There really is no good news.

Some time ago, Vázquez was still counting the time when Spain did not have a war, and he planned to pick a time to tell Philip.

Just as the sun shines on Spanish soil at every time, Spain is at war at every moment, a state of affairs that began when Philippe succeeded to the throne at the age of sixteen and lasted until last year.

Since last September, Vázquez, who was in charge of court paperwork, found that there was no news of war, and although the documents sent to the court were mixed with the clamor of the nobles for expansion from east to west, they were all preparations for war, and had not really entered a state of war.

The armistice with the Ottomans, the Netherlands calmed down a little, and they did not get into any war!

This was too surprising for Spain, a country that had no chance of withdrawing from the war at all in Philip's time.

However, Vázquez did not rejoice for long, and this time lasted less than four months before they received news of the war between New Spain and the Ming Dynasty.

Peace would bring prosperity, and peace would allow the court to reduce military spending, but peace was only a luxury for Spain.

Before the loss of the Philippines, Spain was the first world power in the history of mankind, and the core of such a country was not contiguous, and its Milan, Naples and other places had to pass through French territory, which in itself was prone to instability.

Because a large country can make neighboring countries uneasy, the author of the pamphlet on the streets in France called for a preemptive strike decades ago:

'With Comté on one side of France and Naples and Milan on the other, where is the security with the Netherlands in front and Spain behind? ’

For this reason, the French did not hesitate to form an alliance with the Ottomans to form a blasphemous alliance against Spain.

Of course, this is not the first time that the Catholic filial son France has done such a thing, for example, he owes the Knights Templar a lot of money, and he doesn't want to do it and just destroy it, and even swallow the rest of his property; He moved the Holy See to Avignon, and arrested the Pope and killed him.

Not only France, but also the Pope was frightened by the excesses of secular royal power in Spain, and although Philip was very religious, it was a devotion to God, not to the Holy See.

What's more, Spain also has a criminal record.

Charles V's troops sacked Rome in the sixth year of Emperor Jiajing's reign, and his son Philip's right-hand man, Duke Alva, actually occupied the Papal States during the Italian War in the 36th year of Jiajing, cutting off the grain transport in Sicily and starving Pope Paul IV.

In fact, Vázquez knew what Philip wanted to hear the most, but he could only bow his head and say to Philip in a comforting tone: "I'm sorry, the Pope still hasn't responded. ”

The good news that Philip wanted to hear was the Pope's response to the Netherlands, but he didn't.

Almost instantly, Philip was furious by this answer, and even though he had nothing to blow up, he clenched his fists and circled around the crucifixion, and said angrily: "I assure you that I am annoyed by the indifference of the Pope from the Holy Alliance to the present. ”

"I believe that if the Dutch provinces belonged to someone else, the Pope would have resorted to the means to prevent them from leaving the Church; But now, because they are my subjects, I believe he is prepared to let this happen. ”

"Most of the misfortunes that have fallen to Spain have happened because I have tried so hard to defend the Church and purge heresies, but the more serious these misfortunes are, the more indifferent the Pope becomes!"

Regardless of what Philip did, he launched crusades several times, whether it was against heretics or heretics, the pope kept his silence very well, lest the Habsburgs achieve any success.

This put Philip in a very awkward position, he was probably the most pious secular king in the whole world, but he did not receive any support from the Papal States, which had a huge impact on his strategy.

In fact, Spain originally had no strategy, but soldiers came to block the water and flood, and the long-term confrontation allowed them to form a set of defensive goals, and Philip's life goals were only three things, to keep the territory, to attack heretics and infidels, and to create a super villain.

The last wish has clearly been frustrated, and the first two are becoming more difficult in today's situation.

What can Vázquez say? He couldn't say anything in the face of Philip's anger, could he say that there was something wrong with the Pope?

"There are also a few pieces of news that are not good or bad, the affairs of Portugal are still going on, and some nobles have turned to us to support His Majesty to inherit the throne, but someone has invited Sebastion's uncle Enrique back to inherit the throne, he has no heirs, and these two years are excessive."

Vázquez explained: "The candidates for the three guards, Antonio, the abbot of the Monastery of Crato, was favored by the commoners, His Majesty was favored by the nobles, and the Duchess of Braganza, Caterina, although the nobles and the commoners did not support him. ”

Before he could finish speaking, His Royal Highness Philip turned his face and said, "Correct your wrong statement, my inheritance to the throne of Portugal is indisputable!" ”

Vazquez was expressionless and nodded, "Okay, it's indisputable as you wish." ”

"There's also news from Mingguo."

Philip nodded, dotting the dots, moving quickly.

"The kingdom is about to lose all the lands in the western and northern parts of Mexico in the New World, and the south is also ceding hundreds of leagues of land south of Lima to the Ming people in exchange for peace and trade."

The Spanish court was probably ready to lose their land, and both men were calm about this, and Vázquez added: "Your Highness's request they have agreed, and thirty percent of the future silk and porcelain trade will be bought exclusively by the Spanish crown at a price one percent below the market price, and the amount sold to the country should be able to make up for the emptiness of the treasury caused by the perennial war." ”

In fact, for Philip, as long as he truces war with the Ming Kingdom, he is already making money; Ceded a large amount of idle land to the Ming Kingdom, the tax cost to him is negligible, after all, the taxes in the New World usually cannot be sent to his treasury at all, and they are used as maintenance expenses there.

The income of the royal family is mainly silver and gold mines, and the Ming Kingdom did not seize much in this regard, and in general, the bald Philip was still relatively happy.

But Vázquez's next words were less pleasant.

"But on the land we handed over to the Ming Kingdom, I heard that they have discovered a large gold and copper mine on the west coast, I don't know the specific location, scale and production, but from the rumors, it is very large."

Philip wondered: "We haven't found it in the New World for decades, and the Ming people have just found it in half a year?" ”

"Yes." Vazquez nodded and continued: "The Ming Kingdom's silk and porcelain trade on the border between the two countries is huge, but these two goods are very expensive, even the royal family needs ten silver coins to buy a bundle of silk, and the lowest porcelain requires a set of one hundred silver coins, but I heard that it is very exquisite. ”

"At the same time, they prescribed that the trade method was to buy their money, a kind of paper, with silver at the border, and then to buy silk and porcelain, which is said to be the same way for muskets and artillery in the future."

Philip didn't care how to buy it, he weighed the price in his heart, to be honest, he still had to earn money to ship it back to Europe, the military budget was definitely enough, and if he could buy muskets and artillery again, he thought he had no loss.

"However, the news brought back by spies in Africa and Egypt is not very good, in Africa and Egypt, people have found traces of Ming people, it is said that although they are Ming people, they call themselves Han and loot passing merchant ships, and most of the slave ships shipped to the New World this year have been robbed by them."

"Chen Mu's conspiracy?"

Philip frowned, his eyes narrowed into a line, his hands clenched together under the cloak, and he gritted his teeth and said: "He talks and trades with me in the West, and then sends people to rob us from the East?" ”