Since its entry into the Thirty Years' War in Europe, Spain has not enjoyed much comfort, and in the far east, the Spanish Philippine colonies are also facing the storms of the edifice that are about to collapse.

By the time Baron Philip, the Spanish king's plenipotentiary envoy, arrived at the overseas territory of the Pearl Island, the Luzon Independence Army under the leadership of Li Guozhu had already controlled almost all the Spanish colonies on the island of Luzon except for a few southern islands such as Cebu.

As the situation became clearer, the Chinese people everywhere on Luzon began to feel uncontrolled excitement. Perhaps out of venting, or perhaps out of profit, many people began to rob and even attack local Spanish civilians, and the local indigenous leaders, who were eager to dissociate themselves from Spain, also took the opportunity to fall into the hole for the Spaniards.

Even if they had to take measures to stop it for the sake of diplomatic peace talks, the hundreds of officers and soldiers of the Chinese Foreign Legion could not take care of the surrounding Spanish colonial towns except to maintain law and order in Manila. In the past month, hundreds of Spanish civilians have been killed. In order not to affect the negotiation process, the Chinese and American Asian fleets had no choice but to go to the coastal towns and transport all the surviving Spanish civilians to the Manila Quarantine Zone for protection, and also shelled the natives who tried to take advantage of the chaos to loot the towns several times.

Manila, the pearl of Spain's Far East, is now dilapidated, with nearly 10,000 unkempt Spaniards crowded inside the main city fortress, and the area outside the main city fortress has become a Chinese world.

As early as March, the Spanish envoy, Baron Philip, arrived in Manila on a gunboat from the Chinese American Fleet, and then kept communicating with the colonial officials who had not been captured after the loss of the governor. But no matter how you look at it, except that the place name has not changed for the time being, Spain has lost any ability to rule over the Philippine colonies.

The Huamei representative in charge of the peace talks was Aniel, the mayor of Pearl Overseas Consulate, who also accompanied Baron Philip to the arrival. Although Anil has never been to Manila in the past few years, he still knows a little about Manila from the people of the past, and now he sees the ruined port town. Still surprised Anil.

It is not known whether it was deliberately protected by the Chinese and American forces, and the Manila Governor's residence did not receive any damage. It was as if after a carnival and a super-cleaning, when every corridor or room of the Governor's Mansion was clean, even the vase was filled with fresh flowers, and the smell of perfume wafted in the air.

But this seemingly fresh and magnificent place made Baron Philip not energetic at all. Even though I had made a lot of mental preparations on the way, what I saw and heard now was a hundred times worse than my psychological expectations. The rule of the Kingdom of Spain over the colonies of the Far East is considered to be over, and the rest. It is how to save the face of the Kingdom of Spain and recover some of the losses as much as possible. Not to mention, in the port warehouse on the island of Cebu today, there are more than a dozen tons of silver and a large amount of jewelry that have not had time to be shipped.

As the leader of the Luzon independence movement, Li Guozhu walked into the governor's palace with a number of retinues. In addition to paying homage to Anil, Baron Philip of Spain is completely nostril-facing posture.

The first round of negotiations was purely to take a stand, and Li Guozhu and others put forward three major demands for peace talks: first, the Spaniards must give up the entire Philippine colony; Second, Spain must pay reparations for the massacres decades ago; Third. All existing Philippine-colonial Spanish possessions, including private ones, would belong to the Luzon Independence Army.

In addition to the first one, which had to be accepted, the remaining two made Baron Philip extremely unhappy. Because in the opinion of Baron Philip. The broken things of a few decades ago are nothing compared to the massacres in the Thirty Years' War in Europe now, and even the emperor of the Ming Empire at that time gave up his calculations, what are you still tossing?

The third is even more excessive. The Philippine colony, if not at its best, was the core node of the Spanish Empire's transglobal shipping routes, with Manila and Cebu alone. The amount of effort and money that Spain had invested for more than half a century was astronomical, and of course it included the personal wealth of colonial officials who were trapped in Manila's inner city.

The relevant content, Anil has long been memorized, Li Guozhu and others' conditions, in fact, but most of them were thought out by Fan Li in advance. Baron Philip, who had dealt with the Chinese in Seville, was also familiar with the so-called sky-high price and repaying the money on the ground, and refused all the conditions for peace talks on the spot.

Negotiations were at an impasse, but soon Philip was caught in a dilemma. Even though the lives of the Spaniards isolated in the main city of Manila were guaranteed, all food supplies were cut off by Li Guozhu and others. To get food, you can do it for $1 per kilogram of rice or flour and $2 per sea fish, without bargaining.

Spanish civilians, fed up with humiliation, Spanish colonial officers and soldiers who had laid down their arms, and even some petty officials, flocked to the Doge's Palace, vehemently begging Baron Philip to solve the problem. Poor Baron Philip, with only one servant by his side at most, had all the way to the Far East empty-handed, and how could he solve the food problem for the local Spaniards.

As a last resort, Baron Philip had no choice but to ask for help from the Chinese and American "peacekeepers" garrison. The funny thing is that the Huamei garrison only symbolically allocated a batch of compressed dry food on the grounds that it was insufficient for its own supplies, and it no longer bothered.

More than a month later, some Spanish soldiers, who had had had had no patience, sneaked out of the main city in an attempt to steal food outside, but were caught by the besieging Luzon Independence Army.

One has no food, the other has no weapons, and now the Spaniards in Manila are completely a group of lambs to the slaughter, Baron Philip knows that every day of delay will be more unfavorable to himself, and even his life will be threatened, so he can only ask Anil to come forward and negotiate with Li Guozhu again.

Probably the futile entanglement was no longer helpful, and after several nights of deliberation and consultation with the Bishop of Manila and some colonial officials, Baron Philip finally accepted the mediation of the Chinese and American sides, reached a conditional settlement agreement with the Luzon Independence Army led by Li Guozhu, and finally decided the final fate of the Spanish Far East colonies.

On May 20, 1643, Baron Philip, the plenipotentiary envoy of the King of Spain, and Li Guozhu, the leader of the Luzon Independence Army, traveled to the overseas territories of the Pearl Island to sign the Peace of Pearl, which would determine the future of Luzon.

The main content of the peace treaty is six:

1. The Kingdom of Spain acknowledges the inappropriate policy of domination over the colonies of the Philippines. Voluntarily renounce the Philippine colony and other islands under its jurisdiction, and the colonial administration will withdraw within one month of the signing of the peace treaty.

2. The Kingdom of Spain compensated the local Chinese with a total of 2 million Spanish silver dollars.

3. The Kingdom of Spain sold all the remaining assets of the colony to the Filipino Chinese community as a whole, totaling 2 million Spanish silver dollars.

4. The Filipino Chinese community returned the Spanish ships, personnel and property looted during the conflict.

5. Spanish immigrants who have settled in the Philippines have the right to voluntarily choose whether to stay or not in the next ten years, and the Chinese community cannot unilaterally obstruct or persecute them.

6. The Kingdom of Spain is permanently granted the most-favored-nation status for trade by the future Chinese government in the Philippines.

In Baron Philip's view, although the one-time renunciation of the Far Eastern ulcer has cut off the global route of the Kingdom of Spain for nearly a hundred years, at a time when the national fortunes have long been declining, this abandonment is not a kind of meat stripping and detoxification therapy. As long as the Kingdom of Spain remained undefeated in Europe and the New World. Then one day I will get it back with interest.

The so-called compensation, sale, and restitution clauses in the peace agreement are actually just official articles with different faces, which are basically offset on paper. For the families of Spanish colonial officials who were terrified, although they were robbed of a lot of their wealth by the Chinese a few days ago, the part left behind was enough for them to eat and drink after returning to Spain.

However, it was still necessary to make enough face-saving articles, and Li Guozhu and others handed over a batch of "ownerless property" looted in various places to the Huamei deputies who supervised the implementation of the peace treaty. Anil, who was instructed by the country, also appropriately sent the money that was "difficult to find the owner" to Baron Philip's hotel. The total value of gold and silver jewellery alone exceeded 100,000 Spanish silver dollars.

With Huamei's "just" attitude towards the peace treaty, Baron Philip also changed his sad face and actually held a feast on Pearl Island, on the one hand, to shock the officials who lost their colonies. On the one hand, it is close to the representatives of Huamei. As for the official correspondence received from China inquiring about the situation, he threw it aside disapprerovingly, and then used his second-pole talent to portray this trip to the Far East as how dutiful he was. How much for the benefit of the Kingdom of Spain as a whole, and sent to Europe through the beautiful post office of Guò.

……

At that time, the Spanish commander Legazpi led the fleet to occupy the Philippines, and now the Spanish colonial officials have begun to evacuate to the overseas territory of the gorgeous Pearl Island in disgrace.

It was different from the powerful officials, merchants, and colonial officers and soldiers who boarded the ship with large bags and small bags. A large number of Spanish civilians do not have such special treatment. Now that they had been abandoned by the Kingdom of Spain, there were very few words in the Covenant mentioning their fate. A considerable number of them have lived here for more than half a century, and although they are Hispanics, they are no richer than the local Chinese, and more importantly, they have lost almost a qiē in the war.

Looking at another sail galen ship in the distance, the Spanish civilians who cleaned up the ruins in the port of Manila were all dejected. Beside a merchant ship of the Huamei Oriental Union Group, dozens of Spanish men are desperately trying to show themselves what they are capable of working as porters. Now, every Spanish commoner in Manila had to rely on the trading activities of Chinese merchants in Manila to support themselves, working as dock porters, storekeepers, errand boys, and even prostitutes.

In contrast to the Spanish civilians, who were worried about their future or struggling to survive, some of the Chinese in Manila were not having a good time, because they were facing more difficult problems than the armed uprisings that had preceded them.

Luzon got it, and then what?

"The whole world is not the king's land; On the shore of the land, it is not the king's minister. ”

Like Huang Senping, who ascended to Brunei in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty and gained a firm foothold, some Chinese businessmen in Manila who had just gained a free foothold from the Spaniards actually thought of the word "annexation" first, and whimsically mentioned that Yì sent envoys to the Ming Emperor to annex.

At that time, Huang Senping created a foundation in Brunei, paying tribute to Ming Chengzu Zhu Di as the king of mud, and left a desire to "know the territory of the territory", wanting to include all the territory of Brunei under his control into the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and then "support his body in China" and allow himself to be buried in the Ming Dynasty.

Perhaps in Zhu Di's view, the deferential attitude of overseas fanbangs is more important than anything else. So he just made a haha to Huang Senping's words of loyalty, and then gave him extremely high treatment and praise and canonization, which also made China lose its claim to Kalimantan Island in history.

Now, the habitual mentality has reappeared, which not only surprised Fan Li, the head of China's US diplomatic affairs in the Far East, but also left some people in the China-US Congress and cabinet speechless for a day. It seems that in the subconscious of some people in Luzon, the Ming is his own person, and Huamei is just a foreign country with good friendship.

How could Li Guozhu not know the attitude of Huamei people, and he has wasted so much energy to support himself for more than ten years, hoping that Luzon can form an iron relationship with Huamei in the future. With gorgeous deeds. Even if Daming doesn't pay attention to it, can he still allow the Chinese businessmen in Luzon to come by themselves?

Besides, Li Guozhu believes that he is the biggest promoter and contributor to Luzon's independence, and even if the intermediate process relies on the help of many Chinese immigrants and other maritime merchants from the Ming Dynasty, without himself and some core personnel, Luzon would not have been able to achieve its current status. In other words, Li Guozhu has long inherited a free and independent ambition from his father Li Dan.

While Li Guozhu and a few others were stubborn, beating around the bush, and arguing on the basis of reason, the Asian Fleet of the Chinese Navy and the Foreign Legion of the Army began to send troops into the homes of those Chinese merchants who had returned to the country under the pretext of supervising the implementation of the "Pearl Peace Treaty." Search for evidence of "illegal looting of Spanish assets".

After several intimidations, these people's brains turned a corner, only to realize that in this world, it was not the emperor of the Ming Dynasty who really decided their fate. It is these Chinese and American troops who usually desperately defend the interests of the Chinese in the South Seas. Usually, it's easy to say anything about business dealings, but at critical moments, it won't give you a good face.

Since they were able to live under the rule of the Spaniards for nearly a hundred years, it was not a big deal to change masters. The flexible minds of the merchants were brought into full play at this time. It also overcame the assumptions that were taken for granted at the beginning.

A formal meeting to discuss the future of Luzon's independence was soon held at the former Spanish Governor's Palace in Manila, chaired by Li Guozhu, who was gaining popularity in Luzon, and a number of prominent merchants who were actively involved in the independence movement. Then we also invited small and medium-sized households with some status in various parts of Luzon. Fan Li became an observer of the "Luzon Provisional Trusteeship Committee".

Although it is an "internal discussion", who does not know who has the final say on the situation in Luzon now?

The Chinese businessmen in Manila, who knew Fan Li's identity, all restrained their initial smugness at this time, and the speeches at the meeting were completely unnutritious, and Li Guozhu also glanced at the smiling and silent Fan Li from time to time, which had the taste of "what do you think".

What "open up the fertile soil of Nanyang to support the nation", what "from now on, Nanyang Chinese people live in no obstacles, can be called the land of paradise" and other empty words continue to emerge, all kinds of reliable or unreliable opinions have been put forward, but the last layer of paper has never been pierced.

Seeing that everyone was almost discussed, Fan Li finally took out a letter from his pocket and gently put it on the table. Fan Li's action suddenly made the conference hall silent, and dozens of pairs of eyes were staring at the envelope on the table.

"In order to effectively protect the vital interests of all the Luzon Chinese and to maintain the good trade order in Southeast Asia, the National Assembly and the Cabinet of our country have long attached importance to the situation of the Luzon Chinese and have made unremitting efforts to this end. Here, I would also like to thank Mr. Li Guozhu for his great contribution and personal sacrifice to the cause of the Luzon Chinese, as well as for the hard work and dedication of every Luzon Chinese present, or not present. ”

Fan Li said, turning his gaze to Li Guozhu on the main seat, only to see that the other party was modestly arching his hands left and right.

"Our government and Congress believe that an advanced political system that is in line with the development of the Chinese in Luzon is the best model to protect the vital interests of all Luzon people. I am here to convey the basic opinion of my Government and Congress, that is, Luzon should embark on a path of independence, self-reliance, unity, and courage to forge ahead, and to build Luzon into a country of permanent prosperity, stability, and freedom. ”

Luzon Independence Founding! When Fan Li said it unequivocally, except for a few people such as Li Guozhu, most of the representatives of large Chinese families in Manila were silent.

Even if Luzon has nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty in the future, then why do you still ask for the opinions of us businessmen? Since ancient times, isn't it all the work of the heroes to build a state?

"Uh...... It is also our wish for the Chinese people to be self-reliant and prosperous, but I don't know who should be the king of this Luzon country, and what etiquette and law should be respected......"

A Chinese businessman who had not been in Luzon for a long time whispered a question in the corner, and then more eyes converged on Li Guozhu. on this issue. Li Guozhu used to think about it a lot intermittently, and finally did it with the attitude of taking one step at a time, but at this time, he suddenly mentioned this problem very sharply, and he also felt that his throat was dry.

No matter how bad it is, he should be similar to Liu Xiang, the lifelong commander of the Lanfang Freedom Collar, right? This is something that Li Guozhu has been pondering in recent days.

"Luzon can have today, thanks to all of you, how can Li and He De be called lonely, this is a matter of kings, and it must not be!" Li Guozhu quickly stood up and bowed his hand to the surroundings with a solemn face. A look of "resignation".

Well, according to the script, do you have to ask for three more invitations? A room full of Chinese businessmen with a lot of ink in their stomachs were thinking about this question in their hearts at this time.

"Luzon is in ruins, and the shopkeeper Li should come forward to benefit the people of Luzon!" An elderly Chinese businessman from Lin Jiayan stood up at this time, and he was full of words, this person was Wei Changde, a big businessman who fully supported Li Guozhu.

"Yes, everybody here is the backbone of Luzon. If we can work together, I believe that Mr. Li Guozhu will also make greater achievements. Seeing everyone's unpredictable appearance, Fan Li's heart blossomed, but on the surface he still had a serious expression. We support the establishment of a provisional government of the Republic of Luzon led by Mr. Li Guozhu and the post of interim prime minister, while you can form a unicameral parliament to oversee the affairs of the country. For this. We will send a high-level advisory team to provide all-round construction and support to the Republic of Luzon. ”

"Li Da has both ability and political integrity, and he is expected to be the prime minister. We will do our best to help. Without waiting for everyone to think about what kind of subordinate relationship this provisional government and parliament was, another Chinese businessman who led the Luzon independence movement stood up.

There are already a few people who have taken the lead, and they are all characters who can call for wind and rain in Luzon, and the small Chinese businessmen from all over the country present can only respond one after another, which can be regarded as a national system - following the example of the Zhou republic, the same example as Huamei, the hall officials hold the handle, and the village elders discuss politics.

Next, the surprising unity of a group of representatives of large Chinese businessmen who had already understood the situation directly set Li Guozhu as prime minister for life, even omitted the word temporary, and gave the eldest Wei Changde the status of a lifetime speaker of the parliament, and set a ten-year transitional period between the provisional government and the parliament.

Li Guozhu's influence today is almost unparalleled, but he is over 60 years old, and he is also a long life according to this era, so Li Guozhu's power as a lifelong prime minister will not last long. Wei Changde is over seventy years old, and he has only been alive for a few years. Many of the young maritime businessmen here are full of expectations for the future.

This is more or less the traditional monarch-father complex at work, but on the whole, Fan Li's "Jianyì" is still regarded as the biggest driving force in the founding of the Luzon Republic.

……

On June 10, 1643, the Covenant of the Republic of Luzon, which served as a provisional constitution, was hastily promulgated, with no more than a dozen items, and the provisional government and parliament of the Republic of Luzon were established at the same time. At this time, all parts of Luzon were still in the stage of rebuilding from ruins, and ordinary people did not feel any difference in their lives.

When the news reached North America, the Chinese Congress and the Cabinet held a grand celebration, which was the result of the most fulfilling result of the country in the East after the establishment of the Lanfang Free Territory.

As a colony operated by the former Kingdom of Spain for nearly 80 years, Luzon is the earliest and most mature land in Southeast Asia. Whether it is the population, products or urban construction of the Chinese people, it is far stronger than the rest of Nanyang, and the establishment of such a Chinese republic supported by Huamei has huge military and economic benefits for Huamei.

Geographically, Luzon is the most important springboard in Southeast Asian waters, and from Luzon, it can control a larger island in the south. From an economic point of view, Luzon is rich in staggering mineral resources, ranking third in the world in gold ore reserves, fourth in copper ore reserves, fifth in the world in nickel ore reserves, and sixth in the world in chrome ore reserves. As the largest copper producer in Southeast Asia in later generations, Luzon alone has several world-class copper and gold mines.

In terms of agricultural, forestry and fishery resources, Luzon is not far behind, and the production of several tropical or subtropical crops alone is a significant global resource in later generations, and Luzon's tropical forestry was the largest in the local economy until the 20th century.

As long as there is Huamei capital entering, Luzon will become the most important source of industrial and agricultural raw materials in the Huamei Southeast Asian sphere of influence within ten years, and the local millions of natives who have already adapted to the colonial economy have long been adapted. It is also an important consumer market, not including the Chinese population, which will increase significantly in the future.

However, this Luzon War of Independence, which lasted for several months, except for Cebu, including Manila, was more or less destroyed in various towns, especially Lingayan in the north, which was almost in ruins, and it took a lot of time and money to rebuild. Further south, there is the Islamic Emirate of Sulu, which has a very bad temper. The new Republic of Luzon still has a lot of basic skills to be cultivated.

Before the Huamei Cabinet could make any instructions, the headquarters of the Oriental Union Group was busy first handing over the "Luzon Republic of China's Economic Development Support Intent", which was quite a bit of a substitute for the replacement. In the Cabinet, similar plans have been discussed several times many years ago, and the content of the letter of intent of the OUCC Group is very similar.

According to the plan of the Huamei Cabinet, most of the projects in the economic support plan of the Republic of Luzon will be contracted to the OUCC, and the OUCC can add more independent investment projects according to the actual situation. The only thing that is different from the willingness of the Oriental Union Group to eat a big deal. Before the formal signing of the power of attorney, the Ministry of Commerce wants OUCC to open up at least 30% of its development projects to other domestic companies.

The Oriental Union Group, which has long been adjusting its exclusive monopoly strategy in order to win the support of domestic small and medium-sized enterprises, has also generously expressed its support for the establishment of the cabinet at this time. After all, the stall is indeed too big. With the current energy of the Oriental Union Group, it is really impossible to take care of the entire Far East and subcontract some projects, so that it can concentrate on obtaining the most important project benefits. Second, we can also continue to win over and maintain domestic relations.

In view of the current situation in the Republic of Luzon, and in view of the huge demand for food throughout East Asia, the agriculture of the Republic of Luzon was restored and expanded. It will be the top priority of the first five-year period of the support plan and the core of the economic development of the Republic of Luzon in the future.

In addition to the dominant rice cultivation industry, sugarcane, abaca, coconut, rubber and other cultivation industries, which were carried out on a large scale many years ago during the Spanish colonial period, will also continue to expand.

In order to stimulate the enthusiasm of the Republic of Luzon to develop agriculture from top to bottom, OUCC will purchase unlimited quantities of Luzon rice, hemp seeds, coconut and rubber in the next five years, of which the rice price commitment is 10% higher than the average trading price in Southeast Asia in the past five years. This meant that the people of Luzon could sell as much rice as they wanted to grow, without worrying about price changes in the outside market.

In terms of industry, the Oriental Union Group will jointly set up a large-scale cement and building materials factory with Chinese businessmen in Luzon in the mode of technology and equipment as shares, and will move all the Pearl Island cement and building materials factories that rely on raw materials for shipping to Luzon to complete production locally. This will not only greatly reduce the local industrial pollution of Pearl Island, but also reduce the cost of cement building materials in the Far East by about half.

In terms of mining, due to the limitations of mining conditions and technical manpower, the development of other mineral resources will be postponed until after 1650, except for the expansion of the known scale of copper and gold mining.

In terms of trade, in addition to granting the most favored nation status to the sovereign state of the Republic of Luzon, the Chinese and American Department of Commerce will also sell a batch of second-hand converted schooner merchant ships and early steam merchant ships to the Luzon Import and Export Company, a joint venture of Chinese businessmen in Luzon, in the coming year, and allow payment in installments.

On the military side, the Huamei Advisory Group will establish a national defense force of no less than 5,000 men and a small navy for the Republic of Luzon in accordance with the model of the Lanfang Free Collar to deal with the southern state of Sulu and gradually complete the "full unification" of the territory of the Republic of Luzon.

In terms of education, the Republic of Luzon will also be included in the "Oriental Scholarship Program" of the Oriental Union Group, and from 1644 onwards, the Luzon Provisional Government will be given 50 public places for young children to study abroad every year, and they will have the opportunity to receive a Chinese education on Pearl Island.

Nearly 100 economic and industrial support projects of the Republic of Luzon were completed, and the Oriental Bank, a subsidiary of the Oriental Union Group, allocated a low-interest loan totaling $6 million to the Provisional Government of Luzon from several banks in the United Nations for the reconstruction and realization of the above-mentioned projects in Luzon.

Although the use of this large sum of money will be supervised by the Huamei Advisory Group, and it is unlikely that it will produce immediate results within a year or two, the large Chinese businessmen throughout Luzon, especially the wave with whom Li Guozhu is most closely connected, will also be the biggest beneficiaries of this development. Due to the lack of colonial exploitation policy, ordinary Luzon Chinese people will have more hope for life than before.

As one of the essential returns, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Luzon sold the entire Palawan Islands to Huamei for a nominal fee of $100,000. The Palawan Islands will later be incorporated into the jurisdiction of the Pearl Island's overseas territory, which is rich in resources and products, and also has a natural harbor that Pearl Island has never had, and will serve as an important military port for the Chinese and American Asian Fleet in the future.

Compared with the various celebrations and frequent actions of the Oriental Union Group, the atmosphere of the headquarters of the Guoxing Group is a bit dull, because everyone knows what kind of cornucopia Luzon is, and the potential for economic benefits contained in the main island of Luzon, except for the Ming Dynasty, can almost top all the other territories of the Oriental Union Group in the Far East.

What's more, this time, the Oriental Union Group was too generous, and gave up at least half of the projects, which attracted domestic praise, and large and small enterprises were all in the past. (To be continued......)

PS: Celebrating the National Day, traveling, and breaking off for a few days with great guilt, by the way, sort out the remaining manuscripts of the sixth volume, and resume the update next Monday. The seventh volume has already been written, and I will continue to update it when it is finished. Happy ^_^ holidays to all