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After weighing the pros and cons, King John IV and his ministers finally agreed to lease the northern port of Aveiro to Daqin. The port of Aveiro is located at the mouth of the Volu River south of Porto, the second largest city in northern Portugal, and the location is quite good.
The rent is not expensive, only one thousand dragon coins per year, but there are conditions attached: unless Portugal requests support, the number of Qin troops stationed in the port of Aveiro shall not exceed 500, and the number of warships shall not exceed five.
Qin State then provided Portugal with 500 rockets at a "low price" of 300 dragon coins each, and sold Portugal 1,000 Type 69 flintlock rifles and 100,000 rounds of ammunition at a price of 30 dragon coins each...
With these conditions, Earl Brewster returned to the negotiating table and started the second round of talks with Zhang Haoran.
As a result, as soon as he put forward the additional conditions, Zhang Haoran immediately said: "No, flintlock rifles are only equipped by a small number of troops in my Great Qin, which shows how limited their production is. It is impossible to sell them to your country. Rockets are even worse. Even if you offer 1,000 dragon coins for each rocket, the Great Qin cannot provide them.
Our army of 300,000 is fighting in the Indochina Peninsula, which is full of deep mountains and dense forests. Ordinary artillery is too heavy to enter. It is only because of the lightness of rockets that we can gain an advantage on the battlefield;
Rockets are more difficult to manufacture and are very expensive. Our Great Qin does not produce many of them. If we sell another 500 rockets to your country, our Great Qin will sacrifice at least 10,000 or 20,000 young soldiers in Indochina, and we may even lose the war in Indochina. Therefore, I cannot agree to your terms, Lord Earl."
Zhang Haoran spoke righteously, as if it were true. In fact, the Qin Dynasty did have nearly 200,000 troops fighting in the Indochina Peninsula, but they were all local vassal troops. Even if 10,000 or 100,000 died, the Qin Dynasty would not feel bad, and even wished that more of them would die.
The reason why they don't sell rockets is not because they can't make money at the price of 300 dragon coins per rocket. It is entirely due to the confidentiality of the yellow explosive technology.
The country of Portugal is what the Ming Dynasty called the Falangji. Many of the Qin army's warships are still using the thousand-jin Falangji cannons. With their technology, no one can guarantee that they will not be able to imitate the rockets once they get their hands.
Therefore, although Zhang Haoran wanted the Port of Aveiro, he rejected the additional conditions proposed by Count Brewster.
Earl Brewster was very unhappy. Portugal was sending a princess as a marriage partner, leasing a port, and asking Qin to provide some advanced weapons. It was not for free. It was like paying money, but it still didn't work. Qin was simply not sincere.
Seeing that he was unhappy. Zhang Haoran did not seem to be very apologetic, and said calmly: "Mr. Count, don't forget that our Great Qin will station troops in the ports of Aveiro and Safir. Once Portugal is invaded by other countries, these garrisons of our Great Qin will support your country in the war;
Our country only asks you to provide necessary protection for our ships passing through, and does not ask you to send troops to support our country when we are invaded by other countries. From this point of view, our Great Qin has done its best.
As for the Port of Aveiro, we are not forcing you to lease it to Daqin. On the contrary, it is beneficial for you to station troops here and set up a trading port here. This will not only make Spain cautious, but also make you a commercial center for the whole of Europe. If you don't want these benefits, we will go to England to lease the port. We don't mean to force you. "
Brewster originally thought that Portugal had suffered a great loss, but after hearing what Zhang Haoran said, he had to admit that what the other person said made sense.
Qin did not force Portugal to lease the port. They said, if you don't want to lease it, then ask England to lease it. Although England might not lease it, who can guarantee that England will not lease it
Qin also promised to send troops to support Portugal when it was invaded, but did not make the same offer to Portugal in return. In a sense, Portugal was taking advantage of Qin.
Earl Brewster was speechless after hearing what Zhang Haoran said. In the final analysis, it was because Portugal had no bargaining chips. Unless you don't want to form an alliance, the initiative is definitely in their hands.
"Your Excellency, Ambassador, how about this? We are willing to pay a little more..."
"Your Excellency, I have made it very clear. This is not a question of price. If there is any, we can sell it to your country at cost price, given our alliance. But there really is none."
Even if what Zhang Haoran said was true, Brewster was unwilling to give up, because Qin's advanced weapons were too important to Portugal, which was in trouble;
If there were hundreds of light but powerful rockets bombarding Portugal in a war, it would be enough for Portugal to win a major battle.
He kept asking for help, and finally Zhang Haoran agreed that if Portugal was invaded by another country, Qin would sell the rockets that had been equipped to the army to Portugal at the price of 350 dragon coins per rocket.
Of course, now you have to pay and reserve in Portugal first. Sorry, this thing is out of stock. If you don’t pay and reserve first, it won’t be your turn.
In fact, this is equivalent to keeping these rockets in the hands of the Qin army in peacetime and helping you use them in wartime. If you want to use them for research, it’s impossible.
Brewster had no choice. Although the Qin army agreed to send troops to support, if he did not order some weapons, who knows what the Qin army would use to support him. If Portugal was defeated, it would be doomed, and the worst thing the Portuguese could do was to get on the ship and run away, thinking that everything would be fine.
In order to win the war with Spain, we should pay the money in advance, just think of it as buying insurance for Portugal.
In this way, Daqin and Portugal formally signed an alliance according to the agreed terms and became allies.
In fact, from the perspective of Portugal, this treaty is not a loss for them. Once the Qin State stationed troops in the port of Aveiro, no matter how many, it represented the powerful Qin Empire;
Spain, which posed the greatest threat to Portugal, had suffered heavy losses from the Qin army. Looking at the nearly 100 Dutch warships destroyed in the Indian Ocean, if they wanted to attack Portugal, an ally of the Qin Empire, they had to consider the revenge of the Qin Empire.
If four Qin warships can come to Europe today, then one hundred or even one thousand may come in the future. No one knows what the consequences of further attacking that huge empire will be.
In terms of trade, this time the Qin State also provided national treatment to Portuguese merchants, exempted them from additional tariffs, and the merchants of the two countries competed on an equal footing. If you cannot compete, it is because you are not strong enough, and you cannot blame anyone else.
After much thought, King John IV and his ministers felt that this alliance would bring more benefits than disadvantages.
To this end, John IV took the initiative to send people to various countries to pave the way for the Qin delegation to visit various countries.
As a result, when Cromwell of England received the news that the Qin Empire and Portugal had formed an alliance and that the Qin Emperor was going to marry the beautiful Princess Catalina as his consort, he could not sit still and immediately sent four warships to Lisbon to welcome the Qin envoys.
Although England's situation was not as difficult as Portugal's, Cromwell's own situation was not very good either. He sent Charles I to the guillotine, but Charles I's son was still alive, the royalists in England were still fighting back, and the liberals in Parliament had realized that he wanted to monopolize power and were actively resisting.
Years of civil war had left England badly weakened, and it was also in urgent need of trade with the East to improve its current poor financial situation.
More importantly, if England wants to protect its interests in India, it must rely on the Qin Dynasty. The Netherlands, which had the most powerful influence in India, was destroyed, and England's strength in India was less than half of that of the Netherlands.
But Qin had a reason to target England in India. England was fighting fiercely with the Mughal Empire in India and even sold weapons to the Mughal Empire. Qin was supporting countries such as Otsa in central and southern India to fight against the Mughal Empire.
So, England and Qin are now on a hostile stand in India. From Qin's point of view, if I don't destroy you, who else should I destroy
Because of this, Cromwell was very attentive to the Qin envoys.
Unfortunately, Zhang Haoran was not in a hurry. Some of the people he brought with him were still "collecting materials" in Lisbon, so it was not easy for them to give up halfway.
In addition, it is the Chinese Lunar New Year. Thousands of miles away in Lisbon, Zhang Haoran and others will also hold a grand "Wangque Yaohe" to congratulate the Emperor of Qin on the New Year.
British people, let's leave it alone for now. (To be continued...)
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