Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 210 Loyalty and Betrayal (Continued)
At dawn, golden sunlight shines through the mist and onto the sparkling sea.

The waves gently hit the side of the boat, as if the mermaid was calling softly.

Seagulls circle in the air, making cheerful calls, which, together with the white sand beach and several towering masts, form a moving morning song on the sea.

In the sky, the clouds were dyed a light orange by the rising sun, and there seemed to be a touch of mysterious glow on the horizon.

The sea breeze, with its salty and humid smell, blew away the afterimages of the night, as well as the haze and bloodiness left behind by the killing.

Two three-masted sailing ships were quietly anchored in the tranquil sea, with their sailors gathered on the deck.

They all held their breath and looked at the group of prisoners tied up like dumplings on the side of the ship, with complex emotions in their eyes.

There was anger, doubt, astonishment, and fear, but they were all silent, as if waiting for something.

"Wow..."

At sea, a big fish suddenly jumped out of the water, and then dived back quickly, stirring up waves.

Harvey raised his head, retracted his gaze, turned to the side, and looked at the more than ten Spanish sailors kneeling on the deck.

"Dani, do you have anything else to say?" He sighed slightly in his heart and asked in a deep voice.

"...Lord, may you forgive my transgressions and cleanse my soul!" Dani Olmo Carvajal knelt on the deck, his face stained with blood and his hair disheveled, muttering, "Holy, righteous, and faithful Heavenly Father, thank you for creating me, giving me life, and redeeming me from darkness..."

"Mr. Carvajal..." Xavi raised his voice a few degrees.

"..." Carvajal raised his head and blankly glanced at the Xinhua sailor on the opposite side, finally focusing on Xavi's eyes, "...are you ready to kill me?"

"Mr. Carvajal, why are you doing this?"

"Why?" Carvajal tilted his head and thought for a moment, then smiled bitterly, "To... survive."

"Want to live?" Harvey was slightly stunned when he heard this. "In our Xinhua, no one will hurt you, let alone kill you."

"But if we follow you, Xinhua, we'll all die. ... We'll all be buried with you, and that death would be meaningless."

"So, you chose to rebel and betray us?"

"Haha... betrayal? Xavi, you're a Spanish person like me."

"..." Harvey's expression froze, and he immediately felt several eyes around him looking at him.

"We in Xinhua not only have Spaniards, but also Ming people, Tatars, and even native aborigines." Harvey said loudly, "But now, all of us have a common identity, that is, Xinzhou Chinese!"

"Oh?..." Carvajal showed a hint of sarcasm, "Xavi, do you think you are a new Chinese?"

"...Of course!" Harvey said solemnly, "We created this country together, and each of us will be a founder of this country."

"No, no... You will be completely destroyed by the Kingdom of Spain, and all of you will be hanged. And the so-called New World China that you established will eventually disappear into thin air, just like the countless Indian tribes in America..."

"Captain, don't say anything more to him!" Erich, the Kaiyuan's trainee navigator, shouted loudly: "Kill them immediately and avenge the dead crew members!"

Harvey turned his head and looked at him. His arm was wrapped in bandages and there was a deep bloody wound on his face, which made his young face look more hideous.

He took a deep breath and stopped hesitating.

He waved to the crew on both sides, signaling them to come forward and put nooses on the dozen or so bound Spaniards one by one, preparing to hang them on the side of the ship.

Last night, after a farewell dinner, almost everyone except the island guards and sailors on duty was drunk, completely unaware that a long-planned crew mutiny was about to take place.

At three o'clock in the morning, Carvajal took more than ten Spanish sailors, killed two guards on duty at the dock, and then boarded the Kaiyuan.

They took advantage of the unpreparedness of the remaining personnel on the ship, controlled everyone and occupied the ship.

Then, they threatened the crew with death and forced them to follow them to sail the ship away from the island, escape into the sea at night, and plan to go to Guam in the west to rebel against Xinhua.

Since most of the crew members have families and relatives on Qiming Island, how could they listen to their threats and defect easily?

After killing three or four crew members on the spot, the remaining people began to waver in their inner determination due to their tyranny and fear of death, and more than ten crew members were ready to succumb to these defecting Spanish sailors.

However, several trainee naval officers on the ship behaved extremely tough. It was unknown what ideas they had been instilled with, but no matter how they were threatened, they would rather die than obey, and vowed to uphold the dignity and honor of a Xinhua Naval Officer.

This also put another part of the crew into an indecisive situation, and made several Spanish sailors who continued to intimidate and coerce them lose their composure for a while.

Just when they were about to kill and prepare to deal with these trainee officers and hesitant crew members with cruel means, they never expected that one of their companions suddenly turned against them, launched an attack, killed and injured several Spaniards, and successfully rescued many Xinhua sailors who were tied up and controlled.

After a fierce fight, the Xinhua sailors, who had the advantage in numbers, finally regained control of the Kaiyuan, killed seven rebellious Spanish sailors, captured the remaining fourteen, and put down the rebellion.

When the fleet commander Harvey heard the news and rushed over with his men, everything was already settled. A total of twelve Xinhua sailors were killed and nine sailors were injured.

If we add the 21 Spanish sailors who rebelled, the entire fleet lost 42 people!

The occurrence of this rebellion shocked and angered Harvey, and after learning the whole process of the incident, he was even more frightened.

If Carvajal and other Spanish sailors succeeded in defecting, they would definitely report Xinhua's most core secrets to the Spanish American colonial authorities, so that they would have more reliable and accurate reference materials when preparing and launching the invasion war.

It is no surprise that the locations of overseas supply bases such as Baisha Island, Black Shark Island, and Linhai Fort will be known to the Spanish, and there is a high probability that they will be attacked by their fleet.

The routes and times of the Xinhua immigrant fleets will also be known to the Spanish, allowing them to carry out targeted sabotage and attacks accordingly.

The number of Xinhua's ships, the deployment of coastal artillery batteries, the military strength on land, the distribution and defense of fortresses, etc., all this information will be exposed to the Spaniards.

It can be said that if the Spanish colonial authorities had defectors like Carvajal to lead the way, it would have posed an extremely deadly threat to Xinhua's security.

Fortunately, the rebellion was stopped in time by the brave and fearless sailors and did not cause the terrible consequences mentioned above.

However, they caused a large number of casualties among the sailors in the fleet, making it impossible for the remaining manpower to gather the operating personnel required for the two ships, and they might be forced to leave one ship on Baisha Island.

Thinking about it, it makes people angry and depressed.

"Do it!" Harvey took a last look at the Spanish sailor on the side of the ship, his eyes as sharp as knives, and gave the order coldly.

One by one, Spanish sailors were put on ropes, which were cold and hard, tightening around their throats as ruthlessly as fate, and then they were pushed over the side.

The Spanish sailor's eyes were filled with unwillingness to accept his fate and fear of death. His bound hands struggled hard, trying to free his hands and untie the noose around his neck that was getting tighter and tighter.

Their faces began to turn red, their breathing became rapid, their throats became hoarse from struggling, they kept making hissing sounds, and their feet kicked hard. After a long time, the Spanish sailors hanging on the side stopped struggling, their heads tilted to one side, their eyes bulging, their faces full of ferocious expressions, and their whole bodies swayed gently from side to side with the ropes.

"Crack!"

"thump!"

Several sailors cut the ropes with their knives and threw all the bodies into the sea, providing new food for countless fish in the sea.

"Redondo, you did a great job!" Harvey turned and walked towards the captain's room. When he passed a tall and thin Hispanic sailor, he stopped, patted him on the shoulder gently and praised him.

Redondo bent down slightly, lowered his head, and did not answer.

"Huh..." Harvey let out a breath, nodded, and left.

Although the Xinhua Decision-making Committee has relaxed its control over these Hispanic personnel to some extent, Harvey vaguely feels that there seems to be an extremely covert supervision mechanism, both on land and on several ships, that is always watching everyone.

Once someone attempts to do something wrong or commits an act of rebellion, he will be reported or retaliated against and dealt with quickly.

Like the defection incident that occurred on the Kaiyuan last night, if Redondo, who was mixed in, had not launched a sudden counterattack, Carvajal and other Spanish sailors might have already driven the ship into the deep sea, making the whole situation out of control.

It is obvious that Redondo did not act on impulse, nor was he inspired by the greater good and suddenly realized his mistake.

Perhaps a long time ago, he received a secret mission, hiding among the crew, monitoring anyone and anything that violated the rules.

Xavi did not complain too much about this and thought it was the right thing to do.

After all, Xinhua's base is too small and its strength is not strong. It cannot tolerate any omissions, let alone internal constraints or personnel repetitions.

If we are not careful, the entire group will fall into an irretrievable situation. We must not be complacent.

In this world, loyalty and betrayal happen from time to time. You never know why your comrades and companions around you will choose to betray you and stab you with a fatal sword.
-
Just as the Xinhua fleet was temporarily stranded on Baisha Island due to the rebellion of Spanish sailors, a short armed conflict broke out in early April on the distant Ku Niang Island (now Haiyang Island) in the Liaohai Sea, staging a drama of loyalty and betrayal.

The military leader of Dongjiang Town is causing trouble again!

Well, they didn’t stage a mutiny this time, but reached a higher “level”.

In response to Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde's Dengzhou rebellion, he also raised an army to rebel!
On April 4, Mao Chenglu (Mao Wenlong's nephew), the deputy general of Guanglu Island, ordered his subordinates to lead more than 9 boats and more than soldiers to launch a large-scale siege on Kuniang Island in order to seize the tens of thousands of shi of grain stored on the island.

It was originally thought that this tiny island, leased to merchants, would surrender without a fight after the army attacked, and tens of thousands of stones of grain could be easily captured. They would then go to support Li Jiuchen and Kong Youde who had rebelled in Dengzhou, and together they would establish an independent regime in Shandong and build a local power unique to their Dongjiang Town.

However, they did not expect that after two days of attack, they still could not take the island and instead lost hundreds of soldiers. This made Mao Chenglu extremely angry and he personally rushed from Guanglu Island to supervise the battle.

It's so embarrassing!

According to information from various channels, this small island was rented to an overseas merchant for 2,000 taels of silver by Shen Shikui, deputy general of Dongjiang Town, between July and August last year, and was used as a place for ships to anchor and rest and to collect refugees.

In the following months, the other side had ships coming from the south continuously, unloading bags of food and taking away bundles of furs sold in Dongjiang Town, going back and forth non-stop.

Sometimes, there would be ships taking away the Liaodong refugees who had been gathered there. No one knew where they were being taken to, and it seemed extremely busy.

Because of Shen Shikui's care and protection, the garrisons in Lushun and the Liaohai islands did not harass or extort the small island run by foreign merchants. Instead, they did small business with each other from time to time and gradually became familiar with each other.

The foreign merchants needed a large number of young and strong laborers to expand their colonies overseas. Therefore, they were very interested in the "surplus men" who were considered a big trouble by the islands of Dongjiang Town. As long as they were sent over, they would accept almost everyone. In less than half a year, they had taken in more than 5,000 refugees from Liaodong.

They cut down trees and built houses on Ku Niang Island, planted vegetables and fished, set up more than ten temporary camps of various sizes in the flat valley area, and cooked porridge every day to provide relief, so that the refugees gathered on the island could always hold on and not die of hunger and cold.

In August of the fourth year of Chongzhen, the Jiannu army marched into Jinzhou, and Zu Dashou was trapped in Dalinghhe City (now Jin County, Liaoning). Denglai Governor Sun Yuanhua urgently ordered Kong Youde to lead his troops to attack Yaozhou (near Yingkou today) by sea.

However, they encountered storms and failed, so they ordered Kong to lead 800 cavalrymen to rush to Liaodong by land to provide assistance.

Unexpectedly, Kong's troops had a dispute with local gentry in Wuqiao. Under the instigation of Li Jiuchen, they rose up in rebellion and then caused chaos in Shandong.

After the rebellion, Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde turned against the government and returned to the Shandong Peninsula, successively capturing Linyi, Lingxian, Shanghe, and Qingcheng cities, and led their troops straight to Dengzhou.

Upon hearing the news, Chen Youshi, deputy general of Lushun in Dongjiang Town, and Mao Chenglu, deputy general of Guanglu Island, also raised troops to respond.

For a time, most of the officers and soldiers stationed on the island in Dongjiang Town rebelled, trying to cooperate with the Shandong Li and Kong rebels in the north and south, and establish a group power belonging to their Liaodong warriors in one fell swoop.

Chen Shiyou led more than 3,000 rebels to occupy Lushun in order to block the reinforcements from Guanning and Tianjin. Mao Chenglu led thousands of rebels to plunder the islands of Dongjiang and accumulate gold, silver, grain and other supplies.

In more than half a month, Mao Chenglu led his troops to capture various islands, and every attack was successful. Either the islands surrendered without bloodshed, or they fled at the sight of the enemy. As a result, Mao's troops quickly controlled almost all the islands in the Liaohai Sea except Pi Island and Kuniang Island, and their prestige was unparalleled.

Pi Island is where Huang Long, the general of Dongjiang Town, is stationed. It has sufficient food and grass and a complete team of soldiers. The Mao tribe naturally did not dare to attack easily.

But it is different with Ku Niang Island. It is not only far away from Pi Island, but also only dozens of miles away from Guanglu Island. The Mao tribe can arrive there by boat overnight.

Moreover, there were no Dongjiang Town officers and soldiers stationed on the island. It was only run by an overseas merchant. Apart from thousands of Liaodong refugees, there was almost no military preparation.

Before this, no one came to stop him because they were afraid of Shen Shikui's relationship with him.

But now, they had already raised the flag of rebellion, so there was no need to hesitate. They directly seized the island and looted all the tens of thousands of stones of grain stored on it to meet the needs of the army.

However, what Mao Chenglu did not expect was that this small island turned out to be a tough nut to crack. After two days of gnawing, not only did he fail to take it, he also lost several teeth.

Looking at the several generals kneeling on the deck, Mao Chenglu immediately became furious and his face darkened.

"Behead them!" With his low shout, several personal soldiers immediately rushed forward, dragged those captains and captains to the side of the ship, chopped off their heads with their swords, and then brought them over to be executed.

"We will attack the island again tomorrow! If anyone shrinks back and delays the military operation, this will be the fate of the whole army!" Mao Chenglu glanced at the generals present and said sternly.

"I obey your command!" Upon hearing this, the generals were shocked and responded in unison.

"Hmph, a tiny island, these lowly foreign merchants, dare to stop our army. They really don't know how to live or die." Mao Chenglu snorted coldly, "Tomorrow, when we recapture this island, there's no need to put down your swords. Just slaughter them all to boost our reputation!"

"General, should we send someone to the island to persuade them to surrender, so as to avoid unnecessary loss of military strength?" Guanglu Island guerrilla Sun Yonghuai suggested.

"..." Mao Chenglu looked over sinisterly after hearing this.

"General, this is just a small island occupied by foreign merchants. It's not worth expending too much energy on our army," Sun Yonghuai explained hastily. "I heard that Huanglong of Pi Island is gathering troops and requisitioning ships, intending to attack our Liaohai Islands and Lushun from the west. If we waste too much time on this small island, we might be able to let the imperial army take advantage of it..."

"In that case, you will go to the island tomorrow to meet with the foreign merchant and ask him to surrender the island." Mao Chenglu said in a deep voice: "If you continue to resist, once my army captures the island, no one will be left alive!"

“…I obey your command!”

(End of this chapter)