Daming pirates

All these situations are not what Blanco originally imagined. This group of sea wolves is completely different from the Chinese pirates in his impression. This group of sea wolves has completely broken away from the category of ordinary pirates, and is more like a well-trained team.

Even if we compare the naval fleet of the Ming Dynasty official army with the Sea Wolf fleet, it is still far behind the level of the Sea Wolf fleet.

Although these ships are basically small Kron ships, they are valuable because of their large number. The current number of ships in Manila cannot be compared with them. Even if their fleet has strong ships and powerful guns,

, but it cannot withstand the siege of so many warships from Sea Wolf.

Now he understood why the fleet led by Anthony was completely defeated by the sea wolves in Jilong Bay. Even if someone else was there, even if the governor was asked to personally command the battle, the result would probably not be much better.

Suddenly he saw a large Western-style sailing ship parked beside a relatively remote pier. He recognized the sailing ship at a glance as one of their gunboats stationed in Manila. It was the gunboat that Anthony led to Taiwan at that time.

Before he came, he already knew that two ships in Antony's fleet were captured by sea wolves. Unexpectedly, he saw one of the ships here today.

Although the distance was far away and it was a bit unclear, he could still see generally that the gunboat they captured had been completely repaired by Sea Wolf at this time, and all the sails had been hung up again. Looking from a distance,

The hull was much cleaner and neater than the one he had seen before. There was no sign of damage on the hull, including all the ship's planks, which had been repolished. It was docked elegantly in the distance.

Beside the pier.

So he proposed to go over and take a look, but the accompanying person shook his head and said: "That's our military restricted area, and no one is allowed to get close. I don't have the right to take you there, so you can only take a look from a distance here."

, Otherwise, everyone including me will be punished!"

Looking at the captured ship, Blanco had mixed feelings in his heart. The emotion of loser enveloped his heart. Now he knew their strength very well. The sea wolf was no longer something they could easily deal with. At the moment, they

Given the domestic situation and the situation in Europe, even if they request it, the country may not be able to send them a large number of warships to specifically deal with this group of sea wolves.

And for some reason, Yu Xiaotian knew this very well, so that all their trump cards were in the opponent's hands, leaving them no room for negotiation at all.

The escort seemed to be on purpose, taking Blanco in circles along the coast of the island. When they reached the eastern part of Nanri Island, Blanco suddenly heard a rumble of cannons coming from the sea, so he hurried towards

Looking out at the sea, I happened to see a fleet of sea wolves training on the sea.

The shape of this fleet flying the Sea Wolf flag is completely different from his common Kron ships. These ships are obviously their Western-style ships. The hulls are long and narrow, elegant, with low sides, and their displacement is not large.

It is more than a hundred tons, and the ship is a sloop, a type of single-masted clipper.

There are not many such ships in Europe at present. They mainly operate along the coast. However, they also have the ability to sail long distances and are very fast. They are especially used by their enemy, the British fleet. However, compared with this kind of sea wolf,

There are still some differences between sloops in ship shape and sail rigging.

As a businessman who often goes to sea by boat, Blanco has a very deep understanding of ships. Although he can't see it clearly, he immediately felt that this kind of Western-style single-masted clipper ship of Sea Wolf should be very fast.

They are relatively flexible. Although these ships do not carry many artillery pieces, and can only carry six or seven artillery pieces at most, these ships are very suitable for activities along the coast. With their flexibility, they can quickly move through narrow sea areas.

It is maneuverable and is a very suitable vessel for coastal operations.

Compared with those Chinese Keron ships, this kind of ship is much faster, more flexible, and has stronger firepower. It is basically a tailor-made special coastal combat ship.

And he made a rough count, and found that there were at least ten such single-masted clippers in the training fleet on the sea.

Such a fleet of fast and flexible single-masted clippers is a quite terrifying combat force in the offshore. Once entangled by them, even the large Galen ships currently owned by Spain will be difficult to escape.

, ensuring that he escaped unscathed. Now Blanco understood why Yu Xiaotian didn't take the officers and soldiers seriously at all.

If they have so many ships, no matter how many warships the official navy brings, they will not be a match for the Sea Wolf. No wonder Yu Xiaotian is not worried at all about the official army's attack.

Over the past few days, Blanco saw many things he could not have imagined on Nanri Island, and he generally understood the strength of the sea wolf.

He knew very well that the strength of the sea wolves he had seen now was just the tip of the iceberg. They must have greater strength hidden deeper in the world. Just because the Ming Dynasty officials wanted to drive the sea wolves away from Nanri Island would be impossible.

impossible.

Even if the Dutch sent a fleet to help the Ming Dynasty officials, they probably wouldn't be able to get any benefits. As a result, his idea of ​​using the Dutch as a bargaining chip could only fall into the trap.

Next, Yu Xiaotian summoned Blanco again and started negotiations. This time, Blanco's attitude became much more honest. He could only hold his nose and admit it, and did not dare to talk to Yu Xiao anymore.

God made random conditions.

He only proposed that he hoped that the two sides could lift the state of hostility, that the Sea Wolf would withdraw its maritime blockade of ships going to Manila for trade, and that the Ming Dynasty's blockade on the Manila route would be lifted, so that Ming merchants could continue to freely go to Manila for trade activities.

For this reason, the Spaniards are willing to apologize to Sea Wolf and make certain compensation to Sea Wolf for the last conflict between the two sides in Jilong Bay.

As for the amount of compensation, the two parties held repeated discussions, and in the end Blanco said that they could pay Sea Wolf up to fifteen thousand pesos in silver coins.

Blanco's explanation for this is that the last time Anthony led the fleet to Jilong Bay, they had brought 20,000 pesos, but during the naval battle, most of them had sunk into the sea, and some were captured by sea wolves.

Currently, Manila does not have enough silver coins to pay Sea Wolf as war compensation.

In fact, at that time, the Spaniards proposed to purchase Jilongwan for 20,000 taels of silver. This condition was considered generous to the Spaniards.

Because in this era, the Spaniards had little that they could export to the Ming Dynasty, but they needed a large amount of goods produced by the Ming Dynasty, so they could only find ways to transport silver coins from the American colonies as funds to purchase Ming Dynasty goods.

In this era, the Ming Dynasty was completely in a trade surplus. Except for a small amount of European luxury goods, the Ming Dynasty hardly needed to buy many goods from Europeans. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty also became a terrible black hole of silver, continuously absorbing money from Europeans.

Silver, so much so that the Ming Dynasty owned so much silver in this era that there was even inflation.

Because of the poor monetary policy of the Ming Dynasty, although the Ming government issued a large number of banknotes, they did not pay attention to maintaining the currency value of the banknotes. They only used the Ming Dynasty banknotes they issued as a tool to make money, so that the credibility of the Ming banknotes was eventually lost.

, was completely abandoned by the people of the Ming Dynasty, and had no choice but to return to using silver as currency.

Fortunately, these Europeans imported a large amount of silver to the Ming Dynasty, so that the Ming Dynasty could have relatively sufficient silver as currency. Otherwise, it would be a headache for the Ming Dynasty to use it as currency. However, the large-scale import of silver also caused the Ming Dynasty to

The depreciation of silver led to inflation, which lasted until after the Opium War. Because the Qing Dynasty gave a large amount of silver to the great powers as war reparations, China returned to a shortage of silver.

The Spaniards now occupy many places in the Americas, where they have obtained enough silver, which they continuously transport to the Philippines every year. As funds for purchasing Chinese goods, most of this silver is minted into silver coins, called pesos.

Because of their uniform weight, exquisite casting, simple circulation, and relatively high silver content. It is said that the silver content exceeds 70% or even as high as 90%. They are very popular among the Chinese and are an absolute hard currency in coastal areas.

.

However, the silver that the Spaniards finally plundered was continuously sucked into the Ming Dynasty, which was not a good thing for the Spaniards. Therefore, the King of Spain later had to limit the amount of silver shipped to Manila every year and stipulated that it could not exceed the quota.

Now that the number of pesos in the hands of the Governor of Manila is running low, he cannot compensate Sea Wolf with enough silver, and the maximum can only reach fifteen thousand pesos.

Yu Xiaotian finally expressed his acceptance of this. As long as the Spaniards delivered the fifteen thousand pesos, he would withdraw the smuggling ships sent from China to Manila and give free passage to Chinese merchant ships heading to Manila for trade.

The greatest manifestation of the value of the Spanish presence in the Philippines is their trade with the Ming Dynasty. If this trade is cut off, then the Spanish presence in the Philippines will not have much meaning. However, over the years, the Spanish have cooperated with the Dutch

People are different. They rarely sail ships to the Ming Dynasty for trade in person. Instead, they wait for the Ming Dynasty merchants to deliver the goods to Manila. They then purchase them and re-export them to Europe or America. Therefore, they have stronger requirements for the stability of trade routes.

.

This is also the reason why they are willing to pay some money this time to make Sea Wolf give up blocking merchant ships heading to Manila for trading. Fifteen thousand pesos seems like a lot, but as long as they can still buy Daming's products, they will soon be able to buy them.

They can earn back the money.

(Continue to scream hysterically, "Summon monthly tickets!" Updates will be made twice a day this month, and I will never break my promise!)