That stopped the fighting but increased the tension between the Chinese and the Spanish. Bao brought some more fighting men ashore from the war junks, just in case the Spanish thought better of taking the final step.
It was evident to Juan that this possibility had been contemplated by Zheng Zhilong when he sent out the convoy, because the war junks had been over-manned in Xiamen, and thus even with some men ashore, they were still able to man all their guns and handle their sails briskly.
∞ ∞ ∞
Juan, Mingyu and Captain Huang were summoned to the governor's house.
"Thank you for coming," said Bao. "What is the temper of the Spanish who are supposed to go to Cebu?"
"Wildly erratic," said Juan. "Elated one moment, fearful a second, despondent a third. And of course, they don't all feel the same way at any given moment."
"The sooner they are gone, the better," said Bao. "I also have news from the Admiral as to the situation in Manila. This information comes, I believe, from his spies in Nagasaki."
That made sense, the same change in the wind that made possible the journey to Cebu would have also have allowed Chinese traders to come back from Nagasaki.
"The Dragon says that additional Japanese troops were sent down to Manila this month, and that according to his sources, the Japanese intend to parcel out fiefs. He also says that since their civil wars ended and the domains of the losers were reduced or eliminated, they have many unemployed warriors—they call them ronin—and these ronin had to find employment as bodyguards and the like or turn to banditry. Now the Shogun can ship them off to Manila."
"So he uses one set of troublemakers to suppress another," said Captain Huang, meaning the ronin and the Spanish.
"Exactly."
"Based on the intelligence from Nagasaki, the Admiral thinks that the Japanese are probably still consolidating power in Luzon. After all, they must deal not only with scattered Spanish settlements, but also with the Chinese and Japanese Christians in Manila and the Filipino tribes that the Spanish use as mercenaries, the Pampangos and the Cagayanos.
"As for Cebu, he says that as of September, it was still held by the Spanish. However, both Dutch and Moro ships have been sighted in the Camotes Sea and the Bohol Strait, so they are checking out its defenses."
'That reminds me.... There's a letter for you, Juan. Sent to Xiamen by the Captain-General of the Acapulco Galleons." Bao handed it to Juan.
He read it, and announced, "It thanks me for warning him and Cebu of the fall of Manila."
"And did he offer you a promotion? Money?"
"Well, no...."
"Hah! I knew it. Never depend on the gratitude of a government official, Juan."
∞ ∞ ∞
After dinner, Juan walked with Captain Huang and Mingyu to their quarters.
"Please give me a moment alone with Juan, father, " said Mingyu.
He grumbled, "Be quick about it," and went inside.
"What exactly did the letter say, Juan? You didn't seem happy about it. And I don't think it was for the reasons that Uncle Bao mentioned."
He read it to her.
"Well, that should set Sergeant-Major Romero's mind at ease," she commented. "He now has formal authorization to leave."
"To leave, but not to hand the forts and their cannon over to the Chinese. Let alone cede title to the land."
"True, but better for Spain that we hold the forts than that the Dutch do, and a few light cannon aren't going to make much difference in Spain's war with the Dutch and the Japanese. And title is meaningless, if you can't defend it against your foes."
"I suppose." Juan sighed.
"The last paragraph... about loyalty... is that what troubles you?"
"No, of course not," he assured her. "I was thinking about the friends I lost in Manila. The ones killed or imprisoned by the invaders."
She was not entirely convinced that this was indeed what he had been thinking, but gave him the benefit of the doubt. "I am sorry for your loss."
∞ ∞ ∞
The following morning, Juan called upon one of the priests to ceremoniously bless the convoy. He walked to the shore where the ships were moored, with Juan holding an umbrella over his head, as it was raining steadily. This was of the Chinese collapsible type, which Juan had first seen when he came to the Philippines. This one, provided by Bao the Panther, had a silk canopy, waxed to render it waterproof, and laid over bamboo ribs. It was a bright red in color, adding a bright splash of color to the Dominican preacher's black robe and white habit.
The priest began the blessing with a reading from Psalm 107: "Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters; they have seen the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep."
Each of the Chinese captains was given a medallion depicting the Virgin Mary in her role as "Our Lady, Star of the Sea." The medallions were presented by Mingyu, who whispered to the captains, in Chinese, that these were images of Mazu, the divine protectress of mariners.
The ceremony ended with this prayer: "Most gracious Lord, we pray you to consecrate these ships to righteous work in your name. Guide the captains at their helms. Watch over their passengers and crew. Protect them from calms and storms, from lightning and great waves, and from the Dutch and the Japanese. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon this vessel and all who come aboard, this day and forever. Amen."
∞ ∞ ∞
When the winds shifted again the next day, the Spanish took this as a sign and boarded the transports without further struggle.
As they did so, Mingyu noticed that Juan appeared agitated. "Juan, what's the matter?"
"I just wonder... whether it is my sworn duty as an officer to join them, to sail to Cebu."
"I understand how you feel.... But Juan, haven't you done enough? If it weren't for you, Cebu might have succumbed to a surprise attack; the incoming galleons might have been ambushed in Manila Bay, when they thought themselves safe."
"Yes, I did my best to warn them all, but does my duty end there? Surely Spain is still at war...."
"Then look at it this way. I saved you out of love, but my father didn't owe you anything. Without him, there would have been no warning to Cebu or the galleons, and these Spanish would have been stranded in Keelung and Tamsui until the Dutch or Japanese were ready to snack on them. So your staying here, in service to Zheng Zhilong, is payment for what my father and the admiral have done for Spain."
He stood silently. For too long.
"Go! Stay! I don't care!" shouted Mingyu, and she stalked off.
At the Governor's House
"So you stayed," observed Bao the Panther.
Juan grimaced. "She told you about our argument?"
"Yes." Bao grinned. "I had no idea she had learned so many curse words. Ah, the advantages of a nautical education!"
"But now what do I do?"
"It will eventually come down to groveling, I'm sure...." said Bao. "But give her time to cool off first."
∞ ∞ ∞
She managed to avoid Juan the rest of the day, but the following day he was able to corner her and ask if they could talk.
"Fine!"
"Let's go into the herb garden by the church. There's a bench there."
She shrugged, and followed him there.
"I stayed."
"How nice for you."
"You made a good case for why I should stay, but that isn't why I did it." He paused. "I stayed because I love you. I don't know whether we'll be allowed to marry--"
"Stop talking," Mingyu said.
"But--"
"You're lucky my father spoke to me about you."
"He did?"
""Don't expect me to stop being angry with you just because you've apologized," warned Mingyu. "It has to work its way out of my system. I am still suffering from an excess of yang over yin."
"But we're good?"
"We're better, Juan. I'll see you tomorrow."
∞ ∞ ∞
Juan decided he should thank Captain Huang for his timely intervention on his behalf. After he did so, Captain Huang looked more puzzled than pleased. "I don't understand, Lieutenant Cardona. I told her she was better off without you!"
Chapter 17
Keelung
Eighth Year of the Reign of the Chongzhen Emperor
Year of the Pig, First Month (February 17-March 18, 1635)
Juan Cardona watched as Mingyu glued the last sheet of rice paper onto the bamboo frame.
"There, it's done," she said. She grabbed the homemade lantern by the base and swung it gently back and forth, so the paper puffed out. "Light the candle and hand it to me."
"The lantern looks like an apple. A hollow paper apple, with an opening in the bottom," he remarked.
"I have seen your European apple," said Mingyu. "While I never became a Christian, I have been inside several of the churches in Manila, and there was one with a stained-glass window showing Eve eating the apple in the Garden of Eden." She paused. "I have never tasted one, however."
Juan handed her the lit candle. "I hope we aren't going to burn down the fort after all the effort it took to persuade Sergeant-Major Romero to sell it, even conditionally, to your Uncle Dragon."
"We have made these lanterns for centuries, back in Anhai, and the city still stands." As she spoke, Mingyu lifted the lantern over her head with one hand, while keeping it vertical. At the bottom was a bamboo crosspiece with a candle receptacle, which she inserted the candle into. "There!"
After a moment, she let go, and the kongming slowly drifted up into the sky. It seemed to glow; white near the base, yellow in the middle, and orange on top.
"Mind you, when we launch them back home, we'd do so in an open field, or perhaps by a lake or the ocean," she added. "But this location should be safe enough. The wind should blow the kongming over the Bay of Keelung. I doubt it will reach the far shore, and even if it did, it's too wet to start a fire."
Juan stared up at the kongming, now high above them. "You know, in Europe, there's a town called Grantville. It is supposed to have been transported from the future, and the people that live there know how to fly through the sky."
Mingyu gasped. "You mean they have magical powers, like a tiangou?" The tiangou was an aerial demon-dog that attempted to eat the sun from time to time, hence creating a solar eclipse.
"No, no. My commander told me that they have boats that fly."
"And you're sure that those machines aren't powered by magic?" asked Mingyu.
Juan threw up his hands. "How would I know? The town of Grantville appeared in Germany less than four years ago, and I was already in the Philippines by then. All I know about them, I know secondhand. Or worse."
By now, Juan saw, the kongming was already beginning to descend toward the bay, its fuel exhausted. "It's funny."
"What is?" asked Mingyu.
"This is our second Chinese New Year's celebration," he explained. "Remember our first one?"
She touched his cheek. "How could I forget?"
Anping Bridge, between Xiamen and Anhai
As his son, Big Tree, fished from Anping Bridge, with a member of the Black Guard keeping a watchful eye on him, Zheng Zhilong read the Dutch translations of the excerpts from the Grantville encyclopedias for the third time. He had received the excerpts, and the translations, in return for releasing his prisoners from the Battle of Liaoluo Bay. The translations were in general agreement with what he had heard from his Jesuit friends, and several things were clear.
First, he must either find a way to save the Ming Dynasty from the dual onslaught of the bandit and Manchu armies or prepare to move himself, his family, and his assets out of mainland China within the next decade. And it had not escaped his attention that in the old time-line his son Big Tree, who the Grantville histories called Zheng Chenggong or Koxinga, had conquered Taiwan from the Dutch in 1661-62, the Dutch having already forced the Spanish out in 1642. Might he do the same? Should he?
Second, if his enemies in the government were to find out from those encyclopedias that in the old time-line he had betrayed the Ming two years after the invasion, they could use that discovery to ruin him.
And third, if those enemies didn't bring him down, and Zheng Zhilong was forced to choose between the Ming and the Manchu, he couldn't trust his son to support his choice. They reported that the Manchu were displeased when Zhilong's family remained in the enemy camp. They imprisoned Zhilong and threatened to execute him if Koxinga didn't change sides, too. When faced with the choice of loyalty to the Ming pretender, the Prince of Kuei, and filial piety, he had chosen the Prince. And the Manchu then executed the father. A truly disconcerting development.
Zhilong sneaked a look at Big Tree. Big Tree sensed that Zhilong's eyes were upon him and waved back, bringing an involuntary albeit transitory smile to Zhilong's face. A fortune teller had told Zhilong that he could see in Big Tree's physiognomy that he had the marks of a great man. Surely a great man wouldn't be unfilial?
What had led Big Tree to condemn his father to death? Big Tree's encyclopedia entry said that he was given "the conventional scholarly Confucian tradition." Zheng Zhilong did not consider himself to be an expert on Confucian thought. He was the son of a minor local official and a woman whose family were prominent merchants. He had received some schooling but was often truant, and when he was eighteen, after a particularly egregious escapade, he had found it prudent to go down to Macau.
So far as Zheng Zhilong was concerned, Big Tree's disregard for his father's fate was a violation of Confucian ethics. Confucius criticized a villager who had reported his father's theft of a sheep to the authorities, and Mencius said that if the sage Shun's father had killed a man, he would have secretly carried the old man on his back and fled to the edge of the Sea with him. His actions could hardly have sprung from ignorance; the Manchu would have made sure that Big Tree knew the consequences of refusing their offer.
Now, Zhilong vaguely remembered his tutor mentioning some commentary or another that had argued that the emperor was "like a father" to all of his subjects, and the loyalty to this supreme father figure and thus to the law should trump conventional filial piety. Perhaps Big Tree's head had been filled with such nonsense by his tutor. If only Zhilong knew which scholar he had chosen, in the old time-line, to tutor Big Tree. He would certainly not hire the troublemaker in this new universe!
Right now, Zhilong needed to get back to his headquarters and find out whether there were any new reports as to the whereabouts of Liu Xiang. Last month Zhilong had pursued and destroyed several of Liu Xiang's squadrons after they unsuccessfully attacked Xiamen, but Liu Xiang himself had eluded him.
"Big Tree, time to head home."
Chapter 18
Anhai and vicinity
Year of the Pig, Fourth Month (May 16-June 14, 1635)
Early in the fourth month, Bao received orders from Zheng Zhilong to provide a detailed report on everything that had happened in Taiwan. Naturally, he decided to order Captain Huang to bring Juan and Mingyu back to Anhai, together, of course, with a shipment of deer hides and sulfur.
They arrived to the sound of bells, drums and fireworks, audible even before they moored in the harbor. "What is going on?" Captain Huang demanded, as soon as a local boat passed close enough to exchange words with the boatsmen.
"The Admiral has defeated Liu Xiang!" their informant shouted.
"And what happened to the pirate?" Captain Huang shouted back.
"He is dead! Killed in single combat by the Admiral on the deck of Liu Xiang's flagship!"
Captain Huang threw them some coppers, in celebration of this news, and then turned to announce it to the crew.
The harbor had another surprise--there were two western warships docked there. Each flew two flags.
"I have never seen either of those flags before," said Mingyu. "Where are they from, Juan?"
Juan pondered the question. "I think that the Swedes use a yell
ow cross on a field of blue. Although I have never heard of a Swedish ship in Indian or Asian waters before.
"The other? It is very strange. A blue quarter, with seven white stars in a circle, and otherwise, alternating red and white stripes. I have no idea what it represents."
The mystery was answered when they arrived at the Zheng family compound; it was the flag of the State of Thuringia-Franconia, in the United States of Europe. It was used in lieu of the true flag of the United States of Europe because that had a prominent X motif--and in China an "X" was used to mark the names of criminals who are to be executed. The two foreign ships had been guided by Zheng Zhiyan, Yan the Swallow, from Guangzhou to Xiamen, and then escorted by Zheng Zhilong's victorious fleet from Xiamen to Anhai.
Soon thereafter, Captain Huang received orders from Zheng Zhilong to venture out to a particular stretch of water the next morning and report back on "any interesting sightings."
∞ ∞ ∞
"I wouldn't believe if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!" Juan declared, one eye pressed against the eyepiece of his spyglass. "There are two people in the basket of that contraption. But they are so far away, without the telescope, they look like insects."
"And they are flying!" Mingyu added, eyes shining. "I am sure this means that the people from the future have come to Anhai. And it is no surprise that they would come here, to meet Uncle Dragon. He is the smartest man in China!"
Captain Huang coughed.
"After you, Father," Mingyu added.
"You know, their sky boat isn't really flying," said Captain Huang. "It's hovering, in one place, like an osprey."
"You're right!" Mingyu exclaimed. "Although an osprey would have to flap its wings, yes? But give them credit, father, they are very high in the sky."
He grumbled his assent.
Juan stroked his chin. "Think how useful it would be to a garrison commander to have a sky boat like that. You could see an enemy coming from miles away--I wonder how far?"
"If we can see them, they can see us," said Captain Huang. "And we are miles away."
The Chrysanthemum, the Cross, and the Dragon Page 12
