open sea

Chapter 873 Governor
The New Spain in Acosta's eyes is indeed full of devastation. If you look at it casually, it is full of internal and external troubles.

The West India Council does not have enough financial resources to pay the garrison on time, and their maintenance costs are huge, and there is nothing they can do.

Everything here has to be supplied to the royal family, and taxes have to be paid to the church. The arms competition brought by the Ming army has made them exhausted - this is the result of all the output being fully started.

It is imperative to give the Indians the power of "people". The aborigines are slaves on the east side of the border, but once they cross the border, they will become free people. The government government issues agricultural tools to divide the land, and even shares the cattle with others , Even if you don't want to be a farmer, there are many jobs to do.

In the long run, more aboriginal tribes will move with their families. Once the army suppresses it, it will lead to civil strife and further weaken the strength of New Spain; but if it is left alone, it will still bleed slowly.

Brother Acosta is very aware of the huge potential that Ming's absorption of aborigines will have in the future.

There is no doubt that they will get more farmers from it, they will clear more land, they will recruit more soldiers, and they will make more tools.

Spain must also take this path in the New World to have a chance to compete with the Ming Dynasty—this competition is not to compete with the Ming Dynasty for ownership of a piece of land or to regain the scene in the war. To be honest, no one would be so naive as to think that the Ming Dynasty The failure of the two wars in the West is the reason for their lack of troops.

No one is indifferent to the threat of the Ming Dynasty, but their power is too pale in the face of this huge threat.

The Governor of Peru, Francisco de Toledo, even sent the captain of Deng Zilong's fleet from Panama to the east coast to meet the king in Spain after passing through Limahou two months ago.

In the private letter of the Governor of Peru, he expressed his concerns about the Ming Dynasty, and suggested that King Philip and Henry III of France should make peace, and set aside their differences to prepare for the coalition.

There is also a famous saying from the mouth of the governor: Losing the New World and the trade of the West Indies, losing the Iberian Peninsula will lose everything, so the relationship between Spain and France depends on the straight-line distance between the Ming fleet and Gibraltar.

Some people prepare for war, while others focus on self-improvement.

However, there is still no perfect way to deal with the aftermath. What is infuriating is that Acosta stayed in Changsheng County for several months, and he just couldn’t see how the Ming people dealt with such problems as the salaries of the garrison, the wages of the naturalized people, and the profits of the New World.

Because the Ming Dynasty did not have these problems, there were more than 20 Ming people living in Changsheng, Jincheng, and Panama. Counting the aborigines, it was almost [-] and it was still growing rapidly. There were soldiers, craftsmen, and officials. , but there are no slaves.

The strangest thing is that they value silver very much, and silver is their currency, but instead of sending silver to the mainland, the mainland sends silver here.

It seems that as long as they can be self-sufficient, they have already met the highest requirements of the Ming emperor.

It seems that the emperor they serve sent 10 people here simply to release the population pressure.

A big reason why Acosta thinks this way is that he heard that there was a drought in Ming Dynasty, so he sent ships, food, and money to send so many people.

Drought is just drought. Whether the emperor is sick or not is none of your business. Do you care about drought?

Why don't you let it rain when you are so powerful?

Coincidentally, Lord Wanli, who is far away in the Forbidden City, thought the same as Acosta. This year he walked more than ten miles to the Temple of Heaven to pray for rain, and he plans to come again next year, telling God that you can’t do without rain.

With an extremely complicated mentality, Brother Acosta crossed the border and continued on the road after a short stay at Wangjiabao, feeling a little relieved about the development of the situation.

The Ming army was not stationed in Wangjiabao, and there were not many military weapons in the village. At least gunpowder and food were not hoarded in large quantities in the village, and people did not show much hostility towards him, which made him feel relieved.

In Acosta's heart, not only Chen Mu couldn't reason with common sense, but even his officers could do whatever they thought of.

When Changsheng County was still called Acapulco, two Ming generals clapped their hands and decided the start of a war, turning the diplomatic strategy of military threats into practice. Not only did the two generals not receive any punishment afterwards, They also became senior military officers of the Governor General.

Of course, what Shao Tingda and Fu Yuan did was no different from Bernal's, the only difference was that they won the war, while Bernal was completely defeated.

If the winner is Bernal, Bernal will not be punished at this time, and he will become the heroic governor of Spain in the New World.

But dealing with such a person is very dangerous.

In addition to the worries brought about by the war, what he saw and heard along the way added strong jealousy to Acosta's heart.

In this new continent that lacks iron ore, even though many slaves in the plantations are still using stone farm tools, the plantation owners can't wait to let the slaves work with their hands, which is more in their interest than buying more farm tools. Add a few slave laborers.

But along the way, Acosta saw those immigrants from the Ming Dynasty wielding iron sickles in the fields. The women in the village pushed the corn into a strange machine with wooden sticks and turned it to take out the seeds, as well as potatoes, wheat, and sorghum. , Cotton, every village is full of prosperity.

Businessmen from all walks of life drove donkey carts through the official roads, carrying all kinds of flour, fruits or dried bacon and various goods to the county town. carriage.

The contents of those clay pots are very tense. Each pot contains meat and rice, sealed with a special method. The amount of food in each pot can feed a small banner of the Ming army. Obviously, this thing can Keep it for a long time.

Acosta didn't even have the energy to be curious about the production method, only panic was left in his heart. This is military rations, and they are transporting the military rations to Wangjiabao.

The monk wants to go home - there is no hope of preaching here, and he has been assigned as the chief envoy to deal with the Ming army. He can neither do research, nor is he prepared to lose his life because of it.

He doesn't even want to go to Changsheng anymore. If he can return to Madrid, he feels that it will be like waking up from a dream, and it is the joy of waking up from a nightmare.

But he didn't expect that Chen Mu had already sent someone to pick him up more than 20 miles away from Changsheng.

Even dinner was prepared at the Changsheng County Military Government Yamen.

Acosta, who was forced to gallop for twenty miles, saw Chen Mu, who was rarely seen wearing ordinary clothes. The big devil opened his arms and said with a smile: "I am too lazy to send someone to find you, so I sent some soldiers. I know You will come over, let me introduce you—this is the governor of New Spain, Yang Junzan."

Acosta kept blinking, looking at the somewhat familiar young Ming military officer in front of him, until Yang Tingxiang in military uniform handed the helmet under his ribs to his entourage and arched his hands, saying: "Friar, we met in Lima .”
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Note: Preserving food in clay pots comes from "Qi Min Yao Shu Volume [-]" by Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei Dynasty. It introduces a series of food production and storage methods. Pot storage is only one of them. It is compacted at high temperature and sealed with lotus leaves.

(End of this chapter)