From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 62 The real reward

On the evening of February 2, Chen Zhou ate the leftover porridge and drank some hot water, and felt that his condition had improved.

After cleaning up the dishes, he added some seal oil to the oil lamp, lay on the bed, and boredly flipped through "Robinson Crusoe", which he had read many times.

This time, he looked very carefully.

It starts from how Robinson Crusoe became a sailor and got into trouble for the first time, until he encountered a storm and was stranded on a desert island and was successfully rescued.

After reading to the end, Chen Zhou tried to read.

His voice echoed in the dim bedroom, sounding a little hoarse and tired. Since he hadn't spoken for such a long time, some words were not pronounced correctly and the sentences seemed sluggish when he read them.

But as he uttered complete sentences one by one, over time, he read more fluently, and his tongue and vocal cords regained the familiar feeling, as if he had returned to the past.

Reading aloud is slower than reading silently, but the level of detailed information obtained is higher.

As he read, Chen Zhou discovered an important detail that had been overlooked before.

He remembered that before the challenge began, the description of the reward in the post was: "The reward for a successful challenge is all the property that the challenger has the opportunity to obtain during the survival process."

Under this description, several different valuables are listed, including various types of gold and silver coins.

It is precisely because the total value of these precious metals is not high that the old guys on the forum complained that the organizers took kickbacks.

But after reading it carefully, Chen Zhou discovered that the challengers had the opportunity to obtain much more than just a few gold and silver coins during the entire challenge.

He didn't think the hawksbill turtles or the ship's silverware were valuable, but rather he had discovered a new treasure trove that could be worth millions in total.

……

In the original book, Robinson obtained two batches of property during his survival on the deserted island.

The first batch of property was not large in quantity, including a small amount of gold and silver coins and a pile of copper coins, which came from the stranded merchant ship.

Knowing that he would need to find and keep the reward for successfully challenging the challenge, Chen Zhou attached great importance to these "useless things" that Robinson looked down upon.

In the process of moving supplies, he tried his best and searched almost every corner of the ship, even the private money hidden by the sailors. However, after all his efforts, the total number of coins he found was not much more than that of Robinson.

The main reason is that the ship was a slave ship.

If the ship can reach its destination smoothly and find the local natives, there is no need to use currency to trade with the population, and bartering is more cost-effective.

Since money is not needed, naturally no one will bring it with them.

The small amount of currency found in the captain's and first mate's rooms was not used to purchase slaves, but to buy supplies when stopping during the voyage.

If we only count this batch of properties, the value is probably far less than 72, and even 20 is difficult to reach.

The highlight that really made Robinson rich was the second batch of property.

At that time, Robinson had lived on the island for about twenty-five years and had basically achieved self-sufficiency. Apart from some more delicate items, such as pipes and metal kitchen utensils, he hardly needed any other supplies. The only thing that made him unbearable was loneliness.

It was around May 16th of the 25th year. It was the dry season, but there was a strong wind all day, followed by heavy rain, thunder and lightning.

Robinson, who was resting at home, heard a cannon shot and realized that a ship had encountered a storm and was forced to come to the vicinity of the island and was using the cannon to call for help. He immediately left the shelter and lit a large bonfire on the top of the mountain.

Robinson had the habit of storing firewood. Even though it was a rainy day, he used dry firewood, so he quickly started a fire.

The bonfire burned very brightly, and Robinson kept adding wood, so it burned from dusk till dawn, but the ship never reached the coast.

It was not until the clouds and fog cleared that Robinson finally observed the ship calling for help through his telescope.

Unfortunately, that ship met an even worse fate than the slave ship he was on.

On a stormy night, visibility on the ship was extremely low.

The helmsman may have seen the bonfire on the top of the mountain and drove the boat towards the fire. However, they were not familiar with the situation near the island and did not know there were reefs in the sea, so they crashed into the reef. From the results afterwards, the bonfire that Robinson lit not only failed to save the ship, but also harmed them.

When Robinson returned home, he took food and a compass, and sailed into the sea in his homemade boat. When he came to the ship that ran aground, the scene he saw was very cruel.

The Spanish ship was stuck firmly between two reefs, and the stern and rear of the ship were all smashed to pieces by the waves, leaving only the bow.

There were no survivors on board except a dog.

After boarding the ship, Robinson found the drowned sailors and obtained much-needed clothes from them.

In addition, he found several barrels of wine, several boxes, several muskets, four pounds of gunpowder, a coal shovel, a pair of tongs, a copper pot for mixing chocolate, and a grill on the ship.

After opening the box, Robinson found three large bags of coins, totaling more than 1,100 coins. In the paper bag of one of the small bags, he also found six gold coins and several small gold bars.

Based on this, Robinson guessed that the ship was a plundering ship that set out from South America.

At that time, it was popular for Europeans to go deep into Latin America from the La Plata River to plunder gold and silver treasures, then bypass Brazil, go to Havana, enter the Gulf of Mexico, and then all the way to Spain.

This kind of ship is not loaded with cheap black slaves, but a ship full of treasures, and 90% of the treasures are concentrated in the stern and middle cargo holds of the ship, which most likely include various gold utensils, statues, and a large number of gold and silver coins and gems.

You should know that South America is rich in gold. The Inca Empire in South America possesses countless treasures and can even build a huge temple with gold and silver.

Although the 17th century was the end of the Spanish plunder of the Inca Empire, the treasures they harvested were enough to fill an entire ship.

Compared with this ship full of gold and silver, the box of property that Robinson took away may only account for one thousandth or even one ten-thousandth of the value of all the property on the ship.

But the real good things have long since sunk into the sea and disappeared without a trace.

After reading this paragraph, Chen Zhou felt his heart beating faster.

Now, he was quite sure that the "all property that the challenger has the opportunity to obtain during his survival" mentioned in the challenge rules referred to the treasure on this Spanish plundering ship.

If you can really change the fate of the ship, guide it to a successful landing, or salvage the treasure that sank to the bottom of the sea, the reward after completing the challenge will be more than just 72.

That could be 72 million, or even 720 million!
After drinking some cold water and calming down a little, Chen Zhou reminded himself not to be blinded by the huge amount of wealth.

You have to know that it took 25 years for the Spanish plundering ships to arrive near the isolated island.

Even if he could really get the money, he would have to find a way to survive until that time.

And even if he really lived to that time, it would not be easy to get the treasure on the ship.

Just like Robinson Crusoe, he made a fire on the mountain to guide the ship to hit the reef. After all the sailors on the ship died, no one would stop him from transporting supplies, but the important treasures would also sink into the sea.

Don't follow Robinson Crusoe's example and set up beacon towers in advance to guide ships to a safe route.

After the Spanish plundering ship was successfully rescued, all the sailors on board survived. Why should they give the treasure they had robbed with great difficulty to a savage living on an island?

If those people had any conscience, they might have sent him away with some food and practical tools, and left him to live out his days in solitude on the island.

If someone is a cruel and ruthless person, he might even be labeled a devil and killed directly.

Or they would capture him as a slave, take him to Europe and trade him, and then brag to everyone about their kindness and having saved an uncivilized soul.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the descriptions of these sailors and captains in Robinson Crusoe are quite good.

But that's because Robinson is white, and a middle-class upper-class white man with an upper-class accent.

Chen Zhou estimated that if he were put in the same situation, it would be a success if he could avoid being hacked to death after saving the lives of these looters.

The Inca Empire, the Indians, the Australian Aborigines, or other brutally massacred indigenous peoples have reminded him with their lives or even their entire race.

Those who blindly trust robbers will surely die at the hands of robbers.

(End of this chapter)