Chapter 4: Disposal of Spoils

Galle was an important commercial port on the island of Ceylon. It was also one of the transit points along the trade route to India, and Ceylon itself produced a considerable amount of spices and gems, so many ships would dock here to replenish food and water, repair their ships, and trade goods. Therefore, the shipyard was quite large.

However, after Li Huamei dragged the Griffin into the shipyard, the estimate for repairs was as high as three thousand Spanish pesos. The power of the 12-pounder cannons was too significant. Not only were there many holes in the hull, but Lingao’s unique grapeshot had ravaged the deck and rigging, rendering the rigging completely useless. The three masts needed to be replaced, and there was also a great deal of damage to the deck that needed to be repaired. In addition to the money, it would also take three months of work.

Li Huamei hesitated. She had originally planned to repair the Griffin and use it as her flagship. Since she was going to formally join the Australians, she needed to have a more solid “capital.” The tonnage and ship type of the Griffin were very much to her liking, but the cost and time were unacceptable to her.

While she was hesitating, a Spanish gentleman with an eye patch appeared. He offered to buy the Griffin for nine thousand Spanish pesos—including the cannons, gunpowder, and the weapons in the cargo hold that had been transported for sale, including hundreds of matchlocks, some swords, and a few small cannons.

This proposal immediately moved her. Although the Griffin was a good ship, she could not afford to waste time, nor was she willing to spend too much money on it. Besides, after she officially joined the Australians, she would most likely be able to get a better ship from them.

So the deal was concluded at ten thousand pesos after some bargaining. The Spanish gentleman readily paid with a check from an Indian Brahmin merchant that could be cashed in Goa and Macau.

Her only request was to remove the griffin figurehead from the bow—for which she lost almost five hundred pesos, but Li Huamei felt it was worth it: she now finally had something that even the Australians did not have.

After selling the heavily damaged Griffin, the repairs on the Hangzhou were much faster. Li Huamei supervised the ship repairs while dealing with the spoils of war.

The main spoils were the prisoners. Since she and her sister had had a small unpleasant incident with the Portuguese colonial authorities here last time, in order to show their attitude this time, they had to sell these Danes to the governor at a price that was half-sale, half-gift, so that the governor could make a small fortune.

Those who could be ransomed were all officers and senior crew members. No one would pay a ransom for ordinary sailors. Moreover, there were not many Danes among this group. Li Huamei simply gathered the remaining people and gave them two choices: either follow her, or squat in the governor’s dungeon and wait for the interrogation of the governor and the bishop. If they were lucky, they would be hanged for the secular crime of piracy. If they were unlucky, they would be dealt with as religious “heretics.” Those who were willing to repent would serve as galley slaves. Those who insisted on their faith would be burned at the stake.

Immediately, everyone changed their allegiance. The lightly wounded were given simple treatment. The seriously wounded were not cared for at all—because they had already died at sea.

The ravaged and sickly Arab slaves were sold on the spot at the pier. Those who looked alright were given some salted fish to recuperate and then transported to Lingao with the European women. This journey was very safe—according to the old rules set by Li Siya, women were absolutely forbidden on the ship. Once they disembarked, they were free to do as they pleased.

Among the prisoners, Li Huamei kept a ten-year-old Aksumite girl as a servant girl. Ethiopia was famous for its slaves. These East Africans were tall and strong, with beautiful features, and were a very popular source of goods in the Middle Eastern slave market. With her strict training, she would definitely be a good hand. To commemorate this victory, she named the little girl Li Ying.

As for Pastor Carlson, as soon as he heard that they had arrived in Portuguese territory, he hid below deck and did not dare to come out, for fear of being captured by the Portuguese and “saved.” In those days, heretics were often more at risk than heathens. Muslim prisoners could still be slaves or sailors, but heretics who refused to repent would have to taste the stake of the Inquisition.

As the price for his protection, Carlson had to work as a sailor until they reached Lingao. His wife and the other women were locked in the hold to avoid any accidents. Li Huamei vaguely remembered that there seemed to be one or two Protestants among the Australians, but she couldn’t figure out and couldn’t be bothered to figure out whether it was the Lutheran heresy or the Calvinist heresy. She herself did not believe in anything. In order to take into account the feelings of the crew, she usually pretended to believe in both Mazu and the Virgin Mary.

It was already the end of August when she arrived in Lingao again. She delivered the urgent order on time and proposed to the Colonial and Trade Department that she had a batch of goods for sale—and that the Colonial and Trade Department would have the right of first refusal.

This time, Li Huamei regained the glory of her first visit to Lingao. Although Quark had already brought a shipload of foreign women, the market was far from saturated. A dozen more would be a welcome sight—not to mention that this batch of female slaves also included the rare Nordic race.

Si Kaide was still depressed recently. A few radical elders still published one or two articles in the newspapers from time to time, attacking “right-wing capitulationism” and “turtle conservatism” under a pseudonym. Si Kaide had a lot to say but couldn’t: the Colonial Department had long had a pile of expansion and trade plans. The proposal for a long-range expedition to Hokkaido to search for coking coal mines, and the proposal to establish seasonal trading posts and permanent bases in the Ussuri River and Amur River estuary areas for the trade of reindeer skins and lichen dyes and to further penetrate the inland had all been shelved. He heard that some people criticized him for “left-wing adventurism and blind action.”

“Damn it, this is capitulationism, that is adventurism. Am I not like a mouse in a bellows?” Si Kaide fumed in his third-floor office overlooking the large sand table. “It seems that this Executive Committee is a high and cold place—those without a foundation can’t sit still!”

Counting on his fingers, of the current seven members of the Executive Committee, plus a director of the General Office who had no voting rights, except for himself, every member of the Executive Committee either had his own base, or was connected with other members of the Executive Committee. In contrast, he not only had little interaction with other members of the Executive Committee, but also had no reliable allies in the Senate. The powerful Guang-Lei faction in the Colonial and Trade Department was a self-contained entity. Although they were very supportive of his work, they were not close to him. When it came to major issues of right and wrong, they might not be reliable.

While he was feeling depressed, he heard the news of Li Huamei’s return, but he was not very interested. He had known about Li Huamei’s application for “naturalization” for a long time, but this matter was not under his jurisdiction: naturalization was a matter for the People’s Committee for Civil Affairs, and the specific review was handled by the Political Security General Bureau. He was not a fan of the Age of Discovery, and had no fantasies about this name and this woman—Li Huamei was just a very useful merchant to him. The arrangement for this urgent order was also made according to the requirements of the Planning Institute.

“Just follow the normal procedure—” Si Kaide waved his hand.

“Chief, she also brought a batch of ‘special use for the General Office’…”

Si Kaide shuddered—”special use for the General Office” was a euphemism, in fact, it was a code name for female slaves exclusively for the elders.

He immediately became energetic. “Send the people to be purified first! Tell the wharf and the quarantine camp: I’ll be there in a moment.”

As soon as Si Kaide saw the quality of the “goods,” his heart was filled with joy. He immediately sent someone to invite Xiao Zishan to “inspect the goods.”

The director of the General Office appeared immediately. Si Kaide, with a beaming face, talked at length about the “foreign horse sutra” to Xiao Zishan who had come to “inspect the work”:

“…There are actually many different breeds of foreign horses. Based on my past experience in Europe, Nordic women have the title of ‘poor-breasted goddesses,’ and their chests are relatively small. Look, these are typical Nordic foreign horses,” he said, pointing. “At best, they are B-cups. But don’t look at their generally small chests. Their skeletons and chins are not as wide as German foreign horses, nor as narrow as British women. Their legs are also very slender, which is more in line with the aesthetic standards of the elders.”

Xiao Zishan nodded repeatedly.

“…In addition, the Nordic Aryans have evolved in the frigid zone for thousands of years and have been tested by high-fat foods for a long time. They are neither as prone to obesity as Eastern European women, nor as prone to aging as Southern European women. Besides, the Nordic people currently mainly eat fish and meat, so even if their chests are small, they are still better than the women of the Ming Dynasty and Japan…”

Xiao Zishan was very impressed with his theory and nodded. “It’s a pity there are so few.”

Excluding the Arabs, there were only seven women from Northern Europe in this batch of female slaves: one was a Swedish wife, three were Danish widows, one was a Danish loli, and there were two other German women, but they were from the Schleswig-Holstein region and could barely be considered Nordic foreign horses.

“It doesn’t matter, the source of goods can be slowly developed,” Si Kaide patted his chest. “Didn’t we also get a Swedish priest this time? And a few Danes. We can open up channels through them…”

Si Kaide was not very worried about the source of the Northwestern European foreign horses. The Thirty Years’ War was a very cruel war that plunged the entire Central European region into blood and fire. It was common for people to be displaced. Men who lost their homes could become mercenaries, and women had to follow the army as prostitutes. As long as you were willing to spend money, you would never be unable to buy women—it was just that the journey was too far, more troublesome than going to Basra. A round trip would take almost three or four years…

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but sigh again: it could only be a long-term plan.

At this moment, in the captain’s cabin of the Hangzhou, Li Huamei was calculating the income and expenditure of this voyage in her account book.

Don’t be fooled by the extravagant and lavish lifestyle of Li Siya and Li Huamei, who spent money like water and had the air of noble ladies and heroines of the sea. In fact, the two sisters were very strict with their finances. Apart from a large house and two ships, Li Siya had no other permanent property. Although she made a lot of money from maritime trade, piracy, and selling intelligence and contraband, her expenses were also very large. Just maintaining her presence in Macau, her protectors, and her intelligence network in various places was a huge sum of money. If she could not make ends meet, she would soon be in financial straits.