In 1295 AD, a magical book "Marco Polo" appeared in the European continent, in which the Venetian Marco Polo said that in the summer of 1275 he came to the Yuan Dynasty with his father and uncle, and was welcomed by the feast of the Yuan Dynasty, and then he lived in the Yuan Dynasty and served as an official for 17 years.

"Marco Polo" describes the palace wall, room wall and ceiling of the Yuandu are full of gold and silver, Japan's gold countless for the house, and the statement is absolutely credible, this book is widely circulated in Europe, making the European countries are full of yearning for the mysterious east, many people want to cross the ocean, to the mysterious oriental exploration.

It can be said that "Marco Polo" is the key to the opening of the era of great navigation, it is because the European countries on the Marco Polo described the richness and mystery of the East full of yearning, many people began to find the route to the East.

At the end of the 15th century, the Portuguese nobleman Da Gama finally found a channel to the east, and led the fleet full of spices and precious stones, which stimulated the nerves of the European countries, thus opening the prelude to the era of great navigation.

Subsequently, the Spanish-hirded explorer Columbus discovered the rich American continent, and Spain gradually began to colonize the Americas and made a huge profit, thus setting off a colonial frenzy that swept the world.

In the early days of navigation and the colonial era, Spain and Portugal, with their advantages in navigation technology and familiarity with new routes, a large number of colonized colonies, it can be said that the early colonial period is the world of these two old powers, and almost the vast majority of the colonies in the Americas, Africa and Asia are in their hands.

In June 1494, the two countries signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, in which they stipulated a dividing line from the Arctic to the Antarctic, the colonies found east of the demarcation line were owned by Portugal, and the colonies west of the demarcation line were owned by Spain, which was also the first division of colonies in the world, and only Spain and Portugal participated in the division!

These two European powers were well-deserved maritime hegemon at the end of the fifteenth to the end of the sixteenth century, and for nearly a hundred years they occupied absolute dominance in colonial activities, almost all of the colonies in the Americas, Africa, and Asia were colonized by them, and their strength doubled with the wealth plundered from the colonies, of which Spain developed particularly rapidly.

In 1580, Spain annexed Portugal, Spain's national strength reached an unprecedented peak, and the Habsburgs they represented became a well-deserved European ruler.

The so-called great decline, Spain and Portugal with the colonial plunder of wealth of the increasingly strong, naturally aroused the envy and jealousy of the other countries of the European continent, at this time, the European old powers have shot, began to unite against the Habsburgs represented by Spain.

In 1581, the northern region of the Spanish Netherlands declared its independence, the new maritime power of the Netherlands was born, and the Habsburg crisis began.

From 1588 to 1601, Spain organized five Armada expeditions to Britain, all because of the sea storm and suffered a fatal blow, the Spanish Navy suffered a fatal blow, the powerful Spanish Empire fell.

In 1600, the British East India Company with a colonial character was established.

In 1602, the Dutch East India Company, also of a colonial nature, was established.

In 1604, France also set up a French East India Company with a colonial nature, the old European power Anglo-French and the new maritime hegemon Netherlands and the new Spanish colonial competition with Spain throughout the world, Spain's decline accelerated.

In 1618, Britain, France, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and the Netherlands formed an anti-Habsburg alliance with Spain and the Holy Roman Empire for more than 30 years of the European War, which was even worse, and the national strength fell sharply.

It is in this case that Portugal, in 1640 AD, which was 13 years of Da Ming Chongchen, got rid of the control of Spain and became an independent country again, and after so many storms and storms, the two old colonial powers gradually fell, and the two great maritime era and the colonial era began to withdraw from the ranks of the super powers, gradually became second-rate countries, while the United Kingdom, France and other countries took advantage of the situation to gradually become European powers, maritime overlords and colonial powers.

At this time, what was the reason for the sudden dispatch of a messenger from Portugal to help Ming?

To tell the truth, Zhang Bin is not very clear, since the Netherlands out of the South China, he will focus his main energy on the country, in recent years he is a traitor, but also encircling anti-thieves, but also with the construction of slaves war, but also to try to the East, there is no intention to pay attention to the problems of the European powers, etc. He has just taken some time to prepare to consider the problem of maritime hegemony, Portugal suddenly came to the door, he can know what is going!

After he gave the order, he got up and rushed to the royal study, ready to inform Zhu Cichuan of the matter, and at the same time discussed how to receive the Portuguese messenger.

Zhu Cixiao still rose up as always to meet, Zhang Bin false false meaning polite, then sat down solemnly: "Emperor, Guangdong Province, Guangdong Province, the general of Guangdong, came to the news, the Portuguese messenger has urgent things to see you."

And he said, and he said,

He did not receive foreign envoys, but it was basically to pay tribute, or to celebrate any major events, arranged in advance, like this suddenly came to the door for the first time.

The Portuguese messenger he seems to have seen, but it was Zhang Bin invited to celebrate his ascension, at that time he was busy, did not pay much attention, and did not have time to meet the Portuguese messenger alone, so his impression of the Portuguese messenger was quite vague, and he did not know anything about Portugal.

He paused for a moment, then curiously said, “The Portuguese messenger asked for what they wanted, Master, do you know?”

Zhang Bin explained hurriedly: "Weichen is not very clear, listen to the news from Guanghaiwei, they seem to have something to ask for help."

Zhu Cixie still said somewhat confused: "Portugal to help Daming?"They seem to be a European country, far away from Daming?”

Zhang Bin nodded, then got up from the bookshelf to turn out a volume of the latest world map, slowly unfolded in front of Zhu Cichao, and then pointed to the left side of the map: "This is Portugal."

Zhu Cixie carefully looked at the map, then stunned: "This Portugal is afraid of tens of thousands of miles away, why did they come to the big Ming, we have to go to help them not far away?" 」

Zhang Bin nodded slowly: "Yes, Emperor, if it is not too difficult, we'd better be able to help them."

“Ah!”He asked, “Why should we help them?”

Zhang Bin pointed to the Americas and the African continent on the map: "Because they have many colonies, they are almost as big as the Ming, and they can't guarantee the interests of the colonies, and if we can help them, we will certainly get huge benefits."

Zhu Cichuan looked at Zhang Bin's finger place, not surprisingly, a country that is not yet half the size of the North has such a large colony!

He heard Zhang Bin mention that the so-called colonies are completely conquered by other people, and they have to accept the rule of others, so how can they conquer so many places?