After being successfully aroused again, the group collected their mood and headed south along the west side of the island.

In addition to reconnoitering the surrounding terrain and marking records, they also tried to take out the cloth, small ironware, and toys that accompanied the boat to exchange some grain, bananas and other things with the locals, during which some people also went to the depths of the coast to exchange shiny gems and gold nuggets, and these "specialty" places were naturally specially marked by Yang Xiong and Zhang Zhihao.

Twenty years ago, when he went to sea to do business, he encountered a strong wind and drifted here with the ship, and he was very familiar with the local language. Yang and Zhang immediately took out a lot of money and hired Yu Liang to accompany the ship as a translator. Since then, the group has been able to trade and communicate with the locals much more smoothly, and the speed of their march to the river has also been much faster.

On 25 September, the fleet sailed to the independent island of Mindoro, where for the first time they encountered a group of soldiers dressed in variegated uniforms and carrying broken sabers at anchorage.

After listening to the shouts of the soldiers, Yu Liang turned around and said, "He asked us where we are from and why did we break into the border of their Mayi country?" Three boats must pay 10 pieces of cloth as an entry tax. ”

Zhang Zhihao held down Chen Shengfang, who was about to get angry, asked a soldier to carry two pieces of cloth down, and told Yu Liang for the first time the official statement that they had prepared before their trip: "We are from the Tang Dynasty in China, and we have come to your country for business and trade. ”

After listening to Yu Liang's translation, the soldiers who were frantically grabbing two pieces of cloth looked up at them in surprise, and one of the leading soldiers jumped to his feet and shouted.

Yu Liang shook his head and translated in a low voice: "They said that when doing business, you must declare customs, and you must pay half of the value of the goods in commercial tax. ”

Zhang Zhihao also got angry, ordered the soldiers to take another piece of cloth, threw it to the soldiers, and shouted: "That's all, don't bother us again in the future!" ”

After listening to Yu Liang's voice, the group of soldiers was not angry at all, and left one by one with smiles on their faces, and many of them pulled out their knives and desperately pulled the new extra piece of cloth.

Zhang Zhihao and Yang Xiong glanced at each other, not hiding their disdainful eyes at all. If a country's border guards are still so unbearable, this country will not be so powerful as to think about it!

In the next two days, Zhang Zhihao and Yang Xiong put the cloth, toys and other things on the ship, stating that they would only exchange grain, gold and silver, attracting the black dwarves who watched the excitement on the inner and outer three floors.

During the period, many blacks moved salt, liquor, yellow wax, pearls, betel nuts and other local specialties, pearls were naturally retained, salt, yellow wax was also left a little, as for the liquor, Yang Xiong tasted a mouthful and spit directly to the ground, the pottery bottle was dropped, the taste is too inferior! The fate of the betel nut was the same, everyone tried to chew one, and they all spit out this strange tasting little thing. Among the group of people, only the translator Yu Liang chewed with relish, which attracted everyone's unanimous disdain.

During the two days, the group also learned from the residents that the power of this Mayi country basically covers the entire Mindoro Island, with nearly 1,000 households gathered in the center of the island and nearly 500 soldiers in the country. Without exception, these people all had the same finishing action at the end, looking at the goods on the ground with their eyes in their eyes, and patting their chests loudly emphasizing that their Ma Yi country was the most powerful country on the nearby islands, and no one dared to provoke it at all!

Zhang Zhihao What they don't know is that this Ma Yi country is the transliteration of the ancient name of Mait, which means the land of the black people, which is one of the ancient countries of the Philippines and has appeared in the historical books of the Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty in China.

It is reported that this country has gentle mountains, fertile land and warm climate, and is a trade center and commodity distribution center in the northern region of the Philippines. As early as in the seventh year of the Taiping Rejuvenation of the Song Dynasty (982 AD), Ma Yiguo once carried goods to Guangzhou for trade. Until the 12th century, Mayi was a settlement of more than 1,000 households, a loose form of social organization of village associations, with elected chiefs controlling the state's trade rights. By the 14th century at the latest, the existence of slavery could be confirmed in the country of Mayi.

It is conceivable that this country, which is "powerful" in the mouth of local residents, immediately became the new object of ridicule and sarcasm for this group of people, and everyone never mentioned any arrogant "Yelang" again!

At noon on September 28, when the group packed up their goods and prepared to set off, nearly 100 "heavily armed" soldiers of Ma Yiguo rushed to the beach, claiming that they had been ordered by the king to invite the noble wealthy merchants of the Tang Dynasty to the palace to talk about it.

After a brief discussion, the three leaders decided that Zhang Zhihao and Yang Xiong would take three special soldiers and twenty soldiers and bring some of their belongings as gifts to meet the king of this Mayi country. Chen Shengfang led people to stay and guard the ship.

However, in the process of advancing towards the center of the island, Zhang Zhihao and Yang Xiong found that things were not quite right. The farther away they were from the ship, the more arrogant the attitude of those Mayi soldiers became, openly taking their gifts in the name of appreciation, and their words became more and more cold, and even pushed Yu Liang, who was the slowest among them, very unceremoniously several times.

Zhang Zhihao suppressed the soldiers who wanted to draw their swords, and signaled everyone to be vigilant and endure for a while.

On the evening of 30 September, two special forces soldiers who were lurking on the coast spotted a large group of masked men sneaking towards the ship and immediately blew the alarm whistle. Chen Shengfang, who heard the alarm, rushed to the side of the ship, found that the enemy had been met on the shore, and immediately gathered other brothers, went in to rescue the two brothers who were surrounded, and dived into the night.

On the morning of October 1, Zhang Zhihao and Yang Xiong were escorted to the location of Ma Yiguo's "palace", and the scene in front of them almost made a large group of people laugh wildly in public. It turns out that the so-called Ma Yi Country is just a big village gathered on a high platform, and any one with a large population from the Southern Tang Dynasty can make it extremely ashamed! The so-called royal palace of Ma Yi Kingdom, how many mansions of rural landlords in the Southern Tang Dynasty can beat it! In this way, the so-called king is actually the common leader of several villages at most!

Walking to a spacious courtyard dominated by masonry and partially covered with thatch, the soldiers who escorted them shouted that the palace was important and that they must be disarmed immediately.

Zhang Zhihao couldn't help shaking his head and yelled: "Shoot!"

The three special fighters, who had long been broken, immediately struck out, brushed a few knives, easily cut off several rusty steel knives in front of them, and rushed through the encirclement of soldiers with more than ten fighters, and disappeared into a dense forest in the west. There were only three soldiers left in the team who did not run, threw the knife, and hugged their chests around Zhang Zhihao and Yang Xiong.

Zhang Zhihao softly comforted the panicked Yu Liang for a few words, turned his head to the shocked Mayi soldiers and said calmly: "Let's go, meet your Dadatu!" ”

Hearing the word "Datu", a Ma Yi soldier holding an injured arm rushed over and wanted to kick Zhang Zhihao, but he rushed to him, but was forced to stop by the sharp eyes of the five Southern Tang people, and he grinned and retreated.

The group walked past the "palace compound" where thatched grass was flying in the air, and Zhang Zhihao stepped into the "palace palace" - a stone room surrounded by several large windows.

After entering the house, Zhang Zhihao didn't pay attention to the dozen or so little black men with angry eyebrows on the high platform in front of him, Shi Shiran walked aside, dragged two chairs over, handed them to Yang Xiong, sat down slowly, and then raised his hand and pointed to the dry black old man on the big wide chair in the center of the platform and said with a smile: "Apologize and apologize, compensate 10,000 gold, and avoid destroying the country!" ”

Yu Liang was almost choked to death by this sentence, but under Zhang Zhihao's calm gaze, he translated this sentence in a trembling voice.

As expected, the old black man suddenly jumped into the big chair like a monkey, squatted there and laughed wildly, and the others laughed loudly, and two of the big fat men laughed so hard that tears flowed from their eyes.

Zhang Zhihao didn't say anything, sat there calmly, and waited for them to finish laughing, before he slowly got up, kicked the chair under him into the air, pointed to the top of his head and sneered: "At noon tomorrow, there will be no more Ma Yiguo in the South China Sea!" ”

After speaking, Zhang Zhihao raised his voice and let out a long howl, and walked towards the group of soldiers who escorted him in with his back.