In order to find the treasure of the pirate magnate Wang Zhi, General Fernando became interested in the mysterious oriental culture, and he detained Mark in his official residence, took out all kinds of Chinese classics he collected, and asked Mark to explain to him, hoping to help him in the search for treasures at sea. [Full text reading. 】

Over the years, in order to pursue Xu Ling'er, Mark has indeed made a lot of hard work, talking about the subset of classics and history, Tang and Song poems, but General Fernando is not interested in the classics and poems of the saints, and wants to practice the Nine Palaces Bagua and Qimen Dunjia through the Book of Changes.

Mark did not understand the Book of Changes, so he could only look at the text and make General Fernando cry and laugh, and at this moment, Father Simon Almeida came to the door and wanted to take his apprentice Mark away.

Because of General Fernando's prejudice against the priest, Simon Almeida went several times in a row, but he was very annoyed, and finally, with the intervention of the Archbishop of Pérez and the Governor of Lavizarles, General Fernando had to hand over the mark.

Simon Almeida had wanted Mark to help him deliver the arquebus, so he was furious at Mark's escape from Sakai and accused Mark of five felonies, and the Manila District Court received an indictment and prepared to try Mark.

The court is located in the Castello de Santiago and is chaired by Antonio. Morality. The official of Molga (Antonio Demorga) tried the case in person, and Shen Qi, Felipe and others came to testify in court through Bai Haishan as interpreters.

First, Simon Almeida accuses Mark of betraying the Jesuits and is responsible for the occupation of Hawksbill Harbor by the Woodwind pirate group, which in turn caused trouble on Luzon. Secondly, Mark deceived the Sakai Town Council, and the more than 3,000 arquebuses he was responsible for escorting, which were supposed to be shipped to Isewan, were resold to the Ming army by him halfway; In addition, he is suspected of illegally reselling merchant shipping tickets issued by the city, stealing two coffins kept in the Sakaicho Cathedral, and at the same time, he bears unshirkable responsibility for the death of nun Louise.

Mark tried to defend himself in court. For the first accusation, he argued: Lin Feng led thousands of soldiers to suddenly attack Manila, there was no food and grass inside, no rescue soldiers outside, the imperial defender General Gao Ti was killed in battle, and if the pirates were allowed to continue to besiege the city while the governor of Lavizares was trapped in the isolated city, then Luzon would be the world of Lin Feng today. He took Lin Feng to Hawksbill Harbor, which was the most correct choice at that time, so he was not only innocent, but also meritorious.

As for the accusation of illegal reselling of merchant ship quotations, Felipe came forward to defend him and proved that there was no problem with the quotation of merchant ships; At the same time, Zhu Hui also testified in court, revealing that Sakai Town businessman Konishi Takzo used the relationship of the Zhonghe to collude with the leader of the Japanese pirates, Wasuka Masakatsu, in an attempt to cooperate with Lin Feng's Y plot to seize Luzon, and Miss Louise died under the sword of the Japanese Kou.

Zhu Hui's defense was corroborated by General Fernando, and after a war of words, Judge Molga finally found Mark guilty of two crimes: sentenced him to repay the price of 3,000 arquebuses, equivalent to about 3 million silver coins; For stealing two coffins kept in the Sakaicho Cathedral, he was sentenced to two years of hard labor or to pay one million silver coins.

The silver coins are divided into one, two, four and eight denominations, and one tael of Ming Dynasty silver can be exchanged for almost twenty eight rear, which means that Mark has to pay 25,000 taels of silver, otherwise, he will face a more severe penalty.

It was a great sum of money to Mark, and when he heard the sentence pronounced by Morga, he wept aloud in a loud voice, when Simon Almeida cast a disdainful glance at him.

At this time, Shen Qi stood up without hesitation, he was willing to pay the fine for Mark, so he sent Zhu Hui and others to hurry back, and with the help of General Fernando, the silver that had just been exchanged was exchanged for a silver coin with a face value of eight, and transported it to the court to bail Mark.

General Fernando praised the righteous deeds of Shen Qi and others, and after the trial, he invited everyone to a banquet at the general's residence.

At the banquet, everyone was polite to each other, and General Fernando expressed his gratitude to Zhu Hui and Zhang Gou'er for their exploits, and then he warmly toasted everyone and asked about the plans for the upcoming voyage to Acapulco.

Regarding this route, Shen Qi and others all know that starting from Manila, first taking the southwest monsoon to reach the eastern part of Japan, and then crossing the ocean with the help of ocean currents, it will take nearly eight months to travel with the wind, and if there is no experience, it is likely to be blown to Alaska by strong winds; But the journey west from Acapulco is relatively easy, usually taking only three months.

As the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban became more and more stringent, it was difficult to satisfy General Fernando's appetite by expecting to collect protection money from private merchants, as the so-called people die for money, birds die for food, in order to get this treasure enough to buy half of Europa, General Fernando, in the name of Felipe, personally went to the governor of La Vizares, asking to send a fleet to escort the merchant group to the New World, which was approved by the governor.

If Huiyuegang organizes an armed force, it is easier said than done, and if it is not done, it will be treated as a pirate by the imperial court, if General Fernando can escort the merchant group, of course, he can't ask for it, but everyone knows in their hearts that his purpose is to hunt for treasure.

As a result, Shen Qi and the others did not have to return to Yuegang, and he sent people back to deliver the letters, and transported the raw silk and weaving utensils that had been prepared to Manila.

A month later, Song He resigned as the chief flag officer of the Fujian Metropolitan Command Department stationed in Yuegang, and led five galleons to set sail from Yuegang, accompanied by Chen Xuewen, Wanxi, Han Xiaoyu, Luo Amin mother and daughter, Wu Xiang sisters, Zhang Min'er and nearly 1,000 craftsmen and workers, after ten days of sailing, came to the Bashi River Estuary Wharf.

The "Freemasonry" business group gathered in Manila and re-divided the labor: Elder Moon Sky and Xuande Zhenren were the spiritual leaders of the business group, Shen Qi was the prime minister of all affairs, Felipe and Tang Jing were the deputies, and Bai Haishan was appointed as the chief Australian protector of the Dharma, due to Lin Feng's departure and Cai De's death, the nine protectors were re-arranged: the first three Australian owners were Zhu Hui, Song He and Zhang Gou'er, who were responsible for protecting the safety of the two masters and the three shopkeepers; Liu Meng, the owner of the fourth Macao, and Ma Xian, the owner of the fifth Macao, served as the captains, managing nearly 1,000 sailors on six merchant ships, the sixth Australian lord Qingkong, the seventh Australian lord Chen Xuewen was responsible for protecting the families, the eighth Australian lord Mark served as the translator, and the ninth Australian lord Wu Xiang was in charge of all the documents.

With the approval of the Governor-General, General Fernando requisitioned two warships of the Spanish Empire, personally became the commander of the fleet, carefully selected a musket team, and made all preparations for the voyage to the New World, and only on the auspicious day of departure, they would open a new route of the Maritime Silk Road.

Just when everyone is full of ambition, all kinds of mysterious cases are coming one after another......

First of all, General Fernando's house was stolen, and the books and notes on the gossip of Yyang, Qimen Dunjia, and the precious nautical chart were all missing, and he suspected that this was Simon Almeida's revenge on him, so he sued in front of the governor of Lavizarles.

Father Simon Almeida reacted very strongly, and immediately wrote to King Philip II of the Spanish Empire, and urged Archbishop Perez to come forward to Governor Lavizares and say that General Fernando should not leave Luzon without permission from His Majesty.

This lawsuit of the Westerners delayed the trip of the merchant group and missed the auspicious day of the zodiac calculated by Xuande Zhenren, leaving Shen Qi, Felipe and others at a loss.

On this day, when everyone was getting together for dinner, Xuande Zhenren had stomach troubles due to stomach discomfort, so he got up and went to the toilet, and after a while, the alert Han Xiaoyu seemed to hear something, and immediately called Zhu Hui to take a look, and when Zhu Hui entered the toilet, Xuande Zhenren was gone.

That night, more than ten thefts occurred in Shen Qi's home, but fortunately, they were driven away in time by the patrolling Jingkong, Chen Xuewen and others, but they failed to catch a single thief, and they only found out early the next morning that Bai Haishan had also mysteriously disappeared.

As soon as the sky was hazy, the merchants living in the royal city of Manila gathered at the governor's palace to complain, saying that their homes had been stolen, and it was shocking that Felipe had also been kidnapped from his home!

Overnight, the royal city of Manila was full of rumors and soldiers, which caused the Governor of Lavizares to be angry, and he judged that this was all caused by the members of the merchant group from the Ming Dynasty, so he ordered Shen Qi and others to move out of the royal city immediately, and prepared to remove Fernando from the position of general.

However, General Fernando believed that these cases should be committed by Lin Feng's pirate group, and immediately issued orders to all parts of the archipelago to let all officers and soldiers take action to arrest Lin Feng, the leader of the Kou.

Zhu Hui and others also thought that Lin Feng would definitely not be able to get out of the way, so they went out with Zhang Gouer and others to find out the news, found a Chinese who had done business in Tortoiseshell Port, and learned that Lin Feng had set off to hunt for treasure.

For Lin Feng, he wants money, money, and people, and it is relatively easy to organize, and he has the navigation chart provided by Hong Zhenren in his hand, because he is worried that others will take the lead, he has already left Luzon half a month ago, so who did these big cases?

The Manila authorities confirmed that the Lin Feng group had left the Philippines through an investigation, so they poured all their anger on Shen Qi's head, and Governor Lavizares gave them three days and ordered them to leave Luzon.

This is simply asking for everyone's life, Zhu Hui invited all the Australian owners to discuss together, be sure to catch the real culprit and rescue the captured hostages as soon as possible.

In the early morning of the fourth day, thousands of Western musketeers and locals surrounded Shen Qi's mansion and the apartments where sailors and craftsmen lived, and the authorities wanted to forcibly drive them into the sea and confiscate their property.

The sudden disaster came, many people cried loudly, Zhu Hui and the others were ready to organize forces to resist, but at this time, Elder Moon Sky stopped their blind movement.

So, the elder called Zhu Hui, Shen Qi, Tang Jing and others into a secret room, said "Nan Wu Amitabha", and said calmly: "All laws are continuous in cause and effect and not empty, and the cycle repeats. There is a cause to have an effect, the effect is the next cause, everything is cause and effect, there is no accident and coincidence in this world. Please don't be nervous, think about it, who is responsible for these cases? ”

The three of them stared at each other, and they were stunned for a moment, and they didn't know where to remember, Tang Jing said anxiously: "Master, it's all up to this point, what kind of cause and effect are you talking about, now, the Western devils want to confiscate our goods and drive us into the sea!" ”

Elder Yuekong replied with a smile: "It's not that simple, the mastermind behind the case definitely doesn't want to cheapen the Westerners, maybe they have already sent someone to the dock and are negotiating with the Governor, in the name of our Daming Mansion, to receive the property of Shen Daguan." Zhu Hui, you should go to the dock immediately and see if there is an official ship from the governor's yamen that has arrived. ”

Zhu Hui was taken aback for a moment, and hurriedly asked, "Master, could it be that Pang Shangpeng is calculating us?" ”

"Nan Wu Amitabha, it's really stupid." As he spoke, Elder Moon Sky glared at him, turned his gaze to Shen Qi again, and then asked, "Senior Official Shen, who is the person who hates you the most in this world?" ”

Shen Qi did not hesitate at all, and replied decisively: "Liu Qian." ”

Finding that Zhu Hui hadn't left yet, Elder Yuekong was anxious and ordered: "Apprentice, why don't you go to the dock to see if Liu Qian is here?" Come back as soon as possible. ”

After Zhu Hui left, Shen Qi asked puzzledly, "Master, isn't Liu Qian being guarded in Southern Shaolin?" ”

"The sudden appearance of Bai Haishan stirred up the rivers and lakes that had been silent for many years, those pirates were not dead back then, and the old man judged that someone must know the inside story, but if you really want to go to sea to hunt for treasure, it is not so easy, you have to find another way. Please think about it carefully, the only people who know the root and have a deep hatred are Liu Qian and Zhang Biao. ”

Speaking of this, Elder Yuekong found that Shen Qi and Tang Jing were dumbfounded, so he smiled slightly, and then said: "Liu Qian and Zhang Biao are just being used, who is the culprit behind the scenes, it is not yet known, this must be a master, he used Zhang Biao and others to create an incident in Manila, put us to death, and then let Liu Qian come to receive our property in the name of the governor's yamen, this is the cause and effect." Even if we win him today, we must not be careless in the future, if he wants to go treasure hunting, we don't have to stop him, as long as we don't make trouble with us, let him go. ”

(End of chapter)