Summer in Brunei is still hot, but the scenery is different.

Another month has passed, and the wide roadbed has extended to all the villages near and far, even the natives in the southern rainforest are enough to go back and forth in Fucheng or Sili Harbor in one day, and exchange the local products in their hands for the goods they need.

Salt and sugar were in constant supply in the government-run shopping malls, and the newly launched liquor became the favorites of the natives, quickly depleting their wealth. It is estimated that it will not be long before a large area of land in the south can be rightfully incorporated into the official farms of the Great Song Dynasty by means of peaceful redemption.

After nightfall, until the past three or four watches, the vendors on the dock are still in an endless stream. Thanks to the lighting system, opening at night has become an easy thing even for the merchants who walk the streets.

The streets along the west of Sili Harbour are small buildings of two or three floors, and most of the well-planned shops on the street are open until the middle of the night, some sell all kinds of odd meals, some sell groceries and handicrafts, and there are simple inns, with the prosperity of the port trade, in just a few months, under the guidance of the Economic Strategy Division, these supporting service industries have been built.

The rhythmic sound of bamboo planks ringing softly in the streets of Sili Harbour, as long as you stop the passers-by, you can eat delicious drinks and snacks, and you can relieve the unbearable heat of the summer night, this is the hawker who has recently appeared in the harbor to do the business of night workers.

Young workers who are especially energetic after the night shift will have to have some fun if they don't have enough to enjoy it, and the native women have now begun to start a leather and meat business in the harbor, or there have been such things in the past, but most of them have been improvised, but the fact that it has become a climate like this is a testament to the prosperity of the port. It's just that the government won't sit idly by, and if it is infected with a dirty disease, then the Department of Health and Welfare will inevitably have to eat and hang, so there is the current registration system. The household department quoted scriptures and classics, and also gave these women a retro name - Miss, of course, this is also the ancient Song Dynasty.

However, there are no absolutes, although the store operations of Han and Turen are not much different in the past, there is still a slight difference just by looking at the door. Most of the shops in Hermes-Epitek are run by men, but most of the women who show up are natives.

But now, under the promotion of several female elders, the Ministry of Rites has set up a subordinate agency called Fengyi, which is dedicated to women's work, which means Fenglaiyi. Under Feng Yi's promotion, more Han women were prioritized in schools so that they could become more suitable female naturalized cadres in the future.

Although the elders in the Ministry of Rites also felt that this move was a bit redundant, they thought that if they could make some achievements, it would be a good manpower, not to mention that there were not many female patriarchs, and no one would deliberately excuse themselves for such things, so the women's work in Brunei Province was carried out. The price of compromise was that the female senators reluctantly agreed to adopt the Miss system, and replaced it with a yellow ticket registration to manage it, after all, there are many immigrants, and there are more men and fewer women among the immigrants, and people's great desires always have to have a source.

The newly planned commercial area continues to extend to the west, along the square is surrounded by a circle of wooden kiosks, row upon row of rows of iron plates marked by number plates, the name of the proprietor of each kiosk and the name of the goods are clearly listed, and there is also a sign with a map at the entrance of the square, marking the division of various trading areas, which can be described as meticulous.

Behind this prosperous place, the new construction site is brightly lit, that is where the Vientiane Mall will be located in the future, the traditional trading station is no longer able to meet the sales of all kinds of goods, just these two months of merchant ships, there are more than 70 ships, although they are all common local horn bluffing boats, but the increasing trade marks the importance of Brunei in this area has been highlighted.

As a trade link between the economic strategy department and the common interests of the local clans, in addition to the state-owned HSBC Bank is the largest shareholder, the local committee members can be said to have a share, and the most private equity subscription is the Mou Haogu, who has won a good reputation in the local area with the pox method.

Quark had been here for some time, and after a chance venture to find a new route, after arriving at the old port, the keen British decided to try their luck and go with them as they watched the Chinese fleet sail strangely in the direction of Borneo this season, where a new trading stronghold was said to have risen to the north of Borneo. At the time of the supply of fresh water at the mouth of the Sarawak River, Kuching was not yet under the rule of the self-proclaimed Great Song regime, and as recently as yesterday in the local news, the news of the pacification of West Borneo by the Great Song army had spread throughout Sili and Brunei through newspapers and storytellers in the market.

It was also from that moment that Quark rediscovered the meaning of the words on the giant lighthouse in the harbor.

Maybe it's not too late for me. ’

This is what Quark and his partner really think at the moment, the reasonable price has brought good income to the cotton cloth, which is not of much value, and the cheap white sugar here has made him see the possibility of getting rich, and even gave up buying pepper. Brunei's pepper is a little worse than that of Maluku, and pepper production is already high from Goa to Sumatra and Java.

Quark didn't have a specific concept in his mind, but he accidentally learned in the Song people's newspaper that the Portuguese alone shipped nearly 1,000 tons of pepper to Europe every year.

And the most expensive is the meat* cardamom from the Banda Islands, this special spice has not been found elsewhere for the time being, and rumors about its miraculous effects make it ten times more valuable than pepper, but it is a pity that the Banda Islands are far south of Borneo, where the Dutch and the Portuguese compete with each other's territory, the British are still weak, although they also have two small strongholds on the outer islands of Banda, but after all, they are not the same as the strength of the Dutch who have been entrenched in them for many years. It's not enough to compete with this expensive spice.

Quark, who had been given the money, was not in a hurry to go to the Old Port or Java, and his mind had changed since he first arrived in Brunei.

It was still the time when the rainy season was approaching, and the biggest benefit of sailing with a group of merchant ships from the Old Port was being able to avoid the Portuguese and Dutch cruisers. The Portuguese believed in God and were not accustomed to their heresy, while the Dutch were more accommodating, but the conflict of interests was not exaggerated than the murder of their relatives, and the Dutch treated the English merchants more fiercely than the Portuguese, and behind this was the windfall profits of the spice trade nearly ten times a year.

Shiploads of spices shipped back to Europe from the Far East seas will not be subject to any variation, but whether they are sold in the markets of London or Amsterdam is a detail that will be interesting to the end of the fortune flow.

And the reason that impressed Quark to live in Brunei for so many days is nothing more than the abundant goods and good trading environment of this Great Song Bank, although only at this time, even if you look at the rapidly expanding street market, it is only a small city of tens of thousands of people, compared to Manila and Manraka at this time, the scale is still too small, not to mention the cities of Ayutthaya and Annam in the north, even if it is only Banten, the population at this time will only be more, but in addition to the inconvenience of coming here for the first time, Quark feels that everything here is better than expected.

Upon arrival in Hakka Bay, Quark's clipper was immediately targeted by the Coast Guard patrol ship in the harbor, which was different from the Junk boats and local horn bluffs seen off the coast of China, with its slender hull and flexible spinnaker cables, similar to the speedboat Quark that was once seen in the English Channel, and I had heard from my shipmates that pirates in the Mediterranean often rode such low, nimble clippers to evade the firing horns of warships and attack sea merchants.

The sailors on the cruiser looked at first glance like well-trained veterans, skillfully steered by the current, and the gunners on the merchant ships had already been approached before they even understood the other party's intentions. In fact, Quark and his party are too eye-catching, after all, since the last time the local defeated the Spanish warship, it has been a long time since European-style ships arrived, and the fishermen and merchant ships in Bajia Bay are very honest, and they have always been busy hanging the Polaris flag with a red background on the top of the mast after paying taxes, and even the new Junk fleet with Quark has also hung the red flag that has been obtained in the port last time it arrived in the most conspicuous place.

The scene was impressive, and after three successive flares were launched, the two other cruisers that arrived quickly and the glowing blue muzzles on board made Quark and his companions give up their remaining resistance, but the Chinese shipowners who were still there proved that Quark had learned the rules of the place and honestly asked the coast guards to board the ship and search it.

It is also that there is no forbidden thing on the ship, and the cloth is the goods that are clearly stated in the list of the division and the purchase to be purchased in large quantities, and the weapons on the ship are really ordinary, and they should be sealed in the port to be returned after leaving the port. When the silver coins stored in the mezzanine were found by the coast guard, Quark took a breath of cold air, but the coast guards just checked it and put it back as it was, and the leader of the team was even more polite.

After another period of disinfection and quarantine because the sailors on board were found to have passed through the most uncomfortable five-day so-called observation period, Quark was finally able to obtain a visa issued by the local customs. Although he could get a general idea of what was going on in the harbor when he was on board, it was a different mood when he actually walked into the bustling market.

Admittedly, Brunei's small population is a country once known as Bo Ni that has seen more than one military invasion by the Spaniards, and although the city's new owners have won a recent victory, it has little to do with the natives. Although the emerging Sili Port has the potential to surpass the capital city, the population is not as good as that of the city, but the port town of the Great Song Dynasty is full of order.

Take the patrol ship that once led the water for the quark, the hull of the three boats is all painted with Chinese characters and Arabic numerals of general size, he doesn't understand what the Chinese characters write, but the Arabic numerals quark is still recognized, think that all the Song patrol ships in this Bajia Bay are numbered in this order, but the largest number among the three patrol ships is written '27', and the speedboats on the nearby sea will not be less than thirty, I heard that the Song people landed less than half a year at that time, if these ships are built locally, it will be considered fast.

And the streets built by the government here are also horizontal and vertical, whether in European or Asian cities, Quark has never seen such goosebumps-like neatness, indescribable taste. The houses on both sides of the street are not as spacious as the Chinese and Nanyang aborigines, but more cramped as those seen in European cities, and there is no superfluous decoration in the houses.

But soon such doubts were dispelled, and the fellow countryman Box, who went to sea with Quark, was the best naturalist, and he also knew a little Chinese. It was this one who accompanied Quark out on the street and found that every street house in Port Slim was set up with house number and road signs, and the lime drawings on the road surface should also be a kind of local traffic sign after he identified it, although the conclusion is amazing, but the British also have a new understanding of the financial resources of the Song people and the infrastructure of the port.

Whether it's keeping to the right in the traffic rules, or paper money that is convenient and easy to carry and use, all of them are refreshing the perception of British people.

The newspapers depicted Brunei's bright future.

The cotton cloth had already been shipped, and Quark and his companions were able to return with a full load again.

And there are so many surprises for Quark and his friends.

When I returned to the ship with fresh candied fruit and vegetarian meat for takeaway from several shops, it was the hour when the sun was about to sink in the west, and the rumbling cannon rang out six times, and the sound shook the harbor. Quark knew that it was the Song army in practice, and that the port was telling the time, similar to the common use of the bell towers on the top of the church towers in his home city, but the time was only six o'clock, and it did not disturb people's dreams in the middle of the night.

After hearing the sound of the cannons, Solande chattered in front of Quark again, and reported to the captain the results of his observations for many days with his old experience in the army, which were nothing more than a rehash of the same old tunes.

The old sailor, who had seen the world, asserted in his honor that the Song army was well-trained, and that every day the cannon was fired from different cannons at the same time, which was extremely difficult for even the most elite Spanish navy, and that the king had seen there in Aceh salute with cannons, and that two or three small cannons were often not in order. Moreover, the army of the Song people was also strictly disciplined, and it was common to see soldiers passing by in line in the harbor for a long time, and they could be known to be the most elite armed just by walking.

These days of entry into Hong Kong were accompanied by the great advance of the Song Dynasty official army in North Borneo in the news, these people claimed to be a kind of China, but they were extremely mercantil, and Quark did not remember anyone in the travelogue letters about the Ming Dynasty that anyone had such a description. Looking at those sergeants, although there is still a difference in dress, it is clear that they follow the mold of European armies, and they all have more or less shadows in their behavior, which is not difficult to see from Quark's experience in the army.

Although he couldn't see through it, the opportunity was clearly in front of him, and he had already filled the cabin with goods, but he was reluctant to leave his post, and it was Quark who still wanted to find something, just like the other companions on the ship.

Walsh didn't want to leave, and the state-run shops here not only sold better clairtelescopes than Europe, but even theoretical books like "A Primer of Optics," which could not be more exciting for astronomeric scholars.

William didn't want to leave, and the blacksmith's son's favorite thing to do now was silently climb up to the lookout at the top of the mast and record everything he saw in Steely Harbor in watercolor.

In order to solve the expenses, in addition to the first arrival at the port and the party in the hotel to enjoy a while, the later days still lived on the ship, after all, compared with the hotel accommodation, the berthing of the merchant ship and the consumption in the snack shop are much cheaper, and the sale of Hong Kong goods, not only no tariffs but also other expenses to be deducted, such a policy is undoubtedly to encourage trade, the Song people's minds are too much appetite for quark.

It is said that the Song minister in charge of commerce and trade was busy with official business, but Quark still spent money to ask local merchants to dredge up, hoping to meet the governor of the port, and the merchant surnamed Mou, who had just had a meal a few days ago, is said to have a father who is a local wealthy merchant in Brunei, and now he is a member of the consultative council in the government, so he thinks he can help.

It was getting dark, and above the equator, the sunrise and sunset were always in order, and there were no superfluous changes.

Leaning on the railing of the ship's side and looking at the lights of the harbor, the harbor was magnificent under the lighthouse spotlights, and I thought that it would be another day, but I saw two lights in the distance like beans gradually shining towards the dock.

I don't know if it's a spirit or something else, Quark suddenly moved in his head.

'Seems like you're really waiting?' ’