Chen Mu planned to transport the unbroken bow elephant back to the South Seas, which was a good trophy.

In fact, his loot was much more abundant than expected.

Scattered across the archipelago from Taiwan to Luzon, this area of sea and waterway is now named Chenlai Gorge because of the naval battles that took place here and its significance to Chen Mu. The largest island in Chenlai Gorge is called Chenlai Island, which is only 200 miles from the northernmost tip of Luzon, leaving in the evening and landing in Luzon the next morning.

Therefore, the Southern Expeditionary Fleet decided to take a break here to repair the warships damaged in the naval battle, and the Banner Army and Lin Feng's subordinates continued to advance south with the fleet, landing in northern Luzon, looking for a suitable place to land, establish a forward outpost, and find out the surrounding situation.

Chen Lan sent three fleets to set sail north, and most of the grain ships returned to five or six islands between Taiwan and Chen Lai Island after unloading their baggage, with the purpose of navigating the garrison and returning to Nanyang Port to begin transporting the second batch of baggage.

The remaining grain ships would depart north upon arrival at Tortoiseshell Harbor or Manila, thus reducing the number of baggage deliveries to half a month or less.

Of course, this must be under the control of Chen Laixia by the Ming army.

Controlling Chenlai Gorge means that no one north of Luzon will be able to pass through it, and passive trade in Kyushu in Japan should be affected this year.

The Chenlai archipelago is made up of a variety of volcanic islands, the largest of which is now known as Chenlai, a huge volcano that can be seen from the vast sea, and there is almost nothing on the island except for volcanoes, mountains and beaches, and of course the people who live here.

Hundreds of people are scattered on the beach at the foot of the volcano on the north side of the island, all of whom are of mixed descent from local residents and Chinese people. Some of the ancestors were merchants who came to Luzon during the Song and Yuan dynasties, while others were reluctant to mention the identity of their ancestors to the Ming army.

The arrival of the Ming people in the north was not new to the inhabitants of the island, and since the opening of the sea by the Longqing Emperor, the number of merchant ships from Yuegang to Luzon has increased by dozens every year, and there were hundreds of them before the opening of the sea.

A huge amount of goods arrived here from the Ming Dynasty, and then from here to Luzon, sometimes merchant ships would dock on the shore, ask for help from the residents and buy and sell some goods, more often than not, merchant ships do not dock at Chenlai Island, after all, merchant ships are not like Chen Yetou Tie, they are all tailwind when they come, and a day and night is enough to drive directly from here to Tortoiseshell Harbor or even Manila.

There's no need to stop here.

However, the Ming army landed on the island, and it was thousands of Ming troops who called the big ships to land on the island, which filled the local people with panic.

The men of the neighboring villages retreated to the mountains with their families with bows, arrows and spears, and only after seeing that they were from the Ming Dynasty did they pick out a few bold old men who were protecting half a foot into the earth to inquire about their origins.

The military advisor is too arrogant, the soldier is too murderous, and the person in charge of receiving the local elders is Zhao Shizhen, a famous calligrapher who mistakes the pirate ship, so the problem comes.

The ancestor of the old man Chen Laidao was a Fujian person in the Song Dynasty, and he spoke a Min language that was different from the current Fujian people, but Zhao Shizhen, a Wenzhou person, could listen to it; But he didn't care whether he spoke Zhejiang or Beijing official dialect, the old man couldn't understand it.

Later, Long Junxiong, a Fujianese, was sent over, and the two sides were barely able to communicate normally.

Although it is located in a remote area, the living customs are almost the same as those of Fujian, and it is only slightly backward. This is due to the fact that more than 100 years ago, when Zheng He went to the West, he appointed Xu Chailao, a native of Jinjiang, Fujian, as the governor of Luzon, and oversaw the politics, economy, military and culture of Luzon for 20 years.

"Ming Gong, they say that the south is at war, these years have not stopped, the king through the purchase of warships and weapons through the Fujian merchants, is through the prosperity of the Ming Gong, relying on these and Xiyi to fight, but in Xiyi under the artillery of the ship is defeated, this year in Manila someone betrayed the king, opened the city gate to welcome Xiyi into the city, the king is now in the north of Luzon with Xiyi bloody battle."

Zhao Shizhen said this, sighed and said: "The king of Luzon summoned all the young men on the island who can hold spears and bows to the north of Luzon Island to defend against Xiyi. ”

King...... Have they all started to fight guerrillas?

"They said that Cebu Island south of Luzon Island was a large camp of Xiyi, and that the chieftains of Cebu Island allied with Xiyi to attack the north, and there were Japanese and Malay accomplices, and the Ming maritime merchants sold silk and utensils to them; The king of Luzon relied on maritime merchants to sell ships, swords, and food, and at the same time, there were also pirates who fought south under the command of the king of Luzon, but they still could not stop the rout. ”

Chen Mu sat upright on the Chihai, looked at the sergeant on the shore not far away, and rubbed his face.

To tell the truth, he didn't know that Hexingsheng was so promising, not only selling silk and satin utensils with the Spaniards, but also going to Luzon to sell ships and knives, becoming an arms dealer, and even pirates fighting under the command of the king of Luzon.

"Sell it, now those satin raw silk are back in our hands."

As for the selling ships and knives, Chen Mu didn't intend to stop it, before leaving, the prosperous merchants had already received the news that there was a war in Luzon recently and could not do business, not to mention that Chen Mu's words had a certain influence on them, and now the Ming Dynasty Southern Expedition, these maritime merchants who are good at drilling camps can realize the benefits of the Southern Expedition better than the imperial court officials, and they are competing for the opportunity to sit in the business after the victory.

With the east wind, Chen Mu's words were better than the holy decree for them.

But it is right that they continue to sell the fortune boats, swords and bows, and the suzerainty should now stand with the tributary state, although the tribute of Luzon to the Ming Dynasty has been cut off for a while.

But isn't it because of this that Chen Ye came?

At least in the court officials, the purpose of Chen Mu, the minister of Nanyang, to lead his army to tour overseas is to reorganize the tributary state, re-establish the authority of the Son of Heaven in the foreign country of the Son of Heaven, and those who break away from the tributary state must be regained, and those who have been destroyed must be restored.

"Let's prepare well, when the advance fleet finds out the news and comes back, our ship should also be repaired, fight this battle, planing it to the imperial court, and the military expenses for the next few years will be available!"

Chen Mu's words are really not a joke, the route from Manila to Mexico Spain only takes one trip a year, and all the Ming Dynasty specialties purchased this year and the gold and silver purchased from Japan in the east are loaded on the ship, and these East Asian goods can be sold at a good price in the Americas, which are all said by the captives on board.

And Chen Mu traveled all the way southeast from Nanyang and captured more than ten large Clark ships, the things in those ordinary merchant ships were not too precious, most of them were raw silk and other things, and the ships were not all fully loaded; However, the fleet of the San Pablo was different, and the four large ships captured were all fully loaded, and the Pablo alone counted more than 5,000 stone cargo.

This was the reason for the dissatisfaction of the Pablo's gun position, which they were all used to carry cargo.

The sum of many seizures is being counted, no less than 150,000 catties of raw silk, nearly 100,000 horses of various silks, and nearly 10,000 pieces of cotton cloth; One hundred and ninety boxes of porcelain were counted, and pearls and gems were also weighed in kilograms.

Unfortunately, this is not a silver ship from the Americas, otherwise the harvest would have been much greater.

Chen Mu rubbed his chin and leaned against the side of the boat to think greedily.