Chapter 111 Buy and Sell
"Pirates?" Zhao Xiao snatched the telescope from his hand and looked into the distance.
Antonio paced back and forth frantically: "Oh, it's too bad, how could we run into this group of people!"
"Are the pirates very powerful?" Zhao Xiao saw that the other side only had more than ten small boats with black flags flying on them.
"Amazing! These pirates will hijack any ship they see! Not only will they steal the cargo on board, they will also kill everyone on board. They are simply devils!"
Antonio and his crew encountered this group of pirates when they set out from the English Channel and passed through the Mediterranean.
At that time, three ships of the fleet were hijacked. Before he could organize a rescue, the pirates chopped off the heads of the people on board. The bloody scene is still vivid in my mind, it is simply outrageous.
Zhao Xiao put down his telescope and shouted, "My men, finish your dumplings and get ready for battle!"
"Yes!" The soldiers finished their dumplings in two or three bites, put down their bowls and ran to the cabin to change their armor.
Zhao Xiao also stuffed the dumplings in his bowl into his mouth. He had been idle at sea for so long that his bones were almost rusted. It was a good thing for someone to give him practice.
Antonio was frightened by the murderous aura emanating from these soldiers. It turned out that their kindness and humility were just superficial. Orientals were far more warlike than he had imagined...
*
On the pirate ship on the other side, a group of vicious pirates also saw the Hope.
"Oh my God..." Everyone was stunned by the huge ship. They had never seen such a big ship. It was just like Noah's Ark described in the Bible.
Then everyone cheered, whistled, waved their daggers, with excitement and greed in their eyes. There must be a lot of gold, silver and jewelry on the ship. If they robbed the ship, they would not be able to eat it all in their lifetime!
The leading pirate leader was none other than Barbarossa, the famous pirate in the Mediterranean. No one dared to provoke him in the Mediterranean because of his cunning, cruelty, ferocity and bellicosity.
Barbarossa immediately ordered his subordinates to gather all the pirates and make sure to stop the big ship!
The first mate who was with him said, "Captain, this ship is really too big. We can't figure out where it came from. If there are too many enemies on the ship, we may not be able to defeat them."
Barbarossa wiped the knife and said, "What are you afraid of? If you can't win, just run away. How can you let the fat fish that is right in front of your mouth escape?"
Soon a large number of pirates came over upon hearing the news, and their small boats were crowded together, making people's scalps tingle.
These pirates were familiar with water and good at fighting at sea. They slowly sailed towards the Hope, preparing to climb onto the ship and hijack it when they got close.
If it were an ordinary ship, it would most likely have fallen by now, but the Hope was different, as it was equipped with eight cannons!
Following Zhao Xiao's order, the Hope slowly turned around and turned sideways.
The pirates were all stunned. Steam ships had not yet appeared in Europe at that time. They watched helplessly as the huge ship without sails or oars actually rotated in place on the sea!
"What the hell, how is this ship turning?" Barbarossa took off his hat and scratched his sticky scalp.
The first mate sensed the uneasiness, and he placed his hands on his chest, muttering, "Captain, why don't we retreat? This ship might be a miracle."
"What a bullshit miracle! I told you to read less Bible. How could a miracle appear in..." Before he could finish his words, he heard a loud "bang" in his ears, followed by huge waves on the water surface, overturning seven or eight small boats.
"God, a miracle! It's a miracle!" The first mate was so scared that he knelt on the ground and prayed. Barbarossa was also scared to death. He put on his hat and turned around and ran to the shore.
Immediately afterwards, the second shell fell, and the entire ship in the center was blown away in an instant, and the pirates on the ship were torn into pieces by the huge explosion.
A shrapnel flew right onto Barbarossa's head, blowing his hat off. The pirates were so frightened that they abandoned their ships and jumped into the sea, fleeing in all directions.
The soldiers waved their weapons and shouted. Zhao Xiao waved his hand, and the soldiers who had been held back for eight months jumped into the water like wild horses and took small boats to chase and kill the pirates.
Zhao Xiao put down the telescope and licked his lips with satisfaction: "Is this your strength? It's really vulnerable."
Antonio, standing on the boat, slowly turned from excitement to fear. The terrifying ancient Eastern country was too powerful! Would it harm his country if he brought them back?
“Are we almost in your country?”
"Yes... yes, General Zhao." Antonio answered pale and absent-mindedly.
Zhao Xiao saw his worry, patted his shoulder and said, "We are a country that values peace. If no one offends us, I will not offend anyone. If someone offends us, we will return it a thousand times."
Soon the soldiers cleared out the pirates below and killed all of them except those who escaped.
They also found a lot of wine and gold and silver coins from the pirate ship, and took them all back to the ship as trophies.
The war became a New Year's episode, and the soldiers even felt that it ended without them having enough fun.
The Hope continued its voyage, and now its journey was nearing its end, and it would reach its destination in just over a month.
The further we go, the colder the weather becomes, which is almost the same as the Daqi solar term.
There were many more ships on the sea, most of which were fishermen or merchants from nearby. When they saw the Hope, they hid away from it.
In mid-January, the Hope arrived in Genoa, one of the largest and most prosperous ports in Europe, a Catholic country ruled by the church.
Antonio had been here several times. Before he went to the East, he thought it was the most prosperous place in the world. It was not until he came to Shangjing in Daqi that he completely broke this impression.
Although this place also has a history of thousands of years, it still cannot be compared with Shangjing.
The Hope stopped one nautical mile from the port, and the surrounding fishing boats and merchant ships all rowed away for fear of being overturned by this big guy.
The people on the shore all gathered around curiously. They had never seen such a big ship. Many of them thought it was Noah's Ark in the Bible. They were so excited that their eyes were filled with excitement. They knelt down and prayed, probably hoping that the Ark could take them out of the sea of suffering.
The local church was alarmed and quickly sent knights on a small boat to check it out.
The people here speak Latin, which Antonio and his friends don't know, but there are merchants on the shore who can speak English.
After a series of complicated translations, the two parties were finally able to communicate.
The bishop learned from the merchants that the large ship came from an ancient country in the far east and was carrying many goods. He asked if he could go ashore to trade.
The bishop's name was Ennis, an elderly man who was also a very wise man. He knew that a country that could build such a large ship must be a rich country. He came here from afar and said that these people were very brave. The church certainly did not want to be an enemy of such a powerful and brave country.
Enis asked the merchant to help translate, hoping to meet the leader on the ship and take a look at what goods Daqi was selling.
After hearing this, Zhao Xiao naturally agreed. He took Song Yutang and hundreds of soldiers off the boat and went ashore on a small boat.
The locals looked at these black-haired, yellow-skinned people with curiosity. Some wanted to step forward to ask questions, but were stopped by the church people, who warned them not to be disrespectful.
When the Daqi people first set foot on Western soil, the map of this era was finally completely opened up.
*
The knight who had been waiting on the shore took them to the nearby Vatican.
Bishop Ennis performed a Catholic salute to Zhao Xiao, and Zhao Xiao returned the salute with his hands clasped together.
Both sides were looking at each other. Although they had different skin colors and looks, they could see the wisdom in each other's eyes.
After a brief greeting, the two men went straight to the point. Zhao Xiao asked his men to bring a piece of vermilion silk and several exquisite porcelain pieces to deliver.
"This is our Daqi's cargo. I wonder if you need it."
Ennis took the silk and stroked it with his hands, exclaiming in disbelief.
Most of the clothing in medieval Europe was made of linen, fur, and wool.
The nobles wore woolen clothes and skirts, which were warm but not beautiful. Common people and slaves mostly wore linen, which was not comfortable at all. The colors were also relatively simple, mostly gray, black and white.
One can imagine how attractive this oriental silk, with its brilliant colors and texture as delicate as water, is to them.
Song Yutang raised his eyebrows when he saw the bishop's reaction, knowing that this deal should be easy to do.
Ennis asked, "How much of this cloth is on board?"
Zhao Xiao stretched out his hand and gestured: "Fifty thousand horses."
After the merchant finished translating, Enis asked how much a piece of cloth cost.
This time Zhao Xiao did not speak, and Song Yutang beside him spoke up: "The 50,000 rolls of cloth are not all of the same kind. There are expensive silks and satins, and there are also cheaper cottons. I wonder which one you want, sir?"
After listening to the translation, Ennis thought for a moment and said, "As long as it's good."
"The price of this piece of silk you hold in your hand is ten gold coins."
The ten gold coins were estimated by Song Yutang based on the prices told by Antonio. It was not cheap but not outrageously expensive either.
These ten gold coins together weigh about fifteen taels of gold, which is equivalent to one hundred and fifty taels of silver.
The price of silk is already high. In Daqi, one piece of silk sells for about ten taels of silver. Although the price is much lower now that looms are popularized, they have traveled so far, so isn't it reasonable that the price should be dozens of times higher?
Ennis didn't say anything, but calculated in his mind how much he could sell the cloth for if he took it to other cities.
Then he asked his servant to bring some porcelain and looked at it.
The cool and warm porcelain is far more impactful than silk! He held the porcelain bowl in his trembling hands and mumbled a long paragraph. Although Zhao Xiao didn't understand, he could see that this thing must be easier to sell!
The merchant translated, "The bishop is asking what this thing is made of? Is it bone or stone? Are there many of these things on the ship?"
Zhao Xiao gave Song Yutang a look, and Song Yutang understood and said, "Please tell him that this is our Daqi-specific porcelain. It is very difficult to make and the raw materials are very expensive. Although it is exquisite, it is also fragile. It is not easy to transport it here. There are only 10,000 pieces on the ship, and the price is much higher."
Ennis looked at the merchant and listened to his translation: "No matter how big or small the porcelain is, it's ten gold coins each."
He touched the silk and looked at the porcelain, and finally left behind five thousand pieces of porcelain and ten thousand pieces of silk.
When ten full boxes of gold coins were carried out, Zhao Xiao's eyes widened. These barbarians are really stupid and have a lot of money!
No wonder Yuzhu asked them to bring so many porcelains. A piece of porcelain that cost a hundred or so coins in Daqi was worth hundreds of times more here! It was a very profitable business.
The group was also invited to have a sumptuous lunch at the Vatican. The food was not very good, the meat was not roasted well enough, and the bread, the staple food, had a sour taste. It was far worse than the chef at Daqi, but the wine made from grapes tasted OK, sour and sweet, Yuzhu would definitely like it, Zhao Xiao decided to bring some back for him to try.
After the meal, the soldiers began to transport goods from the ship. Zhao Xiao and his men would stay here for a few days to replenish food and fresh water on the ship.
Ennis allowed them to stay in the city, but on the condition that they were not allowed to sell goods to others.
Zhao Xiao understood that he was planning to monopolize the supply of goods and readily agreed.
The businessman who was responsible for translation took the initiative to act as their tour guide.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
