Linga Bay, located in the north of the Bay of Manila, is a funnel-shaped bay with several natural ports along the coast, which are very suitable for large ships to dock. It is also closer to Taiwan. Therefore, a few years ago, a stronghold called Linga City was established on the peninsula on the west side of Linga Bay. Although the size of this stronghold cannot be compared with Manila, it is also one of the famous mooring ports on the entire Luzon Island.

Linga Bay is not calm today. A typhoon just passed by yesterday. Several coconut trees on the beach were swept away by the wind. Although the wind is much smaller now, the wind and waves are still uneven on the sea surface. Occasionally, you will see big waves several meters high.

Originally, it was not suitable to go to sea in this kind of weather. Even some large ships worth thousands of tons did not like to bump in this kind of wind and waves. But what is strange is that there is a ship in Linga City today, and the ship is not big, at most four or five hundred tons. However, this ship has excellent balance and runs through the wind and waves on the sea. Although it is pushed up by the big waves from time to time, it can always fall safely on the sea.

In the helmsman's room, a bare-headed muscular man grabbed a stake and said to the people around him with some concern: "Captain, the wind and waves are so strong. Although our ship is specially made, if it continues like this, the hull will be damaged. At that time, it will have to spend a lot of money to repair it!"

"Bald, as long as we can find gold mines, what is this money?" a middle-aged man in his thirties said with a laugh. In addition to the bald and strong man in the helmsman's room, the others were also fixing their bodies with their hands to avoid falling down by the wind and waves. At the same time, their eyes were also looking at the wind and waves outside, and there was a hint of worry in their eyes.

As soon as the middle-aged man finished speaking, the short man behind him, but with a sharp face suddenly said loudly: "Brother Lin. Why don't you understand that bald people are not worried about spending money? He is afraid that the wind and waves outside will overturn the ship. Then he, the land duck, will have to feed the Dragon Prince."

When the short man heard the jokes, everyone around him laughed loudly, but the bald strong man was angry and rushed forward to fight with the short man. However, the short man knew that he was not the bald opponent, so he relied on his flexible skills to drill in the crowd. After chasing the bald strong man for a long time, he couldn't catch up. Instead, he was tired. In addition, their ship was shaking violently, so in the end he simply sat on the ground and couldn't get up. The short man stood next to an accomplice, grabbed the other party's arm and whispered to the bald strong man.

"Okay, don't make trouble. Although the wind and waves outside are very strong, our ship was built by a shipyard moved from Dengzhou, and it uses good wood. I went to Australia on this kind of boat. I encountered bigger storms on the way than now. I didn't do anything about the boat, so don't worry!" At this moment, the young man led by everyone spoke.

This young man looked gentle and gentle. He looked like a scholar, but his skin was a little dark and his hands were a bit thick, which shows that the other party was not a pampered person. If Li Yan was here, he would definitely recognize the young man in the lead, Feng Shuyu's brother Feng Shijie.

After Feng Shijie joined the exploration fleet last time, he had accumulated the next amount of money. His wife, the good Japanese girl Yunma Qiuji, also felt that the job of the slave hunting team was too dangerous and there was no time to be free. So after careful consideration, Feng Shijie decided to quit his job in the slave hunting team, and then used all his savings, plus the funding of his sister Feng Shuyu, he bought a boat, and then recruited a group of brothers to start the transportation business.

Originally, with the prosperity of sea trade, the sea route's ship-run business was also very prosperous. Generally speaking, as long as there is a sea ship and there is no big accident when running the ship, it is a business that is stable and profitable. However, with more and more people running the ship, the competition on various routes is now very fierce. For example, the route north of Taiwan has been developed first and the most mature, so each route has formed a fixed chain of interest, and most people cannot take action at all.

It is precisely because of this that Feng Shijie, a small boat owner with only one ship, had to take the south route. However, his boat was not big, and those who ran from the ocean were all large fleets, so he could only run in the Nanyang area closer to Taiwan, especially the Luzon area closest to Taiwan, which was his main place to go.

Originally, Luzon's slave hunting industry was very prosperous, and through trade with local natives, it could also obtain a large amount of food, fur, ore and other goods. However, since Li Yan sent troops to Luzon last time, he destroyed the local native forces in one fell swoop, and the only surviving short black man also became an ally. Although countless slave hunting merchants made a fortune in this war, the consequences of the war appeared in the subsequent time.

First, as the war progressed, a large number of natives were demoted to slaves. This method of fishing out of the waters could certainly bring temporary prosperity to the slave industry, but then it was a sharp depression.

Second, with the decrease in population, especially the rapid decrease in labor force in middle age, the local native economy was greatly damaged, and the result was that other merchants could not collect goods at all. This also affected Luzon's shipping industry. Some large fleets had great business, but this temporary impact was still banned, but some small boat owners were in trouble and they had to find a way out on their own.

In addition to transportation, Feng Shijie's ship also occasionally does some extra money. For example, when encountering a single foreign merchant ship, they will also play pirates, and when there are natives on land, they will buy some slaves, etc. In fact, not only them, but almost all merchant ships now do these things. It can even be said that as long as they can make money and do not violate the laws set by His Highness King Qi, everything is reasonable.

The temporary recession of Luzon's sea trade industry also affected Feng Shijie's ship. Fortunately, he had made a lot of money before and was planning to buy a second ship, but according to the current situation, it would be good to support him through this special period.

Thinking of the influence he was affected during this period, Feng Shijie in the helmsman's room couldn't help but sigh. At this time, the storm outside had become smaller, and at least some old crew members could walk normally. However, novices like the bald strong man could only stay in the cabin, otherwise they would be thrown into the sea if they were accidentally killed, and they could not save them at that time.

Feng Shijie's ship had gone through such a big storm, and the deck was already in chaos. All the crew members who could go on the deck had already begun to be busy, striving to clean up in the shortest time. Feng Shijie sat quietly in the helmsman's room, turned around and looked at the bald and strong man and other novices, with a smile on his face.

Just a month ago, he finally took over a business and transported a batch of inferior iron tools from Taiwan to Manila. These iron tools were needed by the Manila Governor's Office and were mainly used to trade with short black men. After all, Luzon is now entering the development stage and all aspects need the help of these short black men.

Originally, Feng Shijie sent the ironware to the point of finding another business in Manila. Unfortunately, his ship stopped at the dock for three or four days, and he kept asking acquaintances to introduce him, but unfortunately he still got nothing in the end. For those of them who were traveling on the boat, time is money. Feng Shijie felt that it would be better to go back to Taiwan than to wait here. After all, there was not much impact there, and there was a lot of goods to go to Southeast Asia, so he didn't have to worry about not having any cargo. However, just when he was about to go back to the empty ship, he suddenly received a very attractive news.

This news was issued by the Governor's Office in Manila. It is an announcement that encourages all personnel to explore minerals in Luzon. According to the announcement, in order to develop the local economy of Luzon, His Highness of Qi issued a special edict, promising that all the people under their rule would belong to their own as long as they were discovered privately. It also specifically pointed out that if the mining of precious metals such as gold, silver and copper is discovered, not only will the mine belong to you, but the government will also provide convenience during mining.

After learning the news, Feng Shijie was very sensitive to discover that this was an excellent opportunity to make a fortune. Not to mention anything else, if he could really discover a relatively large mineral deposit, then he would have a rich family background and would have confidence no matter what business he did in the future.

With this idea in mind, Feng Shijie immediately gave up the idea of ​​returning to Taiwan and began to recruit people in Manila and prepare for prospecting. Although he had little understanding of prospecting, he had his own way, which was to inquire about the situation from the local natives. After all, before that, the natives in Luzon had a lot of gold jewelry and some copper weapons, which meant that the natives in Luzon could already mine gold and copper and other minerals.

Although most of these mining industries were taken over by the Manila government, during the war, many natives were directly exterminated, so many minerals were definitely not found by the government. Feng Shijie's target was these minerals that were previously occupied by the natives but have not been discovered by the government.
Chapter completed!