Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 54 "There's a big deal, are you in it?"

"Instructor, if this small town can't come up with 40,000 pesos, are we really going to go on a killing spree?"

Standing on the third-floor balcony of the church, you can overlook the entire town and see the sparkling seaside port in the distance. You can almost see all the surrounding situations from a high vantage point.

Chen Rui looked around the silent town, let out a long breath, thought for a while, and finally asked the question that had been in his heart, then looked straight at Meng Shengxin.

"Why, if it comes to killing someone, you can't bring yourself to do it?" Meng Shengxin asked with a smile.

"Treat prisoners well has always been our army's consistent policy." Chen Rui said in a low voice: "Although we live in an era where the strong prey on the weak, I really feel a little...uncomfortable when seeing the wanton massacre of civilians."

"But we are going to... kill people in the end."

"That's different," Chen Rui said solemnly. "In order to survive, to fight, and to complete necessary tasks, killing... the enemy is of course the most important thing. But to kill a large number of unarmed civilians, to be honest, I really can't bring myself to do it, and I don't have the heart to do it."

"But this is an era of colonization, a time of great conflict, an era without justice or conscience," Meng Shengxin said slowly. "Massacres, plundering, and genocide are everywhere. Since the 15th century, when Spain began colonizing the Americas, tens of millions of Native Americans were slaughtered in less than a hundred years. Even those who managed to survive were either driven into the jungles and mountains or taken as slaves, suffering all kinds of abuse and humiliation."

"Except for the Spanish, which European colonizers, including Portugal, England, France, and the Netherlands, were not committing acts of genocide? They massacred the indigenous people, traded black slaves, exploited and enslaved the colonies, and committed countless crimes."

"Do you think we should continue to uphold our morals and beliefs in this environment?"

"Do we have to learn from the European colonists in this era?" Chen Rui looked conflicted.

"We come from a later era, so we don't need to learn their dirty tricks." Meng Shengxin smiled and said, "We must use the kingly way as our standard of conduct. ... What is the kingly way? It means that if our opponents disobey, we will crush them."

"If this small town can't pay the full ransom, are we going to crush them?"

"Haha..., what do you think?" Meng Shengxin looked at this student soldier who maintained a simple heart and couldn't help but feel deeply moved.

I don’t know how many of these student soldiers will still have a conscience as time goes by and their group continues to fight and expand abroad in the future.

"The people are actually very innocent..."

"Innocent? They may be innocent to us. But to the Indians whose land they seized and whose wealth they plundered, they are guilty of crimes blatantly manifest."

"..." Chen Rui was speechless when he heard this.

Yes, this land was once inhabited by Indians.

But now, this place is full of Spanish colonists and their descendants.

What about the Indians?
They were in Spanish mines, in Spanish plantations, in Spanish lumber camps, in Spanish barns...

"Okay, no need to overthink it." Meng Shengxin patted his shoulder and said, "Actually, the captain has already instructed us that as long as we can get 20,000 pesos from this small town, we'll be very satisfied. Don't forget, our 'Breaking Waves' is also loaded with 300 to 400 pieces of fine animal fur in the hold. Once we get them to the coastal ports of Daming, we can sell them for a lot of money."

"As for massacring unarmed civilians, we still disdain to do it."

"Oh..." Chen Rui couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief after hearing this.

Twenty thousand pesos, if hundreds of people in the small town pool their money together, I think they can still pay it.

Moreover, the aldermen, bishops, prosecutors, and several wealthy men who looked rich must have considerable wealth. If the ransom was too short, they would have no choice but to confiscate them all.
-
When Pedro del Alamobo was taken to a room in the city hall by several pirates, he looked a little exhausted and his face was pale, completely lacking his usual elegance and decency.

He had no idea what was waiting for him, nor what torture and humiliation he would face. At noon, several pirates searched the room where he and Mrs. Plutarco were staying and found two money boxes containing the money he had paid for cocoa in Guayaquil, a total of 25,000 pesos.

In order to keep this huge fortune, he lowered his posture and begged the pirates not to take the money away.

Or, be kind enough to leave him at least half of it.

You have to know that this money was not his alone. Acapulco's city officials, tax officials, and several bigwigs from Mexico City also invested.

If the pirates stole the money, although it would not cause him to go bankrupt, it would definitely cause him to suffer a heavy blow.

What's worse is that without this money, the cocoa purchasing business will inevitably fail, which is another considerable loss.

He might even lose the business reputation on which he relies.

However, trying to take back 25,000 pesos from the pirates was like snatching food from a tiger's mouth.

They are pirates, and their purpose of landing on the shore is to rob money. How could they just give up such a huge sum of money?
Not surprisingly, Pedro was beaten up by several pirates.

After beating the man, they curiously asked him why he put so much money in the room and what he wanted to do with the money.

Under the pressure of the other party, Pedro angrily told the other party that the money was what he needed to go to Guayaquil to purchase cocoa, but now everything was ruined.

Perhaps fearing further harm from the pirates, Pedro tactfully told them that he had extensive connections in Lima and Mexico, and that one of his uncles was the governor of Panama and possessed considerable power.

After hearing his words, a pirate with an Indian face seemed to show great interest in him, and then took him to this room in the city hall, ready to hand him over to their leader for questioning.

"We'll borrow your money first," Meng Shengxin said. "If you can cooperate with us, we might be able to return the money to you in another way."

"Cooperation?" Pedro immediately grasped a key word from the translator's words after hearing them. "You want to cooperate with me?"

Could it be that these pirates wanted to use his channels to sell the looted property?
During the looting process, pirates did not always obtain a large amount of hard currency such as gold and silver. Sometimes they would intercept a merchant ship full of cargo.

So, except for a small portion of the cargo on the merchant ship to meet the pirates' daily needs, the vast majority of the cargo had to be sold through various methods and exchanged for gold and silver coins that could be spent.

Some pirates will cooperate with local smugglers or black market traders, and use their channels to transport the stolen goods to safe places for sale.

Some pirates will choose to trade directly at low prices in ports or markets in neutral countries, because these places usually do not conduct strict inspections on pirates' goods. As long as you can pay the "tax" in full, you can sell the stolen goods with ease.

If these channels are not available, the pirates can only temporarily store the stolen property on the ship, and then find a remote place to secretly unload the goods, or disperse the goods to multiple small boats and sell the stolen goods in the most stupid and dangerous way.

Of course, pirates who have obtained privateering licenses from certain "rogue states" do not have to worry about selling the stolen goods. They can simply return to their own ports and hold public auctions. After deducting the part that needs to be paid to the government, the rest can be distributed among the pirate gangs.

So, this group of unidentified pirates asked to cooperate with him. Did they want him to help them sell the stolen goods?

Aren’t you afraid that you will sell them out to the colonial government?

"Do you want to participate in the lucrative Eastern trade?" Meng Shengxin looked at him with a smile. "We have the ability and conditions to ship large quantities of Eastern goods to America, and then you can sell them. At that time, we will only take 60% of the profit from each shipment, and leave the rest to you."

"Well, would you like to consider it? This is a big business worth over half a million pesos a year. It's much more profitable than your cocoa smuggling business!"

(End of this chapter)