1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 952 Countermeasures
Although they are all unlucky ghosts, whether it is the Portuguese who took the lead in hugging Shanghai Han's thigh, or the Dutch who came to his senses after suffering a few losses, their situation is obviously better than that of the Spaniard who just realized the situation. At least the first two or It can more or less retain a little trade share in Northeast Asia, but Spain's current situation has been excluded from this game of chess.Aragones even suspects that the number of Ming merchants who came to Manila to trade has decreased this year. Perhaps Haihan consciously imposed restrictions during this period, with the purpose of cutting off the trade relationship between Spain and Ming.

Although the Philippines is hundreds of nautical miles away from Ming Dynasty, the economic source of this colony is largely dependent on the commodity export of Ming Dynasty.Although there are other high-value outputs in the Philippines, such as spices, timber, copper mines, etc., after losing the Ming market, these outputs can no longer be exchanged for Ming through barter as in the past. commodity, its real value will be greatly reduced.If it weren't for the large amount of silver ingots sent from America as the ballast stone to stabilize the local economy, Aragones would probably have to suffer from the declining trade situation at this moment.

However, as the supreme administrator of the Kingdom of Spain in the Far East, Aragones cannot sit back and watch the situation continue to deteriorate.Now that Manila has been excluded from Daming's trading partners, Aragones is very worried that Spain's living space in the Far East will be squeezed out bit by bit if they continue to sit back and watch the Haihan people continue to do so.If the goods shipped back to the Americas next year are still only half or even less than in previous years, then my duties as the governor of the Philippines will probably be over.

Fight head-on with the Haihan people?Aragones felt that his family did not have much certainty of victory. Considering Manila's geographical location, the risk of such an all-out war could not be opened casually.After all, the armed fleet of the Haihan people is not just for display. Since they have the ability to attack the pirate lair in Hangzhou Bay and the Ambuna Islands in the South China Sea thousands of nautical miles away from the base camp of Sanya, they are only a few miles away from Sanya and Penghu. Manila, which is only six to seven hundred nautical miles away, should be within its combat radius.

If the Haihan fleet approached the city of Manila, not to mention whether it could go ashore to attack the city, even if it was just fighting at sea, the Spanish fleet could not afford too much damage. After all, besides Haihan, there were also the Netherlands and Portugal. The existence of these secretly coveted opponents may jump out and take a bite when Spain is at its weakest. This worst situation must be guarded against.

But if he took the initiative to negotiate peace with the Haihan people, Aragones also felt a bit embarrassing. After all, he was the one who was beaten in the first round. Sending the face up is a bit unreasonable both emotionally and rationally.The face of the Kingdom of Spain cannot be lost so easily.

Aragones thought about it, but still couldn't come up with a perfect strategy. When he was sighing in his office that day, a servant came in and reported that Sanchez, who was in charge of port affairs, had come to see him.

Sanchez is one of the staff members of Aragones. He also contributed to the proposal to expand the Port of Manila. The reason why he was not imprisoned like other staff is that he happened to have another identity as Aragones. dear nephew.Even if Aragones wants someone to take the blame, he can't push him off the cliff, otherwise he won't be able to explain to Sanchez's family after returning home.Of course, in order to show fairness, Sanchez's two original deputies were still arrested and punished, as an example to others.

"Come on, Sanchez, have you got any good news?" Aragones looked at Sanchez and asked indifferently.Since the staff were collectively punished last time, the relationship between Aragones and his nephew is not as close as before.Prior to this, Sanchez had won the trust of his uncle. Even after he suggested expanding the port, Aragones took out his private property and invested in the construction of two new piers.However, the deteriorating situation made all this investment in vain, and Aragones lost thousands of gold coins, so naturally he would no longer have any good words for this nephew.

"My lord governor, I heard a piece of news at the port just now, and I think it is necessary to report it to you." Sanchez's face was a little flustered, and it seemed that the news he brought might not make Aragones happy.

What Sanchez brought was not really good news. He learned from an Arab businessman who had just arrived in Hong Kong that Haihan had sent a fleet to visit the southern islands of Borneo and Java a few days ago, and invited the locals countries to send representatives to a meeting to be held on the island of Abunana in the near future.It is reported that several major countries in the South China Sea region have been invited, and even the Dutch are among them.

"Is this news reliable?" Aragones is still very sensitive to intelligence news. Although Sanchez's report was very rough, he still smelled something unusual from it, and immediately asked Sanchez.

"It should be reliable." Sanchez explained: "Captain Hassan has trade relations with Matalam and the Dutch, and before coming here, he witnessed the huge Haihan fleet in the waters near Batavia. He said that there are at least forty warships in the fleet, and there are two particularly large warships, whose volume is much larger than our galleon."

Aragones thought for a while, then asked abruptly, "How much did you spend to get this news from Hassan?"

"One hundred silver coins." Sanchez replied honestly: "I think what Hassan said should be true, because his sideline business is an intelligence dealer. If someone is willing to pay, I think he will also share the topography of Manila Port. to sell to those in need.”

Arab merchants are a relatively unique group of merchants. They do not have large colonies in the Far East. They just shuttle between various trading ports and obtain profit from the price difference by transshipping goods.This kind of business strategy makes it necessary to have a good relationship with all countries and camps, and generally there will be no obvious political bias and platoon behavior.And these Arab businessmen often resell the intelligence information at hand, and act as part-time intelligence dealers in various trading ports.Of course, most of this intelligence information is only related to trade, and only a very small amount of it involves military and political aspects. Generally speaking, the credibility is quite high.

Aragones stood up, lowered his head and began to pace the room, thinking about Haihan's intentions.A powerful fleet was dispatched south to the front line of Java, but it was not for the purpose of launching a war. This was probably a special trip to show off its might.A powerful fleet can often deter the enemy before going to war and make them lose the courage to resist. The Spanish fleet has used similar methods all over the world, which is not uncommon.

But what the hell are the Haihan people sending invitations to the countries in the South China Sea for talks?Why did they invite the Dutch, who are hostile to them?What issues do Haihan people want to discuss with these countries?Does it have anything to do with Spain being excluded?

A series of questions popped up in Aragones' mind, but there was no clear clue.Although it is not yet known what purpose the Haihan people have in contacting these countries in the South China Sea, Aragones already has a vague premonition.

"What about other countries? Especially those countries that have a good relationship with Haihan, such as Annan and Champa. Is there any news from these places?" Aragones still had a little luck, maybe the Haihan people wanted to hold talks Just talking about trade and commerce with countries in the South China Sea is not a big conspiracy.

"I just want to inform you of this news." Sanchez's face became more and more gloomy: "More than a month before the Haihan fleet went south, I heard that Annan and Champa also sent warships to join Haihan. According to the information we have received, what they announced to the outside world is to hold military exercises in the South China Sea.”

"Bullshit military exercise!" Aragones yelled in an almost roaring tone: "Sanchez, they are trying to form a military alliance! They intend to exclude us! These damn upstarts! Heretics! Yellow skins barbarian!"

Sanchez was as silent as a cicada, and he didn't dare to answer in his furious mood.He didn't think so much, but thought that there might be some kind of connection among the information, so he hurried to inform Aragones.

"According to what you said, Haihan and Annan Champa formed a joint fleet more than a month before their visit to Java, so you should have received this news long ago, why did you report it now?" Aragon inside Si was not confused yet, and immediately began to question Sanchez after calming down his anger a little.

Sanchez said in astonishment: "Haihan has formed alliances with these two countries for several years, and in the past, joint military exercises were held every year. Since their destination is not in the Philippine waters, I think these trends have nothing to do with us. relationship, so I didn’t report it to you before. It was only after receiving new news today that I realized that these two things might be related to some extent..."

After hearing this, Aragones also felt very helpless. This was not because Sanchez was not vigilant enough. It was indeed impossible to expect that the Haihan Fleet would go south to Java in the name of an exercise to do such a thing.And Annan and Champa, who went south with them, must have also played the role of waving flags and shouting minions in the process of Haihan's contact with the local country.So many countries have been drawn in by Haihan, but there is not even the slightest news from Manila, which makes it even more true that Haihan intends to exclude Spain.

Regardless of whether the Haihan people want to form a military alliance or other transnational alliances, Spain, which has been squeezed out, will obviously not receive any benefits, and will face the competitive pressure formed by the alliance of these countries in the future.This is simply bad news for the Manila authorities.

The only good news is that it is not too late for Sanchez to discover this terrible truth. At least Aragones still has a glimmer of hope: "That Arab Assan..."

"It's Hassan, my lord." Sanchez corrected cautiously.

"Call it whatever you want!" Aragones was not in the mood to argue about these irrelevant details, he waved his hand and continued, "Did he find out the specific time when the Haihan people invited these countries to send people to the Ambuna Islands to participate in the talks?" ?”

Sanchez's face was mournful: "If his information is more accurate, then this meeting has started about a week ago. By this time, the participating countries may have finished their talks and went home."

Aragones suddenly felt a pain in his temple, as if his head was going to explode.He knew that his old problem was happening again. Every time he became emotional, his head would swell like air. Only by alcohol anesthesia or bloodletting therapy could this bad physical condition be alleviated a little bit.

"Sanchez, pour me a glass of wine, I have to drink one." Aragones held his head in his hands and ordered weakly.

Sanchez didn't dare to neglect, and immediately walked quickly to the wine cabinet, picked up a bottle of wine, opened it, and poured Aragones a glass.

"Thank you, I feel better." After a few sips of wine, Aragones felt that his headache was slightly relieved.At this time, he looked at the wine glass and said quietly: "This is the sugarcane wine brewed by the Haihan people. They named it 'Sanya Special Brew', which means a special wine produced in Sanya. This wine is special enough Yes, the sugar cane wine we brewed in the New Spain colony is far from having such a good taste. Look at this glass bottle. We used to sell it to Ming merchants for at least five to seven pesos, but the Haihan people But it is used to hold wine, and the shape is more beautiful than ours. Dear nephew, do you know how much this bottle of wine costs?"

Sanchez nodded and said: "I know, the price of a bottle delivered by the Ming businessman to the local area is eight pesos, and the retailer in the city can sell it for ten pesos."

"But the export price of this thing in Haihan is only equivalent to three to four pesos. Just because we have not established a trade relationship with Haihan, these profiteers can earn double the gross profit on each bottle!" When Aragones was angry, he couldn't help but slammed the table hard, and Sanchez was terrified when he was caught off guard.

"The Haihan people dump glass products at the lowest prices, and even use them as containers for other goods, such as various cooking oils, wine, and the perfume that they sell very expensive... This is really a genius idea , if this wine was sold in an earthen jar, it would sell for a peso at most, but now it can be sold for ten times the price in high-end packaging, and our glassware is therefore unsalable..." Perhaps It was because after drinking a glass of wine, it started to work, and the topic of Aragones became more and more biased, from the international situation all the way to business marketing skills.

(End of this chapter)