Li Zhaoji sat in the bathtub, enjoying the comfort of soaking his skin in hot water, he took the bill handed by Liu Mingde, glanced at it, and found that as Liu Mingde said, the lack of supplies was shocking.

At present, there are many people on the island, and when they buy piglets, they buy them from Hong Kong, and the other is the vegetables and grain collected from some of the original vegetable fields and ruins on the island. Because there are too many people and the training consumption is large, it can't be supported for a month.

More importantly, this team consumes not only food, but also cloth for clothing, iron for making various parts, and the army needs weapons and equipment, which need to be imported from other places.

"Five days, let's go to Macau in five days." Li Zhaoji thought about it and felt that it was not appropriate to hand over this matter to Liu Mingde, so he said to him.

Liu Mingde nodded, and just as he was about to speak, Li Zhaoji shook his head again: "No, five days later, I will go to Macau with my sixth son, you stay here, and let Ali do the business matters." Lao Liu, there can't be no one here. ”

Liu Mingde was stunned at first, but after thinking about it, Yang Yandi and Chen Ping are both newcomers, and this time they will go to Macao, they will inevitably move the Oriental, considering the danger during the voyage, Chen Liuzi, the only captain who can give full play to the power of the Oriental.

"Okay, that's it, when I go back, I'll make a list of what I need." Liu Mingde said.

After taking a bath, Li Zhaoji stretched his body, but did not go back to the house to rest, but came to the deepest room on the second floor, there were two people guarding the entrance of the corridor, and even in the corridor, he could hear the sound of sighing and sighing from the room.

"Mr. Hai, I'm Li Zhaoji, can I come in?" Li Zhaoji knocked on the door and shouted inside.

The door was quickly opened, and the candlelight illuminated a face full of helplessness. Hai Shuzu looked a little tired, and his whole person was in a state of nervousness and helplessness.

He was originally a VIP on a British ship, and he could return to Guangdong safely for a small amount of money. The British were very good to him, because they hoped that this influential guy in the officialdom could play a role in their acquisition of trade rights in China, but everything was done because of Li Zhaoji's 'malicious rescue'.

He exhausted all means and lost the wealth obtained by Tianliang, which became Li Zhaoji's military salary for military training. Even what he did before was forced to confess, write, and sign and detain. A small life is in the hands of this man who is also a businessman and a thief, both good and evil, and the reputation and future of the family cannot escape his manipulation.

"Mr. Hai hasn't slept yet, it seems that it's time for someone Li to come." Li Zhaoji laughed, breaking the embarrassing situation.

Hai Shuzu sighed long, he had been trapped for a month, he knew that it was useless to beg, he was afraid of being useless, and there was no other way but to cooperate. So he asked bluntly: "Shopkeeper Li, how long are you going to trap me?" ”

Li Zhaoji smiled: "It's soon, it's fast, in a few days, Li is going to Macau." Lao Liu was originally scheduled to go, but he was not very happy these days. The trading company needs a skilled person who knows the local situation, Mr. Hai, who can help you. ”

In Li Zhaoji's place, he and Chen Liuzi and Hai Shuzu have at least one person to stay on Neilingding Island, considering safety, Chen Liuzi must follow by boat, but if so, there is no one who is familiar with Macao, although Liu Shun and Liu Li have also been there a few times, but in the end they are young and cannot be used.

"If I help you, can you let me go back to my hometown?" Hai Shuzu asked.

"Of course, we are brothers who share weal and bene, you have a lot of praise for the trading company, and Li has been trapped for a long time, and Li is not happy to go." Li Zhaoji said with a smile, but another sentence made Hai Shuzu's heart cold: "But Mr. Hai, your Hai family's post is really useful." ”

Hai Shuzu's eyes widened, he stood up, and his hand pointing at Li Zhaoji began to tremble: "You...... What did you do with it? ”

Li Zhaoji told Hai Shuzu about solving the trouble with a post on Wailingding Island, and added a few words of oil and vinegar, which made Hai Shuzu's face blush and his neck thick, if he didn't know that he would be beaten violently, he would have killed Li Zhaoji on the spot.

Li Zhaoji used Hai Shuzu's worship post to show up at Lin Cha's henchmen, and also revealed that he was doing piglet business with pirates, and he was colluding with red hairs and communicating with foreign countries. One by one, if it is known, he will have to return a layer of skin if he does not die.

"I didn't expect Hai Zhongjie Gong's face to be so big, Mr. Hai, we will have to cooperate more in the future." Li Zhaoji said to Hai Shuzu with a smile and patted his hand.

Hai Shuzu hugged his head and wanted to cry without tears, but he didn't dare to provoke Li Zhaoji, so he could only say: "I have been held by you, and you don't want to handle it." ”

As he spoke, he sighed again, fell on the bed, and Li Zhaoji got up: "It seems that Mr. Hai is going to bed, so Li will not bother, take a good rest, clean up, and in five days, we will go to Macau." ”

For five days, Li Zhaoji spent all his time on the training ground, and he, Yang Yandi, and Chen Ping personally formulated a training plan.

Li Zhaoji asked the two what weapons they needed, Yang Yandi was a lion's mouth, and contraband such as armor was directly requested, and the rest of the weapons were required to be as powerful as possible, and the higher the quality, the better. However, Chen Pingti's requirements were not high, because according to his plan, the one hundred and fifty people of the escort team were to be built according to the mandarin duck array of the Qi family's army.

The Mandarin Duck Array is not only strong in combat and suitable for small-scale battles on coastal islands, but more importantly, the equipment is also very cheap, many of which can be made by themselves, such as the shield of the shield hand inside is made of wooden planks, the rattan card is made of vines that can be seen everywhere, soaked in tung oil to form, and the wolf is a slightly repaired bamboo.

Therefore, Chen Ping asked for most of the accessories used in self-made weapons, such as iron nails, tung oil, iron wire, and the like.

Five days later, the repaired Vostok set off for Macau.

In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Macao had been basically controlled by the Portuguese, but the sovereignty and part of the jurisdiction were still on the side of the Ming Dynasty. Macau's policy is basically a double allegiance.

It obeyed the restrictions of the Ming side in terms of customs, justice and administration, and also assisted the imperial court in suppressing pirates and quelling rebellions, showing it to the Ming Dynasty as a loyal vassal. However, it emphasized its position as a trade center in the Far East to Portugal, which was far away in Europe, and won the power of self-government from the mainland.

The Ming Dynasty still set up military posts such as promotion and preparation in Macao, but after several negotiations and interventions in the establishment of forts in Macao, they finally chose to acquiesce. The Portuguese in Macau were in a state of self-government.

The journey of the Vostok to Macao was relatively smooth, and there were no official ships along the way. Lee Siu-ji did not let the ship go directly to Macao, but sailed north to reconnoiter the route between Lingding Ocean and Neilingding Island.

The trading company's camp was hidden deep in the island of Neilingding, and after the departure of the Vostok, it made it safer.

After a three-day voyage, the Orient successfully crossed the island of Hengqin and arrived at the port of Macao. There are more than a dozen large and small ships moored in the harbor, but it is quiet on the docks. As soon as the Dongfang approached, hundreds of workers carrying bags from the wharf surrounded them, cheering one by one.

This is doubtful, and it stands to reason that these workers should have been negotiated by the foreman and the shipowner before coming to work.

"In the past two years, Francois has had a hard time, otherwise Hai would not have gone to the South Seas." Hai Shuzu sighed and said.

The fifteenth year of Chongzhen's Macao can be described as depressed, because in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, three major events occurred in a row for the Portuguese in Macau.

In this year, Portugal gained independence from the Spanish co-rule, which was a good thing for the mainland, but a first-class bad thing for Macau, because the Portuguese merchants here lost their monopoly on the market in Manila, and the Spaniards refused to allow Portuguese merchant ships to go to Manila.

It was also in this year that the Ming Dynasty banned the Canton Fair held every year on Haizhu Island, and the Portuguese lost the big market of China and the direct aid of Chinese goods.

In this year, Portugal lost the city of Malacca and the island of Ceylon in India and the ocean, and the Muscat Sultanate of Oman also swept the east coast of Africa, resulting in the direct interruption of the Macao-Goa-Africa-Lisbon route.

The route on which the Portuguese relied for their survival was completely disrupted, leaving Macau, with a population of more than 40,000 people, to weaken ever since.

Unbeknownst to the Portuguese, of course, this was only the beginning of a weakening process, after which the Ming and Qing wars would completely sink Macau for the next twenty years or so, and by the Kangxi period, the population would drop to 5,000.

"Hey, which country's ship are you, why don't you fly the flag according to the regulations?" A Portuguese voice rang out.

Hai Shuzu whispered to Li Zhaoji: "This is the tax collector of the Franco, you had better let your crew named Mark hide, otherwise you will lose a lot." ”

"Why?"

"Mark is English, and the tariffs here are not friendly to British ships, and a ship as big as the Vostok charges eight hundred pesos, and if it is a British ship, it charges two thousand pesos." Hai Shuzu said.

"No, I won't, I don't even want to give eight hundred pesos." Lee Siu Kee said.

"Why?" Hai Shuzu didn't know where Li Zhaoji's confidence came from.

Li Zhaoji smiled: "Mr. Hai, because of you." ”

Hai Shuzu's face was troubled: "This is impossible, although I know him, I can't exempt you from taxes." The Yangyi here has to provide 20,000 taels of taxes to the imperial court every year, which is collected from the ships that come and go, and if you don't give it, will the Yangyi pay the taxes for you?

At most, I'll ask him to give you a discount of five hundred pesos. ”

"Five hundred." Li Zhaoji smirked.

Only then did Hai Shuzu understand that Li Zhaoji was playing a trick just now, he didn't think about tax exemption at all, so he let himself tell the truth.