Chapter 155 Colonizers
The Sultan of Malacca, Parameswara, stared at the hundred bolts of silk before him, nearly fainting with happiness. He was no stranger to worldly affairs; as a former prince of Palembang, he had naturally seen silk before.
The Siamese from the north often bring silk from Bactria south to sell, and a single piece of silk costs ten taels of gold, while the tribute I now have to pay to Siam every year is forty taels of gold.
"Reverend Taman Rinpoche, you have brought sufficient sincerity. Now, in the name of my ancestor Alexander the Great, I swear that Temasek belongs to you, and I will never go back on my word!"
“Very good. Please, Sultan, affix your seal to the contract.”
Bairimisula quickly took out his seal and pressed it onto the contract, as if afraid that Taman would go back on his word.
Taman looked at the country bumpkin-like Sultan with great contempt. Qin Mo's bottom line was three hundred bolts of silk, but when he took out silk and offered one hundred bolts, this Sultan, who was supposedly a prince, agreed.
Meanwhile, Parameswara was also inwardly scornful. It was true that the Malacca Sultanate was the closest kingdom to Temasek, and he had indeed spent a long time in Temasek. However, Temasek was now nominally under the control of Siam, and even the Majapahit Sultanate to the south was eyeing Temasek covetously. This foolish sorcerer coming to him to buy Temasek was truly utterly stupid.
"However, their large ships are quite remarkable and may cause some trouble for the Majapahit."
As Parameswara watched the three large ships anchored outside the harbor set sail one after another, he recalled the scene of being driven out of Temasek by Majapahit's army, and his heart was filled with resentment. He wished that Temasek would become a battlefield again.
"Kai, how far along is the ship back to Luzon?"
"Your Highness, it's already the fifteenth. According to the timeline, it should have arrived long ago."
Qin Mo did not bring the relatively slow galleons with him on this southward journey. Instead, he brought several agile and fast schooners to accompany him, which served as both supply ships and communication vessels. Two schooners sailed north to Luzon on the second day after arriving in Temasek, to notify the following fleet to set sail for Singapore.
"Your Highness, these Taman wizards often whisper among themselves with the locals, and they don't look too good. We don't know if they're hiding something from us."
When Kaihime wasn't on the ship, she became Qin Mo's personal maid again, making tea for him, rubbing his shoulders, and even acting as a spy to gather intelligence on the surroundings.
"Ignore him. With me here, he won't dare to cause trouble. When we leave, we'll naturally take him with us. He won't be able to make any waves."
Qin Mo twisted his neck, and Kaihime tacitly began to massage it for him. These past few days, Qin Mo had personally traveled all over the mountains and rivers of Kammasik and drawn a simple "Lion City Map," which had exhausted him.
"Your Highness, Taman requests an audience." Since Liu Renguang was promoted to Governor of Luzon, the position of Captain of Qin Mo's Guard has been vacant, and the elven attendant Aya has temporarily taken his place.
"Your Highness... Taman has come to apologize." Taman's anxious expression was obvious to everyone when he entered.
"Oh! What crime have you committed?"
“Taman… I heard from people a few years ago that Temasek belongs to the Sultan of Malacca, but I’ve heard some things from the local indigenous people these past few days, and it seems… we’ve contacted the wrong person and wasted our money.”
Qin Mo did not get angry as the wizard Taman had expected; he simply gestured for Taman to continue with his eyes.
"This place was once conquered by the Majapahit Kingdom to the south, and later the Sultan of Malacca occupied it. But in the end, it was the Siamese who sent troops here. When they left, they left a boundary marker... to declare that this was Siamese territory."
“Taman, do you know how far this place is from Siam? And how many warriors does Siam have? We just need a reason to occupy this place. It doesn’t matter how lame that reason is. What matters is that we have the strength to make everyone acknowledge that we are the masters of this land.”
Qin Mo didn't care who this place had belonged to before. He spent a hundred bolts of silk just to buy a reason, a reason that was useless now and might not be useful in the future. In his previous life, he had seen the US's methods of interfering in the division of power in various regions. If he wanted to intervene in a conflict, all he needed was a reason, and the rest could be left to the army.
"Then Your Highness, let's go to Malacca to retrieve our silk! And teach that despicable Sultan a lesson—it's outrageous!"
Taman's heart bled at the thought of all that silk going to waste; his entire fortune wasn't worth as much as a few bolts of silk. He didn't know about others, but he knew the skill of that elven archer. In his view, if Qin Mo wanted, the Sultan of Malacca could easily suffer the same fate as him.
"No, you don't understand. The Sultan of Malacca is still very useful; it's just not the right time yet. As for the silk, hehe! I think it was well spent. Now that the Sultan wants to return it to me, I don't want it anymore!"
After hearing Qin Mo's words and looking at the smiling prince, Taman was finally dumbfounded. "This prince was fooled and is still smug... Is he stupid or what?"
Kaihime, standing behind Qin Mo, fell into deep thought, pondering the true intentions behind Qin Mo's actions.
Taman's heart finally settled when the Grand Maritime Fleet arrived at the port. The vast array of galleons made him understand why Qin Mo was so calm, and he also understood the meaning of Qin Mo's often-repeated saying: "Strength determines everything!"
Each large ship was packed with people: Koreans, Japanese, and carefully selected Daewans.
If we were to choose an adventurous pioneer from among the second-generation rich kids, Wu Mingyi would definitely be a top contender.
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