Almost when Yin Feng and others arrived at the north pass of Dalun Mountain, Li Dan was pacing in shackles in the underground cell of Santiago Castle. Suddenly, the guard opened the door, and the clerk of the Royal Court of Manila walked in.
Li Dan asked him calmly: "Mr. Secretary, what do you do for a living? Where is my companion, Mr. Huang Kang?"
The secretary was a short white man in black robes from New Spain-Mexico, who was a descendant of the early Spanish conquistadors. He was full of contempt for all other peoples in the world except white Christians. He looked up to him proudly.
He tilted his head and looked at Li Dan coldly with squinting eyes: "Mr. Batista has paid the price for his crimes: the Royal Court sentenced him to hanging for rebellion and confiscated all his property. This afternoon, he has been executed.
His body will be cut into pieces and his limbs will be thrown into the road; his house will be burned and sprinkled with salt.”
Li Dan was shocked when he heard this, but it was not too unexpected. He and Huang Kang had known each other for many years. Although they were rivals when competing for the chief executive, they still had friendship and were familiar with Huang Kang's situation. Huang Kang's death was inevitable.
He is the scapegoat for the failure of the Spanish authorities' policy towards the Chinese.
The clerk showed a piece of paper to Li Dan: "Mr. Andri Thetis, if you want to be executed, there is no need to go to such trouble. All you need is a rope. The Governor wants me to ask you again, what do you want to do with those things?"
Where did you put the money that should not belong to you? Also, who forwarded the petition you submitted to the Royal Supreme Court of Spain? What is the content? You are lucky, Mr. Thetis, the Governor has not yet planned
Execute you, otherwise you would have been hanging with the corpses in the town square. As long as you answer these questions, the Governor will pardon your death penalty, and you will be sent to the gold mines of the American Andes to serve a ten-year sentence."
Li Dan sneered, and while looking at the document, he asked the clerk: "I heard that people who work in the gold mines in America basically have to go to see God after less than three years. How generous is the Governor! How many people are there?
I can’t hear the sound of artillery anymore. Is the war over? What’s the situation outside?”
The secretary curled his lips and said coldly: "Do you still count on those rebels? Do you smell the smoke outside? This is the burning of physiological human corpses. It has been burning for several days; those corpses are in the Pasig River
It was rotting inside, so we had to let the indigenous people go to the inner lake to transport water to quench their thirst. There was indeed a large group of physiological people who fled to the south. Haha, Captain Azquita has already solved the rebels in Tondo in the north, and will soon bring all the rebels away.
They have all been disposed of. You are probably the only biological person left alive within the city of Manila. All biological people in this colony will be executed."
Li Dan took a breath, suppressed the anger in his heart, turned his head and looked at the night outside the tall iron window, and said excitedly: "Oh God! Why? It wasn't you Spaniards who told us that even pagans are sons of the Spanish Empire.
People, does God have a loving heart? Why does he treat us like this?"
The clerk withdrew the document from Li Dan's hand, took a few steps back, and said angrily: "Mr. Thetis, you have no right to question God's will. This is the punishment your compatriots deserve. You cannot be blamed for this."
God! Let me ask you one last time, are you going to answer the Governor’s question?”
Li Dan took a deep breath, came to his senses, turned to the clerk and said: "Tell me first, what reason does the Governor have for deciding that the money should not belong to me? Please convey my question to the Governor: What does he plan to do?
When will he pay back the money I lent him?"
The clerk's face darkened and he said impatiently: "Do you think you can save your life with that petition to the Supreme Court? Are you really unwilling to answer the Governor's question?"
Li Dan laughed: "Mr. Secretary, I have asked the Governor to return the money I deserve. And Mr. Secretary, I remember that you borrowed money from me at the beginning of the year. Should you also pay it back?"
After all the physiological people are killed, how much debt can you pay to the physiological people, Mr. Clerk?"
The clerk's face was ashen, he quickly picked up the pen and wrote a few lines on the document, and then walked out of the dungeon with a gloomy face.
Li Dan sighed, walked under the prison window, looked up at the cloudy night sky, and said silently in his heart: "Yin Feng, Yin Feng, we must take Lihua out of Luzon Island! As long as she is okay, there is hope for everything!"
"
…
The night sky in Luzon Island is similar to that in coastal Fujian. In Yin Feng's eyes, it should be said that the night sky everywhere in this era is so bright with stars and the air is clear.
Yin Feng inspected the sleeping refugees and watched the groups of refugees falling asleep relying on each other. His mood gradually calmed down from the anxiety and anger just now. Yin Feng had never shouldered such a heavy responsibility: to provide for the lives of nearly 3,000 people.
Being responsible for life, it is inevitable to be a little nervous and excited. He can adjust his mentality quickly. Thanks to his extensive work experience of traveling around the world for many years before time travel, he is able to remain calm in all situations.
"Brother Yin!"
When he turned around, Li Lihua's beautiful face flashed out in the white moonlight.
"Why aren't you sleeping yet? Take the time to get some sleep. We will set off before dawn." Yin Feng said gently. Seeing that she was still dressed like a female pirate, he smiled and asked, "You haven't come back yet.
Quanzhou, right?”
Lihua sat on a stone by the river and said lightly: "I was born here and have never been back to Tangshan." She suddenly smiled and looked up at Yin Feng: "You don't seem to be from Tangshan either.
Man, haha. You may have guessed that Brother Li Dan is my adopted brother. My father is one of the first administrators of Balian, Li Xiaoyi. His relatives call him Anthony. When Brother Li came to Manila, he was homeless.
He had no money and was seriously ill, but it was my father who saved him, taught him Castilian, and helped him earn his first money. So before my father died, he entrusted me to the care of my eldest brother."
Yin Feng asked hurriedly: "I heard that the first general manager was killed by a related person in the Pan Hewu incident more than ten years ago?"
Lihua nodded: "The then Governor of Dasmarinas was beheaded by the Chinese. The Ganlu people wanted to burn Balian in revenge. In order to protect the interests of the Tang people, my father went to argue with the Ganlu people and was killed. I was then
When I was young, it was my elder brother who took me in and protected me."
"I see... I understand what you mean. Now that the matter is settled, I will definitely go find out about Brother Li's whereabouts. I think he will be fine."
"Brother Yin, what are you going to do after you return to Tangshan?" Li Lihua asked suddenly, looking straight at Yin Feng with a pair of big, deep and clear eyes, as if she wanted to see the secrets in his heart.
Yin Feng let out a long breath and said: "As you said, Luzon is also home to many Tang people. We Tang people overseas, if we are always like this scattered country and each family fights alone, sooner or later we will be bullied by others. I
When I came here, I just wanted to go back to my relatives, but I witnessed so many scenes of massacre, and so many fellow villagers were killed like chickens by the related wax people..." Yin Feng couldn't help but raise his voice: "We Tang people are better than those here.
Everyone is hard-working, and this land should be developed by us. As long as we unite and twist everyone's strength into one rope, we will never be defeated by the Westerners again!"
"What are we going to do?"
The voice came from behind. Yin Feng and Li Lihua turned around together and found the Zeng brothers supporting each other. The Chinese Christian leader An Heping stood with his hands crossed. The leader of the pirate gang Lu Shitou looked at Yin Feng with a half-smile, as well as wealthy businessmen from Quanzhou and Chenghai.
Representative Han Ping, Zhang Zhongji and several others... these people were standing behind them at some point.
Yin Feng was a little embarrassed and said quickly: "Everyone is awake already? In this case, let's prepare to attack the mountain pass!"
Everyone looked at him, as if no one had the intention to move. Lu Shitou waved his hand, as if to drive away mosquitoes, and said loudly: "Brother Yin, you are our backbone now, you have to show us a clear path!
"
Han Ping continued: "Captain Yin, you saved our lives, but now we have abandoned our family and business, and our decades of business have lost everything in one day. If we return to Tangshan and make a comeback, we will have to
Dealing with the Qianlu people, but what to do with this blood feud..." Tears fell on Han Ping's fat face, and he sighed: "Several of my brothers have died in the hands of the Qianlu people, how can I still fight with them?
Are they going to do business? But if we don’t do business, how can we support dozens of people in our hometown?”
An Heping took a step forward and said: "We used to believe in the missionaries' words and believe that God would protect our devout believers, but now our believers are still being massacred by the Qianlu people. How will we survive when we return to Tangshan? The imperial government will
Can you accommodate us believers?"
Seeing that other people also wanted to say something, Yin Feng quickly raised his hands and said: "Wait a minute, brothers and sisters. I, Yin Feng, am also a businessman, not a god. Many things must be done by us together. For example, right now, we must
Let us unite as one, break through the mountain pass, and escape from Luzon Island alive. As long as we all can return to Tangshan alive, and as long as everyone can support me, what I want to do can be carried out."
Several people asked in unison: "What are you going to do? What is it?"
Yin Feng solemnly said word for word: "Change the fate of our overseas Tang people so that we will never be massacred again!"
…
The northern pass of Dalun Mountain is the darkest time before dawn. Only a few sparse torches are still burning in front of the fence. The firelight is flickering. The Spanish sentry behind the fence is dozing off with his gun in his arms.
Yin Feng personally led his musketry team and crawled through the thatch for a long time.
He organized the smuggling of Binondo in Balian, but the temporarily organized Quanzhou fellows attacked without permission, alarming the Spanish army prematurely, and almost made Yin Feng and others easy targets on the river; in the past few days, he and the pirate gang jointly fought, and he
He has also suffered enough from the unorganized and undisciplined pirate gang brothers; therefore, he no longer trusts these untrained, unorganized and disciplined rabble, so he will personally lead his sailor musketeers to sneak attack on the mountain pass. Pirate Gang
The brothers waited at the river beach 300 steps away and rushed forward after seeing the light of the torches.
Lu Shitou and An Heping were lying on the bank of the river, looking forward with wide eyes, but could not see anything. An Heping asked anxiously: "Have Captain Yin's people gone up? Why is there no movement at all?"
Lu Shitou shouted in a low voice to the brothers who were ambushing him on the left and right: "Please be f*cking calm and don't move until you hear the sound of the gun!"
He turned around, fiddled with the Japanese sword in his hand, and said slowly to An Heping: "Don't worry, trust Brother Yin. Didn't you see the way they climbed out? This is what Brother Yin came up with, he was in Dongfan
This is how we train sailors. I didn’t know what the use was at first, but look, it’s come in handy now. We, Brother Yin, don’t know how clever we are, and we can always come up with all kinds of tricks.”
In fact, crawling forward does not have much practical value in this era. It was only popular after World War I. Today's muskets do not have continuous firepower output. What is popular on the battlefield is the fighting method of lining up to shoot each other. However, in
On a special occasion like tonight's sneak attack, crawling forward can reduce the possibility of being discovered before approaching the enemy covertly.