On the fifth day of December, the Governor of Manila, Francisco, handed over the letter to the interpreter next to him. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Read it to me!"

The Spaniards disdained to learn yellow Chinese, and the translator next to them was Japanese. However, the Tokugawa shogunate at that time strictly forbade the Japanese to eat the sea, and the Japanese who fled to Manila in Southeast Asia have basically been expelled from Japan. The Japanese translator had not returned to Japan for decades, and his Japanese was becoming more and more rusty, but he learned the official dialect and Spanish in Manila.

The Japanese looked at the letter written with a brush and read: "Third brother, I haven't seen you for many years, and your sister and I are fine in Manila..."

The letter was written by Lin Sanfeng, a Chinese in the "Eighth Company" who knelt in front of Francisco. The letter was supposed to be shipped to Macao with the Spanish ships, when the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Spain were merged, and the merchant ships of Macao continued to transport the raw silk of the Ming Dynasty to Manila, and the Spanish to Europe.

But by accident, the letter was opened by a Manila native while on the ship. This native, who could read Chinese, found the contents of the letter extremely unfavorable to the Spaniards and gave the letter to the Spaniards.

Lin Sanfeng knelt in the office of the Spanish governor, the cold sweat on his head kept flowing down, and he trembled.

He really didn't expect that the Spaniards would check his private messages from a low-level Han person.

The letter began with a few short daily chores of the family, and did not arouse Francisco's advice. But a sentence in the middle of the letter made Francisco frown.

The Japanese holding the letter read, "... I heard that the king of Tianjin conquered Japan, which is really remarkable. Speaking of Manila, there are really not many Franco, if the king of Tianjin comes over and occupies Manila, we can be the people of the Ming Dynasty again. ”

Hearing this, Francisco snorted coldly.

Lin Sanfeng's body on the ground shook, and he almost had no strength to lie on the ground.

I'm going to die.

The clerk next to him bent down and said, "Earl, if this letter is allowed to flow into the Ming Kingdom, I am afraid that the people of the Ming Kingdom will really understand our strength and reality." ”

The clerk looked at Lin Sanfeng on the ground and said, "Earl, this Chinese should be killed!" ”

Francisco took a few steps back and forth in his office and shouted, "The people of the Ming Kingdom will always be the people of the Ming Kingdom, and they will never be loyal subjects of my Kingdom of Spain." ”

Lin Sanfeng was already like ashes. Cold sweat continued to drip down his head, and he looked up at the Governor of Manila, and he begged in Spanish: "Your Excellency, the content of this letter was written by me alone, and it has nothing to do with my family. ”

Lin Sanfeng knew the brutality of the Spaniards.

Manila is located in the central part of the Philippines, close to the southern coast of China. The seventeenth century was the Age of Discovery in the West, and the Han people in Fujian and Guangdong in the East also continued to open up to the outside world. Many Chinese migrated to Manila to live in a variety of occupations in the sparsely populated island of Luzon.

But the Spaniards who ruled Manila were extremely brutal to the Chinese who were different skin colors from them.

At the slightest disappointment, the Spaniards launched a massacre against the Chinese.

The first massacre took place in 1603, when the Spanish bloodbathed Manila, killing 25,000 Chinese according to the History of the Ming Dynasty, the Fujian governor estimated at 30,000, and the Spanish colonists estimated at 23,000. In the aftermath of the massacre, Manila had no hairdressers, no tailors, no shoemakers, no cooks, no farmers and herders.

The second massacre occurred in 1639, and the massacre spread to the entire Luzon Island, resulting in the basic extinction of the Chinese in Luzon, and the total number of overseas Chinese killed in the Philippines reached 22,000 to 24,000. "There are several rivers where the water has been so contaminated with corpses that it is inedible for six months, and many leagues around [Manila], the fish in the rivers have grown fat by eating human flesh, so people can't even eat fish."

Lin Sanfeng knew the cruelty of the Spaniards, so he knew that he would die after the letter was discovered by the Spaniards. The only thing I want is that I hope that my family will not be affected.

Francisco didn't look at Lin Sanfeng, but picked up his teacup and took a sip of black tea.

"Li Zhi is unstoppable, and the Chinese in Manila are ready to move, and they all want Li Zhi to attack Manila. We can't allow the Chinese who know our bottom line to continue living in Luzon. ”

"Kill it, send out our guards and kill all the yellow-skinned Chinese."

Lin Sanfeng's eyes widened, almost not believing what he heard.

The Spanish officers next to Francisco looked at each other, all excited. For the Spanish colonizers, the indigenous people of Southeast Asia were absolutely backward and could be exterminated at any time. However, the Chinese have advanced handicraft technology, and even know how to operate ships and guns, so they have always regarded them as competitors

What is even more hateful is that the Chinese arrived in Luzon earlier than the Spaniards, and some Chinese even regarded the Spaniards as outsiders.

The Spanish officers had long wanted to carry out another massacre against the growing Chinese.

Lin Sanfeng, who was kneeling on the ground, was stunned. Trembling violently, he scrambled forward, grabbed Francisco's boots, and stammered, "No... No... That's tens of thousands of lives... We Han people serve the Spaniards, making cattle and horses, how can we kill us again? ”

"How can you kill us again?"

When Francisco saw Lin Sanfeng touching his leather boots, he seemed to think that this yellow man had soiled his boots, and walked away with some annoyance. He waved his hand at the guards on both sides, and the guards dragged Lin Sanfeng down.

Francisco was relieved to see the Chinese Lin Sanfeng being dragged away, and seemed to feel that the air in the office was much fresher.

"The slaughter begins today! Take your troops out! ”

The Spanish officers in the office excitedly agreed, and rushed out with their swords at their waists.

Under the command of the officers, the Spanish soldiers shouted slogans and walked out of the barracks.

Soon, the city of Manila was filled with terrible screams. The fire raged in Manila's Chinese ghetto "Eighth Company", where a squad of heavily armed Spanish soldiers began to kill Chinese, loot Chinese's belongings, and burn down Chinese Chinese-style homes.

Everywhere there were screams of Chinese. Between blood and flames, women and children fled barefoot for safety, but they could not escape the swords and arquebuses of the Spaniards. Heavily armed soldiers fired a bullet at the unarmed Chinese civilians, and then drew their long knives and charged bloodily.

The smell of blood grew stronger, but the screams grew weaker and weaker. The massacre lasted for an afternoon, and then the whole of Manila fell silent, leaving only the fires that continued to burn and the corpses of Chinese people scattered all over the streets.

Francisco held his black tea cup and stood at the window of his office looking at the fire and smoke of the Eight Companies.

After killing all the Ming people, Francisco felt that this Manila was suddenly much safer.