After a cup of tea, two officials wearing blue official robes and mandarin ducks came out, surrounding a fifth-rank official with a white eagle embroidery. The official in the middle was in his thirties, with a thick beard and a pair of bright eyes, which gave him a somewhat innocent expression. Seeing the order outside the door, he even put a smile on his face.
With a slight cough, the official said, "You are fine as you are, don't make any noise. Well, please translate." Luo Mingjian and the fat man from Ryukyu looked at each other, and the fat man made a gesture, indicating to Luo Mingjian to translate.
Luo Mingjian translated this sentence. The official continued: "The imperial court ordered that porcelain, silk, silk and other goods must be taxed when they leave the customs. It was not decided by me, Mr. Lei, nor by this customs office - it is the same with customs all over the world!"
After Luo Mingjian finished translating this sentence, he thought to himself, these ship owners and businessmen are really annoying. Previously, there was only one customs in Ming Dynasty, and it was not effective in combating smuggling. You have become famous for collecting smuggled goods.
The man surnamed Lei continued: "Besides, the tariffs have been increased. It is true that your costs have been high, but you can increase the selling price. What's the use of coming to my yamen to make trouble? I can make the decision and exempt you from tariffs. ?”
While Luo Mingjian was translating, the deputy next to Chief Lei asked the fat Ryukyu man to check whether Luo Mingjian's translation was correct. The fat man listened to the translation carefully and kept nodding.
One of the Portuguese boat owners walked out of the crowd, waved his arms and spoke in Portuguese with a very excited tone. Luo Mingjian translated for him: "Dear Sir, I understand that you must fulfill your responsibilities. But I also implore you to express our feelings to your court. We are willing to accept a 10% tariff on goods. If it exceeds 15%, our The profit will become very slim. If it exceeds 20%, we will be unprofitable. It will also hit your country's goods, and your court does not want the goods to be backlogged at the port and not be sold!"
After hearing this, Chief Lei showed a somewhat innocent smile on his face. He smiled and said: "Oh, no, no. The court is very reasonable. If you take porcelain from Guangzhou and transport it to Malacca, the profit will be three times; if you transport it to Goa, the profit will be five times; if you transport it to Lisbon, the net profit will be about The imperial court only increased the tariff by 50% of the price of goods when the price reached ten times. How could the capital be lost?"
Luo Mingjian translated this, and the Portuguese shipowners looked at each other, knowing that the trade information that was not a secret had been mastered by the Ming Dynasty. They thought that this official couldn't understand this, and came here with the idea that they wouldn't suffer a loss if they made a fuss. However, it turned out that this official was very knowledgeable and revealed their profit level in one sentence, which made everyone speechless for a while. Words come.
Seeing that they were silent, Chief Lei Guan said with a serious face: "Previously, you colluded with the smugglers and made a lot of money from the imperial court! Today, the imperial court has standardized the regulations, and you are here to make a noise. But do you think the imperial court is easy to talk to?"
Luo Mingjian tried his best to translate these words in Guanzhang Lei's tone. Seeing Chief Lei sweep his eyes across the crowd on the steps, he shouted, "Who is the leader?"
Luo Mingjian fulfilled his duties as an interpreter and also shouted: "quem e o líder?"
Not only the Chinese love to stir up troubles, but the Portuguese do too. Seeing that the officials of the Ming Dynasty were going to be held accountable, and there was no one who had come forward, the group took a big step back, leaving the two who had come forward to protest and the two who were still confused after being hit on the head where they were.
The Ming Dynasty official surnamed Lei didn't care what the truth was. He waved his hand and said: "Yellow up! If there is any trouble again, I will give you a fifty-fifty beating!" After saying that, he swung his sleeves and took two deputies with him. Turn around and go back to the Yamen.
The Jinyiwei Xiaoqi waved his hand, and a few wolves and tigers came up and shackled the feet of the two unlucky guys, and tied their necks and hands with large wooden shackles. Luo Mingjian stood aside and took a breath, seeing that the wooden shackle weighed at least thirty kilograms and was very large. After being shackled, the two men could not straighten their backs at all. They could only kneel there and put the thick wooden facade on the ground to support them.
Seeing how horrific the punishment was, all the Portuguese were so frightened that they fell into silence. Although the two men were kneeling, their mouths were not blocked and they were mumbling curses loudly.
The little flag looked fierce and asked Luo Mingjian, "What are they two talking about?"
Luo Mingjian quickly explained: "They are scolding these people, saying that they were not the ones who were the instigators and were harmed by these ship owners. These ship owners do not have any civilized manners."
The little flag turned to look at the Ryukyu Fatty again. The Fatty was stared at with sweat on his face, and he quickly said: "He translated correctly."
The little flag sneered, raised his hands like a chicken and duck, and shouted: "Get out of here, don't stand here!"
The Portuguese shipowners dispersed after being beaten. Although they did not achieve their goal, they were lucky not to be shackled. They dispersed in twos and threes, and a few of them wanted to help the two unlucky ones.
One of the older Portuguese men shouted to the members of the mission who had been standing by: "Oh God, if you can enter the customs, I hope you can intercede for poor Castro and Mr. Mello later. They Just a warm-hearted, kind person.”
As the head of the Portuguese mission, Fan Li'an, like everyone else, saw that the two Portuguese people who were shackled were indeed wronged. He promised: "We will. But there is no guarantee. After all, we cannot interfere with the Ming Dynasty. Legal Matters of the Empire.”
Seeing that he was wearing religious clothes, the man nodded respectfully to him and made the sign of the cross on his chest.
After this matter was dealt with, the customs gate reopened, signaling the Yamen to continue its normal operations.
Fan Li'an led the delegation and walked into the Yamen to go through the immigration formalities. Commissioner Lei read the document issued by the Chief Secretary of Guangdong over several times, and then called an old official from the Customs Entry and Exit Department to check whether the seal of the Chief Secretary of Guangdong was authentic.
The old official came over and scanned the report: "Sir, this is true."
An innocent smile appeared on Guanzhang Lei's face again, he scratched his head and said with a smile: "I'm sorry, this is probably my first mission to come through the customs in Ming Dynasty. I'm new to this and have no experience."
Fan Anli and Luo Mingjian both knew that this guy was simple on the surface, but actually had a very deep heart. Fan Anli followed the principle of being polite to many people and not blaming others, so he asked Chief Lei Guan: "May I ask your name?"
Lei Guanchang said with a smile: "My surname is Lei, my given name is Yingzhi, and my courtesy name is Yuan Shu. You can just call me by my official position. You don't need to call me sir. I am a fifth-rank official and cannot be called sir."
"My lord, be humble. Lord Lei already knows our purpose and the court's intention. I don't know when we will be allowed to set off." Fan Anli and Luo Mingjian were really hurt by the bureaucracy of the Ming court, and they were prepared. Preparation for bleeding.
Unexpectedly, Chief Lei was very talkative. He stamped the document with a big seal, handed it back to Fan Li'an and said, "You can go."
Fan Li'an was so happy that he felt uncertain in his heart. Asked: "I wonder how we can get there?"
Chief Lei said with a smile: "If you are willing to be a sea-going ship, you can go to the dock and find one by yourself. You can go to Tianjin. If you are willing to take the canal, there is no problem. Just hire a few carriages and ride on it, and get on the ship in Hangzhou. But this season , there are no boats across the Yellow River, so you can only take a carriage."
After hearing this, Luo Mingjian said: "Master Lei, there are a large number of people in the envoy. I'm afraid it will be difficult to find such a big ship. Can you help me?"
Lei Yingzhi turned away again and sneered: "I can't help you with this. I came from the capital to take office, and I spent my own money along the way." After a pause, he said again: "The shipping terminal is at Nansha Port, and there are plenty of ships! You guys! Find one along the coast, it will be safer.”
After hearing this, Fan Li'an and others felt that their mission was not taken seriously at all, and Matteo Ricci was already a little discouraged. Fan Li'an had no other choice, so he took out a pocket watch, handed it to Lei Yingzhi and said, "This is a small gift from our mission. Please accept it." He thought to himself that this official came from the north and must not have seen him. Get over this thing.
Unexpectedly, after Lei Yingzhi took it, he dug into his arms and took out a pocket watch produced by Rishenglong. Putting the two watches together and comparing them, the sun rises like a princess, while the one given by Fan Li'an looks like a country girl.
As the saying goes, there is no harm without comparison. Fan Li'an's pocket watch didn't cost much, and it wasn't cheap when he bought it in Lisbon. However, he never expected that the Ming Dynasty had already had a pocket watch, and it looked so high-end.
All the Portuguese envoys showed awkward yet polite smiles, and Fan Li'an cursed in his heart. Luo Mingjian stood beside him and said, "Sir, this is a small gift. Just take it and show it to others."
Lei Yingzhi nodded and said: "Thank you, your envoy is thoughtful." He naturally put the pocket watch on the table in front of his subordinates. Fan Li'an said: "Master Lei, the two Portuguese people outside were indeed wronged. Can you be noble and let them go?"
Lei Yingzhi nodded after hearing this and said: "Since your envoy has proposed it, give them a chance and let them go tomorrow morning - originally I planned to take out one hundred and eighty kilograms of silver and put it on the wooden shackles for these profiteers. Later, I thought that the customs didn’t have that much money, so I let it go.”
Fan Li'an said hurriedly: "Thank you, sir. Your quality is very noble. Thank you again."
Seeing that he didn't understand, Lei Yingzhi became cold and cold again, and winked outward, which meant that it was time for you to leave and go find the boat.
Luo Mingjian couldn't help but wanted to speak, but Fan Li'an pulled him and immediately fell silent. Fan Li'an smiled and said: "I will convey your lord's intention to these two - let's take our leave first."
