"To Manila?" "Didn't you make a special trip to visit the members of the Council of the United Dutch East India Company this time, and why did you go to meet these arrogant Iberians?" Are you joining forces to play some kind of conspiracy? ”

William sneered, "You're thinking too much, Mr. Putmans. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info We don't bother to unite the Spaniards against you Dutch, to be precise, you are all the ones we want to expel you. The general wants to take full control of the Great Commander, and in addition to you, the Spaniards also have a stronghold on the Grand Commander Island, which must also be uprooted. In order for the stupid Spaniards to recognize the reality of the Far East and solve the problem once and for all, it is necessary to show Manila what we are capable of. ”

There's no dreaded time of day in Manila than midday. In the morning, the breeze knocks on the window and enters the room, which is refreshing. However, the good times did not last long, and the morning breeze had just washed away the sleepiness, and when I was refreshed, the scorching heat soon hit me from the window. Even if you lean against the window and look at the sea, you can't look far away, because the flash of the waves is like a raging coal fire. The walls of the snow-white houses painted in the Spanish style emit a dazzling white light, and the sky is like a sea of fire, piercing the eyes that cannot be opened.

Before noon, going out has become a form of torture in purgatory, and staying inside is exhausting, and the Sandman strikes again, forcing people into a sweltering cage of gauze tents and pillows. It is not until dusk that people wake up from their slumber and feel a little more comfortable. The Spaniards conquered the Philippines but were overwhelmed by the weather and had to change their habits and schedule their beloved bullfighting show to take place at dusk.

The rainy season in the Philippines is often daunting, but today is an exception. The moist fog that usually floated under the sky gradually dissipated, and the Manila Cathedral, the Doge's Palace, and the distant city walls stood ghostly in the intermittent mist.

The mayor's mansion in Manila was bustling with activity, with candles shining through the cracks in the shutters and bands alternating solemn Sarabande and fast Tarentella in the afternoon. There is no doubt that the mayor of the palace, Mr. Isabella, is holding a lively banquet that has never been seen before in Manila, and even the garden is covered with colorful lanterns made of Japanese paper. Anyone who has seen it knows that this pomp and circumstance is a new style that emulates Italian customs.

With the exception of the governor and archbishop, almost all of Manila's leading figures gathered here. The gentlemen and ladies pretended to be elegant, chattering, laughing, and musical, mixed with the shouts of the servants, high and low. Small, white-uniformed, Tagaru servants carried cups and plates, sweating profusely, sometimes bumping into tall and sturdy black slaves, sometimes squeezing through the crowd.

From time to time from the door of the hall came the loud voice of the servant, announcing the arrival of Colonel so-and-so, an official, and a wealthy man whom he had paid for a title of nobility, and there was sometimes a slight commotion in the crowd at the hearing of a certain name and title, but most of the names were treated with little more than a glance of disregard or a smile of contempt.

Manila was so remote that a few of the nobles of the colony's high society were well known to social circles to arouse the slightest novelty, and even less to the unheard of merchants other than the legendary amount of property, and the nobodies who imitated the style of the scribes of the peninsula to be vassals.

Gatherings like these are frequent, and one of the few ways in which declining Manila can console itself: Iberian social gatherings are more elegant and upscale than the copper-stinking Dutch.

The Spaniards, or the Habsburgs, were the world's first global empire, which unfortunately was born at a time when there were no radios, no motorized ships. In the Mediterranean, they had to face the Turks; On the Continent, it was the Protestant German princes and the sinister French; Then there were the Dutch and the British, and in Asia and the Americas, the Dutch and the British spared no effort to attack the Spanish ships and colonies.

As if to add more burdens to the empire, and now that the King of Spain was King of Portugal, the already overstretched Spanish naval fleet was tasked with defending the Portuguese possessions - so that in the 17th century, the decline of the Spaniards was not accidental, but inevitable, compared to the Netherlands, the sea coachmen, and the rising English. Manila's decadent lifestyle, which borders on self-anesthesia, is the epitome of this environment.

Such gatherings took place almost every weekend, and if it weren't for the bad news, the ladies and magnates would end the party under the drugged of alcohol, and the ladies and young officers of the fortress would secretly tryst with each other and cuckold their husbands.

A herald walked into the hall in trepidation and whispered a few words to Mayor Isabella.

Mr. Mayor's face turned extremely ugly, and he motioned for the band to stop playing, and then announced to the stunned crowd: "Unfortunately, I must end this party early." A fleet of unknown origin blocked the port, the Governor, Mr. Salamanca, ordered that all entertainment be stopped, the officers returned to their posts, and the whole city went on alert. ”

The crimson-faced ladies were stunned, and then began to curse the guys who came from nowhere, ruining their own pleasant tryst.

The young officers were grim-faced, and they knew what it meant to be blockaded by a hostile fleet. One of the officers shouted: "It must be the damned Dutch, they have been planning such a crazy move for a long time!" The Dutch competed with Spain, an established maritime power, in various colonies, especially in the Far East. It's not a day or two that Manila and Batavia want to explode each other's chrysanthemums.

At this moment, inside the Manila Governor's Mansion, Salamanca was frowning and looking out the window. From the seaside window, you can see the sails of the ships towering over the harbor through the castle's casemates, which can be assumed to be a fleet of no small size, and more tonnage than ordinary Galen ships.

It was clear to the governor of every Spanish or Portuguese colony that in the event of an enemy attack they would have no support unless a local fleet happened to be stationed in the harbor. The colony was defended on its own, ready for battle on weekdays.

After observing it, he called the herald: "Order all the army soldiers to go on the defensive to prevent the enemy from attacking the castle." Then send someone to negotiate with the other side and see what their intentions are? ”