A cool breeze blew by, stirring up waves of pine trees.
Facing Sebastian's request, Zhao Hao calmly shook his head and said, "Sorry, Your Majesty, it's not possible at the moment."
As he said this, he stretched out his hand, and Cai Ming, who was temporarily acting as his secretary, handed over the confession of the Spanish crew member.
Zhao Hao handed it to Macaroon and said, "Translate it for him."
Macron then told Sebastian about the Spanish battle plan, and the latter became more and more shocked the more he listened. When he heard that Spain was going to join forces with Portugal to attack Ming, he couldn't help but exclaimed.
"God, we Portuguese will not cooperate with them! I will go to Malacca and Goa and order them not to be fooled by the Spanish. No, I want them to cooperate with your country to attack Spain!"
"Hehehe..." Zhao Hao gave him a forced smile and turned to look at the clouds in the sky.
He is so innocent. He must have had a happy childhood.
"Why are you laughing, sir?" Sebastian was afraid that he would end up like Drake. He asked Macaron in a low voice, "Did I say something wrong?"
Macron whispered to Sebastian, "Your Majesty, what you said is indeed a little inappropriate. No matter what, you are a Catholic country. How can I let you go without worrying about breaking your bones?"
"This..." Sebastian panicked and asked, "Will releasing me affect the progress of the war?"
"Of course, you already know that we know the Spanish battle plan." Macron picked off the pine needles that fell on his head and said softly, "In order to make Spain think that we don't know their plan yet, Your Majesty can only inconvenience you to stay here for a while longer."
Sebastian finally understood the logic behind this and couldn't help but cry out in dismay, "You made me watch this..."
"That's not important. What's important is that you've already seen it." Macron kept a straight face to prevent himself from laughing. "Fortunately, Your Majesty now knows that the situation in Lisbon has stabilized. It doesn't matter if you go back a little later."
"Well, okay..." Sebastian nodded dejectedly. He finally understood that he was now a fish on the chopping board, at the mercy of others.
Young Master Zhao then turned around and said with a smile on his face, "Don't worry, Your Majesty. You may not know me very well. I value fate the most. You and I have been destined to meet each other for thousands of miles, so of course we should get closer to each other."
"Just stay here peacefully with me. I'll ask the great doctor of Ming Dynasty to come and check you out... I'm not going to check on any other illness, I'm just going to check on whether your injury has any sequelae." He patted Sebastian on the shoulder and said, "Your Majesty, just rest assured. I will definitely take responsibility for you and send you back to Lisbon in glory sooner or later!"
Sebastian was not used to this kind of physical contact. How could an ordinary person touch the body of a king casually? But at this moment, he felt reassured by Zhao Hao's actions, as if his life was finally guaranteed. He nodded like a little brother and said, "I will follow your arrangements."
In fact, he is one year older than Zhao Hao...
"Okay, let's send His Majesty back to rest first." Zhao Hao nodded with a smile.
"Your Majesty, please." Macron bowed slightly and led Sebastian away.
After the two walked away, Zhao Hao chuckled and asked, "Is this kid really so cowardly?"
"In the Battle of Mahazan River in Morocco, he was quite tough." The man whispered, "Maybe he was scared after escaping death? Or was he scared by the young master, so he pretended to be a coward and avoided disaster like Liu Chan?"
"Liu Chan is so happy here that he doesn't want to return to his country like him." Zhao Hao shook his head and smiled, "Who cares? There's no need to investigate. Just keep an eye on him."
"Yes." The man responded softly, and then asked: "By the way, sir, there is also a Moroccan deposed king named Abu..."
"Forget it, it's gone." Zhao Hao waved his hand tiredly and said, "Morocco is not the point. Seeing him will make him miss it too much. Let's keep him for now. Maybe he will be useful someday."
Then he said to that person, "I've told you so many times, calling you Young Master is too distant, it's better to call you Brother-in-law... it's better to call you Brother."
"Okay, brother-in-law...brother..." that person called out somewhat awkwardly.
"It's almost time for you to get married." Zhao Hao put his arm around his shoulders affectionately and said to Fang Wen, "I'll give you a long vacation to go back and rest. You haven't been back for so many years, and your parents-in-law are..."
"They almost forget my number." Fang Wen laughed at himself and said, "I'm not suitable for marriage. I'd better let them forget me."
"Hey, what nonsense are you talking about?" Zhao Hao patted his back vigorously and said, "We are close by nature, and you are so stubborn because you don't go back. Let me be honest with you, your sister has found several marriages for you, and she is waiting for you to go back for the blind date."
"Yeah." Fang Wen nodded nonchalantly. "Let's wait until this battle is over."
"Nonsense! After this war, you'll be busy for several more years. Hurry up and marry your wife before the war starts. If you dawdle, the woman won't wait for you!" Zhao Hao blew his beard and glared at him, "Get out of here in a few days. Don't let me see you again this year. Do you hear me?!"
"Hey, I heard it." Fang Wen was scolded so much that he was fuming, but he felt warm in his heart, as if all his hard work over the years was worth it.
~~
The next day, Master Zhao received the two kings of Sulu and Brunei in his villa.
Both countries have close ties with the Ming Dynasty, as their kings died in the Ming Dynasty while paying tribute and were buried in the Ming Dynasty.
In the sixth year of Yongle, the King of Brunei, Manarakana, brought his wife, brothers and sisters, children, and ministers, totaling more than 150 people, to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, he died of illness in Nanjing in October of the same year. According to his last wish, "the body is buried in China". Emperor Chengzu buried him with royal rites, posthumously named him King Gongshun, and built a temple to worship him.
In the 15th year of Yongle, the King of Sulu led his family and 340 attendants to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty. He was warmly received by Emperor Chengzu in Beijing. On the way back, the king also died of illness in Dezhou. Emperor Chengzu sent officials from the Ministry of Rites to Dezhou with sacrificial texts, buried him with the rites of a vassal king, and posthumously named him "King Gongding". He also wrote the inscription himself.
After King Sulu died, his eldest son returned to the country to succeed the throne. The queen discussed with the other two sons and decided that going back would just be fishing and sunbathing, so it would be better to stay in the Celestial Empire and enjoy civilization. So they were allowed to settle in Dezhou to guard the tomb of the former king. Their descendants changed their surnames to An and Wen, which means "peace and stability", and they are still multiplying today.
At that time, it was not just these two countries. The entire Southeast Asia was subject to the Celestial Empire...
Well, that's all in the past. As the Ming Dynasty stopped its western expansion and closed its doors to the outside world, the countries in Southeast Asia gradually distanced themselves from each other.
After leaving their father, the royal families of these two countries have been very successful. Not only have they continued to exist, but they have also become bigger and stronger, and have created greater glory.
During the Jiajing period, Brunei basically unified Borneo. The Sulu Kingdom unified the Sulu Islands and occupied Zamboanga in Mindanao. The group that later established the Manila Sultanate in Luzon also separated from the Sulu Kingdom.
Later, after the Portuguese invaded Southeast Asia, they swept across the seas of various countries with their powerful ships and guns, occupied their ports, built castles and set up strongholds. The old order in Southeast Asia was shattered, and the Aceh Sultanate and the Bajang Sultanate, which had previously dominated the world, were reduced to their original form.
However, Brunei and Sulu were not on the main trade routes and did not produce spices, so they were not harassed by the Portuguese.
After watching the fire from the other side of the river and secretly rejoicing for decades, the more brutal Spaniards came from the other side of the sea. The Luzon Islands and Borneo, which had been isolated in a corner, could not escape the clutches of the red-haired devils. Moreover, the Spanish were more brutal than the Portuguese. The latter only wanted spices, ports and sea power, while the former wanted everything from them.
The Spaniards first occupied Cebu, then destroyed the Manila Sultanate, and then continued to attack Mindanao.
At this time, in order to protect overseas Chinese, the Coast Guard fleet went south, eliminated the Spaniards and their Manila Fleet on Luzon Island, re-established the Luzon Governor's Office, and brought Luzon Island back to the king.
However, perhaps out of fear of affecting the galleon trade, or perhaps because they did not want to completely break off relations with the powerful Spanish Empire, the Celestial Empire’s fleet did not continue to attack Cebu after retaking Luzon, and formed a strange tacit understanding with the Spaniards - both sides continued to do business, and the warships also operated within the Visayas Islands.
The coast guard fleet does not enter the Visayas Islands, and the Spanish armed merchant ships do not cross the Visayas Islands, acting as if they are keeping their distance from each other.
At first, the Spanish were still very nervous, always worried that the Ming people would attack at any time, but as the years went by, they relaxed their minds when they saw that the other side did not cross the line at all. The Cebu authorities formed a consensus that the Ming people were satisfied with occupying Luzon Island, and there was no motivation to move south before digesting it.
As the saying goes, if the enemy does not move, we will move. Coupled with the 100,000 indigenous Christians who migrated from Luzon, the Cebu authorities were under tremendous population pressure - the Spaniards originally planned to let them fend for themselves, but who knew that they would be made an example by the Pope.
The glorious deeds of "Bishop Franco and 100,000 believers escaping across the sea" were widely publicized by the Roman Catholic Church. Philip II was also very happy and pardoned the sins of the civil and military officials of the Philippines, requiring them to do everything possible to properly resettle these indigenous believers and turn the Philippines into a paradise for Catholics.
Now the Cebu authorities can only bite the bullet and find a way to resettle these indigenous people.
They initially wanted to distribute these indigenous believers to the Visayas and let the tribes on the islands who converted to Catholicism accept them. However, the Visayas had limited arable land and a sparse population of local tribes. They were afraid that their land would be taken away by the Catholics, so they resolutely refused to accept these Luzon immigrants.
The Cebu authorities had no choice but to continue attacking Mindanao, hoping to seize land from the infidels. Mindanao had countless undeveloped fertile lands, but the local natives were very fierce and cunning. When the Spanish army came to suppress them, they fled into the forest. As soon as the Spanish army left, they rushed out of the forest and attacked the colonists, causing great losses to the believers.
In view of the slow progress of the invasion of Mindanao, the Cebu authorities finally launched the long-planned Borneo expedition last year, in 1578 AD!