The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

The Chinese representatives who received them were headed by an old man in his fifties or sixties named Cai Yaozong. He had smuggled himself to Luzon from Chaozhou and had lived here for more than thirty years. His accent remained unchanged and he could speak the Ming Dynasty Mandarin with a strong accent.

Min Xi asked Cai Yaozong: "Father, I wonder what kind of person the King of Luzon is."

Cai Yaozong waved his hand and lowered his voice, "The original King of Luzon was killed by the people of Greater Luzon. The people of Greater Luzon supported a new king, but this king usually does not take care of things. The Governor of Greater Luzon has the final say."

A younger local Chinese nearby suddenly interrupted, "Sir, the people of Luzon have seized our houses and shops and driven us out of the city. Please help us!"

Cai Yaozong quickly scolded him: "Shut up! Now is not the time to talk about this."

As soon as they finished speaking, the King of Luzon's men came in. The man was obviously dressed in Western style clothes. Because the local weather was hot, the shirt had no sleeves, which was quite fashionable. When he saw Min Xi and Yun Ji, he said something incoherently.

Min Xi said to Cai Yaozong, "Please, father-in-law, please translate for us."

Cai Yaozong nodded quickly: "Yes, sir. This is Lord Lobes, the king sent him to receive you."

After that, he introduced Min Xi and others to Lobes. The surname Lobes is obviously a Spanish surname. It seems that the Spaniards acted very quickly and started to influence the locals so quickly.

Narobeisi said he would take them to see the king. Yunji said, "We just arrived in your precious land today. We are tired from the journey and our image is not good. It is risky to see your king. We will not go for now. We will go to see the king tomorrow with gifts and documents."

The messenger did not dare to force his way in, and without getting anyone, he had to leave in disappointment.

Cai Yaozu and others were very happy. As soon as the Luzon envoy left, they said enthusiastically: "Your Excellency has come from a far distance and must be very tired. Let us show our hospitality tonight."

Min Xi said: "We have quite a few people, about three or four hundred, and we need to prepare enough fresh vegetables and rice. I wonder if we can do it? Of course, we will pay for it."

"Of course, sir, don't worry. Coming here is like coming back to your own home. We will prepare everything you need." Cai Yaozu agreed and ordered the people around him to prepare the ingredients needed for hundreds of people.

Min Xi didn't bother to be polite with them, and everyone had a hot meal that night. The people of Luzon also grow rice, there are vegetables grown by the Chinese, as well as freshly slaughtered pork and mutton, and fresh seafood. In places where there are a large number of Chinese people living, there is no need to worry about eating uncastrated pork.

Although everyone finally got to the port, Yun Ji and Min Xi still asked everyone to stay on the boat at night instead of staying in the hotel in the city. After all, this is the Spanish territory. The Spanish occupied Luzon and must be wary of the Ming Dynasty's envoys, so they have to be on guard against them.

Min Xi and Yun Ji also learned about the current situation of Luzon from Cai Yaozu and others. After the original king was killed, Luzon was controlled by the Spaniards. In order to rule the local natives, they coerced and bribed the chiefs and landlords of Luzon to let them rule Luzon Island. In other words, the Spaniards ruled the elites of Luzon, and the elites helped the Spaniards manage the local people.

The local indigenous people hated the hardworking and intelligent Chinese, so the Spaniards joined forces with the indigenous elites to seize the Chinese's private property and expel the Chinese out of the city.

This is also the reason why the local Chinese were so excited when they saw the Ming Dynasty embassy ship. They wandered in a foreign country for a living, and finally built up some property with hard work and wisdom, but it was robbed by robbers. Now the Ming Dynasty embassy came with strong ships and powerful guns, and they hoped that the Ming Dynasty embassy could help them take back everything that belonged to them.

Min Xi and Yun Ji looked at each other after hearing their requests. They had to admit that the demands of these Chinese were quite high, but they were probably difficult to achieve.

Min Xi did not reject the other party directly, but said: "We are only here on a diplomatic mission to Luzon, and we will not stay in Luzon forever. Even if we can use our cannons to help you take back your things, can you keep those things after we leave?"

After this was said, Cai Yaozu and others were speechless. After a while, Cai Yaozu said, "Can you please ask the envoy to talk to the Governor of Greater Luzon and ask them to return the house to us?"

Yun Ji said: "I can go and mediate, but it is hard to say whether they will agree. After all, the Ming Dynasty and Luzon do not have official relations, and the two countries cannot even have normal trade exchanges. They are not our vassal states and have not submitted to us. Unless one day, our Ming Dynasty navy comes and drives away all the people of Luzon."

Cai Yaozu's eyes sparkled: "Will there ever be such a day?"

Min Xi said: "It's hard to say whether there is or not. But if you want to live with dignity here, you must use your strength and wisdom to fight for yourself. You only rely on hard work and wisdom to gain wealth, but you don't have enough strength to protect it. It's like a child walking on the street holding a gold ingot, which can be snatched away by evil people at any time."

This made the eyes of the Chinese present dim. Someone asked: "What should we do? We have tried to resist, but we are outsiders after all. Our numbers are far less than theirs, so we can't beat them."

Min Xi said: "You are a minority here after all. If you completely break off relations with the locals, you will be incompatible with them and may have no place to stay. Unless we, the Ming people, can use absolute force to make the Luzon people surrender like the Luzon people did, and you use the same method to win over the native chiefs and landlords and make them work for you. There is another way, you can try it. Do you know what is the most powerful thing about us Han people?"

Everyone thought about it for a long time and shook their heads.

"It's our culture. From ancient times to the present, no matter how many barbarians have tried to invade and rule the Central Plains, except for those who were expelled, the rest will eventually be assimilated into the Han people, speak Chinese, write Chinese characters, and follow the Han people's propriety, righteousness, and integrity. You can try to spread our Ming culture here and subtly assimilate the locals into part of the Han culture. Then they will become your own people, and you will be able to completely integrate into this place and will not be excluded as outsiders."

When everyone heard this, they fell silent. They felt that this was too difficult and a bit like a pipe dream.

Cai Yaozu asked: "How long will it take?"

"Of course it can't be done in a day or two, or a year or two. If you decide to return to Ming Dynasty soon, you don't have to do this, but if you decide to stay here forever, I think you should do it. If you persist for a long time, you will succeed one day. Or you can completely integrate into the local area, forget your roots, forget that you are Han Chinese, and forget your language, then you don't have to do this. Otherwise, sooner or later, you or your descendants will be excluded, bullied or even massacred by the locals. This is by no means an exaggeration." Min Xi knew too many tragic massacres of Chinese in Southeast Asia.

This statement hit the nail on the head for everyone present. It was impossible for them to completely integrate into the local area and degrade themselves to become barbaric natives. Their pride as Ming people would not allow it. They could leave their homeland, but they must never forget their roots. It was a fact that they were excluded, bullied, and even killed. They were more hardworking and smarter than the locals. They had finally accumulated some property, but it was easily taken away by the barbarians. How could they accept this?

Yun Ji glanced at Min Xi and said, "What Lord Min said makes a lot of sense. You can consider it. When you are in a foreign country, it is important to stick together and maintain your original culture, but it is also easier to become a target for the locals. You can try to assimilate the locals and turn them into you. This is what we Han people are best at."

"Yes, our culture has this ability. We have traveled to many places, but have never seen a civilization better than ours, a more profound ideological and cultural heritage, or a more systematic education system. It is up to you to promote Chinese culture." Min Xi didn't know what effect his words today would have on the Chinese in Luzon, but maybe they really did it.

Cai Yaozu said: "What should we do? Teach them to speak the Ming language and recognize Ming characters?"

"Yes, teaching them to read and write, teaching them propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame, and letting them accept our various customs and habits may be a long process, but if you persist, it will definitely be effective."

They do not need to assimilate all the people of Luzon, they only need to assimilate the people of one island or one region, then their living space will be much larger.

In the evening, Min Xi and Yun Ji returned to the ship and discussed with the captains of the navy ships the details of meeting the King of Luzon the next day. Min Xi and Yun Ji would go to meet the king, while the captains would stay on the ship on standby in case of any emergencies.

A naval captain said with some concern: "Take a few more skilled soldiers with you, so that they can protect your safety if there is any accident."

Min Xi smiled and looked at Yun Ji and said, "That's fine, but with Lord Yun here, you can rest assured of our safety."

"Why?"

"Lord Yun has not neglected training in recent years, so he should still be quite agile." Min Xi said.

"Lord Yun also knows martial arts?" The captains looked at Yun Ji in surprise.

"I know a little." Yun Ji said lightly.

"On the way to Europe, Lord Yun single-handedly picked two pirate ships. Our ship, the Xingyun, was seized from the pirates." Min Xi pointed at the Xingyun under his feet, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but rise.

"Wow! Really?" All the captains exclaimed. They had never heard of this before. They knew that the Xiangyun was donated to the Ming Navy by the two of them. They had never thought that the Xingyun was seized from pirates. Yun Ji was obviously a gentle civil servant, and it was impossible to see that he could take on two pirate ships by himself.

Yun Ji put his hand to his lips and coughed softly: "This is all in the past, not worth mentioning!"