Chapter 2023

From the perspective of a Spanish official, Lopez is certainly not willing to advocate a compromise attitude towards Haihan, but if he wants to support Aragones' strategy, he would rather choose to temporarily negotiate peace with Haihan. He believes that in the past few years, Lopez

The changes in the situation in the South China Sea in 2006 have proven that Aragones' approach is not feasible. If he continues to fight with Haihan on the frontal battlefield, he will only bring humiliation to himself. It will not change the current passive situation of the colonial authorities. On the contrary, it is possible

It will sink deeper and deeper, eventually leading to the complete collapse of the colony.

When the intelligence department in Manila formulated this plan, they did not take into account these contradictions within the Spanish colonial authorities, and did not make targeted arrangements in advance. However, in this way, they stood on the side out of political interests.

Lopez, who is the opposite of Aragones, naturally does not agree with the symbolic meaning of Jose and others. He believes that these are just props used by Aragones to incite emotions. Moreover, there are doubts whether the experiences of these people are true.

It would be too hasty to conclude that armed resistance is effective.

Of course, Lopez is not sure whether the experiences of Jose and others are true or false. If he is slapped in the face if he raises questions, he will be passive. Therefore, the primary target of his questioning is not Jose and others, but

It's because Aragones's strategy has not changed significantly compared to the past, which makes it impossible for people to see the hope of victory through armed struggle.

And this is exactly the view held by most of the officials in the colonial authorities who oppose Aragones. If we still follow the old routine of fighting Haihan, then why should our side, which has never won a victory, win the war?

Do you expect the other party to make mistakes on their own initiative?

And these young men that Aragones touted were just poor boys who escaped from Manila. They were lucky enough to rob a Haihan cargo ship. How can they be expected to defeat the powerful Haihan on the battlefield?

The military? The so-called courage, honor, and sacrifice for the country. These things are mentioned every year, but they are difficult to change the disadvantages of our own troops on the battlefield. Now I don’t know where to get a few people to set an example. Can this be enough?

Boost morale and defeat the Haihan people?

Aragones' face didn't look good at this time. The other party deliberately jumped out to cause trouble for him at this time. It was clear that he wanted to prevent him from getting off the stage. Of course he also knew what the other party was planning, but today he was not prepared to swallow his anger anymore.

Well, since Lopez mentioned this section, he had to take this opportunity to talk about it.

"To defeat the Haihan people, courage and determination alone are of course not enough, but if you can only talk in the conference room, then you really don't even have the slightest chance!" Aragones said to Lopez unceremoniously.

He responded with his behavior, mocking the other party for only paying lip service and never taking actual actions.

Lopez was not someone who was easily angered. He just snorted coldly but did not respond to the other party's remarks. He knew very well that as long as the other party could not come up with a new plan, he would not get a positive response to his doubts.

, and no one present will definitely ignore this key point.

But Aragones didn't intend to stop there, and continued: "Do you think these brave young people just killed a few Haihan people and robbed a boat? Of course it's not that simple. They also brought us

Very important information has arrived, which proves that the strategy I formulated before against the enemy is effective!"

"You may still remember that after we moved from Manila to Cebu this year, someone came to us to seek cooperation, hoping that we could follow Haihan's military export model and provide military training and weapons to other forces and countries besides Spain.

Equipment. I remember that many people were not optimistic about this cooperation model at the time, but it turns out that my insistence at the time was right! Our cooperation with the outside world has caused a lot of trouble to the enemy. The evidence lies in Jose and the others.

Take it to this ship in Cebu.”

When Aragones said this, he showed his trump card: "This is a secret letter sent from Manila City to the stronghold of Star Island in the Strait of Malacca. The writer and the recipient are the administrative officials of these two places respectively.

Sir, the information they conveyed through this secret letter shows that our military output in the north has achieved excellent results. The Haihan people are currently in a state of distress because of this, and may even change their overseas military deployment due to this.

.”

Not only Lopez, but even Jose and others pricked up their ears when they heard this. They did not know the exact content of the letter beforehand, but they were sure that all the information mentioned in the letter was for the purpose of

The purpose was to deceive the Spanish. After arriving in Cebu, this letter seemed to have begun to play a role. Even senior officials like Aragones were convinced of the news mentioned in it.

However, Jose and others did not understand the official struggle of the colonial authorities. What they were interested in was the cooperation partner mentioned by Aragones. That was their main goal in venturing into Cebu. As long as their identity could be confirmed, they would

The tasks for this trip are more than half completed.

However, Aragones did not mention the identity of the cooperation partner at this time, but repeatedly emphasized the objective results achieved by this method of military output, because he needed to convince others present that the progress achieved so far was due to

He made the right decision and built up enough confidence in this special measure. In this way, he could increase the intensity of military output in order to indirectly inhibit Haihan's development momentum.

"Mr. Governor, how authentic is this letter? Can you confirm that the information is reliable?" Lopez did not immediately accept this. He always felt that Aragones's purpose of convening everyone to discuss matters at the Governor's Palace today was too purposeful.

Strong, which makes the whole thing less credible in his eyes.

"Yes, we have tried to confirm this letter. Gentlemen, I have reason to believe that the description of the current situation of Haihan in this letter is true." Aragones responded with certainty.

Lopez questioned: "Haihan is facing a situation where fires are breaking out everywhere. At this time, we cannot stop and wait and see. Instead, we should add a few more dry firewood to the burning flames to make the fire burn brighter."

"But I have to remind you, Mr. Governor, so far we have only recovered one-third of the sales amount for the weapons and equipment we provided to our partners. If we want to continue to supply them, we may first have to close the previous transaction.

It will be more reasonable if the settlement is clear." The person who spoke was Navas, the official in charge of finance, an old Spanish man who seemed to be dying but still maintained a shrewd mind.

Spain's several battles with Haihan in recent years have cost a lot of money, and the result of the defeat means that these expenditures are completely unrewarded pure investments, unlike Haihan's case of expanding in a circle after one battle, and in the end they simply continued.

The city of Manila was captured, and the investment in previous wars was recovered with one great victory.

There was no shortage of silver in the Philippine colonies. Every year, the sailing fleet across the Pacific would transport a large amount of silver from the American colonies, which would be used as funds for the colonies to purchase oriental specialties. However, the colonial authorities did not intend to settle the military exports through gold and silver.

The other party is required to provide high-quality Ming specialties in exchange for discounts. To the colonial authorities, the actual value of these Eastern commodities is much higher than silver. After all, when the silver is shipped back to the country, a silver coin is still just a silver coin, but those silks and porcelains,

The economic value of tea and other exquisite handicrafts will increase several times after being shipped back to the country.

However, before that, the Spaniards did not receive a full amount of goods from the cooperative partners, and only settled part of them upon delivery. Aragones may not care too much about such details, because Spain is in this cooperative relationship.

It is not the leading party, and it even has to count on its partners to open channels for itself overseas and attract more forces to join this circle with the purpose of fighting Haihan. Therefore, certain concessions must be made on the details of the transaction to achieve this

Transnational cooperation.

Aragones can make concessions and may even forget these details over time, but Navas, the official in charge of finance, has been paying attention to this matter and mentioned this transaction link again at this time. Since it is a transaction,

Then he will not tolerate his own loss-making business, and the interests of the Kingdom of Spain must be protected.

Regarding this issue, Aragones immediately responded positively: "I will negotiate with the other party about this matter soon...Mr. Navas, in fact, we will probably be able to sit down and discuss this matter later.

"

When Aragones said this, he did not shy away from Jose and others present. Perhaps in his eyes, these were just three foreigners who had just arrived. Even if he heard the discussion between the officials, he would definitely not understand.

What were they arguing about? But at this time, the benefits of selecting Hispanic personnel from the Haihan Intelligence Department became apparent. Not only could Jose and others reduce the Spaniards' vigilance with their own identities, but there was also no language barrier and they could easily choose from various sources.

Collect information on the occasion.

Aragones' response to Navas at the moment has already attracted Jose's attention - since Aragones claimed that he can discuss the details of the transaction with his partner today, it means that someone from the other party must be based in Cebu.

This was also consistent with the previous predictions made by the intelligence agency. Thinking of the so-called celebration banquet arranged by the colonial authorities in the evening, Jose felt that his luck might be overwhelming and he could see the target person appear today.

Aragones thought of something and added: "Since Haihan conveys military information much faster than us, I think our partners have not confirmed the information at this time. We can discuss it in the subsequent negotiations."

Be more proactive and strive for better cooperation conditions."

The Spaniards also knew little about the black technology of telegraphy mastered by Haihan. Many people, including Aragones, preferred to regard this skill that they could not explain as a kind of witchcraft, but they also understood that this skill had important military applications.

The advantages brought by the application in the field are almost unexplainable. Fortunately, the Haihan Army does not seem to have the conditions to use this skill on the battlefield anytime and anywhere, so the colonial authorities are still able to fight.

According to the secret letter, the chief executive of Manila, Qiu Yuan, received the news from the north directly, and the method of transmitting this news was most likely the mysterious telegraph transmission technique. Due to a strange combination of circumstances, the colonial authorities

The time it took to get the news was probably several days faster than the cooperation partner's local envoy, which was enough to give the colonial authorities a great information advantage during negotiations.

Three Spanish youths who escaped from Haihan brought the colonial authorities rare good news in recent times. In the eyes of Aragones and others, this was an accidental event that could change the situation of the colonial authorities. After a long period of bad luck,

This reversal of fortune is the beginning of a comeback in the competition with Haihan, and an opportunity to integrate local resources to resolve internal conflicts. By making good use of this incident, perhaps the international situation will slowly change in favor of Spain.

.

Even Lopez, a political opponent who has always questioned Aragones' foreign strategy, dare not say out loud that the authorities' cooperation project in the north is worthless. As a senior official, Lopez also roughly knows the content of that cooperation project.

Well, if the expected effect can be achieved, it will probably make the Haihan people exhausted for a period of time, putting out fires everywhere. Even if it is not enough to shake their foundation, at the very least it can buy more time for the colonial authorities.

Used to restore strength, it is even possible to catch Haihan's loopholes and launch a counterattack.

If it is true, as claimed by senior officials of Haihan in the secret letter, that Haihan mobilized combat troops from the overseas colonies in the south in order to quell the chaos in the north, then it would be an excellent opportunity to counterattack Manila while its defenses are empty.

But Lopez is actually a little worried that allowing Aragones to succeed will create new variables in the ownership of the position of Governor of the Philippines. If Aragones succeeds, the colonial authorities will inevitably be inclined to support his strategy and organize

A larger-scale armed force is at his command. When the time comes for domestic orders to adjust his position, he has military power in his hands, and a document from thousands of miles away may not be resolutely implemented.

Lopez thought of this and couldn't help but cast a sharp look at Fernando. This man had been partnering with him for several years and he thought they were trustworthy partners. However, he didn't expect that after the colonial authorities moved south to Cebu this year,

Seeing that almost all the senior generals stationed in Manila failed to escape, this guy thought that his opportunity had arrived, so he decisively defected to Aragones, and then quickly took over the land and sea forces that had fled from Manila.

When Fernando defected to Aragones, it meant that Lopez lost the strong support of the military, which directly caused him to lose a lot of confidence in the battle with Aragones.
Chapter completed!