Wanli 1592

Chapter 410 The Imperial Ship

For Catholicism, Xiao Ruxun really does not have any trust and expectations. They are in cahoots with the Spanish government, and they don't know what kind of results they will come up with to play hide-and-seek with Xiao Ruxun, but Xiao Ruxun knows very well that the bishop alone It is absolutely impossible for Matteo and Ricci to persuade the Philippine government to release people. They must have other plans and ideas to prevaricate themselves.

France and Genoa are currently enough to protect China's commercial interests in Europe, so they signed a commercial alliance with them, bound the relationship with them, and maintained this profit together. After that, Xiao Ruxun arranged the specific matters to Yuan Huang, Let him arrange the supply to Europe, Xiao Ruxun has other things to do.

The spies returned from the Philippines with very important news.

Three years ago, after the pick-up fleet came back from the Philippines, Xiao Ruxun had the idea to put his own people inside the Philippine islands and mix with the local Chinese groups in order to obtain effective intelligence and spy on the Spanish authorities. The military strength and the number of local indigenous servants and so on.

These spies selected from the most trustworthy personal guards directly under him in the Ningxia headquarters were Xiao Ruxun's earliest intelligence forces.

The number of people was only 30 at the beginning, and they were carefully selected among the cronies of the Ningxia headquarters. The leader was Zhang Wu, a fellow of Xiao Ruxun, and a family private soldier who followed from his hometown. He was 27 years old and was a deputy captain in the personal guard. , being very careful and cautious, Xiao Ruxun asked him to pick [-] of the most reliable members of the personal guards to form the initial intelligence force, which Xiao Ruxun personally named Black Water.

At first, the work of these 30 people was only responsible for infiltrating into the Philippines to investigate the location of the Chinese and the intelligence of the Spanish armed forces. After the 30 people returned and the 50 people returned, Zhang Wu explained to Xiao Ruxun that these people had recruited two people from the Chinese community in the Philippines. Ten young and strong volunteers to assist the army to attack the Philippines on the grounds that the Chinese there are being abused by the Spaniards and Chinese big merchants.

The group of people that Xiao Ruxun could not take away before were hidden in other deep mountains and old forests to engage in heavy physical labor such as logging and mining. Life is worse than death. Those who escape will be killed, and those who are passive and sabotage will also be killed. Lose.

Moreover, most of the people who killed them were the lackeys of those big Chinese merchants. The Spaniards watched the show from the sidelines and rarely did anything. This made Xiao Ruxun even more resentful.

After that, Xiao Ruxun expanded the Blackwater Force to 100 people, sneaked into the Philippine islands in batches, drew a map of the Philippines, put it in his combat conference room, and collected geographical and hydrological data of the Philippines bit by bit.

Not only did they collect population data, but they also collected data including the distribution of Philippine military forces and naval ships.

This time it is another routine reconnaissance mission. Zhang Wu, who came back from the Philippines, has brought back the latest information. The map of the entire Philippine island and the distribution of military power and population are almost completed, and the preparations for attacking the Philippines are almost ready. Now it depends on the timing. up.

Xiao Ruxun personally met Zhang Wu who returned from the Philippines.

"Zhang Wu, yes, you did a good job."

Xiao Ruxun looked at the maps and hydrological data brought back, and patted him on the shoulder very happily: "Reward! A huge reward! All the spies under your command will be rewarded. With these materials, I am very grateful to those foreigners. The confidence will be much greater, and it will be much easier to clean them up, you did a good job!"

Zhang Wu smiled, expressed his happiness, and then told Xiao Ruxun a very important news.

"Shiro, this time we went to Luzon, as before, we contacted the Chinese people there, and got a lot of information. I think there is a piece of information here that is very important."

Xiao Ruxun raised his head and looked at Zhang Wu: "Say."

"On May [-]th, several official ships from Daming arrived in Luzon. They went to the island to find some people and asked some questions. They stayed for almost half a month before they all returned to Daming."

Xiao Ruxun showed doubts.

"Official ship?"

"Yes, the official ship, and I heard that they are people from the palace, because there are eunuchs in the crew, and the person who gave us the news happened to be sent to serve those people from the palace at that time. If they dare to stop them, they will send someone to wait on them to find out information.

The information from the investigation is that the purpose of those official ships coming here is to find mountains of gold, silver, and copper. It is said that there are rumors in Ming Dynasty that there are mountains of gold, silver, and copper in Luzon Island. "

Xiao Ruxun blinked, and asked doubtfully: "You have been in Luzon for so long, have you heard that there are mountains of gold, silver, and copper? Myanmar has them, and Japan also has them, but if there are in Luzon, why don't I know? Luzon is most famous for spices, not gold?"

Zhang Wu replied: "I think it's the same. The local people in Luzon have never mentioned the legend of Jinshan. How did the court know? We have no reason to know the news that the local people don't know? There should be something in it. What a trick, the imperial court will not send people to Luzon for no reason, if it is really for gold and silver, then who gave the imperial court the news?"

Xiao Ruxun thought for a while, but still couldn't understand.

"When we beat Japan back then, Japan had a lot of gold, silver and copper, and now they are all under our control. Where is Wu Weizhong watching, but why did gold and silver appear in Luzon again? If it appears, it will be me If you know it first, how did the imperial court know it? This is really incomprehensible! Japan has mountains of gold and silver, so there are no people in the imperial court who think that Luzon also has mountains of gold and silver, right?"

Zhang Wu shook his head and said, "It seems that those foreigners are also very confused about this matter. I heard from our informant that those foreigners seem to be very nervous, and they are all discussing the official ships of Ming Dynasty and the eunuchs in the palace. What are you doing, it seems that a few ships have been sent to Macau to inquire about news recently, and a few ships have also been sent to Siam to inquire about our news, but I don’t know what’s going on.”

"The imperial court is short of money again? This is not enough, right? Leaving aside so much silver in Japan, we pay tribute to the imperial court with [-] jin of copper every year. No matter what happens, we will not run out of money, right? A few million taels of silver are not enough for the imperial court to squander. ? You’re in such a hurry to look for gold and silver everywhere, so what’s the matter?”

Xiao Ruxun was puzzled, and Zhang Wu had no clue here, so Xiao Ruxun could only order Zhang Wu and the others to continue to inquire about the news about the Philippines. He would be the first to be notified of any news, and he didn't care much about the rest.

After signing the treaty with the French and the Genoese, he would also arrange for ocean-going caravans and translators to go to Europe to do business.

(End of this chapter)