PS. Come up with today's update and get some votes for "Qidian" 515 Fan Festival. Everyone has 8 votes, and they also get Qidian coins for voting. I beg everyone to support and appreciate it!

The midwinter of 1661 was particularly cold.

"The bitter cold wind, the sun, which can be described by words such as 'red, weak', and the general hunger caused by trade blockade, has caused the residents of Macau to fall into great weakness, because in this once very warm harbor city, many people actually feel the cold..." Mr. Sekaila, who failed to return on his mission again, sat in his room, writing a diary gently - maybe it will become a suicide note in a month?

"Over the river is the countryside of Xinhui County, Mingguo. Many women are sitting at the door of the house, waving wooden hammers and pounding the grains needed for dinner. I recalled the ******* that swept across Macau more than ten years ago. At that time, I chatted with Baron Banega's father in the shade of the wooden house, talking about the sparse rainfall, the abnormal climate, the food scarcity in Lisbon's history, and the abundance of grains. What a horrible year it was. It was rarely raining in Guangdong. The countryside was hot in spring and summer. The afternoon horizon was filled with huge clouds. The anxious peasant woman was eagerly looking forward to the rain that she could not wait for for a long time…"

"A shower finally started, and the air was filled with the humid smell of soil. People quickly sow seeds and then looked forward to more rain. However, they often took a long time to wait for the second rainfall, and the crops in the fields had already withered. People who ate all their surplus food in the early summer were destined to suffer hunger. It threatened people like a shadow, never far from people, and allowed people to deeply understand its cruelty and ruthlessness--the city of Macau is now also shrouded in the shadow of hunger, just like the past..."

A fierce quarrel and scolding sounded outside the window. Mr. Sekaila, who was interrupted by his thoughts, put down his pen and frowned and looked at the street downstairs outside the window. It turned out that a group of residents complained that the food prices had increased again! These people may not have been poor people before. In fact, there are naturally poor people among the white people in Macau and their mixed-race descendants, but there are definitely not too many, because this city with an annual trade volume of more than one million taels with Guangzhou is very rich. But today, two months after being blocked by the siege, the limited grain in Macau is no longer enough. Other non-staple foods such as wine, cheese, butter, fruits, vegetables, seafood, beef, sheep, poultry and eggs are almost impossible to see. Mr. Sekaila had only a few small pieces of cured meat in the broth at noon today, and only the last few pieces of white bread left. The sweet wine served with only a small cup, and life was indeed very "sad".

The quarrel over the price of grain was soon dispersed by the guards who rushed over. The hungry residents - many of them were even local gentlemen - were squeezed out the last few silver coins in their pockets, and then returned home in a daze with a small bag of Chenmi. In fact, some Chenmi would be good to eat. Don't you see that most people can't even eat this, unless you are a ruling class like Mr. Sekela, where there are often some precious flour and wine in their cellars.

"The siege must be resolved as soon as possible, but it will be very difficult." Mr. Sekela sighed softly. In fact, yesterday morning, he had once again left the city on behalf of the Governor of Macau to negotiate with the East Coast people in order to resolve the matter. At that time, he tried to persuade the East Coast people to give up the siege of Macau by historically the phenomenon that the two countries started wars but the colonies maintained peace, but was rejected by the East Coast people's commander Joniol - a major officer from Portugal. The man who betrayed his belief firmly stated that his army would continue to block the city of Macau until the Portuguese surrendered. If the Portuguese wanted to break the blockade, then we welcome the war.

Of course, the war is impossible! It is said that since the defeat of the battle on December 13, under the huge grain pressure, the Senate and the Governor organized a unit of more than 4,000 people at the end of that month, and fought with the East Coast people outside the city of Macau. As a result, the unfavorable battle retreated back to Macau again, with more than 750 casualties. At this point, the possibility of breaking the siege from a military perspective has become smaller and smaller, and as the morale of the Macao military gradually decreases, this possibility will eventually approach nothing. In other words, the residents of Macau at this time, to put the words of the Ming people, are "hidden beasts in cages". If they cannot break out, they can only wait for death.

Major Junior said this to this extent. Mr. Sekela felt that some of the conditions discussed before the Senate could not be taken out. For example, they planned to pay the East Coast people a total of up to 500,000 pesos of redemption to the people of the East Coast in exchange for their lifting the siege of Macau. Under the current situation, there is obviously no possibility of impressing the people of the East Coast. They have firmly trapped Macau from both sea and land, and used a large number of ships and troops. How could it be saved by just 500,000 pesos? The gentlemen of the Senate are too optimistic!

On February 20, 1661, Mr. Sekela attended another Senate. This meeting was held at a critical moment when Macau was facing severe famine and the turbulent situation in the city. The gentlemen of the parliament were already a little pragmatic at this time. Some of them recalled the long-lasting famine more than ten years ago: before the famine broke out, there were more than 40,000 people in Macau (about half of them were white and their descendants). After the outbreak, the population of the whole city decreased by half in a short period of time. Of course, not all starved to death. Many people went to Timor, Bangladesh, Goa and other places, but there were still many people who starved to death (although most of them were Chinese, Malays and blacks, but there were also many whites). This impressed the Portuguese, and they were really scared by that famine.

With this worrying gentlemen, they were much more efficient in discussing the issue. Baron Banegas of the old military, who was the first to declare that his troops lacked sufficiently strict training and had a slightly inferior combat power than those of the East Coast people. However, if they really wanted to break through and fight to the death, he would also be confident that he would even wipe out the thousands of troops of the East Coast people, but the premise was that the Senate gave him greater authority to recruit more soldiers in the city, but the problem was that he did not think they needed to do so.

His Excellency the Governor thanked Baron Banega for his efforts to defend Macau. He also believed that he should actively negotiate with the East Coast people instead of fighting to the death. This was not in his own interests, and he believed that it was not in his own interests. However, it was indeed difficult to reach an agreement with the East Coast people, how to set up such conditions. The great merchant Mr. Angulo pointed out that the unconditional surrender requested by the East Coast people was never accepted, but they accepted the conditional surrender to protect their own interests to the greatest extent.

Mr. Sekela sat in the conference room without saying a word, and finally the Governor asked him, and then he said reluctantly: "Your Excellency, I think the possibility of successful negotiations lies in one thing, that is, to give up the final military action with the East Coast people on the condition of preserving their property, security and freedom. I think their commanders will accept this condition in order to avoid serious casualties in the army. But if we still want to surrender honorably (i.e., to recognize the East Coast occupation of Macau, and to obey all reasonable orders of the East Coast during the war, provide taxes, provided that their previous trade rights continue to maintain and retain weapons), then an agreement will never be reached, and the East Coast people will strive to completely surround us until death with all their strength."

Mr. Sekela's words made all gentlemen a little unnatural, because many of them did have this idea. In other words, they could serve the East Coast people temporarily - King Alfonso's majesty seemed too pale in front of money - obeyed their temporary rule and waited for the end of the war to decide the status of Macau. But before that, the East Coast people had to protect their rights and interests, otherwise they would have to continue the war.

However, this was possible after mobilizing tens of thousands of people to the east coast near Xiangshan County.

The meeting ended up not achieving any results, because some gentlemen still had fantasies about continuing to retain their privileges in Macau, which was undoubtedly the biggest obstacle to ending the war.

On February 28, a large-scale riot broke out in Macau. Thousands of people who were tortured by hunger rushed to the streets and demanded to surrender to the East Coast people. The Governor personally persuaded him but it was useless. In the end, he had to send troops to suppress him. The prison was overcrowded, and the military spirit of the suppression of them became even lower in the process.

On March 1, the Portuguese army fought for the third time in despair. In this battle, Baron Banega was killed in battle, and nearly 900 people in the entire army retreated back to the starting point. However, their relatively brave battle also caused heavy casualties to the East Coast. The elite standing teams were in the fourth and fifth teams, which had each reduced more than one-third of their staff over the past few months, and many veterans who had fought for many years were also killed in battle. Major Juniore was extremely depressed for this and had to seriously consider the suggestion of the Portuguese surrender.

On March 5, after the last battle, the hungry Portuguese finally succumbed to reality and left the city with the white flag. After agreeing with Major Juniore not to kill people at will and forced to convert, the Portuguese army finally lined up and handed over weapons one by one in exchange for some food that they depended on for their living.

The next morning, more than 3,000 new recruits from the 11th Division, which had recruited a group of recruits in Xiangshan County, and led by the division commander Bogdan to the city, declaring the change of ownership of this commercial port - the Chinese foothold that the Portuguese had worked hard for many years did not fall into the hands of the Dutch, nor was it taken away by the British, but was captured by the East Coast people.

After entering the city, the East Coast army abides by the previous agreement and does not launch retaliation such as massacre. It is just a small-scale robbery, but rape cannot be avoided. Fortunately, the military police are quite powerful. Captain Tian will come forward to arrest a few people when he sees the trouble is too much, and then send them outside the city to work as a coolie with the soldiers for a month or two to show punishment.

The Governor's Office, warehouse, shipbuilding, large shops, banks (called currency exchangers at the time) and other facilities in the core city of Macau were occupied by the stand-up team led by Major Junior. They drove all the Portuguese soldiers out of the city and asked them to build their own prisoners of war camps, and then were under the supervision of Sun Shouzheng, the 10th Division of the New Army.

As one of the benefits of surrender, a grain transport team organized by Hao Yaotong drove into Macau, solving the urgent needs of more than 20,000 residents, and also made Hao Yaotong make a small fortune. After all, they did not make any contributions during the war and worked hard. Of course, not everyone in Macau could afford food. The three-month siege had consumed most of the people in the lower class, so these people could only sigh at the grain. However, this did not mean that they could despair. In fact, Major Junior also gave them a chance to go to Haizhu Island to build a commercial station for the East Coast people - well, a commercial station equipped with more than 20 cannons - a dock, a road and other annexes, where labor was short. Of course, before boarding the ship to work as a coolie, the East Coast people would mercifully allow them to eat for a few days.

By the way, in these three months, the East Coast people were not just fighting. In fact, the negotiation team led by Shao Shuguang frequently traveled between Guangzhou and Xiangshan, and as the war progressed, they finally obtained the right to build a trade station on Haizhu Island. This station will directly face Guangzhou City, import raw silk, tea, brocade, porcelain, sugar and other commodities, and at the same time reselled sandalwood, spices, lead, tin, dyes produced in Nanyang, as well as iron, textiles, black pearls, leather, soap and other things produced on the East Coast, and the profits should be extremely generous. It is reported that this business will be monopolized by the Bank of Taiwan in the future, provided that the bank accepts a new round of government capital injection and equity adjustments.

On March 8, the spoils seized in this battle were almost all counted: there were gold, silver coins, silver bars, silver ingots, etc. worth more than 600,000 Ming Treasury flat silver in the treasury, all of which were confiscated; churches, shops, and banks searched for various goods and cash of more than 700,000 taels of silver (including two merchant ships captured in the dock), and these will also be confiscated; in addition, more than 20,000 residents in the city were also levied in one lump sum of nearly 300,000 taels of silver in one go, and those who cannot afford to pay can be paid on behalf of others - for example, the rich - if you really can't pay and no one pays for him, I'm sorry, you may be arrested and sent to another place for labor reform, which is not a good place!

People from the East Coast also found that the Portuguese shipyard located in Macau is quite large, and the craftsmen are very skilled in craftsmen, who are fully qualified in the repair and maintenance of various large ships. This is also a valuable asset. At least, naval ships that have been sailing outside for several months can find a place to overhaul.

On March 10, as the first batch of Macau residents were forcibly sent to Haizhu Island to build a commercial station, the East Coast people gradually began to withdraw the troops - mainly to withdraw the two teams with severe war damage back to the north, and then transfer the first and second teams to change defenses, waiting for the actions that the Portuguese may have after the monsoon changes at the end of April. Before the end of April, they will have a rare and pleasant time to enjoy.
Chapter completed!