Li Dan's role was quickly brought into play, although he could not appear in public, but he was able to mobilize all the surviving Chinese prisoners, and the intelligence and information about the Spaniards were continuously gathered, so that Guo Zhiyuan had a clearer understanding of the situation in the Philippines, knowing that there were many people within the Spaniards who were very worried about China's trade blockade, and many Spanish businessmen had left Manila to return home, which made Guo Zhiyuan have a little more confidence in this negotiation.

However, from the information fed back by these Chinese prisoners, Guo Zhiyuan keenly found a piece of information that was very unfavorable to him, according to the Chinese prisoners who were carrying goods at the wharf, a Spanish merchant ship left Manila overnight a few days ago, and it was not loaded with any goods, and it went in the direction of China.

Maybe even the Chinese prisoner who fed back this piece of information didn't realize what this piece of information meant, he just felt a little abnormal and fed back this piece of information, but Guo Zhiyuan quickly realized that this should be a means for the Spaniards to target him, first of all, the time was more coincidental, it was the second day after the first negotiation between him and Acuña, and it was night, why was it so urgent? And then in the direction of going, the trade between Manila and China has been interrupted, so why are Spanish merchant ships going to China? If it was smuggling, why didn't it carry the goods?

The answer is obvious, the Spaniards are going to China to collect intelligence, once the Spaniards know that the Ming court has no action, and there is no intention of starting a war with the Spaniards, everything is Guo Zhiyuan's bluff, then the situation will be completely reversed, and the Spaniards will have no fear to refuse all of Guo Zhiyuan's requests, and Guo Zhiyuan's life will be in danger.

Now Guo Zhiyuan really can't sit still, if he waits for the spies sent to China to inquire about the intelligence of the spies back, then he will be passive, so he must intercept the Spaniards' spies, and prevent them from transmitting the intelligence back to Manila, but a new problem arises, if you want to intercept the Spaniards' spies, you must use force, Guo Zhiyuan only brought two ships, and the descendants of the military force plus the Sun Mansion family Ding are only a hundred people, as long as they are dispatched, it will arouse the vigilance of the Spaniards.

At the critical moment, Li Dan's connections played a role again, he contacted two Japanese Zhuyin ships that came to Manila to do business, in recent years, Li Dan has noticed the subtle changes in the attitude of the Spaniards towards Chinese businessmen, so he has been secretly paving the way, and Japan's Tokugawa Ieyasu has a good relationship, and the Japanese businessmen who come to Manila to do business have a good relationship with him, these Japanese businessmen are also businessmen and thieves, as long as they can afford the price, they are willing to kill people and set fires.

Guo Zhiyuan was overjoyed, and immediately asked Li Dan to contact the owners of the two Zhuyin ships, and asked them to make a move at the price of 20,000 taels of silver, and at the same time let Li Dan also get on the Zhuyin ship of the Japanese merchants, and was fully responsible for this matter.

After arranging things properly, Guo Zhiyuan breathed a sigh of relief, with Li Dan and Zhang Cheng's double insurance, it should be difficult for the secret agents sent out by Spain to send the news back, and he resumed his leisurely life of traveling around with Felisa every day.

Time flies, more than half a month has passed, but Acuña has never waited for the return of the spies sent to China to inquire about intelligence, and some can't sit still, and what's worse, there are Spanish merchant ships returning from the direction of Southeast Asia, they saw the Dutch fleet at sea, sailing in the direction of Manila!

Could it be that the Dutch really joined forces with the Chinese?! Although Acuña was extremely reluctant to believe Guo Zhiyuan's words, he had to pay attention to the new movements of the Dutch, and once again convened his subordinates to discuss, and when he heard that the Dutch fleet appeared near the waters of Manila, everyone was silent, and even the hottest Thomas knew that if Manila was caught between the Dutch and Chinese fleets, the situation would be really bad.

This time the main peace faction among the Spaniards prevailed, and finally Acuña decided to restart the second round of negotiations with Guo Zhiyuan, in order to ease the atmosphere, the venue of the second negotiation was no longer in Acuña's office, but invited Guo Zhiyuan to have dinner together, Archbishop Miguel and Moga. The judges were also present at the negotiations.

The red mahogany dining table is covered with snow-white linen tablecloths, on which are placed exquisite Chinese porcelain and antique silver tableware, and the tableware is also both chopsticks used by Chinese and knives and forks used by Spain, Guo Zhiyuan smiled as soon as he walked into the banquet hall of the Governor's Palace and saw the layout inside, and the Spaniards began to treat him as a diplomatic envoy with an equal attitude, which was undoubtedly a good signal.

The main dish of dinner was a stew of beans with Mexican sausage, apparently shipped from the New World, mixed with the smell of seawater immersion, and the beans were also old. Since last year, the Chinese in the Philippines have died and fled, the indigenous Filipinos have become unable to grow and graze, and there has been a shortage of food in the Royal City of Manila.

Guo Zhiyuan ate unpalatable sausage potatoes, the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, from the food for dinner tonight, he could already see that he had the initiative in the negotiations, but the second round of negotiations did not go well, the Spaniards were very face-loving, and they were also very stubborn in this regard, only promising to release the imprisoned Chinese businessmen, but they resolutely refused to let go of the apology and compensation, which is equivalent to the five conditions put forward by Guo Zhiyuan, they only agreed to part of the second article, and refused to give in to the other conditions.

If it was another Ming envoy, I am afraid that he would have been overjoyed, after all, it was already a very important breakthrough to be able to get the Spaniards to agree to release the imprisoned Chinese merchants, and Guo Zhiyuan was enough to give an account to the Wanli Emperor. Guo Zhiyuan was not satisfied with this, he finally grasped the initiative in the negotiation, and naturally wanted to strive for the greatest interests, so he wiped his mouth with a snow-white napkin, stood up, and said to Acuña and the others without humility or arrogance: "Your Excellency the Governor, thank you for your warm hospitality, I hope I can have the opportunity to invite you to taste our Chinese cuisine......" and then turned to leave.

Acuña was so angry that he swept the dishes on the table so hard that the dishes shattered to the ground, and said angrily: "Damn biological man! Who does he think he is?! I'd rather go to war than apologize to a lowly biological person! ……”