Late Ming Dynasty: The Counterattack Begins with Sea Pirates

After all the necessary distributions and arrangements have been completed,

Liu Qingjiang walked to Chi Honghai's house and knocked on the door.

"Ta-da!"

A lazy voice came from inside the house.

"What is it?"

"Sir, it's me, Liu Qingjiang."

Chi Honghai, who was inside the room, propped himself up and said, "Brother Liu, come in, come in."

Liu Qingjiang pushed open the door and entered, seeing Chi Honghai who had just gotten up.

"I apologize for disturbing your rest, sir."

"No problem, no problem. Brother Liu, what's the matter? Please speak."

"Master, we've hijacked an official ship this time, so the authorities will definitely make a move. We need to prepare as soon as possible."

Chi Honghai smiled, poured a cup of tea, and handed it to Liu Qingjiang.

"Brother Liu, there's no need to rush."

"Although this area belongs to Xin'an County, it's basically unmanaged. Even if the county officials were to investigate, they wouldn't be able to find it anytime soon. However, it's still best to make preparations as soon as possible."

"Master, do you have a solution?"

Chi Honghai did not give an immediate answer, but poured a second cup of tea and took a sip.

"This tea is indeed excellent; please try it."

Although Liu Qingjiang didn't know much about tea, he obeyed Master Chi's order and picked up the teacup to take a sip.

"It has a strong, pleasant aroma."

"So, who are these people who like to drink tea?"

"Aren't they all rich people or government officials?"

Chi Honghai shook his head: "Anything else?"

Liu Qingjiang hesitated for a moment: "Sir, do you want to make a deal with the Westerners?"

Chi Honghai nodded.

"They need tea and porcelain, and we need money and firearms. Isn't that perfect?"

"What the master says makes sense. With these things, it will be much easier to rob the government in the future. Then, all the goods on this waterway will be ours."

After speaking, Master Chi placed his hand on the table and tapped it lightly twice. Then he picked up the teapot on the table and poured water into Liu Qingjiang's teacup.

Seeing this, Liu Qingjiang quickly raised his hands to catch the teacup.

Soon, the teacup was full of water, but Chi Honghai showed no sign of stopping pouring.

Although the water wasn't scalding hot, it was still hot, and one couldn't stand it for long.

Liu Qingjiang initially thought that Master Chi was distracted and hadn't paid attention, so he even gave him a couple of reminders.

"Sir, the water is full."

"Master, master!"

Chi Honghai only stopped what he was doing when Liu Qingjiang was about to give up.

"Robbing officials is as easy as pouring tea."

Liu Qingjiang slowly placed the teacup on the table, wiped the water off the table with his hand, and looked at Master Chi with a puzzled expression.

"If we do too much now, and go too far, the water will overflow and scald us."

As he spoke, he arranged a few more teacups on the side.

"However, if we pour water into different teacups, the same amount of water will not overflow."

Liu Qingjiang nodded, understanding his intention.

"Alright, go tell Shen Er to get ready. We're going out today to run some errands."

"Sir, where are we going, and how many men should we take?"

"Why bring any brothers? The few of us are enough. Where are we going? Didn't we already say?"

……

Macao.

Originally a small fishing village that made its living by oyster farming, it was called Haojing because of its abundant oysters and the fact that the inner walls of the oysters were as bright as mirrors. In 1553, the Jiajing Emperor leased it to the Portuguese.

Chi Honghai and his group took a small boat and rowed to the vicinity of the port.

The Portuguese man on duty at the port saw this line and shouted from the shore.

"Oi, quemé!" (Hey, who's there!)

The two people behind Chi Honghai looked at each other, not understanding what was being said, but their expressions were somewhat flustered.

Because at this point, if there's a language barrier, you might get shot.

Upon hearing this, Chi Honghai stood at the bow of the boat and shouted towards the shore in Portuguese.

"We're here to discuss business! We have some good stuff!"

The man on the shore put down his firearm and gestured for them to come ashore.

"Our master can speak the Portuguese?" Liu Qingjiang exclaimed in surprise.

"I don't know... I've only ever traded with the red-haired barbarians before. You do speak the language of the red-haired barbarians, but this is the first time I've heard you speak French," Shen Er replied.

Chi Honghai turned his head and said calmly, "Why do you think I, your master, am more influential than that Wu Laosi? He can't even reason with people. What kind of smuggling is he doing? Does he even understand it?"

After waiting for the ship to dock, Chi Honghai communicated with the Portuguese on the shore, and the group was led into the camp.

The leading Portuguese man stepped forward with a smile on his face.

After all, for Eastern merchants, doing this would mean losing their heads. Since it's a matter of life and death, this stuff must be top-notch, otherwise, it wouldn't be worth such a huge risk.

"Friend, tell me, what good things have you brought?"

"There are quite a few, but I'm afraid you can't afford that much."

"The combined weight of Songluo tea and oolong tea is about two thousand catties; fifteen sets of wallpaper; and even more porcelain."

"Oh, friend, your things are excellent, exactly what we need. As for the silver coins, how many would you like?"

Chi Honghai gestured the number "five".

The man shook his head. "Oh, friend, you don't seem to be here to discuss business."

Chi Honghai was certainly familiar with this process; haggling had been done many times with the Red-haired Man, so he was quite adept at it.

"Since this is our first collaboration, I'll offer a reasonable price: forty-five thousand taels. How about it?"

The Portuguese man looked troubled.

"Friend, your price is indeed very good, but we don't have that many silver coins right now. How about we exchange them for something else?"

This really hit Chi Honghai where it hurt.

What's the use of having lots of money? It just turns into a granary. You still need a gun to avoid getting punched a hundred times.

"Yes, and if possible, most of this silver can be exchanged for goods, firearms, and cannons."

The man was a little confused...

"Friend...you're not a government official or a businessman, why do you need so many firearms?"

"Hey, you don't know, recently a new wave of pirates has emerged along the coast. One of my ships was hijacked, and we lost a lot of cargo. I can't report it to the authorities. I guess I'll just have to arm myself."

The Portuguese man nodded, confirming Chi Honghai's statement.

After Liu Xiang, the southeastern coast returned to relative peace, but there were always young people who would turn to piracy. The waves weren't high, but carelessness could easily capsize a ship.

The reason fish are expensive is not because of rough seas, but because too many boats have capsized, and too much money has been wasted on them.

"Alright, but my friend, we can't give you that many weapons right now. At most, a thousand matchlock guns and 30 breech-loading cannons."

"Can this cannon... be sold?" Chi Honghai looked at the Hongyi cannon next to him.

The Portuguese man then walked over to the cannon and stroked the muzzle with his hand.

"You have good taste, but we don't sell medium and heavy artillery to private individuals."

"Shh, don't tell anyone. This is something I asked on behalf of Lord Zheng."

Upon hearing this, the Portuguese man's expression brightened, and he patted Chi Honghai on the shoulder.

"Of course, of course, we can deliver it to Lord Zheng ourselves."

"However, we are not prepared, and considering your shipment... we can't give you many... this time we can only give you a maximum of 6 medium-sized and 4 heavy-duty trucks."

Chi Honghai's mind tightened.

"Thank you for your kindness, but this was a private instruction from Lord Zheng, so I can only deliver it in person."

The Frankish man shook his head.

"Friend, how do I know it really is Lord Zheng who wants these things?"

Chi Honghai breathed a sigh of relief and pursed his lips.

He pulled something out of his pocket: a piece of paper and two gold bars wrapped inside.

He pulled out the paper and showed it to the Frankish man.

The paper was stamped with an official seal, but the seal pattern was that of Xin'an County and had little to do with Zheng Zhilong.

The Portuguese man looked at the Chinese characters and the red official seal on the paper and didn't think much of it.

"Okay, so, where should we send these 'peppers' and 'fireworks'?"

"If it's convenient, the three of us can stay here for the night, and I'll leave by boat tomorrow."

"Wait, friend, what you mean? You want to buy this ship too?"