The moonlight once again penetrated the clouds, and the moonlight shone on the east side of Intramuros in Manila. Under the shadow of a Gothic church, the luxurious mansion of New Christian businessman Francisco Díaz de Montoya appeared. The figure of a small physiological man.
It was in this house that one night three years ago, Spanish soldiers broke in and arrested the Chinese Christian businessman Miguel Otto. Miguel Otto, formerly known as Shi Yuan, was the first Bari Anwar's manager took refuge in the home of his long-time business partner De Montoya. He was then hanged on the streets of Manila, and his body hung in the air for several days. In the end, De Montoya couldn't stand it. He went down, paid a sum of money to bribe the guard, and collected Shi Yuan's body.
This little physiological man was wrapped in a black cloak. He suddenly appeared like a ghost on the silent street in the middle of the night, and appeared at the door of De Montoya's mansion. No movement was seen from him. He had climbed up the wall and disappeared on top of the wall in the blink of an eye.
De Montoya is already in his forties, but he is still lustful and gluttonous, so he often holds banquets in his mansion. He used to sleep very late every night. His business situation has been very bad in the past two years because of China People no longer come to Manila, so the recent return of Chinese businessmen to Manila made him very excited. In the past two days, he held consecutive banquets and invited Chinese businessmen to attend.
At this time, he had just fallen asleep. Since his wife was in Mexico, he usually put his arms around his beautiful Indian mixed-race maid and went to bed. He had just finished exercising on the bed and was about to fall asleep comfortably.
Suddenly, someone tapped him on the shoulder and whispered in Portuguese in his ear: "Mr. Miguel Otto greets you,"
This surprise was no small matter. De Montoya screamed, lifted the quilt, and jumped up from the bed with his fat body. The mixed-race maid beside him screamed and was pushed off the bed by him.
With a flash of fire, an oil lamp was lit, and the mysterious little physiological man stood in the middle of the bedroom, pointing the flintlock pistol in his hand at De Montoya.
"Be quiet, Mr. Montoya, I don't mean any harm," the little physiological man smiled, but the smile was uglier than crying. There was a scar across his cheek, "I am An Heping's younger brother. That is, the adopted son of Juan Battista de Vera, the general manager of Balian."
De Montoya had a good business relationship with the wealthy Chinese businessmen of the time, and was business friends with all the successive managers of Balian. He immediately calmed down and dragged the almost naked maid up: "Get out. Watch the door, no one is allowed in,"
He quickly put on his clothes, looked at this mysterious physiological man carefully and said, "Sir, if I remember correctly, we seem to have met before."
An Xiaosi, An Heping's younger brother, smiled coldly: "Yes, that Christmas, when you visited my adoptive father, I received you at the door, Mr. Montoya, and Mr. Shi Yuan left a legacy after his death. , as far as I know, it is under your jurisdiction now,"
De Montoya smiled bitterly, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and nodded: "Yes, is it true that Mr. Miguel Otto still has family members alive? This is no problem, as long as it can be proven that it is indeed Mr. Otto's. To future generations, I will transfer these inheritances to the legal heirs..."
"Then, my adoptive father Batista also has some money with you," An Xiaosi hid his face in the darkness, put away the flintlock pistol, and said coldly: "You don't need to explain, I I am not here to pursue family property. After reading this letter, you will understand my purpose. This is a letter written to you by your compatriot, Mr. Bernardo Caderas of Macau,"
After reading the letter, De Montoya sweated even more on his forehead. He sat down on the bed, raised his head and said to An Xiaosi: "What on earth do you want to do? Why do you need this information? God, you are not ordinary businessmen." , which businessman would be interested in the location of the Manila Gunpowder Magazine,"
"We have no credible people in Manila, and if we Chinese try to get close to those military locations, we will cause a lot of trouble, so we came to you,"
"We, oh, you are the people of the China United Company, right?" After Pampanga Governor Don Fernando returned from Taiwan, De Montoya learned more or less about the situation of the China Company from the Spanish upper class in Manila, " Are you still thinking of attacking the Spaniards?"
An Xiaosi's face became even more mysterious. He shrank away from the dim light of the oil lamp. The flintlock pistol in his hand appeared again: "You are very smart, Mr. Montoya. You should know our capabilities. Your friend Bernard I should have told you a lot, don’t try to betray us,”
"No, of course not. Back then I took risks to protect Mr. Shi Yuan, and now I will never oppose our Jewish "new Christian" friends,"
"Okay, from now on, I will be your new servant. Do you like pigeons?" The pistol in An Xiaosi's hand disappeared under his clothes again. De Montoya secretly let out a sigh of relief and quickly replied: "I have many pets, including some fine Spanish fighting dogs..."
An Xiaosi interrupted him: "Stop raising dogs, you should start to like raising pigeons,"
"What," Montoya said, "why,"
An Xiaosi looked at him coldly, did not answer his question, and stretched his right hand under his clothes.
De Montoya woke up immediately and said hurriedly: "Okay, that's no problem. I will go to the market early tomorrow morning to buy pigeons..."
"No, tomorrow morning, two indigenous people will bring you more than ten pigeons, and I will help you feed them,"
On this night, the Chinese Company successfully established a secret base in the center of Manila. At the same time, it was also a secret communication center to contact Taiwan. The messengers were those pigeons, using Montoya as a cover, and they were Bernardo's Idea; this guy has a lot of property stored in many places in Bernardo. Just for these properties, Montoya will not betray the Chinese company.
On the same night, outside Tortoiseshell Harbor on the northwest coast of Luzon, a dozen canoes were docked in the dark shadows of the coastal cliffs. There were only two people on each canoe, both of whom were ethnic Chinese mixed-race Yioro people living nearby. , their leader is Daan who went to Taiwan to contact Yin Feng.
On this sea surface, stars twinkled in the sky and the moon was bright. Therefore, the canoe had to hide under the seaside cliff here to avoid people's eyes and ears. Everyone stretched their necks and looked toward the northwest sea, even if it was The moonlight was bright, but on the sea at night, people could not see far at all. Someone asked Daan in a low voice: "We have been waiting here for four days, do we have to wait any longer? In a few days, it is time to celebrate the festival. "The New Year's festival of the Yi'eruo tribe is indeed coming soon, but Da'an doesn't care about the festival at all: "Be patient, they will definitely come, don't say anything about the festival anymore, the Spaniards have killed so many of our tribesmen this year, The chiefs and elders are still thinking about celebrating the festival,"
It was not until dawn broke on the horizon that a strange-looking sailboat appeared from the sea level. This sailboat had a slender body, an aspect ratio of about 5:1, a long and sharp bow, and three masts fully equipped with sails.
The mast is taller than any ship the Chinese mixed race people in Da'an have ever seen. There are also moon sails and stay sails hung on the topmast. There are also outriggers on both sides of the ship, and two wing sails are hung.
The lateral extension area of the sail is increased.
The strange ship in front of us is almost completely surrounded by black canvas, even the hull is black. It glides lightly on the sea, with its sails spread out like the wings of a giant bird, floating in the breeze on the sea surface at dawn.
Up, it was actually full of drums.
Everyone looked at it with their mouths open, and could not help but feel chills in their hearts. Some people chatted with their teeth, and asked Daan with a trembling voice: "Is this, is this the ship of the China Company? Could this be the legendary devil ship?"
Dozens of canoes were in a mess, and everyone was paddling, trying to escape. Daan shouted: "Don't move, I saw the signal, it's a company ship, not a ghost ship,"
Sure enough, a string of lanterns lit up the main mast of this long and slender ghost ship, and a faint light swayed in circles.
Daan wiped his cold sweat and let out a long breath: "Yes, it is the ship sent by Captain Yin. God, how could Captain Yin send such a ship?"
The sailing ship that Daan and others saw should have appeared 250 years later; this was the pinnacle product of the development of sailing ships in the Age of Discovery, the scissor sailing ship. This was probably the largest sailing ship opened by the Chinese in the Age of Discovery and was presided over by Yin Feng.
A "gold finger", but strictly speaking, this "Sea Spirit" is not a clipper ship, it is just a fast sailing ship built with the help of the clipper ship design concept. In this era, Yin Feng can't find a builder at all.
In terms of metal materials and construction techniques required for "clipper ships", he only took the concepts of "reduce freeboard, reduce deck superstructure, improve ship stability, and give full play to the role of sails" to the extreme in sailboat construction. The ship is almost
Sail close to the water with ease and ease.
The clipper ship has a long and slender shape, a sharp and protruding front end, a fast speed but a small tonnage. The manuscript recorded by Yin Feng after his journey recorded the history of Westerners using this kind of sailing ship to engage in tea and opium smuggling trade in China in the 1840s.
Later, the gold rush caused by the discovery of gold mines in the western United States led to the rapid development of clipper sailing ships. In the breeze that could not extinguish the flames of small candles, clipper ships could still easily turn around in narrow bays.
Of course, the Chinese company's ship cannot do this, but the Sea Spirit is light, fast in maneuvering, and its speed is already amazing. Although the cargo capacity is not large, and the hull is thin to reduce weight, it cannot withstand the impact of naval battles, but this ship
Due to its speed, lightness and flexibility, the Sea Spirit is suitable for conducting secret activities at sea and being used as a reconnaissance ship.
The Sea Spirit came to Tortoiseshell Port, but it was a secret cargo transport operation.
The cargo is 80 matchlock guns produced in Siam, hundreds of kilograms of gunpowder and several bullets; fifty hand-held crossbows and several swords commonly seen in the Ming Dynasty. In addition, two members of the special escort team will disembark, along with Da'an and others.