Chapter 1538: No Surrender

The fire in the royal city burned for three days and three nights before it was extinguished. The city was burned to ashes. Even the stone church had half of its walls and the entire roof blown off, and all the windows were shattered. Only ruins were left. How desolate it was!

Only the Governor's residence was basically intact, but the sword and shield soldiers of the Governor's Guard were on high alert and no outsiders were allowed to enter, not even those who were burned or hit by bullets were allowed to be carried in.

The surviving Spaniards had to huddle under the city wall for the night to prevent the Ming people from raising another "northwest wind".

What’s even more tragic is that as soon as the fire was put out, dark clouds rolled in the sky and heavy rain poured down.

They were all shivering with cold, huddled together like drowned rats, and asked themselves again and again, what were they doing coming all the way from New Mexico to be non-concierges?

What was even worse was the injured, especially those who were burned. They were already in great pain from being burnt on the outside and tender on the inside, and the rain made them even more miserable. They screamed in despair.

The shrill screams penetrated the rain and reached the Governor's Mansion.

The servants in white shirts used wooden boards to block the windows that were shattered by the explosion, and also blocked the terrifying screams outside the house.

In the dining room, Governor Sander was having lunch at a long table. Although the servants had cleaned up the broken glass on the floor, wiped up the ashes, changed the tablecloth, and lit the whale oil candles on the silver candlesticks, they even asked the band to play music for the Governor to calm his mind.

But the obviously much shabbier dinner on the plate could not deceive anyone. Governor Sand and Colonel Goyt only had bread and meat sauce and a little cold vegetable soup in front of them. That was all the Governor's dinner.

This was a little hard to swallow for Colonel Goyt, who was used to eating big fish and meat, but when he thought that the people outside were not only hungry but also getting wet in the rain, he found the food really delicious.

But the Governor's appetite was even worse. He was still in shock, and if he hadn't been in a hurry and the priests didn't allow him to defecate in the church, he would have been blown up to heaven with the priests.

Don't laugh, this is what the Chinese despise the most about the red-haired devils. Not only do they not take a bath for a thousand years, but they also urinate and defecate anywhere regardless of their status. Their hygiene habits are even worse than those of wild cats and dogs...

In 16th century Europe, the floor was the toilet for Europeans. After defecating, they would just shovel it into the corner of the wall and that was it. This was because their noses were usually blocked by body odor, so they were naturally insensitive to the feces so close to them.

Don't think that only ordinary people are like this. In another time and space, in 1655, King Charles II of England took the princes and nobles to Oxford for vacation and returned. A local antique dealer recorded in his diary: "Although they looked well-dressed and happy, they were very rude and rude. When they left, all places, chimneys, study rooms, bedrooms, cellars, were full of feces..."

Compared to being unhygienic, France says you are all the worst of the worst...

Paris, the largest city in Europe at the time, was known as the City of Shit, and there were generations of kings who never took a bath. Henry IV's mistress said he smelled like a piece of rotten meat. When his second wife first met him, she fainted on the ground because of his stench. There was also the Sun King who could make people unable to open their eyes... Forget it, I won't say more, I'll vomit for a while first.

So it was not surprising that the Governor-General defecated in the street. Although there were only a few thousand Spaniards in Manila, they made it stink. The stench that Zhao Hao smelled when he first arrived was not just the stench of corpses, but more of the stench coming from the royal city.

Anyway, Governor Sander escaped the disaster by chance because he was defecating, but he was still shaken by the huge explosion and sat on the ground with his buttocks. His ears are still buzzing.

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency..." Colonel Goyte called him several times before Governor Sander heard him and said, "Ah, what did you say?"

"We have no food, no gunpowder, and no one to defend the city. What should we do?" Colonel Goyt ate all the food in frustration.

"If you want to surrender, just say so." Governor Sander said with a wry smile, "I wonder if the Ming people can give us the preferential treatment we deserve?"

"Your Excellency agrees to surrender?" Colonel Goyt said happily, "Then please send someone out of the city tomorrow."

"During the Habsburg dynasty, there was no governor in Spain who surrendered." Sander sighed and said depressedly.

"Someone has to be the first." Colonel Goyt was quite open-minded about it, since he was not the one responsible anyway.

Governor Sander rolled his eyes and drank the cold vegetable soup with a sigh.

~~

The next morning, the major left the city with a white flag, crossed the Pasig River on a raft, and came to the beach camp to request surrender.

"We are willing to hand over the city defenses to you unconditionally in accordance with European tradition, and guarantee not to take away any items in the city. Please let us go and provide a ship to help us return to Cebu." The major said as a matter of course.

"Should we send a fleet to provide you with escort?" Zhao Hao covered his nose and felt better when he turned to the upwind side. Damn, the red-haired ghost's body odor could be used as a biological weapon.

No wonder the countless germs they carried led to the extinction of the Mayans, Incas and Aztecs... It's really amazing!

"Okay." The major nodded, and couldn't help but say, "Besides, the city is out of food. Can you sell us some food? We also need medicines..."

"Hehehe." Zhao Hao and his police officers looked him up and down and laughed strangely.

"What are you laughing at?" the major asked, puzzled.

"You look beautiful when I smile." Zhao Hao said lightly.

"Really?" The major couldn't help but asked happily, "No, no ...

"You wish!" Zhao Hao's smile faded, and the police officers burst into laughter.

Then he spoke to the Spanish major who did not deserve a name, word by word:

"Blood debts must be repaid with blood! Three thousand three hundred and twenty of our compatriots have been killed, and you executioners have not yet shed enough blood!"

"If the two armies were not fighting, the messenger would not be killed. You should not return alive!" As he said this, he drew out a police officer's sword and fiercely cut the document handed over by the major into two halves:

"Go back and tell your governor that he is dead, I said! Even Jesus can't save him!"

"Don't be so arrogant. We in Spain are invincible!" The major said fiercely, "If a governor who represents the royal power is killed, have you ever thought about whether you can bear the wrath of our Majesty?!"

"Then let's fight. What's the point of talking nonsense?" Zhao Hao snorted disdainfully. "This is the world of the Ming Dynasty. It's not the turn of the Europeans to run wild! I will beat you as many times as you come! In the future, my fleet will also rush to America to avenge the millions of innocent souls killed by you!"

~~

After the major returned to the royal city in a panic to report, Governor Sander smashed the cup and roared angrily: "Damn Ming people, don't you know that you must never provoke a wounded lion?!"

He ordered the major, "Leave the city through the east gate after dark and gather the troops from all over the country. Order them to abandon all their strongholds and march to Gilmore within one month. After the assembly is completed, immediately engage in a decisive battle with the Ming people! Let the arrogant Ming people have a taste of the power of our Spanish phalanx!"

"Yes, sir!" The major knew that it was a matter of life and death, so he did not dare to say anything and immediately accepted the order.

After he left, Governor Sander said to Colonel Goyt in a cold voice: "If anyone causes trouble during this period, kill them immediately without mercy!"

"Yes!" Colonel Goyt also nodded in response, thinking that it was a good thing, one less person means one less mouth to feed.

~~

Perhaps it was because the Ming army had limited manpower and the mesh of the encirclement around the royal city was very large. The major led his men and fled far away from the royal city without much effort, and then went to various strongholds to convey the governor's order.

Over the past few years, the Spanish have established nearly a hundred outposts and fortresses on the central plains of Luzon, whose main functions were to collect grain and preach.

Although the indigenous people of Luzon are still at the stage of slash-and-burn agriculture and their farming techniques are very primitive, the area is densely covered with rivers, has rich soil and abundant water, and provides excellent natural conditions, so rice seedlings grow rapidly once planted.

Without much care, the grain yield per mu in the Central Plains can reach about 300 kilograms, which is almost the same as the yield of a single season of rice in the south of the Yangtze River with intensive cultivation.

There is no way, because the soil is made of volcanic ash...

But you can't expect the natives to send food to Manila obediently, so the Spaniards had to set up strongholds in the main grain-producing areas, establish rule, and forcibly collect grain.

However, the cost of ruling by force alone was too high, and the Spanish could not afford it, so they needed priests to preach to the natives. Once the natives were baptized and converted to Catholicism, they would pay grain obediently, buy special indulgences, and help them persecute non-believers, so the difficulty of ruling naturally dropped sharply.

Therefore, the colonists and missionaries were in cahoots with each other and were inseparable wherever they went.

Moreover, in order to strengthen the royal power, the Habsburg dynasty tried its best to change the situation of "my vassal's vassal is not my vassal", and enacted laws to declare that the colonial land belongs to the royal family and the colonial people are the king's subjects. However, it can only be said that it is wishful thinking.

After several years of hitting a wall, the king had no choice but to hand over the colonial land to the officials and priests there for management, making them de facto feudal lords.

That’s why the Spanish were so addicted to expanding their territory. Who wouldn’t want to be granted the title of hereditary nobility, thousands of slaves and a large amount of estate land like Pizarro and his “Thirteen Warriors”?

Therefore, after following the first governor-general Legazpi to capture Manila and destroy the Sultanate of Luzon, those officers, bandits, and adventurers could not wait to seize territory everywhere, fearing that it would be too late and the good places would be occupied by others.

So they set up more than a hundred strongholds at once, and then each of them used their own unique abilities, recruited soldiers, and used both soft and hard tactics to control their own territory.

Therefore, even with Governor Sander's order, it would not be easy to get those officials and priests who had become lords to take their troops and leave their territories.

By the time they finally gathered their troops and gathered in Guillermo, ten miles northeast of Manila, it was already two months later...

(End of this chapter)