Dragon Sea Empire

The villagers of Youfandi Village, the servants of the Zeng family, and the gang of pirates were fighting each other.However, although the group of pirates had a large number of people, they didn't seem to have any intention of hurting anyone, they just surrounded each other.

Yin Feng took out the revolver, raised his hand to the sky and pulled the trigger.

The gun didn't go off, and Yin Feng held the gun high in embarrassment, maintaining this posture.Zeng Jingshan rushed forward at some point and said loudly, "Hurry up and light the match!"

Yin Feng was even more embarrassed, and said bitterly: "This kind of handgun doesn't use a match." Then he pulled the trigger hard, but there was still no sound.

Zeng Jingshan didn't believe that the pistol could be fired without a match, so he took out a scythe from his arms and handed it to Yin Feng: "Master Yin, light it up!"

Yin Feng was in a cold sweat, and decided to try again, and if it didn't work, he would throw away this useless thing.

"Boom!" The gun finally rang.

Yin Feng shook his hand and almost dropped the pistol.He has no experience in using classical pistols, the gunpowder is obviously loaded too much, and the spring blade is a bit slack after not being used for a long time.However, because there were too many medicines, the sound was very loud after firing, and Zeng Jingshan on the side was so scared that he sat down on the ground.He never expected that this weird pistol could be fired without an open flame.

The chaotic crowd fell silent, Yin Feng took a torch from a villager nearby, and strode towards the pirates.

"Who is the leader of your affairs, come out and speak!"

He saw that most of the pirates in front of him were in tattered clothes, yellow and thin, and looked more like refugees than the local villagers.This completely destroyed his good imagination of the pirates of the Ming Dynasty. Thinking back to Wang Zhi, Li Dayong and Lin Guoxian, Xu Dong and Xu Chaoguang, "Flying Dragon Lord" Zhang Lian, Wu Ping, Zeng Yiben, Lin Daoqian and Lin Feng (above) He is a celebrity in the history of Chinese piracy in the Ming Dynasty), all of them were masters of thousands of miles of seas and territories, and they sailed thousands of times.

But the gang of local pirates in front of them is almost a collection of beggars, and even the weapons in their hands are just harpoons and clubs, and knives and guns are rare, let alone firearms.Moreover, several of them have brown skin and curly hair, which are obviously the characteristics of Malays in Southeast Asia.Yin Feng thought: "It's still a transnational pirate gang!"

"I'm everyone's second driver, who are you?" A big man stood out from the crowd, with a beard so that people couldn't see his age clearly.

"Second driver?" Yin Feng couldn't understand.On the one hand, Zeng Jingshan leaned forward and said: "The second driver is the second master, as the slang in the world says."

"I was sent by the Zeng family to redeem someone. Are you Li Mao's people?"

The big man grinned: "Have you brought food? We can clearly write it down..."

It seems that they care more about food than money.Yin Feng sneered secretly, waved his big hand and said, "They are all in the cart behind, you withdraw them all, and send someone to collect them. I have to see if the second young master of the Zeng family is safe."

The bearded man's accent is obviously from the Jiangsu area, and this group of pirates really came from all corners of the country.

While ordering his subordinates to retreat, the big man squinted at Yin Feng: "Boy, aren't you tied?"

"Jiejiao?" Yin Feng couldn't understand again. While loading his pistol with ammunition, he turned his head and looked at Zeng Jingshan.

"Jiejiao refers to the Zaoli servants of the government in the black dialect of the Jianghu." Zeng Jingshan translated in time.

"of course not!"

When he was taken onto the pirate ship by some pirates, the person sitting on the bow was actually a black man!That's right, it's a black man, with oily black skin under the moonlight, curly hair and a broad nose, a typical African black man!Yin Feng was taken aback, and a little pirate who was at most thirteen or fourteen years old said, "This is the Hei Fangui rescued by our master at sea, and they are said to be Kunlun slaves."

The black African was probably a Portuguese or Spanish slave.Yin Feng asked casually: "What is he doing on the boat?"

"It's been half a year on the ship, and I can't speak well, and he doesn't understand anything. Fortunately, he has great strength and can use it to lift heavy objects." The little pirate next to him was willing to talk to Yin Feng, and the "second driver" patted Yin Feng. His head scolded: "Speak too much, go and call big brother!"

At this time, Yin Feng found that the crew members were carrying grain. Some of them couldn't wait to grab the miscellaneous grains and stuffed them into their mouths. Some shouted, "Start the fire and cook!" It seemed that they had been hungry for several days.

The little pirate quickly rushed into the cabin, and after a while under the light of several torches, Zeng Yue and a medium-sized man in his 40s appeared on the deck of the ship.Zeng Yue looked haggard, but he wasn't tied up and didn't seem to be hurt.

The strange thing is that the two appeared together and seemed to be still chatting, and there was no mortal situation.Is it Stockholm Syndrome?

Seeing Yin Feng, Zeng Yue smiled wryly and said, "I guess it's you too." He turned to the rough but shrewd middle-aged man and said, "This is Mr. Yin Feng, who returned from the West."

He introduced to Yin Feng: "This is the owner of our ship, Zeng Erjiao." He coughed: "My distant brother..."

"Brother" is a Chaozhou dialect, which means elder brother.Although Yin Feng expected that this group of pirates had a relationship with the Zeng family, he didn't expect that it was not only the combination of officials and robbers, but also the relationship between the officials and robbers' family.

Zeng Erjiao cupped his hands and said: "There is a reason for the incident, I was forced by the government to make such a bad plan."

Zeng Yue was hijacked on the official road near the sea on the way to Wanzhou.Zeng Erjiao and his gang have been veteran pirates for many years, and they are indeed partners of Li Mao's gang of pirates.He started his business from his hometown in Chaozhou, split or combined with other sea heroes, and has been haunting the southeast coast for more than 20 years. He is also a businessman and a thief. He often does business with the Zengqi family who has moved to Quanzhou.

Since the opening of Yuegang to the sea, Macau's trade has flourished, and it has become increasingly difficult for pirates along the coast to do business; all major merchants have provided their own ships to go overseas for direct trade, and the re-export business market for pirates has become smaller and smaller; plus The last glory of the Jiajing Japanese pirate era, the Lin Feng fleet failed to attack Manila in Luzon, and was jointly suppressed by the Spaniards and the Ming Dynasty government, and finally had to leave Nanyang.As a result, Zeng Erjiao's fleet lost its cover, and became a thorn in the eyes of various overseas merchants and government officials, and completely reduced to pirates who robbed their homes.

Over the years, they have hung the banner of Zeng Yiben and Lin Feng. After being driven to Hainan Island by the Guangdong army, they took the name of Li Maoyu Party.But not only were they attacked by the government, but their original partners, the Portuguese, also began to attack them.

After the merger of Spain and Portugal, the King of Spain ordered that no entrepot trade should be conducted between the colonial ports of Spain and Portugal.At this time, the Portuguese had gradually lost the brave and pioneering spirit they had when they first came to the Far East, and they were content to keep the port of Macau and the important trade routes of Macau-Malacca-India-Europe.Therefore, the Portuguese used the pretext of using the Pope's decree to divide the power of Spain and Portugal, and the Spanish King Philip's charter to monopolize these shipping routes, and attacked those pirates from various countries that threatened the trade routes, and also attacked those Chinese merchant ships that attempted to trade with other countries.

This era is a period of decline in the entire Northwest Pacific Ocean, the traditional activity area of ​​Chinese pirates.

Before coming to Yazhou, the pirate gang formed by the Zeng family's two boats had been hunted down by the government for many days, and they didn't even have the time to go ashore to grab food.They fled from the coast of Guangdong to Yazhou, where they evaded hunting in countless well-developed harbors for about [-] miles.

In the past, before Zeng Qi became an official in Yazhou, Zeng Erjiao's pirate gang had maintained a secret trade relationship with the Zeng family. After Zeng Qi took office in Yazhou four years ago, Zeng Erjiao's gang came twice to sell Zeng's goods to Malacca.Zeng Erjiao originally planned to do this kind of smuggling business again, so he quit and went to Nanyang to retire.However, this year, all the merchants in the Zeng family and Yazhou no longer sell to him, because they are all waiting for the Western Fanship, which will come in January next year, to come directly to the transaction, so that the profit will be higher, and there will be no need They act as middlemen.Therefore, Zeng Erjiao and others have been in Yazhou for half a month, and no business has been negotiated.They didn't dare to go ashore to plunder, for fear of alarming the government and being hunted down again.

In the end, therefore, they became almost refugees at sea, and dozens of them have disembarked without permission.The desperate Zeng Erjiao had no choice but to use his distant relatives for surgery, kidnap people and ask for money, and after getting a little bit, he ran away to Nanyang.In the past few days, Zeng Erjiao and his gang hid in a small bay near Yulingang, and they also sent their local accomplices ashore to collect supplies, but they didn't get much.

Now this group of pirates is unloading the food that Zeng's family brought to redeem people, and moving it to the ship, and at the same time they can't wait to start a fire and cook.Yin Feng could not help feeling sympathetic after listening to Jiao Erye's intermittent and chaotic self-report.He couldn't help sighing: "What is Master Jiao going to do now?"

"My name is a bad account. After finishing this vote, I will go to Nanyang. I just don't know how the situation in Nanyang is."

Yin Feng enthusiastically suggested: "Go to Malacca, or go south to Banten and Old Port. There are now Dutch people, that is, Hongmao Yi, who are doing business. All Chinese are needed. As long as I go to Ming Dynasty, I will do business. work in the land, and they want it all."

He took out a piece of paper from his pocket with some Portuguese writing on it. "Here is a well-known assassin of the Frangji fan business in Malacca. They have business contacts all over the world. You can ask him for help."

Zeng Erjiao was overjoyed, and took the note from Bernardo, a new Christian --- it was Bernardo's contact address to Yin Feng --- tremblingly said: "Is this person reliable?"

"Don't worry, as long as you report my name, he will receive you. Their family is a famous and big family in Malacca."

Zeng Erjiao called a Malay guy and said, "Ah Er, look what's written on it?"

The young Malay pirate took the note in embarrassment, looked at it, scratched his scalp, and said in Cantonese with a strange accent: "This is the text of the Frangji people. I don't understand it. I can't recognize the characters." of……"

"Go to hell, it's useless." Master Jiao pushed the Malay pirates away, turned his head and said with a smile, "It's Western characters, that's right, I believe you."

Yin Feng thought in his heart: You are really an old pirate, you are so careful...

"Thank you for your kindness, Brother Yin, I will repay you when I have a chance in the future!" Zeng Erjiao stood up and said to Zeng Yue: "Brother, don't blame my brother for acting recklessly, there is really no other way. Now, You can leave. Go back and tell Second Uncle that I will leave this time, and I won't bother him again, and the grievances and grievances will be settled from now on. "

Zeng Yue sighed, clasped his fists in a wordless salute, and nodded to Yin Feng: "Brother Yin, I'm sorry."

The two were about to get off the boat, but there was a commotion on the boat, and a group of people were dragged out from the low hold.These people were tied together with ropes. There were about a dozen of them, and some of them struggled and resisted.The pirates who were transporting food to the bilge stepped forward one after another, punching and kicking.

Seeing Yin Feng standing still, Zeng Yue frowned, worried that his sense of justice would overflow again, he hurriedly pulled him back and said in a low voice: "This is the people that Lord Jiao is going to sell in Nanyang, you can't save them! Go away! !"

Indeed, during this period, both Chinese and foreign pirates were concurrently engaged in the business of human trafficking.For the kidnapping business done by people like Zeng Erjiao, if the corresponding ransom cannot be obtained, the kidnapped meat tickets may be sold to port cities in Southeast Asia and become slaves of Western colonists or Nanyang aborigines.

Yin Feng's sense of justice from another time and space made him completely unacceptable to this kind of human trafficking, but now he has nothing to do.He shook his head and said, "These are all citizens of Daming, are they being sold to Nanyang like this?"

Suddenly, a sharp scream came from the "living cargo", and Yin Feng couldn't help shaking; he heard this scream on the night when the Portuguese landed in Yazhou for food. Dantou Maibo heard it outside his house.

Yin Feng pulled out his revolving musket, turned around and ran towards the boat, Zeng Yue didn't hold him back, stamped his feet anxiously, but had no choice but to follow him and run back.

"Stop!" Yin Feng yelled, kicked away the Malay pirate who was beating Mai Wan'er, and put his gun on the forehead of the "second driver" who was drawing a knife, the bearded man: "Be careful of the handgun!"

"Stop!" It was Zeng Erjiao shouting, he parted from the crowd and walked in front of Yin Feng, all the pirates surrounded Yin Feng in the middle.

Yin Feng pushed the bearded man away, put down his gun and said, "Master Jiao, you can't take this girl away."

The bearded man was furious: "We're going to beat you, we don't care about you, you..." As soon as Lord Jiao raised his hand, the bearded man immediately shut up.

(Handling: Ming Dynasty Jianghu lingo refers to buying and selling young women)

Zeng Erjiao looked at the trembling girl behind Yin Feng, and frowned: "This is the daughter of Dantou of Dadan Gang, and I have an unsettled account with Mai Tou, so I just tied her up. "

He waved his hand and asked the pirates to lean back: "I consider you a friend, as long as you tell the reason, I can release you."

"The Mai family has a kindness to me. They are my saviors, and I can't watch their girls being sold to Nanyang." Yin Feng took out a few ingots of silver from his arms: "Master Jiao, I know that the dragon you are looking at Sleepy shallows, life is hard, and I won’t let you suffer. I’ll pay you how much you want to redeem someone.”

Zeng Erjiao nodded: "Okay, you know how to repay your kindness, and you have a sense of loyalty; so I don't want your money, so take this Mai family's boy and go. Let old man Mai know; the 50 taels of pearls will be paid next time." I will accept it from him again.” (Zouzai: the meaning of daughter in Chaozhou dialect)

……

It was twilight, and the Zeng family and their party had experienced a tense night, and now they were all standing on the beach of Fandi Village, watching the two dilapidated pirate ships sailing towards the end of the sky.

Yin Feng watched the blue sea gradually unfold in the morning light, and the shadows of sails on the endless sea gradually disappeared.This vast South China Sea is now a paradise for Western adventurers to travel freely, and in the world before Yin Feng traveled, this South China Sea is not worthy of its name, and has not completely become China's sea.

Yin Feng's dream of becoming rich is also pinned on this sea.

"There is a man in the sea!!" Suddenly, a servant of Zeng's family yelled, and everyone looked at a reef together: sure enough, a figure was standing up from the sea, his whole body was pitch black.

It was the black man on Zeng Erjiao's pirate ship.