First of all, I would like to say sorry to everyone, my eyes were bad some time ago, and then I got a little better, but I caught up with the review and exam, and the update was very irregular.

Friends who are experts may know that in mid-May, it is the national registered architect examination, which cannot be completed in one year or two, especially for architects like me who are not very comfortable with their own work... Hehe.

In short, the May update will be chaotic for a while, and by the end of May, starting in June, if the eye disease no longer occurs, it should be able to return to normal.

The above text is not within 5,000 words, and everyone says that I cheat on the number of words.

"Look ahead—Qi!"

"Let's go!"

On this day, the small "Guang" field in front of Cebu Castle was crowded with people, both local residents and sailors in the port, all crowded around this small "Guang" field to watch the drill performance of the local garrison.

For the crowd of this era, being able to see this kind of exercise is undoubtedly an extremely new and interesting experience.

"Walking-walking!"

"Click...... Click...... Click...... Click......"

To the sound of the military band's drums and trumpets, groups of European soldiers lined up in a neat phalanx and walked along a pre-planned road through the open space in front of Cebu Island's castle. Whenever passing by the makeshift review stand, only to listen to the order of the leading personnel, the entire phalanx immediately changed from unison to positive step, and hundreds of pairs of large leather boots knocked out a neat sound on the ground - you must know that this ground is not a common cement pavement in later generations, but only paved with gravel, and it is not easy to stomp on it to make a neat sound.

However, since this step can be achieved, the effect is naturally good - every time a phalanx walks out of the front of the school review stand, the people on the school review stand have not said much, and the local residents around the onlookers will let out earth-shattering cheers, as if they are watching the performance of their own soldiers.

-- The situation has developed so far that the local residents have become a little confused about who is currently in charge of the island. The castle, the center of Cebu Island's rule, with its flag marked by the Spanish kingdom on a white background and a red cross on a white background, and the soldiers who walked around the island on a daily basis wore Spanish uniforms, should have been under Spanish rule - at least from the outside.

It's just that after a long time, those nimble natives also see that something is wrong.

Those white soldiers were completely controlled by the Chinese military. With the exception of a very small number of Europeans with close ties to the Chinese army, who were allowed to carry weapons, the others came out empty-handed, and there must have been escorts by Chinese soldiers carrying weapons -- this could not be the treatment of the masters.

Moreover, whenever a Spanish warship came, a live farce of ghosts crying and wolf howls would be staged at the "public bath" on the other side of the wharf, although in the mouth of the local garrison, they lightly called it a "military exercise", but every time they saw those European sailors and soldiers walking out of the "bathroom" with their faces covered and their lower bodies, even a fool would not think that those people participated in this "exercise" voluntarily.

Therefore, after the first "military exercise", some wise people soon judged that this island had actually changed owners, and Cebu Island had been occupied by outsiders -- by those Chinese troops. As for the flags, the uniforms are just to continue to confuse the Europeans. Over time, more and more locals realized this, but because the Chinese occupation policy was much more relaxed and peaceful than that of the Europeans, Cebu Island has always been calm, and the vast majority of the local population is happy to accept this occupation.

In recent days, however, the inhabitants have been a little confused - the Chinese army has been training the captured Spanish soldiers, as they know. But today, when these living dragons and tigers appeared in the school review field outside the castle, the residents really understood what kind of training these captives were receiving. Judging from the formation of those people and the momentum they walked out, it is clear that this is an extremely strong tiger and wolf army!

What is Hua Jun trying to do? Helping the Europeans train their troops?

The same question also appeared in the minds of many high-ranking Spanish officers on the review stand.

In a sense, this split is actually a performance for them. The Spanish Empire was a class division... In a very strict society, all the senior officers in the army were nobles and enjoyed various privileges.

Even after being captured, Zhao Lide still retained this privilege for specific reasons - ordinary prisoners were in prisoner of war camps, but those noble officers were allowed to live in Cebu Island castles, except that they were not allowed to carry weapons, and they were allowed to move freely in the castle during normal times. Every day or two, these aristocratic officers were also allowed to go out in batches, such as fishing on the beach and relaxing. Of course, there must be guards watching, but the beaches of Cebu Island are beautiful enough to forget all the unpleasantness and immerse yourself in the beauty of nature.

In terms of living conditions, they were also treated preferentially, no different from before, or even better, and the island of Seoul was close to the sea, so they were provided with all kinds of fresh seafood every day, and the vegetables, fruits, and all kinds of meat brought by the Joan Navy transport fleet from the rear for the enjoyment of their own troops were always allocated to them. With the abundance of supplies for the Joan navy, even in the eyes of these European nobles, it was enough to satisfy them.

Of course, these preferential treatments are not given in vain, Zhao Lide made a three-chapter agreement with these senior officers at the beginning※I believe that you are all gentlemen, so we treat them as gentlemen.

I also hope that you can consciously cooperate with us and don't do something that is not in line with the status of a gentleman.

If someone enjoys our kindness on the one hand, but on the other hand, he does something that is not in the same way as a gentleman, don't blame us for being polite at that time!

The European aristocracy of this era cares about nothing more than two things, one is vanity-

The so-called aristocratic honor, the second is the enjoyment of life. Although the Qiong navy captured them, since they gave them face, they were not treated badly in life, and from the beginning they said that they would be let go back in the future, and gave them a reassurance, then these people could not be much hostile. Even if one or two people want to make a small move, others will try their best to oppose it in order to keep the current treatment.

With Zhao Lide's thoughtful thinking and their agreement, there will definitely be no flaws. In the third chapter of the treaty with the nobility, it is clearly stated that if the affairs of the Spanish aristocracy are treated as a whole, if one person causes trouble and the others do not denounce it, the whole group will lose its current preferential status.

So these days, those noble officers have been very cooperative with the Joan navy, whether it is necessary for them to come forward to lure the new captain, or to appease the uneasiness and turmoil of the soldiers under them, they have honestly complied. In return, the Joan navy was more polite to them, giving them greater freedom and even returning the Cebu Castle to them in advance - the Joan navy only controlled the parapet and watchtower around the castle, and the castle was still inhabited by the Spanish aristocratic officers, and they were allowed to be accompanied by a few orderlies...... Basically, as long as these old men close the gates of the castle and don't look at the Chinese soldiers patrolling the walls on all sides, they can still maintain the good life they used to have.

Tang Jian once objected to this, thinking that the captives should look like prisoners, those people are obviously already prisoners, why bother holding them like this, the nobles of Europe, we Qiong Navy don't recognize them! But Zhao Lide quickly convinced him with his reasoning - of course, his reasoning definitely did not include the respect for the so-called gentlemanly and aristocratic temperament that he preached to the Europeans. Ade is an extremely practical person and never plays with this kind of huā.

Ade's reasoning is that these aristocratic officers have status and property in Europe, and they are unlikely to defect to the Qiong Navy like ordinary officers and soldiers, and even if they are sent to prisoner of war camps, it will be difficult to train and reform them in the same way as ordinary officers and soldiers, but will form one unstable factor after another--these people still have some prestige in the army. So simply eat and drink and politely put them in the castle to be fed, separate them from their subordinate soldiers, and let these old men still immerse themselves in their superior aristocratic atmosphere, so as to ensure that these people do not cause trouble for their own side.

Tang Jian accepted this reason, and Ade's goal was actually more than that-these Spanish nobles had connections in Europe, and since Ade's side was polite and deliberately built a good relationship with them, it was not just to keep them from making trouble.

As a member of the staff group that actually controls the direction of the entire Qiong Navy's politics, although Zhao Lide is currently in a remote island in Cebu, his eyes have been paying attention to the situation of the entire collective. At present, on Hainan Island, the information of the Qiong navy's dealings with the Dutch was conveyed to him by telegram at any time. This is a major event related to the future exchanges between the Qiong Navy and Europe, and Zhao Lide does not intend to stay out of it.

That's why we had this split performance.

"How is it, after Carlos is afraid that this army has been trained by us, it is quite passable, right?" When the last detachment walked in front of them in a uniform manner, Zhao Lide smiled and greeted the supreme commander of the Spanish army, the former commander of the European fleet, who was sitting next to him. After being captive for so long, he had long since found out the family situation of these nobles, and now the commander of the whole army, who was appointed to command this expedition, was of course the most honorable of all—he was a member of the Habsburg family in Spain, and was quite close to the current king of Spain, Philip IV. That's why we use the name of the ancestor who opened up the House of Habsburg in Spain - but most of the Spaniards have similar names, either Juan or Carlos.

If it were in Europe, the Earl would never casually respond to others, but the current situation is ...... The shape shì is stronger than the person. After the interpreter understood Zhao Lide's question, the earl, who had always been above the top, had to owe a slight owe to show politeness.

And replied with a long sentence: "************************************

****************

"Even the Praetorian Guards of His Majesty the King will not be better than them. The personnel next to him immediately translated the response of the nose class tooth man into Chinese, and Zhao Lide nodded with satisfaction after listening to it, and said with a smile: "In this way, after we complete the withdrawal, Your Excellency will bring such an army back to Spain, presumably you can keep the status of the count, and will not be punished too severely because of this defeat?" Zhao Lide just said this in a flat tone, and the Count Carlos didn't take it seriously at first because he couldn't understand Chinese, so he still sat casually. However, after interpreting the meaning of this sentence to him, the earl was slightly stunned for three or four seconds, and then jumped up at once: "***********" (What do you say?) ）

Recently, this strong interrogative sentence has appeared many times in conversations with the Spaniards, so that Zhao Lide directly understood this sentence without commenting, and he nodded affirmatively: "Our idea is very clear: we have cooperated with you quite happily during this period of cooperation, especially His Excellency the Earl's bright and upright aristocratic demeanor has won our trust."

So we hope that the cooperation between the two sides is not limited to the present. After we withdraw our troops and return to Europe, we will be able to continue our cooperation. And to do this, the first thing is to ensure that your position in the Spanish government will not be greatly affected by this defeat - presumably a mighty army can ensure this? After Ade's long speech, as he continued to translate his words into Spanish, the eyes of the Count Carlos became brighter and brighter--to be able to achieve the position of commander of an army, this count can be regarded as a relatively shrewd and capable person in Spanish politics. It's just that the opponent he met this time was much higher than him in terms of technical level and strategic strategy, so he ended up being caught.

But after all, he was also a political figure, and once he confirmed that his life could be safeguarded, he immediately began to think about a way out after returning to Europe. However, his original idea was very low-key, after all, he lost too badly and was too humiliating this time, so even if the best idea in his heart was just to leave politics safely and return to the Catalan manor to spend the rest of his life quietly.

And Zhao Lide's words set off a monstrous wave in his heart-

Power comes out of the barrel of a gun, and this is the same in both the East and the West. This time, although the Spanish army suffered a heavy defeat, the ships were lost, but there was not much loss in terms of personnel. If he could really bring a few thousand soldiers back, then no matter how much the Prime Minister of the Kingdom, Duke Olivares, and other politicians hated him, it would be impossible to deal with him casually. Not to mention that this army has trained the Chinese to be like this-whether it can fight or not, let's not say, just the momentum shown today, pull it to the streets of Madrid, and he believes that no one in the entire court will dare to say a bad word about himself! Even if he buries the entire fleet!

“***********？” (What do you want?) ）

Now, Carlos is no longer pretending and has straightforwardly negotiated the conditions. He has already begun to adapt to the way these short-haired Chinese do things extremely directly, directly to the point that Cheng Dù, who can be called violent, said that he wanted to help him keep his position, and his means was to directly return an army to him! There's nothing to be pretentious about yourself, just spread out all the conditions and talk about it.

Seeing that the other party finally kept up with his pace, Zhao Lide nodded with satisfaction and said with a smile: "What we want, we can't say a word or two, and there will be someone to negotiate with Your Excellency at that time." Moreover, relying on this army alone can only ensure that your Excellency will not be liquidated, but your reputation will eventually be damaged, and your status and voice in your government will also be reduced,........., which will be very detrimental to our future cooperation. 、，

After hearing Tsusawa say this, Carlos almost didn't tilt his nose, and said in his heart that you guys can talk cool things. There is no room for reversal in this fiasco, even if he has this army to protect him, he can only keep his position at most after he goes back, so that people dare not clean him up. If you want to talk about prestige, reputation, it will be a mess - unless you will give us back those ships and guns?

Of course, he will definitely not say it, and since this Mr. Zhao said this, he would definitely not entertain him in vain, so Carlos just sat there and waited patiently for Zhao Lide's next words. And the latter really didn't make him wait too long, and seemed to guess his thoughts: "It's impossible to return the ships and weapons to you, after all, they are trophies." However, Lord Count, you must know that you are in the East as described in the biography of Marco Polo, full of gold, spices, silk, porcelain......

And so on the infinite wealth of the East! As the seductive words came out of Ade's mouth, a number of boxes were brought by the orderlies, placed in front of Carlos, and lifted the lids—inside were the things Ade had spoken of: gorgeous brocades, fine porcelain, and spices that drove Westerners crazy!

"I lost dozens of warships in the kingdom, and I was not able to regain the land of Luzon...... But if you can bring back to the Kingdom of Spain a safe route for the safe transport of large quantities of goods from the Orient to Europe. In addition, through the arduous negotiations, Spain was able to retain a stronghold on the island of Cebu and keep the shipping routes with the Americas still open...... At a time when your government is mired in war on the European continent and burdened with a heavy financial crisis, your Excellency's expedition must not be regarded as a failure, right? Carlos did not immediately respond to Zhao Lide's words, but stared at the treasures in the box with heavy breathing, and looked greedily for a long time. Fang Cai raised his head and responded in Chinese, although not very proficient and his pronunciation was quite strange, but very firm: "Of course! I'll figure it out! ”