Chapter 2020

Before the city of Manila was built, Cebu had been used as the regional capital by the colonial authorities for about six years in history, and it had a short-lived glory. After the fall of Manila this year, Cebu's status was regained.

It was promoted and re-established as the capital of the colony. As a result, the status of local officials also increased, becoming one of the few "beneficiaries" after the war.

Colonel Fernando, Cebu's city defense commander, is one of this special group. Although he had already assumed this position before the war, his status, prestige and influence at that time were not the same as they are now. Manila

Colonel Francis, who had the same position and military rank as him, used to have a much higher status in the Philippine Islands than him. However, after the Battle of Manila, Francis defected to the Haihans and became a traitor, while Cebu took over Manila's status.

It became the capital of the colony, and Fernando became one of the most influential generals in the colonial garrison.

It is no exaggeration to say that apart from Governor Aragones, Fernando is probably the second person with real power in the local area. All the military and militia armed forces stationed in Cebu and surrounding areas, including armed sailing ships at sea, are now

They all have to be at his disposal. The size of the armed forces he can directly command has at least tripled compared to before. This was a situation he could not have imagined before.

In order to demonstrate his capabilities, after taking over the troops withdrawn from Manila, Fernando began to deploy maritime guard forces in the surrounding waters and began to build new city defenses in Cebu. Strengthening the defense of the ruled area as soon as possible was what Fernando wanted.

Choice of defense method.

Nowadays, Haihan and the Spanish colonies are no longer separated by the entire South China Sea as in previous years. The shortest sea route from Manila Bay south to Cebu Port is only a little over 400 nautical miles. With the speed of the Haihan fleet,

It only takes two to three days at the fastest to arrive at your doorstep. Therefore, Fernando believes that early warning measures at sea and land defenses must be improved as soon as possible, so that it is possible to take timely and effective measures when the Haihan people launch an attack.

resistance measures.

Of course, to achieve this, in addition to a large amount of human and financial investment, it is also necessary to ensure his ability to control the existing armed forces. Fernando's plan successfully received the support of Aragones

, and gave him sufficient command authority to mobilize and command all armed forces in the region on behalf of the colonial authorities.

Although having power is a pleasant and good thing, Fernando still feels uneasy from time to time because he knows exactly why he got into such a situation. Haihan is like the sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of the Spanish authorities.

It could fall from the sky at any time. The defensive measures deployed under his leadership can not only protect Cebu, but also alleviate his worries a little.

If Haihan cannot be defeated militarily, the Kingdom of Spain's dominance in this region will only gradually diminish until it is completely driven out by Haihan. Deep in Fernando's heart, he is still eager to expand his military power as soon as possible.

In this way, there is no need to adopt a defensive strategy all the time. Maybe in two or three years, we will be able to have the strength to compete with the Haihan people again.

However, what dissatisfied Fernando was that, except for Governor Aragones, most colonial officials, especially the upper-level officials who were mainly civilians, almost all had a pessimistic attitude towards continuing to fight Haihan and opposed the existing

Under the conditions, a large amount of resources will be invested in military construction. They believe that doing so will only make Haihan tougher, and may make the countdown to the next war between the two sides begin earlier, and the current colonial situation can no longer afford it.

A round of large-scale war.

The civil servants believed that since the Haihan people did not take any further action, they should return their energy to trade to ensure that the colony could continue to maintain commercial contacts with Eastern countries. For this purpose, they could even temporarily compromise with the Haihan people through negotiations.

to exchange for peace, and wait until the overall strength of the colony is slowly restored before considering the plan of revenge against Haihan. However, in Fernando's view, this approach is tantamount to inviting people to be killed. The Haihan people are not good men and women. Once surrendered,

They found that the colonial authorities had temporarily given up military construction, and they were afraid that they would not let go of such a fighter opportunity and would immediately raise troops to attack.

Therefore, no matter what others think, Fernando still believes that military struggle must be adhered to as the keynote and Haihan's temporary truce cannot be taken lightly. Thanks to his efforts, armed sailboats have been patrolling key waterways in the waters near Cebu. Although

This kind of action has basically not achieved anything, but it has indeed played a role in calming people's hearts.

When he received the news from the port, Fernando was attending the graduation ceremony of recruit training. This was the third batch of recruits recruited by the colonial authorities this year. A total of 455 people had completed basic training and would be recruited in the future.

Assigned to the local army and navy, Fernando had originally prepared a long speech for today's graduation ceremony to encourage these young men who were about to enter the army. However, news came from the port that there was a ship related to Haihan.

The sailing ship has just arrived, and there may be some things on board that he needs to inspect in person.

The person who sent the report from the scene was Second Lieutenant Joaquin, a naval officer whom Fernando was very optimistic about. He was young and full of fighting spirit, and could withstand the pressure of long-term patrol missions on the front line. According to the original words of Second Lieutenant Joaquin relayed by the orderer

, hoping that Fernando would go to the port as soon as possible to take a look at what was found on the ship, because how to deal with the current situation was beyond the scope of Second Lieutenant Joaquin's authority.

Fernando believed in his subordinate's professional judgment and thought that the other party must have discovered something important, so he decisively compressed the content of the speech and reduced the speech time to one-tenth of the original plan. Of course, all this hard work saved

The manuscript will not be wasted. He can use it again when the next batch of recruits complete their training. After hurriedly finishing his speech, Fernando left the scene early and took a carriage to the eastern port.

"What happened?" When Fernando got out of the car, Second Lieutenant Joaquin had already rushed to greet him, so he asked the question straight to the point.

"Sir, here's the thing. When our ship was patrolling in the north this morning, we found this sailboat heading south along the coastline." Joaquin pointed to a sailboat docked at the pier not far away and said:

"That's the one. We thought the ship was a bit unfamiliar, so we took the initiative to get close to it. When we got closer, the people on the ship hung out the flag of our country to identify themselves, and then my ship took the ship back to the port, planning to

Check the origin of this ship."

Joaquin paused here, seeming to adjust his emotions, and then continued: "The people on the boat claimed that they escaped from Manila, and this was a cargo ship preparing to go from Manila to the Strait of Malacca.

Then we searched the cabin and found the cargo they said, as well as... the bodies of several Haihan people."

"The people on the ship hijacked Haihan's cargo ship? Are they our people?" Fernando was surprised when he heard the news and asked quickly.

"There were three Spaniards and nine Filipinos. These nine Filipinos were all sailors on the ship, and ours were prisoners. They were originally going to be sent to Haihan to perform hard labor in the local port, but

One of the young men named Jose seized the opportunity to subdue the guard after the ship set off, and used the guard's weapon to kill several armed guards on the ship. Then he told the sailors to flee with them, so he came south and stayed there.

service.”

"Are there any Haihan people alive on the ship?" Fernando asked keenly. If there were prisoners on the ship, it would be easy to verify the authenticity of these things.

"It's a pity that there are no survivors, sir." Joaquin also showed a disappointed look: "According to their confessions, there were originally six Haihan people on the ship, four of whom were soldiers and the other two were civilians. They were on board

After killing the Haihan soldiers, we originally wanted to keep the two people alive, but unfortunately they were unable to persuade them to surrender due to the language barrier, so the two Haihan soldiers jumped into the sea directly."

When Joaquin said this, he pointed to a place covered with canvas on the shore: "I have already had the bodies of those Haihan soldiers carried down. It happened six days ago, so the bodies have already begun to rot, but

Judging from his body shape, military uniform and the weapons we found, he is indeed a Haihan soldier."

When Fernando heard that it happened six days ago, he decisively gave up the idea of ​​going forward to check the body. Although it had just entered January and it was still winter in many places, Cebu, which is close to the equator, still maintained a relatively high temperature.

, the corpse had already been in a state of decomposition for six days, and there was really no need to see it in person. The autopsy could just be left to the military doctor.

"Is there anything else on the ship that can prove their statement?" Fernando did not relax his vigilance and remained wary.

He knew that there were still many Hispanics in Manila, and it would not be unusual if some of them changed their stance and joined the Haihan. After all, there were many Han Chinese who worked for the colonial authorities. When Manila fell, part of the reason

There are Haihan spies lurking inside and outside the city, destroying the city defenses while providing intelligence to the Haihan army. Fernando does not want a situation like this to happen again in Cebu. Especially those who look Spanish but choose to serve as

The spies working for Haihan are targets that must be attacked and eradicated.

Joaquin nodded and said: "My men have searched all the cabins on the ship and found a batch of supplies shipped from Manila to the destination. In addition, we also found them in the luggage of the two Haihan officials who jumped into the sea.

I have obtained the freight bill, and the content indeed corresponds to the materials found on the ship, which are mainly daily necessities, medicinal materials and some local products produced in Luzon."

"Since you have found Officer Haihan's luggage, there should be something else that can prove their identity, right?" Fernando continued to ask.

"Sir, you are really smart. This is indeed the case. We also found a secret letter." Like magic, Joaquin took out a kraft paper envelope with a paint seal on the seal to prevent unauthorized opening: "This is also there.

It was found in the luggage of two Haihan officials. I asked the Han people to identify the writing on the envelope. This should be a secret letter sent by Qiu Yuan, the chief executive of Haihan in Manila, to Roger, the commander of the garrison in Sing Tao. Perhaps it contains

There will be content related to the ship."

Fernando raised his eyebrows when he heard this. He had never heard the name of General Haihan from Xingdao, but he had an impression of the name Qiu Yuan. It was said that he was a capable person who Haihan specially transferred from China to Manila to take charge of government affairs.

All of Haihan's current policy measures in Manila are said to be from this person. As Joaquin guessed, this secret letter is likely to contain the true mission of the ship and the three exiled people on board.

Conditions related to Spanish prisoners.

After receiving the letter, Fernando did not rush to open it, because he also thought that the content of the secret letter was probably written in Chinese characters, and maybe various code words were used in it. It was probably unclear at the moment.

We will slowly study the secret later.

"Where are the people on the boat? I want to meet these brave people!" Fernando actually believed most of the confessions of the people on the boat at this time. After all, the evidence found so far is very real and looks relatively credible.

Letter. And if the confessions of these people on the ship are true, then these Spanish prisoners can be described as heroes.

Joaquin quickly brought Jose and others to Fernando and asked him to question these people personally.

After Fernando found out who Jose was, he walked straight up to him and asked him: "Tell me, brave young man, for what crime were you exiled by the Haihan people? How did you escape?

"

Jose hunched his back slightly and responded in a humble tone: "Sir, the hateful Haihan people invaded my farm, stole all the horses, cattle, sheep and grain, and set fire to my home. I

In anger, I secretly sneaked into the Haihan army horse farm, poisoned the alfalfa feed, and killed more than a dozen army horses. They initially sentenced me to death, but later, for some reason, they changed the sentence to exile overseas.

Go to a place far away to do hard labor."

Jose licked his dry lips, and then continued: "After leaving Manila, I attacked the guard when he came to put out food, and then together with my two companions, we killed several other unsuspecting Haihans.

Soldiers. These indigenous sailors on the ship also helped us, but if something like this happened, they could not return to Manila and had to flee with us."
Chapter completed!