Acosta was summoned to Changsheng County Government in a hurry. This time he was not Chen Mu, but Zou Yuanbiao, a magistrate in civil servant robe.

This meeting was much more solemn. After all, Zou Yuanbiao was not as casual as Chen Mu in treating Westerners. There were two translators who accompanied him. He strictly followed the rules of the Ming Dynasty and conveyed a message to Acosta.

"My Ming emperor has a first statement to establish Youjing in Panama. Even Shen Shuai cannot make decisions on this matter. Therefore, I hope the envoy will tell the King of the Western Kingdom that Panama cannot govern together and must be used as land of the Ming Dynasty."

When Acosta heard that he was summoned, he felt a little heavy. Now that the heaviness has become a reality, he bowed awkwardly and said, "Spain needs the isthmus of Panama to transport goods. Our trade with the Ming Dynasty, without Panama, where should we transport it from?"

"And as a country about to be signed, I would like to remind the magistrate that it is not a secret that the King wants to be in the Panamathhew Canal, but why hasn't it been repaired for decades?"

Acosta didn't believe Zou Yuanbiao's words about the Ming Dynasty's Ujing here. Do they think their emperor was a god? Before the war started, they didn't even know that Panama was a place, but now it has become the capital on the right?

Obviously, it was the Ming army's actions to capture Panama that made them know something, such as the canal plan they had surveyed for decades? Perhaps worse?

Deep down, Acosta did not care that the Ming people knew the Western countries' plans for the Grand Canal, because no country in Europe had the ability to build this canal.

Building a canal is a hundred times more difficult than paving a road on a mountain. Not to mention in the New World, even in Europe, the national systems of the continental countries are not enough to mobilize the people to build such a large canal.

Of course, the planned Panama Canal is not huge for ancient China, Egypt, and ancient Persia, but it is too huge for the medieval English monastery to build the first canal of 1,750 meters long to transport agricultural products.

Although it was huge, it was not impossible to repair it. Spain captured 4,000 Indians and blacks on the mountain road. As a result, slave workers rebelled many times during the paving process, causing them huge losses - what if 40,000 were used?

For more than five years, at least two legions of troops have been invested to suppress slave labor to build places where ships can go. This does not include accidents that may occur during the construction of canals: towering dense forests with poisonous insects bring about epidemics, landslide risks caused by digging mountains and forests, etc.

Compared to these costs, people generally believe that it is good to walk on a mountain road for two days.

But the Ming Dynasty is different. As early as the Marco Polo era, travel notes recorded the news about the Grand Canal. If this matter was left to the Ming Dynasty, it might be true - at least that's what Acosta thought.

Therefore, although Acosta was speculating, he really hoped that Chen Mu would take on the chore of building this canal, and he was not worried about it at all.

First of all, this planned river is difficult to repair. If it is in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, it is not difficult because the Ming Dynasty had strong mobilization ability, but in the New World, it is not. Secondly, if Chen Mu really wanted to repair it, Spain would raise both feet to agree.

The Ming Dynasty people had limited energy on this river in the New World, so the Spaniards could sleep peacefully on the other side of the ocean.

What he was worried about was that the Ming people would not let the Spaniards use the mountain road they built.

"Unless you can pay enough compensation for transportation losses, for example, our trade price drops by 10%, it is impossible for Panama to hand it all over to you."

Although Zou Yuanbiao's status in the Eastern Military Palace had long been low, facing the 'Border Contempt', the magistrate still had unparalleled authority and pride. He shook his head slowly and said with confidence: "No, you don't want compensation."

Zou Yuanbiao was not arrogant and domineering. He seemed to have flipped through the bison leather notebook on the table and said rationally: "The price of goods is 10% lower, and the commercial tax is 30% higher as usual. Such compensation is not something that is unknown."

Zou Yuanbiao only said as usual, but he did not say where the example was taken, because he himself didn't know where the example was. He just repeated what Chen Mu said to him earlier.

They had long known that the Spanish would want to make a fuss about the price of goods. In the analysis of the staff, Panama's significance to the Westerners was to shorten the transportation route, and there was nothing else. The Western nobles only focused on gold and silver, and were even less concerned about governing the place than those plantation owners.

They will definitely not miss any opportunity that can be exchanged for trade advantages.

Speaking of which, Zou Yuanbiao really admires Chen Mu more and more. He can think of a shameless method of reducing the price by 10% and increasing the commercial tax by 30% - he blushed when he said it, but Chen Mu is already very skilled.

Acosta didn't breathe, his face turned into a sauce-colored look like a large piece of pork liver that had been left for a long time.

Because he really doesn't know how to answer this.

The trade in Mingxi is entirely a seller's market. They are buying goods in the current drafted treaties, whether they are silk, porcelain, muskets, or cannons. The Ming Dynasty basically did not buy their things, and they only own a large amount of silver.

Moreover, this silver was dug out from the underworld of the Ming Dynasty people's eyes.

Acosta felt that he thought it would be great if they could sell something to the Ming Dynasty!

Fortunately, Zou Yuanbiao followed and said: "The court will not compensate you, but the court knows that you have worked hard. You don't have to transport it in the future. The trade will be completed on the west coast. The court will transport it to the east coast for you, and just load it there and wait."

"If the Ming merchant ships sail to the east coast a few years later, Nahl will wait to unload the goods in Seville and send them all to you."

Adhering to Chen Mu's usual proposition, Zou Yuanbiao and his staff all agreed with Chen Mu's decision to take over the transportation link.

There is no other reason, because Chen Mu said that communication is necessary now and in the future, but this kind of communication is never equal. If you communicate with him, you can dig up his corners, get all his good things, and continue to develop with your own good things.

If he comes to communicate with you, the situation will turn around. He has obtained your excellent science and technology, but you have not obtained his.

Active and passive have great differences in the results.

On the balcony of the Port Government Office, Chen Mu stood on the railing and breathed a long sigh of relief overlooking his city.

The history of the world is dynamic in his eyes. He has seen more rise and fall than others. He knows that the current strong country will experience decline and hardship in the future, and find a way out in hardships to revive.

More powerful countries will be in a slump in the midst of hardships.

He also knew that the weak country would become stronger through hardships and produce monkeys all over the world.

But he didn't know what impact his decision would have on Spain at this time and which path they would take.

But he knew the secret of a great power's prosperity - he never gave up and worked hard.

If Spain shrinks due to its struggle in the New World, look longer, discovers the shortcomings of the country and burys its head to make up for it, resists the current seemingly weak, does not engage in large-scale wars for twenty years, and relies on its strong national strength to develop handicrafts and manufacturing based on its local area.

Twenty or even two hundred years later, Spain will be a worldly power.

But let their nobles resist the weakening?

Let Philip not launch a war on the outside for twenty years?

If he doesn't beat him, others will also ask him to beat him.
Chapter completed!