Bugalo, who did not understand the situation at all, immediately sent people to the Qianshanzhai to protest to the Taiping army, believing that Zhou Shixiang's request for garrison troops was very unreasonable, and the law and order in Macao was also very good, and there was no banditry, so the Portuguese did not need any help from the Taiping army.
At the same time, Bougaloo angrily denounced the Taiping army's blockade of the walls of Guan'ao as an extremely barbaric act, which would cause the Portuguese and all Westerners in Macao to suffer from disease and hunger.
If the Taiping Army continues to persist in this barbaric act, the Macau authorities will lodge a protest with your Imperial Court and reserve the right to take the next step.
In this regard, Zhou Shixiang's response was that Macao has been the territory of the Ming Dynasty since ancient times, and the reason why the Ming Dynasty allowed the Portuguese to live in Macao was entirely in the spirit of humanitarianism to pity these Westerners who came from afar, so that they could have a foothold and not drift at sea all day long, but this does not mean that the Ming government gave up its jurisdiction over Macao and gave this territory to the Portuguese, so as the chief military officer of the Ming Dynasty in Guangdong, Zhou Shixiang regarded sending troops to Macao to maintain law and order as a matter within his duties.
At the same time, it is also an important manifestation of the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty over Macao, which is completely in line with legal principles and morality.
"Of course, if the governor of Bougalo must protest to the court, the official will not obstruct it.
Oh, right now our court and His Majesty the Emperor are in Kunming, Yunnan, which is far from Xiangshan, and you must send someone there quickly, or the time will be delayed too long.
Prior to this, the army of this official would not lift the blockade of the city wall of Guanao, and would also send sailors to the waters around Macao to prevent bandits from wreaking havoc. ” "I hope that you will understand that our actions are entirely for the sake of the long-term stability of Macao, and we have no intention of treating you as an enemy, but we have noticed that many Manchu spies and pirates have used Macao to cause harm to our army, so we must send troops into Macao to eliminate those threats."
"Please go back and tell Governor Bugallo that if he can face up to my Ming Dynasty's jurisdiction over Macau, then the official can also sit down with him and have a good talk."
Zhou Shixiang kindly reminded the envoy of the specific location of the Ming court, and at the same time threatened to blockade the waters of Macao with sailors, and finally, he said that he could negotiate with Bugallo in order to reach a mutually acceptable terms.
The sailors, Zhou Shixiang did not, the Taiping Army's water camp currently has only more than 1,000 people, and there are only two warships, all they can do is to use the rivers of Xiangshan to transport supplies, and if they want to go to sea to blockade Macao, it is a fool's dream.
However, the Taiping Army did not have a water division, but it did not mean that Zhou Shixiang could not get the help of the water division.
The Ming army in Guangdong lacked nothing and could do nothing, but there was no shortage of warships, let alone officers and soldiers of the naval division who could fight water battles.
Chen Qice's navy division was the most powerful naval division that Zhou Shixiang could borrow, and Chen Qice's army, which had hundreds of warships, was much stronger than the Portuguese with only a few warships, as long as he wanted, he could spend some money and food to ask the old general to send some warships from the Tan River to the sea to Macao to scare and scare the Portuguese.
As for the Portuguese navy, it was a joke, Zhou Shixiang was never worried, according to Xiao Bailang, there were several Portuguese warships in Macao, and the main force of their Eastern Fleet was in Goa, India, and it would take half a year to arrive from there at the earliest.
Half a year, enough, when the Portuguese fleet in Goa rushed over, the daylilies were cold.
At sea, the Taiping army may not be able to defeat the Portuguese, and on land, the Portuguese have to consider whether they have the ability to land and fight for a long time.
Bugallo's messenger angrily left the former cottage.
Zhou Shixiang is not in a hurry, the blockade has just begun, judging from the blockade in the past few days, the Portuguese are far from the point where they still have some savings.
The right battalion of the infantry army transferred back from the northern front undertook the heavy task of blocking the city wall of Guanao, and the area along the city wall for 10 miles was a forbidden area, and no one was allowed to approach, let alone transport grain, fruits, and vegetables to Macao behind the city wall.
The security teams of the townships and villages in Qianshanzhai have also set up checkpoints on all roads leading to Macao to prevent smugglers from secretly transporting grain to Macao.
In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of the villagers, Zhou Shixiang promised that if the villagers took the initiative to report suspicious characters to the Taiping Army, once it was found to be true, they would be rewarded.
Shao Chengguo's cavalry battalion was also transferred, and every day he searched back and forth on the blockade line for smugglers who tried to smuggle across the blockade line to Macao.
The blockade of Macao can be said to be a shrunk of the Manchu Qing sea ban, and these days, in order to shock those desperate smugglers, the Taiping army has also hung some heads with some wood outside the walls of Guanao.
These people were captured and killed on the spot for sneaking across the border.
However, the Taiping army did not kill indiscriminately like the Manchus, they only beheaded the smugglers and bandits, and the rest of those who secretly wanted to transport grain because they cared about the lives of their relatives in Macao were confiscated and detained for a few days before being released.
In order to completely seal the Guanao city wall, Zhou Shixiang issued a strict order, no one is allowed to show favoritism, and if anyone dares to let a person go through privately, once it is found, the officers and soldiers in charge of the blockade will be severely punished, and if the circumstances are serious, they will even be immediately dealt with by military law.
Under this strict order, it only took three days for the wall of Guan'ao, which was more than ten miles long, to be completely sealed, and no one could be seen except for the patrolling Taiping army within ten miles.
The Portuguese had no way of getting supplies from the sea, as most of the coastal area of Guangdong was controlled by the Ming army.
However, just in case, Zhou Shixiang still sent someone to ask Chen Qice to cooperate, transfer some naval warships to the waters of Macao, and at the same time asked Chen Qice and Zhu Tong to help contact the various departments of the Ming army along the coast, hoping that they could cut off any maritime trade with Macao, so that the Portuguese could not obtain food supplies from the coast of Guangdong.
For this reason, Zhou Shixiang was once again blackmailed by Zhu Tong, and a quarter of the materials robbed by the two northward expeditions were sent to Xinhui.
In addition, under the coordination of Zhu Tong, Zhou Shixiang obtained the help of various departments of the Ming army along the coast with the materials after the completion of the matter.
These include Wang Xing, the general of Huben in Wencun, Taishan, and Zhu Yuyi, the king of Tang.
Xu Yingyuan got in touch with the Tang King, and after knowing that Wencun was suffering from a great famine, Zhou Shixiang specially allocated 700 stone of grain to ask Chen Qice to send it to Wencun with a naval ship, and there were also some weapons and ordnance with the ship.
Zhou Shixiang even asked Song Xianggong to write a letter to the Tang King, but there was nothing written on the letter, but it simply expressed Zhou Shi's admiration for the Tang King. oshow7 t1706231537: