The fleet bypassed the Strait of Malacca and sailed southwest along Sumatra Island.
On the way, Su Chen discussed it with everyone again and decided to send someone to the Strait of Malacca to make inquiries to see if there were really pirates as Su Chen guessed.
In fact, everyone does not think that there will be pirates supported by wealthy families who will come to Malacca.
But no one wants to talk back to Su Chen over these trivial matters.
Besides, what if there really is?
It's better to send someone to take a look at An Xin quietly.
Everyone finally recommended Xue Rengui to lead a small team of people, disguised as local aborigines,
When passing through the Sunda Strait, take a small boat north from the Sunda Strait and take a look around the Strait of Malacca.
Xue Rengui led a small team of people and jumped on two escape boats launched from the main gunboat.
I muttered in my heart: I always feel that the commander is deliberately trying to trick me.
Li Chengqian asked Su Chen: "Teacher, don't you suspect that pirates raised by wealthy families will appear in Malacca just based on the cannons of the cannibals?"
"That's too far-fetched!"
Su Chen: "I'm just in case."
"Does Your Highness still remember the question that Fang Xuanling wrote to Fang Yiai to ask when he was in Guangzhou?"
Li Chengqian recalled: "The teacher was talking about the incident where Fang Yiai asked Fang Yiai to ask him what the chances were of building a national temple overseas."
Su Chen nodded: "The Prime Minister must have discovered some clues. He told us from the side that those powerful people overseas are very powerful, so let us be careful."
Li Chengqian frowned and said, "Why didn't the prime minister say anything? Or maybe he wanted to report it to his father?"
Su Chen: "Your Highness, how could the family let the Fang Xiang actually catch this kind of thing? The Fang Xiang probably discovered something unusual and guessed it himself. It's hard to tell others."
Li Chengqian frowned and remained silent,
Su Chen continued: "When we arrived in Guangzhou, didn't Master Sun Ren suspect that Xie Shufang had colluded with Da Shiren?"
Li Chengqian: "It is indeed strange that the big cannibal in Guangzhou escaped. He Xie Shufang is somewhat suspicious."
Su Chen nodded: "I also think that Xie Shufang deliberately let go of the cannibals in Guangzhou, which is why we later ambush him in Malacca."
"And I suspect that the connection between the Great Cannibal and the remnants of the domestic elite has never been broken."
"After considering many aspects, I still think it is safer to bypass Malacca,"
"We haven't heard from the Tang Dynasty for more than a year. Who knows what happened during this period. Your Highness, you have a special status."
"So, if we can be careful, let's be as careful as possible!"
Li Chengqian nodded and agreed with Su Chen's statement.
…
After putting down Xue Rengui and his party, the fleet continued eastward along the south coast of Java Road. After passing through the Lombok Strait, the fleet headed northeast towards the Maluku Islands and Banda Islands.
Su Chen didn't know the specific location of the Spice Islands. He only knew that it was probably within that large sea area.
After all, the spices in the Spice Islands in later generations have long since disappeared, and various spices have been successfully grown in many other places. People have long forgotten the Spice Islands in history.
Su Chen patiently searched for one volcanic island after another in the Maluku Sea and Banda Sea.
When a volcanic island filled with cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg appeared in front of everyone's eyes, everyone almost went crazy with joy!
Liu Jingren, who went to explore the road, directly carried a cinnamon branch and ran back to the shore, stammering: "Your Highness, Marshal, let's make, make, make a fortune. These things are everywhere on the island!"
Cheng Wuting held a handful of cloves and gave them to Li Chengqian. He kept a bunch for himself, grabbed the flower bones and stuffed them into his mouth, and said vaguely:
"Your Highness, you are well-informed, see if this is the smell of chicken tongue?"
Li Chengqian's eyes widened. He had never seen fresh lilacs before.
This lilac native to the Indonesian archipelago is not the kind of lilac that can be seen everywhere.
Before the 19th century, this thing was extremely rare in almost all places except Indonesia.
The very small amount of dried products introduced into the Tang Dynasty had never been seen by ordinary people other than princes, ministers and wealthy families.
In the seventeenth century, the Netherlands often went to war with other European countries in order to monopolize the cloves in the Maluku Islands.
Su Chen picked up a flower bone and smelled it: "This is it, I've found it."
He glanced at Liu Jingren and said, "What's the matter with you? You haven't seen Nutmeg?"
“I’ve never seen one growing on a tree!”
Liu Rengui reached out and picked a nutmeg, peeled off the scab, and said excitedly: "You can't even buy one for a copper coin in Chang'an. It's all over the mountains and plains here!"
The soldiers opened a path in front, and Li Chengqian came to the island. Looking at the various spice trees all over the mountains and plains, he trembled a little and shouted:
"Hurry up and let the sergeant go to the island to pick!"
"Fill all the ships and return to Datang. I will bring back a treasury for Datang!"
Su Chen waved his hand, and a group of officers who were almost going crazy rushed forward with their soldiers holding their bags.
Elsa also ran down from the boat and ran to a lilac tree and grabbed a branch without letting go.
"I heard that if you hold a petal of this fragrant flower in your mouth, your mouth will be fragrant all day long!"
Su Chen: "It's not that exaggerated. In fact, this thing is the same as nutmeg. It is best used as a seasoning and can also be used as medicine."
Seeing Li Chengqian still looking at the spice trees all over the mountains and plains in a daze:
"Your Highness, this spice can't escape. Let's go to other nearby islands. There must be more than just this one."
Li Chengqian was shocked: "Yes! Yes! Go and see every island!"
"Find out all the spices!"
After returning to the shore and before boarding the boat, Li Chengqian looked back again, pointed at a school captain and said:
"Put a copper pillar on the island to mark it as the territory of the Tang Dynasty. How dare you..."
Su Chen covered his head: "Your Highness, what kind of copper pillars are you erecting?"
"Just go back and mark the territory of the Tang Dynasty on the map!"
Li Chengqian: "What the teacher said is that this sea area belongs to the Tang Dynasty!"
"Let the fleet circle around here and see how many islands there are with spices!"
Some people were left to pick spices on the island, and the fleet continued to search islands one by one. Sure enough, they found a large amount of various spices on several islands.
"Your Highness, there are many islands here. Let's send people to investigate carefully in the future!"
"Anyway, there are enough spices on any of these islands for us to pick for a long time."
"Let's go back and bring Xue Rengui and the others back first, shall we?"
Perhaps because he had seen too much, Li Chengqian gradually calmed down:
"Just do as the teacher said. I didn't expect there to be so many expensive spices here!"
"Let's transport some back this time, and then send people here to pick them later."
Su Chen smiled and said: "Things are rare and valuable. When we go back this time, the price of edible spices in Datang is expected to plummet immediately!"
Leaving two thousand people to pick and dry spices on the island, the fleet sailed west towards the Sunda Strait.
Calculating the time, Xue Rengui should have already inquired about the situation in Malacca and returned to the Sunda Strait to wait.
