In the third year of Longhan, in early April.

The Seventh Fleet of the Royal Navy of the Holy Han Empire sailed and appeared outside the port of Manila. They were just outside the harbor, showing off their might, but they were just outside the range of the fortified shore defenses.

The Philippine governor in the fortress could only watch all this helplessly, and the port was the Han fleet. And on the land to the left and right of Manila, there are the Marines of the Seventh Fleet. These Han Marines treated the Spaniards in Manila as if they were nothing, and openly dug ditches and fortified forts under their noses.

"Our captured soldiers have become their laborers and are helping them fortify their forts."

Major Juan put down his binoculars and said to His Excellency the Governor with a sad face.

"The Han fortress became bigger and bigger, and the Paxi River, which leads to the inner lake, was completely controlled by them."

Manila has been completely blocked, and now it can't fly out of the encirclement, and it is no longer possible to send even the slightest supply into the city.

"How long can we keep our food?" Governor Francisco asked.

"If only the soldiers and Spaniards in the inner city are supplied, maybe we can hold out for a month."

Manila is a big city, not only with an inner city, but also an outer city. In addition to the Spaniards, there are many Malays, etc. After the Spaniards gained control of Manila, they continued to expand to the entire Philippine Islands, but until now, after more than 70 years, they have only seized control of the northern region, and there is still a strong indigenous resistance in the southern islands.

Because of the terrain in the north and the fact that spices were not abundant, the north was not as strong as the south in the past, which also gave the Spaniards an opportunity to steal the land in their early years. Over the years, the Spaniards have developed Manila as a port city and Catholicism in the Philippines. And he divided a lot of land to the church.

Through the influence of the Church, the Spanish control of the Philippines, especially in the north, was very successful, and they established many estates here, and most of them were self-sufficient in food and other things, except for some handicraft goods, which were not enough for themselves.

Over the years, countless Chinese have come to Luzon. The Spaniards killed 30,000 or 40,000 Chinese before several massacres, but there are still many Chinese.

The Spaniards have long relied on the maritime trade route from Manila to Acapulco, a city on the western coast of Mexico in the Americas, and this unique Pacific route has been held by the Spaniards for many years.

Silver was shipped from the Americas in exchange for Chinese silk, porcelain, tea, and spices from the South Seas.

But in recent years, Manila has been getting worse day by day, the Dutch and the British have been blockading and suppressing, and the Pacific route is no longer exclusive. Japan's Pai Jiao caused Spain to lose the Japanese market, followed by the Han Dynasty. Spain lost the port of Taiwan's chicken coop again.

This time, the Philippine governor finally decided to join forces with the Dutch and the British against the Han in order to regain the trade interests of the East Indies, but he did not expect such a result.

Spain has been operating here for decades, but it was not expected that it could be lost.

"We've fallen for the Dutch." The Governor General of the Philippines regretted it.

Regret is regret, but now, the bitter fruit in front of you can only be swallowed by yourself.

They could not count on the arrival of the Spanish army, even if the king sent reinforcements. They won't be able to make it that time.

After some deliberations, the Governor of the Philippines, Francisco, sent his own representative. With a white flag, he rode a small boat to the Han warship to negotiate peace and seek a solution.

Liu Yunwen and the others stood on the deck of the flagship, watching the small boat with the white flag rowing over, and they all showed relaxed smiles.

"It looks like the Spaniards can't hold on."

"This is also a good battle of the generals, if it weren't for the destruction of the Spanish fleet in Luzon in the First World War, I'm afraid that Francesco wouldn't have bowed his head so quickly." It was a middle-aged official in a crimson civil official robe who spoke. Among the generals dressed in the uniform of a straight naval officer, he undoubtedly stood out from the crowd.

"This is the duty of our soldiers, we fight the war, and as for the rest, it is not within the control of our soldiers." Liu Yunwen said with a smile.

This scarlet-robed civil official has a lot of background. He was the secretary of foreign affairs of the new foreign affairs department of the imperial court. Unlike the Honglu Temple, who was in charge of reception etiquette, the Department of Foreign Affairs was in charge of external affairs, and it was relocated from the original Imperial Palace.

The foreign secretary was solely responsible for the negotiations with the Spanish Governor of the Philippines. However, this foreign minister is also very promising, he once sent an envoy to Mongolia, negotiated with the Qing army, and said that he had the experience of descending Haoge Wu Sanguizu and other experiences, that is, Feng Yuanbiao, who had also opposed Liu Jun, was also a talented person who could write and martial arts.

"The generals fought well, and I, the secretary of foreign affairs, had the confidence to talk to others. Don't hide it, Your Majesty was very happy to hear about the great victory in Manila Bay in Beijing. He even bluntly said that this battle was the first major victory of the Imperial Royal Navy, and His Majesty praised the Seventh Fleet very much. ”

Feng Yuanbiao was also telling the truth, he was ordered to come to negotiate with the Spaniards, the generals in front of him fought so well, the Spaniards were completely trapped to death. When he arrived, he found that the situation was better than they had imagined, the Spaniards were trapped and could not move, and it was said that the food in the city would last for a month at most, and this was still without caring about the non-Spaniards in the outer city.

Otherwise, there would only be enough food in the city for ten days at most.

Under such circumstances, Feng Yuanbiao did not have the slightest pressure to negotiate and completely gained the upper hand.

"Foreign Minister Feng, tell us the truth, how is the court going to talk about it this time?" The deputy commander was a little anxious. The Seventh Fleet finally fought such a beautiful battle, and more than 500 brothers were killed for it, and if the last negotiation of the imperial court gave the Spaniards any concessions, wouldn't it have to vomit blood.

Feng Yuanbiao smiled, "General, please rest assured, this war was provoked by the Spaniards first, and now we have slapped him in the face and choked his neck, how can we let him go cheaply." You may not know that the Spaniards have not stopped fighting in Europe now, according to Jinyiwei's intelligence, Spain and the French are still gearing up, and it is very likely that they will have to fight. I heard that even the Swedes and Danes were planning to compete with the Spaniards, and the Portuguese nobles seemed to be very unhappy with the Spanish king being their king. ”

Before coming, Feng Yuanbiao went to meet the emperor, and the emperor also talked about the bottom line of this negotiation with the Spaniards.

At that time, Feng Yuanbiao still felt that the emperor's requirements were relatively high, but when he arrived here, he realized that the emperor's requirements were not high at all. Damn, the Spaniards in Luzon have long been the turtles in the urn, the fish on the chopping board.

"Brother Governor Liu is also very smooth in the South Seas, and now the Sunda Strait has been blocked, and the Dutch in Batavia do not dare to leave the port at all, and they have been cowering."

"If you want me to say, there is no need to talk about it at all, if you are trapped for another month, the Spaniards will naturally surrender obediently, and then this Luzon will fall into the hands of our Han Empire." The deputy commander is still the same big old man, and his fist is the biggest.

Feng Yuanbiao smiled, "Naturally, you can't be soft when it's time to fight, but you still have to talk about it after the fight." Luzon naturally has to be a big man, but we have to not only take Luzon, but also do business with the Spaniards in the future. ”

This is also what the emperor said to Feng Yuanbiao.

Of course, it is not a problem to defeat Luzon, but after the battle, it is necessary to let the Spaniards continue to trade with the Han Dynasty, after all, Spain was also an empire on which the sun never sets, with a huge overseas colony and such a large territory in the New World. It is impossible for the big Han to fight all the way to Spain and Mexico, so cooperation is still necessary.

After the fight, doing business with him and making him money is the coolest.

The envoy of the Philippine governor boarded the deck of General Fei Li Guang, and saw the shining stars of the admiral on the deck, the rows of straight naval uniforms, and the majesty that made the tall Spanish envoy, Major Juan, feel a little less confident.

Before Juan could speak, Feng Yuanbiao directly handed him a piece of paper.

"This is the loss suffered by the Holy Han Empire after being attacked by Spain, the loss of the merchant ships of the Holy Han Empire, the loss of foreign trade, and the added cost of military indemnity and the bereavement of soldiers, Spain needs to compensate the empire with 100 million Han silver dollars."

"This is not blackmail, but you must compensate the big man for his losses. In addition, the Spanish governor of Marani had to lead his troops to surrender and transfer Manila, as well as the entire Spanish-occupied Philippine Islands, to the Holy Han Empire. ”

"Out of mercy, the Holy Emperor of the Han Empire allowed the Spaniards to hand over the Philippine Islands, and after compensating the Han for the economic losses, he could leave the Philippine Islands safely."

Feng Yuanbiao's conditions were more stringent than one another.

"Spain also has to share the Pacific route with the Han Dynasty, open the right to trade in the ports of Spain and overseas colonies, cancel all unequal tariffs, cancel trade restrictions, and give the Han the most favored nation treatment."

Major Juan no longer knew what to say about these conditions.

The appetite of the Han people is really big, not only do they have such ambitions for the Philippines, they want to annex it in one bite, and they actually want Spain to pay 100 million silver dollars in compensation. After the fight, we still have to trade and most favored nation treatment.

It was too deceitful, but now he didn't dare to turn around and leave.

"Your Excellency the Honorable Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Han Dynasty, Your Excellency the Honorable Admirals of the Royal Navy of the Han Dynasty, I cannot reply to your conditions, and I need to go back and convey them to His Excellency the Governor. Moreover, even if the Governor could not reply, he had to report to His Majesty the King and await an answer. ”

"It's okay, we can wait." Feng Yuanbiao said indifferently.

Major Juan smiled bitterly, you can wait, but Manila can't wait.

"Thank you for your understanding, and I would like to reply to a request from His Excellency the Governor that the port blockade will be lifted out of humanitarian considerations before His Majesty the King responds and reaches Manila."

"I'm very sorry, but I can't agree to this." Feng Yuanbiao will not agree to the request of the Spaniards, if the blockade is lifted, Manila will be reinforced, and then there will be a stubborn resistance, wouldn't it be a pit for himself?

"If you can't wait for the reply of the King of Spain, you can hand over Manila to me first, as long as our army takes over Manila, we will immediately provide you with food and other materials, and absolutely guarantee the safety of all Spaniards in Manila." (To be continued.) )