[Red House] The First Imperial Merchant

Chapter 83 The Taste of Ruby

On the third day of June, it was sunny.After a month of drifting at sea, I was very excited to finally see the land.I still woke up from the boat that day, and when the sun rose, Zhao Hongyi and I had already arrived on the shore, where both men and women were naked* only the lower body was covered with leather or leaves.Master, didn't you see that stupid boy Zhao Hongyi blushed and didn't know where to put his eyeballs!The men and women here are very strong and dark-skinned, there are very few old people, and children are crawling and playing in the grass naked, but the scenery here is very good. I am used to seeing the blue sea and the sky, and the weeds here are much cuter.The fleet decided to stay here for two days. The local language was difficult to understand. Fortunately, the translator Ma Huan could roughly understand it, which saved a lot of trouble. By the way, master, we saw the rubber tree written in your book. Zhao Hongyi decided to take Some tree seeds go back and there are finished rubber.Brother A Tiao said that the local spice called Zanthoxylum bungeanum is very useful, whether it is medicine or cooking meals...

On the fifth day of June, it rained heavily.Master, we have safely returned to the ship. On this small island called Kuching, we have exchanged a lot of rubber and pepper seeds, which have been sealed with jar wax, and there are still a lot of rubber and peppercorns. These things do not take up much space. , but Zhao Hongyi, who loves money, doesn't care much about these things, especially because of the heavy rain today, Zhao Hongyi has a bit of typhoid fever, and the imperial physician Xiahou heard that pepper can dispel dampness, warm the middle and dispel cold, so he asked Baode to cook a big pot, Zhao Hongyi drank enough for himself , more and more disgusted with this thing called Zanthoxylum bungeanum, and even Rang Baode poured me a bowl, that's all, I don't care about him, our senior brother's...

Zhao Hongyi sneezed several times while lying on the bed wrapped in a quilt. He had just drank a bowl of pepper soup. His body was sweating so hot and his nose was red. He looked pitiful. How could he look like that little tiger? !The guy rubbed his nose, and bouncing over to Jia Huan, who was writing next to him, he saw the last sentence at a glance. He was indignant and shouted: "You skinny monkey wrote bad things about me again!"

Jia Huan did not shy away from Zhao Hongyi, first dried the paper and ink, closed the notebook, put down the pen, and then said slowly: "Where is my writing a bad word? That money-loving person should ask Baode to pour pepper soup for me? Are you still suffering from typhoid fever?" No, hurry to bed and rest, dragging the quilt to get out of bed!"

Zhao Hongyi was shocked by Jia Huan's thick-skinned, "Baode poured pepper soup for you because the doctor Xiahou said you felt a little cold, can we not be so thick-skinned?! At the end, he said let me go, hum! I need you to let me go, if it weren't for your weakness and lack of martial arts, this king will beat you to the ground even if you are sick."

Jia Huan secretly rolled his eyes. This guy lost his mind when he got hot, so he immediately coaxed: "All right, let me do it!" He was the senior brother who wanted to let Zhao Hongyi go, "Quickly go to bed and rest. , if the illness is not cured, Baode will feed you three pepper soup!"

The Zanthoxylum bungeanum soup was so powerful that Zhao Hongyi was so frightened that he didn't dare to groan, and murmured in a low voice under the quilt, nothing more than complaining that Jia Huan wanted to exchange Zanthoxylum bungeanum. If you eat it, if you make meat, the meat must be unpalatable...

Seeing that Zhao Hongyi had slept peacefully, Jia Huan left with his sailing diary.Seeing this, Baode smiled and bent down, "The third master is going back?" Jia Huan nodded, "Hongyi is already asleep, please trouble Father Baode to take care of him, don't let him catch a cold after kicking the quilt." Baode smiled With a kind face, he nodded again and again, "Don't worry, third master, this old slave will definitely take good care of his master."

After being on the same boat at sea for nearly two months, how did Zhao Hongyi and Jia Huan get along in private on weekdays? The more we get along, the more we know that although Jia Huan quarrels with the young master all day long, he also treats the young master sincerely. For this reason, Baode also takes good care of Jia Huan on a daily basis. For details, refer to the bowl of pepper soup. Before Zhao Hongyi gave orders, Baode was ready, which showed that he was treated the same as King Fu.

Zhao Hongyi is not like a child raised by the royal family. After drinking a bowl of prickly ash soup and covering the quilt for a night, he jumped up and down on the deck in high spirits the next day. Diary, now it is said that King Fu will also write a diary, so that the thin monkey Jia Huan will not be able to frame him in the future!

In August, after three months of calm and calm, they felt the gentleness of the sea. On this evening, the waves rolled and the big ship was hit and swayed. Zhao Hongyu and Jia Huan saw the power and fear of the sea for the first time.It was dark on the ship for a while, for fear that the shaking of the ship would smash the oil lamp and ignite other things. The whole fleet fought tenaciously on the sea under the bright moonlight. Many sailors knelt on the deck and begged the god of the sea to calm their anger.

Zhao Hongyi saw such a situation for the first time, as if he was communicating with the god of death, he died when he was unsatisfactory, and the ship was shaken. In the dark, he touched Zhao Hongyi's arm, and Zhao Hongyi shivered in fright. In the dark, Jia Huan uttered a voice with tremors that he hadn't noticed, "Don't be afraid, Hongyi, we will definitely return to Daqing alive. We will definitely live, we will..." The master is still waiting for his secret, he doesn't want to take the secret to the bottom of the sea.

The whistling sea wind seemed to be ringing in my ears, like angry words, or the words prayed to the sea god by the sailors on the deck.At the door of King Fu's bedroom, the two sat on the ground holding each other tightly, and they must go back alive.In the darkness, Zhao Hongyi's eyes were bloodshot, full of hostility, his good father really loved him!When he returns to Daqing in the future, that seat must change hands!

This night, everyone on board spent in anxiety, no one dared to close their eyes, for fear that they would never be able to open them again.Jia Huan and Zhao Hongyi waited on the boat all night. In the second half of the night, the waves calmed down a little. When the sunrise jumped out of the sea, Jia Huan breathed out a breath of foul air. Looking at the once beautiful and magnificent sea in front of him, it was not so pure anymore. It was so peaceful. There are dangers under the surface of the sea, but he prefers this kind of sea.

Going west through Sumatra, they finally arrived in the South China Sea area of ​​India in September. After sailing for two months, they finally saw the prosperous island---Ceylon.Translator Ma Huan went to the island first with Wang Jia and his team. The population of this island is only 1, but the port is very prosperous, and some pirates or fishing boats will supply supplies here. However, pirates on the sea at the beginning of the fifteenth century were not Active, they are all small fleets of small scale. During the nearly half a year of voyage, it is not that the Broken Wind has not encountered pirate ships, but compared to their specifications and equipment, these pirate ships will not go forward to do anything wrong. Ingratiating move.The field of activity of the Dutch and Spanish fleets written by Xue Pan is not here.After learning that this is Ceylon from Ma Huan, Zhao Hongyi's eyes were confused for a second, and then his eyes lit up when he remembered this Ceylon.

With his expression steady, Zhao Hongyi decided to go to the island in the afternoon.After Ma Huan left, he looked at each other with Jia Huan, who was also in shock, and then laughed. After running for so long, he finally found a rich island.That’s right, Ceylon is the future Sri Lanka. Known as the gem kingdom, it is a real gem island. The most famous local specialties are all kinds of gems, the most famous of which are rubies, sapphires and opals.The two saw the meaning of profiteers in each other's eyes, Zhao Hongyi sent someone to invite Xue Biao to board the boat, and the three of them chattered in sinister laughter, and they got off the boat and boarded the island without eating at noon that day.

Baode only manages people in a systematic way, and it is not a problem to manage things. If the supplies of the 160 large ships are left in the hands of others, they can earn a lot of money, but the stewards of each ship will eventually be settled in the hands of the eunuch Baode. As long as the money is not too harsh, Baode will turn a blind eye Yes, if you want the horse to run fast, you should add some extra grass.

Compared to the backward islands like Kuching, Ceylon is already prosperous.People of all colors peddled or sold their physical strength in the port for a meal or two and Ceylon coins.Before the fleet of the Broken Wind stopped at the port, it attracted the attention of the entire island. The 160 Broken Winds are really majestic.The men working in the port and the women holding their children all stopped their work and looked at the huge monsters at sea. The aborigines living on the small island may have never seen such a magnificent fleet.

When Wang Jia led the team ashore, the local residents gave up the ground tremblingly. The head of the local island stood in the middle. Seeing Wang Jia cautiously, Ma Huan, the interpreter beside him, expressed helplessness to the Sinhala language used by Ceylon. Fortunately, Ma Huan has a very high talent in language, and the island leader's gestures and Ma Huan's talent can be regarded as clear.The head of the island was relieved when he heard that Wang Jia and the others were here to exchange things, not to colonize or rob by force.They expressed a warm welcome, but they have too many ships, and it will take a few days to prepare fresh water, fruit, medicine and food. Fortunately, they still have a lot of things on board, and they only need half of the supplies to be full.

When Zhao Hongyi set foot on Ceylon, he felt that the smell in the air was full of rubies. Jia Huan said that he didn’t know that rubies still had a smell. Zhao Hongyi, who was furious, said that rubies had a smell, but Jia Huan, a bumpkin, had never smelled it of rubies.

Jia Huan heheed twice with a serious face, and said: "Serious nonsense." Then he left first with a flick of his sleeves.

Zhao Hongyi snorted and followed, and Xue Biao said from behind that Jia Huan was talking more and more like his brother just woke up after a brain injury. His mouth was full of gibberish, but it was quite interesting.Thinking of the piles of precious stones, Xue Biao was in a good mood and agreed with what Zhao Hongyi said. The air on this island smells like money, which is very wonderful!

Ceylon is rich in gemstones, as well as chili, rice, coconut meat, corn, and cassava. Jia Huan was shocked when he saw cassava and corn. These two things were clearly what the master asked him to bring back.This Ceylon is really a treasure island!

The gems dug up in the local mines are not worth much, and the rich gems with poor quality are being played as marbles by the children on the street.The large fleet on this island has not yet passed by, so the value of these gemstones has not been inflated naturally, and the residents on the island are very hardworking, and people patronize all gemstone mines, digging out bright and beautiful gemstones to give to beloved girls, or to decorate their homes.In short, on this island, every household has a lot of precious stones.

Porcelain tea silk, and it is still a medium-sized product.Originally, Xue Biao wanted to take the low-grade gemstones to fool others, but Zhao Hongyi and Jia Huan were still kind-hearted. They thought it was not good to change the gemstones, so they replaced the low-grade gemstones with medium-grade gemstones. You can buy all of their middle-grade goods with a good value, not to mention the low-grade goods.

I don’t know the prices at the head of the island, but I really like these exquisite and beautiful porcelains, as well as tea and silk. I’m especially happy to hear that tea can prevent scurvy in sailors. You must know that their small island prospered on the supplies of ships from all over the world. Yes, if you get these tea leaves and sell them to the sailors who go to sea, this is better than fruit to carry and store, and it doesn't take up space, it is simply a good thing.

For this reason, medium tea is very popular with the head of the island.The Broken Wind stayed in the local area for five days. During these five days, boxes were brought into the ship from the port without interruption every day. These heavy wooden boxes were filled with precious stones. There are countless precious stones. Now every household on the island does not have any The gems are stored, and they are all used to exchange for tea and silk. Some men have been digging gems non-stop for five days.In addition to gems, Jia Huan naturally did not forget the seeds of cassava and corn. In order to prevent the survival rate of the seeds from being too low, Jia Huan replaced many seeds.And Baode is in charge of the supplies on the ship, fresh water food, fruits and so on during these five days.

At the same time that the Pofeng and Xue's fleet were making a lot of money, Xue Pan cut off the head of an enemy young general on the battlefield and circled around. Seeing that his own army flag had been chopped off, he let out a cry. Killing all the way, the big knife picked up the army flagpole, threw it into General Liu's arms, and shouted, "Retreat!"

When the two sides are fighting, how can the jealousy of killing be able to hear clearly what the general is saying, so in the battle, whichever direction the military flag runs, the soldiers and soldiers will follow.General Liu's delicate white face was no longer recognizable, blood was splattered all over his face, and his whole body was full of murderous looks. How could he look like a gentle scholar?Hold the flag and shout, "How about you, General?"

"Retreat first, obey orders!" Xue Pan didn't care about Liu Jiang, and after speaking, he rode his horse and rushed to the enemy's general.Liu Jiang roared, attracting the idea of ​​the nearest soldiers, saying repeatedly: "Retreat, retreat!" He rushed back carrying the military flag.

General Ma, who was originally fond of fighting, chopped off a few heads, and then retreated to protect his brothers who were fighting.There were so many people in confusion, General Ma could only see that Liujiang was holding the flag, but he couldn't find Xue Pan. He was in a hurry but had to listen to the military order, and shouted: "Retreat!"

Some of the cavalry soldiers lost their horses. When they heard that they were retreating, they ran behind with two legs, regardless of their wounds.

Xue Pan rushed into the enemy army, rose out of thin air, tapped the enemy soldier's head with his toes, and flew past the crowd, his sword was like cutting stubble, and he just chopped down the head of the fierce enemy general Gulu Lur fell to the ground, his head was separated from his body, and his body fell to the ground. Xue Pan straddled the enemy's horse. With the tip of his knife, he raised his head and held it in his hand. He stayed on the field and continued to fight against the future and retreat. Seeing that his marshal killed the enemy general, his blood filled his chest for a moment, and he swung his knife even more vigorously. The enemy general was beheaded, and immediately retreated sparsely.

"Retreat!" Xue Pan led the head of the enemy general and roared. He used his internal strength to shout. For a while, those who were still fighting did not dare to stay any longer, and ran behind Xue Pan one after another.

When they arrived at the barracks, Liu Jiang stood guard at the door, and he was relieved to see Xue Pan come back, and then he looked carefully at the head in Xue Pan's hand, feeling happy.Xue Pan got off his horse and handed the head to the soldier, "Go and hang it in front of the battle!" After entering the tent, he didn't bother to wipe the blood off his face, and said, "General Ma counted the number of casualties, have Wang Huhu and Ren Wen returned yet?" ?”

Liu Jiang looked a little ugly, and said: "Not---"

While talking, a wounded soldier broke into the tent, Xue Pan saw that it was the shooter, and quickly asked, "But what happened to General Wang and General Ren?"

"Commander, we have been tricked by the barbarians. The front is not the main battlefield. Now the barbarians' [-] troops are besieging the west side team. I came back to report the news desperately. General Ren and General Wang are fighting against it. I'm afraid--"

Before Xue Pan finished speaking, he picked up his big knife and shouted: "General Ma, count the remaining cavalry and follow me to the rescue, and give me the head just now!" His eyes were full of blood and murderous intent.

Liu Jiang wanted to follow, but Xue Pan had already mounted his horse, said, "Stay in the barracks and watch." Then he rode away.