In the face of the eyes of a group of Ming and Japanese officers who wanted to eat people, Guo Qing, the representative of the Sihai Trading Company in Manila, still firmly persuaded Li Chenfang: "Colonel Li, the royal city of Manila must not be attacked, this will complicate and prolong the war. To date, there are more than 12,000 Japanese and Japanese naval forces fighting on Luzon, and if you add the support personnel serving these soldiers, the company needs to support more than 20,000 people.

These 20,000 people need to consume 14 tons of rice, 8 tons of various vegetables, and 7 tons of meat every day just for food, and if you add transportation costs, even if they don't do anything, they will consume 450 Ming Yuan a day. The circumference of the royal city of Manila is 45 kilometers, there are a large number of material warehouses in the city, its walls are all made of granite masonry, and there are more than 10 large and small forts around it.

Therefore, I implore Colonel Lee to abandon this siege plan, and then we should enter into negotiations with the Spaniards. ”

Li Chenfang looked at Guo Qing in front of him, and then at the majestic Royal City of Manila in the distance, and fell into deep thought. Guo Qing's face seemed calm, but he had already put all his energy on the young officer in front of him.

When he arrived at the temporary pier in Manila Bay, he had already heard that Li Chenfang had led a force to rescue the Japanese troops besieged by the Spanish-Turkish coalition, and of course everyone knew what this siege meant. Guo Qing didn't care about this, and he deliberately stayed at the Dalun Mountain base, waiting for the end of this war.

But when Li Chenfang almost wiped out the Spanish-Turkish coalition army that left the city, and began to try to capture the entire royal city of Manila, Guo Qing finally couldn't bear it anymore. On the one hand, he prevented the Dalun Mountain military camp from transferring heavy artillery to Li Chenfang's troops, and on the other hand, he personally came to the army to persuade Li Chenfang to dispel this idea.

In Luzon, the people who can ignore him, the representative of the Four Seas Trading Company in Manila, are about Zheng Zhilong, who commands the naval fleet, and Colonel Lee, who is in charge of the Nanyang Governor's Office. Zheng Zhilong finally has to respect the Internal Affairs Office behind the Four Seas Trading Company, but this Colonel Li, who was born as a close minister next to His Majesty, is equivalent to the status of several fathers-in-law of the Internal Affairs Office.

Guo Qing knew that if Li Chenfang could not be convinced, it would be difficult for the Luzon War to end according to the company's plan, and he didn't think that the company's upper echelons would blame Li Chenfang in front of him, and not throw him out as a culp.

As for the officers of tomorrow and Japan behind Li Chenfang, although they were annoyed that Guo Qing had come to disturb their opportunity to obtain military merits, they also knew that this kind of occasion was not something they could intervene in, so they all looked at their bosses silently, waiting for his final decision.

Li Chenfang thought for a quarter of an hour, and finally turned to his subordinates and ordered: "The first, fourth, and seventh wings form the sixth division, with Maori Katsuya as the division commander and Takano Heita as the deputy. The 3rd Wing and the 27th Artillery Regiment were stationed here to monitor the movements of the Intramuros of Manila, and Sanada Yukimasa was in charge of the defense of the camp. The others packed up and prepared to return to the Dalun Mountain Barracks with me. ”

Under Li Chenfang's gaze, although these officers were still a little unconvinced, they still carried out the order after all. After dismissing the officer corps behind him, Li Chenfang turned back to Guo Qing and said seriously: "Although what you said is right, I still hope that you will say to the company's board of directors that the army is not a tool used by the company to make profits, and I don't want Your Majesty's army to become a group of scheming businessmen." Besides, I hope you don't let the blood of the soldiers flow in vain, or I'm afraid I won't allow the company to take charge of the overall situation next time..."

Looking at Li Chenfang's departing back, Guo Qing, who was standing alone on the top of the slope, couldn't help but shrug his shoulders and said to himself: "But if there is no financial support, the army can't even go out of the country." A war without profit is a sacrifice and bloodshed for soldiers..."

For the citizens of the Intramuros of Manila and the Spanish colonial officials, the defeat of Captain Antonio of Rivera caused great panic among them. At this time, Governor Coqueira's prestige had fallen to its lowest level, and if it weren't for the Japanese army outside the city, the citizens of the city would have gone to the governor's palace to protest.

In order to appease the discontent of the citizens and gain the support of the colonial officials, Coqueira had to release the former governor Silva, announcing that his final review had been passed, hoping to use Silva's reputation in the colony to deal with the Japanese siege.

Although Silva, who had been under house arrest by Coqueilla for almost two years, hated the current governor, he also knew that he would not end well if the Japanese army invaded the city, so he still stepped forward to appease the citizens and officials in the city, and let them go about their duties and wait for the Speaker Alberto to bring back to the Ming Kingdom.

As a colonial power, the Spanish colonists were clearly more receptive to reality than the natives outside the city. They knew very well how they treated the natives of the colony, so when the Japanese army appeared on Luzon, they understood that their attempt to clean up the Chinese on the island had failed.

Although the most powerful force on the island is the Japanese army, it is the Chinese who can really decide whether war or peace is made. In such a situation, it is unthinkable that the Chinese do not make something to ask.

It's like Pizarro captured the emperor of the Inca Empire and released him without asking him to pay a ransom. What's more, the great Peruvian conquistador, after receiving the ransom, still executed the emperor of the Inca Empire.

As can be seen from the Chinese who had previously invited them to attack Japan, the current Chinese court and the Chinese court in 1603 were completely different things. The current Chinese court is greedy and murderous, and it is completely comparable to the Spaniards.

Therefore, Coqueira and the parliamentarians in Manila are ready to be knocked by the Chinese. But what they did not think about was that the appetite of the Chinese was so great that they not only swallowed the entire Central Plain, but even wanted to seize the foundation of Manila's existence - the Inner Lake Plain.

In order not to find themselves in an extremely difficult situation in the upcoming peace talks, Corquela and Manila's parliamentarians organized an army to prevent the Japanese from crossing the Marikina River.

But the Japanese army crushed this army like a decay, which made Coqueira and the parliamentarians a little frightened, they originally thought that they still had some capital to negotiate with the Chinese, but they now realize that they seem to be unable to defeat even the Chinese servant army. In this case, is it still necessary for the Chinese to negotiate with them?

At a meeting of the upper echelons of Manila, Coqueira shouted hysterically at the crowd: "The Chinese must have participated in this war, and I never believe that those Japanese monkeys can make such a good cannon and defeat our army head-on." Just a few years ago, their army of thousands of people was driven away by hundreds of us, how could such a huge change take place in just a few years..."

Silva, who was released not long ago, interrupted Coqueira's words and said disdainfully: "Mr. Governor, it doesn't matter whether the Chinese are involved in this war or not, what matters is how to end this war."

If you hadn't rashly provoked those Chinese, how could the Japanese have landed on the island in the name of quelling the indigenous rebellion? ”

Coqueira immediately retorted: "Speaking of which, Mr. Silva, don't you have responsibility?" The kingdom had long had decreed that inhabitants of other countries should not be allowed to migrate to the Spanish colonies in large numbers.

And the agreement you reached with the Four Seas Trading Company allowed these Chinese to take advantage of the loophole and relocate tens of thousands of Chinese to Luzon Island at once. Why else should I incite the natives to revolt? ”

Silva immediately cried out for himself: "If it weren't for the agreement I signed with the Chinese, how could the financial situation of the Philippine colonies improve?"

In the early years of my tenure, the Philippine colony had only 200,000 pesos of revenue for three years, of which more than 130,000 pesos came from subsidies from the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

But now, the license fees paid by the Chinese alone are more than 100,000 pesos a year, and if you add the transaction fees we collect from the Vietnamese slave trade, these two alone are more than 150,000 pesos a year.

The Vietnamese slaves purchased from the Chinese gave the colonial plantations a large amount of labor, and all of us here benefited. But you take this as my guilt, it's unreasonable..."

The inextricable quarrel between the current and former governors in front of the upper echelons of Manila distorted the theme of what was supposed to be a meeting to discuss how to deal with the Tomorrow-Japanese forces outside the city. While a few tried to get the two governors to stop arguing, the majority chose to stand idly by.

Many people know that the dispute between the two governors essentially means that neither of them has a solution to the current situation in Manila, so they have to start passing the buck and try to make the other side bear the responsibility for the loss of the Philippine colony.

But the problem is that the two governors at least have a place to retreat, but many of the people here leave the Philippines and are really nothing. Most of the colonists who were able to risk their lives to come to the East in search of wealth and opportunity did so without wealth and opportunity at home.

Let them abandon their property in the Philippines and return to Spain or go to the Americas, and they will immediately become beggars who have nothing from high society. For some people, losing their property is worse than taking their lives.

Therefore, seeing the two governors shirking their responsibilities regardless of it, most people were extremely cold, because these two governors failed to come up with a way to save them, so who would live or die between them, and who cared.

Just as the meeting was sliding in an unpredictable direction, suddenly a clerk pushed open the door of the conference room and shouted happily to everyone: "The speaker is back, and Guo Qing, the representative of the Sihai Trading Company, has also followed him into the city." ”

Suddenly someone stood up and said: "Let's go and greet His Excellency the Speaker first, first find out what the Chinese want, and then come to the meeting to discuss it..."

Soon, the upper-class people in the conference room rushed out one by one to greet Speaker Alberto and Chinese representative Guo Qing. For a moment, the two governors were left behind in the chamber.

Silva looked at the empty conference room, then got up and walked towards the door, not forgetting to taunt Coquela: "It seems that your subordinates have forgotten that you are the governor of the Philippines." I hope that the conditions of those Chinese are not too harsh, otherwise I will have to see how much better your fate will be than mine. ”

For Silva's ridicule, although Coquela's face was pale, he finally didn't retaliate. After Silva also disappeared at the door, Coqueilla slammed his fist on the solid wood long table in front of him and said: "I want to see how long those Chinese can be proud, without silver from the Americas, Manila is nothing..."