The Spanish army on the African battlefield had a problem, because their military budget was tight, although the price of the weapons sold to them by the Ming was not too expensive, but their poor way of governing brought serious waste and corruption, Philip III was indeed not a qualified ruler, both in terms of vision and strategy for governing the country was very arbitrary.

After Portugal ceded the land to the Kingdom of Spain, the development of the new Portuguese Kingdom in South America was smooth, and the rule of Philip IV in Spain was indeed a mess, especially in the treatment of the residents who stayed in the original Portuguese territory, his policy was very bad, unable to adapt the inhabitants to his rule, and a new ethnic division appeared, so that after increasing the land area, the financial revenue of the whole kingdom decreased.

In the era of Spain as the overlord of the sea, a large part of the income of the Kingdom of Spain came from overseas plunder, especially from the colonial rule of the Americas, but the rise of the Ming Dynasty, especially several successful robberies, made the Kingdom of Spain suffer a great loss, and then the predatory sales of industrial products of the Ming Dynasty overseas, which made Spain suffer a greater impact.

In fact, these are not the most important reasons, the most important factor is that the political situation in Europe has undergone new changes, and European countries led by England began to encircle and suppress the Habsburg family in Europe, especially after the Ottoman Empire defeated the Habsburg coalition army, the English forces began to attack everywhere, and the means of combining vertical and horizontal were endless.

If Philip III of the Kingdom of Spain could treat the retained residents of the Kingdom of Portugal well, implement a relatively lenient tax policy for them, and use their relationship with the new Kingdom of Portugal to carry out all-round cooperation, the economy of the entire Kingdom of Spain may grow by leaps and bounds, but obviously Philip III did not do a good job, and let the Italians in the Kingdom of England take advantage of the loopholes, and the Portuguese who stayed in the Kingdom of Spain either passively resisted, or began to regret not migrating, Began to carry family property again on a large scale.

Spain's army began to make ends meet on the African battlefield, its combat effectiveness naturally declined, the morale of the soldiers was low, and even deserters appeared, and the situation became even worse, the income decreased, and a vicious circle appeared, not only suffering greater losses for itself, but also dragging down the allies.

The war in Africa began to work against Spain and the German coalition, their sphere of influence was decreasing, and the German Confederation continued to express dissatisfaction with Philip III of Spain.

Philip III was even more anxious at this time, the overseas colonies were now unable to provide more sources of funds, and the situation at home was getting worse and worse, whether it was domestic or foreign affairs, he was very helpless, and there was really no way to solve these complex problems.

Just when Philip III was anxious, a news came from North America, saying that His Royal Highness King Xin of the Ming Empire planned to buy a part of his North American colonies, and offered a lot of money, and the location required was not the west, but the east. Philip III was overjoyed by this news, and immediately decided to sell the somewhat frustrated area, not only to get a financial respite, but also to re-increase its operations in Africa, which is closer to Spain and relatively cheaper to manage and colonize.

Besides, Zhu Youzhen, who went to sea in the ninth year of the Apocalypse, after he led a huge fleet to North America, he successfully arrived at the overseas territory of the Ming Dynasty in North America where Zhao Shujiao, Man Gui and Fu Guan were located, where they were warmly welcomed by the three of them, and everyone respected Zhu Youzhen very much, after all, they were all officials of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Youzhen was the second person of the Ming Dynasty in addition to Zhu Youxiao, not to mention that Zhu Youxiao trusted Zhu Youzhen very much, and let him supervise the country for two years, so Zhu Youzhen's status is quite respectful.

Seeing that this piece of Daming's overseas territory was built very well, Zhu Youzhen was also happy from the bottom of his heart. Although the royal brother meant to let himself be the master of this territory, but remembering that his uncle and brother Wang were all in the territory they had built, and was he inferior to them?

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen's idea is not to take over this place that already belongs to the Ming Dynasty, he wants to rely on his own strength to open up a new territory for the Ming Dynasty again, so as to set an example to his future brothers in the royal family. You can use the power of the royal family, but you must have strong abilities, so that you can become a real child of the Ming royal family.

After a full rest in Fu Guan's city, leaving most of the ordinary people, Zhu Youzhen took all the soldiers and craftsmen to start the next journey.

Sailing from north to south, it didn't take long to reach the Spanish colony, which was not a very large town, and disembarked with an interpreter who knew the Spanish language. Zhu Youzhen's original purpose was to replenish some fresh water and grain here, after all, the Ming Dynasty now has a good relationship with Spain, and he can't grab the territory for no reason. However, when Zhu Youzhen and the soldiers disembarked, they found that there was a fierce battle going on here, and a large number of natives were besieging the town, and the Spanish resistance in the town did not seem to have much ability to fight back.

The arrival of a large number of Zhu Youzhen's troops directly shocked the two warring sides, after all, this newly arrived army seemed to be well-equipped, and it directly gave people a gloomy murderous atmosphere, and they had to stop to determine the attitude of this army before deciding whether to continue fighting.

Seeing the scruples of the warring parties about the arrival of the Ming army, Zhu Youzhen directly took Mao Wenlong and the guards into the middle of the battlefield, isolated the warring parties, and temporarily calmed down the battle.

The natives saw the guns of ships more powerful than those of the Spaniards, and they thought that victory in the battle was far away from them, so when all the Ming soldiers disembarked, they withdrew from the battlefield. The Spaniards were all in the town, and they were silently watching the army that arrived, guessing Zhu Youzhen's purpose.

Soon Zhu Youzhen and the generals entered this town, and the Spanish soldiers, who were already very difficult to deal with the natives, had no ability to prevent the arrival of the Ming army.

Seeing Zhu Youzhen and them smiling, and the interpreter greeting them in Spanish they could understand, they were finally relieved, whether it was reinforcements or not, their lives were saved today anyway. If the town is broken by the natives, what awaits them will be extremely cruel killing, this is nearly a hundred years of hatred, they only have desperate resistance just now, but they don't have a little confidence.

Through a brief conversation, Zhu Youzhen finally understood what was happening here, and then he knew that this town was called Santiago, a colonial town belonging to the Spaniards.

The name Santiago is a holy place in Spain, where James, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, is said to be buried, and is one of the Catholic pilgrimage sites. Legend has it that James, a disciple of Jesus, served as a missionary in Spain for seven years and was buried in Spain after his death. In 813, a farmer stumbled upon the cemetery of Santiago, where a chapel was built and the place was named Santiago de Compostela. The residents of Santiago were proud of this, so after they began to expand and colonize abroad, they established towns called Santiago in many places in the Americas, but unfortunately with the decline of Spain's national power, the later cities of Santiago had nothing to do with the Spaniards.

Spain is now a little poor, with less than a thousand soldiers in Santiago, and the fierce fighting just now has cost them more than 200 people. As it stands, if there is another large-scale attack by the natives, these people will probably be dead or alive, and they have already begun to plan to evacuate here and go to the Atlantic coast of the Americas in search of a safer place, because the royal government is really unable to protect them.

After a simple and short negotiation, Zhu Youzhen's team, which was originally going to carry out supplies, decided to stay here, because Zhu Youzhen found that if he settled here, he could use this place as a foothold, which was the starting point for him to start taking off.