Global colonization began with Ming Dynasty pirates.

The place that Lin Hao named Dongluo Island Shipyard is now completely barren, except for a dry dock and some wood.

The craftsmen consisted only of Guo Kai and his few apprentices, and the number of workers was only a dozen or so, all of whom had no carpentry skills and could only do odd jobs.

As for timber, although there is some stockpiled on the island, it is enough to build sampans, but far from enough to build large ships of two hundred liters.

This is precisely what troubles Guo Kai; the conditions are too rudimentary, and he dares not say when it will be completed.

Lin Hao was well aware of this. He said to Guo Kai, "You don't need to worry about manpower and materials. You just need to focus on building the ship. Craftsmen and workers will be at your command tomorrow. As for timber, I've already sent people out to buy it. At the latest, enough timber for your shipbuilding will arrive the day after tomorrow. Also, come, let me introduce you to something."

Lin Hao pulled Lin Shi up from behind and then said to Guo Kai, "This is Lin Shi. He will be in charge of the shipyard from now on. Just ask him for anything you need. You just focus on building ships."

Looking at Lin Shi, who was a little too young, Guo Kai hesitated for a moment, but fortunately Lin Shi stepped forward and shook Guo Kai's hand, saying, "Mr. Guo, the young master sent me to serve you. If the shipyard needs anything in the future, just come to me directly, and I will arrange it properly. Together, we will build bigger and faster ships for the young master."

"Okay, okay." Guo Kai was a little uncomfortable with this enthusiasm and could only nod awkwardly.

Having finalized the shipbuilding arrangements, Lin Hao left Lin Shi and Guo Kai to coordinate, while he led his men to the next location once more.

This time, we went straight back to the village and arrived at another workshop in the village.

As soon as they approached, a strong aroma of oil wafted over them, and the entourage couldn't help but take a deep, intoxicating breath.

In this era, the aroma of oil was a symbol of abundance, and no one would feel nauseous at the smell of oil as people do in later generations.

This is naturally the soap workshop of the workshop. Since they had already seen the cannons and ships, Lin Hao casually came here with his father to take a look.

Upon seeing Lin Hao and his group arrive, the guards at the door immediately opened the gate and let them in.

Inside was a very large courtyard, with all sorts of large iron pots mounted on the roof.

Some pots were burning with oil underneath, and various ingredients were being added to them. Other pots had been turned off and were cooling, with a layer of white, paste-like substance floating on top.

"Haha, cousin, I've come to see you!" Lin Hao shouted.

Suddenly, a man who was tending a fire in the crowd looked up and then looked at Lin Hao with surprise.

"Oh dear, cousin, what brings you here? Uncle, you're here too." Ruan Ping was immediately embarrassed when he saw Lin Chengzong. He was covered in soot from tending the fire, and if his uncle saw this, he would definitely tell his aunt when they got back. He would certainly get a scolding.

"You brat, weren't you supposed to be a steward? Why are you still personally tending the fire? What kind of behavior is this?" Sure enough, before Lin Hao could even speak, Lin Chengzong began to scold him.

"I just saw that we were short-handed, so I helped out," Ruan Ping said, shrinking his neck.

"Nonsense! If you help, who will take care of things? You've got the priorities backwards," Lin Chengzong said, frowning.

Ruan Ping's family was relatively poor, and when he was a little older, he was sent to work for the Lin family. Lin Chengzong treated him like his own son and naturally kept him under very strict control.

But Lin Hao strongly suspected that his father was using Ruan Ping to satisfy his quirk of disciplining his son because he couldn't control him and his other sons were too young.

"Ahem, Father, we'll talk about that later. Let's have our cousin explain the situation to us," Lin Hao said, stepping in to save the day.

Upon hearing this, Lin Chengzong said, "I'll let your aunt deal with you tonight. Now, tell me what happened."

Upon hearing this, Ruan Ping felt a great weight lifted from his shoulders and quickly said to the two men, "Uncle, cousin, it's like this now..."

"Ahem, when you're working, you should refer to your job title," Lin Chengzong said casually.

"Yes, Master is right." Ruan Ping reluctantly reintroduced, "Young Master, Master, we started producing soap yesterday. There are currently eight people in the workshop, and we have already produced the first batch of soap, using 400 catties of whale oil, which yielded 1,500 bars of soap. There are still about 400 catties in the condensation process and 400 catties in the boiling process. In a few more days, we expect to have nearly 5,000 bars of soap."

There's no shortage of oil and spices, but the supply of wood ash is a bit tight, which limits the amount that can be processed per day.

Ruan Ping led Lin Hao and Lin Chengzong to a large warehouse inside, where a large number of wooden shelves were densely packed together.

On some of the wooden shelves, there are now large quantities of white, jade-like soap bars.

"More than a thousand bars are produced every day. If they can really sell for 5 taels of silver each, that's nearly 8,000 taels of silver. This is practically printing money. Hao'er, can this stuff really sell for that price?" Lin Chengzong looked at so many bars of soap and felt a little dizzy after calculating their value.

"The price we can sell it for is not something we can decide; it depends on how much money the gentry of the Ming Dynasty have." Although Lin Hao knew that it could fetch a high price, he didn't really know the exact amount.

"Cousin, show me that important batch of soaps."

"Over here." Ruan Ping led the two to a shelf at the very back, where the soaps were all placed in an exquisite sandalwood box. Ruan Ping took out a box and carefully opened it. Immediately, a refreshing osmanthus fragrance wafted out.

"Young Master, I extracted the so-called floral essential oils according to your method, and then added them during the soap's cooling process. The resulting soap has a natural floral scent. There are two different soaps available now: Osmanthus and Jasmine." Ruan Ping handed the soap to Lin Hao.

Lin Hao took a sniff and confirmed that it was indeed a very refreshing osmanthus fragrance, which smelled very pleasant.

"Hmm, not bad. How many are there in total?" Lin Hao then asked.

"Very few. The essential oil extraction method you mentioned, Young Master, is too complicated, and the amount of floral essential oil obtained is too small. We only have 100 bars of floral-scented soap right now," Ruan Ping replied earnestly.

"One hundred yuan is enough," Lin Hao nodded.

"How does Hao'er plan to sell these soaps?" Lin Chengzong asked.

"We can't sell it." Lin Hao shook his head and continued, "We're pirates, how dare we show our faces on the mainland? We'll just find a reliable contractor for this kind of thing."

"A reliable contractor? Where are we supposed to find someone like that?" Lin Chengzong said helplessly.

"No need to look for him, he came by himself," Lin Hao said with a smile, taking out a letter from his pocket.

"What's this?" Lin Chengzong asked curiously. Even Ruan Ping craned his neck to look, after all, this was crucial to whether his soap workshop could make money in the future.

"A letter from a friend at the academy; he can't wait to see me. I sent him some soap a month ago?" Lin Hao said calmly.

"A friend from the academy? He's a scholar too, yet he's in business?" Lin Chengzong asked curiously.

"Of course he wouldn't. People as versatile as your son are extremely rare," Lin Hao joked with a smile before continuing to explain, "But his family would. I asked him to help deliver those soaps to all his female elders. He said they were soaps from overseas royal families."

"So when is he coming to Dongluo Island?" Lin Chengzong suddenly realized.

"I arranged to meet him on Dalian Island in two days," Lin Hao said, then turned to Ruan Ping and said, "Cousin, could you please help me pack all the soaps with floral essential oils? I need to take them with me tomorrow."

"What are you going to Dalian Island for? It's a chaotic place." Lin Chengzong frowned.

"I've arranged to meet another friend there, and if things don't work out, we can find other ways. We can't just hang ourselves on one crooked tree," Lin Hao said calmly.