The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 620 Suddenly Turns Against Me
Time flies, and it's already the end of August.

As the north wind picks up, the weather in the capital city is starting to turn cooler.

Emperor Wanli also began to mobilize troops and prepare for an expedition to Southeast Asia.

He even planned to hold the military examinations and the palace examinations in Southeast Asia.

On the first day of the ninth lunar month, around 7:00 AM, a group of generals gathered at the Tongzhou Grand Canal Wharf aboard the dark-colored Weiyuan warship.

This time, Wanli not only recruited naval commanders, commanders of the Beijing garrison, and commanders of the border troops, but he also recruited quite a few others.

Everyone was sitting around the large table on the second floor of the warship, staring at the huge map on it.

Emperor Wanli picked up a slender white waxwood stick, pointed at the map, and said, "Yuan Jing's side is already prepared and can launch an attack at any time. I agreed with him to make a move together on the tenth day of the ninth month."

We have a limited number of ships, and the sea route is quite long, so this time we will have to transport personnel, supplies, and provisions in batches.

"General Ma, have the 500,000 garrison troops of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission been transferred to the vicinity of the port and dock in southeastern Liaodong?"

General Ma Gui of Liaodong Garrison nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, they have been here for a long time."

Wanli nodded slightly, then instructed, "Yuansheng, later you will send your trusted men with a hundred flying shuttles to Luzon."

On the eighth day of the ninth month, your men who stayed there to protect the merchants should withdraw. At the same time, Pan and Wu should turn against the Spanish on the tenth day of the ninth month.

Also, today you will travel back to Liaodong with General Ma on the flying shuttle.

Tomorrow morning, you and General Ma will lead the Fujian warships, carrying the 500,000 garrison soldiers, to Dongfan.

With favorable winds and currents, Fujian warships can travel over a hundred li in an hour without any problem. I will give you six days; you must reach Dongfan South Port before the eighth day of the ninth month.

Then they released the 500,000 garrison soldiers and ordered them to quickly load food onto the Fujian warships.

On the morning of the 8th of September, you must take at least one million shi of grain and head towards Luzon Island. By the morning of the 11th of September, you must reach the sea area about 100 miles north of Manila Bay.

Please think carefully about whether there are any problems with this schedule.

This will likely require traveling day and night.

However, it's not a big problem.

Upon hearing this, Li Yuansheng thought about it carefully and then nodded repeatedly, saying, "Your Majesty, there is no problem."

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "Kemai, did you bring your centipede ships and flying shuttles with you?"

Yu Zigao nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, there are now five thousand centipede ships and more than fourteen hundred flying shuttle ships anchored outside the mouth of the Haihe River."

Wanli nodded slightly, then pointed to the map and instructed: "Today, you shall order five thousand centipede ships to take turns going to the Datong Bridge canal wharf to pick up the soldiers and warhorses of the Shenwu Vanguard and Shenwu Rearguard."

After the five thousand centipede ships loaded with the soldiers and warhorses of the Divine Martial Camp, they set off, aiming to reach Dongfan South Port before the tenth day of the ninth month.

"And those 1,400-plus flying shuttle ships will go today to fetch the soldiers of the Left and Right Divine Machine Battalions, as well as all the martial arts candidates participating in the imperial examination, to join us. We will set off together early tomorrow morning for Dongfan South Port."

Upon hearing this, Yu Zigao nodded repeatedly and said, "This subordinate understands."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun was incredibly excited.

Now we're finally heading to the real battlefield.

At this time, Manila, the city that served as the battlefield, remained peaceful, and the Spanish colonists were completely unaware of the situation.

Early in the morning of the eighth day of the ninth lunar month, just as the sun was rising, a bunch of strange-looking ships suddenly appeared outside Manila Harbor. The ships seemed to be flying the Kapitan flag.

Kapitan's fleet frequently came to deliver goods, and the Spanish were used to it.

On the surface, they were still cooperating, and the Spanish soldiers stationed on the port forts had no intention of firing their cannons at these strange ships.

They simply approached the ship and asked as it drew near the dock.

After giving a few perfunctory words, Kapitan's trusted men hurriedly went to summon the musketeers who were guarding the merchant gathering area outside the city. Soon, two thousand musketeers arrived at the dock one after another and boarded the ship.

Immediately afterwards, these hundreds of strange-looking ships hurriedly left the port and dock with two thousand musketeers on board!
Now, the Spaniards have something to think about.

At this time, the Governor of Manila, Luis Pérez, was the son of the former Governor, Gómez Pérez, who had been killed by Pan and Wu.

This guy has always been thinking about avenging his father, or rather, he wants to use this excuse to massacre Ming Dynasty merchants and make a fortune.

It was precisely because he kept writing letters emphasizing the threat that Ming merchants posed to their colonial rule in Luzon that the King of Spain ordered reinforcements to be sent to Manila in preparation for dealing with the Ming merchants.

He had wanted to make a move for a long time.

Unfortunately, Kapitan kept sending people to protect those merchants, so they couldn't do anything about it.

They still need to purchase large quantities of goods through Kapitan to make money, so it's definitely not a good idea to break ties with this guy.

Moreover, the number of musketeers sent by the Kapitan to protect the merchants was about the same as their own, so even if they broke off relations, they might not be able to defeat them.

Therefore, he has been patiently waiting for the right opportunity for the past few years.

Upon hearing that Kapitan's men had suddenly withdrawn, he immediately dispatched his men to investigate the area outside the city where Ming Dynasty merchants gathered.

On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, which was the Double Ninth Festival, the Ming Dynasty merchant district outside Manila was bustling with activity, just like during the New Year. Everyone seemed to be celebrating, but none of the musketeers under Kapitan's command were to be seen.

Upon receiving the news, Louis could no longer contain himself and prepared to take action.

Early in the morning of the eleventh day of the ninth month, around 7 a.m., he deliberately sent a troop of musketeers to collect taxes in the area outside the city where Ming Dynasty merchants gathered.

These guys were absolutely vicious. They would beat up any Ming Dynasty merchant, regardless of whether they paid taxes or not, and would even smash up any shop they found.

Chaos erupted outside Manila, with chickens running wild and dogs howling.

The tax collection was actually a pretext; Louis's real intention was to provoke resistance from Ming Dynasty merchants so that he could seize the opportunity to turn against them.

He never expected that Pan and Wu also wanted to take this opportunity to turn against him and lure out all the musketeers in Manila.

The two sides hit it off immediately.

Soon, the Ming merchants began to resist. Countless strong men suddenly rushed forward, seized the musketeers' guns, and then pinned them to the ground and beat them severely.

As a result, only one of the musketeers managed to escape back into the city by sheer luck, while the rest were surrounded outside the city by the enraged Ming merchants, their fates unknown.

Now that the opportunity had come, Louis did not hesitate to send thousands of musketeers to besiege the Ming merchants.

He originally thought it was just a one-sided massacre.

To everyone's surprise, a fierce battle soon broke out outside the city.

It's unclear whether those Ming Dynasty merchants already possessed muskets or had stolen them from that large group of musketeers.

In short, the thousands of musketeers seemed unable to deal with the Ming merchants. The gunfight outside the city never stopped, and as the fighting continued, the thousands of musketeers seemed to be unable to hold on.

Upon hearing the news, Louis immediately dispatched all the musketeers he could.

Just as they were getting into a heated argument, a black dot suddenly appeared outside Manila Harbor.

Those densely packed ones must number in the thousands.

One of the black dots looked quite large; from a distance, it looked as if a small island had suddenly appeared on the sea.

Upon seeing this, the garrison at the Manila port fort immediately sent messengers to the city to report the emergency.

Louis was stunned when he heard the news.

How come thousands of ships suddenly appeared outside the harbor?
(End of this chapter)