Chapter 990 1081 Mutual Probing
"Oh, Lin Feng is still in Luzon?"
Hearing what Garcia said, Li Jin immediately became interested and asked further.
"Yes, I lived at the mouth of the river more than 200 miles north and built a city. It seems that I plan to live there forever, haha."
Garcia smiled contemptuously.
Hearing the tone of the other party's words, Li Jin guessed something, so he pretended to be curious and asked: "You want to send troops to conquer him. You know, you only have a few hundred people, but he has thousands."
"Of course we must conquer him and kill him. Anyone who dares to offend the Spanish Empire is an enemy."
Garcia smiled and said, "As for you saying we only have a few hundred people, haha, in addition to the 500 soldiers we have already summoned, we have also trained 2,000 Filipinos to fight with us.
Although there are thousands of people in that forest, so what, we have sent people to investigate, and they can only fight more than 2,000 people. The remaining 2,000 people are old, young, women and children, and they have no fighting power at all.
Well, it should be the families of those pirates, they are not considered warriors.
You say, we have 2,500 carefully trained soldiers, are we still afraid of them? "
After listening to Garcia's words, Li Jin's heart sank.
According to him, Lin Feng's pirate group was about to be destroyed.
The mouth of the river more than 200 miles north of Manila, where is that?
Even though Li Jin has traveled to Manila countless times, they are all point-to-point, from Yuegang to Manila and back to Yuegang. He is really not familiar with other places on Luzon Island.
The person who is familiar with the situation here is naturally his steward Chen Zhenlong. Unfortunately, he is still at the dock and only works as a porter to unload the goods, and he will not be back for a while.
Yes, Li Jin was still thinking about Deng Zilong's matter, which was to find the whereabouts of Lin Feng's pirate group.
Now that I know it from the Yi people, I naturally have to find a way to spread the news.
As for what kind of reaction Daming will make, it has nothing to do with him.
But thinking about the more than two thousand pirates, well, Li Jin actually didn't care whether they survived or not.
However, there were still more than two thousand women and children, all of whom were Ming people. Although they were the pirates' families, Li Jin still felt a little uneasy watching them being killed by the barbarians.
“By the way, Li, is your court also pursuing this pirate Lin?
I heard that they came here because your pursuit was too fierce and he had no choice but to come to the Philippines. After all, this place is far away from the Ming Dynasty. "
Garcia asked.
"The Lin you are talking about is indeed the pirate leader we are mainly chasing now.
Now, after years of cleanup along the coast, there are no large pirates left, and they have all been wiped out by the imperial court sending troops. "
Li Jin doesn't think this needs to be concealed. He can find out by asking the businessman a little.
However, Li Jin still made up his mind that he could not provide the Yi people with news of the arrival of the Ming Navy.
After all, if the Ming government knew Lin Feng's whereabouts, it is unknown whether they would send Nanhai Navy to Luzon to arrest him and take him back.
If this is the case, when the Nanhai Navy warships come over, the Yi people may not think that the Ming Dynasty wants to attack them.
If both sides take action, it will be dangerous for him to stay in Manila.
"Your court is very powerful. It can force thousands of pirates to run around."
Garcia said seemingly casually.
"Thousands of people, just a few pirates, haha."
Hearing what Garcia said, Li Jin laughed sarcastically.
"What's the meaning?"
Garcia obviously didn't understand the meaning of his smile, so he asked.
"I don't know what you are talking about, um, your country is dry silk wax"
"right."
"I don't know how many soldiers and horses were used in the biggest war of Gansi La, but I can tell you that our Ming Dynasty has millions of soldiers with armor. Our emperor can easily mobilize hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses to march north to attack the Mongols."
Perhaps influenced by romance novels such as "Three Kingdoms", Chinese people in this era, and even Chinese people in later generations, regarded ancient Chinese wars as world wars, because when the West was still playing tribal wars, people living on the yellow earth The Han people can already organize and launch wars with more than 100,000 people.
Such huge numbers are unimaginable in the West.
Therefore, in later generations, many Westerners were confused about the wars recorded in ancient Chinese books because they could not understand what kind of country could organize such a large legion in that era.
In the eyes of Westerners, the unit "10,000" is already the limit.
In the war they were familiar with, it was common for hundreds of people to fight each other.
It is impossible for tens of thousands of people to fight for it.
Sure enough, when he heard a series of numbers coming from Li Jin's mouth, Garcia was stunned for a long time before he finally understood the numbers. A war involving hundreds of thousands of people, which was almost the entire strength of his country, might not be enough. Farmers also needed to be recruited from the civilian population.
"How many soldiers do you have in Ming Dynasty?"
Garcia was a little shocked at this time and asked this sentence with a slightly trembling accent.
“I don’t know the details, maybe only the senior men in the Ministry of War know the figures.
But I think there must be millions. "
Li Jin said with a slightly proud tone.
Although he didn't know the purpose of Garcia's question, Li Jin subconsciously said it according to his own impression.
This is also the inherent sense of superiority that all Ming people in this era have when they see the Yi people. Yes, they are too weak and have no qualifications to compare with the Ming Dynasty.
When they need a long time to prepare for a war with hundreds or thousands of people, it seems that in the Ming Dynasty, it is enough to send out a garrison.
It seems that there are more.
Yes, the garrison of the Ming Dynasty has a full complement of 5,600 people, twice the army mentioned by Garcia.
"But. As far as I know, for a long time, your country was helpless against these pirates."
Garcia said again.
"A few years ago, yes, there was no country stronger than our Ming Dynasty around at that time.
Without war, the army was relaxed.
But after the pirates made trouble, the court began to pay attention and started training the army again.
Now, the pirate groups are either eliminated or hiding everywhere. They are already in a state of panic and are running abroad."
Li Jin said with a contemptuous smile on his face.
"In the north of my Ming Dynasty, there are actually elite soldiers who have experienced hundreds of battles, but they need to deal with the Mongolian cavalry in the north, so even if the coastal bandits are rampant, the court did not mobilize the elite soldiers from the north to the south, otherwise it would be faster to eliminate the pirates."
In the Ming Dynasty, there is also a legend that the northern soldiers are so powerful that one can beat ten southern soldiers.
Therefore, even when the Japanese pirates were plundering the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, everyone from the government to the people just thought that the court did not really want to eliminate the Japanese pirates.
Otherwise, the northern soldiers with strong combat power would have gone south long ago.
It is an indisputable fact that the combat power of the northern soldiers is stronger than that of the southern soldiers, but it is not as exaggerated as the rumors among the people.
After all, because the north has been threatened by the Mongolian force, the combat readiness of the army must be much better than that of the idle southern soldiers.
Li Jin said the more popular view of the people in the Ming Dynasty, but he didn't know how much damage this statement would have on Garcia.
Yes, for the rich Ming Dynasty, no matter whether the Yi merchants saw the poor Ming people in Yuegang, the dazzling array of goods in Yuegang shops was enough to show the prosperity of Ming Dynasty.
And these Ming Dynasty sea merchants traded everywhere with better goods than Yuegang.
To be honest, the powerful Spaniards are used to snatching things they like. It doesn’t matter if they can’t snatch them. I will draw troops from all over the world to snatch them.
Everything must belong to His Majesty the King.
So, although the Spaniards in East Asia are still weak at this time, they have already had evil intentions towards Ming Dynasty.
"How many troops does Mongolia have?"
Garcia asked curiously.
Although he was frightened by Li Jin's words, he still asked calmly.
"I don't know, but I heard that more than 200,000 troops can be mobilized.
The court felt it was difficult mainly because they were all on horseback, and there was no way to organize a battle and mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops to fight them.
The Mongols always chose to sneak attack places with weak defenses on the border, robbed things and ran away."
Speaking of this, although Li Jin felt a little timid, but thinking of the grand occasion at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, his mouth was like honey, and he kept boasting about the strength of the Ming Dynasty.
"Then why didn't your king send troops to fight them, those Mongols you mentioned?"
Garcia asked with some doubt.
Hearing this, thinking of the several northern expeditions of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, Li Jin spoke directly, but he didn't say that it was almost two hundred years ago.
"How could we not send troops? Every time the army marched north, the Mongols would run north and not fight with us.
Just think about it, hundreds of thousands of people need a lot of supplies to feed and defecate.
Also, I heard that the weather gets colder the further north you go, which is not comparable to the climate here.
So after a few times, our emperor had to give up the idea of completely destroying them and could only send troops for defense."
Li Jin said nonsense.
Although it is real history, it is all old calendar. If it was said in the Ming Dynasty, people who heard it would definitely sneer, but today's audience is barbarians, so it is naturally different.
Warfare in the West is different from that in the East, and there are not so many twists and turns, but it is roughly the same.
Li Jin's half-truth was heard by Garcia and believed.
Supplying food and drink to hundreds of thousands of people is really not a trivial matter.
Seeing that there is a deviation in the understanding of the Ming Dynasty, these news must be reported to the Governor-General as soon as possible.
Yes, Garcia and Li Jin's relationship is actually a work relationship, but he also received an order from the Governor-General to get as much information about the Ming Dynasty from Li Jin as possible.
The Ming Dynasty has millions of troops, which is something they dared not think of before.
No wonder the Ming Dynasty is so rich. A country that can afford a million troops is really extraordinary.
"There is another thing. The people over there are called kings. In my Ming Dynasty, there is no king but only emperors.
The kings of the surrounding kingdoms are all conferred by our emperor, otherwise they cannot be called kings."
Li Jin added.
"Oh, my God, that is not a right that only the Pope has."
Garcia stopped talking halfway. He just said it with European thoughts, forgetting that this is in the far east.
Well, there are not many people who believe in Jesus Christ here.
Yes, not many, not none.
Central Asian merchants have mastered the route of the Maritime Silk Road for a long time, so they have been trading with the Ming Dynasty for a long time and selling the products of the Ming Dynasty to Europe at high prices.
In addition to believers in Allah, there are also believers in Jesus on the ship.
In Central Asia, although Islam is the mainstream religion, there are also other religions.
Everyone is more realistic. They will not kill foreign pagans who do business.
Unless the Pope launches a religious war and wants to cleanse.
"Oh, by the way, you said that Lin Feng and his men built a city on Luzon Island. Where exactly is it? What is it called?"
After talking for a while, Garcia invited Li Jin to the city for dinner. It was almost dark, so he had to have a good meal and reward himself, otherwise he would feel sorry for the days on the ship.
"Pengaslan Bay, more than 200 miles north of Manila, there is a river that flows into the sea, which can provide them with fresh water."
Garcia did not doubt him, because in his opinion, pirates are the natural enemies of merchants, and they should never be the same kind of people.
So, he told Li Jin the news he knew very happily, "They call it Tortoise City."
Although he didn't know where Pengaslan Bay was, Li Jin only needed to remember a few keywords and ask the manager later, and he should know where it was.
Then we need to find a way to inform General Deng, and also to finish the transaction in Manila as soon as possible and leave here.
Luzon is too dangerous now.
After nightfall, in the hotel room next to the pier, Li Jin told Chen Zhenlong the news he had found out, and he soon found out where the so-called Pengasilan Bay was.
"Boss, how should we tell General Deng?"
Chen Zhenlong whispered.
"There's no rush these two days. Starting tomorrow, we'll sell the goods we brought this time as soon as possible, then leave here and go north to find them.
In addition, you should also pay attention to the sweet potato matter and see if you can get it."
Li Jin said: "By the way, today, I also saw a house in the inner city, a two-story stone house, which looks good. I plan to hire two locals to be responsible for cleaning and guarding the door.
You should pay attention to the selection, and by the way, ask them if they can get sweet potato seeds, whether it is sweet potato or sweet potato vine.
I remember hearing them say before that this thing can be planted whether it is sweet potato or sweet potato vine."
"Boss, it's a good idea. I will do this tomorrow.
As long as they can get the sweet potato vine , we can hire them, it should work. "
Chen Zhenlong immediately laughed and said, "The boss still has a way. I was still thinking about how to do it before. We don't look like the people here, and it's hard to hide from the eyes of the barbarians.
It would be best if we could use the locals to do things for them.
But, even if we get the sweet potatoes and sweet potato vines, how can we take them out? "
"Let's talk about this later. Our ship is so big that we can always think of a way. "
Li Jin hesitated for a moment and replied, "The main reason is that there is nothing produced in Luzon that can be bought from the Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, it would be good to mix it with the cargo. "
"It's a bit difficult. Every time we go out to sea, the barbarians will check the cabins, which is not easy. "
Chen Zhenlong reminded.
Li Jin thought of the barbarians' inspection of the ships going out to sea before, and he felt a little overwhelmed. He yawned and said, "Let's talk about it later. I'm sleepy and drank some wine. I can't hold on now. Let's talk about it tomorrow. "