Wang Xinyu signed a cooperation contract with Manila Governor Manlik:

Daming sent at least two shipments of goods to Manila every month, which were sold to Manlik at Manila's prices.

The Spaniards sold the Ming army a hundred tons of grain, fifty tons of pig iron, fourteen tons of sulfur and thirty-two tons of saltpeter every month, which were sold at market prices.

The Spaniards sold the Ming army 12 pairs of telescopes, 12 pocket watches, 4 table clocks, 2 sets of chemical experiment equipment and 6 vernier calipers, for which the Ming army paid the Spaniards 1,800 taels of gold.

Manlick ordered a boring machine, a drilling machine and a hydraulic stamping and forging equipment for Daming, purchased them from Europe, and sent them to Manila four months later, and Wang Xinyu paid a deposit of 1,000 taels of silver.

The Spaniards sold the Ming army 200 halberds and 200 sets of plate armor, and the Ming army hired 100 Spanish soldiers.

Subsequently, Wang Xinyu signed a secret agreement with Manrik, in which Manrik sold Wang Xinyu three 750-ton and 5,450-ton Spanish galleons at the price of a 450-ton Spanish galleon of 8,000 Spanish oceans and a 750-ton Spanish galleon of 15,000 Spanish oceans, and the guns on board were given away with the ship.

"Dear envoy of the Ming Kingdom, after you buy these ships from us, you will find that you are worth the money! Each ship has a lot of carry, and you get at least almost two hundred cannons for nothing! Manlik said happily.

In fact, these Spanish galleons are all old ships, and Manrique originally planned to scrap them, and then ask the Spanish government for new ships. If these old ships were sold to pirates or maritime merchants, they would have made more money than they do now. Now he sold it to Wang Xinyu and made half of the money. But being able to do business with the Ming people for a long time, Manrik felt that he still made money.

For Wang Xinyu, these ships can be used as merchant ships, and the cannons on them are dismantled and handed over to the king of Yanping, which is just the price at which these copper cannons are sold as scrap copper, which is worth the cost of buying a ship, which means that Wang Xinyu got a batch of merchant ships for nothing, and he can make a little profit.

The two signed the contract, and Wang Xinyu carefully put the contract away.

"Serve!" Manrik shouted.

A Filipino maid cautiously walked up with a plate, served wine, and filled the glasses of the three men.

Manrik picked up his glass and smiled: "Come!" Cheers to our happy cooperation! ”

This is the first Western meal that Wang Xinyu has eaten since he came to this world, including Madrid broth, lobster boiled chicken, fried steak, roast rabbit meat, and the most surprising thing for Wang Xinyu is that the Spaniards actually eat rice! A paella is on the table.

"We don't produce flour here, our staple food here is rice," says Manrik. In fact, in Mexico and South America, we also brought rice seeds to teach the locals how to grow rice. ”

In the end, Wang Xinyu made a request: "You have an ornamental plant here, and I want to buy them all." ”

Manrik said very generously: "Those plants from South America are not worth much, so I will give them all to you!" ”

After a full meal and wine, Wang Xinyu left the castle and was escorted by two Spanish officers back to the hotel where he was staying.

At 10 o'clock in the morning of the next day, Zhao Yangzheng came up and said that he had contacted the largest Chinese businessman in Manila and could visit him in the afternoon.

In the afternoon, after lunch, Wang Xinyu led more than a dozen personal soldiers, led by Zhao Yangzheng, into the Manila Chinese Town.

After walking along the river for several miles, I turned into a bustling street full of Chinese-style buildings and shops on both sides. After walking for about a mile, he turned into a quiet boulevard, and walked about half a mile to a mansion with a vermilion gate.

"Please wait here, Lord Wang, and the grass people will go and call the door." Zhao Yangzheng said.

Walked to the door, knocked on the door a few times, a head poked out of the door, first chatted with Zhao Yangzheng for a few words, and then looked at Wang Xinyu outside wearing a Ming official uniform, the man asked: "Is it Lord Wang?" ”

"Exactly!" Wang Xinyu replied.

"Then please come in with the grass people!" The man said.

Walking into the compound, an old man who looked to be about sixty years old was already standing in the atrium waiting. Seeing Wang Xinyu, the old man hurriedly bowed: "The sky has eyes!" Da Ming has finally sent Lord Qincha again! It's been fifty-five years! For fifty-five years, the Ming Dynasty has never sent anyone to see us, the people who are wandering overseas, and now we are finally here! ”

Fifty-six years ago, there was a conflict between the local Chinese and the Spanish colonists, and the Spaniards instigated the natives and slaughtered a large number of Chinese. At that time, the Spaniards were taken aback, and they were worried about losing the source of goods from the Ming Dynasty, so they hurriedly sent people to Macau to apologize to the Ming Dynasty and asked the Ming to continue trading with Spain.

Later, during the Chongzhen period, there was another massacre of Chinese in Spain, but Chongzhen faced the double pressure of the peasant uprisings in the northern Houjin and the Central Plains, and he was worried about internal and external troubles, and he couldn't take care of those overseas Chinese at all.

Now that Wang Xinyu has come to Manila, he is regarded by the local Chinese as a messenger sent by the Ming Dynasty and is respected.

Wang Xinyu must have calculated the blood debt owed by the Spaniards and the local natives to the Chinese, but at present, in Nanyang, the biggest enemy is the Netherlands. Before defeating the Dutch, it was not the best strategy to rashly send troops to attack the Spanish royal city of Manila, which had a strong city, and now it can only cooperate with the Spanish for the time being to avoid frightening the snake.

It was also because Wang Xinyu came to Manila to carry out trade cooperation with the Spaniards, so that the third massacre of Chinese in history did not happen, and Wang Xinyu saved the lives of tens of thousands of Chinese. Of course, that's another story.

Zhao Yangzheng had already introduced that the Chinese businessman's name was Pan Liu, who came to Manila from Guangdong. Although he was originally a descendant of the Guangdong pirate Liu Xiang's generals, and Liu Xiang was destroyed by Zheng Zhilong, in a distant foreign land, Pan Liu still regarded Wang Xinyu, who came to Manila on the order of Zheng Chenggong, as his own person.

"Chincha-sama, please come inside!" Pan Liu introduced Wang Xinyu into the lobby.

The guest of honor sat down and exchanged a few words, and then Pan Liu said that business has become more and more difficult recently: "There has been no Ming ship for many years, and the Spaniards have not sent a ship to Daming. Those of us who live on the sea trade are now having a hard time, and we can only rely on the ships of the Arabs, Ottomans, and Italians to buy a little goods in the area of Annam and sell them. ”

Wang Xinyu inquired about some information, he was very relieved about this Pan Liu, and he couldn't come to Manila every time, so he said: "In the future, I will send at least two ships to Manila every month on average, and you will be my agent in Manila in the future, Mr. Pan!" You are responsible for bringing the goods over and selling them to the Spaniards; And I have an order for the purchase of goods here, and you help me buy the goods, and then load them for us to ship. In addition, I have just bought seven Spanish sea-going ships here, and I will hand them over to you, and you will recruit sailors and take care of the transportation. As for the profits from the trade, I will pay you a cut in addition to the current transportation costs from Daming to Manila. But I'll deduct the rent from the ships for you. ”

Because of some trade settlements, agents, and various chores for starting a company, Wang Xinyu can't come forward to manage it himself, and he needs to find an agent here.

Pan Liu twisted the beard on his chin and nodded slightly: "These are not problems!" As long as Lord Wang establishes a trading post here, he will definitely make a lot of money! And the old man also wants to set up a trading company here, and as for the shares, they can be given to Lord Wang for nothing! As long as there is a boat, everything is easy to do. ”

Wang Xinyu looked at Pan Liu's posture and knew that he was very powerful, and there would definitely be no problem cooperating with him, so he agreed: "Then settle down like that!" In the future, the official's business in Manila will be represented by you, Mr. Pan! ”

Pan Liu said one more thing: "There are still many Ming people in East Borneo, they are not very good there, the old man wants to repair cotton fields over there and open some workshops, so that those Ming people who have not found gold mines can have a way out." ”

"Old man Pan, this point is thought of with this official! We should develop East Borneo, after all, this is the territory of the Spaniards, we are always sending people under the fence, not a solution! Wang Xinyu agrees with Pan Liu's opinion.

"Those Spaniards, united with the Sulu people, have already done it twice to our Ming people! When I did it for the first time, the old man was still young, so miserable! The local Sulu ripe fan is like crazy, and when he sees our Ming people, he will cut it! The second time, the old man had a family and a weapon in his hand, so he stopped those Sulu people! And most of the Ming people were bare-handed, and when they met Sulu people like madmen, men were killed by them, and women were even more miserable! Pan Liu said angrily, "So the old man has long wanted to go to East Borneo to develop, but the family business is here." ”

Wang Xinyu asked: "Those Sulu people are so cruel, why don't the Ming people here buy weapons?" ”

"It's all about making money, how many people think of buying weapons? Most of those who didn't buy weapons were killed by the Sulus! Pan Liu said with hatred.

"How many guns does Old Man Pan have on hand?"

"The old man has more than 100 family members, more than 30 arquebuses, more than 20 pairs of bows and arrows, and the rest are all swords, guns, swords, and halberds. Although it is not much, it is enough to protect itself, and those Sulu people came to attack the compound, and they did not dare to come after a few died. Later, the Spaniards didn't want all of us Ming people to die, otherwise their business would not be good, so they sent troops to stop the Sulus. But the Sulu people came to kill us, and it was all provoked by the Spaniards! ”

Wang Xinyu suddenly changed the topic to East Borneo: "By the way, Old Man Pan, there are also many Sulu people in East Borneo, all of whom are shengfan!" They seem to be even more vicious! We're over there, and we need to form an army of our own! ”

"Forming an army?" Pan Liu was stunned, "How many troops do you plan to raise over there?" ”

"May I ask Old Man Pan, how many Da Ming people are there?"

"About 100,000!"

"A hundred thousand? That's a lot! Wang Xinyu was taken aback, "There are so many people, of course the more troops, the better, but what this official needs is the elite, let's first form an army of two or three thousand people, and then build a castle and a fort, so as to prevent the Sulu people from attacking!" ”

Pan Liu gasped: "So many people! How much silver does it cost to build castles and forts? Everyone comes out to make money, who is willing to spend their money on these in vain? Moreover, East Borneo, after all, is not our homeland, and most of the Ming people there are thinking about going back after making money. ”

"Go back? Go back to shave your hair? Wear that tartar outfit? Here, at least they don't have to shave their hair to get dressed! Wang Xinyu suddenly roared angrily.

Pan Liu sighed: "Alas! Although Lord Wang said this, those people thought that the golden nest and the silver nest were not as good as their own kennels. Although they want to shave their hair and change clothes when they go back, if they make money, they still want to go back to glorify their ancestors! Those who want to return to their hometowns in fine clothes, except for people like the old man who cherish their homeland, who wants to die in a foreign country? ”