In early August of the tenth year of Wanli, the Daming Baishan Camp stationed in Bordeaux conveyed information from the waters of northern France to Bilbao, Spain.

A fleet that was called the "beggar on the sea" in the past but now became a regular navy as the Netherlands independent of its independence is docked in Saint-Malo. It has 32 small and medium-sized offshore armed merchant ships. The fleet soldiers are poorly equipped and use weapons from different sources such as England, France, Spain, etc., but the limited number of artillery on the ship is well-made.

They were warmly treated by Queen Mother Catherine of France.

This intelligence means that the Duke of Palma descent in Spain's encirclement and interception of the Netherlands again, and the traitors in Spain regrouped and continued to fight against the suzerain.

No one doubted the authenticity of the information. Not long after, the same news came back from the troops arranged by Philip in the Low Countries. The intention of the Netherlands to join Antonio for the coalition forces in Portugal has been known to everyone.

The news made Spain nervous. Philip used a new method learned from his aide, Monk Acosta, to issue rewards to the forty-two shipyards in Lisbon and Seville, prompting six warships that should have been completed in three months to work overtime and deliver them to the Navy before October came.

The dark clouds of war pressed over the continent, but the Great East Ocean shipping trade before the war was extremely prosperous. Since August, at least 30 merchant ships from all over Europe docked at the port of Lisbon every day. Even the low-priced cargo that maritime merchants were unwilling to transport on ships in the past, they were moved into the cabin at the cost of unwilling to sail in empty cabins during long voyages.

Merchants brought mercenaries who smelled the smell of war and wanted to find work, and sent spies from the Pope or the Mediterranean kings. They also brought back merchants and intelligence dealers who returned from France, England or the Netherlands. All kinds of true or false information flew on the sea, making everyone in the middle undecided.

Today, people say that Hawkins of England prepared sixty armed merchant ships for this expedition, and tomorrow this number may become fifty or seventy. Some people even argue that there are only ten ships in the whole of England.

France indeed "mobilized" Philip. In early October, the information flew into the Lisbon Palace like snowflakes. The most eye-catching thing was that France assembled a fleet of more than ten large galloping warships sailed across the Bay of Biscay and rushed southward, causing King Philip to quickly sign a transfer order, ordering the Marquis of Santa Cruz, Bazin, to lead the Naples fleet to sea to intercept the war, so that the war would start near the sea.

As a result, the French fleet just circled around the sea and returned to Morbiean in shame after half a month.

More than 1,800 pieces of information on the situation in various countries were summarized in Lisbon, and forty-four conclusive and credible data were selected based on the intelligence sources, proving that the situation was indeed mixed for the Spaniards.

The bad ones are naturally the size of the fleet gathered by Britain, France and the Netherlands for the Portuguese pseudo king Antonio. No matter which intelligence channel is judging from, they are far beyond Spain's estimated number, and the scale of the war has been invisibly expanded.

Philip attributed the root cause of this situation to the backfire of the Ming army commander Chen Mu.

You sent a part of reinforcements, and placed them in the Azores, nothing happened, just waiting for the Portuguese to attack, and the two armies joined forces to kill them and caught them off guard; but why did Chen Mu send two armies, one into the Azores, and the other fleet was stationed in Lisbon?

In name, this fleet was going north, but Fu Yuan had such a big goal, and the whole of Europe knew that a powerful Ming fleet was staying in Lisbon, so how could anyone dare to send troops?

The good side is naturally the same, because Fu Yuan is stationed in Lisbon, and the Three Kingdoms fleet dares not go south and keeps increasing its military budget. The battle that was about to break out was pushed back to the preparatory stage, so the next step is to compete for national strength.

Spain has never been afraid to compete for national strength!

Except in front of the Ming Dynasty.

Philip felt that he had been cheated by Chen Mu again.

Seeing Acosta sending the documents to pay Yuan to urge food and pay, Philippe was so angry that he was so angry that he said: "Tell him, I will only give him the rations for the garrison. The military pay is owed first, so that he can stay in Lisbon with peace of mind and don't go anywhere. I have sent a message to explain to General Chen."

Philip tore a pack of Muyeyan, touched his smooth hairline with concern, frowned and asked Acosta, "Did Chen Mu do it on purpose?"

Two months ago, Fu Yuan asked him to ask for 10,000 fleets for 30 days of food and supplies. Except for the gunpowder that the Ming army wanted, he tried his best to meet all other needs. Only one purpose was to let Fu Yuan lead his army to leave as soon as possible.

At that time, he wanted the Ming army to leave Lisbon, but Fu Yuan was unwilling to leave.

A month ago, Lisbon received news that the Ming army landed on the Azores occupied the westernmost islands, Flores and Corvu, drove away the Portuguese defeated troops that originally occupied it, and set up camps on the island to build fortifications, turning a deaf ear to the warning that the Spanish fleet tried to let them leave. He also took out the official document that Philip asked Li Dan to hand over to Chen Mu that they were reinforcements invited by Spain and would continue to be stationed here.

At the same time, the development of the situation exceeded Spain's expectations. Philip's confidant and beloved general, the Marquis of the Navy commander of the Navy, was worried that the three countries' assembly fleet would exceed the Spanish Navy; the Duke of Alva suggested that Fu Yuan's fleet be kept in Portugal for the time being.

This powerful fleet stayed in Lisbon to ensure that the Spanish Navy had the advantage of fighting against the Three Kingdoms.

Fu Yuan's flag army had already taken holidays on the shore in rotation, breathing, and preparing to fight with a full spirit, but Philip didn't want him to leave.

This happened to be in line with Fu Yuan's judgment of the situation. He believed that the best time for the fleet to head north was that after the naval war broke out, the more ships the French helped Portugal invest, the more empty the coastal defense would be. At the same time, for the flag army with excellent cold protection measures on his ship, winter would rise and fall, and the attack would be the most beneficial to him.

Therefore, on the one hand, the Eastern Expedition Army sent back news about the changes in the situation to the New World, and negotiated with Philip, Spain would pay military pay and food, and they temporarily defended the ports and coastal areas for Spain.

All this seemed good, but Yang Ce also sent people to the Lisbon court and asked Philip to pay his subordinates' military pay, water and food, and all the materials needed to repair the warships, because the two islands could not meet the normal supply of tens of thousands of troops and fleets under Yang Ce's subordinates.

Before the battle began, Philip had to bear the high supply of 20,000 additional troops, but he still voluntarily.
Chapter completed!