they can also guess that the war is not far away.
For this reason, on the one hand, they were actively preparing for war, and at the same time, they also dispatched clippers to India and even the mainland. While reporting the matter, they also requested reinforcements.
But even so, they still remain extremely pessimistic about whether they can hold Malacca!
Most of them are based in Malacca, and the Portuguese have very frequent business contacts with the Tang Empire, so they can also know more about the situation of the Tang Empire.
We all know that the Tang Empire was a terrifyingly powerful country. Not only was it prosperous and possessed many incredible technologies, it also possessed the most powerful military force in the world.
Even if they were unable to collect some inside information, they could still learn from the public Tang Dynasty newspaper that the Tang Empire's army numbered hundreds of thousands, and it also had a huge fleet.
This huge army once defeated the Ming Dynasty, the former master of China, and also defeated the Tatars of Mongolian descent who once swept across Europe and made people laugh at them, and expelled the Tatars all the way to Central Asia.
Such a powerful army is enough to make these Portuguese people frightened and even despair!