Zhang Dascara didn't know where they were going. [No pop-up novel website] This area of Guangning is not a target of pirates. Only those small groups of pirates who are neither Vietnamese nor Chinese, who are fishermen and rob fishermen, are interested in operating here. Zhang Dascara looked down upon this group of people. Chang Shide confirmed a truth from him: any social group has a hierarchy.
However, Zhang Dascara is still familiar with the sea conditions in this area. When he first started his career, whenever he couldn't survive, he would sneak to Jiangping to take shelter from the wind. This place is on the border between China and Vietnam. It is governed by Vietnam, and the residents are all floating people who are half fishermen and half bandits.
At this time, the first dispute arose. Bei Kai wanted to go to Hongji - his mission was to find coal. Only then did Chang Shide find out that he was from the exploration team. Chang Shide wanted to get rid of the sugar as soon as possible. Although he knew nothing about the ancient geography of Vietnam, Hongji obviously had no buyers for the sugar.
"It doesn't matter if you want to dig coal. You can slowly investigate and explore. What about the sugar on the ship?"
In the end, Chang Shide won - bags of candy obviously couldn't last long under the scorching sun of the South China Sea.
The ship sailed north under the command of Zhang Dascara. There are more ships on the sea, all of which are two-masted fishing boats. Zhang Dascara asked everyone to prepare their weapons. Occupy a good position all around the ship's side and on the high ground.
"Pirates?" Chang Shide was a little nervous.
"When I can't beat you, I'm a fisherman," Zhang Dasla spat. "Monkeys are very thief-eyed. If they don't dare to rob, they will steal. They want everything."
"What is Li Dynasty's attitude toward Ming merchants?" Chang Shide was a little nervous as this was his first time engaging in foreign affairs and trade.
"Zhang Wenshu is worth one thousand taels of silver a year. Of course he is welcome." Zhang Dascara disagreed. He knew a little about the origins of Australian maritime merchants. They had guns, cannons and iron ships, but they were nestled in Lingao. The Lord was very disapproving and said, "We probably won't need so many if we go to a more desolate place."
"Where to go?"
"Why are you asking so many questions? You'll find out when you get there." Zhang Dasca waved his hand, not showing any politeness to the boss.
As expected, the gangster spirit continues unabated. Chang Shide cursed secretly, and suddenly became worried again. There must be many accomplices in the pirate gang with this big scar. The thousand stones of candy on the ship are worth a thousand taels of silver. If he has any evil thoughts... he can't help but think. Breaking into a cold sweat, he touched the pistol on his waist and hurriedly went to find Bekai, muttering that what should he do about this fat black pirate?
Bei Kai said: "But there is nothing I can do about it. Wasn't this man found by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? There are brothers from our New Army on the ship. Thirty or forty guns can't deal with him? It's okay."
Not long after, a town appeared on the coastline. It looked very similar to a small Chinese county such as Lingao, but without city walls. This seems to be the mouth of a large river. Along the river bank, there are stone piers and wooden trestles. It was full of ships of all sizes, some obviously from China.
Zhang Dascara asked everyone to put the rifles and cannons below the deck, where officials from the Le Dynasty were stationed. Before they even landed, a small boat rowed over. A thin man with sinister features and stern eyes was wearing a green official robe and a black gauze hat similar to that of a Ming Dynasty official. Climbing up with unusually agile hands and feet, Zhang Dascara hurriedly rushed up to meet him. After the two of them chattered something that no one could understand, Zhang Dascara turned around and said to Chang Shide:
"He said that we can put our ship in the name of another Chinese ship that has paid money, but he only needs to pay him 200 pieces of Spanish silver."
"Mom, the world is as black as crows." Chang Shide cursed. Seeing the bad look on the big man's face, the Li Dynasty official couldn't help but push up his small chest and hold up his black gauze hat to show his "mighty".
"Okay, just give it to him. Is there any other money to spend?" Chang Shide knew that unless he commanded the fleet to bombard this place, there was no way he could land ashore without paying.
"There is also the tax on the import and export of goods," Zhang Dascara said. "You can pay less by spending a little money."
"***," Chang Shide's curse escalated, but this is good, at least he can spend less money, "deal."
Zhang Dascara turned around and muttered with him for a while, and finally settled the deal for three hundred and ten Spanish silver dollars - the big head's personal benefits and the small head's taxes. As for what the cargo was on the ship and what they were planning to transport, this arrogant official didn't care. Not only that, even the water bills for the import and export were issued, with the Chinese character for water on them. Everyone seemed happy, except the Le government.
Now the ship can enter the port. According to Zhang Dascara, this place is called Haiyang. It is a naturally formed trading port. Chinese maritime merchants often come here to trade, transporting large quantities of salt, porcelain, sugar, cloth, ironware and other items. The goods transported were mainly raw silk and betel nut.
Chang Shide asked curiously: "How do you know these thresholds?"
Zhang Dascara scratched his scalp: "Back then, our boss was also a maritime businessman -"
"Oh, that's right." Chang Shide remembered that the merchants and pirates in this time and space were basically the same group of people.
Bei Kai whispered to Chang Shide: "This should be Haiphong Port."
"how do you know?"
"A map." Bekai opened the book in his hand and pointed: "This river should be the Jingtai River. It is located on the northeast side of the Red River Delta, close to the northwest shore of Beibu Gulf. Comparing the landform features, it can only be here. .”
Le Lin also joined in and said, "Yes, I just calculated the latitude and longitude..."
"Just pull him down. Yesterday you said we were near Saigon."
"Did you make a wrong calculation yesterday? Today's calculation is correct -" Le Lin still wanted to argue.
"Okay, okay, let's go ashore."
Chang Shide and Bei Kai went ashore under the leadership of Zhang Dascara. They brought ten soldiers ashore in civilian clothes to accompany them for protection. Although the houses here are humble and simple, the market seems to be prosperous, with people coming and going. Most of the people are wearing ocher-colored coarse cloth. In addition to their appearance and stature, their clothing is quite similar to that of the Ming Dynasty. There are also people who look like the people of the Ming Dynasty at first glance. Like all places in Southeast Asia where Chinese maritime merchants set foot, this is a city where Chinese and Vietnamese people live together. Chinese merchant ships brought a steady stream of goods. A large number of goods tied with straw ropes were piled on the dock, and the amount was quite astonishing.
"There are many people in the Ming Dynasty here." Zhang Dascara introduced enthusiastically, "Some of them have taken local women as wives here, and they have lived here for several generations. The maritime merchants who come here like to marry here. Concubine—a woman is worthless, so she has a comfortable place when she comes to do business.”
Chang Shide couldn't help but reconsider his plan to travel to Vietnam that year, but unfortunately his wife killed him in the planning stage.
Chang Shide didn't care to watch. He was unfamiliar with the place and could only believe that Zhang Dasca was dead. I asked several trading houses about the price of sugar, and the price ranged from seven to eighty taels. Then he asked a grain store here. The price of rice was five yuan per stone. He was absolutely satisfied with the price, but he immediately discovered a fatal problem: the trading houses here were accustomed to credit, and after the sugar was handed over to them, the accounts would not be settled until the second year. But buying rice requires cash.
Moreover, the merchants in these trading houses had an obvious feeling of distrust towards this unfamiliar face of his, and they would wait for a long time before answering any questions they asked.
"What kind of rule is this!" Chang Shide felt very annoyed. He was about to say "these monkeys", but then he remembered that the bosses of these trading houses should all be businessmen from the Ming Dynasty based on their clothes and appearance.
"Let's go and see what's going on at the grain store."
Zhang Dascara said: "Shopkeeper Chang doesn't necessarily need silver. Can rice also be used?"
"Yes, I came here mainly to buy rice." Chang Shide said.
"That's easy." Zhang Dascara said, "Haiyang is a small place. Except for merchants from the Ming Dynasty, I'm afraid no one can come up with eight thousand taels of silver, but the local rich man who can come up with rice in exchange still can't. It’s less. Just give them the candy in exchange.”
"Are they willing?"
"Of course I do, what's the price of sugar? Cochin people are not fools either. It's just that they don't have a lot of money. They just don't know how to get started."
We took a short break in a teahouse on the street and drank some water. Zhang Dascara said that next they would go deep into the hinterland, where there is a manor owned by Wu Yujia, a large local landowner.
"Wu Yujia's ancestors were also Chinese," Zhang Dascara introduced. "I heard that he came here to escape the chaos of the late Yuan Dynasty. He has been here for more than three hundred years. His family has a lot of land, and he has thousands of servants. The emperors of Li Dynasty were all polite to him."
"It's true that the crown is crowned by the monkey! Only the Ming Dynasty is qualified to be called emperor!" Chang Shide was not happy at first, but now he did it.
Zhang Dascara felt a little strange. This group of Australians had no feelings for Ming Dynasty. He said smoothly: "His family just closed the door and became the emperor. It's just a mouthful."
After a short rest, the team continued to advance inwards. It is spring now, and the tropical Beiqi land is already bright and springy. On both sides of the dirt road are vast acres of green and golden fields. The green ones are rice seedlings shaking in the majestic wind, and the golden fields are not yet harvested. paddy. Under the hot sunshine, bursts of fragrance are coming out of rice and seedlings. Farmers wearing purple-brown homespun cloth are doing seedling and harvesting work in the fields.
A place that can harvest three crops of rice a year is truly a natural granary. Chang Shide couldn't help but show a greedy look. There are some villages scattered on both sides of the road. They are low and simple, but they still look peaceful. Scattered around the village are green bamboo forests, banana and papaya trees, as well as very slender and straight betel nut trees, towering above all the trees, with flag-like leaves swaying.
From time to time, you can see some farm girls working in the fields. They wore triangular bamboo hats, tight-fitting purple-brown cloth clothes with many patches, and tightly wrapped their heads, foreheads, ears, cheeks and chins with brown cloth scarves. Chang Shide couldn't see their faces clearly, but they all had the typical body shape of Champa women: a longer waistline, a slender and elastic waist and low and wide hips. Although it's not the big breasts and butt shape he likes, it has a unique flavor. This made Chang Shide eager to try again.
"This is also a neglected resource." He thought, he didn't know how much it would cost to buy a woman.
There are probably many people who feel similar to him:
"What a great place." The soldiers of the Sixth Army were whispering to each other.
"Being able to live a living farming in a place like this is really worth dying for."
"You have to have your own land. If you work as a tenant, you will suffer for the rest of your life."
Chang Shide turned around and said to the soldiers: "If we are given land here, would you like to come?"
The soldiers all laughed: "Of course I am willing!" "My whole family is willing to come."...
"What if the people here want to drive you away?"
"Then drive them all away!" the group replied.
"No, I have to keep the woman! I don't have a wife yet." Someone said with a stunned expression.
There was a burst of laughter in the team, and the laughter attracted the looks of farmers in the nearby fields.
Zhang Dascara could understand some Mandarin and laughed: "Shopkeeper Chang, are you planning to buy land here?"
"What happens in the future." Chang Shide actually said it casually, mobilizing morale and always giving the soldiers and employees some big cakes that were not too far away.
Talking and laughing, an elephant came slowly on the road. Most of the soldiers had never seen this huge beast before, and they were a little scared.
"Don't be afraid, this is an elephant and it is very timid. Don't disturb it!" Chang Shide ordered.
Zhang Dascara whispered: "Shopkeeper, don't panic, this is Wu Yujia's manor manager who is inspecting."
"Going shopping on an elephant? What a big scene."
"Shopkeeper Chang, you just peed on the floor of Wu Yujia's house."
"..." Chang Shide was suddenly discouraged. The ostentation of this big landowner is indeed not something he can afford.
The man riding the elephant was wearing black clothes, a bamboo hat, and holding a long whip in his hand. Although he was thin, he looked majestic. Behind him were more than a dozen servants in black clothes.
Zhang Dascara ran over and seemed to be talking. After a while, he turned back and said: "The manager, please ask the shopkeeper to sit on the table in the village. There is a way to do this!"
Although he still had some doubts about Zhang Dascara's credentials, when things came to a close, he couldn't just say there might be safety issues and not go. Now I bite the bullet and follow.
Chang Shide and his party were taken to a Zhuangzi by the steward. The Zhuangzi was a somewhat weird Chinese-style courtyard with carved railings and painted buildings. It was very ornate, but it didn't look quite right. Chang Shide and Bei Kai did not receive the attentive and gorgeous reception they expected. After waiting for a long time, the tea had faded away before a middle-aged man came out. He seemed to have a square head and a straight face. After communicating with Zhang Dascara, Chang Shide knew that this person was just a housekeeper in the manor, and he couldn't help but feel the heartache of being ignored - he was now a responsible member of the Time Travel Group. See you. Can’t you see any rich Vietnamese people? ! ! ~!
