The nearest port in Longyearbyen, called Green Bay, is only in the summer of 68 months when the ice floes in the bay melt and large ships come in and out at this time, and it is no less prosperous than Amsterdam.

Green Bay is indeed green, there are 113 polar days a year in summer, not only people who are used to seeing glaciers, but also Huang Xuan, who has just set off from Brazil, also feels that this harbor is called the last green word. Especially on the sunny slopes, all kinds of flowers are purple and red, except for the still cold air, a short section is completely southern scenery.

Marset seems proud of this, he is a Dutchman born in Spitsbergen, but has never left Longyearbyen except fishing, and this year is said to be a good year, and he is ready to find a job, and the benefits of going to sea with a big ship are far higher than fishing alone.

For the Chinese living in the 21st century, Longyearbyen is not even a small town, perhaps we can call it a large village, with a permanent population of about 1,200 people, and only in the summer of each year, fishermen flock to it, but even so, Longyearbyen is the largest city in the entire Spitsbergen archipelago, housing a third of the entire archipelago.

Seeing this scene, Huang Xuan, who had just been aroused by the jellyfish shrimp, wilted again, this time when he went out, the materials he carried were mainly grain, and the cane sugar and spices could only be regarded as incidental, but as long as he thought of the city with only a thousand people under his feet, he felt discouraged, 1500 tons of grain, could it be sold to 1 ton per person?

Marset didn't find Huang Xuan's depressed mood, he originally just accompanied Huang Xuan to Longyearbyen's City, now that the people have arrived, he is ready to leave, he is in a hurry to find a ship to come out, there is still a month left in the summer, and it will be too late.

"Wait." Huang Xuan grabbed Marset first and made his last effort: "Where is the government here?" ”

"The East India Company? This is it? ”

Huang Xuan blinked, behind him was a dozen bungalows, surrounded by a courtyard, he originally thought that this was a private house, but he did not expect that this was the headquarters of the famous Dutch East India Company in the archipelago.

Not even a single guard.

"What about people?" Huang Xuan looked at the closed door and said strangely.

"A group of fishing boats should arrive at the port today, and the governor will naturally go to the port." Marset was a little annoyed, he didn't want to waste his precious time with a guy from Guawa Island. Well, maybe Guwa Island, who cares?

Exhaling a breath of white air, Huang Xuan tightened the clothes on his body and said, "I'll go to Green Bay with you." ”

"Whatever you want." Marset only needs to be able to go to Green Bay.

Huang Xuan followed Marset in frustration, and this emotion lasted until the Green Harbor, and then, replaced by infinite shock.

Green Harbor may have been a huge harbor for this era, with two 200-ton sailing ships docked near the road, and according to Lorraine, the largest ship that could be built in this era was only 600 tons, similar to the destroyers of World War II.

However, the dumb sailboat could not make Huang Xuan open his mouth and unable to close, what attracted him was the huge stone platform on the shore and the huge body on it.

"That's, whale!?" Huang Xuan's voice trembled, and he forgot to hide it and said it directly, while Lorraine's translation caused a heavy (chong) sound, but fortunately, Marset was also immersed in excitement, ignoring the voice in his ear, and said: "That's the first batch of whaling ships to come back, I'm going to get on the ship to find a job." ”

So, in the huge Green Bay, Huang Xuan could only stand there alone, watching more than a dozen people work hard to dissect the whales.

Since childhood, Huang Xuan knew that the blue whale was the largest animal in the world, and once thought that whales were as huge as the blue whale, but when he really saw these behemoths, he could only show shock.

Now, when he saw dozens of whales being split into blocks, Huang Xuan's shock began to turn into saliva again...... As for the legendary guilt, the guilt of eating whales? If eating beef is only fragrant, then eating whales should be happy in itself - especially in this day and age, whales are a common commodity rather than a rare animal.

I just don't know how to sell whales, but the important thing is that it doesn't take energy to transport this thing.

"This is a suborder of baleen whales, a baleen whale, minke whale, weighing about 9 tons, and the one next to it is a baleen whale, a humpback whale, weighing about 30 tons, in addition to two gray whales on the sailboat to the south, weighing about 28 tons and 35 tons respectively. No whales of the toothed cetacedae family have been found so far. The other largest number are Arctic whales, with a total of around 70 individuals. After saying this, Lorraine began to ramble on the question of whales again, I don't know when it began, Lorraine tended to popularize knowledge to Huang Xuan, not only in travel, but also in daily life, Huang Xuan didn't care, as long as he didn't make too much noise, just talk more.

"Lorraine, how do you sell whale meat in the international market?" This is the core issue that Huang Xuan is concerned about.

Lorraine quickly searched and said: "Because of the whaling restrictions, the price is gradually rising, and the price of the better parts, such as the lean meat of the whale's tail, can reach $60 per kilogram, but the ordinary parts are only about $6." ”

"It's not very high." Huang Xuan's enthusiasm was a little lower, but looking at the large number of thousand-ton whales in front of him, he felt inspired, he looked around, and still asked Luo Lin, "Do you know where the governor is?" ”

"There's a big crowd 300 meters ahead on the right, you can ask." Lorraine, of course, is the first priority to save energy.

Wiping his frozen red nose, Huang Xuan raised the scarf that covered his face a little, and walked to the right in the fishy sea breeze, where there were two or three hundred tons of big ships, not only sailors were cutting whale meat, but also Dutch sailors stood guard against the wind, and the Dutch man standing in the center of the crowd with his hands behind his back, talking to a few guys with high hats.

When he was a hundred paces, Huang Xuan was stopped by a guard, a spearman who had been used as a protective musketeer in the 17th-century army sequence, but in Spitsbergen, his rank had apparently grown unusually.

The guard could see from Huang Xuan's forehead and eyes that this was not a white man, that was enough, and the guard put the spear on the ground, only blocking his vision with his body, and said, "Hoi, go aside." ”

"I'm an employee of the East India Company." Huang Xuan shrugged, at any time, it was inefficient to reason with the big-headed soldiers, he didn't take off his scarf, because he couldn't lip sync, so he just moved his lips slightly, and asked Lorraine to say on his behalf: "I brought a whole shipload of food, I want to see Mr. Governor." ”

Today's Green Bay is in chaos, how could the guards know if a grain ship has arrived, he just stared at Huang Xuan with suspicion, and said loudly: "Aborigines, pull down your mask." ”

Huang Xuan obediently pulled down the mask, moved his lips with as little amplitude as possible, and said, "Soldier, you just need to do your thing, I want to see the governor, but you can't decide whether to see me on behalf of the governor, understand?" ”

The Dutchman in the crowd seemed to hear this, and a fellow with a feather on his head said something to the people around him, and another soldier came up and said, "Let him go, the governor said he wants to see him." ”

The spearmen looked at Huang Xuan with hatred, but let go of the body, Huang Xuan shrugged again, all the guys who came here were people who couldn't get along in Europe, and even criminals. Had it not been for Spitsbergen's becoming a center for whale hunting, the East India Company would not have remembered the northernmost part of the planet. Therefore, there is no need to discuss politeness with these people.

"Who are you?" Huang Xuan pulled down the hat on his head and bowed slightly.

"Van Houg Velwewe."

An old guy with a proud look. This was Huang Xuan's first judgment, he was older than the people around him, and at the same time, as the center of the conversation, he was the first person to speak, Huang Xuan smiled slightly, and said, "Mr. Governor, on behalf of Mr. Yoma Ollila, I greet you. ”

Huang Xuan's judgment was correct, but Wei Luwei thought he had heard his name, so he waved his hand and ordered the guards to go away, saying, "Mr. Ollilah?" ”

Huang Xuan chuckled: "It's the president of Nokia, sir." I was sent here by fate to send a batch of grain, which was originally intended to be sold. ”

Everyone around laughed, one big nose smiled especially exaggeratedly, pressed his hat and said: "Come to Spitsbergen to sell food, children, we feed the whole of Europe." ”

Cocky guys. Huang Xuan's second evaluation, but he still said with a smile: "Nokia has just been established, and I don't know much about the situation, but the grain has already arrived, and the fleet has left, so I want to find a buyer and sell the grain." ”

"Oh?" Wei Luwei was obviously interested, although he was called the Governor, but it was completely different from the Chinese understanding of the Governor of Hong Kong, the 17th century East India Company was like the Dutch colonial advance army with the Ministry of Tertiary Industry Development, and the latter was the source of colonization, so His Excellency the Governor was actually a merchant, a greedy merchant with military force.

"It's mainly rice and wheat, and a small amount of spices and cane sugar, which are all good things."

In Europe, spices and cane sugar have just passed their highest prices, but they are still expensive commodities, and as for food, Europe will always be short of food. The rise of the Netherlands was largely due to the abundance of food supplied by its fishing industry, and it was the Dutch who invented a method of removing fish intestines with a single sword, according to technocracy, and the wheels of history began to whirl.

"It's all good stuff." Big Nose was honest, but as soon as he sighed, he was stopped by Wei Luwei's stern eyes, and Mr. Governor said lightly: "It's the season for whaling and going to sea, I'm afraid there aren't many ships to transport your goods." ”

Huang Xuan knew that this guy wanted to lower the price, but he really couldn't wait, if he couldn't complete the transaction within three days, he would have to go home with this batch of grain, and then lose millions of kilowatt-hours of electricity in vain. What's more, he wasn't actually ready to transport it away.

"Lorraine, can't we grab a batch back?" Looking at the whale that was being divided, Huang Xuan couldn't help but lower his head and said, "Anyway, you are directly stuffed into the surface passage, we will take it directly, why pay for this garbage?" ”

"If you're satisfied with just a dozen whales, that's fine." Lorraine didn't object, "It's just that if these Dutch attack you, I can't guarantee your safety, the base is currently only level 22, and there is a high loss of energy through the plane channel, once the energy consumed exceeds the storage capacity, you can't go back." ”

"You can't even beat the medieval people?"

"After the Renaissance, it will not be the Middle Ages." Lorraine corrected: "Your physical strength can't even resist the piercing of a spear, and in the face of so many people, I think the cost-effectiveness ratio is too low." ”

"What a fee, it's a mess." Knowing that he could only endure exploitation, Huang Xuan calmed down, gritted his teeth, and said: "Mr. Governor, there is a lot of grain, if it really can't be transported, I can keep some here and wait until the fleet comes next year, but I am willing to exchange grain for Longyearbyen's whale meat." ”

Wei Lu squinted his small eyes and looked at Huang Xuan, "Stay some?" He seemed to be considering whether it was a bribe, and the Dutchman, dressed in orange and yellow behind him, looked like a big orange, said at this time: "We can ship whale oil to Europe ourselves, Svalbard doesn't need food, and it doesn't need whales." Everyone laughed again.

Whale oil is the fat layer of whales, which is an important industrial raw material, fuel, and is also the main edible oil in Europe, which can be used to make margarine, soap, lamp oil and so on. During this period, if the whaling ship was too small, people would cut up the whale oil and then throw the rest of the whale into the sea, hearing Lorraine's explanation, Huang Xuan regretted a little, but said with a little joy: "Mr. Governor, I can buy the whole whale, in short, the price is negotiable." ”