The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 499

Meanwhile, the first fleet of Ming Dynasty ships heading west finally arrived in the waters of the Portuguese after three or four months of sailing.

Not long after entering the waters of the Franks, the Ming fleet encountered two pirate ships from the Franks.

This instantly excited He Wenxun, a general of the Ming army. He was originally a commander of a thousand men in the Xuanwu Army and was among the first batch of people selected by Zhou Chu. He was also originally a candidate for the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but he chose to join the Tiger Legion at that time, and was later transferred from the Tiger Legion to the Xuanwu Army.

After joining the Xuanwu Army, He Wenxun was quickly promoted to centurion and eventually to captain because he had inherited his family's martial arts skills since childhood. In addition, the Xuanwu Army's high-intensity training and He Wenxun's extremely strong military qualities also contributed to his promotion.

The rank of Qianzong (千总) was the limit for the Xuanwu Army, not for He Wenxun. After all, the Xuanwu Army only had about two thousand men. Being able to become a Qianzong in the Xuanwu Army already demonstrated He Wenxun's military skills and abilities, as well as his loyalty to the Ming Dynasty and the emperor.

The fleet heading to the West was led by He Wenxun, accompanied by three thousand soldiers and a number of merchant ships from the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, there were also close officials of the emperor who accompanied He Wenxun to monitor him. These were necessary, after all, the West was thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty. If someone was left by He Wenxun's side, people's hearts would change with the environment. He Wenxun was loyal when he was in the Ming Dynasty, but that did not mean he would remain loyal here.

When the two Frankish pirate ships saw such a large fleet, their first reaction was not panic, but excitement. The Franks were already invincible in this area, and they couldn't even imagine how wealthy these people must be.

The Franks also suffered from the lack of telescopes. In the original history, telescopes would not appear for nearly a hundred years, but now every ship of the Ming Dynasty is equipped with a telescope.

As the Francois drew closer and saw the rows of dark cannon muzzles, the two sides were very close. The Francois were immediately alarmed and hurriedly ordered his men to load the cannonballs and prepare to fire.

Before the Frankish cannonballs were even reloaded, He Wenxun stood on the watchtower, waved his battle flag, and a dozen warships fired in unison, instantly riddling the two pirate ships with holes and tearing them to pieces.

"Come closer, let's grab a tongue."

He Wenxun gave the order.

Previously, when their Xuanwu Army attacked the Frankish people near the Ming Dynasty, they also captured some prisoners. These people were imprisoned in the capital for a long time. Both Zhou Chu and the emperor made them do one thing: teach some people in the Ming Dynasty who had a talent for languages ​​the Frankish language.

Of course, these people also learned the language of the Ming Dynasty, but neither Zhou Chu nor Jiajing ever placed their hopes on these outsiders. If these people sabotaged the translation process and no one could understand it, the consequences would often be fatal.

Therefore, Francophone must be kept in the hands of its own people.

On He Wenxun's ship, there were several civil servants who could speak French. Although they were not fluent, they had no problem communicating normally.

Soon, the Ming army pulled more than a dozen Portuguese men from the broken ship planks, and shot the rest on the spot.

"Are you an official Franco fleet, or pirates?"

On He Wenxun's ship, a civil official who understood Francophone looked at one of the Francophones and asked.

"We are pirates, pirates."

The man said hurriedly.

He dared not admit that they were Frankish navy.

The Frankish navy, posing as pirates, had been plundering and pillaging in the surrounding waters for who knows how long, and had always been successful. But today, they had met their match.

After hearing the civil official's translation, He Wenxun looked at the Franco man in front of him with a strange expression.

"Throw him into the sea to feed the fish."

He Wenxun sneered.

The other Francois were furious when they saw what happened to him.

“Tell them that as long as they tell the truth, they can live, but if they tell a lie, they will die.”

He Wenxun looked at the civil official in charge of translation and said.

The civil official translated these words to the Francois, and after hearing them, the Francois no longer showed any anger.

They didn't understand where these yellow-skinned, black-eyed people came from. Could they be from the distant East?

Could it be that damned Magellan who brought such a great enemy upon them?

These Francois couldn't help but think of Magellan's fleet that had sailed eastward, which had yet to be heard from again.

Among these people, some actually understood Francophone; Magellan must have betrayed them.

Thinking about all this, the Francois no longer had the idea of ​​lying.

After all, these people in front of them seemed to know them very well, even whether they were lying or not.

......

In the capital city, at the Zhou residence, after Lin Zhi left, Shen Lian approached Zhou Chu with a booklet in his hand.

"Tell me about it."

Zhou Chu was drinking tea at the moment and was too lazy to take the booklet. Zhou Chu believed that Shen Lian must have already read it.

“Sir, this Wang Mingyue is not Wang Long’s biological daughter. It seems that he adopted her thirteen years ago.”

Shen Lian said.

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Zhou Chu was somewhat surprised.

"This Wang Mingyue was originally born into a farming family. Her father is unknown, and her mother died thirteen years ago. Thirteen years ago was also the time when Wang Long adopted her. Strangely enough, before Wang Long adopted Wang Mingyue, he was just an unknown small businessman. After adopting Wang Mingyue, in less than two years, he got involved with those businessmen in Shanxi and started doing coal business."

Shen Lian said with a serious expression.

At this moment, Shen Lian also realized that Wang Mingyue's identity was probably not simple. She was likely someone's illegitimate daughter left behind in the countryside.

"Have you found out who Wang Mingyue's biological father is?"

Zhou Chu asked.

"It's unclear who exactly it was, as it's been too long. But according to the villagers from the village where Wang Mingyue came from, her mother was defiled by a drunk scholar back then. Judging from his accent, the scholar seemed to be from Jiangnan."

Shen Lian answered truthfully.

"Jiangnan, Jiangnan!"

Zhou Chu tapped on the armrest of the chair while muttering to himself.

Zhou Chu went through all the people he knew in Jiangnan in his mind, but ultimately couldn't come to a specific conclusion. This was because Jiangnan was too vast, and Zhou Chu had offended too many people, including quite a few who met the criteria.

"Have someone keep an eye on things, and report back to me immediately if there's any news."

Zhou Chu said.