On the sea, there are more and more days when the southeast wind blows. This gives people hope that people who go to Manila often take advantage of the first southeast monsoon to return home to Fujian.
Yin Feng was more anxious than anyone else. While preparing necessary supplies on his ship, he was eagerly waiting for the silhouette of the sails returning from Manila to appear on the sea. At the same time, he was training his newly recruited crew members on the beach, but he had no time to do it now.
Weapons.
At the beginning of the sixth lunar month, the first batch of four merchant ships from Manila returned to Yuegang, Haicheng County. Yin Feng immediately sent someone to inquire about the situation.
The few merchants who came back were all merchants in Chaozhou City. According to them, the wax people in Manila have increased the taxes and fees for Chinese residence permits, and the commercial taxes after merchant ships entering the port have also increased. The Balian market area and Manila
A moat was dug between the royal cities, and it seems that the business taxes of the Qianlu people in the Chinese area were also increased. Moreover, the Qianlu people spread rumors everywhere that the Chinese emperor's fleet was going to attack Luzon.
Although these businessmen returned home after making a lot of money, the news they brought was not good news.
"According to people who stayed in the stream for the winter last year, after the emperor's imperial envoys came to Luzon last year, there were more and more Ganjia soldiers in Manila. Moreover, this year, the Ganjia people were buying ironware from the Tang Dynasty everywhere.
The purpose is to build weapons to conquer the Moros in the south, but many Tang people (Chinese) are suspicious of the intention of interfering with the Rats. The left and right people just suspect that we and other Tang people have a large number of people, and they will not leave us any weapons, fearing that we will become the Chinese army.
Internal response!" A certain businessman said, picking up some Spanish silver dollars, weighing them and saying: "God knows how our emperor has time to go to Luzon, haha. After this year, it should be fine, and the imperial army will not show up.
There is no reason for the Ganjiela people to always be wary of us. We feel that things will not get worse. The Ganjiela people will not drive away all the Tang people. If we leave us Tang people, those Tagalog natives will not do anything.
People can't do anything except collect taxes. The Tang people are gone, won't they all have to starve to death? Haha!"
Yin Feng could only respond with a bitter smile to this businessman's optimistic statement. There were too many Chinese in Balian this year. These Chaozhou businessmen did not have much contact with the merchants in Quanzhou and did not know the Zeng brothers, so Yin Feng
Still can't figure out the current situation of the Zeng brothers.
It has been 10 days since Yin Feng bought the boat. Either the wind direction was wrong or a typhoon hit, and the waves were so strong that it was impossible to sail. Seeing time passing by, Yin Feng became more and more impatient. He went back and forth between Jinjiang Port and Quanzhou
Running around the city, his face became gloomier day by day.
The Zeng family also heard some rumors, and compared them with Yin Feng's advance warning, they began to believe Yin Feng's words: something would happen in Manila! However, all the surrounding businesses did not believe it, and thought that at most they were just driving away the Tang people.
, this is what the Greeks did a few years ago.
By the end of this month, more ships were returning from Manila. Finally, someone brought a letter from Brother Zeng Yue: Business in Manila is average this year, and all the goods they brought have not been sold yet. They are preparing to spend the winter in Manila and continue doing business. This
Yin Feng was greatly disappointed, and his anxiety level rose to another level.
The Zeng family can only be considered to have just squeezed into the range of merchants with a moderate level of wealth. Those large merchants who own ships often recruit bulk merchants to load goods. The Zeng family only sends their adopted sons or servants, family servants and the like to go overseas for trade. After all, overseas trade
The risk is too great. The Zeng family has not yet become such a big businessman, and his son still has to go to sea to trade in person. This time he has to lose an adopted son, which really makes Zeng Ke and others very anxious.
But Yin Feng is anxious not only for his relatives and friends, but also for his own negligence. He could have allowed the Zeng family to avoid this crisis, but now he can only watch the tragedy happen irreversibly before his eyes. He
He knew that with his current strength, he could not prevent the massacre in Manila, but he could not accept seeing his relatives and friends dying. Moreover, the journalist's sense of justice still remained in him: although this sense of justice came from
School education has been erased a lot by social reality after entering society, but to some extent it is still retained in Yin Feng, otherwise he would not have become a freelance photographer. The sense of mission and responsibility that had sunk deep in his heart was awakened
.
He waited day and night for the direction of the wind to change, and suffered from insomnia night after night.
He didn't know that in Zeng Jing's eyes, his image was changing: he worried about the children of the Zeng family more than anyone else, and such a person would not be unsympathetic. She began to take the initiative to care about Yin Feng, and asked warm questions in a pleasant manner.
.Unfortunately, Yin Feng had no intention to pay attention to the subtle changes in her attitude at this moment.
His newly recovered body was on the verge of collapse. The body that had put on weight while lying on the bed suddenly lost weight, his beard became unkempt, his temper became irritable, and he rarely scolded several maids and servants.
Late that night, the insomniac Yin Feng sat on a stone bench in the center of the yard, wringing his hands unconsciously and looking at the dark sky in a daze.
Someone gently put a robe on him, he held a small hand and said softly: "Are you still asleep, Wan..."
No, how could the fisherman girl's hands be so delicate and smooth? When he turned around, he was startled and quickly let go of his hand. Zeng Jing was speechless for a moment, blushing and lowering her head, thinking: Fortunately it was night, this guy couldn't see her
blush.
The two of them looked at each other in silence for a while, the breeze blew through the yard, and the plum tree made a gentle rustling sound.
Yin Feng suddenly stood up and took out a piece of paper from his arms: "Beautiful... I don't know what you are thinking, but all this is fate. If I can come back from Luzon, I will definitely give you an explanation.
."
He raised his head and looked at the night sky where the dark clouds were being blown away by the northwest wind, and the moon was dimly visible through the clouds. "The wind direction has changed, I have to go."
He strode to the door. Zeng Jing, who was at a loss for words, took the paper in his hand and looked at him without looking back. It took him a long time to react, rushed to the door, and was about to disappear into the dark alley.
Yin Feng opened his mouth from behind, but said nothing.
Yin Feng left a letter for Bernardo, in triplicate. One was given to a servant of the Zeng family to wait in Yuegang, the other was sent to Japan through a smuggler, and finally someone was sent to Bernardo in Macau by land.
At home, the content is the same: I hope Bernardo will find a way to go to Manila immediately after receiving this letter, because his life is in danger and he needs help.
Chinese letters with the same content were addressed to Lin Xiao and Mai Dahai.
At the end of the sixth lunar month, Yin Feng took Magalo, riding a short-term northwest wind, and finally set out to sea, with the destination: Manila, Luzon.
After all, it was too late, and the direction of the monsoon wind had begun to change. The trip to Manila, which was supposed to last up to 15 days with favorable winds, turned into a nightmare after Yin Feng forced the ship to sail.
First, the northwest wind only lasted for two days, and then the wind direction changed unpredictable due to the typhoon in the northwest Pacific. The bird ship "Fortunate Star" - named for the chance of winning a fortune - most of the time was fighting crosswinds and headwinds.
Fighting to the death and sailing against the wind for several days, almost all the crew fell down from exhaustion. Although sail-powered ships at that time could travel against the wind, they had to rely on the crew to skillfully operate the sails all the time, no matter east or west,
This kind of bravery can only be maintained in a short period of time. Over time, the crew's physical strength will be overwhelmed, and problems will arise in the ship's mast and cable system.
As soon as the Fuxing crossed the island of Taiwan, a hurricane hit the Fuxing. The compass on the ship was spinning almost randomly. Manpower was completely unable to resist the power of nature. Everyone could only look at the darkness around them. Even the old acupuncture master couldn't help it.
be lost.
Two days later, a mast was broken and the ship with its rudder missing was sailing slowly on the sea, because it was surrounded by blue sea and only a little north wind was gently blowing across the sea. The needle master put a piece of wood
He lowered the ship to the sea from the bow, followed the flow direction of the wood chips, and walked back and forth from the bow to the stern several times, and finally almost walked from the bow to the stern. The owner of the ship, Yin Feng, looked at him with an ugly expression.
Master Lin, the acupuncturist, looked at him helplessly.
This is the traditional method of measuring the speed of a ship. People follow the speed of wooden pieces floating from the bow to the stern of the ship to calculate the speed of the ship: the current speed of the ship is almost the speed of a leisurely stroll. The old needle master judged based on experience, in terms of direction
, the ship should now be approaching Beacon Mountain (Calayaan Island in the Philippines). However, it is still surrounded by a vast sea, with no trace of land in sight.
For several days in a row, the Lucky Star sailed southeastward at a turtle-like speed. The water and dry food on the ship quickly decreased, and the crew complained a lot.
At the same time, at a certain port in Quanzhou, Li Dan's pirate apprentice Yuan Jin landed from Manila on the Zeng family's famous merchant ship, bringing back a batch of silver. Yuan Jin and the Zeng family's servant Erzai rushed to the Zeng family in the north of Quanzhou city.
In the compound, go visit Yin Feng.
The servant of the Yin Feng family informed the master that he had gone to Luzon.
"Goddess Mazu bless you! Why is Brother Feng going to Luzon at this time?" Hearing that Yin Feng had just gone to Luzon, Yuan Jin exclaimed: "I'm afraid the wax man will kill someone with a knife!"
Wan'er, who was in the yard, was shocked when she heard this. She grabbed Yuan Jin and kept asking about the situation. When Zeng Jing came out, Wan'er's face was already pale.