Sebastian was naturally also among Zhao Hao's distinguished guests at this military parade.

Last year, Pinto assured him that Master Zhao would meet him soon. However, Sebastian waited and waited, waiting for the Western New Year and the Eastern New Year, but only received the news that Zhao Hao had returned to the mainland.

Xiao Sai then turned into Xiao Fang, and angrily asked Pinto, "Didn't you say that Prince Zhao would see me soon? Why did he leave?"

Pinto was sweating all over his forehead. How could he know what Zhao Hao was doing? Don't look at him bragging in front of His Majesty, as if he was very close to Zhao Hao. But in fact, he is just a foreign professor at the Luzon Coast Guard Academy. He is still a million miles away from Mr. Zhao, who is at the top of the group, okay?

In order to maintain his position in His Majesty's heart, Professor Ping had no choice but to talk nonsense, saying that Mr. Zhao's trick was a high-level Eastern wisdom called "playing hard to get" among the Thirty-Six Prostitutes, in order to make His Majesty impatient and lose his patience so that he would agree to his high demands.

Xiao Sai was skeptical, but what was the point of not believing? He could only wait anxiously, standing by the sea every day looking at Yongxia Bay, and he was almost turning into a husband-waiting rock.

As a result, after waiting for a long time, Zhao Hao did not show up, but instead received one bad news after another.

First, in June of the eighth year of the Wanli reign, Liu Zhengqi, who was in power in Cairo, sent back information saying that his great-uncle Enrique, who succeeded him to the throne, had suddenly fallen ill in the middle of the night after a banquet in December of the previous year, which was January 1580 AD, and died the next day.

Sebastian collapsed immediately. The reason why he had been able to stay in Luzon with patience and even had some thoughts of escaping from it was mainly because this great-uncle who had been regent for many years took over as the King of Portugal.

The disastrous defeat at the Mahazan River made Sebastian realize his incompetence, and he was very happy to see his great-uncle take charge of the country, which relieved a lot of pressure on his shoulders. He even had an unspeakable thought - it would be nice to stay in Luzon for the rest of his life.

However, his uncle died mysteriously just over a year after taking over, leaving Sebastian completely without support. He had to face everything on his own.

After a brief period of sadness, he forced himself to cheer up and inquire about news from Europe and the colonies.

News from the Iberian Peninsula was continuously transmitted to Morocco, then crossed North Africa to Cairo, and then finally to Luzon. The whole journey took four months, but this was already the fastest speed.

If they relied on the Portuguese's own sea transport lines, it would take seven or eight months for the goods to reach Luzon.

So in the past few months, all kinds of news from across the ocean have reached Sebastian's ears...

First, Henry I's will did not mention who would inherit the throne. He only appointed a five-member joint ruling group to temporarily take over the king's duties until a new king was born.

After Henry, there were three people who were closest to the royal family. One was Enrique's cousin, Catalina, Duchess of Braganza; one was the illegitimate son of Henry's second brother, Antonio, the abbot of Crato; and the other was naturally Philip II.

However, the Duchess had a bad reputation, was unpopular, and was an ardent supporter of Philip II, so she voluntarily withdrew from the competition for the throne.

Thus, the struggle for the right to succeed to the Portuguese throne began between Antonio and Philip II.

In fact, Antonio is just an illegitimate child who has been marginalized for a long time. How can he be worthy of competing with the king of the world for the throne?

However, huge divisions arose within Portugal, with the nobility and celebrities leaning towards Philip II, believing that merging with Spain would improve the status of the Portuguese nobility and help them move from the margins into the European mainstream.

The lower classes, on the other hand, firmly advocated maintaining the country's complete independence, so they supported the illegitimate son Antonio as king, simply because he was a genuine Portuguese.

However, Philip II had foreseen the future and had stockpiled heavy troops on the border between the two countries. As soon as Henry died, he immediately sent the Duke of Alba to lead the Spanish army to invade Portugal.

According to the latest news, because the Portuguese nobles and officers generally supported Philip II to take over the throne, the fortresses and castles built by previous kings at great expense all surrendered without a fight, and the road to Lisbon has been opened. The Spanish army marched straight to Lisbon.

In addition, to cooperate with the army's actions, a powerful Spanish fleet also set out from the port of Cadiz in early July, heading north along the coast, and easily occupied coastal cities such as Lagos and Setubal.

At the same time, with the support of the people, Antonio announced himself as the King of Portugal in Santarem, and then Lisbon, Santarem, Setubal and other places expressed their support.

A War of the Portuguese Succession was inevitable.

In fact, the news we receive now is all from four months ago, so the war currently taking place in Portugal is probably a bloody battle with corpses everywhere.

Seeing that the king was in a hurry, Professor Ping specially asked the teachers of the Marine Police School Staff College to help him do a war game simulation. The results showed that even if the illegitimate child had supporters and resources, he would not have enough time to take effective measures to save the nation because of the tight time.

In fact, there is no need to deduce. Even if the Portuguese united, they would not be able to escape the fate of defeat against the Spanish phalanx, which had superior military strength and was invincible in Europe. What's more, the border defenders surrendered without a fight and handed over all the fortresses and coastal defenses to Spain?

They surrendered in such a uniform manner that no one would believe that the Portuguese nobles had not been bribed by Philip II in advance.

From this, we can draw a very simple conclusion: after the war, there will be more nobles and troops surrendering to the Spaniards. And the worse the situation is, the more people will surrender.

The more people surrendered, the worse the situation became. In this vicious cycle, Portugal had no chance of winning.

In the end, the teachers at the Staff College concluded that instead of relying on the illegitimate son to save the nation, it would be better to hope that France, Britain and the Netherlands would hinder Spain.

In other words, without a miracle, Portugal's demise is inevitable...

Although Sebastian was stubborn and kept saying that Portugal would be fine, he had already believed this conclusion in his heart.

He could no longer hold it in, and anxiously asked to see Zhao Hao, even threatening Jin Ke with a hunger strike to arrange a meeting between himself and Master Zhao as soon as possible.

In early October, Jin Ke personally delivered the gold-stamped invitation to Xiao Sai to attend the victory parade to the villa where Xiao Sai lived.

When Sebastian saw the words "This military parade is held to celebrate the complete elimination of the Spanish invaders" on the invitation, he felt as if he was in another world.

Before, Portugal and Spain divided the world. The two sides went in opposite directions and invaded everywhere. Until they met in Southeast Asia, they even conspired to attack the Ming Dynasty together.

Unexpectedly, Portugal was also invaded by Spain in the blink of an eye, which frightened him so much that he had nightmares every night. However, this arrogant Spanish Empire suffered an unprecedented defeat in the Far East. It lost the entire invincible fleet, 30,000 to 40,000 troops, and the entire Philippines...

Although it would not cause serious damage to the powerful Spain, such a huge loss was enough to keep Philip II awake for the whole night.

This further strengthened Sebastian's determination to ask Zhao Hao for help. He had realized that in the whole world, only Prince Zhao could help him save Portugal!

So as soon as the military parade was over, he couldn't wait to meet Zhao Hao. However, Master Zhao's secretary told him that there were too many people who wanted to meet the master, and he had to make an appointment a month in advance to have a chance to get some of his precious time.

The young master's schedule this month is already full, so where is the time for him?

Xiao Sai was furious. He said, "I'm ready to jump into the sea to ask for an audience. What else do you want me to do?" The receptionist of the secretariat told him that jumping into the sea would not increase the chances of success in seeking an audience. The best thing to do is to apply as soon as possible.

It was only after Pinto’s persuasion that the Secretariat reluctantly agreed to help go in and ask for instructions…

~~

At that time, Zhao Hao was in the magnificent Brunei Royal Palace, oh, now it is called the Brunei Governor's Mansion, receiving guests... oh no, meeting guests.

The tall and charming Green Queen wore a very cool tight-fitting sleeveless, round-neck sequined pomegranate-colored 'Dushiyi' and a gorgeous colorful satin skirt, which wrapped her figure like a ripe peach, making people salivate.

But Zhao Hao didn't want to see her, but someone else she brought with her - the 'Black Prince' of Siam, Panarai, a dark-skinned, short-statured, but full-bodied young man with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes.

Zhao Hao knew that this kid was extraordinary. He was the second most outstanding king among the three most outstanding kings in Thai history. Of course, that was a matter for the future.

Panarai was the eldest son of Maharaja, the puppet king of Siam supported by the Burmese. When he was a child, Mangyinglong of Myanmar conquered Siam and he was sent to Toungoo as a hostage.

Because his sister was given to Mang Yinglong as a concubine, he was released and made the crown prince. The humiliating experience made him extremely anti-Burmese, and he secretly supported the increasingly violent riots against Burmese rule in Siam.

However, they were unable to defeat the powerful Toungoo Dynasty and restore Siam's independence because the Burmese had an extraordinary hero, Mangyinglong.

This man was brave, good at fighting and resourceful. In just four years, as the ruler of a local state, he unified the divided Myanmar and established the Toungoo Dynasty.

After that, he used military force to invade Siam twice and made it a vassal state. He also captured Vientiane, forced Laos to surrender, and ate up half of the three Xuan and six Wei of the Yunnan Provincial Administration of the Ming Dynasty, and he was the overlord of the Indochina Peninsula for a time!

Faced with such a powerful opponent, the young Black Prince could not help but hesitate. In order to gain a better chance of winning before starting the rebellion, he also considered asking for help from the Celestial Empire.

No matter what, the Three Xuan and Six Wei, including Myanmar, all obeyed the legitimate rule of the Heavenly Dynasty and were territories of the Ming Dynasty, so it made no difference that Mang Yinglong was a traitor to the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty's traitors invaded Siam and reduced it from a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty to a vassal state of Myanmar. There is no reason for the Celestial Empire to ignore it, right?