Chapter 399: Letter to the Governor of Luzon

This part of Luzon is no more pleasant than Spain, only in late autumn and winter, and the tropical climate is like that.

And at this time, the trade is also the most prosperous, because after the autumn harvest, many farmers are going into the handicraft workshop or doing some odd jobs to subsidize the family, and it is also the time when the industrial and commercial production capacity in the south and north of the Yangtze River is the fullest, and the trade is more prosperous.

The largest profit of the port of Luzon now comes from the fees paid by the maritime vessels for docking, and the various profits and taxes generated by the storage of traded goods near the port are all rolling sources of revenue.

There are more and more Chinese here, and the rich ones are modeled on Nanyang to open large estates, and the commoners are gathered around the port to work and help, in real history, the increasing number of Chinese are particularly feared by the local Spanish colonists, and there will be massacres in a few decades.

It can be called a human tragedy, but now the Spaniards in Luzon are the best friends of the Chinese, and they treat the Chinese completely with the same attitude as their own people, in fact, slightly better.

At times, Levire, the governor of Luzon, laughed at himself, saying that his own companions were all over the world, such as the Americas and Africa, and that they all appeared to each other as rulers of the civilized world, treating blacks and Indians like livestock, exploiting and plundering them at will, and selling them as slaves as goods.

Since being 'noble and glorious exile' to Luzon, he began to have a similar feeling when facing the surrounding natives and Chinese, and the feeling of the strong was very good, until Jiang Feng's ship appeared in front of him, and the arrogance and strong words of the other party that day, as well as the unbridled roar of artillery, made Revere suddenly have a sense of absurdity, maybe this feeling was not absurd, maybe the blacks and Indians felt the same when facing them.

Seeing the strength of Huazhou, as well as the increasingly prosperous trade and incomparable prosperity of the East, Levill felt more and more that his so-called civilized country was not worth mentioning except for many gold and silver mines in South America.

Now there are more than 6,000 Dutch people exiled to him, but there is not a single one on Luzon, all of them were sold to Jiang Feng as slaves, of course, he has heard a little about the actual situation, but he doesn't bother to pay attention to what it is, anyway, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver fell into his own pocket, which is enough.

Because Manila is one of the most important ports in the South China Sea, a large number of ships from the south of the Yangtze River and the north of the Yangtze River rest and transit here, and gradually has formed a regional center of trade, the Spanish total is only 2,000 people, about 400 troops, but the Chinese have rebelled against the previous stability and indisputability, began to organize any group training.

As the governor of Luzon, Levi naturally did not want to see such an armed force by his side, but he was the agent of the Spanish kingdom to rule the whole of Luzon, and this thought became very real as soon as Revere looked out of the window of Manila.

There is a fortress slightly smaller than the city of Manila, in which an army of about 1,000 people is stationed, as well as officials who deal with civil affairs, the full name is the Yamen of Yizhou in Luzon, this yamen has repeatedly claimed to come to Manila City in Luzon to assist Franco's friends to maintain law and order, but the number of men in this Han army is already the number of men who have caught up with the Spaniards, not to mention those regimental exercises.

But fortunately, there is still some mercy in this army, at least thirty percent of the taxes and revenues of the entire Luzon are still Spaniards.

There was nothing to disagree with Revere, who was already a hundred times the income of the Luzon colony three years ago, if not more.

Now the so-called colonial garrisons are a joke, all the Spaniards are trying to learn Chinese, in order to act as an intermediary between the Spanish ships coming from the Americas and the Ming maritime merchants, which is much more lucrative than being a soldier and earning military salaries.

The governor of Luzon, Revere, was confident that his life was not much worse than that of the prince in Spain, and he felt that he was even more than in terms of enjoyment.

In the lavish governor's office, Levire frowned at a letter brought in by a merchant ship, and in fact the Spanish Minister of the Interior could arrange spies and emissaries of the kingdom on any ship if necessary, and this letterhead was the letterhead of official business.

"The riches and prosperity of the East far exceed the expectations of the kingdom, so His Majesty the King has made a wise decision, and Spain has decided to invest more forces here, so as to dig into this gold mine even more, and your credit will not be overlooked, and there is a suitable place in the Americas waiting for you!"

Levire, who was sitting behind the mahogany desk, unconsciously read the letter in a low voice, and he covered his forehead with some pain, Luzon's economic prosperity naturally gave the kingdom a lot more money, of course, more was intercepted. There are also Spanish ships that tell the story of the prosperity of the Oriental seas, and there is also a description that the ships on the seas of East Asia are connected to the bridges between the islands and the continents, and all the gold and silver float around the bridges, and you can get gold and silver equal to your own weight when you go back and forth between the two islands once.

Although this is an exaggerated literary rhetoric, it is almost the same, the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty in Shuangyu, in Huazhou, in Yuegang, in various ports loaded with goods to the sea, transported to Nagasaki, Manila, Penang, and Spain, Japan, and the South Sea countries, India and even Arabia trade, the profits obtained are really staggering, Revere once roughly estimated, it is actually similar to the mining of gold and silver mines in South America.

Although the current Kingdom of Spain has turmoil in the northern Netherlands, it is completely superior in the war against France and the Ottoman Empire on the European continent, and the sea power in the Atlantic is even more absolutely superior.

In the Americas and Africa, it is often possible to defeat the attacks of thousands, or even tens of thousands, of the other side with the strength of a few hundred people, and establish colonies, which makes the Kingdom of Spain already think that it is the master of this world, the most powerful country, such as dividing the belonging of this world with Portugal and so on.

In the past, he felt that Asia was not too noteworthy, and he did not attack other East Asian countries in China, not because of his prudence, but because he felt that there were no interests worth matching, and he never felt that he would be inferior when facing the behemoth of the Ming Dynasty, but felt that as long as he made up his mind to attack, he would definitely win.

Levire walked to the window and looked at the light source outside and carefully looked at the end of the letter, and groaned helplessly in the bottom of his heart, what was going on in the heads of those big men in the Madrid court:

"In order to maintain the kingdom's supremacy in the Asian seas and spread the glory of the lord, the Spanish navy decided to send five 500-ton and 10-hundred-ton sailing gunboats, as well as thirty armed merchant ships, a total of 3,000 valiant warriors of the kingdom, led by Count Sandino, who was also the new governor of Luzon."

The hegemony of the kingdom in the Asian seas, seeing this sentence, Revere stretched out his head and glanced at the warships of the Yizhou Navy anchored in the port not far away, now there is no hegemony in the East Asian seas, there is only one ruler.

Count Sandino is also a close branch of the Spanish kingdom of nobles, generally do not go to the colonies to serve, even if they go to the colonies, they are the kind of fat and oily places in the Americas, and they are sent here, presumably moved by the wealth here, Revere thought about his status in the country, and sneered in his heart, he will not have any place in the Americas at all, I am afraid that he will be idle if he returns to Spain.

Such a rich place, such a luxurious enjoyment, such a rich income, can they just say goodbye to themselves and go away, these people have never considered any patriotism, since they can colonize thousands of miles away for money, and they can also abandon countries thousands of miles away for money, Revere suddenly said firmly to himself:

"I'm Basque!"

If the time is correct, there are still three months left, and the fleet should have arrived here, and Revere had already made up his mind, and pulled the bell there, and after a while, a maid opened the door and walked in, saluted respectfully, and said softly:

"My lord, what do you command?"

Two years ago, Levi, the governor of Luzon, had only guards to serve his daily life, and several men were rough and rude, and everyone was just going to live, but now that life is better, it is natural to invite some maids to serve, and the origin of these maids is very interesting.

They were all Dutch, and they were exiled to the Netherlands prisoners here, and although the interesting Levire was very tempted to see many women inside, he knew that he couldn't move, and he restrained his men not to move. After Jiang Feng ransomed the freedom of these prisoners, Revere politely offered to hire a few of them as servants, and this reasonable request was naturally allowed.

Several "trained" gentle Dutch maids and housekeepers were sent over, and as a reward, Revere increased his annual income by five thousand taels. Of course, Westerners are open, and there is some dewy marriage between each other, which is inevitable.

"Tina, I'm not feeling well, I need to go down and get some rest......"

Hearing this, the housekeeper's face flushed slightly, and Levi looked at the amorous woman in front of him, knowing that the other party had thought of something else, he couldn't help coughing lightly and said:

"The documents on the table, you sort them out, there are very confidential contents on them, don't spread them."

Half a month later, the general mobilization of Yizhou's fleet began......