There is indeed no good news.

Some time ago, Vazquez was counting that Spain had no war, and planned to choose a time-consuming time to tell Philip.

Just as the sun shines on Spanish lands at every moment, Spain is in war every moment, and this situation began when Philip succeeded to the throne at the age of sixteen and continued until last year.

Since September last year, Vasquez, who was in charge of the court documents, found that there was no news about the war. Although the documents sent to the court were mixed with the aristocrats' clamor for expansion everywhere, it was all war preparations and had not really entered a state of war.

The truce with the Ottomans, the Netherlands calmed down slightly, and they were not trapped in any war!

This was too surprising for Spain, where the country had no chance to withdraw from war in the Philip era.

However, Vasquez was not happy for long, and this time lasted less than four months before they received news that New Spain and the Ming Dynasty began.

Peace can bring prosperity, and peace can also reduce the court's military expenditure, but peace is just a luxury for Spain.

Before losing the Philippines, Spain was the first world power in human history. Such a country had a core land that was not connected together. Its Milan, Naples and other places had to cross French territory, which could easily lead to turmoil and uneasiness.

Because huge countries will make neighboring countries uneasy, the author of France's street-pamphlets called for preemptive action decades ago:

‘One side of France is Conte, and the other side is Naples and Milan. Seeing the Netherlands in front and Spain in back, where is the safety?’

For this reason, the French did not hesitate to form a sacred alliance with the Ottomans to fight against Spain.

Of course, this is not the first time that the filial son of Catholic France has done such a thing. For example, he owed a lot of money to the Knights Templars, but he simply wiped out the remaining property. He moved the Roman Catholic Church to Avinon and arrested the Pope and killed it.

Not only France, but the Pope was also frightened by the excessive secular power of Spain. Although Philip was very pious, it was pious to God, not to the Holy See.

What's more, Spain also has a criminal record.

Charles V's troops looted Rome in the sixth year of Jiajing, Emperor Sejong of Ming Dynasty. Duke Alva, his son Philip's decent general, actually occupied the Pope during the Italian War in thirty-six years of Jiajing, cut off the grain transport in Sicily, and starved Pope Paul IV.

In fact, Vasquez knew what Philip wanted to hear the most, but he could only lower his head and say to Philip in a comforting tone: "I'm sorry, the Pope still didn't respond."

The good news that Philip wanted to hear the most was the pope's response to the incident in the Netherlands, but not.

This answer almost instantly made Philip furious. Although he was hairless, he still clenched his fists and circled around the cross of Jesus' crucifixion, and said angrily: "I promise you that the pope's indifference has annoyed me from the Holy Alliance until now."

"I believe that if the provinces of the Netherlands belong to anyone else, the Pope would use means to prevent them from leaving the church; but now because they are my territories, I believe he is ready to let this happen."

"Most misfortunes happened in Spain because I tried so hard to defend the church and eliminate heresy, but the more severe these misfortunes were, the more indifferent the Pope was!"

Regardless of what Philip did, he launched the crusades several times, whether it was fighting heretics or pagans, the pope was very quiet, fearing that Habsburg would achieve any success.

This put Philip in a very embarrassing position. He may be the most devout secular king in the whole world, but he does not receive any support from the Pope, which has a huge impact on his strategy.

In fact, Spain had no strategy at all, but it was just a soldier who came to block the water and flood the soil. The long-term confrontation allowed them to form a set of defensive goals. Philip had only three goals in his life, to maintain his territory, attack heretics and pagans, and to create a super villain.

The last wish has obviously failed, and the first two are becoming more and more difficult under the current situation.

What can Vasquez say? He can't say anything in the face of Philip's anger. Could it be that there is something wrong with the Pope?

"There are still a few unspeakable news. The affairs of Portugal are still in progress. Some nobles have turned to us and support His Majesty in inheriting the throne. However, some people have invited Sebastian's uncle Enrique to go back to inherit the throne. He has no children, and these two years have been excessive."

Vazquez explained: "The candidate for the three guards, Antonio, the president of the Crato Monastery, was favored by civilians, His Majesty was supported by nobles, and Caterina, Duchess of Bragansa, but neither the noble nor the civilians supported him."

Before he finished speaking, His Highness Philip put his face on his face and said, "Correction of your wrong statement, it is indisputable for me to inherit the throne of Portugal!"

Vasquez nodded and said, "Okay, it's undisputed as you wish."

"There is also news from Ming Dynasty."

Philip nodded, connected to the point, and moved quickly.

"The kingdom is about to lose all land in western and northern Mexico in the New World, and the south of Lima also ceded hundreds of gigabytes of land to the Ming people in exchange for peace and trade."

The Spanish court had been prepared to lose land, and both of them were calm about this. Vasquez added: "They have agreed that 30% of the silk and porcelain trade in the future will be bought by the Spanish royal family at a price lower than 10% of the market price. The amount is huge. Trafficking it to the country should make up for the treasury void caused by the years of war."

In fact, for Philip, as long as he ceased to fight with Ming, he would make money; if he had cut a large amount of idle land to Ming, the taxes would be negligible to him. After all, the taxes from the New World are usually not sent to his treasury at all, and they are treated as maintenance fees there.

The royal family's income was mainly silver and gold mines. The Ming Dynasty did not seize much in this regard. Generally speaking, the bald Philip was quite happy.

But Vasquez's next words are not so pleasant.

"But on the land we handed over to the Ming Dynasty, I heard that they discovered large gold and copper mines on the west coast. I don't know the specific location, scale and output, but rumored that it is very large."

Philip wondered: "We haven't discovered it in the New World for decades, but the Ming people discovered it just half a year ago?"

"Yes." Vasquez nodded and continued: "The amount of silk on the border between the Ming Dynasty's two countries' silk trade is huge, but these two goods are priced very high. Even for the royal family, it takes ten silver coins to buy a bundle of silk. The lowest-quality porcelain requires a set of 100 silver coins, but it is said that it is very exquisite."

"At the same time, they stipulated that the trade method is to first use silver to buy their money, a kind of paper, and then use paper to buy silk and porcelain. It is said that future muskets and cannons will also need to be purchased in this way."

Philip didn't care how to buy it. He measured the prices in his heart. To be honest, it felt like the same. He still had to make a profit when transporting it back to Europe. The military expenditure was definitely enough. If he could buy muskets and cannons, he thought he would have lost no money.

"However, the news brought back by the spies from Africa and Egypt is not very good. In Africa and Egypt, people have found traces of the Ming people. It is said that although they are Ming people, they claim to be Han, and they robbed the passing merchant ships. Most of the slave ships transported to the New World this year were stolen by them."

"Chen Mu's conspiracy?"
Chapter completed!