Chapter 495: Power Politics

As soon as the title of "Lord Duke" came out, the tall officer, who was obviously waiting for Phillips, was startled at first, and then his brow immediately furrowed.

In the various yamen and institutions in Huazhou, there are many people who are from the background of translation, and there are many Westerners under Jiang Feng, not only to deal with these people, but also to deal with ships and merchants at sea, translate all kinds of documents and documents, trade goods, gold and silver, and need to know some foreign languages.

Anyone who does translation, but also has learned some culture, knows how to practice, such people are the most lacking in Huazhou's institutions, so in Huazhou and Yizhou, there are a lot of people who are born as officials, even in the coastal ports of the Ming Dynasty, where the interpreters are all admired to Huazhou, of course, there are similar roles outside the customs, but they are all Sinicized Mongolians.

Luo Yi's pro-military battalion is in charge of the public security and internal affairs of Jiangfeng's territory, and he is very close to the Dutch and Westerners who have a small population, but they are all not low-status, and the interpreters are naturally indispensable, and this interpreter who led the way for Phillips is also one of them.

Seeing that his boss's expression suddenly became serious, he suddenly secretly screamed in his heart, and he originally wanted to introduce:

"This is the Minister of the Interior of Huazhou, Lord Luo Yi."

You can elevate the status of your own lord, and you can also elevate the political status of Huazhou in front of the envoy of the governor of Luzon, but Phillips, a young man, asked a little recklessly, "Lord Duke of Huazhou", in this way, Luo Yi, who has always been a cautious commander of the pro-military battalion, must have felt panic and anger because he was mistaken for Jiang Feng by others.

Although Luo Yi nominally does not understand Western languages, the interpreter also knows that in this living room, according to the rules of Huazhou, there should be two interpreters listening behind the screen or cubicle, which is also so that there will be no verbal misunderstanding or betrayal in foreign exchanges.

After urgently reminding Second Lieutenant Phillips that the person in front of him was not the Duke of Huazhou, the interpreter's brain was also turning quickly, and he said respectfully:

"This is Lord Luo Yi, the sheriff of Huazhou, second lieutenant, you admit that you are wrong!"

Second Lieutenant Phillips's face suddenly turned red, how could he have any diplomatic experience as a small officer in a colony, but he was also vaguely proud in his heart, this magistrate in Huazhou was a nobleman above the count at least in Spain, and the rank should be major general. But such a character has face-to-face communication with himself, which can be regarded as a kind of success of his own, and he smiled dryly to cover up his embarrassing emotions, and then took a step forward with the same respectful attitude as just now, and saluted and said:

"Your Excellency the Justice, I am Second Lieutenant Phillips, a second lieutenant sent by Revel Levire, Governor of the Kingdom of Spain in Luzon."

Luo Yi nodded and sat at the top, under the guidance of the interpreter, Phillips sat down in the lower position, there was no reciprocal attitude at all, what envoys from both sides negotiated on an equal footing, there is no one here, Luo Yi looked at the young Caucasian in front of him condescendingly, and said quite seriously:

"This time, I asked Luzon to send someone over because a very serious incident happened, the case of the assassination of the king of Korea that happened some time ago, the specific process has been explained in the official document, right?"

Phillips nodded hurriedly and said in a low voice:

"Lord Luo, this kind of gun will have this kind of equipment on the entire sea, as long as it is a ship in Europe and the Americas, you are so arbitrary......"

As soon as the sentence "arbitrary" was said, Phillips felt that he was speaking too arbitrarily, and it must have violated the attitude of Governor Revel when he set out at that time, and he must be polite, polite, and very polite. No matter what the other party asked, he had to accept it with a pleasant face, and promised to use his best efforts to solve it, Governor Revere looked at the young lieutenant in front of him with a rather angry look on his face.

With a wry smile, he led the second lieutenant to the window of the office, pointing to the fleet outside, the gun doors on one side of the fleet were opened, and the guns were facing the shore, the regional fleet of this so-called detachment, there were nearly more than 300 guns on the ship, and the Spanish colonial army in the entire Luzon was twenty or thirty guns, not to mention any comparison of calibers. Governor Revel spoke in a rather helpless tone:

"Spain is a big country in Europe, and it is also a big country in this world, but here, we can't speak loudly, we can't use big movements, only by doing this, we can make a little money with the permission of the strong, you have to get used to the gap!"

Thinking of the serious words at that time, the second lieutenant quickly adjusted his mood and explained with a smile:

"It is possible that Portuguese or occasionally other ships may be in possession of such firearms, and I can assure on behalf of the Governor of Luzon that our military and civilian forces in Luzon have seven hundred and sixty-nine guns of the same standard, and that there is no possibility of loss or transfer into the hands of other regions and others, and that there are specific papers and documents as evidence for inspection."

For the other party's questioning, Luzon still made relatively full preparations, since the other party is a bully questioning, his own side must also do enough things, whether the European colonizers are hundreds of years ago or hundreds of years later, when dealing with each other, if the other party's strength is weaker than their own, they will humbly talk about the conditions, be reasonable, and even be very kind and low-voiced. If the strength is higher than that of the other party, these foreign devils who claim to be civilized will behave more barbaric than the barbarians.

Now Huazhou is a behemoth to these people in Luzon, and the Spaniards in Luzon also vaguely know some news about the blocking battle against the Spanish expeditionary fleet in Malacca, although they dare not say it explicitly.

For these people, a fleet of the mother country disappeared into the sea without a sound, and their support for survival in Luzon would collapse, after all, there were hundreds of thousands of natives in Luzon, and they were afraid of the ships and cannons in the harbor.

If they knew that the so-called fleet no longer existed, the two thousand white people in Luzon had no one to support them, and the natives did not mind relying on the large number of people to kill these white people who occupied their land, not to mention that the Chinese they really feared had no intention of protecting these foreigners.

After hearing the number of seven hundred and sixty-nine firearms. The corners of Luo Yi's mouth twitched inadvertently, but the movement was very small, and the frightened Phillips didn't notice it at all, he was bowing his head and drinking the hot tea in his hand to hide his anxiety and panic, the second lieutenant felt that he was very cramped, and he didn't know what to say, especially Luo Yi's high-minded appearance on the other side, he seemed to feel that in the face of those noble officers in the country, he would unconsciously be inferior, this second lieutenant was young after all, in such a negotiation, if the momentum was weak, That is to fall behind.

Luo Yi is no longer the silent son of the craftsman back then, and his years of experience have allowed him to become resourceful, and to put it mildly, it can be said that he is an old treacherous and slippery. There he said leisurely:

"Luzon's gun storage records, the news we got in Huazhou is 870, how do you explain the difference between this 100 and 1?"

As soon as he said this, Phillipston stood up from the chair, and when he stood up, there was a sudden sound of noise on the side of the living room where there were only three people, and Luo Yi's always serious face finally brought some mocking smiles, looking at the white man with a flushed face, while waving his hand calmly, the surrounding noise quickly quieted down.

The expression on Phillips's face was not anger, and he couldn't hide his surprise, this number he only learned from a relatively secret channel before he came to Huazhou, of course, he only listened to it as gossip, because he didn't expect the other party to know.

The interpreter on the side quickly translated Luo Yi's words, he had a memory of this in his heart, but he just listened attentively, and quickly translated, there was no change in expression on his face, he was also a clerk who could participate in a certain practice in the pro-military camp, and because of his foreign language expertise, he also came into contact with a lot of information related to Luzon, after he heard this, he remembered a certain document he saw a year ago, the clerk in charge of ordnance in the Governor's Office of Luzon, which was recorded, said that since the colonization of Luzon, The biggest gun losses were when the Huazhou fleet shelled the port, and the soldiers were crushed to pieces along with their guns.

If his number is not mistaken, it should be more than ninety, and the difference between the next few seems to be a normal loss.

"With such a dangerous weapon, you have allowed this kind of fire to flow in all directions, and it has caused very serious consequences, and this responsibility must be borne by Luzon!"

Luo Yi's words were very strong, Phillips over there was caught on the handle of the number, and he couldn't refute it there, and after hearing this sentence, he was even more at a loss and didn't know how to react, Luo Yi felt very ridiculous in his heart, and he didn't know the fresh words that his own adults came up with: what to say that high-lethal weapons should not be spread at will, endangering the stability of the sea, it is obviously coercion, but it seems that his side is righteous and strict.

The second lieutenant was even more flustered and didn't know what to say, this envoy was indeed very unqualified, of course, Phillips didn't know, his envoy was also decided by the intelligence department of Huazhou, and Levere, the governor of Luzon, was highly cooperative......