After moving in, Wang Xinyu, accompanied by more than a dozen armed guards, circled around Manila.

Seeing Wang Xinyu, who was wearing a Ming costume and looked like a big official, following behind, the Ming army guards with muskets on their shoulders, many Chinese had already come forward to volunteer to act as guides and lead the way for Wang Xinyu and them.

Wang Xinyu selected a person from these Chinese who seemed to be more loyal and honest, but who seemed to be more intelligent: "Let him be our guide!" ”

"No!" Li Rui called the Chinese man over.

"Back to my lord! Zhao Yangzheng, a grass farmer, came to Manila in the thirteenth year of Wanli. The grass people were born in Manila. The Chinese introduced himself. This Chinese speaks Hokkien fluently!

Walking on the streets of Manila, it is very bustling with people coming and going. On the street, most of them are Chinese wearing Hanfu, and there are also many foreigners who can speak fluent Cantonese and even Hokkien.

Standing in the middle of the street, I looked up and saw a tall castle standing opposite.

Zhao Yangzheng pointed to the castle and said: "This is the castle of Santiago on the bank of the Pasig River, also known as the royal city of Spain. It was later expanded into this huge castle. The castle is so strong that the walls alone are three feet thick! There are a lot of turrets on it! ”

Wang Xinyu estimated that this castle has one square kilometer, and the castle is more than ten zhang high, in addition to the Pasig River on one side, there are moats on three sides. The San Diego Castle has a bird's-eye view of the entire city of Manila, and the artillery fire on the castle can cover the entire city. The castle is inhabited entirely by Spaniards. Even the Italians and Portuguese who came here were not allowed to enter the castle. However, a small number of Chinese were merchants, and they were granted permission to enter the castle and trade with the Spaniards.

There are many Chinese living in Manila, and according to Zhao Yangzheng's introduction, there are more than 50,000 Chinese living here! Originally, there were more Chinese, once as high as 100,000. Later, after the Spanish colonizers massacred more than 20,000 Chinese, many Chinese fled, some returned to China, and some went to East Borneo. Many of the Chinese who remained here took the banner of Zheng Zhilong, and some even bought muskets and other weapons for self-defense.

"Muskets are actually useless, the castle is there, and after a few shells, there is no power to fight back." Zhao Yangzheng said gloomily.

Although Wang Xinyu hated the Spaniards for massacring the Chinese, he still had to do business with the Spaniards. Earn money first, and then unite with the British to drive out the Spaniards here, and now is not the time to turn against the Spaniards.

There are also many Japanese and Koreans in the city, who are also regarded as Chinese by foreigners. There are also a number of Portuguese, Italians and other Westerners' shops, and the most popular among sailors is the bar, where you can drink beer, rum, champagne, wine, spirits and other drinks, as well as local indigenous and mixed-race women dancing in the bar.

Walking out of the city, you will see a large area of green farmland! What's even more amazing is that it is not the Chinese who work in the fields, but the dark-skinned natives with only a pair of pants on their bodies!

"These Sulu natives will farm?" Wang Xinyu asked strangely.

Zhao Yangzheng said: "There are three kinds of Sulu people, one is the people of the Sulu Sultanate on the island of Java, they have long been educated by the great cannibals, not only can farm the land, but also can strike iron, can build houses, and even build large palaces, everyone has clothes; There is also the ripe fan near Manila, although they are also savages, but now they have also learned to farm, and they grow rice, sweet potatoes and cotton, as well as sugar cane, because of the hot climate, the harvest is still very high. We Ming people have a trade with these ripe people, buy a lot of cotton back, and sell them farm tools and clothes. The last type of Sulu people is the Shengfan in the northern mountains, and those are the real savages. ”

"I see!" Wang Xinyu nodded.

"Your Excellency, would you like to take a chance to meet the biggest businessman in Manila? It is also our Ming people. Zhao Yangzheng asked.

Wang Xinyu asked: "Yes!" Do you recognize him? ”

"Recognize! Grass people can help get in touch. ”

"Oh well! You can help the official contact me, and in the next few days, find a time to visit the door. ”

"No problem!" Zhao Yangzheng agreed to come down.

After returning to the hotel where he was staying, Wang Xinyu was still thinking about how to arrange dinner, when a Spanish officer came to the door and spoke fluent Hokkien dialect: "General Wang from the Ming Kingdom, our Governor General invites you to have dinner!" Please come with me! ”

"Since it was the Governor's invitation, then I must have to appreciate my face!" Wang Xinyu replied.

Wang Xinyu called Li Rui and asked him to take his men to a restaurant run by Chinese outside, and he followed the Spanish officer to the Governor's Palace in Manila.

"Adults don't need to bring an interpreter, our priest will act as an interpreter for adults." The Spanish officer said.

Walk through the city of Manila and walk to the huge castle that Wang Xinyu saw just now.

The Governor's Palace in Manila, located in the Citadel of San Diego, is located above the tallest building in the center of the Citadel.

Wang Xinyu followed the Spanish officer, crossed the drawbridge, and walked into the open castle gate, where groups of Spanish soldiers had already come out and beat drums to welcome Wang Xinyu. The first man in the form of a Spanish priest greeted him and said in fluent Hokkien: "On behalf of our Governor, welcome friends from the Ming Kingdom!" ”

Hearing the word governor, Wang Xinyu thought that the priest must have made a translation error, and said that the governor was the governor. In fact, Wang Xinyu did not know, in fact, the Spanish governor in Manila was not originally the governor, but the governor, which was under the jurisdiction of the Mexican Governor's Palace. However, because of the long distance from here to Mexico, it was difficult for Mexican orders to reach here, so Manila Governor Manlique was the de facto governor of the Philippines. It is also customary for others to call him the Governor, and the Chinese at that time, and even Zheng Chenggong, called Manlik the Governor of Manila.

Walking into the gate of the castle, Wang Xinyu secretly observed this large castle to be conquered in the future, only to see that the thickness of the city wall reached about ten meters, and after walking through the gate, there was a huge training ground inside, and there was a tower-shaped fortress in the city gate, which was higher than the city wall and densely covered with shooting holes. Inside the castle, there were forts, towers, and small fortresses, connected by walls. This means that in time, the attacker climbs the city wall and is attacked by a layer of fortresses on top! It is conceivable that if you use the traditional method, not to mention the soldiers and ants attacking the city, even if you can set up a ladder car, you don't know how many people have to die to take such a large Western-style castle! Moreover, the castle is angular, and every time you attack a wall, you will be attacked from two sides.

Passing through the training ground, there is a street behind it, and on both sides are Spanish houses, barracks, churches, hotels and other buildings.

In the middle of the castle of San Diego, there is a magnificent huge castle, which is the castle inside the castle, although it covers a small area, but it is very tall, it is a particularly strong stone fortress that was common in Europe at that time, and from the top building of the castle, you can have a bird's-eye view of the entire city of Manila. The walls of the castle are densely covered with shooting holes, and the top of the castle is closed, even if you climb up, you can't enter the castle, and there is a building on it, which should be the residence of the governor of Manila.

In the garden inside the castle, an ornamental plant is planted. No one else could tell what it was, but Wang Xinyu knew that it was a chili pepper, a plant from South America.

Wang Xinyu guessed correctly, Manrik lives on the top of the inner city.

Walk to the inner castle, and the gun emplacement on the castle fires a cannon salute to welcome you.

Walk into the inner fort, which is dominated by a steep spiral staircase that leads all the way to the top of the castle.

I don't know how many steps I walked to finally get to the top of the castle.

The door opened, and when he walked up the last step of the stairs, Wang Xinyu saw a huge reception room with a red carpet on the ground in the middle, and a dining table was placed in the middle, and Governor Manlik sat in front of the table.

Seeing Wang Xinyu walk in, Manlik immediately stood up and walked up to him with a smile on his face: "Welcome to the envoy from the Ming Kingdom!" Please follow me! ”

Everyone went out, except for the Governor of Manrik and the priest who was the interpreter.

The three of them sat down at the table, and a Sulu woman dressed as a Western servant walked to the table with a beautiful plate and placed various dishes and wines on the table.

Wang Xinyu thought to himself: This should be the earliest Filipino maid, right? When the Spaniards arrived, they seem to have hired a number of Sulu women as servants. It may be for this reason that the later Filipino maids are famous all over the world, and they should have been trained by the Spaniards.

The three of them sat down, and Manlik said straight to the point: "Respected envoy of the Ming Kingdom, I haven't seen a merchant ship from the Ming Kingdom for more than ten years!" I heard that you are an envoy sent by the Ming State Supervisor? ”

"Not bad! Now we, the king of Yanping, are in charge of the state, and in fact we are executing the power of our emperor! Once something happens to the emperor, the prison is the greatest. Wang Xinyu replied.

"When I first came to Manila, we often had ships to go to your lordship's moon harbor. But now that the damned Tatars have captured the Moon Harbor, Manila is cut off from its goods! What little of the Oriental goods are also monopolized by the damned Dutch! At first it was the British, united with the Dutch, who robbed our ships, and we suffered heavy losses! Now the British and the Dutch have fallen out, but they still regard us as enemies! You can imagine how hard it is to do business in Manila right now! ”

Wang Xinyu said with a smile: "This time, the Ben Qin envoy brought goods from Daming and came to Manila to sell. ”

"I heard that you have a lot of goods this time?" Manrik's eyes shone greedily.

"That's right! As soon as we landed, many businessmen came to ask us and they wanted to be sales agents for us. ”

"Don't let them be your agent! Those mercenary businessmen, their hearts are very dark! Our Spanish fleet can be used as an agent for you to sell to Europe! "Hearing that a lot of people are going to compete for business with him, Manrik is anxious.

Wang Xinyu smiled and gave Manlik a reassurance: "Please rest assured, Lord Governor!" Since of course we have sent me, I am here to do business with you! And it's the voice of a long-term collaboration! Our first consideration is to find you, because you are the strongest in Manila! ”

"In that case, then I'm relieved! I'm kind, worried that you've been deceived by those profiteers! Manrik feigned indignation.

Wang Xinyu said: "All the goods we brought this time will be sent to you as your agent, Your Excellency. But we also want to be able to buy your goods back. ”

Hearing that he could not only act as an agent for the goods of the Ming Kingdom, but also sell the goods to these Ming people, Manlik was very happy: "I don't know what kind of goods the envoy wants to buy?" We have a wide range of goods here, from Swiss watches and clocks to Italian glassware, to spices and gold jewellery from South America, to coffee and precious stones from Africa. If you want to buy a weapon, we have the best plate armor in Spain! There are halberds, muskets, cannons and warships if needed, and we can sell them to you! ”

Wang Xinyu had heard the British say that the Spaniards were very black-hearted, they were really not interested in their cannons and warships, they were sold at high prices, and they were not real warships, they were all converted from merchant ships. And the Alberk side will buy real warships, as well as high-quality cannons. However, the Spaniards' plate armor, muskets, and halberds could be purchased as samples.

Thinking of this, Wang Xinyu said: "I need to buy some plate armor, muskets, and your halberd." But there aren't too many of them. In addition, we have to buy binoculars and pocket watches. ”

"It's all right! We've got it all ready! Manlik said happily. He had on hand a lot of old plate armor, muskets and halberds, as well as telescopes and pocket watches.

Wang Xinyu asked again: "But I still want to buy machine tools and vernier calipers, I don't know if you have them here?" ”