There is a reason why the Yuandou left the mouth of the chicken coop and headed straight west.

Because Taipei's iron ore is located on the beach sand dunes between the mouth of the Wanli River and the middle corner of Jinshan, the high-grade and most valuable mining area, located on both sides of the Jinshan headland near the sulfur port and Shuiwei.

The above location is actually in the coastal area of Jinshan District, later Taipei, near the upper left corner of Taiwan.

The Yuandou is now departing, and it is going straight to Sulfur Harbor.

Since the mouth of the sulfur stream connected to the Datunshan volcanic group is near the sulfur port, it was originally an important sulfur export base scheduled by the crossing forces, and now with the addition of iron placer mines, the sulfur port in the future is bound to prosper because of the two industrial raw materials of sulfuric acid and iron.

......

When the Yuandou came to the sea off Sulphur Harbor, it was already dark. In the 17th century, the area around Sulphur Harbor was still a continuous beach and lagoon, and there is no trace of the beautiful harbor and neat esplanade of later generations.

The next morning, the weather finally became clear, and the Yuandou began to release a small boat to reconnoiter the mouth of the sulfur river. And what is surprising is that before the Yuandou entered the mouth of the sulfur stream, there were already natives waving and jumping on the bank.

When the boat drove into the mouth of the river and took a closer look, it turned out to be a Ming man with his hair tied in a bun waving, followed by five or six natives with cloth skirts wrapped around their waists.

Lei Jian stood at the bow of the boat at this time, looking at the people on the shore who kept running with the boat, and couldn't help but think of the rural aunt who took the green car and followed the window to sell roast chicken. After sighing for a while, he shook his head and said to Pan Mingzhong next to him: "It seems that the information is still accurate, and there are Ming people who live in Taipei during this time period." ”

"The natives didn't actually build a territory by accident, otherwise how would Manhattan come to be?" Pan Mingzhong nodded and said: "Don't the Japanese and the Ming people have villages, in addition, before the Dutch deliberately intensified the conflict, the Ming merchants ate and lived casually in the indigenous villages, and there was not a single murder. ”

"I'm afraid that Taipei here is not so easy to speak."

"Yes, let's take one step at a time, it's better not to kill people, if you kill someone, your reputation will not be good."

"Well, it's not a drill, it's the old way."

"Huh."

...... At the moment when the two were chatting, the Yuandou had docked in a bay on the east bank of the Sulfur Creek under the guidance of the dinghy and the Ming people running on the shore.

In the 17th century, the water was far more than 40 meters wide at its widest point, and the water flow was fast-flowing - Taipei's rainfall was too high, so the big and small rivers had plenty of water throughout the year.

The bay where the Yuandou docked is a convention and exhibition center used to receive foreign guests all year round: the land in the bay is flat, there is a row of straw huts used for temporary rest in the distance, and in the open space between the ships and the straw huts, there are a few quickly smooth boulders and a few tree roots as thick as a round table...... The trading desk is ready.

"Hahaha, the ancients also had a strong sense of service!" After seeing the layout clearly, Lei Jian laughed.

Pan Mingzhong also couldn't help laughing, and said with a smile: "It seems that after thousands of years of trade, the natives have finally learned something." ”

", this arrangement looks like it's made by Mingren."

"Okay, okay, just ask."

...... When the Yuandou docked and stopped, the Fujian translator brought on the ship got off the ship and connected with the Ming man.

As expected, this Ming man is a Fujian native who lives here. This person's name is Liao Tianding, a small businessman, and he also serves as the village chief of a small Ming village three miles away. There are only about 10 permanent residents in the small village, and they usually rely on hoarding goods and bringing in ships from Fujian merchants to survive.

In fact, the Yuandou was discovered in the early hours of this morning. Seeing this big sand ship with a deep draft and slowly releasing a small boat to explore the way, Liao Tianding knew that the Yuandou was here to trade - the pirate ship was a sneak attack stream with a shallow draft, not this style.

With the Ground Snake in charge, things go a lot smoother. Next, Liao Tianding first introduced those natives to Pan Mingzhong and them.

Holding a shuttle dart, wearing a feather ornament on their heads, jewelry around their necks, and a short ramie skirt wrapped around their waists, they were the village chiefs and warriors of the Fengli Society, a member of the Kaida Gran tribe, which was closest to the area.

The Kaida Grand people, who once lived in the area of Taipei, have long disappeared in later generations. There is no way, who let this land be the earliest place for Fujian immigrants to intervene, there is a Qing generation, a large number of immigrants came here, so the Kaida Gran disappeared silently.

The Fengli people they saw today were all wrapped in cloth aprons, and they must belong to the wealthy class of wealthy villages. Judging from the attitudes and body language of these people, it is obvious that they have rich experience in foreign exchanges, and they are similar to those ethnic minorities in the tourist areas of later generations.

Very good, Pan Mingzhong couldn't be more satisfied with his current state. Use the indigenous etiquette learned from Liao Tianding: After the left fist touched the forehead a few times, a group of yellow people with black hair and black eyes recognized their relatives. The next moment, the sailors on the sand boat carried down some trade samples and placed them on the smooth stone face.

After seeing the goods taken out by these hairdressers who claimed to be maritime merchants on Dayuan Island, Liao Tianding couldn't help but be overjoyed.

Among these goods are not only the favorite fabrics and porcelain bowls of the natives, but also some delicate daily necessities and straw products. In addition, there is table salt.

It's not that people who live by the sea can eat a lot of salt: before the invention of iron pot salt, people on the seashore could only eat bitter and astringent mixtures of salt and mud.

This principle is more directly reflected in the natives: there is no way to boil the salt grains out of the tribe that does not even have an iron spear head. As for the more technical salt pans...... Don't be embarrassed by these bare-chested warriors.

So when Liao Tianding saw these big bags of salt, he was still very welcome. You must know that in the Ming Village, a little salt is occasionally boiled in an iron pot, and it is all reserved for oneself to eat.

No way, no one knows when the next trading ship will come, and whether there will be an iron pot on board - the so-called iron materials in this era are all produced by low-temperature kilns with unqualified phosphorus and sulfur, and the iron pots of later generations are purely two concepts. If you let go of the boiling salt, it won't be long before the pot is finished, and there is no such profession as a blacksmith or tinkerer.

In addition to the large grains of salt, some other fine fine salts are also surprising to Liao Tianding. In fact, no Fujian chamber of commerce brought this salt to the natives in exchange for sulfur. Fujian itself is desperately short of salt, not to mention this kind of high-quality refined salt that requires several times the cost of stove households to cook.

Liao Tianding's surprise is redundant here in the traversal. The main purpose of the Yuandou's trip to Taipei was to explore and investigate, so it brought some with it regardless of what kind of goods. After recording which products are marketable, the next ship will come over, and you can have a target.

After looking at the goods on the booth, a few natives chatted a few words and left. Liao Tianding told Pan Mingzhong with a smile: This is to prepare trade goods, and the natives will come again soon.

That being the case, the sailors quickly moved more cargo from the Yuandou.

At this time, Pan Mingzhong pulled the surnamed Liao aside and carefully interrogated the local customs and trade pattern.

Liao Tianding naturally knows everything: he is still counting on the Yuandou to give him the tail goods when he leaves.

According to his experience, the goods of Akito Village and Toyosato Society will be the first wave of trade teams to arrive today.

Since Akito Village and Toyosato have sent messengers to the surrounding areas in accordance with the default rules, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow will be the climax of the trade fair: the nearby tribes will send people to exchange supplies.

Hearing this, Pan Mingzhong nodded. He then asked a little more about the volcanic sulfur.

The distance between Sulphur Harbor and the Yangmingshan Forest Park in the future is less than 10 kilometers in a straight line. The entire extinct volcano group of Datun Mountain is in the park.

Yangmingshan, formerly known as "Grass Mountain", refers to the mountainous areas around Datun Mountain, Qixing Mountain, Shamao Mountain, and Xiaoguanyin Mountain, rather than just referring to a certain peak. The whole volcanic complex is beautiful, with volcanic cones, craters, fumaroles, hot springs, geothermal and other natural scenery, and of course, most importantly, natural sulfur blocks.

The origin of the name "Grass Mountain" is because during the Qing Dynasty, the local government was worried that thieves would hide in the forest to steal sulfur, so they regularly set fire to the mountain, so the entire mountain can only grow miscanthus grass.

The sulphur of Taipei's extinct volcanoes was an important strategic resource until the end of the Qing Dynasty: in fact, it was the only sulphur resource in the country that was easily available.

Of course, in the 17th century, it was not easy to get into the volcanic complexes: the 10-kilometre journey was only the periphery, and to enter the core sulphur-producing areas, it was still necessary for natives to dig into the mountains and forests to collect them.

"It seems that we can only wait for the large army to come over and open up the Sulphur Creek." Pan Mingzhong and Liao Tianding talked about this, and basically figured out the difficulty of mining sulfur.

......

At noon on the same day, Mingren Village and Fengli Society, two groups near the water, brought a lot of sulfur, deer skin, dried venison, and dried fish to trade. In addition, there is some staple food of Taiwanese aborigines: millet.

The poor Spaniards declared that they would not sell grain to the Yuandou, but when they saw the blue and white porcelain bowls and cotton cloth, the natives automatically delivered the grain to the traversers.

Pan Mingzhong said that those who came did not refuse.

This pitiful trade of the natives was what pleased him. Unable to come up with enough exchange materials, they can only increase the collection of sulfur in the face of more and more industrial products in the future, and there is no other way.

The day's trading ended quickly.

Most of the supplies have a customary exchange price, except for the refined salt that is taken out by the traversal. This problem was quickly solved: it didn't take long for Liao Tianding to agree on a price with the natives.

In the evening of the same day, I used a large iron pot, venison, salt and five-spice powder to invite about 10 villagers from Mingren Village to have a good meal.

The following agreement was reached during the banquet: First, from tomorrow, the Ming people who have freed up their hands will send people with the Thunder Sword team to explore the iron ore nearby.

Second: Before the Yuandou leaves, he will leave a translator and some tail goods in Mingren Village, so that he can continue to buy the sulfur of the Turen in the future.

In return, Liao Tianding and the others were given a high-grade cast iron cauldron from the kiln area - this is very precious, because steel is currently a controlled material, and it will not appear in the usual trade list.