sjar Chapter 454 Manila (Part )
Chapter 454 Manila (Part )
From the 35th year of Jiajing, when the Spanish controlled Manila, to the 4th year of Yongli, nearly a hundred years have passed. During this hundred years, most other parts of Luzon Island were still in a tribal state, and only the city of Manila developed.
Because every year there were ships coming from America loaded with silver, Manila became the center of East-West trade. In the current city of Manila, there are 40,000 to 50,000 permanent residents, including a large number of Han people from the southeast coast, as well as a small number of Japanese, Koreans, and some indigenous people.
Even though the Spanish were fewer in number, with less than 3,000 Spaniards in Manila and more than 20,000 Han Chinese, the Spanish still held the dominant position.
In the early morning, the sun shone on the city of Manila. Among the people who were moving goods on the dock, many people suddenly stood up and looked towards the sea in the distance. They saw a fleet of eleven ships heading towards Manila.
A Guangdong merchant frowned and whispered to someone beside him, "It's a Spanish warship!"
The waiter looked at it carefully for a while, and said a little excitedly: "Boss, look, most of these warships are damaged. They must have just fought a battle with the Zheng family. A month ago, when the warships left the port, there were 27 large ships, but now there are only 11 left."
Fang Liangchun was not as happy as his friends. Instead, his face showed a hint of sadness. Compared with some ordinary people, Fang Liangchun undoubtedly knew more. These Spaniards had massacred Han people.
Fang Liangchun knew that these Western barbarians were not good people, but overseas trade was so profitable. If he wanted to make huge profits, he had to go to the riverside and do this kind of bloody job.
Fang Liangchun had a lucky mentality and because of the huge profits, he came to Manila a few years ago and established his own cargo station here.
Fang Liangchun naturally knew that Spain had formed an alliance with the Netherlands to declare war on the Zheng family. In this vast ocean, they attacked each other's merchant ships and fleets fought.
But the more intense the war became, the higher Fang Liangchun's profits actually increased. Despite this, Fang Liangchun did not become complacent. He had been in business for so many years and had an almost keen intuition about danger.
If the Zheng family loses, his life in Manila might be more difficult, with discrimination, extortion and so on, but if Spain loses, there is a great possibility that his life will be threatened.
Not long ago, the Spanish fleet was mobilized in full force. Fang Liangchun knew that they were definitely going to go out to sea to start a war with the Zheng family. At that time, many smuggling merchants from Fujian and Guangdong felt that the situation was not right and gradually evacuated Manila. However, Fang Liangchun still had a large number of porcelains in the warehouse that had not been sold, and he was reluctant to discard the goods, so he stayed in Manila with some merchants to wait and see the situation.
At this time, seeing the Spanish warships coming back, Fang Liangchun felt a little uneasy. He didn't know whether the Zheng family had won or not, but judging from the appearance of the warships, the Spanish-Dutch coalition forces definitely didn't gain any benefits.
Although Fang Liangchun was a Han Chinese, deep down he did not want the Spaniards to lose, because if the Spaniards lost, the Spanish governor would think that the Han Chinese posed a threat to them and would most likely massacre the city again.
Fang Liangchun counted carefully and found that the number was exactly as the waiter had counted. Of the 27 ships that went out last month, only 11 came back, and almost every ship was damaged. Some even had large holes on their sides that needed to be repaired immediately.
The man said happily, "The red-haired devils must have been defeated. Maybe the Zheng family will occupy Luzon. Then we won't have to look at the red-haired devils' faces, and we won't have to pay such heavy taxes."
Fang Liangchun was in no mood to talk to him about this, and hurriedly ordered: "Go quickly, hire three more ships, regardless of the price, and recruit more people, and load all the porcelain in the warehouse onto the ships!"
The clerk asked in confusion: "Boss, why? We brought all these here with great difficulty."
Fang Liangchun waved his hand and said, "You don't understand, don't ask so many questions, just do as I tell you!"
Just when Fang Liangchun saw that the situation was not good and was about to run away, Manila Fort.
In the Spanish Governor's room, Fleet Commander Ed pushed the door open in a hurry.
Governor Manrique, who was writing a letter to his friend in Spain, looked up and asked in surprise, "Ed, why are you back so soon?"
Ed led the great Spanish fleet, and with the cooperation of a Dutch fleet, they should have been invincible in this sea area. Why did Ed come back in such an embarrassed state?
Ed got straight to the point and said, "Your Excellency Governor, we have failed. The Spanish-Dutch joint fleet has suffered a defeat!"
This sentence shocked Manlik so much that he stood up and shouted, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
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When Zheng Chenggong returned to Fujian, in order to maintain its position as the maritime hegemon in East Asia and continue to control maritime trade, the Zheng family had to maintain enough warships and artillery.
Although Zheng Chenggong saw the disadvantages of his own army in the battle of Huguang, he made a bold statement at that time that he would expand the army by 200,000, establish the Eight Banners of the Zheng family, and create an iron man army. Zheng Chenggong was ambitious at the time and was ready to destroy Li Chengdong first and take over Fujian and Guangdong provinces. As a result, Spain and the Netherlands came to him first.
Zheng Chenggong had no choice but to postpone the plan of expanding the army, establishing the Eight Banners, and creating the Iron Man Army, and to build warships and artillery first.
Zheng Chenggong was ambitious. In order to completely defeat the Western and Dutch alliance, he first dispersed his forces, avoided the attack of the coalition forces, and refused to engage in a decisive battle at sea with the coalition forces.
Because Zheng Chenggong knew that the coalition forces had large ships and many guns, and that the Zheng family would inevitably suffer a loss in a decisive battle on the vast ocean. However, Zheng Chenggong also had a big killer in mind, which was a three-masted gunboat.
After this type of ship was built, it could carry more than 120 cannons, which was larger than the warships of the Allied Forces. It could be said to be the maritime overlord in East Asia. Zheng Chenggong's plan was to build not one, but two ships at once.
In order to build the three-masted gunboat, a large amount of manpower and resources in Fujian were poured into Zheng Chenggong's plan. Only after it was completed did Zheng Chenggong decide to fight a decisive battle with the Allied Forces.
The Zheng family first used a team of ten small warships to cruise off the coast of Luzon. After luring the coalition forces to go out, the Zheng family sent more warships, like adding fuel to the fire, making it look like a small battle would turn into a big one. The Governor of Manila at the time, Manrique, was very arrogant and believed that the powerful Invincible Fleet could not lose, so he ordered the entire fleet to attack.
After Zheng Chenggong received the news that the coalition forces had all left the port, he led his troops to fight a decisive battle with the coalition forces. In this battle, there were two large three-masted gunboats, one galleon, three imitation galleons, more than 30 Fuzhou ships, and a large number of more than 100 fireships.
Before the war, Zheng Chenggong made a bold statement: "The Western barbarians are eyeing Taiwan and want to seize it. My Zheng family will also fight back. I will definitely take their Luzon!"