Chapter 328: A Similar Experience

In the twelfth year of Jiajing, according to the A.D., it was 1533, and at the same time, the Holy Roman Empire, that is, King Charles I of the Kingdom of Spain, because of the need to maintain the territory, army and various expenses of the empire, the pressure on the Netherlands was even stronger.

In the original history, the real large-scale rebellion would break out twenty years later, but history has changed slightly, the emergence of the Jason Hogan Independent Army has been a great shock to the Spanish royal family and army, Charles I appointed his close general, Marquis Alfonso, as the governor of the Netherlands.

According to folklore, when Alfonso left Madrid, Charles I said to the general:

"Bury all the rebels in the ground, so that next year we will have more fertile crops!"

The new governor sent by Spain wreaked havoc on the Dutch economy, and because of the war and royal extravagance, Charles I and his father took out large loans like the wealthy bankers of the Netherlands, and sold them the national debt. The first thing Governor Alfonso did when he arrived was to declare all these debts of the royal family null and void, which directly led to the mass bankruptcy of the banks.

The bankruptcy of the banks almost caused a chain reaction, and many handicraft factories in the shipbuilding, textile, and metal industries in the Netherlands closed down one after another, and for a time the livelihood of the people in the Netherlands withered, and the Protestant faith, which was incompatible with the Spanish Catholic faith, also did not end well

Moreover, Lutheran and Calvinist churches were burned down by the army, and a large number of Christians were exiled, sentenced to death, and confiscated family property.

A year after Jason Hogan's Independence Army was subdued, the Netherlands was once again at war, but this time the new governor was different from his predecessor, he had both high-handed and sophisticated military methods. Calvinist cathars were often formed less than three days before Spanish troops arrived to deliver devastating blows.

On several occasions, the Spanish army captured a large number of independents and Protestants, and after executing a number of them, the rest were sentenced to exile and hard labor, which happened to be a great deal of death row prisoners and hard labor in the various Spanish colonies and fleets.

For example, screening gunpowder, or the construction of classified buildings, or repairing the bottom of the ship's cabin, and so on.

On the seas of Asia was the Spanish colony of Luzon, which at that time was a rather inferior place within the Kingdom of Spain, and officers and nobles who were placed in Asia were generally said to be prisoners of the kingdom or noble exiles.

In fact, it would take 30 years for Luzon to develop, and at that time the ships from the Americas did not take the Asian route, and of course, in such a difficult place, many of the hard laborers and lifelong exiles were also sent here to live a life that was worse than death.

In addition to the main accidents with Japan, Jiang Feng's fleet was often protected by gunboats hired by some big merchants in Jiangnan to trade with Luzon and the South Seas.

When I looked over, I realized that it was two well-dressed men talking quietly on the edge of the harbor......

What happened next was not thrilling, with the number of Spanish colonial troops in Luzon was not enough to look at every exiled prisoner, because Luzon was originally an island in the sea, and except for a few ports occupied, the rest of the place was a wild place for Europeans, and they were not afraid to run, and they would die.

So the prisoner escaped to the armed ship of the Jiang Jiajun and followed all the way back to Incheon City, when the Dutch man set foot on the port of Incheon, everyone was busy, and no one would pay any attention to look at a white man who came off the ship, except for the tattered clothes on his body, there was nothing surprising about the rest of the place, and there were many white people in Incheon now.

But this Dutch man seemed to have come to another world, his spirit was about to collapse, the firearms on the shore, the huge ship in the sea, the elite soldiers, at this moment he thought that he was back in Spain or in France, could this be the legendary Ming, but his fellow countrymen on the ship told him that it was not, this was a colony.

The colonies of the Ming Dynasty, this foreigner came to the East for about half a year, although they were slaves, but these people were still white after all, and they must have known more information than the local natives, and these Dutch people who were exiled prisoners knew that there was a behemoth not far from Luzon that might be larger than Europe.

But this country is very restrained, if there is such a huge empire in Europe, it must be infinite expansion, but the Ming Empire stopped at his coastline, and legend has it that more than a hundred years ago, there was also a huge fleet that began to sail, but now it is forbidden for any ship to go to sea.

However, no one in Nanyang, whether it is a native or a colony, believes in the so-called ban on the sea, because now two-thirds of the ships on the sea are all merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty.

Nowadays, the population of Incheon is extremely strict, and this is also because of the secrecy, and no one who does not belong to the planned area has to go through strict scrutiny.

After the armed ships escorting the merchant ships returned to the port, several white people on board did not dare to hide the news, and quickly took the escaped compatriot to the city of Incheon, in fact, the more accurate name is now "Incheon Fortress".

"Buster, tell the general about you, he is the master of this ocean!"

When they were in the Netherlands, they were perhaps ordinary craftsmen and shipyard technicians, all of whom were ordinary people, but after coming to Dengzhou, because of their skills and experience, they had achieved much better income and status than in Europe.

Of course, in this era, it takes nearly a year to get from Dengzhou to the Netherlands, and many people don't expect to be able to go back after leaving their hometowns.

However, although they were ready to follow Jiang Feng in their hearts, their hatred for Spain had not changed, and after the armed merchant ships brought people back this time, it aroused the anger in their hearts.

In a certain side hall of the inner fort of Incheon City, all the white people who were qualified to enter the inner fort came here, and the white man knelt respectfully in the center with both knees, and it was Zhang Liang who came out to ask questions, but a few people knew that Jiang Feng was listening to the discussion here in the compartment of the room.

Now there are many white people in Jiang Jiajun, and all of them can speak fluent Chinese, so there is naturally no problem with translation, but what Jason Hogan and others don't know is that after Wang Qinian came over in Tianjin, he brought an interpreter who had served the Jesuit priests for many years.

The interpreter now walks between the ships as a clerk for the navy, and his task is to report back all the things that white people talk to in their native language, and of course other people don't know that this document can be understood, so naturally no one will be taboo about it.

According to the report, Jiang's whites used their mother tongue in most of their private conversations.

Zhang Liang looked at the white man kneeling on the ground in front of him, and there was some contempt in his heart, and now he already felt that the white nation was very bad except for some outstanding aspects in industry and technology, such as the one in front of him, as soon as he entered the room, a big man knelt on the ground spinelessly and cried and begged, although he couldn't understand what the other party was saying.

"What's your name?"

"Myers. Bender ......"

Jason Hogan stood on the side with a serious expression, translating sentence by sentence, standing in the room there were the leaders of the craftsmen, the artillery instructors, and even the farmer Wisconsin rushed over from his experimental farm, everyone looked at the questions and answers in the room with angry faces.

In the cubicle, the interpreter that Jiang Feng brought with him put his ear on the brass pipe on the wall, repeating the words in his mouth, naturally there would be no big difference.

"How many of you are in Luzon?"

"There were about two hundred prisoners."

The Dutch people on the side wanted to interject and say a few words, but Zhang Liang's inquiries did not stop, but the next questions were rather strange.

"What kind of occupation did you do when you were in the beginning?"

Miles, who was kneeling on the ground, was stunned for a moment, and said:

"Among our people, some are workshops for metal components, and some are in textile factories."

After the questioning was over, Miles was taken down, and the crowd in the room became excited, and more than a dozen people gathered around Zhang Liang, pleading loudly:

"Little General, please do justice to those Spanish beasts for us poor people."

"Our hearts are bleeding, little general, suggest that the general send troops to attack Luzon and rescue our poor compatriots!"

Zhang Liang stood in the room but felt a little at a loss, he didn't expect that after the questioning, it would be such a situation, he couldn't be the master of important things such as army battles, only Jiang Feng could decide, not to mention the navy, which was directly under Jiang Feng.

Through the dark grid on the wall, Jiang Feng could see Zhang Liang's anxious appearance there, he couldn't help but laugh in a low voice, and said to himself:

"Metal parts can make guns, and the weaving ones can build workshops, but if the Spaniards are defeated, who will I do business with to make money?"