"His Excellency Father Xavier,

I don’t know if this letter will be successfully reached in your hands, nor when it will be. But if my actions do not violate the teachings of Christ, I think God will deliver this letter to you.

Over the past few months, I have experienced a life like purgatory. The ship arranged by Mr. McCartney for me sank when I passed through the Strait of Manlacia. With God's blessing, I hugged a piece of wood and floated to the shore, and was soon rescued by a ship from Portugal - but this was not the end of the disaster, but the beginning of purgatory!

The one who saved me was a group of pirates who did everything! In the few months after I got on the ship, I witnessed many of their evil deeds! God! Are these the highly anticipated navigators in Europe? These voyage merchants who contributed to the church? After seeing the scene of their plundering wealth, I began to wonder whether the church should accept these gold coins exchanged for bloody spices! Because each gold coin has at least one victim's life!

Ah! May the Lord forgive me! I should not doubt the church!

But, I want to tell you what I saw: In front of the butcher's knife, countless innocent people died of life. These people were not soldiers or criminals. They were killed sometimes because they had spices, sometimes because they might have spices, and sometimes even just because they bumped into the captain of the St. John, Binson, and were in a bad mood! Their simplicity made me feel that they could be baptized, but I could not do anything about them when I saw them being killed.

During the time when I fell into the hands of the pirates, Binson seemed to respect me, but in fact he had firm control over me. As long as it was involved in matters related to money and killing, his rage would be uncontrollable. But such a person claimed to me that he also believed in the Lord! I don’t believe in him! Every time he killed someone with a cross, I felt that it was a blasphemy. If such a person could go to heaven by donating, it would be terrible!

However, whenever the ship passes through the church's port, the church's clergy have no intention of rejecting Binson's dedication. They even praise him and pray for him, saying that he can go to heaven!

These things that shouldn't have happened made my heart frequently tempted by Satan. When I close my eyes, I see hell. There, countless people killed by Binson suffered because they were not destined to listen to the gospel in their lifetime. At night, I was surrounded by extremely terrible emptiness and loneliness, and during the day I had to face the bloody killing that made me on the verge of collapse. In front of others and behind people, I still had to perfunctory Binson, so that he would not dare to harm me or be rude to me, but when I was alone, I could not face my doubts about the Lord. The loneliness on the ship and the doubts in the darkness were tormenting me and making me unable to calm down.

Father, as your assistant to the east trip this time, I am very ashamed. In the days when I lack your guidance, I can never purify my desires by relying solely on my own encouragement, and I cannot break free from the constraints of the conditions of the world. I feel ashamed of President Luo Yaola’s expectations for me, and I feel that I cannot complete the task God has given to me. I am almost desperate!

But in mid-February this year, I encountered a turning point!

The turning point came from a Chinese, a young, handsome, mysterious, knowledgeable, powerful, calm and calm Chinese man named Yanzhi Li. Li was a juren from the Ming Dynasty. I heard from my father that juren has a high social status in China and can be on par with mayor-level officials in the local area. Recently, he was appointed by the Ming Empire to Penghu to take over the Daren Strait (see the hand-drawn diagram attached to the letter for the geographical location of the Daren Strait), and was preparing to set up a patrol department in Penghu.

It was at this time that Bin Song broke into Penghu. He heard that this filial and honest master, another name for Juren, was as rich as a country, and believed that Chinese people were cowardly and bullied, so he thought of robbing here. However, the Japanese businessman who told him the news told him that this filial and honest master not only had a lot of wealth, but also had a powerful army. For this reason, Bin Song seemed very cautious when entering Penghu.

In fact, Li Cai had just sent his two capable generals to carry out the mission, and Penghu was facing a brief emptiness - these were what I only knew later. Bin Song didn't know this at the time. He also hid the majority of people and sent a spy to pretend to be a victim to sneak into Penghu to find out the news, but he didn't know that the brave filial and honest master pretended to be a boatman and sneaked into the small island where he was parked. It was probably the arrangement of God that I met him on the island at this time.

It was a somewhat awkward meeting. When I met him, I was praying on the beach. At that time, I didn't know his true identity. I thought he was just a passerby or an ordinary sailor I hadn't noticed before. I told him some of my pain, and he could even discuss some issues of faith with me - no, it wasn't a discussion. At that time, he was simply guiding me, just like a priest, you guide me and spur me.

I thought he should have heard of the gospel of Christ. Although he denied it when I asked him later, I thought that perhaps the legend about Thomas spreading the gospel to China was true, and this filial and honest master, also known as Thomas' legacy, just thought that the age was long and the church was incomplete, so he received God's favor without knowing it.

The discussion on the beach made me feel that he was an upright, wise and trustworthy person. He had already found out what he needed and was in need of someone to help him leave Binson's nest. If he didn't leave, he might be killed by Binson. After knowing this, I decided to help him leave. With my help, he successfully escaped from Binson's temporary nest, and I followed him to Penghu Island - where I am writing letters now.

After returning to Penghu, this smart Xiaolian quickly organized his limited army, and in turn used the spy sent by Binson to ambush Binson's accomplices, a pirate named Harold, and won a great victory and weakened Binson's strength. Soon Li's two capable generals also returned one after another, with the addition of a group of warriors on the other side of the Shanghai Strait, and the situation developed in a direction that was conducive to Li. Soon, they defeated Binson in the pursuit war at sea and captured Binson and all his accomplices!

When Li Dasheng returned, the entire Penghu Islands were in full bloom.

After returning to Penghu Bay, he presided over a ceremony to celebrate victory and mourn the dead. During this ceremony, he gave a speech to memorialize the soldiers who died in this war to expel pirates and punish the pirates who committed evil deeds. His words were full of the charm of bravery. Whether it was the soldiers he brought from Quanzhou, the local people of Penghu, or the warriors who had just joined the strait, they were all conquered by him and full of admiration for him. If it weren't for Li, I think this place in Penghu would probably be turned into a death archipelago by Binsong and the others! As a hero who expelled pirates and defended their homes, Li is also worthy of people's cheers for him!

However, these cheers were just superficial glory. After returning from victory, Li devoted himself to busy and hard post-war work.

Li Mocked in illuminating the local autonomy system of rural areas in the Ming Empire, he established a city hall, and a young man named Yuting Chen was the village chief, who presided over the government affairs of Penghu and the affiliated islands. I think the village chief was probably a position like mayor. From the fact that this Li Xiaolian was able to appoint such a prominent position as the village chief, he could see his power in the Ming Empire!

Li also asked someone to select three elders with relatively high reputation to form a group called the "Three Elders". I don't understand this kind of organization very well. It is probably an institution similar to the ancient Roman Senate, but there are only three members. The responsibility is to supervise the governance of the village chief and the trial of domestic cases. I think I should report to you the names of these three elders, namely Wei Lin from the other side of the strait, Cai from Penghu's local people's road, and Sheng Gu, who had moved to the senior officer many years ago. I have talked to these three elders. Their knowledge is far inferior to Li, but they are all fair-minded people.

At the same time, Li selected the warriors who came back from the opposite side of the strait, included some of them in his combat team, and sent the other part to the islands of Penghu and Anping Village on the Dayuan Island. The integration and training of the army was chaired by Ping Wu and the herdsman Wang, two capable generals under Li. A warrior leader named Men Shen, who came from the strait, was said to be a very brave commander, but because he was good at building ships, he was appointed to supervise the construction of new ships and repair ships damaged in this war, and was not responsible for the training of the new army.

But these are not the things I care about the most. During this period, the most thrilling thing about me was Lee's punishment for the pirates. I knew Lee wanted to punish them severely, but I hope that Lee would not do too cruel things considering Christ's kindness, so he persuaded him to give these lost lambs a chance several times, but Lee did not agree, just saying that he would do things according to the laws of the Ming Empire.

The trial of this group of pirates took about seven days. The trial was carried out under the supervision of the three elders. Li's civilians interrogated 232 prisoners in batches and determined that 114 of them had killed soldiers or people from the East China Sea during the occupation of Jibei Island and in the subsequent battle with Li. In addition to Reek, who responded to the surrender, he responded to the surrender.

Harold, who revealed important information, Carlson and five other people with technical expertise were pardoned, and the rest of the 109 people were executed! I had asked the San Lao to open the Internet, but the San Lao refused and allowed me to pray to these pirates before they were executed. Only the traitor He Jiu, who suffered the most severe punishment. As for how to punish it, it is said that because they were too cruel, they were afraid that I would have nightmares, so they did not let me see it.

One hundred and eight pirates were hung to death on both sides of the Humen Waterway, where they saw their bodies shaking slightly in the sea breeze. All the pirates who were not executed were frightened. These people also received different levels of punishment according to their crimes. Some were beaten with bamboo and some were punished to do hard work by officials, but compared with the 109 pirates who had been executed, they finally got an opportunity to repent and reform.

However, I recently heard a not-so-good news - it is said that some gentry in Fujian are very curious about the white race, so they want to buy a few white prisoners to be white slaves. After the news came out, all Europeans were very worried, but the truth of the news has not been confirmed yet. I will continue to pay attention to this matter, hoping that it is not true.

After dealing with these pirate prisoners, Li seemed to plan to return to the mainland for a while, but some people said that he would continue to look for his brother at sea - forgot to report to you that the direct reason for Li going to sea this time was to find his brother. It is said that Li's brother was in a pirate robbery. It was precisely to save his brother that Li organized this powerful private army. This incident once again showed us Li's strong strength in the Far East - including financial and military strength. At the same time, he would mobilize his troops to save his brother, which proved that he is a very humane and attaches great importance to family affection. I think that if our church can help him in this matter, it will be of great help to Li's recognition.

The day before I wrote this letter, Lee invited me to walk with him, but instead of forcing me like Binson did, he invited me very politely and told me that if I didn't want to, he would send someone to escort me where I wanted to get there.

Given that although he was not kind enough during this period, he still acted generally fairly, I felt that he was different from Binson and was a trustworthy person, so he agreed to walk with him. He wanted to ask me to teach him Italian and Portuguese, and I think this was a good opportunity to persuade him to naturalize. Moreover, my father's ashes were still by my side, and I thought that following Li, I should have the opportunity to let my father return to his roots according to the Chinese tradition.

The people of Penghu trust him. If he naturalizes his Lord, then the people of Penghu will be baptized with him. Someone told me that Li is the number one talented man in Fujian and has considerable influence in the intellectual community. So I think that if he can really persuade him to naturalize, then the Lord's gospel may be spread to millions of people through him, and even affect the entire southern part of China! That will be that tens of millions of people will convert to our Lord!

What a great cause this is! Just thinking about this possibility makes people excited!

This is also my recent ambition, that my Lord Christ will provide me with shelter and guide me on the right path.

Although I have had doubts, I still firmly believe that we must focus on God, not rely on our own wisdom, and recognize Christ in everything we do, and Christ will guide us in our way!

Finally, I also think that you, Your Excellency Father, may come to China early to see, where tens of millions of kind and intelligent people are waiting for the coming of the gospel.

I wish you good health.

Hillary May. Age of Christ 1544, month, day."

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