Chapter 144: The Lin Brothers

Waves rolled and surged, the sea wind stiff and strong — between the blue-black waters, a single dot seemed utterly motionless: a 600-liao Great Fortune Ship, riding the wind from west to east through the strait, its bow aimed squarely at Taiwan.

The shipmaster Lin Baoquan stood at this moment on the sterncastle, straining his eyes into the distance. Lin Baoquan was nearing the age free of doubt, powerfully built, with a square nose and broad mouth. His bronze-hued face betrayed no expression now. The sea wind gusting from behind kept lifting the three strands of black beard beneath his chin; his short brown tunic likewise bellied full of sea wind, his sleeves ballooning.

Just then, a remark drifted over from beside him: "Fifth Brother, the wind's strong out here — come back to the cabin."

Lin Baoquan didn't need to turn his head; he knew it was his own clansman, younger cousin Lin Bao'an, who had also come up to the sterncastle. "Seventh Brother, the wind direction — there's no mistake, is there?"

"Fifth Brother, you're obsessed." Lin Bao'an, whose features resembled Lin Baoquan's save for the short whiskers along his cheeks, shook his head with a chuckle. "The wind direction is fine. Even if there were land, the lookout in the basket would spot it first... Don't just stand here rooted — back to the cabin, back to the cabin." As he spoke, he took his Fifth Brother by the arm, intending to head back down.

"Ah, I just can't settle my heart..." Lin Baoquan still couldn't relax. As he descended into the cabin, he replied.

The Lin brothers were natives of Funing Prefecture, in the northern part of Fuzhou, right next to Sando — a place later generations would call Fuding County.

The Lin Family was a local magnate clan in Funing Prefecture, with many mouths to feed and a sprawling household. Every generation produced a few officials and clerks to prop up the family's prestige, and local bullies and strongmen were also a regular product.

Lin Baoquan and Lin Bao'an were clan brothers — one ranked fifth within the clan, the other seventh. Lin Bao'an's branch of the family had been sparse in offspring during the early years, and the two households were close. Lin Bao'an, who had lost his mother, had essentially grown up in Lin Baoquan's home, and the two were no different from full-blooded brothers.

At the present age, their generation was exactly at the age to bear the clan's weight upon their shoulders. Since the two brothers had run ships and sailed the seas while still in their prime, and had survived the wind and waves, the clan had, a few years earlier, handed this Great Fortune Ship — named the Xing'anping — over to Lin Baoquan. In ordinary times, the two brothers were responsible for running the ship and shipping goods for the clan, buying and selling for profit.

After Lin Baoquan took over the Xing'anping, he no longer ran the distant ocean routes. Each year, he went north to Su Hang and south to Fuzhou and Guangdong, doing only safe, short-haul business.

That was how clan business worked. The Lin brothers together held only thirty percent of the Xing'anping's shares; the remaining shares were clan property. What this kind of business dreaded most was recklessness — no matter how much you earned, it was only what you ought to have done; but if you lost money, how could the whole clan ever forgive you?

So for the past few years, Lin Baoquan and Lin Bao'an had not sailed down to the South Seas. In the most recent year, the Fujian-Guangdong Waters had been far from peaceful — the sea lords and the government forces were locked in savage slaughter, and the Zhangquan area was said to have been beaten into a bloody mess... As a result, the Xing'anping had not even gone as far as Fuzhou this time, shifting the focus of its business to Hangzhou.

The reason the Lin brothers were sending a ship to Taiwan this trip had its origins in Hangzhou.

The Xing'anping had gone to Hangzhou Prefecture last autumn, catching the tail end of the southern wind.

As in previous years, the ship was fully loaded with traditional local products of Funing Prefecture: indigo, dried bamboo shoots, dried lychees, iron stock, ramie cloth, bamboo implements, and bamboo paper.

After the ship reached Hangzhou, the Lin brothers, while contacting old customers to sell off the goods, also busied themselves everywhere purchasing the goods needed for the return voyage. They worked from late autumn all the way to the start of the twelfth lunar month before finally assembling a full cargo, and the two brothers then prepared to ride the northern wind home for the New Year. This point in time was January 1628 — just over two months since the Transmigrators had completed their occupation of Dayuan.

Unexpectedly, two days before their departure, the Liu Family's Steward came calling with an invitation, saying there was a fine business deal and a good friend he wished to introduce to the two brothers.

... Yes, the Lin brothers' most important commercial partner in Jiangnan was none other than Liu Yaozu, Chairman Liu.

For many years, the Lin Family had always sold their Jiangnan sundries wholesale to the Liu Family, then replenished a portion of their return cargo through the Liu Family's commercial channels. Although the wholesale price was a little lower, the Lin Family on the whole approved: selling goods to the local power, the Liu Family, naturally meant they didn't need to worry about the local thugs and demons, and it also made restocking much easier. The Liu Family's commercial network was very well-developed, and many seasonal, fast-selling goods could be procured.

Under these circumstances, since the Liu Family's Steward had so eagerly come calling to introduce business to the two brothers, the Lin brothers naturally could not easily refuse. So both sides agreed to meet the next day at the beginning of the Si hour at the Fuzhou Guild Hall where the brothers were staying.

Ever since the Transmigrators had settled the Hangzhou Beggar Sect as easily as child's play, Liu Yaozu's attitude toward Zhou Tong, Group Head Zhou, had undergone an earth-shaking change. The Group Head of the Beggar Sect who commanded 8,000 beggars in Hangzhou City had official recognition and was already a top-tier figure in the rivers and lakes — an entirely different concept from a bandit chief who waylaid travelers on the road. This was a genuine, bona fide Greenwood Prefect!

Master Liu, whose business reached across the length and breadth of the Great Ming, understood the stakes involved all too well. Liu Yaozu now could not be more thankful: back then, because his eldest son was gravely ill, he had been forced to agree to let Zhou Tong handle the aftermath, and his inclination to stand on dry ground and watch the show had very nearly been exposed. Fortunately, the Liu Family had genuinely put in effort to maintain order in the aftermath of the Beggar Sect affair, and now, as Zhou Tong had firmly established himself, the benefits had already begun to appear.

The Liu Family's recent plan to restart the mountain goods business upstream on the Qiantang River was a prime example. This time, if those land brokers and ship gangs at the docks outside the city who made their living off the waterways dared again to collude with river pirates to rob the Liu Family's ships, then those bastards had better be prepared to have their entire families wiped out — as long as the Liu Family was willing to spend the silver, Group Head Zhou would naturally handle this sort of business for an old friend.

The Beggar Sect was one of the few local power bases that could mobilize large numbers of men without layers of official documents. Especially within city circles, the Beggar Sect's operational capability surpassed even that of the Canal Gang on the Canal. As for all manner of low, despicable, and insidious tricks from every walk of life, the Canal Gang could not even begin to match the Beggar Sect. Master Liu Yaozu had recently been filled with joy; several business rivals with whom there had been a faintly competitive edge were now all harmony and goodwill, their banners furled and their drums silent.

Under these circumstances, when the Transmigrators garrisoned at Tangzhuang wished to meet some of the Liu Family's business friends, Liu Yaozu naturally agreed wholeheartedly: these sea-route friends of Zhou Tong's had once been a focus of Liu Yaozu's attention as well. When he learned that the main force of Transmigrators had sailed far across the sea, Liu Yaozu had felt some reluctance at the time — the exquisite medical skills and ingenious gadgets of these strange folk had all left a deep impression on Chairman Liu.

Fortunately, the Transmigrators garrisoned at Tangzhuang had not furled their banners and silenced their drums; the dealings between the two families had continued to deepen all along. After the Transmigrators occupied Dayuan, they had a voracious demand for grain and sundry goods. For a very long stretch, the Transmigrator fleet would return to Hangzhou with empty ships, and the next wave of goods that filled their holds — much of it in the form of silver ingots — went into Chairman Liu's pockets.

Liu Yaozu, too, reciprocated in kind, ordinarily helping to organize sources of supply in various ways. The Transmigrator fleet, after all, had to rest and reorganize at Tangzhuang. Liu Yaozu was, in truth, even clearer than the Transmigrators imagined about what was happening on Dayuan — including how these fiends had slaughtered the Red Hair sea bandits on Dayuan like killing chickens, as well as seizing the Red Hair's stockade and a large quantity of silver goods, and setting up locks and counters there. The Liu Family was clear on all of it.

In this situation, if Liu Yaozu still didn't understand the value of befriending these overseas strangers of great potential, then he was no great merchant at all.