Mo San sat in a rickety carriage on the road to Valladolid, while Alessandro from the Doria family sat opposite him with his eyes closed. ()

They disembarked from Barcelona and traveled in a horse-drawn carriage across the territory of the ancient kingdom of Aragon, stopping for a few days in the relatively prosperous city of Zaragoza, where Alessandro took care of some business in the Zaragoza Bank, in which his family was a shareholder, before driving west again to Valladolid, a city that was formerly the capital of the Kingdom of Spain and is still home to many Spanish government agencies and where magnates and kings often hunted.

Mo San was distraught by the carriage that lacked a shock-absorbing system, and he was bored sitting in the carriage, so he lifted the curtain hanging on the lathe and looked out the window at the vast field.

It is supposed to be on the northern edge of the Castilian plateau, with a temperate oceanic climate and an important agricultural region in Spain. But Mo San looked out from inside the car, and saw a dilapidated scene everywhere. First, the number of villages was small and small, far less than what he had seen in France, Italy, and even the Rumeli region of the Ottoman Empire. The scarcity and small size of the villages means that the population of the place is not very rich, and the population is not abundant, which means that the economy of the place is not very good.

In fact, as a peninsular kingdom with a territory larger than that of France (excluding the Iberian Peninsula of Portugal, the eastern border of France has not yet expanded significantly), compared to France's population of more than 21 million, Spain's population is only more than 4 million, less than 5 million. While the Kingdom of Spain may not have been as arable as France, it was by no means so disparity in population.

In a certain sense. In fact, it is Spain's own continuous death that has caused the country's population to continue to grow sluggishly. They began by expelling the Jews and Moors in large numbers, who possessed technology, capital, and knowledge. These people even amounted to a quarter of the population of the Kingdom of Spain at that time. What is even more bizarre is that the Spaniards even allowed these expelled pagans to leave with their belongings, livestock, and tools; After the expulsion of the infidels, there was an endless trial of heresy, and a large number of Spaniards died after the brutal Inquisition; In the end, it is the short-sighted vision and the repeated policies that have led to the total collapse of the economy, the people's lives have fallen into an extremely difficult situation, and the people's willingness to have children has been greatly reduced, which is the most important factor leading to the slow population growth of this country.

"What's there to see?" Maybe it's a cold fresh air blowing in from the window. Alessandro, who was sleeping pretendingly, opened his eyes, and after glancing at the scenery outside the window, he quickly lost interest: "I have walked this road many times, and every time I see this dilapidated scene, without a trace of bright color. The inhabitants here are not very interested in farming, they are more accustomed to raising sheep. Of course, raising sheep was only a last resort, and if they had the opportunity, their first choice was to serve as a clergyman, followed by an acolyte of the nobility. Then there were the soldiers, the sailors, and almost no one wanted to play the role of a craftsman, a merchant, or anything like that. ”

"If the Spaniards were willing to act as craftsmen or merchants. What else is there to do with you Genoese or Jews? Mo San replied lazily. Outside the window, a flock of dirty sheep were driven along the road by an equally dirty herdsman, who were grabbing on the yellow thatch on the roadside, as if they were about to go to a winter camp with enough forage stocked.

In Spain at this time, the ancient guild system was still playing a role. For example, the wool merchants' guilds, which bore most of the domestic taxes, were so powerful that no one dared to control the sheep when they ate the wheat seedlings in the fields, and over time this behavior undoubtedly led to the degradation of the cultivation industry and the prosperity of animal husbandry, which was obviously not as capable of feeding a larger population than the cultivation industry, so that the Kingdom of Spain had to import large quantities of grain from abroad every year to ensure that there would be no widespread famine in the country - in other words, Small-scale famines are staged in Spain almost every few years.

"Hehe, Spanish society always seems weird, I don't know how to describe it." Alessandro laughed twice when he heard this, and then changed his words and said: "After arriving in Valladolid the day after tomorrow, we will rest for a day, and then we will go to meet His Excellency the Registrar of Balboa, who also happened to have just arrived at the side of Valladolid from Madrid, and as one of the two great clerks of the West Indian House, his judgment will ultimately influence the king's decision." Therefore, if your country wants to end the war quickly, it is essential to obtain the understanding of His Excellency Balboa. Of course I know it's not going to be easy, but we'll have to give it a try, because Mr. Balboa's attempt to start a conversation with us is a good start, isn't it? ”

"Perhaps." Mo San said uncertainly, "To be honest, I don't think the Spaniards will choose to end the war with us at this time, especially when the Ceuta tragedy has just been born, the Spaniards will be angry at this time, what can we get by removing the cold face of the Spaniards?" ”

The Ceuta tragedy to which Mo San is referring was born a month earlier, when a large East Coast trading fleet led by Captain Guo Zili encountered a small Spanish fleet while passing through the Strait of Gibraltar. After seeing that the Spaniards had only three galleys, Guo Zili immediately ordered several battleships to attack them, and completely sank the three Spanish galleys at nightfall. Guo Zili, who was worried about the arrival of the Spanish Mediterranean Fleet warships, did not order the rescue of the Spaniards who had fallen into the water, but led the fleet straight to Livorno, but this led more than 1,200 Neapolitan civilians who fell into the water (preparing to go to Peru through Guò Cádiz) to drown, and because the incident was near Ceuta, it was called the Ceuta tragedy.

After the tragedy of Ceuta, the Spaniards, accustomed to a slow-paced life, showed rare efficiency, and as soon as they received the news, they asked the Guò Doria family to summon Mr. Mo San, the diplomatic envoy plenipotentiary stationed in Europe on the east coast, and after expressing their strong indignation at the attack on the Spanish civilian ships (one emigrant ship and two grain ships) by the warships on the east coast, they demanded that Mo San immediately leave for Valladolid, and the officials of the West Indian Affairs of the Kingdom of Spain would make formal representations with them.

And Mo San, who was still in Messina at the time, was even amused when he heard the request of the Spaniards relayed by the Doria family. Is this brain-dead or what's wrong with the Spaniards, our warship hit your civilian ship, is it possible that we still want to compensate you? And what is there to negotiate about this matter, any behavior during the war is normal, and you have the ability to find the field. Who is to blame for the fact that the main force of his own navy went to the Caribbean to guide the house and the civilian ships were not protected?

However, the Doria family, who had been in business in Spain for hundreds of years and knew the inside of Spanish society, had a different view at this time. Alessandro was very optimistic and kept saying that the Spaniards were dismissive of the East Coast, and that they were not even willing to give the East Coast diplomats a formal and equal dialogue. At this time, the Spaniards were willing to summon the diplomatic envoys from the East Coast, although it still seemed very unpolite and inquisitive, but this was a huge breakthrough after all, because the Spaniards were finally willing to start a dialogue with the East Coasters, which was definitely a great progress.

Hearing Alejandro say this, Mo San, who wanted to return to Istanbul, decided to go to Spain to see what kind of fart they had to put on after thinking about it again! It's a big deal to break up unhappily! And, as Alessandro said, if the Spaniards were willing to engage in a limited dialogue with the East Coast on this issue, it would be a very good start for the East Coast Republic, which was eager to end the war, and it was worth taking advantage of it.

"Not necessarily, mo." Alessandro smiled mysteriously and said, "You should know that the Spaniards are having a hard time these days. With the northern frontier invaded by the French, the western part of the country occupied by the Portuguese, and the cities of the Southern Netherlands largely falling, and the shape of the Italian battlefield in a disrespectful state, what qualifications do they have to be proud of? Now the whole world is hating them, jealous of them, and fighting them, their navy has been severely damaged by the Netherlands, France, and your east coast, and the remaining ships are barely even the two fleets escorting the trade in the Americas, and the 6th Army has been annihilated in large numbers, which is simply terrible. They can't even guarantee that the food they are in dire need of food will be shipped back home in time, the country is on the verge of collapse, and she desperately needs to end some redundant and overwhelmed wars to get a respite. ”

"As for what is superfluous war, well, this one is obvious." "For example, the war with the Protestant League, which has long since ceased to be de facto stopped, the never-ending naval assault with the Dutch East and West India Company, the senseless war of independence with the Portuguese, and the war with you East coasters over a rumored arson. Where are the core interests of the Spaniards, of course, at home! Although the vast American colonies contributed a great deal of wealth to Spain, they were all empty without their homeland, so the Spaniards needed to win the life-and-death struggle against the French. Or, at the very least, they need a decent draw, and this, obviously, requires the Spaniards to concentrate their attention first. (To be continued......)

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