Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

The small box containing the gold weighed only about twenty kilograms, and Lu Chen's mental power could easily lift it within a meter.

In Chief Escort Xiong's eyes, this was how he had delivered the box to him using his powerful internal strength.

This move is enough to make the other party think carefully about the consequences of having a falling out with you.

Sure enough, the other party readily agreed and accepted the escort mission.

But Lu Chen felt that the deterrent effect was far from enough!

This is gold worth five thousand taels of silver; wealth is truly tempting!

As an anonymous customer, he was naturally considered someone who couldn't be seen in the light of day by the people at the escort agency.

Even if they swallowed the box of gold, I probably wouldn't dare to alert the authorities.

To deter these people, we must use extraordinary measures!

While the escort agency was weighing and testing the gold, Lu Chen, in everyone's eyes, was simply sitting in his chair and staring.

But in fact, during this time, Lu Chen had been secretly doing something.

He used his mental power to crush the internal structure of the elm wood coffee table next to him bit by bit.

After half an hour of effort, the coffee table appeared intact on the surface, but its interior was riddled with holes.

Lu Chen estimated that with just a little force, it would completely collapse and turn into a pile of tiny fragments.

When Lu Chen left Weiyuan Escort Agency, he lightly tapped the coffee table twice, very lightly, as if afraid of accidentally breaking it.

Since he had specifically mentioned it before leaving, Lu Chen believed that the people from the escort agency would definitely check the coffee table after he left.

How the inspection was conducted is irrelevant.

That coffee table would surely fall apart if subjected to even the slightest external force.

In the eyes of the escort agency, their mysterious masked cargo owner, who had caused such terrifying destruction with just two casual slaps, must be a true master.

Offending such a master could have terrifying consequences.

They wouldn't dare to covet that gold worth five thousand taels of silver!

Lu Chen believed that when he returned from Ningbo and passed through Yangzhou again, he would definitely see Chen Yunniang's receipt at Weiyuan Escort Agency.

. . .

Cengang, on the west side of Zhoushan Island.

Inside a private room at a tavern.

A young man of about twenty-five or twenty-six years old was drinking and chatting with Lu Chen and Qin Fang.

Lu Chen and his companions boarded a small boat and entered the Yangtze River from Yangzhou. They sailed all the way out of the Yangtze River estuary and then headed south along the coastline to reach Zhoushan Island.

Before entering Cen Port, everyone, including Lu Chen, hid all items related to the Embroidered Uniform Guard on the ship and changed into the attire of the salt merchants they had seen in Yangzhou.

Today, Shuangyu Port is a private port controlled by a maritime conglomerate, a true lawless zone.

Before Lu Chen transmigrated, he knew that Shuangyu Port was actually the port area between Liuheng Island and Fodu Island at the southern end of the Zhoushan Islands.

A large smuggling market, attracting merchants from all over the world, is located at the western end of Liuhang Island.

But even a fool would know that as a private port operating outside the jurisdiction of the government, it must have its own set of rules to have grown to such a scale.

Simply sailing the boat there is definitely not an option.

As for why he went to Shuangyu Port first instead of the Xie family in Yuyao, Lu Chen had his own reasons.

The fact that he was going to sell Western glassware that he claimed to have purchased from overseas, and that he went directly to the Xie family's house instead of going to Shuangyu Port first, was highly suspicious.

Therefore, after arriving at Cen Port in Zhoushan, Lu Chen planned to rest for a while and ask around on the shore.

This place is very close to Shuangyu Island. Although it is a port controlled by the government, many private merchants traveling to and from Shuangyu Island from the mainland also transit and resupply here.

The young man in front of me, who claimed to be surnamed Xu, was a Huizhou merchant who had been to Shuangyu.

This person did not own a boat; he was a partner and carried goods on other people's boats.

"We also came here because of its reputation, and this time we brought a ship full of goods."

Lu Chen raised his glass to the other person.

"How should we get to Shuangyu Island? I would be grateful if Brother Xu could offer his advice."

"I wonder what kind of goods the Lu ship owner is carrying?"

The young man surnamed Xu asked.

"Imported goods obtained from Westerners."

Lu Chen thought for a moment. He could keep the glassware a secret, but it was best not to lie and say that the items on the ship were ordinary goods from the Ming Dynasty.

Shuangyu Port served as a distribution center for goods in the triangular trade between the West, the Ming Dynasty, and Japan. Goods from the West and Japan were mainly imported, while goods from the Ming Dynasty's inland areas were primarily exported.

Can the channels for imported goods and exported goods to enter the port be the same?

If this Huizhou merchant surnamed Xu thought he wanted to sell Ming Dynasty goods to Shuangyu to the Portuguese and Japanese, his proposed plan would likely be completely misguided.

"The Chinese ship owner actually transported a ship full of Western goods?!"

The young man surnamed Xu's eyes lit up.

"Shuangyu Port is located south of Zhoushan Island, about 100 li away via the inland waterway."

Ships that transported Western goods all came directly from the south.

All the merchant ships that transit through Cen Port on their way to Shuangyu are from the inland areas of the Ming Dynasty.

I originally thought that the mainland ship owners were also transporting goods from the inland areas.

The owners of Shuangyu Port were very wary of merchant ships that transported inland goods. If they did not have a powerful coastal family to act as a go-between, or a merchant who had already established a trading post in Shuangyu Port to act as a guarantor, they would be regarded as "unlicensed ships".

Not only will they be unable to enter the port, but they will also be attacked by the sentry boats of the "Macau lords."

Sure enough!

The maritime trading group that controls Shuangyu Port is, after all, conducting illegal transactions. If they allow merchant ships to come and go as they please, then government officials can also come and go as they please. How can their safety be guaranteed?

It was expected that a membership-like system would require new members to be introduced and guaranteed by existing members.

Fortunately, they did not sail directly there; otherwise, they would not only have been unable to enter the port, but they might have also had a conflict with the Shuangyu merchants first.

Well, this Mr. Xu just specifically pointed out merchant ships that transport inland goods. So, are merchant ships that transport Western and Eastern goods subject to a different rule?

"However, since the ship owner Lu is transporting Western goods, things are much easier."

The young man surnamed Xu picked up his wine glass and drank it all in one gulp.

The "Australian owners" were much more tolerant of ships that transported goods from the East and the West.

After all, they were openly "colluding with Japanese pirates" and "colluding with barbarians," so it was highly unlikely that they were spies for the imperial court.

However, the land-based boat owner would be better off using a different boat to go to Shuangyu.

"Brother Xu, why is that?"

Qin Fang asked,

"Our ocean-going vessel is large and stable, so there's no problem navigating near the coast."

"The ship owner Lu's thousand-stone ship is indeed excellent, and it is in no way inferior to the four-hundred-ton Fujian ship that I saw in Shuangyu Port."

It was twice the size of a typical merchant's 200-liao Fujian-style ship, and only a few "big merchants" in Shuangyu Port owned such a ship.

This wouldn't have been a problem in itself, but the issue is that it's a ship that sails across the ocean.

To the untrained eye, these ships all look pretty much the same.

But experienced seafarers can tell at a glance that this is a river-sea amphibious vessel!

Only in the Yangtze River estuary area do people use this type of ship to transport goods.

Who would believe you're involved in trafficking Western goods?!