Instead of letting the Spaniards in the New World become victims of the Japanese mercenaries of the Ming Dynasty, let the Japanese kill each other on the island of Kyushu! ”

Outside the Spanish embassy, De Belasco was talking about his plan to Barsabo, who had arrived in a hurry, and Barcelo, the new commander of the Spanish Eastern Fleet.

De Bellasko paused, and then asked Barcelo, a veteran of the Navy who had gray hair and beard, "Admiral, does the fleet have the ability to transport the personnel trapped in Manila out now?" ”

After the almost destruction of the Eastern Armadada, the Kingdom of New Spain rebuilt an Eastern Fleet, but it did not bear the very unlucky name of "Invincible". Moreover, the size of this fleet was much smaller than that of the previous Armada, with a total of only eleven light and 300-ton (deadweight) class armed Galen ships. With this number of Galen ships, the Spanish Eastern Fleet could no longer compete with the Ming for sea supremacy in the western Pacific, so it adopted pirate tactics and attacked the ships of the Ming Dynasty and the Tokugawa shogunate in the coastal waters of Japan.

Because these armed Galen ships were very fast, and they often flew the flags of other countries, the Ming Dynasty navy was very troubled by them, and organized many encirclement and suppression, but they could not completely eliminate them.

However, due to the limited number of ships of the Spanish Eastern Fleet and the great fear of the Ming navy's flowering shells, they could not deal with large transport groups with gunboats in large groups (flowering shells in this era were very dangerous and could only be used by highly trained gunners), so the losses caused to the Ming Dynasty and the shogunate were not unbearable.

"Ambassador," Admiral Barcelo frowned, "and now the point has come when you have to abandon Manila?" If we hold on to the Manila Castle, we will pay a heavy price for the enemy...... Because the enemy besieging Manila had to endure tropical infectious diseases. ”

"I know," de Velasco thought for a moment, "but given the current international situation, it is clearly more advantageous to abandon the Manila Castle.

Because once the Ming Dynasty seized Manila and all of Luzon, the Dutch East India Company felt threatened. ”

"The Dutch will stand with us?" Admiral Barcelo's brow furrowed even tighter, he did not believe the Dutch at all.

"Definitely!" De Belasco nodded, "There are no eternal enemies in the world...... In fact, in our war with Cromwell, the Dutch were already behind us. Otherwise, the Spanish Netherlands would have been completely captured by the British and French forces, and there would not have been so many privateers to fight the British merchant ships.

Moreover, compared with the profits from the sale of Chinese silk and porcelain, the spice islands of the South Seas were the largest source of profits for the Dutch East India Company.

If Luzon falls into the hands of the Chinese, the Sultanate of Boni and the Sultanate of Sulu will definitely fall to the Ming Dynasty immediately, and then the Dutch spice islands will be exposed to the Ming army! ”

In the South Seas, there are mainly the Sultanate of Johor, the Sultanate of Pattani, the Sultanate of Boni, the Sultanate of Sulu, the Sultanate of Mataram, the Sultanate of Aceh and so on. Among them, the Sultanate of Sulu and the Sultanate of Boni were originally vassals of the Ming Dynasty, but later gradually alienated from the Ming Dynasty due to the weakening of the Ming Dynasty and the invasion of Western forces.

The Sultanate of Johor was the remnants of the original vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, the Sultanate of Malacca, which was broken by the Portuguese, and the royal family fled to Johor to establish a new state.

The Sultanate of Aceh was effectively part of the Celestial Circle in the Indian Ocean, and as such was supported by the Mughals and the Ottoman Empire, and was once fierce and fought well with the Portuguese colonists, but weakened after the rise of the Dutch East India Company.

However, after the Dutch East India Company replaced the Portuguese as the overlord of the Strait of Malacca and Java, it changed the religious course of the Portuguese and no longer forced Christianity, so the relationship with the Sultanate of Johor, the Sultanate of Pattani, and the Sultanate of Aceh was not as tense as it was when the Portuguese ruled the Strait of Malacca.

Moreover, the Dutch were allies to some extent with these sultanates - the Dutch East India Company was very flexible in its policies, unlike the Spaniards, who were adept at making enemies. Therefore, their policy around the Strait of Malacca was to focus on the Portuguese, Spanish forces and the Malanta Sultanate, while keeping a close eye on the behemoth of the Great Ming Dynasty in the north.

As for the Sultanate of Boni and the Sultanate of Sulu, because the spice trade in the South Seas was monopolized by the Dutch East India Company (which had originally sold spices to China), it was at odds with the Dutch East India Company, and at the same time threatened by the Spaniards, so they kept looking south towards the Great Tomorrow.

De Berlasco said: "From what I know about the Dutch, they may not immediately stand in the foreground, but they will definitely manipulate the three sultanates of Pattani, Johor and Aceh to form an alliance against the Ming Dynasty behind their backs...... Moreover, we have no ability to hold Manila, and only a few thousand Japanese samurai trained and equipped with reference to the new army of the Ming army are enough to surround Manila.

Even if the siege lasts for several years, Manila will still fall. And with the ferocity of the Japanese samurai, we will lose all of them! ”

Don't look at the fact that Spain and Daming are going back and forth at sea now, but the losses on both sides are not too great. On the one hand, Emperor Zhu did not have the ability to escort all the ships, and it was impossible to equip ordinary merchant ships with dangerous flowering bombs, so he needed to exchange Spanish prisoners for the Ming sailors who were captured by the Spaniards - although the Ming population was large, there were few experienced sailors, and he couldn't afford to lose!

Similarly, the Spaniards were not willing to suffer huge human losses...... They are few in number, and even fewer in the East.

Therefore, the Holy Roman Empire's mission to the Ming Dynasty played the role of an intermediary in the exchange of prisoners.

But the Japanese didn't care about this, they didn't have any sailors to exchange, so the Spanish sailors who fell into the hands of the shogunate were certain to die!

De Velasko paused and said, "Admiral, I hope you can manage to evacuate all the people in the Manila Castle to Japan...... Also try to collect some Chinese sailing boats that can pass through the Pacific Ocean, the more the better! ”

"A sailboat that can pass the Pacific Ocean?" Barcelo asked, "Ambassador, do you want to ......?"

De Berasco said: "Shimazu Mitsuhisa has to be given hope...... Even a samurai who is not afraid of death needs to rely on hope to fight! ”

......

Nagasaki, Japan.

Surrounded by hundreds of small islands and a series of rolling hills, the port city has been transformed from a commercial city into a huge barracks and fortress.

The road to the Nagasaki Peninsula by land has been completely blocked by a series of newly built forts. The original town of Nagasaki is now heavily guarded by walls and moats. Even the sea, which was the least vulnerable to attack, was blockaded with batteries.

An army of 10,000 ronin, recruited by Hoshina Masashi in the name of Tokugawa Taka, guarded the fortresses and walls to block the attack of Toyotomi (Shimazu).

The remnants of the pro-shogunate feudal lords, who had lost the battle with the Toyotomi army (Shimazu), also retreated to Nagasaki one after another, and all of them were stationed outside the city of Nagasaki.

What was once Japan's largest foreign trade port is now frequented by samurai with swords on their shoulders – most of whom live in poverty and have little future.

These people fantasized about the troubled times of the Warring States every day when Tokugawa ruled the world, as if when the troubled times came, they could all fly like "monkeys"! Even if you can't be a "monkey", you can get a seven guns and four heavenly kings, and from then on, please live a tragic life and counterattack from the bottom.

But when the fight really started, they realized that they were not monkeys, nor were they seven guns, nor were they four heavenly kings, and they couldn't even get mixed up with an ashigaru who could receive a little money...... Because their lords have lost their territory, they are under the fence, and they are about to become retainers!