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Chapter 1234 A bold idea

"When the students came, they encountered a special transport ship. I heard that it was going to lay mines in the east waterway." After the emperor said this, Settle gave up the idea of ​​taking all the pirates back to his hometown to graze.

"It is approved by me. We have too few warships to completely blockade the waterways of the archipelago. We can only try the effect of mines. What do you think about this?"

"I think we can try to persuade them to surrender. If Your Majesty can guarantee their safety and promise them some benefits, perhaps we can win the battle without bloodshed." Settle really had an idea.

"Well, the idea is not wrong. It would be better if we can defeat the enemy without fighting. But it is useless to just think about it. We need to have evidence. I am free at the moment, so please tell me your evidence in detail."

Hong Tao certainly did not object to the suggestion of persuading the enemy to surrender. Shells are also money. Why not do it if you can win at the lowest cost? But war is not a joke. If you don't play well, you can start over. It is not something that anyone can do. Every plan and action must have sufficient reasons and feasibility.

In order to avoid the formation of the habit of superiors having the final say in the army, the staff departments at all levels were established. Without their collective decision-making, no commander could act arbitrarily outside the plan. If you want to convince the staff to agree, it is really not enough to just say a few words, you must come up with some solid evidence.

“If it weren’t for this bait operation, the students wouldn’t have had this idea. Through these days of daily interaction and personally visiting several coastal towns and getting in touch with many local people, I have a deeper understanding of the Spanish court’s rule on the American continent.

The proportion of criminals among pirates is very low, and most of them are forced to do so. In addition to them, there are also many wanted people in the inland who belong to this category. In addition, many Spanish generals and soldiers are also dissatisfied with the governor's policies, but they have to continue to eat soldiers' meals for their livelihood.

In response to these situations, the students made an investigation report and drew some conclusions. Your Majesty, please see, the arguments for persuading surrender are here, and the students have made detailed annotations on everything they can think of. "

Seeing that the emperor did not reject his suggestion outright and was willing to spend time discussing it, Settle quickly took out a small notebook from his pocket, opened it and placed it respectfully on the table.

The notebook contains his observations and thoughts over the past month. Mainly through the pirates' words and his own observations, he gained a deeper understanding of the general living conditions in various parts of America.

How should I put it? This newly developed land is indeed very fertile and sparsely populated. It is a bit like the large-scale development of Luzon Island back then, where opportunities and risks coexist.

Just like the Ming people who went to Southeast Asia and Luzon back then, there were also brave Europeans who crossed the ocean to start businesses in the New World. These people were mainly divided into four categories.

The first type is European nobles. They may not come in person, but they can send their subordinates or family members to run various industries, such as mines, plantations, and horse farms.

This type of people are the largest investors in the New World, including the royal families of European countries, and occupy the vast majority of the natural and human resources in the New World.

The second type is mercenaries. Since it is a colony, there must be local natives. Some have been defeated, while others are still fighting. Therefore, if you want to gain a firm foothold, it is necessary to seek to develop the army.

According to European tradition, the king only had a small number of troops, and if he wanted to recruit more, he had to hire them. These people usually served as middle and lower-level officers and officials in the New World. They made a living by their own ability, and they would not become rich or starve, and their safety was relatively guaranteed. The third type was adventurers, whose composition was too complex, and there were all kinds of people. For example, European prisoners, bankrupts, retired soldiers, deserters, thieves, pirates, etc.

These people are all worthless. They left their hometown and traveled thousands of miles to a new land where they were unfamiliar with in order to try their luck and turn a bicycle into a motorcycle. They had only one goal: to survive and then find an opportunity to make a fortune. In order to achieve their goal, they would do anything, and would do anything as long as they were paid enough.

The fourth group is civilians. They are farmers and craftsmen from various European countries. Due to war, disease, famine and many other reasons, they can no longer survive in their hometowns. They have to leave their homes with their wives and children and go to the New World to seek opportunities.

These people were oppressed in Europe and in the New World. Some became white slaves, some continued to work for plantation owners and mine owners, and some simply became criminals.

Generally speaking, their income in the New World was indeed higher than in Europe, but it was barely enough to make ends meet. They had no ability to deal with the accidents that were likely to occur in the future, and they saw no hope of making any further progress.

Among these four types of people, the fourth type is the largest in terms of number, and the first type is the least; in terms of wealth, the fourth type is the least, and the first type is the most; in terms of destructive power, the second and third type are the strongest, and the fourth type is the weakest.

Of course, in addition to these four types of people, the largest number should be the local indigenous people. However, few people really regard them as human beings. Even the white slaves from Europe are unwilling to be on an equal footing with the local indigenous people. Deep down, they think they are barbarians and deserve to be bullied.

Based on Mather's narration and his own observations, Settle found that the management methods implemented by the Spanish in the New World were not only crude and careless, but also primitive, and were not smart at all except for using religion to fool people.

If the Ming Empire wanted to gain a foothold in the New World, in addition to the necessary use of force, it only needed to win the support of a group of people to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

This group of people is definitely not the first type. They control all the output of the New World. Anyone who comes to have a share of the pie is taking food from their bowl. Not only will they not support it, they are also the small group that is most resolutely opposed.

They are not the third type of people. Their living conditions conflict with the policies of the Ming Empire. If they want to fit in, they must make big changes. There is a flaw in human nature. People are unwilling to change in their comfort zone and instinctively hate those who destroy their comfort zone.

Only the fourth type of people meet the standards for assimilation in the Ming Empire, and they will not have too much resistance, even if they are incompatible with the Ming Empire in terms of religion.

When people cannot even guarantee their survival, they don't have so many demands. Whoever can provide a stable life and income, whoever can make it easier for them to support their family and provide some room for their offspring to improve themselves, will be the God of these people.

So which side do the third group of people belong to? Settle thinks they belong to either side. They will follow whoever has the upper hand. They can't say they support anyone, nor can they say they oppose anyone. They are typical fence-sitters.

He also classified the Spanish soldiers as fence-sitters. Although they served the king and the government, the treatment they received and the work they did were not reasonable.

(End of this chapter)