No matter where you want to get your footing, the first thing to do is to get to know it first.

And this is what Zhang Heng has been busy with in the last few days, he has traveled to every corner of Nassau City, and has all kinds of pleasant and unpleasant exchanges with the fishermen in the market, the drunks in the taverns, the maids on the streets, the black merchants on the exchanges, and of course, the pirates that can be found everywhere in the city.

To make the process easier, he had to spend another 19 silver pesos, but it was well spent, and in return he had a good idea of what was going on in Nassau.

Many people think of pirates as a bunch of scoundrels, hooligans, uncivilized barbarians, and in a sense this secular view is fine, and people who become pirates are hardly clean, so it is natural to think that a city run by pirates is also full of chaos and evil.

But as far as Zhang Heng sees so far, this statement may be biased.

It's true that if you throw thousands of drunk, fighting, and energetic pirates in the same city, you can hardly expect them to keep to themselves and not cause trouble, which is why Nassau is always so lively every day, but if you want to look more closely, and focus on the street fights or the jealousy in front of the courtyard, you may be able to see the order behind it through the superficial chaos.

About sixty-three years ago, the first European settlers set foot on the land and set up a fortress and city, which they initially called Charlestown in honor of King Charles, but the island's inhabitants soon discovered that the honest cultivation of land and fishing was far from taking advantage of the bad weather to lure nearby ships into the reef and then go up to plunder the goods to make money, so most of the men on the island began to engage in piracy, and gradually they were no longer content to wait for the ship to run aground, but turned to the initiative.

At the same time, the unique geography of the Bahamas has also attracted the attention of other pirates, and the islands here can help them hide and avoid the pursuit of warships, and the pirates who raid the Caribbean Sea objectively need a base for supplies and stolen goods.

It was against this backdrop that Nassau was born, taking its name from an English prince, but ironically turning into a pirate kingdom instead.

Over the years, Nassau has developed a unique business system.

The pirates went out to sea to plunder and sell the looted goods to the black merchants on the island, and these black merchants transported the stolen goods to Charleston, New York, Boston and other ports through their own connections, so that they could be transformed into legal goods, and enjoy huge profits without risking anything.

This is the largest business on the island, and other businesses are basically based on it, such as the palaces, casinos, and taverns that earn the silver coins that the pirates get their hands on, and the appraisers who assess the value of the pirates' loot, some intelligence dealers sell their merchant ship information in the taverns, and the fishermen and villains here are natural supplements to the sailors, and there are also some daring arms dealers and slave traders who are active here.

Nassau had no nominal ruler, and was responsible for maintaining order in a council-like organization made up of a variety of people, including black merchants, captains of pirate ships, and large landowners on the island...... Together, they run the city.

Zhang Heng guessed that the judging criteria for the so-called establishment of power in the main quest should be based on joining the island's council, and this is not easy, among which the big landlords can be excluded first, these guys are basically the first people to come to the island, with their own plantations and private armed forces, which is not realistic for him who now has only 20 silver pesos.

In fact, there are many black merchants on the island who have a lot of family backgrounds, and they use the power of their families to roam around the governor's palace and customs in the colony, bribing officials there to legalize smuggling, which is not something ordinary people can do.

Therefore, in this circle, only the path of becoming the captain of a pirate ship seems to have a certain degree of maneuverability.

But this is also not simple, not to mention those famous pirates in history, even in this era, those who are unknown, can lead a whole ship, let those unruly pirates go to sea obediently, and act according to their own orders, they also have two brushes, Zhang Heng knows that he has a lot to learn.

He was not in a hurry, although there was a lot to learn, but fortunately he had plenty of time.

Four days later, the Sea Lion gathered all the crew and set out to sea again to begin her journey, and this was the first time Zhang Heng set foot on this warship, this three-masted galleon that once belonged to Fraser was one of the best pirate ships in the entire Nassau harbor, with thirty-two guns, including twenty-four nine-pounder guns, and eight twelve-pounder guns, and had an overwhelming firepower advantage over its prey.

This time they got the word that they were going to sack a Dutch supply ship and a Spanish merchant ship.

Zhang Heng performed very well in the battle, successfully saving three of his companions with a short musket, which also made him further accepted by the pirates, unlike Malvern, Zhang Heng did not run away after joining the Sea Lion, instead he rented a house in Nassau instead of sleeping in a hotel, and it seemed that he was ready to live permanently.

This also added a lot of points to him, taking advantage of this opportunity Zhang Heng made a request to Owen to teach him how to fight in close combat, Zhang Heng had already learned from other sailors that Owen was the best pirate on this ship.

Owen used to be a promising young officer, but because of something he offended his immediate superior, he sent him to the most dangerous place to complete an impossible mission, Owen killed his immediate superior, and then he had no choice but to leave his homeland and run to Nassau to become a pirate.

Unlike most pirates, Owen has a very upright personality and retains some of his style at the Naval Academy, which makes him seem a little out of place at first, but once the pirates learn about him, they are very willing to make friends with him, especially when he rushes to the front every time he fights, and has won the favor of many people.

When the ship's original boatswain was killed in battle, the pirates elected Owen as the new boatswain.