After the end of the Liaoshen War, the Liaodong Governor's Office in Liaoshen repeatedly expanded the area under its actual control, soaring to 100,000 square kilometers. With the addition of the territory of the Korean Prefecture, the Ryukyu Prefecture, and the Taiwan Prefecture, the overall area has risen to 400,000 square kilometers. The population under the control of the area under its jurisdiction is 9 million, of which 5.5 million are in the colonies.

In order to appease the interests of the Korean princes and nobles, the Liaodong Governorate pursued a strict policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce. The colony did not enjoy the tax exemption policy of the Liaodong Governorate, but because the Korean colonial government did not need to bear huge military expenditures and defense expenditures, the military expenditure was greatly reduced, and the Liaodong Governorate took the opportunity to distribute this cost to the Korean people, making them feel that they could get benefits under the rule of the Liaodong Governorate, and appeased the people.

The economic plundering of North Korea was the focus of the Liaodong Governorate, which was mainly reflected in the imposition of heavy taxes on Korean merchants and the setting up of layers of checkpoints to make it impossible for them to compete with the merchants appointed by the Liaodong Governorate. As a result, Korean commerce was completely controlled by the Liaodong Governorate. The common people of North Korea have always been famous for cultivating northern rice, and the Liaodong Governorate urgently needed a stable food supply, so North Korea became the base for the Liaodong Governorate to dump commodities and collect grain.

As for the "Tokugawa shogunate", Tokugawa Iemitsu humiliated accepted the harsh 28 articles proposed by the Liaodong Governorate, and on the surface he still showed weakness to the Ming Dynasty, but secretly he was left to oppose the Liaodong Governorate.

It is important that Tokugawa Iemitsu secretly sent people to obstruct the food caravans of the Liaodong Prefecture in the areas of Hirado, Nagasaki and Edo. Because the Liaodong Shogunate took advantage of the high profits obtained from overseas trade, a large amount of silver flowed into Japan, and most of it was used to buy Japanese grain, causing the tenants under the control of the Tokugawa Shogunate to sell grain to the Liaodong Governorate, which caused Japan's grain reserves to drop sharply, and the price of grain in the market soared, and domestic grain was comparable to gold.

From the day the Shogunate surrendered to the Shogunate, the Shogunate had transported a total of 30 million koku of grain from Japan. Among them, the Tokugawa shogunate reserved grain boxes for compensation of 15 million koku, and the remaining 15 million koku of grain was directly obtained from Japanese merchants and farmers. It is equivalent to every Japanese person selling once the grain to the Liaodong Governorate. Japan's annual grain output is only about 33 million stones, half of which was bought by the Liaodong Governorate, and the rest of the people themselves were just enough to eat. However, as a result, the Tokugawa shogunate did not have enough food reserves.

The common people sold grain to the Liaodong Prefecture, and the silver obtained was paid to the Tokugawa shogunate, but the Tokugawa shogunate, in turn, could not use the money to buy back grain, because the price of grain rose too fast, and the large inflow of silver caused the price of Japan to skyrocket. The Tokutoku shogunate was not yet able to purchase grain from neighboring countries, because the Liaodong Governorate strictly controlled the flow of grain from the Ming Dynasty, Korea, Ryukyu and Taiwan to Japan.

The Tokugawa shogunate wanted to implement a policy of seclusion and seclusion. Stop the outflow of food. However, the Liaodong Governorate would definitely not agree, and once the Tokugawa Shogunate implemented the closure of the country, it would facilitate the second crusade of the Liaodong Governorate. Japan's grain-producing areas were all along the coast, and they were directly under the threat of naval guns from the Liaodong Prefecture.

Therefore, the Tokugawa shogunate could not play hard, and could only start from other aspects. The Tokugawa shogunate issued a proclamation to the Japanese people that silver would not be collected in taxes in the future. Only grain is collected in order to stop the outflow of grain and stabilize prices. However, the Tokugawa shogunate was not an easily subdued government, and after being repaired by the Pacific Fleet in naval battles, he secretly built warships in the Nadoto Inland Sea to counter the Pacific Fleet.

However, the shipbuilding technology of the Tokugawa shogunate was very backward, and the crushing defeat of the Battle of Luliang was not absorbed. For a time, it was impossible to build a warship that could compete with the Pacific Fleet. However, it also stimulated the nerves of the Tokugawa shogunate. Tokugawa Iemitsu personally ordered to learn the Ming navy's warship construction methods and artillery techniques, and prepared to build his own fleet.

However, the Tokugawa shogunate's fleet was built very slowly, starting from scratch. For a long time, the Tokugawa shogunate could not keep up with the Liaodong Shogunate, so the Tokugawa shogunate could only tolerate the colonial invasion of Japan by the Liaodong Shogunate. Fortunately, with a goal comes hope, and the aides of the Tokugawa shogunate argued that it would take at least ten years to achieve the strength to rival the navy of the Liaodong Prefecture. Therefore, Tokugawa Iemitsu chose a ten-year plan to show weakness, in order to accumulate strength, hoping to get rid of the control of the Liaodong Governorate after ten years.

No one knows why the Liaodong Governor's Mansion is crazy about stockpiling grain, only the high-level officials of the Liaodong Governor's Mansion know that this is Deng Haonan's material reserves before entering the Central Plains.

If you want to win the hearts of the people and let all the people support the Liaodong Governor's Mansion, then Deng Haonan will have to rely on food to pry open their psychological defense line and use food to buy people's hearts.

This plan is very small, very huge, and the grain produced every year in the areas under the administration of the Liaodong Governorate can reserve 8 million stone of grain in addition to the grain for their own use, and if the 7 million stone grain from the treasury controlled by the Korean colony is also counted, some of them will be purchased from the private sector to raise enough 10,000 stone for a year. Then, the self-sufficient grain of the Liaodong Governorate in the seventh year of the Apocalypse was about 18 million stones, and the annual grain reserve was 50 million stones.

However, the Ming Dynasty has a registered population of 50 million. In fact, there are about 70 or 80 million people, and the reserve of 50 million stone grain can only solve the urgent need. In the face of the most chaotic thirty years of the Great Tomorrow Disaster, this reserve is still a drop in the bucket.

Of course, this is the grain reserve of the Eastern Governor's Mansion in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, and as the Governors of Tingdong lose "growth", more grain will be stored in the future.

In ancient times, food came first, and there were as many soldiers as there was food. However, while the Liaodong Governorate was stockpiling grain on a large scale, it was also trying to get as much silver as possible. Since Di Haonan would sooner or later collide with the Western maritime powers, it was not possible to rely on the windfall profits of overseas trade to support the existing finances of the Liaodong Governorate.

Deng Haonan, the admonition of the three Anglo-Dutch wars, recommended a maritime country like the Netherlands, and blindly relied on the national finances supported by maritime trade, once the British blocked the maritime trade, everything was over. Strictly speaking, the sea power of the Netherlands was no weaker than that of the British navy. In the three Anglo-Dutch wars, if it were not for the British blockade of the Dutch trade routes, the two sides fought by force and finance, and the British would not have been able to defeat the Dutch at all.

Conversely, the Netherlands' fragile maritime economy simply cannot support a world maritime power.

At present, Deng Haonan's economic lifeline is exactly the same as that of the Netherlands, so Deng Haonan is now accelerating the transformation of economic structure and developing to the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, in order to accumulate original capital, Na Haonan exported materials overseas on a large scale in exchange for a large amount of silver as war reserves.

Due to the ancient "super group companies" such as the Royal Imperial Ware Factory and Suzhou and Hangzhou Weaving, Deng Haonan's Pacific Trading Company made unprecedented profits in foreign trade.

The net profit of each trade has expanded from the previous three million taels of silver to 10 million taels of silver, and the financial treasury of the Liaodong Governor's Mansion has also increased from the previous eight million taels of silver reserves to 30 million taels of silver, which is equivalent to seven times the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty.

The financial reserves of 30 million taels of silver are already boundless for the officials of the Liaodong Governor's Office, believing that they are the richest government in the world today.

However, this financial income is still too small for Deng Haonan. Because Deng Haonan knew that after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the economy of the land of China that was only restored after the catastrophe brought more than 40 million taels of financial revenue to the Manchu government, and by the Kangxi period, it had soared to 80 million taels. Compared with these, Deng Haonan believes that the current fiscal revenue is still too small.

"You have to make money!"

Deng Jienan never thought that the silver was too hot, and whenever he thought that the Ming Dynasty was about to enter the 30 years of war and chaos and the people were struggling to make a living, he felt that his subordinates were too few, the army was too few, the weapons were too few, the silver was too little, the grain was too little, and the territory was too little."

The heart is not enough to swallow the elephant!

Deng Haonan thought that the silver was too small, and his subordinates naturally had to worry about the leader.

On December 3, the seventh year of the Apocalypse, when the Mexican trading fleet of the Pacific Trading Company returned from its last trade trip at the end of the year, a very tempting news was reported to the General Staff of the Liaodong Governor's Office, and the next day the news flew to the desk of Deng Haonan's study in the Jinghai Marquis Mansion in Beijing.

The MIA's intelligence station in Mexico was officially operational, and the first piece of information was a priceless piece of information. The intelligence station has detected the details of the Spanish treasure fleet that departs from Mexico to Manila in the Philippines every year.

Every year, Spain would ship looted financial reports from its colonies around the world back to Madrid, the Spanish capital. The departure time of the Spanish treasure fleet varies from place to place, mainly depending on the climate at sea and avoiding bad weather. Treasures from South America are shipped from September to Cuba in the Caribbean and then across the Atlantic from North America to Madrid via Mexico. South America is rich in gold, diamonds, and precious stones, while Mexico is rich in silver.

After the South American treasure fleet arrived in Mexico, it would join the Mexican treasure fleet and be transported to Spain together, so that the South American treasure fleet would start in September, arrive in the Gulf of Mexico in October and November, meet the Mexican treasure fleet, and under the escort of the Mexican fleet, it will be shipped from late November to early December, and will be shipped to Madrid together. Of course, this group of Spanish treasure ships is escorted by a strong navy, and they are also going to the Atlantic, which has nothing to do with the news Deng Haonan gets.

Deng Haonan got the news that the treasure fleet from Mexico was loaded with silver and gold. The one that was shipped to the Philippines.

Unlike the other Spanish treasure fleets, this treasure fleet had to cross the treacherous Pacific Ocean, because the silver and gold gravity was much deeper than that of the trading cargo ships, and the requirements for wind and waves were too high, and it was easy to sink ships in high winds and waves. Therefore, the Spaniards chose to transport in the northern hemisphere in winter, depending on the climatic conditions of the Pacific Ocean.

As the Liaodong Governorate had very good relations with Spain's two colonies, the Philippines and Mexico, the expansion of trade quotas attracted the attention of the Spanish government. Due to the recent large-scale sale of Ming royal goods to Mexico and back to Spain, the Pacific Trading Company has recently sold the Ming royal goods. The Spanish aristocracy was very interested in the royal items of the Ming Dynasty, and used it as a standard to show off and compare.

This made the nobles of the Spanish government want to obtain more high-grade goods of the Ming Dynasty, so they abandoned the order of the Spanish king to restrict the export of silver to the Ming Dynasty, and relaxed the annual silver export limit from Mexico to the Philippines, from the previous 5 million to 10 million taels of silver, to 20 million taels.

The reason why the Spanish government took restrictive measures against the import of silver was mainly because after the trade of the Eastern Governorate was no longer flowed into the Liaodong Governor's Mansion after the Great Ming Lan was established, the Liaodong Governorate would spend a considerable amount of money to buy the goods of the Spaniards, such as spices and other luxury goods. In particular, the large-scale purchase of muskets, grain and war horses by the Liaodong Governorate caused a considerable part of the silver to flow back to the Spaniards.

In this way, the Spanish government's prejudice against the Ming Dynasty has also changed.

The Philippines was a colony of the Spaniards in the Far East, and in order to plunder the Philippines and even the countries of the Far East, the Spaniards shipped silver to the Philippines and used the silver looted from the American colonies to buy goods from the Orient and ship them back to Spain.

Na Haonan looked at the information on the table, he already knew what the General Staff wanted to do.

In order to share Deng Haonan's worries, the General Staff thought of the easiest and fastest way to make money, that is, to rob the Spanish treasure fleet.

"Congratulations, sir!" Feng Shaoyan threw his hand at Deng Haonan and said with a smile on his face: "If the General Staff is in the way this time, then this year's financial reserves are estimated to break at least 50 million taels of silver."

Fortunately, Deng Haonan nodded, but said with concern: "But if there is a loophole in the deployment and the Spaniards escape, then it is equivalent to a war with Spain."

War with Spain. That's what Deng Haonan doesn't want to see, at least not yet, because he hasn't transformed his economy yet, and he still has to rely on trade with Spain to maintain it.

Feng Shaoyan understood what Deng Haonan was worried about, looked at the description on the intelligence and the explanation of the General Staff, so he said: "Please report that when this treasure ship left port last year, there were two large Spanish Galen ships, and according to the estimate of about 10 million taels of silver shipped to the Philippines last year, each Galen ship was loaded with 250 tons of silver and other goods. There were not many warships guarding the treasure fleet, only five cruisers. There should be no problem with the General Staff sending the main fleet of the Pacific Fleet over to carry out the mission

Di Haonan thought about it, the thirty cruisers of the main fleet of the Pacific Fleet, if attacking five cruisers could not complete the task, it would be a joke.

There's nothing more enjoyable than robbing the Spanish treasure fleet!

Na Haonan knew that the Spanish treasure fleet in history was full of elite treasures every time, and this plundering style created the two hundred years of strength of the Spanish and Portuguese empires, and at the same time, the Netherlands and Britain robbed Spanish cargo ships and treasure ships, and followed Spain to rise, which was stained with the light of Spain. Without the Spanish plundering of the colonies, the Dutch and the British would not have developed so rapidly.

Now, feng shui takes turns, and it is Deng Haonan's turn to rob the treasure fleet of the Spaniards. This has to be said to be a great stimulant.

You see Deng Haonan is already happy to close his mouth! "Accurate!"

Deng Haonan signed the reply, and the plan submitted by the General Staff was approved for implementation.

With the robbery of the Spanish treasure fleet as the core task, the General Staff directly delegated the combat order to the Pacific Fleet Command of the Admiralty, and Shi Jianfei was fully responsible for this combat operation.

Due to Na Haonan's strict order that the navy should not have friction with the navies of the Netherlands, Spain, and other countries, the Pacific Fleet is now very idle, and the main fleet is basically suspended in the military port every day, and occasionally patrols are only around the vicinity. It is enough to have the coast guard to fight pirates, and it is simply not the turn of the regular army to play.

The officers and men of the Navy cannot afford to be idle, and if they are idle, they will get into some trouble. When it learned that the General Staff Headquarters was engaged in the Liaoshen Great War, it learned that the War Department was flaunting its military might, and that the officers and men of the Navy Department were gearing up one by one to be useless, and they were very depressed.

Now that the Naval Fleet Command has finally received a new plan from the General Staff, the officers of the command are immediately relieved, and this time the officers and men under their command can rest for a while.

After the Fleet Command studied and carried out the request of the General Staff to completely annihilate the other side, the Command sent the main fleet to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet, and in order to maintain strict secrecy, the Fleet Command claimed that the fleet of the Pacific Trading Company had been hijacked by pirates, and the Fleet Command carried out a rescue operation at the request of the Pacific Trading Company.

These things were only concealed from the middle and lower-ranking officers and soldiers, and the commanders of the ships involved in the operation knew the inside story, and when the time came, they would naturally restrain their subordinates on what ships they should fight and what ships they should not fight.

The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd warships, the main force of the Pacific Fleet, with a total of 30 cruisers, quietly sailed out of the Longmen Port Naval Base in Taiwan on the night of 4 December, quietly bypassed the Spanish fortress of Guam on the morning of 5 December, and entered the Pacific Ocean at noon.

After entering the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Fleet consisted of 30 cruisers, each of which maintained a distance of 30 miles from each other, and searched side by side to the east.

Even if it is like this, in the vast Pacific Ocean, it is only a small search area of sesame seeds. If the other side did not have the approximate route indicated by the intelligence department, the other side would have stopped at the fortress of Guam, and the Pacific Fleet would not have been able to lock on to the other side at all. Even so, the success rate of finding the other party is very low, and it can almost be called a needle in a haystack. H