In Luzon, the largest number of Han people in the Ming Dynasty reached 30,000 to 40,000. Later, when the Longqing Dynasty switch was switched, our Li family, like other Han people, began to engage in maritime trade between the Ming Dynasty and Luzon.

At that time, although our Li family was a relatively large caravan in Luzon, it was not the largest. In addition to Xu Ershu's family, there were at least seven or eight caravans larger than ours in Luzon.

However, in the 30th year of Wanli in this dynasty, the emperor believed a man named Zhang Yi, saying that on Luzon, one could mine 100,000 taels of gold and 300,000 taels of silver every year. So the emperor sent people to Luzon to discuss the mining in Luzon with the chief of Luzon. At this time, Luzon had been occupied by Westerners for more than 30 years.

The request made by the envoy sent by the emperor was rejected by the Westerners. So the court's proposal to mine in Luzon did just that.

However, the emperor's sudden whim decision caused us Han people who settled in Luzon.

Since Luzon has always been a vassal state of our Ming Dynasty, the Westerners believed that the emperor's real purpose of sending envoys to Luzon this time was to find out the truth and reality of Luzon, and planned to send troops to Luzon and help the Luzons drive them away. Therefore, the Westerners began to restrict the actions of our Han people and confiscate our iron tools.

The Western practices naturally aroused the alertness of us Han people. So many caravans began to secretly organize forces to defend themselves.

After the Westerners discovered this incident, they sent a large number of troops to massacre the Han people in Luzon. Their order was to kill all Han people.

At that time, my father had a friend who was a local and was helping Westerners. After receiving this news, he immediately told my father quietly.

My father got this news and quickly sent someone to report the Han caravans in Luzon as quickly as possible. At the same time, he began to prepare to escape from Luzon. However, because the seven or eight caravans had just recently purchased a batch of goods from the Ming Dynasty. The goods had just moved into the commercial bank and had not yet come to take action. They were reluctant to leave the goods. In addition, they had always been in a competitive relationship with our Li family and did not believe my father's words. They believed that Westerners were just for some money and would not really attack them. Even if the Westerners really came, they would settle the money.

However, what they did not expect was that this time, the Westerners were really serious. They first blocked the harbor and then massacred us Han people in Luzon. They really killed everyone they saw, and they didn’t even give them a chance to speak!

Fortunately, our father had not unloaded the raw silk and porcelain shipped from the Ming Dynasty this time, and Xu Er's uncle had not arrived yet because their caravan had not arrived yet. He happened to be sick this time, so he delayed the purchase of goods for a few days, and he did not go with him.

My father and Uncle Xu, with their family, caravans and boats, had just escaped from the Port of Manila when the Westerners blocked the port.

My father and Uncle Xu did not dare to stay because they were afraid that Westerners would chase out of the port, so they drove all the way north. Fortunately, they soon went out to sea and met the merchant fleet of Uncle Xu's house who was heading south from the Ming Dynasty. So they all formed two into one and turned north.

They went to the East China first. There, my father settled down. However, Uncle Xu was not used to life in the East China. Soon, he took the Xu family merchant ship back to the Ming Dynasty, intending to do a longer-distance Nanyang trade.

Since then, all the merchant ships of our Li and Xu families have begun to assemble artillery and have organized their own protective caravans.

Gradually, our power developed into the two largest forces in the Southeast Sea, and even the current Westerners dare not attack us easily.

Since most of the trafficking of our Li and Xu families are private goods, many people in the court call us pirates. However, we have never done anything to rob other merchant ships. We are even more unpredictable to the merchants along the coast. Sometimes when the weather is not good, our Li family also needs to use shops located in various places to serve porridge.

Thirteen years ago, the massacre on Luzon Island killed the most people in our Zhangzhou. Among them, my mother was also the one who was born.

At that time, my mother went to my grandmother's house. My grandmother's house was not in Port Manila. As soon as my father got the news that the Westerners were about to attack us, he immediately sent someone to find my mother. But it was still too late. In the end, neither my mother nor the servant who was looking for someone could escape."

Speaking of this, Li Ying's voice choked. Her emotions were a little excited, and crystal tears appeared in her eyes.

"I once swore to Mazu that I must kill all the Westerners on Luzon Island in this life and avenge my mother."

Yu Ren approached Li Ying a little closer and reached out to hug her gently in his arms. He felt her body trembling gently. Obviously, the massacre had a great impact on Li Ying's mind, although she was only a six or seven-year-old child at that time.

"Don't worry, Westerners dare to do such a thing that both humans and gods are angry, and God will not let them go." Yu Ren comforted her.

"But the Westerners' ships are so strong that they have been operating in Luzon for more than 40 years. Do you think, can I avenge this revenge?" Li Ying was obviously not very confident in defeating the Westerners.

"Don't worry! As long as we work hard, this revenge will be avenged sooner or later." Yu Ren gently patted Li Ying's shoulder and comforted her.

"Are you going back to China to prepare to expand your strength to avenge the Westerners in Luzon?"

Li Ying nodded.

"A few years ago, our family was always in the East. Five years ago, when I was fifteen, my father allowed me to bring a group of warships and merchant ships back to my hometown Zhangzhou. My father said that he was old and he no longer wanted to take revenge, but just wanted his wife to spend the rest of her life in a mediocre way.

But I can't do it, and this revenge is always in my heart. In order to avenge, I have been urinating on the sea boat since I was a child. By the time I was fifteen years old, my father had already handed over most of our business to me. On my fifteenth birthday, I suddenly proposed to my father that I would take a group of people back to my hometown to develop.

My father didn't speak for a long time. He saw what I was thinking, but he did not object.

In this way, I took away most of the Li family's power in the East, forty-seven merchant ships and fifteen warships. I took these ships and first arrived in Zhangzhou, and we still mainly transported by sea. But in secret, I recruited many descendants who were killed in Luzon. As a result, I began to organize a team of revenge.

I originally planned to develop directly in Fujian and then lead the team to Luzon.

But later I met Mr. Qu.

Mr. Qu was originally a scholar who had settled down. Later, he also learned from others to go to Nanyang to sell goods with ships. He had been to Luzon many times.

However, Mr. Qu was not very lucky, and his business was getting worse and worse. By the time I met him, he could not even afford to pay for the boat back to his hometown. Seeing that he was a good talker and was a fellow villager in Zhangzhou, I asked him to take our Li family's boat to foreign depreciate the goods, and waived his boat fare.

Later, Mr. Qu voluntarily joined our Li family caravan. After he knew that I was going to seek revenge on the Westerners in Luzon, he took the initiative to find me. He said that he had been to Luzon many times, and the Westerners there were very powerful, and their armored ships, large hulls, and artillery were much more beneficial than ours.

If we want to defeat them, we are still far from our current strength. So he offered me a suggestion to join forces with the Xu family, take over all the pirates of the southeast coast, and then monopolize the overseas trade of the southeast coast.

In this way, you can get huge profits. With money, the ship is no problem. So I followed Mr. Qu's advice and began to concentrate on the maritime trade in the southeast half of the wall. Until today."

After listening to Li Yu, no, it should be Li Ying's story, so he had some real understanding of their Li family. But he was also confused at the same time.

"Then, will the court ignore the expansion forces like your family that are raising their own strength on the southeast coast?"

Li Ying smiled softly. "Court? The senior officials in the court would not know about our Li family at all. Because we never do anything in China that violates the Ming Dynasty's laws. Although we have shops in many prefectures along the southeast coast, the people in our shops are serious businessmen and they pay commercial taxes to the court according to regulations.

As for the generals of the garrison, we also have silver for filial piety every year. They are the masters who have money and everything. As long as we don’t cause trouble for them, they will be lazy to care about us! What’s more, there is money to take."
Chapter completed!