Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 88: The Spanish Revolt
Karsas took off his tie and threw it aside, then unbuttoned his suit jacket and threw it behind the chair. He then unbuttoned his shirt and pulled up the collar, revealing his hairy chest.
Lin Fei glanced at his chest and was immediately surprised, because the front of his chest was covered with scars, as if a group of strange insects were crawling all over his chest.
Karsus pointed to the scar on his chest and said proudly, "When I was young, I served in the army and fought against the Moros. The Moros caught me and interrogated me about military secrets. They used a knife to cut my skin little by little and sprinkled salt into it. I didn't say a word. You can use whatever means you have. I want to see who is more powerful, you Chinese pigs or the Moros."
Lin Fei frowned slightly, thinking that the Spaniards he had met were all spineless people who surrendered after a little trickery. This Karsas seemed to be a tough guy, so he would have to use some special tricks.
Lin Fei carefully recalled Karsas's every move after he came out, then pointed at the girl he had just called out, turned around and said to Zhang Chuang: "Go and bring her to me."
Zhang Chuang walked a few steps to the girl, and pulled her to Lin Fei amid her screams. The girl was so frightened that she lost her soul and couldn't even stand steadily. She collapsed next to Lin Fei. Karsus showed a trace of concern on his face, but it was gone in a flash. Lin Fei sneered, "Mr. Karsus, she has a special relationship with you, right?"
Karsus sneered, "Nothing unusual, she is just my subordinate."
Lin Fei smiled and asked, "She should be your daughter, right?"
Karsas was startled, then shook his head and said, "No... No!"
Lin Fei laughed disdainfully and said, "You're still pretending. When you came out, the way you looked at her was different from the way you looked at others. She looked at you differently too. She even wanted to call you father, but you stopped her with your eyes. Do you think I can't see that?"
Karsus turned his head and said angrily: "Nonsense!"
Lin Fei said casually: "Go and grab a few people and ask her if she is his daughter?"
Zhang Chuang grabbed several women like a wolf and a tiger, and they all said, "Yes, she is his daughter."
Karsas knew that the matter could not be concealed, so he glared at Lin Fei fiercely and said angrily: "She is my daughter! What on earth do you want to do?"
Lin Fei chuckled and said, "I just want to know the location of the vault!"
Karsus's eyes darkened and he said angrily, "Impossible, I won't tell you."
Lin Fei reached out and grabbed the collar of the girl who was slumped on the ground, pulled her to him, and whispered to Karsas: "You Spaniards have ruined so many of our girls. Today is the time to pay back."
Karsus understood what Lin Fei meant and became furious. His elegant demeanor was gone. He stood up and rushed towards Lin Fei. The soldiers behind Lin Fei rushed over and pressed him on the chair. Karsus shouted at the top of his lungs: "You beast, bastard, the person who raped the Chinese girl is not my daughter. Why did you hurt her?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "As long as you tell me the location of the vault, I will let her go."
Karsus roared, "Let her go, and come at me if you have any tricks!"
Lin Fei pinched the girl's face with his hand and sneered, "If you don't tell me, I'm going to do it."
The girl burst into tears upon hearing Lin Fei's words and begged desperately, "Dad...save me..."
Karsas gritted his teeth and said, "Wait a minute..."
Lin Fei put the girl down and said, "Tell me, where is the vault?"
Karsas hesitated for a while and said, "There is a big house at the intersection of Del Street and Wilson Road in the south of the city. The vault is in the basement of the big house. The big house has a black door with a lion relief on it."
Lin Fei asked: "How many guards are there? What equipment do they have?"
Karsus said, "There are fifty guards, all with Mauser rifles."
Lin Fei turned to Zhang Chuang and said, "Take a company of people with you and eliminate the guards outside the vault within two hours."
Zhang Chuang agreed and turned to leave. Lin Fei then asked, "Where's the key to the vault?"
Karsas said, "There are two keys to the vault, one for me and one for the vault manager. Only when the two keys are combined can the door be opened. The vault manager has returned to Manila and taken the keys with him."
Lin Fei smiled and said, "It's okay, I can blow open the door of the vault."
Karsus sighed and panted, "Can you let my daughter go now?"
Lin Fei shook his head and said, "I don't know whether what you said is true or not. What if you are lying to me? So I have to wait for my people to come back."
Karsus slumped in his chair. At this moment, a soldier ran in and whispered in Lin Fei's ear, "Your Majesty, the people who went to the Balde Textile Factory to receive the goods were attacked."
Lin Fei was startled and asked, "Are there any casualties?"
The soldier shook his head and said, "No."
Lin Fei let out a long sigh and then asked, "Who attacked us?"
The soldier said: "It's the factory guards."
Lin Fei was stunned and asked, "Factory Guard? What is that?"
The soldier said: "I heard from our Chinese compatriots that the factory guards were used by Spanish bosses to oppress the Chinese. Take the textile factory for example, if any Chinese female worker worked slowly, she would be beaten by the factory guards!"
Lin Fei nodded and said, "So that's how it is. Just destroy it."
The soldier said: "Yes, it has been eliminated."
Lin Fei was about to breathe a sigh of relief when another soldier ran in and said, "Captain, the troops heading to the Hanas Electroplating Factory were also attacked!"
Before Lin Fei could react, several more soldiers came to report. The content of the reports was similar. The troops that went to take over the factories encountered resistance. The first batch of five factories that were taken over had all encountered resistance!
Lin Fei thought to himself, these Spaniards are different from the Filipinos. The Filipinos do not have their own culture. If he can defeat the chief, the others will basically not dare to resist. However, the Spaniards are unwilling to be ruled by us Chinese, so it is understandable that they fight desperately. He must defeat them, otherwise he will not be able to march to Mindanao.
Lin Fei was thinking about it. An hour later, Zhang Chuang sent someone back to report: " The garrison outside the vault has been completely wiped out. The vault door is very strong and we can't open it."
Lin Fei then asked Zhang Chuang to leave someone to guard the vault, and the others to withdraw first. He then left someone to guard the bank and asked the bank to temporarily suspend operations, and then prepared to return to the city government.
Before leaving, Lin Fei smiled at Karsas and said, "You didn't lie to me, so I'll give my daughter back to you."
Lin Fei helped the girl who was slumped on the ground and brought her to Karsas. Karsas reached out and hugged his daughter tightly. Lin Fei smiled and said, "Mr. Karsas, even if you don't tell me the location of the vault, I won't hurt your daughter. We Chinese don't like to bully others, but we won't tolerate being bullied by others."
Karsas was surprised and looked at Lin Fei in a daze. Lin Fei smiled, comforted the girl, turned around and walked out. Returning to the city government, Lin Fei had already detained the senior officials of the city government and sent all the grassroots clerks home.
Lin Fei gathered the people who were going to take over the factory together and said, "Let's talk about the situation today."
When everyone heard this, they immediately started talking, as if a chatterbox had suddenly opened. Lin Fei couldn't hear a single word in the confusion, so he could only cough lightly and said, "Everyone, stop arguing and speak one by one."
At this time, a platoon leader was the first to say: "We went to the Dhaka Textile Factory to take over, and the factory guards inside rushed out with wooden sticks and machetes. Fortunately, we reacted quickly and opened fire, otherwise we would have been injured by them."
After the platoon leader finished speaking, the others also spoke up, all of them saying that the Spaniards refused to surrender and began to resist. At this time, Niu Dalong slammed the table and said loudly: "We have only taken over five factories, and so many troubles have occurred. Those fifteen wealthy businessmen have a total of 70 or 80 factories. If we continue to take over one factory after another, we will be completely trapped in Butuan City!"
Niu Dahu then said, "That's right. I think we should arrest all the Spaniards in the city and kill them one by one. It would be great!"
Lin Fei coughed lightly and said, "Everyone, stop arguing and listen to me."
Everyone quieted down, and Lin Fei said, "Send someone to notify the wealthy merchants in the city and ask them to come to the city center square for a meeting the day after tomorrow. I don't think we can find the big wealthy merchants, they must have hidden themselves, so let's find the small wealthy merchants and start arresting the sixteenth person on the tax bill."
Niu Dalong was stunned and asked, " What's the point of calling the small wealthy businessman to a meeting? We can't even beat them with guns, so do we think they will obey us just by holding a meeting and talking to them?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "Don't worry about that. I have a plan. Just go find them."
Everyone agreed, and Lin Fei continued, "There are many Spaniards and Filipinos in the city. We must guard against them. We must hurry up to recruit Chinese to form a city guard. We have recruited more than a thousand people now, and we need to recruit more. As for shooting skills, just teach them how to shoot and aim. There is no need to teach them too much else. That's all I have to say. Everyone, take action."
While the soldiers of the army were recruiting Chinese people, they were also looking for wealthy Spanish businessmen. Lin Fei guessed correctly that the big businessmen had already hidden themselves, and the rest were small businessmen. With the help of local Chinese, the soldiers found them effortlessly and told them about the meeting later.
The Spanish wealthy businessmen also knew that the Huaxia Empire had eliminated the garrison. Seeing that the Huaxia Empire was so powerful, they dared not disobey the words of the Huaxia Emperor Lin Fei, and could only agree to go to the meeting. They were all very nervous, not knowing what Lin Fei was going to say to them in the meeting.
