Listening to Sun Zhixi's words, Cheng Shijie fell into deep thought, from the perspective of Sun Zhixi, the prime minister, the outside must first settle the inside, and the small court in Nanjing is the internal contradiction, only after solving the internal contradictions, can we concentrate all our efforts to solve external problems.

It's not right or wrong in itself, it's just a matter of timing.

Cheng Shijie shook his head and said: "Prime Minister Sun, what you said also has a certain truth, but this statement does not fit your identity as the prime minister!" ”

Sun Zhilan was slightly stunned: "The king means ......"

"Pattern, your pattern is going to be opened, the problem of the small court in Nanjing, that is our internal problem, the internal problem is the meat in the pot, the meat is rotten in the pot, eat it early, eat it late, the meat can't fly, and it can't run, but the external problem, but there can be no hesitation!"

Cheng Shijie patted the table and said: "In the fourth year of the Apocalypse, the Dutch occupied the southern part of Dayuan, and then two years later, that is, in the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the Spaniards occupied the northern part of Dayuan, our court was in great difficulty at that time, and there was no time to take care of Dayuan, the Dutch and Spaniards invaded the island of Taiwan and wantonly killed the people of the Ming Dynasty, in the forty-fourth year of Jiajing, the Spanish occupied Luzon and massacred the people of the Ming Dynasty. They will definitely massacre our Ming people on a large scale, do we have to sit back and watch the Dutch slaughter our Ming people? ”

"It's not that it doesn't matter, but the problem is that we don't have the strength to fight on two or even three fronts now, if we fight with the Dutch now, I'm afraid the happiest ones are Nanming and Xiqin!"

Cheng Shijie's current attitude made the cabinet feel panicked for the first time, because Cheng Shijie's current attitude is very revealing.

Sun Zhili began to review his mistakes, and said with a wry smile: "We have absolute military strength, but the problem is that we lack enough food to resettle those people, if there is no food to resettle the people in Jiangnan and the people in Guanzhong and Guanxi, this will still be a big problem!" ”

"We can't afford this fight?"

Cheng Shijie asked in disbelief: "Have you ever asked the General Staff?" Did you ask the military department? ”

Sun Zhili now finally realized where his problem was, he overstepped his authority, the prime minister managed the affairs of the country, but the government affairs did not include military affairs, and the problem of the Dutch invasion of the Gulf of Tonkin was clearly a military problem.

Sun Zhili feels that he is indeed a little floating, because Cheng Shijie has been delegating power to him in the past few months, for land reform, prevention and management of plague problems in various places, including roads and people's livelihood construction in various places, and even including the appointment and selection of officials at all levels, Sun Zhixi, the prime minister, has obviously greater power than the cabinet chief assistant before the Ming Dynasty.

He thought he could decide everything.

Sun Zhili looked at Zhou Ning and asked, "What does the General Staff think about this?" ”

Zhou Ning coughed and said softly: "So far, our Ming Royal Navy has four main fleets, namely the Lushun Fleet, the Dayuan Fleet, the Luzon Fleet and the Coconut City Fleet, and there are six to ten sub-fleets under the four main fleets, each sub-fleet has at least twenty Seawolf-class warships, twelve Seashark-class warships, and at least eight Giant Shark-class warships, and our current navy has one hundred and thirty-four Giant Shark-class warships, three hundred and seven Seashark-class warships, and more than four hundred and sixty Seawolf-class warships……”

At this time, Sun Zhili knew that the development of the original navy had actually reached this point, other countries have fewer ships and more people, but the Ning Navy has been in the past few years, on the contrary, but the navy has more warships and fewer people, in fact, the number of people in the navy has now exceeded the original Zheng fleet.

Don't look at the navy's main warships are only a thousand, but they are more than the number of main warships of Zheng's fleet, and more importantly, these main warships have exceeded the total number of Spanish armadas, whether they are placed in the east or in Europa, they can beat Spain.

It can be said that if it weren't for maintaining such a large-scale fleet, Cheng Shijie would not have found that he had no money, so he would not have directly asked the navy to send out and spend a little money on the side of the small day.

"Any decision is based on our own strength, our current strength, we don't need to look at the face of the Dutch, they dare to provoke, then they must fight back strongly, not to mention, to solve the Nanjing problem next, there is no need for the main force of the navy!"

In the capacity of prime minister of the Ming Cabinet, Sun Zhilan expressed extreme anger at the invasion of the Ming East India Company by the Dutch East India Company in Beijing, claiming that this was the most serious provocation to the Ming Dynasty, and that the Ming court and the Ming Royal Navy would have the right to safeguard the interests of the Ming Empire.

Although it was only a few words that were light and breezy, it made Fernand a little frightened. If it was ten years ago, in the face of the threat of war issued by the Ming court, Fernand and the Dutch East India Company would laugh it off, this is just the incompetent anger of the Ming Dynasty, but the problem is that in the past few years, the Dutch East India Company has clearly seen how terrifying the current Ming is.

Just last year, their Royal Army won a national war, sweeping away the barbaric Jiannu from the north of the Ming Dynasty like a blow of decay.

You must know the true strength of Jiannu, whether it is the Dutch East India Company or the Spanish Empire, they are very clear, and even they have investigated the two or three hundred thousand horses under the command of Huang Taiji and Huang Taiji, if the elite under the command of Huang Taiji only needs to transfer 50,000 horses to Europa, which is enough to easily sweep the entire countries of Europa.

When they supported Huang Taiji, they actually had limited support, although the blockade of the sea by the Ning Navy at that time was one thing, and more importantly, they were afraid of raising tigers, so they were afraid of supporting the jackal Jiannu and turning this jackal into a man-eating tiger.

However, it was this army force that could sweep through Europa that did not hold out for a few months in front of the new army of the Ming Dynasty before it was completely annihilated. As for Cheng Shijie, he sent a legion three years ago to smash the little belongings that Spain had saved in Asia for a hundred years!

Although the Dutch are not weak now, and they also have the burden to challenge the Spanish Empire, the problem is that they are only stronger than the Spanish Empire at sea, and on land, they rely on the multinational coalition and even the French army as the main force, and the Netherlands is far from enough in this regard.

Fernand hurriedly said to Sun Zhilan: "The Dutch East India Company and the United Kingdom of the Netherlands have no intention of invading the Ming Dynasty, they just want to do business with the Ming Dynasty, as for the invasion of the Gulf of Tonkin Gulf, it is all the Governor of Batavia who is confused, and the King of the Netherlands will definitely punish that fool severely." ”

"How do you deal with it internally, no matter what happens to Da Ming, Da Ming only needs one attitude, if you want to start a war with Da Ming, Da Ming will definitely accompany you to the end!"

Fernand now knew what a terrible mistake he had made, and he was naturally very aware of the strength and strategic layout of the Dutch East India Company, and the only way to make amends at present was to try to make amends.

Fernand offered to use silver and gold to make up for their mistakes, in fact, although Cheng Shijie was short of money, but even more lacking materials, silver can actually be obtained from Xiaoji, if the Dutch compensate 1.8 million taels of silver, it will have little impact on Daming now.

Sun Zhili asked the Dutch East India Company to come up with a person with the same status to talk to him, Fernand's level was too low, and Fernand immediately made up for it, which was a signal that Daming was ready to move, in fact, he was around the courtyard, and learned through the translator that Daming was moving in the navy.

In fact, this is actually another version of Jiang Gan's book theft, if the Ming Royal Navy is transferred, how can Fernand know? But the problem is that Fernand has never read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and even if he did, it would be useless, because he did not dare to bet that this was Da Ming intimidating him, or that he was really going to beat the Dutch East India Company.

Just when Fernand was at a loss, a new neighbor came next door, Francisco de Mello, the representative of the Spanish emperor, an old aristocrat of the Spanish Empire, a family of counts more than four hundred years ago.

Francisco came to Daming to hand over to Daming the ownership of the Plain de la Plata, which was a letter signed by the Spanish Emperor Philip IV himself, which was written in both Spanish and Chinese, clearly stating that for the friendship between Spain and the Ming Empire, the Spanish Empire gave the Plain de La Plata to the Ming Empire free of charge, and the Ming Empire had the legal right to rule over the Plain de la Plata, and no one or country could infringe on the interests of the Ming Empire in the Plain de La Plata.

In the face of such sincerity of the Spanish Empire, the Ming Empire gave Francisco de Mello a very high courtesy, and accompanied by Cheng Shijie, he visited the military parade of the three armed forces of the Ming Royal Army, and asked Francisco de Mello to give a speech at the enlarged meeting of the Ming Cabinet.

In this speech, Francisco de Mello complained about the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban policy, arguing that this policy caused a lot of inconvenience to the trade between the two countries, that it was difficult for Spanish merchants to obtain the goods they wanted through normal channels, and that Ming maritime merchants did not respect their rights and interests, which was wrong.

Cheng Shijie was as good as a stream, and immediately said: "This regent has decided to lift the sea ban and set up a customs department to manage import and export trade to ensure the smooth flow of sea trade channels." As for those lawless maritime merchants, they will send a navy to exterminate them, and they will do what they say. But are you in charge of the European pirates? If you don't care, then I'll take care of it for you! ”

Francisco de Mello shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly: "Our Spanish Empire is mired in the war in Europa, and the navy is really ......"

"I heard that the treasure ships of His Majesty Philip IV are often looted by pirates?"

"Those vile and shameless pirates ......"

Cheng Shijie naturally knew what was going on with these pirates, in fact, the British navy relied on robbing the treasure ships of the Spanish Empire, and using the silver and gold stolen, it quickly developed into the world's largest navy, creating the glory of the empire on which the sun never sets.

"This king has a suggestion that in terms of combating piracy, we can carry out in-depth exchanges between the two countries, or we can cooperate in depth!"

Francisco de Mello said repeatedly: "Your Majesty the Great Emperor, thank you so much, I think that the cooperation between our two countries will definitely exterminate those damned European pirates, and will not let them destroy the maritime trade between the two countries again!" ”

"I hope so!!"

Cheng Shijie said: "We are not familiar with the Plain de la Plata, I hope that your Spanish Empire can send sea ships to lead the Ming fleet to receive the Plain de la Plata, and we will return the thousands of prisoners of war to you, and this matter will be over." ”

Francisco de Mello breathed a sigh of relief, thankfully, after more than half a year, he finally got these prisoners of war back! He didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly took out a document and handed it to Cheng Shijie.

After reading it, Cheng Shijie picked up the pen and signed his name on it, then stamped it, and then returned it to Francisco de Mello, he also had to take this document back to Spain for archiving, and from then on the plain of La Plata basically said goodbye to Spain.

In his opinion, although the plain of La Plata is large, it is a useless land, a land that does not produce gold, silver, and spices, no matter how big it is, what a ghost use?

Take it out and trade with the Ming in exchange for establishing diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty, in exchange for the Ming Dynasty's right to open the port to them and allow them to do business freely, it is much better than letting it rot in their hands, the former has nothing but hares and grass and mud horses, but the latter can give Spain access to countless silks, tea, porcelain, spices, these are luxury goods that are more expensive than gold! In addition, they can also exchange for the promise that the Ming will not attack their colonies in Asia, a million profits!

After the negotiations, the Spanish envoy euphemistically proposed that he hoped to establish diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty, and Cheng Shijie agreed without thinking about it, which surprised Francisco de Mello.

The emperor of the East is good at everything, but he is too arrogant, he looks down on them at all, these small Western countries, and has no intention of interacting with them on an equal footing. Hand it over to your grandma! It was an unexpected surprise that this person actually agreed to establish diplomatic relations with Spain and allow Spanish businessmen to do business in the territory of Daming!

Francisco de Mello said: "If the Ming can send a mission to visit Spain, Spain will definitely be excited!" ”

Cheng Shijie nodded, and said very cheerfully: "I will send an envoy to set off with the fleet that received the land, passing through Spain, for a state visit to Spain, and at the same time, I also hope that the king of Spain can come to Daming as a guest." ”

Francisco de Mello was overjoyed: "I will convey His Majesty's goodwill on my behalf, and I believe that the King will be glad to come to the East as a guest!" ”

Francisco de Mello was so excited that the ancient Orient had opened its doors to Spain, and that countless riches and benefits beckoned to Spain, and he was so happy that he seemed to have seen the wonderful picture of the king conferring on him...... didn't notice at all that Cheng Shijie on the other side looked at him as if he was looking at a mentally retarded person.

Although the current Ming Dynasty is only half a foot into the industrial age, but the Ming Dynasty is originally a trade surplus, and it is several times the surplus, because it is not yet a national level of trade, just a maritime and private trade behavior, if the trade volume is raised to the national level, it is foreseeable that the Ming will dump a large number of industrial products into the huge market of the Spanish Empire.

It is also foreseeable that the Spanish Habs Empire, which was originally half-defeated by the entire Europa coalition and could not hold out for long, will gain a lot of strength in a certain period of time, and use the wealth of their colonization of more than 200 countries to transform it into a huge combat power, so that whether it is the Dutch or the British, they will bear the dying counterattack of a wounded tiger.

Thinking about that situation, Cheng Shijie will feel very wonderful.

With Cheng Shijie's consent, the Ming Empire and the Spanish Empire reached a reconciliation, and at the same time established diplomatic relations, opened the port to the Spaniards and allowed Spanish merchants to settle and do business in the Ming Dynasty.

They were overjoyed and agreed to the long list of conditions of the Ming Dynasty, and as for the trivial matter that the two sides had fought a fierce battle and killed thousands of people, they were completely ignored.

The Spaniards gained their coveted right to do business freely in the Ming Dynasty, and established diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty, which in turn found a potential overseas market as well as large tracts of land.

It's embarrassing,

"This is the mind of our Ming people, I call this a win-win!"

Hell if it's a win-win situation. Europeans, who are enjoying the fruits of the Age of Discovery, simply do not realize what it means for a backward country to trade freely with a behemoth whose national strength and culture throw themselves several streets away.

At this time, Europe was not the Europe with colonies all over the world and outstanding industrial strength, the colonies had not been deeply developed at all, and the whole of Europe could not take out anything that could be used to export to make money, and the silk, tea, porcelain, spices, etc. of the Ming Dynasty were luxury goods that fascinated the whole of Europe, and they were in short supply, which means that the so-called bilateral trade is actually unilateral dumping!

The bitter Spanish Empire has been reduced to a dumping ground for products, and it is still very happy, like a beggar picking up gold ingots, such a fool is really hard to find.

Cheng Shijie is very happy, you must know that now there is only one development in Liaodong, which has gradually entered a bottleneck period, and many commodities cannot be sold at all, because the people of Daming are too poor, because they can't be sold, there are not enough interests, and the enterprise cannot develop, and going out is the only way for Daming to do so.

This is Daming's opportunity and Daming's challenge. (End of chapter)