Lu Ming

Chapter 274 The Holy Light Shines
After discussing the ownership of the two most important castles in name, the next step is the main event: the slave trade negotiations.

Considering that this is the first time since the Spaniards came to East Asia more than 50 years ago, they have "self-produced fist commodities" other than silver, so the policy still needs a little support: Cai Feiming's slaves in 1628-1629 In the trade agreement, the Spaniards were given a 5% discount on the purchase price.

After signing the agreement, Baron Juan couldn't help heaving a sigh of relief: Only God knows how difficult the situation in East Asia is for the Philippines, which has to import pots and pans from Ming Dynasty.

As expected, when the agreement was made public among the businessmen, the Dutch who heard the news immediately ran to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to express strong protest and serious concern—everyone was selling Malay goods, so why should the Protestants suffer a 5% loss? ?This is blatant racism, no, not even if the discount is only for one year.

In the end, the Dutch, who only got a helpless look at the Foreign Ministry, could only turn their grief into strength: in the following year, the Dutch not only increased the number of joint Malay pirate attacks on Spanish colonies, but also on many fronts. The continued suppression of the big pie faces are all things to come, so I won't mention them for the time being.

After the Spaniards signed the trade agreement with Chuanzhong, the Spanish merchants who had become "bad men" hurriedly set off with two merchant ships loaded with industrial products and Ming Dynasty groceries.

How the industrial countries of later generations did business with the colonies, the same is true for the countries that travel through.All the guests who come here rely on exclusive goods: no matter how many silver coins and slaves the poor merchants bring in, the people from across the country can always use more expensive industrial products to make up the difference, and then let the guests "return full of debts".

So when the two ships returned to Manila in late June, all the Spanish merchants were burdened with varying amounts of loans.Expensive bleaching powder, raw silk, scarce kerosene lamps, and all kinds of industrialized daily necessities took away all the silver coins they brought.

In order to maximize the acquisition of these scarce supplies, the merchants had to unite to mortgage Baron Juan and the soldiers and cannons of the Taipei Castle to Da Yuan in exchange for a certain amount of export credit.

Of course, this debt was short-lived: soon after the ship returned to Manila, everything on board was sold out, and the merchants who returned with the ship all made a fortune.

And when Governor Juan read the documents of the trade agreement and the personal letter of Mr. Special Envoy, he finally made up his mind and began to comprehensively adjust Manila's internal and external policies.

First of all, the city hall raised the tax rate in the Visayan villages outside the city. Anyone who fails to pay the tax or resists the tax will be captured and sold by the tax officer, and women and children will not be spared.

Secondly, on several pieces of land suitable for growing rice, the aborigines were all "migrated" to a certain mysterious place under the guns of a large number of soldiers: the land was contracted to the Ming people who were good at farming, and they had to provide a large amount of land in the days to come. The rice is used to fulfill the quota stipulated by the senior officials.

Then came the highlight: the fleet jointly funded by all nobles, merchants and churches who planned to take a share in the slave trade attacked a large indigenous tribe on Mingduluo Island half a month later.

This tribe is located in the middle of Mingduluo Island, and is a powerful tribe composed of Moro people.The Moro people in the Philippines are a hodgepodge of Islam including many scattered ethnic groups. "Moro" is a Spanish transliteration, meaning the Moors who believe in Islam.

From the name, it can be seen how much the big pie faces don't like the Moro people: it took the Spaniards centuries to drive the Moro people from their homeland in North Africa, and there is a deep hatred among them Like the sea.

And the so-called Moro people are not ashamed of the name: the aborigines who belong to the Malay branch in essence are extremely hostile to the white skins. The tribal people here have not only served as outposts and gathering places for Malay pirates many times, but also set out to rob together. and attacked Spanish ships and strongholds.

The Manila regime, which has always been facing huge strategic pressure from the lowland bandits (the Dutch), has in fact nothing to do with these plentiful pirates and hostile tribes—the municipal tax revenue is already stretched to feed the officials and strengthen the city defense of Manila, let alone Send troops to attack everywhere in the country of Thousand Islands.

But this time is different.

When the richest sector in the 17th century: the Church, everything changed.

Adventurers, nobles, and merchants quickly acted under the glue of the bishop.The rich, who complain every day that Manila's greedy tax system has sucked everyone out, are quick to shell out piles of silver coins.

There are not only the funds of the holy treasury of the church, but also the furniture of the tax collector himself. In addition, it is believed that the governor and the mayor also invested in the shares, but they were invested by cronies.

Once the most important financial issues are resolved, the rest will be easy to handle.

A fleet with the armed merchant ship "Miss Rose" as its flagship was formed immediately.As the main force, Miss Rose has a displacement of 550 tons. After being temporarily equipped with multiple long-barreled artillery, this ship will be responsible for dealing with all enemies on the sea in the future.

The other two smaller armed merchant ships were mainly responsible for loading supplies and "cargo".The most important part of the fleet is actually 10 medium-sized boats and 20 small rowboats - the target tribe only has a small dock for canoes, and armed merchant ships are not very useful, so they can only use small boats to transfer personnel and supplies in the open sea .

The taverns in the city of Manila were swept away overnight, and a large number of sailors, drunks, vagabonds, thugs, and scum were all incorporated into the small boat landing force after receiving a few silver coins.

And 100 regular soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Diego Sandoval, the red man, also boarded the deck of Miss Rose. Manila's city hall finally spent the tax revenue where it should be used this time.

After everything was ready, after the bishop personally finished the pre-battle mass and shouted the sacred slogan "He who spreads glory for the Lord will bathe in the holy light", the slave hunting fleet with +3 morale and +2 negative status checks set off.

Mingduluo Island is just south of Manila, and the 200-kilometer sea route will not delay much time, and the tribe of the Moro people is near the later tourist town of Sublayan.

An indigenous tribe with tens of thousands of people, if quality is not considered, at least 2000 fighters can be assembled.

Therefore, the Spaniards who deliberately went around the lower reaches of the estuary, after the first day of dangerous landing period, began to go up the river on the second day and then encountered a large force of indigenous people head-on.

Fighting on land at this time, the defenders who have lost their only chance to block the beachhead can see the fate: nearly 1500 indigenous fighters were quickly defeated under the attack of 100 regular soldiers + 300 scumbags + small cannons.

Devils have entered the village.

(End of this chapter)