After seeing the yellow dragon flag on the warship, the four ships of the other side also hung up the yellow dragon flag of the Great Qing Kingdom one after another:

Wan Dafu was dumbfounded, and secretly ridiculed in his heart, this is a merchant ship from there, this is too blatant, but since he is not a bandit, he has no interest, he waved his hand, "Turn around, go back and protect the fleet!" ”

At this time, the officer outside ran in, "Report to your lordship, the lookout post says that there is movement on the other side again!" ”

Wan Dafu snorted, turned around and leaned in front of the telescope and looked carefully for a while, sure enough, the group of people on the opposite side was waving the flag violently, and he didn't know what he wanted to do, he couldn't figure it out after thinking about it, and he didn't bother to think about it again, "Don't worry about it, Lord Qin sent us out to escort the fleet, return immediately!" ”

The battleship was spitting black smoke and was about to turn around, when the officer at the lookout post came running again to report, "Report to your lordship, a small boat has been lowered on the opposite side and rowed over!" ”

Wan Dafu was stunned for a moment, these broken boats were really consumed by themselves, forget it, then stop and take a look, what do you want to give birth to on the other side?

The battleship leaned up, brought the people from the small boat up for questioning, and came up a short young man in his early twenties, with three or four retinues, and when he saw Wan Dafu, he immediately kowtowed and shouted: "My lord, help! ”

Seeing that he was Chinese, Wan Dafu patiently asked about the situation, "Where are you from?" What's going on? ”

The person who came kowtowed and said loudly: "My lord, the villain is Ding Qi, a merchant from the South Seas, who encountered a storm at sea two days ago and drifted here, I don't know this route at all, my lord wants to ask my lord to take our fleet to the nearest port!" With that, the man took out a bag of things and respectfully delivered it to Wan Dafu's table.

Wan Dafu looked the young man up and down, except for the other party's face was a little darker, he looked like a serious businessman, but his escort mission was very important, but he couldn't make a difference, he picked up the bag of things, weighed it, it was two hundred taels of silver, but since he experienced life and death, the attraction of silver to him suddenly seemed to have become much smaller.

Wan Dafu remembered the task assigned by Qin Kai on this trip, Qin Kai had just been promoted to the minister of Nanyang, which was in charge of the affairs of the Chinese in Nanyang, and his heart moved, and he threw the bag of silver back to the young man, and asked: "I will be ordered by the general order of Lord Qin, the minister of Nanyang in the imperial court, to inspect Nanyang, you are merchants in Nanyang?" ”

"The villain is a merchant from South Seas Malaya (now Malaysian generation), who has been sailing along the coast of Cochin, but two days ago he encountered a storm for several days and floated here!"

Wan Dafu nodded, "We are going to Luzon Island in the Philippines, if you want to go together, you can follow behind our merchant ship!" But here's still two days away, and you're going to go to jail! With that, he took out a notice from a box behind him and handed it to Ding Qi.

"General, this is ......"

"Ding Qi, this is the announcement issued by Lord Qin, Minister of Nanyang, if you return to Malaya, you might as well circulate the announcement of your lord to the local Chinese, your lord said, the Chinese in Nanyang are all people of the Tian Dynasty, if there is anything oppressed, Lord Qin will do justice for you!"

This Ding Qi was already very surprised when he heard that the sailor general was willing to bring his own fleet, and he was even more happy when he got this announcement, so he kowtowed two more times and got up to return.

When he returned to the big ship, the original groveling villain appearance had disappeared, and he ran into the cabin with a nervous face, and there were already seven or eight sturdy and fierce men waiting inside, and when they saw him come in, they turned their eyes to look at him.

Sitting in the center was a capable scholar in his thirties wearing Confucian clothes, and when he saw Ding Qi coming in, his eyes flashed, "Xiao Qi, who is the fleet opposite?" ”

Ding Qi saluted respectfully and said: "Big brother, the fleet on the opposite side is escorted by naval division battleships, and the source is too big, I saw that the cannon tubes on the ship were thick and scared to death, saying that it was the battleship of the Nanyang Naval Division!" I observed the soldiers on the ship, and they were very strong! ”

The young scholar was also stunned, they were naturally not serious businessmen in Malaya, but a small pirate in Palawan Island in the Sulu Sea, his name was Liu Hong, who was originally a distant brother of the Liu family, a large Chinese family in Malaya, who was a big Chinese family in Malaya. ,

He was born in trade, so he was a bandit, and he did some trade along the way, and in a few years, it grew to the scale of four ships and more than 500 people.

I didn't expect to accidentally meet a large fleet here, seeing that the other party was a wooden ship, I thought about it, but I went up to investigate in the name, the other party actually had a warship escort, and they hid a few bronze cannons on the ship, but that thing can scare and scare ordinary businessmen, and when it comes to the regular army, it is ironclad to eat deflated, and the idea of disappearing at the moment.

"What's that in your hand?" Liu Hong immediately noticed a roll of paper in Ding Qi's hand.

"Big brother, it's the announcement of the Nanyang minister, saying that the Great Qing Kingdom is now going to support the Nanyang Chinese! It's been hundreds of years, and it's the first time I've heard of such a thing! ”

Liu Hong took the notice, he is a child of a big family, this literacy is not a problem, sure enough, as Ding Qi said, the new Nanyang minister does intend to meddle in Nanyang affairs, the announcement has recognized that the Nanyang Chinese are the people of the Tian Dynasty, and the Tian Dynasty has the obligation to protect the rights and interests of the people, as for this specific aspect, it is vague and does not elaborate.

But when he studied it carefully, he noticed a sentence in the last paragraph of the notice, "...... Yu leads the post of minister of Nanyang, and hopes that my compatriots will unite with me and seek a place for the Chinese! ”

This is an announcement that will be distributed to the entire South Seas in the future, and there is no other way to be with this lord than to take refuge...... Just as he was still pondering this, the captain of the ship came and asked, "Big boss, let the ship on the other side let us follow, do you want to follow?" ”

"Follow!" Liu Hong had already made up his mind at this time, and followed the other party to see what was going on, the first Nanyang minister to intervene in Nanyang affairs didn't know what he was capable of, he subconsciously felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

On the battleship "Dengyingzhou" escorting in front, Wan Dafu was looking at the four merchant ships that were slowly following behind through the guò telescope, and the other party followed very closely, and observed for a while, and there was nothing special, and after a while, news came from the front, saying that Qian Zongsu, the commander of the "Penghu" cargo ship who was accompanying the training, sent someone to send an emergency by boat!

This makes Wan Dafu a little confused, now the cargo ships in the Nanyang Shipping Company, maintaining a third of the proportion is as the Nanyang Navy Division recruits with the ship training, all the posts of the whole ship are operated by veterans with recruits, such a training mode after more than a year of experiments, proved to be an effective method, generally two or three voyages, sailors can become skilled from recruits in technology.

This time was no exception, among the nine merchant ships, there were three merchant ships, "Penghu", "Xihai", and "Mindong", which were responsible for training tasks, and these three merchant ships were equipped with rapid-fire guns and Makqin machine guns for training purposes, and this Qian Zongsu was also a new pipe band from the training camp, and he first took the recruits for training.

But what emergency can he have there?

When Qian Zongsu's handwritten letterhead was in his hands, Wan Dafu was also taken aback after reading it, and pondered it carefully, it was indeed very reasonable, and immediately replied to Qian Zongsu's side to prepare, he immediately convened the officers' meeting, and everyone analyzed the letter sent by Qian Zongsu and unanimously agreed, so Wan Dafu immediately made some arrangements.

After sailing on the South China Sea for two days, what made Wan Dafu a little depressed was that he had carefully arranged, as if he didn't notice anything special at all, and before sunset, he finally saw the coastline of Luzon Island, and continued to sail down until the next morning, and very smoothly approached the Mawei Shipping's first stronghold in the Philippines - Subic Bay.

Since reaching some interest agreements with Governor Pedro, the fierce combat power and pragmatic business attitude of the Nanyang sailors have convinced Governor Pedro that the Chinese just want to do business in peace, and this is a business that can bring him good profits personally, so the situation of Chinese and Chinese merchants in Olongapo City has changed qualitatively.

The Mawei shipping company soon leased a wharf in Subic Bay, and the workers here were all recommended by the Freemasons one by one, which solved the economic problems of the Chinese workers and ensured safety.

When a large number of merchant ships entered the port, the Spaniards arranged by Governor Pedro in the tripartite joint venture company appeared at the dock like sharks smelling blood, according to the tripartite agreement, these goods sold to Luzon had to be sold through the joint venture company, and in just a few months, despite the ridiculously high shipping prices of the Mawei shipping company, these exquisite stamped stainless steel utensils, cigarettes, soaps, etc. were all exclusive gadgets on the market, and after changing hands, the joint venture company still made an astonishing profit. ,

This is also one of the important reasons why Governor Pedro has a friendly attitude towards Mawei shipping, and even the requirement that the shipping company be equipped with armed guards, the Governor immediately agreed without any doubt, and the Mawei company spent money to hire people to guard the goods that created economic benefits for him, and a fool would not agree, but to rely on such a number of Chinese to fight against the nearly 100,000 Spanish troops in the Philippines, it is almost an idiot to do!

After Wan Dafu entered the port, the four Malayan merchants' ships also entered the port, and after the storm, the other party did have some repairs to the ships, so they hired many workers in the port to upload repairs, and it took about seven or eight days to complete the repairs.

Liu Hong got off the ship with a few relatives and began to wander around the wharf of the Mawei Shipping Company, the situation here surprised him very much, as a Nanyang Chinese, he knew that in these countries in Nanyang, the Philippines, Luzon, Indonesia, the Chinese are the most difficult to survive, the local aborigines and foreigners are extremely fierce to the Chinese, it is said that many times the local Chinese were slaughtered, plundered the property of the Chinese.

However, what he saw now surprised him very much, not only did the Mawei shipping company have an independent wharf in this port, but there were also a large number of Chinese security guards with guns...... Is it all rumors that I have heard before?

Liu Hong shook to the side of a merchant ship that was unloading, several Chinese workers were unloading goods from the ship with a boom, and a few workers on the side had just unloaded the goods, and were counting the pieces with a Spanish beard, so he went up to take a look, and there were several large boxes of cigarettes in the inventory.

The Spanish saw that his eyes lit up, and he immediately reached out and took a few packs from the opened package and put them in his pocket, and a Chinese next to him immediately argued with him in Spanish, Liu Hong naturally didn't understand Spanish, but seeing this Chinese attitude, he was very tough, and his tone could even be reprimanded, which surprised him...... It's really upside down here, the Chinese are so strong!!

As a result, the Spaniard took out the cigarette with an unwilling and helpless face, and came up to ask the Chinese for a few words, and honestly continued to make an inventory.

Liu Hong's eyes lit up, his face was a little red with excitement, this time he really didn't run in vain, for hundreds of years in Nanyang, the Chinese have not been bullied by the local foreigners and natives, even if it is a rich and powerful family like their family, they are all low-key survival, spending money to build a network, barely survived, among which there are many small families that have been wiped out.

When the Spaniard walked away, he approached the worker and asked with a grin, "Can you ask something, big brother?" ”

The worker who was counting the goods was busy, and he didn't like people to disturb him, but when he looked back, he was a scholar, and he was a little polite, "This Xiucai, just ask if you have anything, I'm busy!" ”

"Thank you," Liu Hong was not surprised by many people, and hurriedly interjected, "This big brother, now we Chinese in Luzon are really proud, and this Spanish foreigner is very polite when he sees it!" ”

What kind of problem did this worker ask Liu Hong, he originally asked this, but now the Chinese who occasionally come here to berth in the port have not asked this question less, "Xiucai, this is also a matter of recent months, after the Nanyang Minister Qin came, the Spaniards were very polite, I also listened to the company's manager of the shopkeeper said, our Lord Qin is the reincarnation of Wuqu Xing, and his martial arts and literature are the first in the world. ”

"Is there such a thing?" This Liu Hong drifted on the sea all day long, and the news in this era was very closed, so he naturally didn't know about the Sino-French War......

"Xiucai, you go to the newspaper column in front of you to read, there are all on it, and the governor of Olongapo City and Lord Qin signed an agreement, which clearly writes the rights of our Chinese!" After speaking, the worker continued to count the goods, and no longer bothered Liu Hong.

Liu Hong was stunned when he heard this, and hurriedly looked in the direction pointed by the worker, and sure enough, at the entrance of the wharf, there was a row of exquisitely made things-probably the newspaper column that the worker said.

When I saw the situation of the Sino-French War reported in the somewhat outdated "Fujian New Newspaper" and "Declaration", these gave Lei absolutely full attention inside and outside, and won the naval battle against the French, counting the number of ships sunk above, they are all 3-digit hundreds, these are all boats, not bamboo rafts in the river, which are so easy to sink! He is a bandit, just to sink a merchant ship, and he has to get several packs of explosives to blast it in the bilge, this is really a bull, more than 100 were sunk in a battle, even if it is bragging, those dozens must at least have it! ,

However, looking at the "Declaration" run by the British next to him, under the confirmation on both sides, it turned out to be more modest in "Fujian Xinbao", which made Liu Hong's eyes almost fall off in surprise, and then the other news was even more shocking.

This Lord Qin is not only invincible in naval battles, but also victorious in the land battles of the French, and there are photos of French prisoners on it, although the printing technology of this era is relatively rubbish, and it is not real, but the rows of densely packed Frenchmen, at least a few hundred, he turned around and took the pen and paper from his entourage, and lay down there to brush and transcribe......

In the attic not far away, Wan Dafu, Qian Zongsu and a few officers all gathered behind the curtain with binoculars to closely observe Liu Hong and their four merchant ships, but at this time, several people were staring at each other.

Wan Dafu spoke first, "Qian Zongsu, your judgment is reasonable, they say that it is a Malayan merchant, and the draft of this ship is basically empty, there is a big problem, but...... This surnamed Liu looks like a reader, you see, our Fujian New News still has a pen and paper to take notes! What's going on? ”

Qian Zongsu had run merchant ships for several years before, so when he saw these ships, he found a problem, the draft is so shallow, if it is a merchant ship, it must be loaded until it can be loaded before he is willing to go to sea, otherwise this one-way trip is ten days and a half months, how to find silver!

And on the contrary, the pirate ships, the pirate ships are only loaded with the necessary fresh water, food and munitions, and nothing else, light equipment can ensure that there is enough speed to pursue the merchant ships, so judging from this, these four ships are indeed very suspicious...... But now, after the four ships came to shore, there was no movement at all, except for a few sailors basking on the deck.

And this scholar, who is said to be the owner of the ship, actually came to learn the great achievements of Lord Qin, and he was very serious, and several officers in the attic were also anxious about Lei......

An officer next to him interjected, "Guan Band, or we will take someone to surround the four boats, and arrest them all for interrogation!" ”

To be continued, please visit wèn::