No matter where you want to establish a foothold, the first thing to do is to understand the place.
And this is what Zhang Heng has been busy with in the past few days. He has traveled to every corner of Nassau City, meeting fishermen in the market, drunkards in the tavern, prostitutes on the street, and black traders in the exchange. Of course, There are also pirates everywhere in this city who have various pleasant or unpleasant exchanges.
In order to make the process easier, he had to spend another 19 silver pesos, but the money was well spent. In return, he basically understood the situation in Nassau.
Many people regard pirates as a group of villains, hooligans, uncivilized savages who have broken away from civilized society. In a sense, this secular view is not problematic. Few people who become pirates are clean, so It would be natural for people to assume that a city run by pirates would also be full of chaos and crime.
But based on what Zhang Heng has seen so far, this statement may be biased.
Indeed, if you throw thousands of pirates who can drink, fight, and are energetic into the same city, you can hardly expect them to stay calm and not cause trouble. This is why Nassau is always extremely lively every day, but if If you are willing to look more carefully, and not just focus on the street fights or the jealousy in front of the theater, you may be able to see the order hidden in the superficial chaos.
About sixty-three years ago, the first European immigrants set foot on the land here and built a fort and city. In honor of King Charles, they initially called it Charles Town, but the islanders soon discovered that Land reclamation and fishing are far less profitable than taking advantage of bad weather to lure nearby ships to crash into the rocks and then go up to plunder property. So most of the men on the island began to engage in piracy activities, and gradually they were no longer satisfied. Waiting for the ship to hit the rocks unfortunately, then taking the initiative to attack.
At the same time, because of the unique geographical environment of the Bahamas, it has also attracted the attention of other pirates. The large and small islands here can help them hide and avoid the pursuit of warships. Pirates also need a supply when plundering in the Caribbean. and a base for selling stolen goods.
Nassau was born in this context. The name came from a British prince, but ironically it ended up becoming a pirate kingdom.
After years of continuous development, Nassau has formed a unique business system.
The pirates went to sea to plunder and sold the stolen goods to black traders on the island. Through their respective relationships, these black traders transported the stolen goods to the nearest ports such as Charleston, New York, and Boston, turning them into legal commodities. , you can enjoy super high profits without taking almost any risks.
This is the biggest business on the island. Other businesses besides this are basically based on it. Those businesses such as theaters, casinos, and taverns earn money from the silver coins distributed by the pirates, and the appraisers are responsible for robbing the pirates. The value of the loot is evaluated, and some intelligence dealers sell the merchant ship intelligence they obtained in the tavern. The fishermen and thugs here are natural supplements for the sailors. There are also some bold weapons merchants and slave traders who are also active here.
Nassau has no nominal ruler. What is responsible for maintaining order is a parliament-like organization composed of all kinds of people, including black traders, captains of pirate ships, and large landowners on the island... They jointly run the city.
Zhang Heng guessed that the so-called criterion for establishing power in the main mission is to join the island's parliament, and this is not easy. Among them, the big landowners can be eliminated first. These guys are basically the first batch to come to the island. A man with his own plantation and private armed forces, this is not very realistic for him who now has only 20 silver pesos in his entire possessions.
The road to becoming a black trader is obviously more difficult. It is almost impossible to allow a cargo ship carrying stolen goods to pass through customs without a background in the upper class. In fact, there are many families behind the black trader on the island. They were not small. They used their family's power to visit the colonial governor's palace and customs, bribe the officials there, and legalize smuggling. This was not something ordinary people could do.
Therefore, in this round, only becoming the captain of a pirate ship seems to be feasible.
But this is not simple either. Not to mention the famous pirates in history, even the unknown people in this era can command an entire ship and make the unruly pirates obediently go to sea and follow their own rules. Command operations also have two brushes. Zhang Heng knew that he still had a lot to learn.
He was not in a hurry. Although he had a lot to learn, fortunately he had plenty of time.
Four days later, the Sea Lion gathered all the crew and set out to sea again to start her journey. This was also the first time Zhang Heng set foot on this warship. This three-masted sailboat that once belonged to Fraser was the most popular ship in the entire Nassau Harbor. One of the best pirate ships, it has thirty-two cannons, including twenty-four nine-pound cannons and eight twelve-pound cannons, giving it an overwhelming firepower advantage over its prey.
This time they got the news and planned to loot a Dutch supply ship and a Spanish merchant ship.
Zhang Heng performed very well in the battle and successfully rescued three companions with a short musket, which further allowed him to be accepted by the pirates. Unlike Malvin, Zhang Heng did not try to escape after joining the Sea Lion. On the contrary, he By renting a house in Nassau instead of sleeping in a hotel, it looks like he's ready for a permanent stay.
This also gained him a lot of points. Zhang Heng used this opportunity to make a request to Owen, asking the latter to teach him how to fight in close combat. Zhang Heng had learned from other sailors that Owen was the best swordsman on the ship. pirate.
Owen was once a promising young officer, but because of something he offended his boss, the latter sent him to the most dangerous place to complete an impossible mission. Owen killed his boss in anger. Boss, he had no choice but to leave his hometown and became a pirate in Nassau.
Unlike most pirates, Owen's character is very upright and he still retains part of his style in the naval school. This made him seem a little out of place at first, but once the pirates learned about him, they were very willing to make friends with him. Especially when he was at the front in every battle, he won the favor of many people.
When the original boatswain on the ship died in battle, the pirates elected Owen as the new boatswain.
