Twenty kilometres south of Manila, Cavite Fort at the tip of the peninsula plunges into Manila Bay like a fishhook, echoing the capital of the Viceroyalty of the Philippines, which is only two and a half leagues away from the sea.

In the sheltered harbor of the peninsula, there are no fewer boats coming and going than at the mouth of the Bashi River, and even in the rainy season and the threat of typhoons, local merchants still keep running around in this short-distance voyage for their livelihood.

It was the first place where Chinese merchants landed porcelain and handicrafts in Luzon, and the high-quality goods were only sold in bulk to merchants in Manila after being appraised in batches by the governor's tax collectors, making it both a gate and a military stronghold in the royal city.

At the end of each trading season, the Chinese and indigenous merchants who stayed or had settled here would mingle around the Krabi Fortress, and the usually dilapidated shops would become the backbone of the local economy, and the merchants would focus on their own business, ignoring the soldiers patrolling the city walls.

The Malugu people, who have been migrated here since the last century through the efforts of missionaries, are also the foundation of the port's prosperity, not to mention the fact that it was the starting point for Jesuit and Dominican monks to preach in the interior of Luzon.

However, the prosperity of commerce and trade brought not only a steady stream of taxes, but also chaos and greed, 50 Spanish soldiers and 300 Bonbanja soldiers could barely maintain order here, which was the reason why the arms from Macao were first transported here, and it was also the root cause of the Dutch pirates who always coveted this place, so that in the past two years the shipping routes to this place have become extremely dangerous, and those merchant ships coming and going here will often end up in a situation where they are stopped by Dutch speedboats in the open sea.

But the Philippines was so large, and the islands were so fragmented and full of crises that the Empire's forces in the eastern colonies always seemed stretched.

Fortunately, the peninsula's terrain is treacherous, and its proximity to land is even narrower, so the colonists only have to deal with threats from the sea.

After entering August, the weather was not particularly bad, and the typhoons that were common in this season did not appear nearby, which made the soldiers at the port feel a little bored while being at ease.

It's August 15th, and Thomas Timothy Tyrell is in his study recording the recent events in the harbor in jerky Castill, and it's hard for him to keep a record of his experiences than to wander outside.

On the contrary, it was the Qixi Festival celebration that the pagans from China around the port were preparing to make him and his daughter more interested.

Born in a remote village in Brittany, he became an adult mercenary and traveled to Goa with a Portuguese ship a few years later. Relying on the slave trade to make his fortune, he could bring back 300 people in a single ship at the best of his business, but as he grew older, he began to become more struggling with life at sea, especially when his daughter grew up, and this disharmony became more apparent, so he had to transfer the business to a partner and took his family to Macau, where he is now a Jesuit priest.

A year earlier, he had come to the Philippines reluctantly, and his first longing was Sanya, Qiongzhou, the land of Australian rule, which was enthusiastically described in the letters of the clergy, and in Macau he had already been exposed to Australian curiosities from Qiongzhou, which occupied a remote port in the south of an island about the size of Formosa, and which must have been a small speck of gravel on the edge of the world in the eyes of the Chinese emperor. However, it was these fabled extravagant eccentrics who built a prosperous city in Sanya in the space of nearly two years, and all the types of goods from China were gradually replaced by their similar goods, the same or even slightly lower, and the quality was far better than in the past.

And when he arrived in Luzon, he found that they were doing the same thing in many parts of Borneo.

But there was clearly a surplus of priests in Sanya, and the Australians seemed to be consciously or unconsciously controlling the size of the church there, and Luzon had to be a reluctant option for Thomas, at least here he could still do some trade, and he was obviously more interested in God's management of the earthly kingdom than in the inland rainforests to gamble his luck with mosquitoes and diseases.

Thanks to his early experience in Macau, Thomas was fluent in Chinese, and although this language alone could not fully communicate with the Chinese from Fujian, he was clearly more trusted by the local officials than the Chinese in Hong Kong.

Thomas was not very interested in religion, and after an initial enthusiasm, he was relieved to serve the church in the harbor.

Over time, he also learned from the other monks and came up with a Chinese name, Taitaimo, which made him more trustworthy when dealing with those who came to the Philippines (note: Sangley, the Western term for Chinese and Chinese-Chinese mixed race who do business in the Philippines).

Things have been strange in the port lately, compared to the merchant ships that arrived in the port in previous years, only four ships came from Macao before the rainy season this year, less than half the number of the previous ones, this is the masterpiece of the Dutch, and it is known that at least two large ships laden with raw silk were robbed by the Dutch in the first half of the year. But what is even more strange is that the silver Galen, who was supposed to arrive earlier in July, has also not seen a shadow, which makes the merchants here a little anxious.

Thomas's pen captures this anxiety as a reality.

The merchants from China had long since returned, and now the problem was left to the local merchants, who would have caused quite a riot if the silver from the Americas did not arrive in Luzon by the end of the month, and many of the merchants here were more like gamblers, and would never allow their entire worth to rot in the warehouses of Manila.

Thomas was equally concerned, and he himself had bought a lot of silk and iron pots by May, but the delay in the arrival of galleons and silver gave him some ridiculous ideas. If business doesn't pick up after August, perhaps he and his daughter will have to learn from the natives to switch to sago or corn from the Visayas when there is not enough rice, which is not a comfortable decision.

As he thought so, the alarm bell rang one after another in the harbor.

"Amilia, what's going on?" Thomas asked, looking at his daughter, who ran into the house in a little panic.

The girl was visibly frightened and stammered, "I don't know, I heard that the fleet of Dutch bandits is attacking the port." ”

Thomas suddenly had a bad feeling, although the Dutch people used to cruise near Mindoro or the Sibuyan Sea, and even occupied the route from Manila to Macau and Cochin, but it was the first time that they penetrated into Manila Bay and attacked the Cavite fortress, and the beacon fire on Corregidor Island was not lit, so it was obvious that something had changed. The island was located at the mouth of Manila Bay, and on weekdays it would guide the ships that came and went, and there was originally a small group of Visayas archers stationed on the island, and when they encountered the enemy, they would smoke during the day and raise fire at night, and if the Dutch warships passed by, they would never turn a blind eye, so this strange matter naturally puzzled him.

Soon Thomas was at the edge of the harbor, and by this time the whole harbor was already in an uproar, and the people who were still trading in the harbor fled in the direction of the fortress, many goods were scattered all over the ground, and the tax collector who had been bargaining with the vendors in the harbor had disappeared, and only the rumbling of cannons could be heard from time to time in the distance.

He looked out to sea in the midst of the chaotic crowd, but saw eight or nine warships scattered on the distant sea, and with his experience in the navy, the distance was at least about a quarter of a league.

But what struck him as strange was that the warships did not continue to move closer to the harbor, but only began to fire their guns from such a distance, and the splashing water jets were far away from the harbor, although the momentum looked alarming, but there was not much threat. In Thomas's opinion, the other party seemed to be afraid of something, and seemed a little reserved, not at all like the scruples of pirates he had seen before.

Although I felt that this ship did not look like a Dutch speedboat from afar, the first few of them could see the flags on it clearly because they had fallen sideways, and the orange, white, and blue flag of the Prince of Orange fluttered in the wind, indicating that the news received was not a lie, but there were still several ships that clearly fluttered the St. George's flag painted with a red cross on a white background. But when one considers that both countries are now the backbone of the European anti-Spanish coalition, it is natural that this possibility cannot be ruled out.

The alarm bells were still ringing, but Thomas was already somewhat reassured in his mind, and it seemed that the enemy at sea did not seem to be too sure about taking Cavite. He was not as anxious as before, after all, he was only concerned about his own cargo, and the warehouse was obviously under the fire protection of the Krabi Fortress, and until this time the fortress had not fired a single shot at the sea, proving that Lieutenant Castro who was guarding this place had not lost his mind, so it seemed that the situation was still under control, but the lack of warning on the island ahead still made him suspicious, and he couldn't understand what the idea of this group of pirates was.

Seeing that Hong Kong is safe for the time being, many of the vendors who were originally hiding have ventured back to pack up their goods, and there will inevitably be chaos in the middle.

By this time, Thomas had already arrived in the fortress of Cavite, and his status as a Jesuit and former naval mercenary was naturally unhindered.

"What the hell do these lowland rebels want?"

When Thomas saw Lieutenant Castro, he asked unceremoniously that it was in his own interests, and he had to be serious, after all, there were not too many Europeans here, and a direct attack on a port with a fortified fortress did not seem to be cost-effective even from the perspective of the Dutch.

Castro didn't care, the bearded middle-aged man said with confidence, "Why don't you drink a glass of Australian wine at home and sleep well?" The Dutch bandits could not hide from our brave soldiers, who wanted nothing more than to cause chaos in the port, and I think the real battle would probably take place at night, when the Bazaar warriors had already begun to bombard. ”

"So does Your Excellency Lieutenant think that the military might of the Krabi Fortress alone can stop the bandits from sacking the port? The opposing side is probably more than three times as large as the defenders here, and there are also British people involved. ”

At present, there are more than nine warships in sight, and according to Thomas's judgment of the simple appearance of the mirage sailing ship, which is not familiar with the simple shape of the mirage, it should be carried with more than 1,000 bandits, and this is still the number after the space in the cabin used to load the stolen goods is arranged.

"Truth be told, our firepower is very limited, but if these heretics plan to do it at night, they would be miscalculated?"

"Huh?" Thomas was a little annoyed by Castro's cynicism, and although he had his time, he was absolutely cautious before facing a battle, "Pirates are hateful, but their ferocity cannot be taken lightly. ”

"Father, you are too anxious, the scout sent to Manila has already been on his way, he has two good horses with him, as for the water and palm bark, do you think there will be no preparation in the fort on weekdays? I'm just worried that there won't fit that many gallows here. ”

Captain Castro's meaning is obvious, but fighting on the ground of the region, time is clearly on the side of the defenders of the Krabi fortress.

Just when the two were discussing at the head of the fortress city, a large ship floating on the ocean a nautical mile away, Liu Jinqiu was holding a pair of high-powered binoculars in both hands and looking at the port, while Quark was standing on the side, and a pair of cunning eyes looked at the artifact in Chief Liu's hand full of greedy eyes.

Liu Jinqiu didn't pay attention to the thoughts of the people around him, and when he saw that the wolf smoke had risen from the Krabi Fortress, he already showed a satisfied smile.

"Well done, the thieves have sent a distress signal, and it seems that the purpose of this wave of raids has been achieved."

"It's all the leaders who are strategizing, how dare Qin take credit."

After more than a year of absence, Quark Qin's Chinese has become more and more refined, and in front of Liu Jinqiu, the 'observer envoy' sent by the Senate, he has always been only referred to by his Chinese name.

The Fubo army unknowingly took down the soldiers stationed on Corregido Island, making this attack on Cavite without warning, which was originally planned, but the strength of the marines still made Quark secretly frightened, after all, it was indeed a little difficult to make the defenders not even have a chance to send a signal.

But then things were much simpler, compared to the previous battle he and Jaco, such a firepower test was child's play, only the cannonballs and gunpowder were wasted, but those losses were nothing compared to the Senate's help.

Relying on tactical deception to convince the Spaniards that this was an attempt by the Protestant heretical alliance to covet the Empire's ports in the East, and to lure the Spaniards out of the city with appropriate troops, this is the strategic intention of the Senate at this stage.

Seeing that the sun was already in the west, Liu Jinqiu turned his head to a young man on the other side and said: "It's already a matter here, and I hope that Ouyang Xiandi will tell Li Dongzhu that the Chinese Senate in the stream doesn't want to hurt one, and our deal depends on whether he can fulfill his promise." ”

This Ouyang Huarong is the son of Ouyang Huayu, a wealthy merchant in Nagasaki, and his father is Li Dan's third brother, so although Ouyang Huayu was sick and failed to go south with the Li family's fleet, he let his son follow his brother-in-law for experience.

And this son volunteered to run to the side of the patriarch as a messenger, he also saw the opportunity, after seeing the thunderous means of the senators' special operations on Corregido Island, he had a new understanding of the military strength of the Great Song Dynasty, and finally believed that the righteous sister's words were not alarmist, and now the chief had to beat him like this, so he naturally agreed and hurriedly changed a small boat to the west to report the news.

[Note: It was half a century after rum was discovered and carried forward by Westerners]

[References]

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