Chapter 50: Haggling

“I’m very busy! The gentlemen of the Jesuit order always have many things to entrust to me,” Lando said with a grand air, twisting his mustache—which he had grown specifically to enhance his manliness.

“Is that so?” the black female slave said. “Would you be interested in doing a small favor for my master in your busy schedule?”

“Who is your master?”

“This,” the black female slave held up the money bag. “Do you find my answer satisfactory?”

The heavy money bag looked like it contained at least three hundred Spanish pesos. This was a great temptation for the cash-strapped Lando. After the nightmare, his enthusiasm for defecting to Lingao had waned considerably. With this money, he could at least get by in Macau for a while longer.

“It would be even better if you had two masters,” Lando said. “Alright, tell me, what is it?”

“You are an excellent soldier.”

“That’s right.”

“You have served Aragones,” the black woman said.

“Yes. I haven’t been able to serve him since he went bankrupt. It’s a pity,” Lando said. This Spanish playboy hadn’t dared to return to Manila since losing his ship and was now hanging around Macau, in a worse state than him. It was unlikely that this person would come to recruit him.

“You have been to Lingao.”

Lando suddenly became alert. Not many people in Macau knew that he had participated in Aragones’s adventure to attack Lingao. Aragones had kept a strict secret when he set sail. After his disastrous defeat and escape back to Macau, he was even more reticent about such a humiliating defeat. As for the sailors on the ship at that time, they were either from Europe or Malays recruited from the various islands of the South China Sea. They only knew how to sail and didn’t know where they were going. The few who knew had either died in the night raid that night or in the battle with Zheng Zhilong.

As for himself, he had never boasted about participating in this operation.

How did this black woman know that he had been to Lingao?

“Does this have anything to do with you?”

“No, but my master wants to know.”

“Your master must know about this!” Lando thought. Who was this person? What did this sneaky person want him to do?

“I can’t say I’ve been there,” Lando said cautiously. “I’ve been in the port of Lingao, that’s all.”

“You also saved Aragones’s life on the South China Sea.”

“Saving him was a side matter.”

“Are you willing to go to Lingao again?”

“That depends on what I’m going there for.” Lando realized that this person knew what had happened on the Countess of Scarborough.

“To ask a capable person like you, it’s certainly not a simple matter.”

“Alright. You black devil girl, you little bitch, hurry up and say it: what does your master want me to do?” Lando began to get impatient. He said with an arrogant expression—he was a man of status here, a nobleman. Talking so much with this ugly black woman was beneath his dignity.

A look of venomous resentment appeared in the black woman’s slanted yellow eyes, but she continued, “My master, she, he hopes you will go to Lingao once, under any identity—to find out how their fortress is laid out, how far their cannons can shoot, what weaknesses their armaments have… everything about the Australians’ defenses in Lingao.”

“Hmph, your master has designs on Lingao, doesn’t he?” Lando said.

The other party remained silent.

“Many people here have been to Lingao. Why are you looking for me?” Lando was puzzled. There were ships going to Lingao from Macau every week, and there were many merchants who went to Lingao to sell goods.

“It is my master’s order,” the black female slave said. “He said, you know the Australians better than anyone here.”

This made Lando dumbfounded. What did that mean? This could be interpreted in many ways, but at this moment, it felt like it had hit him right where it hurt.

“Better than anyone here!”

For a moment, he even thought he had been exposed, and his grand nobleman’s air deflated considerably.

Lando’s first reaction was to refuse, but now he didn’t dare to act rashly. He had a vague feeling that the other party knew something.

He became cautious. “This task is very difficult.”

“Four hundred Spanish pesos.”

“I want eight hundred.”

“Six hundred. Here are three hundred,” the black woman took out a money bag. “You will be given another three hundred when you return.”

“Deal.” Six hundred pesos was a very good deal.

“How long will you need?”

“One month.”

“I will be waiting for you here in a month.”

“Alright.” Lando then said to the stall owner, “Come, give me a bowl of your soybean milk. It’s too dark here.”

---

Half an hour later, the black female slave reported the details of her meeting with Lando to Li Siya.

“He really asked for six hundred,” Li Siya commented with a bored air.

It had been more than a year since she had fled from Bopu in a small boat. This female conspirator in Macau, this female pirate on the South China Sea, continued to play her tricks and engage in her adventures. Sometimes she served one person, sometimes she advised another. When there was a good opportunity, she would not refuse a profitable sea robbery.

The more chaotic the situation at sea, the better her business. Even her fickle stance gave her many opportunities that others did not have. All sides hoped to use her as a channel to connect with some other party and have a word. The game of vertical and horizontal alliances was also popular among many people on the South China Sea.

Li Siya, as a pirate and a mercenary at sea, had become a figure of the moment. She would appear in Manila one moment, in Batavia the next, then show up in Guangzhou, and then in Tayouan.

She was a guest of honor to all the sea lords, governors, commanders, and commercial agents. Everyone asked her to do things for them, generously paying her large sums of money or granting her the privilege of transporting goods. But everyone was also secretly on guard against her.

However, Li Siya knew that her good days of having it both ways would not last long.

After Zheng Zhilong became an official of the Chinese, he could use the power of the Ming government to continuously supplement his ships and men from the mainland. Xiong Wencan even directly sponsored him with cannons and ships. The goods he transported to Japan also did not need to be secretly purchased but were bought openly and transported to Zhongzuosuo without any obstruction. In contrast, Kuiqi’s situation was much worse. Although he had many more men and ships than Zheng Zhilong at the beginning, it was difficult to supplement them, and his sea trade business was constantly being hit by Zheng Zhilong. Liu Xiang on the Guangdong sea, although at odds with Zheng Zhilong, was not Li Kuiqi’s ally. After Zhu Cailao was destroyed, most of the remaining forces were absorbed by Zheng Zhilong, and the rest were taken in by Liu Xiang and Lingao. Liu Xiang’s power surged, and he was eager to eliminate an opponent to take his power to the next level and become the undisputed hegemon of the southeast coast of China.

Li Siya estimated that Zheng Zhilong’s chances of winning were very high, not only because he had the support of the government, but also because his foundation was much deeper than Liu Xiang’s. He had deep influence with both the Portuguese and the Japanese. Once Li Kuiqi was destroyed, Liu Xiang’s destruction would be imminent.

After Zheng Zhilong eliminated all his opponents, he would forcibly establish a new order at sea here. Not only would the Portuguese be helpless, but even the Dutch would not necessarily be his match.

So recently, Li Siya’s activities had begun to favor serving Zheng Zhilong’s potential opponents—she still didn’t dare to openly offend Zheng Zhilong. To be precise, she was serving the Dutch.

She had just met with the private representative of the Governor-General of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia, de Carpentier—Savagie Gonzalez. This man was a real Spaniard and had been a Spanish officer in the past. After being dishonorably discharged, he was destitute and had to try his luck in Manila. After failing to find good luck in Manila, he simply went to the Dutch side and became an officer of the East India Company.

The Dutch East India Company welcomed all European dregs who were willing to serve it. The death rate of white people in the East Indies was very high, and the governor-general needed a large number of soldiers, officers, and commercial personnel, so basically, they accepted everyone who came. However, for Catholics like the Spanish, serving the Dutch had the danger of losing one’s soul—the Dutch allowed religious freedom in their home country, but in the East Indies, all company personnel had to participate in Protestant religious ceremonies, otherwise it was considered treason, and they could be hanged at any time—the laws of the East India Company were known for their harshness and ruthlessness.

Savagie Gonzalez had no way out and had to risk losing his soul to serve the Dutch. As an experienced former Spanish artillery officer, he served as an artillery officer in the army of the East India Company and participated in several expeditions, including the unsuccessful expedition to the Pescadores Islands (Penghu Islands) a few years ago. At that time, on a hastily built battery, he commanded three 12-pounder cannons, facing a dense sea of junks and a continuous stream of Chinese soldiers pouring onto the land.

After the failure of the expedition to the Pescadores, he followed the fleet to Tayouan and built a castle there. Savagie Gonzalez served as the commander of the local fortress artillery for a period of time. During this time, he exchanged fire with raiding Chinese pirates and local natives several times. He survived the battles and diseases.

He gradually gained trust. When the governor-general needed someone to enter the Portuguese colony, the Spaniard Savagie Gonzalez became a suitable candidate. A real Spaniard was obviously safer to sneak into Macau than a Dutchman—Macau had the mortal enemies of the Dutch, the Jesuits. Moreover, this former Spanish artillery officer would be of great use in the next step of the governor-general’s plan.

Savagie Gonzalez was tall and stout. He had lost an eye in a battle with the Turks in his early years and had become one-eyed. He wore an eye patch, and his scars outlined the image of an “out-and-out soldier.”

Savagie Gonzalez came to Macau as an unemployed veteran and soon got in touch with Li Siya’s agent in a tavern. He then visited this legendary female pirate and delivered the governor-general’s letter.

In the letter, the governor-general asked Li Siya to provide intelligence on Lingao, including the true situation of the so-called “Australians”—there were many legends about them, and some of their goods had also been circulated to the East Indies and various places in India. But so far, no one had seen the long-distance trading ships of the Australians appear on the sea.

His Excellency the Governor-General was very interested in knowing: what kind of people were the so-called Australians? Were they white? Were the Australians interested in trade? Was the castle built in Lingao for trade with China? If so, what was their current trade situation? What attitude did the Chinese government hold towards them? What was the state of the Australians’ iron ships and cannons? Were their performances exaggerated? How many people were there in Lingao? Were there any black people, Malays, Japanese, Europeans, or Chinese serving them? Were these people armed? How many of them were firearms, and what were their performances…

There were a total of one hundred and twenty-five questions in the letter.

The more Li Siya read, the more suspicious she became. If the previous questions were still general intelligence, then the later questions about the Australian army, weapons, and the port conditions and defenses of Lingao were all military in nature.

What did the Dutch want to know this for? Li Siya thought, “Do they want to make a move on the Australians?” The geographical environment of Lingao was not the best, but it was much closer to the coast of China than Taiwan, and it was on the transportation line from the East Indies to mainland China. If the Dutch occupied this place…

“These questions are worth at least five thousand guilders,” Li Siya said to the visitor after reading the letter.

“This is one thousand guilders,” Gonzalez said generously, taking out a leather bag. “You will be given another two thousand after you have answered all of them.”

“I want five thousand guilders—expenses are extra,” Li Siya said. “This job is very tricky. I have to spend a lot of money myself.”

“I only have this authority,” Savagie Gonzalez said. “But the Governor-General said that if your intelligence is accurate, he can pay more.”

“What if it’s not accurate?” Li Siya said with a smile, taking a sip of wine.

“That is not for me to know,” Gonzalez bowed.

“I need time to answer your questions. It will probably take one or two months,” Li Siya said. “Are you going back or waiting here for my reply?”

“Of course, I’m staying here.” Although Mr. Gonzalez was not very devout, and being forced to participate in Protestant prayers every day made him very uncomfortable, it was better than anything to be able to temporarily escape this religious servitude—and Macau, whether in terms of climate or food, was much better than the East Indies.

“You can stay at the ‘Crown Inn.’ The food is very good, and there are some women you might be interested in,” Li Siya said, taking out a money bag from her drawer. “This is three hundred reals.”

After Savagie Gonzalez took his leave, she sent for Li Chun—also known as Li Huamei. She had just returned from Goa and was resting.

“Your business, I’m afraid, is not going to work out,” Li Siya said to her foster sister. “The Dutch are after Lingao.”

“The cheese-eating folks are asking for trouble,” Li Huamei said, sitting on a soft cushion—this posture was a bit presumptuous for her status. But they were more like partners than master and servant.

Unlike her young mistress, who focused more on intrigue, Li Huamei preferred to do things directly, whether it was business or piracy at sea.

“I actually quite like the Australians, although they are a bit silly,” Li Huamei giggled. “They call themselves captains without even knowing how to climb a mast.”

But whether she liked them or not didn’t matter to Li Siya. The key was the matter of profit.

According to Li Huamei’s view, the Dutch alone could not eliminate the Australians in Lingao. Li Huamei had seen the Australian cannons fire, and had seen their defense system and iron ships. Bopu Port was impossible to be taken by a frontal assault—back when Bopu Port didn’t have heavy cannons, the combined attack of the Spanish and Liu Xiang was still defeated. What’s more, they had now fortified Bopu.

“Just from what I’ve seen, Bopu has two almost impregnable batteries,” Li Huamei marked on the map. “One is on the old beacon tower, with a heavy cannon on it that can shoot almost a league away. Then there’s their ‘Holy Ship,’ on the foredeck, which also has a similar large cannon.”

Li Siya looked at the line of fire of the cannons on the map—the coverage of these two cannons was too wide! Any ship that got close to Bopu would be within range. The Australian cannons were simply incredible.

But the most frightening thing was not such large cannons. Li Siya knew that the firing rate of heavy cannons was very slow. A 12-pounder cannon could fire about one shot per minute. According to the size of the cannons Li Huamei described, the firing interval of these two cannons had to be at least ten minutes.

And large cannons were difficult to aim and adjust. If one was not afraid of losses, one could use large ships to attract fire within range, and small ships could rush into the port at full speed—preferably with rowing boats, riding the tide.

The key was that the Australians also had a clear advantage in small cannons. In particular, some of the cannons that fired conical projectiles far surpassed all European cannons in terms of range, penetration, and firing rate. If she hadn’t personally tasted the power of the cannon fire on the Countess of Scarborough—at that time, they had no fortress, no heavy cannons, and had not even used their iron ships, yet they had beaten the Spanish galleon so badly that it couldn’t fight back—she would never have believed that there was such powerful artillery in this world.

“…It is completely impossible to attack or bombard these two places—the Holy Ship is taller than the largest galleon. The hull is made of iron. The sailors can’t climb up, and it’s impossible to use arson to disable it. As for the old beacon tower, it is located deep on the coast. One would have to land and march a long distance to reach its foot.”

Li Huamei continued to make marks on the map. “These two places are just what I’ve seen. There must be other batteries or defensive facilities in places I haven’t seen. They also have several key support points in the interior, all of which are fortified.”