Chapter 198: First Arrival at Nanri Island

When the time was up, he began to gradually heat the glass tube at the tail with a gas flame, causing it to gradually fuse into a strip and then break naturally. This process required great care, and there could not be any gaps in the glass tube, otherwise all previous efforts would be wasted. Xiao Bailang’s sunglasses were almost touching the flame, and beads of sweat dripped from his protective hat.

“It’s done!” With a loud shout from Xiao Bailang, a complete and shiny thermos liner was finally born. It was carefully placed into the rattan-woven thermos shell and fixed.

“Fill it with boiling water!”

Mo Xiao’an saw that all the workers were sweating through their clothes, and the thick homespun protective clothing was soaked with sweat. He felt very sorry. The heat from the melting furnace and annealing kiln in the workshop made the temperature in the workshop nearly 50 degrees. The only cooling measure was the ventilation window on the top of the workshop, and the two large wooden barrels at the door—filled with oral physiological saline and cogon grass tea prepared by the pharmaceutical factory.

“It’s too hard,” Mo Xiao’an said with emotion.

“Factories are all like this.” Xiao Bailang drank a large cup of tea and swallowed a salt tablet. “The pharmaceutical factory also brought a lot of heatstroke medicine. The furnace workers rotate every fifteen minutes. There won’t be any accidents.”

After an hour, Mo Xiao’an poured water from the thermos—the water was still boiling hot. He then used an industrial thermometer to measure it, and the temperature had barely dropped.

The insulation effect of the test was satisfactory. Mo Xiao’an was greatly encouraged and told people to get many barrels of kvass from the food factory and distribute them to the workers as a reward. The native workers didn’t really understand the use of something made with so much trouble, but seeing Mo Xiao’an so happy, they knew that something good had probably been made, and they all laughed along.

“Let’s make some wide-mouthed thermos bottles.”

“We just need the machinery factory to open a few more molds,” Xiao Bailang readily agreed.

“Shopkeeper Lin, please—”

The young pirates standing by the side of the ship respectfully made a gesture of invitation. Lin Baiguang composed himself, put his hand on his arm, and calmly stepped from the deck to the gangway.

The gangway was roughly built and swayed when stepped on. The seawater flowed rapidly and hit against it under his feet, splashing everywhere. In the bay of Nanri Island, countless ships of all sizes were moored with their sails down. It was dusk, and wisps of cooking smoke rose from many ships.

For the first time in his life, Lin Baiguang finally saw a real pirate camp of the Ming Dynasty. Under the summer sunset, the bay was filled with an endless line of ships, with masts like a forest and sails like clouds.

Numerous ships of all sizes were lined up from the shore to the end of the bay. Lin Baiguang was almost dumbfounded. In the modern time and space, he had never seen so many ships at once. How could he not be surprised by the scene before him now?

This was not a modern industrial society, but an era where everything had to be done by hand. How much manpower and material resources would it take to build so many ships!

With such a fleet, setting sail, where could they not establish a brand new country! The Chinese had expanded on land to the limit of what an agricultural nation could survive, but they had stopped at sea, always hovering in the coastal waters, never taking this crucial step.

As Lin Baiguang sighed, a greedy look appeared in his eyes. It was a pity that such a huge fortune would soon disappear from the sea: either it would be turned into a raging torch at sea, or it would be swallowed up by Zheng Zhilong. Thinking of this, a sense of urgency enveloped him.

Most of the ships were small coastal fishing boats or cargo ships of forty or fifty tons. Their structure was simple, and they looked no different from the ordinary fishing boats he had seen in Lingao. Occasionally, there were some large ships of over a hundred tons mixed in, and even some Western-style sailing ships. Lin Baiguang noticed that almost every ship had cannons of different sizes and styles, mounted and tied to the deck in various ways. The pirates sat casually by the cannons, eating and smoking. There were even women and children on the ships.

This kind of large-settlement-style pirate group was really rare.

Suddenly, a woman’s scream came from a ship. Looking in the direction of the sound, he couldn’t help but be startled: he saw a woman tied naked to the side of the ship, and a thin pirate was whipping her bare back, buttocks, and thighs with a whip soaked in seawater. With each lash, the woman let out a scream that was enough to tear the eardrums, and she writhed desperately on the wood.

The men and women, old and young, on the ship, turned a blind eye and went about their own business, smoking.

Because of the distance, Lin Baiguang could only faintly hear the man’s scolding: “…What do you think you are? You pretend to be decent, but you don’t even look at the place! See if I don’t beat your stinking X, you still put on airs for me…”

This scene, full of SM flavor, made Lin Baiguang shudder—he reminded himself that he was facing such a group of people. They were almost unrestrained by any law or morality, and there was not a trace of pity in their hearts.

Shi Shisi led him ashore. Unlike what he had imagined, the pirates on Nanri Island had not built any stockades, fortresses, or other facilities at all. There were some ships on the shore that had been pulled onto the beach for repairs, and the pirates had built some thatched sheds as temporary shelters. Obviously, the pirates did not think that anyone could rush ashore and directly threaten them—the fleet was their fortress.

Because Lin Baiguang had already changed into Ming dynasty clothes in advance, he did not attract much attention. As he walked along, he saw a few open spaces on the shore enclosed by fences made of broken wood and stones. Pirates with swords and spears, waving whips, were guarding on all four sides. Inside, many people were squatting or lying down, men and women, old and young. There were rich people in silk and satin, and poor people in rags. But after squatting in this place that was neither sheltered from the wind nor the rain for ten days or a few months, many people were already pale and filthy. A few people were hanging on the wooden stakes outside the fence, probably already dead, with flies buzzing around them.

There was probably a graveyard outside the fence, not buried deep, emitting a disgusting stench.

“This is the ticket office,” Shi Shisi said. “The tickets captured from all over the place are all locked up here.”

“Why bother capturing such poor ghosts?” Lin Baiguang said with feigned surprise.

“When we go ashore to plunder, where do we have time to distinguish between the rich and the poor? We just take them all in one go,” Shi Shisi said.

“Since they can’t pay the ransom, what’s the use of capturing them?”

“Just like you Australians, we use them for work,” Shi Shisi said with a smile. “We are not as clever as you, and we can’t make so many exquisite goods, but there are all kinds of miscellaneous jobs in the big gang. It’s also convenient to have some subordinates who don’t cost money.”

Those who were captured and could not pay the ransom were all used for labor, from cutting firewood, making fires, repairing ships, to carrying water. They slept in the open and ate irregularly—the pirates did not care about the life and death of these captives. If they could survive for a few months without dying, the leader might be kind enough to release them. If the big gang was short of people, they would be pulled to be pirates.

The slightly good-looking women were used to satisfy physiological needs. When everyone got tired of them, they would be sold on the mainland, and sometimes sold to Southeast Asia—although the Chinese merchants doing business in Southeast Asia could get by with native women, the women from China were more favored by them—and could be sold for a good price.

Lin Baiguang followed him through the ticket office and saw from a distance a complete stockade on a small hill by the sea, with the banner of Zhu Cailao flying on it. He couldn’t help but be surprised. This stockade was so neat and orderly! When he got closer, he saw that the stockade wall had collapsed in many places, and the houses in the stockade had also collapsed. Looking at the watchtowers and flagpole bases on the stockade wall, he knew that this was originally a Ming army water stockade, which had been abandoned for a long time and then occupied by pirates.

Around the stockade, many sheds and tents were densely built, which were probably the residences of Zhu Cailao’s trusted subordinates and leaders of all sizes. There were also more pirates with swords and bamboo spears. Lin Baiguang knew that this place was probably close to Zhu Cailao’s headquarters.

The group walked all the way towards the abandoned Ming army stockade. Along the way, they constantly encountered small groups of patrolling pirates. Compared with the refugee-like pirates they met by the sea, they seemed to be more capable, which showed that they were getting closer and closer to Zhu Cailao’s central army.

However, even in Lin Baiguang’s unprofessional eyes, Zhu Cailao’s land camp was not very brilliant. It was obvious that it was randomly arranged without any rules. The sentries and patrols were very casual, and the defense in many places was very lax, just for show.

Such a group of pirates, who seemed to be of average level, could also repeatedly land and go deep into the inland to plunder prefectures and counties, and most of them were invincible. Either his strongest men were not on Nanri Island, or his opponents were really too bad. Lin Baiguang thought the latter was more likely.

The assessment of the combat effectiveness of the Ming army had always had two extremes in the transmigrator group. One was that it was vulnerable, and that a few hundred men with guns could fight all over Guangdong and even take Nanjing directly. The other was that no matter how bad the enemy was, they were still a regular army, and no matter how strong we were, we were still amateurs. It would be difficult to win without full body armor, AK-47s, and Maxim machine guns.

Now it seemed that at least the Ming army in Guangdong and Fujian was nothing to be afraid of. A person of Zhu Cailao’s level could also run rampant in Guangdong and Fujian provinces, leaving the Ming army helpless. Judging from the equipment, training, and discipline of the Lingao County Security Regiment, it was not certain that they could fight one against ten, but there was no doubt that they could defeat an enemy three or four times their size.

After walking for a while, although they were still at a considerable distance, Lin Baiguang could still clearly see under the clear sky that the big flag on the stockade was embroidered with the large character “Zhu,” and next to it was another flag embroidered with “Commander of the Three Armies.”

This Ming army flag was also hung by the pirates. Lin Baiguang was speechless. It seemed that even rebels like bandits and pirates had the weakness of worshiping the system.

When they arrived outside the stockade gate, Shi Shisi stopped. He said a few words to the young pirate on guard, then turned back and said:

“Shopkeeper Lin! Please sit here for a while. Allow me to go in and report first,” Shi Shisi said. “If the big boss is in the stockade, he will see you soon.”

“Okay, you go ahead.” Lin Baiguang nodded. Shi Shisi said a few words to the people around him and went in by himself. The young pirates here brought a table and chairs, asked him to sit down, and brought a bowl of tea.

Lin Baiguang saw that the tea bowl was chipped, and there was a circle of stains on the edge. The tea was yellow and he didn’t know what it tasted like. He suppressed his disgust, took a big gulp, and smacked his lips, pretending to be satisfied.

The tea was both bitter and astringent, and had a salty and fishy smell of seawater. Lin Baiguang said, “I finally got a bowl of tea!”

The pirate who brought the tea smiled: “We don’t know if the tea is good or not, but this water is salty and bitter. It’s really hard to drink without adding some tea leaves.”

Although there was fresh water on Nanri Island, it could not withstand the gathering of more than 10,000 people. Drinking water was a big problem every day. Most people had to dig wells on the spot to get water. On such a small island, the groundwater was more or less infiltrated by seawater, and they could only barely get by.

Although the pirates guarding the gate did not know who he was, Lin Baiguang was brought by Shi Shisi, so his status was obviously not low. He was dressed neither rich nor poor, and his whole body exuded a capable air. Everyone guessed that he was probably a fellow from some other group. They were also a little more polite when they greeted him: the big boss’s days had not been easy recently, and a fellow coming was probably to discuss an alliance.

Lin Baiguang also deliberately led them to talk. He had been an office director and was particularly good at talking and building relationships. He had his own set of eloquent skills, and soon he struck up a conversation with the few guards at the gate and became familiar with them.

Soon, Lin Baiguang learned some things from these few young pirates: the fleet gathered here was basically all of Zhu Cailao’s property. It was said that the big boss was going to take them to “do a big job.” They didn’t know what big job it was, but Lin Baiguang knew. It obviously referred to the attack on Min’an.

Lin Baiguang did not inquire about sensitive matters such as the number of ships and people. He felt that this was not something to be concerned about. What he wanted to grasp was the morale and supply situation of the pirates. When the troops were routed, it was crucial to pull away the men. From the bits and pieces of conversation with the pirates, he could feel that the pirates’ morale was not high—gathering such a large group of people together, the daily food, drink, and sanitation was a huge trouble. In order to supply food and vegetables, they had to send out fleets to search every day. Even so, there were still ships that ran out of food from time to time. Some small groups had already left because of the difficulty in getting food and the inconvenience of getting water.

“It’s only us here in the central army who don’t have to worry about food and drink every day, and sometimes we can even have some meat. The other small groups are all living from hand to mouth, so they have to fish every day,” a pirate said proudly.

He didn’t know how long this rambling conversation lasted. Just when Lin Baiguang had already drunk his fourth bowl of tea and was about to give up, a loud conch shell sound suddenly came from the central army camp.

“The big boss is holding court!” the young leader said. “The big boss probably wants to see you right away.”

As the conch shell sound echoed through the camp, many small groups of pirates suddenly appeared, all with their swords drawn, and rushed to the stockade walls and both sides of the road to line up.

This was to show the majesty of the welcome. Lin Baiguang thought to himself.

On the one hand, this was a sign of respect for him as an envoy. On the other hand, it was a show of force. Perhaps it was both, and it all depended on how he responded.

Looking at the lively and chaotic scene in front of him, Lin Baiguang was filled with emotion. He had gone against the opinions of the crowd and came here alone on a risky adventure, all in order to infiltrate the pirate group. Zhu Cailao, this hero who roamed the seas, probably never dreamed that the purpose of his arrival was actually to undermine him—

Just as he was thinking, a few neatly dressed pirates ran out from the road inside the main gate and shouted from a distance, “May I ask which one is the fellow who has come?”

From his shout, Lin Baiguang guessed that Zhu Cailao was not willing to leak the news of his arrival. As for why he did this, he still didn’t understand. He could only act according to the circumstances.

Lin Baiguang cupped his hands and said, “It is I!”

The leader returned the salute and then said, “This fellow, our big boss invites you to rest in the old camp first! Please!”

It turned out that the pirates also called it the “old camp.” Was this term commonly used in the Ming army?

Lin Baiguang nodded, and cupped his hands in a four-directional bow to the few pirates on guard at the gate, saying, “Brothers, thank you for your care! We will meet again!”

The crowd hurriedly and respectfully returned the salute. They all felt that this fellow was very good at handling things and had perfect etiquette, but they didn’t know which hero he was.

When they reached the gate of the old camp along the road, two lines of troops had already been arranged outside the gate to welcome Lin Baiguang’s arrival.

This group of people was neatly dressed, with shining weapons, and looked very fierce. They were obviously Zhu Cailao’s elite and trusted subordinates. Compared with the refugee-like pirates seen along the way, they were like heaven and earth.

The weapons in the hands of the pirates lined up on both sides of the road glittered in the sun, and one could feel the imposing momentum at a glance. They all held Ming army standard long spears and wore Japanese katanas. On their indifferent faces were pairs of fierce eyes, shooting out a terrifying light.

Under the gaze of the wolf-like pirates on both sides, Lin Baiguang walked onto the road leading to the central army. The silent pressure was indeed terrifying—in the past, when Lin Baiguang saw such scenes in movies and TV shows, he only felt that they were pretentious. Only when he was in the situation could he feel the terror. For a time, his face turned a little pale, and he felt that he could hardly breathe.

At this moment, Shi Shisi, who had gone in to report earlier, ran out and shouted loudly, “Please welcome the distinguished guest!!”

Lin Baiguang forced himself to calm down—since it had come to this, it was useless to be afraid. He couldn’t help but close his eyes and pray to heaven in his heart:

“Transmigrator seniors who are struggling in various time and space, please transmit your protagonist aura to me through time and space!” After praying secretly several times, when he opened his eyes again, he only felt that his whole body was full of strength, and there was a faint halo behind him, with two large characters written on it: “Protagonist.”

“Thank you for leading the way!”

After following Shi Shisi for a while, a gate appeared on the road ahead. A pirate by the gate shouted:

“Take off your swords!”

“I don’t have one,” Lin Baiguang said calmly. “Does this brother want to search me?”

“No need, no need!” Shi Shisi hurried over to negotiate with the person. He had accompanied him all the way and knew that this Shopkeeper Lin was unarmed and completely empty-handed.