Ventura is a Spanish supervisor at the Rancho Gold Mine. His job is to patrol the mining area every day with a leather whip. When he sees any Luzon miners showing signs of laziness, he will step forward to reprimand them, supplemented by a leather whip.
The whipping of a whip.
Almost every miner in Luzon has been whipped by Ventura, but everyone dares to be angry but dare not speak out. In the mining area, in addition to supervisors like Ventura, there is also a small group of Spanish soldiers living there.
, they are all equipped with muskets and are ready to suppress the miners' resistance at any time.
In the past few days, Ventura always felt that the miners under his jurisdiction were a little weird. When they had a little free time, the miners would get together and discuss something with a heavy face. Occasionally, they would throw their support at the Spaniards in the mining area.
He gave a look of dissatisfaction. Ventura wanted to know what the miners were discussing, but whenever he walked forward, the miners would suddenly disperse and act as if nothing had happened. He also tried to find a few
A miner came to ask, but the miners he called all shook their heads and said they knew nothing.
"Terencio, have you noticed that the monkeys in Luzon seem to be discussing something recently?" Ventura said to another Spanish supervisor during lunch.
The overseer named Terencio said casually while chewing Spanish sausage: "Who knows about their affairs, maybe they are discussing some festival matters? These Luzon people seem to have endless possibilities.
There are endless festivals to celebrate, but what does this have to do with us?...I am really fed up with this place in Luzon, I don’t want to spend a day idle here.”
Ventura said: "I don't like Luzon either, but what can we do when we go back to Europe? If we can't make a lot of money here, we will just be poor people when we go back."
"These people in Luzon are too lazy. Such a big gold mine only produces so much gold a year." Terencio complained, "I think you have to whip these people hard and make them work."
Be diligent."
Ventura shrugged his shoulders and said: "I want to slap them too. But the mine owner said, let us not go too far and not cause riots among the miners."
"It's better to have a commotion, let them try the power of muskets..." Terencio said.
As if to prove his crow's mouth, before Terrence finished speaking, a burst of noise suddenly came from the mining area. At first it was just a buzzing sound, and then the sound became louder and louder. It sounded like a thousand people
It was like hundreds of people roaring at the same time.
"What happened!" Ventura was startled, stood up quickly, and walked out. Behind him, Terencio and a dozen other Spanish supervisors also followed.
I saw seven to eight hundred Luzon miners gathered in the large material yard of the mining area. This was almost all the local people working in the entire mining area. In front of the crowd, there was a miner holding something in his hand.
When he said something to the crowd, every time he said two or three words, the miners would make a noise together, as if they were supporting him.
"What's going on? Why don't you go to work!" Ventura walked towards the miners with a whip and started shouting loudly from a distance. He could speak a few words in Luzon. He mainly used it for
Used to give orders to miners.
Seeing so many miners gathering, the Spanish soldiers in charge of guarding also ran out of their residences and, under the command of the team leader, walked toward the stockyard with muskets in hand.
Seeing the Spaniards coming, the miners became quiet. The miner holding something turned around and faced Ventura. This time Ventura could see clearly that the man was holding a wooden Buddha statue.
.
"What's going on? What are you doing holding such a thing?" Ventura asked in Spanish. A Luzon translator nearby quickly translated his words.
"Go back to the supervisor, my name is Qian Wu. We all invited this Buddha together. We want to build a Buddhist shrine in the mine. Please ask the Buddha to sit here and suppress the evil spirits in the mine." The miner holding the Buddha statue said.
.
The construction of a Buddhist shrine in the mine was naturally instigated by Chen Guanyu. After successfully convincing the village chiefs around the mine that there were monsters in the mine, Chen Guanyu began to give them advice, saying
It is necessary to build a Buddhist shrine in the mine first and use the Buddha to suppress the evil spirits. Then other further actions will be taken to eliminate all the evil spirits.
As for why we invited Buddha statues instead of inviting Sanqing, Laojun and other Taoist gods, it is naturally because the local people believe more in Buddhism and do not trust Taoism enough. Chen Guanyu is an enlightened Taoist priest and does not care if the monks rob him.
The limelight of his sect.
After hearing the translator translate Qian Wu's words, Ventura's face suddenly turned red with anger. This is a mine, so there is no evil. Besides, even if they want to suppress the evil, they should invite their God to come and sit in control. How can they invite a Buddha statue?
reason.
"Get rid of this thing quickly and go to work for me. Everyone's wages will be deducted today!" Ventura shouted angrily.
Ventura was also enraged for a moment, and he didn't care about the Luzon people's beliefs at all. As soon as he said this, the following immediately exploded:
"What, he dares to say that Buddha is a thing!"
"Amitabha, what a sin, what a sin!"
"Why are you deducting our wages? We are just asking for a Buddhist shrine. The red-haired ghost caused the trouble. Why don't we ask the Buddha to come and save us?"
Qian Wu hugged the Buddha statue and said with a sullen face: "Master supervisor, you can scold me, but you must not insult the Buddha. That will be punished by God. We just want to build a Buddhist niche, and we can't take up much space. You foreigners
We started mining here without asking anyone to do it, which caused trouble. We are asking the Buddha to protect us."
"You, throw this Buddha statue away!" Ventura didn't listen to Qian Wu's explanation at all. He felt that Qian Wu and other miners were just looking for trouble. He would never accept the miners' demands. Otherwise, today, today
A Buddhist niche can be built, and an ancestral temple can be built tomorrow. Wouldn't this mine become a village for the people of Luzon?
Of course, Qian Wu could not throw away the Buddha statue. He insisted on stating his demands, while Ventura became angrier and angrier as he listened. The two sides became more and more tense as they talked, and the smell of gunpowder could already be smelled in the air.
"Roger!" Ventura shouted over his shoulder.
"Yes!" responded the captain of the Spanish guard.
"Come over, two people, pull this troublemaker down and smash the thing he is holding!" Ventura ordered. He was too lazy to grind his teeth with Qian Wu anymore. He believed that force could make the miners surrender.
.
Two Spanish soldiers rushed up, one held his musket against Qian Wu's chest, and the other tried to snatch the Buddha statue from Qian Wu's hands.
"You can't take away my Buddha!" Qian Wu shouted, while desperately guarding the Buddha statue in his arms.
"Foreigners want to rob Buddha!"
"The foreigners said they were going to smash the Buddha!"
The miners all became commotion, and some people who were close ran forward to help Qian Wu protect the Buddha statue. Some people blocked the Spanish soldiers with their bodies so that they could not get close to Qian Wu. When other Spanish soldiers saw this, they also
They rushed forward and drove the miners away with muskets. Terencio and others also picked up whips and beat the miners who were guarding the Buddha statue.
"impeach!"
There was a crisp sound and the gun went off!
The entire stock yard suddenly became quiet, and the miners were all stunned and didn't know what to do. Ventura took advantage of Qian Wuyi's daze, stretched out his hand, snatched the Buddha statue, and smashed a piece next to it.
On the ore.
With a "pop" sound, the wooden Buddha statue broke into several pieces and splashed into the mud next to it.
The miners were startled for a moment, and then their eyes were filled with fire. If everyone could tolerate Bentura's rude remarks before, this act of smashing the Buddha statue had already violated the bottom line of the miners.
"Fight with the red-haired ghost!"
Someone in the lead shouted, and the miners rushed toward Ventura and the other Spaniards like a flood that had burst a dike.
"Fire quickly! Fire quickly!" Ventura was the first to react. He jumped back a few steps and shouted to Roger.
The Spanish soldiers also saw that something was wrong with the momentum. Before, the miners in Luzon had always been honest and courteous. Even when they were beaten, they kept their eyebrows down and did not dare to say a harsh word to the Spaniards. But now, the miners they saw were not
Everyone's face was filled with angry emotions, and they were waving various tools in their hands and rushing toward them.
"Bash! Bash! Bash!"
The Spanish soldiers' muskets were already loaded. Without waiting for the squad leader's order, they raised their guns and began to shoot at the miners in a blocking manner.
Several miners who rushed in front were shot and fell to the ground clutching their wounds. But the miners behind them still rushed forward regardless, and in a blink of an eye they were in front of the Spanish soldiers, swinging their weapons high.
Got an iron pickaxe.
"The red-haired thief, take my pickaxe!"
The miners shouted and smashed their pickaxes into the heads of the Spanish soldiers and overseers.
Seven or eight Spaniards died in an instant, and the rest, seeing that the situation was not good, turned around and ran away. At first, the miners were hesitant to hurt people, but when they saw the blood, they became fanatical and screamed,
pursued the fleeing Spaniards.
After all, the Spaniards were taller and had longer legs, which showed their advantage when running. Except for a few overseers who were usually too pampered to run, the rest quickly broke away from the pursuit of the Luzon miners and fled into the barracks of the guards.
"Fight, fight!" After all, the Luzon miners had no experience in fighting. They spent all their time dealing with the Spaniards who were lagging behind. Those Spaniards were beaten to the point where their bones and tendons were broken in an instant. Even if they did not die, they would
Already a useless person. But the Spaniards who escaped into the barracks took the opportunity to build obstacles and prepared to resist.
"Bash! Bash!"
The Spanish muskets continued to fire, and several miners who were leading the charge towards the Spanish barracks fell down, with blood pouring from the wounds on their bodies. Seeing that the situation was not good, the other miners hurriedly stopped and looked for them nearby.
He hid himself in the bunker and did not dare to run forward any further.
PS: I was in a hurry to update yesterday and wrote the wrong chapter number.