Philip was in a coma for a long time, and his legs that continued to cause pain made him feel high in resistance to coma. He woke up in pain when he was fainting.

No treatment is needed at all.

When the king woke up, he asked in a vague way: "How is the war going?"

"There is no new news yet. Acting Governor Bernard is gathering forces to arrange defense in Mexico City, waiting for reinforcements from Peru and Spain."

Philip held the thin velvet blanket tightly, and his hands slowly relaxed, as if he was holding a life-saving straw, and repeatedly pondered: "Spanish reinforcements...Spanish reinforcements."

Spain can send reinforcements to New Spain. Although there are not many, the empire currently has an available army to prepare for the army that inherited the title of Portuguese king after the failure of the Portuguese king's personal expedition.

The New World is very important. If it is so important that it is necessary, war needs to be maintained in the New World.

Portugal is also very important. Such an opportunity is once in a lifetime. Where can Philip find the Portuguese king who led his army to fight without an heir?

"Everyone, go out. There are too many people and I feel a little breathless. Duke Alva stays."

A group of court officials slowly withdrew from the palace dormitory, leaving only the gloomy Duke of Alva. The old man was dressed loosely and did not look like a veteran of the military. His face was drooping and covered with stains made him look like a strange old man with a strange personality.

His Majesty the King was praying again, closing his eyes on the bed, looking like he was about to die.

"I'm sorry, I've given up on your courage and honor to win some land for my father that originally belonged to the Pope."

It was during the Italian War, during the last few years of Charles V's rule. Faced with the Spanish alliance between the French King François I and the Italian city-state and the Pope, the Duke of Alva won a surprise victory and defeated the famous French general Scar Gith - François de Lorraine.

In that war, the Duke of Alva actually occupied the entire Papal State, forcing Pope Paul IV to make concessions to Spain, allowing Spain to gain central Italy, Milan and Naples.

But after Philip ascended the throne, he gave up part of his land to express his friendship with the pope.

The Duke of Alva saluted to Philip, who was lying, with a calm expression on his face: "His Majesty the King, my loyalty to the royal family has never changed. If you trust me, I can lead my army to the New World to end this war by negotiating."

As he said that, the Duke of Alva added: "Before the war between Sebastion and the Moors ended."

Philip moved upwards and tried his best to lean himself against the backrest. He just woke up from a coma and made him feel a little weak. He took a silver cup from the head of the bed and took a big sip, then asked, "What would you do?"

“Two ways.”

The Duke of Alva seemed confident, but he was very cautious and said: "The result would not be too beneficial to Spain's new continent, but they could end the war, and before the war... the longer the war lasts, the more unfavorable it is for us."

"First, we will ced a large area of ​​land in New Spain except the Potosi silver mine. I guess before leading our army to the New World, the Ming army should have already arrived at the city of Mexico. The Ming army may not be willing to return the occupied land to us, but the silver mine must be retained."

"Without silver mines, the Iberian Peninsula will suffer turmoil and will end up worse than this stupid war."

Philip's head was very fast, and the war should not have begun. It was very cost-effective to exchange land that could not bring benefits to the royal family for the support of the Ming Empire in the court.

Even now Philip doesn't know how things turned into this situation.

Not to mention that he didn't know what was going on across the ocean, but Chen Mu didn't know why it turned out like this. Originally, Sai Du Gong was about to take over Panama, but everyone suddenly said that the situation had evolved to be able to take over Mexico City.

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

"But if I have a disadvantage on the battlefield, I don't know how to protect our Potosi Silver Mine. The war has begun and the enemy will have no worries."

Philip closed his eyes, which was exactly the result of his concern. When he opened his eyes again, he asked with a longing look: "What about the second way?"

"If the situation is bad, we only have one way to save the Potosi Silver Mine." Duke Alva said: "Tribute."

"Tribute?"

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

"His Majesty the King knew that most of my family's ancestors were officials of the Kingdom of Castia. In the fifteenth century, the lame Timur defeated the Ottoman. The king was both afraid and happy and sent an envoy to give gifts to Timur."

"After the messenger came back, he wrote "The Book of the Envoys in the East", which recorded his experience in Timur's court. The Khitan Emperor Zhu Sihan meant to command the emperor of the Nine Kingdoms. Only Timur called him the Pig Emperor of Tungus and seized the envoy."

"The messenger was imprisoned for seven years and was released when Timur met with the messenger of Castia to add glory to him. Timur introduced to our messenger that this was an envoy from the powerful Khitan Kingdom in the East, and came to send him five hundred horses."

"Temur asked our messenger to sit in front, and the Ming messenger sat in back, ridiculing that Uncle Zhu Sihan seized the throne and was a villain who was a traitor and evil."

Philip frowned. It sounded like Mingguo was not very powerful. The messengers had been detained for many years. Alva said why?

"The envoy of the Ming Dynasty was detained for seven years and still looked arrogant and domineering. He scolded the lame man for making a clear statement. First, let me explain clearly the fact that I did not pay tribute for seven years!"

Duke Alva said: "Seven years before this incident, Timur kept paying tribute to the Ming Kingdom. Later, Timur's son succeeded to the throne and continued to pay tribute to the Ming Kingdom."

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

The Duke of Alva looked at Philip and said, "I say this to tell you that it is not a shame to pay tribute, and those countries that were once and still are strong will do this."

"Tribute." It was not until now that Duke Alva expressed his true purpose, saying: "It means that the surrender to the Chinese monarch can make money, and it will inevitably allow the aggressive Ming army to make concessions in the negotiations."

"As long as the king is willing to pay tribute to the Emperor of the Ming Empire, even if he occupied the entire territory of New Spain, I think we can still preserve the Potosi Silver Mine."

Philip didn't speak for a long time, and after a long time, he asked: "In your speculation, the war on the New World has become so bad?"

"It's very bad. Not only the war in the New World is bad, but the war in the Old World is even worse. We have no allies around us, His Highness the King."

Philip took a deep breath and said to Duke Alva: "You go and prepare to recruit troops. I want to meet monks who have an understanding of Ming. Before that, I must first know what tribute means."

"When Don Juan was still there, he seemed to have mentioned tribute, but I didn't pay attention. I'm afraid we must pay attention this time."
Chapter completed!