Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 422 Military Procurement
On March 5, 1640, before the morning mist of the Pacific Ocean had dissipated, the port of Acapulco began its day of hustle and bustle.

On the dock, the rough wooden planks, worn gray by the sea over the years, are piled high with crates of goods waiting to be loaded and unloaded, looming in the mist.

Barefoot, the coolies, their bronze skin glistening with sweat, moved among the goods, their shouts mingling with the sound of waves crashing against the shore, echoing over the harbor.

Vendors loudly hawked their fresh fruit, grilled fish, and tortillas, and the air was filled with the salty sea breeze and the smell of charcoal.

On the busiest street in the port, a two-story brick building stands out—the Garsa Trading Company.

This trading post was built three years ago with funding from the Garza family. It has a typical Spanish style, with ornate Spanish coats of arms and reliefs carved on the stone walls.

The ground floor is a spacious warehouse with two huge wooden doors that are open, and workers are constantly going in and out, carrying goods.

The second floor contains a reception room, accounting office, offices, and bedrooms for the trading company staff.

Through the glass window, you can see shadowy figures moving inside.

In an office near the far right, Adro Pap Gomez, Xinhua's commercial representative in Acapulco, was frowning as he reviewed an order request, remaining silent for a long time.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the blinds, illuminating the list with its dense array of numbers and product names.

"Three hundred barrels of white sugar, four thousand bolts of woolen cloth, ten thousand bolts of cotton cloth, two hundred tons of iron, five thousand hoes, shovels, pickaxes, and sickles each..." he read in a low voice, his fingers tapping lightly on the table, "And... five hundred muskets, thirty barrels of gunpowder, and one thousand swords and spears?"

Alonso Pablo Garçon sat leisurely in a soft chair opposite him, sipping slowly a glass of cocoa water with lots of sugar added.

The nobleman's silk shirt was embroidered with gold thread, and the lace trim at the collar trembled slightly with his movements.

Hearing Gomez's hesitation, he looked up: "What's wrong? Is there a problem with the order?"

Gomez pushed the list toward him: "You need... this?"

He extended his index finger and lightly traced the columns for muskets, gunpowder, and swords, his face showing a mixture of confusion and doubt.

Alonso glanced at it, raising an eyebrow slightly: "Gunpowder and muskets? Is there a problem with these needs? You know, our Garza family has large ranches and several mines in the north, where there are many unruly Indian tribes that frequently launch surprise attacks against us."

"Therefore, we need to recruit a large number of armed guards to protect the ranches and mines there."

Gomez stared at him intently, clearly unsatisfied with the answer.

"Alonso, the number of weapons you need is enough to equip a sizable army. Is this really enough for your own use?"

“I knew it; some things can’t be hidden from you.” Alonso smiled slightly, placed the cup in his hand on the table, then leaned forward and said in a low voice, “These demands came from the Governor’s District.”

“Huh?…” Gomez’s eyes widened immediately upon hearing this. “You mean, these weapons were purchased by the Mexican colonial authorities?”

“Yes.” Alonso spread his hands and shrugged. “Gomez, look at your reaction, it seems a bit excessive, doesn’t it? The Governorate has needs, and Xinhua has goods. This is just a very ordinary business transaction, there’s no need to be so surprised.”

“Heh…” Gomez chuckled a few times, a strange expression appearing on his face. “According to the relevant provisions of the Spanish royal decree, no foreign merchants or goods may enter the Americas without authorization. And now, the Mexican authorities have taken the initiative to ask Xinhua to purchase weapons, which is probably a serious violation of the kingdom’s ban.”

“No, it’s not the Viceroyalty,” Alonso corrected. “It’s our Garza family that buys weapons from your Xinhua. The Mexican colonial authorities are not involved in this transaction. As for the royal decree, we don’t need to worry about it for now. Besides, your Xinhua has been smuggling goods into our American territories for quite some time now. Are you really worried about that?”

"Oh, so this deal requires your Garza family to pass it on, just to prevent the colonial authorities from directly violating the royal decree?" Gomez's words were laced with sarcasm.

“Mr. Gomez, you don’t need to worry about the details.” Alonso’s face showed a hint of impatience as he tapped his fingers lightly on the table. “Aren’t the items on the product list, whether for the needs of the Governorate or for the needs of our Garza family, all for Xinhua’s customers?”

“As long as we have enough money to buy the goods provided by Xinhua, you don’t need to worry too much about where they end up.”

“Mr. Garza, in the event that the Governorate uses weapons manufactured by Xinhua to launch a military attack against Xinhua, then this transaction would be tantamount to us foolishly providing you with a noose around our own necks.”

"..." Alonso paused for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Ha, Mr. Gomez, I don't know why you would have such an idea. This...this is utterly absurd! How could our Viceroyalty of New Spain launch a military attack on your Xinhua?"

"You should know that the peace agreement we signed is less than seven years old. At this time, neither of us would want to undermine its fairness and binding force. Yes, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the Governorate has no intention of using force against Xinhua."

"Furthermore, our Kingdom of Spain... well, in any case, for the foreseeable future, should maintain peace and friendship between our two sides."

"Really?" Gomez stared intently at him. "Then can you tell me, which faction is the Governorate targeting by suddenly requesting to purchase a batch of weapons from Xinhua?"

“…” Alonso hesitated for a moment, “This is an internal matter of the Governorate, and Xinhua does not need to know about it.”

“Oh, in that case…” Gomez smiled, leaning back slightly in his chair. “Then Xinhua will refuse the purchase of these weapons. Because we have reason to suspect that your governorate will use these purchased weapons to threaten or potentially attack Xinhua.”

Upon hearing this, Alonso felt a surge of anger rising within him and glared fiercely at him.

More than a decade ago, you were nothing more than a lowly and uncouth sailor. Even if you worked your whole life, you would never be worthy of sitting in front of me and speaking to me.

In other words, you were lucky enough to be captured by the new Chinese and then quickly chose to submit to them. As the power of the new Chinese grew, you were transformed into the new Chinese business representative in Mexico, handling daily trade activities.

Every year, hundreds of thousands, even millions, of pesos worth of goods were traded through his hands, sent to the Black Shark Island trading post, where the needs of the Viceroyalty of Peru were compiled and transmitted back to Xinhua, ultimately generating the trade list for the following year. In essence, Mr. Gomez represented the trade interests of the Xinhua people in the port of Acapulco; if he refused a certain demand, the goods would certainly not be obtained from Black Shark Island.

“The Dutch!” Alonso said, enunciating each word clearly. “The Viceroyalty needs a large quantity of weapons and ammunition to prevent the Dutch from attacking the Caribbean and to stop their illegal incursions.”

“Oh…” Gomez nodded slightly, then asked, “Why doesn’t your governorate purchase weapons from the mainland, but instead buys them from Xinhua?”

"The Dutch temporarily severed our maritime links with the Spanish mainland."

"Is it because of the Battle of Downs..." Gomez asked again.

“Yes.” Alonso replied with a grim expression and a somber look in his eyes, “The Atlantic Ocean is teeming with Dutch armed ships, and they currently… have the upper hand.”

"The Governorate is worried that the Dutch might take advantage of the situation to attack the Caribbean, so they want to stockpile some weapons and ammunition in advance, just in case. I think that after this first batch of weapons procurement, there will probably be a second and a third batch..."

"Therefore, you new Chinese should be mentally prepared."

“Is that so…” Upon hearing this, Gomez’s mind began to race, calculating whether the deal would be approved by his superiors and what “reasonable” price he should quote while the Spaniards were down on their luck.

In recent years, the Kingdom of Spain seems to have been having a run of bad luck, constantly getting caught up in one big problem after another, leaving it exhausted and unable to cope.

In 1635, the Dutch finally persuaded France to declare war on Spain, which immediately made the Spanish feel a strong military threat.

Because almost all of France's land borders are adjacent to the territory of the Habsburg dynasty, once a war begins, it will inevitably unfold on multiple fronts.

Although the Kingdom of Spain, with its years of war experience, frequently gained the upper hand in the initial small-scale battles and repeatedly thwarted the French offensive, it was constrained by the shortage of its own troops due to multiple fronts and was never able to turn its advantage into a victory, nor was it able to force the French to withdraw from the war in a short period of time.

In 1638, French troops successfully invaded the northwestern border of Spain and besieged the fortress of Fontellavia, with the battle lasting for several months.

The Spanish, with tremendous effort and the mobilization of Portuguese, Italians, Valencians, Aragonese, and even 1,500 Irishmen, barely managed to repel the French.

As a result, the French came again the following year.

They have now entered Catalonia and captured the strategic fortress of Salces, which controls the border of Roussillon.

However, to the Spanish's shock, the Catalans, who had previously declared they would not pledge allegiance to the monarchy outside their own land, offered no resistance whatsoever and practically surrendered the Salz Fortress, allowing the French to occupy their territory.

King Philip IV and his chief minister Olivares seemed unaware of the "illness" taking place in the province, and hastily decided to mobilize 24,000 troops to retake the Salz fortress, half of whom would be conscripted from Catalonia, and demanded that the local area bear nearly 40% of the military expenses.

This move sparked outrage among Catalans and made the local situation very tense, with signs of riots looming.

Before the contest with the French was even over, the ambitious Philip IV joined forces with Portugal to form a massive fleet, equipped with over 20,000 sailors and soldiers, in preparation for conquering Flanders and completely quelling the Dutch "rebellion."

As a result, the Spanish fleet suffered a humiliating defeat off the coast of Downs, England, with almost the entire fleet destroyed.

After this battle, the Kingdom of Spain probably temporarily lost its naval superiority over the Netherlands and was no longer able to suppress those "rebellious" Netherlands, and could only watch them gain independence.

Not long after news of the disastrous naval defeat reached Mexico, the Dutch attacked Cuba and Santo Domingo, and under the pretext of liberating local slaves, they extensively destroyed coastal plantations and freed slaves, keeping the Spanish soldiers stationed there busy dealing with the situation.

The Dutch, who were based on the islands of Curaçao and Bonaire, would also send out armed reconnaissance ships from time to time to the port of Bello (now Potovello, Panama) to spy on the gathering of Spanish treasure ships.

Today, the Kingdom of Spain is like a large, leaky house, in need of repair everywhere, but the available "materials" are dwindling, making it impossible to fix the house and restore it to its original condition.

While things are tough in Spain, the situation in Mexico is equally precarious.

The northern Native American tribes surrendered and then rebelled again, and the colonial army was never able to completely stabilize the situation there, which led to a continued tense situation in the border region.

Even more critically, two months ago, a terrible smallpox outbreak occurred in Southern California, which then quickly spread to Mexico.

Thousands of people in the northern departments of Nuevo Biscay and Nuevo León have contracted smallpox, causing widespread panic among the locals.

Even in the province of New Galicia, where the silver mining region is located, the epidemic continued to break out, forcing the Mexican colonial authorities to deploy a large number of troops and armed militia to seal off the affected areas and prevent this terrible plague from spreading to the core of Mexico.

Given this situation, how could the Spanish possibly have the inclination to cause trouble for the new Chinese?

This time, the Mexican colonial authorities' hesitant entrustment of the Garza family to purchase weapons from the new Chinese can be seen as a practical helplessness, but also as an initiative to make overtures.

Look, I've already purchased weapons from you, which fully demonstrates that we Spaniards will not antagonize you, the new Chinese.

Of course, I will no longer interfere with the smuggling activities that I used to turn a blind eye to.

With the continuous influx of goods from Xinhua, the shortage of supplies in Mexico and even the Americas can be alleviated, which plays a positive role in breaking the economic blockade imposed by the Netherlands.

As for the unbridled colonial activities of the new Chinese in San Francisco Bay, the Spanish could only continue to pretend they didn't see it.

It's not that I don't want to do it, it's that I can't.
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(End of this chapter)