otherworldly happiness

During this period of time on the island, other ships came back one after another. At last, six ships were missing. I don’t know whether they were lost or sunk. After staying on the island for 18 days, they embarked on a new journey. .

This time, I have learned from the previous experience. The ships in the fleet are relatively concentrated to prevent accidents in the middle. The following days repeat the previous life. I encountered some islands intermittently in the middle, and some were inhabited by local natives. , Most of them are in a deserted state. Although the fleet’s navigation has encountered some problems, such as some small islands, the water level is too shallow, and they almost ran aground. There are also islands with local natives, who are afraid of the fleet due to language barriers. Resisting and so on, all these problems were overcome one by one. On the fourth month of going to sea, I came to an island country. It is said that according to the chart, it is an island group. It is a long way to get here. If we continue here, we are still far away from the next continent.

In the open sea far away from this island group, all the ships are parked here, waiting for the people who went to negotiate to come back to see the results, and then decide whether to land. After waiting all afternoon, the signal came Take a break and set off for land tomorrow morning.

Early in the morning, the boat docked at the pier according to the instructions. The location of this archipelago is very advantageous. Looking at the clothes of the people on the island, they are much richer than those they met halfway.

The local native chiefs welcomed the arrival of the fleet very much. He was even more excited when he heard that it was from the Chu Dynasty. Caravans often pass by here, so people still have some understanding of the customs of local products. They heard that the fleet brought tea and porcelain. Immediately offered to exchange pearls, spices and fruits, and you can freely exchange needed supplies on other islands in the archipelago.

The fleet stayed here for [-] days to rest and set off again. Li Jian also harvested a lot here. Tropical bananas, lemons, oranges, cashews, pineapples, mangosteens, olives, and coconuts were all exchanged for seedlings. He was still following the caravan to other islands. I changed some specialty pearl corals. On one of the small islands, black pepper is a specialty. The price in the Chu Dynasty was not low. The iron and silk used by the caravan were all rounded. Of course, Li Jian's was indispensable.

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After more than half a year of hard work, the fleet arrived at the destination of the voyage, Xidu Continent. Legend has it that gold and gemstones are everywhere here, but no one has ever arrived in Chu Dynasty. It is related to the climate and the dangers of the sea. Before arriving here on this voyage, nearly [-] ships were lost, damaged, sunk, and missing. People were also exiled to the island due to infectious diseases, and some were lost in the storm. Those who went into the sea, and those who disappeared and sank together with the ship, had a death rate of nearly one-fifteenth. This was when the medicinal materials on board were sufficient, and the medicinal materials on the way back were definitely not enough. The danger at that time was even greater than it is now. Much more.

No matter what happens in the future, everyone is now excitedly waiting for the reply from this country. We haven't seen a reply to the letter of credentials we sent, and we can't land rashly. Whether it's an enemy or a friend has yet to be decided.

After waiting for the reply letter, I can finally trade in the venue specially opened for the fleet according to the arrangement. Looking at the silk and porcelain on display, the people here heard that there was a caravan from the distant Chu Dynasty coming, and they all came to join in the fun. People far away rushed here after hearing the news. The caravans that finally arrived were buying a lot of things they needed. They planned to stay here for a month and a half, and they would go to other coastal countries on this continent halfway. Return flight and leave after three months.

The task of Li Jian and other warships is to protect the safety of the caravan. This time, they also went to several big cities in the mainland to see the local customs and taste the local specialties. Of course, they did not enter the interior of the mainland for safety. Only in coastal trade, even so, we encountered things such as local people cheating people or pirates robbing. Thanks to everyone's rich experience and strong force value, they survived.

Li Jian has never treated himself badly. Although many of his things are defective, they cannot help but be rare and large in quantity. The ironware, cotton and linen are not counted, and the rest of the exchanged materials are shipped back and exchanged for real gold and silver. That is enough for Li Jian and Wu You to live a luxurious life for several lifetimes, not to mention the gold nuggets and bars of various colors piled up in the space. If the gems are gone, they will be piled up into hills, and you can learn how the dragon sleeps in the gold pile.

The most profitable thing this time is the medicinal materials and fruits produced in the space. People here know that there is a kind of magical medicinal material in the Chu Dynasty. People who die can be saved, and they can also be used to renew their lives. Every time the fleet arrives at a new place , some local officials and wealthy households came to ask if there was this medicine. In fact, it was ginseng. Some people who had been to the Chu Dynasty heard that this medicine was brought back to China. The efficacy and curative effect of the medicine were exaggerated, just like snow lotus. Because it is rare and precious, it is said that it can cure hundreds of poisons.

Every time someone came to ask questions, Li Jian secretly negotiated with the past. In this way, only one or two hundred ginsengs were sold, and the caravans on the ship generally did not bring much. Rare things are more expensive. It is mainly reserved for self-use. According to the age, the price is not cheap in the Chu Dynasty. For decades, it will cost hundreds of taels of silver. If you don’t have a thousand taels of gold, you can’t talk about it here, let alone you have a lot of money. For those who are more than a hundred years old, the price has more than doubled, and it seems like a steal. For them, having a good ginseng is equivalent to having a spare life, which may not be used at any time.

In the past, there were not many brought back every year. Since someone gave the king a piece of ginseng, which saved the king's favorite concubine, the person who entered the ginseng was immediately conferred a title. Since then, ginseng has become a sought-after commodity. It's a pity that the quantity of goods is too small every year, and the ones bought are not from wealthy families. Everyone wants to keep them and is reluctant to sell them, which causes the prices to remain high.

I don't know when this opportunity will come again. No one is stupid. If you don't buy more now, who knows if these people will come or not. In this way, without Li Jian's knowledge, his underground ginseng business will be very expensive. It’s crazy to sell, a lot of money is enough to buy and stockpile, even the apples, pears and peaches in those spaces are sold at a good price, secretly sold to a few guys who buy more, the price is calculated at one gold coin per catty , Li Jian felt that he was black enough, but he didn't know how much profit the batch of medicinal materials and fruits had brought to those who bought them at a loss when they left, so he directly broke and rearranged the rankings of the rich people in these countries.

Every time Li Jian couldn't sleep at night, he would think of Wu You, what is he doing now?did you miss me?Those pearls and gemstones that I exchanged by myself were not intended to be sold, those were chosen by myself, and when they were sold, they were targeted by people due to their high quality and quantity, so let him make jewelry and make it for Wu You when the time comes Many, if he wants to wear sapphires, he will not give him rubies. He can do whatever he wants, especially when he sees some rough diamonds, which are called seven-color stones. The story of seven-color stones in ancient times is the colorful stones left by Nu Wa. The fragments of the divine stone fell to the ground and turned into such transparent colorful gemstones.Because it is a sky-replenishing object, it is extremely strong, not as fragile as other gemstones, and is not easy to polish.There are also stones that can be scratched on porcelain.etc.

Because it has not been polished, it looks like cloudy crystals, and they are all so small that no one even buys them. Although the current crystal prices are not bad, Li Jian has changed a lot, but like The quality is so poor, so turbid, and they are all small pieces. It is not unusual to look at them. They are all cheap. Li Jian plans to go back and study how to polish as many facets as modern diamonds. , then the charm of diamonds will be restored, and when you think about the price at that time, you will know how high it will reach.

The husbands of those officials and rich families always like beautiful and unique jewelry, just like how many modern women can resist the temptation of diamonds, and when the time comes to make shiny finished products, let’s promote the legend about the source of colorful stones , Are you afraid that you won’t be able to make a lot of money? Of course, this is all Li Jian’s imagination. Now he has no background and connections.

But this does not prevent him from buying all the rough diamonds he can collect. The diamonds here are all locally produced, and the output is not small, but they are all mixed with various qualities. They are only roughly classified according to size. Due to the limitation of processing technology In addition, the original hardness is high and it is difficult to polish, so only some large particles are worth processing, and the small ones are not very good-looking after processing, and the price is not high, so the price is still quite cheap, so Li Jian even has the big and small ones.

This time I harvested all kinds of gemstones and rough stones, and the most important thing is all kinds of spices. I got a lot of those precious agarwood*, and some of them were of good quality that people in the caravan could not get. They exchanged ginseng by themselves. Some people wanted to buy more ginseng to make a fortune, but they didn’t have so much gold, so they took out the gems and spices at the bottom of the box. The most precious thing was a small piece of Longdan incense. For them, it is the same as ordinary spices, but in the Chu Dynasty, it was used exclusively by the royal family, and it was expensive and could not be obtained.

On the last day before leaving, Li Jian asked the people who bought ginseng to get all kinds of fruit seedlings and seeds, as well as good grain seeds and various spice seedlings. Precious, Li Jian exchanged ginseng for unambiguously, it was very cost-effective for them, they hurriedly collected everywhere, Li Jian planted them in the space to reproduce, it was an unimaginable wealth, others risked across mountains and seas With the spices brought back from the danger, Li Jian can grow and process them by himself, as much as he wants. Although the climate conditions in the Chu Dynasty are various and inhospitable, there is no limit to the space, and they can be cultivated well.For example, the dipterocarp* produced by agarwood, that is, the fenugreek tree, etc., are all precious spices.

More than three busy months have passed, Li Jian's smuggling business has also come to an end, and the fleet has embarked on the journey again. All kinds of spices, gems, and even gold. I exchanged the goods I brought. If the ones that came late were out of stock, I directly exchanged them from the ones I bought more. If the supply exceeds the demand, the people in the caravan don't know about these.