Chapter 541: Diplomatic Training

Standing outside the gates of the Macau City Council, this official of the Ming State was named Zhong Sheng. In the official hierarchy of our Great Ming Dynasty, since he wore a garish grass-green official robe with a quail rank badge, this man was without a doubt an eighth-rank official... to be precise, a County Deputy.

Now, this middle-aged man of plain looks and flowing long beard, though a mere sesame-seed official, had no small background. This was because his full-blooded younger sister had married Huang Ping, the Liangguang Governor-General Office Advisor — the so-called Transmigrator brother-in-law.

Yes, Zhong Sheng was Zhong Xiuxiu's full-blooded elder brother, the eldest son of Hangzhou's Master Zhong, the Transmigrator Huang Ping's genuine, no-substitute brother-in-law, as mentioned before.

It must be said that Huang Ping was now someone with rather many brothers-in-law among the Transmigrators. The family that had bought and sold Zhong Xiuxiu when she was young originally had seven elder brothers — bargain-bin brothers-in-law. After that, Zhong Xiuxiu returned to Hangzhou and gained several more direct-line brothers-in-law from the main family like Zhong Sheng. This scene of a large, populous clan had once made Master Huang, a Transmigrator only child raised in a three-person family, extremely uncomfortable.

As for the legitimate eldest brother-in-law Zhong Sheng, this Xiangshan County Deputy, originally nameless in history, was destined to leave a mark in the history books because of the Transmigrators' arrival.

Now, during the period when the South Seas General Company was beginning to organize and constantly recruiting the worthy, the high-level members of the Crossing Faction hiding behind the scenes were not idle either.

First, through remote command by telegraph, the Cabinet coordinated the pro-Cao Faction power bloc in Beijing and the conservative forces in Guangzhou, ensuring that the Guangdong locals' memorials to drive out the Portuguese appeared before the Ming Court at the right time, delivering ammunition to the pro-Cao faction, ultimately prompting the court to issue an edict granting the Governor-General of Liangguang, Xiong Wencan, the authority to expedite discretion.

When the court edict reached Guangzhou in April, on the surface all seemed calm, but behind this lay a series of intense war preparations.

These tasks were very tedious. They included not only the Crossing Faction's own various preparations, but also pushing the Ming State's Guangdong administrative system into action. The latter point was especially difficult; making a lump of sludge move along a designated path was very strenuous.

Fortunately, relying on financial resources and technology and management levels ahead of this era, by the time April 1631 arrived, the Transmigrator Group had secretly tied up most of the loose ends.

Commander Wang Bo's loose lips at the earlier White Goose Pond Investment Fair were, in fact, a premeditated trial balloon after the wrap-up work began: with war about to break out, they gave collaborators an advantage of information asymmetry. As for how to use this advantage... just look at Boss Zong Ben. The Ming people only lacked the centuries of accumulated knowledge of later generations; in terms of intelligence alone, they lacked nothing at all.

After this, of course, came the time to issue the formal ultimatum. And so, there was the elder brother-in-law's "heroic feat" of bravely venturing into Haojing'ao today.

To be honest, standing before the Macau City Council today, Master Zhong's own mood was also quite stirred.

In the years before the Transmigrators arrived, as the County Deputy of Xiangshan, Master Zhong's days were actually very "busy." Unlike the leisurely and powerless County Deputies of other counties, the County Deputy of Xiangshan, because of the existence of Macau occupied by the Franks under his jurisdiction, had to sleep with one eye open — whenever the Franks caused trouble, whether major matters like building city walls or trivial trifles, it would alarm the Provincial Administration Commissioner and the Governor-General; it absolutely could not be taken lightly.

Yet the world is unpredictable. Ever since his full-blooded younger sister married, Zhong Sheng's days as County Deputy had improved day by day.

First, his own young master accompanied Xiong Wencan to his post in Fujian. After the two sides established communication, Zhong Sheng found he had unintentionally gained a powerful backer. After this, the young master also introduced Zhong Sheng to a group of powerful figures newly rising in the Fujian-Guangdong Waters.

Later on, as this group of powerful figures received recruitment and amnesty, suppressed bandits, and performed King's Rescue, growing daily into pillars of the court, Zhong Sheng was also involuntarily pushed by the tide of events, unknowingly becoming a peripheral official of the "Cao Faction." After all, he was already inseparable from Huang Ping, and the de facto political leader of the Zhong Family's current generation was Huang Ping, so Zhong Sheng could only follow along.

The matter did not end there. By August of last year, Zhong Sheng was pleasantly surprised to receive news: Xiong Wencan was coming to be Governor-General of Guangdong!

With this, County Deputy Zhong truly began to swagger; even the County Magistrate's attitude toward him changed considerably. After all, his entanglement with Xiong Wencan's faction was no longer a secret. Before, the mountains were high and the Emperor far away, but now that Lao Xiong was governing Guangdong, the Zhong Family's good son-in-law could reach any official in Guangdong and Guangxi.

This required careful handling: the more a staff advisor gained the trust of a big shot and held real power, the more those below actually feared him... a few tampered lines on any official document, and those below would be left holding the bag.

County Deputy Zhong thus happily and leisurely passed the first few months of Lao Xiong governing Guangdong. Until not long ago, when his good brother-in-law Huang Ping personally summoned him to Guangzhou City, briefed him on the current situation, and assigned him a task: go to the Franks and deliver an ultimatum.

To be honest, upon learning this news, Zhong Sheng was still quite shocked: they were going to start fighting, just like that?

As a member of the Transmigrator Group's peripheral faction and an official of Xiangshan County, Zhong Sheng was still privy to certain precise information known only to the higher-ups. He knew the Cao Clan and the Franks did not get along, but he had not expected Xiong Wencan to be so deeply involved as to forcefully obtain a suppression edict from the court to clear the path for the Cao Clan.

Since Xiong Wencan had rolled up his sleeves and jumped in, Huang Ping, who had always been closely associated with the Cao Clan, naturally could not be extricated. If Huang Ping could not be extricated, then his elder brother-in-law should even less think of staying out of it.

After thinking this through, Zhong Sheng no longer obstructed and nodded in agreement to the matter. After all, his position was originally the most suitable for delivering an ultimatum, and he was, in Huang Ping's eyes, "one of us," who would not drop the ball at a critical moment.

It was at this point that Zhong Sheng realized his young master's entanglement with the Cao Faction was far deeper than he had imagined.

Because as soon as he returned to Xiangshan County, "Cao Family" people immediately came calling. To be precise, it was a team sent by the General Headquarters.

Within this team, there were not only military men in charge of strategy, but also scholars responsible for documents, and additionally, "Staff Officers" with strange official titles.

County Deputy Zhong warmly received the visitors. He was well aware that everyone was now "one of us."

What followed filled County Deputy Zhong with astonishment.

He truly never imagined that a simple errand to deliver a letter at his own doorstep would involve so many particulars. Seeing these people bring out thick bound pages, begin explaining and elucidating to him item by item, then raise various hypothetical questions and make him memorize the answers, Master Zhong was truly somewhat amazed.

This was a Ming Dynasty version of diplomatic training.

The training was very meticulous, from deportment and appearance, to the language for responding to various situations, and even methods for coping if placed under house arrest or imprisoned. In short, whatever training embassy officials dispatched to other nations in later generations received, Master Zhong received this time as well.

After all these items were completed, time quietly slipped into April of 1630.

And on April 2nd, the Xiangshan County Office formally received official documents from higher authorities. This document bore the great seals of the Grand Coordinator's Office, the Administrative Commissioner's Office, and the Guangzhou Prefecture — one could say the procedures were complete.

The County Magistrate, who had been given prior notice, this time hastily delivered the document personally into County Deputy Zhong's hands, and with the gaze one gives a brave hero, told him: Brother, I fear you must make a trip to Haojing'ao.

"Very well, very well, since Your Excellency requests it, how dare this humble official not obey?"

Thus, on the morning of April 3rd, Master Zhong, after tidying up, left the yamen, boarded a sedan chair, and went straight to Macau City. Accompanying him were, of course, not those crafty runners from the Xiangshan County Office, but a team of men who had long been waiting in front of the county yamen.

It goes without saying that this team certainly bore the surname Cao.

Under circumstances seemingly unnoticed by anyone, Master Zhong's party passed through the Lotus Stem Pass Gate, swaggered into Macau City, and arrived before the City Council.

The Macau City Council of this period was a stone building in the Baroque architectural style.

Seeing Master Zhong in his official robe alight from the sedan chair, the dark-skinned Indian gate guards with wrapped headscarves at the City Council entrance hurriedly dispatched someone inside to report. In a short while, four or five white men wearing splendid silk robes rushed out to greet him.

Now, among these several white men who came out, County Deputy Zhong actually knew two of them. After all, the Xiangshan County Office was the Ming government office the Franks dealt with most frequently. Over several decades, the Franks had not been sparing with gifts and bribes to the various masters of the Xiangshan County Office, so in ordinary times when there was no conflict, the Franks could be considered international friends.

However, today was different.

When the several international friends came before Master Zhong, they found that the usually smiling man had switched templates today. They saw Master Zhong standing on the stone steps before the City Council, hands behind his back, feet neither together nor wide apart, neck craned as he gazed upward at an angle; someone who didn't know better might have thought the old man had a nosebleed.

"Dear Zhong, I know not from where the wind has blown you here. Haha, this is most delightful, please follow me, today you shall enjoy special, sincere hospitality from the Franks' merchants."

The one delivering this welcome speech in grammatically flawed Chinese was the Secretary of the Macau City Council, Andrade.

Hearing Andrade's voice, the specially trained Master Zhong slowly lowered his neck, exiting his posturing mode: "Hmph, I wondered who it was — so it is Master An."

"No matter, just as well. This official knows you are one who can manage affairs." Master Zhong at this moment exuded official authority, his expression utterly severe: "This is an official document from the Zongdu Yamen, intended precisely for you people. Master Andrade, will you sign for it and take it?"

Saying this, County Deputy Zhong extended his hand, took the official document wrapped in oilpaper handed over by his attendant, and passed it to the Portuguese.

Though Andrade sensed something was off at this moment, with matters having reached this point, he had no choice but to reach out and accept the document.