Lu Ming

Chapter 195
The people on the Alicante are all first-timers.

Due to the headwind, the speed of escorting the team was very slow, and they returned to Dayuan at noon the next day.

Originally, it was necessary to travel overnight, and the method was very simple: send a navigator with a walkie-talkie on board the Spanish ship, and then turn on the navigation lights of the front ship.This method can be implemented as long as the weather conditions permit and there is no wind and rain.

Later, I still considered that doing so would expose my ability to fight at night, so the destroyer captain, who had not been authorized in this regard, decided to spend the night before leaving.

Since the Spaniards established a stronghold in Taipei, they have been harassed by Dutch armed sailboats from time to time.The Dutch not only sent ships to Jilong Bay to harass and shoot, and made tentative landings, but also intercepted all Spanish ships near Dayuan.

Later, the Spanish transport ships only passed by the outer islands of Taiwan, so they were not very clear about the situation in the strait, let alone the evil axis of Dayuan Island.

Although Second Lieutenant Sandoval had heard some sporadic rumors from the Philippines about the withdrawal of the Dutch from the army before this, but these were all unconfirmed news and not enough for him to make any judgments.

In fact, when the second lieutenant saw the two streamlined soft-sail destroyers, he even thought that the captain was still in the hands of the Dutch: the earliest two-masted schooner was invented by the Dutch.

Looking around, there is not a single red hair or yellow hair on the Chikan Wharf where there are many people.The entire quayside is full of short inventors of one water.

By this time, the poor Spaniard finally recognized the fact that the Dutch had been driven out by these heretics.

O God, we have fallen into the hands of the heathen.The terrible news spread throughout the ship in an instant.

You know, the Spaniards in this time period are all loyal Catholics.

The 10-year war that started 30 years ago is now in full swing on the land of Europe, and it is impossible to stop.

The loyal partners of the Habsburg dynasty: the Spanish royal family, nobles, and Spanish people are the mainstay of the Catholic League.

Therefore, the pie-faced people know the horror of heretics better than anyone: because for hundreds of years, they are the ones who have invented all kinds of terrible tortures to deal with heretics.

This fear of the unknown even overwhelmed their surprise along the way.The crew watched all kinds of strange and bizarre scenes in the Taijiang River in silence, and no one shouted.

The Alicante, which was parked alone on a pier, soon waited for the disposition of the heretics.

A few dock officials in khaki linen shirts, linen trousers, and straw sandals boarded the galleon.

These black-haired and yellow-skinned people have Spanish-speaking translators, so the four-person team, including the second lieutenant Sandoval himself, the first mate, the navigator, and the priest Josep on board, was ordered from the beginning I got off the boat, boarded a beautiful boat not far away, and sailed to the other side of the Taijiang River.

The other sailors were ordered to stay on deck, not allowed to disembark, and not allowed to return to the cabin.

No one dared to disobey the orders of these heathens.

Not to mention the team of soldiers with mahogany guns on the pier, the newly built red brick and concrete gunhouses in the Chikan Wharf area have also made any force that has had close contact with heavy machine guns lose the confidence to resist: the Spaniards are turning When entering the port, I finally saw the big killer on the Yuandou from a close distance.

The only person on board who was allowed to step down was Gomez, the purser.His task was to work with the black-haired port officials to count the few cargoes in the hold.

After the registration of all the goods was completed, the officials conveniently sealed off the gun ports of several artillery pieces.After returning to the deck, everyone left, leaving only the interpreter to tell the purser: the sulfur in the cabin is now being requisitioned.

After hearing this sentence, the second mate, the purser and the boatswain, who had the highest positions on the deck, looked at each other, and immediately began to drive the sailors away, carrying out the 20 bags of sulfur in the cabin, and stacking them neatly On the pier outside the ship.

The translator who kept the size of the board was very satisfied. He smiled at this time, and then under the watchful eyes of everyone, he took out a bag of shredded tobacco, and a crude green-oka wood pipe that was obviously cut by an apprentice with a woodworking lathe, and began to lean on the On the side of the Alicante, smoking a pipe.

Seeing this situation, the purser bowed in front of the translator a little nervously: "Dear sir, I think we have the right to know what will happen next."

While looking at the towers of the shipyard in the distance, the translator let out a puff of second-hand smoke leisurely, and then said with a narrow expression: "The next step is labor, or do you think there is rum to drink?"

"Oh, God!" cried the sailors miserably.At this moment, they thought of those pagan slaves who worked their whole lives in Christian sugar cane fields.

Fortunately, the interpreter was only trying to scare them temporarily. Soon, he pointed to a string of wooden carts approaching from far to near on the pier, and said with a smile: "The labor is here, let's move the goods, gentlemen."

The sailors began to move the red bricks from the cart into the hold with a look of surprise on their faces.The Pie Faces are in a state of extreme confusion now, they don't know who the goods are for, many people even think that these heretics have confiscated the ships, and everyone is experiencing the first day of slavery.
Hundreds of red bricks on 10 small carts were moved quickly, and then dock workers wearing moon white waistcoats pulled away the sulfur with small carts.

This kind of single-person trolley has the same shape as the tin trolleys on construction sites in later generations. They are all square buckets, a pair of large wheels, and two poles at the rear.It's just that except for a layer of iron on the axle and the outer ring of the wheel, the rest are made of wood.

In the absence of rubber, the material of the wheel can only be wood at present.The quality of the wheels produced in the kiln area is still good: the two semicircular wooden wheels after steam fumigation are first riveted together by the spokes, and then the outer rings are covered with hot iron rings. After emergency cooling, the iron rings shrink, A pair of wheels with the principle of "body self-tightening" was born.

At present, the wheels used by the entire crossing forces, except for a few imported solid tires, are all manufactured through this process.As for the effect, at least on the concrete floor of the dock area, the trolley with iron rings is quite practical, and it runs fast.

Therefore, the sailors on the Alicante did not rest for long, and the car came again.This time, the car was loaded with "box-type cement" which is very popular in Hangzhou's business circle: a camphorwood box filled with cement sacks.

In the age of sail, water leakage in the cabin is almost one of the unavoidable problems, so valuable goods in this era need to be wrapped layer by layer.The gift boxes that were opened layer by layer on the later generations of Riman originated from this: without such packaging, the precious silk fabric would be soaked in sea water after getting it.

"Box cement" is also born out of this.It's just that the wooden box shipped today is a finished camphor wooden box with iron sheets and corners produced by the kiln area.

Those skilled painters, coppersmiths and carpenters in Hangzhou will dress up the semi-finished wooden boxes as copper-skinned corners, copper animal handles, and exquisitely lacquered high-quality furniture.However, Manila in 1628 was a rural place where even groceries had to be imported from Daming, so the wooden boxes shipped today are all simple-style finished boxes.

The bewildered people began to move the wooden boxes to the cabin again.

After that, the trolley brought fine china, delicate cotton cloth, beautiful silk, and some glass tableware.

At this time, Comrade Translator had already turned into an accountant, standing at the hatch, checking the cargo with the chief purser.

When everything was over, the translator asked the purser to sign the triplicate manifest, and then said the truth loudly with a smile: "These goods are samples to be taken to Manila, gentlemen, you can leave tomorrow here."

Ignoring the weeping sailors, the interpreter took another person away before leaving: "Has anyone here ever learned the art of building walls with mud?"

"Sir, my father was a mason."

"Very well, what's your name?"

"Andres Iniesta Jr., sir."

"Come with me to the dockyard now. By tomorrow morning, you must learn how to use cement. Luckily for you, boy, the big shots in Manila will be asking you to visit soon."

While the sailors were working hard to move the goods, Sandoval's team, who was taken to the temporary office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Dayuan Island, was arguing with Cai Feiming.

Comrade Cai Feiming sold luggage in Barcelona back then, so he speaks Spanish very fluently.

When Comrade Second Lieutenant and several other high-level staff came to the office, Cai Feiming quickly explained the intention of crossing the forces to these prisoners.

First: Trading rights for castles.

From now on, Dayuan Port is open to the Philippines, and Spaniards can freely buy goods here.

While handing the second lieutenant a catalog of goods, Cai Feiming told him that a batch of goods was being loaded into the cargo warehouse of the Galen ship.These goods will be taken back to Manila by the second lieutenant as a trade sample and presented to Governor Juan Nino de Tabora to show the sincerity of the high officials.

At the same time, Cai Feiming told the second lieutenant: As the price for obtaining trade rights, the Spanish side must transfer the city of San Salvador, which was built in Jilong Bay, Taipei, to the powerful forces in the shortest possible time.

As for the city of Santo Domingo, which is under construction at the mouth of the Tamsui River, Cai Feiming said openly: We are not interested in it.If you want, you can completely move your soldiers and belongings there, and we will be good neighbors in the future.

In addition, Cai Feiming also promised: If the agreement is reached, the Spanish ships can start directly from Dayuan in the future, take a shortcut in the strait, and go to the mouth of the Danshui River to complete the supply task.The Spaniards can even outsource the supply tasks to the big staff, and everyone can talk about these.

(End of this chapter)