Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 279: Shenyang Incident (Part )

Liaodong Town, Zhongwei, Shenyang.

When the arms dealer Harald Brandt traveled north to the capital, he presented the emperor with a tribute of ten cannons and one hundred muskets. To strengthen the defenses of the northern border, the emperor sent all of this weaponry to Liaodong.

Along with the weapons, two squads of Spanish mercenaries and a Jesuit missionary translator were also transferred to Liaodong. Although this squad was severely understaffed according to the battalion system, including the commander and the missionary who served as the translator, there were only twenty-three foreigners, less than five squads. Nevertheless, Xiong Tingbi organized these foreigners who arrived in Liaodong into a separate squad, allocating supplies to each squad of fifty men. In other words, the living standard of the foreign mercenaries was at least twice that of the ordinary defenders.

This team was now stationed in Shenyang, under the command of He Shixian, the general commander of the Shenyang garrison. In order to expand the size of the artillery unit, He Shixian selected two teams of Han Chinese from his own general standard battalion to learn Western artillery techniques.

"Carthage bowed down to the Roman Empire,"

"Noble head!"

"Numancia resisted the commander-in-chief Africa in vain."

"The commander-in-chief was victorious, and all the men of Numancia died in the battle!"

"Marcelo had previously deprived Siracusa of his freedom."

"Caesar with his iron fist,"

"Subjugated France."

"And took the unyielding Roman by the throat, and conquered him."

"But Rome triumphed in the end! He conquered all the lands."

"Amidst the ruins, the pagans weep."

"Because he made a sacrifice to Mars."

"But please look at the distant,"

"The Great Chinese Empire under the banner of Jesus."

"How he bowed his noble head before the christening ceremony!"

After lunch, Father Alfaro González de Mendoza read his sonnet, "Transforming the Great Chinese Empire into a Catholic State," which was made up of allusions, in Spanish to the 22 Spanish mercenaries wearing Chinese uniforms. This was Father Mendoza's daily ritual before his sermon.

Because the mercenaries' bases were relatively independent and they didn't speak the same language, their collective activities of reciting poetry and preaching were never hindered. The Shenyang military had always assumed these strange-looking Semites were performing some kind of ritual offering sacrifices to heaven and earth and ancestors, much like the local and southern troops supporting Liaodong.

But recently, the frequency of joint training between foreigners and Chinese has increased, and the contact between apprentices and instructors has become more frequent. Of course, the fanatical missionaries would not miss this precious opportunity and began to cross the border to preach to the artillery apprentices.

"Carthage bowed his noble head to the Roman Empire!"

After reading it in Spanish, Father Mendoza translated his sonnet into Chinese and read it to the curious artillery apprentices who were watching.

Shenyang only had northern troops stationed there, no southern troops. Alfaro Mendoza spoke a southern dialect somewhere between Fujian and Cantonese, and he spoke so quickly that the soldiers who had come to watch the fun only vaguely understood he was speaking Chinese, not what he was actually saying. The soldiers gathered around him, rather than listening to his speech, felt more like they were watching a strange spectacle, a monkey show.

Alfaro Mendoza was very keenly aware of the Lambs' doubts, so he slowed down his speech, almost enunciating each word:

"If one does not respect the Lord and does not live in the light of Christian truth, he will lose his subtle and perceptive intellect. Thus, he will sink into ignorance and degenerate into blindness."

“Idolatry is false, and sacrifice to the devil is evil.”

"Throw yourself into the arms of my Lord and follow his teachings, and my Lord will forgive your innate sins." When he said this, the soldiers who came to watch the fun finally heard what he was saying.

"Sin? Your Japanese spider said I am guilty. Then tell me, which law have I broken?" The soldier, who was stared at by Father Mendoza, snorted with disdain.

Father Mendoza's eyes lit up. His gaze was deliberate. The greatest enemy of missionary work wasn't opposition, but indifference. Any opposition was an opportunity for him to engage in debate, thereby spreading the Lord's teachings to those around him. He excitedly explained, "This sin isn't a crime committed because of a violation of the law. It's an innate sin, present from the moment we're born."

"Bullshit! You've been guilty since you were born." Father Mendoza thought he had used a wonderful metaphor, but he didn't know that what he said was equivalent to saying that the other person was a bastard.

"Don't be afraid." Father Mendoza, a devoted servant of Jesus Christ and a resolute missionary, had seen many similar indigenous lambs. He no longer felt the slightest anger or fear at such scolding. He leaned closer to the soldier and spoke in his slow, deep voice, trying his best to speak: "You are not the only one who is guilty. I, we, everyone in the world, have original sin. But if we shun idolatry, false gods, and all forms of superstition, and acknowledge the superiority of the Gospel's precepts over outdated rituals and illusions, and sincerely worship our Lord, we can forgive and reduce humanity's innate original sin and attain salvation."

The soldier being stared at by Father Mendoza did not feel solemn and mysterious because of his deep voice. Instead, he felt that this guy was possessed by some kind of demon.

The soldier took a step back, but Father Mendoza spoke even more vigorously:
"This great empire is shrouded in obscurity and evil. The emperor and his cautious ministers are trapped within the devil's cleverly crafted illusions. They are obsessed with the evil idolatry of pagans and worship those buildings and tablets carved from worthless stone and rotten wood. This is leading the great empire and its people, who should have been blessed, into evil depravity. Only under the shining light of the gospel and under the protection of our Lord can we break through the door closed by the devil's illusions and convert the empire to the holy faith of Christ!"

When he put the words "evil" and "emperor" together, the soldiers watching the excitement immediately felt something was wrong. The soldiers on the periphery who didn't want to cause trouble began to disperse, and the barracks area gradually became noisy. The scouts who were specially assigned to guard the area noticed the unusual situation. They hurriedly grabbed a soldier who was leaving and asked, "What's going on here? Why is there such a commotion?"

"There is a blue-eyed Semite who is slandering the emperor and the court." The artillery apprentice, whose wrist was strangled, said in a lost voice for fear of being implicated.

"Are you sure!?" Besides preventing sabotage by spies, the scouts' job was to conduct reconnaissance missions. The latest intelligence indicated that the Jiannu were also attempting to ascertain the Ming army's movements and dispositions, and had begun making tentative moves. Therefore, all the scouts, including him, were on edge. "This is a capital offense!"

"How could it be fake? Go and listen for yourself!" the artillery apprentice practically screamed. "That Semitic man said the emperor was possessed by a demon, and that all the high officials in the court were possessed by demons. He said he had to believe in some Japanese spider to wake up."

The word "mutiny" immediately popped into the scout's mind. He abandoned his artillery apprentice and ran to his captain to explain the situation. The captain realized this was beyond his control and broke into a run as well, but he was heading for the tent of General He Shixian.

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In the central military tent, He Shixian, fresh from lunch, was preparing to take a short nap to refresh himself. He'd been feeling a bit restless lately, and had thought that with General Xiong's relocation to Liaoyang, his happy drinking life would resume. But Sun Chuanting, like a motherly womanizer, wouldn't tolerate his excessive drinking. He would constantly sneak into his tent at random times, stealing the alcohol he found. Even if he tried to drink secretly, there was no way.

In the past, when they could beat him, they could still negotiate through fighting. But now, He Shixian was completely unable to defeat the young and strong Sun Chuanting. He Shixian often complained in his heart that Sun Chuanting was clearly a civil servant with a regular degree, but he was as strong as a bull.

He had no choice but to reduce his drinking, which caused his body to experience withdrawal symptoms, which manifested as irritability and lethargy.

"General!" The scout team hurriedly ran into He Shixian's central military tent without encountering any obstruction.

"What are you yelling about?" Although a little impatient, He Shixian still sat up.

"Someone's mutinying!" The information was distorted again by the nervous scouts. But he couldn't be blamed. On the front lines of the country, hearing nonsense like "The Emperor is possessed by evil spirits" was hard not to associate with inciting a mutiny.

"What!" He Shixian's scalp suddenly went numb. "Who wants to rebel!" He Shixian didn't wait for an answer and roared at the top of his voice. "Someone come!"

"General." The guards and messengers outside the tent immediately entered the central military tent to await orders.

"Put on the armor." He Shixian came to the side of the armor and stood still. Then he repeated the previous question. "Who wants to rebel?"

"Those Semites in the military camp incited those who participated in the drill this morning. They said that the emperor and the cabinet were possessed by evil spirits and needed the blessing of a Japanese spider to wake up." While the scout captain was speaking,
"I've long suspected that that mystical foreign scholar was suspicious!" He Shixian ordered the messenger. "Have You Shiwei and his men surround the Semite camp! Don't move until I arrive."

He Shixian's mind was still very clear when he was not drinking. After all, the foreigners were transferred here by order of the emperor, and it would be difficult to explain them if they were to be suppressed with knives rashly.

"Yes." The messenger left quickly and headed towards You Shiwei's military tent.

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"I command you rebels to immediately lay down your weapons!" Before He Shixian arrived, You Shiwei's cavalry had already cleared the area. Clearing the ground and prohibiting entry and exit were essential for dealing with situations like this. If the rebels weren't isolated, a small, easily suppressed mutiny could easily escalate into a major uprising.

"Drop your weapons!" the cavalrymen shouted, following their captain's lead. But they didn't particularly want the Semites to surrender. As long as they could prove the Semites were rebelling, their heads would instantly convert into an equal, or even greater, amount of silver and military merit. The "first merit" of these brown-haired Semites was so easily verifiable that the civil servants examining the heads couldn't deny it.

"What are they going to do?" A mercenary with brown hair and brown eyes tightly grasped the saber in his hand. Although the saber was useless against the fully armored cavalry, it was their only support besides each other.

"Why did these Chinese suddenly surround us?" Another mercenary looked at the commander tremblingly, his eyes full of fear and anxiety.

"I don't know either." The commander couldn't understand what the people surrounding them were saying. He only felt a mountain of sound surge over him. "Father Alfaro Mendoza! What are they going to do?"

"The Chinese say you are rebels." This scene reminded Alfaro Mendoza of the rumored Nanjing Incident.

He was a missionary who arrived in China from Manila, Philippines, in the 45th year of the Wanli reign. He had not personally witnessed the Nanjing Incident. However, he had heard from two expelled missionaries, Wang Fengsu and Xie Wulu, that on the day of the Nanjing Incident, a group of soldiers surrounded the missionaries' residence. Then, a crude military officer ordered the soldiers to take the man to prison on a trumped-up charge.

Thinking of this, a martyr-like spirit suddenly rose in the heart of missionary Alfaro Mendoza.

"Who have we betrayed? Tell them we're not rebels!" The commander was on the verge of collapse. He recognized You Shiwei's hand gestures. With just one slash of that raised right hand, the cavalry would charge. Seeing the fanaticism in Father Mendoza's eyes, the commander suddenly regretted spending his free time seeking out prostitutes instead of learning this complex language. He could only rely on this seemingly insane priest to communicate with the Chinese.

"Even if we die, we are servants of Jesus Christ." Alfaro Mendoza was already immersed in his romantic fantasy. He danced and shouted again and again: "We serve Jesus Christ! We have never betrayed him!"

Elsewhere, You Shiwei's brow furrowed in frustration, bewildered by Father Mendoza's southern accent. He could only vaguely make out simple, easily understood words like "death" and "betrayal." But the order he had received was to surround, not suppress. The hand hovering in the air was merely a deterrent.

There was a commotion in the rear, and You Shiwei looked back. He saw the fully-dressed General He Shixian pushing his way through the crowd. He quickly withdrew his gesture, dismounted, and reported, "General, they refuse to lay down their weapons."

"Yeah." As early as when he was outside the encirclement, he knew that the only people causing trouble were the Semites, and the Semites did not have weapons strong enough to penetrate armor.

Feeling confident, He Shixian walked to a position about ten steps away from the mercenaries with a stern face and shouted at the foreign scholar who was almost insane and indulging in fantasy: "This town orders you to make them lay down their weapons!"

(End of this chapter)