Most of the Europeans who came to Asia to dig for gold were street gangsters, vagrants and fugitives, and few of them were really hard-core. Faced with the power of Chen Guanyu and others, how could Ventura dare to do anything else?
He stubbornly resisted. He would answer whatever Chen Guanyu asked him, for fear that if he said the wrong thing, his descendants would not be safe.
The Spanish have a total of 24 warships in Southeast Asia, divided into three fleets, which are responsible for escorting merchant ships and supporting the army. Ventura has dealt with the navy, so he understands various situations in the fleet. In Chen Guan
In front of Yu, Liao Yiming and others, he told everything he knew in detail. As for what the other party needed the information for, it was not his concern.
"Is this all you know?" Seeing that there was nothing new to ask, Liao Yiming put down his pen and asked Ventura.
"Yes, sir, you know that I am just a gold mine supervisor and don't know much about the military." Ventura replied tremblingly.
"Is everything you said true?" Liao Yiming asked again.
"It's absolutely true, there's absolutely not a single lie!" Ventura quickly confessed.
Liao Yiming looked at the notes he had written down, nodded and said, "Okay, let's stop here first. We will interrogate other people later. If their answers are different from what you said, you should know what the results will be."
."
"Dear sir, I am telling the truth! If what they said is different from what I said, then they must have lied!" Ventura begged, he didn't know what his companions would tell him.
If what others say is really different from him, he will be in trouble.
Liao Yiming waved his hand: "Pull him down!"
Two soldiers came forward and took Ventura down. In order to prevent him from colluding with other Spaniards, he was placed in another room. Then the two soldiers brought up another Spanish prisoner.
The interrogation lasted for a full day, and Chen Guanyu and Liao Yiming gained a lot. When the Spanish came to Asia to carry out colonial aggression, they never thought about any opponents. Therefore, they did not care about military secrets. These supervisors and soldiers of the Ranchu Gold Mine
He had some understanding of the distribution and strength of the Spanish army in Southeast Asia. By comparing the prisoners' confessions, Chen Guanyu basically figured out the situation of the Spanish.
"There are less than 2,000 Spaniards in the entire Luzon Island, and I don't know what the King of Luzon does for a living, yet he allowed his country to be destroyed." Chen Guanyu muttered angrily as he looked at the interrogation record.
Liao Yiming said: "I heard Mr. Li Zhi say that the Luzon people have always been weak and not good at fighting. Besides, the Spaniards had warships. They probably defeated the Luzon people by attacking at sea and on land at the same time."
Chen Guanyu said: "It's true, the Luzon people are easy to bully. But now that we are here, it's time for these Spaniards to suffer. I will write back immediately and ask General Su and General Deng to prepare to send troops as soon as possible.
"
Liao Yiming reminded: "Daozhang Chen, before we came out, didn't General Su tell us that he wanted the division to have a name? Have you found this name now? I heard that if there is no suitable name, the court will not allow General Su to do so."
Soldiers go to war."
Chen Guanyu chuckled and said, "Isn't it easy to get a name? Today's matter is just a name. Let's see what I come up with."
That night, the soldiers of the survey camp who were responsible for guarding the Spanish prisoners somehow got drunk and fell asleep squatting outside the house where the prisoners were kept, snoring loudly. These houses were originally owned by the Spanish overseers.
Ventura and others knew the structure of the house very well. When they heard the soldiers sleeping outside, they easily opened the door and escaped quietly one by one.
"The Chinese are sleeping over there, should we go over and kill them?" Ventura asked everyone in a low voice. After being bullied by the Chinese for a long time during the day, Ventura couldn't help but want to find his way back.
As soon as he spoke, he heard Terencio curse in a low voice: "You bastard, do you want to kill us all again?"
"Why?" Ventura asked.
Terencio said: "Now we should leave quickly without the Chinese noticing, instead of killing some Chinese sentries. If we fail to wake them up, we won't be able to escape."
"Well, okay, let's leave quickly." Ventura said.
The group of people used various obstacles as cover. They raised their legs high, set their feet lightly, and tiptoed out of the mining area. Fortunately for them, there were no patrols or awake sentries in the mining area. They had
He walked out of the mining area gate without any danger, and then ran towards the seaside.
"Oh God, there is a boat here!" Terencio, who was the first to run to the beach, spotted a small sailboat parked on the beach and couldn't help shouting with joy.
"This is what God has given us, let us pray!" Ventura quickly crossed himself on his chest, but without stopping at all, he rushed towards the sailboat.
The sailboat was tied to the shore with a cable, and there was no one guarding it. Everyone came to the boat, carefully observed the surrounding situation, and then rushed to jump on the boat, untied the cable, and a man who knew some sailing skills
Under the command of the supervisor, they worked together to rock the boat away from the coast.
"I can't believe that these red ghosts can actually sail a boat."
In the trees on the shore, Liao Yiming held up his binoculars and watched the small sailboat slowly sail away, muttering softly.
Chen Guanyu squatted next to Liao Yiming and said proudly: "I just counted with my fingers and knew that they would definitely be able to sail the boat away."
"Daozhang Chen, let's not brag like this, okay? It was clearly during the day when we interrogated them that someone said that he was a sailor." Liao Yiming exposed Chen Guanyu's lies without mercy.
"If he is a sailor, does he definitely know how to sail a boat?" Chen Guanyu retorted.
"Can't sailors still know how to sail a ship?"
"can you?"
"No way?"
Chen Guanyu quickly interrupted the fruitless argument and said: "Uh... this is a long story. By the way, Lao Liao, we have to go back and move quickly. These Hongyi must have gone to move reinforcements.
We have to leave quickly or let them make dumplings."
"Should we also remind Mr. Lu and the others that the Spanish reinforcements are coming, I'm afraid it will be detrimental to them." Liao Yiming said.
Chen Guanyu said: "You are stupid. Don't we just want the Spaniards to deal with these Luzon people? If we don't let the Spaniards kill a few Luzon people, how can we have the name to send troops?"
Liao Yiming said: "But, Daozhang Chen, don't forget, Mr. Lu and the others are overseas Chinese, and they are also from our Ming Dynasty."
"What's wrong with the overseas Chinese?" Chen Guanyu didn't react. In his opinion, people from Luzon are people from Luzon. What's the difference if they are overseas Chinese or not?
Liao Yiming said: "The overseas Chinese came from our Ming Dynasty. If Mr. Su knew that we put these overseas Chinese in danger, I'm afraid he would be furious. Mr. Chen, you dare to do this, but I don't dare. I'm afraid that Mr. Su will be furious.
.will chop off my head.”
"Well..." Chen Guanyu also became a little timid. He naturally knew that Su Hao had always been very concerned about his compatriots. Even overseas Chinese had an important position in Su Hao's mind. He thought for a while and said:
"Well, let's tell the overseas Chinese about this news. As for the locals in Luzon, forget it... maybe the Hongyi won't embarrass them?"
"Well, the Hongyi shouldn't make things difficult for the locals in Luzon, right?" Liao Yiming pretended to be confused, pretending to understand.
Such a small boat stolen by Ventura and others could not cross the ocean and could only sail offshore. They rocked the boat and sailed southward along the coastline for a full day and night before finally arriving at their destination.
The destination is a port where the Spanish fleet is docked.
"Stop the ship! This is a military base. No one is allowed to enter without authorization!" The Spanish soldiers on the port saw a sailboat approaching without a flag, and shouted loudly while moving the muzzle of a shore gun over and firing at it.
Got the sailboat.
"Don't fire, don't fire!" Ventura and others stood on the bow of the ship and shouted in unison.
Their Spanish became the best letter of introduction, and the soldiers on the shore moved the guns and allowed them to drive the boat to the dock. The group of people stumbled off the boat, and Ventura faced the man walking towards them.
The Spanish soldier shouted: "Please give us some food, we haven't eaten for two days!"
It's no wonder. When these people escaped from the mining area, they naturally didn't bring any food. Chen Guanyu gave them a boat to help them escape, which was already a great favor. How could he prepare fresh water for them in the boat?
and dry food. These Spaniards were afraid that the Ming Dynasty would chase them in boats after discovering their escape, so they did not dare to delay along the way. They were hungry all day long, and their eyes turned green from hunger.
"What's going on with you? Why are you in such a mess?" A Spanish officer on the shore came up and asked Ventura and others. His name was Kevin, and he was the commander of this fleet.
"Sir, something big happened. Some Chinese soldiers disguised themselves as civilians and attacked the Ranchu gold mine. Mr. Roger, the captain of the guard at the gold mine, and his soldiers were all killed. We are the supervisors of the mine. It was not easy for us to
We grabbed a boat and escaped." Ventura said to Kevin.
"What did you say? Chinese soldiers?" Kevin was surprised, "Isn't China thousands of miles away? How did they get to Luzon Island?"
Bentura gave Kevin an embellished report on what happened in the gold mine. Naturally, some of the details had to be concealed, especially the information they revealed after they were captured by the survey camp, which would have been punishable by death.
It cannot be told to outsiders. When they were on the ship, they had already sworn to each other and agreed on the same words. They would never admit their experiences of being captured and rebelling. They only said that they escaped during the chaos and robbed the ship to escape.
"It's so abominable!" Kevin was furious after listening to the stories of Ventura and others. Dozens of Spaniards died unexpectedly. This was a big deal.
"Commander, go and inform all the ships to get ready. We are going to Ranchu and kill all those hateful Luzon and Chinese people who killed our compatriots." Kevin ordered.
The messenger rushed to give the order. Kevin asked the soldiers next to him to take Ventura and others down, give them some food, and arrange a place to rest. He himself came to the headquarters and began to study Lan
Map of the Chu area. His duty is to protect the merchants in the Luzon area, so he is familiar with the surrounding geography.
"Captain Kevin, what happened? I heard you ordered to prepare for war?" Rafael, the fleet's staff officer, hurried to the headquarters and asked Kevin.
Kevin said: "I just received news that a group of Chinese invaded Luzon Island and killed dozens of our heroic soldiers in the Rancho Gold Mine. Several supervisors at the Rancho Gold Mine escaped and reported to me
."
"Chinese?" Raphael's reaction was the same as Kevin's at first, with some disbelief. "Could it be that these supervisors made a mistake? Maybe they are just overseas Chinese on Luzon Island."
Kevin said: "No, it's not wrong. I asked several of them, and they all said the same thing, saying that they were indeed attacked by well-trained Chinese soldiers. You know, Luzon locals
The armed forces have been cleared by us, and it is impossible for them to have the ability to kill dozens of Spanish soldiers. Those who can have such combat effectiveness can only come from Chinese armed forces."
"If this is true, then Captain Kevin, I think we should be more cautious. It will be very detrimental to us to rush to war with the Chinese." Rafael said.
Europeans don’t know much about the Ming Dynasty, but from the missionaries and merchants who have been to the Ming Dynasty, they still know how powerful the Ming Dynasty was. It only had millions of square kilometers of land and tens of millions of people.
The population is enough to make a small country like Spain feel intimidated. The Europeans colonized Southeast Asia, but they dared not invade the Ming Dynasty. This is the reason. Now that the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty have actually arrived on Luzon Island, special attention must be paid to it.
Kevin said: "Of course I know I can't rashly start a war with the Chinese, but this is Luzon, and I suspect they are just a group of pirates from China. As you know, some pirates originally came out of the army and had an army.
It is not surprising that the training was carried out. There is no reason for the Chinese to send regular troops to Luzon."
"I still strongly urge you to be cautious and avoid conflicts with the Chinese." Raphael said.
Kevin said: "I understand, thank you for the reminder. I will not easily conflict with the Chinese, but as a commander of the Armada, I believe that I have an obligation to protect Spain's interests in Luzon.
The Luzon people massacred the Spaniards, and I cannot sit idly by and watch."
"That's true..." Raphael said, "Let's take the fleet to Ranchu first, take a look at the specific situation, and then decide how to deal with it."
"Come on, Mr. Raphael, let's study together how to make the most appropriate move." Kevin said.