Reaching a certain degree of understanding with the British is Xu Jie's first strategic goal in Europe, after all, as the current world's largest country, the British are really strong in economic and military power, and falling out with this big country is definitely not the result that Xu Jie is willing to see, even if Xu Jie supports Germany against Britain, it is also a variety of secret operations, in the open, the Chinese Republic is not concerned about the situation in Europe, and it is tantamount to crossing the Strait of Malacca with a military presence.

But from the point of view of the war against Russia and the Netherlands, in addition to reaching an understanding with the British, there is another country that is quite important, and this country is not France or Germany. Rather, a Spain that has been reduced to a third-rate in Europe! Whether economically or militarily, Spain has no use value for China, but the Philippines is a Spanish colony after all, although in the Spanish-American War, China obtained the privileges in the Philippines through the exchange of interests, and can rent Spain's military port to deploy its own fleet, but these are in peacetime, if in wartime, whether Spain will agree to Huaxia's use of Philippine ports as offensive bases is a question, after all, leasing a military port to a certain party in a war can already be regarded as an act of war!

Spain is a small country, and although it has defeated the faltering US Navy with the help of China and other European countries, this is only a reflection of a lost empire, and its weak nature has been exposed. It once looted almost all of its assets to create a fleet, but now this fleet is outdated with the appearance of dreadnoughts, and Spain really has no ability to update its capital ship force at this time.

"We won the Spanish-American War. But on the economic front, the huge military spending has cost the government 6 years to repay! After the war, Sevela used to say this. So Spain at this time did not like to provoke the Russians and the Dutch. There has always been ambiguity on the issue of leasing military ports. And on the journey back home of the Chinese Dreadnought Fleet, the second stop is Spain! "Since carrots can't solve the problem, then our other hand needs to raise the stick!" After reading the telegram sent from China, Liu Buyun sneered.

In the face of the arrival of the Chinese fleet, Sevela had mixed feelings, and six years ago, he had fought side by side in the Caribbean Sea with some officers and men of the Chinese fleet. The two sides were comrades-in-arms, and after the Spanish-American War, Spain retained its colonies. Huaxia, on the other hand, was granted privileges in the Philippines. Later, relations between the two sides were not bad, but with the gradual tension in the Far East and the shift of the battlefield of the Sino-Russian war to Southeast Asia, Sevela was informed. Spain is no longer immune!

The Philippines is too close to China. And with the development of the past few years, with the support of the Chinese government, the Chinese businessmen have gained a firm foothold in the Philippines, whether it is plantations or mines, or in the construction of commercial markets and ports, the Spanish can see the shadow of Chinese businessmen. With the support of Chinese funds and weapons, the Spanish Army did put down the uprising in the Philippines itself, and brutally suppressed and retaliated against the rebels. But when the Spaniards laid down their weapons and looked around the colony. They found that they had not only destroyed the indigenous uprising of the Filipinos, but also the colonial economy! Countless plantations and farms have been fatally hit. It can be said that there is not much left of the whole Philippines except for land and minerals.

The arrival of Chinese merchants quickly filled the economic void created by the Spaniards. A large influx of Chinese took over the devastated plantations and mines from the Spaniards or local natives, and subtly completed the redistribution of the Philippine economy. In addition, the economic lifeline of the colony was firmly controlled in his own hands, and the political and administrative situation was dominated by Spaniards, and economically dominated by Chinese. Although the Spaniards were very unwilling, in the face of the increasingly powerful Chinese Navy, the Spaniards could only greet each other with a smile even if they were dissatisfied!

Now, the presence of the Russian and Dutch navies in the Dutch East Indies has given hope to some of Spain's extremist powers, and the talk of uniting the Russians and the Dutch to defeat the Chinese navy and then regain the Philippines in their own hands is loud. And although the Spanish government did not discuss this matter with Russia and the Netherlands, it also made up its mind not to help each other, at least until the situation became clear! As a result, the negotiations between Huaxia and the Spaniards were in a difficult situation. And Liu Buchan's arrival is to break this dilemma!

The port of Valencia, where the Spanish fleet led by the Spanish admiral General Severa will welcome the main fleet of the Republic of China, 7 dreadnoughts, like 7 huge mountains, from the meeting of water and sky! The triple and twin turrets are as terrifying as peerless weapons, thick armor, sharp artillery and huge hulls undoubtedly deter Spain, a former maritime power, and now, the Spaniards are afraid that they can't even get together the 7 warships that are responsible for accompanying them, not that there are no ships, but the remaining small fish and shrimp are really not on the table, and the last of all, the battleships that the Spaniards are responsible for accompanying are still the warships left over after the end of the Spanish-American War!

"It's a threat, a naked threat!" As the two warships approached, Severa paid special attention to the Longxing-class battleship Longxing, the lead ship of the Longxing-class battleship, which was equipped with 12 12-inch 45L main guns, and the draft of the most powerful battleship in China was obviously in a heavy load situation, which was not really necessary at all, because Huaxia could be resupplied in Italy and Alexandria, and then in Mumbai in India and Singapore in Southeast Asia. If it were to sail far, it would have passed Alexandria, loaded with heavy coal, and crossed the entire Red Sea and the Indian Ocean to reach India.

In addition to ammunition, the load on a battleship is fuel, which is the two largest loads, and the Chinese fleet is certain in Italy to refuel, so the remaining load must be ammunition. And it's not a lot of ammunition, the general battleship will have a base of ammunition when it returns, but judging from the current waterline, the Chinese Navy has more than one base! Moreover, after the two sides fired a salute and accepted it, the Longxing-class battleships of the Huaxia Navy even fired a salvo of empty guns! This kind of unreasonable performance makes people feel a little bit of showing off!

The Chinese fleet will definitely not do anything in Europe, this is certain for Severa, but if this fleet reaches Asia, then there is no force that can limit the movement of the Chinese fleet! This fleet could be used against the Russians and the Dutch, and equally against Spain! The Chinese people are often polite in their dealings with others, but when it comes to national interests, they don't talk about it at all, no matter where the offender is, as long as the hostile relationship is determined, then the Chinese Republic will spare no effort to defeat the opponent by all means! In fact, in the Spanish-American War, Beiyang at that time was to some extent using Spain as a gunman! Even though the United States of America is tens of thousands of kilometers away from China, the long geographical distance still does not prevent China from stabbing the Americans in the back! Since the United States is like this, what about Spain? What about the Spanish colony so close to China?

Severa dared to assure that if Spain's policy was in a vacillating attitude, then Huaxia would have used some extraordinary means at the last moment! For example, using naval artillery and infantry to forcibly occupy the places they need. The British and the Huaxia have reached a certain understanding, and the reason is simple, the British agreed to the Huaxia to resupply in Sarawak, whether it is a merchant ship or a warship, whether it is wartime or peacetime! This already shows the attitude of the British, since the British have chosen to understand, then who in the whole of Southeast Asia will pay attention to the actions of China against Spain? In a maximum of 3 days, there will inevitably be a result of the issue of Spain and China on the lease of the port!

In contrast to the rapport between the two sides when they entered England, after entering Spain, China did not make a large-scale landing or friendly move, but seized the time to replenish fuel, food, and drinking water. Under the cover of busy sailors and workers, Liu Buyun once again acted as a representative and visited the Spanish envoy Piero and Admiral Severa together with Gu Weijun, who had been waiting in Spain. The former represents the government, while the latter represents the navy, after all, what China needs is a Spanish military port, and the navy cannot avoid it!

In the evening of the same day, the representatives of the two sides held the most important meeting between the Spanish government and foreign countries since the end of the Spanish-American War, in a hotel next to the port, which would determine the situation of the war in the Far East to a certain extent! The idea of the Spaniards is to stay out of the situation as much as possible, whether it is the Russians and the Dutch, or the Chinese are not what the current Spain can provoke or provoke! At least until the situation becomes clear, the Spaniards do not want to participate in this earth-shattering battle, and it is okay to help the victorious side at the end of the day, but until then, strict neutrality is the idea of the Spaniards.

As for Liu Buyun and Gu Weijun, they are very clear about the Spaniards' thoughts, the Spaniards are afraid of losing the Philippines, and at the same time they are afraid of retaliation from either side. Therefore, they want to use neutrality to protect themselves, and many people or countries in history have pinned their hopes on neutrality. However, history has proved that this is just the wishful thinking of the weak, and the most uncontrollable factor in the war is often the factor that determines success or failure, and both warring sides want to reduce such factors as much as possible, so for those wall grasses, both sides will suppress or even destroy them in line with the principle of reducing uncertain factors! Don't wait for the price to sell the grass behavior on the wall, even self-protection is a problem! And Liu Buyun wants to let the Spaniards understand their situation! Then make the right choice!

Thank you for the light reward ~~~. (To be continued......)