Global colonization began with Ming Dynasty pirates.

Upon hearing the benefits Lin Hao offered, Guo Kai immediately swallowed hard. This wasn't his first day with the Four Seas Gang; the Four Seas Gang offered master craftsmen a salary of four taels a month, and the twenty taels of silver made him envious to the point of staring wide-eyed.

You see, he had previously saved a lot of money with his skills, but he lost it all when he was arrested by the authorities. Now he's really poor.

While the total reward for the three new ships was high, he estimated he would hardly receive the full amount. Even with the most optimistic estimate, he would only get that much. Now, all he needed to do was complete the shipyard's construction to receive the money. Was there even a question of which side to choose?

"I will obey the young master's orders. May I ask what the young master's requirements are for the construction of this shipyard?" Guo Kai asked Lin Hao cautiously, though he was still excited.

"At least ten shipyards must be completed, and each shipyard must be able to support the construction of all ships under 1,000 tons," Lin Hao stated the predetermined target.

"Thousands of ships, ten shipyards." Guo Kai's scalp tingled; he knew this money wouldn't be so easy to earn.

The difference between docks can be huge. The dock built on Dongluo Island was only 200 liao. It was called a dock, but it was really just a hole dug in the ground. There wasn't even a gate designed. They would just dig up the soil and fill it with water. It was a one-time dock, which is why it could be completed so quickly.

But that can't be done here; the entire dock facility must be built completely. Since Lin Hao said it was below 1000 tons, Guo Kai naturally had to consider 1,000 tons, which naturally placed higher demands on the dock's construction.

"Young Master, the manpower required for this shipyard to build thousand-ton ships is enormous. I..." Guo Kai hesitated.

Lin Hao pointed to the prisoners on the distant beach: "Sir, do you see those pirate prisoners over there?"

Guo Kai also looked in that direction, then nodded and said, "Of course I saw that."

There, thousands of prisoners were densely packed together. They had been exposed to the sun since morning, and many had fainted from the heat, but the Four Seas Gang seemed to have done nothing about them.

"There are about 2000 prisoners here. Assign them all to your command to build a shipyard. Would that be enough?"

Guo Kai thought for a moment: "That would give me enough manpower, but I would still need blacksmiths, stonemasons, bricklayers, and carpenters."

Lin Hao smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'll give you what you need, but I need to start building new ships here in half a month."

"As long as we have enough manpower, half a month shouldn't be a problem," Guo Kai said confidently.

"That's good. Sir, you can start planning now, and it would be best to start work tomorrow."

……

Meanwhile, on the beach, the prisoners had been left there for almost a day and a night.

The night of their capture was alright, but when daylight came and the sun rose, the late autumn sun was still terrifyingly strong. Many people felt dizzy and lightheaded from the heat, and those with weaker constitutions fainted on the spot.

The remaining people, no matter how strong their constitution, were already delirious from the sun.

"I can't take it anymore, I can't hold on any longer. If this sun keeps up, I'll dry out. Damn it! These damned Four Seas Gang, are they trying to kill us with the sun?" one of the prisoners said indignantly.

"Shh, keep your voice down, don't let anyone hear you. Otherwise you'll get another beating, and that will be even worse." Someone gently tugged at his sleeve and advised him.

"There are so many of us, why don't we fight them?" the man suddenly suggested.

"Heh, you've really been sunburned. If everyone had worked together at the beginning, there would have been some hope. But now, no one even has the strength to stand up. What are you going to use to compete with them?" The man shook his head, looking dejected.

"Sigh, when will this ever end? Even if it's beheading, at least give us a quick death! What's the point of torturing us like this?" Although he said this, he obediently shut his mouth and continued to wait for the time to pass.

The Four Seas Gang seemed to be a law-abiding group, and since they had taken in those sailors, they certainly wouldn't massacre them. This was why these men could endure being exposed to the scorching sun all day; they still held onto a sliver of hope.

Just as several more people in the crowd couldn't hold on any longer and fainted from the sun, everyone finally received two pieces of good news.

The first piece of good news was that the sun had finally set. The second piece of good news was that the Four Seas Gang had finally fed them water and had begun escorting them to the village in batches.

"Although there are many of these prisoners, the interrogation must be conducted strictly according to procedure, and we must extract every last drop of value from them."

Lin Hao gave instructions to the more than 20 people in the courtyard. Most of them were teenagers he had trained, and a small number were talented individuals he had recruited recently.

What talent? The talent for interrogating criminals.

From the very first day they arrived on Dongluo Island, they were constantly taken prisoner. First, there were the pirates from Shuangfeng Island, then government troops, and now Li Jiu's pirate crew. The group had already accumulated a wealth of interrogation experience.

Lin Hao even compiled all the noteworthy points during the interrogation process into an interrogation manual. By strictly following the procedures in the manual, everyone could get a clear answer from a person. At least with the intelligence level of these pirates, it would be difficult for them to fabricate lies that would fool their interrogation.

After leaving the prisoners to languish for a day and a night, Lin Hao finally managed to free up the time and manpower to conduct a comprehensive screening of them.

The first step, naturally, is to weed out those who are unruly and wicked.

The second is to interrogate them to find out their identities and values.

Those who have committed numerous evils and those who are too close to Li Jiu and others will be the targets of elimination.

The others would be assigned to hard labor, and after a period of labor reform, they would be gradually absorbed into the Four Seas Gang.

Of course, if there are skilled craftsmen among them, they can be directly absorbed and spared from hard labor.

While these prisoners were being interrogated, Lin Hao finally obtained the final resource statistics from the elimination of Li Jiu.

"Young Master, after tallying the supplies, the following is a complete list:"

Besides our 15,000 taels of silver, there were another 31,235 taels of silver. Of this, 9,000 taels were found in cash at Li Jiu's place, and another 20,000 taels were found in bearer notes in Li Jiu's bedroom. The last 2,000 taels were obtained from other pirates.

In addition, they seized approximately 10,000 strings of copper coins, over 1,000 bolts of cloth, 5,000 shi of grain, six cannons weighing 2,000 jin each, seventeen cannons weighing over 500 jin each, over 200 smaller cannons of various types, and countless swords and spears.

In addition, and most importantly, there was one No. 2 Fujian ship with a capacity of 800 liao, and six No. 3 Fujian ships with a capacity of 500 liao. There were also twenty ships with a capacity of 200 liao or more, and twenty-eight ships with a capacity of less than 200 liao.

As for our losses: 1 dead and 27 wounded. This is a great victory!