open sea

Chapter 703 Cleaning
What Almansa said was totally different from what Almansa did.

After vaguely conveying a message to Legion Chief Bernal like 'Chen Mu is teasing them and looking down on them', he walked through the Plaza de Armas in Mexico City.

Mexico City was once the capital of the Aztecs. The city had a maximum of 30 residents. This Plaza de Armas used to be the largest temple for the locals.

On the north side of the square is the cathedral under construction. The church started to be built five years ago and was repaired that year, but then it was expanded again, and it is still expanding today. No one knows what the church will be in. Time to finish.

No one knows how majestic the church will be when it is completed.

In any case, the Governor Almanza entered the church, and after a short while he and the monk José Acosta walked out of the church, turned from the wide and dusty dirt road in Mexico into a dark and narrow alley, and finally disappeared into the street.

A candle was lit in an unknown attic, apparently a warehouse, with cotton cloth dyed in various colors piled up everywhere.

Among the brightly colored and dusty cotton cloths, the governor of New Spain, Almansa, sneezed, and he said intermittently to Brother José: "Chen Mu of the Ming Army attacked the Chinese monarch in the north with the soldiers of the Bernal Legion. The people are declaring war on us."

"In his letter to me, he wanted to get all the coastlines on the west coast except Mexico. The north is not important, but there is a lot of metal in the south. He seems to know the importance of the Potosi silver mine to us and did not choose there."

"It is very difficult for us to win a war, and even if we win, it will only bring new decline."

"The nobles of the New World said 'I obey, but I will not enforce' against the royal family. We have too many new nobles. They waste too much income. The New World, which would have brought huge income to Spain, has changed because of them. It has become a poor place that is heavily in debt besides providing for the needs of the royal family."

"In order to fight against them, the king forbade the New World to intercept silver mines. The more they refused to carry out the royal order, the more the royal family had to restrict them. They have destroyed the army of the Netherlands, and one day they will destroy Spain."

"People say that His Majesty the King is keen on war, but he is not. When the kingdom was handed over to His Majesty, it was already struggling between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. The Netherlands in the north, the Mediterranean in the east, and of course the West Indies."

"To keep the kingdom alive we have to entangle with the Dutch, the Arabs, the English and even the Italians, and now maybe the Chinese."

"Chen Mu said that in order to get land on the west coast, he could take silver worth 200 million ducats from Potosí every year, mint silver coins worth 130 million ducats for us, and provide iron-cast cannons worth 20 ducats with good performance. , muskets, gunpowder."

"This is very beneficial. Enough artillery, muskets, and gunpowder will allow the kingdom to gain an advantage in the battle in the Netherlands, stabilize the Netherlands, and prevent the war from reaching Spain."

"I would like to invite your Excellency to visit Chen Mu in the northern seaport of the Ming Army and negotiate with him instead of me. At the same time, each legion will prepare for war. No matter whether the negotiation is successful or not, a war will break out in the New World."

Brother Jose Acosta had been quietly listening to the governor's words, until now he raised his head and asked, "What is your plan?"

"If he wants the land in the north, he can give him any land two thousand miles north of Mexico; he can also give him any land south of Panama; only the area close to the Caribbean Sea cannot be given to him, and Ming people cannot be allowed to enter the Caribbean Sea— —their country is vast, with untold goods, and we must be the only ones in Europe who can trade with them."

"One of the conditions for reaching this contract is that all the minerals of these lands cannot be given to him. Since he wants to fish, he should fish well, and this is beneficial to us. We can obtain those metals without having to maintain huge military expenditures. At the same time, it can also let the glory of God shine on the Ming people, this is our chance to understand them."

"In the past they have kept us from entering their country, now that these lands are given to them, we must have the right to live there, and they need to fight our enemies as signed in the peace treaty."

Brother Acosta said: "We will lose a lot."

"But we will get more, as long as the Caribbean can still provide cane sugar, cotton and tobacco, as long as the New World can still provide gold, silver, and copper, as long as the Ming army can bring us artillery and gunpowder, we will lose our land and even lose some greed. What is a new noble who obeys orders?"

"I heard a saying in China that a strong man cuts off his wrist. When a person's arm is bitten by a poisonous snake, only the brave man who dares to cut off his own arm can survive. During the negotiation of your Excellency going to the northern military station of the Ming Army, I will join the Ming Army Camp, wait for this to end."

Jose Acosta has been nodding slowly during the previous listening. The huge number of nobles has always been the biggest problem in Spain, because some nobles in their tradition own land, but more nobles are not linked to the land. Requires a lot of state financial resources.

However, the royal power could not eradicate the uncontrollable power of the nobles in the New World due to the distance. The explorers with low backgrounds in the past became the new nobles. The killing they brought here at the beginning won them titles and wealth. Tyranny has become an obstacle to the spread of faith.

The wise monk heard the meaning of Governor Almansa's words, and said: "Your Excellency should be clear that if the negotiation fails, it will inevitably go to war with the Ming army. ***, they won't hold you captive for ransom."

"Once the negotiation fails, Your Excellency will die."

"The negotiation will not fail, and the monk will guarantee that the negotiation will not fail."

Almansa spoke convincingly, as if Acosta could control the outcome of the negotiation, and said: "Chen Mu doesn't care about gold and silver, nor does he care about strengthening our strength, it seems that he only cares about the land, I guess it's to show his merits in front of his emperor .”

"Any extra piece of land is profitable for him, and he will not let the negotiation break down easily."

"I didn't force you into the camp of the Ming army, but to save my life. When the negotiation is reached and the Ming army enters these lands, the new nobles in the Viceroyalty of Peru and the north of New Spain will definitely fight the Ming army. As long as I live, they will be Rebels."

"Your Majesty the King will not blame me. The only request the royal family has for the New World is a fixed amount of silver coins to provide military expenses and artillery. After negotiations are reached, all of this can be resolved."

"As for the new nobles." Almansa smiled coldly: "Washing them with the hands of the Ming army will make Spain healthier and stronger."

(End of this chapter)