prosperous age

Chapter 1006 1097 Power surges

While Lieutenant Miguel was talking to Commander Savera, Deng Zilong was standing on the shore, looking in disbelief at the fleet entering the bay.

Yes, it was a fleet, a fleet larger than he had imagined.

According to the report he received, there were more than a hundred local ships that returned with the last fleet.

In their words, it can carry at least 4,000 people.

When the warship docked at a simple pier and put up the gangplank, Captain Lin got off the boat with a man wearing a loose white robe and a belt. A few more people came down behind them, including Ming army soldiers and people wearing exquisite white robes.

Obviously, they were the leaders of the army brought by Captain Lin.

Deng Zilong certainly would not look down on them.

In the past few days, through communicating with the locals, Deng Zilong has already had a general understanding of the strength of the locals on Luzon Island.

Although there are many tribes of all sizes on Luzon Island, they can be roughly divided into three categories: large, medium and small.

Large tribes can muster more than 2,000 able-bodied men, medium-sized tribes can generally gather thousands of people to fight, and then there are small tribes, which are not strong enough and can only mobilize at least a hundred or at most several hundred people for each conflict.

The strength is so clear, so many small tribes choose to unite with each other to fight against tribes stronger than them.

After uniting together, their strength can barely reach that of large and medium-sized tribes, and they can barely protect themselves.

Just like the several tribes that came to help them before, they were small tribes that usually united together. Their individual tribes could not muster many able-bodied men, so they could only unite to protect themselves.

This time, when they learned that it was the suzerain country that summoned them, they rushed to help so actively, not only because of the promise of the Ming army, but also to find a backer.

Luzon Island is different now than it was before.

Not only were there local tribes fighting each other, but the Spaniards were also watching covetously.

But they were weak after all, so they only gathered 1,600 people.

Although these people are not all of them, they account for almost half of their military force.

And the news he got from the ship that came back two days ago was that the ones coming to help this time were the Sulu Kingdom south of Luzon, and they would send 5,000 troops to assist the Ming Dynasty.

What does it mean to dispatch 5,000 people to help in the battle?

Even when the Luzon King's tribe was at its strongest, the number of troops that could be mobilized was only three to four thousand.

With this power, he could order other tribes on Luzon Island around and become the de facto king.

This is also the reason why Zheng He's fleet came here and identified him as the King of Luzon.

At this time, Deng Zilong could say without hesitation that the army he commanded was the strongest combat force on Luzon Island.

There were hundreds of Ming soldiers on his ship, and more than 6,000 local people helping in the battle, making a huge army of 7,000 people.

Even in the Ming Dynasty, such an army would require several garrisons to gather so many people.

Because of his weak strength before, Deng Zilong did not dare to turn against the barbarians. But now that his armed forces have expanded several times, he has other ideas.

Can we rely on this army to completely destroy the barbarian expeditionary force after the bloody battle between the Spaniards and the Lin Feng pirate group and then take advantage of the situation?

If such a plan succeeds, the number of the barbarians on the island will be reduced to only three or four hundred, which will fulfill Wei Ge Lao's ultimate wish and completely control Luzon and make it the new territory of the Ming Dynasty.

  Just as Deng Zilong was considering the feasibility of this plan,

Captain Lin had already seen Deng Zilong in the distance, so he said a few words to the soldiers behind him, and then that man said something to the local man.

Soon, a group of people who got off the boat first came towards Deng Zilong in a mighty manner.

"See my lord."

When the people approached, Captain Lin saluted Deng Zilong first.

Deng Zilong's garrison title was assistant commander of the garrison, which was many levels higher than his being a centurion. His military rank was also higher than his. He was also the commander of their fleet, so naturally he was very polite.

Who can blame him for being the admiral's favorite general? Even though he had just arrived, Yu Dayou still held him in high esteem. This was the result of having someone above him.

"Get up."

Deng Zilong raised his hand to support him and said.

After the greetings were over, Captain Lin immediately introduced the people following behind him to Deng Zilong.

"Sir, this is King Bakker of Sulu, a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. He heard that our dynasty was sending people to encircle and suppress pirates, so he brought his country's troops to help."

Although these vassal states were not worthy of the Ming Dynasty, they were of very high level.

The king of an independent vassal state had the same status as a prince, so Deng Zilong could not act pretentiously and had to perform formalities.

Just as Deng Zilong was about to salute, Baker waved his hand and said, "We are here to help the Celestial Empire hunt down pirates. Once here, you must obey General Deng's orders.

As for the king, this is not Sulu, so naturally, we don’t care about these things.”

Having said that, Baker excitedly took two steps forward and was already very close to Deng Zilong.

He said with red eyes: "According to the family tradition, the Celestial Empire has not sent anyone to Sulu for more than a hundred years. If I hadn't met General Lin, I would have thought that the Celestial Empire had forgotten about us overseas vassals.

It is also because we are not good enough. There are no large ships to cross the sea in our country, otherwise we would not have gone to Ming Dynasty to pay homage to His Majesty the Emperor of Ming Dynasty for more than a hundred years.

This time, I followed General Lin here in the hope that when General Deng returns with his troops, he can take me to the Ming Dynasty to meet His Majesty the Emperor."

Baker's words were sincere and heartfelt. Although he might not be very loyal to the Ming Dynasty, under the current turbulent situation in Southeast Asia, if he could not hold on to the Ming Dynasty court tightly, he was really worried that the Spaniards would take action against him.

Even though there were only a thousand Spaniards in Luzon, when the Spaniards came to spy on the Sulu Kingdom before, they naturally found out the Spaniards' details.

It is known that only a small number of Spaniards have come here. Their main focus is still in the east, where it is said that there is a more vast land.

Well, that’s not their Spanish country, but further east, far away, is the country where they were born.

This alone made Baker realize that the situation in Southeast Asia would become even worse in the future.

And the source is these barbarians who keep coming.

We can cross the ocean to reach the continent in the east and occupy it.

According to the information he had inquired about, there were many countries there that were far more powerful than his Sulu Kingdom, but they had all been conquered by the Spaniards.

The legend of the Inca Empire was often talked about by the Spaniards.

Buckle was really frightened.

He was eager to meet the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and show his loyalty to him, hoping to gain protection from the powerful suzerain state of the Ming Dynasty.

Originally, Baker did not think of coming in person. He only planned to send two of his generals to follow.

However, while waiting for the army to assemble and prepare food, he remembered what his father-in-law said.

In fact, this was not what he thought of, but what the princess, who was of authentic Sulu royal bloodline, mentioned.

That was earlier, the king of Sulu personally went to the Ming Dynasty. After the Ming fleet arrived, the king sent envoys to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute, and each time he reaped rich rewards.

Most of the treasures collected at home were gifts from the Ming emperor at that time, and they were really exquisite. Therefore, the royal family of Sulu had this tradition, which was to remind the next successor that as long as the Ming imperial fleet arrived, they must send envoys with local specialties to pay tribute to the Ming.

While building closer relationships, you can also gain many benefits.

This is the thinking of small countries. They can only find ways to take advantage of big countries and show loyalty in order to gain protection from big countries to ensure that their thrones can be passed on.

Because of this incident, Baker decided to come here in person.

He used the preparation time to arrange the affairs of the country. As long as he could gain the friendship of the Ming officials and go to the Ming Dynasty to meet the Ming Emperor, he would be as stable as a rock in Sulu.

In fact, there are legends about the Ming Empire among the people of Sulu, and occasionally they would encounter Ming merchant ships passing by.

As long as the Ming Dynasty supports him, no one in the country will dare to covet his throne and they will have to obey his orders.

This is the influence of a great power.

Even if nothing is done, it will subtly affect the political atmosphere in the neighboring small states.

Deng Zilong politely had a brief exchange with Baker, got to know the two generals Baker brought with him, and then led them to a tent that had been prepared long ago.

When they went to Southeast Asia this time, they had no plans to meet with the kings of vassal states, so naturally there would be no tents that met the etiquette requirements.

The tent prepared for Baker was already the largest of all the tents they had brought.

They were exhausted from the long journey, so Deng Zilong only prepared hot water for them to wash and let them rest first. He then prepared a sumptuous banquet to entertain them in the evening.

Deng Zilong only personally settled Baker and his party. As for the Sulu soldiers they brought, they were naturally arranged by the supply personnel below. The large amount of food and fodder brought by Sulu were also moved into the military granary.

Afterwards, Deng Zilong took Captain Lin to his own tent. He wanted to know in detail everything that had happened during their journey.

He was leading troops to encircle and suppress the pirates, and the other party's king even came in person. Something was wrong.

In the big tent, someone brought tea to Captain Lin. He drank some water and ate two snacks. Only then did he begin to understand the situation.

Although, Deng Zilong already knew their previous experiences in detail.

But, while we were still asking them about their experiences, Miguel arrived with the boat.

He could only hastily arrange how to fool the barbarians without understanding the details of the situation.

Yes, when Miguel arrived, the navy warship that had returned to report the news had already met them and was brought back here.

Deng Zilong was very cunning and did not reveal the news that another 5,000 troops were about to arrive, which naturally led the Spaniards to make some misjudgments.

In fact, if the Spaniards really knew that the Ming Dynasty had contacted the Sulu Kingdom to send troops and already had an army of 7,000 people in the Philippines, it would be hard to say what they would choose to do.

After all, they have already experienced the influence and appeal of the Ming Dynasty, so it is hard to say that they have no other thoughts.

Gathering more than a thousand people is more or less within their acceptable range.

"Did King Bakker say he wanted to follow us at the beginning?"

After carefully listening to Captain Lin's account of their experiences during this period, Deng Zilong directly asked the question he had been thinking about for a long time.

"this."

Captain Lin hesitated for a moment before answering, "Sir, on that day, King Bakr did not say that he would come with me, but only said that he would send two generals to lead the army to accompany me.

The same thing happened the next day, but it was not until the evening when he hosted another banquet in the palace to entertain me that he mentioned this matter and said that he wanted to lead the troops here in person.

After we have annihilated the Lin Feng pirate group, they want to follow our fleet back to the Ming Dynasty and pay tribute to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

They also said that they had not paid tribute for many years and were worried that the Ming Dynasty had forgotten them, so they planned to go to the Ming Dynasty in person to report the situation over the years. It was not that their Sulu Kingdom was unwilling to pay tribute, but that they lacked large ships to cross the sea.

I really don't know how to respond to his request, so I can only bring him here."

"It doesn't matter."

Deng Zilong waved and smiled, indicating that he didn't have to worry about anything.

When vassal states came to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty never refused and always treated them with courtesy, so it was not taboo.

"Have you observed that the country of Sulu is stable these days?"

Deng Zilong asked again.

"It's not bad. During the preparation period, I and my men visited the capital of Sulu and it seemed quite prosperous. I also didn't hear of any chaos or signs of rebellion in the country."

Captain Lin said immediately.

In his eyes, the Sulu Kingdom was actually quite good. At least it was worthy of the words "peace and prosperity for the country" and the people seemed to be very loyal to their king.

As for the original two kingdoms, they died out for various reasons and the throne was not passed down. The system of three kings coexisting in the past turned into a dictatorship of one king.

However, such a system is actually more in line with the thoughts of people like Lin Baihu.

In the Ming Dynasty, both the government and the local people believed that there is only one sun in the sky.

How could such a small kingdom as Sulu have three kings coexisting at the same time?

Of course, this is what the people below think. If it were the cabinet ministers, whether it was Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde, or anyone else, they would not think so.

The more things the foreign vassals have to do, the better; the more kings they have to do, the better. This way, their strength will be distributed, making them weaker and having to rely on the Ming Dynasty for everything.

The reason why Wei Guangde was able to convince those in power inside and outside the palace was because Mang Yinglong had almost unified the Southeast Peninsula. If he was allowed to continue developing, once he had occupied the area, he would have to turn his attention to the Ming Dynasty in the northeast.

We can no longer keep tigers as a threat.

No matter how much Ming officials looked down on the southwestern barbarians, they also knew that they had to do their best to prevent them from becoming too powerful and becoming a factor affecting the stability of the southwestern Ming.

Wei Guangde had already arranged the Liaodong general to go there. After spending so much effort, it was natural that there must be practical results. The best situation would be to divide the Toungoo Dynasty and let them return to their original state.

"Has everyone settled down?"

Deng Zilong looked at his quartermaster and asked.

"The soldiers of Sulu are all camped in the north, which is far away from here."

The man immediately clasped his fists and replied.

"Inform everyone to keep their mouths shut and don't let anything slip when Miguel comes."

Deng Zilong just gave orders.

As for Buckle's arrival, well, that was not his concern.

Wait for Yu Dayou to come and let him make the arrangements.

Deng Zilong thought so.