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Chapter 1286 Shocking Change

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    "What about my dad? What's going on now?" Zhao Hao asked again.

    "On his way to take office, the master went back to his hometown to worship his ancestors, so he was delayed a little. He didn't arrive in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province until he sent the letter." Li Zuoguo replied.

    Zhao Hao made some calculations and found out that his father left Kunshan on the third day of April and had not arrived in Guangzhou for more than a month, which is not too outrageous.

    "Then where is he now?"

    "Master, you should have arrived in Chaozhou by now, right? No further news has been received yet, but according to the temporary authorization, my subordinates have written to various departments to pay close attention to Chaozhou government and report the latest situation in a timely manner." Chang Kaiche said hurriedly  .

    "Well, there are hundreds of people following us, and there are two gentlemen. It should be okay" Mr. Zhao suppressed the worry in his heart and asked, "What else can happen?"

    "There is also very bad news. Jiangnan Trading Company came to report that their trading station in Ryukyu was attacked by pirates. The security team fought bravely to save the warehouse. However, all ten cargo ships parked at the dock were robbed, including  Five ships were loaded with cargo, and the loss was as high as one hundred thousand taels." Chang Kaiche paused and said in a low tone:

    "More than thirty sailors died"

    "What?" When Zhao Hao heard this, his blood surged upwards, his eyebrows twitched, and he suddenly raised his voice and said, "Why didn't you tell me earlier?!"

    ¡°I think the master¡¯s matters are more important.¡± Chang Kaiche quickly knelt down.

    "Get up." Zhao Hao cursed secretly, but that's true. If he had talked about this matter first and then about his father, he would have asked the same question.

    "When did this happen?" he asked, suppressing his anger.

    "I just received the news that it happened two days ago." Chang Kaiche said hurriedly.

    Being able to receive the news so quickly was naturally inseparable from Jiangnan Group¡¯s carrier pigeon system.  Although homing pigeons generally can only fly 600 miles at sea, they must land to rest and look for food.  However, the Jiangnan Group has achieved relay communications with the country through a number of pigeonhouses set up in Iwo Jima, Yokozeura, Ukushima, Seongsan Port, Lichaohaizhou, and Seishantou.

    Therefore, the security area will receive news from Ryukyu earlier than the country.

    "Invite Jin, Wang, Zhu and Ma to come over immediately." Zhao Hao ordered in a deep voice, and the guards hurried out to call for people.

    ¡°We¡¯ll talk about the situation in Ryukyu when they arrive. If there¡¯s anything else that¡¯s troublesome, let¡¯s talk about it.¡± Mr. Zhao said to Chang Kaiche with a dark face.

    "Yes" Chang Kaiche swallowed and said bravely: "There is another thing that was also reported by Xiaotang General Report - we reported to the business stations in Cebu and Manila that the Spaniards in Busu,  Since the beginning of the new year, they have been frequently spying on Manila, buying military supplies from Haojingao, Malacca, Champa and other places. Last month, a fleet of three large sailing ships came from the depths of the ocean and docked in Busu.  . After unloading the cargo, it did not load it again and showed no sign of returning. Instead, it started sailing along the coast of Luzon."

    After a pause, he said in a deep voice: "There are various signs that they are about to launch an invasion against Manila."

    "Yeah." Zhao Hao's expression brightened slightly.  Setting up trading stations in Ryukyu, Macau, Penghu, Manila, Cebu, Champa and other places was an important task he gave to Jiangnan Trading Company.  But most of these trading stations do not have the function of maritime trade, because it is very dangerous to engage in maritime trade without controlling the sea area

    The experience of the Ryukyu Trading Station has proved that even a fleet of armed merchant ships will still suffer heavy losses without control of the sea area and seaports.

    Therefore, these overseas trading stations basically only operate some local businesses, or trade with local maritime merchants.  Instead of asking them to become bigger and stronger, Zhao Hao ordered them to control the scale of their business and try to be kind to others to avoid being too big to attract trouble.

    Because the main mission of these business stations is to collect various local intelligence, make friends, and establish a network of relationships.

    From the local political ecology, economic structure, population proportion, military strength, education level, religious sects, to climate and hydrology, topography and sea conditions, farmland water conservancy Zhao Hao guided the General Affairs Department to list more than 400 items, allowing various business stations to  intelligence personnel to collect, organize, and analyze for the future.

    They have actually been able to correctly analyze the movements of the Spaniards, and it seems that they are not completely freeloaders.

    However, it was still too late for them to draw conclusions.

    The great prophecy told Mr. Zhao that the Spaniards should have occupied Manila by now.

    ??~~

    Although according to the so-called Treaty of Zaragoza, Asia should be within the scope of Portuguese colonization, the Spanish have always been resentful of the Portuguese monopoly on Eastern trade.

    So six years ago, after careful preparation, SpainWith the ambition of turning the Pacific Ocean into the inner lake of the Habsburg Empire, they formed an expedition fleet from distant Mexico along the route discovered by Magellan, and crossed the ocean to Cebu in the north of Luzon.

    At this time, the Luzon Islands, except for Cebu, Manila and other cities where Chinese and Southeast Asian merchants arrived, were still in a semi-civilized state.  Since the various tribes are distributed on different islands, their contact with each other is also very shallow, and there is no tendency to form a unified country at all.  Even the largest island of Luzon is open to all powerful interveners like virgin territory.

    Therefore, the Spaniards, who had a huge generational advantage, quickly established a foothold and established their rule through both carrot and stick.

    Then, King Philip II of Spain named the region the Philippines after himself, appointed Legazpi as the first governor of the Philippines, and placed him under the command of the deputy king of New Spain in Mexico.

    In 1571 AD, that is, in April of this year, six years after arriving in the Buce Islands and making full preparations, Legazpi joined the reinforcements from Mexico to form a force of more than 2,000 men and 23 large and small ships.  The fleet formed headed for Manila, the busiest city in southern Cebu.

    At this time, Manila was already relatively prosperous, with a large number of Chinese settling here for business and bringing commerce and civilization.  However, the small Luzon Sultanate that rules the region is very weak, which is also a common problem among the Southeast Asian sultanates.  It seems that they are not accustomed to the local environment. In the Arab region, Islam is very vigorous, but in South and Southeast Asia, it is unbearable, and no one can fight it.

    Even the Portuguese were able to beat them all the way from India to Southeast Asia, defeating countless sultanates.  Not to mention the Spaniards who are more martial and full of religious militancy Well, in a sense, we also have to thank them for preventing some unspeakable things from spreading to East Asia.

    In short, after discovering that two thousand Spaniards suddenly invaded in a "large scale", the rulers of Manila were divided into the main warlord and the two factions, arguing with each other.  In the end, no one could convince anyone. Raja Suleiman, who was leading the battle, advocated retreating to the north, gathering strength, and asking for help from the Celestial Empire and other sultanates.

    Rajamatanda of the peace faction dismantled the fortifications, allowing the Spaniards to enter Manila unscathed.

    Zhao Hao also knew that just next month, King Suleiman would unite the Cebu tribes and concentrate all their strength to launch a counterattack against the Spanish.  Although he had an advantage in military strength, Suleiman still took the lead, but the huge generation gap could not be smoothed out by determination and numbers.  In the end, all the rebels were wiped out, and even Suleiman was shot and killed. The short-lived Luzon Sultanate was destroyed.

    Then, Legazpi moved the Governor's Palace to Luzon, forced all Luzon people to convert to Catholicism, and then continued to attack Mindanao in the south without stopping

    ??~~

    In the small courtyard, Jin Ke, Wang Rulong, and Ma Yinglong were sitting at attention, listening to Chang Kaiche's intelligence briefing.

    Then Mr. Zhao told his plan and said:

    "Let's talk about Luzon first. What I mean is, don't worry about it for now. Let the Spaniards do it. They have sufficient experience in how to remove obstacles and establish colonies. Let's move in after they finish cleaning the house.  This saves effort and dirty hands, and it also maintains the reputation of righteousness."

    Little Luzon is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. It is a strong claim to help the vassal state restore the country, although it will be a little late.  But for a big country, it is very reasonable to act a little slower

    After a pause, he gloated again: "Besides, it's not us who should be worried most now, but the Portuguese."

    "Yes, those guys in Macau have to worry about being robbed of their business." Wang Rulong grinned and said, "It's better to let them eat dog."

    "It's not just as simple as grabbing business, but the Spaniards have trampled on the so-called 'Pope Meridian' The weaker side always cares more about the protection of the rules. They will be very worried that their power will be squeezed out of Nanyang and robbed.  Trade with the East." Zhao Hao stopped talking and said: "These are all things for later, let's talk about Ryukyu first."

    ¡°Yes!¡± The three of them responded, and the atmosphere in the small courtyard immediately became solemn.

    "First tell me what you think." Zhao Hao has always been unquestionable in strategy and fully democratic in tactics.

    "This is a long-planned and targeted attack." Agency Chief Ma Yinglong was the first to speak: "As far as my subordinates know, the Jiangnan trading fleet only docks at Ryukyu once a month.  The Guangdong merchants would leave Ryukyu and return home in less than five days. The thieves had planned to launch night attacks from the shore and sea at the same time when they entered the port to unload their cargo. It was obviously planned for a long time. "

    "Yeah." Zhao Hao nodded, thinking that since last year, there have been clippers from the south, peeking into the Jiangnan Shipyard and Xingang.

    "It's a pity that those people were highly skilled in boating, used both sails and oars, and were very vigilant, so they were never caught"

    ¡°If they feel that these places are heavily defended, it would make sense to choose the Ryukyu Kingdom where the Jiangnan Group¡¯s power cannot be projected.

    "It's all my fault that damn Shang Yuan, who refused to set aside a dedicated port for us like Li Chao did. He even restricted us from posting enough guards, saying that the Ryukyu Kingdom has nearly a hundred warships and 20,000 soldiers.  He can protect the merchant ships of the Celestial Empire." Wang Rulong yelled angrily: "What's the result? Everyone was infiltrated at sea and on land, which led to this tragedy. He must take full responsibility!" (Remember the website address:  www.hlnovel.com)sp;It's a pity that those people were highly skilled in boating, used both sails and oars, and were very vigilant, but they were never caught

    ¡°If they feel that these places are heavily defended, it would make sense to choose the Ryukyu Kingdom where the Jiangnan Group¡¯s power cannot be projected.

    "It's all my fault that damn Shang Yuan, who refused to set aside a dedicated port for us like Li Chao did. He even restricted us from posting enough guards, saying that the Ryukyu Kingdom has nearly a hundred warships and 20,000 soldiers.  He can protect the merchant ships of the Celestial Empire." Wang Rulong yelled angrily: "What's the result? Everyone was infiltrated at sea and on land, which led to this tragedy. He must take full responsibility!" (Remember the website address:  www.hlnovel.com
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