The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Ten prisoners and one silver coin?"

Deng Zilong had now left the artillery position and returned to his temporary camp on the front line to rest.

After hearing the report from Wang Wanggao's personal soldiers, he was also surprised.

To be honest, the heads of Japanese pirates, or pirates, are no longer valuable.

In the late Jiajing period, the price of Japanese pirate heads reached the highest level, reaching fifty taels of silver each, and the unit price far exceeded that of the Mongols.

However, they were forced to panic, especially when the Japanese pirates actually ran to Nanjing City and held up umbrellas to show off their power, which deeply irritated the man in the Golden Palace of Beijing City.

However, it was really difficult to obtain real Japanese heads at that time, and it was normal for the price to be high.

If you don't see the heads other than Shinwa, they are almost at a bargain price, and the highest a pirate in his prime can get is five taels.

However, as the Japanese pirates were gradually surrounded and suppressed, the price plummeted. Today's pirate heads are not worth even one tael of silver. Even if they are real Japanese pirates, they will not be worth more than five taels of silver.

Even after the price dropped, it was impossible for the pirates to sell it so cheaply.

Just when Deng Zilong was calculating the price of these pirate prisoners, he suddenly realized that he was not running a tooth shop, so what kind of prisoners were he selling?

Deng Zilong could actually think of what the Yi people wanted to do with these people.

From what he learned, the barbarians captured many people from surrounding tribes in order to build the city of Manila.

But later, the surrounding tribes moved away one after another, making it impossible for them to find more laborers, so they hired locals at high prices to help them build the city.

And the same is probably true for the thousands of prisoners captured this time.

Can these people be allowed to help the barbarians build cities?

Of course not, this is tantamount to staking the enemy.

Now Deng Zilong actually regarded the Yi people as enemies, and naturally he would not agree to sell prisoners to them.

"Go back and tell Wang Wanggao that no matter what the Yi people say, these prisoners will be brought back."

Deng Zilong ordered.

"Yes, sir."

After receiving Deng Zilong's order, the soldiers immediately turned around and went back to report the news.

"Sir Wang, the Ming Dynasty cannot buy and sell civilians, but it does not restrict the sale of low-income people.

These prisoners were all Japanese pirates. According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, men had to be beheaded and women had to be sold.

Instead of going through the trouble of transporting people back, it is better to sell them directly. We settle in cash and will never take credit."

At this time, Wang Wangao and Miguel were still discussing the matter outside the prison camp set up by the Spanish.

Of course, the translator Lin Bixiu is still here, otherwise the communication between the two parties will really be affected.

"That's what I said, but I will hand my Ming people over to you. If we go back, we adults may be impeached. The risk is too great. I think you should hand them over to us and wait until Lin Feng is eliminated."

Wang Wanggao did not receive a message from Deng Zilong at this time, so he did not dare to let go.

"They are just a bunch of pirates. You can report them to the court to kill them. How could those adults know what is going on here?"

Lin Bixiu answered immediately.

He still knows something about China's officialdom.

Although those big shots do have great power, they will not make enemies for no reason, unless they are already at odds with the people behind this group of officers and soldiers, so they will take the opportunity to attack.

Otherwise, who would provoke officialdom fights for the common people.

"Our adults have also said that we can give five prisoners a price of one tael of silver, which is not low."

Lin Bixiu continued.

Wang Wanggao just shook his head. This price was far from what he could bear, and of course it was unacceptable.

If you really want to be able to do this business, you have to pay at least one tael of silver per prisoner, and that's not considered a loss.

Moreover, it actually doesn't matter whether you want to take these prisoners back or not. As long as you take Lin Feng's head back, you can do business.

Having said that, this cannot be done.

It still depends on Deng Zilong's attitude. If he doesn't agree to the deal, the price negotiation will be in vain.

"Actually, it doesn't have to be like this. You leave the people to me. As for the labor you need, there are so many locals on this island. As long as you are willing to pay, you may not be able to hire anyone to do the work."

Wang Wanggao was still persuading, hoping to persuade Miguel to nod and let him go.

However, he also knows that the two people here, neither he nor Miguel, actually have the final decision-making power, and they are just following orders.

"We are under the control of the imperial court. We really dare not let this matter go. The imperial law is written there."

Wang Wanggao continued to complain.

Miguel lowered his head to listen to Lin Bixiu's translation, and soon frowned.

They have been negotiating here for a long time, but the general of the Ming Dynasty opposite is still insisting on the wanted person. Although he talked about the price issue, as long as he does not admit to giving up the request for prisoners of war, his mission will not be completed. .

How did he know that the Ming Dynasty actually did not have any rules regarding the transfer of its own people to the Ming Dynasty for punishment if they committed crimes outside the vassal state. This was just nonsense made by Deng Zilong and Wang Wanggao.

Although Lin Bixiu is of Chinese descent, he has never been to the Ming Dynasty or seen the laws of the Ming Dynasty. He only knows the laws of the Song Dynasty.

Although the Song Dynasty did not have this rule, he also knew that if the official word was spoken in two words, it would be what they said, and no refutation was allowed.

Therefore, Wang Wanggao's reasons were not considered at all. In fact, they were untenable from the beginning.

You know, decades later, because Emperor Wanli was deceived and became interested in the legendary gold mine on Luzon Island, he sent his internal officials to Luzon. In the end, the gold mine was not found, but it led to the Manila tragedy.

Yes, the Spaniards' actions of massacring Chinese in the Philippines actually had their roots in Emperor Wanli.

When the Ming Dynasty showed interest in the Philippines, the Spaniards who occupied the Philippines became very nervous, fearing that the Ming Dynasty would attack here.

In order to prevent the Chinese on the island from helping the Ming army when the Ming army attacked the Philippines, they chose to take the initiative and massacre the Chinese on the island in advance.

It can be seen that the Spaniards have always been very worried about the Ming Dynasty's actions against Luzon and have always been on guard.

The attitude shown by Emperor Wanli after learning that the Spaniards massacred Chinese in Luzon was that from the beginning, he claimed that "your Luzon tribes killed more than 10,000 of our Zhangzhou and Quanzhou merchants for no reason", which was a serious crime.

But later he said that considering the other party's good attitude of confessing guilt, and "the overseas struggle, the culprit is unknown; and among the four people of China, merchants are the lowest, how can they start a war with the lowly people?"

In the end, it was an unresolved result.

As for what happened at the beginning, it was actually that Emperor Wanli believed the words of the fool Zhang Yi, who believed that the Jiyi Mountain on Luzon Island was rich in golden beans. If people could be sent to develop it, it would bring immeasurable benefits.

Therefore, Emperor Wanli rejected the advice of his ministers and ordered Xu Xueju, the governor of Fujian, to handle the matter.

Xu Xueju tried to fight to no avail, so he had to send Wang Shihe, the county magistrate of Haicheng, and others to go to Luzon Island with Zhang Yi for investigation.

After Wang Shihe and his party arrived on Luzon Island, they verified with the local Chinese and found that there was no Jiyi Mountain where "golden beans grew naturally". What Zhang Yi said was pure nonsense.

Wang Shihe and others were bored and returned to the country to report.

Although the incident was extremely absurd and ended in a dramatic way, the Spanish colonial authorities believed that the Ming Dynasty's move was intended to spy on intelligence and contact Chinese leaders in order to prepare for future military operations to annex Luzon Island.

This incident happened in the 31st year of the Wanli reign. In October of that year, the Spanish colonial authorities launched a massacre against the Chinese living in Manila, and used cannons to flatten the settlement of Chinese merchants in "Jiannei", forcing the Chinese to flee to Dalun Mountain for refuge.

However, due to lack of food and clothing, the Chinese in Dalun Mountain soon fell into great hunger, and finally had to take risks and risk their lives to attack Manila.

However, facing the superior firepower of the colonial army, the Chinese who fought against it with only flesh and blood were quickly defeated. As many as 25,000 people died, and only 300 people survived by chance.

Although the Spanish colonists strictly blocked the news, some Chinese still managed to escape from Luzon Island and sent the news back to China.

Because they were worried that the Ming Dynasty would take military action based on this and impose trade sanctions on their country, the colonial authorities thought again and again and sent envoys to China to "apologize" the following year, hoping to gain the understanding of the Ming Dynasty and continue to maintain trade.

Wei Guangde, a history idiot, knew about the massacre of Chinese, but he didn't know the time and reason. He only knew that the Spaniards massacred Chinese several times in the Philippines, and neither the Ming Dynasty nor the Qing Dynasty took effective countermeasures at that time. As a result, similar incidents occurred in Nanyang until before the new century.

The root cause was that the Ming Dynasty's reaction was not intense enough, otherwise there would be no possibility of massacre of Chinese.

And the seizure of Luzon was actually a measure taken by Wei Guangde to prevent the occurrence of minor incidents.

As long as the Ming Dynasty could occupy a piece of land in Luzon, similar incidents would naturally not happen.

Although the Spaniards were very wary of the actions of the Ming Dynasty at this time, they did not think of using force to eliminate the Chinese in the Philippines.

Moreover, most of the Chinese they came into contact with now were refugees from the demise of the Song Dynasty, and they did not have any sense of belonging to the Ming Dynasty, so they did not feel the crisis.

It was only in the following twenty years that with the arrival of more Ming merchant ships, bringing a large number of people to Nanyang to make a living, the number of Chinese in the Philippines increased dramatically, and they began to have a sense of crisis.

While they were still discussing the whereabouts of the prisoners, the personal soldier who had returned to report the news also returned to Wang Wanggao and whispered a few words in his ear.

"Well, I got it."

Wang Wanggao received Deng Zilong's order and knew that the talks could not continue. He immediately put away his smile and said, "Miguel, there is no way. I just sent the news back to the camp. General Deng rejected your request to trade prisoners of war."

Miguel's face changed when he heard Wang Wanggao's reply.

"General Wang, is there really no possibility of negotiation? These prisoners of war are actually useless to your country."

Miguel wanted to fight for it again and said hurriedly.

"I understand what you said."

Wang Wanggao could only nod and say, "But my general said that we can't leave the people in Luzon. We have to take them back to the Ming Dynasty and let the court decide their fate."

"Why not just report the death in battle? Why do we have to send them back thousands of miles to deal with them?"

Miguel did not give up and continued.

"How about this? Leave the people to me first. Anyway, we can't send them away for a while.

I will talk to the general about this matter after I go back. After we wipe out the Lin Feng Pirate Group, we will discuss what to do next."

At this time, Wang Wanggao's mind was thinking quickly. Deng Zilong's order to him was to take the people back. It would be best if he could provoke a conflict, so as to avoid a quarrel in the future.

If he could get the people back smoothly, he could get through it. After all, the admiral's army has not arrived yet.

In this case, it is better to give the barbarians some hope first, so that they think there is a chance to keep these laborers after the war.

Before the army arrives, don't do it if you can.

So at this time, Wang Wanggao had changed his face, deliberately showing his greed for money on his face.

"This."

After listening to Lin Bixiu's translation, Miguel wanted to refuse, but Lin Bixiu suddenly reminded him in a low voice: "Sir, I think the generals of the Ming Dynasty want to sell the prisoners for a good price after the war. Look at the eyes of the other side.

Ming officials are greedy for money. They probably think that our price is not sincere enough, so they want to deliberately support us."

After Lin Bixiu's reminder, Miguel glanced at Wang Wanggao and realized that the other party might mean this, wanting to get a higher price from them.

Moreover, the other party was really greedy. They didn't talk about the price now, but wanted to talk about it after the war.

At that time, it would be easy to talk if they could reach an agreement. If they couldn't reach an agreement, they might send the prisoners to the ship to force them to commit crimes.

Obviously, handing over people would increase the bargaining chips of the Ming people, but he couldn't make the decision on this matter.

It can only be said that the attitude shown by the Ming people now seems to be to negotiate a good price, otherwise Wang Wanggao would not have discussed the price with him before.

"That's fine, but there's no need to send prisoners back and forth. Your country can send soldiers here to guard, and it's the same."

Miguel still wanted to fight for it, so he suggested.

"Our camp is not far from here. Besides, they are just a group of pirates. Why do we care so much about their lives?"

Wang Wanggao pretended to be indifferent.

"Well, please wait a moment, General Wang. I can't make the decision. I have to go back and ask the commander."

Miguel had to say.

So, Lin Bixiu was left to continue to negotiate with Wang Wanggao. He went back to see Savella and told her the current situation. Savella also frowned.

The issue of prisoners of war was not discussed before, but it seemed bad because these people had a bad relationship with the Ming Dynasty.

"Are you sure the other party is just trying to raise the price?"

Savila asked.

"It's possible. Those prisoners of war are of little use to them. If they capture Lin Feng or kill him, the Ming people will be more interested.

As for those prisoners of war, they will kill them even if they capture them, which will not help improve their merits.

So I guess Deng came up with this method just to get us to pay a higher price.

At this time, we all have a common enemy to eliminate, so it's not easy to turn against each other.

So he wants to control the people first, so that he has the negotiation advantage no matter what happens in the future."

Miguel analyzed.

"If they can't reach an agreement, they will take the people away.

I have to say that I am convinced by you. Deng should think so. He is really a greedy general."

Savila said helplessly.

"Who told us that we are short of manpower? There are too few soldiers in the Philippines. If we go to capture people directly, we are worried that they will riot.

After this battle, we may get two or three thousand prisoners to help us build the city, and it is worth paying some money."

Miguel said.

"Is there no other way?"

Savila asked solemnly again.

Miguel shook his head and answered.

"Okay, give them the people, and when we buy them back, we only want strong captives."

Savila said.