The Portuguese left, and the Spaniards had been trapped at the dock for five days. The cannons of the Grand Fort were aimed directly at the Maria, and hundreds of guards surrounded the dock. Not even a mouse could land on the shore.
"What's going on? Why are we wasting time here? When will we be allowed to go ashore?" Father Catalina, who was always slow and slow, also lost his patience and asked the Chinese soldiers guarding the dock on the dock; "Why are we not allowed to go ashore?" People ask about our ship, is this how China Company entertains businessmen from all over the world?"
The person blocking his way was a commander of the second infantry post named Zhao Xuanming, a nephew of Zhao Tie from Zhaojiao. He had just graduated from the military academy sergeant training. In Don Fernando's view, he was still a young man. The child was simply too young. However, Zhao Xuanming immediately caught the flaw in the priest's words and said loudly: "I, the China Company, make many friends and are kind to all merchants in the world. However, didn't you claim that you were a tribute envoy before? You are diplomatic envoys, so our company must treat them with caution. However, you are not businessmen, and the ships entering the port are warships, not merchant ships. Of course, you cannot enjoy the same treatment as merchant ships and merchants."
Father Catalina felt as if he had eaten a fly, but he could not get angry. He crossed himself on his chest: "God bless, then, if we were merchants, we would have been able to go ashore long ago, right?" "
"no,"
The other party's answer made Father Catalina's anger begin to boil out of his heart again. The priest, who finally controlled his mentality, sighed and asked: "Why?"
Zhao Xuanming said loudly: "The system of China United Company stipulates that you are not allowed to do business with Spanish businessmen. Because you are Spanish, you cannot receive the treatment of businessmen."
Governor Don Fernando couldn't bear the anger in his heart, so he got off the boat and came to Father Catalina, and asked coldly: "What are they talking about?"
The priest translated Zhao Xuanming's words to him. Fernando looked at the solemn young Chinese warrior in front of him angrily, and said with a sneer: "Father, ask him why trade with the Spanish is prohibited."
Father Catalina sighed, crossed himself again, and asked: "Why, why do you forbid doing business with the Spaniards?"
Zhao Xuanming's face turned red, and the iron-tipped spear in his hand trembled for a while. He raised his head and stared at Father Catalina, with vengeful anger in his eyes: "You should answer this question, mine. Two brothers and an uncle were killed by you in Manila. Our Chinese company escort team has strict discipline and has the order of the ship owner. Otherwise, I want to take revenge now,"
Faced with the anger in the eyes of the young Chinese soldier, Father Catalina took a few steps back, sighed, and said to himself: "I have long thought that this must be the answer," he turned his head and said in Spanish I said a few words to Don Fernando. Fernando looked worried, but he had nothing to do.
"They are forcing us to surrender and show all the bottom lines for negotiation." On the morning of the sixth day, Don Fernando, who had not slept all night, found Father Catalina and said anxiously: "The leaders of China Company don't know What kind of person he is, but I can feel that he seems to know our details,"
"What do you mean? There are spies among our crew," the priest said, shaking his head.
"No, our crew members are all white Christians, so there should be no problem. However, you see, China Company will send a fleet to intercept us on the sea in advance, and can quickly mobilize manpower to surround the dock. These actions just show that China Company They have been waiting for us to come for a long time,"
"It is also possible," the priest thought for a while and had to admit this possibility: "But, Mr. Governor, what should we do? Should we go back with nothing?"
Fernando shook his head in distress: "I didn't expect that this group of physiological men were originally just an unorganized and undisciplined mob, but now they have such a large-scale power,"
Don Fernando pointed to the convoy soldiers surrounding the Maria and said: "Fortunately, it seems that except for the fortress cannons, their infantry weapons are still very backward. Their warships are just modified ordinary Junk ships. They are not at all No match for our battleships,"
"Can the Maria make it out of the port?" Father Catalina suddenly asked.
Fernando was startled and shook his head: "Didn't you see the cannons of the fortress? If we forcefully rush out under these cannons, we will definitely suffer a lot of casualties. Moreover, please look at the sea. At most, there are nearly 30 ships. Armed military ships are blocking the port and towing fireships. It is too dangerous for the Maria to get rid of these sailing ships and at the same time fight against the cannons of the fort. The key to the problem is that we are coming to fight the largest ship on the coast of China. We have reached a commercial agreement with a trading company. If we get nothing, the economic situation of the Philippine colony still cannot be reversed, and our cost of maintaining this colony will be too high... What will those people in Madrid think of us?"
Father Catalina nodded heavily: "You are right, but the other party has been refusing to negotiate with us. What should we do?"
At this time, a crew member of the Maria shouted: "Dutch,"
The two lay down on the bow of the ship and took a closer look: they saw several red-haired Europeans in Western-style attire leading a group of neatly dressed Chinese in black, walking goose-stepping towards the C-shaped pier, and seemed to be interacting with the soldiers guarding the pier. Take over.
This group of Chinese soldiers appeared to be younger, all of them were only sixteen or seventeen years old. Their weapons were very messy, some had cold weapons such as knives and guns, and only half had matchlock guns.
These were young students from the military academy, led by Dutch instructor Leighton and others, who came to confuse and deceive the Spaniards.
"Sure enough, the Dutch intervened," Fernando said angrily and slammed the side of the boat.
Father Catalina said coldly: "No matter where you are, there are these gangs of rebels causing trouble. I estimate that the armed forces of the Chinese Company were trained by the Dutch, so they look completely different from the physiological men under Manila."
The student troops below completed the handover with Zhao Xuanming's troops and began to post guards around the Maria. However, several Dutch officers walked to the side of the Maria and started pointing and discussing.
Father Catalina said to the captain of the Maria behind him: "Captain Andre, lower the cable and I will go down and talk to those people."
"The Dutch are our enemies, will they help us?" Fernando said hesitantly.
"After all, we are both white Europeans, so it is easier to communicate." Father Catalina actually didn't have much confidence. In these years, the Dutch took advantage of China and Manila's trade to completely stagnate, and became China's The Spanish envoy who is the largest re-exporter of the product inquired about the news in Macau; this year, nearly 4,000 loads of raw silk and silk silk have been sold to the Dutch through Taiwan and the Batavia route, and the Netherlands has become the largest market in Europe. Even the Spanish royal family had to go round and round to buy raw silk from the Dutch when it needed raw silk. The silk production in Spanish Mexico even had to buy from the Dutch when the galleons from Manila could not transport raw silk from China. Raw silk raw material, this is one of the fundamental reasons why the Philippine authorities lowered their stature and lowered their voices to negotiate with a Chinese-dominated trading company.
The Dutch officers were quite polite when they saw the priest. Captain Leighton smiled and said in Spanish: "Sir, it looks like your ship is trapped here."
The priest smiled lightly and said: "Are you Dutch?"
"We are from the United Provinces, but we are now employees of the China United Company and have not received orders to go to war with you. You can rest assured, haha," another Dutch officer laughed sarcastically.
Father Catalina remained calm and said with a smile: "We are just trade envoys from Luzon. We have no malicious intentions. Since you are employees of China Company, you should be able to meet the senior officials of China Company."
Captain Layton had already received Yin Feng's instructions. At this time, he asked very smartly: "Mr. Father, do you want us to convey it to you?"
"I would be very grateful if you could agree. We just want to explain our intention to the company's leaders. They have been refusing to contact us, which cannot solve the problem."
Captain Layton pretended to think about it for a while, tilted his head and said: "The senior people in our company were all people who were almost killed by you in Manila. I think they were very restrained in treating you like this. Back then, The massacres you committed in the Netherlands and other places are probably similar to the Manila incident,"
Father Catalina pretended not to hear the sting in Captain Layton's words and continued: "We are here just to solve this problem. Please convey the following message to the top management of the China Company: The Philippine colonial authorities are willing to die for We are willing to return some of the property they left in Manila to the families of the victims. We hope to restore trade relations. The Port of Manila will reduce or reduce various taxes on Chinese merchant ships and merchants..."
Captain Layton hurriedly raised his hands and said: "Okay, okay, these are enough. I'll give it a try. I can't guarantee anything. I'm only responsible for delivering the message."
Father Catalina crossed himself: "God bless you, we will thank you,"
Captain Layton did not go away, but still stood on the dock and said with a smile: "Then, how will you thank me?"
Father Catalina looked up at Captain Leighton and noticed his greedy and cunning eyes. Therefore, the priest kept praying in his heart that God would punish this heretic.
Captain Layton's wallet was filled with Mexican silver dollars, and he happily went to Yin Feng to deliver the money.
Early on the seventh day, the China United Company sent a woman to negotiate with the Maria, which almost made the Spanish faint. In their understanding, China is a woman who is locked up in her home and has no right to participate in politics. However, the Chinese company actually sent a woman as a negotiator. This was something the Spaniards never dreamed of.
Immediately, Captain Andre recognized this woman who had often appeared in the social occasions of Manila ladies. She was the favorite oriental decoration of various Spanish noble ladies. She was the sister of the big businessman Li Dan: Miss Elizabeth. Andre also I remember that the nephew of Governor Acuna once pursued her, but at that time Elizabeth was just an ornament on the Spanish social occasions, a strange oriental plaything.
However, now, Miss Elizabeth claims to be the wife of Yin Feng, the president of China Company, and is already the person in charge of external relations of China Company. This makes Mr. Fernando and Father Catalina have to come out to greet her in person.
"We don't need to beat around the bush, let's talk about the practical issues directly," Li Lihua said, getting straight to the point.
She sat elegantly behind the big table on the pier. In front of her were the Spanish envoy Don Fernando and Father Catalina. Behind her, Chen Zhongji, Yan Siqi and other Yin Feng's personal guards stood upright holding matchlock pens. Seeing nothing moving in front of them, Zhonghua Company still did not allow the Maria's crew to leave the dock.
"As for the issues you mentioned about compensation and return of property, I will show you a document now," Li Lihua said with a cold face as she handed a thick document to the other party.
Father Catalina unfolded the document and found that it was a bilingual document in Chinese and Spanish. It listed in detail the list of victims and their places of origin, as well as a list of related property losses. At the same time, the document finally proposed compensation for each victim. 500 taels of silver, and stated that since many of the victims did not leave their place of origin or name, China United Company reserves the right to pursue compensation in the future.
The priest handed the document to Fernando with a gloomy face and whispered: "This document is very detailed. It must not have been prepared in a short time. You are right, they knew in advance that we were coming,"
Catalina turned to Li Lihua and said: "Mrs. Yin, we are willing to compensate you for your personnel and material losses, but your personnel compensation standard is indeed too high. This is a completely impossible condition."
Li Lihua said coldly: "Do you mean to say that Chinese lives are not worth this little money?"
"No, it's not about human life..."
Li Lihua interrupted Father Catalina and said with a sneer: "As for the price of human life, China United Company has a clear attitude: This is a non-negotiable condition."
The priest took a breath. He didn't expect that China Company's attitude would be so tough. He rolled his eyes and said with a smile: "Miss Elizabeth..."
Li Lihua raised her hand: "Stop, please call me Mrs. Yin."
The priest ignored her words and said slowly: "Do you want to know the whereabouts of your brother?"
Li Lihua had already been prepared and smiled coldly: "If he is still alive, he must be doing hard labor somewhere."
"Spanish authorities in the Philippines can release him..."
Li Lihua interrupted Father Catalina again: "You can directly say what you want,"
"The Philippine colonies and the Chinese company will develop trade relations in an all-round way," Catalina said, seeing that Li Lihua was not making progress, and was extremely tough, so she had to throw out the bottom line of the negotiations.
Li Lihua sneered: "Until the issue of compensation for the Manila victims is resolved, our attitude towards this is: This is a non-negotiable content."