Dragon Sea Empire

On the sea, there are more and more days when the southeast wind blows.This gives hope that people who go to Manila often ride this incipient southeast monsoon back home to Fujian.

Yin Feng was more anxious than anyone else. While preparing the necessary supplies for his boat, he was looking forward to the return of Fan Ying from Manila to appear on the sea.He's also training his new crew by the sea, but there's no time for weapons now.

At the beginning of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, the first batch of four merchant ships returning from Manila returned to Yuegang, Haicheng County.Yin Feng immediately sent someone to inquire about the situation.

The merchants who came back are all merchants in Chaozhou Prefecture.According to them, the Guanla people in Manila have increased the tax on Chinese residence permits, and the commercial tax has also been increased after merchant ships enter the port.A moat was dug between the Balian market area and the Intramuros, which seems to be related to the increase in the business tax of the Greeks in the Chinese area.Moreover, there are rumors everywhere in Ganla that the Chinese emperor's fleet is going to attack Luzon.

Although these businessmen returned home with enough money, the news they brought was not good news.

"According to those who stayed in Jiannei for the winter last year, after the emperor's imperial envoy came to Luzon last year, there have been more and more Ganguanla soldiers in Manila. Moreover, this year, Ganguanla people are buying ironware from Tang people everywhere. It is to build weapons to conquer the Moro people in the south, but many Tang people (Chinese) are suspicious of the intentions of the Guanlan people. The left and right are just suspicious of the fact that the Tang people have a large number of people, and they will not leave us an inch of iron, for fear that we will become the army of the Celestial Dynasty. Internal response!" A certain businessman said, picked up some Spanish silver dollars, weighed them and said, "God knows, why our emperor will have time to fight Luzon, haha. After this year, it should be fine, and the imperial army will not show up." , the Ganla people have no reason to always be wary of us. We feel that things can’t get any worse. The Ganla people won’t drive away all the Tang people. If we leave the Tang people, those Tagalog natives won’t do anything; People can't do anything except collect taxes. The Tang people are gone, so they all have to starve to death? Haha!"

Yin Feng could only respond with a bitter smile to the businessman's optimistic statement.There are too many Chinese people in Balian this year. These Chaozhou businessmen don’t have much contact with those in Quanzhou, and they don’t know the Zeng family brothers, so Yin Feng still can’t figure out the current situation of the Zeng family brothers.

It has been 10 days since Yin Feng bought the boat. Either the wind direction on the sea was wrong or a typhoon hit, and the waves were so violent that it was impossible to sail.Seeing the passing of time, Yin Feng became more and more impatient.He ran back and forth between Jinjiang Port and Quanzhou City, his complexion getting darker day by day.

The members of the Zeng family also heard some rumors. Compared with Yin Feng's warning in advance, they began to be a little inclined to believe Yin Feng's words: something will happen to Manila!However, all the businesses around did not believe it, thinking that at most it was just driving the Tang people away, which was what the Ganla people did a few years ago.

By the end of the month, more ships were returning from Manila.Someone finally brought a letter from Brother Zeng Yue: Business in Manila is average this year, and not all the goods they brought have been sold. They are preparing to spend the winter in Manila and continue to do business.This made Yin Feng very disappointed, and his anxiety level rose to another level.

The Zeng family can only be considered to have just squeezed into the range of merchants with a moderate level of wealth. Those big merchants who own ships often solicit bulk merchants to load their goods. The risk is too great.The Zeng family has not yet become such a big merchant, and his son still has to go to sea to trade in person.Zeng Ke and the others were also very anxious to pay for an adopted son this time.

But Yin Feng's anxiety is not only for his relatives and friends, but also for his own negligence.He can completely avoid the crisis of the Zeng family, but now he can only watch the tragedy happen irreversibly before his eyes.He knew that with his current strength, he could not prevent the massacre in Manila from happening, but he could not accept seeing his relatives and friends die.Moreover, the journalist's sense of justice still remains in him: although this sense of justice comes from school education and has been obliterated by social reality after stepping into the society, it still remains in Yin Feng to some extent, otherwise he would have Will not be a freelance photographer.The sense of mission and responsibility that had sunk in his heart was awakened.

He waited day and night for the wind to change, and suffered from insomnia night after night.

He didn't know that in Zeng Jing's eyes, his image was changing: he worried more about Zeng's children than anyone else, and such a person would not be heartless.She began to take the initiative to care about Yin Feng, asking about his health and well-being in a pleasant manner.It's a pity that Yin Feng is completely in the mood to pay attention to the subtle changes in her attitude at the moment.

His body that had just recovered was also on the verge of collapse, his fat body lying on the bed suddenly became thinner, his beard was unshaven, his temper became irritable, and he rarely scolded a few servant girls.

In the middle of the night, Yin Feng, who was insomnia, sat on the stone bench in the middle of the yard, wringing his hands unconsciously, staring at the dark sky in a daze.

Someone gently put a robe on him, and he squeezed a small hand and said softly: "Aren't you asleep yet, Wan..."

No, how could the fisherwoman's hands be so delicate and smooth?He turned around, startled, and quickly let go.Zeng Jing was speechless for a while, she lowered her head with a blushing face, thinking: Fortunately, it is night, this guy can't see her blushing.

The two faced each other silently for a while, the breeze blew across the yard, and the plum trees made a soft rustling sound.

Yin Feng stood up suddenly, and took out a piece of paper from his arms: "Lianger,... I don't know what you're thinking, but it's all due to fate. If I can come back from Luzon, I will definitely give you an explanation." .”

He raised his head and looked at the night sky where the dark clouds were being blown away by the northwest wind, and the moonlight haze revealed through the clouds. "The wind has changed, I have to go."

He strode to the door, and Zeng Jing, who was at a loss, took the paper in his hand with her mouth open. She watched him leave the door without looking back. Yin Feng opened his mouth from behind, but didn't say anything.

Yin Feng left a letter for Bernardo in triplicate.A servant of the Zeng family waited in Yuegang, the other was sent to Japan by a smuggler, and finally sent to Bernardo's home in Macau by land.The content is the same: I hope that Bernardo will find a way to go to Manila immediately after receiving this letter, because his life is in danger and he needs help.

The Chinese letter with the same content was addressed to Lin Xiao and Mai Dahai.

At the end of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, Yin Feng and Magaro took the short-term northwest wind and finally went to sea. The destination: Manila City in Luzon.

After all, it was too late, and the wind direction of the monsoon had begun to change.The trip to Manila, which was supposed to last up to 15 days with the wind, turned into a nightmare after Yin Feng forcibly sailed.

First, the northwest wind only blew for two days, and then the wind direction was unpredictable due to the typhoon in the Northwest Pacific.The bird ship "Fortune Star"-named for a prize-was fighting crosswinds and headwinds most of the time, sailing against the wind for several days, and almost exhausted the entire crew.At that time, although sail-powered ships could sail against the wind, the sailors had to skillfully operate the sails non-stop. No matter the east or the west, this kind of sailing against the wind could only be maintained for a short period of time. It's unbearable at all, and the ship's mast cable system will also have problems.

Just after the Fu Xing passed Taiwan Island, a hurricane hit the Fu Xing, and the compass on the ship was almost spinning.Manpower is completely unable to resist the power of nature, everyone can only look at the darkness around them, and even the old acupuncturist lost his way.

Two days later, a ship with a broken mast and lost rudder was sailing slowly on the sea, because there was a blue sea all around here, and only a little north wind was gently gliding across the sea.The needleman lowered a piece of wood from the bow of the ship to the surface of the sea, followed the direction of the flow of the wood chips, walked back and forth from the bow to the stern a few times, and finally walked almost from the bow to the stern.The captain Yin Feng looked at him with an ugly face, and the old needle master Lin Ye looked at him helplessly.

This is the traditional method of measuring the speed of a ship. People calculate the speed of the ship by following the speed of the wood chips from the bow to the stern: the current speed of the ship is almost the speed of strolling in the courtyard.Based on experience, the old needle master judged that from the point of view of the direction, the ship's position should be approaching Beacon Mountain (Kalayaan Island in the Philippines).However, there is still a vast sea around, and there is no trace of land.

For several days in a row, the Fu Xing sailed southeast at this turtle-like speed. The water and dry food on board decreased rapidly, and the crew complained.

At the same time, at a certain port in Quanzhou, Li Dan's pirate apprentice Yuan Jin returned from Manila and landed on a Zengjiahao merchant ship, bringing back a batch of silver.Yuan Jin and Zeng's servant Erzai rushed to the Zeng's compound in the north of Quanzhou City to visit Yin Feng.

The servant of Yin Feng's family told the master that he had gone to Luzon.

"Matsu Mazu bless you! Why is Brother Feng still going to Luzon at this time?" Hearing that Yin Feng had just gone to Luzon, Yuan Jin exclaimed: "I'm afraid that the people in Ganlanla are going to kill people with knives!"

Wan'er who was in the yard was shocked when she heard the words, she grabbed Yuan Jin and kept asking about the situation; when Zeng Jing came out, Wan'er's face was already pale.