Zhang Da Scarla didn't know where they were going. This area of Quang Ninh was not a target for pirates. Unless small bandits who are neither Vietnamese nor Chinese, that is, fishermen and robbers, are interested in operating here. Zhang Da Scara looked down on this group of people, and 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 this career, whenever he couldn't get along, he would sneak to Jiangping to avoid the wind, this place is on the Sino-Vietnamese border, it is under the jurisdiction of Vietnam, and the residents are half fishermen and half bandits.

At this time, the first dispute arose, Bei Kai wanted to go to Hongji - his task was to find coal, and Chang Shide realized that he was a member of the exploration team. Chang Shide wanted to get rid of sugar as soon as possible, and although he didn't know anything about the ancient geography of Vietnam, it was clear that Hongji would not have a buyer for sugar.

"It doesn't matter if you want to dig coal, you can slowly investigate and explore, what about the sugar on the ship?"

Zuihou Chang Shide won - the bags of sugar clearly couldn't last long in the South China Sea sun.

The ship headed north under the command of Zhang Da Scarla. There were more ships on the sea, all of them brigs. Zhang Da Scara told everyone to get their weapons ready. Occupy a good position around the side of the ship and on the high ground.

"Pirates?" Chang Shide was a little nervous.

"When I can't beat you, I'm a fisherman," Zhang Dascar took a sip, "The monkeys have thieves in their eyes, and they don't dare to rob them, they come and steal anything." ”

"What is the attitude of the Li Dynasty towards the Ming merchants?" Chang Shide was engaged in foreign trade for the first time, and he was a little nervous.

"The issuance of a document is a thousand taels of silver a year. Naturally, it is welcome. Zhang Da Scara disagreed, he knew a little about the origin of the Australian maritime merchants, and they had guns, cannons and iron ships but nested in Lingao, the local lord was very unimpressed, "Let's go to a more desolate place, probably don't need so much." ”

"Where to go?"

"Why do you ask so much? You'll find out when you go. Zhang Dascara waved his hand, not polite to the boss at all.

Sure enough, it is unabated. Chang Shide scolded secretly, and suddenly became worried again, this big scar must have many accomplices in the pirate gang, and a thousand stone sugar on the ship is worth a thousand taels of silver, in case he has any thief thoughts...... couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, touched the pistol on his waist, and hurriedly went to find Bei Kai, muttering that this black fat pirate can't be kao, what should I do?

Bei Kai said: "But kao can't kao, I can't help it, isn't this person from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?" There is a brother from our new army on board, and thirty or forty guns can't deal with him? It's okay. ”

It wasn't long before a town appeared on the coastline, similar to a small Chinese county town like Lingao, but without walls. It seems to be the mouth of a large river, and along its banks, there are stone piers and wooden trestle bridges. It was full of boats, large and small, some of which were clearly large from China.

Zhang Dascara took care of everyone to bring the rifles and cannons to the lower deck, where the officials of the Li Dynasty were stationed. Before he landed on the shore, a small boat rowed over, a thin figure with sinister eyebrows and rat eyes, wearing a blue-green official robe similar to that of a Ming official, and wearing a black gauze hat. Hands and feet climbed up with unusual agility, Zhang Da Scara quickly greeted him, and after the two of them chattered something that no one could understand, Zhang Da Scara turned to Chang Shide and said:

"He said he could put our ship in the name of another Chinese ship that had paid the money, but he had to give him 200 Spanish silver."

"Mom, it's really as black as a crow in the world." Chang Shide cursed, and when he saw that this big man had a bad face, the Li Dynasty official couldn't help but put his small chest up, and by the way, he put down his black gauze hat to show his "might".

"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, it would be impossible to think about going ashore without paying.

"Then there's the tax on the entry and exit of goods," Mr. Zhang said, "and you can pay less by spending a little money." ”

"Grandma's," Chang Shide's curse escalated, but this is fine, at least you can spend less money, "Deal." ”

Zhang Dachara turned around and muttered to him for a while, and Zuihou was sold for three hundred and ten Spanish silver dollars—the personal benefit of the big head and the tax of the small head. As for what the cargo was on the ship, and what they were going to take away, this official didn't care. Not only that, but even the water bills for import and export have been opened, and there is a Chinese character for water on it. It seems that everyone is happy, except for the government of the Li Dynasty.

At present, the port is called Hai Duong, according to Zhang Dascarla, and it is a natural trading port, where Chinese maritime merchants often come to trade, bringing large quantities of salt, porcelain, sugar, cloth, ironware and various other goods, mainly raw silk and betel nut.

Chang Shide asked curiously: "How do you know these thresholds?" ”

Zhang Dascar scratched his scalp: "Back then, our boss was also a maritime merchant—"

"Oh, yes, yes." Chang Shide thought about it, the maritime merchants and pirates in this time and space were basically a group of people.

Bei Kai whispered to Chang Shide: "This should be Haiphong Port." ”

"How do you know?"

"Maps." Bei Kai opened the notebook in his hand and pointed: "This river should be the Jingtai River, located on the northeast side of the Red River Delta, on the northwest bank of the Beibu Gulf. ”

Le Lin also came up and said, "That's right, I just measured the latitude and longitude......"

"You just pull it down, yesterday you said we were near Saigon."

"Did you miscalculate yesterday! That's right today—" Lelin argued.

"Alright, let's go ashore."

Chang Shide and Bei Kai went ashore under the leadership of Zhang Dascarla, and they brought ten soldiers to the shore in civilian clothes to protect them. Although the houses here are humble and simple, the market still seems to be prosperous, and most of them are dressed in ochre-colored coarse cloth clothes, except for their appearance and size, they are dressed quite like the Ming Dynasty. There are also people who look at the people of the Ming Dynasty. Like all the places in Southeast Asia where Chinese maritime merchants set foot in, it is a mixed city of China and Vietnam. Chinese merchant ships brought in a steady stream of goods. Large quantities of goods tied with straw ropes were piled up on the docks, and the amount was quite staggering.

"There are a lot of people in the Ming Dynasty here." Zhang Dascarla introduced with great interest, "Some of them have begged local women to be wives here, and they have lived here for several generations. The maritime merchants who came here liked to take concubines here - women were not worth much, and they had a comfortable place when they came to do business. ”

Chang Shide couldn't help but once again quite take a trip to Vietnam Jihua, but unfortunately he was strangled by his wife in the planning stage.

Chang Shide didn't want to see it, he was not familiar with life here, so he could only trust Zhang Dascar. I asked about the price of sugar in a few commercial houses, and the market was between seven taels and eight taels. Then he asked a grain store here that the price of rice was five cents per stone. He was absolutely satisfied with the price, but he soon discovered a fatal problem: the merchants here were accustomed to paying on credit, and the sugar was handed over to them until the following year. But you have to pay cash to buy rice.

Moreover, the merchants of these trading houses had a clear sense of distrust for his unfamiliar face, and they had to wait for half a day to answer anything.

"What kind of rule is this!" Chang Shide felt very annoyed, and just wanted to say "these monkeys", but remembered that the bosses of these trading houses should be Ming businessmen judging from their clothes and appearance.

"Let's go, let's see the market of the grain store."

Zhang Dascara said: "The shopkeeper doesn't have to be silver, but also rice?" ”

"Yes, I'm here mainly to buy rice." Chang Shide said.

"It's easy." Zhang Da Scar said, "Haiyang is a small place, except for the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, I'm afraid that no one can come up with eight thousand taels of silver, but there are still a lot of local rich people who can take out rice in exchange." Just swap the sugar for them. ”

"Do they want to?"

"Of course I do, what is the market for sugar. Cochins aren't stupid either. But they don't have that much silver. CHA doesn't get started. ”

At the moment, I took a break in a teahouse on the street and replenished some water. Zhang Dachara said that they would go seven or eight miles inland to the mainland, where there was a manor of Wu Yujia, a local landowner.

"Wu Yujia's ancestors were also Chinese," Zhang Dascara introduced, "I heard that I came here to escape the turmoil at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and I have been here for more than 300 years." He has a lot of land in his house, and he has thousands of families, and even the emperor of the Li Dynasty is polite to him. ”

"It's really a monkey! The Ming Dynasty is qualified to be called the emperor! "Chang Shide was not very happy, and he did it now.

Zhang Da Scara felt a little strange, this group of Australians had no feelings for Da Ming, and said casually: "His family has become the emperor behind closed doors." It's just a mouthful. ”

After a short rest, the team continued to head inland. It is spring now, and the land of Beiqi in the tropics is already bright and bright, and on both sides of the dirt road are vast acres of emerald green and golden fields, and the green rice seedlings are shaking in the majestic wind, and in the golden fields, there are rice that have not yet been harvested. In the hot sun, the aroma of rice and seedlings is emanating. Farmers dressed in purple-brown homespun cloth in the fields, carrying out the work of sapling and harvesting.

A place where three crops of rice can be harvested a year is really a natural granary. Chang Shide couldn't help but show a greedy look. Scattered along the road are low, shabby villages, but they look calm. The village is dotted with verdant bamboo, banana and papaya trees, and very slender and straight betel nut trees, which rise above all the trees, with flag-like leaves swaying.

From time to time, you can also see some peasant women working in the fields. They wore triangular bamboo hats, purple-brown tight-fitting cloth with many patches, and wrapped their heads, foreheads, ears, sideburns, cheeks and chin tightly with brown cloth scarves. Chang Shide couldn't see their faces clearly, but they all had the typical body shape of a Champa woman: a long waistline, a slender and elastic waist, and a low and wide hip circumference. Although it's not the big breasts and fat buttocks shape he likes, it has a different flavor. This made Chang Shide's heart start to jump again

"It's also an overlooked resource." He thought, he didn't know how much it would cost to buy a woman.

There are probably quite a few people who feel similar to him:

"What a great place." The soldiers of the army are talking to each other.

"It's really worth dying to be able to farm and live in such a place."

"You have to have your own land, and if you are a tenant for others, you will suffer for the rest of your life."

Chang Shide turned around and said to the soldiers: "If you divide the land for everyone here, are you willing to come?" ”

The fighters all laughed: "Of course I do!" "My family is willing to come." ……

"What if the people here want to drive you away?"

"Then drive them all away!" Answer collectively.

"No, we have to leave the woman behind! I don't have a wife yet. A stunned young man said.

There was a commotion in the procession, and laughter attracted the attention of farmers in the nearby fields.

Zhang Da Scara can understand some Mandarin, and also laughed: "Shopkeeper Chang, are you going to buy land here?" ”

"Later." Chang Shide actually said casually, mobilizing morale, and always giving the soldiers and employees some big cakes that are not too far away.

Laughing, an elephant came slowly on the road, and most of the warriors had never seen this behemoth, and they were all a little afraid.

"Don't be afraid, this is an elephant, very timid. Don't disturb it, everyone! Chang Shide commanded.

Zhang Da Scara said in a low voice: "Don't panic, this is Wu Yujia's manor steward on patrol. ”

"Riding an elephant out shopping? What a big scene. ”

"Shopkeeper Chang, your second bubble of urine just now was urinated on the ground of Wu Yujia's house."

"......" Chang Shide was suddenly discouraged. This big landlord's pomp and circumstance is really not built.

The elephant rider was dressed in black, wore a hat, and carried a long whip in his hand, and although he was small, he looked imposing. He was followed by more than a dozen black-clad family members.

Zhang Dascara ran over and seemed to be talking. After a while, he turned back and said, "The steward asks the shopkeeper to sit in the Zhuangzi, there is a door for this matter!" ”

Although he still has some doubts about Zhang Da Scar's Kekaodu, but when it comes to the end, he can't say that there may be safety problems and don't go. At the moment, I went with it.

Chang Shide and his entourage were taken by the steward to a Zhuangzi, which is a somewhat strange Chinese-style courtyard, but it is also a carved fence and painted building, which is very gorgeous, but it doesn't look right. Chang Shide and Bei Kai did not get the expected courtesy and gorgeous hospitality, and waited for a long time to drink tea before a middle-aged man came out, and he looked square-headed. After communicating through Zhang Dascara, Chang Shide knew that this person was just a housekeeper in the manor, and he couldn't help but feel a heartache of being ignored - he is now a big man in charge of the crossing group, can't he see you as a rich Vietnamese landlord?!