The adventurer Cortes, the destroyer of the Aztec Empire and the founder of Mexico City, had been expelled from Mexico in disguise, and the King of Spain sent a nobleman to take his place.
There was no other way. Silver mines were discovered one after another in Mexico. There was so much silver that the king could not sit still and even planned to build a mint directly in Mexico.
Further south in Guatemala, the King of Spain also did not give up because the silver mines here were obviously rich.
After the city was burned by Chen Li, a few years passed and the Spaniards rebuilt Guatemala City. The current governor of Guatemala is the former governor of Mexico City, whose full name is Miguel Lopez de Legazpi.
Legaspi was born in a Spanish aristocratic family. After his parents died, his brother took over the family property and only gave him a small share.
Feeling that it was boring to hang out in Europe, Legaspi took the initiative to cross the ocean. He had the status of a noble and could write and do calculations. Once he arrived in Mexico, he was highly regarded and served as the governor of Mexico City and the director of the financial department of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
Historically, this man later led a fleet to Asia, opened up the Philippines colony for Spain, and became the first governor of the Philippines.
The name of the Philippines is Legazpi, named after King Felipe II of Spain.
The person Chen Li wants to deal with this time is the "Father of the Founding" of the Philippines from another time and space!
Legaspi was worthy of being of aristocratic origin. After he came to Guatemala, he treated the indigenous people with both soft and hard tactics and divided them internally. Now, he only has more than a thousand Spanish soldiers under his command, but has more than 5,000 indigenous servants.
These indigenous servant armies are usually scattered throughout Guatemala and naturally exist in the form of tribes. Legaspi provides them with iron weapons and supports them in conquering other tribes. The captured slaves are divided in half. He can call them in if there is a war.
Servant armies fight.
"Your Majesty the Governor, the Chinese are coming again!" A light cavalryman ran back.
In the eyes of Western Europeans, regardless of the Tang Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty, China is referred to as porcelain.
Legaspi stood up in surprise and asked: "How many have come?"
"Thousands of people, with artillery," the sentry replied.
Legaspi had a very calm character. After he came to Guatemala, he first conquered, wooed, and divided the indigenous tribes. Then he captured a large number of slaves and built castles while mining silver mines. At the same time, he built several castles on several mountains in the south.
At the outpost, sentries take turns holding telescopes to observe the enemy's situation.
Legaspi ordered: "Stop mining the silver mines, move all the silver into the castle, and all the soldiers must assemble immediately. Go and summon the Mayan soldiers, and go to Gutierrez (a town in southern Mexico) for help!"
In Guatemala today, there are no Spanish civilians, only soldiers.
Of the 1,200 Spanish soldiers, 300 belonged to the regular army and were under the direct command of Legaspi. The other 900 soldiers were recruited sailors, gangsters, villains, exiles and vagabonds.
These people were not engaged in production. They built public estates around the castle and ordered slaves to cultivate food. They also forced slaves to mine silver mines and build castles. Spanish soldiers were usually overseers.
In just half a year, more than 2,000 slaves were killed due to mining and castle construction.
These slaves are consumables, just catch them if you don't have enough.
Since there were Chinese people in the south who were eyeing them, Legaspi did not even allow soldiers to start families. For this reason, he built a house near the castle and captured indigenous women to form a prostitute camp. All soldiers could rotate to the prostitute camp to spend money.
When Chen Li came to Guatemala, he was like a cow munching on a pumpkin, unable to find a place to eat.
The surrounding manors and silver mines were abandoned, all the food and silver were moved into the castle, and 1,200 Spanish soldiers also hid in the castle. The indigenous women in the prostitute camp, the indigenous men in the mines, and the manor were all left outside the castle to fend for themselves.
destroy.
In the deep mountains and dense forests, more than a dozen Spanish colonists were slowly gathering an army of indigenous servants, and at the same time they ran north to seek help from Mexican towns.
"Commander, there are all natives outside the castle, and the Spaniards are hiding." Zhou Hong came to report.
Chen Li had a headache because he only had twenty days of military rations left.
If the city cannot be broken within twenty days, you will be hungry on the way back. There is no way, Shengzhou started a family business, and can only raise so much food. After all, the wives and children of the soldiers still have to live.
The Spanish castle was also very cunningly built, facing water (Contreras River) on both sides. If Chen Li wanted to attack the city, he had to cross the river and go around it.
In the afternoon of that day, Chen Li crossed the river ten miles away from the castle, and then cut down trees to build siege equipment.
Chen Li raised his telescope to observe the enemy's situation and found that the castle was made of rubble and even had a fort. Apparently, artillery had been prepared.
Chen Li ordered: "Build the earth into a mound, and we will also build a fort."
Around the castle, many natives were abandoned by the Spaniards. They used to be their slaves and camp prostitutes. These natives were very confused. They lost their tribes and territories, and had no food rations on them to survive. They actually stayed here collectively and refused to leave. Only a few
Take the opportunity to escape to the deep mountains and dense forests.
Chen Li used a small amount of rations to recruit thousands of natives and ordered them to carry earth and build hills.
"Boom boom boom!"
The base site was already within the range of the artillery. The four cannons on the castle fired at the same time, and the temporarily recruited natives dispersed in fright.
Chen Li was not at a disadvantage either. Since food was not being distributed, the natives had to work first before they could get paid. The supervisors were also counting, and each native had to carry twenty baskets of soil before he could receive a piece of corn cake.
In order to fill their stomachs, there are always natives who are willing to sacrifice their lives.
Gradually they discovered that the Spanish artillery was not terrible, and they only caused more than 20 casualties after fighting for a long time.
In the end, the Spaniards didn't even bother to fire. It was a waste of ammunition to target a group of indigenous slaves from such a long distance.
The next day, nearly 10,000 hungry natives were summoned by Chen Li.
A naturalized native of Shengzhou ran to do propaganda and said to the slaves: "I come from a tribe on the seaside. The Spaniards enslaved you, and we surrendered to the Ming Han people. The Spaniards are very vicious. They make you work every day, and you still have to work."
If I don’t give you enough to eat, I won’t care whether you live or die if you are in danger. The people of Minghan are very nice, and you can fill your stomach by following them..."
There were nearly ten thousand slaves, both male and female, and those in the back could not even hear clearly.
But as word spread, the slaves finally figured out that by following the people outside the city and beating the people in the city, they could eat without starving.
Chen Li immediately ordered: "The person who carries the most soil today will be rewarded with ten corn cakes!"
Most of the native slaves did not know how to count, so ten corn cakes were piled there, waiting for the person with the most soil to pick them up.
The slaves enthusiastically carried the earth to build the mounds. There were not enough baskets, but there were some in the mines, so they rushed to the mines to get baskets.
In less than three days, a high platform had been built outside the castle.
It is a pity that most slaves cannot carry thirty baskets of soil every day, so they cannot receive wages. Fortunately, Chen Li is kind-hearted and gives half a tortilla to those who carry ten baskets of soil, and a quarter to those who carry five baskets of soil.
One piece, so there are still four to five thousand people who have received nothing.
On the fourth day, many indigenous slaves were so hungry that they barely survived by chewing grass roots and bark.
Chen Li said to these people: "Now you go to attack the city. As long as the castle is captured, no one will give you ten corn cakes. The first person to climb the city wall can become a free citizen of Shengzhou and give you land and women."
, I will give you endless amounts of food."
These native slaves were so hungry that they were so hungry that they were actually willing to die when they heard that they could provide food during the siege.
Before leaving, the great philanthropist Mr. Chen Li gave each of them a bite of corn cake.
Several hungry men dared to rob the Ming army of food and were beaten to death on the spot by Chen Li's order.
As a result, for several days, the indigenous slaves carried very crude ladders and rushed towards the Spanish castle. Some even fainted from hunger halfway.
"Boom boom boom!"
Spanish and Ming artillery shelled at the same time, firing at each other's forts at the same time.
But the firepower of the two sides was not equal. Spain only had four cannons, while Chen Li had 24!
However, they are all small artillery, and neither side has large-caliber artillery.
After a burst of bombardment, one Spanish artillery was destroyed and two Han artillerymen were hit.
Thousands of slaves rushed to the castle, and more than two hundred ladders were set up to build a wall. The Spanish soldiers on the city, withstanding Han artillery fire, fired their guns at the slaves below.
"Bang bang bang!"
In an instant, hundreds of slaves fell, some even hit by friendly shells.
Which is more terrible, hunger or death?
Different slaves make different choices.
Some slaves were so frightened that they turned around and ran away; some slaves continued to climb the ladder; some slaves simply sat there, not knowing whether they were frightened or simply too hungry.
There were even indigenous warriors who were tired, hungry, and exhausted from climbing so high that they lay down on a ladder to rest. The ladder was then overthrown by Spanish soldiers.
The Governor of Guatemala, Legaspi, looked very ugly at this moment.
He didn't care about the life or death of his slaves, and left them all outside the castle to fend for themselves. As a result, the slaves became the enemy's siege vanguard. Although the slaves certainly could not capture the castle, they could consume the Spanish soldiers' physical strength and ammunition.
The castle faced water on both sides, and the Han people only attacked one side, leaving the remaining side for the Spanish to escape.
Legaspi stood on the side of the city wall where there was no fighting, holding up his telescope and looking at the distant hills. Don't expect Mexican reinforcements, they were too far away to come for the time being. He was observing his own army of indigenous servants.
A standing army of 1,200 people, supported by tens of thousands of slaves, is already the limit of Guatemala. Occasionally, if there is a shortage of food, they have to plunder the indigenous tribes and transport money to Mexico to buy food. Under such circumstances, it is impossible to maintain an army of 5,000 more slaves.
, we can only let the servant armies live in their own tribes. With the existing transportation conditions, it will take at least ten days to gather them together.
Six days have passed since the movement of the Han army was discovered. It is estimated that a group of indigenous servant troops have already gathered outside.
Ignoring the sound of artillery, Legaspi continued to observe the distance, which was one of the two scheduled assembly points.
The slaves' offensive had been repelled, and Chen Li was eating cakes for the surviving slaves. Legaspi's face was filled with joy. Through the telescope in his hand, he saw two flags erected on the hills in the distance, one flag representing one.
Thousands of servants join the army, and there are already two thousand indigenous troops gathered there!