Outside the Chengtian Gate of the Forbidden City, tens of thousands of people also gathered.

But unlike the official residence of the Prime Minister and other places, no one shouted slogans, no one spoke fiercely, people just gathered here quietly, standing or sitting.

Emperor Tianwu is sacred among the people of the Ming Dynasty, and people can scold the officials casually, but no one scolds the emperor.

The imperial city, a place symbolizing the power of the state, is also sacred in the hearts of the people.

Suddenly, the Chengtian Gate slowly opened, a military band of honor strictly beat the snare drum, and the tall and heroic honor guard stepped on the slow and solemn drum, kicked the right step, and walked out step by step.

The people outside the Chengtian Gate stood up in surprise and looked at them, while those who could not see behind jumped up to see, they didn't know what was going on with such solemnity.

The honor guard solemnly marched to the open space in the square in front of Chengtianmen, and as soon as the snare drum stopped, everyone stood still, and there was silence, like a sculpture.

Then, with the sudden change in the music of the military band, the Ming national anthem "Ode to the Emperor" was slowly played.

No one expected that the national anthem would suddenly be played, and it was much slower and lower than the usual rhythm.

With the rhythm of the national anthem, the Ming national flag on the tower of Chengtianmen City slowly descended, descended halfway to the flagpole, stopped falling, and hung there listlessly.

Everyone understands that this is a moment of silence for His Majesty the Emperor to lower the flag at half-mast for the dead compatriots in Manila!

Quite a few people were the first to sing softly along to the tune, and soon everyone was singing along:

"Brilliant and bright, the sun, the moon, mountains and rivers, bustling and prosperous, the sky is full of all countries."

"The great emperor, the eight wives, the sun and the moon shine together, and the glory lasts for thousands of years."

At the same time, the national flags in front of all the yamen in Nanjing were slowly lowering.

In the squares everywhere, many people stopped, singing the national anthem while shedding tears, and the whole Nanjing was full of mournful national anthems.

……

On August 14, the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Yang Tinglin, the first assistant to the cabinet, issued an expulsion order, ordering Honglu Temple to expel the Spanish mission in Ming and issued an ultimatum to the mission!

On August 16, just after the Mid-Autumn Festival, news came out from the imperial court again that His Majesty was touring the Zhoushan Military Shipyard in the south to inspect the naval fleet, intending to send troops to recruit in person!

Emperor Ming's words and deeds are related to the attitude of the whole country, and some missionaries who heard the news were immediately frightened.

They were not worried about the fate of the Spaniards, but about their church counterparts in Manila.

The missionaries in the Ming Dynasty, who often traveled back and forth to Luzon, were well aware of the virtues of their counterparts in the Manila branch.

At the beginning of the Age of Discovery, the Portuguese slogan was race and soul, while the Spanish slogan was gold, glory and gospel, basically bearing the shadow of religious jihad.

The beginning of the Age of Discovery was also the beginning of the expansion of the Catholic Church, in which the Spanish became more fervent in their religious beliefs.

The Habsburg Empire in Spain regarded itself as the protector of the Catholic Church, and it was only a few years after the Thirty Years' War that it fought with the surrounding countries over religious issues.

The Catholic Church has a lot of influence in Luzon, with hundreds of missionaries, and the archbishop in Manila can participate in major decision-making matters in Luzon, and even the successive governors have to give him a few points!

In Daming, the missionaries are like a little daughter-in-law who has just passed through the door, cautious everywhere, and compromises everywhere.

The missionaries in Manila, on the other hand, were able to walk sideways, with many rudders, and the Inquisition as an institution dedicated to trying pagans.

As long as the missionary designated who was an infidel, the other party was miserable and could only be imprisoned in the judgment house.

The religious beliefs of Chinese are often the coexistence of multiple religions, while Catholicism itself has a strong exclusivity and is completely solipsistic.

In the eyes of the missionaries, the Chinese are all heretics, and they all deserve to die!

In the two Manila massacres, the Catholic Church also played a considerable role in incitement, and a few missionaries even went into battle in person, killing many overseas Chinese!

These missionaries in the Ming Dynasty learned through John Tang that Emperor Tianwu had no interest in Catholicism, and if these missionaries who were doing things in Nanyang fell into his hands, the fate could be imagined......

With John Tong's return to Europe with the fleet to the West, the outbreak of the anti-Chinese riots in the South Seas has made the missionary work, which was already in a bad situation, even worse.

Many Ming people began to resist Catholicism, and the impact was no less than that of the "Nanjing Teaching Case" incident of that year.

At this time, the missionaries were very big-headed, and they really did not understand, the new governor of Manila, had been kicked in the head by a donkey?

In fact, the new governor is not to blame, because the entire Spanish ruler seems to have been kicked in the head by a donkey!

During the Wanli Dynasty, Spain even had a plan to conquer China with its inability to do so.

At that time, the Spanish Habsburg Empire was in its heyday, merging Portugal and the Netherlands in Europe, suppressing France, striking Turkey, suppressing Dutch independence, and competing with Britain for naval supremacy in the Atlantic.

It also conquered the American continent, defeating the Inca Empire with a population of several million with an army of several hundred people, plundering a large amount of wealth.

In the Asian South Seas, Spanish troops captured Luzon and established a colony in Manila.

This series of victories and bloody conquests, yes, the Spaniards' self-confidence and jealousy swelled, and finally set their sights on the Ming Dynasty.

They believed that the Chinese were similar to the Indians, and that although the population and army were numerous, they were vulnerable.

The Spaniards also formulated a detailed plan for the conquest of the Ming Dynasty, using Manila as a base, and only 12,000 to 15,000 troops were needed to conquer the Ming Dynasty!

King Philip II of Hagsburg had approved the plan, but it was shelved due to the destruction of the Armada at the Battle of Grachlin.

In recent decades, fanatical officers have been reviving the plan, not knowing what to eat and getting louder.

There was a colonel who volunteered, claiming that with only 3,000 troops and 50 warships, it would be enough to conquer China.

It was only because of the wars of religion that Spain had made enemies on all sides of Europe and was too busy to take care of itself, that this plan was not implemented.

Luzon was originally a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, but was later forcibly occupied by the Spaniards, and the big teeth have always been wary of the Ming Dynasty.

Now that the Thirty Years' War is over, and the current fourth king of Spain, Philip IV, is also cerebral palsy, an admittedly short-sighted, brutal and self-righteous man who has made all sorts of maneuvers during his tenure, and there is no guarantee that he and his government will not make such a stupid decision.

The missionaries in China were afraid that they would be implicated by the Nanyang uprising, and they lived in panic one by one.

Many people have already made a decision that if the Ming Dynasty expands the incident and involves their own missionaries, then they should immediately stand up and loudly accuse their colleagues in Manila of all kinds of evil deeds!

Isn't there an old saying in China, a friend who dies is not a poor man!

In the years that these missionaries have been in the Ming Dynasty, no one dares to underestimate the strength of this imperial court, let alone the courage of that Tianwu Emperor!