Luzon Island is one of the closest big islands in the South China Sea to the Central Plains mainland, as early as the Han Dynasty, Luzon Island has been in contact with the mainland, so it is the most well-known island of the Central Plains Dynasty. It is also worth mentioning that Luzon is not far from the island of Taiwan, and if it is a tailwind, it will usually take a few days to get from Tainan.

It is precisely because Luzon is too close to Taiwan, so this place has long been put in the heart of Li Su, when the island of Taiwan needed slaves, Luzon Island was the first to be unlucky, countless slave catching teams set off from Taiwan, and then arrived in Luzon, and began to show their magic to catch slaves and trade slaves.

At the beginning, the slave hunting team from Taiwan did not pay attention to any methods, but relied on their advanced weapons and rich experience in slave hunting, and used brute force to catch slaves on Luzon Island, but this method of slave hunting was soon proved to be wrong, because no matter how advanced the weapons of the slave hunting team were, how rich the experience, but in the process of catching slaves, it is inevitable that there will be some casualties, and once there are casualties, the slave hunting team will have to compensate the other party's family a large sum of money, after all, personnel are scarce now, and human life has become very valuable, may bring back hundreds of slaves to Taiwan at a time, but as long as one man is lost, then this trip will be in vain.

However, since they dare to do the extremely risky industry of slave hunting, the people in the slave hunting team are naturally some bold people, and it is these people who often think about what ordinary people dare not think. For example, some smart people soon discovered that there was no unified state on Luzon, and even the natives on the island had not even formed the concept of a state, but only formed some loose tribal alliances based on tribal blood and other relationships. Moreover, these tribal alliances are large and small, and they are also at odds with each other.

See this happens. Immediately let the clever people in the slave catchers seize the opportunity, and they began to transport goods from the mainland. And trade with some powerful tribal alliances to manage relationships. After completing this first step, they began to propose to each other the contents of the slave trade, of course, the source of these slaves came from the prisoners of war obtained by the tribe in the war with other tribes. Originally, these prisoners of war would have been killed, but now the slave hunters offered to exchange the goods for them, and naturally the tribesmen gladly agreed.

With the first time, there is naturally a second time, and those tribes who were captured by the slave team also tasted the sweetness of this slave trade. After all, they only need to trade the prisoners of war they have killed before in exchange for many necessities of life, and even as long as they can capture enough prisoners of war, then their tribe can exchange any goods they want from the slave catchers, and life in the tribe will get better and better.

After the native tribes had this understanding, coupled with the deliberate provocation of the slave catchers, the wars broke out between the various tribal alliances, and in the war, countless middle-aged men were captured. The prisoners were sold to slave hunters. Although in this way, the slave catchers had to pay a certain amount of goods, but it was much safer, so this method was quickly imitated by all slave catchers. and became the standard model for slave hunting in the South Seas.

After two years of exploitation by slave hunters, the current form of Luzon is very different from what it used to be, such as through the constant wars between large tribal alliances. Most of the small and medium-sized tribes have no room to live on, or they are mostly annexed. Either that or it is perished, now the whole island. A coalition of seven tribes has been formed, and if nothing else, these seven tribes will form a unified nation after their annexation. However, this is obviously not in the interests of Li Su, so these seven tribal alliances will definitely not be able to transition to the national stage in the end.

The seven tribal alliances on Luzon were actually supported by slave hunters, who provided all kinds of supplies to support the endless war between the seven alliances, and the slave hunters got the slaves they needed. It is precisely because of this that the most powerful force on Luzon Island is not the Seven Alliances, but the slave catchers behind the Seven Alliances.

In order for the slave catchers to operate on Luzon Island for a long time, they naturally need to have a port, and the terrain of Luzon Island is high in the north and low in the south, and the east side of the island is vulnerable to typhoons, so the most suitable place to be a port is on the southwest side of the island. A slave hunter found a huge bay here, which was originally named after a local native name, but after Li Su learned about this place, he personally named it - Manila Bay.

Manila Bay is vast, surrounded by two peninsulas, there is a small island in the bay, the whole bay is divided into two waterways in the north and south, it is a natural harbor with excellent conditions, it is also on the east coast of this natural harbor, the slave hunters established a settlement, also named after Manila, and after more than a year of development, this settlement has become one of the important ports in the South Seas, whether it is the Tang Dynasty or the fleet of Persia and other countries, they like to anchor here, plus more and more people come to settle here, So Li Su sent officials to manage the city of Manila, and at the same time stationed an army of 500 people.

Manila is a young city, after all, and it is also a settlement of slave hunters, who, although called maritime merchants, are actually acting like pirates overseas, all of them are unruly. These people live together, which makes Manila extremely unsafe, and there are fights and fights all the time, and even robberies and murders are common. People who come here are all cautious, and the owner of the ship will call a group of crew members to act collectively when they go ashore to avoid danger. Because of this, Manila has another nickname - Sin City.

The weather is really bad today, strong southwesterly winds have been blowing, and it is said that another typhoon has passed along the coast on the east side of the island, so Manila Bay is particularly busy today, because many fleets need to find a place to anchor before the typhoon arrives, and Manila Bay, surrounded by two peninsulas, is undoubtedly an excellent haven.

As the easterly wind became stronger, the tall coconut trees were blown away, and more and more ships sailed into Manila Bay, making the already wide bay a little narrower.

In the afternoon, the wind became stronger and stronger, and ordinary ships were likely to be overturned if they were exposed to such strong winds, and even some large ships that resisted wind and waves would not dare to stay in such winds and waves for too long. It is for this reason that the flotilla that came in the afternoon became less and less, and in the end, there was no flotilla for a long time.

Liu Banban looked at the wind and waves outside, but he stretched out and yawned lazily, he is now sitting in the monitoring room built of all concrete, not to mention this kind of wind and waves, even if the wind and waves are twice as big, he is very safe here.

Liu half of the person is as his name suggests, he is indeed half left, he is a disabled person, he is missing an arm and a leg, and there is also a problem with one eye, if the other eye is closed, he can only see a little light. Originally, he was also a person with sound limbs, but the year before last, he came to Luzon with the slave hunting team to catch slaves, and as a result, he left all his arms and legs here, and his eye was also sprayed by a poisonous animal in the rainforest, and as a result, the eye was poisoned, and now it has become like this, so people give the nickname and leave half of it, which is exactly his real name.

Liu is half missing half of his hands and feet, so he doesn't have to think about pleasing his wife, I'm afraid that no Han woman is willing to marry him. However, Liu Banban's life is very nourishing now, and the slave catching team compensated him a lot of money, so he used the money to buy several women as concubines, including Silla women, Japanese women, and two local native girls, and these women also gave birth to two sons for him, one of whom is pregnant and will give birth soon. Originally, he was worried that the children born to these women of different races would not be easy to register, but he didn't expect His Royal Highness King Qi to personally issue a decree, as long as the father is Han, the children born are all Han, which makes him feel at ease, and at the same time prepares to take a few more concubines in the second half of his life, and strive to carry forward the incense of their Liu family.

Although Liu Banban is a disabled person, there is a shortage of people everywhere, and he doesn't want to go back to his hometown anymore, so he simply settled in Manila, and also found a job in the government, that is, as an inspector in the Bay of Manila, the job is very simple, that is, to record the ships entering and leaving the bay to facilitate tax collection and search.

Liu Banban looked at the wind and waves outside, and muttered in his mouth, although the monitoring room is very safe, but under such a big wind and waves, with his body, he will definitely not be able to return home, so he can only make up for one night in the monitoring room tonight. Thinking of the few concubines in the family who were not yet pregnant, this made Liu Ban cry out in his heart that it was a waste, and he must make up for it when he found time.

Waves several meters high had risen on the sea, and some of the sea water was blown up by the wind and blew through the window to Liu Ban's face, which made him curse a few words angrily, and stood up with one foot support, ready to close the window.

However, when Liu Banban closed the window, he habitually turned his head to look at the sea outside, don't look at him with only one eye, thinking that he was a famous marksman in the slave hunting team at the beginning, his eyes and brains are much stronger than ordinary people, for example, the ships in this bay, as long as he looks at it from a distance, he can remember the characteristics of this ship, and he will not forget it for a long time. It is precisely with this ability that he can defeat other opponents who have been recruited and sit in the position of inspector.

And today Liu Ban's good eyesight played a role again, through the waves swept up by the wind, Liu Banban vaguely saw that on the sea in the distance, there was a large fleet of ships coming to this side, although it was a tailwind, but the wind and waves were too big, so the sails on that fleet had been lowered, and now a few lone masts were particularly conspicuous, and it was these thick masts that made him tell at a glance that there was a fleet there.

The waves on the sea have reached a height of more than a zhang, and the fleet is also in the crashing waves, and the speed is extremely fast towards the bay, and when a big ship in front is getting closer and closer, Liu Banban feels that this ship is extremely familiar, as if he has seen it somewhere? (To be continued.) )