Chapter 185: The Embryo of a Great Trading Fleet

Thinking up to this point, Lin Qian asked Lü Zhou to explain in more detail the situations of the Zheng Lord and the Nguyen Lord.

According to Lü Zhou's description, although Jiaozhi was a barbaric land, it was deeply influenced by Han culture, almost worthy of being called a little China—even the Nguyen Lord's annexation of the Champa Kingdom's lands in the south was done under the banner of civilizing the barbarians.

Whether it was the Zheng in the north or Nguyen Phuc Nguyen in the south, both were ambitious and enterprising lords; whichever side one chose, they could easily outshine a whole host of Ming emperors.

Scholar Zhou frowned upon hearing this and said, "A tiny little country—that's far too arrogant a claim."

Lü Zhou laughed and said, "That wasn't my words—it was what the Han Chinese of Guangnan Country said. According to them, the current Nguyen Lord, Nguyen Phuc Nguyen, with his great talent and bold vision, is second only to the four emperors Hongwu, Yongle, Hongxi, and Xuande.

I'm not familiar with the Zheng Lord's territory in the north, but I can see that in Hoi An, just as the local Han Chinese say, there are no two prices in the market, no thieves among the people, and it is a place where merchant ships from all nations gather."

José added, "Your Ming is too large—you look at everyone around you and see a small country. In fact, Jiaozhi is not small at all. Guangnan Province is densely populated, almost comparable to Fujian. The Zheng Lord in the north controls the river-mouth plains, which produce abundant grain, so they have even more people and soldiers."

Ma Chenglie commented, "That's not wrong. Jiaozhi's national strength can't compare with the Ming, but placed in—

Hmm, the Indochinese Peninsula, it's still a strong country.

Back then, Emperor Chengzu sent troops and took Jiaozhi, but the Jiaozhi barbarians resisted unceasingly afterward. In the span of nearly ten years, the Ming army suffered several major defeats, and only then, during the Xuande era, was the Provincial Administration Commission withdrawn."

Lin Qian said thoughtfully, "I imagine the Nguyen Lord, pitting the strength of a single province of Guangnan against the Zheng Lord in the north, found his power insufficient, and that's why he opened up trade so broadly—to expand his strength."

Lü Zhou clapped his hands and said, "Exactly so. From the first Nguyen Lord taking Guangnan to now is only two generations, and already Guangnan has been managed with remarkable vigor—they truly possess considerable talent."

Lin Qian thought to himself, "A Nguyen Lord of great talent and bold vision is hardly good news. In the future, the best outcome would be to prop up a puppet. But that's a matter for later—for now, establishing a timber supply relationship with the Nguyen Lord and obtaining that keel timber is the top priority."

Lin Qian said, "The trading fleet currently has twenty-seven merchant ships, right?"

Lü Zhou said, "Correct."

"The Bai Qing siblings acquired another batch of ships earlier. Transfer one Fujian junk and seven Haicang ships to you, bringing the merchant ships up to thirty-five. Go earn a good profit at Hoi An port—you've been there once before, so do you have a clear idea of what trade goods to buy and sell?"

José said excitedly, "I do, I do! At Hoi An port, the customers are half European and half local. The Europeans love Kraak porcelain and white sugar the most, while the locals prefer silk fabrics, paper and brushes, and miscellaneous goods.

The ship's cargo space should be allocated as forty percent porcelain, thirty percent raw sugar, fifteen percent silk goods, ten percent paper and brushes, and five percent miscellaneous goods.

Selling goods at Hoi An doesn't yield as high a profit as at Hirado, but the valuable thing is that Hoi An has plenty of goods that can be sold in the Ming, so the return trip can also earn a substantial profit.

The return cargo space should be twenty percent pepper, twenty percent rock sugar, ten percent sappanwood, ten percent spices like betel nuts and nutmeg, ten percent rare treasures like rhinoceros horn and ivory, ten percent dried seafood, and the remaining space filled with grain and dried goods.

I've calculated it—going and coming back like this, the profit isn't much lower than going to Hirado."

Hearing this dazzling description, the assembled brothers were all somewhat stunned.

Lin Qian smiled and said, "You certainly have a head for business."

José said, "Calculating profits is very interesting."

Zheng Zhilong keenly spotted a contradiction and asked in confusion, "Why bring sugar on the outbound voyage and also bring sugar back? Isn't that contradictory?"

José, delighted to have his expertise probed, said with full energy, "An excellent question! The sugar we bring on the outbound trip is raw sugar, and what we bring back is rock sugar. Though both are sugar, their quality is completely different.

And Hoi An itself both produces sugar and serves as a sugar distribution hub, so we sell them our low-quality raw sugar and trade for their high-quality rock sugar, which we then sell at Hirado. Going and coming, the profit comes right out.

Besides, raw sugar sells quickly, which makes it easy for the fleet to convert goods to cash fast in Hoi An, allowing us to begin purchasing as early as possible."

Zheng Zhilong cupped his hands and said, "I've been taught well."

José, beaming with pride, cupped his hands in return: "You're too kind."

Lin Qian then asked Scholar Zhou, "Those coastal gentry families we approached earlier—are any of them coming along to Hoi An port?"

Scholar Zhou said, "Right, I was just about to bring that up. Counting Master Hu, the gentry of the four prefectures of Chaozhou, Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and Huizhou have pooled together six Fujian junks, just waiting to sail south with us."

As he spoke, he handed over a list, on which was written what goods each family was bringing.

Lin Qian glanced over it—there were nearly twenty families in total, and each family's goods weren't much; basically, the cargo of two or three families was combined to fill one ship.

Presumably because it was their first time sailing south with Lin Qian, all the gentry were uneasy at heart and didn't dare stake too much of their fortunes.

That didn't matter, though. Whether these people earned much or little wasn't important—what mattered was letting them see the future profitability and binding them with shared interests.

These nearly twenty families weren't chosen by Lin Qian at random. Most of them had backers at court but no direct relatives serving as officials—they were precisely the middle faction easiest to control and manipulate.

After the trade route had been run a few more times, they would find themselves half-resisting, half-welcoming their way onto the pirate ship.

Lü Zhou did a quick mental calculation—thirty-five merchant ships plus six Fujian junks made the total number of merchant ships forty-one!

In terms of ship count, that accounted for nearly half of the merchant ships that called at Hoi An port in a whole year, and their cargo volume accounted for roughly thirty to forty percent of it. Truly, when the helmsman made a move, it was always a grand gesture.

Lin Qian continued, "Aside from the ten Sea Wolf ships previously assigned for escort duty, additionally deploy five Yahat ships with the Zhangzhou as the flagship for escort, and deploy six Eagle ships for reconnaissance."

Lü Zhou's heart shook—this brought the total number of ships to sixty-two!

Though one might call it a fleet, it looked almost like a mobile floating fortress on the sea.

Lin Qian then gave the order: "For this voyage, the chief and deputy fleet masters will remain Lü Zhou and José. Bai Qing will serve as fleet commander, with Zheng Zhilong as his deputy."

"Yes!" The four rose together and cupped their hands.

Lin Qian said, "Profit from trade is one aspect of this voyage, but what's more important is finding a way to win the Nguyen Lord's trust!"

Zheng Zhilong laughed and said, "Rest assured, Helmsman—that great keel timber, I'll snatch it back even if I have to fight for it!"

Lin Qian laughed and said, "Still think you're a sea bandit? We're in this business for the long haul!"

"Yes!" Zheng Zhilong cupped his hands and said.

Lin Qian said, "That's all, then. Everyone disperse—hurry up with the loading and unloading, and get the fleet sailing as soon as possible."

"Yes!" Everyone rose together and said.

Just as everyone was reaching the doorway, Lin Qian said leisurely, "Oh, right—the other day I had Geng Wu buy another Fujian junk from a sea merchant. This ship won't be assigned official cargo; the cargo space will be split equally among the brothers. Once you've earned money, you can buy your own ships and trade with the fleet."

Just like a cook sneaking bites of food, running maritime trade was a lucrative post—fleet masters, ship owners, and sailors would all find every way to smuggle goods into odd corners to earn extra cash.

And with the dividend ratio now greatly reduced, over time, people in clean-water yamen like the Administrative Affairs Hall would inevitably grow discontented.

So it was best to paint a big pie allowing everyone to go run trade and earn money—this way work enthusiasm increased, conflicts eased, life had something to look forward to, capital flowed, and the coastal economy, especially the shipbuilding industry, flourished vigorously.

Sure enough, upon hearing this news, everyone's face flushed with excitement, and they bowed in thanks before taking their leave.

Before Lü Zhou's fleet had even returned, Hu Zhaoyuan had already made large-scale purchases, stocking up ample trade goods for sailing south, and combined with half a year's worth of trade goods produced on Dongning Island, the preparation time wasn't too long despite the increase in merchant ships.

After only a month of stocking up, the fleet set sail at the end of the eleventh month of the third year of Tianqi.

Sixty-three ships, grand and imposing—with soldiers and sailors combined, nearly two thousand people, arrayed at Qianjiang Bay docks. Sails stood like a forest, hulls rose like walls, giving a sense of blotting out the sky and covering the sun.

The fleet left port like a giant whale turning over—slow yet overwhelmingly oppressive.

A few days after the fleet left port, Huang Hetai's official appointment—that is, his transfer order—came down.

Just as Lin Qian had anticipated, no one at court was willing to offend Nan'ao Island, and the application passed with a green light all the way through.

In the main hall of the General's residence, Huang Hetai, having received the appointment, knelt on the ground, tears and snot streaming down his face as he pledged his loyalty.

Lin Qian said sternly, "Get up!"

Huang Hetai wept and begged, "Helmsman, just let me say my piece while kneeling!"

Lin Qian felt rather helpless. It seemed that before new ideas could take root, simply insisting that people not kneel was useless.

Huang Hetai, sobbing and rambling, recounted his many years of official experience and his mental journey in detail, emphasizing how difficult it was to serve as an official under the Ming and how comfortable it was under Lin Qian's command.

The central message was one sentence: from now on, whatever the Helmsman told him to do, he would do.

Lin Qian said, "Enough. Get up and answer properly."

Huang Hetai had knelt for so long that his legs had gone numb, and he could barely rise by supporting himself on a chair.

Ma Chenglie watched from the side, utterly impressed, and thought to himself, "Isn't this my own trick? When did he learn it?"

Huang Hetai said, "This humble officer is heading to Zhangzhou Prefecture—may I ask the Helmsman to instruct me on what duties I am to carry out?"

Lin Qian said, "The core task is one thing: seize military power. After you take office, first compile a list of officers and soldiers whose pay is in arrears, covering the entire Zhangzhou Prefecture."

Huang Hetai wiped his tears and said, "Helmsman, are we going to issue back pay?"

Ma Chenglie laughed and said, "Without rice in hand, you can't call the chickens. Whoever pays the silver, those soldiers listen to. Then gradually replace the squad leaders and Company Commanders in command with the Helmsman's people—doesn't military power just fall into your grasp?"

Huang Hetai's eyes lit up, and he thought, "So that's how it is. I used to think seizing military power was such a difficult thing."

Then Ma Chenglie said, "My authority covers the Zhangzhou coastline. I've been cultivating the coastal guard stations for a long time now—all you need to do is seize military power over the camp soldiers in the Zhangzhou interior."

Huang Hetai said, "This humble officer understands. May I ask the Helmsman, are there any other matters?"

Lin Qian said, "Additionally, tighten military discipline—no harassing the common people, no extortion or blackmail. At the same time, win over the Zhangzhou Prefect. If you have spare capacity, undertake water conservancy projects, promote sweet potato cultivation and deep processing, and encourage cattle breeding."

Huang Hetai found it slightly odd: "Helmsman, these all seem like the Prefect's responsibilities."

Lin Qian said, "Correct. It is precisely because the Prefect cannot manage these matters well that I am sending you to do them."

Huang Hetai hesitated: "This humble officer is a military official—I may not be able to do them well."

Lin Qian said calmly, "You will certainly do better than the Prefect, because you have silver, and in officialdom, no one dares to obstruct you."

Huang Hetai was suddenly enlightened and clasped his hands in salute: "In that case, this humble officer understands."

"Go, then."

After Huang Hetai withdrew.

Lin Qian toyed with the teacup lid, deep in thought.

His plans for Zhangzhou were not so simple. Because of Yuegang's presence, Zhangzhou had a thriving timber and shipbuilding industry, and could develop merchant ship construction.

At the same time, Zhangzhou had a textile foundation—Zhangzhou velvet, that is, velvet, was produced there. Thus, it could develop high-end specialty textiles and materials, making ship cables and sails.

Ceramics and metalworking could also be developed.

Zhangzhou itself had a good economic foundation, and developing these industries would not take too long. So Lin Qian decided to go somewhat slower, first laying a solid foundation.

Starting with road and water conservancy infrastructure, securing agricultural production, establishing standardization, cultivating and reserving talent, and then advancing toward specific industries.

At the same time, carrying out livelihood construction like infrastructure first would also help build a good reputation among the common people—a tremendous boost for subsequent development.

Once Huang Hetai had secured a foothold in Zhangzhou, Lin Qian could then seek the positions of Chaozhou Garrison Commander and Fujian Southern Route Assistant Regional Commander, further extending his reach into Chaozhou and Quanzhou.

This pace of development was not fast, but it was absolutely unstoppable.

With this, the third step of the Zhangzhou-Chaozhou plan—Huang Hetai's relocation to Zhangzhou—was also complete.

Thinking of this, Lin Qian took out a list and handed it to Ma Chenglie. The list contained Lin Qian's trusted confidants—many of them were squad leaders who had distinguished themselves in battle, or Lin Qian's personal guards.

"For these men, Commander Ma, arrange suitable positions along the Zhangzhou-Chaozhou coastal guard stations. Also, the Nan'ao Garrison Commander post is vacant—I've arranged for someone to take over."

Ma Chenglie took the list, clasped his hands in salute, and said, "This humble officer understands."

After the meeting ended, Lin Qian went to the front courtyard in the afternoon to give a lecture. The course content was modern accounting theory and auditing methods.

This body of knowledge was something only Lin Qian understood—he absolutely had to teach it in person.

For this reason, there were only a dozen or so students in the hall, all top-tier clever minds selected from all walks of life on Nan'ao Island. These people learned quickly, and Lin Qian taught even faster—he believed that before long, they would be ready to graduate.

Year's end approached.

Lin Qian finished a month of teaching and finally had some leisure, beginning to draft the design drawings for his new flagship.

For this ship, Lin Qian planned to adopt a design that appeared bold but was actually conservative—transcending the era without transcending history. The overall structural design would replicate a classic ship of the line.

The overall length, beam, and full-load displacement would all be slightly smaller than the Tianyuan, but that did not mean the new flagship would be weaker than the Tianyuan—on the contrary, it would be far stronger.

After all, the Tianyuan was converted from a merchant ship; comparing size and tonnage with a true warship was simply cheating.

Compared to the Tianyuan, the new flagship would carry more heavy cannons, more crew, a more complex rigging system, faster speed, more agile turning, and better upwind performance.

In terms of design philosophy, it led the era by nearly a century.

In terms of combat power, it was roughly equivalent to one and a half contemporary European naval flagships.

Of course, building such a giant vessel ahead of its time was a tremendous challenge, from design to construction.

Relying on Lin Qian alone to draw the design would likely be insufficient—what he was doing now was merely sketching out the ship's general concept.

After the New Year, he would make a trip to Macao to recruit some shipbuilding talent.

At the same time, he would also recruit a batch of talents in glassmaking, clockmaking, metallurgy, and the natural sciences.

The reason he had originally stationed troops in Macao while preserving its autonomy was precisely to plunder talent—now it was time to harvest the crop.

Late at night, Lin Qian finished his work and returned to his room.

Ye Zhen was bent over her desk writing something, and on the table was a bowl of white fungus and lotus seed soup.

Bai Kou, drowsy-eyed beside her, heard the door open and said with delighted surprise, "Mas—Master is back!"

Ye Zhen rose at the sound and came over to help Lin Qian out of his clothes, saying softly, "You've worked hard, husband. Drink that soup while it's still warm."

Bai Kou said, "The Mistress made it with her own hands, you know. This servant wanted to bring it to the study, but the Mistress wouldn't let this servant disturb you."

Lin Qian smiled and said, "Many thanks."

Ye Zhen's face flushed red, and she went off to hang up the clothes.

Lin Qian sat down at the table and picked up the spoon. Before it even reached his mouth, a faint fragrance of osmanthus and red dates wafted over.

The tremella was thick with gelatinous texture, entering the mouth full of silkiness and a glutinous feel—the flavor clean and sweet with a cool, crisp quality, neither cloying nor bland, light yet layered. The lotus seeds carried a faint bitterness, yet everything harmonized perfectly.

Lin Qian's eyes lit up as he praised, "Who would have thought a bowl of tremella and lotus seed soup could be made to such a level—impressive!"

Bai Kou said happily, "Of course."

Ye Zhen said, "This concubine only knows how to make this one dish—please don't laugh at me, my lord."

Lin Qian drained the tremella and lotus seed soup in one breath and said, "From now on, don't keep calling yourself 'concubine'—just use 'I' when referring to yourself."

"Yes." Ye Zhen acknowledged.

Lin Qian swept his gaze across the table, where an account book and a gift list lay.

Ye Zhen explained, "The New Year is almost here—I—I was thinking that I ought to send some gifts to my husband's subordinates and relatives, so I wrote up a gift list. I'm afraid there may be oversights, so please do advise me, my lord."

Lin Qian picked up the gift list and looked it over—from his sworn brothers to the various officials large and small on Nan'ao Island, down to the squad leaders, and then to the gentry on shore—she had even taken her own natal family into consideration.

The gifts for each household were slightly different. For instance, for Zhou Qiyuan's family there were paper and brushes, classic texts, dried fish, dried venison, wine, and such—scattered odds and ends, extremely thorough.

That was because he had been dismissed from office, and being an incorruptible man, his household was not well-off, so she gave more in the way of food and New Year provisions—yet at the same time, nothing was so valuable as to make him feel awkward about accepting.

But to say they were not at all valuable wouldn't be quite right either—those papers and brushes were all worth a good deal, and most of the classic texts were rare hand-copied editions, which counted as refined gifts.

If his family truly couldn't make ends meet, selling these things would still fetch a considerable sum of silver.

Lin Qian continued reading through more than a dozen more households, and every family's gifts were thought out with such painstaking care and perfect appropriateness.

If one only had to prepare gifts for a single family, it wouldn't be that hard—the difficulty lay in sending gifts to over a hundred families at once, keeping the scales perfectly even, so that each family receiving gifts both remembers the goodwill and doesn't find them too light or too heavy. That took real skill.

This web of personal debts of gratitude required nothing less than a seven-apertured, exquisitely clever heart to calculate.

In the past, during New Year, Lin Qian had always been the one receiving gifts from others, never sending them himself—precisely because he dreaded this kind of trouble.

After looking for a long while, Lin Qian sighed in admiration, "My lady truly possesses the talent of the Xie family's orchids and jade."

Ye Zhen said with a red face, "My lord flatters me—this is merely my duty."

Bai Kou cut in, "My lady fretted over this list for a very long time! She even instructed the servants to say, when delivering the gifts, that they were prepared by the master."

Ye Zhen's face grew even redder. She handed the empty bowl to Bai Kou, then pushed her toward the door: "Alright, you go wash the dishes."

Bai Kou said, "This maidservant still needs to attend to the master's washing up."

Ye Zhen said, "I can manage it myself."

After Bai Kou went out, Ye Zhen said, "Let me attend to my lord's washing up."

Lin Qian had already finished washing up while the two women were shoving each other at the doorway. He laughed and said, "For this kind of thing, I can do it myself very quickly—no need to specially have someone attend to me."

"Mm." Ye Zhen was suddenly at a loss for what to do with her hands and feet again.

The two had been married for four months and living together for three, yet Ye Zhen still grew shy every night—rather amusing, really.

Lin Qian said with a mischievous smile, "You've worked hard lately. Tonight, you may make a request."

"Ah?" Ye Zhen looked up in bewilderment. After the meaning sank in, her cheeks flushed crimson as she stamped her foot and said, "You—you—

I—mm~"

The next morning.

Lin Qian stepped out and happened to run into Yue Yi, who was coming in to attend to him.

"Master."

"Mm, go in later—she hasn't gotten up yet."

"Yes." Yue Yi's face flushed red. After Lin Qian left, she glanced at the sky and thought to herself that since the young lady had married into the Lin family, she had been getting up later and later.

Lin Qian walked quickly to the study.

Several official documents were already on the desk. Lin Qian casually flipped through them—most were statistical reports, nothing of great importance.

The only thing that interested Lin Qian was the report from the Engineering Construction Bureau, concerning the expansion design plans for the new shipyard at Yandun Bay, which projected that four more dry docks would need to be built at the yard.

Considering practicality, land usage, and economic factors, the four new dry docks were somewhat smaller than the three existing ones, capable of accommodating ships only up to forty meters in length.

Beneath the design plans were large tables of calculations estimating the construction cost—roughly thirty thousand taels in total—and the labor for building the dry docks would be sourced from Zhangzhou.

Lin Qian picked up his brush and wrote the character "approved" on the paper. After thinking for a moment, he called for Geng Wu and said, "Tell Accountant Qian that work has come in—have this project audited."

Geng Wu took the report and said, "Yes!"

"Hold on." Lin Qian stopped him. "When you see Accountant Qian, what will you say?"

Geng Wu was just about to speak, then thought for a moment and said, "I'll say this is a test—to test how well they've learned."

Lin Qian laughed. "Clever. Go on, then."

After Geng Wu left, a personal guard came in and said, "Helmsman, Commander Ma has arrived."

"Let him in."

A moment later, Ma Chenglie entered and handed Lin Qian an official document: "Helmsman, this just arrived from Guangzhou this morning."

Lin Qian glanced at the envelope—the document was sent by Hu Yingtai, the Governor-General of the Two Guangs.

Lin Qian said, "Isn't the Governor-General of the Two Guangs Xu Zhaokui?"

Ma Chenglie said, "His Excellency Xu was recently promoted to Minister of Revenue in Nanjing. This His Excellency Hu is newly transferred in."

Lin Qian then opened the document, and saw that its contents ordered the Nan'ao naval forces to deploy west of the Leizhou Peninsula to suppress bandits.

Lin Qian knew very well who the bandits west of the Leizhou Peninsula were—the Pearl Mother Sea lay just west of the peninsula, and Bai Qing and her younger brother had just taken six thousand pearl folk from there to East Ning Island.

But that had been two or three months ago—why was the document only arriving now?

Ma Chenglie didn't know about the attack on the pearl pools, so Lin Qian asked the question obliquely.

Ma Chenglie said, "A few months ago, a band of sea bandits appeared in those waters. Word has it their force was tremendous—they burned the Weizhou naval stockade to the ground in one blaze, and its naval warships were utterly annihilated."

Lin Qian nodded inwardly—that fine deed had been the work of Bai Qing and her younger brother.

Ma Chenglie continued, "After this band of sea bandits defeated the naval forces, they went on a rampage of burning, killing, and looting across the pearl pond waters, and already over ten thousand pearl folk have fallen victim to their hands."

Lin Qian thought to himself, "Good heavens, Bai Qing and the others only took in six thousand people—where did over ten thousand pearl folk falling victim come from? Are they trying to balance the books here?"

"Not only that, but three pearl farms were breached, the pearl pond eunuch was killed, and all the pearls were seized. The sea bandits even came ashore and burned, killed, and looted throughout the Lianzhou Prefecture area—the impact has been extremely severe.

Governor Hu had just taken office when he ran into something like this, so naturally he couldn't let it slide. And since the Weizhou naval forces no longer have warships, and the rest of the Guangdong navy may not necessarily be able to defeat the bandits, that's why they thought of us."

"Hm?" Lin Qian's brows furrowed.

The earlier deeds were indeed Bai Qing and the others' doing, but the pearl farms could not possibly have been breached by Bai Qing and the others.

Before the two of them made their move, Lin Qian had instructed that this operation must be kept low-key.

Thus, the two men's original plan was to attack only the pearl ponds, not to touch the pearl farm stockades.

With six thousand fewer pearl folk, the pearl pond eunuch might not necessarily report it up the chain—but once the pearl pond eunuch was killed, the matter would blow up.

Even if Bai Qing and the others had impulsively killed the pearl pond eunuch, they could not possibly have gone ashore to burn, kill, and loot.

Lin Qian asked, "Do you know where the sea bandits' lair is?"

Ma Chenglie said, "All we know is that it's to the southwest."

Lin Qian revealed a smile and thought to himself, "What a fine case of swapping flowers for trees! If that's so, then Lord Zheng recruiting sea bandits must be true after all."

Yahei

Pink Round

Pen