Lu Ming

Chapter 200 Fairs

There is a reason why the Yuandou left the mouth of the Jilong River and headed west.

Because the iron ore in Taipei is located on the sand dunes on the beach between the mouth of the Wanli River and the middle corner of Jinshan.

The above location is actually in the coastal area of ​​Jinshan District in later generations of Taipei, near the upper left corner of Taiwan.

The Yuandou is leaving now, and it is going straight to Huanggang.

Since the estuary of the Sulfur Creek connecting the Datun Mountain Volcanic Group is near the Sulfur Harbor, it was originally an important sulfur export base planned by the crossing forces. Two kinds of industrial raw materials thrived.

When the Yuandou came to the sea outside Huanggang, it was already dark. In the 17th century, there were still stretches of sandy beaches and lagoons in the vicinity of Huanggang, but there is no trace of the beautiful ports and tidy coastal avenues of later generations.

In the early morning of the next day, the weather finally became clear, and the Yuandou began to launch small boats to investigate the mouth of the Sulfur Creek.Surprisingly, before the Yuandou entered the mouth of the Sulfur Creek, natives were already waving and jumping on the shore.

When the boat entered the estuary and took a closer look, it turned out that it was a Ming man with his hair tied up waving his hands, followed by five or six natives wrapped in sarongs around their waists.

Lei Jian was standing at the bow of the boat, looking at the people on the shore who kept running with the boat, he couldn't help thinking of the rural aunt who was selling roast chicken in a green leather car back then.After a moment of emotion, he shook his head and said to Pan Mingzhong next to him, "It seems that the information is still accurate. There are people from Ming who live in Taipei during this period of time."

"The natives don't actually care about the newcomers building a territory. Otherwise, how did Manhattan come to be?" Pan Mingzhong nodded and said, "Don't both the Japanese and the Ming people have villages? Besides, before the Dutch deliberately intensified the conflict, The merchants of the Ming Dynasty lived and ate casually in the aboriginal villages, and there was no murder incident."

"I'm afraid the ones in Taipei are not so easy to talk to."

"Yeah, let's take it one step at a time. It's better not to kill people, because if you kill someone, you'll lose your reputation."

"Well, it's not a drill, it's the old way."

"Ha ha."

Just as the two were chatting, the Yuandou had already docked in a bend on the east bank of the Sulfur Creek under the guidance of the boat and the Ming who was running along the bank.

In the 17th century Sulfur Creek, the widest part of the water surface was far more than 40 meters away, and the water flow was turbulent - due to the high rainfall in Taipei, the Daxi River has abundant water throughout the year.

The river bend where the Yuandou docked looks like a convention and exhibition center used to receive foreign guests all the year round: the land of the river bend is flat, and in the distance there is a row of thatched sheds for temporary rest. On the open space between the boats and thatched sheds, there are A few smooth boulders and a few tree roots as thick as a round table are ready.

"Hahaha, the ancients also had a strong sense of service!" Lei Jian laughed loudly after seeing the layout here.

Pan Mingzhong also couldn't help laughing, and said with a smile: "It seems that after thousands of years of trade, the natives have learned something after all."

"Fart, it looks like this arrangement was made by Ming people."

"Okay, okay, just go down and ask."

When the Yuandou docked and stopped, the Fujian interpreter on board got off the boat and connected with the Ming man.

Unsurprisingly, this Ming man is a Fujianese who lives here.This person is Liao Tianding, a small businessman who also serves as the head of a small Ming village three miles away.The small village has a total of only about 10 permanent residents, and usually relies on hoarding goods and boats to attract Fujian merchants to survive.

In fact, Yuandou was discovered early this morning.Seeing this large sand ship with a deep draft and slowly launching a small boat to explore the way, Liao Tianding knew that the Yuandou was here for trade—the pirate ship was a sneak attack with a shallow draft, not this kind of style.

With the management of the local snake, things will go much smoother.Next, Liao Tianding first introduced those natives to Pan Mingzhong and the others.

Holding spears, wearing feather ornaments on their heads, jewelry on their necks, and short ramie skirts wrapped around their waists, the natives are the village chiefs and warriors of Fengli Society, a subordinate of the Ketagalan tribe closest to this place.

The Ketagalan people who used to occupy the Taipei area have long since disappeared in later generations.No way, who made this land the first place where Fujian immigrants set foot in? In the Qing Dynasty, a large number of immigrants came here, so the Ketagalan people disappeared silently.

Today, Pan Mingzhong and the others saw that the natives of Fengli Society were all wrapped in cloth aprons, so they must belong to the wealthy class of wealthy villages.Judging from the attitudes and body language of these few people, it is obvious that they have rich experience in foreign exchanges, and they are similar to those ethnic minorities in the tourist areas of later generations.

Very good, Pan Mingzhong couldn't be more satisfied with his current state.Using the aboriginal etiquette learned from Liao Tianding: After touching the forehead with the left fist a few times, a group of yellow people with black hair and black eyes recognized their relatives.The next moment, the sailors on the sandboat lifted some trade samples and placed them on the smooth stone surface.

Liao Tianding couldn't help but be overjoyed after seeing the goods produced by the Kun Fa people who claimed to be Dayuan Island maritime merchants.

These goods include not only the favorite cloths and porcelain bowls of the natives, but also some exquisite daily necessities and straw woven products.In addition, there is table salt.

It’s not that people who live by the sea can eat a lot of salt: before the invention of boiling salt in an iron pot, people by the sea can only eat a mixture of salt and mud that is bitter and astringent.

This principle is more directly reflected in the aborigines: ethnic groups that don't even have iron spear heads can't cook salt grains.As for Yantian, who has a higher technical content, don't make things difficult for these naked fighters.

So when Liao Tianding saw these big bags of salt, he was still very welcome.You know, in Mingren Village, occasionally a little salt is boiled in an iron pot, which is reserved for oneself.

No way, no one knows when the next trading ship will arrive, and whether there are iron pots on board—the so-called iron materials in this era are all produced by low-temperature kilns with unqualified phosphorus and sulfur, and they are purely different from the iron pots of later generations. concept.If you let go of the cooking salt, the pot will be ruined in a short time. There are no professions like blacksmiths and tinkers here.

In addition to large-grained salt, Liao Tianding was amazed by other fine and high-quality salts.In fact, no Fujian merchant would bring this kind of salt to the natives in exchange for sulfur.Fujian itself suffers from a severe shortage of salt, not to mention the high-quality refined salt that needs several times the cost of the stove to be cooked.

Liao Tianding's astonishment seemed superfluous in the time travel crowd.The main purpose of the Yuandou's trip to Taipei was for exploration and investigation, so it didn't matter what kind of cargo it was, it brought some.After recording which products are marketable, the next ship will come, and then we can target them.

After seeing the goods on the booth, a few natives chatted a few words and left.Liao Tianding told Pan Mingzhong with a smile: This is to prepare trade goods, and the natives will come again soon.

In this case, the sailors quickly moved more cargo from the Yuandou.

At this time, Pan Mingzhong pulled the Liao aside, and carefully questioned the local customs and trade patterns.

Liao Tianding naturally knew everything: he was still counting on Yuandou Hao to give him the leftovers when he was about to leave.

According to his experience, the goods from Mingren Village and Fengli Club today will be the first wave of trade teams to arrive.

Since Mingren Village and Fengli Society have sent messengers around according to the default rules, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow will be the climax of the trade fair: nearby tribes will send people to exchange supplies.

Pan Mingzhong nodded when he heard this.Then he asked some more about volcanic sulfur.

The straight-line distance between Sulfur Harbor and Yangmingshan Forest Park is less than 10 kilometers.The entire extinct volcano group of Datun Mountain is in the park.

Yangmingshan was originally called "Grass Mountain", which generally refers to the mountainous areas around Datun Mountain, Qixing Mountain, Shamao Mountain, and Xiaoguanyin Mountain, rather than just referring to a certain mountain.The entire volcanic group has beautiful scenery, with natural scenery such as volcanic cones, craters, fumaroles, hot springs, geothermal heat, etc. Of course, the most important thing is the natural sulfur blocks.

The origin of the name "Grass Mountain" is that during the Qing Dynasty, the local government was worried that bandits would hide in the forest to steal sulfur, so they set fire to the mountain regularly, so only miscanthus grew in the entire mountain area.

The sulfur from extinct volcanoes in Taipei was an important strategic resource until the end of the Qing Dynasty: in fact, this is the only sulfur resource that can be easily obtained in China.

Of course, in the 17th century, it was not easy to enter the volcanic group: the 10-kilometer journey only refers to the periphery. To enter the core sulfur-producing area, natives still need to drill into the forest to collect it.

"It seems that we can only wait for the big troops to come and get through the Sulfur Creek." Pan Mingzhong and Liao Tianding chatted here, and basically figured out the difficulty of mining sulfur.

At noon that day, Mingren Village and Fengli Society, two nearby groups, brought a lot of sulfur, buckskin, dried venison, and dried fish to trade.In addition, there are some Taiwanese aboriginal staple food: millet.

The poor Spaniards declared that they would not sell grain to Yuandouhao, but the natives who saw the blue and white porcelain bowl and cotton cloth automatically sent the grain to the crossing crowd.

Pan Mingzhong said that he would not refuse anyone.

The poor trade items of the natives are just what he is satisfied with.Without enough exchange materials, facing more and more industrial products after traveling through the world, they can only increase the intensity of sulfur collection, there is no other way.

The day's trading is quickly over.

Most of the materials have agreed exchange prices, except for the refined salt brought out by the crossing crowd.This problem was quickly resolved: it didn't take long for Liao Tianding to negotiate a price with the natives.

In the evening of the same day, around 10 villagers from Mingren Village were invited to have a good meal with a large iron pot, venison, salt and five-spice powder.

During the meeting, the following agreement was reached: First, from tomorrow onwards, the Ming people who have spared their hands will send people to take the Thunder Sword team to explore the iron ore nearby.

Second: Before Yuandou leaves, it will leave an interpreter and some leftover goods in Mingren Village, so that it can continue to purchase native sulfur in the future.

As a reward, Liao Tianding and the others got a high-grade cast iron cauldron produced by the kiln area - this is very precious, because steel is currently a controlled material, and it will not appear in the usual trade list.

(End of this chapter)