On December 24, 1635 AD, the day before Christmas, the red cross flag symbolizing the Spanish monarchy slowly lowered from the sky above the Santiago Fort in Manila, and then a dragon flag symbolizing the Ming Dynasty slowly rose and fluttered.
Before the dragon flag was raised, three Ming army infantry regiments had already entered the fortress, occupied various key points, and confiscated the weapons and armor of the Spanish defenders... The Santiago Fort is now completely under control. Under the control of the Ming Army, the name will also be changed to "Fort Luzon", becoming the fundamental city of the Ming Dynasty on Luzon Island.
The Spaniards and their families, a total of more than 10,000 people who had been crowded in the fortress, all left the fortress empty-handed.
Hey, why are there more than 10,000 people? Isn’t it two thousand? Was it a mistake? Of course not, but the statistical caliber is different.
The Spanish colonies were very large and ruled a large population, but there were only more than 5 million Spanish nationals among them. Most of them lived in Europe, and less than 500,000 lived in the vast colonies of the Spanish Empire. And among these less than 500,000 people, almost all are Hispanic whites and European whites. It is difficult for mixed-race whites and people of color to obtain Spanish nationality, even if their fathers are Hispanic whites.
On the other hand, colonial whites born in the colonies whose both parents are Hispanic whites can easily obtain nationality. But there are very few such people, because most of the colonists who left Europe in this era were adult males, so their descendants are mostly mixed-race whites.
Compared with New Spain, the Philippines is further away from Europe and the living conditions are more difficult. White women are even rarer. At the same time, the Spanish men living in the Philippines are all superior to others, and most of them are young and strong. Of course, they have to find some women for themselves... So the Spaniards who came out of Santiago Castle all brought With women and children, there were thirteen or four thousand including them.
Even the highly respected Archbishop Gonzalez led two young women and three children. The two young women were both mixed-race whites, and their appearance was quite pleasing.
The Spanish-speaking Chinese at the Cavite commercial port, both men and women, were recruited to the gate of the Santiago Fort. They took notebooks and brushes to register the Spaniards who came out of the Santiago Fort - their identities and status had to be ascertained. , property situation, it is good to change to retail if wholesale fails.
The person who registered Bishop Gonzalez's family was Lupeter's brother Trinidad, now named Luda.
The young man glanced around and said in Spanish: "Bishop Gonzales and his family, a total of six Spaniards..."
"Wait, why are there six Spaniards?" Bishop Gonzalez was stunned. "Trinidad, you don't know about my family's situation? I'm the only one Spanish!"
Luda counted again seriously: "One, two, three, four, five, six...six, that's right!"
"They are not Spanish," Gonzalez said, pointing to his two wives and three children. "They do not have Spanish nationality..."
Luda smiled and said: "Bishop, Luzon is now the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and Chinese rules are followed! They are your concubines, you are Spanish, of course they are Spanish! You and their children , naturally Spanish too.”
"But they are illegitimate children!" Bishop Gonzalez defended, pointing to the three children.
"According to Chinese rules, illegitimate children are also legal children!" Luda said with a smile, "They can legally inherit your property and surname... So there are six Spaniards in your family, and Philip IV needs to pay six contributions. The total ransom was 6,000 silver pesos.”
"Oh, my God!" Gonzalez cried, "You can't calculate like this, the king will not give it..."
Philip IV, who had long been in debt, might not even be able to give him 2 million silver pesos! If it were doubled several times, it would be more than ten million silver pesos. How could Philip IV give it?
"Then let's retail!" Luda handed the book that recorded the population and names of the Gonzalez family (he knew the Gonzalez family and knew their names without asking) to the stunned bishop. "You have a family of six, and you are a bishop. Of course it is a little more expensive, 300,000, and each of the five people is 5,000 silver pesos, plus living expenses, it is 600 silver pesos a month.
You will leave when the money is delivered...and we can also issue you more receipts, even 500,000! Maybe the Pope can reimburse you? You were kidnapped for spreading the teachings of Jesus, and he should pay you back. "
Well, I even reported the expenses... Bishop Gonzalez was speechless.
However, although three hundred thousand silver pesos is a large amount of money for Bishop Gonzalez, it is not impossible to spend... Van Diemen and Zheng Zhilong are both honest businessmen and cannot be tied up with a ticket. It makes people bankrupt.
But not all Spaniards in the Philippines are bishops, governors, or prosecutors-in-chief. What should they do? It's impossible for each of them to come up with five or six thousand silver pesos!
"No, this won't work!" Bishop Gonzalez shouted, looking very angry, "You can't calculate like this...and the king can't give you that much ransom! I won't give you that much ransom myself. Rich!"
Luda smiled, handed the book to Bishop Gonzalez, and said with a smile: "Bishop, you'd better sign it... If I were you, I would definitely sign it, it's only more than 300,000, Over the years you have been in Luzon, you have earned more than this amount of silver pesos. If you sign and then choose retail to redeem yourself, you and your family will be VIPs of Cavite’s commercial port.
If you don't sign, then you will have to work with ordinary Spanish captives, waiting for your king to find his conscience and spend money to redeem you. If Philip IV does not pay the ransom within the stipulated time, you will lose a precious organ and you will have to do hard labor! "
"Precious organs? What do you want to do?" Bishop Gonzalez looked at Luda in horror, the Chinese who had tried so hard to curry favor with him.
"Don't worry," Luda smiled, "that organ is completely unnecessary for you...a priest who serves God wholeheartedly!"
The extra organ... Gonzalez felt a shiver somewhere inside his crotch.
Luda continued: "But your family will be miserable..." He glanced at Gonzalez's two concubines and a daughter, "The women and girls will be auctioned! And the two boys , will be castrated, then become a slave, and work hard until death!"
Both of Gonzalez's concubines could understand Spanish, and his daughter was also sensible. After hearing Luda's words, they all cried.
"Master, don't abandon us, we are Spaniards!"
"For God's sake, don't abandon us..."
Bishop Gonzalez gave in, "I sign, I pay to redeem us and myself. I have money in a bank in Italy. I will write to my friend in New Spain and ask him to withdraw the money for me." .....You can give me a receipt for 500,000 later!"
Luda smiled and said: "Okay, no problem...I'll issue a receipt as soon as I get the money!"
Gonzalez had just finished signing when he suddenly heard someone crying from far away. He looked back and found that many Pampanga natives were being escorted by fierce-looking Yamada Party warriors.
The bishop listened carefully and his expression changed again.
"We are Spaniards! Governor, bishop, general prosecutor... you can't abandon us!"
"We shed blood for His Majesty the King, we fought for Spain, so we are Spanish..."
Come on, there are more and more Spanish people! Even the natives of Pampanga, who do not have a trace of Spanish blood and do not have a Spanish male master, are now crying and shouting that they want to be Spanish.
Because becoming a Spaniard, there is still a way to survive - if Philip IV is willing to redeem them!
If you can't become a Spaniard, you will have to wait to be auctioned and become a slave...
