The grassroots political power in Luzon Island is at the provincial level. Although there are towns and villages, local indigenous people can serve as deputy mayors (Zuez) or village chiefs (caheza). However, missionaries have great power in villages and towns, and the mayors of towns , village chiefs and others are far from being the hosts of local administration. In fact, they are just servants, first to the parish priest, and secondly to the administrative, military and judicial heads of the province at all levels.
The status of indigenous town chiefs and village chiefs is not high. They are subject to the constraints of the clerk (usually the missionary's personal attendant). If they implement the instructions of the superior administrative head (including the governor, provincial governor) without the permission of the missionary, they will be punished. The missionaries would be punished with 100 lashes by the missionaries. The heavy responsibility of collecting taxes was in sharp contrast with their meager salaries. However, the town mayor and village chief, as tools for the Spanish missionaries to manipulate the local grassroots political power in the Philippines, urged them to Executing taxes and imposing arrogance formed the basis of grassroots rule in Spain.
Therefore, whenever Yin Feng's Chinese civil servants arrived in a place, they abolished the position of local village chief and replaced it with a collaborator dispatched and designated by the company. Generally, the indigenous people did not have any resistance to the implementation of this measure; It is indeed not a good thing to help officials. The Chinese Company's rule over the grassroots political power in Luzon Island is one-stop. The company directly sends personnel to the villages and towns to collect taxes, and no longer relies on indigenous middlemen. At the same time, the Chinese promote village merging. The plan was to relocate scattered indigenous villages and concentrate them in some large villages and towns. On the one hand, it facilitated management, but on the other hand, it disrupted the cohesion of each village. At the same time, it freed up large tracts of land for the Chinese people to use.
The Japanese towns of Dilau and San Miguel, where Japanese expatriates live together, have been completely robbed and burned by foreign mercenaries. Yin Feng allowed those Japanese who fled domestic religious persecution to live in San Miguel. The Japanese have always been very submissive to the strong, and the Japanese towns soon settled down. Places such as Marat where the Tagalog people lived settled down quickly because they already had good relations with the Chinese.
The biggest resistance to the Chinese's rule and management of Luzon came from the Catholic Church. Therefore, these days, the Chinese Company's army was searching everywhere, and almost all the missionaries from all over Luzon were captured and taken to Manila.
"There are currently about 100 priests from various Catholic missionary societies within Luzon. The rest unfortunately met God on the battlefield," Yin Feng sneered while looking at the dozens of missionaries, old and young, in the hall. Speaking in Chinese, Li Lihua translated his words into Spanish without emotion.
"All the missionaries who resisted our company's rule, except for the 15 people in the Manila dungeon, the rest have been hiding in the mountains and swamps under the pursuit of our Chinese company's army. We will catch them sooner or later. You gentlemen are very unwise. , organized resistance when my army arrived, resulting in the death of many innocent indigenous people. This responsibility must be borne by you. Among them, we did not find any Jesuit priests. The Jesuits have maintained good cooperation with our Chinese company... Therefore, I now declare that all Catholic missionary work in the entire island of Luzon and the area north of Mindanao shall be assigned to the Society of Jesus,”
As soon as Yin Feng finished speaking, a group of priests below shouted: "No, no, you don't have this power. The division of missionary areas in the Philippines is the power of the King of Spain."
Yin Feng said coldly: "The Spanish king's rule over the Philippines has ended. Throughout the ages, the natives of the Luzon Islands have been barbarians who paid tribute to our Chinese empire. Now I am only restoring China's ancient rights. , I now declare again that the missionary rights in the entire Philippine area controlled by the Chinese Company belong to the Jesuits. I don’t care about their missionary expenses. If the King of Spain wants to continue to pay them salaries, I have no objection,”
When Yin Feng led his army back to Luzon, there were less than a thousand Spanish colonists in Luzon, and there were as many as 180 missionaries. In fact, by 1591, there were 140 missionaries in the entire archipelago, and the Bishop of Manila The district was also upgraded to an archdiocese. In 1594, King Philip II of Spain designated missionary areas for each order. The Augustinians obtained the central and southern parts of Luzon, including Ilocos, Pampanga and Pengasilan. Part of the area; the Franciscans mainly operate around Lake Lago and the Bicol Peninsula, and the Dominicans are arranged to preach in other parts of the Cagayan Valley and Pangashilan in northern Luzon; the Jesuits are allowed to Dioceses were established in the islands of Samar, Leyte and Cebu in the Bisayan Islands and in northern Mindanao.
Although there is competition between various religious orders, almost all missionaries from various religious orders in the Philippines come from Spain and Mexico. The cost of their two-year journey (approximately 700 to 950 pesos) is borne by the Spanish royal family. After arriving in the Philippines, he was assigned to a designated diocese and received a salary or allowance from the colonial government in Manila. The archbishop's annual salary was 4,125 pesos, the bishop's annual salary was 1,838 pesos, and the priests received 100 pesos or 100 faregs per year (100 faregs is approximately equal to 90 shi of rice). ), the missionaries were actually salaried colonial Spanish civil servants.
Yin Feng treated them equally as Spanish officials and announced on the spot that all missionaries except the Jesuits would be expelled and that they would first be screened in the Binondo concentration camp.
The Jesuits were actually very distressed. Expanding the mission area was a good thing, but where did the missionary expenses come from? The Chinese occupied Manila, which actually cut off the source of funding for the Jesuits' missionary activities in the Luzon region.
Flintlock guns with loaded bayonets were pointed at these missionaries. Not all of them had the consciousness to devote themselves to God. Many people bowed their heads in prayer. One missionary asked: "If we agree to leave Luzon, you will guarantee our safety." Is life safe?"
"Of course, even those missionaries who are locked up in the dungeon and personally participated in the resistance activities will not be executed. The only exception is: the missionaries who participated in the massacre of biological humans will accept our ruthless punishment,"
A Philippine governor once pointed out: In the Philippines, everyone from the bishop to the lower-level church members are capable businessmen. Businessmen will not pay for a hopeless cause. Therefore, after Yin Feng promised to guarantee the life safety of missionaries, he continued until Most of the missionaries were expelled from Luzon. During this period, only a handful of missionaries were actually still instigating indigenous rebellion in the interior of Luzon, and the rest had already succumbed.
Before leaving, Yin Feng said to the frustrated missionaries: "You may still want to come back here. I hope to see you come to negotiate next time instead of leading the army to fight. In that case, I I can’t guarantee your life safety,”
When Li Dan came to Manila, he was surprised to see that Manila was already dominated by Chinese people both inside and outside the city. The plaques at the gates of the city were replaced with Chinese characters, and all Spanish street signs were replaced on the streets.
At the same time, a Mazu temple has been built in the city. The Chinese-style roof with eaves and vaults looks very abrupt among the Spanish-style buildings.
It has been less than a month since the city of Manila changed its owner. There are already people doing business in the city. Many of the goods are treasures from all over the world confiscated from the homes of Spanish nobles and bureaucrats. There are also foreign businessmen trading silk and ceramics with the Chinese. These people They are all Japanese, New Christians, Portuguese, Dutch and other businessmen who are well-informed and have good relations with Chinese companies.
Not a single Spaniard could be seen on the street. They were still being screened at the Binondo Concentration Camp. Those Spaniards who participated in the massacre three years ago were accused and imprisoned in the prison of the Governor's Palace in Manila.
Boss Zhou of Taiwan's "Leshan Lou" opened a "Leshan Lou" branch in Manila very quickly this time. It has just opened for business. The upstairs is also similar to the original Leshan Lou store in Hong Kong, Taiwan, with a special private room reserved for Yin Feng. Yin Feng hosted a banquet here to entertain Li Dan, and there is no need to mention the plot of Li Lihua and Li Dan holding each other's arms and crying.
During the dinner, Chen Zhongji suddenly called Yin Feng out of the room in a hurry, as if there was something urgent.
Only the Li brothers and sisters were left in the box. Li Dan looked at Li Lihua's mature and beautiful face and asked with a wry smile: "Ali, are you willing to follow Yin Feng like this all the time? Are you willing to have no name or status?"
Li Lihua blushed and lowered her head, saying softly: "So what if you don't give in? No priest is willing to bless us in the church... But I don't care, as long as he treats me well, I will... God will bless me, "
Yin Feng came in anxiously and said to Li Dan: "People from Taiwan are coming, and the Fujian army is attacking Penghu."
The visitors were personnel from the Commercial Information Department dispatched by Zeng Qi and Lin Xiao - the Commercial Information Department was actually the Domestic Intelligence Department that was selling sheep over dogs.
Zeng Qi was invited by Yin Feng himself by writing a letter. Now that the Zeng family has been firmly tied to Yin Feng's chariot, Zeng Qi, who has retired from official service and is over fifty years old, has also cheered up and came to Lu. Song Dynasty; this is the place where Zeng Yue, the most capable successor of the next generation of the Zeng family, died.
"Brother Li, my father-in-law came to Manila this time to establish a complete tax collection and production management system in Luzon. In short, it is to establish an administrative system..." Yin Feng gave a special message to In the former governor's bedroom arranged by Li Dan, he had a heart-to-heart talk with Li Dan.
Li Dan responded quickly: "Are you going to establish a country in Luzon and become king?"
Yin Feng smiled bitterly: "My father-in-law also asked the same question. We don't need to declare ourselves king and build a country yet. It's too early to do this. The Spaniards will definitely take revenge. The news will spread to Mexico and Spain, and then they will recruit troops to raise military expenses. At least It will take more than a year to send troops to the Philippines. The fastest way is to cross the Pacific from Mexico, but it will take 6 to 7 months, and it will be a long and arduous voyage on the windy and rough ocean. In short, I estimate that We have three years to prepare in Luzon. I hope that my eldest brother can assist my father-in-law in managing government affairs in Luzon, because you have been here for more than ten years and know the customs and customs of Luzon better..."
Li Dan nodded. He was one of the very few people in China who had an overview of world geography at that time, so he agreed with Yin Feng's inference: "I understand, you mean to let me stay to help Master Zeng Qi and consolidate the The dominance of our Tang people in Luzon is no problem, I just want you to do one thing for me..."
"You're welcome, Brother Li, there is no need to be so polite between you and me," Yin Feng thought to himself: Lihua is mine, and you are my brother-in-law, so there is no need to be polite.
"Help me find Li Huayu, and if I encounter Yuan Jin, Xiao Lizi, etc., please be merciful and give them a way to survive; they are all orphans. When I took them in, I was very poor myself. It can be said that They have suffered and shed blood with me,"
"Li Huayu has been missing for several years. Some people say that he is in Siam... In fact, he did not participate in the sailors' rebellion. He just did not report the information. I did not blame him at all. If I have a chance to find him, I will let him Help me with something," Yin Feng was very disgusted with Yuan Jin and told Li Dan about the last time Yuan Jin sent someone to assassinate him on the stage.
Li Dan sighed and said nothing more.
After the Chinese Company occupied Manila, it established the Luzon branch of the company and also named it the Luzon Governor's Office. It was actually two brands and one team. Yin Feng appointed Zeng Qi as the general manager of the Luzon branch, and Zhao Tie He was temporarily appointed as the town general of Luzon, leading the first infantry regiment of his headquarters to guard Luzon, and also commanded the Luzon Zhuang Ding Brigade. The supervising army was Zeng Rui, the youngest member of the Zeng family, and An Xiaosi was the leader of the Military Intelligence Department stationed in Luzon.
Although Li Dan was nominally one of the first major shareholders of Zhonghua Company, he considered that Yin Feng's close team was not familiar with him, so he only served as the treasurer of the Commerce Department of the company's Luzon branch.
It has been a month since the people left behind at the Taiwan base learned about the government's dispatch of troops; when Zeng Qi went to Luzon, war had already started in Penghu, and the merchant ship Zeng Qi boarded had been sailing at sea for ten days. No one knew that now At this time, is Penghu still under the control of the China Company?
Although the company's management knew that the government would definitely take advantage of Taiwan's internal emptiness to stab the Chinese company in the back, they did not expect it to happen so soon. Although the Fei Bao battleship had returned to Taiwan, it still had to go from Luzon to Taiwan. Since the wind direction in April of the lunar calendar is still mostly northerly, the Flying Leopard sailing against the wind will not arrive in Taiwan until twenty days at the earliest. No one knows whether it can reach Penghu in time.
Yin Feng temporarily settled the affairs in Luzon and led most of the troops of the Third Regiment back to Taiwan by boat. Zeng Jingshan and Li Lihua also returned to Taiwan. They casually brought some of the Western treasures they had confiscated from their homes back to Taiwan to prepare for domestic use. Get a good price.
Merchant ships from all over Fujian came to Luzon one after another. They were shocked to find that Manila had changed its owner, and the port manager was actually a Chinese. The news that China United Company had occupied Manila quickly shocked the scattered Chinese businessmen who were working alone. Businessmen joining forces could actually defeat the Western demons and occupy their territory. Such a thing is beyond the imagination of many Chinese businessmen.
At the same time, news of the government's dispatch of troops to Penghu also spread. The escort soldiers who participated in the war were angry: They had family members in Taiwan, so they sent officers and soldiers to Taiwan Island. Who knows what would happen? All the Chinese company escort soldiers had to ask for their return. Taiwan needs to teach the Fujian government a lesson that is behind the scenes.