"I think..." Speaking of this, Lu Ming first pondered for a while, and then said in a slightly affirmative tone: "At least so far, I still can't see that the Spanish Kingdom government has any intention of seeking peace."

"We just need to think briefly from the perspective of others to draw this conclusion." Lu Ming explained his judgment, "Let's first look at what the Spaniards lost in this ten-month war? Several towns in La Plata and these towns have accumulated wealth for nearly a hundred years, and these are not the wealth of the Spanish kings, nor are they forbidden by the great nobles. Do they need to feel heartbroken? I know in my heart what the Battle of the Tyrrhenian Sea is, the Spanish are clear. Some warships were lost, but they were far from being damaged. I heard that the number of ships in their Flotta fleet to the New World in April still reached more than 40 ships, with an average tonnage of more than 500 tons, which proves that their strength is still not to be underestimated. I even doubt whether the news of the Battle of the Tyrrhenian Sea could attract even a slightest attention from Philip IV. After all, compared with the ongoing battle with France, which is related to the rule of continental rule, the war with ours is really not worth mentioning."

"The fall of Spanish Santo Domingo may cause some shock to the Spanish, but then what? They still do what they should do, and continue to deploy our offensive, and continue to fight against the French. Their losses are limited, and the New World can still provide the king with a steady stream of war funds. The lending merchant group composed of the Dutch, Jews, and Genoese are still providing them with financial services. The huge number of army still fights on multiple fronts. They don't need to target us in particular. They just drag it down so simply. Can we afford it?"

"We can't delay at all! Due to the various factors caused by the war, it is now conservatively estimated that we will have a fiscal gap of more than 300,000 yuan each year. This gap cannot be solved by issuing bills alone. And this is still the current situation. If the Spaniards fight with us and do their best to prevent us from entering European trade, then our financial system will collapse completely in just one year." Finance Committee Member Nie Xiaoqian also supported Lu Ming's judgment, and she continued: "What should we do then? Will we implement the material allocation system? Everyone stops paying wages, only guarantees basic living supplies, and receives daily necessities with tickets. But even this cannot last for too long. This is only delaying and cannot stop the collapse of our economic and social structure."

"Our ship cannot go to Europe, and we can entrust all commercial trade to the Dutch. Although there will be a lot of losses here, the Netherlands will also raise prices, but it is better than waiting for death." Army Minister Liao Meng sat in the corner and said while smoking: "The Dutch's ability to raise materials is unquestionable. Even if the price is one or two times more expensive, it is not something we cannot bear. We can export food, steel, leather goods, textiles and other goods to the Dutch. Even if we give them monopoly rights, so as long as we can exchange for the materials we need to maintain the war. That is worth it. After all, the land resources seized through war are priceless and can be truly passed on to our descendants."

When the Army Minister Liao Meng said this, the officials of the civil servant faction suddenly felt their blood pressure rise and their foreheads leaped. This kind of tuning that regardless of the country's reality and relies on simple and rough war to solve everything. In the eyes of civil servants, it was simply a joke!

Don’t you know what the consequences of military military force are? It has been almost seventeen years since our country rose from the cracks and survived hardships. Is it easy for so many years? Do you have to be satisfied with the country’s economic collapse and social turmoil? Don’t you know that the domestic society, religion and ethnic issues are extremely complex. A slight mistake in the battlefield or economy is likely to cause huge waves in the country. Economic deterioration, social turmoil, and ethnic conflicts are rising. This is something that civil officials absolutely do not allow!

As for the extraordinary development that military forces have always advocated, in the eyes of civil servants, it is even more dangerous to act like a "Great Leap Forward". They advocate that the life of traveling through time is limited, and if they farm step by step, they will develop. Then when they leave, the country may still be in this small corner of Uruguay, fighting against the increasingly deteriorating domestic and international situation, and at the same time, they have to face the European powers who have completed the integration and began to turn their attention to overseas. At that time, the external situation on the East Coast may be even worse, and it is even more impossible to expand their land through war. On the contrary, they have to face the hostile gaze of the European powers - after all, the East Coast is a pagan country. Therefore, it is necessary to develop beyond the conventional way, use a saber to split a road around the thorns, split a living space, and fight for the land in the sun for the country and future generations.

This argument is extremely popular in both the army and the navy, and there are also many supporters among the people. The East Coast is built by military force, and the military has a very high social status. The ideals of young people in China are not only scientists but also joining the army. Moreover, their income is absolutely high, and their thoughts, clothing, and expenses are the objects of imitation by ordinary people. All of this kind of civil servants are extremely annoyed. What they want is gentle gentlemen, not arrogant and rude military men, and they want a prosperous and developing economy, rather than a hard-working finance. Therefore, ending the war as soon as possible has reached a consensus in the civil servant system, but the question is: How to convince the militants in the military headquarters?

"From the current situation, it is a dream to end the war quickly." Another woman in the Central Executive Committee, Judicial Committee and Military Court President Sun Liyu, is a relative of the Army veteran Peng Zhicheng, so she undoubtedly stands in the position of the military: "We want a ceasefire, but are the Spaniards willing? Did we hurt the Spaniards? I don't think there is any! Losing La Plata is indeed a big loss for the Spaniards, but the problem is that La Plata is a big loss for the Spaniards, but the problem is that La Plata is

Is Lata the core interest of the Spaniards? The answer is obviously no! Where is the core interest of the Spaniards in the New World? The silver mine in Potosi! The silver mine in Veralica in northern Chile! The silver mine in Mexico! The sugar making in Cuba! The shipbuilding in Havana! The wood in Central America! Tobacco and cotton in Florida! The places we have now built, I’m sorry, are not enough to make the Spaniards concessions and make concessions."

Although Lu Ming was a senior naval official, he was always a moderate and had a good relationship with civil servants. At this time, he saw that the atmosphere in the conference room was a little wrong, so he immediately came out to smooth things over and said, "The idea of ​​ending the war is right. The reality of the country does not allow us to delay it for a long time because we don't have that much capital. Not to mention anything else, the personnel salary expenditure caused by the war is an astronomical figure. Although this money can theoretically be recycled in other ways in the hands of the soldiers, it takes a process after all. And there are not many ways to recycle the silver dollars in the hands of the soldiers now, because the number of goods on the market is undoubtedly decreasing every day. It is obviously not possible to continue like this, and the finances will eventually be difficult to continue."

"But as Commissioner Sun said, ending the war is not a one-sided thing, it requires the consent of the Spanish. But judging from the current situation, this is obviously unrealistic, because we have not put enough pressure on the Spanish, and they can hold on! They rely on thousands of soldiers of the Lima Colonial Legion, at least so far, to limit the war to La Plata, which is beneficial to them. What we need to do now is to let the Spanish understand that the situation of the war has not stabilized, and they may have greater and more serious failures in the future. If we do not stop the loss in time, the future losses may be unbearable. And I think there is only one way to do this."

Speaking of this, Lu Ming smiled bitterly, but still said strongly: "This method is to continue to develop the war situation deeply, so that the Spaniards can feel the pain that penetrates into their bones. Although this is very likely to arouse the anger of the Spaniards and cause them to invest more strength to fight us, we have no choice. We either drag it down like this without dying, consume a lot of supplies and money every day, and then wait for ten or eight years to see when His Majesty Philip IV of Spain was impatient to mercy and end the war with us. After all, we still estimated the Spanish's comprehensive strength and will to war, and overly estimated ourselves. How could we swallow elephant so easily? But at this point, we had to bite the bullet and fight. If we don't make a name for ourselves, how could we sit at the negotiation table equally with the Spaniards?"

As soon as Lu Ming finished speaking, the conference room suddenly fell into silence. In fact, no one present knew the current situation. It was just that the war had reached this point. Faced with the increasingly difficult situation, everyone was at a loss, and then some of the anger rose and their opinions were confrontational, which was understandable.
Chapter completed!