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Text Chapter 443 Luzon Island, Manila

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    Luzon Island is one of the large islands closest to the Central Plains mainland in Southeast Asia. As early as the Han Dynasty, Luzon Island had already had contacts with the mainland, so it is considered the most well-known large island by the Central Plains dynasty.  It is also worth mentioning that Luzon Island is not far from Taiwan Island. Starting from Tainan, if there is a favorable wind, it usually only takes a few days to arrive.

    It is precisely because Luzon is so close to Taiwan that it has long been in Li Min's mind. When slaves were needed on the island of Taiwan, Luzon was the first to be unlucky. Countless slave-catching teams set off from Taiwan and then arrived.  Luzon began to show their unique skills in the business of catching and selling slaves.

    At the beginning, the slave-catching team from Taiwan did not pay attention to any methods. Instead, they relied on their advanced weapons and rich slave-catching experience to use brute force to capture slaves on Luzon Island. However, this slave-catching method  This was quickly proven wrong, because no matter how advanced the weapons and experience of the slave-catching team were, some casualties would inevitably occur during the slave-catching process, and once there were casualties, the slave-catching team would have to  Compensate the other party's family with a large amount of money. After all, people are scarce now and human life has become very valuable. It is possible to bring hundreds of slaves back to Taiwan at one time, but as long as one person is lost, the trip will be in vain.

    ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Since they dare to engage in such a risky industry as slave catching, then the people in the slave catching team are naturally bold people, and it is these people who often think what ordinary people dare not think of.  For example, smart people soon discovered that Luzon Island has not yet emerged as a unified country, and even the natives on the island have not even formed the concept of a country. They only form some loose tribal alliances based on tribal blood and other relationships.  Moreover, these tribal alliances range from large to small, and they are constantly at odds with each other.

    See this situation.  Immediately giving the opportunity to the clever men in the slave-catching party, they began transporting goods from the continent.  And they made deals with some powerful tribal alliances to manage their relationships.  After completing this first step, they began to propose the contents of the slave trade to each other. Of course, the sources of these slaves came from the prisoners of war obtained by this tribe during wars with other tribes.  Originally, these prisoners of war would usually be killed, but now the slave-catching team proposed to exchange goods for them, and naturally the tribesmen readily agreed.

    With the first time, there will naturally be a second time, and the tribes that were captured by the slave team also tasted the sweetness from these slave transactions.  After all, they only need to trade the prisoners of war they killed before, and they can exchange for many necessities of life. Even as long as they can capture enough prisoners of war, their tribe can exchange for any goods they want from the slave-catching team.  And life in the tribe will get better and better.

    After the native tribes had this understanding, coupled with the deliberate instigation of the slave-catching team, war broke out among the various tribal alliances, and during the war, countless mature men were captured.  These prisoners of war were then sold to slave-catching teams.  Although this method required the slave-catching team to pay a certain amount of goods, it was much safer, so this method was quickly imitated by all slave-catching teams.  And became the standard mode of slave hunting in Southeast Asia.

    After two years of development by slave traders, the current form of Luzon is very different from before, such as the constant wars between large tribal alliances.  Most of the small and medium-sized tribes have no living space, or have been annexed by most.  Or be destroyed, now the entire island.  Seven major tribal alliances have been formed. If there are no accidents, these seven tribes will form a unified country after merging.  However, this is obviously not in Li Min's interests, so these seven tribal alliances will definitely not be able to transition to the national stage in the end.

    Behind the seven tribal alliances on Luzon Island, there is actually the support of slave-catching merchants. It is they who provide various materials and support the endless attacks between the seven major alliances, and the slave-catching merchants obtain the slaves they need.  .  It is precisely because of this that the most powerful people on Luzon Island now are not the seven major alliances, but the slave traders behind the seven major alliances.

    If the slave-catching team wants to operate on Luzon Island for a long time, it naturally needs a port. The terrain of Luzon Island is high in the north and low in the south. The east side of the island is prone to typhoons, so the most suitable place for a port is on the island.  Southwest side.  A slave-catching merchant discovered a huge bay here. It was originally named after a local dialect, but after Li Min learned about it, he named it Manila Bay himself.

    Manila Bay is a vast area, embraced by two peninsulas. There is also a small island in the bay, which divides the entire bay into two waterways, the north and the south. It is a natural harbor with excellent conditions. It is on the east coast of this natural harbor.  Slave traders established a settlement, also named after Manila. After more than a year of development, this settlement has become one of the important ports in Southeast Asia. Fleets from the Tang Dynasty and Persia and other countries like to sail here.  Parking here, and more and more people were settling here, so Li Min sent officials to manage the city of Manila, and also stationed an army of 500 people.

    ManilaIt is actually a young city, and it is also a gathering place for slave-catching merchants. Although these people are called maritime merchants, their behavior overseas is no different from pirates, and they are all unruly people.  These people live together, resulting in extremely poor public security in Manila. Fights and fights occur all the time, and even robbery and murder are common.  Everyone who comes here is very cautious. When the ship owner goes ashore, he will call a group of crew members to act collectively to avoid danger.  It is precisely because of this that Manila has been nicknamed the Sin City.

    The weather today is really bad. Strong southwesterly winds have been blowing, and it is said that another typhoon has passed by the coast on the east side of the island. So Manila Bay is extremely busy today, because many fleets need to find a place to sail before the typhoon comes.  A great place to anchor, and Manila Bay, surrounded by two peninsulas, is undoubtedly an excellent haven.

    As the east wind gets stronger and stronger, the tall coconut trees are blown to and fro, and more and more fleets are sailing into Manila Bay. As a result, the originally wide bay has become somewhat narrow.

    In the afternoon, the wind became stronger and stronger. If ordinary ships were exposed to such strong winds, they would probably be blown over. Even some large ships that can withstand wind and waves would not dare to stay in such wind and waves for too long.  .  It is for this reason that fewer and fewer fleets came in the afternoon, and in the end, no fleet even came for a long time.

    Liu Ban looked at the increasing wind and waves outside, but stretched out lazily and yawned. He is now sitting in the inspection room made entirely of concrete. Let alone this kind of wind and waves, no matter how big the wind and waves are,  Double, he is very safe here.

    As the name suggests, Half Liu is indeed half left. He is a disabled person, missing an arm and a leg, and there is also something wrong with one eye. If you close the other eye, you can only see clearly.  A little shimmer.  Originally, he was a man with sound limbs, but the year before last, he came to Luzon with the slave catching team to catch slaves, and ended up leaving his arms and legs behind. His eye was also sprayed by a poisonous animal in the rain forest.  , but his eyes were poisoned, and he looks like this now, so he left half of his nickname to correspond to his real name.

    Liu is half missing half of his hands and feet, so he doesn't have to think about finding a wife. I'm afraid no Han woman would be willing to marry him.  However, Liu Ban is living a very comfortable life now. The slave-catching team compensated him a large sum of money, and he used the money to buy several women as concubines, including Silla women, Japanese women, and two local women.  Native girls, and these women also gave birth to two sons for him, and one of them is pregnant and will be born soon.  Originally, he was worried that the children born to these foreign women would not be able to register, but His Highness the King of Qi personally issued a decree that as long as the father was Han, all the children would be Han. This made him feel relieved. At the same time,  He plans to take on a few more concubines in the rest of his life, striving to carry forward the legacy of their Liu family.

    Although Liu Ban is a disabled person, there is a shortage of people everywhere now. In addition, he does not want to go back to his hometown anymore, so he simply settled down in Manila and found a job in the government, that is, as the Manila  The job of the bay inspector is very simple, which is to record the ships entering and leaving the bay to facilitate tax collection and search.

    Liu Ban looked at the storm outside and muttered. Although the monitoring room was very safe, he would definitely not be able to return home due to such a big storm, so he could only make do in the monitoring room tonight.  one night.  Thinking of the concubines at home who were not yet pregnant, Liu Ban shouted in his heart that it was a waste and he must find time to make up for it.

    Waves several meters high had already risen on the sea. Some of the water was blown up by the wind and blew half of Liu's face through the window. This made him curse angrily and stood up on one foot, preparing to open the window.  Close it.

    But just when Liu Ban closed the window, he habitually turned his head and glanced at the sea outside. Even though he only had one working eye, he was a famous marksman in the slave-catching team, and his eyesight and brain were better than ordinary people.  People are much better. For example, as long as he takes a look at the ships passing by in the bay, he can remember the characteristics of the ship, and he will not forget it for a long time.  It was precisely because of this ability that he was able to defeat other opponents who applied for the job and sit in the position of inspector.

    Today, Liu Ban's good eyesight came into play again. Through the waves blown up by the strong wind, Liu Ban vaguely saw that on the sea in the distance, a large fleet was approaching.  , although it was a tailwind, the wind and waves were too strong, so the sails on the fleet had been lowered, and now a few lonely masts were particularly conspicuous. It was these thick masts that allowed him to tell at a glance that there were  A fleet.

    The waves on the sea have reached more than ten feet high, and the fleet is also being beaten by the waves, sailing towards the bay at an extremely fast speed, and when it finallyWhen the big ship in front was getting closer and closer, Liu Ban felt that the ship looked very familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before.
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