Chapter 2946
The town of Masbate does not have any special properties. The Spanish chose to establish a colonial settlement here mainly because of its geographical advantage of guarding important waterways in the central region of the Philippine Islands.
However, because this place is too close to the Hai-Han rule and has been raided by the Hai-Han army many times in the past, the Spanish colonial authorities did not dare to carry out large-scale construction and develop commercial and trade industries here. Therefore, most of the Spanish immigrants living here only make a living by farming and fishing. , and had to pay taxes to the colonial authorities, so the standard of living was really low.
Zheng Agui led people to search thirty or forty households one after another. Most of them were from poor families and had no valuable possessions at all. The total contents of a house might not be enough to exchange for a musket. To expect these people to arm themselves to resist Haihan would require considerable investment, and the colonial authorities obviously had no such plans.
"These people are too poor... The immigrants in Bangui who have just moved from Fuguang to settle down are in much better conditions than them."
As Zheng Agui spoke, he lowered the torch, took a look at the situation in the room, shook his head and prepared to leave. The space in this wooden shack is very small. If the torch is raised too high, it might set the house on fire.
Qin Bo continued what he said: "It is said that residents here must hand over half of their income to the government. Of course, it is difficult to escape poverty."
They got out of the shanty and were about to leave, but Qiu Yong grabbed Zheng Agui, then made a silencing gesture, and pointed at the shanty they had just checked, indicating that there seemed to be something else going on here.
Zheng Agui knew that Qiu Yong's hearing and smell were extremely sensitive. Seeing his reaction or finding something, he immediately signaled Qin Bo to take the others and leave. Qin Bo understood this and asked the sailors accompanying the team to make some noise and slowly walk away with torches.
The remaining people, together with Zheng Agui, stood silently in the darkness and waited.
After a while, there was indeed some noise coming from the shack, but it didn't sound like a human voice. Qiu Yong slowly lay down on the ground, turned his head and put his ears to the ground. After a while, he stood up and motioned to Zheng Agui to go away and talk.
The two of them walked quietly for a while, and Qiu Yongcai whispered: "There is a cellar in that house, and there should be someone hiding in it."
Zheng Agui said: "Are you sure?"
Qiu Yong responded: "Sure!"
Zheng Agui immediately asked the sailors to guard the perimeter, while he led people back to the shanty. They had taken a quick glance at it before and found nothing wrong. Now they searched carefully and found something fishy quickly.
The bed board of this family was placed on the ground. At first glance, it seemed that there was no hiding space under the bed, and no one had ever flipped the bed board over to take a look. Unexpectedly, when the bed board was pushed aside, there was a two-foot-wide hole on the ground, and a ladder was set up leading into the hole.
Although the cave was pitch black and there was no light, one could faintly hear the rapid breathing of someone. Zheng Agui patted Qiu Yong and told him that he did a good job. If it weren't for his keen hearing, he wouldn't have guessed that there was a secret hiding place in this room.
Zheng Agui threw a torch down, and as expected, someone below softly exclaimed, and immediately the torch was put out by the people inside. Zheng Agui shouted something down, but the people inside fell silent, as if they were planning to continue the stalemate. Of course, Zheng Agui would not take the risk if the people inside did not show up. He determined that there was no other way out of the cellar, so he immediately arranged for everyone to guard the entrance of the cave and asked someone to call a Spanish translator to persuade him to surrender.
Sure enough, it was still easier to speak Spanish. After some communication with the translator, he told Zheng Agui that the people below would surrender only if they guaranteed that his life would not be harmed.
Zheng Agui thought to himself that this shack was so simple and there was no valuables in it, but it was extremely unreasonable to dig a hiding cellar under the bed board. Moreover, after the local civilians realized that there was no way to escape, most of them immediately chose to surrender. Under such circumstances, those who still think of hiding to avoid the limelight are probably not ordinary people.
Zheng Agui asked the translator to agree to the other party's request. After a while, several gray-headed Spaniards climbed out of the cellar. There were actually old and young, men and women. Judging from his clothes, he really doesn't look like a commoner living in such a shabby shanty town.
The identities of the rats that were pulled out of the nest were quickly verified. They were the Vargas family, the colonial manager of Masbate Island, who were being hunted by the Haihan Army.
After discovering the attack of the Haihan fleet, the colonial administrator Vargas immediately ran away with his family. However, because it took a lot of time to pack up the gold and silver treasures at home, when they were about to leave the town, they were a step slow. The Haihan army was already there. Landing in the south cut off the escape route from Masbate town to the mountains and forests of the island.
Vargas ordered his armed guards to challenge the Haihan army's blockade. Needless to say, the result was that after dozens of corpses were left behind, the group could only retreat into the town. But Vargas knew that retreating to his home in the center of the town would lead to death, so he ordered his men to break out in multiple directions, but he took his family and hid in a secretly prepared shelter.
Vargas originally planned to hide in this cellar and wait for the Haihan army to search the town of Masbate before looking for an opportunity to break out by swimming from the sea to the nearby coast to escape. However, there was a monster like Qiu Yong in the Haihan army who had never thought to search this place. He actually heard the noise coming from the cellar, thus exposing his whereabouts.
Of course, Vargas is not a high official. He is just one of the dozens of colonial governors appointed by the Spanish in the Western Pacific. He nominally governs the entire Masbate Island, but his actual jurisdiction is only the town of Masbate. Just a small area. For Haihan, he would be considered a mayor at best.
According to the style of the Spanish colonial authorities, people like Vargas mostly bought official positions with money, but the money was not enough, so they were sent to remote areas like Masbate Island to serve as magistrates. And there are no special industries in this place. If Vargas wants to recoup his investment, he will have to squeeze the local residents desperately.
In the cellar where he was hiding, the soldiers found two boxes full of silver coins, seven or eight gold bars, some packed silverware, as well as food, water bags, clothing and other personal belongings. This family fled with so many things. It is no wonder that they failed to escape before the Haihan Army landed.
Vargas quickly recognized Zheng Agui's identity as an officer and kept begging the translator to convey his wish for mercy to Zheng Agui, hoping to use these properties in exchange to let his family go.
Of course, Zheng Agui could not agree to his conditions. After identifying Vargas' identity, he immediately sent someone to report it to the battalion headquarters.
Not long after, the battalion commander hurried over and praised Zheng Agui. If the Spanish magistrate had not been captured, the attack on Masbate Town would not have been successful in any way, and Zheng Agui and others just filled this gap.
(End of chapter)