Since proactively withdrawing back to Zhili, though the Qianlong Emperor still believed the Great Qing to be the center of the world and an undisputed great power, especially after conquering Gorkha and Korea, his confidence only grew stronger.
However, for Portugal and Queen Maria I, the Great Qing was merely a nostalgic memory, a weakling that allowed Portugal to continue controlling Macau, and nothing more.
As for the Qianlong Emperor sending people to proactively contact Portugal, expressing willingness to cooperate and help alleviate Portugal's pressure and reduce impending reparations…
The envoy sent by Maria I, Piano, expressed doubt and resistance from the bottom of his heart – if you are so powerful that you can influence the Ming court's decisions, why did you retreat back to Zhili?
Instead of contacting the people sent by the Qianlong Emperor, wouldn't it be better to sell them directly to the Ming, perhaps to lose a few taels of silver?
Then, Piano found Liang Chen, the Right Assistant Minister of the Court of Colonial Affairs, first exposing the matter of the Qianlong Emperor's envoy contacting him, and then stating that Portugal had always respected the Great Ming.
Piano even tearfully reminisced about the Tianqi and Chongzhen eras, recalling incidents where Portuguese people in Macau committed offenses and were beaten by Ming officials. He then spoke of the Jurchens' exploitation of the Portuguese after their southward invasion.
In summary, a small part of the reason for the current situation was the ignorance of the Portuguese in Macau, but a larger part was the Jurchens' lack of interest in managing Macau, only in exploiting it, which led to misunderstandings among the Portuguese in Macau, thus causing all this.
Piano stated that if possible, Portugal was willing to compensate the Ming for the military expenses incurred due to these wars, hoping that the two countries could coexist harmoniously in the future, strengthening cooperation in all aspects with the attitude of making money together.
In short, such platitudes directly stunned Liang Chen, the Left Assistant Minister of the Court of Colonial Affairs.
Liang Chen began to doubt his life –
Since Zhu Jinsong found a way to retrieve a large number of books from the Qianlong Emperor, books like the Seven Thousand Western Treatises and Tiangong Kaiwu were naturally sent to the Royal Academy and the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Poverty. Books related to the School of Diplomacy naturally became required texts for officials of the Court of Colonial Affairs.
And the result?
Damn it, a scholar of diplomacy was left speechless by a barbarian? If this were to spread, wouldn't it be enough to bring Su Qin and Zhang Yi back to life!
After some painful deliberation, Liang Chen stated that military expenses must be compensated, but the damaged buildings and goods in Macau, as well as the corresponding post-disaster expenditures, should also be borne by Portugal.
In addition, to compensate for the emotional injury to the Great Ming, Portugal must allocate a piece of land adjacent to the port in its own territory for the construction of the Great Ming's Western Sea Fleet base.
Of course, the Great Ming had no interest in Portuguese land, nor in all of Europe. The reason for building a Western Fleet in Portugal was entirely for the peace and development of Europe.
Whether you believe it or not, this official believes it.
Piano was also quite bewildered by Liang Chen's statement.
If Portugal were asked to compensate the Ming for military expenses, Portugal would have nothing unacceptable, after all, Portugal was the one defeated, and they had no excuse for being inferior in skill.
However, the buildings and goods in Macau that were destroyed seemed to have been destroyed by the Great Ming's own artillery, right? How could this be attributed to Portugal?
And did the Great Ming travel thousands of miles to Europe just to bring warmth to Europe? Did you believe such nonsense yourself!
However, the two sides continued to bicker until Liang Chen became impatient, recalling the ancestral skill of the School of Diplomacy: "Either pay the money, or go to war. The Great Ming Empire's three fleets welcome the Portuguese navy to have a match at any time! Or, the Great Ming Empire's three fleets can make a trip to Portugal!"
Yes, the ancestral skill of the School of Diplomacy was military threat – when the two factions negotiated, those from the School of Diplomacy always liked to gesture with an ashtray, constantly threatening the opponent's monarch: If you don't do as I say, I'll smash this ashtray into your face!
History has perfect jade returning to Zhao, Cao Mo's seizure of Duke Huan, and Mao Sui persuading the King of Chu to form a vertical alliance against Qin.
It was unrealistic to expect Liang Chen, a weak scholar, to threaten people with an ashtray like Lin Xiangru or Mao Sui, as Piano was only an envoy and not a king. However, Liang Chen could threaten the entire of Portugal with the Great Ming's three fleets.
Although none of the Great Ming's three fleets were at full strength – the South Sea Fleet still possessed more than twenty warships, while the East Sea Fleet and the North Sea Fleet basically each had five or six warships, and they had to rely on whale-hunting ships to maintain appearances.
But!
Piano did not know the situation of the Great Ming's three fleets, only that the South Sea Fleet had blockaded the waters of Macau and then the waters of Jiaozhi, and that they treated Portuguese warships in Macau or the Jiaozhi fleet as easily as playing.
The South Sea Fleet was already so formidable, the North Sea Fleet, with the same establishment, was probably not much worse, and the East Sea Fleet, responsible for guarding Shandong, must be even more formidable, right?
Therefore, Piano chickened out: "I cannot make the decision regarding allocating land for the Great Ming to build a naval base; I must first report to Her Majesty the Queen after returning to my country. However, regarding the Macau affair, we Portuguese are still willing to compensate as much as possible – please believe me, we Portuguese have always been sincere."
Liang Chen then let out a cold snort and continued to bicker with Piano – it had to be admitted that there was a reason why the strategists of the pre-Qin period always threatened monarchs with ashtrays.
The two sides finally agreed:
First, Portugal would compensate the Great Ming with military expenses of ten million taels of silver and compensate for all losses in Macau, approximately twenty million taels of silver, totaling thirty million taels of silver. Ten million taels would be paid annually, to be paid off within three years. If there were any delays, interest would be charged at an annual rate of eight percent.
Second, the Great Ming would lease Port of Porto and approximately one thousand hectares of surrounding land from Portugal, with an annual rent of five hundred taels of silver, for a period of ninety-nine years, with the Great Ming having an unlimited preferential right of renewal.
Third, Portugal would cede the state of São Paulo in Brazil to the Great Ming.
Through Piano's persistent efforts, certain benefits were finally secured for Portugal: the Great Ming must station a fleet of no less than ten warships and an army of three thousand men in Portugal, and in case of conflict between Portugal and other countries, the Great Ming army would be responsible for protecting the Portuguese royal family and the safety of Portuguese territory. If this could not be done, the above contract would be immediately void.
Both sides expressed great satisfaction with this newly formed "Ming-Portuguese Treaty of Jinan."
Liang Chen calculated that within three years, the Great Ming would definitely have to guarantee Portugal's safety, as it involved over thirty million taels of silver. As for whether Portugal would still exist after three years, that might be another matter.
Piano was also very satisfied with this treaty. Piano did not even intend to pay off the reparations within three years – preferably dragging it on for decades or centuries, equivalent to hiring a super bodyguard for Portugal with money.
After thinking about it, Piano made another proposal that stunned Liang Chen and even Zhu Jinsong: "Her Majesty Queen Maria I of Portugal has a daughter named Maria Clementina."
"Her Royal Highness the Princess was born in 1774, which, according to your calculations, is the thirty-ninth year of Qianlong's reign, about ten years younger than your Ming Emperor. She is not yet married, nor does she have a boyfriend."
"If possible, we hope that your Ming Emperor will marry Princess Clementina. Queen Maria I has stated that she will bestow the title of Duchess of Portugal upon Princess Clementina, and the entire district of Porto will become Princess Clementina's fiefdom."
"This means that if the Ming Emperor agrees, he will be crowned Prince of Portugal, and his descendants with Princess Clementina will be the next generation of Portuguese kings, or the next generation of Portuguese duchesses."
Liang Chen was completely dumbfounded.
As the Left Assistant Minister of the Court of Colonial Affairs, he was considered a high-ranking official in the Ming court. Liang Chen was somewhat aware of the plans of Zhu Jinsong and Zeng Cheng and other senior officials – first to extract flesh and blood from Portugal, and then to find an opportunity to completely eliminate Portugal.
After all, the Portuguese people residing in Macau's insistence on renting Macau for five hundred taels of silver was an act that slapped the Emperor's face, and the entire Great Ming absolutely could not tolerate such a thing.
But Liang Chen never expected that Queen Maria I of Portugal would want to give away the entire of Portugal as dowry.
Liang Chen even suspected that these barbarian Portuguese intended to use this matter to shirk the thirty million taels of silver in war reparations?
After thinking about it, Liang Chen tentatively asked, "What if His Majesty does not agree to be crowned Prince of Portugal?"
Piano, who had been smiling and discussing with Liang Chen just now, immediately changed his expression: "The Ming Emperor may not agree to marry Princess Clementina, but if he agrees to marry Princess Clementina but refuses to be crowned Prince of Portugal, then we Portuguese will absolutely not agree to this marriage."
After Liang Chen reported this matter to Zhu Jinsong and other senior officials like Zeng Cheng, they were all dumbfounded and even had the same thought as Liang Chen.
If they didn't intend to renege on the thirty million taels of silver, what else were these barbarian Portuguese after?
Could it be that these barbarian Portuguese felt that compensating thirty million taels of silver was too much of a loss, so they wanted to regain face through this matter? After all, if Zhu Jinsong were to marry Maria I's daughter, he would be one generation lower than Maria I.
Zhu Jinsong knew why – European countries were not particularly concerned about whether a son or daughter inherited the throne; what they cared more about was whether the party entering into a marriage alliance accepted their country's titles.
For the Portuguese, if Zhu Jinsong was willing to marry Clementina and be crowned Prince of Portugal, then the future Ming Emperors could also concurrently hold the title of Prince of Portugal, and Portugal's incorporation into the Great Ming would be nothing.
Without this "concurrent position," it would mean colonization or complete military conquest, which would be a great insult to the local people – even Julius Caesar and Augustus, after conquering Egypt one after another, did not concurrently hold the title of Pharaoh of Egypt, nor did Alexander the Great, after conquering Persia, hold the title of King of Persia.
There was even an incident where an emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire almost triggered an uprising for refusing to be crowned King of Bohemia.
After Zhu Jinsong roughly explained these matters, Zeng Cheng and the other senior officials' eyes lit up.
This was so beneficial. Originally, the cross-sea expedition was unknown how much military expenditure it would cost, but now, by simply bringing one more concubine into the harem, the entire of Portugal could directly become the territory of the Great Ming, and in a very reasonable and legal manner, allowing them to later claim it as "ancient territory"...
Zeng Cheng bowed and said, "Your Majesty, why not agree for the sake of the Great Ming?"