prosperous age

Outside an unknown small harbor northwest of Luzon Island, two ships were slowly approaching.

The one in front was a gunboat of the Ming navy, but the ship following behind was obviously not a Ming ship. Instead, it was quite similar to the foreign merchant ships that the people in the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty had seen at that time.

The arrival of the two ships suddenly made the Ming navy officers and soldiers who were on guard nearby nervous.

As various signals were sent out, officers and soldiers appeared on the gun positions of the two naval warships in the harbor, all closely watching the approach of the two ships.

On the shore, Deng Zilong had received news that Wang Wanggao's gunboat had brought a foreign ship into the port for some unknown reason, so he also walked out of the tent and stood on the beach to observe quietly.

The two ships looked intact and did not look like they had been through a major war.

But why would Wang Wanggao bring the barbarian ships here? The result of doing so would obviously expose their existence.

In fact, Deng Zilong has never figured out how to appear here.

Soon, two ships stopped in the bay near the shore, dropping anchor one on the left and one on the right.

Soon, a small boat was lowered from the Ming gunboat, and several people got on board and paddled hard towards the shore.

Deng Zilong put away the telescope in his hand. He had just observed carefully and saw that Wang Wanggao was still on the bow of the bird boat. There was a sailor beside him who was responsible for sending flag signals. It seemed that he was communicating with the foreign ship next to him in this way.

However, the distance was a bit far, and Deng Zilong could not see their flag signals clearly.

However, he roughly judged from the sailor's action that he was asking the foreign ship on the opposite side to stay here and not move.

Although that foreign merchant ship was much smaller than the merchant ships Deng Zilong had seen in the Ming Dynasty, it still had a row of gun ports on its sides, and was obviously also an armed merchant ship.

However, because the ship is small, it does not seem suitable for long-distance voyages across the sea.

I don’t know how they got this ship to Luzon. Did the foreigners build a shipyard in Luzon and manufacture it here?

Deng Zilong felt a tightness in his heart for no reason and started to get nervous.

If the barbarians had a shipyard on Luzon Island, it would definitely not be a good thing for the Ming Dynasty.

This means that their warships can be maintained nearby and remain in combat condition for longer periods of time.

Ever since he learned that the imperial court intended to divide Luzon, Deng Zilong has regarded the barbarians as enemies and is ready to go to war with them at any time.

Naturally, it is normal to have such thoughts.

Comparing the advantages and disadvantages between the Ming Dynasty and the barbarians, it is obvious that this place is closer to the Ming Dynasty and many conveniences can be easily obtained.

However, the barbarians had occupied Luzon for a short time and did not provide these convenient conditions.

Li Jin said that there is a shipyard on the seashore outside Manila, but it probably does not have the ability to build ships now. It can only build small boats, and its main business is to provide maintenance and repair work for merchant ships.

Because the number of barbarian merchant ships here is limited, the scale is very small.

Look at the foreign merchant ship in front of us. Although it looks new, judging from the degree of corrosion on the wood, it was also launched a few years ago.

It was probably not built in Luzon.

Deng Zilong had an idea in mind and raised the telescope to observe for a while. On the deck of the foreign ship, a man who seemed to be the captain was communicating with someone next to him, and it seemed that he was occasionally directing the three warships of the Ming navy in the bay.

Not long after, the boat came to the shore, and another boat under the ship's main flag ran towards them.

After the person came closer and knelt on one knee to salute, Deng Zilong asked him to stand up and speak.

"What's going on? I asked you to patrol the surrounding area, but how did you lead the barbarian ships here?"

Deng Zilong was somewhat dissatisfied with Wang Wanggao's arbitrary decision-making, but the most important thing now was to figure out what had happened to them that made them act this way.

"Sir, when we were out at sea for patrol, we encountered this barbarian merchant ship. At that time, the other party approached us on their own initiative. There was a Han Chinese on board, who called himself Lin Bixiu, and took the initiative to act as an interpreter."

"Wait, you said there were Han people on the barbarian ship acting as translators between you and the barbarians?"

When the general flag on the opposite side was answering, Deng Zilong suddenly interrupted.

"Yes, that Lin Bixiu said that his family left China hundreds of years ago to escape the invasion of the Mongols and settled here."

The general flag quickly replied: "Although they are here, they still use their own language in daily life, so he is proficient in the local language. He has been in contact with the Yi people for a long time and has learned their language."

"Well, go on, what do they do?"

Deng Zilong nodded. At that time, many people who made a living on the sea were indeed proficient in multiple "foreign languages". Even on Li Jin's ship, there were such people who could speak the languages ​​of the barbarians and the Luzon people.

While doing business with the barbarians, he also learned some of their language. As long as the communication was not very complicated, he could handle it with ease.

Following the general flag’s introduction, Deng Zilong also learned about what happened during this voyage.

At first, the gunboats were just patrolling nearby, mainly to practice with the few warships that had been sent out earlier, so as to avoid missing out on the encounter with them.

As for the foreign ships they encountered on the way, they naturally asked about them and found out that they were transport ships that collected food from all over the Philippine Islands and transported it to Manila City.

Although it is a merchant ship, it belongs to the Spanish Navy.

After the barbarians occupied the Philippine Islands, they established many strongholds everywhere, both to maintain control over the entire island and to contact the tribes on the island and obtain their supplies.

Due to recent preparations for war, the city of Manila has recruited thousands of local people, resulting in high food consumption. The tribes around the city of Manila alone are no longer able to supply sufficient food.

Therefore, the Governor of Manila, Ravisalli, sent ships to various places to collect grain, and the foreign ship in the port was one of them.

They encountered a Chinese ship near the Philippine Islands, which was clearly a warship. At first they thought it was an armed ship of the Lin Feng pirate group, so they approached and prepared to start a war.

Yes, although this barbarian ship is similar to the bird ship and is not very big, it is well armed and its sailors are all elite Spanish sailors, so they are confident of defeating the enemy.

Only after the two ships approached each other did Lin Bixiu notice the big flag with the word "Ming" on it. He knew that this was not a pirate armed ship but most likely a warship from the Ming Dynasty, so he urgently stopped the preparations for war.

Yes, when Wang Wanggao discovered that the opposite foreign ship had opened its gun windows and the black muzzles of its guns were leaking out, he did not hesitate to prepare his side for battle and pushed out all the cannons in preparation for battle.

Of course, the battle did not break out in the end. After the two ships got close to each other, the two sides communicated through Lin Bixiu, the translator.

Wang Wanggao could only say that he was on a Ming Navy warship that was ordered to go out to sea to search for traces of Lin Feng's pirate group. Because they had the same enemy, the atmosphere of communication between the two sides was quite pleasant.

Lin Bixiu once again confirmed the news that Lin Feng was in Pengasilan Bay.

Of course, Wang Wanggao knew all this. They had actually verified it a long time ago, but they had not seen Lin Feng in person.

Knowing the intention of the Ming navy, the barbarians were obviously very concerned and invited them to Manila City to meet with the barbarian governor to discuss the possibility of the two families jointly attacking Pengaslan Bay and encircling Lin Feng.

After all, Lin Feng was a pirate wanted by the Ming Dynasty court, and the barbarians knew this very well.

It seemed like a good thing for the Yi people to get the Ming government involved in the suppression of the Lin Feng pirate group. At least they had an ally who could help them. It was naturally the most beneficial for them to wipe out the Lin Feng entrenched in the Philippine Islands.

There is no room for two tigers in one mountain. After Lin Feng arrived in the Philippine Islands, especially after he built a city near the mouth of the Pengasilan Bay and established the Hawksbill Turtle City, the surrounding Filipino natives began to get restless.

According to the intelligence they have, many local people have taken the initiative to join Lin Feng and work for them.

Lin Feng also welcomed everyone who came and attracted a large number of local people to participate.

"According to what Lin Bixiu said, Lin Feng seems to want to be the king of Daimao City. After all, this place is far away from the Ming Dynasty, and he has absorbed a large number of locals, with very favorable conditions."

Finally, the general flag said.

"Lin Feng also wants to establish a country overseas, haha."

Deng Zilong just sneered disdainfully, but when he saw the foreign ship in the bay, he knew that he now needed to determine his attitude towards them.

"Let their captain come ashore and talk."

Deng Zilong opened his mouth and gave the order.

"Yes."

The general received the order, quickly returned to the boat, and rowed towards the bay.

Soon, the foreign ships in the bay responded, and some people got on to a small boat, but this small boat was not a Ming army ship, but the foreigners' own boat.

After the captain of the foreign ship and several other people got on the small boat, Wang Wanggao also got off the gunboat and rowed towards the shore together with the previous small boat.

Two small boats came ashore, and Wang Wanggao came over with a barbarian and a middle-aged man who was obviously Han Chinese.

When he arrived in front of Deng Zilong, Wang Wanggao saluted him first, and then he heard the Han man behind the barbarian take two steps forward and bow to him as well.

"You are."

Deng Zilong asked the question even though he knew the answer.

"I am Lin Bixiu, a remnant of the Song Dynasty. I am here to see Lord Deng."

Hearing Lin Bixiu's words, Deng Zilong frowned slightly and said, "You are a Song Dynasty person? Don't you know that the Taizu Emperor Gao of the Ming Dynasty expelled the Tartars and restored China a hundred years ago?

Now, the whole world is the territory of the Ming Dynasty, where are the Song people?"

After hearing what Deng Zilong said, Lin Bixiu realized that he had spoken out of turn.

In fact, this is also a habit.

The visitors from the Ming Dynasty whom he had met before all claimed to be from the Song Dynasty to show that their ancestors were unwilling to be driven overseas by the Mongols.

No one in the Ming Dynasty said anything about this, but over time they got used to saying it.

Now that he was reprimanded by this Ming general, he realized that something seemed to be wrong.

But soon he realized that he was no longer a Ming person. Although he was still Han Chinese, he could only be considered of Chinese descent. In fact, he was a native of Luzon.

As for those in the Ming Dynasty officialdom, they also have political stances.

This political stance is not about loyalty to the emperor or loyalty and obedience to anyone, but involves the issue of the inheritance of Chinese civilization.

Some say it was Zhu Yuanzhang who drove out the Tartars and rebuilt China, others say the Zhu family was the most successful peasant uprising.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang himself said that he was following the will of heaven and inheriting the orthodox tradition from the Mongols.

Then the question is, Zhu Yuanzhang rebelled in the name of expelling the Tartars, so why did he end up recognizing the Yuan Dynasty as the orthodox?

The reasons are actually very complicated, even involving the Liao Dynasty before the Yuan Dynasty, the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, and the Jin Dynasty that was established later.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, although the country wanted to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, it was never successful and ended up losing large tracts of mountains and rivers in the north. Since then, China has been divided into the north and the south.

At that time, the order was in chaos, and the bureaucrats representing the Han culture were no longer able to define the orthodox Confucian doctrine of self-discipline and restoration of propriety, and the ruler ruling and the subject being subject.

The Liao Dynasty was able to rule the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun smoothly for a long time because of this. The subsequent Song Dynasty was actually restoring the orthodoxy and order of Confucian culture.

The Confucianism of the Song Dynasty was definitely not the same as that of previous dynasties. Similarly, the Confucian disciples in the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun did not necessarily agree with the Confucian tradition that was cut off by the Song Dynasty.

The confrontation between Liao and Song for more than a hundred years was not only due to geographical isolation, but also cultural differences.

Both the Northern Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty claimed to be orthodox. At that time, the Liao Dynasty's international status was no less than that of the Northern Song Dynasty. Even the word "China" was referred to as the Liao Dynasty in more historical books.

This is because the dynasties that China was most proud of before were the Han and Tang dynasties, but the Han Dynasty had been gone for a long time, while the Tang Dynasty had only just been destroyed.

The core of the early Tang Dynasty was composed mainly of Xianbei-ized Han people and Han-ized Xianbei people, mixed with Shandong wealthy families in Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, and the Jiangnan families with little sense of participation.

The complexity of the ethnic system made the early Tang Dynasty extremely tolerant and open to all foreign ethnic groups. The most representative statement is the one made by Emperor Taizong of Tang: Since ancient times, people have valued the Chinese and despised the foreigners. Only I love them all equally.

What I mean is that no matter whether you are Han or Yi, there is no distinction between them to me, we are all one family.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the emperors of the Tang Dynasty no longer dared to be so confident, nor did they dare to easily trust the Hu people.

During the Tang Dynasty, wealthy families relied on their power and monopoly on culture to suppress the local mixed culture.

However, Huang Chao's suppression of the wealthy families completely overturned this management order. From the late Tang Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty, China was following a cyclical management order of tearing things apart and reshaping them, then tearing them apart and blending them again.

After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the orthodoxy that best represented Han culture was controlled by the northern regime.

Starting from the Later Jin Dynasty, especially after the Khitan briefly ruled the Central Plains, local warlords no longer pursued orthodoxy and focused their energy on improving national strength and military power.

In troubled times, anyone can claim to have inherited the throne and no longer follow the only legitimacy.

In particular, scholars represented by Feng Dao and Han Xizai took a more realistic approach: they would go to whoever respected them. If they disagreed, they would jump ship and go to the next master.

After the Jin Dynasty conquered the Liao Dynasty, the northern Han people under its rule had hope of returning to the inherited order of the Southern Song Dynasty, and they also staged uprisings many times in preparation for joining the Southern Song Dynasty.

But the Southern Song Dynasty abandoned the northern gentry because the gentry who had fled to the south earlier and the local gentry in the south both excluded and despised the gentry's children who returned later.

The Southern Song's incompetence and exclusion made the North no longer have any hope, so it turned into a more pragmatic Confucian realist, supporting the Jin Dynasty, including the Yuan Dynasty, which was loyal to the Mongols.

In this way, the cultural division between the north and the south naturally made the Mongolians happy.

In order to prevent the northern and southern Han people from merging, the unified Yuan Dynasty deliberately divided the Han culture. The Yuan Dynasty called the northern Han people Han people, while the southern Han people were the lowest level of southerners. (End of this chapter)