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Chapter 1241 There are joys and sorrows
In fact, even if the king continued to trust him, he could not continue to be the governor. The reason was simple. After losing all the ships that could fight, including the two flagships with the largest tonnage, the west coast of the New World had become an undefended place. Any two pirate ships could wreak havoc anywhere along the coast.

The colonial garrisons were helpless in this situation, as two legs could not outrun the sails. The Governorate also did not have enough troops to take care of everything, so they could only withdraw all the troops to the vicinity of a few large cities for key protection, and let the rest of the areas do as they pleased.

In fact, pirates are not a serious threat, and small-scale riots in various places are not scary. The sword hanging over our heads is when the Ming Empire Navy will come back.

At this point, even a fool could see that the Ming Empire had already begun its eastward expansion, and this naval battle was merely a prelude to a large-scale invasion.

Without the protection of the fleet, any place on the west coast of the New World would become a landing site for the Ming Navy. Compared with the pirates, they were the real devils, and even if they reduced their forces, they might not be able to hold on.

Ever since the Ming Empire Navy came, the officials in the Governor's District began to quietly find connections to transfer to the mainland. Those who really couldn't find a reason or a way simply resigned, preferring to pay for their own tickets rather than wait here as prisoners.

This also triggered an increasingly intense wave of asset sales, with everything from real estate, farms, furniture to factories and slaves suddenly appearing on the market in large numbers, with prices getting lower day by day.

The more people who sold, the lower the price became, and soon it was cut in half. After that, it still didn't stop, and it continued to fall. No one knew what the bottom price would be.

This results in people who want to sell assets finding it harder to sell the more they lower the price, while people who want to buy assets at low prices hold on to their coins and dare not sell, always waiting to see if the price will be lower tomorrow.

Although it cannot be said that the New World colonies that the Kingdom of Spain had painstakingly managed for more than a hundred years were wiped out instantly, at least the areas close to the west coast were already in danger, both militarily and economically.

Faced with this situation, the Spanish government had no good solution. They had to send more fleets to support... They had to do it! Right now, the mainland was fighting with France, and they had to guard against England, the Netherlands and other countries taking advantage of the situation in the New World.

There were holes everywhere, and the troops were stretched to the limit. Even if they could gather a few main battleships, it would not be possible to bypass the Drake Passage and reach the west coast in a short period of time.

Over the past hundred years, countless amounts of silver have flowed back from the New World, but most of it has been squandered by the royal family and the nobility, and very little has been actually used for military construction.

Only now did they realize that the great empire on which the sun never sets was actually a dilapidated house with leaks everywhere and about to fall apart. Not to mention reorganizing the military to launch a retaliation, even being able to withstand the next blow was a big problem.

But they couldn't just give up the west coast of the New World. After all, there were several large silver mines there, and the Spanish royal family was counting on them to repay the loan. If they really lost them, they might go bankrupt immediately, which would be a huge loss of face.

Since they couldn't fight, they could only negotiate and beg for peace from the enemy who had slapped them twice. Fortunately, the Spanish royal family was not very proud. After weighing the pros and cons, they immediately sent envoys to Amsterdam to ask the Dutch to come forward to promote the armistice negotiations. At the same time, another group of envoys went to Paris secretly, probably to talk to the King of France about whether they could stop first. After all, we are all relatives. Your brother-in-law was beaten black and blue by outsiders, and his house was almost demolished. As the eldest brother-in-law, you can't collude with outsiders to add insult to injury at this moment!
King Louis XIII of France was quite particular. When he heard about his brother-in-law's plight, he immediately said that he would intervene. But the Ming Empire did not attack France directly, so it was a bit unreasonable for it to stand up and support France.

So we have to take a long-term view and first invite several relatives who are kings and emperors to Paris for a meal and a chat, so that we can work together to come up with ideas and see what exactly should be done.

It's no wonder that Louis had a lot of face. In addition to King Philip IV of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, King Charles I of England, and Regent Henrik of the United Provinces were all present.

In addition, the Kingdom of Sweden also sent its Secretary General (equivalent to Prime Minister) Axel Oxenstierna to Paris to attend the conference. The reason why the kingdom did not come was not because it looked down on Louis XIII, but because it had no choice.

Since Gustav II died in battle, the Swedish crown has been worn by his only daughter, Princess Christina. But interestingly, Gustav II's will clearly stated that the successor was the king rather than the queen, which made Christina's legal status somewhat awkward.

In addition, the princess was a Catholic, which made her somewhat out of place in Sweden, a country where most people believed in Protestantism. She had never been recognized after ascending the throne for many years, so she could not travel abroad as a ruler and had to send the prime minister instead.

"Little Louis has really big ambitions. I have been busy conquering countries for half a year, but in the end he used all his money to make wedding clothes!" When the news reached the Forbidden City, Hong Tao was arranging the funeral for the queen. After reading the secret memorial, he just said this lightly, and then there was no further news.

The Queen of the Ming Dynasty died in the summer. The imperial physician said that she might have suffered from heat stroke. At noon, the Queen went to the Taiye Lake to fish for more than an hour. She felt a little dizzy and nauseous, and she didn't even eat dinner and went to bed. But this sleep lasted forever. She was found dead in the early morning of the next day.

At this time, the emperor was leading an army thousands of miles away. The royal family and the court did not dare to deal with the body at will. They could only place the body in the palace in Jingshan and wait. At the same time, the General Staff sent a messenger to the Hawaiian Islands to announce the death.

Unfortunately, when the messenger's ship arrived at Pearl Harbor, the emperor's fleet had been gone for four days. The two sides passed each other on the sea, and the possibility of catching up was very slim.

Just like that, the expeditionary fleet had just returned to Dagukou with the joy of victory, and before they had time to celebrate, they had to change into mourning clothes to mourn the queen. It is said that the white cloth in Tianjin Prefecture was directly bought out by the Navy Staff, and the price increased several times but still could not meet the demand.

Hong Tao was very surprised by the sudden death of the queen. Guo had been the crown princess since she entered the palace in the 1602th year of Wanli (36), and it had been years since then. During this period, she had adhered to the virtues of a woman, been respectful and virtuous, never caused any trouble for herself, and never caused any trouble in the harem. She was a very good woman.

However, the only thing he could give her was a respectable status. The frugal life in the palace seemed not even enough for her. She could only have enough food, clothing and daily necessities. He had not left any offspring for her, which was probably a lifelong regret for a woman.

(End of this chapter)