Chapter 224

Luzon is not the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and the port of Zhenghe and the port area of Zhenghe are the private territory of Cheng Shijie, even if it is the court of the Ming Dynasty, it has no power to dictate the port of Zhenghe and the port area of Zhenghe.

The current Cheng Shi is fearless.

Because of his adopted son of Cheng Shijie, and Cheng Shijie handed over his only overseas private territory to him to manage, which represents Cheng Shijie's trust in him, and it is also his responsibility.

In all fairness, Cheng Shi is not a reading material, he has followed Cheng Shijie for more than three years, and he can barely write an ordinary official document, but he can't talk about any literary talent, but he can just let Cheng Shijie understand what he wants to say, according to Cheng Shijie's judgment, Cheng Shi's cultural level is not as good as Cheng Jialong.

Of course, Cheng Jialong went to kindergarten for three years and elementary school for four years in later life, if Cheng Jialong's level is not as good as Cheng Shi, who has just studied for three years, Cheng Shijie can only untie the belt and educate Cheng Jialong with fatherly love.

Cheng Shi's logic is very simple, Zheng He Port and all the people in Zheng He Port District are like tenants of the landlord's family in the Central Plains, and the landlord's family can scold and scold the tenants, but others can't say a word.

is the so-called what, it depends on the owner to beat the dog, and now these Spaniards are beating the merchants in Zheng Hegang District on Cheng Shijie's territory, that is, slapping Cheng Shijie's face.

The Lord is worried about the humiliation of the ministers, and the Lord is humiliated by the death of the ministers.

Under this set of subtle processing logic, Cheng Shi can die, and he must not pretend to be deaf and dumb, let alone sit on the wall and watch.

Of course, Liaodong is a place where the rule of law is stressed, especially before the law, where everyone is equal. Even if it is Cheng Shijie's descendants, they can't rely on their identity to oppress other people and override the law, let alone these Spaniards.

Now Wu Shangzhi feels that the sky is about to fall, in Luzon, the Spaniards themselves are the emperors of the soil, and the Spaniards have always liked to use the local natives to deal with the Chinese, usually when they are fine, they will still look for trouble, and now Cheng Shi's guards actually killed the Spaniards.

"How can this be?"

Wu Shangzhi felt that his breathing was a little difficult, and he almost couldn't lift his breath.

Cheng Shi smiled disapprovingly: "It's just a few Xiyi, if you dare to resist law enforcement, you will die in vain!" ”

Wu Shangzhi said incoherently: "General Cheng, do you know that this is not the Ming Dynasty, this is Luzon, and it is the territory of the Spaniards." ”

"No, this is Zheng Hegang, which is my father's private territory."

Wu Shangzhi knew that Cheng Shi was young and vigorous, and he was not very good at arguing about anything, he looked at Xie Jinglin and said, "Mr. Xie, you should think of a way, this is going to be a big deal!" ”

Since the seventeenth century, two large-scale massacres have been carried out against the Chinese, and the last bloody case has only passed twenty or thirty years, these Chinese are the personal experience of the bloody case, and their fear of the Spaniards has been deeply rooted in the bone marrow.

Originally, during this period of time, when the Nanjing Navy did not arrive, Luzon was like a powder keg, and the natives who originally lived in the deep mountains or the hinterland of Luzon Island came to Manila in groups to provoke the Chinese, and the Chinese have been tolerating.

But the problem is that the Chinese forbearance is weak and deceitful in the eyes of the indigenous and colonial governors. Even if there is no such thing as Cheng Shi, that is, five years, in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the colonial authorities and natives once again carried out large-scale massacres of Chinese.

Cheng Shi didn't think so, and he ordered the guards to arrest the three Spaniards who were making trouble, collect the bodies of the other two dead Spaniards, and bring them back to the port area.

Located on the south bank of the Bashi River, in the colonial governor's palace in Manila, Luzon Governor Juan Cerezo is engaged in a fierce battle with Marina, the wife of Spanish Luzon Army Colonel O'Moore.

The Viceroy of Juan was operating in the native land, transferred back to mainland Spain. And as the wife of Colonel O'Moore, she was actually fed up with the climate and harsh living environment in Luzon.

Relatively speaking, there are no traces of modern civilization in Luzon today, except for the port area and the church area, and Marina's husband is also a maniac who trains soldiers, although Marina came to Luzon with the army, but in fact, she may not be able to see O'Moore several times a month.

In this way, O'Mor left the beautiful and charming land uncultivated, and let the governor do it for him.

However, at the most critical moment, Louis, the officer in charge of colonial affairs, said anxiously: "Your Excellency the Governor, something has happened!" ”

Juan yelled at Louis outside the door, "Damn it, if you don't give me a strong reason, I can guarantee that you'll have a couple of fantastic nights with the gorillas!" ”

Louis certainly knew what Mr. Governor was doing, but the problem was that it was too big.

After the two pillars of incense, Juan arrived in the chamber of the Doge's Palace, which was filled with high-ranking police officers of the Luzon colonial authorities and high-ranking military officials, including Colonel O'Moore, the husband of Juan's mistress Marina.

Juan came to the hall, and everyone got up.

Juan waved his hand and said, "Gentlemen, you already know the situation, what should we do now?" ”

"We must give them a little color to show those Ming people, we will definitely not back down, otherwise, Luzon will not be conducive to the rule of His Majesty the King!"

"The authorities have tolerated it, but they can't tolerate it indefinitely. The prestige of the civilized world cannot be lost like this! ”

"We should loosen our grip on those indigenous monkeys a little bit...... In order to maintain order, the indigenous monkeys must also be ......"

O'Moore said fiercely: "They captured three of my men, and two of them were killed, this is a provocation to the Spanish Imperial Army, and our army will definitely not give up!" ”

The opinion of the Luzon colonial authorities was almost unanimous, that is, they expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Ning navy.

On the surface, it was for the three Spanish soldiers who were captured, but in fact, the deeper meaning was the goods in the warehouse of Zheng He's port, and the main fleet of the Ning Navy had recently been dispatched frequently, and they had hijacked a total of fifty-five merchant ships from the waterway, of which thirty-two had already been disposed of to the Spaniards, and now they needed these twenty-two cargoes, and they did not intend to pay for them.

Governor Juan was always silent. Waiting for everyone to look at him, he said softly: "Have you forgotten that more than fifty Ming army battleships can be cruising around here?" ”

Compared with Zheng Zhilong's 3,000 warships, the navy of the Ning Navy is undoubtedly weak, but the problem is that no matter how weak it is, it is not something that the Luzon colonial authorities can deal with, the Spanish Empire only has 30 warships in Luzon, even if you add the large detachment fleet, the total is only 37, of which 7 warships are stationed in Dayuan, and 15 warships are stationed in Manila, however, these 22 warships are old and broken ships of 400 to 600 tons.

In Europa, only the fifth-class light cruisers were counted, and the seventeen were armed merchant ships. Even the flagship of the Spanish fleet in Luzon, the Grabona, was nothing more than a 680-ton warship, but it was built 30 years ago and had not left Manila for a long time.

"Do their warships dare to fire at our Spanish Empire?"

Admiral Simon couldn't help it for a long time, and said loudly: "They will definitely not be able to withstand the wrath of the Spanish Empire, and they will never dare to fire at our warships!" ”

"There is no point in saying these things, I govern Luzon for His Majesty the King, and I hope that Luzon will be safe and sound, that the flag of Spain will always fly here, and that His Majesty the King does not want to see too much bloodshed."

Governor Juan said lightly: "Whether it is an indigenous person or a Chinese, we need to be vigilant when necessary. Let them remain in this opposition all the time, which is the principle of our rule...... I think there is quite some truth in the opinions of gentlemen. Maybe it's time for us to say something, Louis! ”

"In!"

"You go to meet those Ming people, this matter, you must give us a satisfactory explanation!"

"Okay!"

"Gentlemen, you can go back and set up. Scare them, but don't go overboard! The arrangements before and after this operation must be reported to the Governor's Palace, waiting for my signature and approval! ”

The butt determines the head, and the head determines the mind.

As the governor of Luzon, as the power of the Far East of the Spanish Empire, Spain's power was too weak, and there were only more than 4,000 Spaniards in the whole of Luzon, which were the Dutch and Portuguese who were nominally Spaniards, and all the whites combined, but more than 4,500 people.

But the problem is that these more than 4,000 people are too few.

After the destruction of the Spanish Armada, even now, the main battleships are still less than 130 battleships of the third rank and above, while the main battleships of the Ning Navy are fourth-class battleships or three-ship battleships, even the powerful Dutch East India Company does not dare to underestimate the sea power of the Ning Navy.

What's more, since the war between the Ning Navy and Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Zhilong has suffered several big losses in a row, and if this continues, the power of the South China Sea and the sea will be easy to defend.

It is not in the interests of the Spanish Empire to start a war with the Ning Navy, of course, if there are enough interests, what is the point of killing a few people, even if it is a few dozen or a few hundred?

……

Zhenghe Port District, Wu's mansion.

Two hundred and thirty hundred Chinese merchants and representatives of various clans in Manila came to Wu's house again, hoping that Wu Shangzhi could come up with an idea.

"It's all to blame on that Major General Cheng!"

"No hair on the mouth, no work!"

"Well, who's to say it's not!"

"General Cheng is such a wise person, but with Cheng Shi!"

"Tiger father and dog son, there is not enough success, and there are more failures!"

"This can't be blamed on General Cheng, it is said that this Young General Cheng is just General Cheng's adopted son!"

"Adopted son, no wonder!"

Everyone in the Wu family's meeting hall almost unanimously condemned Cheng Shi for being reckless.

Wu Shangzhi looked at the crowd: "We have to give General Cheng's face, and we have to give the face of foreigners, everyone hurry up and spend some money and give it to foreigners!" You must explain to foreigners that this matter has nothing to do with us! ”

At this moment, an old man in the hall slowly stomped out, with a typical Hakka appearance, with deep eye sockets. Although his beard is gray, he still looks very lean.

"Old lady Wu!"

"Father!"

This old man is the head of the Wu family in Luzon, and he has developed the Wu family to such a rich and rival country. At the same time, he is also a member of the Colonial Bureau's council, and when he stomps his feet, the Luzon Chinese society will tremble.

Old Man Wu looked at everyone: "You guys think too simply! ”

"It's so easy!"

Wu Shangzhi was a little puzzled: "Father means ......"

"The wolf wants to eat the sheep, don't worry about no excuse!"

Wu Shangzhi and Wu Dakuan are people of two eras. In the era when Wu Dakuan grew up, the Spaniards had just arrived in Luzon, and at the beginning, the Spaniards were actually very afraid of the Ming Dynasty. After all, Daming is a behemoth.

In the 21st year of Wanli, Governor Dasmarinas led a warship to attack the islands near the Philippines, and due to the lack of manpower, he recruited more than 200 Chinese to work on the ship. However, when they arrived on the ship, the Spaniards beat and scolded the Chinese, and some Chinese were even beaten to death.

This aroused the dissatisfaction of the Chinese brothers, at that time, there were only a few dozen Spaniards on the ship, and the Chinese outnumbered them several times, so a sentry named Pan Hewu said to everyone: "Let's just rebel directly, resist is death, if we don't resist is death, if the rebellion is successful, there may be a way to live." ”

The crowd nodded their heads one after another, and hundreds of Chinese took advantage of the night to slaughter the Spaniards on board, and the governor of Luzon was also killed. When the governor's son, Lang Lei, learned the news, he reported it to the governor of Fujian, demanding that the murderers be punished, but the Ming court did not conduct a so-called investigation and ignored it.

However, as the national power of the Ming Dynasty became weaker and weaker, not to mention Luzon, even Fujian was attacked by the Dutch and Spaniards.

Wu Dakuan vaguely understood that if they wanted to live well and live like a person in the Ming Dynasty, they must have strong strength in the imperial court.

Just when Wu Shangzhi was having a meeting with everyone, it was Xie Jinglin who visited Wu Dakuan and explained to Wu Dakuan that Dakuan was now weak in national strength and weak in soldiers, and overseas Chinese were bullied everywhere.

Now the people of the Ning Navy killed the Spaniards who were making trouble in the Zhenghe Port area, but why did the Spaniards just shout and shout to kill, instead of directly sending troops?

It is because they have 800 soldiers in Zhenghe Port, and there are more than 50 warships nearby, more than 50 warships, and hundreds of artillery pieces are their confidence, and the Spaniards can only be polite.

What if the country is strong? What if there were more warships? Does that foreigner dare to squint at you and stick to your neck? At the end of the day, it's just a word. When the country is strong, it will have everyone's status! Manila's Zhenghe port area was built by everyone, why should the Spaniards step on our heads?

Wu Dakuan relayed Xie Jinglin's words to everyone: "Let's talk about it, is this the reason? ”

"That's right, but the problem is, there aren't many officials who are good things!"

Wu Shangzhi said: "We take refuge in them, if they rush to make money, they hide when they see difficulties, they have boats, they can leave at any time, what should we do?" The big guys are all family and business, and they can't afford to save their net worth if they want to leave! ”

"That's it!"

Wu Dakuan sighed and said, "Mr. Xie told Lao Yu, let us take a look, don't make a decision yet!" ”

"Look!"

"Yes!"

"Mr. Xie said, look at what they Ning Haijun does!"

Wu Dakuan said: "Big guys have to pay attention to this time, anyway, during this time, we also bought a lot of iron from Ning Haijun, seize the time to build a military forbearance, if we really fight, we won't be tied up!" ”

When Ning Haijun was building the Zhenghe Port Area and Zhenghe Port, he purchased a large number of building materials from Chinese businessmen and hired many people to do the construction.

In fact, not to mention other people, even Wu Shangzhi and his family have a reserve of equipment that can arm five or six hundred people, and although each family is not as good as the Wu family, it can more or less arm seven or eight thousand people! ”

While he was talking, Wu Shangzhi's eldest son Wu Shichang came over and said, "Father, grandfather, I just got the news that General Cheng Shao's talks with foreigners have collapsed!" ”

"Talk collapsed!"

"Yes, it is said that the Spaniards asked them to kill people in the Ning Navy, and Major General Cheng asked them to bring two donkeys, and in front of the Spaniards, they cut down the donkeys with one sword! He also told the Spaniards that one life pays one life, and they killed two Spaniards, and they also paid for the lives of two donkeys! ”

Wu Dakuan understood that Ning Haijun had no intention of negotiating with the Spaniards at all.

In fact, it is.

Before Cheng Shi arrived in Luzon, he knew that the large force of the Ning Navy had gone to Dayuan, and it was led by Chen Dayong, although the Ning Navy had purchased Tamsui City and Zheng He Harbor from the Spaniards, but the problem was that the Ning Navy was never afraid of any enemy on land.

As far as the Spaniards were concerned, once the fight broke out, they would be the first to die.

"Now, let's see what they do!"

Now unlike in later generations, there were six highway bridges on the banks of the Bashi River, but now, there is not even a single bridge over the Bashi River, and the only way to and from the south and north banks of the Bashi River is by ferry.

Manila Bay, the Spaniard's battery on the south bank of the Bashi River.

At this time, the sirens sounded, and the sixteen batteries located in Manila, the cannons took off their gun jackets, and the guns pointed at Zhenghe Port and Zhenghe Port District, and the sixteen batteries of the Spaniards had forty-six guns, and most of them were large-caliber guns.

In fact, two-thirds of the artillery can bombard Zhenghe Port and Zhenghe Port Area, and according to the regulations, the Ning Navy is not allowed to deploy artillery in Zhenghe Port and Zhenghe Port Area, and once the two sides fight, it will definitely be the Ning Navy that suffers.

At the moment when the two sides were on the verge of breaking out, the main warships of the Ning Navy appeared on the sea surface of Manila Bay, but the problem was that in the port of Manila, only five Spanish warships were overhauled, and the other warships or armed merchant ships either ran to transport or patrolled the open sea.

At least more than 30 large warships appeared on the sea, and the naval guns of the Ning Navy were also aimed at the ports on the south bank of the Bashi River in Manila.

Juan stood on the wharf and looked at Zhenghe Port opposite with a telescope, only to see that on the wharf of Zhenghe Port, Ning Navy soldiers and soldiers accompanying the army had built bags of sand and soil into a sandbag array.

In the port area of Zhenghe Port, all the commercial streets have been empty, the shops are closed, and the population is rare.

"Listen to the Ming warships, you are not allowed to take off your gun jackets and enter Manila Bay!"

"Damn, you're all going to bombard our Zheng Hegang, and Lao Tzu still abides by the original agreement?"

Li Zhixiang scolded at the translator who came over: "Go back and tell the Spaniards and give them half an hour, if after half an hour, Lao Tzu still watches the Spaniards' naval guns aimed at Zheng He Harbor, we will treat it as a war between the Spaniards and the Ning Navy, and we will bear the consequences!" ”

Although it is said that the battery occupies a lot of advantages in the face of battleships, the question is, do the battleships of the Ning Navy need to bombard them?

There is no need at all, just like the merchant ships protected by Zheng Zhilong in the past, the battleships of the Ning Navy, which have superior power at sea, can blockade Manila, and within a month, Governor Juan will not even have whiskey to drink.

Li Zhixiang is now also afraid of beating wolves, but he understands that if he makes a compromise with the Spaniards today, he, the commander of the Ning Navy Naval Division, will be done at the end.

As the boat returned to the Manila Battery, Juan learned of the Ning Navy's request, and he turned to ask, "Gentlemen, are you ready to go to war with the Ming warships?" ”

"It will only take half a day for our battleship to come back with the news!"

"Okay, even if we can repel the Ming army with the help of warships. Have you ever thought about the future? ”

"Later?"

"That's right!"

Juan said indignantly: "We are far from home, we will not get any support in half a year, they are in Liaodong, with the speed of their ship, at most, more than a month, they can reach Manila!" ”

"What are you afraid of, we have an invincible armada!"

"Ignorance, they can build dozens of warships in a year at most, and will the Armada be able to sail to the East?"

The colony was silent.

The Spanish Empire was facing an attack from more than a dozen countries in Europa, and they were already too busy to take care of themselves, otherwise the Dutch would not have dared to be so arrogant.

Once a war is waged with the Ning Navy, it is not to say whether Manila can hold it, but the generals will definitely not be able to hold it, and the most important thing is that they will not be able to get the cheap goods of the Ming Dynasty.

To go to war with the Ning Navy, this is to get along with your own money.

While Juan was thinking, on the sea of Manila, the main battleship of the Ning Navy began to turn, and all the battleships lined up and began to move, and at the same time, they aimed their side decks at the batteries in Manila.

Once the battleship is in motion, it is very difficult for the battery to hit the target. At the same time, the Sea Shark-class and Giant Shark-class ships began to fire shells from their side guns.

"Boom Boom Boom Boom ......"

The warships of the Ning Navy fired the first round of test-firing shells, and although these 12 shells did not hit the target, the shells that fell into the sea exploded a huge column of water.

Although it was not as strong as the bomb, one of the five battleships on the dock that was being overhauled was hit, and the battleship instantly turned into a huge torch.

Juan's face changed drastically: "This group of barbarians, how dare they?" ”

(End of chapter)