Chapter 598: Crowley's Fantastical Journey

At noon, thick clouds drifted across the ocean sky. In the equally silent and darkened waters of the Annam Sea, a large European-style merchant ship, riding a half wind, was sailing northward along the coastline.

Judging by the name on its side, this distinctly Dutch-style armed merchant ship should be called the Jacob's Wife.

In the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company's vessels in East Asia were generally divided into four types. Among them, the "speedboat" had limited cargo capacity, but with cannons mounted at both bow and stern, it served as the main battleship class for combat.

Historically, after the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, the Dutch assembled a revenge fleet of 15 ships, 11 of which were speedboats. Additionally, the ships the Dutch sent year-round to blockade and harass the Spanish in the Manila waters were also primarily speedboats.

Besides speedboats, the East India Company also had fluits, which were lightly armed and mainly used for carrying cargo, and flat-bottomed sailing boats with shallow drafts suitable for inland transport.

The final type was the large armed merchant ship, few in number, with a length reaching 45 meters and a crew of two to three hundred. These ships had powerful armaments and high cargo capacity, primarily used for long-haul voyages between the Dutch homeland and East Asia, and were called "return ships."

And the Jacob's Wife was precisely such a large armed merchant ship in its prime.

Suddenly, several sail silhouettes appeared on the distant horizon. And in just a short time, these sail silhouettes had already grown considerably larger in the lookout's telescope.

Without a doubt, this signaled the high speed of the approaching vessels.

The lookout urgently sounded the brass bell.

The captain, having received the alert, came out of the cabin to look and found that the newcomers were two schooners with a high length-to-beam ratio, their speed like arrows, and in that brief moment, they had already rushed right up before them.

The Jacob's Wife had previously always run the Batavia to Amsterdam route, and this was its first time on the East Asia line, so the captain did not recognize the newcomers' identity. The captain then ordered the ship's cannons loaded in preparation for battle: given the aggressive pincer formation of the approaching vessels, they did not look like they were just paying a friendly visit.

Fortunately, the next moment, a Dutchman leaning on a cane, with a head of fiery red, messy hair, emerged from the cabin and immediately stopped the situation from escalating.

William Jans, an old mercenary from Luxembourg. In the year 167, this man had served as the Lieutenant of the guard at the Dutch Trading Post on Dayuan Island.

After this, the Transmigrators stormed the beach and, using machine guns, forcibly seized the trading post from the Dutch and occupied Dayuan Island.

William Jans had an incredible stroke of luck in that battle, somehow not being torn apart by the Type 28's bullets, only suffering a leg wound and being taken prisoner.

Later, the situation took an unexpected turn, and the Crossing Faction ultimately reached a trade agreement with the Dutch. Old William's fortunes also reversed, and relying on the rapport he had built with the Transmigrators while a captive, he transformed into an "old friend of the Transmigrators."

In the end, Old William obtained a "jewelry loan" provided by the Transmigrators and embarked on the journey home.

The cultured pearls from later generations, various multi-faceted crystal ornaments, and high-end goods like kerosene lamps caused a sensation throughout Batavia.

The "Prisoner Quartet," including Old William, due to their frequent daily contact with the Transmigrators, became overnight the brightest stars in Batavia — "experts on the mysterious Eastern power."

This event changed the trajectory of Old William's life.

From then on, Old William used the loan from selling the pearls and his private savings to begin purchasing goods the Transmigrators needed, running a private trading operation between Batavia and Dayuan.

Because he maintained a certain "original friendship" with some of the Transmigrators, Old William could often obtain scarce commodities from that power base, such as bleaching powder, such as vitamin pills.

In the world of the colonizers, ordinary merchants aside, the Church system quickly discovered the wondrous uses of bleaching powder: murky, raw water that would cause disease if drunk, after undergoing a priest's "purification" ritual, became drinkable "Holy Water." What could better display divine miracles and better hoodwink the faithful?

The effect of vitamin pills was even more obvious. They could not only cure the sea disease but also heal many other illnesses. The European nobility of this era, eating cooked fruits and various meat products, suffered from various vitamin deficiencies.

As for the poor, who contracted even more diseases — the poor did not even have the right to hear about the miraculous pills.

The Church in the seventeenth century, whether in the East or West, belonged to the wealthiest, most overbearing landlord class. After the Church intervened, the prices of these goods, with their extremely miraculous effects, were quickly bid up to sky-high levels.

Comrade Old William, in just a few short years, rapidly amassed a large private fortune.

Now, on his latest voyage, Old William was already a shareholder of the large Dutch armed merchant ship, the Jacob's Wife.

This time, he had spent the better part of a year shuttling between various ports along the Indian coast, even venturing deep inland with men, and had finally completed his planned purchasing mission, "returning in triumph."

After returning to Batavia, Old William rested and reorganized for just under a month before taking advantage of the January South Asian monsoon to hurry toward Guangzhou.

This leg of the journey was not very smooth. The Jacob's Wife not only encountered a storm but was also hit by an unknown, severe infectious disease, forcing the crew to throw corpses into the sea every day.

Fortunately, there were Dutch and allied colonial outposts all along the route from Bacheng to Guangzhou, allowing the ship to dock continuously to replenish crewmen, which kept Old William's voyage from being delayed too long.

However, what he had not expected was to encounter the "Earl's" patrol ships here in the Annam Sea.

Old William, who had dealt with the Transmigrators for years, recognized at first glance the unique lines of those two ships and the recognition flags on them.

So Old William urgently ordered the crew to retract the cannons and lower the sails. As a one-third major shareholder of this ship, and concurrently the owner of many goods in the hold, since Old William said the newcomers were friends, the others naturally would not object.

The next moment, the misunderstanding was cleared.

The Jacob's Wife lowered its sails. After both sides communicated smoothly and raised sails once more, the large ship, escorted by the smaller vessels, arrived at the outer sea of Hongji by noon of the second day.

"Thanks be to the Almighty Lord, the old friends have actually established a port here. Excellent, they shall see dear Old William again!"

William Jans stood at the bow, excitedly gazing at the busy harbor in the distance and the towering flags, waving his cane and laughing heartily as if no one else were around.

The old friends in William Jans's mouth were, naturally, the Transmigrators.

Accompanying the loud laughter, besides the large flock of clamoring water birds overhead, were the noisy crewmen of the Jacob's Wife.

The next moment, the armed merchant ship slowly entered the harbor. The crewmen shouted work chants, climbing up and down, furling the ship's sails and rigging one after another. The hull, turning as it went, also let out cheerful creaking sounds.

Finally, on the 1st day of the month, in the year 16, the Jacob's Wife, carrying Old William, docked at the embryonic Hongji Port.

After the ship dropped anchor, Old William pointed at the two enormous warships in the bay and the masses of ant-like laborers on the shore, excitedly throwing his arm around the shoulder of a man beside him and saying, "Look, Robert, this is the power base I've told you about so many times."

After saying this, Old William thought for a moment and added with emphasis, "The private army of the Earl of the East."

The man whose shoulder Old William had embraced was a gentleman in a short shirt and cotton coat, about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, looking rather young.

This gentleman's name was Robert Crowley.

He had short brown hair, a round face, and a nose that was not very prominent. Overall, the not very tall Mr. Crowley had a gentle face, quite unlike the hook-nosed, red-haired Old William.

The answer was simple: Mr. Robert Crowley was not Dutch; he was British.

Mr. Crowley came from Kent, the second son of a country Baron.

Unlike the traditional Eastern model of "sons dividing the family estate," in the Western system of nobility ranks, the firstborn heir would inherit all the family's property and fief. Thus, the second sons of noble families usually needed to find a job to support themselves upon reaching adulthood.

Of course, having received an education from childhood and possessing culture and refinement, the second sons usually had decent prospects. They could serve as stewards, attendants, or adjutants to other nobles; they could also work in government departments, or serve in the military as low-ranking officers.

In fact, even up to World War I, in the invincible Royal Navy, most of the lower-ranking officers were drawn from the nobility.

Robert Crowley was just such a second son.

After coming of age, he first worked as a clerk in a certain Duke's private library in London. Later, due to his interest in poetry and literature, he sought a Steward position at the West End Grand Opera House, concurrently serving as Field Manager, and was also responsible for guiding some newcomer actors in his daily duties.

Afterwards, having married and had children, Crowley had originally assumed his life would be set on this course, so he intended to secure a long-term post within the city government.

And it was at this moment that the turning point in Crowley's life arrived: a distant uncle on his mother's side passed away, dying without a son.

Crowley's mother was his father's second wife, and Crowley's elder brother was born to the Baron's first wife, thus having no blood relation to this uncle. Crowley was the first in line to inherit this uncle's property.

The uncle was a merchant; Crowley did not inherit any real estate, only a sum of capital and some goods.

As the saying goes, money emboldens a man.

Crawley himself hadn't expected it — after receiving his inheritance, he became wildly ambitious overnight, intending, like countless adventurers of this era, to seek boundless wealth upon the vast seas.

When the old Baron learned of this, apart from cursing a bit, there wasn't much he could do. After all, younger sons were born to go out and make their own way; since he couldn't give them property, he had no right to arrange their lives.

However, after the fact, the old Baron still did his meager duty as a father — this was, of course, not sponsoring Crawley with a sum of money. All the family property would belong to the eldest son in the future, and the old Baron had no right to give Crawley a large sponsorship.

What the old Baron sponsored was a letter.

This letter was written to the old Baron's friend and comrade-in-arms: the Dutchman William Jans.

In his youth, the old Baron had once fought alongside the red-haired William Jans against the cavalry of the Kingdom of Spain during the Netherlands Rebellion; the two were sworn friends who had faced death together.

And so, Robert Crowley boarded a merchant ship bound for the East, and in the winter of 161, at Dutch Batavia, sought out his father's old friend, William Jans.