Dragon Sea Empire

At the end of September in the 37th year of Wanli (AD 1609), the last batch of soldiers of the Chinese Army formally withdrew from Shanchuan Port on the fourth batch of merchant ships from Taiwan to support the fleet.

Before the evacuation, all buildings in Shanchuan Port were razed to the ground.

The last to lead the evacuation was Yan Siqi, the new head of the Fifth Regiment; this Fifth Regiment had just begun to be formed, with the backbone of Yan Siqi's student army and the Taiwanese native auxiliary soldiers.

Xu Xinsu led the more than 100 staff of the Chinese company who stayed in Kagoshima to establish a Chinese business house at the Inaigawa Wharf, and also entrusted him with the task of collecting debts from Satsuma Shimazu's family.

After the Chinese army withdrew, the shogunate issued the "Satsuma Shimadzu House Punishment Order" in October, using the Shimadzu family's unauthorized actions to cause war disasters as an excuse to cut down the three prefectures of Satsuma, Hyuga, and Oi under the Shimadzu family's jurisdiction. Nearly halfway there, most of Hyuga's territory was taken away. At the same time, the shogunate ordered the Shimadzu family to "be cautious," and asked the new head of the family to "go to Luo" immediately—in fact, he asked the Shimadzu family to meet the shogun.

The new head of the Shimadzu family, Tadashi Shimadzu, still swallowed his anger. While letting his son Hisaki Shimadzu do his best to suppress the riots in various parts of the Satsuma Peninsula, he had the cheek to ask for money from the territories of the retainers in the territory, because "Shangluo" needed a lot of money for the pilgrimage.

At the same time, he had to smile to Xu Xinsu, the representative of China United Corporation in Kagoshima who came to collect debts every day.

Shimadzu Tada still felt that he was too useless as the Patriarch of the Shimadzu family.

Xu Xinsu gave him an idea: "...Your family has no spare money, so you can use your population to make up for it... It's like this: Your Shimadzu family owes us a total of 120 million yuan in property losses from businessmen from six countries and from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Two taels of silver, then you can provide us with labor in Taiwan Island. Each healthy labor force is worth 20 taels of silver, and almost 10 people can offset all your debts. You can also provide combat personnel for our Chinese army... oh, that is We spend money, and you send people to help us fight... Just like those Western mercenaries, the price is negotiable..."

The samurai of the Shimadzu family feel that it is shameful to be a mercenary and work for money. Basically, no one is willing to go. However, Shimadzu Tada is still very interested in using the labor force to pay off debts. Of course, selling off the farmers in his own territory , That was a suicide act. A few years later, the Satsuma Shimadzu family became the largest human trafficker in Japan. They not only bought ronin, bankrupt farmers, and businessmen from all over Japan, but also carried the human trafficking business to North Korea.

This is a later story. It is said that the territory of the Satsuma domain is now impoverished. Even if the income from other territories of the Shimadzu family is added together, it will be difficult to repay all the debts owed anyway. The merchants of the six countries huddled together and announced If the Shimadzu family did not pay off their debts within half a year, they would have to go to Kyoto again to sue, and the shogunate had made it clear when signing the "Kagoshima Agreement" that all debts that should be compensated by the Shimadzu family had to be handled by the Shimadzu family themselves; Otherwise, the Shimadzu family will be punished again.

Xu Xinsu once again gave Shimadzu Tadani an idea: to pay in installments.

The Chinese company will take over the debts of the Shimadzu family and pay them to the businessmen of the six countries in advance; all the debts of the merchants of the six countries will be transferred to the hands of the Chinese company; then the Shimadzu family can pay off the debt to the Chinese United Company in five years, of course Pay off in full including interest.

Unable to bear the rapid weakening and loss of face of the Shimadzu family, Yoshihiro Shimadzu entered the Tao in the hermitage of Kajimu and changed his name to Weixinzhai: Shimanzi, who had fought against the Ming army many times on the Korean battlefield, finally got sick from anger , died at the beginning of 1610. At the time of his death, a total of 13 retainers committed suicide with him.

……

On the way back to Taiwan, Yin Feng landed in Ryukyu and handled some Ryukyu affairs. Under the control of the Chinese Army and Chinese Guards, the son of Ryukyu Prince Shangfeng reluctantly announced his succession to the throne. In the winter of the 37th year of Wanli (1609), the new king Shang The uncle Mao Fengyi, the chief envoy Jin Yingkui, etc. who were dispatched by Fengfeng "reported the obituary of King Shangning, and also asked for the title." The envoys sent by Shangfeng to beg for the title were all Fujianese who were sent by the Ming Dynasty to confer the title of Queen Shangning and stayed in Ryukyu. , They were inconspicuous low-level people in their own country, but they became masters in the Ryukyu Kingdom, so they were reluctant to leave. When the Shimadzu Army came, they hid in Kume Village; when the Chinese Army recovered Ryukyu, they came out to serve the Chinese. Therefore, this time Shangfeng dispatched envoy Qifeng to choose them as envoys, and the other entourages were basically personnel from the Security Department of the China United Company and the Chinese Army.

This time, King Shangfeng sent an envoy to report to the imperial court that Japan had planned to take Jilongshan (Taiwan) according to Yin Feng's idea, and the imperial court therefore issued an edict "Maritime Guard". Of course, this is an afterthought.

Yin Feng returned to Taiwan at the end of the year, and half a year later, his daughter has grown into a lovely baby. The whole Zeng family loved her like a treasure, and named her Qianqian.

When the Flying Tiger was moored at the wharf of Taiwan Port, the construction of the defense system of the city wall of Taiwan Port had begun to take shape. , the craftsmen of the Chinese company used a lot of original cement concrete as materials, plus a large number of huge rocks in the mountains of Taiwan, a stone wall as high as five feet, and a gun tower protruding outside the city wall every fifty steps. The firepower is dense and there are no dead ends. , In terms of the equipment of the Ming Dynasty official army at that time, it was impossible to capture it.

Tens of thousands of people gathered on the wharf, cheering slogans such as "The owner of the boat is victorious," "The master is mighty," and other slogans.

At this time, on Taiwan Island, nearly 10,000 Han Chinese had settled and immigrated; about 500+ natives were subject to the rule of the Chinese company, and there were [-] Japanese coolies who had just been acquired. In the entire East Asian sea area, the area directly controlled by the Chinese United Company Going south to most of West Borneo (Kalimantan Island), the southeast includes the Philippines; in the north, the Chinese Company controls the entire area of ​​the Ryukyu Islands; the Chinese Company has almost monopolized maritime trade and transportation on the southeastern coast of China, and throughout Southeast China, Japan, and the east coast of India are the largest suppliers of Chinese goods, and they are also the largest annual purchasers of European goods and specialties from Southeast Asia and the West; the company's annual trade income and port commercial tax income include Borneo gold mines, etc. Including mining income, it has already exceeded [-] million taels of silver; this does not include the production income of the company's farms, which have already been sold in Luzon to make money; In addition, the annual income of the Chinese company has exceeded the fiscal and tax revenue of the entire Ming Empire at that time.

Yin Feng and the dozen or so sea merchants on the company's board of directors have inadvertently already possessed tens of millions of fortunes, making them incomparably rich.

The prosperity of Taiwan and Hong Kong was not affected by the Japanese pirates' sneak attack, and it quickly recovered from the chaos. When Yin Feng came back, he saw that Taiwan was more prosperous than before the Japanese pirates attacked.

Now, in the direction of China's coast and Japan, the Chinese company has no rivals for the time being. Now, before turning its attention to Nanyang, it has to ensure the safety of Luzon Island. From Ye Hua's expedition to the European fleet and European businessmen It can be known from the news that the Spaniards already knew about the fall of the Luzon colony. However, since Spain is at war with France and the United Kingdom in Europe, it is temporarily powerless to do anything about the situation in the Far East. This expedition to Japan, through the Japanese Jesuits Yin Feng inquired about Date Masamune's fleet sent to Europe; the monk Das Marinas asked for help from the Vice King of Mexico of the Kingdom of Spain through the fleet.

Therefore, Yin Feng ordered Zeng Jingshan on the Luzon side to start to strengthen the defense of various parts of Luzon. Leading the way, through Luzon Island, and expedition to the Spanish colony of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, this move will completely expel the Spanish colonial forces from the Asia-Pacific region, and at the same time obtain an easternmost maritime outpost for Luzon on the sea.

Guam is the largest island in the North Pacific between Hawaii and the Philippines, and between Japan and New Guinea. It is at the extreme south end of a series of fifteen islands in the Mariana Islands. The distance from Guam to the extreme north of the Mariana Islands It is 420 miles long. Guam's narrow waist and irregular shape can be said to be similar to a peanut or a human footprint. The area of ​​the island is about 220 square miles, about [-] miles long, four to nine miles wide, slightly The north half, slanting westward, joins the southern half, maintaining an almost straight line from north to south, and the whole island, except for the harbors and estuaries, is surrounded by coral reefs from twenty to seven hundred yards wide.

Guam aborigines Chamorros originate from the Micronesian islands and are descendants of early Malays. Chamorros men do not wear clothes or even rags to cover their private parts, but some women use a rope Girdle around the waist and hang on a rope with grass or leaves to cover the lower body, and some people wear a small apron, or a mat made of palm leaves. When fishing, men sometimes wear a conical cap made of pandanus. blindfolds, and sometimes they wear sandals made of palm leaves to protect their feet.

In 1521, Magellan arrived at Guam for the first time when he sailed around the world. He took forty armed men ashore to search, burned forty or fifty houses and several small boats, killed seven islanders, and then returned to the ship , continue westward.

After Magellan's death, in order to obtain the fruits of Magellan's discovery, Spain sent another expedition commanded by priest García Hofrey Loisa, and one of the captains was Juan Sebastian, who completed Magellan's voyage. Elcano, on his ship was Andrés Urdaneta, who later became an Augustinian monk and led the Legazpi expedition, which finally established for Spain the Spanish victory over Guam. Dominion, after many hardships and losses, the Loaiza expedition passed through the Strait of Magellan and reached the Thieves Islands (Magellan's name for Guam) on September 1526, 9, where the Loaiza expedition stayed for four days After replenishing fresh drinking water and food, they left Guam and continued to the Maluku Islands. After arriving there, the Portuguese imprisoned them until 4, 11 years after they set sail. personnel returned to Spain,