Chapter 9: Dividing the Silver by the Great Scale

A boatman came knocking at the door.

Lin Qian set down the sea chart, closed his sore, swollen eyes, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and told the man to come in.

"Helmsman, the laborers for unloading are here."

"Helmsman" was the Great Ming term for a ship's captain; after they killed the original shipmaster, the boatmen had taken to calling him helmsman.

Lin Qian indicated that he understood.

Stepping out of the cabin, he saw that Scholar Zhou and Lei Sanxiang had already begun directing the men to unload the cargo.

The rest of the boatmen were also up on deck helping carry and pass goods along, all in good order.

Fujian junks were all built with watertight bulkhead compartments—the hold was divided by wooden planks into a series of small cells, so unloading had to be done cell by cell, which was rather complicated.

But the advantage was that if one compartment took on water, the whole ship wouldn't sink; it was far safer than Western vessels.

An old man puffing clouds of smoke from a tobacco pipe was pointing out to the boatmen how to open the deck hatches of the cargo hold.

This man was the ship's carpenter. He couldn't speak, and everyone called him Mute Huang.

Seeing Mute Huang, Lin Qian had a thought and called him over.

Mute Huang came walking up with a grin all over his face; before he even got close, a pungent reek of tobacco smoke hit the nose—he seemed soaked through with tar from head to toe.

Lin Qian took a sheet of paper from his breast, on which was drawn the shape of a steel nib.

"Make a bamboo pen like this—can you do it?"

Mute Huang took it, glanced at it, and gave Lin Qian a thumbs-up—this was praise for his drawing.

In his previous life Lin Qian had worked in design; drawing was a basic skill, and in his student days he often went out to the countryside to sketch. Of course, using the excuse of life drawing to find a few female models to admire was also a common occurrence.

Mute Huang returned the sketch to Lin Qian, patted his chest to signal no problem, then turned and went to fetch his tools.

In the time it takes to burn one stick of incense, Mute Huang was back with the bamboo pen.

Lin Qian took the pen and saw that the nib was exactly as he had drawn it, and it felt comfortable in the hand.

Lin Qian returned to his cabin, dipped the pen in ink, and casually wrote a few characters. The ink flowed evenly, and with a bit more pressure the nib would spread slightly, producing variation in stroke thickness.

Apart from needing to be dipped in ink from time to time, it handled almost identically to a modern fountain pen—far better than the quill pens that cost one silver peso apiece.

Lin Qian said to Mute Huang, "Well done. From now on, pen-making will be your job."

Mute Huang smiled and patted his chest.

The unloading went on for six to eight hours before the ship's entire cargo was brought off.

Afterward, the clerks of Lu Cheng Ji carefully carried up a dozen or so large chests.

Lin Qian opened a few of the chests at random—inside were neatly stacked silver ingots and silver coins.

All these chests together represented the full value of the cargo.

By the time the chests were all moved, it was nearly evening. Lin Qian rewarded each laborer with three reales, and the laborers' faces immediately lit up with joy.

After the laborers had gone off into the distance, the sun had already sunk to the sea's surface, and the space between sea and sky was a mournful red.

All the boatmen were staring at Lin Qian with bright, eager eyes.

"Third Brother, take some men and carry over a chest of silver coins."

"Right!" Lei Sanxiang answered in a full, vigorous voice.

"Second Brother, fetch the scales and the ledger from the ship."

"On it."

Lin Qian paused a moment, swept his gaze over the remaining boatmen, and announced in a loud voice: "Everyone up on deck—we're dividing the silver!"

In the time of two incense sticks, everything was ready on deck.

Lin Qian and his sworn brothers stood at the stern, before them an open chest brimming with pesos, gleaming silver.

Beside it were set five or six scales of various sizes, from large to small.

The boatmen gathered around, waiting for their pay.

"Let it be said in advance: silver given to a man is his own. If anyone steals or robs, this will be the result!"

With that, Lin Qian swung his blade, and a corner of the railing was hacked off.

None of the boatmen said a word.

"Qi San." Lin Qian read out a name.

A boatman squeezed out of the crowd, came forward smiling, and held out a burlap sack to wait.

Scholar Zhou grabbed a handful of silver coins and set them on the scale, then kept adding and removing coins until the weight hovered around one hundred fifty liang; afterward he weighed it carefully on the small scale to ensure not a hair's breadth of error.

Once weighed, Lin Qian poured the coins into Qi San's sack, and one could hear the silver coins sliding down with a crisp, clear clinking sound.

At the sound, everyone couldn't help swallowing.

"As agreed before, one hundred liang per man—the extra fifty liang is the helmsman's reward!" Lei Sanxiang announced loudly.

Hearing this, Qi San wanted to kneel and kowtow in thanks, but Lin Qian held him up.

"We're all brothers—no need for kneeling."

Qi San rose trembling, wiped his eyes, and hoisted the sack onto his shoulder.

Scholar Zhou had Qi San press his thumbprint in the ledger.

"Qian Wu." Lin Qian read the next name.

Counting Lin Qian and his sworn brothers, the ship had forty-five crewmen in all, totaling six thousand seven hundred fifty liang of silver, and they divided up more than two chests of coins.

By the time the silver was all distributed, the sky had gone completely dark.

The boatmen who got their silver early had already gone ashore to enjoy themselves.

Those who were paid late could only return to their cabins, hearts clawing like a hundred scratching paws as they endured the night, planning to head into town at first light to splurge.

Most of the silver that Boss Lu had given Lin Qian was in the form of ingots brought by the Manila galleons; to prevent imported inflation, according to the regulations of the Governor-General's office, ingots could not circulate on the island.

What Lin Qian distributed to his crewmen were silver pesos, the legal currency of Luzon.

The purpose was to get the crew members to spend more, for silver that comes quickly naturally goes just as quickly.

Lin Qian planned to anchor in Manila for a period of time.

Nominally, it was to wait for the monsoon.

In reality, it was to let the boat workers spend lavishly in Manila.

Once they had spent most of their money, they would need to earn more, binding them even tighter to his little group of sea bandits.

This approach seemed somewhat unkind on the surface.

But if one wanted to play the good Samaritan, the coolie position at Yuegang docks was clearly a better post than being a sea bandit leader.

Besides, it wasn't Lin Qian who forced them to spend the silver. If they stayed on the ship, refrained from whoring and gambling, and behaved honestly, they could naturally save their money.

After distributing the boat workers' silver, Lin Qian called his sworn brothers to the sterncastle.

"To be frank with you brothers, this sale brought in over thirty-six thousand taels of silver in total. We've distributed over six thousand seven hundred taels, leaving over twenty-nine thousand. How this money should be divided, I ask all brothers to deliberate."

Lin Qian spoke bluntly, and at the same time had Scholar Zhou spread the account book open on the table.

No one spoke.

After a long while, Lei Sanxiang said, "Brother Lin, you should set the rules."

Scholar Zhou said, "Let the helmsman speak first."

Lin Qian said, "All brothers cast life and death aside to seize the ship and gain this wealth.

Although Fourth Brother and Fifth Brother betrayed their oath first, their lack of righteousness does not mean we should lack ours. Their shares shall be given to their families once we return to the Great Ming.

Now that the ship seizure is done, if anyone wishes to take their money and go their separate ways, I will have not a single word of objection—I will personally escort them to the Great Ming and present the silver to them.

But do not forget, the Great Ming still teems with corrupt officials and wicked gentry. Even if we carry great wealth, with our lone strength we will find it hard to guard.

Moreover, everyone here has lives on their hands—it will be even harder to ensure safety.

The profits from maritime trade are plain for all to see. If we brothers stand united, we can surely carve out a career on the seas. If you brothers can trust me, by all means stay."

No one answered, and the atmosphere grew rather heavy for a time.

After a moment, Chen Jiao spoke up: "Look at those officials' faces—where's the freedom and pleasure of the sea compared to that?"

Lei Sanxiang laughed and cursed, "Damn it all! Brother Lin, all that roundabout talk of yours has muddled my head... Anyway, just for the fact that you don't forget your brothers, I'm following you to the end."

"Scholar Zhou, you're not reluctant to give up your scholarly title, are you?" Lei Sanxiang said.

"What title, what title."

Scholar Zhou waved his hand dismissively—he was in fact only a tongsheng, without even the xiucai title.

The county examination of the Great Ming was no elementary school entrance test; it was a genuine single-plank bridge for thousands upon thousands, where fewer than five out of a hundred candidates could pass.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have sunk to being a boat worker on a ship.

His real name was Zhou Youcai, and because he could read and write, the boat workers had given him the nickname Scholar Zhou.

Even so, concerning the dignity and face of a man of letters, Scholar Zhou could not let the remark fall flat, and so said with righteous indignation: "The court and the country are all mired in factional strife. The imperial examinations no longer judge essays but rather who belongs to the chief examiner's faction and who can best divine the examiner's mind. To throw oneself into such a murky officialdom—better to spend this life roaming the rivers and seas."

Lei Sanxiang slapped Scholar Zhou hard on the shoulder: "Read too many books and you forget how to talk like a human... whatever, as long as you stay, you're a good brother."

Everyone then looked toward Bailangzai.

Yahei

Fenyuan

Pen