From Robinson Crusoe

"My God!"

Ships built with large amounts of steel and capable of navigating the seas without the aid of wind, though seemingly extraordinary, failed to impress Havel.

He saw the dense forest split open by a white beam of light, just like Moses parting the sea in the Bible; such a magnificent spectacle appeared in the dark night.

At that moment, Havel, who had never shown much interest in religion, felt a strange sense of piety.

He gripped the windowsill tightly with both hands, frantically recalling the passage in the Bible about God making way for the sea.

Influenced by the religious atmosphere, he had even heard pastors preach while on merchant ships. Even though Havel was not very devout to God, he could still vaguely recall some passages from the Bible.

He murmured, “Do not be afraid, but stand firm! The Lord will fight for you…”

At that moment, he seemed to feel a kind of redemption belonging to God and to heaven, a feeling that was cleansing his soul.

However, the next second, several flaws appeared between the beams of light—

Those were Chen Zhou and his fully armed guards.

Together with Sunday and Saturday, other high-ranking officials on the island, and a local girl who was in charge of translation, they went to the prison overnight to interrogate the prisoners.

However, this time Chen Zhou did not intend to use a powerful flashlight to scare the Spaniards.

In the past, he was short-handed, and the only prisoner he captured was a brown-haired man who didn't speak the language. He could only rely on trickery to put psychological pressure on the prisoner in order to obtain information.

Now there are prisons, manpower, instruments of torture, and a bunch of prisoners available for interrogation.

The Spaniards were held in two separate groups on the ship, and upon entering prison, they were immediately placed in solitary confinement, leaving them no opportunity to coordinate their testimonies. Even if someone lied, the truth could be uncovered through cross-verification of the testimonies of the others.

Under these conditions, the reason for using a flashlight is simply because the torch is not bright enough, and since the island is currently in the dry season, the photovoltaic panels and energy storage batteries can work normally, so there is no need to conserve the power of the high-powered flashlight.

……

The shadowy figure peeking out from behind the beam of light shattered Havel's newly awakened reverence for God.

His eyes widened as he watched the pillar of light follow the group through the dense forest. He saw that the source of the pillar of light was in the leader's hand, and the shock he felt was no less than when he first saw the pillar of light.

“How is this possible?
How could a human emit such light?
Or are they not human at all? Is this the legendary lost land?

Havel recalled a noble banquet he had attended, where the high-ranking nobles had mentioned that the great philosopher Plato had described a magnificent civilization in his book called Atlantis, located on the legendary continent of Atlantis, which was later destroyed by a great flood that could destroy the world.

"Atlantis..."

Havel repeated the magical word to himself, recalling the various encounters of this journey—

With its unimaginably powerful muskets, massive steel ships, the ability to sail the seas without sails, and this island he had never heard of before, along with the luminous people, he became increasingly certain that these people came from the lost land of Atlantis.

"Perhaps Atlantis wasn't destroyed by the great flood, and they survived. Now I'm facing the Atlanteans..."

Havel felt he had found a perfect explanation, and he couldn't help but feel proud of his extensive knowledge and impeccable reasoning.

……

Chen Zhou and the others did not stop in the slightest because of Havel's speculation. They did not even notice that someone was peering out of the window in the distance.

The long procession quickly moved through the woods, greeted the prison guards, and then filed in to take the Spaniard from cell number one out.

……

In order to get the Spanish to talk, Chen Zhou specially made a hardwood chair that allowed people to sit upright without moving an inch, and built a dark and oppressive interrogation room specifically for this chair.

The walls of the interrogation room were covered with various instruments of torture, including sharp knives, red-hot branding irons, and gleaming iron hooks.

These items were all replicas by Chen Zhou based on the anti-Japanese war dramas he had watched, but none of them have ever been actually used to this day.

Worried that the Spaniards wouldn't be terrified enough by the brand-new torture instruments, Chen Zhou deliberately smeared some rabbit blood on the walls of the interrogation room, adding a bloody smell to the room and making the torture instruments appear even more terrifying.

Of course, the "unique paint" on the interrogation room caused considerable losses to the rabbit family.

Tonight's beach dinner featured many roasted whole rabbits or freshly fried rabbit meatballs, all byproducts of the "wall paint" business.

……

It was late at night, but the interrogation room was brightly lit.

Chen Zhou sat in the corner of the room observing, taking notes on Saturday, while the interrogation process was handled entirely on Sunday.

The Spaniards weren't as tough as Chen Zhou had imagined—

They love money, but when faced with a threat to their lives, no one would joke about their own life, and this room also revealed to them that there are things in this world more terrifying than death.

Not to mention the Spaniards, even the indigenous girl in charge of translation was so nervous by the sight that her legs trembled and her voice quivered, fearing that she too would be tied to that chair and subjected to their merciless interrogation.

Through questioning, Chen Zhou was the first to understand the Spanish firepower reserves on the islands.

Comparing multiple testimonies, it can be determined that the Spanish did not deploy much firepower on the island; they didn't even have barrels of gunpowder, let alone cannons.

In fact, the archipelago is slightly off the normal shipping route, and one can only reach the islands by making a slight change of course at sea.

The Spanish merchant ships strayed off course due to a storm and stumbled upon the island by chance. Otherwise, their leader, the "Kylian," would likely have chosen another island as the location for their treasure.

However, that island was different from the archipelago. Although it was a completely uninhabited place, you could even say it was a godforsaken place, it was not far from the shipping route.

If they frequently dock near the island, sooner or later someone will discover something amiss and find the treasure, which is something no sailor wants to see.

Because the archipelago is remote, the availability of weapons is not a major concern.

Moreover, there were no large wild beasts on the island, and even birds and animals for hunting were scarce. Matchlock guns were mostly left hanging on the walls on the island.

The sailors preferred to drink more or indulge their desires with native women in their rooms rather than take up arms and wander the island, let alone patrol the coastline. Killian was worried about the treasure and invested heavily to keep these restless men on the island.

Barrels of rum, bottled liqueurs, punch cocktails, and even liqueurs mixed with herbs and syrups—these things that could make people forget their troubles were sent to the island in droves to comfort the sailors who longed for their homeland at sea.

In addition, there is an ample supply of all kinds of daily necessities and small pieces of furniture.

They can ensure that every sailor can enjoy life on the island, which is at least better than being adrift at sea.

Even so, the sailors still longed for the mainland, missed the port, and missed their homeland. While troublemakers like Havel were few and far between, every sailor harbored similar sentiments to some extent.

They just wanted to finish this job as quickly as possible and then go home to live the life of noblemen.

When the interrogation reached this point, Chen Zhou specifically inquired about the amount of cloth and clothing on the island, and was told that it was enough to clothe approximately 80 to 100 people.

The island's biggest shortage right now is fabric and clothing. Upon receiving this answer, Chen Zhou immediately told Saturday to highlight this information.

If necessary, he could send the Steelbone to the archipelago tomorrow to load all the clothes, drinks, condiments, and furniture onto the ship and bring them back.

After inquiring about the firepower configuration of the island's settlement, Chen Zhou knew that the Spanish remaining on the island had indeed been completely wiped out and captured alive one by one by Sunday.

In other words, starting today, the largest island in the archipelago is now under his control, and the natives still living on that island will become the reserve population of the larger island.

Thinking of this, Chen Zhou gave Zhou Yi a word of advice.

"The next time I go to the archipelago, I will investigate the relationships between the various tribes on the islands."

After the large tribe was attacked by us, it has basically disintegrated. According to the information I learned from you, there are quite a few small and medium-sized tribes on the island who have grudges against the large tribe. After they learn that the large tribe has disintegrated, they are very likely to take the opportunity to retaliate and massacre the members of the large tribe.

The natives on the island are your future companions; try your best to prevent them from killing each other.

If necessary, decapitation strikes can continue to be carried out to kill or control the leaders of other tribes.

There's a saying, "To hold the emperor hostage and command the feudal lords," and you might not understand its meaning.

"After the interrogation ends, ask Saturday. That's roughly what I meant."

Seeing that Sunday nodded seriously, Chen Zhou raised his hand to signal that the interrogation should continue.

……

The previous questions were just appetizers; what Chen Zhou was most interested in was money. Where exactly was the treasure of the Inca Empire, which he had longed for day and night and had devoted countless efforts to, hidden?

When the topic of the treasure came up, each of the Spanish sailors being interrogated showed varying degrees of hesitation. Only one sailor, who was short and looked somewhat thin, was unusually cooperative and spoke almost without reservation.

Using the information he provided as a reference, Chen Zhou quickly figured out which sailor was lying, which sailor was deliberately concealing information, and which sailor was being vague.

According to the sailor named Juan, they were not plundering ordinary towns in the Inca Empire, but rather the secret passage through which the Incas transported their treasure to the Andes Mountains.

Although they failed to block the passage immediately and seize all the treasure, they gained unimaginable wealth from this fortune, and all the sailors no longer had to worry about the rest of their lives.

Captain Killian was able to use this wealth to transcend the social class between ordinary people and nobles, obtain a prestigious title, and become a regular guest at noble banquets.

Even though he was a nouveau riche with no real background, looked down upon by the old aristocracy, he was still rich.

In this era where everyone is scrambling to climb the social ladder through deception and trickery, even risking their lives to venture into distant new lands, money represents everything. With money, vulgarity becomes elegance, and baseness becomes nobility.

This treasure comes from the Inca imperial family and the Sun God religion, and includes pure gold goblets, vases and tableware, pure gold metal sentinel sculptures, a golden eagle, a golden snake, a golden fish, and a 65-pound pure gold male and female statue.

Even without seeing it with his own eyes, just listening to Saturday's translation, Chen Zhou could imagine its golden appearance, and his eyes involuntarily became misty—

People say gold is vulgar, but there's probably no one in the world who doesn't like this color, this color that represents wealth.

If you were to add the word "gold" to this striking color, even fewer people would be able to resist its power.

Of course, the "vulgar" pure gold objects are just the tip of the iceberg of the Inca Empire's treasures.

The Spanish sailors also managed to steal a gold mask inlaid with various jewels—

According to Juan, the gold mask was made with exceptional craftsmanship and was inlaid with red, blue, and green gemstones.

Captain Killian was very fond of the artifact, so instead of leaving the golden mask on the island or shipping it to Spain, he kept it for himself and hung it on the wall of the captain's cabin, ensuring that every "superior" who visited him could see the magnificent golden mask.

In addition to the gold mask, there were also gold necklaces, earrings and bracelets worn by Inca nobles, inlaid with gemstones.

As for gold flowers, gold bricks, and jewelry, there are even more.

Of course, in addition to all gold artifacts, the Inca Empire also possessed a large quantity of silver.

Juan said that because there was so much silver, when Kilian had them move it, he even buried some of it directly on the beach. They buried it in such a hurry that they didn't mark it, and when they returned to the burial site, they had forgotten where it was buried.

However, since the looted wealth came so easily, the bandits didn't care about any minor losses.

They lingered on the beach for only an hour or two, casually dug a few shallow pits, and when they found nothing, they boarded the boat and left without searching any further.

……

Chen Zhou had long heard that South America was rich in rare metals such as gold and silver, that Brazil and Colombia had world-famous gold mines, and that Peru was known as the "Land of Silver." He also knew that the Spanish made a fortune from the Inca Empire during the Age of Exploration, but he never imagined that the wealth obtained by a small Spanish raiding ship could be so exaggerated.

Thinking of the exorbitant price of gold in modern society, and then calculating the weight of the gold bricks and gold statues mentioned by the Spanish sailors, he suddenly felt dizzy and fainted from happiness.

Putting everything else aside, that statue alone weighs 65 pounds, which translates to nearly 30000 grams.

Chen Zhou remembers that when he was browsing the challenge post, the price of gold was soaring, reaching nearly 800 yuan per gram. He originally wanted to buy his mother a gold bracelet, but he hesitated because of the crazy price of gold.

If you get your hands on this statue and melt it down without considering its collectible value, you could sell the gold for 2400 million.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. If he could obtain all the treasures looted from the Inca Empire, as long as he didn't gamble or start a business, he could simply sit back and collect interest. He wouldn't have to worry about money for this life, the next, or even the life after that; he might even have to worry about how to spend it. (End of Chapter)