Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 508 Luzon Fleet
Laizhou Bay.

Another fleet arrived, and Zhu Yihai saw many new ships.

There are even three sailing merchant ships in the fleet that arrived this time, all of which are Spanish galleons, with a tonnage of about 24, and [-] guns, of which about [-] are considered heavy artillery. This ship is already very well armed , and a team of armed guards can be brought in the cabin.

"This is from Luzon, and there are envoys sent by the Spanish governor of Luzon on board." An eunuch from the Guangzhou Maritime Department accompanied the ship. After receiving the Spanish merchant fleet in Guangzhou Port, Come with the ship.

Zhu Yihai had previously sent envoys to Luzon to meet with the Spaniards to talk about trade and the joint suppression of the Dutch.

For Daming to actively invite the Spaniards to carry out trade along the coast of Daming, the Spaniards naturally wished for it. The two parties had some private cooperation before, but it was not so official. After hearing that the Emperor of Ming Dynasty had repeatedly defeated the northern invasion of the barbarians, the Spaniards realized this. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Especially after their small stronghold in Beijilonggang, Taiwan was captured by the Dutch a few years ago, the Spaniards have lost their northward route and trade rights.

For Daming, in fact, the Spaniards in Luzon are both yearning for and fearing.

As early as the end of Longqing and the beginning of Wanli, Lin Feng, a great pirate along the coast of the Ming Dynasty, led 62 ships and more than 4000 pirates, sailed into Manila Bay, and even surrounded Manila where the governor was. After a fierce battle, Lin Feng was defeated and retreated. , still not captured, and later the Spaniards assembled armed forces to attack the northern stronghold occupied by Lin Feng, and the two sides fought fiercely.

Later, the officials of the Ming Dynasty knew that Lin Feng had fled to Luzon, so they sent officials to Luzon, summoned more than 200 local natives and [-] boats to attack Lin Feng several times in a row. Collapsed, Lin Feng escaped later.

However, the Spaniards in Luzon also had such an influence on the distant Luzon that Ming Dynasty was able to recruit soldiers in Luzon, and even execute Chinese businessmen who were involved in pirates. Those who are very vigilant.

At that time, Spain's governor in Luzon actually didn't have many people under his command, and they were mainly criminals, mercenaries, businessmen, etc., with a limited number, and they were very afraid of Ming's influence on Luzon.

Later, in the Wanli period, someone reported to the Ming Dynasty that Luzon had discovered the Jiyi Mountain Gold Mine. The Ming court sent people to inspect it. Ming officials arrived, and the Chinese in Luzon all came to visit.

At that time, there were more than 4 Chinese in Luzon, both in terms of number and wealth, far surpassing the Spanish colonists. Seeing that Ming Dynasty officials came again, and the Chinese went to see them one after another, this made them panic. They thought that the Ming Dynasty was going to rob Luzon, so although they found out that the Jiyi Mountain Gold Mine was a scam, the Ming Dynasty officials returned disappointed.

But the Spaniards began to massacre the Chinese, and finally slaughtered more than 5000 Chinese, and only a few escaped in the end.

After Spain massacred more than 2 Chinese, they were afraid that Ming would blame them, so they sent envoys to Daming to apologize, but lied that those were pirates and not good people.

But when the incident finally came to Beijing, the imperial court reprimanded Lu Song, but did not question him.

The reason is that at that time, the imperial government mainly adopted a sea ban policy. Many merchants who went to sea actually went out secretly. This kind of behavior was strictly prohibited by the imperial court. In fact, what the Central Plains dynasties opposed most was this kind of private going to sea or even moving abroad.

This is different from those countries in the West who like to colonize overseas. In the final analysis, the national model is different. Most of the time, China is a unified dynasty, which emphasizes the centralization of power. When you go overseas, it is the loss of labor force, taxes and even ruling power. It's beyond my reach, I can't control it, of course I don't want to.

Many countries in the West are small countries with fierce struggles and hard life. Even the king is actually just a leader under the feudal system, and they also focus on business, otherwise they have no money to live, so they are encouraged to go out and venture into the world. People, build a boat and pull a group of people to rob it everywhere. If they rob it back, they have to pay the lord a sum according to the rules. Of course the lord is willing to go out and rob it.

Western Europe and other countries encourage going out to colonize, and they can also invest in shares and participate in a book, and get a group of criminals, pirates, businessmen, etc. to go out for adventure or robbery.It doesn't matter even if they establish colonial strongholds overseas, because the colonies were the bases for plundering in the early days, and they couldn't leave the mother country.

The well-known East India Company, once invested by many shareholders, raised a large sum of money, and later gave generous dividends.

Under the two different systems of the Ming Dynasty and the West, it is also doomed to have different attitudes towards citizens going to sea.

For Daming, these people go outside, and they are not worthy of being called Chinese at all. Merchants are the most lowly among the four peoples. Now they are doing business and stealing outside, evading taxes, and being killed outside. Just kill them, why bother to fight for these untouchables.

Even when Lu Song beat Lin Feng, the Ming Dynasty sent people to help Lu Song.

It was you who abandoned the country, and of course the country will not stand up for you.

This kind of thinking was not only true in the Ming Dynasty, but also in the later Qing Dynasty. Who told you not to stay in China and insist on going abroad?
You deserve it!

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, these Chinese who went out did not treat them as citizens at all.

This kind of thinking is generally difficult for those colonists to understand, so the Luzon Spaniards who have slaughtered China have always been a little worried about the reckoning of the Ming Dynasty.

They had talked with Daming several times before, and they wanted to come to Daming for trade, but Daming was not interested, and he was unwilling.The Spaniard wanted to be tough, but he fought several times, but he didn't win.

Occupied a stronghold in the north of Taiwan Island. In the end, because of the ban on trade by Japan, the trade volume of this route dropped sharply.

Originally, the governor of Luzon thought of giving up, but who knew that the situation in Ming Dynasty had changed, and the emperor actually changed his policy and offered the conditions they could only dream of before.

The governor of Luzon almost laughed stupidly. After asking some Chinese businessmen to find out the specific situation there, he felt that this was a good opportunity and he must seize it.

So this time, three Spanish galleons were specially sent here, loaded with a lot of goods.

"What goods did you bring?"

"The governor of Luzon intends to sell the three ships and their cargo to the imperial court," the eunuch Chen Jiu reported.

This surprised Zhu Yihai a little.

"With the ship and the goods?"

These three Spanish galleons from the port of Manila in Luzon are all 26-ton ships. Each ship is equipped with 21 officers, 91 sailors, and [-] apprentice sailors, plus [-] handymen, and [-] sailors. Gunners, a total of [-] people, about [-] tons are allocated to one person.

In addition, there is a team of mercenaries with a total of 120 and 210 people on board. The total number of people on the whole ship is 640 and [-] people, and the three ships are [-] and [-] people.

Although these three ships are a bit old, they are still relatively strong in the southeast. Even if they are only armed merchant ships, they are still very good.

The envoy of the Governor of Luzon came down from the boat. He brought an interpreter, but he could also speak Cantonese. It is said that this Spaniard is actually a mixed race. He has been mixed for several generations. He has Cantonese Chinese blood and Luzon native blood. .

In addition to sailors and mercenaries, there were also some passengers on board, most of whom were Chinese businessmen who had been in Luzon for a long time. This time they also came to meet the emperor to discuss trade.

The envoy paid homage to the emperor and sent a list of the goods in the cabin and the list of people on board.

There are a lot of goods.

Mainly guns, artillery, silver ingots, copper ingots, cotton cloth, spices, etc. Among them, silver and copper mainly come from the New World, spices come from Nanyang, and guns and artillery are all directly produced in Luzon.

The governor of Luzon even planned to sell the cargo of the three ships to Zhu Yihai.

Even the sailors and mercenaries on the ship can be hired by Zhu Yihai together.

Those sailors and mercenaries lined up ashore.

There are some red-haired and yellow-haired Europeans, as well as black and thin Nanyang people and even Africans. Of course, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. are indispensable. This is a mixed force, but it is also the fleet of the Nanyang sea these years standard.

Even Fujian Zheng's fleet is basically like this, with people of all colors mixed together.

Zhu Yihai looked at the offer made by the governor of Luzon, and he offered a very high price, which was like a lion's mouth.Let’s just say that their guns are no better than those made in Macau by Portugal, but the price is half as expensive.

These three ships, which already have a sense of heavy history, also set high prices.

But Zhu Yihai didn't rush to refuse.

In fact, there are quite a few ships that came with the Luzon ships this time, including those from Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In addition to some merchant ships and supply ships, there are also some newly launched warships.

There are still many shipyards along the coast of Daming. Zhu Yihai drove the Tatars back to Jiangbei, which can be regarded as a stable coast. Not only did the shipbuilding industry not suffer much impact from the war, but it became more and more popular due to the increasing demand.

Orders from the court and the private sector have increased significantly, and even Zhu Yihai has built many large shipyards through integration.

Now the Royal Dockyard is also starting to build sailing warships.

However, shipbuilding has a cycle, especially for some new-type ships, and it is not easy to integrate a new industrial chain.

Most of the new ships launched and delivered from various places are old-style ships, which are relatively small, and they are fine for temporary use, but they are not enough for long-term development, especially to satisfy the Ming Navy and even form a real navy.

The three old Luzon ships, whether they are expensive or not is not the point. The key point is that the sale is the first of its kind, and there will be more avenues for this piece in the future.

Invite the messenger into the star castle.

The envoy came from Manila, and he had also been to Mexico and Peru in the New World, and he had also been to Spain, Britain and France in Europe, and had seen the powerful men of this era.

But when Zhu Yihai told the envoy that he designed this star castle by himself and built it in only half a month, he was still shocked.

This star fortress is not big, but with the surrounding defenses, its defense capabilities are already very strong, especially the combination of turrets, artillery, water villages, etc. The Ming country they despise.

(End of this chapter)