Philip was in a coma for a long time, and his legs, which continued to cause him pain, made him highly resistant to coma, and he woke up in pain when he passed out.

No treatment is needed at all.

The first thing the king said when he woke up was to ask vaguely: "How is the war going?" ”

"There is no new news yet, Acting Governor Bernal is gathering forces to set up defenses in Mexico City, waiting for reinforcements from Peru and Spain."

Philip clutched the velvet blanket tightly, his hand slowly loosened, like grasping a life-saving straw, and muttered repeatedly: "Spanish reinforcements...... Spanish reinforcements. ”

Spain could send reinforcements to New Spain, although not many of them, but the empire still had a usable legion to prepare the army for the King of Portugal to inherit the title of King of Portugal after the failure of his own conquest.

The New World is important, and if necessary, it is necessary to maintain the rule of the New World.

Portugal is also very important, so important that such an opportunity is once in a lifetime, where can Philip go to find the king of Portugal who is stupid enough to lead an army without an heir?

"All, let's all go out, there are too many people to make me a little breathless, Duke Alva stays."

A group of courtiers slowly withdrew from the palace bedchambers, leaving only the gloomy Duke of Alva, an old man dressed loosely and did not look like a veteran of the army, and his sagging and patchy skin made him look like a strange old man with a strange personality.

His Majesty prayed again, and closed his eyes on the bed, looking as if he was about to die.

"I'm sorry to have given you up on courage and honor to win some of the lands that belonged to the Pope for my father."

It was during the Italian War, the last years of Charles V's reign, and in the face of the Spanish alliance of King François I of France, the Italian city-states and the Papal States, the Duke of Alva won a surprising victory, defeating the famous French general Scarguis, François de Lorraine.

In that war, the Duke of Alva effectively occupied the entire Papal States, forcing Pope Paul IV to make concessions to Spain, giving Spain central Italy, Milan and Naples.

However, after Philip succeeded to the throne, he gave up part of the land in order to show his friendship with the pope.

Duke Alva saluted Philip, who was lying down, and said with a calm expression on his face: "Your Majesty, my loyalty to the royal family has never changed, if you trust me, I can lead my army to the New World and end this war by means of negotiations." ”

As he spoke, the Duke of Alva added: "Before the end of Sebastion's war with the Moors." ”

Philip moved upwards and leaned himself against the backrest as best he could, and the fact that he had just woken up from a coma made him a little weak, took a big sip of the silver cup from the bedside, and then asked, "What will you do?" ”

"Two ways."

The Duke of Alva seemed to be confident, but he was very cautious on his face, and said: "The result will not be too favorable to the New World of Spain, but it can end the war before the war...... The longer this battle goes, the worse it will be for us. ”

"One is to cede a large area of land in New Spain except for the silver mines of Potosí, I guess before leading the army to the New World, the Ming army should have been under Mexico City, and the Ming army may not be willing to return the land it has occupied to us, but the silver mines must be kept."

"Without the silver mines, the Iberian Peninsula will be in turmoil, and the result will be worse than if this stupid war goes on."

Philip's head nodded very quickly, this war should not have started in the first place, and it was very cost-effective to exchange some land that could not bring benefits to the royal family for the support of the Ming Empire.

Even now Philip doesn't know how things could have come to this.

Not to mention that he didn't know across the ocean, in fact, Chen Mu didn't know why it had evolved like this, originally the donkey was ready to take charge of Panama, and everyone suddenly said that the situation had evolved to take Mexico City.

"If Bernal can gain an advantage in the war, our forces will put a lot of pressure on the Ming army to make concessions, they will get the land north of Mexico City and south of Lima City, and maybe we can get more in the negotiations."

"But if there is a disadvantage on the battlefield, I don't know how to protect our Potosí silver mines, the war has already begun, and the enemy will have nothing to worry about."

Philip closed his eyes, which was exactly what he feared, and when he opened them again, he asked with a wistful gaze, "What about the second way?" ”

"If the situation is bad and we want to keep the Potosí silver mine, we have only one way." Duke Alva said, "Tribute." ”

"Tribute?"

Philip didn't understand what this meant, and in fact he was even more curious about how Duke Alva knew the strange word.

"His Majesty knew that most of my family ancestors were officials of the Castian kingdom, and in the fifteenth century, Timur the Cripple defeated the Ottomans, and the king, frightened and happy, sent messengers to give gifts to Timur."

"After the envoy returned, he wrote the "Envoy to the East", which recorded what happened to him in Timur's court, and the Khitan Emperor Zhu Si Khan meant to command the Emperor of Jiubang, but Timur called him the pig emperor of Tunguska and detained the envoy."

"The envoy was imprisoned for seven years, and when Timur met with the envoy from Castia, he was released to add glory to him, and Timur introduced to our envoy that this was an envoy from the powerful Khitan kingdom in the east, and that he had come to send him five hundred horses."

"Timur asked our envoy to sit in the front, and the envoy of the Ming Kingdom to sit in the back, and ridiculed that Uncle Zhu Sihan seized the throne of his nephew, and he was a villain who was a traitor and a villain."

Philip frowned, it sounds like Mingguo is not powerful, the envoys have been detained for several years, Alva said what is this?

"The envoy of the Ming Kingdom has been imprisoned for seven years, and he still looks arrogant and arrogant, and scolds the cripple, you first make it clear about not paying tribute for seven years!"

Duke Alva said: "Seven years before this incident, Timur had been paying tribute to the Ming State, and later Timur's son succeeded to the throne and continued to pay tribute to the Ming State. ”

"The Ottomans also paid tribute to the Ming state, and when Timur's sons later warned the Ottomans not to attack the border Bey, they added the name of the Chinese Khan, which was very useful."

Duke Alva looked at Philip and said, "I say this to tell you that there is no shame in paying tribute, and those countries that were once strong and are still strong will do so. ”

"Tributary." It was only now that the Duke of Alva stated his true purpose, saying: "Expressing submission to the Chinese monarch can make money, and it will inevitably make the aggressive Ming army give in to the negotiations." ”

"As long as the king is willing to pay tribute to the Ming Emperor, even if he occupies all of New Spain, I think we will still be able to keep the Potosí silver mines."

Philip didn't speak for a long time, and after a long time asked, "In your speculation, the war in the New World has been so bad that it is?" ”

"It's bad, it's not just the war in the New World, it's even worse in the Old World, we don't have any allies around anymore, Your Highness the King."

Philip took a deep breath and said to Duke Alva, "Go and prepare to recruit troops, I want to meet the monks who know well, and before I know what tributary means." ”

"When Don Juan was still there, he seemed to mention the tribute, but I didn't pay attention, I'm afraid this time we have to pay attention."

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