The architecture of the Alcazar of Santiago is very Spanish, a fusion of Arabic and European classical architectural styles, which finds inspiration in the blue Mediterranean, and fits the warm, wild and outgoing national character of the Spaniards, who worship simplicity and often have towering minarets.

It can be seen as a microcosm of Spanish fortress architecture, and wandering through it is like coming to a Spanish town on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Duan Qirui and his entourage were divided into three teams, each of which freely led people to lead the way around, and soon separated.

Duan Qirui took his little brother Lieutenant Colonel Bian Chunsong and two captains, under the leadership of the boss of the dark pile field, leisurely wandered around the castle for a long time, and when he was tired, he sat down in the pergola open outside the café, ordered coffee and a few snacks, and looked very comfortable.

In today's general perception of European countries, the division of the Ocean Kingdom into white countries is due to the underdevelopment of information, and their perception of Australia is still more than ten years ago, and secondly, because the Ocean Kingdom has more white citizens and strong national strength.

It is precisely because of the protection of the rapidly rising ocean kingdom that the Chinese immigrants living in the South Seas are generally well-mixed, and they cannot be said to be treated preferentially everywhere, at least they have not been discriminated against and suppressed, and their status is slightly lower than that of the real whites, but much higher than that of the local indigenous people.

Don't forget the Surabaya incident that happened just last year, which provoked His Majesty the King, who claimed to be the "protector of overseas Chinese immigrants", to go crazy and directly sent a fleet to the deterrent cruise off the coast of Batavia, causing the Dutch governor to step down.

The Dutch East Indies Qingdao Governor's Office had to pinch its nose and sign an alliance under the city, dividing Surabaya and East Batavia into the Special Interest Zone of the Ocean Kingdom, which was in fact a weakened version of the concession.

In the South Seas and the Far East, where the Ocean Kingdom was widely involved, there were many merchants who came and went, weaving closer and closer trade exchanges, and gradually the locals were able to distinguish the difference between the Ocean Kingdom, the Qing Kingdom and the Fuso Kingdom.

The Chinese in the Ocean Kingdom call it the Tang nationality, men have short hair, wear top hats or round-brimmed cool hats, women wear Western skirts or cheongsam, walk with their heads held high and full of confidence, most of them are rich in business, and often bring foreign wives to swagger through the market, and generally cannot be provoked.

The most conspicuous feature of the Qing people is to keep braids, wear melon skin hats, from merchants to peddlers and pawns.

Fusang people have the most obvious characteristics, like to wear kimonos, step on clogs, five short bodies and lap legs, wandering samurai will stick a long and a short two knives in their waists, men are fierce, women are 9 into 9 are Nanyang sisters.

It is precisely because of this situation that many Chinese living in Nanyang have cut off their braids and pretended to be citizens of the Ocean Kingdom.

Under the pergola outside the café

Duan Qirui and the others were taking a leisurely rest, sitting not far away, there were two middle-aged Spanish people who were tall and short hesitated, and plucked up the courage to come forward to talk; "Sir, take the liberty of excuse me, I'm Juan Carlos, who runs a local plantation, are you a merchant from the Ocean Kingdom?"

This Juan Carlos spoke English instead of Spanish, and Duan Qirui and the others could understand it, so Bian Chunsong, who was the most fluent in English, frowned slightly and replied; "What do you do?"

"That's right, I have no ill intentions, but I occasionally heard that it was a tobacco merchant in your conversation, so I tried to see if I could cooperate?"

"Please sit down, which one?"

"Excuse me ...... you"

"My English name is Carl, you can also call me Mr. Bian."

"Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Carr."

Bian Chunsong saw that Boss Tian, who was sitting opposite, was about to stand up to stop him, and signaled with his eyes that it didn't matter, it was okay to probe the other party's bottom.

He didn't believe that the news had just arrived in Manila and the news had leaked, and he knew that if the Spaniards had such ability, they would not have made a mess of this place.

Seeing that there seemed to be a door, the excited look on Juan Carlos's face flashed, and after sitting down with his companion, he couldn't wait to say; "We know that the Ocean Kingdom is rich in high-quality tobacco, and that various brands of cigarettes are hard currency in Manila, and their value is even more stable than Philippine pesos, and many business partners would rather accept cigarettes than silver pesos.

Let's be honest

The Spaniards are really terrible in the economy, the value of the Philippine silver and silver coins has been unstable, and the value of the Spanish and Puerto Rican silver pesos is different, which is a disaster in business......"

"Ahem...... Mr. Juan Carlos, let's not go that far. Bian Chunsong coughed dryly twice, interrupting the other party's boastful talk.

"Okay, I hope to cooperate with you, whether it is tobacco seedlings or brand cigarettes, I can come up with a sincere enough price, what do you think?"

"Oh......"

Bian Chunsong responded, looking at the other party's eager gaze, he knew that this was a speculative businessman with and without dates, so he turned his head and asked Chief Duan Qirui with his eyes, and saw that he was tasting coffee without saying a word, and he knew it in his heart.

"Mr. Juan Carlos, you know that the Ocean Kingdom strictly prohibits the flow of high-quality tobacco seedlings, and we, as law-abiding citizens, are sorry that cooperation cannot be reached in this regard." Bian Chunsong directly cut off the other party's unrealistic illusions, saw the other party's disappointed eyes, and said unhurriedly; "We did bring some sample cigarettes with us, and if you're interested, we can trade some for you."

"How many?"

"20 boxes of low-grade cigarettes, 5 boxes of medium-grade cigarettes."

"Oh...... That's great. ”

Cigarettes are a thing that is not available and can be sold, and it is especially popular in the military, especially in Spain, which is stationed in Manila. The officers and men of the naval fleet, from top to bottom, are smokers.

Every time you go on a mission, sailing on a boring sea, it's unthinkable to pass the time without a cigarette.

The Philippines is located in a subtropical region near the red belt, with a humid climate and plenty of sunshine, which is actually very suitable for the growth of tobacco leaves.

But the production here is inferior tobacco, the local aborigines are lazy and stupid, the planting of tobacco seedlings is not managed at all, completely dependent on the harvest of the sky, the Spaniards only know how to exploit and do not know how to produce, let alone organize funds and manpower to carry out agricultural science and technology research and development and selection.

The combination of the two causes the local tobacco leaves to be of poor quality, bitter and astringent to smoke, and can only be retailed in cloth bags after roasting, called loose tobacco leaves, sold to the smokers and pawns of cigarette bags, or handmade paper cigarettes, the value is very low, and it does not meet the minimum requirements for making cigarettes.

The so-called handmade paper cigarettes are palm-sized paper with some broken tobacco leaves on top of the paper, and after rolling them up, lick them with your tongue, and you can enjoy them beautifully after igniting them.

This is the most common among rickshaw drivers in the streets and alleys of Manila, where they sit down and rest their feet after a long day's hard work, light a paper cigarette and smoke the clouds, and wait for the guests by the way, which is the biggest pastime of the rickshaw driver.

Cigarettes are very expensive, even low-grade cigarettes need three to five dimes, and mid-grade cigarettes often cost a few pieces of silver, and many people at the bottom of the society can't afford to smoke, so they can only use this bitter and astringent inferior crushed tobacco leaves to deal with.

Large-scale planting of high-quality tobacco is a very high threshold, first of all, tobacco seedling cultivation is very technical, there is no large-scale scientific selection of seedlings, the ability to cultivate tobacco seedlings, what to talk about planting tobacco?

The cultivation of tobacco seedlings requires a unified and centralized place, connected into a piece, the plot requires shelter from the wind and the sun, has a clean water source, convenient transportation, flat terrain, and has not planted tobacco, Solanaceae, cucurbitaceae, and cruciferous crops within three years.

In addition, there are extremely high requirements for soil moisture.

The substrate soil takes clean loess, and unifies the ratio of substrate and loess, generally finely screened yellow clay, and contains a variety of nutrients of the substrate soil in a ratio of 7:3 to prepare.

After the above requirements are met, the temperature and moisture content requirements are also high, and after sowing, the temperature is controlled at 22°C.

After the seedlings emerge, the temperature is controlled below 28°C during the day and 13-15°C at night.

After sowing and until the seedlings are grown, they are generally not irrigated.

From the emergence of seedlings to the growth of the fifth true leaf, the water content of root nutrient soil is controlled at about 80% of the maximum water holding capacity in the field.

From the time the fifth true leaf grows out to the seedling forging, the water content of the root nutrient soil is controlled at about 60-70% of the maximum water holding capacity in the field.

From the seedling formation to 5-7 days before transplanting, the seedling should be forged, and the water content of the root nutrient soil should be controlled at about 50-60% of the maximum water holding capacity in the field.

In the Jinshui River basin of the ocean kingdom

Tobacco seedlings are selected and bred by large companies, and then purchased in plantations or villages and towns, graded and selected after the tobacco leaves grow, and then sold to tobacco factories after being made into tobacco leaf packages, forming a complete industrial composition.

There is a lot of meticulous knowledge in the breeding of tobacco, and if you can't do it, it will cause rotten seedlings, yellow leaves, weak seedlings, etc., transplanting them into the field will affect the quality of tobacco leaves, affect the yield, and directly affect the income of tobacco farmers.

Without strong organization and financial investment from the government, it is basically impossible to develop large-scale tobacco cultivation.

A small number of tobacco farmers grow high-quality tobacco with their experience, and the harvest is only enough for themselves and their relatives and friends to smoke, which is of little practical significance.

Therefore, the Ocean Kingdom strictly prohibits the outflow of high-quality tobacco seedlings, and what is implemented is to monopolize high-quality seedling resources, and the money can only be earned by me, and you can't do it.

This Juan Carlos actually wanted to get tobacco seedlings from Bian Chunsong, which was too whimsical.

This time, the cigarettes brought by Duan Qirui and his entourage were all purchased at their own expense, first, to cover up their identities, and secondly, to make some extra money by the way.

Since someone wants to buy it at a high price, how can there be a reason not to sell it?

This transaction was completed, the price doubled and turned a corner, a box of 50 cigarettes, 25 boxes is 1250 cigarettes, all of which add up to at least 1,000 gold oceans, which is really not less.

A few days later, the trip came to an end.

in the hotel

"Bastards, how dare they be so presumptuous?" Colonel Zheng Tieniu roared angrily, and immediately attracted everyone in the nearby room.

"What's going on?"

"See for yourself, these Spaniards are dancing wildly on the edge of a dangerous cliff and will be severely punished."

Colonel Iron Bull slapped the newspaper on the table in his angry hand, this was this morning's "Manila Horn", with a large article prominently on the front page; Who is to blame for the chaos in the Western Pacific?

This is a very biased article, although it is not directly named, but it alludes to the Ocean Kingdom everywhere, and it is extremely difficult to spread rumors and slander, and even slander the leader, which is an unbearable humiliation for any citizen of the Ocean Kingdom, which is enough to set off a monstrous anger.

As soon as the officers saw their emotions, they exploded, and the so-called death of the lord humiliated the ministers, this report simply poked a hornet's nest, and the consequences were extremely serious.

"War, we need a war, kill all the *** people."

"These idiots must be taught a lesson in blood, war, only war, and I can't wait to kill."

"If you dare to slander your leader, this person will die, and who will go with me?"

"Go together, go together...... Today, I will kill the editor-in-chief of this newspaper on the street to vent the hatred in my heart. ”

"Come along, I can't wait."

The officers rushed up the corridor with great momentum, and were stopped by Brigadier General Duan Qirui with a serious expression, only to see him standing in the middle of the corridor with his hands in his hands, and scanning everyone with a majestic expression, which was like a basin of cold water poured on his head, and the angry officers suddenly became dumbfounded.

"What's going on, what do you want to do?"

"Sir, the local Spanish newspaper here is so arrogant that they dare to slander the leader, and we will definitely correct him on the spot to set an example."

"Hmph, give me all back, it's not your turn to mix this matter blindly."

"Sir......

"Hmmm......"

Duan Qirui stretched out his tone and snorted heavily, and the officers could only suppress the anger in their hearts and reluctantly returned to the room.

Duan Qirui didn't explain, but walked to the hotel window unhurriedly and looked down from above......

In the distance, there was a faint sound like a tsunami on the street, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Project Falcon, begun.

On this morning, Manila was already engulfed in a sense of anger, and the threshold of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce here was almost broken, all of them were businessmen, scholars, and ship owners of considerable status, who had a common identity as citizens of the Ocean Kingdom.

Under the guidance of intentional or unintentional, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce immediately decided to strike the market, and mobilized shop employees and crew members to march on the streets, directly to the governor's palace of the castle of San Diego to ask for an explanation.

In addition, a procession was sent to block the gate of the Manila Clarion, and the Chamber of Commerce sent a telegram to the country to report the terrible incident and ask for domestic solidarity with the Chamber's righteous action.

Burning with raging, the march rallied so quickly that thousands of people soon took to the streets chanting slogans.

"Those who wantonly spread rumors must be severely punished, and the dignity of the empire cannot be trampled on."

"We strongly oppose the shielding of newspapers by the ruling authorities, and we must ban reactionary newspapers, and the government will come forward to apologize publicly."

"Demand a public trial of the rumormongers and hang him."

"The Governor must personally come forward to clarify and make a solemn promise, otherwise the people will not agree."

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