Admiral Garcia's words seemed to have impressed the Marquis of Spinola. Perhaps the Marquis of Spinola, who has been the governor of New Spain for a long time, has long been in love with New Spain, so he expressed his strong agreement with Garcia's words - New Spain It is indeed the only way out for the Spanish world empire!
So instead of finding another pistol to shoot him, the Marquis also wrote two personal letters for him, one to King Philip IV and one to Don Juan, the Governor of the Netherlands who had studied military affairs with him. .José.
In a letter to the king, he blamed Admiral Garcia's failure entirely on the Ming Dynasty's bombardment guns and explosive shells, and asserted that the emergence of bombardment guns and explosive shells had forever changed the pattern of naval warfare, and Spain wanted to revive it. The navy must keep up with the pace of naval reform.
In addition, he also issued a warning to King Philip IV in the letter - the Ming Empire on the west coast of the Pacific will go all out to march into the New World! New Spain was facing an unprecedented threat, and if Spain did not do all she could to defend her most precious asset, she would lose New Spain, and with it the world empire, within twenty years.
As a confidant of King Philip, the Marquis of Spinola knew that his king was an absolute fool and had no idea that New Spain was the future of the Kingdom of Spain!
Compared with New Spain, which is boundless, fertile and rich, Spain itself is really too poor!
The land in Spain is too dry, and there is no good harvest from anything planted, so the only option is to herd sheep. There are no treasures under the Spanish soil, and not much gold or silver can be dug out. Moreover, the Spanish are not as hardworking and hard-working as the Dutch, English, Germans and Italians, so they are always at a disadvantage in the competition in the handicraft industry.
What's even more troublesome is that Spain is not actually a unified country, but a pieced together by the Kingdom of Castile, the Kingdom of Aragon, the Kingdom of Navarre, the County of Barcelona, and some other fragmented small countries. United Nations.
But the process of unification has not been completed. Even in the so-called Spanish mainland, a bunch of fragmented small countries still have a lot of independence. The king's authority in much of the homeland was even less than his authority in New Spain.
Such a country that was internally torn apart and had a declining and exhausted economy was regarded by King Philip as a country chosen by God. It was tasked with an impossible mission - to fight for God! The result, of course, was failure everywhere and a huge waste of wealth. The gold and silver looted from New Spain could not fill the holes that King Philip had dug through his random wars.
The country that was originally relatively strong was heading towards collapse step by step under the rule of this faint king!
Therefore, the Marquis of Spinola does not expect that the cowardly king Philip IV will awaken. He has been a cowardly king for more than thirty years. How can he say that he will wake up when he wakes up? It is impossible to awaken and become a wise king in this life...
Therefore, the Marquis gave Admiral Garcia a second letter, asking him to go to Brussels to meet Don Juan Jose, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands.
Don Juan Jose was the illegitimate son of Philip IV. Because he was born in Austria, he was also called Don Juan Jose of Austria. Among the many illegitimate children of Philip IV, the 27-year-old Don Juan Jose is undoubtedly a star-like figure.
When he was 18 years old, he was entrusted with military power and went to Naples to suppress the fishermen's uprising. After killing many fishermen, he was promoted to the governor of Sicily. He returned to Spain in 1651 and commanded the siege of Barcelona, successfully suppressing Catalonia's long-standing rebellion. Starting in 1656, he was transferred to the Spanish Netherlands and fought several battles with the French army commanded by Dureny, Viscount of Turenne. He actually won and lost and maintained the situation.
In the view of the Marquis of Spinola, if the Spanish World Empire can still be saved, then the person who becomes the savior of Spain cannot be Philip IV, let alone Philip IV, it can only be Don Juan Ho. plug.
Since Philip IV now has no legitimate children who can inherit the throne, he only has two daughters, one named Maria Theresa, who is 19 years old this year. One was named Margaret Theresa, who was still a little girl. And Philip himself was already in his fifties, so it was unlikely that he would have any legitimate male heirs.
If Philip did not want to pass the kingdom to Maria Theresa's husband, then the only option was to have the Pope declare Don Juan Jose a legitimate son.
Although doing so will cause a lot of controversy, Spain really needs a wise king now.
If it is impossible to let Don Juan Jose take over, the Marquis of Spinola also hopes that Philip IV will pay more attention to New Spain, regard New Spain as the future of Spain, and let Don Juan Jose take full responsibility New Spanish Affairs...
For this reason, the Marquis of Spinola, who is already old and once served as Don Juan Jose's teacher, called on his students to come to New Spain, see this magnificent land with their own eyes, and imagine having The glorious future that Spain, this vast land, deserves!
With the autographed letter from the Marquis of Spinola, Admiral Garcia headed to the Caribbean port as quickly as possible, boarded a communication clipper that traveled between the two sides of the Atlantic, hung the flag of the neutral Netherlands, and braved the North Atlantic winter. Due to the strong wind and waves, he headed straight for the Spanish Netherlands.
After a bumpy journey, he finally arrived in Brussels, where the Governor-General of the Spanish Netherlands is located, in early November 1657.
...
Don Juan Jose has an above-average appearance, and his face is as long as other Habsburgs, but he has a normal pointed chin, bright eyes, and a relatively high forehead, plus a A pointed nose gives people a feeling of being smart and capable.
Admiral Garcia had met him several times eleven years ago, when the admiral was just about to go to New Spain to take office, and Don Juan Jose was serving as a guard officer beside his biological father, Philip IV.
Although they only met a few times, Don Juan Jose still remembered this "famous naval admiral", one of the empire's "seven captains", and was very surprised by his sudden visit.
After Don Juan Jose read the autograph letter written by the Marquis of Spinola, he frowned deeply.
"Admiral, maybe you don't know that a special mission from the Ming Dynasty arrived in Paris half a month ago." Don Juan Jose said in a low voice, looking a little melancholy, "They have three purposes for coming to Europe. One is The purpose is to establish a banking system to exchange funds between the East and the West; the second is to provide loans to Louis XIV's depleted treasury; the third is to assert rights in the northwest of the New World. They say that the northwest of the American continent has been around for hundreds of years. It was their land before! And they already had strongholds there. So they claimed that the mountainous areas north of New Spain and close to the Pacific Ocean were all the territory of the Ming Emperor."
"What?" Garcia was shocked, "How dare those Chinese talk such nonsense!
So, what does His Majesty the King think of this issue? "
Don Juan Jose said: "The king didn't say anything. He wanted to seek advice from the Marquis of Spinola... Now you are here just in time to go to Madrid to explain the situation."
Garcia quickly suggested: "Your Majesty the Governor, we must attach great importance to Ming's ambitions for the New World... Before I left Japan, the Ming Empire had announced the establishment of a joint-stock United States, and the emperor and nobles of Ming came together to One hundred million taels of silver is used to colonize North America! One hundred million taels! With about 50 taels, one immigrant can be sent from the Ming Dynasty to the New World. One hundred million taels can send 2 million people to the New World! If we Spain If we cannot speed up immigration to New Spain, we will lose this rich land in 20 years!"
Don Juan Jose took a fancy to Garcia and said, "Admiral, do you know what you are talking about?"
"Your Majesty the Governor! I am talking about a cause that can make Spain great again... Both the Marquis of Spinola and I hope that you can go to New Spain and appreciate the magnificence of New Spain with your own eyes. The magnificence is unimaginable by people who have been living on the European continent! Only when you go there will you know that everything Spain has done on the European continent is not worth mentioning!”
