Chapter 1286: Shocking Change

"What about my father? What's his current situation?" Zhao Hao asked again.

"On his way to take office, the master returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors, so he was delayed a little. He had just arrived in Zhangzhou, Fujian when he sent the letter." Li Zuoguo replied.

Zhao Hao did a quick calculation and realized that his father had resigned and left Kunshan on April 3rd. It was not outrageous that he had not arrived in Guangzhou for more than a month.

"So where is he now?"

"Master, you should have arrived in Chaozhou by now, right? We haven't received any further news yet, but your subordinates have already written letters to various departments based on temporary authorization, asking them to pay close attention to Chaozhou Prefecture and report the latest situation in a timely manner." Chang Kaiche said hurriedly.

"Well, there are hundreds of people following us, including the two gentlemen. It shouldn't be a problem...right?" Mr. Zhao suppressed his worries and asked, "Is there anything else?"

"There is also very bad news. Jiangnan Trading Company reported that their trading post in Ryukyu was attacked by pirates. The security team fought bravely to save the warehouse. However, the ten cargo ships parked at the dock were all robbed, five of which were fully loaded with cargo. The loss was as high as 100,000 taels." Chang Kaiche paused and said in a low voice:

"More than thirty sailors died..."

"What?" Zhao Hao's blood rushed up and his eyebrows jumped. He suddenly raised his voice and asked, "Why didn't you say it earlier?!"

"I think the master's affairs are more important." Chang Kaiche knelt down quickly.

"Get up." Zhao Hao cursed inwardly. That's right. If he talked about this matter first and then talked about his father's matter, he would ask the same question.

"When did this happen?" he asked, suppressing his anger.

"I just received the news that the incident happened two days ago." Chang Kaiche said hurriedly.

The ability to receive the message so quickly was of course inseparable from the Jiangnan Group's pigeon system. Although pigeons can only fly 600 miles at sea and must land to rest and forage, the Jiangnan Group has achieved relay communication with the country through several pigeon houses set up in Iwo Jima, Yokozeura, Ukushima, Chengshan Port, Haeju, and Chengshantou of the Joseon Dynasty.

Therefore, the garrison area will receive news from Ryukyu earlier than the domestic situation.

"Please ask Jin, Wang, Zhu and Ma to come here immediately." Zhao Hao gave the order in a deep voice, and the guards hurried out to call people.

"We'll talk about the situation in Ryukyu after they arrive. If you have any other troubles, just tell them all." Young Master Zhao said to Chang Kaiche with a dark face.

"Yes..." Chang Kaiche swallowed his saliva and said with a stiff face, "There is another thing, which was also reported by General Tang. Our trading posts in Cebu and Manila reported that the Spaniards in Cebu have frequently spied on Manila since the beginning of the year and bought military supplies from Macau, Malacca, Champa and other places. Last month, a fleet of three large sailing ships came from the depths of the ocean and docked in Cebu. After unloading, they did not reload and there was no sign of returning. Instead, they began to sail along the coast of Luzon."

After a pause, he said in a deep voice: "All signs indicate that they are about to launch an invasion against Manila."

"Yes." Zhao Hao's expression eased a little. Setting up trading posts in Ryukyu, Macau, Penghu, Manila, Cebu, Champa and other places was an important task he gave to Jiangnan Trading Company. However, most of these trading posts did not have the function of maritime trade, because it was very dangerous to engage in maritime trade before controlling the sea area...

The experience of the Ryukyu trading post has proved that even a fleet composed of armed merchant ships will still suffer heavy losses if it does not have control over the sea areas and ports.

Therefore, these overseas trading stations basically only run some local businesses, or trade with local sea merchants. Zhao Hao not only did not ask them to become bigger and stronger, but instead ordered them to control the scale of their operations and try to be kind to others, so as not to attract attention.

Because the main task of these trading posts is to collect various local information, make friends and establish networks.

From the local political ecology, economic structure, population ratio, military strength, education level, religious factions, to climate and hydrology, topography and sea conditions, farmland and water conservancy... Zhao Hao instructed the General Affairs Department to list more than 400 items, and asked intelligence personnel in various trading stations to collect, organize and analyze them in preparation for the future.

They have actually been able to correctly analyze the Spaniards' movements, so it seems they are not completely useless.

However, it was too late for them to draw conclusions.

The Great Prophecy told Master Zhao that the Spaniards should have occupied Manila by now.

~~

Although according to the so-called Treaty of Zaragoza, Asia should belong to the scope of Portuguese colonization, the Spaniards have always been resentful of the Portuguese monopoly on Eastern trade.

So six years ago, after careful preparation, the Spaniards, with the ambition of turning the Pacific Ocean into an inland lake of the Habsburg Empire, formed an expedition fleet and set out from faraway Mexico along the route discovered by Magellan, crossing the ocean to Cebu in the north of Luzon.

At this time, the Luzon Islands, except for cities such as Cebu and Manila where Chinese and Southeast Asian merchants arrived, were still in a semi-civilized state. Because the tribes were distributed on different islands, the connections between them were very shallow, and there was no trend of forming a unified country. Even the largest Luzon Island was open to all strong interventions like a virgin land.

Therefore, the Spaniards, who had a huge generational advantage, quickly gained a foothold and established their rule through a combination of soft and hard methods.

Then, King Philip II of Spain named the region Philippines after himself and appointed Legazpi as the first Governor-General of the Philippines, under the Viceroy of New Spain in Mexico.

In 1571, which was April this year, six years after arriving in the Cebu Islands and making sufficient preparations, Legazpi joined forces with the reinforcements from Mexico, formed a fleet of more than 2,000 people and 23 large and small ships, and headed for Manila, the most prosperous city in southern Cebu.

At this time, Manila was relatively prosperous, with a large number of Chinese settling here to do business, bringing commerce and civilization. However, the small Luzon Sultanate that ruled the region was very weak, which was also a common problem among the sultanates in Southeast Asia. It seemed that the Muslims, who were very strong in the Arab region, were weak in South Asia and Southeast Asia, and none of them could fight.

Even the Portuguese were able to beat up countless sultanates from India to Southeast Asia, not to mention the Spanish who were more martial and full of religious militancy... Well, in a sense, we should also thank them for preventing some unspeakable things from spreading to East Asia.

In short, when they found that 2,000 Spaniards had suddenly invaded in a "massive" manner, the rulers of Manila were divided into two factions, those who advocated war and those who advocated war, and they argued endlessly. In the end, no one could convince the other. Raja Suleiman, who advocated war, advocated retreating to the north, gathering strength, and seeking help from the Celestial Empire and other sultanates.

The peace-loving Raja Matanda removed the fortifications, allowing the Spanish to enter Manila unscathed.

Zhao Hao also knew that next month, King Suleiman would unite the tribes of Cebu and concentrate all his forces to launch a counterattack against the Spaniards. Although he had an advantage in terms of military strength and Suleiman was the first to lead the troops, the huge generation gap could not be eliminated by determination and numbers. In the end, the rebels were completely annihilated, and even Suleiman was killed by a cannon. The short-lived Sultanate of Luzon was destroyed.

Then, Legazpi moved the Governor's Office to Luzon and forced all Luzon residents to convert to Catholicism. He then continued to attack Mindanao in the south without stopping...

~~

In the small courtyard, Jin Ke, Wang Rulong and Ma Yinglong sat upright, listening to Chang Kaiche's briefing on the intelligence.

Then Mr. Zhao told his plan:

"Let's talk about Luzon first. What I mean is, don't worry about it for now. Let the Spanish deal with it. They have sufficient experience in how to remove obstacles and establish colonies. When they finish cleaning the house, we can move in. This way, we can save effort and dirty hands, and we can also have the reputation of being righteous."

Little Luzon is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. Helping a vassal state to restore its country is a strong claim, although it will be a little late. But as a big country, it is reasonable for it to act slowly...

After a pause, he said with some gloating: "Besides, the ones who should be most anxious now are not us, but the Portuguese."

"Yes, those guys in Macau should worry about losing their business." Wang Rulong grinned and said, "It's better to let them fight each other."

"It's not just a matter of stealing business, but the Spaniards trampled on the so-called 'Papal Meridian'... The weaker party always cares more about the protection of rules. They are very worried that their forces will be squeezed out of the South Seas and their trade with the East will be taken away." Zhao Hao paused and said, "These are all later. Let's talk about Ryukyu first."

"Yes!" The three responded, and the atmosphere in the courtyard suddenly became solemn.

"Tell us first what you think." Zhao Hao has always been unquestionable in strategy and fully democratic in tactics.

"This is a long-planned, targeted attack." Ma Yinglong, the head of the agency, spoke first. "According to what I know, the Jiangnan trading fleet only stops at Ryukyu once a month to trade with the Portuguese and Fujian and Guangdong merchants. They leave Ryukyu and return home within five days. The thieves took advantage of the time when they entered the port to unload goods and launched a night attack from both the shore and the sea. It was obviously a long-planned attack."

"Yeah." Zhao Hao nodded, thinking about the speedboats that had been coming from the south since last year, spying on the Jiangnan Shipyard and the new port.

Unfortunately, those people were very skilled in sailing, using sails and oars, and were very vigilant, so they were never caught...

If they felt that these places were heavily defended, it would make sense that they chose to attack the Ryukyu Kingdom where the Jiangnan Group could not reach its power.

"It's all that damn Shang Yuan's fault. He refused to set aside a dedicated port for us like the Li Dynasty did. He even restricted us from stationing enough guards, saying that the Ryukyu Kingdom had nearly a hundred warships and 20,000 strong soldiers, and could protect the merchant ships of the Celestial Empire." Wang Rulong shouted angrily, "What was the result? They infiltrated us completely on land and sea, which led to this tragedy. He must be held fully responsible!"

(End of this chapter)