prosperous age

Chapter 1041 1132 Clouds Moving in the Southwest

“Whew, wow, wow.”

In the Governor's office in Manila, Governor Vesalius had received a letter from Savella from the returning armed merchant ship and learned what had happened in Tortuga City.

It seemed that Spain was about to occupy the Philippine Islands alone, but unexpectedly, the Ming Dynasty intervened at the last moment.

In a fit of rage, he threw the letter written by Savilla out and swept all the other documents on the table to the ground, still not feeling satisfied.

However, there was nothing else on the desk at this time.

At this time, the office was full of flying scraps of paper and the floor was a mess.

The secretary heard the noise, opened the door and took a look, then immediately froze there.

Governor Vesalius was a nobleman, and such an inappropriate behavior had never happened before.

Seeing his secretary standing in a daze at the door, Governor Visali finally regained a bit of his sanity and suppressed his anger.

He walked to the sofa and sat down, then said to the secretary, "Hurry up and clean up."

He bent down and picked up a box from the coffee table, took out a cigar rolled with plantain leaves, then picked up a smaller box next to it, took out a small piece of firewood and hit it hard twice on the flint at one end of the box, and a small flame rose up.

Governor Vesalius lightly toasted one end of the cigar with a match, and when he saw sparks on it, he put it in his mouth and took a deep puff.

The origin of cigars can be traced back to the ancient Mayan era more than a thousand years BC, when they were invented and used by the ancient Mayans.

These early cigars were made by rolling tobacco into tubes and smoking it by the Maya, who considered tobacco a sacred plant.

From modern people's personal experience, they may be pursuing the feeling of being dizzy from the smoke, so there will be problems with people's perception and they will feel dizzy.

Perhaps at that time, everyone thought they were in a very sacred state and could communicate with the gods.

Over time, the habit spread to other parts of Central and South America.

In the 15th century, Columbus's crew first observed Indians in Cuba rolling tobacco with palm leaves or plantain leaves, a practice considered the original form of cigars.

With the arrival of the Portuguese and Spanish, tobacco and cigar-making techniques gradually spread to Europe and other regions.

Matches first appeared in Europe in the mid-sixteenth century, but matches were produced in large quantities during this period, so only nobles and wealthy people could enjoy them.

Of course, matches of this period mainly used sulfur as the flammable material. Wooden sticks were dipped in flammable sulfur or the sulfur was directly stuck to the sticks, and then ignited by sparks generated by the impact of flint.

After yellow phosphorus was discovered, it was quickly used to make matches, but yellow phosphorus is highly toxic, so the use of such matches is not safe.

In 1828, S. Jones of London, England, invented the Promethacin match, which was made of a flammable substance called Promethacin, which needed to come into contact with oxygen in the air to burn.

Plumicin matches are actually the kind that can be burned by waving them in the air in some movie clips.

Although this way of ignition looks very cool, it is indeed more unsafe and has a higher risk of spontaneous combustion.

In 1833, the world's first match factory was established in Berga, Sweden, producing friction matches invented by Preicher.

The principle of ignition of this kind of match is to use friction to generate heat to burn the flammable material on the match head. However, the safety of this kind of match is still questionable.

This process developed from generation to generation, and finally in 1855, the Swede Rentaström invented the first safety match.

This type of match uses a flammable substance called phosphorus sulfide, which can only be ignited when it comes into contact with a special friction paper. At this time, the safety of the match is greatly improved.

It can be said that the cigar and matches in Governor Vesalius's hands are the most fashionable things in the European aristocratic circles today.

He was transferred from Mexico to the Philippines, and naturally brought with him American cigars and locally made matches. Treasure ships from America also brought a large amount of supplies, allowing him to still live a luxurious European life in the far East.

Governor Vesalius was smoking a cigar and thinking at this time.

He agreed with Commander Savera's analysis that the current Spanish military strength in the Philippines could not be compared with that of the Ming Dynasty.

In particular, the news that the Ming Dynasty had previously recruited a large number of troops from the tribes in northern Philippines had greatly surprised him.

To be realistic, dividing the Philippine Islands with the Ming Dynasty seems to be the best outcome at the moment.

The only way was to wait until Spain completely occupied America and stabilized its control there, so that it could free up its hands to take action against the Ming Dynasty.

To do this, a lot of gold coins would be spent to recruit and transport the army, which gave Governor Vesalius a headache just thinking about it.

However, the extra gold coins spent would probably make the kingdom's top leaders hesitate as to whether or not to go to war with the Ming Dynasty for the Philippines.

Unless, the Philippine Islands have resources that they have to take action for.

But in the view of Governor Vesalius, such a possibility is actually very small.

The most abundant product in the Philippines is spices. They have no shortage of food and timber, but that is inconvenient to transport over long distances. It would be better to just build a shipyard here and build ships.

Without sufficient benefits, it would be difficult for the kingdom to support the use of military force in the Philippines.

Thinking of this, Governor Vesalius could only make one decision, which was the same as what Savella thought, that is, to gain as much advantage as possible in the process of demarcating the territory with the Ming Dynasty in the Philippine Islands.

After the secretary tidied up the desk, Governor Vesalius put down his cigar and returned to his desk.

He also had to write a letter to the Governor-General of Mexico in America, giving him a detailed report of what had happened in the Philippines and informing him of the decision they had made, and waiting for the other party's reply.

However, we will definitely not be able to wait for a response from America on this matter.

It is not the southwest monsoon season in June, and no Philippine ship can return to America smoothly.

In fact, the route from America to the Philippines was historically known as the "Manila Galleon Trade", also known as the Galleon Trade. It was a monopoly trade between the Spanish colony of Mexico and the Philippines. One end of the route was the city of Manila and the other side was the port of Acapulco in Mexico, also known as the Manila-Acapulco trade.

In the 16th century and for a long time thereafter, navigation relied on sails. The Industrial Revolution had not yet begun at that time, and there was no machine power such as steam engines.

There is no doubt that navigation at this time still relied more on nature, relying on trade winds and ocean currents to complete navigation activities.

In 1565, Andres de Urdana discovered a return route from Mexico to the Philippines, using the northeast trade winds and the equatorial countercurrent to allow the Spanish to travel back and forth between the two places regularly.

For the entire route, large sailing ships set sail from Manila in June every year with the southwest monsoon, heading north to the waters between 45° and 42° north latitude, then sailing east along the "Kuroshio" in the North Pacific Ocean to arrive at the port of Acapulco. The journey was more than 6 nautical miles and took about months.

The return trip is a direct voyage following the ocean current and only takes 3 months.

A round trip takes nine months, plus the time required for ship maintenance, which means a ship can only make a round trip once a year.

It was only the beginning of 1575, and the time for the galleon to set out for Mexico had not yet arrived, so naturally he could not send the letter.

This was a headache for the colonists in this era. The communication between the high-level officials became extremely long due to various reasons. It often took several months for a letter to be sent and received. By the time they received a reply, they were usually too late to catch up.

Therefore, Spain gave the colonial governors they sent to various places high authority and allowed them to act as they pleased.

After writing the letter to the Governor-General of Mexico, Governor Vesalius wrote another letter to Savella, approving his decision and formally authorizing him to negotiate with the Ming people to determine a series of rights for the painting circles of both sides.

Naturally, the further north the border is, the better, so that more land can be obtained.

The Spaniards had completed the mapping of the Philippine Islands and determined the longitude and latitude lines as early as the year before, which was very important information for the Age of Discovery.

After the ship deviates from its course, the ship's position can be calculated using the theodolite on board, so that the nearest port can be found for docking.

Moreover, in the Americas, the Spaniards have already tacitly accepted the use of longitude and latitude to divide borders. The border lines are beautiful straight lines, which make it very easy to determine the boundaries.

And this time, they are planning to do the same in the Philippines.

It seems that the people of the Ming Dynasty do not understand the meaning of latitude.

When Vesalius was writing the letter, he laughed in his heart, thinking that perhaps by passing the latitude line, he could make the Ming people suffer a loss.

The Philippines is located between 4 degrees 35 minutes north latitude and 21 degrees 08 minutes north latitude, and between 116 degrees 55 minutes and 126 degrees 37 minutes east longitude.

Vesalius easily found the location of the city of Tortoiseshell from the map, which was approximately around 16 degrees north latitude.

Although the island's latitude ranges from 4 degrees to 21 degrees, a difference of 17 degrees, and 16 degrees north latitude seems to be very far north, you have to know that the island is wide in the north and narrow in the south, and most of them are small islands. If you really count, the Spaniards did not gain much advantage.

However, Pengaslan Bay was in the hands of the Ming people, and it was difficult to move the latitude further north.

Fortunately, the north is mainly mountainous, and the plains are concentrated near the city of Manila, which made Governor Vesalius feel much better.

So, in the following days, Yu Dayou, the admiral of the Ming Dynasty's South China Sea Navy, and Sabella, the Spanish commander of the Manila city defense, were caught in a tug-of-war.

Both parties are well aware of the importance of the painting area. If they relax even a little, they may lose the ownership of large tracts of land.

Savella proposed to use the existing Spanish military camp as the dividing line between the two countries.

Yu Dayou believed that the Spanish military camp was too close to Daimao City and Daimao Port, so he naturally did not agree and demanded that the Spanish army withdraw 20 miles south and retreat to the vicinity of the Manila Plain.

The advantage of this is that the Ming army can completely occupy the mountains on both sides of the Cagayan River, and here there are large towering trees that the Ming army's navy needs.

Using the Daimao Port built by Lin Feng, the Ming army can build a shipyard nearby to build and maintain warships nearby.

At the same time, it also required the Spanish army not to change the course of the Dagupan River. You must know that most of Lin Feng’s previous water sources came from here.

However, the Dagupan River runs from south to north, with only a slight turn at the mouth of Pengasilan Bay.

If this point had not been raised, the Ming army stationed in Daimao City would be at risk of having its water supply cut off by the Spanish.

It was more than ten days later when both parties finally decided on the method of drawing the lines.

Yu Dayou wrote down the process of the Battle of Luzon and the subsequent negotiations with the barbarians in detail in a memorial, and sent out the centipede ship to report to the country at the fastest speed.

At the same time, they began to prepare a fleet of more than ten Fujian ships to transport the spoils and the bandit leader Lin Feng and others back to the Ming Dynasty.

Also accompanying him was King Bakr of Sulu, who was going to the Ming capital to meet Emperor Wanli.

Of course, everything has to wait for the order from the Ming Dynasty.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is not something that the princes can see whenever they want. They have to wait for the consent of the capital before they can do so.

Just as Yu Dayou and Baker were anxiously waiting for news from the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty's Yunnan General Commander, Duke of Qian, Mu Changzuo, who had been prepared for a long time, was also anxiously waiting for news from Meng Mi.

News had previously come from Mengmi that Mang Yinglong led his troops to attack Mubang, but Mubang did not send a messenger to ask the Ming Dynasty for help.

There are only two possible reasons for this situation. One is that the messenger was killed halfway, and the other is that Mubang had no hope for the Ming Dynasty and naturally would not send anyone for help.

Mu Changzuo didn't care about Han Lie's life or death, but this attitude made him very dissatisfied.

It’s not that Mu Changzuo didn’t give him a chance. In fact, Mu Changzuo wrote him two letters last year, but received no response.

However, Mu Changzuo did not know whether the Mengmi envoy visited the Governor of Yunnan after returning, but he seemed to have lost contact with Mengmi since then.

Yes, no one from Mengmi was found on the border anymore.

Even though he ordered the chieftains in Ruili, Yingjiang and other places to pay attention to the news from Mengmi, he still did not get any useful information.

"Someone is coming."

Mu Changzuo was ultimately worried that the situation outside the southwest border would get out of control. Without news from Meng Mi, he would not be able to accurately grasp the dynamics of the Burmese army, which really worried him.

He called the butler and whispered, "Contact those merchants immediately. They are familiar with that place and know how to deal with them.

I don’t care about anything else, I just want to know the current movements of the Burmese army and the situation in Mong Mi.”

Recruiting merchants traveling on the China-Myanmar border and sending them deep into the Burmese-controlled areas to gather intelligence was all Mu Changzuo could think of now.

Although these businessmen have no political status, they are all well-connected people.

Their money offensive is still very effective and can help them overcome all resistance.

The southwest region is similar to the northern part of the Ming Dynasty. Both are places where strength matters. If you want to conduct trade here, you will not be able to do it without some means.

Insects have their own ways, rats have their own ways. In such a place where power is divided, those who can do business can see how powerful they are.

Now, these are the only people Mu Changzuo can think of without causing trouble.

"Master, do you want to send someone to take a look quietly?"

The butler asked in a low voice.

"Not yet. If something unexpected happens, it will be troublesome, especially at this critical moment."

Mu Changzuo has gradually sensed the unsettling atmosphere on the border. Most importantly, he doesn't know what the Burmese troops outside the border are doing, especially what happened to Mengmi.

At this time, Si Ge, the commander of Mengmi Pacification Division, was ordering his strong men, "Even if you die, you must crawl to Daming to report the news."