Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 1024: The Beginning of the Age of Navigation

"You, the shop owner, what you said doesn't make sense!"

"I don't have any shame, what does it have to do with my ancestors?"

"My dear young master, I will never lie to you. I swear in the name of God!" The man swore. His confusing remarks made the customers laugh and even the waiter laughed out of anger. Zhu Su was also a little speechless. He swore in the name of God and ancestors just to ask for a drink. To some extent, this guy was a wonderful person.

He winked at Di Meng beside him, who understood and stepped forward to the waiter and said, "Shopkeeper, our young master will pay this foreigner for as much as he wants on credit."

"Also, please make room for our young master. He wants to taste the fine wine in your restaurant."

"Well...Okay, sir, please come in." The waiter seemed to want to say something, but when he saw Di Meng take out a silver ingot from his arms, and saw that Di Meng had a strong build and Zhu Su also had an extraordinary bearing, he probably didn't take the silver money to heart at all, so he said no more.

He glared at the Semu man who was winking at him out of surprise, and led Zhu Su and the Semu man to a private room upstairs. He served them a cup of top-quality Zuixian wine and said, "Sir, please enjoy your meal. I'll be waiting downstairs."

"If this man's nonsense makes you feel cheated, please let me know loudly and I will charge the wine to this foreign devil. There is no reason for us Han people to be cheated and wronged under the emperor's feet."

"Well, I understand. You can go down." Zhu Su nodded and smiled at him. The waiter was kind-hearted, but he was still worried that Zhu Su had been deceived.

On the contrary, this perverted foreign devil was unmoved by these words. He just stared at the Drunken Immortal Wine, and his saliva was almost dripping onto his feet.

"Hey, you." Zhu Su picked up the wine that Di Meng had poured for him, and deliberately held the cup closer to himself, and said to the Semu man: "You said your ancestor was Marco Polo, so your family should not be unknown in the West."

"The descendants of Marco Polo, don't they know even the most basic etiquette?"

"Dear sir from the Ming Dynasty, do you know my family?" The man's eyes lit up. When he heard Zhu Su mention his family, he finally put away his glib attitude. His face became serious, and he gave Zhu Su a Western chest-touching salute, saying, "Sir, please forgive my rudeness. I salute you, Abigail Polo. May I have the honor of knowing your name?"

"You are not worthy of knowing my name." Zhu Su said. Abigail's face froze. She smiled awkwardly, pulled a chair and sat down. She said shamelessly, "Then, sir, can I enjoy the cup of wine in your hand?"

"A merchant family from Venice would go so crazy for a mere cup of wine. Is there no good wine in the rich water city of Venice?" Zhu Su picked up the wine cup and said jokingly.

"How can the wine of Venice be compared with the wine of the Ming Dynasty!" Abigail was excited. A blush appeared on his cheeks, and when he looked at the wine cup in Zhu Su's hand, his eyes were filled with fanaticism. "Oh my God! You are insulting the fine wine in your hand! This kind of fine wine is called wine. Compared with it, the wine of Venice is not even as good as urine! The wealth of Venice is not even one-tenth of that of Yingtianfu!"

"Oh, Daming, what a beautiful and rich country! Only such a perfect country can produce such perfect wine. Compared with Daming's Yingtianfu, Venice is just a stinking village! There are always excrement and corpses of the poor floating on the surface of the Venice Canal..."

He sang in an aria-like tone, and even exaggeratedly stroked his chest with his hands. Shu Er suddenly seemed to remember something, and turned to Zhu Su and said, "Sir, do you know my hometown Venice?" Surprise flashed in his eyes.

"'The Most Noble Republic of Venice' (the full name of the Republic of Venice)" Zhu Su smiled mysteriously. "A paradise for merchants, a beautiful water city, the most dazzling pearl in the Mediterranean, of course I know."

"Has the war between Venice and Genoa been decided? Have you, Venetians, fully mastered the maritime trade routes in the Mediterranean? Venice is very far away from our Ming Dynasty, so how could you end up in a tavern in our Ming Dynasty?" Zhu Su was very curious about the experience of this descendant of Marco Polo.

"Oh my God, you even know about Genoa!" Abigail looked at Zhu Su in amazement, as if she had seen some incredible miracle. "Oh my God, even the most knowledgeable Han scholars have never heard of the name of our Republic of Venice. They always think that we Venetians are just a city-state under the Roman Emperor, but you even know about the war between us and Genoa!"

As he spoke, with a bit of pride on his face, he said: "The despicable Genoese pirates have been defeated by the brave Venetians. Although we have not yet captured Genoa, Genoa has signed a humiliating defeat agreement with Venice. Now the Mediterranean is full of our Venetian merchant ships, bringing Venice an endless supply of silk and gold..."

"Oh?" Zhu Su raised his eyebrows slightly.

Venice and Genoa were two major maritime republics in the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. Their struggle for supremacy lasted almost the entire Middle Ages. The two sides engaged in a series of power games over the interests of the maritime trade routes, and the ups and downs of the games were no less dramatic than the Hundred Years' War between England and France...

However, what concerned Zhu Su was that Abigail actually claimed that Venice had defeated Genoa, and even that a truce agreement had been signed between the two countries...

This is seriously inconsistent with history.

Zhu Su did not have a deep understanding of European history, but he vaguely remembered that Genoa and Venice fought each other. The tug-of-war between the two was in full swing. Finally, in a war, Venice successfully defeated Genoa's fleet, allowing France to take advantage of the opportunity and capture Genoa before Genoa could recover from the defeat.

No ceasefire agreement has been signed between the two countries. Even at this point in time, the two countries should still be fighting to the death.

"Have Venice and Genoa already reached an armistice? I haven't heard of that." Zhu Su said, winking at his left and right. The dog beside him understood and immediately poured Abigail a cup of Drunken Immortal Wine. "You Venetians have been fighting Genoa for nearly a hundred years. Why are you letting Genoa go so easily? Why don't you take advantage of their weakness to pursue them?"

"Of course we also want to destroy the damn Genoese pirates. But to use a saying from your Chinese people, um, where does that saying come from... Oh, right, 'A centipede is still alive even after death'!" After drinking a cup of Drunken Immortal Wine, Abigail became more excited and talked incessantly.

"Although Venice is great, it would cost a huge price to completely destroy Genoa. Besides, we no longer have the time to fight with Genoa in the Mediterranean. More gold is waiting for our Venetian merchants. Now is not the time to fight with our evil neighbor for a little insignificant benefit..."

Abigail said it as a matter of course, but Zhu Su keenly sensed something was wrong. He concentrated and asked, "More gold? What do you mean?"

"Of course it's Fengmingzhou discovered by your Ming Dynasty! That continent covered with gold!"

"We Venetians are merchants, and the purpose of merchants is to make profits! Even Britain and Portugal have begun to explore routes to Fengming Island. If Venice is still entangled with Genoa, won't we be surpassed by those pedantic countries?"

Zhu Su's heart skipped a beat. The worst assumption had indeed become a reality. The reason why Venice and Genoa had a truce was indeed to free up their hands to open up new routes with greater profits. Not only Venice and Genoa, but even Britain and France might have ended the Hundred Years' War. As for the Portuguese... In the Ming Dynasty, Portuguese was a general term for Portugal and Spain, but no one knew which country Abigail was referring to. So Zhu Su asked, "Which country is this Portuguese?"

"Have they started exploring new routes with great fanfare?"

"Portuguese... in their language, it's pronounced Portuguesa. Just a few years ago, a bastard became their king. This bastard king was very ambitious. He issued a decree to build a powerful fleet and lead his fleet to conquer the vast ocean..." Abigail drank another glass of Drunken Immortal Wine. When he talked about the bastard king, his tone was a little disdainful.

Zhu Su's heart skipped a beat. "Portuguesa" is pronounced as Portugal. And among the Portuguese kings, Zhu Su happened to know one who ascended the throne as an illegitimate son in his meager knowledge of European history.

Joao I, the founder of the Aves Dynasty of Portugal, was a famous Portuguese king. The reason why this king was famous was because:

This man was the founder of the European Age of Discovery and the leader of early colonial efforts!
This was a far-sighted king. Faced with the narrow expansion space in Portugal, he did not hesitate to set his sights on sea power that no one had noticed yet. He led Portugal to start its maritime colonial business, making Portugal, which was only a tiny country, become the world's leading colonial power in the future.

It can be said that when John I began to look at the blue sea level, it also represented the era of sea power, the magnificent era of navigation in human history.

The curtain has been raised!
Zhu Su had a vague feeling that he had personally experienced a critical moment in world history.

"...Your Highness?" Gou'er noticed the solemnity on Zhu Su's face and asked uneasily.

Zhu Su did not answer, but waved his hand slightly, frowning and continuing his thoughts. John I had already announced that Portugal had begun to develop maritime power, which was not good news for the Ming Dynasty. He thought for a moment, and then asked Abigail who was drinking happily, "The Portuguese country also wants to explore the route, but your Europe Continent is not close to Fengming Continent."

"So many countries want to explore the route, aren't you afraid of getting nothing and losing all your money?"

"Although exploring the route is accompanied by many dangers, the glittering gold is so tempting!" Abigail said as a matter of course. "As long as they can get the gold, the kings are willing to pay any price. The gold-carrying ships of the Ming Dynasty that travel back and forth to Fengmingzhou every year have made many kings salivate."

"Besides, there is a theory called 'The Earth is Round'. According to that theory, Fengmingzhou is actually closer to Europe than Ming Dynasty... Come to think of it, this theory originated from your Ming Dynasty!"

The theory of the earth being round has been leaked! Another piece of heavy news. Zhu Su had never thought that just by inviting a poor foreigner to drink, he could get so much information about the changes in the historical line. The development of the Ming Dynasty has undoubtedly been like a butterfly that stirs up a storm, and has also had a great impact on the history of Europe... No, the changes in the Ming Dynasty are so great that they cannot even be called butterflies, but rather dragons that stir up huge waves.

The history of Europe also underwent a huge deviation and began to develop in a direction that Zhu Su did not want to see... Perhaps it was the fish that slipped through the net during the previous eradication of Philip and Firut that brought the news of Fengmingzhou and the Earth Circle Theory to Europe.

In terms of geographical distance, the Ming Dynasty was at an absolute disadvantage in the fight for Fengmingzhou. Zhu Su wished that these Europeans would fight each other on his own small piece of land like in history, and when they finished fighting and looked back, the Ming Dynasty had become a behemoth that unified Asia and Fengmingzhou... But this simple wish seemed impossible to achieve, as the Europeans had already started the Great Navigation. As soon as the Great Navigation began, it was only a matter of time before they found the route to Fengmingzhou. Zhu Su's idea of ​​letting the Ming Dynasty quietly infiltrate the entire territory of Fengmingzhou seemed to be in vain.

Fortunately, according to the development of normal historical period, the navigation level of Europeans was still very backward, and their ships were far inferior to the treasure ships of Ming Dynasty. If the original history was still followed, from the beginning of their great voyages to their discovery of the New World, there were at least dozens to hundreds of years. With this time, it should be enough for Ming Dynasty to occupy most of the land on the west coast of Fengmingzhou. Even if Europeans came to the east coast of Fengmingzhou to start colonization in the future, they would not be the opponent of Ming Dynasty.

...if world history would continue to develop at its original pace.

Zhu Su calmed down a little, and looked at Abigail with an unpredictable look. This man came from Europe, and maybe he could get more European news from him that the Ming Dynasty didn't know. "Since you are a merchant from Venice, why are you here, and you are drinking here penniless..."

"What happened to you?" Zhu Su asked.

(End of this chapter)