Contrary to many people's perceptions, Luzon is not far from the Ming Dynasty.

There is only a strait between the Luzon Islands and Taiwan Island, and the northernmost island is less than 200 miles away from the Lanyu Islands in Taiwan.

Starting from the Houbi Lake Coast Guard Base in Kenting, you can reach the northernmost end of Luzon Island for 700 miles south.

There is also a string of islands scattered between them, which can serve as natural beacons so that the ships traveling between them will not be trekked.

Therefore, from the Han Dynasty, Chinese merchants went to Luzon to do business. During 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 the Annan Siam area, an area with relatively developed agricultural civilization.

The first peak period for Han people to immigrate to Luzon occurred at the end of the Song and early Yuan dynasties. A large number of Han people would rather go out to sea to escape than be slaves to the country. Many people came to Luzon, and later Xu Chailao, who was appointed as the governor of Luzon, was immigrated at that time by his ancestors.

By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, as many as 40,000 Han people lived in Luzon.

However, Taizu of this dynasty issued a decree to attract the people to return home and live in peace, setting off a wave of return from overseas Han people. As a result, the number of overseas Chinese in Luzon did not increase but decreased.

It was not until a hundred years after the founding of the country that land annexed serious, the Fujian and Guangdong area were full of mountains and few fields, and the people had no place to stand, that they began to go to Southeast Asia again.

But there are still many people going to the West, especially after the arrival of the Portuguese, trade between the East and the West increased significantly, and there were more opportunities to make money in places like Malacca, Peking University, and Java.

The Luzon Island does not produce even the most scarce spices in the West and are completely excluded from the great maritime trade. Overseas Chinese who originally settled in Luzon moved to the West, or Mindanao, where spices are produced, to do spice business.

The turning point happened nine years ago, in the 44th year of Jiajing, and in 1565 AD, in order to break the Portuguese monopoly on the Eastern trade and find the place of origin of spices, the Spaniards finally found the Magellan route that year, crossed the ocean and landed again on Cebu Island in the central Luzon Island.

In June of the same year, the Saint-Bablo sailed from Cebu to Mexico for sale, opening up a Pacific route connecting Asia and the Americas. As ships of South American silver arrived in Cebu on Spanish sailboats, Chinese merchants with sensitive sense of smell flocked to Luzon's overseas Chinese began to surge, and within a few years it was the same as its peak.

Even though the Spanish invaded Manila three years ago and have been massacres in Luzon over the years, the number of overseas Chinese in Manila has only increased.

When it comes to making money, no one can compare with these lucky guys.

~~

Luzon, Manila.

A 100-meter-long wooden bridge is mounted across the turbid Bashi River.

At dusk, groups of overseas Chinese were pushing carts and carrying loads, gathering at the bridgehead, waiting to pass through this narrow wooden bridge.

On the bridge, a red-haired ghost wearing boots and a short gun hanging from his waist led a team of Mexican soldiers with whips and wooden sticks, wearing straw hats and barefoots, looking similar to those of the native Luzonians, but curly hair and taller noses, seemed to be maintaining order.

When the Chinese cross the bridge is slightly faster or slightly crowded, they will be beaten and kicked by Lao Mo. Even if they do not make mistakes, they will be whipped, just for fun.

The Chinese are unarmed and dare not speak out. Those who dare to contradict the red-haired ghost will be executed on the spot as rebels. It turns out that only natives have had such an experience. In the past two years, Chinese people have become increasingly unpopular. They will be killed by the Spanish at will, throwing the body into the Bashi River without any responsibility.

The overseas Chinese could only comfort themselves and say that we are here to make money, and we will leave after we have made enough money. We have no need to lose our lives to fight for the sake of our anger...

But not everyone was so cowardly. Several young people in the crowd were staring at the red-haired ghost and their dog legs. A young man named Chen Yongquan had already reached into his back basket and tightly grabbed a stone the size of a melon.

Unlike the new overseas Chinese who have come here in recent years, the 18-year-old Chen Yongquan is the third generation overseas Chinese born on Daming Street.

His grandfather's generation came from Quanzhou to make a living, and started his business by purchasing hardwood from the local area and selling it back to China. By the time his father's generation, he opened a timber shop on Daming Street. Later, when the Spanish came, cloth and silk became a hot item. His father Chen Mei bought cotton silk from China to sell, and became several wealthy people on Daming Street. The Sultans respectfully called Mr. Chen and asked if he could buy two batches of silk?

Later, with the demise of the Sultanate, the Spaniards became the owner of Manila and even the entire Luzon Island, and renamed it the Philippines. At first, everyone was a little nervous, but when they saw that the business could be done, the Spaniards deliberately won over the Chinese, so everyone gradually became peaceful.

Unexpectedly, the Spaniards were capricious and changed their faces in the past two years. They changed their previous attitude towards winning favorable treatment for Chinese people and became increasingly alert and even hated.

Finally last year, his attitude turned into action. Spain's newly appointed Governor Sander ordered that all Chinese in Manila and Cebu must register personal information such as name, age, family members, property status, origin and other personal information at the Governor's Office. Those who evade registration or misregister will be expelled from the Philippines.

The Chinese had no choice but to declare, but this was the beginning of the nightmare. Sander then ordered that all Chinese people must move out of Santiago City within three days... that is, the original Manila royal city and live in the stream across the river.

The overseas Chinese were immediately in an uproar. In this little Luzon, there was Daming Street first and then the Manila Royal City!

We obviously came first, why did we drive us away with just one sentence?

Why? Of course, it’s just because of their fists!

Three days later, seeing that most of the overseas Chinese did not move on time. At Sander's order, Spanish officers and soldiers took their Mexican soldiers, holding the information they had previously registered, and began to go door to door in the city.

They acted extremely barbaric! The overseas Chinese hesitated and would be beaten up. If they resisted, they would be killed without any hesitation!

And overseas Chinese are not allowed to take away their property...

As soon as the overseas Chinese left, the Spaniards asked the indigenous people who worked for the Chinese to take over the shop and business.

Who knows that although those natives have been working in overseas Chinese stores for many years, some have been doing it for half their lives since they were young, but they can’t do anything except the little things they do, and they do a mess of business and can’t continue to operate it at all.

Not to mention the city's tailors, carpenters, blacksmiths, doctors, restaurants, cotton-pinning, and even pedicures, all of them are overseas Chinese. All the local natives do not...

Without overseas Chinese, Santiago City could not even maintain its basic operation and soon became a dead city or a deserted city.

Governor Sander had no choice but to give up his anti-Chinese policy and ordered overseas Chinese to work in the city during the day to open a shop, but must leave the city at night.

In order to prevent them from causing trouble, the Spaniards did not allow Chinese to possess weapons, and even iron tools such as machetes and hammers were not allowed to be brought into the city.

The Spanish had rich experience in managing colonies. They also implemented the joint seating method in the stream, and organized the nearby Chinese people into a team of ten households and ten teams into a team.

If a Chinese commits a crime, the whole team will be in charge. If a Chinese harms the Spanish, the whole team will be in charge.

In other words, if a Spaniard dies, one hundred overseas Chinese will be buried with them.

Under such inhuman high-pressure discrimination, many overseas Chinese left Luzon, but there were still 20,000 to 30,000 people who stayed there.

First, because these Eastern Red-haired Ghosts are stupid and have a lot of money, they are much richer than those Western Red-haired Ghosts. They work in Manila for one year and can work in Malacca for two years.

Second, most of the Luzon Chinese who were born and raised like Chen Yongquan were their homes and the place where they gave birth to and raised them. Without Luzon, they had no idea where they could go.

Of course, compared to the overseas Chinese who have just arrived in recent years, Chen Yongquan and others hate these invaders who have taken away their homes!

~~

The long-accumulated anger made Chen Yongquan lose his mind and he had to use stones to open the red-haired ghost!

At this time, a tall man wearing a straw hat suddenly reached out to hold him down.

The man's hands were like iron pliers, which made the young man named Chen Yongquan unable to move immediately.

"Hmph!" Chen Yongquan had no choice but to give up his anger.

He was clenched with his arms, crossed the bridge and came to the village on the other side of the delta.

The village only has a circle of wooden fences, and there are bamboo and thatched huts inside, but the overseas Chinese relaxed as soon as they came in because they finally returned home.

"Let me go!"

The big man also let go of Chen Yongquan, took off his hat, and showed a handsome face.

It turned out to be Ximen Qing, who had been promoted to deputy captain of the Coast Guard Marine Corps Reconnaissance Brigade.

But Ximen Qing didn't say anything, the fat young man in front of him - 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 kind and persuaded him in Minnan dialect with a smile. "Come on, eat a piece of candy and relax."

"Hmph!" Chen Yongquan shook his hand and knocked off the candy piece handed over by Paul Tang, and his forehead was leaping: "It is because you newcomers are too cowardly that we are riding on the neck by the red-haired ghosts!"

After saying that, he regretted it because the other party was the new director of the Nanhai Shopping Mall, leaning against the newly rising Nanhai Group. All ships traveling between the Ming Dynasty, Ryukyu, and Japan were under his control.

As long as Tang Paul said, his father's wood business and silk business would not be done.

But the young man would not admit his mistake. He held his neck straight and said, "Don't worry, if you are a hero, I will not implicate you!"

"Yes, of course you can't implicate me, and I'm not in the same relationship with you." Tang Paul said angrily: "But you will implicate one hundred compatriots in this stream."

After a pause, he said lightly: "The Spaniards are worried that there is no excuse to attack us. You just want to hand them a knife?"

"Hmph, coward!" Chen Yongquan was so squeezed that he had nothing to say, so he snorted again, turned around and ran away.
Chapter completed!