The destination of the boat on which Gao Wengang and others were traveling was the port of Bilbao on the southern shore of the Bay of Biscay.

This Basque city, which served as a temporary base for the East Coast Navy and Army during the War of Legacy Transfer, played a huge role in striking targets along the coast of the Kingdom of France. Standing on the deck, Gao Wengang looked extremely and tried to find the camp left behind by the soldiers on the east coast on the top of a small high slope near the harbor, but found nothing, because it has now become an orchard.

A small Spanish dhow slowly rowed over. It was a quarantine ship, rowed by 12 convicts who had committed crimes, and two men stood in the bow, dressed in black uniforms, who were supposed to be Spanish sanitary quarantine officers, who were generally trained by the Church.

After being hoisted onto the deck in a leather bag, the Spanish quarantine personnel first looked at the deck, and then asked the people on the east coast about it, such as where the ship came from, what the name of the ship was, who the captain was, how many people were on board, whether anyone was sick or dead, and so on. The first mate of the ship who came forward to receive him answered the above questions eloquently to the Spaniards, and after seeing that they had all been recorded, he took out the ship's logbook for inspection, as was customary, and softly pointed out that one page of the logbook stated that a person's death was due to seasickness, and that it had been dealt with.

The Spanish quarantine officer carefully examined the contents of the page with a serious face, and after a long time put away the logbook, saying that he would take it ashore to record and rub it. At the same time, he demanded that all people on the east coast not leave the ship until they returned, and placed a goose with white feathers in the middle of the mast at the front of the ship, indicating that the ship was under quarantine and was not allowed to enter the port for the time being.

Seeing this, the captain who accompanied Gao Wengang had to come forward to negotiate, and also avoided the eyes and ears of others and planned to send a small bag of silver coins as a bribe, but he didn't expect these two guys to hesitate slightly, and then refused with a painful face, which surprised the captain and was also a little surprised: These Spaniards took the wrong medicine today? You must know that in the past, they were very greedy and openly asked for bribes from businessmen from all over the world, and this time they didn't want the money sent to the door, which is really strange!

Gao Wengang, who was standing in the back, could have naturally happened before, although he didn't say anything, but he was constantly guessing in his heart: they had already sent a small boat into the port to inform the port of Bilbao two hours ago, and the Spanish officials at the port should have known their identities. And now the question is, why do these Spaniards dare to act like this, when they already know their identity? Don't tell me it's business, the rules and regulations made by Spaniards have always been bullshit, as long as you have money, you can be accommodating, and if you think about it from this point of view, things seem to become "interesting".

The only question now is whether this is the personal behavior of the local Spanish officials or the attitude of the Madrid court, and the meaning of the two is very different!

The Spaniards were gone for a few hours, and the people on the east coast had no choice but to sit on the ship to pass the time. During this period, a total of one ship entered the port and two ships left the port, and Gawain just found that the merchant ship from the Netherlands, laden with indigo, lichen, cochineal and other dyes waited for about an hour before being allowed to enter the inner harbor.

It was not until about five o'clock in the afternoon, when it was already a little dark, that a few pot-bellied Spanish officials rowed back in small boats and issued a series of papers to the people on the east coast, indicating that they could enter the port. Obviously, they didn't get the gratitude or friendship of the East Coasters for this action, and only received silence, but it seemed that they didn't mind much.

A Spanish cavalry officer was waiting on the docks, and he appeared to be on the orders of a local official to lead a group of more than twenty cavalry escorts to Madrid. Gawain thanked him, invited everyone to dinner in a tavern, and settled down in the temporary quarters prepared by the Spaniards, who were not received by any other Spanish official, which was strange and infuriating.

This Spaniard's attitude is not right! Could it be that this time we are angry and unhappy with our claim to build roads, but in fact we have encroached on the eastern half of the Pampa Plain? Unlikely! It's not once or twice that people on the east coast bully the Spaniards, and the land is even more frequently embezzled, how did the fertile land between the rivers, the central valley of Chile, and the two river basins of the South Cone (between the Ludang River and the Baoxing River) come about? At that time, the Spaniards did not make trouble, and at this time there is no reason to make trouble!

There were a number of Spaniards in service in the makeshift shelters, mostly with yellowish-brown skin, which at one point led to suspicion of Moorish. However, considering that the Castilian or Basque people were not very white, and that the Moors had long since been expelled, Gao Wengang still believed that they were Spaniards.

These people speak in a loud voice, accompanied by large movements of their heads, shoulders and arms, and are very expressive, looking like Italians living on the Apennine Peninsula. Their clothes were ordinary, cotton turbans and linen tunics, and the two men who looked like stewards wore relatively expensive tweed tunics and brimmed hats. Anyway, when he had nothing to do, Gao Wengang moved a chair and sat in the courtyard with these people and chatted, and these people didn't mind a few casual remarks for the sake of the gifts distributed to everyone by Gao Wengang's entourage.

The focus of Gao Wengang's understanding is about the Spanish economy, such as the shortage of goods, the rise and fall of prices, the severity of taxes, etc., and these happen to be the parts that these low-level Spanish residents know better. Through talking with these people, Gawain just vaguely learned that although the Kingdom of Spain joined the war halfway, it was helpless and weak, and now it was even more difficult than France and the Netherlands, and the supply of bread, butter, salted fish and other commodities was greatly reduced, and even the supply of olive oil, wine, cured meat, and other commodities that were abundant in Spain was not very stable.

In addition, both off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, Spanish towns were attacked by the French Navy (or pirates?). Crazy looting, heavy losses. Especially after their ally Dutch lost the battle off the coast of Catalonia, and the leading commander Druitel was also unlucky to be wounded in the battle, the western Mediterranean became a paradise for French pirates, and even some pirates from Barbary in North Africa took advantage of the fire to come to the Spanish coast to capture "white slaves".

And the most painful thing for the Spaniards was that although their navy had just made a big show in the Caribbean, repelled a small French fleet, and successfully recovered the entire island of Hispaniola through the tactics of a long siege, one of their silver-carrying fleets was raided in the waters of the Canary Islands, and the French captured two ships and sank three, with heavy losses! I believe that if it weren't for the Dutch seeing them pitiful and allowing them not to pay the principal and interest of the debts they owe this year, the Kingdom of Spain might not even be able to pay the military expenses, and it would be miserable to think about!

Gao Wengang was also very emotional after hearing it. Spain is a country with an extremely weak industrial base, and the vast majority of domestic industrial products are produced by craftsmen, which is very different from the manual workshops in France and parts of Germany, not to mention the British factories that have begun to take shape. For example, the country's abundant wool has been exported to the Netherlands, France for many years, and then imported woolen wool, which shows the low industrial production capacity – of course, this is also due to the country's huge gold and silver flows, which has led to high inflation.

Therefore, Spain is extremely dependent on the import of overseas goods, and when it became rich, it imported all kinds of daily necessities and industrial products from Italy, France, England and Germany; Later, when they became destitute, they reduced their imports by attracting craftsmen from abroad to settle in Spain (as evidenced by the more than 40,000 French craftsmen in Madrid), but there were still a lot of goods imported every year.

But what about now? The Thirty Years' War was already crippled, and then it was involved in the Anglo-Spanish War, the Inheritance Transfer War, and the Franco-Dutch War, and the family was basically swept away.

Because of the trade deficit caused by the war and the large outflow of gold and silver, coupled with the failure of domestic grain harvests year after year, the repeated invasion of French and even North African pirates off the coast, and the heavy damage to silver ships, all these heavy pressures have been pressed, and the Spaniards have not collapsed until now, which is indeed very unexpected by Gao Wengang.

And in this case, the confidence of the Kingdom of Spain is naturally very weak, even if the people on the east coast do anything to be sorry for them, considering all these factors, this country should not immediately turn its face, let alone the wild land of the New World in the south! Therefore, at this time, Gao Wengang has basically confirmed in his heart that the Spaniards dare not do anything about the east coast, and there may be some twists and turns in Madrid, but there should be no obstacles to obtaining the desired result. As for the so-called "cold reception" he will encounter in the port of Bilbao, to put it bluntly, it is nothing, but the Spaniards have a fire in their hearts, and they take the opportunity to play a little trick and vent some anger!

Thinking of this, Gao Wengang was immediately satisfied, and after sending the Spanish service staff in the post house to leave, he returned to his room and slept soundly. When he got up the next morning, he had his spare time to buy a lot of delicate food, opened a bottle of tequila sent from the country, and ate his breakfast slowly, and then followed the Spanish cavalry who accompanied him and headed south in the direction of Madrid.

Most of the way to this trip is on the arid Castilian plateau. In the heart of Spain, the country was marked by ruin, poverty and despair, years of war had drained the country of its last energy, and the people's tax burden was extremely heavy and life became increasingly difficult. Even the Hidalgos, who were occasionally seen on the road, looked anxious, and the number of servants accompanying them was far less than what they had seen in France and England, and it seemed that the economy was indeed difficult.

At this time, Gao Wengang had the urge to complain in his heart, because the Kingdom of Spain had a vast and rich colony in the Americas, and it was still so poor, which was a little incredible to think about. In his opinion, the gold, silver and commodities produced in the colonies "ancestral" by the Spaniards were now basically siphoned off by the East Coast, the United Provinces, England and other countries, and the money passed in their hands for a while, and then went to other people's pockets, leaving nothing behind - oh, this is not true, because the hot money passing through the road clearly left inflation for the Spaniards!

On February 23, 1679, Gowengang and his party finally arrived in Madrid, where they were informed by several officials sent by the Spanish court and placed in a decent mansion where the diplomatic season from the United Provinces also lived, and it looked like the state guesthouse of the eastern capital, Dongfang County.

In the "State Guesthouse," Gao Wengang tried to talk to the envoy from the United Province, despite the fatigue of traveling. But somehow, the guy looked very vigilant, and he didn't want to talk to Gao Wengang more, which made him a little embarrassed. This Dutch red hair, I'm afraid that he is still jealous of the fact that the East Coast sent troops to seize the Cape Town colony before, otherwise how could he look like he had been dug up his ancestral grave?

However, the purpose of the Dutch envoy - Gao Wengang can be sure that this person is definitely not the Spanish ambassador to Madrid, but a special envoy with some purpose hastily sent from the Netherlands mainland - came to Madrid, Gao Wengang is also very interested, and he subconsciously guesses that they are not negotiating how to make peace with the French? Interestingly, the division within the United Provinces was now severe, and the republicans, based on bourgeois merchants, took control of parliament and greatly influenced the government, pushing the whole country to make peace with the French alone, at the expense of his ally the Kingdom of Spain, so that Louis XIV of France could get Franche-Comté, Lorraine, and some of the towns of the South Netherlands. In addition, the Prince of Orange, who was based on the landed aristocracy and the military aristocracy, was very reluctant to stop the war now, and had a negative attitude towards the negotiations held in Hainaut, and the desire for peace talks was not very strong, and the work dragged on.

I just don't know what kind of immortal person this will live in this state guesthouse with Gao Wengang as a companion, if it is the confidant of the Prince of Orange, then what will this person do, but it is very interesting.