Port of Bilbao, northern Spain.

This is Spain's fourth largest port after Barcelona and Valencia in the Mediterranean, and Seville in Gibraltar, and is Spain's wool export center for England and France.

There are a large number of names, such as the Basque Country, after the remnants of the ancient inhabitants, and Navarre, after the kingdom, all of which are geographical names.

In the past, there was a relatively large kingdom of Navarre, but part of it was annexed to the Spanish Habsburgs, and the other part was part of France, which was in the midst of a religious war, and Henry of Navarre was the Protestant leader.

That's why Philip of Madrid was willing to lend the thriving commercial port to the Ming garrison, at least because Fei Lao Er believed that they had a common enemy, the French Protestants.

"I don't care about any Protestants, old believers, saying that those are useless, your six mercenary regiments are hired by me, and they are temporarily organized into the Western National Yong Battalion of the Ming Oriental Military Government, and there are two ways to pay salaries, one is two and a half taels of infantry per month, and four and a half taels of cavalry."

Chen Jiujing crossed his arms and spoke in Spanish in the middle of the stage of the newly established camp on the outskirts of the port, and the mercenaries gathered under the general platform were already in an uproar, and the six mercenary leaders who led the crowd in front had different attitudes and did not speak, and some of the mercenaries behind them had already shouted impatiently: "It's too low!" ”

"Or pay with silk." Chen Jiujing turned his head as he spoke, and the sergeant of the Baishan Battalion next to him was already holding a colored satin made by the Ming Dynasty, and then said: "Every month, the infantry is four feet, and the cavalry is eight feet. ”

The mercenaries couldn't see the price and let out a loud boo, but one of the mercenary leaders in front of him said, "If this payment is not enough, we need to add more." ”

"That's all the salary, how to choose you to go back and discuss, like this kind of silk, in Seville each horse into the port is forty and a half taels, your cavalry only needs to follow me for four months, you can earn so much."

Fine silk and porcelain were at a high premium in Spain, and Spanish merchants could only buy one horse from the Mexican border at the price of eighteen taels of silver, and the price of the goods shipped back was even more, but it still sold well among the dignitaries.

Such a price seemed strange to Chen Jiujing and Li Dan, but there were even more surprising things for them.

Some aristocrats would buy the silk back at a high price and then hire another captain to take the silk back to Asia, and go to the border to ask a tailor to make several sets of clothes to his own size.

They spent far more money on hiring a captain than the already expensive silk.

It's as if the Spaniards are spending money for the sake of spending it.

Hearing the price Chen Jiujing said, the mercenaries in the audience were even more in an uproar, they didn't believe that silk could be sold so expensive in Seville as far away as northern Spain, and a group of veterans had no idea and looked at their leader.

Chen Jiujing watched the mercenaries' reactions with satisfaction, although there were only a dozen veterans and six leaders in the audience, they meant twelve Spanish companies and three thousand six hundred troops.

"Not only that, but I don't pay them all at once, but after signing a one-year contract, I pay two months' salary, then one month's salary every two months, and half a year's salary in the last month," he said. ”

"Yes, hire for one year, but I'll pay you fourteen months' salary, and the extra two months as bonuses."

"You only need to fight for me for a year, and you don't have to touch weapons again in your life." Chen Jiujing didn't say more, raised his left arm and spread his palm, and said, "You go back and think about it, if you don't want to accept employment, it doesn't matter." ”

Chen Jiujing was not worried that such a generous treatment would lead to a shortage of soldiers, and there was no shortage of mercenaries in Europe at this time.

The mercenaries dispersed with their respective leaders, and when Chen Jiujing walked to the barracks, a Spaniard wearing black plate armor and holding a helmet walked out of the tent quickly and asked, "General, how are these mercenaries, there are seven mercenary company commanders from Italy and the Low Countries in the back." ”

His name is Carlos, he was born in a declining knight family, served as a cavalry company captain in the Spanish army for nine years, left the army three years ago, and formed a mercenary group with himself, his followers, his retinue and his comrades as the core, and he had his own ship, met Li Dan in Seville, and was hired to join Chen Jiujing's troops.

Chen Jiujing nodded and said, "I'll let them go back and think about it, if they want to join, they will come to me again like the previous Eryong Battalion." ”

"As long as you can afford a salary, such a good salary is not afraid that no one will apply." Carlos said with a smile and said, "Proper arrears of wages are good for avoiding desertion, but don't betray the soldiers, the consequences of betraying the soldiers are serious." ”

Carlos' mercenary regiment consisted of eight hundred men, including two companies of Spanish veterans, both of whom had left the army three years earlier.

The reason why they were hired by Li Dan was that they had fought for Alva, in the Netherlands.

Chen Mu's old friend Alva led 12,000 troops to garrison the Netherlands a few years ago, and after deciding to use mercenaries to make up for the lack of military strength, the number of troops swelled to 67,000 in just a few months, of course, the consequences were extremely serious - because Chen Mu cut off the Manila galleon and the huge military expenditure caused Philip to declare Spain bankrupt.

As Carlos said, the kingdom's occasional arrears of military salaries are not only harmless to combat effectiveness, but sometimes have a positive effect on preventing desertion, but it is another thing to not be able to pay them.

Enraged legionnaires sacked Antwerp, the Netherlands, after which Carlos and their comrades left the army.

Carlos, who had seen that kind of situation, said to Chen Jiujing: "They will sack the towns, maybe the general doesn't care about the French towns, but that will make many people leave the army." ”

"Speaking of ransacking towns, Carlos." Chen Jiujing and Carlos walked side by side to the tent, suddenly paused, turned around and asked, "Did you leave the Spanish army because of the atrocity of the ransacking of the town?" ”

"Me? Of course not. ”

Carlos seemed to be poked by Chen Jiujing and laughed, tilted his head to look at the sergeant who was bathing in the big wooden barrel under the shade of the tree in the distance, and paused before turning his head and said: "We have grabbed enough money to buy weapons and build ships, and we can go to the New World to explore, why stay in the army and take that meager salary and the royal family will not pay it." ”

"Later, you know, our three ship shipyards have not yet been delivered, and the news of a war between you, the Ming Empire and Spain in the New World has already arrived, and at that time I still wanted to go to war with you, and the news of the defeat of the ship was sent back to Seville as soon as it was delivered."

"But Carlos is always short of work, I just met the kingdom's conscription officer in Toledo before I was hired by you, but Mr. Li Dan is paid more generously."

With that, the two of them had entered the tent, Carlos put down his helmet and looked at the map on the table, and asked Chen Jiu carefully: "General, please forgive me for taking the liberty of taking the liberty of this is the western coast of France, what is our goal?" ”

Chen Jiujing turned his head to look at the map on the table, pondering for a moment before spitting out a syllable.

"Bordeaux."