"It's right to be unrealistic...... Hasn't Spain been living in an unrealistic fantasy for decades? ”

Garcia. Morality. Admiral Toledo Mendoza muttered, closed the Report on the Situation in the Far East, then stood up and straightened his military uniform—he was of a well-known family, well-educated, and very elegant-looking, and at first glance he was a knowledgeable and clear-headed Spanish nobleman.

It's a pity that his sober mind and profound knowledge are of little use to the empire that is dying. The only thing that could be done was to command a fleet that was getting smaller and smaller, maintaining the last dignity of the Spanish Armada on the boundless ocean.

This time, five Galen warships, including the New Spain, were dispatched to the East, and the Eastern Fleet was set up to unify the purpose of commanding Spain's maritime forces in the Far East. Morality. Admiral Toledo Mendoza also seems somewhat unrealistic.

Although Philip IV knew that the land power of the Ming Dynasty was very strong and could not be defeated by the Spaniards who came from afar, he still fantasized about using about thirty Galen ships to form the Eastern Fleet and give the Ming naval force a devastating blow!

The king of Spain believed that after completely destroying the sea power of the Ming Dynasty, the Spanish Eastern Fleet would be able to transport an expeditionary force with Spanish soldiers as the core and Japanese, Manchurian, and Mongolian mercenaries as the main force to land at any point along the long coastline of the Ming Dynasty.

No matter how powerful the Ming army is, it is impossible to defend such a long coastline tightly, so the Spanish expeditionary force must be able to inflict heavy losses on the Ming Empire and force the Ming Emperor to sign the peace treaty tailored for the Ming by the Spanish Empire......

At first glance, this plan seems to be quite good, like the various war plans made by the Kingdom of Spain in Europe, if they can be realized, the whole of Europe will probably be unified by the Habsburgs!

But in reality?

In fact, the plans developed by Spain will always require more power than Spain has...... Therefore, Spain's national power has been in a state of overdraft for the past few decades.

Under these circumstances, Spain had no strategic reserves and was facing an extreme shortage of troops and finances on all fronts.

If the plan is not realized, Spain will be plunged into all sorts of crises! And in order to pull itself out of the crisis, Spain had to develop a new, elusive battle plan.

And this expedition to the East continued this bad tradition, as the rise of the Ming Empire and the country's overpopulation and rapidly expanding maritime power threatened the absolute dominance of the Spanish colonial empire on the west coast of the Americas. And the empire did not have enough strength to deploy defenses, so it had to adopt the strategy of taking the initiative to attack and send a fleet to the Far East!

And the fleet sent to the Far East was not strong enough, at least on paper, far inferior to the navy of the Ming Dynasty...... And this insufficiently powerful Far Eastern Fleet is going to complete a difficult battle plan again!

Admiral Garcia had already put out his uniform and personally went to open the hatch for Colonel Barbossa. A rough face flushed by the sun immediately appeared in front of him, and this was the face of Captain Barbossa.

It was a disgustingly ugly face, and it looked a little dirty, as if it hadn't been washed in a long time, and it really didn't look like a nobleman of the Spanish kingdom. In fact, he was not a Spaniard, and by his blonde hair, he was a descendant of the Germanic knights who came to Spain with the Habsburgs.

But this filthy Germanic was also a very good naval officer, not only excelling in the Caribbean, but also in the Philippines earlier, and was very familiar with the situation in the East.

This is also the reason why Admiral García transferred Colonel Barbossa to the New Spain as captain.

"Okay!" Admiral Garcia nodded, "Let's take a look...... It's my first time in the Philippines! By the way, we won't be discovered by the Chinese's merchant ships, right? ”

"No, it won't." Barbossa shook his head and said with certainty, "They don't have any merchant ships in the Philippine Islands and the seas east of the archipelago...... It was the Sulu ships that actually had to be worried. ”

"Sulu?"

"They were vassals of China...... Considering that China was rushing to the sea, it was likely that the Sulu would establish close suzerain-vassal relations with China. However, I have already thought about this problem, and our route will avoid areas where Sulu merchant ships are frequented as much as possible. ”

"What about Manila? There are a lot of Chinese there, right? Will there be spies among them? I think the Chinese emperor will be keeping a close eye on Manila. ”

"It's been a long time since then!" Barbosa said, "Since the Chinese opened up two overseas territories of Jinou and Jinghai, and turned Annam and Siam into close vassal states, the Chinese in Manila have left in large numbers to make a living in their own places. Now there are no Chinese there, it is very depressed. ”

In fact, the Chinese in Manila left not only because of the development of Jinou and Jinghai and the "return" of Siam and Annam, but also because of the opening up of Daming itself.

After the opening up of the Ming Dynasty, the trade between China and the West no longer needed to be re-exported, Western merchants could directly enter China, and Chinese merchants could also go to Malacca and Batavia for trade, so Manila, a trade transit point with a poor geographical location, was inevitably weakened.

But a depressed Manila is more suitable as the home port of the Spanish Oriental Fleet!

Because it was difficult for the spies of the Ming Empire to enter there, and the harbors and nearby shipping lanes of Manila were no longer prosperous, it was difficult for the spy ships of the Ming Nanyang Fleet to operate in that area.

"That's good!" Garcia said, "Let's go to Manila for a few months to rest and wait until the Philippine fleet and the Pacific Trading Company's armed merchant ships are all in place before we attack!" ”

"Admiral, where are we going to attack?"

Garcia said, "You can always find a place...... They have such a long coastline, weakness must be there!

In addition, I need to meet with Ambassador Caballero and listen to him before I can make a decision! ”

......

Caballero did not yet know that five powerful Spanish Galen warships had arrived in the Philippines.

He also did not know that the Henan had entered the Gulf of the Americas, and began to look for the first colonial stronghold of the Ming Dynasty in the New World, which was located in the deepest part of the Gulf of America, which was about the city of Olympia in Washington, and the location was very secretive, and the climate was not cold, surrounded by large areas of dense woodland and plains, and a river that could be navigable and irrigated the fields flowed south, and I don't know where it flowed......

Caballero was in Edo at this time, and Date Masamune, the first lord of the Sendai Domain, was in charge of the mission to New Spain. His retainer Tsunecho Shigura was instructed to build a Galen ship and take it to New Spain (which was later forcibly purchased by the New Spanish authorities), while he himself went to Europe in the name of "a retainer of King Date Masamune of Mutsuno" on a sailing ship provided by the Spaniards, and met with King Philip III of Spain and the Pope of Rome.

Therefore, in the eyes of the Spaniards, the Sendai domain should be a feudal clan that was relatively close to both Catholicism and Spain. The Tokugawa shogunate was obviously aware of the Spaniards' views, so they arranged for the Sendai clan to be in charge of negotiations with the Spaniards.

In other words, it was not the shogunate who came forward to receive Caballero, but Date Tadamune, the lord of the Sendai domain.

Although Date Tadamune was not a Catholic, he did show a favorable opinion of Catholicism and Spain, as Caballero thought, and he was accompanied by an important minister surnamed Shikura, who is said to be the son of Zhikura Tsunecho in Japan......