On the 18th day of the 12th month of the eighth year of the Wanli reign (December 24, 1580 AD), Zhao Hao, Chairman of the Jiangnan Group, and Sebastian, the former King of Portugal, signed the "Secret Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance" in the Chaotian Hall of the Governor's Office of Brunei in Borneo, Nanyang, Ming Dynasty, which had a profound impact on world history.

This secret agreement, also known as the Treaty of Portugal and Brunei, was later regarded as the opening of the Age of Exploration by the Portuguese Empire, which completely transferred its maritime power and overseas colonies to the revived Ming Empire in a non-confrontational and peaceful manner. Although at this time, the emperor and officials in the capital of the Ming Dynasty were completely unaware of this.

Although the transfer of such a huge amount of assets was destined to be protracted and full of twists and turns, history did indeed take a great turn at this moment.

When signing the treaty document, Mr. Zhao, who was already used to the ups and downs of life, could not help but tremble slightly with his hand holding the brush, unable to hide his excitement.

Zhao Hao quickly calmed himself down and slowly signed his name next to Sebastian's signature.

Putting down his brush, he heaved a sigh of relief, his heart surging with excitement, and he wanted to sing loudly. This was definitely the most proud work of his life!

Although Portugal is a small country with a small population, it was the first player to enter the Age of Discovery and naturally had the upper hand.

Even though Spain later came from behind and gained the upper hand thanks to its strong national strength, it actually did not gain any advantage over Portugal.

The two sides have long used 46°37' west longitude, also known as the Papal Meridian, as the dividing line for the world. The Spanish believed that they had gained an advantage under this division because they had obtained the entire Americas except Brazil, and they believed that the route to India and China was in the west.

But in fact, this dividing line gave Portugal access to all routes that bypass Africa to Asia. The country that truly achieved the original purpose of the great voyages of discovery - obtaining spices, silk and porcelain from the East - was Portugal.

Although Spain later became rich due to plundering in America, which made Portugal somewhat overshadowed, it was not because the Portuguese had poor vision. In fact, the gold reserves in the territory they were allocated were far greater than those of the former... South Africa, Australia and the South Pacific, which ranked the top three in the world in terms of gold reserves, were all within their reach.

If you can’t eat it, you can only say it’s because of your lack of ability and bad luck.

In Zhao Hao's opinion, the land that Portugal got was much more valuable than that of Spain. Although America was rich and vast and extremely valuable, Portugal got the entire World Island!

In his book "The Influence of Sea Power", he emphasized that no matter in the era of land power or the era of sea power, the world's largest, most populous and richest land group consisting of Europe, Asia and Africa has always been the center stage of the world.

It was only because of the limitation of land transportation that this stage could not form a whole and was always isolated. It was the Age of Exploration that made most of the world island connected for the first time through the convenient and cheap transportation method of sea transportation.

Therefore, we can draw a series of self-evident inferences about the future of this world:

In the Age of Exploration that lasted for hundreds of years, the center of the World Island could not escape the fate of being marginalized. The area closer to the ocean was more strategically significant.

What connects these regions together are maritime trade routes.

Therefore, whoever controls the maritime trade routes can control the world economic system.

And, whoever controls the world economy controls the world.

Referring to the above theory, we can clearly see that the Portuguese maritime foundation has top strategic value. Although it was a helpless move, they have indeed used almost all their strength in the past 150 years to build and monopolize maritime trade and transportation routes.

All the overseas colonies and outposts they occupied and operated were, without exception, strategic points along the coast. Their main purpose was not to colonize, but to control important sea routes.

As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning. This is a long journey against the whole world! Even with the current strength of Jiangnan Group, it will take decades, sacrifice tens of thousands of people, and cost hundreds of millions of taels of silver to complete this difficult task.

Now, the predecessors planted trees and the descendants enjoyed the shade. The signing of this treaty means that the Jiangnan Group took over everything from the Portuguese without being guilty of original sin. It means that the Ming Dynasty finally took the initiative in the Age of Exploration and can occupy a more advantageous position. It built an insurmountable barrier at a lower cost, blocking the continuous challengers from this feast.

It's worth the eight years of planning! All the hard work and waiting are worth it!

~~

Because this day was Christmas Eve in the West, Zhao Hao specially ordered the banquet to celebrate the signing to be held in the form of a Christmas party to comfort Sebastian, whose heart was bleeding.

In the magnificent banquet hall, colorful lights were hung, and Zhao Hao even specially ordered people to cut down a large pine tree and decorate it as a Christmas tree.

As the Spanish court band played Christmas music, the Christmas dinner prepared by the Portuguese chef was served on a long dining table covered with a red tablecloth.

The appetizer is grilled octopus. The carefully selected octopus is mixed with onions, olives, and coriander, and a thin layer of garlic paste is spread on the bottom. It is eaten with baked potatoes, which is absolutely authentic Lisbon flavor.

The waiter poured more red wine. Zhao Hao picked up the tall glass and said with a smile, "Try it and see if it tastes like Porto."

Xiao Sai took a sip from the goblet and nodded vigorously, saying, "It's the finest Colheita twelve-year-old wine."

While eating the delicious and chewy grilled octopus and drinking the fine wine from his hometown of Porto, Sebastian couldn't help but burst into tears and kept wiping his eyes with a napkin.

"Your Majesty, is this 'As a stranger in a foreign land, I miss my family all the more during every festive occasion'?" Zhao Hao asked with a smile, shaking his wine glass gently, "or 'Speechless and choked, looking at the lanterns reminds me of the New Year'?"

Xiao Sai was stunned. His Chinese level was not yet at the level of appreciating poetry.

Pinto quickly translated for him. Sebastian thought for a while before saying, "More like the latter."

"Be strong, you can still come back as a king and recover your country." Zhao Hao comforted him, "You are much stronger than Zhao Ji."

"Hiring prostitutes?" Xiao Sai was confused again, thinking, are these comparable?

"That's the author of 'Speechless and Choked', a king of a fallen country who was captured by foreigners and taken to a bitter and cold land, where he died in humiliation." Pinto explained quickly.

"He and Gongzi Zhao have the same surname, are they related?" Xiao Sai asked in a low voice in Portuguese.

"That's not important..." Pinto was sweating.

"What are you talking about?" Zhao Hao asked with a smile.

"Oh, His Majesty is actually still sad about the content of the treaty." Pinto quickly replied in Chinese: "He doesn't know how to explain it to his countrymen."

"Hey, I don't think it's a big deal." Zhao Hao took a sip of the golden port wine with a honey aroma, smiled and comforted Sebastian, "What's there to be ashamed of? You can just announce to the people that Portugal is the one who got the advantage."

"Getting a bargain..." Xiao Sai felt depressed. All the colonies in Asia, Africa and Latin America were handed over. This was too good a bargain.

"That's the truth." Zhao Hao said frankly, "Because I never let my partners suffer losses, so you guys got a great deal on this contract."

"What do you mean?" Xiao Sai widened his eyes, wanting to hear how Zhao Hao was confusing right and wrong.

"There's a Chinese saying that goes 'biting off more than you can chew'. In fact, according to our group's thinking, it's enough to be able to take back Nanyang." Zhao Hao said, gesturing and saying, "Such a large piece of land has been away from our country for more than a hundred years. If we want to return it to the king, it will probably take another hundred years."

"Then why do we still need our Indian viceroyalty?" asked Little Sai angrily.

The Indian Viceroyalty was the real essence of the Portuguese colonies and the place where the Portuguese invested their lives. In addition to Malacca and the Spice Islands, the Indian Viceroyalty also included Ceylon, Portuguese India, Hormuz, Bahrain, Bandar Abbas, Lassak Islands, Muscat... Through this series of strongholds, the Portuguese firmly controlled the Indian Ocean route and the Persian Gulf outlet, blocking the powerful Ottoman Empire at its doorstep.

"That was the request of our other ally." Zhao Hao replied calmly.

"Another ally?" Sebastian was stunned. "Ottoman Empire?"

"That's right." Zhao Hao said seriously, "We are at war with the Spaniards. The enemy of our enemy is our friend, so of course we have to form an alliance with their enemy... But the Queen Mother of Osman has a condition, which is to include your country in the enemy list and attack from both sides."

"God..." Sebastian shuddered and quickly took a big sip of wine to calm his nerves. The Ming people were allied with the Ottomans, and the Indian viceroyalty was under attack from both sides. How could it survive?

"But we hope to establish friendship with your country." Zhao Hao said with a smile: "So we came up with this idea. Please take the initiative to withdraw from Asia and have nothing to do with the Ottomans. Then there will be no reason to start a war, right?"

"Is that so..." Sebastian nodded. In fact, when he heard that the Jiangnan Group had formed an alliance with the Ottoman Empire, he knew that a dignified exit from Asia was the best option for the Portuguese.

Now he can at least explain to the people why he gave up on Asia's issues.

"Besides, your merchants are not really prohibited from coming to Asia." Zhao Hao made him feel more comfortable and said, "Although our emperor does not allow foreigners to enter the Ming Dynasty without permission, I think it is okay for you to operate in Goa or even India. As long as you don't cross Ceylon, everything will be fine."

After a pause, he said solemnly, "Of course, entry into Nanyang is absolutely forbidden, otherwise it will bring trouble to our group."

"I understand." Sebastian nodded quickly. He was familiar with Portugal's history of development in the Far East and knew that the fundamental reason for its failure was that the Ming Dynasty was extremely wary of foreigners, almost to the point of rejection.

"As for Africa, we do not prohibit your citizens from entering or leaving. Whether they are doing business, settling down, or sailing, we will treat them equally." Zhao Hao laughed loudly again, "For your country, you have unloaded the heavy burden of defending strongholds and routes, but you can still develop in Africa. Isn't this taking advantage of us?"

PS. Only one chapter tonight, I’m so sleepy.