"First officer, you go and grill two pieces of venison, heat up a bowl of porridge, and warm up Miss Azhu."
In the shelter under the rock and at the cabin door of the sand ship, Yan Siqi ordered the young man.
The young man responded cheerfully and added: "You can also try the mussels I dug."
Then he walked to the wind stove that had been fired under the water deflector, called another sailor, set up the iron mesh, and started grilling meat and shells.
Zheng Haizhu said to Yan Siqi: "Brother Yan, this kid just told me that his name is Zheng Zhilong. Is it his nickname?"
Yan Siqi nodded: "Yes. Speaking of which, his ancestors moved to Longxi when the Song Dynasty was destroyed. Maybe they are from the same origin as your Zheng family. However, his parents' generation went to Macau from Nan'an.
. Chief Li (referring to Chinese businessman Li Dan), who is kind to me, has made good friends with his uncle and asked me to take him on the boat."
Zheng Haizhu looked at the young man focusing on the barbecue.
From the day she met Yan Siqi, Zheng Haizhu believed that she would definitely meet Zheng Chenggong's father, Zheng Zhilong.
Because Li Dan, Yan Siqi, and Zheng Zhilong are from the same overseas Chinese business group.
Zheng Haizhu withdrew his gaze and stayed on Yan Siqi's face.
She soon discovered that Yan Siqi's chin should have been decorated not long ago.
Although the scar is not too long and has scabs, it is faintly visible in the stubble, but its centipede-like appearance shows that it has been sutured.
"Brother Yan, are you suffering from a stab wound?"
When Yan Siqi saw Zheng Haizhu's eyes accurately catching his new wound, his heart felt warm.
He pretended to be relaxed and said: "It doesn't matter, Frankie, my sword skills are very bad. It's just a minor injury."
Zheng Haizhu thought to himself, it's still a small injury, but a few inches further down, it would be a cut of the throat.
Then he asked: "How come you are fighting with the Frankies? Aren't the Frankies in Macau very friendly with Chief Li?"
Yan Siqi took a sip of wine and sneered: "Although the Frankies in Macau are not good people, they are not completely unscrupulous. This time I am dealing with the Frankies in Luzon."
In this world, neither the Ming Dynasty nor Japan distinguish between the two maritime empires of Portugal and Spain. The Ming Dynasty calls them both Frankie Kingdom, while Japan calls them Nanman.
Portugal took control of Macau by bribing Ming government officials and paying land rent.
Spain was even more brutal and bloody. Just like Mexico, it directly invaded the Luzon Islands, occupied Manila, and asked the locals to call the archipelago area after King Philip of Spain, that is, changing Luzon to the Philippines.
Therefore, when Yan Siqi mentioned the "Francis of Luzon", Zheng Haizhu understood that he was referring to the Spaniards.
Sure enough, Yan Siqi told Zheng Haizhu that when their fleet returned north after buying spices and other goods, they passed through a seaport in Luzon and saw thick smoke billowing and howling loudly.
A woman rowed a small wooden boat and brought children and old people to ask for help. Only then did the fleet learn that the Chinese businessmen could not bear the repeated tax increases and the Chinese workers could not bear the frequent abuses. They united to argue with the chief of the Frankie people. Unexpectedly, within a few days,
Chief Longi sent troops from Manila to kill the Chinese on sight, which was like massacre.
Yan Siqi was so angry that he first ordered to use the small cannon on the ship to blast the bow of the Frankie ship. Then he lowered ten firewood boats and personally took hundreds of young and strong sailors to the island directly to fight with the inhumane people.
The executioners fought.
It was a small and medium-sized port in the Luzon Islands, and the Frankies only sent about 300 sergeants that day. At present, foreigners colonizing overseas islands mainly rely on strong ships, cannons and firecrackers that require a certain range to scare the indigenous people.
Switching to close combat with a knife, they are really no match for these Fujianese who have been doing manual labor all year round and have Japanese swordsmanship.
It didn't take long for the Frankies to retreat. However, the two thousand Chinese businessmen and workers on Hong Kong Island, as well as the original Chinese, had been slaughtered by 70 to 80%. Even many infant babies were not spared by the colonists.
.The remaining three hundred Chinese were taken away by Yan Siqi's three lucky ships, escaped from the Shura Hell, and were sent to Annan and Penghu to settle down.
"Miss Zheng, Brother Yan, please have a meal."
The young man Zheng Zhilong came over with a food tray and respectfully placed the roasted food and hot porridge on the low table in front of the two of them.
Zheng Haizhu glanced at the plate. The venison was red and tender, without any burnt color. It was neatly stacked with the mussels, making people completely ignore the simplicity of the stoneware container.
It is said that Zheng Zhilong in history could speak Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch languages and was very smart and capable. It seems that he was calm and detail-oriented when he was still a teenager.
However, the gentleness on Zheng Zhilong's face was soon replaced by indignation.
He took over Yan Siqi's words and said through gritted teeth: "The Frankies killed 20,000 people in Luzon more than ten years ago. Among them were merchants and workers who went to sea to make a living in the Ming Dynasty, as well as people from the Song Dynasty who escaped from Yashan.
Descendants. My ancestors of the Zheng family were also from the Song Dynasty who traveled to the south. This time, I just hate that my strength and martial arts are still poor, and I can't kill as many Frankie beasts as Brother Yan did."
Yan Siqi patted him on the shoulder and said to Zheng Haizhu: "At this age, Yiguan is far more heroic than I was back then. I ordered my men to look after him on the boat, but unexpectedly he jumped off the boat secretly and swam to the island to kill the enemy. Afterwards,
I'm also covered in cold sweat. If he turns up at that small port in Luzon, how will I explain to Chief Li when I return to Hirado?"
Zheng Zhilong's starry eyes flashed and he said with certainty: "My adoptive father will definitely approve of me. When I was a child, I once heard my adoptive father having a drink with my uncle and even cried bitterly when they talked about old things. After the tragedy in Luzon, the Penghu Ming Army
The commander once reported to the court and asked whether he wanted to go to war with the Frankians, but the emperor said that it was unclear who was right and who was wrong in the disputes that occurred outside the territory of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, merchants were the lowest among the four peoples. Why bother with such a big country?
Raising troops to fight for a group of untouchables overseas."
"Damn!" Zheng Haizhu couldn't help but reveal a standard swear word for modern people.
He hurriedly covered it up and said: "The emperor, who relies on commercial taxes to make up for the gap in land tax and support officials and soldiers, actually said this!"
Zheng Haizhu originally knew the history of the Chinese in the Philippines being almost massacred by the Spaniards in 1603. Now, after listening to Yan Siqi's true account, he realized that such a tragedy had happened to overseas Chinese more than once or twice.
Zheng Zhilong's memories made Zheng Haizhu feel even more uncomfortable.
The maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty are called merchants without an empire by historians. In the Age of Discovery, they did not have the royal family, nobility or emerging bourgeoisie to fully support maritime trade like the Western European powers.
The Chinese businessmen who were gentle and trustworthy and advocated peaceful transactions to make profits, faced the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and other pirates who aimed at bloody plunder and colonization. They could only rely on people to unite and raise private soldiers to survive. It is really sad.
The order of this vast ocean should not be like this!
Kind people are allowed to be slaughtered, and evil people are slaughtered everywhere. How can this be true?!
In the slanting light of dusk, Zheng Haizhu saw that both Yan Siqi's face, which had seen the vicissitudes of life, and Zheng Zhilong's young and heroic brows, were shrouded in an unspeakable melancholy.
The sailors at the bow and stern of the ship heard their words intermittently, and they also changed from laughing and chatting while eating to becoming silent.
After a while, Zheng Haizhu took the initiative to pick up a piece of venison and put it into Yan Siqi's bowl: "You still have to eat. If you don't eat, you won't have the strength to protect yourself and save others. Brother Yan, when he was on Daishan Island,
You said that the Japanese think deer are sacred animals, so they eat horses, cows, and whales, but not venison. Now when you return to your hometown, you can eat it to your heart's content."
Yan Siqi's brows gradually relaxed, and a gentle smile finally appeared on his lips. He took a bite of the deer meat and praised Zheng Zhilong for his excellent craftsmanship. He also raised his voice and asked other sailors to eat with open stomachs. At worst, he would hunt one in the nearby woods tomorrow morning.
Zheng Haizhu ate a few pieces of meat, moved the pottery basin in front of him, took out a few things from the bag, and spread them out on the table.
"Brother Yan, can you recognize what this is?"
Yan Siqi picked up one and took a closer look, and saw that the three-inch-wide silk clamshell bag was embroidered with flowers and birds painted in the Song Dynasty that he had only seen at the deacon's house in Hirado Port, Japan.
The cloth bag, together with another long cotton and silk cover, is connected to a bamboo medallion by weaving a strong brocade belt.
The round sign is also lightly carved with a clump of orchid grass, echoing the pattern on the bag. The technique and artistic conception are both excellent.
Yan Siqi recognized it at a glance. It was a tobacco bag favored by the Japanese.
Zheng Zhilong also picked up another tobacco bag to look at it. He had lived in Macau since the opening of the port since he was a child, and had seen a lot of various local and imported goodies. At this moment, he was impressed by such exquisitely crafted and beautiful handicrafts.
Zheng Haizhu pointed to the sealskin tobacco bag on Yan Siqi's waist and said softly: "When we were in Daishan, General Mao asked you what this was. When you told me, I realized that the Japanese country had introduced tobacco from the Frankies.
Seeds, rich and powerful men not only smoke, but also pay special attention to the appearance of the tobacco bag. Brother Yan, silk is the same as sealskin, warm and moisture-proof, suitable for holding tobacco. Silk cloth can be washed. This bamboo-carved hangtag is also better than
Copper like yours is of good quality and will not rust. I think it will be very popular in Japan."
Yan Siqi's heart was beating fast as he listened, thinking that Ah Zhu had specially embroidered a new tobacco bag for him, but when he heard the last sentence, he suddenly stopped.
It turns out that she still wanted to do business.
However, Yan Siqi's mind was much more open-minded than ordinary men. Thinking about how Ah Zhudong had just jumped on the boat and walked towards him with a smile on his face, his expression was as bright and happy as seeing his relatives, without the slightest hint of shyness or embarrassment. He couldn't help but think again
He said to himself, stop thinking wildly, Yan Siqi was already lucky to have such a good girl.
I heard Zheng Zhilong on the other side talking about business: "Sister Azhu, how long does it take you to embroider such a tobacco bag?"
Zheng Haizhu talked about it eloquently: "There are complex and simple embroidery techniques. The difficult ones take about ten and a half days, and the simple ones can be done in three to five days. The bamboo carving work saves more time, three days for the slow ones, and one day for the quick ones. Including
The cost of silk and bamboo materials, and the cost of each tobacco bag is between five taels of silver and one and a half taels of silver. There are many families in Songjiang Prefecture who are good at embroidery, and there are enough people to produce them. There are also many bamboo carving craftsmen in Wuxi who are making a living in Songjiang, so we place an order.
Don’t be afraid of the large quantity. However, I brought this finest Song Dynasty painting tobacco bag, which was embroidered by Miss Han of my master’s family. It is absolutely extraordinary and belongs to the work of a national master. Even the nobles of the Tokugawa family may not be afraid of it.
You can buy it if you pay for it.”
She paused and added: "Of course, if the price is sincere, we can still buy the works of Miss Han's apprentices."
"National master?"
Yan Siqi was still smacking the word, but Zheng Zhilong quickly found the corresponding word in Japanese: "Well, it's a great master, an immortal."
Yan Siqi hesitated and said, "Isn't it inappropriate to call someone's daughter a craftsman?"
Zheng Haizhu agreed with Zheng Zhilong: "There is nothing wrong with it. Craftsmen are not inferior to others. I just think that craftsmen are very smart."
