Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1502 Beiyang Internal Meeting (Part [-])
On July 16, the 24th year of Wanli, the express ship "Left Wing Light Cavalry" arrived at Tianjin Port.Two days later, Luo Yuan, the captain of the ship, arrived in Beijing and reported the entire expedition process to Gao Yushi face to face.Not only the battle process, but also the details of the negotiations with the Spanish colonial authorities in Manila, the withdrawal of the Spanish army from Manila, and the entry of Gao Yimin's army division to take over the city of Manila.

In the evening of the next day, Gao Wushi convened a meeting of Beijing and China Xungui in Rixin Building on the grounds of a "regular financial meeting of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance".

There is no need to elaborate on the battle report during the expedition, because a brief battle report has been sent before, and Luo Yuan mainly talked about the negotiation and the process of entering the city.However, there is nothing particularly worth mentioning about these processes themselves. On the contrary, after these, another part of Luo Yuan's report aroused everyone's interest.

Which part to report?It refers to the conclusion that Gao Zhenxin and Gao Yimin came to at the same time after comparing the information known before the war with the information obtained after the occupation of Manila. They knew why the Spaniards chose to evacuate Manila "very easily".

As we all know, during the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty sent envoys to announce the surrender of the countries in Southeast Asia. However, due to the initial determination of the world, the foreign policy was relatively negative, and the maritime ban was strictly enforced on the southeast coast.

By the time of Chengzu, the surrounding areas of Ming Dynasty were settled down, and the national power was gradually prospering due to the policy of "rest and rejuvenation". Zhu Di wanted to develop overseas and began to adopt a more open foreign policy. , At that time, the tribute trade was frequent.

From Hongwu to Yongle, in the Philippine Islands, Luzon, Hemaoli, Feng Jiashilan, Gumarailang, Sulu and other places sent envoys to China 15 times.Objectively speaking, the development of the economy and the increasing development of navigation and shipbuilding technology have also increased the influence of Ming Dynasty on the island countries in Southeast Asia, and the trade with other countries is no longer limited to the "Western" countries. The relationship between the Philippine island countries located in the "Eastern Ocean" and Daming It also became closer and more frequent, whether it was official tribute exchanges or private trade, it was better than previous dynasties.

From 1565 to 1571, the Spanish colonial expedition led by Legazpi occupied the north-central part of the Philippine island as its colonial stronghold by means of firearms and crosses. The political, economic and foreign affairs of Philippine society were directly under the control of the Spanish colonial government. However, the Spaniards still pretended to be the Kingdom of Luzon to communicate with the outside world—especially the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty knew nothing about it at that time.

As I said before, long before Spain occupied Luzon, there were already a number of Chinese settlers living here. When Gordy arrived in Manila in May 1570, "there were 5 married Chinese living in this town", but overall the number of Chinese living in Luzon at that time was still very small, "living among the natives. ".

A large number of Chinese went to the Philippines in a later period, that is, after the Spanish colonists occupied the Philippines.The reason is that shortly after the Spaniards occupied the Philippines, the trade between China and West flourished.

At that time, the local productivity of the Philippines was backward, and various products were scarce. The Spanish colonial authorities urgently needed to maintain trade relations with the Ming businessmen who came to Luzon for trade to meet local manual production, technical services and life needs. The Spanish colonial authorities also had to ensure that Manila The galleon trade in which the port served as a staging point - the basis of Manila's prosperity.

Therefore, the authorities in West Philippines adopted a friendly and kind attitude towards the Ming businessmen and handicraftsmen who came to the Philippines in the early days, "welcoming overseas Chinese to immigrate to the Philippine Islands and encouraging trade in West China".

And the coastal people in Ming Dynasty couldn't bear the domestic political situation of internal and external troubles, frequent Japanese invasion, and harsh taxation.In particular, Fujian is close to Luzon. After the "Longqing switch", the domestic chaos gradually ended. However, at that time, a new sea route from Yuegang to Luzon was opened, so a large number of local people went to the Philippines to participate in trade.After the rise of private ports, the amount of this trade has been further expanded.

The continuous development of Sino-Philippine trade has stimulated the enthusiasm of Chinese to go to the Philippines, so that the number of Chinese in the Philippines has increased greatly.The report of the Spanish governor of the Philippines, Lavisaris, mentioned in 1573: "During the two years we spent on this island (1571-1573), the Chinese sent more people and more ships every year. arrival".

At this time, the trade between the people of the Ming Dynasty and the Philippines was relatively stable, but politically speaking, the court of the Ming Dynasty had no direct contact with the authorities of the Philippines.

At this time, specifically in 1574 (the second year of Wanli), the first major event in the history of the relationship between Ming and Xifei occurred: the Lin Feng Incident.

Lin Feng, a native of Raoping County, Chaozhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province, was a famous pirate on the southeast coast of Daming from the end of Jiajing to the beginning of Wanli.In the first year of Wanli (1573), Lin Feng was besieged by the governor of Fujian Liu Raojiao and the general Zhang Yuandong, etc., and fled to foreign barbarians: "Under the guard and pursuit of the local officers and soldiers, Lin Feng was very untenable. This created Lin Feng's motivation to find a way out in the Philippine Islands."

The tribe led by Lin Feng included 2000 soldiers and 1500 sailors each, [-] women, and hundreds of farmers and technicians.In addition to weapons and food, the ships carried livestock, farm tools and seeds.

It can be seen from the personnel and items carried by the fleet to the Philippines that Lin Feng's trip to the Philippines is of an immigrant nature to a considerable extent.

In the winter of the second year of Wanli (1574), due to the suppression of the government and the pressure of the emerging Jinghua Fleet, when Lin Feng set off from Taiwan to Luzon, the Ming court knew about it.Official records: "... was chased by officers and soldiers. Feng went overseas to attack Lusong's Tortoise Harbor, built a city to defend it, and built warships to intimidate the foreigners. He tried to succeed. Liu Rao, the governor of Fujian, sent someone to tell the king of Lusong, Gather troops and attack them, the warships are burned, and the rebels are in chaos."

The "Fujian Governor Liu Raojiao sent someone to the King of Lusong" mentioned in it was the first official negotiation between Daming and Xifei.

In May 1575, Chaozhou general Wang Wanggao led two warships, set off from Quanzhou, and came to the Philippines to pursue Lin Feng.When he learned that the Western Army was besieging Lin Feng, he immediately went to Manila to meet with Xifei officials.The result of the negotiation between the two parties was that the Xifei authorities captured Lin Feng and handed it over to Wang Wanggao. In exchange, Wang Wanggao brought the Spanish missionaries back to China with the ship and demanded trade and missionary work.

In February 1576, Wang Wanggao went to the Philippines again. Firstly, Xiamen was allowed to do business with him (but not Spanish ships entered Xiamen for trade, and it was still the inherent merchants of Ming Dynasty who set off from Xiamen to the Philippines for trade), and secondly, " Lin Feng was captured alive."

When he learned that Lin Feng had escaped, he asked Governor Xi Fei to fabricate false evidence that Lin Feng was dead with him, but was rejected by the Spaniards.However, after he returned to China, he still reported falsely, that is, as Fujian officials reported to the imperial court, they said: "Prince Wang Wangao and others defeated the bandit Lin Feng in the sea with the barbarians in Lu Song, burned the boat and cut off the ranks, and the phoenix collapsed and fled. Lu Song's tribute texts and relics will be advanced."

In this way, there is also a record of this matter in the "Ming Shilu", saying that in September of the fourth year of Wanli's Xinhai, the Ministry of Rites discussed rewarding Lu Songfan for flattening Lin Fenggong.

At this point, the negotiations between China and the Philippines on the Lin Feng incident came to an end—Da Ming also rewarded the Spaniards who obeyed orders honestly and sent troops to help suppress them.

Although the matter itself seemed a bit weird and even funny, the Lin Feng incident accidentally hit the Spanish colonists' delusion of attempting to expedition to China, because "Lin Feng Zhengfei will inevitably leave an impression in the minds of the Spaniards, a person who was deported in China. The pirates still have the strength to almost capture Manila, and China's strength cannot be underestimated."

This is also the first time that the colonial rule of the Xifei authorities has been threatened by the Chinese.Henceforth, the West Filipino authorities became wary of the Chinese. The governor of the Philippines who took office in 1575 built fortifications in Manila and built fortresses in an attempt to defend them.

In the following period, China-Philippines maritime trade continued to develop, and the number of Chinese living in Manila surged.According to this, after the war, Gao Yimin learned from a missionary in Manila: "In 1584, there were dozens of large ships coming from China to the Philippines, and more than 4000 Chinese merchants followed them to the south."

According to the report of Audencia, the Supreme Court of Manila, to King Philip II of Castile before the war broke out in June this year (June 1588), it said that "the population of overseas Chinese in Manila is nearly 6, and those who are scattered in various provinces Not counting."

As the offensive of the "Invincible Fleet" was blocked (pointing to the time when many ships were burned by a surprise attack by Drake before the conquest), Spain tightened its domestic forces. The Philippine authorities felt a little panicked.

The Chinese have been several times or even ten times that of the Spaniards, and have monopolized almost all daily commercial trades. This gap has caused the West Philippine authorities to further adopt a vigilant and preventive attitude and a restrictive policy towards the Chinese in Manila.

Prior to 1582, the Xifei authorities forced all the Chinese in Manila to live together in the detention area between the north of Manila and the Pasig River, called "Palian".

Since then, the trade and movement of the Chinese have been quite restricted. From the time of Governor Langelo Peñarosa, the Chinese were conscripted into hard labor, and since then it has become a rule that whenever there are expeditions and major projects, the Chinese are conscripted. For example, the Westerners treated the serving Chinese as if they were slaves.

This situation finally sparked an incident after the Beiyang Fleet went on an expedition and gained an overwhelming advantage:
"At the beginning of July in the 16th year of Wanli (1588), the (expedition) army surrounded Manila by sea and land, and the barbarian chief Devila ordered 250 people from various residences to serve as troops to assist in the battle.

The barbarians lay down and rested, but made the Chinese patrol day and night, and when they were a little tired, they often beat them, or punished them painfully, and tasted bitterness.But the famous Pan and the five conspired and said: "Treason to death, beating to death, stabbing to death, waiting for death, otherwise you will die in battle; if you don't kill the chieftain to vent my anger, if you win, you will return your clothes to the old, that is, you will not win, and you will not die late too. '

It was agreed that in the middle of the night, he would go to bed and sneak into the governor's mansion to assassinate the chief, and the heads of the barbarians shouted loudly.Yi Chief got up in shock, not knowing what to do, Yi Wei was killed, and Yi Chief fled in his sleeping clothes, only to escape with his body. "

This internal report said: After Manila was besieged, De Villa, while negotiating with Gao Zhenxin and others, recruited 250 Chinese in the city of Manila as colonial vassals, and asked them to patrol the city defense day and night.At this time, the Spanish army should eat and sleep, while the Chinese army was often punished and worked hard, so a big brother appeared.

The leading elder brother is named Pan Hewu. He told his fellow brothers that the left is dead and the right is dead anyway. It is better to kill Devilla. It's better than being bullied like this by the Spaniards.

Apparently everyone agreed, so Pan and the five bands sneaked into the Philippine Governor's Mansion in the middle of the night, and suddenly rebelled.The guards of the Governor's Palace tried to stop them, but "all were killed"-all were killed.

Governor Devilla was of course shocked, and fled immediately in his pajamas, ignoring his aristocratic manners and gentlemanly demeanor, "only to escape with his own body."The rebel Pan Hewu and others took advantage of the chaos in the city, quietly touched a city gate, seized control of the city gate, and escaped successfully.

It's a pity that the expeditionary army was negotiating with the Spaniards at that time, and the Lu division was excavating the Bashi River to store water. It was a little far away from the city gate, and it was too late to attack the city.

This incident seriously deepened the West Filipino authorities' suspicion of the Chinese. They discussed it internally and believed that "China is a big country with a vast land and people, and it is close to the Philippines. Now it has ambitions for the Philippines. There are tens of thousands of people living here The overseas Chinese in the Philippines have come together to cooperate. This situation is really dangerous. And my Kingdom of Castile is far away in Europe. I can't do extensive immigration and confrontation with the Philippines, and I can't send a large number of troops. .”

If it weren't for the siege of land and sea outside the city, the furious Governor Devilla would almost certainly have a big cleansing of the Chinese in Manila.It is a pity that the current situation is critical. If the Chinese are purged in the city, it is very likely not only to arouse the resistance of the Chinese, but also to offend Commander Gao Zhenxin who "seems to have a very hot temper". Then the negotiation will inevitably fail, and the Spaniards in Manila will have to fight to the end .

The battle to the death sounds very bloody, but Governor Devilla is an aristocrat and a politician. He didn't want to be buried with the city of Manila, and he didn't dare to drag two or three thousand Castilians in the city to die together, and killed the captured people by the way. Two thousand Castilian sailors.

So he could only swallow the bitter fruit, and succumbed to Gao Zhenxin's "coercion and coercion".

In the negotiations, he insisted that "the Ming court must sign a peace treaty with us, and clearly recognize that the Ming court's territorial requirements for the restoration of Luzon only involve the original territory of the Kingdom of Luzon, and cannot be used outside the country's original territory." claim and claim the land.” After this incident, he no longer dared to insist.

In this way, Gao Zhenxin and Gao Yimin, who arrived later, naturally hit the snake with the stick, saying that the issue of the territorial scope of the "Kingdom of Luzon" can only be decided after the Ming side carefully checks the history. Make precise requests, and everything has to wait for domestic replies.

Is the "domestic reply" the court's reply?It's hard to say, but obviously the internal meeting of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance held today will "answer" this question.
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(End of this chapter)