Chapter 81: Spitting Out Food

The Santa Ana was just one ship; entering the lagoon to capture vessels would only give the rest a chance to slip through the channel. Better to block the exit and wait at ease.

Logically, coral atolls were usually uneven, and it was almost impossible for there to be only one exit.

But this atoll was enormous in scope, and most of the reefs lay underwater, so most people lacked the nerve to probe recklessly.

Just then, a crewman knocked and entered: "Helmsman, a ship has come to surrender."

Lin Qian set down his brown-sugar ginger water and went out, with a crewman behind him thoughtfully holding an umbrella over his head.

Lin Qian climbed to the quarterdeck, pulled out his telescope, and looked toward the approaching ship.

There on the southern sea, indeed a Haicang ship was approaching under half sail.

Lin Qian said: "Pass the order — prepare for battle!"

A little under half an hour later, that Haicang ship sailed to within a hundred paces, lowered its sails by another small margin, and crept across the sea at a snail's pace on the feeble wind catching its narrow canvas.

The attitude of surrender was utterly sincere.

Inside the Santa Ana's gunports, Lei Sanxiang and his men held six dry muskets aimed at the approaching ship, their match cords already blown to a bright red glow.

That Haicang ship came to within twenty paces and stopped completely. The pirates came out from the hold and walked to the bow.

One pirate said: "We wish to surrender, we only ask for a way to live."

Lin Qian: "Tell them to throw all their weapons into the sea."

Chen Jiao walked to the gunwale and called out loudly: "Throw all your gear into the sea!"

The pirates on that ship did as told, tossing over a dozen blades and spears into the water.

Lin Qian had Chen Jiao pass another message, telling this band of pirates to moor alongside the galleon.

Chen Jiao: "Helmsman, aren't we going to tie them up and bring them aboard?"

Lin Qian slowly shook his head: "Not yet."

Having dealt with the surrendering pirates, Lin Qian led the others back to the officers' mess, where lunch bowls and chopsticks were already laid out.

Lin Qian and the others each took their seats.

With a great enemy at hand, the lunch fare was plain — each person got a portion of salted fish with dry biscuits. Fortunately, none of them had eaten much all day, and they were so famished their stomachs were stuck to their spines, so no one cared about the taste; they just wolfed it down.

Only after finishing the meal did they have time to talk.

Lei Sanxiang said: "Second Brother, how did you get captured?"

Scholar Zhou sighed and, with a woebegone face, recounted the whole story — much the same as what Lü Zhou had told before.

At the end, he sighed and said: "Alas! Had I known, I never would have stopped at that godforsaken place, Ma'er'ao. It cost so many brothers their lives."

Lei Sanxiang: "It wouldn't have mattered where you stopped — that donkey-prick Li Kuiqi had men following behind your ship!"

"Ah?" Scholar Zhou was quite taken aback.

José said with absolute certainty: "That's impossible. Following the helmsman's orders, we were extremely careful after leaving Macao harbor, constantly watching the stern for any of the senator's ships tailing us. If someone had been following, we couldn't have failed to notice."

Lei Sanxiang then told the story of Grand General Qi suppressing the river bandits.

José was so stunned his mouth hung open for a long while: "They can do that? Rowing with oars to shadow a ship for three or four hundred li — wouldn't those two men die of exhaustion?"

Chen Jiao said: "No diamond, no porcelain work. Without that kind of skill, they'd have no business being river bandits."

Just then a crewman reported from outside the mess: "Helmsman, two more ships are heading our way — looks like they're also coming to surrender."

Lin Qian was about to rise when Chen Jiao said: "Helmsman, let me go."

Lin Qian thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement. Chen Jiao rose and walked out of the mess.

Scholar Zhou murmured: "As the saying goes: 'Tiered towers and emerald peaks emerge from the frosty dawn — strange sights that startle a hundred-year-old man.'

I never imagined such a place could exist on this vast southern sea. I thought my life was going to end in that ship-city.

Helmsman, how did you find this place?"

Lin Qian recounted how Bai Qing had scouted the ship-city by night. Scholar Zhou listened, dumbfounded, then clasped his hands to Bai Qing and said: "Miss Bai's courage rivals any man's — truly a remarkable woman."

That speech was far too flowery for Bai Qing to fully grasp; she merely smiled, clasped her hands, and said: "You flatter me."

José, meanwhile, asked in a trembling voice: "You mean to say... a corpse showed you the way, and that's how you found the lagoon waterway? That... weren't you afraid?"

Bai Qing: "Second Brother Chen of the Chen family was someone I knew — what's there to fear? Even if he truly became a ghost, hearing that I meant to avenge him, he wouldn't harm me — he'd help me all the more!"

José was Spanish, an old-school Catholic who held deep religious faith; hearing this, he was so frightened he hurriedly made the sign of the cross over his chest.

Lin Qian laughed: "Well said! Old José, you see now — this is the kind of woman our Great Ming produces!"

Scholar Zhou seized the chance to flatter: "As the saying goes: 'When the Duke of Zhou spat out his food, all under heaven turned their hearts to him.' With so many capable and extraordinary people under the helmsman's command, Li Kuiqi's defeat is no injustice."

Lei Sanxiang complained: "Second Brother, can you spout a little less of that sour poetry? Damn it, 'as the saying goes' this and 'as the saying goes' that — I can't understand a word of it!"

The whole group burst into laughter.

Amid the laughter, Chen Jiao came in from outside the officers' mess, wringing out his clothes as he walked: "What's so funny in here... Helmsman, the two ships that just came to surrender are settled — weapons tossed in the sea, men left on board."

Uncle Chen also came in from outside, carrying a large oil-paper bundle, which he set on the table and opened — it turned out to be a pouch of peanuts.

"I heard the gentlemen were chatting happily, so I roasted some peanuts as a snack — eat and talk."

Lin Qian nodded: "Thoughtful of you."

Uncle Chen smiled and withdrew.

At Lin Qian's gesture, everyone set to shelling peanuts.

Peanuts had only recently been introduced from overseas, grown only in Fujian and Guangdong — still a novelty — so everyone ate them with relish.

Soon peanut shells were scattered everywhere.

Scholar Zhou looked around the circle and asked: "Where's Brother Yiguan?"

Lin Qian: "I had him minding the fort on Nan'ao Island."

Lin Qian had always harbored wariness toward Zheng Zhilong, but he lacked enough capable hands — Chen Jiao was the first mate, Lei Sanxiang was boatswain and gunnery chief, both of whom had to be aboard ship.

Bai Qing was the guide, and Bailangzai was the enforcer — they couldn't be left behind either.

Counting every option, the only choice was to leave Zheng Zhilong behind at Nan'ao Island.

Despite Scholar Zhou saying things like "The Duke of Zhou spat out his food to welcome guests, and all under heaven turned their hearts to him," Lin Qian still felt he had too few capable men under his command.

Now that the town on Nan'ao Island had begun to take shape, it would attract even more merchants and settlers in the future.

Establishing effective governing institutions was now urgent, and correspondingly, judicial and law-enforcement teams would also need to be created.

This required him to have ample reserves of talent—after all, whether serving as an official or a clerk, one at least had to be literate.

And on the entire island of Nan'ao, counting Lin Qian himself, the number of literate people could be counted on two hands.

Excluding the physician and the craftsmen, there were only a mere four and a half people—Lin Qian, Scholar Zhou, Zheng Zhilong, and Garrison Commander Huang, with Chen Jiao barely counting as half.

Literacy work had to be put on the agenda.

This time he had easily defeated Li Kuiqi thanks to the advantage of his cannons, but fighting the Ming navy in the future might not be so easy.

So naval construction could not be halted either.

Everyone chatted idly until dusk, during which more than a dozen more ships came to surrender, and Chen Jiao, Lei Sanxiang, Bailangzai, and others took turns going up on deck to handle them.

The surrendered pirates had only been stripped of their weapons and were not mistreated, and seeing this, the rest of the sea bandits rushed to surrender as well.

Before nightfall, there were nearly fifty ships gathered beside the Santa Ana.

The sky was growing dark, and the wind and rain over the sea showed no sign of letting up.

Lin Qian walked to the window and praised, "What fine rain! Bai Qing, Bailangzai."

"Helmsman."

"You siblings take some men, go down in the small boats, and bring all the surrendered pirates aboard."

Yahei

Pink Round

Pen