prosperous age

Chapter 972 1061 Coveting Manila

"The big boss, the big boss."

A speedboat sailed from a distance, passing through many large ships, and soon docked next to a large ship with a huge black flag.

A man stood beside the boat and looked at the people in the boat.

"What's the matter, so urgent?"

The man was not tall, but his skin was rough and dark, obviously tempered by years of living at sea.

"My boss, Mr. Zhuang, robbed a small barbarian merchant ship. When he interrogated the sailors, they said they were going to Manila to transship goods."

The sailor on the boat said hurriedly.

"Manila, is it a Spanish ship?"

Although the Ming Dynasty officials already knew that there was actually a difference between Yi people and Yi people. They belonged to different countries. In addition, a group of red-haired Yi people came to the sea recently, and they seemed to be from another country.

However, pirates have been dealing with the Yi people all year round. The goods they plunder have to be sold after all, and they also need to purchase various weapons and supplies, so they are more familiar with the differences between the Yi people than the Ming Dynasty officials.

Manila is actually based on the excellent seaport of Manila Bay.

However, at this time, the Philippines did not have a political system like a country. The local area was still in the era of tribal alliances. Some indigenous tribes believed that there should be no harm in cooperating with the Spanish, but some people thought that the Spanish were unkind.

However, after a stronger local tribe was defeated by the Spanish army because it was unwilling to cooperate with the Spanish, the Spanish, who showed strong combat power, easily gained the allegiance of the Filipinos.

Spain's powerful force shocked and frightened the surrounding tribes. After the battle, many chiefs took the initiative to come to Manila to pray for peace and were willing to become subjects of the Spanish king.

From this, the city of Manila also began to take shape, and the Spanish fleet entered Manila in a mighty manner, making it an important fulcrum for the trade routes between the Spaniards, the Ming Dynasty, and the Japanese.

Lin Feng's pirate group occasionally heard of this place when they were trading with the Yi people, but now that it was mentioned, Lin Feng also became interested.

His stronghold on Dongfan Island has been captured by the Ming army, and he is now like a rootless duckweed. This is not a good thing.

Although he is a pirate, he still needs a base to rest, and he is not always floating on the sea.

What's more, there are not only pirates in his fleet, but also their families.

"It's a Spanish ship. The sailor said that there is no peace near Manila, and there are many tribes around who are unwilling to obey their orders.

But the most important thing is that I heard that there are not many people in Manila now. Many Spaniards have come out with the fleet to do trade, and the city is empty of defenses. "

reported the sailor on the boat.

Hearing this, Lin Feng's previous thoughts became clearer now, and he also knew that the second master had an idea with him.

Find a new base for them.

This idea has been lingering in his mind several times these days, but apart from Dongfan Island, he can no longer think of any other place to get off the sedan chair.

You can't even go to the Penghu Islands. The Ming army has come to Dongfan, so it's even more dangerous there.

As for the islands in the southern sea, the conditions are not good and they are not suitable for long-term stays.

Now the second boss thought of Manila, and Lin Feng thought it seemed possible. After all, the Spaniards had not occupied it for a long time, only a few years.

Moreover, he is also very clear about the problem of the Yi people, that is, there are few people.

Lin Feng didn't know how many people there were in the Yi people's country, but it was true that not many Yi people had arrived here.

"You go back and ask the second master to come back and we can discuss it."

Lin Feng stood at the bow of the ship and gave instructions to his men below.

"Yes, I will go back and inform Boss Zhuang right away."

The thousands of people under Lin Feng were actually several groups of pirates who were defeated by the Ming army, but he was the strongest and his abilities were recognized by other pirates.

Finally, based on strength and seniority, the ranking was determined.

Boss Zhuang, as the sailor called him, still had seven or eight boats on hand. He was sent to the front to fight. Unexpectedly, he caught a big fish.

The merchant ships of the Yi people not only contained a lot of goods, but also a lot of gold and silver. This was hard currency and could be used no matter where they went.

The boat went away, and their conversation was heard by everyone around them.

They were not afraid at all when attacking a city controlled by the barbarians.

Being a pirate means licking blood from the edge of a knife. If there is no tomorrow, hitting anyone is not a fight.

Their current situation is actually very clear in their hearts. They cannot float on the sea forever, and they must establish a stronghold as soon as possible to rest and replenish their supplies.

It seems that it is not bad to seize the territory of the barbarians.

The coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty are becoming increasingly difficult to grab.

As long as they approached the shore, warning gongs would sound, and then the people of the Ming Dynasty would hide everywhere, and the surrounding Ming troops would quickly gather and rush over, leaving little time for looting.

Wealthy places have now built city walls for protection, which cannot be conquered in a short time.

I have never fought against the Yi people's territory, so I don't know if it will be easy to fight.

But precisely because of this, it is thought that the barbarians may not know their arrival, and if the defense is lax, it is really possible to defeat Manila easily.

They thought so, and Lin Feng naturally thought the same.

More importantly, Manila is two to three thousand miles away from Ming Dynasty, and Ming Dynasty will not reach here.

Thinking that the Spanish conquered the local indigenous people by force and made them subjects of the barbarians, could I do the same and become the king of Luzon?

In the Ming Dynasty, the Philippines was also called the Sulu Kingdom, but people who made a living on the sea generally called it Luzon.

When Zheng He's fleet arrived here, he regarded several of the most powerful tribes here as earth kings, including the East King of Sulu Kingdom Badu Gebahara, the West King Mahala Gemading, the Dong King Badu Geba Labu, etc. Afterwards, they led hundreds of family members to form a friendly mission and went to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty. They were solemnly received by Emperor Yongle.

But in fact, there is no political system in Luzon.

Beijing City, Forbidden City Cabinet.

"Continue to develop in various parts of Southeast Asia and figure out the situation there, especially the attitude of the Han people."

Wei Guangde told Liu Shouyoudao to continue paying attention to the matter.

"By the way, the last mentioned Feilong Kingdom should be verified as soon as possible to see if it is really Zhang Lian's remnant and what is their current situation."

Jinyiwei's intelligence also mentioned at the end that a Han force with nearly ten thousand people had appeared in the northwest of the old port a few years ago and was very powerful.

They carved out a territory on the island of Sumatra, and the Bajrang Kingdom had nothing to do with them.

Jin Yiwei learned from the Chinese people living in Old Port that they seemed to be the remnants of the Feilong Kingdom that had caused rebellion in Fujian and Guangdong and went to sea to take refuge here.

Wei Guangde has no interest in this kind of remnant force.

But when they appeared near the old port, Wei Guangde had to pay attention. If the Ming Dynasty restores the Xuanwei Division in Jiugang, how the remnants of the Feilong Kingdom will choose, whether to attack Jiugang and continue to be enemies of the Ming Dynasty, surrender, or escape far away, all need to be considered.

However, Wei Guangde preferred to let Yu Dayou directly deal with the remnants and prevent them from continuing to flee.

After all, it is a scourge, and it is best to eliminate it naturally.

"Based on the news reported back, there is a high probability that this group of people are the remnants of the Feilong Kingdom.

Some local people had been captured before. According to their confessions, Zhang Lian, who was beheaded by the imperial court, was actually someone else. Zhang Lian himself fled overseas by boat with thousands of his remnants.

They probably couldn't let go of their family, so they didn't board the boat and escape with Zhang Lian, but wanted to sneak back.

These documents were not reported locally, but were kept in the county government office.

However, we Jinyiwei still received some news.

It should be noted that these confessions did not only come from one group of people, but were recorded in many places, and they should have escaped by the sea. "

Liu Shouyou clasped his fists and replied, "As for Jin Yiwei not reporting the matter at the beginning, it was mainly because it would have too much impact and was worried about causing shock in Fujian and Guangdong.

After all, after the imperial court beheaded Zhang Lian, rumors spread around him. "

Wei Guangde nodded, understanding Jin Yiwei's original considerations.

If this matter is revealed, it will have a negative impact on the court.

"Send additional manpower to confirm whether Zhang Lian is there."

What Wei Guangde was thinking about at this time was whether to let Yu Dayou lead the navy south to Old Port after the Jin Yiwei confirmed their identities.

Since the person ran away from Yu Dayou, let Yu Dayou catch him again and re-establish the Jiugang Xuanwei Department.

"In addition, Temasek also needs to send more manpower, especially how many barbarians there are in the city and what their military strength is."

Wei Guangde continued to order, "Temasek is on the other side of the Old Port. If we, the Ming Dynasty, rebuild the Old Port Xuanwei Division, I don't know how the Temasek people will respond."

"Yes, Mr. Wei Ge, the Jinyiwei will send more manpower to investigate the situation in Old Port and Temasek."

Liu Shouyou hurriedly bowed and replied.

After exiting Wei Guangde's duty room and leaving the cabinet, Liu Shouyou quietly wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Who would have thought that while the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty were celebrating peace in the world, Mr. Wei Ge in the cabinet was actually considering launching a war of expansion.

That is, Jin Yiwei had long received news from the cabinet and knew that the earliest external expansion was seemingly initiated by the chief minister Zhang Juzheng, hoping to enhance his prestige in the court by expanding Liaodong by 800 miles.

What happened next, Liu Shouyou also knew, was that Wei Guangde began to actively plan to restore the Xuanwei Department of Old Port, and then to Myanmar.

Thinking of these two places, Liu Shouyou actually had an idea in his mind, that is, Jiaozhi and Nuergandusi, which were abandoned during the Xuanzong period of the Ming Dynasty. He thought that Mr. Wei Ge would also want to resume the actual control of these two places. Take control.

However, his idea was that Wei Guangde had been wronged.

Wei Guangde was indeed interested in the Northeast for a while, but considering that the Ming army was now struggling to defend Liaodong and could not truly surrender to the Jurchen tribes, under this situation, there was no point in moving the Ming army north to the Nurgan region. meaningful.

When Zhu Zhanji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, gave up Nuer Gandusi and withdrew his 30,000 troops to Kaiyuan, Liaoning, it was actually based on small calculations. The input and output were not proportional, so he chose to give up.

Although later generations criticized Zhu Zhanji for abandoning this place, they believed that it was the abandonment of Nuergandusi that led to the complete collapse of the eastern defense line that Zhu Di had worked so hard to manage.

In its original strategic deployment, the Ming Dynasty surrounded Mongolia from the south and east.

However, after losing Nuergandusi, Liaodong's role in containing the enemy from the east was seriously overestimated. In fact, it did not play a role in containing the enemy at all.

Not long after Liu Shouyou left, another guest arrived in Wei Guangde's duty room.

"Captain Li, please take a seat, Lu Bu, and serve tea."

Wei Guangde welcomed Li Chengliang in, asked him to sit down, and then looked over the Burmese governance strategy handed over by Li Chengliang.

After a quick browse, Wei Guangde found that it seemed to be similar to the Ming Dynasty's strategy against the Jurchens in Liaodong, which was to treat the local chieftains in Myanmar as the leaders of the Jurchen tribes, and find a reason to clean up the tribes that had grown too fast.

Wei Guangde had high expectations, so naturally he would not be disappointed.

Although it was far from what he wanted, the direction was generally correct, which was to control the strength of the local chieftains and prevent them from losing their tail.

If you don't have enough strength, you will naturally not dare to rebel.

Just like the current Jurchen tribe, except for Wang Gao, who had been beheaded, the other tribes seemed to be obedient.

Even in order to dig out the Jurchen tribe leader with evil intentions, Wei Guangde agreed to Qi Jiguang's long-term plan to catch big fish, and asked Atai and Ahai to contact the Jurchen tribes and recruit old tribes to develop and grow.

When the time comes, they will eradicate them together with Atai and Ahai.

After reading the charter brought by Li Chengliang, Wei Guangde lowered his head and thought for a long time before saying: "Captain Li, in fact, in my opinion, if we had demarcated the chieftain's territory from the beginning and not given him the opportunity to annex the surrounding areas and develop, wouldn't it have been avoided? Suffering from swords?

Why use the method of raising Gu, let them kill each other internally, and then the court will send troops to destroy them. "

Speaking of this, Wei Guangde shook his head.

"Mr. Wei Ge, the southern barbarians are cunning. If he contacts us secretly, he may avoid the court's eyes and ears and make it difficult to detect.

Instead of doing this, it is better to indulge, or even encourage them to fight among themselves and consume their strength. Then the court will have a reason to send troops and can counter the rebellion at the minimum cost. "

Li Chengliang said hurriedly.

After Wang Gao was executed, under the rule of Li Chengliang, there were continuous rebellions in the Jurchen tribe, and their heads became the ladder for Li Chengliang to obtain titles, some of which were due to Li Chengliang's conspiracy.

In fact, at that time, the Jurchen tribes were still scattered, and no tribe dared to rebel one after another.

So in the end, Li Chengliang could only end up personally, secretly supporting Nurhaci to start a career, and playing the trick of raising the bandit's self-respect.

But by this time, the things Li Chengliang had committed in Liaodong came out, and the court finally transferred Li Chengliang back to the capital.

Unexpectedly, this move allowed Nurhaci to grow rapidly like an escaped tiger. It was not until Li Chengliang returned to Liaodong again more than ten years later that he discovered that Nurhachi was already suspected of having a big tail.

In particular, Li Chengliang returned to Liaodong again because Li Rusong died in battle, and the Li family had no generals who dared to fight.

In desperation, Li Chengliang had no choice but to abandon Kuandian Six Forts and shrink his troops. As a result, he was dismissed again until he died of old age.

It can be said that the strategy Li Chengliang gave Wei Guangde to govern Burma was essentially the strategy he implemented in Liaodong, but in a different place.

Wei Guangde shook his head and smiled lightly at Li Chengliang: "Do the Liaodong Jurchens obey their leader's orders?"

"Well, you should probably listen."

Li Chengliang frowned and replied.

"Then win over the tribal leaders and give them what they want. How can a piece of loose sand dare to fight against the Ming Dynasty?"

Wei Guangde said.

(End of this chapter)