Dragon Sea Empire

The moonlight broke through the clouds again, and the moonlight shone on the east side of the capital city of Manila. Under the shadow of a Gothic church, a new Christian big businessman, Francisco Diaz de Montoya's luxurious mansion, appeared A small physiological human figure.

In this house, one night three years ago, Spanish soldiers broke in and arrested Chinese Christian businessman Miguel Otto. Miguel Otto, formerly known as Shi Yuan, was the first Barry The manager of Anhua, who took refuge in the home of his long-time business partner De Montoya, was hanged on the streets of Manila and his body hung in the air for several days. After going down, he paid a sum of money to bribe the guards to collect Shi Yuan's body.

Wrapped in a black cloak, this small physiological man suddenly appeared like a ghost in the silent street in the middle of the night, and appeared at the gate of De Montoya's mansion, and he did not make any movements. It had already climbed over the wall, and disappeared on top of the wall in the blink of an eye.

De Montoya is more than 40 years old, but he is still lustful and gluttonous. Therefore, banquets are often held in his mansion. He used to sleep late every night. His business situation has been very bad in the past two years, because the Chinese He doesn’t come to Manila anymore, so he is very excited about the return of Chinese businessmen to Manila recently. In the past two days, he held banquets consecutively and invited Chinese businessmen to participate.

At this time, he had just fallen asleep. Since his wife was in Mexico, he would usually go to bed with his beautiful mixed-race Indian maid in his arms. He had just finished exercising on the bed and was about to fall asleep comfortably.

Suddenly, someone patted him on the shoulder and whispered in his ear in Portuguese: "Mr. Miguel Otto greets you,"

This shock was no small matter. De Montoya yelled, lifted the quilt, and his fat body jumped up from the bed. The mixed-race maid beside him screamed and was pushed off the bed by him.

The flame of the firebox flickered, an oil lamp was lit, and the mysterious little physiological man stood in the middle of the bedroom, pointing the flintlock pistol in his hand at de Montoya.

"Be quiet, Mr. Montoya, I don't mean any harm." The little man smiled, but the smile was uglier than crying. He had a scar across his cheeks. "I am An Heping's younger brother. That is, the adopted son of Juan Battista de Villa, the head of Balian, "

De Montoya had a good business relationship with rich Chinese businessmen back then, and he was business friends with the previous Chief Balian. He immediately calmed down and dragged the almost naked maid up: "Get out Watch the door, no one is allowed to come in,"

He hurriedly dressed, carefully looked at the mysterious biological man and said, "Sir, if I remember correctly, we seem to have met before,"

An Xiaosi, An Heping's younger brother, smiled coldly: "Yes, that Christmas, when you visited my adoptive father, I received you at the door, Mr. Montoya, Mr. Shi Yuan left a legacy after his death , as far as I know it is under your jurisdiction now,"

De Montoya smiled wryly, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, nodded and said: "Yes, it is said that Mr. Miguel Otto still has family members alive, this is no problem, as long as it can be proved that it is indeed Mr. Otto's Future generations, I will transfer these inheritances to the legal heirs..."

"Then, my adoptive father, Batista, also has a sum of money in your deposit." An Xiaosi hid his face in the dark, put away the flintlock pistol, and said coldly, "You don't need to explain. This time I came here not to seek family property, after reading this letter, you can understand my purpose, this is a letter from your compatriot, Mr. Bernardo Caderas from Macau, "

De Montoya finished reading the letter, sweating more on his forehead, he sat down on the bed, raised his head and said to An Xiaosi: "What on earth do you want to do, why do you need these materials, God, you are not ordinary businessmen , which businessman would be interested in the location of the powder magazine in Manila,"

"We don't have anyone we can trust in Manila, and we Chinese will get in a lot of trouble if we try to get close to those military sites, so we came to you,"

"We, oh, you are the people of the China United Company," after Pampanga Governor Don Fernando returned from Taiwan, de Montoya learned more or less about the situation of the China Company from the Spanish upper class in Manila, " Are you still thinking of attacking the Spaniards?"

An Xiaosi's face became even more mysterious, he shrank away from the dim light of the oil lamp, and the flintlock pistol in his hand appeared again: "You are very smart, Mr. Montoya, you should know our abilities, your friend Bernard I should have told you more, don't try to betray us,"

"No, of course not. Back then I took the risk to protect Mr. Shi Yuan, and now I will definitely not oppose our Jewish 'new Christian' friends,"

"Okay, from now on, I will be your new servant. Do you like pigeons?" The pistol in An Xiaosi's hand disappeared under his clothes again. De Montoya heaved a sigh of relief and quickly replied: "I have a lot of pets, and I have a few good Spanish Pitbulls..."

An Xiaosi interrupted him: "Stop keeping dogs, you should start liking pigeons,"

"What," said Montoya, "why,"

An Xiaosi looked at him coldly, did not answer his question, and stretched his right hand under his clothes again.

De Montoya woke up immediately, and hurriedly said: "Okay, it's no problem, I'll go to the market to buy pigeons tomorrow morning..."

"No need, tomorrow morning, two natives will bring you more than a dozen pigeons, and I will feed them for you,"

On this night, the Chinese company successfully established a secret base in the center of Manila. At the same time, this is also a communication center secretly contacting Taiwan. The messengers are those pigeons, using Montoya as a cover, it is Bernardo Idea; this guy has a lot of property in Bernardo's place, just for these properties, Montoya will not sell the Chinese company.

On the same night, outside Hawksbill Harbor on the northwestern coast of Luzon, a dozen canoes were moored in the dark shadows of the coastal cliffs. There were only two people on each canoe, all of whom were Chinese mixed-race Ioro people who lived nearby. , Their leader is Da An who went to Taiwan to contact Yin Feng.

On this piece of sea, there are dots of stars twinkling in the starry sky, and the moon is bright and clear. Therefore, the canoes had to hide under the cliffs by the sea here to avoid people's eyes and ears. Everyone stretched their necks and looked to the northwest sea. The moonlight was bright, but people couldn't see far away on the sea at night. Someone asked Da'an in a low voice: "We have been waiting here for four days, do we need to wait any longer? It will be a few more days, but it will be a festival. "The New Year festival of the Yi'eruo people is indeed coming, but Da'an doesn't care about the festival at all: "Be patient, they will definitely come, don't say anything about the festival, the Spaniards have killed so many of our people this year, The chiefs and elders are still thinking about celebrating the festival, "

It was only when the dawn dawned on the sky that a strange sailboat appeared from the sea level. This sailboat had a slender body shape with an aspect ratio of about 5 to 1, a long and sharp bow, and three masts with fully equipped sails. The mast is higher than any ship the Daan Chinese mixed race has ever seen. There are also moon sails and stay sails on the top mast sail. The lateral overhang area of ​​the sail is increased.

The whole body of the strange ship in front of me is almost entirely surrounded by black canvas, even the hull is also black. It glides lightly on the sea surface, with its wings spread like the wings of a giant bird, in the breeze at dawn. It was actually full of drums.

Everyone stared at it with their mouths gaping, and couldn't help feeling chills in their hearts. Some people chattered their teeth and asked Da'an in a trembling voice: "This, this, is the ship of the Zhonghua Company. This, could it be the legendary devil ship?"

Dozens of canoes were in a mess, and everyone was paddling, trying to escape. Da'an shouted: "Don't move, I saw the signal. It's a company ship, not a ghost ship."

Sure enough, on the mainmast of this slender ghost ship, a string of lanterns was lit up, and a faint light was swaying and circling.

Da'an wiped off his cold sweat, and let out a long breath: "That's right, it's the boat sent by Captain Yin, God, why did Captain Yin send such a boat?"

The sailboat that Daan and others saw should have appeared 250 years later; this is the pinnacle product of the development of sailboats in the age of great voyages, the flying-scissor sailboat, which is probably hosted by Yin Feng, the largest Chinese people opened in the age of great voyages It was a "golden finger", but strictly speaking, this "Sea Soul" is not a clipper ship, but a fast sailing ship built with the help of the design concept of a clipper ship. In this era, Yin Feng could not find a ship For the metal materials and construction techniques required by the "flying shear ship", he just put the concept of "reducing the freeboard, reducing the deck superstructure, improving the stability of the ship, and giving full play to the role of the sail" to the extreme in the construction of the sailboat. The ship is almost Sailing close to the water surface, light and comfortable.

The clipper ship is long and thin, with a sharp front end, fast speed and small tonnage. In the manuscript recorded by Yin Feng after crossing, it is recorded that in the 19s, Westerners used this sailboat to China to engage in tea and opium smuggling. Later, the gold rush caused by the discovery of gold mines in the western United States led to the rapid development of the clipper sailboat. In the breeze that could not extinguish the flame of the small candle, the clipper boat could still turn around easily in the narrow bay.

Of course, the ships of the Zhonghua Company can’t do this, but the Haihun is light and fast, and its speed is already astonishing. With its speed, lightness and agility, the Sea Soul is suitable for conducting secret activities at sea as a reconnaissance ship.

The Sea Soul came to Hawksbill Harbor, but it was a secret cargo operation.

The goods are 80 matchlock guns produced in Siam, hundreds of catties of gunpowder and some bullets; fifty hand-held crossbows and several swords common in the Ming Dynasty. In addition, two members of the special team of the escort will disembark, and Daan and others People go into the mountains together,