"You are blackmailing!" Gersman retorted angrily, "You cannot do this to the people of the Kingdom of Spain!"

If, according to Takahashi, the "prisoner of war management fee" is charged at the rate of 3,000 taels of silver per day, then even if Manila can send a fleet to pick up the people as quickly as possible, it will be at least 20 days or even a month after this trip, and who will pay for such a huge fee? The Manila authorities will certainly not raise this ransom money for these low-class untouchables, exiled criminals, rude mercenaries, and ignorant peasants, and it is very likely that after receiving this news, they will not even send ships at all, and will directly give up these hostages. For them, thousands of immigrants from Europe rush to the Far East every year, so why bother to spend a lot of money to buy back these captives from the Haihans.

Takahashi Minami smiled and said, "Do you think this price is too high? During this period, we have to provide food and shelter for the prisoners of war, so it is impossible to put it up for nothing, right?"

As soon as Takahashi Minami came up, he opened his mouth widely, which actually left room for Gusman to make a counteroffer. He was sure that Gusman couldn't dwell too much on this issue, as long as the Spaniards in the city wanted to save their lives and leave here safely, they would have to pay a certain price. In fact, the payment of ransom for the redemption of prisoners of war was also a common thing on the battlefields of Europe, and there was nothing unacceptable to the Spaniards. Guersman's anger stems more from the outrageous nature of the outrageous offer than the nature of the incident itself.

"I understand this, but your asking price is too exaggerated!" Gusman argued with anger in his temper, "At most, we will only accept a one-time payment of three thousand taels of silver for the prisoners of war, and it will be difficult to obey if we exceed this amount!"

"It's not impossible to pay three thousand taels at once, but you can only take away those who are not Hispanic. Takahashi Minami unhurriedly played an official tone with Gusman: "The rest of the people will stay here, and when the money is enough, they will be released back to Manila." ”

Who cares if Gusman is not Hispanic, Lao Tzu can't even give out a copper plate, isn't the object of this ransom money to be redeemed by the Spaniards? Wait, this statement of Takahashi Minami is to detain all the Spaniards?

"That's right, including you, and Lord Alcalazor in the city. As if guessing Gusman's thoughts, Takahashi explained to himself: "You must stay as hostages, and you can only leave Chicken Coop Harbor after Manila pays for you." Of course, we will take care of your basic livelihood during this time, and we will not let your human purse bags go wrong. ”

Guersman's face changed drastically, and Takahashi's tone was obviously to detain all the Spaniards, including the officials, so that they could extort the ransom money they wanted from the Manila authorities. If the officials were to be detained, the Manila authorities might not be able to maintain a numb attitude, after all, if even the officials of the Taipei colonies gave up, the news would probably affect the mentality of the officials of the other colonies in the Far East.

Of course, even so, the Manila authorities will never agree to the sky-high ransom fee quoted by Takahashi, and Gusman also knows very well that the lives of the people in Chicken Coop Harbor are not worth so much money, and if Takahashi Minami insists on going his own way, I am afraid that he will still not get the money he wants.

"Your Excellency, General, in fact, we are just ordinary people working for the Manila authorities, not some prominent nobles, those big people will not take us seriously, if you want to threaten the Manila authorities with our lives, I think Your Excellency is likely to be disappointed. Guersman persuaded in as calm a tone as he could: "I think we should negotiate a mutually acceptable condition to resolve the current dispute peacefully." ”

Takahashi Minami deliberately pondered for a long time, and it was not until Gusman was about to get impatient that he slowly spoke: "The price is not negotiable, but you must also see your sincerity." ”

Gusman heard that Takahashi Minami was relieved, and quickly answered: "If you can let the local officials leave here first, then we can give you a private fortune, how ......much is it?" Gusman thought about it, gritted his teeth and said: "It will not be less than five thousand Spanish silver coins." ”

Takahashi Nan coughed dryly and said: "You will probably be mistaken, this money is not collected by me personally, but on behalf of the Haihan Executive Committee, if I put this money in my own pocket, I am afraid that I will have the life to take the money, and I will not have the life to enjoy it." ”

After listening to the translation, Gusman thought that this was just a trick by Takahashi Minami to bargain with him, and immediately stretched out another finger and said, "I'll add another thousand silver coins!"

To be honest, this amount is really not small, and in terms of Takahashi's current military salary income, it will take him about ten years to earn this money, and the temptation is indeed not small. However, Takahashi Minami is not a greedy person for money, and for him, material comforts are far less comfortable than those on the battlefield, and no matter how much family property he has, it is just a useless number for him to live in the barracks for a long time. The previous Santo Domingo City had hardly brought any decent benefits to the Haihan Army, and if he was still empty-handed on the side of Jilong Harbor, it would be difficult for Takahashi Nan to explain to Qian Tiandun after he returned.

In any case, the Executive Committee has always tacitly acquiesced in the fact that the military has withheld part of the war benefits for military spending, and took advantage of the defeat of the Spaniards to knock on a bamboo pole, which can also somewhat subsidize the military expenses of the expedition to Taipei. And this will definitely be counted in the battle merits, the more wealth handed in, the greater the battle exploits of Takahashi Minami, and Gusman's bid is far less valuable to him than the military commission's commendation order.

"I want to be the first to leave here, six thousand silver coins each. The rest of the men, when you send a fleet to pick them up, pay fifty thousand pieces of silver in one lump sum. Takahashi Minami raised his hand to stop Gusman from speaking: "You don't need to say it anymore, this is a fixed price, if you agree, you will go out of the city and surrender as soon as possible, if you don't agree, then everyone will fight to the end." But I'm going to say it in the front, after we break through the city defenses, then there will be no room for you to bargain, and you won't even want to take a single silver coin from here when the time comes!"

Gusman immediately calculated in his heart, in addition to Alcarazo and himself, there were at least four or five important people in the city who had to retreat with their whole body, six thousand one, which would cost thirty or forty thousand silver coins, plus fifty thousand in the later period, which was actually not much different from the last payment of three thousand a day. The difference is that if you want to get out of here safely as soon as possible, you have to pay a sum of money to the Haihan people as a way to buy a road, and with the economic situation of El Salvador, the city's silver treasury is estimated to be able to put together two or three thousand silver coins, and the bulk of this money must be paid out of pocket.

Gusman really didn't get much oil and water during his time as the administrator of Santo Domingo, and it was fatal to ask him to come up with 6,000 silver coins at a time - the total value of the five large boxes of gold, silver and jewelry he took with him when he left Santo Domingo was only about 4,000 silver coins, and it was not enough to fill them all in. Alcalázo may be in a slightly better condition than he is, but the ransom fee of six thousand silver coins is also an unacceptable amount for him.

The bitterness on Gusman's face could not be concealed: "Your Excellency, the conditions you put forward are too unrealistic, the situation of Santo Domingo City, I believe you already know it very well, this chicken coop port is actually similar to Santo Domingo City, it is nothing more than a little more residents, but the financial situation has always been beyond their means, where can you make up so much money!"

Takahashi Minami ignored his bitterness and looked up at the distant sky without responding. This is not the first time that he has negotiated with the enemy in such a situation, when he was fighting in Annam, there were really many South Vietnamese officials who spent money to redeem themselves, and there were also many people who obediently paid money while shouting infinitely bitter. If Gusman doesn't know how to raise and wants to reduce the price significantly, then Takahashi Minami doesn't want to waste any more time talking to him. Anyway, after the city is broken, everything belongs to Haihan, it is nothing more than a little more effort and time, and the reason why he is willing to sit down and negotiate with the other party now is mainly to consider reducing his own casualties.

Gusman grinded for a long time, and finally negotiated with Takahashi Minami for the ransom of 40,000 silver coins for the first ten people, and could take another ten crew members and their entourage. The rest of the people had to wait for Manila to send a boat to pick them up, and then pay 40,000 silver coins to Haihan before leaving. Of course, whether the Manila authorities are willing to pay ransom money for the detained people is another matter. However, Takahashi Minami didn't really care if Manila would pay a second ransom fee, because the labor required for mining the mineral deposits near Chicken Coop Harbor was by no means a small amount, and these prisoners of war held in Chicken Coop Harbor would naturally not be idle, and they would definitely be requisitioned as miners before leaving here, and if Manila didn't pay to redeem them, they would probably have to mine here until they died. Takahashi Minami believed that the value they had been able to create before that would surely exceed the amount of ransom money demanded from the Spaniards at this time.

Although the outcome of the negotiations was not satisfactory, at least one acceptable condition was negotiated for the Haihans, and Guersman returned to the city with this result, informing Alcarazso in detail of the process. Just as he had imagined, Alcaraso was furious when he heard this—not because of the arrogance of the Haihans, but because Minami Takahashi's asking price was too high, which made him feel very painful.

"These damned vampires! they have plundered our wealth in such a shameless way! We should fight them to the end, and we will not give them a single copper plate!" Alcaraso shouted with great emotion: "Mr. Gusman, you should not agree to the conditions of the Haihans, they are doing this to squeeze us dry and then kill us!"

Gusman has partnered with Alcarazo in Taipei for several years, and naturally knows that he is greedy for money, and it must be difficult to accept such a large loss. However, Gusman can be sure that Alcarazo is more afraid of losing his life than money, and that he is no less greedy for life and afraid of death than he is. Don't look at how loud he is now, but if he really wants to fight in El Salvador, Alcarazo will probably be the first to jump out and oppose it.

"Mr. Alcarazo, based on my previous experience with them in Santo Domingo, I think that the Haihan people are still relatively trustworthy, at least they will fulfill the conditions they promised, and will not go back on their word when the time comes. If we want to get out of here safely, I think it is necessary to seriously consider the conditions put forward by the Haihan people. Gusman patiently persuaded, "We have to pay a lot of money for this, but at least we can get out of here intact." You can make it again when the money is gone, but you can't get it back when your life is gone. ”

"There's a little truth to what you're saying. Alcaraso immediately got off the donkey and said to Gusman: "If we all die here, then there will be no one to bring back to Manila what the Haihan have done to warn the big men." Not only do we have to get out of here alive, but we also have to bring back all the intelligence information of the Haihan people to prepare for the future war of revenge. ”

Gusman said in his heart that before he could get out of the way, you began to think about the battle of revenge, and you thought about it quite far. However, he also knew that Alcarazo said this just to give his surrender another high-sounding reason, even if the Manila authorities wanted to launch a revenge war against the Haihan people in the future, it would never be Alcarazo, the chicken coop chief who suffered a big defeat, and the big men would not let him participate in related affairs at all.

"So what we need to do now is to think about the allocation of the ten places first, and then think about how the money should be apportioned. As soon as Alcarazo finished acting, he began to think about more realistic issues. Forty thousand silver coins was not a small amount, and Alcarazor was not sure if the city would be able to make up for it. There are still hundreds of Spaniards in the city, who can pay and whose identity is more important, which is a headache.

However, the enemy outside the city did not give Alcarazo enough time to solve these problems, and he had to plan a list of those who would leave the city within three hours of Gusman's return, and scrape together the 40,000 silver coins demanded by the Haihan people, and at the same time appease the army and the people in the city to accept the fact of surrender. Either way, it's a big test for Alcalázo. If any of these links are not handled well, he may be affected by them and will not be able to leave this place safely.