Chapter 2022

From Manila on Luzon Island to the Strait of Malacca on the Malay Peninsula, one needs to cross the entire South China Sea. The voyage is more than a thousand nautical miles. And on this route, there is actually another Haihan colony called Ambra Island that is closer to Manila.

.Why Haihan had to travel far and near to transport people and materials from Manila to the Star Island at the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca? Why did Haihan use handwritten secret messages instead of the more time-efficient telegram transmission method? Regarding these issues that may make the Spaniards suspicious, Haihan

The Han intelligence department had considered it in advance and made various detailed arrangements to eliminate the opponent's doubts.

The reason for arranging such a transportation method of materials has been explained in the discovered secret letter. Not all of these materials are official assets. A considerable part of them actually come from the private properties of individual high-ranking officials in Manila. They are used as official materials.

It was transported to Sing Tao as a cover, and then sold to nearby countries such as Johor. The same operation was adopted on the return trip, and a batch of products from the region were also shipped back from Sing Tao.

The "benefits" of this operation are obvious. The cargo owner can save a lot of freight on transporting goods across regions, and because these materials do not exist in theory, they do not have to pay the official taxes generated by the transaction. And thus

The extra income generated will naturally flow into the pockets of officials headed by Qiu Yuan.

This practice of using one's power to make profits is actually not uncommon in the Spanish colonies. The supplies transported by the fleets returning to Spain every year will also be mixed with a lot of personal goods belonging to colonial officials in exchange for

High returns. So when Aragones heard Cheng Mu explain this operation method, he already understood the secret.

To put it bluntly, Haihan officials in these two places are privately using official resources to operate some profitable projects. The scale is not large and it is not ugly, but after all, they have to avoid supervision from above. Therefore, it is impossible to convey information.

It was carried out through semi-open official channels, but the more primitive but easier to keep confidential method of handwritten letters was adopted.

"Haihan people are most fond of pursuing profits, and it seems that these Haihan officials are no exception. This Qiu Yuan has been using this method to make money for himself less than a year after he was transferred to Manila. He should have spent the money at the beginning

I spent a lot of money to get this lucrative position." Aragones had almost no doubts about this matter. In his opinion, this was a normal situation. If Haihan officials were so honest, they would not pay a penny.

Greedy, it is extremely unreasonable for a high-ranking official to not use his privileges to benefit himself.

In fact, the background of the story fabricated by the Haihan Intelligence Department is far from perfect. As long as you carefully speculate, there are still some traces of artificial arrangements that can be found. But people will always believe in their own experience and those situations that they think are reasonable.

The Haihan Intelligence Department took advantage of this weakness of human nature and painted a quite detailed background story for the reason why Jose and others appeared in Cebu, making everything more reasonable and trying to draw the attention of the Spaniards.

The power is diverted away from Jose and others, which is also a disguised form of protection for the inexperienced Jose and others.

Before dark, Jose and others, who had been waiting for news in a small hotel outside the city, were informed that they would be personally received by the Governor the next day, and there would be a banquet specially prepared for them. However, this banquet

Only three Spaniards including Jose will be able to participate, while the other Filipino sailors will be rewarded with local residency.

Although the difference in treatment is obvious, this is good news for Jose's team. At least they have achieved the first step of settling in Cebu, which can be regarded as an almost perfect start.

These people who have not received the opportunity to be interviewed by senior officials do not have nothing to do. Now that they have been officially allowed to stay in Cebu, they can then start their activities locally with legal status. Although they are just novices,

But it is not too difficult to collect some of the most basic information, such as local population size, price levels, trade and port conditions, etc. Public information also has certain reference value for Haihan.

Jose and others who have the opportunity to meet senior officials of the colonial authorities can obtain more high-value information. In particular, the Han people who will appear with local senior officials are the focus of their attention-according to the intelligence previously obtained, Spain

His mysterious partners should be a group of Han maritime merchants.

Of course, it is very likely that the maritime trader is just a false identity used to cover up. The true origin of this group of people still needs to be confirmed after in-depth investigation. However, there are currently no more clues in other places where the accident occurred, so

The intelligence agency will be asked to send people to Cebu as soon as possible to investigate the matter.

The next day, Second Lieutenant Joaquin specially sent three sets of clean clothes to the hotel, allowing Jose and the other three Spaniards to bathe and change clothes first, so as not to lose etiquette in front of the Governor. That afternoon, they took a bus under the leadership of Joaquin.

Enter the city and go to the Governor's Palace to be received by Aragones.

There was no dedicated Governor's Palace in Cebu before. This was after the colonial authorities moved from Manila to Cebu. A local Spanish wealthy businessman took the initiative to provide a small manor to Aragones as his residence. Of course, given that Aragones

Aragones' official position was already in jeopardy after a series of mistakes, and he could be removed from his position at any time by an order from the country. The wealthy businessman did not give the manor to Aragones directly, but only lent it to him for free temporarily.

That's all.

It was a troubled time when he was unlucky, and Aragones didn't have much capital to pick and choose, so although the conditions of this small manor were far inferior to those of his former Governor's Palace in Manila, there really wasn't much for him locally.

Given the choice, we can only make do with it.

Before this dinner, Aragones wanted to meet these young people who had escaped from Manila. In fact, there have been less than a thousand Hispanic immigrants who have fled from Luzon to Cebu this year.

Eight hundred, but there are only a handful of people who can be received by him in person. Jose and others can get this special treatment mainly because their performance in killing people and robbing ships during their escape is outstanding enough, and Aragones also

This kind of subject matter is needed to guide the direction of public opinion within the colonial authorities. In addition, Aragones also hopes to use these young Hispanics to understand the current situation in Manila, which is definitely better than pure hearsay.

for reliability.

In addition to the local city defense commander Fernando, there were also several officials from the colonial authorities who participated in the interview. Aragones hoped that through this form, his officials would understand the necessity of fighting Haihan.

Regarding how to deal with senior Spanish officials and what to say and what not to say, Jose and others have been repeatedly instilled with the relevant rules when they were receiving training, but when the matter came, they still couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

After meeting Aragones and others, they were allowed to sit down and talk. Then Aragones asked them to talk in detail about their previous experiences, from the end of the war in Manila to when they came to Cebu.

All things are of interest to Aragones.

Hearing such a request, Jose and others relaxed a little, secretly admiring their superior's foresight and having provided targeted training for this.

Because they had practiced the content repeatedly, they appeared more natural and calm when presenting, and they were able to supplement each other's details from different angles to make these experiences more real and credible. And Jose, who was entrusted with the important task,

, naturally played the leading role in this story of fighting Haihan. Whether it was poisoning the army horses or later killing people on the ship, the character Jose was the initiator, and the other two only served as assistants.

Their entire experience was tailor-made by the intelligence department, and the plot was full of ups and downs and quite contagious. It quickly attracted the attention of those present to listen to these three young people telling their adventure stories.

This lecture lasted half an afternoon. After their stories came to an end, Fernando's men also presented several Haihan-made rifles seized by Jose and others, as well as other items that could prove their experience.

As for those corpses, they were no longer brought as exhibits to the Governor's Mansion for display because they were already decomposed and were really unsightly.

"Everyone, after the war in Manila, the brave young people did not give up their resistance to the invaders! Their performance proved one thing, even unarmed civilians, even in prison, as long as they resist the enemy

If you are determined, miracles will definitely happen!”

Aragones stood up, waved his arms and delivered a passionate speech to the crowd: "Ordinary young people like Jose can have the courage to fight against Haihan. Do we, as the rulers of the Philippines, have to fight against Haihan?"

Is this timid, or even groveling to pray for peace to the Haihan people? No, that is not what a Spaniard should do. We can fail on the battlefield, but we cannot bow to the enemy cowardly! Only fighting can truly solve the problem

Way!"

Fernando had already received instructions from Aragones, and at this time he also cooperated to help: "The Governor is right, we can't be merciful to the hateful Haihan people! These young people have made great mistakes for us.

An excellent example. If we maintain this determination to break the boat, then we will definitely defeat the Haihan people and drive them out of the Philippines!"

Spain's repeated defeats against Haihan in recent years have become a lingering concern for the colonial authorities. This year, even the colonial capital of Manila was occupied by Haihan, causing the colonial authorities to

The archipelago's ruling area has shrunk by at least one-third, which is also the biggest setback the Spanish king has encountered in the East in recent years.

Aragones, who served as the governor of the Philippines during this period, is definitely to blame. It is basically a foregone conclusion that he will be held accountable domestically. What remains undetermined is the time and extent of the punishment. According to the Spanish Kingdom’s handling of overseas colonies

As usual, there is a high probability that Aragones will be replaced by a successor from home, and then sent back to the country to face trial. If he is found guilty, it may be inevitable that his home will be confiscated and his property will be demoted to a civilian.

But Aragones is not without a chance to save himself. If he can fight two good turnarounds before the arrival of his successor and achieve some good results against Haihan, he may be able to alleviate his own guilt.

Otherwise, even if he disperses his family property after returning to China, he may not be able to completely reduce the punishment he will bear.

He wanted to give it a go and use all the manpower, material and financial resources of the colony to fight Haihan to the death. However, the poor record made more and more officials begin to disagree with the use of war to resolve disputes between the two countries. Some were even pessimistic.

They believe that if the war with Haihan continues, it will only be a matter of time before Spain is expelled from the Philippine Islands and even the South China Sea.

Aragones would definitely not agree with this view, but it was impossible for him to dismiss all his officials who held similar views. After all, the normal operation of the colony still required a mature bureaucracy to maintain, and he could only try to change it.

The ideas of these people allowed them to give up those weak ideas and instead support their own methods, putting the entire colony into a state of war preparation.

"But Lord Governor, in the past few years, we have had no victory against the Haihan people on the battlefield. If we can still only use the previous weapons and equipment and strategies, and cannot expand the size of the army on a large scale, then what should I do?

How to defeat the increasingly powerful Haihan people? Just rely on courage and determination?"

The person asking the question is Aragones' current main political opponent, Cebu Chief Executive Lopez. As the governor of the second largest city in the Philippine colony, he has always been a strong competitor for the position of Governor of the Philippines, especially in Aragon.

When Aragones has made major decision-making mistakes in consecutive years, many people believe that the country may not send another person to replace Aragones, but will choose an official from the Philippines who knows the region better to take over.

, Lopez is undoubtedly one of the most suitable candidates.

However, after the colonial capital was forced to move from Manila to Cebu, the arrival of Aragones and the main institutions of the colonial authorities greatly reduced Lopez's original authority. Many things that were previously decided by him must now be decided first.

It can only be implemented after getting the approval of Aragones, and the two have different political opinions. Almost most government affairs have to be delayed for several times before they can be resolved. This is naturally unacceptable to Lopez, who is used to being a Turkish emperor.

.

From Lopez's point of view, he would definitely want Aragones to get out of the position of Governor of the Philippines as soon as possible, not to mention that he still has a good chance of becoming the next Governor of the Philippines. But before that, he must prove to everyone that Aragones is the governor of the Philippines.

What Goness insists on is wrong. Only by replacing this governor can the situation of the colony be improved.
Chapter completed!