Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1095 Li Shimin in Halong Bay

The dawn dawned, the sky broke, and the earth was shrouded in a thin layer of mist, like a silver gauze.

Cochin, Ha Long Bay.

Here is called Guilin on the Sea, with more than 3000 islands of different sizes and beautiful scenery.

It is said that someone once saw a dragon landing here, so it was called Ha Long Bay.

Dragonstone Island, the former Stone Island of Dragonfall.

Li Shimin stood up, walked out from the poop, stood on the deck and stretched.

On the deck, teams of chained slaves were cleaning the deck under the whip of the sailors.

The waves are undulating, and the water birds are flying.

The scenery here is really beautiful to the extreme, the sea and the sky are the same color, and there are many stone islands, the scenery is really infinite.

"This place really resembles the landscape of Guilin. When I passed by Guilin, I marveled at the scenery of mountains and rocks there. Unexpectedly, there is such a place on the Cochin Sea. This is really a fairyland." The first officer with a white beard looked at the sea and said. .

"It is indeed a good place. It is said that this place used to be the place where the ancient Yue people lived, but now it is full of Dan people."

"Captain, Captain Ning is really dead, and the imperial army has recovered Ningyue and Hepu lands, so it's inconvenient for us to go there again." The first officer said with some regret. During these times, they used Xialong Bay as their base camp and haunted Beibu Gulf. Along the coast of Qinjiang Bay, they landed in various places, and robbed happily, not to mention how happy it is.But now that Li Jing led the army to regain the land of the rebels, it would be inconvenient for them, the pirates with the black skull flag, to go there again.

"It's nothing to be sorry about. We have already robbed many people in the past two months. Hepu pearls, Ningyue rhino horns, Yulin elephant teeth, longan, longan, gold and silver, spices, porcelain craftsmen, etc., are enough."

Luo Yi gave Li Shimin 1000 troops, and gave him a dozen boats. Li Shimin led the fleet to sea. For two months, they ran across the coast of Qinjiang Bay. Gold and silver mines, and raids on its textile workshops.

A lot of money, silk, gold and silver were robbed, craftsmen also robbed a lot, and many barbarians were captured. Now Shilong Island is full of their trophies. Li Shimin thinks it is enough. Even if Luo Yi comes, it may not be possible. There are such rich victories.

"Should we transport all these things back to Sunset City?" asked the chief mate.

He is a gray-haired old man who has been sailing at sea for 30 years. It can be said that he can tell whether there will be a storm by smelling the sea breeze.

"The craftsmen of the gold and silver mines, the craftsmen of the textile factory, and the craftsmen of the porcelain kiln are all sent back first, and the slaves are also sent [-]. As for the others, there is no need to send them. We can take them to Songping City in Jiaozhi County for trading. , You can also go to Nanhai County to buy a bigger ship, just buy a treasure ship like the Royal Caravan." Li Shimin said.

The first officer was a little excited.

He has seen that kind of treasure ship twice, the streamlined hull, the high poop, the several decks, especially the magic machine gun and gallows crossbow on the ship, it is really close No one dared, the prow of each treasure ship was equipped with an extremely majestic and majestic figure of the god of the gods, with a ferocious ram under it.

A pirate ship like theirs would be broken if hit.

"It is said that a big treasure ship has a weight of eight thousand." The first officer said excitedly.

"Eight thousand guan? It's a big treasure ship that doesn't have anything, and the materials are definitely not as good as those of the Royal Merchant Marine. In addition, it is estimated that there will be a queue. If you want to get the ship, there is still no reduction. At least [-] guan, I guess You have to add more money to withdraw the ship.” Li Shimin is well aware of the strength of this treasure ship, and Luo Cheng’s Royal Merchant Fleet is not just a merchant fleet. They use the name of a merchant fleet, but they are actually a Royal Navy Fleet.

"As long as we can buy a treasure ship, [-] guan is not expensive, we are not short of money now." The first officer grinned and said, they have indeed made a fortune in the past two months.

They raided several Ning's gold and silver mines, not only robbing many craftsmen and workers, but also robbing many melted and cast gold and silver ingots. Fifteen or six hundred copper coins is no problem, and one tael of gold can be exchanged for five taels of silver.

If you are bolder and mint some gold dragon silver tiger coins privately, it will be even more serious.

But now the imperial court is extremely strict on private minting, and the imperial gold, dragon, silver and tiger coins are not easy to forge. Li Shimin does not need to mint counterfeit coins. He only needs to transport the gold and silver to Jiaozhi Port, and naturally a lot of merchants will come to trade with him. , no matter how much it is, it can be eaten the same.

What's more, he still has so many slaves in his hands.

And the boxes of rhino horns, elephant teeth, tortoise shells, and pearls that were snatched were all extremely valuable, as well as spices.

Pepper, cardamom, garland, sandalwood, ambergris, agarwood, and yellow speed incense, these things are not native to the Beibu Gulf, but snatched by Li Shimin. In the Beibu Gulf, these spices are the same as gold and silver. It is hard currency, used as a transaction currency, and their source is further south of Linyi in the south of Jiaozhi. It is said that that is the hometown of Kunlun slaves. It is in the depths of the South China Sea. There are many large islands and Small islands, those islands have these spices produced.

And the price of spices is extremely high. Li Shimin knew the value of these spices when he was only a son of aristocrats in the Central Plains. Things like pepper are the most valuable goods in the hands of merchants in the Western Regions.

In order to make more money, some pepper merchants even mixed silver flakes into the pepper to fake it, and used the silver flakes to pretend to be pepper powder. You know how expensive pepper is.

And it is said that in Fulin (Eastern Rome) in Taixi, pepper is fourpence a pound, white pepper is sevenpence a pound, and ginger is sixpence a pound.A pound of pepper equals a week's wages for a skilled artisan.

Pepper, cinnamon, and ginger are even directly tax deductible.

Pepper, cloves, and nutmeg are not only spices anymore, they have even become symbols of power and status in the West.

Since Zhang Qian traveled to the Western Regions in the Han Dynasty, merchants from the Western Regions began to transport various precious merchants to Chang'an for sale.At that time, the merchants from the Western Regions, the spices they brought in were still produced in India and Indonesia, but the spices at that time were mainly transported to Tianzhu, then along the Silk Road to the Western Regions, and then to Chang’an in Guanzhong through the Hexi Corridor. This road is very difficult to walk, and the cost has greatly increased, making spices extremely valuable in the Central Plains.

This is something that only noble families can enjoy.

The batch of spices in Li Shimin's hands actually came from the sea. With the improvement of navigation technology, businessmen from the Central Plains have been sailing to Southeast Asia, and even to Tianzhu and the Persian Gulf.Hu merchants also began to come along the route of the Central Plains maritime merchants.

Such things as spices naturally came from the sea, but the price still didn't change much.

"I heard that the Royal Merchant Marine fleet now travels to the Persian Gulf several times a year, almost monopolizing the trade of spices to the Central Plains, and I don't know how much they have earned." The first mate said enviously.

(End of this chapter)