Chapter 599: Crawley's Fantastical Journey (II)

William Jansz shoved open the cabin door and shouted urgently, "My boy, good fortune has arrived."

It was already the second day since the Jacob's Wife had anchored at Hongji Port.

Since Hongji Port was still under construction, there were not yet enough docks to simultaneously accommodate the fleet, native transport ships, and armed foreign merchant vessels; so after entering the harbor, the Dutch ship had been assigned to drop anchor at a spot on the waters of Hongji Bay.

This made unloading personnel and supplies inconvenient, requiring the use of lighters.

Fortunately, the Jacob's Wife was only making a temporary stop for resupply this time; the ship's final destinations were Macau and Tainan, and it had no cargo to unload at Hongji.

Early the next morning, William Jansz leaned on the cane the Transmigrators had given him while he was recovering from his injury and went ashore to seek connections.

And when he returned at noon, he shouted loudly, "My boy, good luck has come!"

Old William had brought back several pieces of news.

The first piece of news: the Earl of the East's private army had recently conquered a native kingdom and signed a trade treaty with the local native king.

The second piece of news: because of the above, a large number of officials under the Earl had arrived here — and among them happened to be an old friend of Old William's.

The third piece of news: after Old William met his friend from the Military, he received a request to unload his cargo early.

Fourth: there was a banquet tomorrow at noon, and Old William had received an invitation.

Of these pieces of news, the first held little significance for William and Crawley. They were private sea merchants, and their current social position did not require them to concern themselves with East Asian geopolitics or the resulting changes in international relations.

But the latter pieces of news directly affected the vital interests of both men!

Especially Crawley.

In fact, before this, Crawley could already be considered at the end of his rope.

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When Crawley had set out from Britain, the goods he carried were Britain's traditional export of the seventeenth century: textiles.

Britain, in the early stages of "sheep devouring men," had no global trade routes and no flagship commodities during this period. What British merchants peddled around the world were goods like woolens and linens.

Crawley was no exception. As a novice merchant, before setting sail he had converted all his starting capital into woolens, linens, and cotton cloth, then boarded a ship and went to sea.

And after he had traveled by ship all the way to Surat, the information he gathered along the way told him that in the sweltering heat of South Asia, the market for certain textiles was not good.

Especially when the market also faced competition from the Dutch, the Portuguese, and the Spanish.

In the end, Crawley had no choice but to sell at a loss, offloading a portion of his goods to other merchants at fair prices. After all this back and forth, factoring in the cost of long-distance transport, the merchant Crawley had imperceptibly already lost one-quarter of his original capital.

It was then that Crawley realized the advanced capabilities he had prided himself on in the first half of his life — literature, poetry, eloquence, and conversation — were of little use in the commercial market.

Fortunately, not long after, Crawley inquired at the Shang Hall and got word of William Jans. So he took another ship to Batavia.

In Batavia, Crawley met the benefactor of his destiny as he had wished: Old William.

After Old William finished reading the letter and sighed with a mix of emotions for a moment, he immediately recognized Crawley as his own nephew: back in the day, the old Baron had saved Old William's life on the battlefield.

After this, Crawley, on the verge of bankruptcy, finally saw his fortunes turn.

First, at Old William's suggestion — which was in fact an "order" — he swiftly liquidated all the goods he had on hand to gather his funds.

Next, he followed Old William aboard "the family's ship": Old William had just purchased a one-third ownership stake in the Jacob's Wife.

After that, Crawley returned to India with the ship and spent half a year lingering in several cities along the Indian coast. During this period, Crawley used all his funds to purchase the goods Old William specified.

In other words, the goods now sitting in the Jacob's Wife's cargo hold were Crawley's final gamble.

Yet today Old William had brought good news: upon learning of the situation, his old friend in the Army had requested that the Jacob's Wife unload her cargo early.

"Thank the Almighty Lord! Uncle William, this is truly wonderful news — I finally won't have to smell that stench of excrement anymore!"

The moment he heard the news, Crawley made the sign of the cross over his chest.

Old William laughed heartily: "Crawley, my poor boy, Crawley who has come from the banquet to the ship's hold — you still have much to learn. The point is, now, you are a merchant, so you should not discriminate against horse dung. That is the smell of money!"

Indeed, the most important cargo in the hold of the old Jacob's Wife was thirty Marwari Horses.

The Marwari Horse, an excellent breed from India. It is an elegant, strong horse of medium height, and the period of its breeding and use by humans can be traced back to the battlefields of the Middle Ages.

The Marwari Horse is a crossbreed descended from the Arabian Horse and the Turkmen Horse. This breed once served as cavalry mounts, accompanying its masters in the conquest of one Central Asian city after another.

Since the Turkmen Horse was once the warhorse of Alexander the Great, its descendant, the Marwari Horse, is also particularly suited to surviving in arid and barren regions.

This particular advantage of the Marwari Horse was highly valued by the Transmigrators. Because the Empire's future cavalry legions would inevitably have to drink the wind and tread the snow, pursuing the fleeing enemy across the Gobi, the great deserts, and beyond the frontier; the Marwari Horse was an important breed reserve in the Army's cavalry plans.

So when the Army stationed at Hongji Fort learned that Old William had breeding horses aboard his ship, they immediately sent word to Guangzhou and Tainan, demanding that the horse farm dispatch personnel to Hongji at once to take over the horses.

The Army's urgency was not unfounded. Transport conditions on seventeenth-century sailing ships were abysmal. The total number of horses Old William had originally purchased was actually thirty-six, but during the voyage, the horses required fodder and large amounts of fresh water — both of which were scarce on board — and the sanitary conditions were also far from optimistic.

Therefore, even though every possible effort was made along the way, by the time the Jacob's Wife reached Hongji, six horses had already died, and the condition of the remaining thirty was hardly good.

Thus, the Army demanded a rapid unloading to get the horses ashore for recuperation first. Once the horses recovered their health after a period of time, the Army would arrange more specialized vessels to transport them away.

The Army did not want to suffer the loss of a single additional breeding horse.

The Crossing Faction, with its informational advantage, moved very quickly. Not long after Old William returned, several transport boats arrived at the Dutch ship's anchorage to establish communication. At the same time, the Army and Navy on this side had already finished coordinating, and a warship originally berthed at Hongji's main dock immediately raised its sails and set off, freeing up a berth for the Dutch ship.

After the Dutch ship arrived at the bustling dock, it was a scene of extraordinary busyness: an endless stream of coal-transport crews, and large numbers of laborers setting cement foundation piles within the cofferdam.

Afterward, when the first horse was led out from the hold, Mr. Crawley saw the legendary machinery for the first time: a crane arm operated by a steam-powered system, which lightly and gently hoisted the horse from the bow onto the dock.

"Wow, miraculous mechanical power!"

Crawley was an educated man who had studied mathematics and Da Vinci's geometry, so unlike crude men like Old William who attributed everything to God and theology, he immediately grasped the key issue: the crane arm's power source.

But he could not observe what he wanted to see, because the entire power system was hidden inside a building on the dock. Apart from the black smoke rising from the roof, Crawley could see nothing.

In a foreign land, he still understood the principle of being cautious in speech and action. So in the end, Crawley merely suppressed his doubts and thirst for knowledge in his heart.

The mechanical system was highly efficient. In roughly two hours, all the horses in the hold had been transferred ashore.

Then Old William went ashore with two dark-skinned Indian grooms, completed the handover procedures with the Army, and handed over both men and horses to the Military in one go.

Crawley stood at the bow, carefully observing the Eastern soldiers. These soldiers were uniformly dressed in short, light-green cotton jackets with copper buttons, trousers that could be considered "loose" compared to European soldiers, and shiny, low-cut black leather shoes.

Judging by the various gleaming metal objects on the soldiers, as well as their neat formations and firearms, at the very least, it was certain that their master possessed considerable wealth.

This point also matched the information Crawley had previously gathered. Old William had told him that the Earl of the East's private domain was extremely vast and his finances abundant.

Finally, after being patted on the shoulder a few times by an officer wearing a strange military cap whose face could not be seen clearly, Old William returned to the ship beaming with delight.

After closing the cabin door, Old William smugly produced that short receipt: "The troublesome horses have finally been taken in by their owner before dying. Crawley, our next step is simply to go to Guangzhou to collect our payment! Thank the Lord, for bestowing good fortune upon his devout children!"

Seeing William looking as relaxed as if a mountain had been lifted from his shoulders, Crawley couldn't help feeling a little worried. He truly had some doubts about this three-finger-wide slip of paper — though the paper itself was very white and crisp, the kind that belonged to the advanced goods.

So Crawley asked doubtfully, "Uncle William, are you sure we can use this, ahem, 'crude' slip of paper to get our payment in Macau?"

"Child, you are still young and have experienced too little." Old William carefully put the slip away as he spoke. "The Earl of the East's domain has the most incorruptible administrative system in the world. I know what you're worried about — rest assured, you'll gain more Knowledge of the Earl's domain once you arrive in Macau."

"Oh. Then, Uncle William, what do we do next?"

"Next? Heh heh."

Old William wiped the upturned corner of his large mustache with his thumb — a gesture he made when he was in a good mood. "Since the ship has Docked At the pier, and since Old William has important friends here, we can go into the city, first take a bath and unwind. Tonight there is a banquet hosted by the Owner — this is a good chance for us to receive our next commission. I'll bring you along!"

At this point, Old William suddenly remembered something. "Take out those two sets of clothes I gave you, right now. We need to change our attire before we can better seize the opportunity!"