Chapter 67: The Sea Demon's Eyes and Ears

That night.

In the officers' mess of the Santa Ana.

The officers of the entire sea bandit crew sat around the table, the atmosphere unusually oppressive.

After a long silence, Lei Sanxiang was the first to break it: "Damn it to hell! If you ask me, let's just grab that Huang bastard and torture him—I don't believe he won't talk!"

Chen Jiao rebuked him: "Don't talk nonsense. Huang Hetai is a fifth-rank Garrison Commander. Unless there's absolutely no other choice, we can't touch him."

Zheng Zhilong said, "Could it be that we have one of Li Kuiqi's men among us?"

"You little brat, what are you implying?" Lei Sanxiang slammed the table.

Zheng Zhilong quickly explained: "I mean those islanders—there are over three thousand of them, and every day merchants come ashore to do business. It would be easy enough for Li Kuiqi to plant an informant."

Chen Jiao said, "Those merchants are questioned and searched before they come ashore every day—nothing unusual has been found. And even if a merchant were on the island, there's no way he could learn the movements of our Fujian junks at sea."

For a moment, no one spoke.

After a pause, Zheng Zhilong suddenly said, "Right! That merchant—that household that sold us the ship!"

Chen Jiao's eyes lit up: "I'd forgotten about that. Ships are a sea merchant's livelihood—they don't part with them lightly. This man sold his so readily, there might be something wrong with him."

Lei Sanxiang slapped his thigh and stood up: "I'll go grab him right now!"

"It's not him." Lin Qian slowly shook his head.

Lei Sanxiang sighed and sat back down.

The merchant who sold the ship was surnamed Hu. His family dealt in Chaozhou silk, and thinking he could make more profit selling to the Franks, he'd gotten a sudden impulse and had a Fujian junk built.

Only after it was finished did he realize how deep the waters of the shipping trade ran—at the lightest he'd lose his entire investment, at the worst he'd be ruined, and getting a ship permit was a hassle on top of that.

So once the ship was built, he didn't dare sail it, couldn't bear to sell it at a loss, and could only leave it moored in the harbor, its hull nearly rotting through.

If he hadn't run into Lin Qian, that ship would have sunk in the harbor sooner or later.

Before buying the ship, Lin Qian had already had people investigate that merchant surnamed Hu thoroughly, digging up everything about him.

After the incident, Lin Qian's first suspicion had fallen on him, and he'd already sent Bai Qing with men to keep watch on his residence—though most likely nothing would come of it.

Lin Qian laid out the whole story from start to finish, and the brothers all felt somewhat deflated.

Lin Qian had a crewman bring out the Longjing tea and brew a pot for everyone.

When the teacup was set before him, Lei Sanxiang shoved it away and said in a gruff voice: "I can't drink! That Li bastard, that donkey-headed turtle—he only plays dirty tricks! If he's got the guts, come out and fight us man to man, and see if I don't smash his dog head in!"

Chen Jiao stepped on his foot under the table.

"Big brother, why'd you step on me?" Lei Sanxiang looked innocent.

"Say a little less!"

Lin Qian toyed with the cup lid between his fingers, sorting out his thoughts.

At present, they had two problems to solve.

First, where was Li Kuiqi's lair?

Only by knowing a location could they even begin to talk about revenge or rescue.

Second, what method was Li Kuiqi using to rob their Fujian junks with such precision?

If it were something like marks or signals, that would be manageable.

But if it really was as Zheng Zhilong said—that there was an informant on the island—then without rooting him out, it would be hard to accomplish anything.

The scene from the night he'd met Li Kuiqi flashed through Lin Qian's mind like a film.

He recalled the sea chart Li Kuiqi had brought out—on it, the coastlines of Fujian and Guangdong provinces and the surrounding islands were drawn quite roughly.

Lin Qian vaguely remembered that the closer the chart got to Nan'ao Island, the more precise it became, while west of the Pearl River estuary and north of Haitan Island it gradually grew blurry.

Clearly, Li Kuiqi's area of activity was right around that region—ten to one, he was on some island near Nan'ao.

That was why Li Kuiqi wanted Lin Qian to take his men off the island—so that when the court came to suppress them, he wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.

But his memory was limited—he had no ability to mentally overlay Li Kuiqi's chart against a modern map.

Lin Qian recalled that Zheng Zhilong's hometown was in Fujian, so he asked, "Brother Yiguan, you're from Fujian—have you heard of Li Kuiqi's reputation?"

Zheng Zhilong: "My family is in Nan'an County, Quanzhou Prefecture. Li Kuiqi's name is known to just about everyone in Quanzhou. Rumor says he has over a thousand warships and more than ten thousand soldiers, and they also say he's a sea demon incarnate, a son of the Dragon King of the Sea—all just marketplace gossip."

Lin Qian pressed further: "A man with such a reputation—hasn't the government tried to arrest him?"

Zheng Zhilong gave a contemptuous smile: "The government? You've seen the fighting strength of the southeastern naval guard stations yourself, big brother—which sea bandit would fear them?

Never mind a big sea bandit like Li Kuiqi—even small fry like Yuan Jin and Li Zhong in the surrounding waters don't give the navy a second thought.

The government already thanks heaven and earth when bandits don't come ashore to plunder—let alone chasing them down at sea."

Chen Jiao added: "That's the truth of it. Sea bandits are just roving thieves, not rebels. They stay out at sea all day and don't threaten the county magistrate's official cap, so naturally the government can't be bothered to deal with them."

Chen Jiao had been a sea bandit for over twenty years. The helmsmen, ship owners, chieftains, and ship lords he'd served under were as numerous as ox hairs—seven in ten of them had died in internal feuds, three in ten had been buried by storms, and not one had ever died in a county jail.

This was also the reason old-school sea bandits like Li Kuiqi didn't dare seize Nan'ao Island.

After all, there was still a Garrison Commander on the island—if you actually killed him, that would be rebellion.

The Ming court basically turned a blind eye to sea bandits; but rebellion—that was met with divine vigilance and a law that showed no mercy.

And the Ming court's navy wasn't entirely made up of corrupt officials drawing empty salaries and useless wine sacks.

Whenever one or two fierce men appeared, after training troops for a few years they could sweep the southeastern seas.

And it so happened that such fierce men kept emerging throughout the Ming dynasty. Not to look far—right here in Fujian there was Shen Yourong, and Yu Dayou's son Yu Zigao barely counted as half, making one and a half fierce men in total.

Lin Qian tried hard to recall what history recorded of Li Kuiqi. He thought for a long time but could only remember a few scattered lines.

It seemed that Li Kuiqi later became Zheng Zhilong's sworn brother—the two of them, together with a dozen or so others, formed a political alliance called the "Eighteen Zhi."

Within a few years of the oath-taking, Zheng Zhilong accepted the court's amnesty, and then killed his former good brothers one by one.

If it weren't for swearing brotherhood with Zheng Zhilong and then dying by Zheng Zhilong's blade, these small fry wouldn't even have left their names in the history books.

And now, this small fry—a man whose name took up too much space even when written in three characters in the annals—had caused Lin Qian enormous trouble.

Lin Qian picked up his tea and took a sip.

Then a flash of insight struck him—that night when he met Li Kuiqi, there seemed to have been a similar scene.

At the time, the two sides were already at daggers drawn, when suddenly one of Li Kuiqi's men entered the room to report on the Santa Ana's movements.

Lin Qian had taken it for nothing more than an ordinary lookout.

Now that he thought back on it, it seemed not so simple.

Calculating from the distance between the two places, the Santa Ana's sailing speed, and the time needed for a message to be delivered—

After the Santa Ana raised sail, in less than half a joss stick's burn, Li Kuiqi already knew the news.

Such rapid transmission of information meant there were at least two lookout posts—one watching the galleon, and one watching the first lookout.

The two posts used sound, smoke, or similar means to relay messages over distance.

Thinking on it further, that first lookout must have been either on the ridge of Mount Guolao, or out on the sea.

Considering that most of Li Kuiqi's men were Tanka boat people, and that they could track and raid Fujian junks—

his lookouts must have been out on the water, and certainly extremely well concealed, or else Chen Jiao, Zheng Zhilong, and the others would have noticed them long ago.

At this thought, Lin Qian's gaze sharpened.

Seeing his expression, the others knew he had made up his mind, and they all held their breath, waiting attentively.

Lin Qian spoke in a low voice: "At dawn tomorrow, Third Brother and Brother Yiguan will pack your gear, bring water and dry rations, and muster on shore."

Lei Sanxiang asked, "What are we going ashore for?"

"Mountain climbing!"

Yahei

Fenyuan

Pen