Wanli 1592

Chapter 412 Preparations for the Spaniards

The nerves of the Spaniards were tense, and the abnormal actions of the Ming court made them very worried. Although the governor of the Philippines was worried about the strength of the Ming army, he did not intend to give up the Philippines, a very important eastern stronghold.

On the one hand, the Spaniards prepared for war and recalled ships and Spanish troops scattered in various parts of the South China Sea. On the other hand, they sent ships to Macau and Siam to inquire about the Ming court's movements and strive to communicate with the Ming court to avoid war as much as possible.

The situation in the South China Sea has thus become very strange, and there is a feeling of jitteriness. Many countries have analyzed the news that the Ming court may take action against the Philippines from the Ming court's movements and some "gossip" from Myanmar's trading cities.

As a result, merchant ships of some Spaniards’ regular customers in the past gradually stopped going to the Philippines to do business. This undoubtedly aggravated the worries of the Spaniards. .

In the minds of the Spaniards, one of the things they offended the Ming court was a small-scale naval battle decades ago. They killed some Ming court officers and soldiers, and then they were defeated by the Ming court, and then retreated to the big island of the Philippines. Then send troops to the inland of the Ming Dynasty in the north. The Ming court should not be in a hurry to settle this kind of old account decades ago.

Another thing is some unpleasant things that happened between them and Xiao Ruxun, the Marquis of the South of Myanmar, that is, they hid the local Chinese population and prevented Xiao Ruxun from taking away the local Chinese so as not to damage the labor force. Afterwards, Xiao Ruxun seemed to be aiming at the Philippines everywhere, grabbing business and smashing the market, and even wiped out many pirates backed by the Spaniards.

This made them very worried. They were worried that the powerful navy under Xiao Ruxun would attack them at any time, and that the Ming court would order them to be wiped out. It just so happened that a piece of news spread at this time, which aggravated the concerns of the Philippine Governor's Office.

The news is that the Emperor of China intends to occupy the Philippines!

The specific content is that the Chinese emperor intends to occupy the Philippines in order to obtain the gold here. This news was brought back by the Spaniards who came back from Macau. Specifically, it said that this news came from a Han carpenter who had lived in the Philippines for many years. He said that the Philippines had a Jiyi Mountain, on which golden beans grow spontaneously, has a large output. This information attracted the emperor of China, so the emperor of China sent people to investigate the news.

The Spaniards couldn't tell what the situation was for a while. Before the Siamese intelligence personnel returned, while stepping up preparations for the war, they also had a stronger idea of ​​seeking dialogue. They actively submitted documents to Guangdong officials through Macau, requesting dialogue. Nothing happened.

The uneasiness of the Spaniards was quickly felt by the local Chinese. In the place where they worked and lived, the number of Spanish soldiers and large Chinese merchants was obviously more dog-legged. them.

It seems that whenever there is any disturbance, they will rush over to ask questions, and even beat and arrest people indiscriminately. People of more than ten people are not allowed to gather to chat and talk about things, and they are not even allowed to squat together to eat.

Such a situation certainly aroused great dissatisfaction among the local Chinese, but at the same time they also wondered, what happened to these foreign devils, and they suddenly became like this?It feels a bit jittery...

While passing through the days of uncertainty and uncertainty, the Blackwater intelligence unit led by Zhang Wu also collected all the surrounding intelligence and quickly passed it to Xiao Ruxun for his reference.

"There is a mountain of opportunity in Luzon? Gold beans grow on it? Who spread the rumor? Who told the truth? Is it a lie? If gold can be born by itself, we still have to dig in the ground every day to eat it? what's going on?"

Xiao Ruxun asked Zhang Wu strangely.

Zhang Wu replied: "According to our analysis, this may be inseparable from the fact that Chinese sailors attacked and killed the governor of Xiyi two years ago. Of course, it dates back to when Lin Feng attacked the Xiyi stronghold in Luzon more than 20 years ago. Since then, Xiyi has been very jealous of the Chinese people and never trusts them, so the Chinese people may want to leave Luzon but cannot, so they released this news to attract people from the court."

Xiao Ruxun was silent for a while.

In the second year of Wanli, Lin Feng, a private armed leader who was active in Fujian, almost captured Manila, the capital of the Philippines, which made the Spanish colonists fearful of the Chinese.

In the 21st year of Wanli, the Philippine governor Dasmarinas went on an expedition to the Moluccas. He forced overseas Chinese to serve as oarsmen, causing dissatisfaction.

Their resistance was very fierce, and they directly killed almost all the Spaniards on board, including the governor, and then fled back to Daming by boat. After this incident, the Spaniards did not dare to go to Daming to provoke trouble, and could only vent their dissatisfaction with the Filipino Chinese. By the way Instigate a wave of anti-Chinese.

There are many Chinese who do business, farm and work hard to get rich in the Philippines. They can get along with the Spaniards in the early days. However, as the status of the Chinese improves, the number of people increases, and their influence on the Philippine economy increases, this inevitably makes the Spaniards dissatisfied. , It also made the local aborigines feel jealous. In such an atmosphere, it is not accidental that the wave of Chinese exclusion appeared.

At that time, Xiao Ruxun also received the information, intending to use this as an excuse to challenge the imperial court to clean up the Filipino and Spanish while sweeping up, but then he got the news that at the beginning of the 22nd year of Wanli, a Ming fleet led by officials from Fujian, set sail Arrived in Manila with soldiers and weapons, brought back [-] Chinese.

The fleet flaunted their power and warned the local Spaniards by the way, so that the situation calmed down. The wave of anti-Chinese did not continue, and Xiao Ruxun did not continue to insist.

But right now, these Spaniards were obviously frightened by this news, and remembered Daming's force deterrence, so they were even more frightened, maybe they would do something else.

"At present, all the energy of the imperial court is on the nine sides. The possibility of sending troops to attack Luzon is extremely low, or it is an imperial decree ordering me to send troops. Those Chinese people are too anxious to make such a foolish move. Naturally, the imperial court can't find gold and silver mountains. Back, they wanted the imperial court to send someone to pick them up, but the imperial court never valued them and did not regard them as the people of Ming Dynasty at all, how could they seek the imperial court's support?"

Xiao Ruxun shook his head.

(End of this chapter)