King Philip IV of Spain, a being known as the King of the Earth, was indeed quite a powerful figure at first, because when he succeeded to the throne, Portugal was still a Spanish vassal and the Netherlands was nominally a Spanish vassion.

How big were the colonies of Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands combined?

It can be said that during this period, almost all the overseas colonies of the European continent were these three countries, and their colonies together accounted for a small half of the known continent area, and the Holy Roman Empire, which occupied nearly half of the land area of the European continent, also belonged to the Habsburg dynasty, and he was the most powerful king of the Habsburg dynasty, so the title of Philip IV, the king of the earth, was not bragging, according to the situation at the time, he was really the king of the earth!

However, his life as the king of the earth was not easy, because by the time he succeeded to the throne, Spain's armada had already been wiped out in five expeditions to Britain, and Spain had lost its position as the supremacy of the sea.

As early as the beginning of his succession, the Netherlands' maritime strength had surpassed Spain's, and in the back, the Netherlands was even more dominant on the sea, and even Spain's treasure ships were robbed, but he had nothing to do about it.

Moreover, before he succeeded to the throne, France, Denmark and Sweden provoked a great war against the Habsburgs, and the Holy Roman Empire almost fell apart, and the Netherlands, Britain, Russia and other powers joined the camp of the anti-Habsburg alliance one after another, and almost all the powers of the entire European continent were against him, and he, the king of the earth, was simply fighting the whole world!

Portugal's independence made Spain's situation even worse, and he couldn't even organize an army to clean up Portugal, because in Catalonia, Spain was at war with France, the Netherlands and other powers, and he had no time to manage Portugal.

At this time, it can be said that it was the most difficult time for Spain and even the entire Habsburg Dynasty, because the Holy Roman Empire had been crippled by the combined forces of France, Sweden and Denmark, and the Spanish Navy and Spanish Army had also been defeated by the French and Dutch forces.

Historically, it was at this time that the Habsburg Dynasty and the Anti-Habsburg League began peace talks, and then Spain and the Holy Roman Empire ceded land and sued for peace, ending the 30-year European continental hegemony war.

However, Zhang Bin has rewritten history, just as Philip IV was considering whether to start peace talks, the governor of Manila in the Far East, Coqueira, ran back, he brought a shocking news, that is, the Ming Empire has formed an alliance with Portugal, and the Ming Empire also intends to ally with Spain, and more importantly, the "Invincible Armada" of the Ming Empire has covered tens of thousands of miles of sea and come to the European continent!

Two hundred super battleships and two hundred cruisers with strong firepower, what kind of concept is that, at the peak of the Spanish Armada there were more than 100 super battleships and cruisers, that is to say, the combat effectiveness of this force alone is more than three times that of the Spanish Armada.

What is there to hesitate at this time, since the Ming Empire intends to form an alliance, then form an alliance with them, such a powerful ally is not only what Portugal needs, but also what Spain needs, because at this time he has no power to return to the sky, and only by relying on external forces can there be hope of turning things around.

The intervention of the Ming Empire was at the right time, and he not only saw hope, but even saw the dawn of victory!

There's nothing to hesitate about, forming an alliance, such a powerful ally that is enough to change the tide of the war doesn't hurry up, it's really a problem with the brain.

At this time, he couldn't care about the Portuguese colony, the dignity of the king, although he was arrogant, but he was not a psychopath, such an opportunity to turn things around, he was going to miss it, Spain would really be finished.

After listening to Coqueira's report, he immediately decided to ask Zhang Bin, the Duke of Weiguo, to come to Valencia to negotiate and sign a contract with the Ming Empire as soon as possible!

In fact, Zhang Bin was a little wrong, he thought that the area of Spain is not large, Madrid is not far from the sea, Coqueira should be able to arrive in Madrid soon after getting off the ship, in fact, Madrid is seven or eight hundred miles away from the nearest port Valencia.

Coqueira was really tossed and miserable at this time, he drifted at sea for three months in a row, not to mention, after getting off the ship, he also galloped for two days before arriving in Madrid, this has just been reported, His Majesty the King asked him to rush to Lisbon, ask Zhang Bin to negotiate, he has to fight back again!

This guy is just terrible, when he rushed back to Valencia, the whole person was about to fall apart, but fortunately, more than ten light ironclad ships sent by Zhang Bin to him are still there, he just needs to lie down on the ship.

Coqueira lay on the boat for more than a day, and finally arrived in Lisbon, at this time Zhang Bin was already a little impatient, he originally estimated that Coqueira only needed three or four days to play back and forth from Spain, but never thought that Coqueilla would take six or seven days.

This will disrupt his plans, because he has made João IV negotiate peace with England and Holland half a month later, and he has to rush to Spain to negotiate with Philip IV first, and if anything goes wrong in the middle, he will not be able to negotiate with England and Holland in time.

Of course, he could have the British and Dutch envoys waiting in Lisbon to start negotiations when he returned from Spain, but he didn't want to be arrogant and rude, after all, he wanted to play the role of "peacemaker".

Before meeting Coqueira, he was originally a little angry, but when he saw Coqueira's haggard appearance, his anger suddenly disappeared by half, and when he heard Coqueira's explanation, he couldn't cry or laugh, well, it turned out that he had miscalculated the distance, but fortunately, Philip IV was willing to rush to Valencia in person to negotiate because he was anxious for peace talks, otherwise, this half a month is really not enough.

After learning more about the situation, he decided to let Coqueira rest in Lisbon for a day and then set off the next morning, because according to the distance, it would take at least two days for Philip IV to travel from Madrid to Valencia, and a king would certainly not be able to take a few men to run away on horseback, he must bring enough guards and relevant officials, so that Philip IV could reach Valencia in three days.

Therefore, he does not need to be in a hurry, it is best to set off the next morning and arrive in Valencia at noon on the third day, after all, Spain is the territory of Philip IV, and he hurried to Valencia and other people to appear to be in a hurry, and it should be Philip IV and not him who is in a hurry at this time.