It was a very lively night, with the sound of ping-pong gunfire in the middle of the night, mixed with violent explosions, and if it weren't for the more than a thousand mercenaries of the Far Eastern Company who happened to be stationed in Maragon, I don't know how much chaos would have been made.

"The Spaniards bought off the big ghost's men, and threw a grenade into the big ghost's house last night, and the big ghost and pineapple died on the spot, and then the big ghost's men mutinied, but fortunately they were quelled by the mercenaries of the Far East Company." In the morning, Jimmy explained to Fernand Gonzalez Jr. and Lin Xianghai what had happened last night.

The scene was very tragic, the house where the big ghost lived had completely collapsed due to the violent explosion, and the mercenaries were busy all night, and finally dug up the bodies of the big ghost and pineapple from the ruins, although it was unrecognizable, but it was still certain that it was the big ghost and pineapple himself.

As for the men brought back by the big ghost and Pineapple, all of them were killed in the exchange of fire last night, some of them died in the internal strife, and the rest were all strangled by the mercenaries of the Far East Company.

Thinking of yesterday's meeting, this thing is strange from beginning to end, no matter how you look at it, it is full of conspiracy, but unfortunately the big ghost and Pineapple and their men are dead without proof, so it doesn't matter what the truth is.

"Damn the Spaniards." Fernand Gonzalez Jr. gritted his teeth, of course he didn't believe Jimmy's words, but so what, the answer is this, if you don't want to completely tear your face, then it's better to accept Jimmy's statement, Fernand Gonzalez Jr. doesn't want to find the truth, because Fernand Gonzalez Jr. feels that he is in a huge crisis, and if you don't know, today's big ghost and pineapple will be tomorrow's little Fernand Gonzalez.

"What about the front line?" Lin Xianghai accepted it more thoroughly, and immediately raised a more important question.

Yes, there are still thousands of men on the front line, and if the news of this place reaches the front line, I don't know how much chaos it will cause, and if the Spaniards in Manila take advantage of the situation to attack, the huge uprising may face annihilation.

"Don't worry, you guys will return to the front line in Manila right now, collect the troops of the big ghost and pineapple, and our plans will also be adjusted, and when the Pacific Fleet is ready, we will attack Manila." Jimmy has a complete plan here, and it's no problem to be without anyone, but it's a bit hasty to push Lin Xianghai to the front of the stage now, Jimmy originally wanted to wait until Manila was captured before pushing Lin Xianghai to the front of the stage.

If Lin Xianghai retains his strength now, then after occupying Manila, Lin Xianghai will lack enough prestige, and then he will have to go to great lengths to give Lin Xianghai prestige, but if he can't wait to stand in front of the stage now, then the Chinese in Manila may become the object of anger for the Spaniards and local natives, and this consequence is also what Jimmy and Austin do not want to see.

"I'll go back and get ready to go." Lin Xianghai was also in a hurry.

Lin Xianghai did not object to Jimmy's arrangement, Jimmy asked Lin Xianghai to preserve his strength, Lin Xianghai buried himself in training, and now it is finally time for the mule to come out for a walk, and Lin Xianghai is also eager to prove himself on the battlefield.

Of course, Lin Xianghai has not forgotten his original intention of going to the Ryukyus, the blood debt owed by the Spaniards and the indigenous people of Luzon over the years must be calculated little by little, there are opportunities in the future, with the help of the Ryukyus and Far East companies, if Lin Xianghai can't do it, then Lin Xianghai might as well buy a piece of tofu and die.

On the same day, Fernand Gonzalez Jr. and Lin Xianghai returned to the front line to incorporate the troops of the big ghost and pineapple, and when Lin Xianghai set out, he took 1,200 Chinese troops who had received complete basic training, which was Lin Xianghai's future capital for the new government.

The incorporation work went quite smoothly, when the big ghost's subordinates were recruited, some people questioned the cause of the big ghost's death, Lin Xianghai killed decisively, and directly shot all the questioning officers collectively in the name of rebellion, and then Lin Xianghai's men swelled to more than 4,000 people.

Lin Xianghai did not mix the Chinese troops and the indigenous troops, but quietly replaced all the middle and low-level officers with Chinese, and then the troops began to be reorganized, and a certain degree of training was required, even if he knew that most of the aborigines were cannon fodder, he had to make these cannon fodder more valuable.

As a result, the assault on Manila must have stopped, and Lin Xianghai and Fernand Gonzalez Jr. had to order their troops to temporarily retreat and disengage with the Manila Servants.

This gave the Spaniards another opportunity, taking advantage of this short truce, the Spanish governor in Luzon transferred all the servant troops in Medan, Wright and other places to Manila to strengthen the defense, and organized the Spaniards in Luzon to form a volunteer army, ready to fight the rebels.

These transfers were carried out under the nose of the rebels, although Jimmy knew but helpless, no way, the Spaniards had warships, but the rebels only had sampans, on land, the rebels could beat the Spaniards all over the ground with superior weapons, once they reached the sea, the difference in strength between the two sides immediately fell, and the Ryukyu side could only take the way of smuggling to send supplies to Luzon.

The Spaniards also knew that the Ryukyus side was smuggling, and on the sea near Maragon, there were small boats going back and forth every day by night, and the Manila Governor's Office tried every means to crack down, and even sent warships to be stationed in the waters near Maragon to try to completely blockade Maragon, as long as they saw ships, the Spanish warships would open fire.

On the evening of 25 October, the destroyer "Challenge" of the Spanish colonial fleet discovered a ship of unknown nationality in the waters near Maragon, and the "Challenge" immediately asked the other side to stop the ship for inspection, and when the other ship escaped, the commander of the "Challenge" ordered to open fire, and half an hour later, in the sea area 50 kilometers north of Maragon, the "Challenge" rescued about 15 Americans, and then the "Challenge" learned that it was the American merchant ship "Free Man" that they had sunk.

When the news was transmitted back to the United States, public opinion was in an uproar.

Since more than half a year ago, the media led by Time Magazine began to advocate waging foreign wars, in this era when businessmen need profits, politicians need political achievements, soldiers need military merits, and ordinary people also want to try their luck, war is the consensus of everyone, the United States has indeed struggled out of the economic crisis, but the economy is not fast enough, if it is to return to the level before the economic crisis as soon as possible, war is the best way.

The power of the media must not be ignored, most Americans in these years are not educated, and many of them do not even understand the relationship between news agencies and government agencies, so the power of the media is very strong, and when the news of the sinking of the merchant ship "Free Man" by a Spanish warship on the front page of Time magazine was reported, "revenge" immediately became the consensus of everyone.

"General George Dewey's fleet has set sail for Manila, and now it may have blockaded the port of Manila, maybe news of war will come soon, our chance has come, everyone, mobilize all the forces at your disposal, we need Congress to approve a declaration of war on the Spaniards as soon as possible, they already have the reason they want." Li Mu was satisfied, now everything was ready, only the east wind was owed, as long as Congress declared war on the Spaniards, the Far East Company could complete the harvest in Luzon.

This was a meeting of shareholders of the Far East Company held at Clinton Castle, and after several months, a group of "warmongers" gathered again, and now "warmongers" are no longer exclusive to Li Mu, Rockefeller, Henry DuPont, and even J. Brownon, who has always had a good reputation. P. Morgan, they're all called "warmongers."

"Is General George Dewey's fleet sure enough?" J· P. Morgan still had doubts about the importance of the war on J. Morgan. P. Morgan is completely unfamiliar territory.

"One hundred percent certainty, with those few broken ships of the Spaniards, there is no way to compete with the fleet of General George Dewey." Li Mu had enough confidence in George Dewey's fleet.

The information obtained by Li Mu before showed that the Spanish colonial fleet in Luzon consisted of a total of seven warships, of which the largest tonnage flagship was only 1,100 tons, all of these warships were all-wood sail warships, not even a steel hull, among which the longest service warship has been more than 30 years, it is said that the Spaniards never dared to drive the grandfather-class warship out of the port, because they were afraid of being scattered by the waves.

George Dewey's fleet is all new warships propelled by propellers, most of these warships use steel to reinforce key parts, the maximum caliber of the ship's guns is 250 mm, and the maximum caliber of the Spanish colonial fleet is only 125 mm, and there is still a big gap in the number of naval guns, no matter how you look at it, George Dewey has no reason to fail.

"The Spaniards are simply crazy, they actually opened fire on our merchant ships, thank God, this is really a reason to send it to the door." Henry Dupont didn't care whether the Spaniards had lost their minds or not, or whether the sailors on the merchant ship were rescued or not, Henry Dupont only cared about the outcome.

Maybe Henry DuPont didn't know Li Mu enough, and after Rockefeller listened to Henry Dupont's words, he subconsciously looked at Li Mu.

"It's the Spaniards themselves who are stupid, and it has nothing to do with me." Li Mu spread his hands helplessly, although Rockefeller's expression was obviously unbelieving, but Li Mu was unwilling to carry this pot.

There is no need to dwell on why the Spaniards fired at the American merchant ships, the point is that the Spaniards did just that, maybe the captain of the "Challenge" was dazed, or maybe the "Free Man" was really supplying supplies to Maragon, none of this matters, the important thing is that Washington finally got the right excuse.

Now this result is not bad, at least you don't have to blow up and sink your own warship, and you have to bury 266 sailors, so when you think about it, it's not only good, it's just very good.

"No one said it had anything to do with you, so let's split up, it's time to finish the harvest." Rockefeller rolled his eyes widely, it doesn't matter what the truth is, what matters is that this result is in favor of the United States.

At the end of November, the Senate and the House of Representatives of Congress jointly resolved to make a request to the Spanish Government for an explanation for the shelling of American merchant ships by warships in the Luzon colony, and at the same time to demand that the Spaniards open the port of Manila and that the US Pacific Fleet be stationed in Manila to investigate the matter.

Obviously, this is a request that the Spanish government absolutely cannot accept.

President Hayes did not even wait for a reply from the Spanish government, and on November 25, Hayes signed the war resolution and forwarded it to the Spanish government.

Considering that George Dewey's Pacific Fleet had blockaded the port of Manila on November 1, Hayes brought forward the war to November 1.

Can the war be brought forward?

Yes, there was no problem at all, in fact the war broke out from the moment the captain of the "Challenge" gave the order to open fire.

"We're going to beat the Spaniards as fast as we can, I've drawn up the list, and as soon as the war is over, we'll start exploring for oil in Luzon, Asia has the largest population in the world, it's a huge market, and we're going to seize the opportunity." Rockefeller had ideals, and businessmen who did not want to do business all over the world were not good businessmen, and the development of the Asian market was also the reason why Rockefeller joined the Far East Company.

"I don't know if there's oil in Luzon, but I do know that there must be in the Dutch East Indies." Li Mu's ambition is big, and since the Spaniards have become meat on the chopping block, it is necessary to find new targets.

In Li Mu's impression, Luzon does not have any famous oil fields, but the Dutch East Indies have discovered oil, and compared with the unlucky Spain, the Dutch are not much better, these two ancestors have been beautiful, one is a "sea coachman", the other once had an "invincible armada", but now they have become yesterday's yellow flowers, as long as Washington is willing, the Dutch can not escape.

"No, the Dutch East Indies, our current enemy is Spain, not the Netherlands, and I don't think the Dutch will be our enemies for decades, so if we want to get oil, we'd better go more modest." Rockefeller was very sober, declaring war on the Spaniards, it was an attempt by the United States, to test the attitude of the British and the French through this matter, the Netherlands and Spain are different after all, Spain is now the wall is pushed by everyone, the Netherlands maintains close relations with the British, Great Spain can, the British can watch the fire from the other side, but if they fight the Dutch, the attitude of the British is not yet certain.

If it were a different person, Rockefeller would not have the patience to explain, Li Mu is different, Li Mu is also a shareholder of Mobil Oil, and Rockefeller should give Li Mu the respect he deserves.

The so-called "gentle way" is probably to spend money to buy.

Li Mu didn't like this way.