1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 306 The Dilemma of the Spaniards

Major Pascal Gross, commander of the Spanish squadron in Formosa, is now a little gloomy.

More than half a month ago, I took four armed merchant ships to attack the Dutch stronghold at the southwestern tip of the island, but happened to encounter the Ming Dynasty general Zheng Zhilong's army also attacking the Dutch stronghold.Just as they were about to lead the team back, the Dutch support fleet arrived.

When the brave Ming navy swarmed towards the Dutch fleet, the Spaniards, as old opponents of the Dutch, would naturally follow and pick up some bargains.After two days and nights of chasing and chaotic fighting, two Dutch armed merchant ships were severely damaged.On the third day, they distanced themselves from the navy of Ming Dynasty tacitly and returned separately.

When Major Pascal Gross returned to Santo Domingo (now Tamsui, Taiwan), he was surprised to learn that the two armed merchant ships they had returned earlier had been attacked.

Near the waters of Santo Domingo, as many as ten armed merchant ships chased and intercepted them.

Faced with this situation, the armed merchant ship "Teruel" and the requisitioned merchant ship "Soria" immediately fled separately.At night, the "Soria" hid in the darkness and escaped successfully, but the hull was also partially bombarded by shells.

After making a big circle, the merchant ship "Soria" quickly sailed into the Santo Domingo wharf, guarding the narrow entrance with nearby forts.

However, the enemy did not launch a land attack against them, but the armed merchant ship "Teruel" never returned.When Major Pascal Gross returned to Santo Domingo with the other two warships, there was still no news.

The Spaniards panicked immediately. You must know that the "Teruel" carried more than 200 Spanish musketeers used by the colonial government of Formosa to attack the Dutch strongholds, most of them were drawn from Manila.

The materials lost on the ship and more than 100 Luzon native servants were not very important to them, but the loss of more than 200 soldiers at a time still made the Spaniards feel very heavy.

"Mr. Nemeth, can you tell from other aspects which country the fleet that attacked you belongs to?" Major Pascal Gross asked the captain of the "Soria" Szirad Nemeth to find out. Come, ask them again how they were attacked and the identity of the assailant.

"I'm sorry, Major Gross. The fleet that attacked us didn't have any flags to identify them. And their ships were of various types, ranging from typical galleons to galleons of our Spanish type, and others we had never seen before. It is a slender and fast ship. Oh, by the way, they also have two small boats, which are very narrow and long, but very fast." Captain Szirad Nemes said.

The Galen ship may be the Dutchman's ship; the Spanish galleon is naturally our ship; the narrow and long ship, which one is it?Major Pascal Gross couldn't help but fell into deep thought.Could it be that several European countries jointly robbed our ship?But our ship is a troop carrier!

The Spanish colonial officials in San Salvador (now Heping Island, the northernmost tip of Keelung, Taiwan) were shocked when they received the report from Major Pascal Gross.The Philippine governor's request was to capture the Dutch stronghold and weaken the Dutch's power along the coast of Daming as much as possible.

The Dutch stronghold in Formosa was captured, and their strength was indeed weakened in fact.But all of this was done by the Ming Dynasty Navy, and the Spaniards made soy sauce on the side once.If the matter ended like this, the Spanish colonial officials in San Salvador could also hand over to the Manila authorities.

But the problem is that there was no landing battle, and the merchant ship carrying more than 200 Spanish armed soldiers and more than 100 Luzon native servants was attacked by unknown pirates, causing the loss of both people and ships.This made the Philippines and Formosa, which already had weak defenses, feel even more embarrassed.

Moreover, the two Spanish strongholds on Formosa Island, San Salvador and Santo Domingo, hardly have enough Spanish armed forces to suppress the nearby natives. Perhaps only a few hundred armed people can easily capture these two stronghold.

The reason why the Spaniards established a stronghold in Formosa was because the Dutch East India Company established the cities of Zeelandia and Chikan in the southwest of the island.The Spaniards in Manila are a little bit on pins and needles.Because as long as the Dutch's influence on this island grows, it will be more convenient to block the merchant ships from Daming, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian to Manila.This is a very major blow to the Philippines, which is very dependent on foreign trade economy.

For this reason, the Spanish colonial authorities in Manila found a way to open up a new forward base.Otherwise, one end of the entire Pacific route will come to a standstill.Its butterfly effect will also spread from the Philippines to the Americas, and then affect the mainland of Spain.It was under such circumstances that the Spaniards mobilized manpower from their insufficient forces and established a stronghold in northern Formosa.

In the eyes of many people, this newly established stronghold already has the possibility of replacing Manila.The reason is not difficult to understand, because Manila itself exists as an appendage of Spanish America.Without the import of silver from the Americas, Manila would not be able to attract merchant ships from the coast of Daming and Macao to arrive, nor would it be able to purchase large quantities of goods from the Spice Islands.By comparison, San Salvador and Santo Domingo are undoubtedly better placed on the map.It is closer to Japan, where another large silver mine in East Asia is located, and will not be easily blocked by the Dutch fleet in Zeelandia.

If the plan goes well, the Spaniards will establish a large-scale territory centered on the northern part of Formosa.Spain-Formosa will also become the main trading object of the Viceroyalty of the Americas, making Manila an economic vassal of itself.Formosa Island also has enough area for pioneers to develop food industries and cash crops on the island.Although within the Spanish aristocratic bureaucracy, this is a major event that touches on the distribution of old interests, but for the royal family who has an overview of everything, there is no loss.After all, as long as Santo Domingo can keep people coming in and goods going out, it won't be able to compete with the Dutch on the southwest coast.

The Spaniards soon discovered that they had underestimated the effort and cost of developing Formosa, and grossly overestimated the associated benefits.One historical factor overlooked by the planners is that Formosa has never been a hotspot for sea power.As a result, most of the island remained underdeveloped until the time when European merchant ships arrived regularly in Japan.Both the Dutch before and the Zheng Chenggong Group later suffered from the need to spend a lot of manpower to develop available land, and could not receive the expected return immediately.For the Spaniards whose human resources are not as good as the two, the situation is naturally more serious.So much so that during the entire period of the colonial existence, the rations of the two strongholds in the north of Formosa still needed to be imported from Manila.

The Spaniards also found that the native tribes were difficult for them to successfully harness.Due to the lack of contact with the outside world, the level of civilization of the indigenous people is also much lower than that of the Luzon region.The conquerors must first give the necessary control, education and guidance before they can mobilize them.As a result, they inevitably intervene in conflicts between different tribes, playing the thankless role of arbitrators.Until these tasks are completed, the large amount of land cannot be developed by human hands.Naturally, it is difficult to fulfill the local expectation of exporting goods.Conversely, Formosa, with its harsh climate and barren land, is unlikely to attract more enthusiastic colonists.The development efficiency was naturally compared by the Dutch in the south.

The overseas colonial model of the Spanish Empire also largely restricted the development of strongholds such as Formosa.Under the premise that the local area is already lacking in attractiveness and competitive conditions, they still do not allow more Ming Dynasty refugees, Luzon people or Japanese to open up new territories.Only a small number of people, relying on a single economic model that fantasizes about success, do things that cling to incompleteness.The Spaniards in the Governor's District of the Americas were surprised to find that the goods shipped from Santo Domingo, which claims to have a more geographical advantage, may be more expensive than those from Manila.

Today, without a war, the Spaniards inexplicably lost a ship and more than 300 armed soldiers in Formosa. Naturally, this major loss cannot be concealed and must be reported to the colonial authorities in Manila.Major Pascal Gross thought sadly that if he didn't want to take advantage of the Ming navy's pursuit of the Dutch fleet, perhaps this kind of thing could have been avoided.

Governor Sebastian Coquera, who is far away in the Philippines, does not even think about what kind of predicament Formosa will encounter at this time. Reporting by Leif Sissoko.

"In the past six months, the number of Ming people in the Balian area outside the city has decreased significantly. Except for some people who were forced to move to the Calamba area for farming, more than 1000 people left Manila and returned to the Ming country." Cliff Sissoko said, he looked at Governor Coquera, saw that he was listening seriously, and continued to speak.

"Moreover, the number of Ming people migrating to the Philippines has not increased. In other words, the number of Ming people in Manila as a whole, and even the Philippines, has shown a downward trend in the past year. Therefore, we can obtain The poll tax and the corresponding residence fee have also dropped significantly. If the Balianming people are forced to relocate to the Calamba area, I think it will have a serious impact on the production and services of the entire Manila area.”

"So, what caused this result?" Governor Sebastian Coquera asked.For a large number of Ming people, the Spanish colonial authorities loved and feared them. Ming people worked hard and had a docile personality, which could create a lot of wealth.However, the increasing number of Ming people made the Spanish authorities feel an inexplicable fear.

Because the Philippines is too close to the huge Ming country.Once the number of Ming people in the Philippines increases too much, there will be certain unstable factors for the Spanish colonial rule.But the Spaniards in the entire Philippines cannot do without Ming people at all. They need Ming people's goods, their services, and moreover, they need them to create wealth.

"The Dutch-controlled area of ​​Formosa has attracted a large number of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, and the potential immigrant groups in the southern coastal (Guangdong) area of ​​the Ming Kingdom have received a tempting message. Many favorable conditions are being offered to attract immigrants in large numbers. Therefore, some Ming people who can barely make a living seem to be waiting for the immigration boat from Hanzhou."

"The Hanzhou of the pirate gang?"

"I think it should be."

"Aren't they still at war with the Dutch?" Governor Coquila asked, "Don't those Ming people who need to immigrate worry about being affected by the war?"

"..., I think, it's because the Hanzhou people promised too good to those Ming people who need to immigrate." Cliff Sissoko said with a wry smile: "They promised to give every Ming countryman who came to Hanzhou, Houses and means of production will be provided, and, after three years, land will be awarded."

"We..." Governor Coquila wanted to say angrily that the Philippines can do the same, but when he thought of the bad finances, he was speechless.When did the Spaniards become worse than a Hanzhou bandit gang living on a remote island in the south?

However, it was originally planned to relocate [-] Ming people to the Calamba area in order to build the most important grain-producing area in the Philippines.Today, due to various reasons, the growing number of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty has shown a downward trend for the first time.All this seems to be in line with the expectations of the Spanish colonial authorities, effectively controlling the increase in the number of Ming people in the Philippines.

But this result was not caused by the Spaniards' active control, but by their old enemies, the Dutch and the Han Chinese.

(End of this chapter)