Chapter 35: The Sailor's Triple Set

The pendulum clock was the final discovery in the captain's cabin.

At this point, all the finances in the cabin had been registered in the ledger.

The most valuable items in the cabin were the twelve parchment books, followed by the ivory crucifix carving, and then the walnut four-poster bed.

As for the paintings hanging on the walls, those counted as artwork and were not included in the tally.

Scholar Zhou roughly estimated that if everything in the captain's cabin were packaged and sold, it would be worth around six thousand to twelve thousand taels of silver.

Rounding it off, let's call it ten thousand taels of silver.

If this galleon's haul could be liquidated for two hundred thousand taels of silver, his ten percent share as captain would be about twenty thousand taels — nearly half of which would have gone to buy this captain's cabin.

By the time they finished inventorying the captain's cabin's spoils, it was around noon.

The crew began taking shifts to eat. Lin Qian said to Scholar Zhou, "Call Big Brother, Third Brother, and Seventh Brother to the officers' mess for lunch. You go too, Second Brother — I have something to discuss."

"Alright." Scholar Zhou nodded and headed out.

Twenty minutes later, the brothers were all seated in the stern mess hall.

Lunch was still hardtack biscuits with salted pickled meat, and everyone's face fell at the sight.

Considering how hard these were to swallow, Lin Qian had the cook serve a cup of rum with every meal. Now, the "sailor's triple set" on the table was complete.

Lin Qian said, "This is all we have on board. Bear with it — once we make port, I'll treat everyone to a Cantonese feast."

The men grimaced as they dug in; chopsticks were useless against such fare.

"I called you brothers here today to reassign everyone's posts."

Everyone slowed their movements, holding their breath.

"This galleon was after all a Frankish ship, and its structure and performance differ greatly from a Fujian junk, so it's fitting that our posts follow the Frankish arrangement."

Lin Qian paused. Seeing no one speak up, he continued.

"Big Brother, Chen Jiao, will serve as first mate."

"Second Brother Zhou, as purser, concurrently handling the accounts."

"Third Brother Lei, as master gunner, concurrently serving as boatswain."

"Bailangzai, as navigator."

After saying this, Lin Qian explained the duties of each post to the four men, adding, "All these posts fall under ship's management. When dividends are paid, you'll share in the same cut as the sailors, the medic, and the carpenter — in other words, you'll get considerably more."

"For this ship-seizing, Second Brother Zhou estimates the liquidation value at two hundred thousand taels. Using that as an example, each ordinary crewman gets over three hundred taels, while each officer gets close to five thousand taels."

"Hahaha... hearing that price, even this chalk-white crap starts tasting good." Lei Sanxiang laughed.

Bailangzai: "Sixth Brother, I don't know how to navigate."

Lin Qian: "I'll teach you."

Lin Qian could have doubled as navigator himself, but he already had too much on his plate — even staying up all night every night wouldn't get it done — so he had to delegate some of it.

After observing him for a long time, Lin Qian found Bailangzai to be a man of loyalty, utterly devoted to him. As one of the Tanka boat people, he was already well-versed in seafaring, so he'd learn quickly. Lin Qian felt at ease passing on the sextant and the methods of reading nautical charts to him.

Moreover, Lin Qian had a deeper motive — once they reached the Pearl River, he might well need Bailangzai to serve as the intermediary between himself and the Tanka boat people.

Winning over Bailangzai now was also paving the way for recruiting the Tanka later.

"Come to the captain's cabin tonight." Lin Qian said to Bailangzai.

"Captain..." Chen Jiao spoke up cautiously, "We did earn a good sum this time, but by custom, giving each crewman over three hundred taels in dividends — isn't that too much?"

Scholar Zhou: "The Daodejing says: 'When governance is lenient, the people are simple; when governance is harsh, the people are cunning.' Anyway, the crew has no idea how much is recorded in the books. Even giving each man just one or two hundred taels would be enough to earn their gratitude."

Chen Jiao's face showed worry: "What I'm concerned about is that dividends this large might drive people away. Three hundred taels is enough to buy over a dozen mu of farmland and live as a well-off family. Once we make port, I'm afraid no one will want to come back to suffer on this ship."

At that, everyone glanced at the "sailor's triple set" before them, feeling that the phrase "suffer on this ship" hit particularly close to home.

But the concern Chen Jiao raised was something Lin Qian had already considered long ago.

He didn't even need to think of a solution — the capitalists of later generations had already figured it out: raise the cost of living. On the macro level, you maintain inflation; on the micro level, you raise living costs.

Of course, neither of those two approaches could be accomplished by any single capitalist alone.

The vast majority of capitalists would choose an easier method to control: cap employee income levels and encourage employee debt, keeping them at a level where they look well-off on the surface but would starve if they left the company.

Once Lin Qian took Nan'ao Island, he'd have the means to do exactly that.

But those were still the more civilized methods. As the saying goes, "Getting on the ship is easy; getting off is hard." Since the crew had chosen this trade and taken silver stained with blood, walking away cleanly wouldn't be so simple...

Still, with the team just starting out, Lin Qian didn't intend to coerce the crew too harshly. As long as the core members stayed, he didn't want to place too many restrictions on who came and went.

If someone wanted to leave, buy property on land, and become wealthy in their own right, that would be a living advertisement for the team.

And if they fared poorly after going ashore, they'd serve as a cautionary tale.

And if they were unfortunately caught by the authorities and gave Lin Qian's name up, that wouldn't matter much either.

After all, he had seized a Manila galleon — for that alone, his name would go down in history, standing shoulder to shoulder with the world's most famous pirates. The Spanish Governor-General would surely send men to protest to the Ming court.

A wanted poster with his face on it, plastered across the entire Ming coastline, was only a matter of time.

So Lin Qian couldn't stay anchored at the mouth of the Pearl River for too long — he just needed the crew not to scatter like birds and beasts in the meantime.

Lin Qian mulled it over briefly, then said calmly, "No need to worry. Though we're giving each man three hundred taels, we won't pay it all at once — ten taels each time, stretched out over a few dozen days."

Chen Jiao: "But after those few dozen days, everyone will take their silver and still leave."

"Then hold back a few dozen taels and pay it at year's end." Lin Qian thought for a moment, then added, "But no matter what, those who want to leave will always leave. There's no need to force them to stay."

Lei Sanxiang said with a worried frown, "What if someone goes to report us to the authorities, or gets caught by them?"

"No one would pass up silver to go inform. And if someone does get caught, we just sail to the open sea — the authorities can do nothing about it."

After saying this, Lin Qian thought a moment and added further.

"From now on, we'll set a rule on this ship: every morning at roll call, silver is distributed afterward. If someone misses roll call, we'll know they've been caught, and we'll weigh anchor and set sail immediately."

When the ship made port, it was impossible to forbid the crew from going ashore — otherwise, what had they earned the silver for?

At the end of the day, Lin Qian was still a sea bandit, and his men were a motley mob gathered for profit. For now, this was the only way to keep them in line.

In the future, once he had territory and strength, Lin Qian would naturally find a way to mold this motley mob into a navy.

After the serious talk was done, the group instinctively turned to discussing Cantonese cuisine—where the raw marinated seafood was fresher, where the yellow wine was more fragrant.

After food and drink, they moved on to women—which region's women had smoother skin, which region's had smaller feet.

Lin Qian listened for a long while, then couldn't help but voice his opinion: "What's so good about bound feet anyway? Dirty and morbid."

Scholar Zhou wagged his head: "Trimmed by the measuring tape, four fen less—delicate jade shoots wrapped in light clouds. Heh heh, its wonders cannot be spoken..."

Lei Sanxiang looked curious: "Really? Women in Liaodong all have big feet—I've genuinely never seen bound feet."

Scholar Zhou said mysteriously: "Once we reach port, you'll see them."

Chen Jiao: "I heard the Tanka boat people don't want to bind their feet?"

Bailangzai: "The Tanka have lived on boats for generations—if a woman bound her feet, she couldn't walk on a ship anymore."

Lin Qian nodded: "Now that's a healthy aesthetic."

Scholar Zhou feigned anger: "A petty man is not worth discussing..."

The group chatted and laughed for a long while, yet in the end they still hadn't finished the hard biscuits and salted cured meat.

Yahei

Pink Round

Pen