Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1474 Vanity at Sea
Andrade couldn't laugh.A few minutes ago, he was still sitting on the comfortable sofa in the stern cabin, sipping cool and delicious Mojito, thanking the count for providing such a comfortable way to send himself to the shipyard, saving him from the pain of driving along the coastal road for a long time.The count, however, shifted the subject of the conversation to the Malay brigands who worked for the Dutch and threatened the security of the colony.

The more he spoke, the more he became emotional and filled with righteous indignation, "Do you know what I will do when I meet these strangers? I will crush them like a bug!" Andrade was dragged out of the cabin by the count without even being able to say a word. on deck.The ship's bell rang sharply, and a group of sailors rushed up from under the deck hatch like a swell. Their uniforms were neat, and their movements were fast but not messy at all.The captain who seemed to be Japanese or Chinese roared and gave orders in a strange language. After a while, the short cannon on the bow had been unloaded and loaded with ammunition. With a sudden retreat, the flowering shot hit the calm sea and the waves rolled, as if boiling.

From the ringing of the ship's bell to the ejection of the cannon, Andrade estimated that there were only two or three minutes.The earl was holding a pocket watch that was much smaller and more delicate than a Nuremberg egg. The treasurer followed his gaze and raised his neck to look over. The sail had already fallen partly, revealing the mast reinforced with iron hoops and the huge mast plate. Already standing full of armed sailors, armed with muskets, ready to snipe any possible target at any time.

Before the Esmeralda returned from Bopu the last time, it had already replaced its guns during maintenance at the Naval Shipyard.The 68-pound Caron gun on the bow was replaced with a lighter 48-pound gun, and the saved weight was used to add three or four cannons to the two battle masts to replace the typewriter.These weapons were either dismantled and hidden in the bilge according to Weiss's order, or wrapped tightly under the tarpaulin cover.Even just a live ammunition shot from a 48-pound Caron cannon is impressive enough.A group of sailboats that were heading towards the front of the yacht were frightened by the shelling, turned their rudders in a panic, and went straight to hide in the depths of Manila Bay.Weiss found that the ships were of different sizes. The largest seemed to be one or two hundred tons. They were all Junk ships, but they were hung with European square sails and jib sails on the masts.Looking through the binoculars, there is a red Burgundy cross flag flying on the top of the mast.

"What a strange ship, it looks so interesting." The earl handed his binoculars to the treasurer.

"That's Mr. Delgado's boat," Andrade said. "He always buys old boats from the Chinese that are about to be scrapped, and those one-off trading boats - all used and not dried. Made of high-quality timber, it can be loaded and shipped with a little repair, which is very cheap, if you don't count the goods that sank to the bottom of the sea with the decaying planks. A few years ago, Mr. Delgado was the richest man in the colony. Shipowner, but now he is far from Mr. Sanabria."

"A wonderful businessman, what kind of treasure will be loaded on his ship?"

"Let me think about it, such a ship can only approach the sea route between the islands." The financial officer raised his binoculars again: "It seems to come from the Visayas, and the ship should be loaded with corn."

"corn?"

"Your Excellency's order," Andrade made a helpless gesture, "he ordered the corn and sweet potatoes produced there to be transported from Visayas, and he even planned to exchange the rice grown in Luzon for these things."

"Hell, if I gave my soldiers corn instead of bread and rice for supper, they'd rebel. Corn, sweet potatoes, those things are good for horses."

Andrade agreed sincerely, "This is a terrible practice, really, and now we have to send ships to Siam or Malacca to buy rice. We still have to give rations to those Japanese, and they will never eat it." Corn."

"Could it be that there are a lot of Japanese here? Mr. Salamanca still needs to care about their rations?" The count casually responded, put down his binoculars, and called the orderly: "Bring up the drinks."

"At most, there were more than 3000 people. With their families, they gathered into several small villages and towns near Manila. They were all devout Christians. It was they who formed the volunteer team to fight side by side with His Majesty's soldiers 30 years ago. Putting down the riots started by the Chinese is really horrible."

"These good people are likely to be less and less. The Japanese emperor and the ruling general have issued an order to prohibit the people from leaving the country." The earl poured rum mixed with sugar and fruit juice into the glass with his own hands, and the treasurer took a few sips After drinking it, he smacked his lips in satisfaction.

"There's more than half of the people who can serve, and these poor believers are not doing well. They can only make a living by serving as soldiers-some people have to serve cheese goods or other god-knows what. Christians go to serve as soldiers." Andrade held an empty glass, watching eagerly to see if someone would pour him another glass of wine, and the earl's attendants immediately satisfied his request.

"Dear Earl, you must know that there are less than 700 European soldiers in Manila. We spend money every year to recruit poor people to enrich the army. But half of them will be thrown into the sea on the way, and the rest will arrive at various duty stations. Another half died, and the rest were too sick with fever and dysentery to fight. No company has ever been able to fill up—let alone three companies that must be sent to Baguio to guard the gold mines. Only by digging out the gold can more troops be recruited. At the same time, more soldiers are needed to guard the military factories and shipyards. Lord Salamanca believes that the only way at present is to recruit Japanese soldiers again, not as volunteers, but in the colonial army form new companies and train them with firearms."

"Even if they are recruited, a significant number of them are too old to be in the military."

"Yes, you are right. But the governor has no choice. There are only so many Japanese in the Philippines. Even if we recruit all the healthy men among them, it will be difficult to expand enough troops." Ender Rudd sighed, "And we've got competitors."

"Competitors?"

"Australian pirates on Hainan Island, their agents are recruiting Japanese throughout Asia to serve as mercenaries - well paid. Even in the Philippines there are Japanese going to join them."

"It's disgusting!"

"Who says no, the Australian pirates are so powerful and rich that their ambitions are so great that they want to invade China." Andrade looked worried, "I heard that they have killed the Chinese pirate king, Annexed his fleet. God forbid, it's a good thing they're content with looting a few Galleons in the Philippines instead of trying to plunder the colonies in Manila. Otherwise, I'm afraid we won't have enough time to raise resources for a new army."

"I believe His Royal Highness will entrust the task of training the new army to the best Japanese immigrants in Manila."

"No, not Paul, Lord Salamanca never saw that man as a Japanese, but as a messenger and savior sent by God. When he came, the financial and security crisis facing the colony was like ice and snow under the scorching sun." disappeared like a ghost," Andrade leaned back against the gunwale, trying to stabilize his body on the deck that began to shake as the wind intensified, and the alcohol seemed to have begun to play a role: "And Mr. Paul is very busy, he didn't Working day and night, eating and lodging in the factory, constantly asking the governor, more craftsmen, more coolies, more iron, copper and wood, more saltpetre. But so much How many years later, what did he show us? One expedition exhausted the rockets and shells produced. At present, the average spiral rifled cannon can only be allocated two cone shells. Of course, Mr. Paul will face St. Like swearing, newer machines are about to be completed, and new shells will be produced by the hundreds, like mushrooms popping up in the woods after the rain! I hope the gold dug out of Baguio can afford that many shells. "

"Then the person in charge of supervising and commanding the Japanese company is—"

"Lucky Captain Pilar. Ah, help!"

The Cavite Peninsula is already in sight.Across the blue-black rocks, you can see the high and low masts scattered behind the headland, and the sails that have not been lowered.For many large ships that have a deep draft and cannot sail into the Pasig River, Cannacho Bay behind the headland is a good sheltered anchorage.The wind direction began to change at this time, and it became stronger and stronger. The yacht was taken away from the usual course by the strong wind, and the helmsman turned a compass point to the upwind direction to avoid a cluster of reefs in the channel.No one expected that a large four-masted Galeon suddenly sprang out from behind the headland, and the Esmeralda made a half-circle to avoid the tragedy of colliding with the ship.If the earl's sailors hadn't reacted to hold him up in time, Andrade would have rolled on the steeply tilted deck, which would be too embarrassing for a colonial official who came from a peninsula noble. .

"Hey bastard, what are they trying to do?"

A cloud of white smoke billowed from the poop of the Grand Galen, and the rumble of cannon echoed off the churning water.

"It was an empty cannon, probably trying to warn us to stay away." Andrade walked over with the support of the sailor, and found that the count was staring at the Galen ship.The yellow and red cross of Burgundy on its masthead was dazzling, and it was a size larger than the other ships.Another banner is exaggeratedly embroidered with a griffin perched on a castle.

"It's the coat of arms of Don Sanabria," Andrade deliberately avoided the word "arms." "It's not the Mercury, it's just one of his merchant ships, probably from Goa or Koroman Del Coast is back."

(End of this chapter)