The Black Sails of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 84 Torrential Rain
Lin Qian stepped forward, helped Huang Hetai up, and brushed the dust off his body.

"I suppose I don't need to teach you how to write a report of merit for a garrison commander?"

Huang Hetai forced a smile and said, "Of course, of course..."

"After you finish writing, don't forget to show it to me first."

Huang Hetai nodded repeatedly in agreement.

After Lin Qian finished speaking, she went out and left, followed by her brothers.

Huang Hetai was left alone in the room, watching the empty eyes of the skull stare at him.

……

The next morning.

When the cargo hold of the Santa Ana was opened, a stench of excrement and urine wafted out, causing the crew members who opened the hold to frown.

The crew took torches down to the cabin and saw the pirates, who were piled up neatly, most of them looking dejected.

The pirates who were piled high were in better condition, but many of those placed low were crushed to death, and the survivors were drowning in excrement and barely clinging to life.

The crew members covered their noses, pulled out a group of pirates, untied the ropes binding their feet, and dragged them onto the deck.

It wasn't that Lin Qian deliberately locked them up for a night to torture them, but rather that she was afraid someone might escape and cause trouble under the cover of darkness.

For the sake of safety, it's worth it even if some prisoners die.

Moreover, in this campaign to wipe out the bandits, there were too few intact corpses, only a dozen or so heads, which seemed too fake. It would be good to use these heads.

At this time, the pier at Houjiangwan Wharf on Nan'ao Island had been built to a length of more than ten meters, extending into the deep water area.

The large sailboat can use its gangway to directly transport people to the pier and then to the shore, which is much more convenient than the previous method of using small boats to ferry people back and forth.

The prisoners were brought ashore one by one and stood in a line. After a count, more than 500 people survived.

Construction is in full swing on the island, with a lot of rough and tiring work, and productivity is severely insufficient. These people are a ready-made labor force.

To prevent them from escaping, Lin Qian borrowed shackles from Huang Hetai and put them on each prisoner. She also tied ten pirates together with rope.

Five hundred prisoners, that is, fifty strings.

Under the arrangement of Dumb Huang, Forty Strings went to the island to level the land and remove weeds and trees.

Ten strings of people went up the mountain to help move timber.

Around the prisoners, islanders with weapons and whips supervised their work, and any slight movement would result in being whipped.

Lin Qian was initially worried that the islanders, having just been freed from forced labor, would feel sympathy for these prisoners of war.

In reality, the islanders showed no mercy when they cracked their whips.

Watching others work is much easier than doing it yourself. No one can resist that temptation.

After settling the prisoners, Lin Qian ordered his men to bury the pirate corpses in the warehouse, cut off their heads and send them to Huang Hetai, and then clean up the excrement and urine in the warehouse again.

This is a dirty job, and I doubt any of the crew members would want to do it.

Lin Qian had a sudden inspiration and called Huang Diao, the mute, and a string of prisoners to come to the ship to clean.

After the cleaning was completed, Lin Qian led the crew down to the cabin for inspection. It was very clean, and everyone showed a satisfied smile.

At lunchtime, Lin Qian called all the brothers to the officers' mess hall.

Today's lunch was steamed seafood, tofu soup, and rice.

The seafood was caught fresh by the islanders and steamed, resulting in exceptionally tender and delicious fish—much better than the salted fish and dry biscuits I had in Chuancheng before.

The fish in each person's bowl is different, mostly mackerel, ribbonfish, pomfret and other similar catches.

Lin Qian tasted a piece of sea fish, then remembered something and asked Zheng Zhilong, "What was the name of the watchtower guarding Guolao Mountain before?"

“Call him Da Bing,” Zheng Zhilong replied.

Lin Qian: "The 'cake' in 'dry biscuit'?"

Zheng Zhilong: "It might be the 'B' in 'A, B, C, D', they're all pretty much the same. Poor families can't read, so they just give their children a lowly name. I bet his parents couldn't tell which 'C' it was when they named him."

When Zhu Yuanzhang was a child, he was called Zhu Chongba. It was a common practice among the lower classes to name their children with numbers.

In comparison, names like Lin Qian, Bai Qing, and Bai Langzai are considered elegant among ordinary people.

Lin Qian took a sip of tofu soup and said, "I promised him a fishing boat if he did a good job watching the pagoda, and now it's time to keep my word."

Zheng Zhilong: "I told Uncle Huang this afternoon that I would convert a Tanka boat into a fishing boat and give it to him as a reward."

Lin Qian nodded. Zheng Zhilong was very capable and didn't require her to worry about anything.

Lin Qian ate a couple of bites of fish and then asked, "How is the construction of the houses on the island going?" "The craftsmen estimate that it will all be completed by mid-October."

Zheng Zhilong thought for a moment and then added, "Don't worry, Captain. It won't get cold in the Fujian and Guangdong areas until after the Great Snow solar term. It'll be fine to finish the project by mid-October."

Perhaps God heard the discussion about the weather.

A loud rumble suddenly came from the sky.

Then the rain began to pound on the deck, turning into a downpour in just a few breaths. The sound of raindrops hitting the ground filled the air, drowning out any sound of conversation.

Lei Sanxiang was from the north and had never seen such torrential rain before. Every time it rained, he would stare at it in a daze.

Lin Qian added, "After the houses are completed, we must hurry up and build the dry dock. It would be best to inspect and maintain the captured ships during the winter."

Jose interjected: "Congressman Andre has a dry dock."

Lin Qian said bluntly, "I don't believe him."

Jose awkwardly shut his mouth.

Before attacking Ship City, Dumb Huang had discussed ship repairs with Lin Qian, but Lin Qian turned him down at the time.

Now that Li Kuiqi has been dealt with, we can finally focus on solving the ship repair problem.

Building a dry dock not only facilitated a thorough overhaul of the Santa Ana, but also allowed future shipbuilding to take place within the dock.

Unlike wooden houses, dry dock construction requires the actual stockpiling of materials.

The process involves digging ponds, driving wooden stakes, and laying stone slabs, each of which requires a large amount of blue bricks, mortar, and manpower.

Building on land is already quite expensive; building on an island would increase costs many times over.

Upon hearing Lin Qian's project plan, Zhou Xiucai's face darkened.

Seeing this, Lin Qian knew that now that they had finished discussing investment, it was time to talk about revenue generation, so she asked, "By the way, have there been many merchant ships passing by the island these past few days?"

Upon hearing this, all the brothers became interested and looked up at Lin Qian.

Zheng Zhilong: "Very rare, you can hardly see one every two or three days."

On the sea in August, the southeast and northwest winds shift unpredictably, and few people choose to sail at such times. This is also why Lin Qian wanted to plunder on land.

However, once ashore, the danger level increases significantly after losing the protection of the Santa Ana's gunfire.

Fortunately, there were some ships at sea, so Lin Qian decided to pick one to practice on.

Lin Qian made up her mind, finished eating the rice, put the empty bowl on the table, and said, "Send people to keep watch at the watchtowers of Guolao Mountain and Dajian Mountain. Report back immediately if any ships are traveling from south to north."

……

Two days later.

Torrential rain.

A two-masted Fujian-style ship sails from south to north on the sea between Fujian and Guangdong. On the deck, the shipwrights use wooden scrapers to clean up the water accumulated on the deck.

Some people covered the beams with tarpaulins, while others used cotton wool soaked in tung oil to seal the gaps in the deck.

The foreman, holding an umbrella, stood on the deck and kept yelling at the crew: "Hurry up! Stop dawdling! If the cargo holds flood and the goods get soaked, you won't be able to afford the compensation even if you die!"

Seeing that a crew member was moving too slowly, the foreman stepped forward and kicked him.

The deck was slippery, and the boatman fell heavily. He got up and glared angrily at the foreman.

"What are you looking at? Get back to work!" the foreman glared at him.

The boatman saw more than ten guards with knives standing around the deck. He could only suppress his anger and bent down to continue pulling the tarpaulin.

The boatman, who was sewing nearby, was trembling from the rain, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stuff the cotton wadding into the seam. He muttered angrily, "The hold is full of silver ingots. What does it matter if they get soaked? They're just putting on an act because the ship owner is here. What a scoundrel!"

Another boatman whispered a warning: "Watch your words, or these birds will come after you."

The foreman didn't hear him and continued his tirade on deck: "Get to work faster! Anyone who tries to slack off or avoid work will get a whipping!"

The ship owner stood under the eaves of the sterncastle, watching the crew working on the deck, a satisfied smile on his face.

At this moment, Huo Chang ran over in the rain and said, "Boatman, this rain is getting weird. I'm afraid the wind will pick up behind us. Let's find a place to take shelter first."

The boat owner asked, "Where have we reached?"

Huo Chang looked towards the shore and saw a vast expanse of reeds, white and boundless.

"Captain, we've arrived at Malau, and we're almost at Nan'ao Island."

(End of this chapter)