Wallace's disparagement of the Spaniards as worthless was naturally influenced by the Anglo-Spanish rivals, but in terms of general trends, Spain did decline significantly as the time entered the second half of the seventeenth century. However, what Li Xin wanted was not such generalizations, but how to deal with the conflict with the maritime powers if he really competed with the maritime powers for these barren lands full of treasures.

"Instead of complimenting the Marquis, your soldiers can defeat the Hessian mercenaries under your command, and it will be easy to defeat the Spanish army on land, I can vouch for this!"

Wallace was convincing, patted his chest and assured Li Xin, who sighed that the allure of gold to these Westerners was really incomprehensible to Orientals.

"The biggest difficulty from Nanking to the west coast of America is navigation, and I can't guarantee that my soldiers will arrive safely!"

Li Xin's worries were not unfounded, but now in the middle of the seventeenth century, just a hundred years after the Age of Discovery, and many islands and shipping routes in the Pacific Ocean were still in an unexplored state, he would not be happy to heed the instigation of this Wallace and embark on an uncertain adventure.

"Your Excellency the Marquis, you have been too worried! The Spaniards had been traveling through the Pacific for more than a hundred years, and if the Ming wanted to go to the Americas, they only had to rely on the experience of the Spaniards and nautical charts. ”

Wallace, who always spoke of seafaring matters with certainty, further explained in order to convince the Oriental marquis: "As early as 1493 the Pope established the 'Papal Meridian,' which stipulated that Spanish ships could only sail westward, while Portuguese ships had to sail eastward. So, in order to maintain their colonial rule in the Philippines, oh, what the Ming Dynasty called Luzon, they could only ship letters and silver between the Philippines and Mexico...... And according to humble speculation, at least half of the silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty from the West came from Mexico via the Pacific route......"

This was the first time Li Xin had heard of it, and before that he had always thought that the Spanish colonists who had entrenched themselves in the Philippines and Taiwan had come to the East via the Cape of Good Hope and India in Africa, and that most of them had crossed the Pacific Ocean from the direction of the American continent.

In this case, the Pacific route from the East to Mexico must have been quite mature after more than 100 years of development, and at least has great reference value.

Speaking of this, Wallace made a twist, "So, if we want to use this Pacific route, we must first defeat the Spaniards in the Philippines." Only in this way can the tentacles of the Ming Dynasty reach to the distant Americas on the other side of the Pacific Ocean! ”

This ruthlessly extinguished the hope that Li Xin's head had ignited, and the navy of the Ming Dynasty was still in the stage of babbling, how could it be possible to defeat Spain, the old maritime hegemon, in one fell swoop? This is an international joke. But looking at Wallace's rather serious appearance, I can't help but be deeply impressed by the adventurism of Westerners, perhaps it is precisely because of this trait that the Age of Discovery chose Westerners instead of conservative Orientals.

Li Xin wanted to achieve his goal in the shortest time and at the lowest cost, and a conflict with Spain was not the best option for him.

"Can't we drink the Spaniards share the route?"

"It is absolutely impossible, how could the Spaniards tolerate the presence of foreign ships to break their monopoly on the routes?" Wallace's answer was categorical.

"So, we have to find another route than war with the Spaniards?"

"That's right, my honorable Marquis!"

Wallace's answer made Li Xin's mind much colder, opening up a new route is not a simple matter, there are too many uncertain factors, and if you want to succeed at today's level of navigation, it may take a year or ten years. And most of his energy has to be used in the chaotic country, so this matter can only be put on hold for the time being.

He suddenly asked Wallace, "Did the Spaniards pass through Hawaii on their route across the Pacific?" ”

Wallace said that he did not know anything about this, and after repeated confirmation, Li Xin was convinced that Hawaii had not yet been discovered in this era, so that the middle node of the new route could be chosen, which would make the whole process of opening up a new route a little closer from uncertainty to certainty.

But in any case, this will only be decided after the situation in the southeast has stabilized, and the civil servants must be persuaded to support their plans to develop the Americas. This gave Li Xin a big headache, and no matter how he thought about it, he felt that those civil officials would not support his plan.

"Well, today's point is not to talk about these nonsensical topics! Jiangxi's eyeliner has sent back the news that the rebellious Huai King of Raozhou is attacking Nanchang Mansion, and if they succeed, they will free up their hands to attack Jiujiang, an important town on the Yangtze River. At that time, the Yangtze River waterway between Nanzhili and Huguang will be cut off. So our next step is to stop the situation from going in this direction! ”

Originally, Wallace was already very depressed after hearing Li Xin talk about the gold mines in the Americas, but when he talked about water warfare, did his opportunity to show his talent come soon? At that time, not to mention the short training of ten miles, he will really command a battle since he became the chief soldier and the director of the Naval Academy, and the sailors and soldiers who have experienced actual combat training will be reborn.

However, his good mood was soon ruined by the overseer in the image of a fly, and he could even see such a situation, and he drew up countless battle plans by himself, and the overseer was like a nasty fly buzzing around him, one by one, and he would deny one by one.

"I hope that His Excellency the Marquis will give an order to let the prison army interfere less with the lowly command......"

"It's a pity that Your Excellency can only get used to this way of dancing in shackles!"

Li Xin shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands.

At this time, another personal soldier sent a shocking news. It is said that the patrol captured two spies while patrolling, and the two traitors claimed to be Zhang Fangyan, the governor of Zhejiang, and Wu Zhen, the prefect of Yangzhou. This surprised Li Xin, Zhang Fangyan also mastered the soldiers and horses of the three towns in Jiangbei, how could he be so miserable and fall into the miserable situation of being alone? According to Li Xin's thoughts, no matter how bad Zhang Fangyan was, he would have to take a group of soldiers and horses to fight against the thieves of the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo between the Jiangbei Prefectures. Moreover, after the Haikou evacuated Jiangdu, didn't they take the opportunity to recapture Jiangdu?

These questions filled Li Xin's brain.

"Okay, bring those two people to the Chinese army, and I'll identify them myself!"

Wallace was a little stunned when his plan to explore the gold of the Americas was suddenly interrupted, and he could not understand the Chinese language, so he could only hold his ears in vain, but he did not understand a word. At this time, he couldn't help but feel a little secretly hateful, he must spend more time learning Chinese, otherwise he would not know if he was deceived when dealing with these cunning Orientals.

While waiting, Li Xin briefly asked Wallace some questions about his conquest of Jiangdu. When Wallace heard that the governor who had been defeated by him had come to Jiangnan, he showed some disdain.

"This governor is really stupid, he took the risk of leaving the galleon, and carried a group of people to the city of Jiangdu in a small boat, and as soon as he entered the harbor and landed, he captured an officer, and then used this officer to deceive the city......"

Li Xin was surprised, he only knew that Jiangdu had fallen, but he didn't expect Zhang Fangyan to be so defeated.

About a quarter of an hour later, two ragged and unkempt men were escorted into the tent by the soldiers. At first glance, Li Xin really didn't recognize who these two people were, but after careful identification, the old man looked a little like Zhang Fangyan, but his face was thin and wrinkled, ten years older than before, and his whole appearance changed greatly.

It wasn't until the old man cried out that Li Xin completely confirmed that the old man in front of him was Zhang Fangyan.

"Zhenyu Hou, if the old man doesn't have something unfinished, how can he endure humiliation and steal life......" A few words were said intermittently, and then he couldn't cry. Li Xin hurriedly stepped forward and comforted: "It's good to come back, it's good to come back!" I'll send someone to send a letter to Sun Butang and ask him to arrange a place to live, and you can only raise it with peace of mind! Don't think about anything else! ”

Looking at Wu Zhen beside Zhang Fangyan again, Li Xin couldn't remember the appearance of this person for a long time, but under his ragged clothes, he seemed to be embarrassed, and his hands were constantly moving in front of and behind him, not knowing where to put it.

Zhang Fangyan cried for a while, raised his head, and wanted to ask a few words about the situation in Jiangnan, but suddenly saw Wallace standing beside Li Xin, and was immediately shocked: "Red, red-haired ghost!" ”

Wallace's main force to attack Jiangdu was all mercenaries led by Leopod, and Zhang Fangyan was already a little bold, so he was paralyzed in shock and almost fell to the ground, thanks to Li Xin's quick eyes and a handful of people to hold him up.

Li Xin didn't want Zhang Fangyan to be too ugly, so he only briefly introduced a few words.

"This is the commander-in-chief of the newly formed navy, Admiral Wallace! At the same time, he also served as the dean of the Naval Academy! ”

"Navy? Formed a navy? "Although Zhang Fangyan is old, he still has some understanding of naval shipbuilding, not ignorance, if he wants to build a strong and durable sea ship, it must be a few years of work, and it only takes a few months to make a navy, how is it possible?

But Zhang Fangyan now has no extra energy to question Li Xin, after nearly a month of fleeing, he has been defeated several times in a row, so far he is exhausted, and he just wants to sleep peacefully.

Wallace, apparently, didn't want Zhang Fangyan to avoid this feeling, so he took a step forward and greeted him in a few stiff and only a few words of Chinese: "Your Excellency, don't come unharmed?" ”

Zhang Fangyan looked at Wallace in front of him carefully, and at first he thought that this person was the battalion officer of the artillery battalion of the Three Guards, but after carefully identifying it, he didn't feel like it.