"Mr. Taborah, long admiration." Zheng Zhilong clasped his hands into fists and saluted Tabora, not the first to enter the city, Zheng Zhilong was a little depressed, but in front of the prisoners, his mood was much better, but unfortunately, Tabora couldn't understand Chinese, and after translation, the unique context of Chinese was completely destroyed.

"You are Zheng Zhilong, the commander of the Ming Navy?" Tabora's mood is terrible, if he didn't want to come to the East to buy luxury goods in person, he wouldn't be trapped in Manila, and now he is still tied hand and foot, there is countless silver in the Americas, why come to this far East in person?

"Mr. Tabora, you are wrong, I am not the commander of the navy of the Ming Dynasty, I am only the commander of the South China Sea Fleet of the Ming Dynasty." Zheng Zhilong corrected Tabora's mistake, and Zheng Zhilong did not deceive his opponent before the formal negotiations.

"South Sea Fleet?" Tabora was a little puzzled, "Could it be that Daming has other fleets?" ”

"Mr. Tabora, you're right, in addition to the South China Sea Fleet, Daming also has the North Sea Fleet." Zheng Zhilong simply revealed the family background of the Ming Navy to Tabora.

"The North Sea Fleet? Is it the same size as the South China Sea Fleet? "Seeing the hundreds of ships of the South China Sea Fleet, Tabora has already admitted in his heart the decline of the Spanish Navy, if the Ming still has an equally powerful North Sea Fleet, then what else will Spain fight with the Ming Dynasty, the Ming can only be a friend of Spain, not an enemy of Spain.

"To be precise, the North Sea Fleet was formed earlier and on a larger scale than the South China Sea Fleet." Zheng Zhilong is telling the truth, at this moment, he is proud that the Ming Dynasty has two such fleets, in the naval battle between Taiwan and Southern Ryukyus, the South China Sea Fleet not only does not fall behind in the quality of ships, but also the number is several times that of Xiyi, and he is fighting an asymmetric war, he feels that he is not able to win.

"Bigger? You're not lying to me, are you? As soon as Tabora's words came out, he felt that he had asked a stupid question, in the past, Spain had an invincible fleet of hundreds of ships, and it should not be a problem to support two navies like the South China Sea Fleet with the land and population of the Ming Dynasty.

"Liared to you? Is this necessary? "Zheng Zhilong smiled, now that the Spanish army has been wiped out, you have become a prisoner, if it is for profit, I can threaten you, can I use deception?" Mr. Taborah, I am sincere. ”

Tabora fell into deep thought, no one knew what he was thinking, and looked at Zheng Zhilong blankly for a long time before he burst out with a sentence: "Mr. Zheng, maybe we can cooperate." ”

"Cooperation? That's a good idea, but now that Mr. Taborah is my captive, and there is no guarantee of his own life, what is Mr. Taborah going to do with me? Zheng Zhilong also wants to cooperate, but before the cooperation negotiations, he has to hit Tabora's confidence first.

"I'm the Governor of Manila, and all the Spaniards here will listen to me." Tabora felt that this was her only capital.

"Mr. Taborah, now they're just going to listen to me." Since he wanted to cooperate, Zheng Zhilong tried to compress Tabora's capital as much as possible, "Do you think that my fleet, my soldiers, can't completely destroy them?" ”

"You can destroy them, but it will take you a lot of time, and there will be losses in your soldiers and fleet." Tabora is desperately trying to expand her capital.

"I have time, and Daming can bear this loss, but ...... It's best to be able to cooperate, Mr. Taborah, and tell me about the way you work together. Zheng Zhilong asked Tabora to show his hole cards first, or based on Tabora's words, deduce his real hole cards.

"The entire Southern Ryukyu Islands can be given to you, and we only need a small piece of land near Manila." Tabora finally mustered up the courage to offer his terms to Zheng Zhilong.

"Absolutely impossible, what we want is the entire South Ryukyu Islands, a complete South Ryukyu Islands, not one less piece." Zheng Zhilong categorically refused, he knew that Ta Bo pulled out a false card, the purpose was to win a favorable position in the subsequent negotiations, if he made a request, Zheng Zhilong did not agree, then he also refused, then no one doubted Zheng Zhilong's sincerity.

Tabora pondered for a while, and an unhappy expression appeared in his eyes: "Then give us a piece of land for business, and we will pay taxes according to the law." ”

"This should be fine, but I can't be the master, and I have to wait for our Majesty's ruling." Zheng Zhilong knew that Tabora was talking about trade, whether it was his own understanding or Li Tong's opinion, trade was the foundation of the future development of Southern Ryukyus, and without the help of Xiyi, the silk, porcelain, and tea of the Ming Dynasty could not be sold to Xiyi for the time being, and Southern Ryukyu was a dead land.

"You must convince your majesty." Tabora is not worried that the Ming will not set up a trade zone, now the huge profits of maritime trade, no one can resist its temptation, since the Ming has entered the South Seas, there is no reason to give up overseas trade, what he is worried about is that the Ming and the Netherlands, Portugal cooperation.

Spain has only one Southern Ryukyu Islands in the South Seas, and it is temporarily unable to open up new bases in the South Seas, and if it completely loses its South Ryukyu stronghold, then Spain will have to withdraw from the eastern trade with huge profits.

"Then let's see what benefits Mr. Tabora gave to Daming, to be honest, just paying taxes according to the law, I'm afraid I can't impress our majesty."

"......" Tabora could not give any guarantees for the time being.

"Since Tabora doesn't have the conditions to tempt us, we'll talk about this later." Zheng Zhilong changed the subject: "What else does Mr. Tabora want?" ”

"The gold and silver in Manila must be returned to us, which was originally our property, and returned to us in order to show the sincerity of Mr. Li's cooperation with us." Tabora wants to impress Zheng Zhilong, the Southern Ryukyu Islands are lost, it doesn't matter, anyway, now Spain's domestic eyes are all focused on the Americas, but the gold and silver are lost, and he can't explain to the domestic shareholders.

"Yours? However, it is now our trophy and compensation for the losses of the Daming South China Sea fleet. "Zheng Zhilong gives full play to the true character of a pirate, how can he let it spit out the fat in his mouth?

"That's because you invaded our Formosa (Taiwan), otherwise, there would not have been this unpleasant war between Spain and the Ming Dynasty.

I was very happy, Zheng Zhilong secretly snickered, "Taiwan was originally the land of the Ming Dynasty, you invaded my Taiwan, killed my compatriots, and seized my property, and we just recovered our own land, the losses of the Taiwan war, you have not compensated for the losses of the Taiwan War, this time you came to attack our South China Sea Fleet, you say, how to calculate our losses?" ”

Tabora was deep in thought again, Spain's overseas colonies had never considered the demands of the local natives, and he couldn't answer Zheng Zhilong's question today.

The blue pupils gradually became cloudy, in his mind, Formosa is so close to the Ming Dynasty, and the residents of the island are Han Chinese, so they should belong to the Ming Dynasty, if Formosa belongs to the Ming Dynasty, then the responsibility for these two wars should be borne by Spain.

Fortunately, Zheng Zhilong's demand for compensation is not strong, Zheng Zhilong should just take a fancy to the gold and silver in the Manila Governor's Palace, "Mr. Zheng, since we want to cooperate, let's not talk about who compensates whom, the responsibility for the war is up to the historians to comment, now talk about your requirements." ”

"My demands are very simple, first, all the Spaniards in the entire Southern Ryukyu Islands should disarm and surrender, and all Spanish troops should withdraw from the Southern Ryukyu Islands; 2. A ransom of one thousand taels of silver for each of the captives shall be redeemed by the Spanish Government. Zheng Zhilong will never spit out the benefits he has obtained, what he is most concerned about now is whether he can get the ransom, which is a large sum of silver.

"No, no, they have surrendered unconditionally, and Mr. Zheng should release them unconditionally."

"Unconditional release? Mr. Taborah, can a man who has lost a battle still be arrogant and ask for his release? Zheng Zhilong decided to scare Tabora, "Mr. Tabora probably doesn't know that the Orientals have a tradition of killing and surrendering. ”

"Kill? No, they have surrendered and should be protected. Tabora had also seen the killing of natives, and his eyes were already unconsciously revealing pleading, "The Ming Dynasty is not a rogue country, and such a thing must not be done." ”

"It is true that the Ming is not a rogue country, but the Ming also has its own dignity - does Mr. Tabora remember? How many innocent Han Chinese were massacred by the Spaniards in Southern Ryukyu more than twenty years ago? ”

"This ......," Tabora obviously knew about that period of history, "it was the Han Chinese conspiracy to overthrow our Spanish rule, and we ......"

"The conspiracy, that is, has not yet been carried out, you just suspected, you slaughtered tens of thousands of Han Chinese, today, the Spaniards used fire # guns to oppose the Ming Dynasty to enter the Southern Ryukyus, Mr. Taborah, you say, how many Spaniards do I have to kill before I can enter the Southern Ryukyus with peace of mind?"

"Mr. Zheng, this was a long time ago."

"Yes, it's been a long time, many Spaniards have forgotten, but we Han people have not forgotten, so today we have come to Nanyang - Mr. Taborah, if I slaughtered all the Spanish prisoners today, twenty or thirty years later, it would have been a long time ago."

"You ......"

"Mr. Taborah, the Ming is not a rogue state, so I am only asking the Spanish government to pay a ransom, if the Spanish government is willing to give up its people, then we will not feed these captives in vain - they are not even qualified to be soldiers, I really don't know what they mean to the Ming."

"But...... "Tabora hesitated, "I really can't replace the government, and I can only convey the ransom on my behalf." ”

"Okay, let's talk about this later," Zheng Zhilong estimated that Tabora couldn't be the master, it was a few million taels of silver, "Now Mr. Tabora can go and recruit other Spanish troops in the Southern Ryukyu Islands, right?" If Monsieur Tabora refuses to surrender, then we will surrender them with flintlock pistols, and, I assure you, none of the Spaniards who have been captured will survive. ”

Tabora nodded, agreeing with Zheng Zhilong, this should be one of the few agreements reached between the two of them.

The ships of the South China Sea Fleet, carrying Tabora, sailed through Mindoro, Palawan, Visayas, and Mindanao, and the few Spanish soldiers on the island all surrendered to the Ming army, and a gold mine on Verde Island in southern Manila was also taken over by the Ming army.

At the southern tip of the Southern Ryukyu Islands, near the northeast of Borneo (present-day Kalimantan), there was a group of small islands called the Sulu Islands, on which there was a Sulu country, and the Spanish army was conquering the Sulu country, and Zheng Zhilong captured all the Spanish soldiers who fought on the grounds that the Sulu country was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.