To be honest, Acosta still hasn't figured out what kind of profession the 'general' of the Ming Empire is.

In the past, he thought it was the same as their general, but later it turned out that it was not the case, for example, in the Philippines, Chen Mu, a general of the Ming Empire, would work as a pirate like a shameless English general, attacking transport routes.

And also in the Philippines, their generals would govern the territory like governors, make decrees like councils, and buy and sell goods like merchants.

Now I have to work part-time as a tailor and artist.

Acosta suspects that both sides may have misunderstood the translation of the word 'general' in both Chinese languages.

In fact, Yang Tingxiang just mentioned it casually, because in his opinion, Acosta talked about their views on military uniforms, and some of them wanted to express the opinion that "you are flashy", and he wanted to suppress his idea from another angle, showing the powerful manufacturing industry of the Ming Empire.

As for actually making military uniforms for Spain, where do you want to go? For such a trivial matter as making military uniforms, can Westerners accept Marshal Chen's consistent pricing level?

But what he didn't expect was that the chief quartermaster of the Bernal Legion, who was following Acosta, really wrote down his jokes, and asked him very seriously about the price of military uniforms and armor.

No one can imagine how outrageously weak Spain's manufacturing industry is compared to the Ming Dynasty.

For example, in the textile industry, because of the nomadic sheep herders who have a nomadic sheep herder in the country, they can produce a large amount of high-quality merino wool every year, and it is often thought that the textile industry in the country should be vigorous in order to produce this raw material, but the opposite is true.

Since the establishment of the Inquisition, a large number of Jews have left the country with goods and money, Barcelona has been completely destroyed, and industry and commerce have been destroyed.

Spain's agricultural land was also deserted by the presence of the Mesta, and the peasants were hoping to change their way of survival at the slightest opportunity, and even to feed the people had to import large quantities, coupled with the uncontrolled inflow of silver, which caused prices to skyrocket, and agriculture was in shambles.

Only animal husbandry remains.

However, most of their wool was sold to other countries, and the decree stipulated that no more than one-third of the wool should be kept in the country each year, and Charles V, the father of Philip II, wanted to raise this proportion to one-half in order to protect the country's wool industry, but was opposed by Meesta but failed.

Who would have thought that a border dispute, which had tended to be tense, would turn into a negotiation between two 'true allies' with '100 per cent enthusiasm' as a result of Yang Tingxiang's casual remarks?

More than forty men of New Spain and the Oriental Military Government gathered in a large wooden house, the fireplace was blazing, tea was being added over and over again, the grand lion dance and fireworks on the sea of Majiagang were over, and they were still discussing business matters in full swing.

So much so that every once in a while, Yang Tingxiang took his subordinates to another room to discuss and report the matter to Chen Mushi, who was waiting, and reported to the chief suspiciously: "Great marshal, do the Spaniards not care about the territory of the west coast at all, they have not been in a hurry until now!" ”

"Just because I mentioned it casually, they have been talking to us for half an hour about the purchase of military uniforms, and even the price of leather belts, short jackets, mid-single trousers and even a helmet and a pair of cuirasses are ripped back and forth, and even soju, tea, candles, and lamp oil are not let go of these daily uses."

Chen Mu was stunned, and he speculated with the greatest malice: "Is this their negotiation strategy to paralyze us in order to gain a greater advantage in the next border division?" ”

Yang Tingxiang didn't speak, but Zhao Shizhen, who had negotiation experience with the Spaniards, said: "I don't think so, Marshal, their quartermaster also specifically said the price of buying a pair of armor in Milan, and compared it with our price to try to lower the price, very seriously." ”

"I think they're trying to drive down prices, but they're not."

Zhao Shizhen said to Chen Mu very helplessly: "They said that the kind of plain cuirass that our flag army wears has nothing at all, from a place called Genoa or Milan, according to their name, it can be bought with only ten florins, and they say that we have to wait for this cuirass to order, and seven florins is a suitable price." ”

"Students have seen it, the kind of small gold coins they call florin, one piece weighs one penny, and ten pieces are one tael of gold or eight taels of silver, Chen Shuai!"

Zhao Shizhen's exaggerated appearance of wanting to shout and lowering his voice successfully made Chen Mu laugh, so he heard Zhao Shizhen say: "He said that one or two gold is to reduce the price, I estimate that the last two or two cents of gold can be negotiated, our breastplate material cost six cents of silver, nine cents of silver, a fortune ship can transport 1,500 or 600 sets of two trips a year, even if you add five cents of silver, a boat can earn him tens of thousands of taels of silver!" ”

Obviously, the half-hour-long deliberation made Zhao Shizhen's heart ecstatic and suppressed for too long, and the smallest mechanical unit of the Ming Dynasty clenched his fists tightly and said in a low voice: "Asia unloads not empty ships, bring special products such as Western wool, good timber and wood back, at least ten times the profits, invest in three ordnance bureaus to expand production, and after seven or eight years, it will be earth-shaking!" ”

To tell the truth, Chen Mu opened the door to a new world because his group of talents successfully led an important border negotiation between the Ming and Western countries.

The negotiations made him realize that Spain, the hegemon of the continent for decades, was a country that was completely dependent on foreign trade for its armaments.

Armor depended on Milan and Genoa, iron-cast artillery, cannonballs, and gunpowder depended on the Netherlands, and the only thing that the country had was shipbuilding and musket manufacturing.

This was something he had never thought about in the past, and he had even been thinking about the relationship between the two countries with a competitive and confrontational mentality, because he felt that Spain, which was in Europe, had an advantage in modernization over the Ming Dynasty, which was relatively distant and lacked exchanges, but now he does not think so.

Chen Mu took the paper and sketched the situation in Spain.

The world is developing, culture is exchanged, modernization is inevitable for development, the world environment has undergone major changes since this era, and the rise does not mean that it is weak because it is strong or declining, but whether it can adapt to the environment of the new era, or whether it can find a way of living that changes from the old way of living to a new way of life that is more suitable for the times.

Spain's deformed production structure should have been like the Ming Dynasty in history, with the emergence of Yingxiang Juan Gao and Alzicheng Li, and the huge country collapsed or declined rapidly.

But the Americas saved Spain, but it also made its own production structure unchanged, only a small step forward from the Middle Ages, and its huge financial and military power still made it dominate Europe.

Analyzing these things, Chen Mu raised his hand in distress and gently tapped his temples with his knuckles, muttering to himself: "In such a country, why should I be obsessed with fighting with him?" ”

On the paper, Chen Mu clearly outlined a formula for getting along with each other in the future.

You toiled in Asia to mine, gold, silver, iron, copper; You toiled to farm in Asia, cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, chili peppers; In the end, I didn't warm it in my pocket, and it was all stuffed into my pocket.

Because these commodities were used as currency to buy artillery, military uniforms, armor, and all kinds of handicrafts and daily necessities from the guardians of Sulu, Borneo, Japan, Korea, Malacca, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, the steppe tribes, Luzon, Burma and America, and the old friend of Spain and Portugal, His Majesty Zhu Yijun, the great and powerful and invincible Wanli Emperor of the Chinese Empire, to meet the needs of Spain's wars abroad and the living needs of domestic nobles and peasants.

Chen Mu slowly tore the paper and threw it into the fireplace, his subordinates had already thrown themselves into a new round of deliberations, and he was the only one left in the huge room pacing slowly by the fireplace with his hands behind his back, muttering to himself in a sympathetic narration tone.

"In the Iberian Peninsula of Europe in the late sixteenth century, an already very powerful kingdom will be even more powerful, like a full-powered, nay, like a full-strength war machine that crushes everything in front of it, formally His Majesty Philip still has an independent court, in fact his country's political, economic and other social aspects are controlled and enslaved by foreign colonialism, and in the form of social development is the sinking of history."

"At this point, the country controlled by Philip II has entered a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and the powerful dynasty has left endless sorrows for future generations - hahahahahaha!"

In the early morning of the sixth year of Wanli, the perverted, rampant and unrestrained laughter of the young commander of the Ming Empire came from the sky above Majiagang in Asia, as if his brain was frozen by a cold wave.