Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1229 Maritime Trade
On the ocean from the southern tip of Tianzhu to Malacca, a three-masted lucky boat about fifteen feet long, with a towering tower at the tail, is breaking the waves on the sea.

The hull of this ship is very large, with a pointed tip and a pointed bottom, and a combination of Chinese and Western styles. It is considered a large ocean-going blessing ship, but with a fifteen-foot-long hull, it is as small as a solitary boat on the vast sea.

At this time, the hull of the ship was undulating with the waves, and sailors with swords or samurai swords hung from their waists on the deck, and sailors holding firecrackers stood on the side of the ship tower and the side of the ship, talking, but in the middle of the deck, there were dense crowds. There are more than a hundred Kunlun slaves.

There were only about 50 warriors with weapons on board, including sailors, but the more than 100 Kunlun slaves with their hands and feet trapped did not move at all.

At this time, a tanned fat man was standing on the ship tower, scanning the sea with a telescope.

A young sailor next to him grinned and said, "Second brother, he is someone who can achieve great things. It is really not wrong for us to come out with second brother. This trip will be enough for everyone to eat and enjoy for a few years. !"

Fatty is none other than Gao Yihuan, the second elder brother Gao, who led this tribe to set up a workshop in Nanjing. After the workshop closed down, he brought more than ten men of the same tribe to Nanyang.

The deeds of this second-year-old brother can be called a legend, and his experience has almost witnessed the changes of the times.

He worked as a clerk for a firm and opened a handicraft workshop by himself. Unfortunately, because the war workshop was destroyed, he owed a lot of debt instead.

Desperate, he fled to Luzon with more than a dozen of his tribe in order to avoid debts.

Originally, they were going to open up wasteland, but it happened that because the Zheng family withdrew from Fujian to Luzon, many sailors with family fortunes took refuge in the imperial court and Guangdong firms, resulting in Zheng Chenggong's boats and no one.

Gao Yihuan was quick-witted, so he relied on the Zheng family's business name, and the Zheng family also offered many good conditions in order to attract people to join.

For example, Gao Yihuan and the others joined the Zheng family's business, and the Zheng family provided them with ships and goods. They only needed a little capital, recruited people to go to sea, and paid half of the payment in advance, and they could go to sea on Zheng's ships.

Of course, the Zheng family will send one person to follow the boat, and after they return to Luzon, the Zheng family will just charge them another [-]% of the profits.

This model means that the firm cooperates with them, not completely serving the firm. This attracts many merchants who do not have enough capital, and recruits manpower from the coast one after another, borrowing the Zheng family's boat to go to sea.

Gao Yihuan, who has been in business, can't calm down and farm the land. He thinks this is an opportunity, so he immediately took the 300 taels of silver, brought more than ten clansmen, recruited more than 30 sailors, and found another A Fujian tea merchant joined forces, pulled a boat of tea, and sailed from Luzon to the south of Tianzhu.

After they completed the transaction here, they were supposed to go back, but he met a Portuguese businessman, which changed Gao Yihuan's formation.

This Portuguese can speak a little bad Chinese, because the Ming Dynasty had a good relationship with Portugal, and Gao Yihuan learned his trade story from him.

These Portuguese led the fleet and set off from Europe to southern Africa, where they bought a large number of Kunlun slaves at extremely low prices, and then crossed the Atlantic westward to South America.

There is a whole new continent. They will sell the Kunlun slaves bought from Africa to the sugar cane planters there, and then buy the sugar there, enter the Pacific Ocean from the Strait of Magellan at the southern end of the continent, sail westward to Macau, and sell some of them. Cane sugar, loaded with Ming tea and porcelain, and then all the way west, buying spices, ivory and other goods from time to time along the way, and returning to Europa.

The Portuguese businessman's words were confusing, Gao Yihuan didn't understand most of them, especially how the Portuguese went west all the way and finally returned to Europa, which made him unable to understand.

However, Gao Yihuan didn't get entangled in this matter. He focused on the cheap Kunlun slaves. He immediately noticed the business opportunities, and raised the banner of the Zheng family, saying that the national surname of Lu Song State was against the Kunlun slaves. Very interested, willing to buy Kunlun slave at a high price, and persuaded the Portuguese businessman to sail westward with him until Africa.

Gao Yihuan bought a batch of Kunlun slaves there through the channel of the Portuguese, and agreed that when the Portuguese arrived in Luzon again, he would introduce him to Guo Xing, and then Gao Yihuan took a boat of Kunlun slaves with him. on the return journey.

Gao Yihuan was quite satisfied with this voyage. Not to mention that he earned three times the profit from transporting a ship of tea to Tianzhu, but also said that if the Kunlun slaves on this ship were transported back to Luzon or Daming, he would definitely make a lot of money again.

"Second brother, our trip is enough to pay off the debt!" Gao Yizhen, a clansman beside him, said while stroking his head.

The shopkeeper of the Zheng family next to him smiled and said, "It's not just paying off the debt, I think it's enough for you to add three more boats!"

Telling the shopkeeper of the ship that it must be a real profit, the guards immediately laughed foolishly.

He, more than a dozen clansmen, went to sea this time mainly to serve as guards. After all, he worked in the workshop for a while and received some training when defending the city of Nanjing.

The second brother Gao listened to the laughter of the clansmen around him, naturally he was very proud of himself, but the second brother is a person who does great things, but he didn't show it on his face, instead he deliberately said: "Smile and laugh, you all should be more careful, this sea area is dangerous! "

Didn't he want to scare them, they saw a few robberies along the way, one time they were almost robbed by a Xiyi ship.

"Second brother, don't worry, the third child is watching in the watch!" Gao Yizhen beside him said with a smile.

After finishing speaking, he asked again, "Second Brother, what should we do when we arrive in Luzon this time? Are we going back to Daming?"

Gao Yihuan glanced at him contemptuously, and turned his deep eyes to the sea, "It's not time to go back! We should take the money we earned, recruit more sailors, buy cannons, and continue to run this route. The second brother dares to say that the whole No one in Luzon, or even Ming Dynasty, can run farther than us!"

What he said is really true. Although the merchant ships of Ming Dynasty have started to sail the route from Guangzhou to Mumbai, there are really no sailing to Africa.

Speaking of this, he looked at the few people around him, "You should also learn from the sailors on the ship, and follow me well. In five years, the second brother guarantees that when you return to your hometown, you can buy the entire Zhuangzi."

The young people in Gaojiazhuang couldn't help getting excited after hearing his words. At this moment, Gao San on the mainmast suddenly shouted: "Second brother, we have arrived in Malacca!"

Many sailors on the ship's tower heard the call and couldn't help cheering, and they all walked to the side of the ship to look at it.

Gao Yihuan also had a happy face, and hurriedly took out the binoculars to look towards the sea, and sure enough, seeing land appeared on both sides of the boat, he was overjoyed immediately.

Sailing at sea is boring and dangerous. The city of Malacca is ahead. The ships that have been drifting for more than a month can finally get supplies.

Now the maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty gradually became familiar with the rules of the Westerners at sea. On the vast sea, they could turn into pirates at any time, but on land and in harbors, they were generally more disciplined.

Gao Yihuan put down the binoculars and smiled immediately, "Adjust the sail and head north close to the shore."

When the sailors on the ship moved, gusts of sea wind blew on the sails. Blessed with the wind, the blessing boat broke through the waves, and the mast and hull creaked softly, sailing forward.

After Malacca is the South China Sea, it is close to home, and there are naval warships of the Ming Dynasty cruising there, which is relatively safe.

Standing at the bow of the boat, Second Brother Gao couldn't help but feel high-spirited. The voyage, which lasted nearly seven months, was finally coming to an end.

At this time, Gao Laosan on the mast suddenly shouted, "Second brother, the Dutchman's ship!"

Gao Yihuan heard the voice, looked up at him, and then looked in the direction he pointed, and saw two gunboats with the Dutch flag cruising the strait to the east.

The Dutch occupied Malacca and charged tolls for passing ships, and there were ships cruising here from time to time.

They need to maintain the safety of this section of the channel in order to attract ships to come and collect fees, so they generally do not rob here.

The Ming Dynasty had a trade agreement with the Netherlands. When Gao Yihuan saw that the ships were flying the Dutch flag but not the pirate flag, he didn't care. He smiled and said, "It doesn't matter, go directly to Malacca to replenish!"

(End of this chapter)