Chapter 502: Taipei (II)

With a muffled "thud," the slave who had been shivering violently was struck on the back of the head with a hammer, and then the person collapsed motionless where they lay.

Don't underestimate this hammer strike: it had to end the target's suffering in one blow, yet not cause brain matter to splatter everywhere and blood to gush out. The force in the hand had to be perfectly controlled; an ordinary person couldn't deliver this kind of Five-Star Sap.

"Carry him away, quickly now, carry him away."

After delivering his certain-kill strike, Wu Sanye swung the iron hammer in his hand and, expressionless, made a universal waving gesture. Two robust slaves then carried the corpse out of the Grass Shed.

Knives couldn't be used; knives would cause blood to spray, contaminating the Grass Shed and attracting dreadful mosquitoes and all sorts of insects. Although the Grass Sheds were periodically burned down in batches, many new groups still had to live in them before they were burned, so no carelessness was allowed.

That was why Wu Sanye and the others usually used hammers.

After dealing with the diseased slave, Third Lord ducked his head slightly and stepped out of the low, squat Grass Shed. He then watched as the corpse was loaded onto a Cart... there were already several corpses on the cart, all of which would eventually be thrown into a nearby Pit.

Standing in a Mountain Col in the northern section of 17th-century Tai Island, surveying the beautiful natural scenery all around, Wu Sanye's face was etched with deep Worry.

He reached out to feel the pocket of his military-green Cotton Cloth Training Uniform, only to find he was out of Cigarettes again. So Third Lord stretched out a hand: "Give me a smoke."

"Smoke your own Bird Feather, you Old Goods."

The speaker was a fair-faced young man who looked refined, even somewhat handsome: "You old bastard smokes without any restraint, and the moment you run out you come begging. Do you think this Young Master's Wages are blown in by the wind?"

Wu Sanye, who usually carried himself with an air of leadership, could actually bend and stretch at crucial moments. So even after being rebuked, he wasn't angry. Instead, he put on a stubbly, smiling face and said: "On this little patch of turf of ours, who doesn't know that Yusheng Shaoye is a true Old Wealth with a real Family Fortune? Could smoking a few Cigarettes possibly smoke the Young Master into poverty?"

"Hmph, fine. Just don't spend all day eyeing this young master's bit of Pension Silver. In this godforsaken place, who knows if we'll even Survive to see that day."

The young man named Yusheng's expression improved considerably after hearing Third Lord's flattery. Though his mouth still grumbled, his hand pulled a Blue Tinplate Cigarette Case from his pocket and tossed it over.

Third Lord raised a hand to catch the cigarette case. He first opened the lid and took out two mid-grade Taijiang cigarettes, then pulled out a silver-shelled ZIPPO carefully stored in a Goose Down Case. With a "ding," he sparked the flame, lit both Cigarettes at once, and handed one to the young man.

"Don't worry, I'm not smoking yours for free. Once your big brother here gets his hands on that Demolition Compensation, little brother, your Good Days will have arrived."

Hearing Third Lord bring up that illusory demolition payment Once Again, Yusheng Inhaled and let out a snort of laughter: "Then as your Younger Brother, I'll just have to work hard to live another thirty to fifty years, and maybe then I'll get to enjoy my big brother's Blessing."

The next moment, seeing the two foremen start their Chat and Smoke Break, several people in Training Uniforms standing around also pulled out their Cigarettes together. The Overseers, on this Hillside at the Valley Mouth outside the Taipei Dense Forest, began a rare moment of leisure.

Jinguashi is an administrative region located in the Northeast of Tai Island, later generations would have it under New Taipei City, situated between the northern spur of the Snow Mountain Range and the Northeast Cape coastline.

The Jinguashi area is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces the sea on one. It once flourished for a time due to Gold Mine extraction.

In the 16th year of the Guangxu era of the Qing Dynasty (1890), while workers were constructing a Railway Bridge over a section of the Keelung River, they discovered Placer Gold in the riverbed. Miners then swarmed in, following the river upstream in search of the vein. Finally, three years later, a Farmer surnamed Li from Chaozhou discovered the Gold Melon Gold Vein near the Jiufen mountain area.

Shortly after the Gold Melon was discovered, Miners also found the exposed Big Gold Melon outcrop nearby. The place name "Jinguashi" comes from the Big Gold Melon's mountain shape resembling a pumpkin, which is called "Gold Melon" in Taiwanese, hence the name.

The once silent Keelung Mountain thus began the glorious era of Jinguashi mining for years to come.

For the Transmigrators, in the early days of the Crossing Over, the consensus was not to develop Jinguashi.

The reason was simple: Gold Mines were everywhere; there was no Necessity to spend a massive number of lives feeding mosquitoes in the primeval Forest — at that time, every single person in the Crossing Regime was precious and simply couldn't withstand being "wasted."

However, by the time 1630 arrived, three years after the Transmigrators came to the Great Ming, the situation had fundamentally changed.

Besides the overarching premise of continuously improving industrial foundations and rapidly increasing social wealth, the number of Slaves from various parts of the South Seas had also shown explosive growth.

The booming Slave Trade was an inevitable process of social development. Unlike Historically, the Colonizers who came to East Asia suddenly discovered during these two years that they no longer had to worry about trade at all?

No matter who you were, as long as you casually shipped a boatload of Slaves or some other Commodity the Transmigrators needed, you could, at the large Warehouses along the Taijiang coast, immediately, right away, fairly, and without any obstacle, exchange them for any One Kind of Commodity you desired — no limit on quantity, no limit on type.

The only thing merchants needed to worry about was whether the Silver Coins in their pockets were enough.

For countless years Previously, the Commodity occupying the top spot on every Colonizer's most-desired goods list — Raw Silk — had now fallen out of the top ten, because there were many kinds of "miraculous" things whose value had far surpassed Raw Silk.

For example, Bleaching Powder, which could save the lives of a whole ship or a whole city.

For example, the mysterious pill sealed in a Wax Pill that could cure sailors' scurvy.

For example, the Oil Lamp and Kerosene most beloved by the Church, which could bring light to Believers during Europe's long winters.

These dazzling but expensive goods emptied the pockets of every visitor at the First Moment.

The merchants from various nations who adapted to this new trade model quickly discovered the crux of the issue: everyone no longer needed to spend energy finding Ming Dynasty goods sources or brawling with each other, because no one could Monopoly and buy out the goods in the Transmigrators' hands.

The only thing left to do now was figure out how to quickly and efficiently ship the Commodities the Transmigrators needed past that damned, alluring Taijiang Harbor, and then use those miraculous goods to make a fortune back in Europe.

Thus, due to the Silver Root Tightening in Europe caused by the Thirty Years' War, the Spanish, who had been living quite miserably, launched a massive campaign against the Philippine Natives half a year ago, a campaign unprecedented Historically: the Saint Ceta Campaign.

And the Red Hairs entrenched in the Spice Islands were not willing to fall behind.

Historically, the Dutch East India Company's greatest Governor-General, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, was supposed to have died of Dysentery last year at the mere age of 43, during the Siege of Batavia by the Native Mataram Sultanate.

But in this timeline, because Bleaching Powder had been sprinkled into the Governor's Mansion's Water Cellar, Governor Coen healthily Survived until the Sultanate lifted the Siege.

By this year, the Dutch, having caught their breath, launched a New Round of campaigns against Mataram under Coen's Command: both for revenge and to capture Slaves.

And so, the Transmigrator higher-ups, suddenly finding themselves with a large surplus of unplanned Slaves, once again turned their gaze toward that famous Jinguashi mining district nestled in the mountain hollows of Taipei.

There, not only was there a Gold Mine, but also the Copper Mine the Transmigrators currently valued most.