The guards looked at each other, and finally decided to obey the orders of the most valiant or rather crazy Spanish officer in all of Manila, and perhaps in all of Southeast Asia. As they unshackled, Silva arrogantly said to the chief in Tagalog, "Barbarian, my best friend Casillas has been killed by you, and I am obligated to avenge you for him, both as a nobleman and as a comrade-in-arms." But as a Christian and a Castilian nobleman, I will not deprive you of the right to defend yourself against an unarmed man, even if you are an unbelieving dog, you can choose any weapon in this house to fight me! “

The chief was silent for a moment, then replied in Spanish with Tagalog words: "I believe in the gods of my father's father, just as you believe in the gods of your father's father. As for what you say about Christians not going to lay hands on the defenseless, what about the women and children who died by the sword of your Spaniards? But I still thank you for giving me the opportunity to take up arms again, no one can live forever, but the souls of warriors will ascend to heaven and drink wine with their ancestors! “

Silva snorted coldly, looked at the enemy in front of him with a mixture of hatred and admiration, picked up the weapon placed next to the altar, his right hand held a saber, the peach-shaped gauntlet protected his right hand well, the narrow steel blade glowed with blue light, the bone hilt was wrapped in high-quality calf leather, dry and sweat-absorbent, his left hand held a dagger with a bowl-shaped gauntlet, this combination of long and short swords was very common among the Spanish warriors at that time, it looked like the two swords were a little thin, but this was an illusion, Locks and leather armor are finite in strength than cardboard under their blades, and even plate armor can be pierced through gaps, in the hands of a skilled swordsman. It would be an extremely lethal weapon.

The chief looked at Silva, dragged himself to the weapon rack, picked up a long sword that was bent like a snake on the weapon rack, and danced twice in his hand, as if he was familiar with the characteristics of the weapon. Silva stood by and watched coldly. Suddenly, the chief looked up and smiled at Silva, and with a slight flick of his wrist, a sword light flashed in front of the boy beside him, and a moment later a candle in the lampstand on the wall beside him suddenly broke in two, and the room suddenly went dark. The chief glanced at Silva, and the meaning of his gaze was clear: "Do you still want to fight me?" “

"Mr. Silva!" Guard Sando screamed. The candle that was close at hand was cut off, but he didn't feel it at all, if the chieftain was not aiming at the candle but at his own neck, he wouldn't notice it until his head hit the ground, and the thought of it made him feel a hot current gushing out of his inner thighs.

Silva ignored it, just tapped the weapon in both hands, crouched slightly, and made a starting gesture to his opponent. A strange look flashed across the chief's face. Taking a step forward, Silva took a step back, the chief took another step forward, and Silva took another step back. There seems to be an invisible rope between the two. The chief took another step forward, and just as he was about to drop his front foot, Silva let out a loud cry like a civet cat. A lightning sword stabbed into his opponent's thigh. It turned out that this Silva was not only excellent at swordsmanship, but also experienced in a hundred battles. Fang Cai had already seen that there was something wrong with the opponent's pace, maybe there were injuries to his legs and feet, so he did not attack the opponent's chest and abdomen and head as usual, but attacked the thighs, and the opponent's legs and feet were injured, whether it was to avoid or lean over to protect the next three roads, as long as Silva took the opportunity to get close, with the dagger in his left hand, he would definitely be able to take the opponent's life.

But the chief did not dodge or draw his sword as Silva had expected, but just stood still, as if he had been beaten. Silva suddenly had a sense of danger in his heart, and subconsciously blocked the dagger of the bowl-shaped gauntlet in his left hand diagonally upward, almost at the same time, he heard a sound, and his left hand was a huge force, he hurriedly rolled to the right along the momentum, and when he looked down, he found that his left hand had cracked, and the bowl-shaped gauntlet of the dagger was deeply scarred. Seeing this, Sandor hurriedly whispered a few words to one of the guards, who nodded and ran out quickly.

The chief did not continue the pursuit, but carried the serpentine sword and looked at Silva coldly. Silva gritted his teeth and crawled up. Then he shot more cautiously, although the chief's legs and feet were inconvenient, but the serpentine sword seemed to be enchanted, not only did he shoot silently, but the trajectory was difficult to fathom, often the sword was unconscious, if it weren't for the injury on the other party's feet, it was inconvenient to move, but I was afraid that Silva would have already fallen on the road, and at this time he finally understood why his friend Casillas was excellent in swordsmanship, why he also died in his hands, although his desire for revenge became more and more intense, but he couldn't help but have a sense of admiration for the opponent in front of him.

Sando, who was watching the battle, saw that the situation was becoming more and more unfavorable to Silva, and the sentry who had gone to carry the rescue soldiers had not returned, and his heart became more and more anxious, he drew the dagger at his waist and glanced at the other guard beside him, who nodded knowingly, and suddenly stabbed the chief from behind with his halberd. The chief seemed to have a pair of eyes on his back, turned sideways to avoid the halberd, clamped it under his armpit, stretched out his right arm, and the weighted lead-filled ball at the end of the hilt of the sword in his hand smashed into the opponent's face, and the guard fainted with a muffled snort, and the boy Sandor just wanted to make a move, he saw the guard's miserable condition, screamed in fright, took a few steps back, and almost sat on the ground.

Sando was frightened when he suddenly saw a strange expression on the chief's swarthy face, and then he saw half of the sword blade coming out of his chest, and the chief reached out to cover his wounds, and his knees went limp, and he rolled over and fell to the ground. It turned out that when the sentry attacked from behind, Silva also happened to stab the opponent in the chest, and the chief put aside the sword and easily ended up with the guards attacking behind, but he didn't expect that Silva's stab was only half a move, the long sword in front was just a trick, and the next left-handed dagger was the killer, which happened to stab the heart.

Sandor cheered, stepped forward to pull out the dagger from the chief on the ground, and offered his hands to Silva, just about to say two words of congratulations, but saw that the other party's face was pale, obviously angry to the extreme, and the congratulatory words came to his mouth and eyes.

Silva walked over to the chief. Blood was pouring from his opponent's fingers covering his wounds, and his swarthy face was rapidly turning pale, and it was clear that the wings of death were covering the man's eyes. Finally, he sighed, squatted down, reached out to hold the other party's right hand, and whispered, "Repent to the Great Lord, or your soul will fall into hell!" ”

"No!" The chief shook his head with difficulty, but his tone was firm. His eyes looked at the sky behind Silva, a smile on his face, and he pulled his right hand from Silva's hand and leaned forward, as if something was looking at him: "Ancestral Heroic Spirit, have you come to meet me?" Suddenly, a stream of blood spurted out of his mouth, his body twitched twice, and his eyes lost their sparkle.

"Damned infidels, let you fall into the fire. Beelzebub (the Christian title of the demon king) tears your flesh apart and makes your suffering never-ending! "Sandor pointed to the corpse on the ground, cursing viciously!"

"Shut up!" Silva angrily interrupted the boy's curse, staring at him viciously. Just as he was about to say something, there was a rush of footsteps in the hallway outside the door, and then a guard appeared in the doorway. He looked at the situation inside the house, sighed, and said, "It seems that I am still late." Major Silva, Lord Governor has asked you to meet him, right away! ”

Juan. Governor de Salcedo stood by the window. Quietly look at the Parsi River at your feet, this river is like a ribbon around the small half of Manila, this star-shaped giant castle is the heart of the Spanish Empire's Viceroyalty in Southeast Asia. Every evening, when the sun was about to set, the veteran, who had lost a leg at the Battle of White Mountain (in 1621 when Count Tilly led a Catholic coalition to defeat the Protestant king of Bohemia), liked to stand quietly, watching the Pacy River and the sun set on the horizon, reminiscing about his youth.

Bang bang! A few heavy knocks at the door woke the old governor from his memories, and he turned to look sad on his scarred face, but when he limped back to the heavy mahogany table and sat down, his whole body had regained his usual majesty.

"Please come in!"

Tang Dynasty. Silva came in through the sliding door, and he gave the governor a military salute: "Your Excellency, are you looking for me?" “

"Yes!" The Governor nodded, his voice was not loud, but the power contained in it made people have to bow their heads: "Who allowed you to kill the Moro chieftain?" ”

"Your Excellency, my good friend Captain Casillas died at his hands, he is to me like a brother to my fellow citizens, and as a Castilian nobleman, I am obliged to avenge him!"

"But you're still a soldier, a soldier of the Kingdom of Spain!" The governor's voice rose sharply: "Soldiers should obey orders and sacrifice everything for the good of the kingdom." This chief is a very valuable captive, and you actually killed him! The Governor stepped out from behind the large desk, stared into Silva's eyes and asked, "What do you think I should do with you?" “

"I'm willing to take responsibility for what I do!" Silva raised his head and replied loudly.

"Take responsibility for everything?" The Governor sneered: "Don. Mr. Silva, I'm afraid you can't afford to take on this responsibility, the empire has many, many enemies here: the Dutch, the Moros, other natives, the Siamese, the Nguyen dynasty, and the empire's resources are limited. Major, you are a true warrior, but courage alone is not enough, we also need patience, tenacity and wisdom! “

"Understood, Lord Doge!"

"No, Silva, you don't understand anything!" By this time, the governor had returned to the back of his desk, and he took out a document from a Bible on the table and handed it to the other party: "Don. Major Silva, look at this! “

Major Silva took the paper, and soon, very quickly, his forehead was furrowed, his eyebrows were twisted together, his nostrils were panting, and the brass gauntlet of his left hand on the hilt of his sword creaked.

"Those traitors, stinking Dutchmen, have joined forces with the pagans against the Catholic king! Hell is waiting for them! ”

"Yes, but there's nothing strange about that! In the Ottoman army were French engineers who helped the pagans build cannons and fortifications to fight the Christians! The Governor took the document from Major Silva's hand: "At the final judgment these people will face God for themselves, and now we must do what we are supposed to do." “

"Of course, the Governor, please give orders!" Silva puffed up.

It turned out that before the Spanish arrived in the Philippines in the 16th century, a considerable number of indigenous people had already adopted the faith and culture of Islam, and even the original site of Manila was an Ishlan village, which was forcibly occupied by the Spaniards. Since the Spaniards called the Moors the Moors, the indigenous peoples who mainly believed in Islam were called the Moro people, and compared with other aborigines who were still in the primitive tribal stage, the Moro people who had entered the stage of slavery were much stronger and were a great threat to the Spanish colonies in the Philippines. Therefore, the 300-year history of Spanish colonization in the Philippines is also the history of the 300-year war between the Catholic Spaniards and the Moro people who believe in Islam. An even more dangerous enemy for the Spaniards in Manila was the Dutch East India Company, based in Batavia, Java, which had signed a treaty of alliance with the Suleiman Sultan, the most powerful of the Moro people, selling them large quantities of weapons and promising naval assistance in the event of a war with the Spaniards. In alliance with the pagans against the Spaniards, who were also Christians, the actions of the Dutch East India Company were clearly inconsistent with the prevailing morals of the time.

Governor de Salcedo did not give an immediate order, but played with the document in his hand and looked at the text on it with interest. After a few minutes, Major Silva finally couldn't bear it anymore: "Order, I will definitely crucify these infidels and make them repent of their sins in Hellfire." ”

"Major, do you know where this information comes from?" Governor de Salcedo did not answer directly, but asked rhetorically.

"Is it some devout Christian out of righteous indignation at this blasphemous act?"

"No, not Christians! is a Ming businessman, to be precise, a Ming businessman surnamed Zhou! The Governor sneered and threw the document back on the table: "The master of this Ming merchant is Nikolai. Yiguan, you should know this person! (To be continued.) )