Late Ming Dynasty: The Counterattack Begins with Sea Pirates

Upon arriving in Macau, the group was exhausted.

Looking at the battered sailboat, the Portuguese were filled with doubt.

After Chi Honghai disembarked, the first thing the other person asked was, "Friend, did you encounter pirates on the way?"

Chi Honghai nodded: "The pirates wanted to rob our cargo ship. They fought for a long time, and many of my brothers died. My friend, many of my brothers lost their lives for this shipment!"

His words were filled with grief and indignation, which made the Portuguese feel somewhat embarrassed.

"Sir, are you alright? How strong are those pirates?"

As the Portuguese questioned Instructor Lang, Chi Honghai's facial expression remained unchanged, but he was already sweating with tension.

Instructor Lang first glanced at Chi Honghai's eyes, then turned to look at the sailboat behind him and pointed at it.

"I'm fine. These pirates are quite strong, as you've seen, but my men are stronger."

The Portuguese man laughed heartily and shoved Instructor Lang on the shoulder with his fist.

"I knew you'd be fine. You didn't let Portugal down. Well done!"

After their conversation ended, Chi Honghai's anxious heart finally calmed down, and he gave Instructor Lang a meaningful look.

After the other party nodded slightly, a consensus was reached.

"Friend, my boat is unusable for the time being, and repairs take too long. Could you please get a new one?"

"Change to another one? My friend, it might be difficult to change your boat... I can only sell you another sailboat of the same kind, which just sailed over from the Cape of Good Hope a few days ago, it's brand new. As for yours, I can provide boat repair services."

Chi Honghai thought for a moment and said, "How about this? We'll transfer the cargo to one of your new ships, and I'll buy all the weapons and cannons on board. I'll leave this old ship here for repairs. Just tell me when, and I'll send someone to pick it up."

The Portuguese man clapped his hands, agreeing with Chi Honghai's statement.

"Do as you say, my friend."

As the cargo was being unloaded and sorted out, a fur-wrapped box caught the attention of the two men.

Based on their experience, both of them knew that there must be something good inside the fur-wrapped box, but they didn't know exactly what it was that needed to be contained in such a box.

Chi Honghai hurriedly went over, squatted down, and tapped the surface of the box.

"Oh friend, this box is yours. Don't you know what's inside?"

"Friend, this box doesn't seem to be mine. It looks like it was mistakenly loaded onto Lord Zheng's property?"

"That was so careless! But Lord Zheng's things must be some good treasures. May I take a look?"

Chi Honghai did not agree. With his back to the Portuguese, he slowly opened the box.

"These belong to Lord Zheng. We, as lower-ranking officials, cannot make decisions about what's inside. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain if they investigate later."

As he spoke, he slowly opened the box, revealing that it was filled with dry grass. After parting the grass, he found three scrolls.

Chi Honghai picked up one of the scrolls and slowly unrolled it. The Portuguese man behind him wanted to see what was inside, but Chi Honghai's body blocked his view, so he had to lean over to look.

Upon seeing this, Instructor Lang pulled the Portuguese man aside and began reminiscing.

As the scroll was slowly pulled open, it turned out to be completely blank, containing nothing at all.

Although Chi Honghai didn't understand why this blank scroll was packaged in such a box, if the scroll was made of very fine materials, then in terms of price, it wouldn't be worth such packaging.

However, this situation made him breathe a sigh of relief.

He picked up the scroll, opened it generously, and turned to let the Portuguese man see it clearly.

"Friends, these are all blank canvases, not treasures."

The Portuguese man waved his hand in utter disappointment: "I really don't understand you Easterners. This canvas has nothing to offer, yet you waste this fine fur box as packaging. What's your idiom again? Something like 'licking the sky'?"

"A waste of resources?"

"Yes, yes, that's it! It's such a waste! Don't you think so, friend?"

Chi Honghai agreed with his wishes.

"Indeed, I don't know what Lord Zheng was thinking. The contents of this treasure box are not worth much money."

"But friend, this is Lord Zheng's stuff after all. It was mistakenly loaded onto the ship. I'd better pack it properly first, so as not to damage it. If Lord Zheng blames me, I'll be in trouble."

"Keep pretending, my friend. I don't think Lord Zheng is as interested in these things as he is in this silver."

The two of them burst into laughter.

Then Chi Honghai asked the Portuguese a rather sensitive question.

He looked down at the ships and asked, "Do you have any shipbuilding craftsmen here?"

Yes, there definitely is. After all, if they can take on your sailboat repair business, they must have the talent.

However, for the Portuguese in Macau, such talent is rare, and few people possess it.

Not only is this place small, but everything is subject to a certain degree of restriction. Building ships here is quite difficult, so naturally there isn't a need for many shipbuilding craftsmen.

The Portuguese told Chi Honghai that their ships were basically built in their homeland and then sailed all the way here.

The nearest place that can build ships is in India, which is far away from here. It would take at least a month or two to get there.

Moreover, even if they could build ships there, they wouldn't take on foreign business, let alone send people to work there.

These words brought Chi Honghai, who had just begun to have some hope, back to reality.

However, after doing business together a few times, the two had developed a superficial friendship.

The Portuguese asked Chi Honghai, "What do you need a shipbuilder for? Doesn't Lord Zheng Zhilong have the necessary talent?"

At this moment, Chi Honghai had a sudden inspiration and made up a reason that the Portuguese were difficult to verify.

"The court is currently engaged in a war in the north and urgently needs to build some ships to transport supplies, equipment, and troops to the front lines. However, the overall situation in the southeast also needs to be controlled, so it is inconvenient to allow Lord Zheng's fleet to be mobilized."

The Portuguese nodded, unable to find any flaws in his argument.

He wasn't a member of the imperial court, nor did he know the actual situation in the north. He didn't know whether Zheng Zhilong was unavailable or simply incapable of being transferred.

However, he truly couldn't help in this matter.

However, he made another suggestion.

This suggestion is indeed somewhat self-destructive for a businessman, since his proposal is tantamount to handing business over to someone else.

In today's world, doing business doesn't necessarily mean doing legitimate business, and people usually won't let their peers do business they can't do themselves.

After all, customers are dependent. If they buy something from me today and like it, they will keep buying from me. But if I happen to be away one day and they go to another store, they might become someone else's customer. Even if you beg them later, you might not be able to get them back.

However, this Portuguese man still adhered to the principle of recommendation and told Chi Honghai that the Dutch had recently brought a considerable number of shipbuilders to Fort Zeelandia because they were planning to develop the area and build a shipyard there, which was currently in the planning stages.

However, this idea wasn't free.

That information was bought by Chi Honghai for three thousand taels of silver.

Or is this what they call paid knowledge? Three thousand taels of silver for such a trivial sentence.

Furthermore, Chi Honghai also guaranteed that subsequent transactions with them would proceed normally, and that the other party, to show their sincerity, would proactively mention the possibility of upgrading the trade level for the next transaction.

In other words, we can purchase more firearms.

However, when it comes to the boat, all they could buy was that Caravelle, which was just the right size.

The reason is simple: they don't have many large ships, and once they're sold, they're gone. However, for long-term clients, they can place orders; the price isn't negotiable, but the wait is too long...