Li Dan's role was quickly played out. Although he could not show up in public, he was able to mobilize all the surviving Chinese prisoners. The intelligence and information about the Spaniards continued to gather, which gave Guo Zhiyuan a clearer understanding of the situation in the Philippines. He knew that there were many people within the Spaniards who were very worried about China's trade blockade. Many Spanish businessmen had left Manila and returned to China, which made Guo Zhiyuan more confident about this negotiation.

However, from the information reported by these Chinese prisoners, Guo Zhiyuan keenly discovered a piece of information that was very unfavorable to him. According to the Chinese prisoners who were carrying goods at the dock, a few days ago a Spanish merchant ship left Manila overnight and did not load any cargo, and the direction was exactly the direction of China.

Perhaps even the Chinese prisoner who fed back this information did not realize what this information meant. He just felt a little abnormal and fed it back. However, Guo Zhiyuan quickly realized that this should be the Spanish method against him. First of all, it was a coincidence, just the second day after the first negotiation with Acunia, and it was night. What was so urgent? Then the direction to go, the trade between Manila and China has been interrupted. What did Spanish merchant ships go to China? If it was smuggling, why didn't they carry cargo?

The answer is obvious. The Spaniards are going to China to collect intelligence. Once the Spaniards know that the Ming Dynasty court has no action and have no intention of going to war with the Spaniards, everything is Guo Zhiyuan bluffing, and the situation will completely reverse. The Spaniards will refuse all Guo Zhiyuan's requests without fear, and maybe Guo Zhiyuan will be in danger of his life.

Now Guo Zhiyuan couldn't sit still. If the Spanish sent a spy who went to China to inquire about intelligence, he would be passive. So he had to intercept the spys of the spys and prevent them from sending the information back to Manila. However, a new problem came again. If you want to intercept the spys of the spys, you had to use force. Guo Zhiyuan only brought two ships, plus only one hundred members of the Sun Mansion. As long as he was dispatched, he would arouse the Spanish's vigilance.

At the critical moment, Li Dan's connections took effect again. He contacted two Japanese red seal ships that came to Manila to do business. In recent years, Li Dan had noticed the subtle changes in the Spaniard's attitude towards Chinese merchants, so he had been secretly paving the way and set up a line with Japan's Tokugawa Ieyasu. The Japanese merchants who came to Manila to do business have a good relationship with him. These Japanese merchants are also both businessmen and thieves. As long as they can afford the price, they are willing to do the murder and arson.

Guo Zhiyuan was overjoyed and immediately asked Li Dan to contact the owners of the two red seal ships and asked them to take action for 20,000 taels of silver. At the same time, Li Dan also got on the Japanese merchant's red seal ship and was fully responsible for the matter. To be on the safe side, Guo Zhiyuan sent Zhang Cheng and Sun Er and asked them to rush back to Fujian immediately to see if they could catch the Spanish spies on the shore.

After getting things done, Guo Zhiyuan was relieved. With the double insurance of Li Dan and Zhang Cheng, it would be difficult for the spies sent by Spain to send the news back. He resumed his leisurely life of wandering around with Felisa every day.

Time flies quickly. More than half a month has passed, but Acunia has never waited for the secret spies sent to China to inquire about intelligence, and she can't sit still. What's worse is that there are Spanish merchant ships returning from Southeast Asia who reported that they saw the Dutch fleet on the sea, and the direction of their navigation was Manila!

Did the Dutch really join forces with the Chinese?! Although Akunia was extremely reluctant to believe Guo Zhiyuan's words, she had to pay attention to the new trends of the Dutch and summoned her subordinates to discuss again. When she heard that the Dutch fleet appeared near the Manila waters, everyone was silent. Even Thomas, who was the hottest, knew that if Manila was attacked by the Dutch and the Chinese fleet, the situation would be really bad.

This time, the peace faction among the Spaniards had the upper hand. In the end, Acunia decided to restart the second round of negotiations with Guo Zhiyuan. In order to ease the atmosphere, the second negotiation location was no longer in Acunia's office, but invited Guo Zhiyuan to dinner together. Archbishop Miguel and Official Moga also attended the negotiations.

The red peach-shaped dining table was covered with snow-white linen tablecloths, with exquisite Chinese porcelain and antique silver tableware on it. The tableware was also a chopstick used by the Chinese and a knife and fork used by Spain. As soon as Guo Zhiyuan walked into the banquet hall of the Governor's Office, he laughed. The Spanish began to treat him as a diplomatic envoy with an equal attitude, which was undoubtedly a good signal.

The staple food of dinner is stewed with beans with Mexican sausages. Mexican sausages are obviously shipped from the New World, mixed with the taste of seawater, and the beans are also old goods. Since last year, the Chinese in the Philippines have died and fled, and the indigenous Filipinos have become unable to plant and feed, and food in the Royal City of Manila has also begun to be short of food. Although this dinner is inconspicuous, it is already rare in terms of the current situation.

Guo Zhiyuan ate the unpalatable sausage and potatoes, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. From the food for dinner tonight, he had already seen that he had the initiative in the negotiations, but the second round of negotiations was not going well. The Spanish were very face-saving and were very stubborn in this regard. He only agreed to release the imprisoned Chinese businessmen, but he refused to give in to the apology and compensation. This was equivalent to the five conditions proposed by Guo Zhiyuan that they only agreed to part of the second article, and refused to give in to other conditions.

If it were other Ming Dynasty envoys, I would have been overjoyed. After all, it was a very important breakthrough to make the Spaniards agree to release the imprisoned Chinese businessmen, and Guo Zhiyuan was enough to make an appointment with Emperor Wanli. Guo Zhiyuan was not satisfied with this. He finally grasped the initiative in negotiations and naturally had to fight for the greatest benefit. So he wiped his mouth with a snow-white napkin, stood up, and said to Akunia and others with neither humility nor arrogantly, "Governor General, thank you for your warm hospitality. I hope I can have the opportunity to invite you to taste our Chinese delicacies..." and then turned and left.

Akunia was so angry that she swept the tableware on the dining table hard, and the dishes were broken all over the floor, and she said angrily, "Damn physiognomy! Who did he think he is?! I would rather start a war than apologize to the lowly physiognomy!"

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Chapter completed!