When the Ming army began to dig the ground to build roads and railways in Pingxiang, the Duke of Alva in Mexico City was moving his troops to the official road, looking west across the border line with great anxiety and expectation, waiting for the arrival of the mobilized company.

The armistice came step by step, and it was never said that the armistice could immediately enter a state of armistice, even if the treaty had been signed, the land had been handed over, and even if the trade boom had ended, we could only try to make our contribution to the two countries becoming trade-friendly countries on the border.

Only when their armies can really come out of the constant victory will it show that the two sides have established the basis of mutual trust.

Alva was not afraid of the Ming army attacking this company, no one would be naïve enough to ambush a company of more than 300 points that had neither a threat nor valuable goods to be escorted, what really worried him was that under the conditions of suspicion on both sides, any wind and grass would bring the diplomacy that was about to turn around to a stalemate.

A little spark can reignite the flames of war on the border.

Although the Duke of Alva had sufficient troops to cope with the First World War, after summing up the lessons of Bernal's defeat in the battle with Chen Mu, this huge army, composed of most of the veterans of the suppression of the Dutch revolution, was supplemented with ten musket companies and had the strength to fight the battle, and they had repelled the German and French armies led by William, Prince of Orange and Louis of Nassau, in the Netherlands, but the situation did not allow him to go to war.

The impending War of the Portuguese Succession beckons him.

This made Spain's iron-blooded duke useless in New Spain, and instead committed to border peace.

"We're not making bad progress."

The old duke's legs and feet were no longer good, and in his early years, he was born from a wealthy life and never left the wine and meat, so he suffered from gout like the king he served, and he did not leave his cane in the mansion all the year round, but he still had to show his strength outside Mexico City, so he had to endure the pain and ride on his horse.

Beside him was the former governor of New Spain, Almansa, whose voice in affairs was rapidly reduced after Yang Tingxiang was stationed in Mexico City, so that Almansa easily returned to the position of governor of New Spain without the help of external forces from Chen Mu - of course, in the context of the Ming Dynasty garrison in Mexico City, he was only the viceroy.

"Seventeen plantation owners on the border have recruited Chinese language teachers from the other side, and some businessmen are free to cross the border and buy goods from the villages on that side."

Almansa said to the preoccupied old duke, "Although there is some hostility, as long as our people obey their laws, the people of the Ming Kingdom can accept us. ”

"There is no stupid war, the goods produced in the villages of the Ming Kingdom are dozens of times that of the aborigines, and several times that of our plantations, as long as we have silver, we can exchange them for all kinds of goods on the border, and the king can get more wealth than before."

"If you accept Chen Mu's conditions from the beginning, if it weren't for Bei ......"

"Your Excellency the Governor." Duke Alva turned his head on his horse: "I know you hate Bell who expelled you, but with all due respect, the real wrong decision he made was not to expel you, the governor who negotiated an agreement with the commander of the Ming Kingdom. ”

"He just made a mistake in being carried away by anger before he was ready, and launched a right war at the wrong time, what is it that the people of the Ming Kingdom can accept us, huh? If you mean acceptance, as we did with the Indians, yes, the people of the Ming Kingdom can accept us. ”

"It was the war in Peru that caused the officers in New Spain to drop too much, they thought that all the enemy was as vulnerable as the Indians, and although they lost the war, we learned enough from Acapulco, and now each regiment had three musket companies to ensure that they had enough firepower in battle."

Almansa did not agree with the duke's words: "But if there is no war, we can also learn this from the Ming army, thousands of soldiers will not die in the war, and Acapulco still belongs to us, Chen Mu only wanted us to recognize their status in the north at first." ”

"When he only has a few thousand soldiers, of course he only wants the north, the Chinese monarch sent him 100,000 immigrants in the second year, even if you agree to his request, 100,000 immigrants flock to the north, do you think Chen Mu will not come up with a new treaty to show you?"

"It was we who discovered the New World, people who have been here for decades, and you want to give this place away, and you should be grateful to Bernal, who saved you from death."

Duke Alva frowned, his feet began to ache again, and he said, "If there is no war, and a large area of land is given away, what do you think the West India Council will do to you?" ”

"Yesterday, the company commander Garcia sent a letter saying that Fu Yuan, the commander of the Ming army stationed here, was going to give him a banquet, and the Ming army was not friendly to them along the way, and they tried their best to avoid clashes with the Ming generals who caused trouble behind, and the messy uniforms made our soldiers ashamed."

"Do you have a way to keep His Highness the King's New Spain after I'm gone?"

Alva watched Almanza and didn't say anything more, he didn't hear Almanza's straightforward answer, everyone knew that whether or not they could keep New Spain didn't depend on what they thought.

They didn't know what the Ming really looked like, and only the news they got intermittently in those minutiae could make the Spaniards gradually plump up the image of the Ming Kingdom in their minds.

And this image becomes especially terrifying when they compare it with themselves.

Columbus landed in the New World for the first time and sailed into the ocean in three boats with eighty-seven sailors on board.

The following year, he received royal permission to expand his fleet to seventeen ships, transporting more than 1,500 royal officials, craftsmen, and soldiers to the New World and begin to develop their business.

Magui landed in the New World for the first time and went to sea with dozens of boats, with thousands of soldiers and sailors on board, drifting across the ocean.

Then Chen Mu came, with more than 200 ships and nearly 10,000 soldiers, not only landed on various places on the north and west coasts, but even fought a battle with Spain in the middle of the New World in only half a year.

Also the following year, the Chinese monarch issued an edict of emigration, and hundreds of ships from the distant Ming Dynasty formed the largest fleet ever built, transporting 100,000 immigrants to the New World.

Truth be told, such news sounds powerless.

It has been nearly 80 years since the Portuguese landed in Brazil, and they have colonized Brazil for more than 40 years, but now there are only 2,000 Portuguese immigrants in Brazil.

If in the early years the indigenous people of South America considered the Spaniards to be gods because they could actually ride horses and use muskets, now a large part of the Spaniards also consider the Ming people to be gods...... Because they won't die of scurvy.

"This is not a bad outcome, Lord Duke." Unfazed by the danger of New Spain, Almanza said: "I will make the Ming Kingdom need us, as long as Potosí can dig up silver, as long as there is iron in the country, as long as we will buy the goods of the Ming people, they just want to make money, and we can get what we need, and the result is not bad." ”