José Luis never imagined that someone of his humble stature would one day be kidnapped, and he thought that such a thing could only happen to rich people who wore gold and silver. José's father was a Basque father and his mother was an Italian immigrant, and he has not produced any prominent figures for eight generations. And the blacksmith skill he relied on for a living was also inherited from his father, but there was nothing else to inherit, the family's blacksmith shop had long been appointed by his father to his two elder brothers, and there was no share of him, and his only way out was to leave home and set up another door when he became an adult.

At the age of twenty, José left his hometown with fifty silver coins given by his father and enlisted in the Far East Colonies. The ingenious immigration officer portrayed the Far East as a world of gold, and all the immigrants had to do was bend down and pick up the gold coins one by one in their pockets. After three or five years in the Far East, everyone could become a big landowner, with their own plantations, private mansions, herds of slaves, and inexhaustible gold.

With the good hope of making a fortune, José squeezed onto a dilapidated migrant ship and headed for the Far East. During the six-month journey, most of which were undersupplied and poorly lived, about one-fifth of the people on the ship failed to make it to the end of the journey, dying of various diseases. José was undoubtedly one of the lucky ones, and although he endured many hardships along the way, he finally arrived at his destination in Manila, Luzon, without illness or disaster.

In 1571, the Spanish colonizer Rigasby landed in the area and built a castle and forts, which became the prototype of Manila. After nearly 60 years of development and construction, Manila City is one of the largest seaport cities in the South China Sea, and is also the political and economic center of Spain in the Far East.

However, José soon discovers that the place is not as rosy as the immigration officer said when he recruited, that it is not full of gold, and that he is not a big landowner casually. Most of the people who can make a lot of money in Manila have a prominent background, and an inferior person like him can only continue to live an inferior life, which is not fundamentally different from when he was in his homeland.

Fortunately, Jose still had a skill, and he used the settling-in money he brought to open a blacksmith shop, and he said, .↗.o←s_ (); Count on the place to take root and slowly spread the leaves. However, his luck ran out at this point, and three months later he was sentenced to exile for injuring a nobleman in a drunken disturbance. The year was 1626, and the Spanish fleet had just established a diǎn, or San Salvador, at the port of Jilong in the northern part of the island of Taiwan, and unilaterally claimed ownership of the island, ignoring the island's natives, the settlers of the Eighteen Zhi and the Dutch of Dayuan Port. The hapless José was exiled here, using his blacksmithing skills to assist the first settlers to pioneer the land.

José must thank him for the blacksmithing skills he learned from his father, which saved him from being treated as a criminal during his time in Chicken Coop Harbor. As the only professional blacksmith in Joncoop Harbor, he was even allowed to recruit four apprentices in order to be able to fulfill numerous orders from the local garrison and immigrants in a timely manner. Due to the scarcity of local blacksmith resources, José's life gradually improved, and he could also leave the work to a few apprentices when he was not so busy, and go to the tavern to soak for half a day to kill time.

People who do heavy labor tend to drink alcohol, and José is no exception. It's just that the quality of the wine sold in the local market in Jilonggang is really poor, and you can't enjoy drinking two or three taels at all, so Jose can't stop drinking it every time he drinks it, and he drinks it until he breaks it. But this time it seemed that something had really happened, and he couldn't even remember what had happened after he staggered out of the tavern, except that he seemed to have gone to the harbor docks, and when he woke up, he was already a dead dog tied in a burlap bag.

After José slowly sobered up, he knew that he was definitely not arrested by the security forces in the city, because the security forces knew him from top to bottom, and it was impossible for them to play such excessive jokes on him because he was drunk. And he could feel from the environment that he was on a boat in the middle of the sea, which had obviously been loaded onto the ship and taken away from Chicken Coop Harbor. Aside from the kidnapping, José couldn't think of any other reason for a while.

José wasn't a man who was afraid of death, but he didn't think he had much chance of escaping, because he simply couldn't afford to redeem himself. More than half of his income in the past few years in El Salvador City has been spent on a small house built for himself, and the rest is basically spent on buying drunk in a tavern, and he really has little savings. If the kidnappers are trying to extort a fortune from them, they will probably be very disappointed, and perhaps being thrown into the sea to feed the fish will be their final end.

José had wanted to hear the people on board to judge his situation, but he hadn't heard a word during the more than a day's voyage. Someone entered the cabin to check his condition and feed him some water, but José, who was blindfolded, could not see the other person's appearance at all. He tried to ask a few words in Spanish, but he didn't get a half-diǎn response.

Before José had a nervous breakdown, he was finally carried out of the cabin. However, no one untied him, but stuffed him directly into a carriage. After a short journey, he knew that he had been transferred to a certain compound, and he had a preliminary idea of his situation. Because he heard the suspected gatekeeper ask the driver about the passengers on the bus, but he spoke Chinese, which proved that this should be the territory under the jurisdiction of the Han people. Jose's first reaction was that he had arrived in Fuzhou, the closest Daming harbor to Jilong Port.

José did not quite understand the purpose of the men who had kidnapped him to Fuzhou, and after a period of anxiety, he was lifted up again and moved into a room. Then someone removed the sacks and restraints from his body, and finally untied the black cloth that blindfolded him.

After adjusting to the brightness of his surroundings, Jose quickly took a look at the place he was, this is a small office, there are bookcases against the wall on both sides, and in front of it is a huge bookcase, behind which there are three Oriental people sitting in two stations, and the sitting person looks very similar to the Ming people from his facial features, but his dress is very different from the Ming people Jose has seen.

José's attention was quickly drawn to the man standing nearby, who he also recognized, the boss of the Ming merchant who came to El Salvador every few months to do business. The Kim boss was very hospitable, and José remembers at least two times when he met him at the tavern, and he offered to buy a drink for a treat. During his years in Ciudad Salvador, José had rarely felt such a friendly gesture from Akito. He knew that these Ming people were willing to sail to Salvador City to trade, the main reason was for the sake of silver, and Western colonists like himself all looked like evil ghosts in the eyes of the other party, so they would not take the initiative to contact them at all, so he was very impressed by this gold boss.

But as far as José knew, the Jin boss was only a legitimate businessman who bought and sold medicinal herbs and timber in Fuzhou, and had seen him outside the city of El Salvador two days before...... Wait, is he the one who brought himself here from the city of Salvador?

However, looking at the position where Boss Jin is standing, it should be sitting in the middle, and this one is the main one. José looked at the man again, and the eyes that happened to meet him were also scanning him, like a lion scanning his prey. José's heart trembled, and he could feel a kind of majesty in the other man's eyes, just as he usually saw Lord Alcarazo guarding the city of Salvador.

"Chief, this is José the blacksmith that the lowly is talking about. Jin Ming bowed and whispered in Qian Tiandun's ear.

Qian Tiandun diǎndiǎn head said: "You can speak a diǎn Spanish, right?"

Jin Mingying said: "The humble position is just out of the need to learn something, a little understanding, a little understanding." ”

"Very well, then you are in charge of the translation. You can tell him exactly where this is and who we are. Also, why is he here. After Qian Tiandun finished speaking, he leaned back in his chair lightly and observed Jose's reaction in a relaxed manner.

After listening to Jin Ming's translation, Jose looked confused, not because he couldn't understand the other party's Spanish with a strong accent, but because he really didn't understand why Boss Jin, who was doing business, kidnapped him to come to Penghu to meet the Haihan people. However, before answering the other party's question, he wanted to seek a diǎn welfare for himself first.

"Can you give me food and water? I haven't eaten in a long time......" José opened his mouth, and the weak voice that came out scared even himself. He had been in a state of extreme nervousness for nearly thirty hours after he had sobered up, with only a small amount of water in between, and although he had been tied up in the cabin and had not moved, his body had been very depleted.

After Qian Tiandun listened, he nodded and said, "Let the kitchen quickly get hot food, and it just so happens that we have breakfast together." ”

The person has already arrived, and Qian Tiandun is not in a hurry to interrogate Jose at this time and a half. He could also see that the Spanish blacksmith was in a very bad mental state, and if he continued to toss him, this guy might faint later.

The kitchen soon delivered breakfast for four people, and Qian Tiandun did not shy away from it, so he asked Du Rong and Jin Ming to sit down on his left and right sides to eat together. Of course, the blacksmith Jose was not treated so well, and he could only sit on the pony in a half-squat position to eat. However, Jose obviously didn't care about the details of whether the posture was comfortable now, and swept the soy milk fritters in front of him with the momentum of the wind and clouds, and finally put his fingers in his mouth and sucked the oil on his hands clean, it seemed that he was indeed hungry.

José noticed that the three people on the other side were eating the same food as himself, and he tried to stand up and get closer, but the two men behind him immediately pressed him back to the maza, forcing him to dismiss the idea.

The three of them finished their breakfast without hurrying before continuing to question José. On the way to Penghu, Jin Ming had made a list of questions, some of which were simple questions that were easy to answer, and some of which were secrets that Haihan had always been interested in. After reading it, Qian Tiandun praised it and asked him to question Jose according to his own ideas.

Jin Ming's first question was to ask Jose to introduce his personal situation, and at the end Jin Ming emphasized: "As long as you answer our questions honestly, I can guarantee your life." ”

Although Jose is a small person in the market, his brain is not stupid, and the implication of Jin Ming's words is that if he is not honest, then his life will be in danger. Nor did he think he had any secrets to keep, so he replied honestly: "My name is José Luis, I'm twenty-seven years old from the Basque Country, I'm a blacksmith, and I came to El Salvador in Formosa from Manila six years ago. I had a blacksmith shop and four apprentices in the city, and I had no family or any other family. My biggest hobby is to go to the tavern for a drink after work...... Also, Boss Jin, why did you bring me here? If you are discovered by the security forces, you will never have a chance to set foot in Salvador City again to do business. ”

Jin Ming would not answer his question without authorization, but first translated everything he said to Qian Tiandun. After hearing this, Qian Tiandun asked rhetorically: "Is this guy easy to deceive?"

Jin Ming shook his head and said: "This guy is not stupid, he has invited him to drink a few times, trying to get some valuable information from his mouth, but it has not worked." ”

"Then you don't have to talk to him in circles, follow the pace of your security department. After listening to Jin Ming's explanation, Qian Tiandun was not interested in playing a trick on Jose. What's more, the two sides don't understand each other's languages, and Jin Ming may not be able to accurately translate Qian Tiandun's ideas into Western to convey them to Jose.

Jin Ming nodded in comprehension and said to Jose: "You probably don't realize your situation, I repeat, you are now a captive of Haihan, and we need to get some valuable information from you." If you can't prove your worth, then we can only give up on you. ”

"If I can't give you a satisfactory answer, will you let me out of here?" asked José with a hint of luck.

"Probably not. Jin Ming replied expressionlessly: "If you don't have intelligence value, then it's a useless burden to us." In order not to affect the peace between Haihan and Spain, we can only secretly put you to death. But if you can help, then we can spare your life and arrange for you to live incognito somewhere else. ”