Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1480 Manila Arsenal
Ordinary white citizens and businessmen in Manila did not like the newly erected munitions factory on the outskirts of the city at first, except that the governor invested all the money collected through monopoly laws and special taxes into this project that was of no benefit to them. its own reasons.Factories were a frightening novelty to the colonists far from Europe, and no place in the whole of the Philippines hit so many machines and furnaces, the banging of metal, the non-stop drilling and planing of various tools chisel.The continuous noise made the Spaniards in the city of Manila nearly ten kilometers away unable to avoid complaints, because they could no longer restore the sleepy cleanliness of the past.The large number of recruited pagan Chinese and local aborigines gathered around the factory gave the Spaniards all kinds of illusory anxieties, and people often mentioned the "threat of thousands of barbarian workers."

Another terrifying rumor has recently circulated in colonial European circles that the fanatical priest Paul is manufacturing a terrible new explosive in the factory, which is so powerful that it only takes a small bag to level an entire city.This is not just a rumor, sometimes dull explosions can be heard in the direction of the arsenal, like thunder on the horizon.Others claimed that at night they could see bullock carts loaded with broken limbs coming out of the factory and secretly buried in the wilderness.

Saburo Aisui leaned lazily against the simple sentry shed made of waste wood and straw, facing the avenue leading to the factory workshop, but he was unaware of the fate of being blown to pieces at any time.The head of this former Ashgaru group came to Luzon partly because of their faith, and partly because of the delusion of going overseas to make a fortune. Unfortunately, Ukon-sama and Naito-sama died of illness one after another.After years of suffering from hunger and full meals, Saburo Aisui's dream of getting rich has long since vanished.However, it is much more comfortable to serve as a sentry for the Governor of Nanman than to bend down to go to the fields by himself. He figured that he would be able to eat every meal.Although the Nanman people are not very generous, they only send some rice and dried fish as salary, plus the taro and vegetables planted by his Tagalog wife in front of and behind the house, is it enough to feed a family of four? problem.Next time, if you can switch to greasy work such as guarding tax cards next time, you might be able to make some small money. Go to a small restaurant opened by the Parian Chinese to drink a few cups of Tuba wine made with coconut milk and enjoy a plate of roasted wine. pork.The taste of fat and delicious pork seems to be lingering on the tip of his tongue.Aisui Saburo leaned against the wooden pillar of the sentry shed and fell into happy meditation, smiling, with his mouth half open, saliva flowing down the corners of his mouth, flowing into a small river on his face darkened by the tropical sun.

"Hey," Saburo Aisui was startled by the loud greeting before he came back to his senses. He saw the captain Juhei Kuroshima standing in front of him talking to him. An Gang killed someone, and had no choice but to flee to Manila. "Aisui-kun, be decent. Are you thinking wildly again when you are on guard?" Jubei stretched his finger forward: "A carriage is coming."

If you were in Madrid or Seville, people wouldn't even bother to take a second look at this simple, crude two-wheeled carriage.It was drawn by listless, stunted China ponies, and its unpainted log body had nothing but a tarpaulin awning.But in the Philippines, where horses are more expensive than people, bullock carts transporting wood and iron parts come and go in the factory area.A carriage, even riding in the simplest carriage is a symbol of dignity.

Aishui Saburo stepped forward to meet the carriage, holding the iron cannon in front of his chest, but the hammer was not pulled to the ready position, it is best not to scare the nobles in the carriage, he thought.The Nanman made new iron cannons very neatly, saving the troublesome and dangerous matchlock.Bite open the abaca paper-wrapped Zaohe and stuff it into the gun barrel, put a small round copper cap on the fire door, pull the hammer back, and the projectile will fly out as soon as the trigger is pulled.

Aisui Saburo, who is familiar with Japanese-style iron cannons, was not used to this new gadget when he first got it. He accidentally misfired many times on the training ground, which made the Nanman chief lose his temper, and he was often called "three by the captain" Pentax gives".

Although this new invention has outstanding performance, very few people use this new weapon. The reason is that there are very few small copper caps that the arsenal can manufacture, and the production is intermittent, and the supply cannot be stable. Only a small amount of new equipment is equipped. Japanese company.For the local Spanish garrison, the bulky arquebus is still their main weapon.

Unexpectedly, it was not some southern barbarian lord who got out of the hood, but an "Indio man", although he was wearing a hip-length "barong" with silk carvings like a native squire, Following the example of the southern barbarians, he carried a short staff in his hand to show his style.But by virtue of the white-edged wrinkles on his face that were blown by the sea wind, the exposed skin covered with dark brown sunburn, and the swiftness with which he jumped off the carriage, anyone could recognize this man. He is a veteran of making a living at sea.

"What is this old seal barking?" Saburo Aisui wondered.During his life in the Philippines, he had already learned Tagalog and Pampanga, he could also speak Spanish, and he could barely understand Hokkien and Cantonese.The Filipino sailor spoke words similar to the several languages ​​he knew, but he could not fully understand them.

The sailor seemed impatient with the chicken-to-duck conversation. He reached out and took out a piece of paper and shook it at the Japanese soldiers.Although Saburo Aisui couldn't recognize a few Latin letters, the pattern of the emblem of Manila City printed on the paper and the bright red governor's seal covered with wax paint waved in front of his eyes for a long time, and he finally understood.He looked at Captain Hei Dao who had gone away, then at the carriage that only noble people could ride, and finally put down the iron cannon and waved his hand.The carriage shook and drove towards the factory area.Aishui Saburo returned to the sentry shed, and soon fell into a daydream about roast pork.

Fernando Marcos leaned in the seat under the hood, and after struggling with the Japanese, he felt that it would take a lot of effort to say a word.There is nothing more tiring than trying to explain who you are and what you do to the world.

In another time and space, Marcos had spent more than 20 years as a sailor on various illegal ships, and at one point he considered himself a lucky man.Whether the smuggling boat he was driving was detained by the South Korean coast guard; or the smuggling boat he was on encountered an armed patrol ship of the Russian border guards and was shot by machine guns so that he almost took him to meet the Sea Dragon King, at least until the end I saved my life.But he never dreamed that fate would play a big joke in such an ingenious way, throwing him and everyone on the Mackerel into a strange world that has not been fully understood yet.When the lifeboat they were in was overturned by the wind and waves and fell into the sea, Marcos almost thought he was going to die. Fortunately, he and Aquino, the engineer on the Mackerel, soaked in seawater for a long time, and finally lost consciousness when he was about to lose consciousness. He was rescued by an Anhai ship bound for Zhongzuo.Zheng Zhilong and his men at first regarded the two Filipinos, who were dressed strangely and could not even tell their origins, as spies of the Dutch, and later as accomplices of the robbers.The two unfortunates were thrown into a water dungeon, and after a series of tortures, it was finally concluded that they were nothing more than two rambling half-lunatics, neither harmful nor very useful.

If Fernando Marcos has heard of what is called "the skill of slaying the dragon", he will understand with empathy that this allusion in Chinese is a vivid portrayal of his own situation.The Zheng family had no GPS or Roland navigation station for him to use, no diesel engine or other power equipment for Aquino's care and maintenance, and they knew nothing about the work on a seventeenth-century Chinese sailboat, and they were not even qualified as sailors. .These two unlucky ones who were of no use to the Zheng family were forced to become the most humble slave laborers, doing coolie chores under the whip of the supervisor. From time to time, some people used their chrysanthemums to experience "exotic customs".The inhuman torture continued over the years, and Aquino became weaker and weaker, and finally died of malaria.If Hale found out and redeemed Manila because the cannon foundry was not built in the center left, Marcos must have followed in his footsteps in a short time: because of one or another reason, he died of exhaustion, and his body was thrown with a stone. Into the sea, let the fish and shrimp slowly gnaw into bones.

The sound of the water wheel creaking and the sound of metal and various blunt instruments colliding and beating each other was getting closer and closer, pulling Marcos out of his terrifying fantasy about his future.The factory building has a wooden door open, and the products and semi-finished products of the factory are listed in the open space next to the door wall.Marcos peered under the hood, where a row of cannon barrels gleamed blue.These are bronze cannons recently dismantled from various fortresses in Manila and Galen ships, polished and washed, re-milled with a hydraulic milling machine, and then pulled out of the rifling by a breech machine.

Not far away, there is a row of bronze cannons mounted on double-wheeled gun mounts that have not been dismantled. These artillery are field guns of the Spanish garrison and will undergo similar modifications.

Although the level of national education in the Philippines in the [-]th century was limited, and Marcos had never handled guns in his illegal career, he still understood the concept of rifled weapons being more accurate than smoothbore weapons and shooting farther.

Some brand-new cannons rested under bamboo sheds further afield.The black, thick one like a soda water bottle is the cast iron heavy gun that will be equipped in the fortress, and the smaller blue-gray one is the copper-cast field gun. There are not many of them, and they look sparse.Several workers are doing heavy grinding work around the gun body.

(End of this chapter)