Contrary to what many people believe, Luzon is not far from the Ming Dynasty at all.
There is only a strait between the Luzon Islands and Taiwan Island, and the northernmost island is less than 200 miles away from Taiwan's Lanyu.
Starting from the Houbihu Coast Guard Base in Kenting, heading south for 700 miles, you will reach the northernmost tip of Luzon Island.
There is also a string of islands scattered between the two, which can serve as natural navigation marks to prevent ships traveling between them from getting lost.
Therefore, since the Han Dynasty, Chinese merchants have come to Luzon to do business. In the Tang Dynasty, the number of people going to Southeast Asia began to increase, but at that time, most of the immigrants were concentrated in Annan and Siam, areas with relatively developed agricultural civilization.
The first peak of Han Chinese immigration to Luzon occurred in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty. A large number of Han Chinese preferred to flee to the sea rather than become slaves of a conquered country. So many people came to Luzon. Xu Chailao, who was later appointed Governor-General of Luzon, had ancestors who immigrated there at that time.
By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there were as many as 40,000 Han Chinese living in Luzon.
However, Taizu of this dynasty issued a decree to attract people to return home and settle down, which set off a wave of overseas Han people returning home. As a result, the number of overseas Chinese in Luzon decreased instead of increasing.
It was not until a hundred years after the founding of the People's Republic of China that land annexation became serious, and the Fujian and Guangdong areas were mountainous and had little farmland, leaving the people with no place to live, that they began to move to Southeast Asia again.
But most people still went to the West, especially after the arrival of the Portuguese, trade between the East and the West increased greatly, and there were more opportunities to make money in places like Malacca, Pattani and Java.
The main island of Luzon did not even produce the spices that were most in demand in the West, and was completely excluded from the great maritime trade. Overseas Chinese who had originally settled in Luzon moved to the West or to spice-producing places such as Mindanao to do spice business.
The turning point occurred nine years ago, in 1565, the 44th year of the Jiajing reign. In order to break the Portuguese monopoly on trade with the East and find the origin of spices, the Spaniards, after decades of continuous exploration, finally found the Magellan route of that year, crossed the ocean and landed again on Cebu Island in the central Luzon Islands.
In June of the same year, the galleon "San Pablo" was loaded with spices from Cebu to Mexico for sale, opening up the Pacific route connecting Asia and America. As ships of South American silver arrived in Cebu on Spanish galleons, Chinese merchants with keen sense of smell flocked to the country, and the number of overseas Chinese in Luzon began to surge, reaching the same level as the peak period of that year in just a few years.
Even though the Spanish invaded Manila three years ago and have been carrying out massacres in Luzon in recent years, the number of Chinese in Manila has only increased.
When it comes to making money at the risk of one's life, no one can compare to these Hokkien guys.
~~
Luzon, Manila.
A hundred-meter-long wooden bridge spans the muddy Pasig River.
At dusk, groups of overseas Chinese pushed carts and carried loads on their shoulders and gathered at the bridge head, waiting to cross the narrow wooden bridge.
On the bridge, a red-haired devil wearing boots and a pistol hanging from his waist led a team of barefoot Mexican soldiers wearing straw hats and holding whips and sticks. They looked and built like the natives of Luzon, but with curly hair and higher noses. They seemed to be maintaining order.
If the Chinese were a little too slow or crowded across the bridge, they would be beaten and kicked by the Mexicans. Even if they did not make any mistakes, they would be whipped, just for fun.
The Chinese were unarmed and dared not speak out because anyone who dared to confront the red-haired devils would be executed on the spot as a rebel. Originally, only the natives had this experience, but in the past two years, the Chinese had become increasingly unwelcome and were also killed at will by the Spaniards, who would throw their bodies into the Pasig River without them having to take any responsibility.
The overseas Chinese can only console themselves by saying, we are here to seek wealth, and we will leave when we have made enough money, there is no need to risk our lives just to save face...
But not everyone was so cowardly. Several young men in the crowd stared at the red-haired devils and their lackeys with blazing eyes. A young man named Chen Yongquan had already reached into his backpack and tightly grasped a melon-sized stone.
Unlike the new overseas Chinese who have arrived in recent years, the eighteen-year-old Chen Yongquan is the third generation of overseas Chinese born on Daming Street.
His grandfather's generation came from Quanzhou to make a living, buying hardwood from the local area and selling it back to China. His father's generation opened a timber store on Daming Street. Later, when the Spaniards came, cloth and silk became popular, so his father Chen Mei bought cotton cloth and silk from China and sold them, becoming one of the richest people on Daming Street. The Sultan would address him respectfully as Mr. Chen and ask if he could buy two batches of silk on credit.
Later, with the demise of the Sultanate, the Spaniards became the masters of Manila and the entire Luzon Island, and renamed it the Philippines. At first, everyone was a little nervous, but seeing that business could be done as usual and the Spaniards deliberately trying to win over the Chinese, everyone gradually settled down.
Who would have thought that the Spaniards were fickle and had changed their attitude again in the past two years. They changed their previous attitude of courting and favoring the Chinese and became more wary and even hostile.
Finally, last year, the attitude turned into action. The newly appointed Spanish Governor-General Sander ordered that all Chinese in Manila and Cebu must register their personal information, including name, age, family members, property status, and place of origin, at the Governor-General's Office. Those who evaded registration or registered false information would be expelled from the Philippines.
The overseas Chinese had no choice but to submit the application, but this was the beginning of a nightmare. Sander then ordered that all Chinese must move out of Santiago City, formerly Manila Royal City, within three days and live in Jiannei on the other side of the river.
The overseas Chinese were immediately furious. In this small Luzon, Daming Street came first, and then Manila Royal City!
We were clearly here first, why are you sending us away with just one sentence?
Why? Of course, it's because they have a strong fist!
Three days later, seeing that most of the overseas Chinese had not moved on time, Sander gave an order and the Spanish officers and sergeants, along with their Mexican soldiers, began to clear out the people from house to house in the city, armed with the previously registered information.
Their actions were extremely brutal! The Chinese were beaten up if they hesitated for a moment. If they resisted, they were killed without mercy!
And they didn’t allow overseas Chinese to take their belongings away…
As soon as the Chinese left, the Spaniards let the natives who worked for the Chinese in the store take over the store and business.
Who would have thought that even though those natives had been working in the overseas Chinese's shops for many years, some had been working there since they were young and for half their lives, they could not do anything except their own job, and they made a mess of their business and could not run it at all.
Not to mention that the tailors, carpenters, blacksmiths, doctors, restaurant owners, cotton fluffers, and even barbers and pedicurists in the city are all overseas Chinese. The local natives don’t know how to do anything…
Without the Chinese, the city of Santiago could not even maintain basic operations and soon became a dead and abandoned city.
Governor Sander had no choice but to abandon the anti-Chinese policy and ordered the Chinese to work and open shops in the city during the day, but must leave the city at night.
In order to prevent them from causing chaos, the Spaniards did not allow the Chinese to possess weapons, and even iron tools such as machetes and hammers were not allowed to be brought into the city.
The Spaniards had rich experience in managing colonies. They also implemented the system of collective responsibility in Jiannei, organizing the Chinese who lived nearby into teams of ten households and ten teams into a group.
If a Chinese person committed a crime, the whole team would be punished. If a Chinese person harmed a Spaniard, the whole team would be punished.
In other words, if one Spaniard died, one hundred Chinese families would be buried with him.
Under this inhumane high-pressure discrimination, many overseas Chinese left Luzon, but there were still 20,000 to 30,000 people who stayed.
One reason is that these Japanese red-haired devils are stupid and have a lot of money. They are much more generous than those Western red-haired devils. Working one year in Manila is equivalent to working two years in Malacca.
Second, there are still many overseas Chinese like Chen Yongquan who were born and raised in Luzon. This is their home, the place where they were born and raised. If they leave Luzon, they don’t know where they can go.
Naturally, compared to the overseas Chinese who had just arrived in recent years, people like Chen Yongquan hated these invaders who had taken away their homes even more!
~~
The long-accumulated anger made Chen Yongquan lose his mind, and he was about to use a stone to split the red-haired ghost's head!
At this moment, a tall man wearing a bamboo hat suddenly reached out and held him down.
The man's hands were like iron clamps, making the young man named Chen Yongquan unable to move.
"Hmph!" Chen Yongquan had no choice but to give up his plan to vent his anger.
With his arm held, he crossed the bridge and arrived at the village on the other side of the delta.
The village only had a circle of wooden fences and was filled with bamboo and thatched houses, but the overseas Chinese felt relaxed as soon as they came in because they were finally back home.
"Let me go!"
The big man also let go of Chen Yongquan, took off his hat, revealing a handsome face.
It turned out to be Ximen Qing, who had been promoted to deputy captain of the Coast Guard Marine Corps Reconnaissance Battalion.
But Ximen Qing didn't say anything. It was the fat white young man in front of him who spoke - Tang Baolu, director of Nanhai Group and general manager of Nanhai Trade.
"A Quan, don't be impulsive! It will hurt everyone." Tang Baolu was very friendly and persuaded him in Minnan dialect with a smile. "Come, have a piece of candy and relax."
"Humph!" Chen Yongquan threw away the candy that Tang Baolu handed him, and said with veins throbbing on his forehead, "It's because you newcomers are too cowardly that we are being ridden on the necks by the red-haired devils!"
After saying this, he regretted it a little, because the other party was the new director of the Nanhai Trading House, who was backed by the newly rising Nanhai Group. All the ships traveling between Ming Dynasty, Ryukyu and Japan were under his control.
With just one word from Don Paul, his father's timber and silk businesses were all gone.
But the young man would not admit his mistake. He held his neck high and said stubbornly, "Don't worry, a man should take responsibility for his actions. I won't implicate you!"
"Yes, of course you can't implicate me, we are not related." Tang Baolu said without getting angry: "But you will implicate the 100 compatriots in this valley."
After a pause, he said calmly, "The Spanish are worried about having no excuse to attack us. Do you really want to hand them a knife?"
"Hmph, coward!" Chen Yongquan was speechless after being squeezed, so he snorted again and turned around and ran away.
P.S. I have sorted it out. I will see if I can make up yesterday's chapter tomorrow. There is no more tonight.