open sea

Chapter 753 Tribute
Philip was in a coma for a long time, and the leg that continued to cause him pain made him highly resistant to coma, and he woke up from the pain when he was unconscious.

No treatment is needed at all.

The first thing the king said after waking up was to ask vaguely, "How is the war going?"

"There is no new news. Acting Governor Bernal is gathering troops to deploy defenses in Mexico City, waiting for reinforcements from Peru and Spain."

Philip clutched the velvet blanket tightly, and slowly loosened his hands, as if grasping a life-saving straw, repeatedly muttering: "Spanish reinforcements...Spanish reinforcements."

Spain can send reinforcements to New Spain. Although the number is not large, the empire still has a legion available at the moment, which is used to prepare the army to inherit the title of King of Portugal after the failure of the King of Portugal's personal conquest.

The New World is very important, and if necessary, wars are needed to maintain the rule in the New World.

Portugal is also very important. It is so important that such an opportunity is once in a lifetime. Where can Philip find the Portuguese king who is so stupid that he leads the army to conquer himself without an heir?

"Everyone, let's all go out. There are too many people and I can't breathe. Duke Alva stays."

A group of courtiers slowly retreated from the palace bedroom, leaving only Duke Alva with a gloomy face. This old man was dressed loosely and did not look like a military veteran. His drooping and heavily stained skin made him look like a strange monster. old man.

His Majesty was praying again, closing his eyes on the bed, looking as if he was dying.

"I'm sorry to have given up on your courage and honor to win for my father some of the land that originally belonged to the Pope."

It was during the Italian War. In the last years of Charles V’s reign, facing the Spanish alliance formed by the French King Francois I, the Italian city-states and the Papal States, the Duke of Alva made a surprise victory and defeated the famous French general Scar Guise—— Rancois de Lorraine.

In that war, the Duke of Alva actually occupied the entire Papal State, forcing Pope Paul IV to make concessions to Spain, giving Spain central Italy, Milan and Naples.

But after Philip succeeded to the throne, in order to express his friendship with the Pope, he gave up part of the land.

The Duke of Alva saluted Philip who was lying down, and said with a calm expression on his face: "Your Majesty, my loyalty to the royal family has never changed. If you trust me, I can lead the army to the New World to negotiate with you." means to end this war.”

Then, Duke Alva added: "Before the war between Sebastian and the Moors ends."

Philip moved up and tried his best to lean himself on the backrest. He was a little weak after waking up from a coma. He took a big sip from the silver cup from the bedside and asked, "What will you do?"

"Two ways."

The Duke of Alva seemed to have a plan in mind, but he was very cautious on the surface, saying: "The result will not be too beneficial to the Spanish New World, but it can end the war, before the war... The longer this battle lasts, the more unfavorable it will be for us. "

"One is to cede a large area of ​​land in New Spain except the Potosi silver mine. I guess that before leading the army to the New World, the Ming army should have already approached Mexico City. I am afraid that the Ming army will not be willing to return the occupied land to us. But the silver mines must be preserved."

"Without the silver mines, the Iberian peninsula will suffer turmoil, and the result will be worse than this stupid war going on."

Philip nodded very quickly. This war should not have started in the first place. In the court's view, it was very cost-effective to exchange some land that could not bring benefits to the royal family in exchange for the support of the Ming Empire.

Even now Philip did not know how things had come to this.

Not to mention that he didn't know that he was across the ocean, but Chen Mu didn't know why it turned out like this. Originally, Sai Donkey was planning to take over Panama, but everyone suddenly said that the situation had evolved to take Mexico City.

"If Bernal can gain an advantage in the war, our troops will put a lot of pressure on the Ming army and force them to make concessions. They will get the land north of Mexico City and south of Lima City. Maybe we can also negotiate get more from it.”

"But if we are at a disadvantage on the battlefield, I don't know how to protect our Potosi silver mine. The war has already begun, and the enemy will have no worries."

Philip closed his eyes, which was exactly what he was worried about. When he opened them again, he asked eagerly, "What about the second way?"

"If the situation is bad and we want to keep the Potosi silver mine, we have only one way." Duke Alva said: "Pay tribute."

"Tribute?"

Philip did not understand what it meant at all, in fact he was even more surprised how Duke Alva knew this strange word.

"Your Majesty the King knows that most of my family's ancestors were officials of the Kingdom of Castile. In the fifteenth century, the lame Timur defeated Ottoman. The king was both scared and happy, and sent an envoy to give Timur a gift."

"After the envoy came back, he wrote "Envoy to the East", which recorded his encounters in Timur's court. The emperor Zhu Sihan of the Khitan Kingdom meant to command the emperor of the Nine Kingdoms. Only Timur called him the pig of Tunguska. Emperor, detain the envoy."

"The envoy was imprisoned for seven years. When Timur met with the envoy from Castile, he was released to add glory to him. Timur told our envoy that he was an envoy from the powerful Khitan country in the east. He sent five hundred horses."

"Tamerlane asked our envoy to sit in the front, and the envoy of the Ming Dynasty to sit in the back, mockingly saying that Uncle Zhu Sihan took the nephew's position, and he is a villain who is a villain."

Philip frowned. It doesn't sound like the Ming Dynasty is very powerful. The envoys have been detained for many years. What did Alva say?

"The envoy of the Ming Dynasty was imprisoned for seven years and still looked arrogant and domineering. He yelled at the cripple. You should explain clearly about not paying tribute for seven years!"

Duke Alva said: "Seven years before this incident, Timur had been paying tribute to the Ming Kingdom. Later, Timur's son succeeded to the throne and continued to pay tribute to the Ming Kingdom."

"Osman also paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty. When Timur's sons later warned Osman not to attack the border country of Beiy, they added the name of the Chinese Khan, which was very useful."

Duke Alva looked at Philip and said, "I said this to tell you that there is no shame in paying tribute. Those countries that were once powerful and are still powerful will do so."

"Pay tribute." Only now did Duke Alva reveal his real purpose, saying: "Showing surrender to the Chinese monarch can make money, and it will definitely make the aggressive Ming army make concessions in the negotiations."

"As long as the king is willing to pay tribute to the emperor of the Ming Empire, even if he occupies the entire territory of New Spain, I think we can still keep the Potosi silver mine."

Philip didn't speak for a while, and asked after a long time: "In your speculation, the war in the New World has gone so bad?"

"It's very bad. Not only is the war in the New World bad, but the war in the Old World is even worse. We have no allies around us, Your Royal Highness."

Philip took a deep breath and said to Duke Alva, "Go prepare to recruit troops. I want to meet monks who know Ming. Before that, I need to know what tribute means."

"When Don Juan was still around, he seemed to have mentioned paying tribute, but I didn't pay attention to it. I'm afraid we must pay attention this time."

(End of this chapter)