Chapter 2946

Masbate Town does not have any special properties. The Spanish chose to establish a colonial settlement here mainly because of its geographical advantage of guarding important waterways in the central part of the Philippine Islands.

However, because this place is too close to the Hai-Han rule and has been raided by the Hai-Han army many times before, the Spanish colonial authorities did not dare to carry out large-scale construction and develop commercial and trade industries here. Therefore, most of the Spanish immigrants living here only make a living by farming and fishing.

, and had to pay taxes to the colonial authorities, so the standard of living was really low.

Zheng Agui led people to search thirty or forty households one after another. Most of them were poor people with no valuable possessions at all. The total contents of a house may not be enough to exchange for a musket. If you expect these people to arm themselves to resist Haihan, then you have to

It would require considerable investment, but the colonial authorities obviously had no such intention.

"These people are too poor... The immigrants in Bangui who have just moved from Fuguang to settle here are in much better conditions than them."

As Zheng Agui spoke, he lowered the torch, took a look at the situation in the house, shook his head and prepared to leave. The space in this wooden shack was very small, and if the torch was raised too high, it might set the house on fire.

Qin Bo continued what he said: "It is said that residents here must hand over half of their income to the government. Of course, it is difficult to escape poverty."

They got out of the shanty and were about to leave, but Qiu Yong grabbed Zheng Agui, then made a silencing gesture, and pointed at the shanty they had just checked, indicating that there seemed to be something else going on here.

Zheng Agui knew that Qiu Yong's hearing and smell were extremely sensitive. Seeing his reaction or discovering something, he immediately signaled Qin Bo to take the others and leave. Qin Bo understood and asked the sailors accompanying the team to make some noise and slowly held torches.

Walk away slowly.

The remaining people, together with Zheng Agui, stood silently in the darkness and waited.

After a while, there was indeed some noise coming from the shack, but it was not like human voices. Qiu Yong slowly lay down on the ground, tilted his head and put his ear to the ground. After a while, he stood up and motioned to Zheng Agui to go away and talk.

The two of them walked quietly for a while, and Qiu Yongcai whispered: "There is a cellar in that house, and there should be someone hiding in it."

Zheng Agui said: "Are you sure?"

Qiu Yong responded: "Sure!"

Zheng Agui immediately asked the sailors to guard the perimeter, and he took the people back to the shack. He had just taken a few glances, but found nothing wrong. At this time, the few people searched carefully, and it turned out quickly.

I discovered something fishy.

The bed board of this family was placed on the ground. At first glance, there was no hiding space under the bed. No one had flipped the bed board over to take a look. Unexpectedly, when the bed board was lifted to the side, there was actually a two-foot-wide hole on the ground.

At the entrance of the cave, there is also a ladder leading into the cave.

Although there was no light in the cave, one could faintly hear the rapid breathing of someone. Zheng Agui patted Qiu Yong and told him that he did a good job. If he hadn't had a keen sense of hearing, he wouldn't have thought that there was anything going on in this room.

There is also a secret hiding place.

Zheng Agui threw a torch down, and someone below actually exclaimed softly, and immediately the people inside put out the torch. Zheng Agui shouted a few words below, but the people inside fell silent, as if they planned to continue the stalemate.

Zheng Agui would certainly not risk going down unless the people inside showed up. He was sure that there was no other way out of the cellar, so he immediately arranged for everyone to guard the entrance of the cave and called for a Spanish translator to persuade him to surrender.

Sure enough, it was still easier to speak Spanish. After some communication with the translator, he told Zheng Agui that the people below would surrender only if they guaranteed that his life would not be harmed.

Zheng Agui thought to himself that this shack was so simple and there was no valuables in it, but it was extremely unreasonable to dig a hiding cellar under the bed. Moreover, after the local civilians realized that there was no way to escape, most of them immediately

People who choose to surrender and still think of hiding to avoid the limelight under such circumstances are probably not ordinary people.

Zheng Agui asked the translator to agree to the other party's request. After a while, a few gray-headed Spaniards climbed up from the cellar. There were old and young, men and women. Judging from their clothes, they did not look like they lived in such a shabby place.

Common people in shantytowns.

The identities of the rats that were pulled out of the nest were quickly verified. They were the Vargas family, the colonial manager of Masbate Island, who were being hunted by the Haihan Army.

After discovering the attack of the Haihan fleet, the colonial administrator Vargas immediately fled with his family. However, because it took a lot of time to pack up the gold and silver treasures at home, when they were about to leave the town, they were a step too late. The Haihan army was already there.

Landing in the south cut off the escape route from Masbate Town to the mountains and forests of the island.

Vargas ordered his armed guards to challenge the Haihan army's blockade. Needless to say, the result was that after dozens of corpses were left behind, the group could only retreat into the town. But Vargas knew that if they retreated to the town

Holding on to his home in the center was also a dead end, so he ordered his men to break out in multiple directions, but he took his family and hid in a secretly prepared shelter.

Vargas originally planned to hide in this cellar and wait for the Haihan Army to search the town of Masbate before looking for an opportunity to escape by swimming from the sea to the nearby coast. However, Qiu Yong was among the Haihan Army who never wanted to search this place.

He actually heard the noise coming from the cellar and exposed the whereabouts of such a monster.

Of course, Vargas is not a high official. He is just one of the dozens of colonial governors appointed by the Spanish in the Western Pacific. He nominally governs the entire Masbate Island, but his actual jurisdiction is only the town of Masbate.

It's just a small area. If it were placed in Haihan, he would be considered a mayor at best.

According to the behavior of the Spanish colonial authorities, people like Vargas mostly bought official positions with money, but the money was not enough, so they were sent to remote areas like Masbate Island to serve as magistrates.

And there are no special industries in this place. If Vargas wants to recoup his investment, he can only squeeze the local residents desperately.

In the cellar where he was hiding, the soldiers found two boxes full of silver coins, seven or eight gold bars, some packed silverware, as well as food, water bags, clothing and other personal belongings. The family carried so much stuff with them

Escape, no wonder they failed to escape before the Haihan Army landed.

Vargas quickly recognized Zheng Agui's identity as an officer, and kept begging the translator to convey Zheng Agui's wishes for mercy, hoping to use these properties in exchange to let his family go.

Of course, Zheng Agui could not agree to his conditions. After identifying Vargas' identity, he immediately sent someone to report it to the battalion headquarters.

Not long after, the battalion commander hurried over and praised Zheng Agui. If the Spanish magistrate had not been captured, the attack on Masbate Town would not have been successful in any way, and Zheng Agui and others just filled this gap.

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Chapter completed!