Zhang Yanling stood wet in the dark cave, looking at the boxes of open wooden boxes piled next to the rock wall in the cave with the dim light of the people around him.
The light from the fire folds shines on the items in the box, shining with a colorful halo of yellow, yellow and white. Ruby, sapphire, colored gemstones, pearls, agate, cat's eye, tortoise shell, gold sand, silver nuggets, gold cups, silver cups, bracelets, rings
Wait, wait.
The pirate treasures in Zhang Yanling's imagination were all there, just before his eyes, dazzling.
Zhang Yanling had seen too many gold and silver treasures, but even so, he was so shocked that he could not speak at this moment. The seven or eight personal guards who dived in next to him opened their mouths wide and were speechless for a long time.
Who would have thought that Timothy could accumulate so much wealth? It’s really incredible. There are many types of property, which are very messy. There are also many well-made jewelry, such as necklaces, bracelets, earrings and the like. They come in different sizes and specifications.
Some of them are still very crudely made, and they are obviously looted from local people. The owners of these jewelry may have already become victims of the sword.
Timothy relied on murder and robbery to accumulate so much treasure in more than ten years.
He is very scheming, and he neither trusts the Folangji people nor trusts his own brothers. Because he knows that whether it is the Folangji people or the pirates, they may be malicious if they know where the treasure is hidden.
snatch.
Therefore, every time he returned from plundering, he would load the treasures on the ship in front of everyone, and lied about transporting them to Guri Port for storage. In this way, even if the pirates had ideas, they would have no choice. There was no way they could escape from Guri Port.
The Folangji troops were stationed there and robbed these treasures.
And Timothy would then quietly return and transport the treasure from the underwater secret passage into the cave in the cliff for preservation.
This cliff cave was discovered when he first entered the ocean as a thief and inspected the surrounding sea terrain to prevent any secret paths leading to the island. Timothy regarded this place as his own secret room, not only
It can store gold and silver treasures and save your life in critical moments. He not only stored fresh water and food in the cave, but even built tables, chairs and beds in the corner.
Timothy probably never expected that such a secret place would be discovered by Zhang Yanling. By analyzing Timothy's psychological activities, Zhang Yanling completely guessed what Timothy was thinking and found the treasure he left behind.
To a certain extent, when it comes to cunning and cunning, Zhang Yanling is even better. But those who can get along well in this world must possess such special skills. Honest people cannot survive.
After a rope transportation channel was established outside the cave, boxes of treasures were dragged out and shipped away.
When more than twenty boxes of various treasures were piled on the deck, the generals on the armored ships who came to hear the inquiry almost dropped their jaws.
"You son of a bitch, you hid so much gold and silver treasure. How many people have to be killed and how many ships and cities have been robbed? Such treasures must be worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver." Feng Mazi smacked his lips.
road.
Zhang Yin chuckled and said: "Feng Mazi, you are so ignorant. The things here are worth at least one or two million taels of silver. Although they are not high-quality treasures, they can't stand the quantity. It's a pity that these wine lamps and lampstands are nothing
It's not pure gold or silver, it's gold-plated. Otherwise it would be more valuable."
"One or two million taels?" The generals gasped, not knowing what to say.
Zhang Yanling laughed and said: "Finally, the pirate fight was not in vain. We have gained something. Everyone, how do you divide these treasures?"
Everyone hurriedly said: "How dare we get involved? These are the things of the Duke. We have absolutely no wrong intentions."
Zhang Yanling waved his hand and said with a smile: "What are you talking about? You followed me on this adventure, and you have suffered a lot so far, but not much benefit. These are not trophies, but the ill-gotten gains of robbers. They are obviously from the local area.
They were looted from the people. I originally thought that these treasures must be returned to those who were robbed of their treasures, but I am afraid that these people are all dead. Even if they are alive, we can't
We couldn't find them, and we didn't have the time or energy to do it. In this case, we had to reluctantly accept it. Everyone who saw the ill-gotten gains had a share, so how could I just take it all by myself? That would be too much.
Let's do this, leaving a small half for the subsequent construction of firearms and warships. The rest, regardless of the official position, will be divided equally. Everyone will get some benefits. What do you think?"
How dare everyone ask for it? Even if some people are a little greedy in their hearts, they don't dare to accept the promise at all. Who knows that the Duke of Guo is not deliberately testing people like him with his words.
Chen Shiyi said loudly: "No, we can't ask for a tael of silver. As far as I know, the money used for this trip was all paid by the Duke himself by selling his land and his own savings and salary, totaling two hundred yuan."
More than ten thousand taels of silver were thrown in. All these warships and firearms
, ammunition, weapons, and even the wages of our soldiers, all come from the pocket of the Duke of Guo. The Duke of Guo has already emptied his family's fortune for this matter, and now he has found these treasures with his ingenuity. But we are here to share a piece of it.
Soup, does that still count as a human being? I definitely can’t have it.”
After hearing this, everyone expressed their determination not to do so.
Zhang Yanling waved his hands and smiled and said: "Let's see, there are only one or two million silver here. Even if we divide it all, everyone can't get much. We have thousands of brothers, including the dead and injured brothers, there are five thousand brothers, and one person is not enough."
With one or two hundred taels of silver, you can buy a house, find a wife, and then it's gone. Or if you like drinking wine, you can go to a brothel and it's gone.
. It doesn’t make much sense. It’s better to do this. I will keep these gold and silver treasures for you. After they go back and sell them, they will be used as capital and added to the share capital of my Daming Sea Trading Company. Every year, I will give you twenty or thirty taels of silver as dividends. In this way, you will have something every year.
How about taking a small sum of money, as the saying goes, it will flow slowly, and you will not squander it all at once. If you trust me, Zhang Yanling, just do it like this?"
Senior generals such as Zhang Yin, Chen Shi, Wang Hong, etc. are certainly not short of dozens of taels of silver a year. But for middle and low-level officers and ordinary soldiers, they can get an extra income of twenty to thirty taels of silver a year, and they can earn more every year.
Yes, this is such a huge sum of money and a beneficial thing.
Zhang Yin and others also understood this. Seeing Zhang Yanling's resolute attitude, they knew that the Duke really wanted to benefit these brothers who went south, and it was not like he was hypocritical. So they all knelt down and kowtowed to thank Zhang Yanling.
When the news spread to all ships, all the soldiers were overjoyed and kowtowed to Zhang Yanling on the deck of the Xingchen and thanked him loudly.
Zhang Yanling laughed and waved in greeting.
In fact, there was no need for Zhang Yanling to do this. Even if Zhang Yanling didn't get a cent, these people would have nothing to say. However, Zhang Yanling knew that to unite the soldiers around him, he could not rely on beating chicken blood and drawing big cakes, but must give them money.
Something real.
Although most of these generals and soldiers will be promoted and promoted in the future, as long as they are still alive. But that is the future after all. Ships full of property are piled here, and everyone is greedy. At this time, if
If you are not generous, you will lose the support of some people.
People are actually like this. Some people are not moved by small profits and know that they will have a bright future by following Zhang Yanling. But some people are not like this. They will be psychologically unbalanced and unhappy.
The enemy is now at the moment when the soldiers need to work together. Zhang Yanling never wants to cause internal discord and affect morale because of this unexpected windfall. Even if all the treasures are used as rewards to encourage the soldiers to fight the enemy bravely, this is
A very worthwhile thing.
The reason why soldiers should benefit from dividends is to give them hope for the future, so as not to be afraid of carrying treasures. Moreover, this is indeed a good way for ordinary soldiers and for their whole family.
livelihood is more beneficial.
The generosity of the Duke made all the soldiers excited. They got a windfall for nothing. Who wouldn't be happy? Zhang Yanling ordered to get ready and set off. At the same time, he ordered the property to be moved onto a pirate sailboat, and a personal guard captain led 20 soldiers.
Transport these treasures back to Malaka Seaport.
Zhang Yanling didn't want these treasures to stay on the ship and get in the way. If the attack didn't go well and the treasures were obtained by Fo Langji, it would be a waste of happiness and it would be an advantage for Folangji.
When the fleet set off at this time, it still sailed by the wind during the day and accelerated at night. But after three days of sailing, the fleet no longer moved in this way, and the fleet's formation changed to five ironclad ships in front.
, two ironclad ships escorted a battle formation with three supply ships behind them.
That's because the distance from the island where the pirates are based to Ceylon Island is still more than ten days by sea. But the further you go one day, the closer you are to the waters around Ceylon Island, and the more likely you are to encounter enemy forces.
The Port of Colombo on the southeast side of Ceylon Island is an important military port occupied by the Franco Kingdom. According to Gandhi and other prisoners, the Colombo Port not only has a large number of war ships of the Franco people, but also the navy of the Ceylon Kingdom is stationed. Tin
The king of Ceylon and the people of Folangji wear the same pair of trousers, and the warships of Ceylon will inevitably participate in the battle.
Therefore, once the war begins, we will face a powerful enemy. And we still don’t know whether the Folan warships in Guri Port will come for reinforcements. Whether the opponent already knows the location of the Armada and whether they have set up a net to wait, this is all uncertain.
And know.
In view of this, every day of sailing west means that we are one step closer to an unknown battle. Zhang Yanling convened meetings with generals almost every day to discuss how to attack Colombo Port, various possible scenarios of how to fight the enemy, and formulate plans.
The atmosphere among the fleet officers also changed from casual to tense. Everyone could smell the battle that was about to begin.