1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2022
From Manila on Luzon Island to the Malacca Strait on the Malay Peninsula, it needs to cross the entire South China Sea, with a voyage of more than 1000 nautical miles. On this route, there is actually a Haihan colony nearer to Manila, Ambuna Island.Why did Haihan go far and wide to transport personnel and supplies from Manila to Xingdao at the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca? Why did he use handwritten secret letters instead of the more time-sensitive telegram transmission method? Regarding these issues that may make the Spaniards suspicious, Haihan The intelligence department has considered it in advance and dispelled the opponent's doubts through the arrangement of various details.

The reason for arranging such a material transportation method has already been explained in the secret letter that was discovered. These materials are not all official assets, and a considerable part of them actually come from the private properties of individual high-ranking officials in Manila. As a cover, it was transported to Xingdao, and then sold to Johor and other countries nearby. On the return journey, the same operation method was adopted, and a batch of products from the area were also shipped back from Xingdao.

The "benefits" of this operation are obvious. The owner of the goods can save a large amount of freight for transporting goods across regions, and because these materials do not exist in theory, there is no need to pay the official taxes generated by the transaction.And the extra income generated from this will naturally flow into the pockets of officials headed by Qiu Yuan.

This kind of practice of using the power in hand to make profits is actually not uncommon in the Spanish colonies. The materials transported by the fleet returning to Spain every year will also be mixed with a lot of private goods belonging to colonial officials in exchange for High returns.So Aragones already understood the method when Cheng Mu said this method of operation.

To put it bluntly, the Haihan officials in these two places are privately using official resources to operate some profitable projects. The scale is not too big and the appearance is not ugly, but after all, they want to avoid the supervision of the above.Therefore, it is impossible to transmit information through semi-open official channels, but a relatively primitive but easier to keep secret method of handwritten letters.

"Haihan people are most fond of profit-seeking, and it seems that these Haihan officials are no exception. It has been less than a year since Qiu Yuan was transferred to Manila, and he has already used this method to make money for himself. He should have spent money at the beginning. It took a lot of money to win this lucrative position." Aragones hardly had any doubts about this matter. In his opinion, this is a perfectly normal situation. Greed, as an important member of a party, it is too unreasonable not to use the privileges in his hands to benefit himself.

In fact, the background of the story fabricated by Haihan's intelligence department is far from perfect. As long as you carefully figure it out, there are still some traces of artificial arrangements to be found.But people always believe in their own experience, in those situations that they think are reasonable.The Haihan intelligence department took advantage of this weakness of human nature to describe a fairly detailed story background for the reason why Jose and others appeared in Cebu, making all this more reasonable and trying to draw the attention of the Spaniards. This is also a disguised form of protection for the inexperienced Jose and the others.

Before dark, Jose and the others, who had been waiting for news in a small hotel outside the city, were notified that they would be personally received by the Governor the next day, and there would be a banquet specially prepared for them.However, this banquet was limited to Jose and other three Spaniards, and the other Filipino sailors will be rewarded with the right of abode in the local area.

Although the difference in treatment is obvious, this is good news for the Jose team. At least they have achieved the first step of settling down in Cebu, which can be regarded as a nearly perfect start.

Those who did not get the opportunity to be interviewed by high-level officials did not have nothing to do. Now that they have been officially allowed to live in Cebu, they can start activities locally with their legal identities.Although they are just novices, it is not too difficult to collect some basic information, such as the local population size, price level, trade and port status, etc. Public information also has certain references for Haihan. value.

Jose and others who had the opportunity to meet senior officials of the colonial authorities could obtain more high-value information.Especially the Han people who will appear together with the local high-ranking officials are the focus of their attention-according to the information they have obtained before, the mysterious partners of the Spaniards should be a group of Han Chinese maritime merchants.

Of course, it is very likely that Haishang is just a false identity used to cover up, and the true origin of this group of people still needs to be further investigated before they can be confirmed.However, there are currently no more clues to the other places where the accident occurred, so the intelligence department was asked to send people to Cebu to investigate the matter as soon as possible.

The next day, Second Lieutenant Joaquin specially delivered three sets of clean clothes to the hotel, and asked Jose and the three Spaniards to take a bath and change clothes first, so as not to be rude in front of the governor.That afternoon, they drove into the city under the leadership of Joaquin and went to the Governor's Palace to be received by Aragones.

There was no special governor's mansion in Cebu before. This was after the colonial authorities moved from Manila to Cebu. A local rich Hispanic businessman offered to provide a small manor to Aragones as a residence.Of course, in view of the fact that Aragones's official position is already in jeopardy after successive mistakes, and may be cut off by a paper order from the country at any time, this wealthy businessman did not give the manor directly to Aragones so freely, but only temporarily Lend it to him for free.

It was a time of troubled times, and Aragones didn't have much capital to pick and choose, so although the conditions of this small manor were far inferior to his previous Governor's Mansion in Manila, there really wasn't much for him locally. There is no choice but to make do with it.

Before this dinner, Aragones wanted to meet these young people who had escaped from Manila.In fact, there have been eight hundred or not one thousand Hispanic immigrants who have fled from Luzon Island to Cebu this year, but there are only a handful of them who can be interviewed by him in person. Jose and others can get this special The treatment is mainly because they performed outstandingly in killing people and robbing ships during their escape, and Aragones also needs this kind of theme to guide the direction of public opinion within the colonial authorities.In addition, Aragones also hopes to understand the current situation in Manila through these young Hispanics, which is definitely more reliable than those purely hearsay news.

In addition to the local city defense commander Fernando, several officials from the colonial authorities participated in the interview. Aragones hoped that through this method, the officials under his command would understand the necessity of fighting Haihan.

Regarding how to deal with high-ranking Spanish officials, what to say and what not to say, the relevant rules have been instilled repeatedly during the training of Jose and others, but they will still be a little nervous when things come to an end.

After seeing Aragones and others, they were allowed to sit down and talk, and then Aragones asked them to talk about their previous experiences in detail, from the end of the Manila war to their arrival in Cebu, what happened during this period All the things that Aragones is interested in.

Hearing such a request, Jose and the others relaxed a little, secretly admiring the foresight of their boss, who had already given targeted training on this.

Because they have practiced the content repeatedly, they appear more natural and calm when they state, and they can supplement each other's details from different angles to make these experiences more authentic and credible.And Jose, who was entrusted with a heavy responsibility, naturally played the leading role in this story of fighting against Haihan. Whether it was the poisoning of the army horse, or the murder on the boat, it was the role of Jose who initiated it. Serve as an assistant.

And their whole experience was tailor-made by the intelligence department, and the plot was ups and downs, quite infectious, and soon attracted the attention of the people present, listening to the three young people telling their adventure stories.

This lecture lasted half an afternoon. After their narration came to an end, Fernando's subordinates also presented several Haihan-made rifles captured by Jose and others, as well as other items that could prove his experience.As for the few corpses, since they were rotten, they were really unsightly, so they were no longer transported to the Governor's Mansion as evidence for display.

"Everyone, after the battle in Manila, the brave young people did not give up their resistance to the invaders! Their performance proved one thing, even unarmed civilians, even in prison, as long as they have the ability to resist the enemy With determination, a miracle will surely happen!"

Aragones stood up, waving his arms and delivered an impassioned speech to the crowd: "Ordinary young people like Jose can have the courage to fight against Haihan. Don't we, as the rulers of the Philippines, have to fight Haihan instead? Is this timid, or even groveling to pray to the Haihan people for peace? No, that is not what a Spaniard should do. We can lose on the battlefield, but we cannot cowardly bow to the enemy! Only fighting can truly solve the problem way!"

Fernando had already received Aragones' instruction, and at this time he also cooperated very much: "Your Excellency is right, we can't be kind to the hateful Haihan people! These young people have done us a favor. Excellent example, if we maintain this determination to burn the boat, we will definitely defeat the Haihan people and drive them out of the Philippines!"

Spain's repeated defeats in recent years against Haihan has become a lingering problem for the colonial authorities. This year, even Manila, the colonial capital, was taken over by Haihan, causing the colonial authorities to settle in the Philippines. The archipelago's ruling area has shrunk by at least one-third, which is also the biggest setback that the Spanish king has encountered in the East in recent years.

Aragones, who served as the governor of the Philippines during this period, must have been to blame. Afterwards, it is basically a foregone conclusion that he will be held accountable in the country. What has not yet been determined is nothing more than the issue of the time and degree of punishment.According to the practice of the Kingdom of Spain in dealing with overseas colonies, there is a high probability that Aragones will be replaced by a successor from the country, and then sent back to the country for trial.If convicted, it would be unavoidable to confiscate one's home and lose one's property and become a commoner.

But Aragones is not without chances to save himself. If he can fight two turnaround battles before his successor arrives, and get some decent results against Haihan, he may be able to alleviate his guilt. Otherwise, even if he disperses his family property after returning to the country, he may not be able to completely reduce the punishment he will bear.

He wanted to give it a go and use all the manpower, material and financial resources of the colony to fight Haihan to the death, but the poor record made more and more officials disagree with the way of using war to resolve the dispute between the two countries, and some people were even pessimistic. He believes that if the war with Haihan continues, it will only be a matter of time before Spain is expelled from the Philippine Islands and even the South China Sea.

Aragones would certainly not agree with such a view, but he could not dismiss all officials who held similar views. The normal operation of the colony still needs a mature bureaucratic system to maintain it. He can only try to change it. The ideas of these people allowed them to abandon those weak ideas and instead support their own practices, putting the entire colony into a state of war preparation.

"But Governor, in the past few years, we have had no victories against the Haihan people on the battlefield. If we can only use the previous weapons and strategies and cannot expand the size of the army on a large scale, then may I ask?" How to defeat the increasingly powerful Haihan people? Just rely on courage and determination?"

The person who asked the question was Aragones' current main political opponent, Cebu Chief Executive Lopez.As the governor of the second largest city in the Philippine colony, he has always been a strong contender for the position of Governor of the Philippines. Especially when Aragones has made major decision-making mistakes in successive years, many people think that the country may not be far away Wanli will send another person to replace Aragones, but will choose an official from the Philippines who knows the region better, and Lopez is undoubtedly one of the most suitable candidates.

However, after the colonial capital was forced to move from Manila to Cebu, the arrival of Aragones and the main institutions of the colonial authorities greatly reduced Lopez's original authority. It can only be implemented after obtaining the approval of Aragones, and the two have different political views. Almost most of the government affairs have to be delayed for several times before the results can be resolved. This is naturally unacceptable for Lopez who is used to being the emperor of the country. .

From the standpoint of Lopez, I would definitely wish that Aragones would get out of the position of Governor of the Philippines as soon as possible, not to mention that he still has a good chance of becoming the next Governor of the Philippines.Before that, he had to prove to everyone that what Aragones insisted on was wrong, and only by replacing this governor could the situation in the colony be improved.

(End of this chapter)