"Maharaja, lunch is ready." A dark-skinned chamberlain reminded Su Tan in a calm voice.

The hot wind from the equator blew the plain white palace tent, even if several maids took turns to fan Su Tan (note: the monarchs of Southeast Asia in the Ming Dynasty converted to sect, and the lords of the country were all called Su Tan, which is actually the voice of the sultan), it was still difficult to offset the heat in the house, and His Majesty Abdul Jali Ruaba seemed a little restless, there had been no good food for a week, only the worship became more pious. Su Tan, who has been standing for a long time, has been living a peaceful life for a long time, but he has been disturbed by the current incident, and even the spirit in his eyes in the past has become turbid. Lunch is just ordinary chicken, rice, and coconut genus, are the common flavors of this southern country, although Su Tan is usually taken with gold as decoration, very extravagant, but the diet is not comparable to China, it is not exquisite, and even a little poor.

"Is there really something unusual?" Ruaba muttered to himself, more than a month has passed, the tax collectors sent to Labuan Island are all unheard, even the boats that send people across the sea and the fishermen who fish nearby, as long as they are close to Labuan Island have disappeared out of thin air, no one has come back for a month, and the merchants on the island have not seen any more come to the mainland, more than 250 years of Chengping, this time it is the first time in this country, the rules of the South Seas, where there are ships and Tang ships to sell goods, taxes are collected on a daily basis, the capital is small, and the tax matters are reported every few days, so it has been delayed for many days, is Su Tan a little anxious.

The lord of the country is heavy on business, the prosperity of the port on weekdays, everyone in the national capital knows, and because of the traffic in Luzon and Manchuria, this Boroni city has become a big place in the south, the Hongyi people and the Japanese are doing business in the national capital, and especially the Chinese merchants are the most, the Han sailors from the south of the Ming Dynasty are the most active force on the sea surface called Wanli Shitang, from Pattani to the city of Boroni through the old port, because there is no typhoon, so it can be navigated all year round, from Pontianak, Sanfa, From Kuching to the east of the Tang Bank of China, the Han people were full of gold diggers, and when the gold was gathered in the capital, the best craftsmen in the South China Sea country would be able to break it into ornate vessels and sell them overseas. Hongyi from Taixi was full of praise for these oriental craftsmanship, so the bid was also high, but no matter how much he bid, the lord of the country had to draw some, and Su Tan was also happy to see his own treasury full, since the founding of the country, to the current prosperity of the country, the country with a population of less than 30,000 has long been accustomed to such a life, and it is difficult to get used to the sudden break.

Forty miles northeast of the capital, the outlying islands that block the bay are another place where business travelers like to stop, although they are not as prosperous as the national capital, and there are usually quite some Han sailors entrenched on it, and occasionally do some business between the visible and the unseen, which is considered a half-legal place. However, the Chinese merchants entrenched on Labuan Island also had a great influence on the trade of the capital, and as soon as the news was cut off, it was difficult for the nobles of the country, who were accustomed to receiving some benefits from the merchants, to maintain a decent life, and the number of merchant ships that used to travel to and from the capital's port also decreased. Therefore, in the past two months, the days have been particularly unbearable, originally passed the "holy taboo", and another month is the peak season of maritime trade, but this year because of such a reason, it was delayed, and the maritime merchants on the other side have not seen the bulk fleet for more than a month, and the old men in the country are very worried. A few days before last month, the high priest of the kingdom saw Mars retrograde in the night sky, which was expected to be a bad omen, although the astrological art did not correspond to the teachings, but the clear vision also added a little trepidation to the nobles of the city.

…………

Located at the mouth of the Boroni River, Golden Mirror Island is home to many fishermen and villages, and is one of more than a dozen settlements on the territory of Boroni Harbour. These days from morning to night there is no fishing boat willing to go to sea, the sun shines on the hull of the brush with a layer of tung oil, revealing a gorgeous halo, this boat is still the craft of the Han craftsman, the ordinary fishermen are all wood for the boat, but only the fisherman is not seen, which is unimaginable in the previous year and the moon. No one dared to approach Labuan again, only the bold Tan family north of the port dared to go to sea, but they did not dare to go forward further because they were far away from the island. In the past few days, the Tan family began to say that there is now a huge ship like a city on the island, and it is also said that there is a sea coward in an unknown place.

…………

Zheng Da has been living in the "No. room" for some time, these days are free, so he thinks a lot, the last time he entered the No. room was in his hometown in Haiyang County, Ming Kingdom several years ago, remembering his relatives in Haiyang's home, his face is not very clear. After five years at sea, the two sons and daughters born in the old port are half a person tall. Zheng Dongzhu sold the goods from Luzon, and stayed in the cat (note: Luzon south port, many Fujian maritime merchants in and out) to the New Year, then to rush back, the way is usually to run a trip to Borneo, Bo Ni here is a stopover, last autumn to go to the original full of spices and specialties of the ship, also from this side, all the way east to Sulu, and then to Luzon, there is a lot of silver in Hongyi can be exchanged, I heard that are all used Franc machine large splint ship from the far east of the overseas transport, although never seen in person, But all the spices transported have been replaced by Yinyang, and Zheng Da can't imagine any other explanation that can make sense. It's a pity that I was blinded by lard and greedy to save some money on the road. If a merchant ship enters the port of Borana, it should have to pay an additional tax, but this time it is not worth it because it does not carry the goods. There are also tax collectors of the royal family on Labuan Island, but after all, they can be perfunctory, and there are many Chinese merchants on the island, so they don't need to worry about the rules in the national capital, so they should work faster.

The house is a brick wall style, Zheng Da only remembered that half a month ago, because the day of the lord of the Bo Ni country to preside over the holy taboo was approaching, there were many rules in the capital, so according to the past, the Chinese merchants should be on the island to avoid trouble, but when Zheng Jiafu's ship arrived at the sea off Boroni on the sixth day, it was indeed a scene that would never be seen again. The great ship of Rucheng docked in the harbor of the island—which was later learned to be a ship, and if he had seen it, he would never have thought that something much higher than the walls of Brahmania would be able to move, and then it would have been stopped by a clipper ship that could move freely in the sea without fear of the wind and waves—the hull of the ship was made of iron, and it was brought to this house on the island.

"What did I say to? Mars retrograde into the stardom, a bad omen that I haven't seen for many years, and sure enough, something happened. "Since being brought to the island, this is the third time that Uncle Fa has said this, in the second half of the night of the fifth day of the first month, because he is about to reach the sea off Bornai, there is no risk, so he ignores the needle road, and sails overnight, to rush to the mouth of Boroni Bay before dawn, although he does not understand the principles of nature, but the older sailors know that there have been no strong winds and waves here for many years, so it is very safe, and there is nothing wrong with sailing like this for several years. But that night, Uncle Fa, who was already Lao Xingzun, was very nervous, saying that it was a vision from the sky, and he was afraid that something bad would come. Although everyone on the ship was only laughing, the next day they really suffered this catastrophe from heaven. Now that the ship is full of goods, I don't know if this life can be safe, let alone when I can be reunited with my wife and children.

As he was complaining, the heavy metal door was opened, and the sunlight was so bright that the people in the room could not open their eyes.

"Zheng Da, the chief has something to ask you."

…………

Zohar sat in the small cabin in the boat, I don't know how the blessing and misfortune were, Zohar also has a Chinese name, called Huang Shunzhi, is one of the eight deputy ministers in charge of government affairs in the Bo Ni country, his family is related to the lord of the country, the ancestor is the ancestor of the Min people who went to the South Seas - the founding prince Huang Senping, this Bo Ni country is different from other places, because Huang Senping helped the king to fight against Sulu and Java, so it was about an alliance, intermarriage from generation to generation, that Huang Senping returned to the country in his later years in the name of the king of Bo Ni, and was hospitalized by Emperor Taizong, and was buried in Nanjing after his death, His son returned to Bo Ni with the Ming envoys and then took charge of the military power with the clan, and the external is commensurate with the Bo Ni General Army, and now it is Huang Shunzhi's brother who is in charge of the military in the country - Huang Shunqing Laja.

Since the last time Su Tan convened, after two days of closed-door discussions, it was decided to send a trusted minister to the island to see, and it was his brother who named him, after all, his family could see clearly, if there was really any disaster, he couldn't avoid it. Although there is no such thing as a "couch side" in the Gentiles, the island is at the mouth of the bay and must no longer sit idly by and watch all kinds of rumors spread in the country. At present, Hongyi is invading all over the country, and if there is another incident near the national capital, then the prosperity since the sixth king will come to an end, and the current sea is not peaceful.

In the early spring, the tide to Labuan Island is against the current, fortunately Huang Shunzhi's boat went shallow water, and sailed in the Gulf of Borna, plus the oarsmen on the boat worked hard, but it was not too slow, after lunch, look at the sun, Huang Shunqing estimated that there would be two or three more hours to go to the island, when the sun had not yet set.

The speedboat of the Labuan Island Secret Service appeared at the place where the water and the sky met outside the island just before Vice Chancellor Huang was about to take a break, and within a moment, two strange speedboats rowed in a circle around the big boat, one left and one right. Huang Vice Chen's entourage has also seen the world, this Bo mud country in the South China Sea, to the south of the sea of the sea, to the mainland and Bo mud of the vast ships, Fu ship has seen a lot, the Fran machine man's big splint ship also has a few docks a year, if you talk about the big ship, no matter how big it is, you have never seen a ship can run so fast at sea, and can ignore the tide in the sea to let it come and go, Huang Shunzhi can't help but wonder in his heart, 'Is this a boat or a fish?' It was only after a short panic that he realized that the rumors in the country turned out to be true, and he became quite worried about his trip.

When Vice Minister Huang and his entourage disembarked half an hour later, when two speedboats cautiously dragged his boat to the dock of Labuan Island, the 'officials' of all sizes who came to greet him were still a little excited, after all, this was the first official 'mission' in this time and space to contact the crossing group. And since the D day (note: the crossing group imitated the Normandy landing story to formulate the code name of the crossing operation), the interior department has more than once proposed to establish contact with the outside world, but has not been able to do so, today is a good start, the deputy minister of the Bo Ni country can not only understand Chinese, but also a bold one, think about it may be able to succeed, a solution to the current embarrassing situation, otherwise, the military group is already preparing for an armed landing.

[Note: According to various historical materials, notes and overseas travel records in the Ming Dynasty, Brunei's names in the Ming Dynasty include Bo Ni, Bharoni, and Brunei, all of which are transliterations. Most of them are translations of Bo Ni. 】