prosperous age

If the Sulu Kingdom wanted to pay tribute, it should have gone through the Guangzhou Maritime Customs, which was in charge of the Southeast Asian countries.

Although the Sulu Kingdom did not go, it does not mean that other countries will not go. The Guangzhou Maritime Customs is doing good business.

When Captain Lin heard that this was the request made by King Baker of Sulu, he did not think there was anything wrong with it, so he agreed immediately.

“As long as the Lin Feng pirate group is wiped out, the king can send an envoy to the Ming Dynasty to meet with the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

Although your country has not paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty in recent years, it still has this intention. His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty will certainly be very happy and will not blame you. "

Captain Lin spoke very nicely at this time. Since the other party was willing to lend troops to help fight the war, it was only right for him to help and speak some words.

What's more, even if Sulu did not send envoys to the Ming Dynasty, the emperor would definitely reward the king of Sulu.

In this way, everyone is happy.

Captain Lin agreed to borrow troops, and King Baker of Sulu took the opportunity to find a way to restore contact with the Ming Dynasty.

Contacting the Ming Dynasty and resuming tribute was not only for the various treasures bestowed by the Ming Emperor, but also had another meaning for him, which was to guard against the barbarians on the island of Luzon.

He had recently sensed that those blond-haired, blue-eyed barbarians had ill intentions, but whenever he saw their warships with cannons mounted on them traveling on the sea, he felt fear in his heart.

On the island, he was naturally not afraid.

But the people of Sulu live by the sea. Apart from the little output on the island, they mainly rely on fishing along the coast for a living.

The barbarians had powerful warships, which undoubtedly posed a huge threat to the Sulu Kingdom.

Although the barbarians' warships are terrifying, Baker still prefers to trust the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty had a huge fleet traveling across the ocean two hundred years ago. In this area, I am afraid that only the Ming Dynasty can compete with the barbarians.

As long as the connection with the Ming Dynasty is restored, the barbarians on Luzon Island will have to think twice if they want to attack the Sulu Kingdom.

In fact, even if Captain Lin had not arrived, he was considering whether to send envoys to neighboring countries to find Ming merchant ships to go to Ming and resume tribute.

Afterwards, Baker sent people to prepare a dinner, and Captain Lin had dinner at the Sulu Palace before returning to the residence arranged for them.

During the dinner, Baker had already confirmed that Sulu could send 3,000 troops to accompany him to Luzon to eliminate the pirates. This was also the limit of the troops that Sulu could send.

If they had more people, they could have gotten through, but they didn't have enough ships to transport everyone at once.

In this way, Captain Lin stayed in Hele for two days, and the contemporary King of Sulu mobilized his troops.

Of course, he did not do nothing. He arranged for people to prepare supplies for another Fujian ship and asked them to return to the north of Luzon Island first to find the fleet led by Deng Zilong and report their news.

In this way, with a few days of buffer time, they can also know approximately when they will arrive.

So, early the next morning, a warship of the Ming Navy left Sulu Kingdom first and returned along the original route, as a vanguard.

Captain Lin took another warship and waited patiently for the Sulu Kingdom to mobilize its troops and for the soldiers that their king had agreed to lend to arrive so that they could set out together.

At this time, Deng Zilong had returned to an unknown small bay and told Wang Wanggao and others the bad news he received from Manila City.

However, the Ming generals were at a loss at this time.

Up to now, none of the three fleets sent out have returned, and it is not known whether they can recruit troops on Luzon Island.

The spies that were sent out earlier have gradually completed the mapping of the surrounding terrain over the past few days, leaving only an area thirty miles away from Daimao City. They did not dare to get any closer because they were afraid of being discovered by Lin Feng's men.

This is also for the sake of safety. Deng Zilong doesn't care much about it. Instead, he thinks that Wang Wanggao is very meticulous and does not take risks easily.

On the second day, it was Wang Wanggao's turn to lead the gunboat out to sea for patrol. By evening, Wang Wanggao's gunboat entered the bay with a fleet of more than ten ships.

  Deng Zilong was overjoyed when he received the notification. It was obvious that the fleet had completed the mission and found the troops. How could he not be happy?

After the fleet docked one by one, Wang Wanggao watched the local people of Luzon Island disembark and arranged a place for them to rest, then he summoned the chief officer of this voyage.

Soon, he learned the details from the captain who led the team.

They were relatively successful because they drew the nearest lot, so they had been patrolling along Luzon Island. After discovering people moving on the shore, they immediately got off the boat and found the tribe of these people.

"Sir, there are Han people there too, and they can speak our language."

The centurion happily reported to Deng Zilong, "After we showed them our badges, they welcomed us. Later, they gathered two nearby tribes that were friendly with them and selected a total of 1,000 people to follow me."

"Very good, this job was well done, I will record it in my credit book."

Deng Zilong was very happy. Having an extra thousand men under his command gave him the confidence to challenge the barbarians.

Although Deng Zilong had seen their equipment before, which was only spears and sticks, it didn't matter.

When the time comes, we will select some strong men and give them some of the swords, guns and other weapons on the ship.

With the good news brought by the first fleet, Deng Zilong began to look forward to what surprises the other two fleets would bring him.

"My Lord, I have heard some things from communicating with those people."

The chief officer then said to Deng Zilong.

Soon, Deng Zilong knew what he was going to say.

Actually, these were what they had guessed long ago.

That is, since the barbarians occupied Luzon Island, they used force to force those tribes to surrender, and those who refused to accept their rule would be conquered by the barbarians.

However, after accepting the rule of the barbarians, what they wanted was not only materials, but also young and strong people, because building the city of Manila required a lot of strong laborers, which made these indigenous people find it difficult to accept.

It can be said that the indigenous people on the island were resentful because the barbarians were too plundering, but they dared not disobey due to the oppression of force.

Their appeal, of course, was to hope that their suzerain state, the Ming Dynasty, could help them escape from the slavery of the barbarians.

After asking about the approximate location of the other party's tribe, Deng Zilong felt that it was not a big problem.

Now that we have troops in our hands, we will naturally feel more confident, and Lord Wei’s wish should have a chance to be fulfilled.

Perhaps the biggest gain from this trip to Manila was seeing the map of Luzon Island drawn by the barbarians in the Governor-General's Office.

Manila is located roughly in the middle and slightly south, while the Tortoise Shell City built by Lin Feng is located slightly north.

By the time the time came, Deng Zilong had almost figured out where to draw the boundary, so he proposed drawing it in the middle of the two cities.

In this way, these tribes that came to help in the war would definitely be drawn to the Ming Dynasty's side.

As for whether the barbarians would accept it, this was not within Deng Zilong's consideration.

Although it was said that the barbarians had prepared more than ten warships in Luzon, so what? They were not even a fraction of the warships of the South China Sea Navy. As for the warships carrying the vassal army, they were just like the rafts that Lin Baihu saw, tied together with logs and taken away. In Deng Zilong's opinion, they were not worthy of being called warships.

It should be said that Deng Zilong was very satisfied with the tribes that arrived this time. He planned to summon several leaders to have a meal tonight to express his gratitude.

As for the future, that is a matter for the future. The rules can only be determined after Admiral Yu arrives in Luzon.

Speaking of which, the several local tribes that came this time not only provided people, but also brought their own food to help in the war. This is enough to show how great the influence of Zheng He's voyages to the West was. Nearly two hundred years have passed, and its influence is still there.

At this time, at the dock outside Manila, large and small ships had been docking for several days, unloading batches of goods, all of which were supplies prepared for the conquest of Daimao City.

After all, it's preparing food for thousands of people, which is not a small number.

As for weapons, after a period of rush production, the craftsmen's workshops in the city have already produced them.

These are not the hot weapons that Westerners are equipped with in large quantities, but cold weapons such as swords and spears.

It’s not that the barbarians were worried that the Filipinos would get firearms and rebel, but they were too lazy to teach them how to use them.

Too stupid.

Moreover, manufacturing firearms is still somewhat difficult for the current city of Manila, or even impossible.

The production of firearms, whether it is a small matchlock gun or a cannon, requires certain smelting technology to produce enough steel for use.

Not to mention some delicate parts that require skilled craftsmen to make.

In fact, flintlock rifles had already appeared in Europe at this time. They were invented about thirty years ago by Mahan, a Frenchman who came from a family of gunsmiths, locksmiths and watchmakers.

He improved the revolver musket by removing the spring steel wheel, clamping a piece of flint on the jaws of the hammer, and installing an anvil next to the fire hole. When shooting, he pulled the trigger and under the action of the spring, the flint hit the edge of the fire port heavily, producing sparks that ignited the gunpowder and fired the gun.

It was about seventy years later that the firearms expert Bi Maokang invented the flintlock rifle in the Ming Dynasty.

The self-propelled musket designed by Bi Maokang was not much different in structure and performance from the previous bird gun. In fact, it was just an improvement on the bird gun's firing device.

However, whether it is the flintlock rifle made by Mahan or the self-igniting musket made by Bi Maokang, the firing rate is actually not high enough, because the material requirements for the spring are too high and it is very difficult to obtain.

Therefore, this directly led to the fact that although the flintlock rifle was developed very early, it was not truly popularized and mass-produced until more than a hundred years later.

It can only be said that it was developed too early and the smelting technology could not keep up, which led to its promotion being delayed by more than a hundred years.

Moreover, even if Manila City had reached the required smelting technology, they would not choose to equip their vassal army with so many firearms.

Well, the price of firearms in this era was still very high, and the profits from selling these arms to pirates or Japan would be staggering.

Japan is currently at war, and the local daimyo are constantly purchasing various weapons in order to expand their armaments.

In addition to the iron cannons that they mastered the production technology of themselves, they also purchased large quantities of arms from the barbarians. It was really a good business.

Just as the Spaniards in Ming Dynasty and Manila were sharpening their knives and preparing to conquer Pengaslan Bay, their target, Lin Feng, was unaware of this.

At this time, Lin Feng was actually still in a very proud state.

Although he failed to capture the city of Manila from the Spanish, he thought that his attack had frightened the Spanish and they would not dare to provoke them again.

Therefore, Lin Feng is now farming boldly in Daimao City, and he also welcomes all the people from Luzon who come to him for surrender, and works hard to expand his strength.

Lin Feng came to Luzon just to establish a country overseas.

He was also somewhat tired of being a pirate on the sea and planned to clean himself up.

In this disorderly age, strong power is everything.

He planned to expand his own strength first, and then find a way to compete with the Spaniards for the ownership of Luzon Island.

After he conquered Luzon and became its king, no one would know that he was once a pirate.

Only at this moment did Lin Feng realize that his previous self was really weak.

There are so many small countries in Southeast Asia. If you can conquer any one of them, you can become the king. Why bother to be a pirate along the coast of Ming Dynasty and waste your time?

"Boss, I heard that the sweet potatoes we planted when we first arrived are ready to be harvested."

Just as Lin Feng was sitting alone in the room drinking wine with only three dishes of snacks on the table, a one-eyed man ran in from outside the door and said.

"Oh, the fields have already yielded a harvest, so soon?"

Lin Feng was slightly surprised and asked with some doubt.

"Yes, the natives said that the sweet potatoes grow very fast. We didn't believe it at first. But today they dug up a few from the field and they are really big and plump. It looks like they are ready to eat."

The one-eyed man laughed cheerfully.

When they crossed the sea to come here, the amount of food and necessities for so many people every day was astonishing. Even if they took a lot of food with them when they left Ming Dynasty, they could not afford such consumption.

Before, Lin Feng led his men to withdraw and did not continue to besiege Manila City because he saw that although the city was not big, it had built tall walls, which would not be easy to take in one fell swoop.

The second was that he was worried that if the battle took too long and he failed to capture the city, the food tasting on his side would be interrupted.

The food and supplies must be sent before the army moves. The influence of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is really great.

Lin Feng realized something was wrong, so he decided to withdraw his troops, just to give the Spaniards a warning.

Then we walked north for a distance and found a bay with fresh water to set up camp.

After building some defensive fortifications, they allowed the families that came with the army to start cultivating the land, hoping to produce some crops and alleviate the food shortage problem in the army.

As for imitating the barbarians, or their past behavior, and directly stealing food from the surrounding tribes, for the sake of his dream of becoming the king of Luzon in the future, he suppressed it and began to interact with the locals in a friendly manner.

Unexpectedly, his friendly attitude and his experience of fighting the barbarians in Manila won the favor of some local people, and some people began to join them.

He accepts everyone who comes.

Surprisingly, there were local people among them who brought sweet potato seeds. So with their introduction, Lin Feng had someone clear out a piece of land for planting.

According to the locals, the sweet potatoes brought by the barbarians grow fast and have a high yield. The most important thing is that they can help you stay away from hunger and taste good when roasted. They are a good thing.

"Let's go and have a look and taste what the sweet potato tastes like."

Lin Feng picked up the wine glass, drank the wine in one gulp, said something to the one-eyed man, got up and went out. (End of this chapter)