Just as Zhao Xin and Ruchi were talking, a fleet of two Manila sailing ships headed north along the winding coastline in western North America. One of the two ships was called the "San Fernando" with a displacement of 1,500 tons; the other was called the "San Antonio" with a displacement of 1,900 tons.

You should know that before Beihai Town came, the Spanish Empire did not have any serious threats on the west coast of America. Apart from the forts in various ports, the Manila sailing ship based on the Port of Acapulco was enough to deal with it. Of course, Admiral Denava thought so before, but one was sunk and one seriously injured.

Although Spain already knew the power of Beihai Town's cannon, it was not easy to transfer battleships from the east coast. Besides, this time it was negotiated and asked for prisoners, so it was meaningless to get two battleships to show off their power.

At this time, in the captain's room at the stern of the "San Carlos", a few blubber candles, as thick as a baby's forearm, revealed the tiny lights in the house. Monk Hilaryon Diz, who was the translator of this mission, was telling the mission members, including Archbishop Peralta, what he saw and heard in San Francisco. As he was told, the expression on his face was sometimes surprised and sometimes indignant.

Monk Diz met with the mission in Monterrey, and among most members of the mission, except for California Governor Jose Joaquin de Ali Laga and Fermin de Lasun, the chairman of the Franciscan mission, everyone boarded the ship from Acapulco.

"You mean, the Chinese not only razed our church to the ground, but also built a temple of their own there?"

"Yes, dear Bishop. Just like the City God Temple I saw in Macau and Manila. It's just that in addition to their own guardian gods, the Indians' eagle gods and wolf gods..."

Archbishop Peralta interrupted, “Is it Neoma?”

Monk Diz shook his head and said, "No. It's a female deity similar to 'Teyquam'. She has eight arms, and she sits on a lotus seat, each holding an object in her hand."

When the Archbishop heard this, he said indignantly: "Heretic! They should be sent to the stake and burned to death!"

Monk Diz said humbly, "You are right!"

Well, I have to explain the above conversation.

Speaking of which, among the European countries before the First Opium War, Spain was the one who studied China the deepest. Since the 1620s, in order to better infiltrate Christian forces into the inland China, Spanish scholars with religious identities such as Zabbello, Martin de Lada, Gao Muxian, Escalante, Mendoza have appeared one after another, and they even became the earliest sinologists in Europe.

Among these people, the most famous "sinologist" is Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza, who belongs to the Catholic Augustine School. Interestingly, this person has never been to China and does not understand Chinese. However, by collecting information from his contemporaries and research results from others, he wrote a historical work with a wide influence - "History of the Great Empire of China".

This book covers many materials in the Ming Dynasty, including natural environment, history, culture, customs, etiquette, religious belief, as well as politics and economy. It can be said that Europeans nowadays have the most important encyclopedia to understand ancient China.

How authoritative is this book? Basically, from the 17th to the early 19th century, whether it was trade representatives sent to Guangzhou or missionaries sent to the East, it was a must-have for people.

In this set of books, the introduction to the religion and idol worship of Chinese people specifically mentioned that among the Chinese people in the Ming Dynasty, among the many gods believed in the south of the Yangtze River, three of them were the most important, namely Sichia, Teyquam, and Neoma. The first one was Sakyamuni, the second one was the Queen Mother, and the last one was Mazu.

The problem is that the main god worshipped in the Taoist temple in Kinmen is Doumuyuanjun, who is the innate god of Taoism and the mother of all stars. In the Taoist mythological system, this person has a total of nine sons, the eldest son and the second son are "Gou Chen Emperor" and "Zi Wei Emperor", and the other seven are the Big Dipper Seven Stars.

The reason why the Taoist Master Ma Benchu ​​wanted to give such a master god ingeniously was that he flattered Zhao Xin without revealing his feelings.

Ziwei Emperor, also known as the "Blackji Emperor", is the highest position and most noble, and is the "lord of all stars". In history, Liu Bang, Liu Xiu, Li Shimin and Zhu Yuanzhang were all said to be the reincarnation of Ziwei Emperor, and their civil and military achievements are extremely high in Chinese history. Thinking of Beihai Town starting in the northern part of the pass, Ziwei Emperor is alluding to anyone.

Monk Diz obviously did not understand this, so he took it for granted that Doumu Yuanjun, who had a female face, as the Queen Mother.

At this time, someone interrupted, "How many clergy are there?"

Monk Diz said: "I only saw three people. People like this in China are called Taoist priests, and I have seen people with the same outfit in Macau."

Archbishop Peralta nodded and said, "You keep talking."

Monk Diz said: "On behalf of the parish, I protested against the Chinese, hoping to allow us to restore the church and compensate for the demolition of the church. However, their governor clearly refused."

Hearing this, Archbishop Peralta and Fermin de Lasun looked at each other and frowned deeply. Compared to the Chinese who seized San Francisco by force, the violation of the church rights made them more worried.

You should know that the process of Spanish conquest of American colonization was essentially a combination of ecclesiastical power and royal power, which is very different from the colonization method of Protestant countries.

Protestant countries such as Britain, France, and the Netherlands emphasize mercantilism and trade first, so they do not care whether the indigenous people believe in God or not. If you have money, it means God. You should first circle out your sphere of influence. This is especially true for the Russians. The desire for fur makes them slaughter and tempt the other, and they also do not value the indigenous people's conversion.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! Spain is different from Portugal. As an old colonial empire that started the Age of Discovery, its main motivation for overseas expansion is to seize Eastern wealth and spread Catholicism, and attempt to establish a "Catholic empire" across the world.

Through tens of thousands of missionaries as pioneers, they went deep into Indian tribes and villages, holding up the cross with one hand and waving muskets and spears with the other hand. Those who follow me will prosper, and those who go against me will perish. They forced the indigenous people to change their beliefs and lifestyles, assimilate the colonies from religious and cultural perspectives, and turned the indigenous people into serfs under the plantation system. Thus, a huge church system was established in North and South America, and a sect system parallel to the governor's administrative system.

As of the 1820s, the total number of churches established by Spain in the American colonies was as high as 80,000, and 12,000 churches were built in the Governor of Mexico alone. For many Indians in western North America, the first European they met was a missionary.

Fermin de Lasun, the chairman of the Franciscan mission, pondered for a moment, and then said to Peralta with an anxious look: "His archbishop, after returning this time, please make sure to explain the situation to the members of the Royal Supreme Parliament. The Parish of St. Francico cannot be lost in any case. If necessary, I will express my congratulations to the Governor and the members."

Don’t think that Rasun is making a big deal. You should know that although it was the end of the 18th century, the Spanish Empire was still an extremely conservative and extremely fanatical country among the European countries. Especially after the French Revolution, in order to resist the spread of Enlightenment thought, the already declining Inquisition once again rose again. Religious and political autocracy and intolerance became consistent principles in Spanish politics and culture, and lasted for decades.

Although the political power of the church was restricted and the royal family intervened in church affairs more and more, promoting missionary in colonies was still an important means to consolidate rule. Several missionaries, a church, and a small army often controlled a large area.

Therefore, what Beihai Town did in the Kinmen area is undoubtedly a challenge to the Spanish colonial system that combines royal power and religious power, which is much more serious than the loss of several colonial strongholds!

Peralta sighed and said slowly: "I'm afraid this matter will be difficult to get local support. You know, the war between us and the French has reached a critical moment, and neither local nor eastern provinces can send troops to support it. Another one, you all know, is Santo Domingo."

"Oh! How could this happen?" The monks present sighed heavily.

The Spanish Empire at this time was very hard. The "French Revolution War" far away in Europe had entered a critical period. The "Battle of Pyrenees" was approaching the final decisive battle. The Spanish army was the unscrupulous main force.

Speaking of which, in the first anti-French alliance war, what later generations talked about were usually the Battle of Valmé, the Battle of Remap, and the Battle of Toulon. But in fact, the "Battle of Pyrenees" was an important bargaining factor to ensure the victory of the French Revolution, and also laid the foundation for the Peninsula War in the Napoleon era.

In order to deal with the French army's attack on the Eastern Front, the Spanish army was fully equipped with a huge force of 90,000 troops to establish a defense line composed of 90 fortresses on the northern border of Catalonia and the Mediterranean coast. In another time and space history, the war will last until July next year, and the ending sign is the French defeat of the main force of the Spanish army and the capture of Bilbao. Thus, the Spanish and French formed a war alliance.

If local wars are imminent, the Spanish Santo Domingo, far away in Latin America, has now fallen into chaos, causing the New Spanish province's army to fall into the quagmire. Santo Domingo is actually the later general term for Haiti and Dominicans. The former is now a French colony, while the latter is a Western colony.

Since 1791, a black slave uprising broke out in Haiti. In order to cause chaos in France and even take French Santo Domingo into his pocket, the New Spanish province has publicly supported the uprisingers since last year, and even incorporated the black rebel army into its own second-line troops, giving black officers and soldiers all the rights enjoyed by Spanish citizens.

The problem is that the Toussen Louveduer, who was known as the "Father of Haiti", had his life goal to liberate all the black slaves on Santo Domingo, not just the 4,000 officers and soldiers who joined the Spanish army. However, his proposal was rejected by Spain, and Toussen became independent from the uprising forces and called himself the "Commander-in-Chief of the Black Force". Due to his huge appeal among the black people, plantation slaves from both French and Western countries fled to join his troops.

Now the Spaniards are quitting. Supporting you is to make trouble for the French. Why do you bite Lu Dongbin and turn around to dig the corners of their friends? So the Spaniards turned to support other leaders of the rebel army and even put Dusan's wife and children under house arrest.

Now Toussen no longer plays with the Spanish, but instead goes against the French side. In February this year, the National Convention finally made a resolution to abolish the slavery of Santo Domingo. In July, when the news reached Toussen, he completely turned to France.

When Spain saw that Toussen had rebelled, he knew that his family could not handle it alone, so he sent an invitation to the UK, how about the two families who divided the French Santo Domingo together?

The British side happily agreed and sent the first 7,600 expeditionary force. Although Britain and France fought to the death in Europe, when the British army landed in Port-au-Prince, they were welcomed by French supporters who supported slavery.

It is said that the British attacked from the western coast, and the Spanish army attacked from the north and the border between the Western-French colonies. The two empires served the Toussan family, so Xiao Yang should surrender no matter what.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content below! However, what unexpectedly surprised the Spanish side was that within two months after the arrival of Santo Domingo, yellow fever broke out on a large scale. Whether officers or soldiers were either dead or waiting for death. So Tousan took this opportunity to concentrate his troops against the Spanish army, and now he has entered the territory of Spanish Santo Domingo.

So you see, Europe and Central America are in chaos, and how can the New Spain province have time to deal with the North Sea town entrenched in Upper California? As the representative of the Royal Supreme Parliament in America, Archbishop Peralta, who is second only to the provincial governor, knows this very well!

Compared with the Archbishop and the Franciscan mission, California Governor De Arilaga is more concerned about whether the San Francisco area can be taken back. However, just five days ago, when Archbishop Peralta arrived in Monterrey, he also brought a letter from New Spain Governor Juan Vicente de Gomez Pacheco.

In this letter, Governor Pacheco ordered him to cooperate with the Archbishop to bring the captured officers and soldiers back. Before fully understanding the strength of the Chinese, he should do everything possible to avoid armed conflicts with the Chinese in Kinmen Town, so as not to cause further deterioration in the situation in California, and even give up all jurisdiction north of Santa Cruze.

But if the Chinese try to threaten the victory of this war and try to make territorial claims on the west coast of California, they must resolutely resist.
Chapter completed!