From Chief to Ball

Trade from here is closer, whether to the colonies or to mainland Europe.The former only needs to travel a dozen latitudes and does not need to cross the Pacific Ocean; the latter does not need to detour through Cape Town, and can be transshipped from the Great Desert City.

As a result, the handicraft industry in the south of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty will inevitably be hit hard.

The inflow of silver suddenly decreased, and things like changing grain from mulberry to cotton in the south of the Yangtze River have already happened.A large amount of silver has flowed in before, and the entire market has become accustomed to this kind of silver inflow. A sudden cliff-like decline may cause turmoil that will be more severe than in history.

The problems facing the south of the Yangtze River may not only be things like tax resistance in history, but the evolution of contradictions will be more serious than in history.

There will be many changes in the east and the west. Chen Jian estimates that the world will become a world that he doesn't even recognize after more than ten years.

The only things that may be useful are those things that have never changed, such as science, but history will become invalid after more than ten years.

The war of religious reform and the battle of Saarhu, which decided the fate of the East and the West, basically happened at the same time more than ten years later, and Chen Jian will definitely find a way to participate in these two wars.

It doesn't have to be done by yourself. Methods such as organizing mercenaries, selling arms, taking loans, monopolizing food and iron supplies, and suddenly cutting off the supply are all effective.

On the side of the Republic, more than ten years later, the industry and commerce in the southern counties gradually developed; a new generation of young people with bourgeois democratic ideology grew up; political economy and various rights were gradually matured; hydraulic factories were established; and The Nanyang trading company planted a big bomb involving 10,000+ people...

Similarly, this deformity can be regarded as a monster that can only enter and cannot enter, and there are hardly many things that need to be imported.With a large inflow of silver and a price revolution, life at the bottom is probably not going to be easy.

Coupled with the imminent arrival of the so-called Little Ice Age climate, all the contradictions that could be suppressed in the past will be exposed little by little, coupled with organized fueling and ideological propaganda, the troubles here will not be small.

Some things have inevitably changed beyond recognition, and the historical foresight that Chen Jian can use is only these ten years left.

The biggest foresight advantage was about to dissipate, and Chen Jian was a little flustered.

Chapter 20 Goddess Island

The place where Chen Jian's last smuggling trade transaction took place was in the southwest of Ziyou Port.

When the forts and fortresses at the oil port started to be built, the fleet of the Great Wilderness City was officially separated. They continued to transport immigrants and supplies to the Great Wilderness City. Chen Jian agreed with them to reunite with them in about a few months.

With the exception of the Nanyang Trading Company's land surveyors, hired cartographers, and some management personnel, all boarded and continued south-west.

This time, the destination is the deserted island where Chen Jian smuggled and traded last time. He wants to re-declare his sovereignty there, and at the same time make a publicity for the self-oil port.

After arriving, Wei Yuan, who followed the Dutch captain to explore the way last time, took a boat with [-] soldiers and headed towards the hidden island where pirates gathered.

On the nautical chart, the free translation of the island where smugglers often operate is about Friday Island.The Dutch captain called it Goddess Island.

The island is very large, about 6 square kilometers. There is also a peak close to 4000 meters above sea level on the island. The mountains divide the Goddess Island into two halves.

It is said that when Columbus sailed here, it happened to be Friday.At that time, there was a storm, and the two ships were damaged and could not be repaired, so the crew of the two ships were allowed to stay here temporarily, and a simple castle was built.

When I came back here from Europe the next year, all the people were dead, and it became a ghost castle.

Because the island was discovered on Friday, Spanish and Latin are close relatives, and Friday is the inflection of the day of Venus, so the island became Friday Island or Goddess Island.

At this time, there is no official translation of the name. Whether it is from the perspective of Xinyada or the cultural incompatibility of Sunday worship and other factors, this island can basically be determined as Venus Island or Goddess Island.

From that ghost castle as a stronghold, the Spaniards gradually established their rule on the Goddess Island.

Hospitals, universities, churches, and the Tower of Loyalty, which urges the governors to remember the royal family and declare their allegiance.The land on the island is fertile, there are gold mines, and a large number of aborigines.

Colonial rule began from here, and gradually spread along the river and coastal areas of the whole island.Plantations, mines, farms... However, with the death of the last aborigine 40 years ago and the complete extinction of the aborigines on Goddess Island, these plantations gradually began to be abandoned.

The black slave trade was not yet popular, and the Spanish royal family monopolized the trade. Only the British occasionally smuggled a few ships to get some African aborigines.

The local aborigines are basically extinct, and they can’t be found on the island. These plantations are unprofitable and have no cheap labor. Only some original soldiers are left to support themselves by farming.

Near here is the route to the colony, and a large number of pirates began to appear on the small island near the Goddess Island.

Some Spaniards near the east had to abandon these places and migrate westward or into some inland towns by plundering ships and landing for robbery.

The pirates occupied the magpie's nest, and the French began to immigrate here quietly, reclaim the land, build small towns, trade with the pirates, and provide food for the pirates.

Because of the barriers of the mountains, and because the rule here cannot make ends meet, the Spaniards did not pay attention to the immigrants from other countries here, and they were more than willing to deal with pirates. In addition, there were smugglers in the colonies who tipped off the news, and Goddess Island and its surrounding areas gradually became pirates. and a distribution center for smugglers.

The geographical location here is also very important, but it is too far away from Mincheng, and once the Republic builds a fort here, it will inevitably arouse the vigilance of the Spaniards, and it may cause trouble.

Therefore, neither Chen Jian nor the Nanyang Trading Company behind them had much interest in this island for the time being. Even if they were interested, they would have to wait until the end of the Gibraltar naval battle or the outbreak of the Reformation War to seize the opportunity.

It was not the first time for Wei Yuan to come to Goddess Island. When the boat he was on, which was considered very special by the people in the small town, docked at the port, everyone on the island knew that the group of Huaxia people had come again.

After the eighty soldiers with the same neat uniforms, weird guns, and strange drums that looked like an army landed, people in the town rushed to tell the news.

The last time Chen Jian smuggled, he told those pirates and smugglers that he would come back in a year.

Since the last time he left, more people left by merchant ships waited on the island.Whether the return fleet made a lot of money is unclear because of the distance, but the cargo smuggled in the Spanish colonies was a bonanza for smugglers.

In addition to Wei Yuan, there were more than 80 soldiers and many of them came to this small town for the first time.The exotic atmosphere in the town made them feel extremely excited, and they were surprised to see people with different skin colors.

Such pointers or surprises do not cause any displeasure, so long as it is profitable.The pirates knew that there was a fleet behind this ship, and there was only some sample cargo on this ship, and there was not much to loot.Furthermore, facing the formal army that looked extremely neat, they also had lingering fears.

The people here speak neither Spanish, nor pure Dutch, nor proper French, nor English, but a fusion of languages.

The few Dutch sentences spoken by Wei Yuanhui can also be used for some communication. When Chen Jian translated himself in Dutch, he translated himself as: Governor.

People who were waiting for this year's smuggling or trading on the island soon knew that the governor from the mysterious China had appeared again, and it was said that this time the fleet was larger, with dozens of ships.

In the past two years, there have been many problems in Manila and Macau, such as massacres, Dutch attacks, and robbery of merchant ships, which have caused some goods to be in short supply here.

The sudden appearance of the Governor-General just happened to be able to make up for the huge demand of the colony. In addition, Italy suffered a natural disaster the year before, and the silk harvest was poor and production was reduced. Raw silk was a sought-after commodity in the Netherlands or France.

For their own wealth, the Spanish royal family squeezed the sericulture industry in the colonies and strictly prohibited local sericulture from buying from monopoly trade, which also made the sales of raw silk extremely good.

In addition to cotton cloth, glass, machetes, wooden utensils and other items, whether they are businessmen who are planning to return to Europe or local smugglers, they all expressed great enthusiasm for the arrival of the Chinese governor.

Wei Yuan told everyone that Governor Chen Jian was on the deserted island last time, preparing to make a deal.And this time the Republic opened up immigration areas in the northeast as a transit point for goods, hoping to conduct long-term trade in the future.

The smugglers hosted a banquet in honor of the special envoy of the governor, trying to figure out the governor's attitude towards pirates.

If the attitude towards pirates is to actively exterminate them, they are willing to establish a relationship of trust with the governor.And if the governor is also the commander of the privateer fleet, they will worry about the future.

After listening to the general idea, Wei Yuan thought about what Chen Jian explained, and only said that he didn't know, and hoped that these people would follow him to the island to have an interview with the governor.

At the banquet, Wei Yuan felt a wonderful pleasure.A few years ago, I was a poor boy who was worried about eating meat, but now I can be respected by these rich people-although the Spanish silver coins are crudely made, and I only use a knife to carve a cross tea and a castle lion on it, I don't even bother to make rounds, but it is real money after all, as long as you are in a civilized world, you can exchange it for food.

For this kind of respect, Wei Yuan understands that it comes from the fleet behind him, from the [-] soldiers beside him and their bulging lead bullets wrapped in butter, and from the last time Chen Jian gave these Man demonstrates salvo and dynamite.

He heard Chen Jian tell the stories of the aborigines on this island, and he knew that they used to exist, but now they can't find any of them, and even the traces of their life here have been obliterated.

This is a terrible place, especially those deserted plantations, where there are countless bones buried.

After staying on the island for a few days, Wei Yuan saw many things that he had never seen before but only listened to by Chen Jian, such as slaves.

Hearing it is one feeling, seeing it with one's own eyes is another feeling.

In the convoy of "rebels" like the Fleet, the Great Wilderness City, and Nan'an Academy, even though he only wanted to live better for himself, the things that were quietly instilled in his heart gradually sprouted after seeing it with his own eyes. Mistakes, civilization and barbarism, equality and slavery...all these things don't necessarily need to be experienced personally, maybe they only need to be witnessed once in a while, and the seeds that were instilled before will gradually germinate.