Changsheng County's once splendid port yamen was heavily guarded, and there were pro-soldiers with bird guns outside the foyer downstairs, and a team of patrol guards was stationed outside.

On the second floor of the Yamen, 23 officers and clerks who are proficient in the Chinese languages of the Ming and Western Languages are carefully selected from the flag army of the Oriental Military Government, and even if the door is closed, you can still hear the sound of turning books inside.

Chen Mu was on the other side, holding the battle report sent by Shi Qi, enjoying the fruits of his subordinates' hard work.

The storm caused Deng Zilong's fleet, which was scheduled to attack Peru, to Panama, and Panama City, which was particularly geographically important, was nothing compared to New Spain as a whole in a state of war.

The Spanish conquistadors were not beasts of prey, they would flee with absolute disadvantage, and in the siege of Panama, the defenders ran more than 400 in a few days, close to half of all the western armies there, and naturally they were self-defeating.

This was almost the easiest battle fought by the Ming army since it landed in the New World, and the spoils were the richest in terms of first.

Panama has permanent staff of European trading houses, but their wealth and goods are not much, and even Deng Zilong is a little disappointed, they searched the entire city, only to find about 3,400 taels worth of silver and gold coins.

In addition, there are some jade and jade, European paintings and porcelain, but the value of these things needs to be estimated, so Deng Zilong ordered Shi Qi to escort the lost forbidden army back, and at the same time send back the news that the Nantang ship and Chen Ju were missing.

Chen Mu's heart tugged at it fiercely, the forbidden army returned by the fleet was only more than 900 people, half of the forbidden army, the Nantang ship, and Chen Ju were nowhere to be found, and Deng Zilong's side sent a fleet to search for three hundred miles on the coast but could not find their traces.

At this time, there is nothing anyone can do about the situation.

Chen Mu didn't look down on these trophies, what cane sugar, rum, canvas, cotton, as long as he owned this land, these things were constantly produced, but Nantang Jian and Chen Ju were more important to him.

At this moment, he suddenly felt that it was a stupid idea to propose to build those three great ships to sail around the world—he should not have been so pompous, he should have honestly sent ten fleets to sail east.

According to the situation that half of the world's seas are now controlled by the Ming army, as long as they don't sail into the Mediterranean, the chance of them being artificially destroyed is very low, and there is always a fleet that can return to the Ming Dynasty in a year or two, right?

"Now these two boats feel like they're smashing their hands." Chen Mu, who was holding the battle report, had a bitter face on his face: "I'm afraid that I will lose it if I send it out, and it will be wasted if I stay in my hand." ”

You can't conquer a sea area and let the Wanli ship follow, right?

Wouldn't it be nice to just travel around the world, and to conquer the world with a ship with a little emperor?

Along with the bad news, there were also four wooden boxes of Western books, and the bottom of the boxes was covered with the damp-proof straw of the Ming army birds on the ship, and the books were well protected.

These books come from Spanish topographical scholars, and not only record the discovery of the New World by the Spaniards, but also the analysis of the plants, topography, and mountains of the Isthmus of Panama.

For example, on the table in front of Chen Mu, there is a six-volume book called "The Painstaking Discovery of the West Indies - The Life and Career History of Admiral Don Christopher Columbus, as Western Europeans Call the New World", which was transcribed by a scholar named Lass Casas decades ago, which copied many of the original words from Columbus's nautical diary.

The monk, Las Casas, had participated in Columbus's third voyage in his early years, became a priest, preached among the Indians, participated in the conquest of Cuba as an army priest, and returned to Spain to call for an end to the killing of the Indians.

In 1516, he was given the title of 'Protector of the Indians' by the royal family, and wrote the book after serving as abbot of the Convent of Buerto de Plata on the island of Hispaniola, although it seems to have attracted little attention, and it is the most dusty and damp of all the books sent by Ishiki.

There was also a captain of the conquistadors surnamed Vasco, who wrote a book focusing on the villages, ports, agricultural products and topography of more than 500 leagues from Darién Bay on the east coast to Honduras, that is, more than 2,000 kilometers of coastline.

The book also includes a letter from his father, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, dated 1524, in which Charles V had made a clear proposal to build a canal in Panama the previous year, and he made several suggestions, pointing out four sites that could be used to dig canals, and mentioning that the Indians of Mexico City had a unique way of digging canals.

Chen Mu planned to read the two books first in his spare time, and the more books would be jointly translated by his subordinate officers next door, and then copy the translations and bring them back to the Ming Dynasty in time for the next return voyage of the baggage fleet from the imperial court.

Many of these books were written by the conquerors and military priests who came to the New World in the early years of Spain, not only about the situation in the New World, but also about themselves and the influence of the New World on Spain.

"Marshal, Acosta has been sent away by the students!"

Zou Yuanbiao walked to Chen Mu's door with his head held high, pushed open the door and saluted respectfully, got up and walked two steps quickly, his eyes wanted to see what Chen Mu was looking at, and said: "He didn't think much about Panama, so he gave up in a few words." ”

"But in order not to completely cut off the imperial court, he said that Guatemala must be left to them."

As he spoke, Zou Yuanbiao's smug expression paused, and he cautiously asked Chen Mu: "The marshal has no idea about Guatemala, right?" ”

"Guatemala?"

Chen Mu closed his eyes and thought about it, he seemed to have seen something about Guatemala on the book on the table, but he didn't pay too much attention to it, and asked, "That was the center of this place before they attacked Mexico?" ”

Guatemala was not only the center of the Americas before the Spanish in Mexico City, but also the center of Mayan culture in the past.

Chen Mu turned his head to look at Zou Yuanbiao and asked, "Did you promise them?" ”

The head of the magistrate shook like a rattle: "The military government has not given an order, how dare the students decide without authorization - co-governance, co-governance." ”

Chen Mu originally just asked casually, but when he heard this answer, he nodded with satisfaction: "Well, there are a lot of mines here, even if there are no mines and trees, the more land we have, the better, if it is not ours, then co-governance, if you can not give it to them, you will not give it to them." ”

"Let's take it slowly, this treaty won't come out in half a year, but once it comes out, it will be much easier to do things here in the future."

"The better any country has with us, except England, the more it will decay."

Chen Mu said this with a smile, because he suddenly remembered that the book on the West Indies compiled by monks and scholars contained such a speculation about the other side of the ocean when Europeans had not discovered the New World - there were demons waiting on the other side of the sea.