Chapter 543: Portuguese War Preparations (I)

Since the keynote of "all-out resistance" had been set, there was nothing left to hesitate about — just do it.

The gentlemen of the Macau City Council, having unanimously passed the proposal to defend their homeland, also made a series of deployments.

First, the Council authorized Governor-General Jeronimo de Silveira of Macau, ordering him to immediately assume the post of City Defense Commander and take unified command of all armed forces on the island.

Jeronimo de Silveira was the third Governor of Macau. He had only taken office last year, in June 1630, succeeding his predecessor Filipe Lobo.

Unlike real history, in this plane of the Transmigrators, the originally disharmonious relationship between the "expatriate" Governor-General and the local Council — both sides, at this moment, cast aside their differences and conflicts and reached a consensus.

This was a choice born of necessity.

Whatever internal conflicts the Portuguese had, under the current situation of facing imminent catastrophe, if they did not cooperate in good faith now, they would have nothing left. Once Macau was lost, the lords of the local Council would certainly see their families ruined and become displaced, and the Governor-General would fare no better. To say nothing of ominous phrases like "perish with the city" — even a title like "Third and Last Governor-General of Macau" would hardly sound pleasant, would it?

The word Governor-General itself implies territory and the duty to defend it. Ming officials might not understand, but in the Western world, the act of dispatching a Governor-General meant that, from the suzerain state's perspective, the nation held king-like rights over the territory and needed to send a representative to exercise suzerain authority.

And so Governor Silveira, in the Council, smoothly assumed the heavy responsibility of defending the territory. In the early period, the Governor of Macau's authority was primarily military, hence he was called the "Fortress Commander." It was not until 1652, when the King of Portugal established the Overseas Council to assist in managing overseas colonies, that the Governor-General's power increased somewhat. As a military man, war fell naturally within the Governor-General's purview; Silveira's official residence stood right beside the Fortaleza do Monte.

After settling the most critical matter of military command, the Council also made many subsequent decisions. These included not only a series of battle preparations but, most importantly, the Council separately dispatched multiple envoys and messengers, attempting to salvage the situation at the final hour.

The top priority among these was, of course, directed at the Ming... or more precisely, directed at working on Cao.

In fact, the Portuguese had never ceased this effort from the very beginning; it was simply that the effect had been negligible.

As previously recounted, the question of Macau's status had, for years prior, been the core diplomatic issue between the "Portuguese and Cao" factions.

"How can one allow another to sleep soundly beside one's own bed?" In the eyes of the Transmigrators — arrogant, self-aggrandizing, picking their feet while dividing the world map into private estates — that clutch of Portuguese in Macau were hooligans who had come to be an eyesore, and they had to be dealt with.

So even while still holed up in Yizhou, the Cao Clan had publicly announced its Macau policy, laying bare its hostility toward the Portuguese.

The Portuguese certainly did not take this hostility lightly; they never had. After all, this was a large-scale native pirate group that had miraculously risen swiftly, defeated Zheng Zhilong and numerous other pirates, and possessed mysterious power. On the law-of-the-jungle waters of East Asia, no one would underestimate such a force.

Yet all of the Portuguese's diplomatic efforts ultimately failed, because the core conflict between the two sides was irreconcilable — the Transmigrators wanted to reclaim Macau's sovereignty and turn the Portuguese into foreign guests applying for green cards, while the Portuguese wanted to occupy Macau long-term and turn it into their own colony, just as they had done in another world.

This fundamental issue of sovereignty was truly impossible to reconcile, despite the various efforts and concessions the Portuguese had made over more than a year in the face of the increasingly powerful Crossing Faction.

And now, on the day when all cards were laid on the table, the Portuguese Council had no choice but to respond once more: send envoys, send anyone who could communicate with the Ming Dynasty Government and the Cao Clan's power base to act as lobbyists, offering all manner of promises and bribes, seeking only a chance to resolve the issue peacefully.

Thus, after the meeting, multiple envoys set out from Haojing'ao that very day. Some went by ship, others traveled directly by land through the Lotus Stem Pass Gate... The Gate Barrier was still open at this moment. In fact, the Transmigrators had not created a tense atmosphere; at least in the twenty-four hours since the ultimatum was issued, the Gate Barrier operated as usual.

Three days later, news came back from various parts of the Ming realm.

First, the most hardline, the Fujian and Guangdong Regional Commander's Office, rejected all of the Portuguese's requests as usual and righteously told the envoy: only by fully agreeing to the conditions the Transmigrators had proposed during previous negotiations could the Portuguese avoid this war. Otherwise, "you will lose everything."

The Portuguese were entirely unsurprised by this result. After all, the two sides had negotiated N times before, and the Portuguese had a deep impression of the Transmigrators' arrogance and uncompromising attitude.

Next were the native Ming officials.

In the long years past, from the moment the Franks first set foot on Ming soil to "borrow land to dry their goods," the tactic of bribery — a move effective across multiple planes — had repeatedly demonstrated its power.

The Ming court, and particularly the Guangdong Officialdom, had based a whole series of subsequent responses to the Franks on these two words: bribery. And, of course, one must add the two words "deferential humility."

One must understand that the Franks, among all colonizers, were the group that adopted the best attitude when dealing with Ming officials. This undoubtedly hit the sweet spot for Ming officials, whose heads were full of "Celestial Dynasty" ideology. Thus, compared to other colonizers, the Portuguese obtained the greatest benefit from the Ming: Macau.

This time, however, was different.

Whether high-ranking or low-level Ming officials in Guangdong, after the Portuguese envoys came calling, the majority shut their doors, feigned illness, and refused to see them.

A few, unable to refuse out of regard for past ties and today's lavish gifts, met with them in secret, but spoke with earnest gravity and barely concealed panic to persuade the visitors: "That man has slaughtered countless Tartars. For now, His Majesty has to hold his nose and indulge him, and he's thick as thieves with that fellow surnamed Xiong — he's practically the Demon King of Chaos in Fujian and Guangdong! Go back and tell your Lord Diego not to oppose this tiger. This man cannot be placated or defied... Better to yield. At least there may be a path to survival."

After all the reports came back, knowing full well that if they conceded or lost this time, the gentlemen would lose not only their homes but also their trade privileges in East Asia, they instead cast aside all distracting thoughts and calmly prepared for war.

Next, large numbers of family members flocked to the sailing ships anchored in the Macau Inner Harbour.

Resistance did not mean sending women and children to block bullets. While frantically preparing for war, the Portuguese naturally had to send their families away from this tiny speck of land first.

No matter how resounding the slogans or how high the morale, the Portuguese leadership understood in their hearts: this war was fraught with danger.

So the women and children had to be sent off first.

In years past, coveting Macau's crucial role in trade with the Ming, colonizers from other European nations had more than once organized landing campaigns, attempting to seize Macau from Portuguese hands.

The most zealous in this regard were the Dutch.

Between 1601 and 1627, the Dutch invaded Macau five times, the largest of which occurred in 1622.

At that time, under the orders of Governor Coen in Batavia, the Dutch rogues allied with the British rogues. With Admiral Laizhechen as Commander, they cobbled together a Macau landing force of twelve ships and 1,000 soldiers, and at one point breached the Macau City Wall.

However, the Anglo-Dutch rogues were ultimately defeated by the valiant Portuguese soldiers and priests.

Therefore, if faced with a war launched by other powers, the Portuguese were not afraid.

This time, however, was different. The war launched this time came from the Ming homeland. Although the Portuguese were well aware that the actual planner and driver of the war was not the Ming Emperor, but that ambitious Pirate Earl Cao.

Yet this was the reality: since Cao could push the Ming court to approve his war plan, it meant the Portuguese would soon face the Ming's inexhaustible manpower... and, of course, the elite army and navy under Earl Cao's command.

No Portuguese high official could maintain any realistic optimism about this. This was not a force of 1,000 men cobbled together by Dutch rogues; this was Ming Soldiers, numbering in the tens of thousands, with limitless logistics.

So the women and children had to be sent off first. Only then, with sturdy city defenses and God-given courage, could they strive for a dignified post-war agreement.

The Transmigrators would not obstruct those large ships hastily departing Macau.

The Transmigrators' goal was merely to occupy Macau, restore the exercise of sovereignty, and then gradually shift the center of East Asian trade to the Guangzhou New District. As for whether the Portuguese escaped or died in battle, the Transmigrators didn't care. After all, after the war, they would still need the Europeans to come back and pay to digest the products coming off the assembly lines.

Thus, in the final days of the seven-day deadline, two streams of people appeared in Macau City. The first was the fleet of ships leaving Macau one after another. These vessels were of every type, from Chinese-style ships to Western sailing ships, all laden with Portuguese women, children, the elderly, and the weak.

As for the ships' destination... need one even ask? Naturally, it was the great new Emperor Philip's new territory in East Asia, the Philippines. Could they possibly go to Batavia, held by the Dutch? Were they not afraid the Dutch rogues would detain the women and children as hostages?

The second stream of people in Macau was headed toward the Great Ming.

Large numbers of Ming merchants in Macau City, along with their families, plus laborers, sedan chair bearers, crewmen, vegetable vendors, fishmongers, and so on — as long as they had yellow skin and black hair, in these final days, all of them shouldered carrying poles and clutched bundles, streaming endlessly through the Lotus Stem Pass Gate.

Very soon, only the Franks and their servants remained in Macau City.

The total number of those staying behind was still considerable. After decades of propagation and growth, even excluding the migratory trade merchants and crewmen, the number of native-born Ao alone had already exceeded two thousand. And this did not count their servants — vast numbers of Japanese, Indians, Africans, and slaves of different races, skin colors, and faiths, trafficked from all over the world by the colonizers.