Global colonization began with Ming Dynasty pirates.

After taking inventory, Lin Hao obtained the quantity of goods in the warehouse: more than 9,000 bolts of cotton cloth and 3,000 bolts of silk, which were worth 40,000 taels of silver even at the original price.

Another warehouse contained a large quantity of raw silk, porcelain, tea, and various kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs. Lin Hao roughly estimated that its value was around 3 taels of silver.

The third warehouse was not full; it contained ironware, cotton, tung oil, lacquerware, and other items, worth about 2 taels.

The other two warehouses were clearly not yet being loaded, so they were basically empty.

But these three alone are worth more than 9 taels of silver, which can be considered a huge windfall.

"call!"

Lin Hao took a deep breath, then suppressed his excitement and kept telling himself to stay calm.

"Calm down, Lin Hao. Don't be blinded by windfall gains. Wealth is gained in danger and lost in danger. Don't get addicted to taking risks. Farming is the way to go. Right now, we're just accumulating capital for farming."

After several rounds of mental preparation, Lin Hao finally suppressed the excitement in his heart. The moment he calculated his gains, Lin Hao even wondered if he should also take stock of the other families' resource points.

After all, this kind of deal is just too tempting.

But Lin Hao knew that this was a tree without roots, and the risks were enormous. A slight mistake could lead to utter ruin. What was truly reliable was the future management of the ocean, whether it was controlling trade routes or cultivating Taiwan. This would bring in a continuous stream of income and be extremely stable.

"Young Master, we found five more suits of armor in these guards' quarters," Lin Er reported.

"Five more suits of armor!" Lin Hao was immediately shocked. He knew that in the Ming Dynasty, collecting armor was a capital offense. Lin Hao had made up his mind to rebel, so he hadn't bothered to have armor made, for fear of causing trouble.

But now, something's amiss—five suits of armor have appeared out of a small village. These sea merchants are far bolder than I am.

Lin Hao followed Lin Er to the place where the armor was stored. The style of these armors was different from that of the previous person.

The person before was wearing exposed armor, which is called "exposed armor" because the iron plates are visible and bright. It's a type of lamellar armor with overlapping plates, providing strong protection. However, it's also extremely heavy.

These are cloth armor plates, covered with cloth on the outside and inlaid with iron plates on the inside. Because the armor plates are not exposed, they are also called concealed armor. Concealed armor offers less protection than exposed armor, but it is relatively lightweight. Most importantly, it is cheaper.

Upon seeing this, Lin Hao gasped in shock. He thought about what would happen if their surprise attack had been discovered beforehand, and if these six people had successfully donned their armor and gone into battle.

It's hard to say how the situation will develop.

No wonder such an important supply point was guarded by only a dozen or so guards. I thought it was because the Shen family was too careless, but now it seems that this configuration is actually very reliable.

Ordinary pirates, like Zhou Daye from Twin Peaks Island whom Lin Hao encountered, would be easily slaughtered even if they sent out their entire force.

When the enemy still has walls to defend, the pirates, with their limited strength, would find it almost impossible to breach them.

Unfortunately, they encountered Lin Hao, who lacked martial ethics, and chose to launch a sneak attack.

"Take these suits of armor with you, and send someone to call all the villagers over to help move the goods." Lin Hao immediately issued a new order after inspecting the armor.

Previously, we had to guard against villagers causing trouble, but now that the enemy has been eliminated, we can only ask the villagers for help.

With so many supplies, Lin Hao and his group wouldn't be able to move them all by tomorrow morning, so they have to trouble the villagers.

As for whether the villagers are willing or not, that goes without saying. With a knife in one hand and a carrot in the other, they will surely make the right choice.

Moments later, the once peaceful mountain village suddenly erupted into chaos.

The villagers had heard the commotion beforehand, but dared not move for fear of being caught in the crossfire. However, not long after the quiet ended, a group of fierce-looking soldiers came to the village and dragged them all out of their homes.

When they arrived near the warehouse and saw the corpses scattered on the ground, they were terrified, their faces turning pale with fear that the pirates would chop them all up.

"Who is the village head?" Lin Hao asked, standing at the front of the villagers.

The villagers then collectively looked at a man in his forties in the crowd.

"I am the village head. This... Chief, do you know you've caused trouble? There are several powerful families behind this warehouse. You'll offend them completely if you do this. I advise you to leave quickly. Maybe the Shen family won't hold it against you."

"Hehe, you're really brave." Lin Hao smiled and then waved.

A flash of light, and the village head's head flew up, then rolled on the ground. The headless corpse spurted out a jet of blood before falling to the ground with a thud.

This village head was raised by the Shen family. Even if the other party didn't resist, they would find a reason to kill him. Now is the perfect time to make an example of him.

The villagers were terrified by this cruel scene.

Lin Hao addressed the crowd, "I need to move goods. In return, those who participate in the moving tonight will receive a bolt of cotton cloth."

The crowd was skeptical, so Lin Hao continued, "Anyone who doesn't help me move things is a remnant of the Shen family, and they will all be killed without mercy."

As soon as those two sentences were spoken, everyone immediately understood how to choose.

Lin Hao waved his hand, and Li Bandou from Xisha Village immediately ran over.

"Ban Dou, you talk to them." Lin Hao finished speaking and went back, leaving the situation to Ban Dou and Lin Yi. He believed that things would go smoothly from here on out.

The appearance of Ban Dou immediately caused an uproar among the crowd. "Isn't that Ban Dou? Didn't he say he was coming back during the day? How come he's become a pirate now?"

"I'd heard about it before; Ban Dou had become a pirate, but I never imagined he'd commit such a serious crime."

"Ban Dou, is it true that the leader said he'd give each person a bolt of cloth?" someone asked with concern.

"Ahem, fellow villagers, rest assured, our young master always keeps his word. He promised each of you a bolt of cloth, and he will never go back on his word. Of course, he will also kill the remnants of the Shen family if he says he will."

Li Bandou continued addressing the villagers, "Those who now consider themselves remnants of the Shen family and are unwilling to help, step forward."

Who would dare to recognize that? The crowd fell silent.

"Very good." Li Bandou said with a smile, "It's great that none of you are remnants of the Shen family. Everyone can get cloth. Now, everyone come with me. Once we've finished transporting it, you can collect your cloth."

The crowd immediately followed Li Bandou into the warehouse and began to move the goods on their own initiative.

......

"This kid's got some talent, he even knows strategy," Lin Hao said to Lin Er with a smile, having witnessed the whole thing.

"He is indeed quite clever, and most importantly, he is quite brave. When he encountered armored enemies before, he did not retreat," Lin Er added.

"Give this kid a credit, remove him from the prisoner-of-war roster afterward, and make an exception for him to participate in the distribution of this reward money," Lin Hao decided directly.