Alvin can understand Portuguese, not only Portuguese, but he also speaks Spanish fluently, and he can even understand and speak Dutch.
Well, he can’t write or read all the languages mentioned above!
You can't expect an illiterate person who can't even recognize the alphabet to read and write!
After listening to the arrival guide's words, Alvin also said to his men behind him: "Be honest with me after you get ashore, otherwise you will provoke the Tang Dynasty people, and don't expect me to collect the bodies for you!"
After getting ashore, Alvin led his men to line up in the square.
It’s not okay to be dishonest!
Except for a few small piers facing the sea, the other three sides of this square are high walls. Many Datang soldiers holding muskets can be seen on the walls. It is estimated that if there is a slight disturbance, they will be shot down by a volley of guns.
The waiting time in line was not long, because not many people came ashore today. Apart from Alvin's group, there were only a group of Spaniards.
When registering, Alvin saw a real Tang Dynasty person for the first time. He was just like the legendary one, with black hair and black eyes, but he didn't know what this person looked like because he wore a very thick mask, and
He did not face them directly, but sat behind a high window sill. The person receiving them in front of the window sill was also a Portuguese man.
This person directly asked Alvin in Portuguese where he was from, what he was doing here, what goods he brought, how many people there were, what goods he planned to buy, etc. Alvin also talked nonsense, saying that he was from the Netherlands, and he was anyway
His Dutch is quite authentic, and others won't find any flaws in it.
However, the Portuguese person who asked about registration did not seem to carefully investigate the authenticity. He wrote whatever Alvin answered. After completing the simple registration, he handed Alvin a piece of paper, saying that this was the entry certificate, and asked him to
Carry it with you or you will be responsible for the consequences.
As for what the consequences were, he didn't say anything, and Alvin was smart enough not to ask.
After registering with his men, he left from an exit on the edge of the square. Then the port entry guide who had been accompanying him told him that his work was over. After entering the port area, Alvin could move freely in the port area.
However, it is limited to the port area. You are not allowed to climb over the walls and break into other urban areas, otherwise you will be caught and shot on the spot.
Then he was given a booklet, which was an instruction manual specially printed and distributed by the Tang Dynasty to foreign merchants. It explained how to find food, where to stay, and where to trade after landing.
The brochure is very considerate and is available in four languages: Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish and Latin.
Although Alvin was illiterate, someone under him could read. After taking this to his literate subordinate, the subordinate looked through it and said: "When we want to stay, we should go to their Tiandi Inn. No, it's right in front."
Far!"
When I first arrived, I naturally found a place to stay first. After drifting on the sea for several months, Alvin was eager to have a good rest.
But when they came to an inn with the name "Tiandi Inn" and wanted to stay, the manager who received them was still not from the Tang Dynasty, he was a Spaniard!
The Spaniard said that their inn had a small single-family courtyard for the maritime merchants to live in. The price was naturally not cheap. In these days, various facilities and services in port cities for maritime merchants were extremely expensive.
, South Africa City is no exception.
This is not the key, the key is that this person does not accept silver coins, nor does he accept gold coins!
I have to ask for Tang Yuan!
He also said that in the South African city, no matter whether it is for food, drink or trade, they do not accept currencies from other countries, not even gold and silver. They only accept Tang Dynasty dollars, and they are paper currency.
In desperation, he ran to the bank next door with the Royal Bank to exchange Tang Yuan. When he exchanged a bag of gold coins for dozens of flimsy Tang Dynasty banknotes, he was very suspicious.
Can it be spent as money?
However, although he had doubts, he still exchanged it without hesitation, because before him, he had seen a Spaniard directly bring a small box of gold coins to exchange for these Tang Yuan banknotes.
Holding the more than 100 yuan of Tang Dynasty banknotes exchanged, Alvin was still a little heartbroken.
He could understand this exchange, but why did he have to say that his gold coins did not contain enough gold? He could only exchange them at a 8.5% discount for pure gold. At the same time, there was also a service fee. In the end, the Tang Dynasty banknotes he received were probably only the actual value.
Eighty percent of the value...
So damn dark, much darker than those bankers in Italy!
But there is no way, Alvin has to endure it!
With the Tang Yuan banknotes exchanged, he finally rented a small courtyard from the Tiandi Inn. This small courtyard looked like it was specially prepared for maritime merchants.
There are three rooms inside, one of which has a large bed, but the other room is covered with wooden boards. One room can probably sleep more than a dozen people if it is crowded.
There is also an empty room, which is a warehouse for maritime merchants to temporarily store a small amount of goods.
Alvin occupied a room and a big bed by himself, so his subordinates naturally had no choice but to squeeze into the Chase bunk or simply sleep in the warehouse.
If you want a bigger yard, there are naturally better rooms, but they are more expensive, so Alvin is naturally reluctant to part with them. Anyway, he can just sleep well.
Alvin asked a few of his subordinates to take charge of arranging a large group of subordinates, while he went out with an entourage.
When he first arrived, he was very curious about this South African port!
He has never been to South Africa. In the past, when this South African city was controlled by the Portuguese, it was a purely military fortress and merchant ships from other countries were not welcome to enter.
Now that he came to South Africa City, he found that this port city was different from all the port cities he knew. This difference did not mean the architectural layout.
In fact, South Africa City is a very typical bastion building. Outside the bastion is a semi-open trade area, and close to the dock is the port area. On both sides of the port, there are two huge seaside forts.
None of this is unusual.
What makes Alvin curious is that this place looks similar to other places, but only after you are really here, you will find a huge surprise.
Walking on the street, he didn't see even a little bit of garbage on the street. The feces, urine and feces that could be seen everywhere in European cities at the same time were not found here.
Although the streets are still dirt roads, stepping on them makes people feel comfortable, and even the air is sweeter than the air in London.
This is not an illusion, but a fact!
Datang attaches great importance to hygiene. The first task it carries out when it comes to a place is to clean up garbage and build a complete sanitation system.
South Africa City is no exception. After capturing South Africa City, the expeditionary force carried out a large-scale cleanup of South Africa City, then re-excavated sewage ditches, built public toilets, etc.
Although the entire South African city looks similar to the past on the surface, there are actually huge differences.
Alvin, who felt the air was sweeter, had not actually entered the urban area of South Africa City yet.
South Africa City is divided into several major areas. The core is the bastion city area. The bastion is divided into the inner city and the outer city. However, both the inner city and the outer city belong to the bastion city area.
These areas are not open to outsiders, and only people from the Tang Dynasty are allowed to enter.
Outside the bastion city, the large area from the vast dock to the city is divided into dock area, trade area, and port area.
The dock area is where goods are stored, and it is also where merchants deliver goods on-site. It is also where goods are boarded and disembarked. This area is very large, but there are very few people.
The trade area is a place provided for some foreign merchants and people of the Tang Dynasty to conduct trade. The reason why it is said to be some foreign merchants is because not all foreign merchants can enter. If you want to enter the trade area, you need to go through detailed cleaning.
To put it bluntly, it’s just a shower!
Only foreigners who have taken a shower and cleaned up their personal hygiene can be allowed to enter the trade area and have direct contact with the people of the Tang Dynasty!
On the one hand, this prevents the spread of diseases. On the other hand, these foreigners are so smelly because they have not bathed for a long time, and the people of the Tang Dynasty are not willing to have direct contact with them.
This is why Alvin has never had close contact with a Tang Dynasty person until now. He only glanced at a Tang Dynasty person several meters away across the high counter in the registration square, and that Tang Dynasty person still had a thick
Because of the masks.
Outside the trade area is the port area. There are generally no Tang Dynasty activities in this port area. Except for the soldiers on the surrounding high walls who perform security duties and a small number of Tang people supervising the work of foreign employees, the rest of the work
The personnel are all foreigners employed by Datang.
The employees employed by Datang included Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Indians. In short, there were all kinds of people.
In addition to these foreign employees hired by Datang, the rest were naturally a large number of foreign businessmen coming from afar.
In order to prevent these foreign merchants and sailors from bringing various infectious diseases, Datang stipulated various complex isolation measures more than ten years ago. After foreign merchants enter the port, they need to stay on the ship for at least three days. After three days, if
Only when there are no problems will you be allowed to disembark and then go to a specific quarantine area, which is an area similar to the port area of South Africa City to live and live.
If you want to leave the quarantine area and go to the business area, you need to conduct a thorough cleaning before you can be allowed to go to the business area.
As for the urban area where the people of the Tang Dynasty lived, sorry, foreign businessmen could not enter.
After so many years of domestic trade ports being opened, except for a very small number of foreign diplomats, few ordinary foreign merchants have been allowed to leave the commercial areas and go to the areas where the people of the Tang Dynasty live.
Although South Africa City is an overseas territory, the rules in all aspects are still similar to those of previous domestic trading ports.
It was Alvin's first time to come to South Africa City, and it was his first contact with the people of the Tang Dynasty. Naturally, he didn't know many inside stories, so when he saw someone walking through the gate of the port area and heading to the business area, he also
I then wanted to go to the business area to have a look, but before I could take two steps, I was stopped by two Tang soldiers with loaded weapons.
The two Datang soldiers said something he couldn't understand, but Alvin could understand their actions. The two soldiers raised their guns directly!
Alvin was so frightened that he thought something had happened and quickly explained!
He was afraid that if the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty on the opposite side acted arrogantly and unreasonably, they would shoot him on the spot!