A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 940 Ambergris Saliva
The Golden River Estuary is sparkling, gorgeous and colorful.

Jinshan Port is built on the delta between Huangjin River and the bay. The wharf is in Huangjin River, and the coconut trees are swaying under the sunset.

"whale!"

Cheng Si stood on the third floor of the city tower, pointing to the bay and shouting excitedly. A group of whales were playing in the bay. Wu Huaiyu was also very happy to see the group of whales.

Deer can be seen in the deep forest, and whales can be seen in the blue sea.

Cagayan Bay is indeed beautiful. Because of the gold, this bay is called Golden Bay and Golden Coast by the Warriors. The Cagayan River is also called Golden River. Even this stronghold and fortress is also called Golden Fort and Jinshan Port.

At sunset, half of the sky is dyed red by the red clouds.

Wu Huaiyu set up a table on the top of the castle. It was made of local ebony. The heartwood of this tree is black with light stripes and yellowish brown. The sapwood has clear boundaries and turns into light yellowish brown when dry.

The wood is shiny, the texture is fine and smooth, the texture is beautiful, and it is very stable and not easy to deform after drying. It is very good to make furniture. Its fruit is called hairy persimmon. The fruit has a rich and delicious taste, but the skin has a lot of fuzz, which makes it soft and hard. It's edible. It tastes like a mixture of strawberry mango and persimmon, but it has more seeds and less pulp.

This kind of hairy persimmon tree was initially regarded as ebony by Zhang Cheng and others. Because of its jet black color and extremely high hardness, it is also called ebony and ironwood.
Although it is now clear that it is not ebony, it is also called Luzon ebony or Luzon ebony, and it is also a relatively valuable wood.
It’s also great for making cutting boards.

Wu Huaiyu's painting brush stopped,

As for its origin, legends are all related to dragons.

Ambergris is a good thing. It is the most precious among spices. In the city of Guangzhou, the price is not less than a hundred thousand per tael, and the next two are also fifty or sixty thousand.

"Ms. sir, after seeing these whales, I have something else to report. We also purchased some ambergris from the natives,"

Others say that there is a whirlpool in the ocean, and a dragon is under it, and its saliva gushes out. The sun shines into pieces, and the wind floats to the shore, and it is taken as ambergris. It is also said that when a dragon sleeps on a stone, its saliva accumulates and becomes solid. When it is new, it is white in color, purple in the long term, and black in the long term. It is shaped like a pumice stone and is light. When burned with incense, the green smoke floats in the air, knotting and not dispersing.

It is usually a rare good thing, but Wu Huaiyu is used as a paperweight here.
He drew the gorgeous sunset scenery of Golden Bay on paper. The sudden appearance of the whales gave Wu Huaiyu a small surprise, so he also placed them on the paper to add to the liveliness.

Ambergris is very rare, even rarer than gold. Only one of about a hundred sperm whales has ambergris in its body.
Moreover, when ambergris is excreted from the body of a whale, it still needs a long period of rinsing in sea water. It changes from the initial black color to dark gray, light gray, and finally to white, which is the best ambergris.

In all these legends about ambergris, ambergris is transformed into the saliva of a dragon.

One tael of gold is only worth eight ounces.

Zhao Cheng said he received ambergris,
Wu Huaiyu put down his paintbrush and asked carefully. This thing is too expensive, much more expensive than gold. In Guangzhou, you can occasionally receive ambergris. One or two is worth hundreds of thousands. This is not top-notch. Even those with deep The gray ones can be sold for one, two, five or sixty dollars.

There are too many hairy persimmon trees on both sides of the Huangjin River. Many of the trees are old and tall, with beautiful textures. Now Zhao Cheng and the others do not need to cut them down themselves. They can directly go to the tribe to buy some of their long-dried large ebony trees and simply process them. After a while, it was packed away on the returning ship and used as ballast. In fact, it was quite valuable to transport it back.

It is also said that ambergris comes out and eats in the Western Sea. There are often clouds near the sea covering the mountains, which means that it is known that a dragon is sleeping. In half a year or two or three years, the natives will stay with each other. When the clouds disperse, they know that the dragon has gone. Looking at it, you will definitely get five or seven taels or more than ten taels of ambergris saliva.

Ambergris is an animal scent among spices. Although it is not strong, it is subtle, soft and lasts a long time. It is the best fixative and is even more valuable due to its name of ambergris.

He looked up, "Did you really receive ambergris?"

Four pieces of gold, each weighing more than eight kilograms, are all treasures worth more than a thousand guan.

The ebony table in front of Wu Huaiyu is said to be a giant ebony tree.
The table is covered with paper, and at each corner of the paper, a fist-sized piece of gold nugget is used as a paperweight. The four pieces of gold nugget have different shapes, some really look like dog heads, some look like cats, some look like cows, and some Like a rabbit,

But Wu Huaiyu knew that ambergris was actually produced by sperm whales. Sperm whales like to feed on king squids. During the feeding process, the squid's sharp beaks will prick their intestines. The intestines secrete ambergris substances that can heal their wounds. Ambergris It slowly passes through the whale's intestines and is discharged into the sea, or the whale's body decomposes and falls into the water after death.

A piece of precious, top-grade ambergris needs to be rinsed in sea water for at least a hundred years.
The value of black, dark gray, etc. is much lower if it has just been taken out or has only been rinsed for ten or twenty years.

It is said that there is Ambergris Island in the South China Sea. Every spring, dragons gather on it and play with each other, leaving saliva behind. Some people use canoes to climb to the island, collect it and return. Its ambergris is like fat glue at first, black and yellow, with a fishy smell, but over time it becomes mud.

Not only is it the best spice, it is also a great medicine.

Or if it is cut out from a big fishy fish, if you fight with big round beads, you will also feel the fishy smell. If you burn it occasionally, the fragrance will be lovely.

Zhao Cheng immediately went to get the ambergris.

An ebony box was carefully preserved. When the box was opened, there was an ordinary white object lying among the silk, like an inconspicuous stone.

Unlike heavy gold, this stone is light in the hand.

"Why is there no fragrance?"

Wu Chengsi came over to look at the ambergris curiously, sniffing and asked doubtfully.

Wu Huaiyu explained to his son, "Ambergris has no fragrance at all, and its qi is close to dryness."

Picking up this piece of ambergris, Wu Huaiyu brought it to his nose and smelled it carefully. It still had a smell. It was not as graceful as agarwood and sandalwood. It smelled a bit earthy and seemed to be fishy and salty.

"Are you sure this is ambergris?" Wu Huaiyu asked Zhao Cheng. "After testing, it is high-grade ambergris, weighing more than thirty-two taels. It is the best ambergris. If you were in Guangzhou, one tael would be worth at least 200 guan. If you were in Chang'an, one tael would be worth 300 guan."

"Then this piece is worth tens of thousands of dollars?"

"Such a rare high-grade ambergris is definitely worth tens of thousands of dollars." Zhao Cheng said excitedly.

Wu Chengsi also came up to smell it, but he still didn't realize that it was worth ten thousand yuan.

"The most precious thing about this ambergris is its harmony. Together with agarwood, it not only makes the simple aroma appear distinctly layered and delicious, but also allows the fragrance to last longer,"

Ambergris is the best auxiliary ingredient for fixing, developing and inducing fragrance.
This thing is rare.

Especially at this time, there is still a layer of mystery about ambergris, and no one knows that ambergris actually comes from sperm whales.

"Ms. sir, I heard a rumor that there is a fishing tribe here. It is said that they have a piece of ambergris, a treasure of the clan, weighing more than a hundred kilograms."

Wu Huaiyu was shocked by Zhao Cheng's words. This was even more shocking than when the tribe exchanged more than 180 kilograms of nugget gold for a cargo and a ship.

"impossible?"

Although Wu Huaiyu also heard in later generations that ambergris ranged from a few hundred grams to a thousand kilograms, but those that weighed tens or hundreds of kilograms were often cut out from the belly of whales. This was only the lowest grade of ambergris. Fragrant and extremely rare.

"It is said that when we were the ancestors of that tribe, a group of whales once stranded on the beach. They took the opportunity to slaughter the whales and found a huge piece of ambergris from the belly of one of the whales. It is said that it originally weighed more than two hundred kilograms."

They collected this piece of ambergris and passed it down from generation to generation. After continuous rinsing in sea water and tribal wizards often using it to make medicine, there are still more than 100 kilograms left. "

"How authentic is it?"

"Actually, the piece of ambergris in front of my husband now comes from that tribe. It is said that it was taken from that big piece of incense."

Wu Huaiyu felt extremely distressed when he heard this.

Of course, the bigger the things like gold nugget and ambergris, the better. Although ambergris is mainly used for spices and medicine, the bigger the things are, the higher the value.

If this two-pound piece really came from that big incense, it would be really distressing.

"We must first find a way to confirm the existence of that big piece of ambergris. If it really exists, find a way to get it."

The general in charge of guarding Jinshan Fort asked, "That tribe is not small. There must be about 2,000 people. They are divided into several villages and live next to each other. They live by the sea. But it is not difficult for us to capture them. We have big ships and armor." Bows, arrows, swords and guns, their weapons are backward and their boats are small..."

Wu Huaiyu shook his head,
"Don't always think about fighting and killing,"

"We can trade with them. The big nugget from that tribe took the initiative to trade goods and ships with us. This tribe lives along the coast and they must like our ships more. Let's sell them more goods. As long as the price is high, they will definitely be tempted.”

A piece of ambergris worth more than two kilograms can be worth ten thousand yuan.
Then if there is really a piece of giant ambergris worth more than 100 kilograms, how much is it worth? It must be worth hundreds of millions. Even if it is sold for two, it is not big.

"My husband is right. In the eyes of the natives, although this ambergris is a good thing, it is actually not expensive. They exchange gold cakes for ambergris, and one or two incense for twelve gold cakes."

The gold cakes of the native tribes are not very pure. Jinshan Port trades with the natives. One tael of gold cake is actually worth 2,500 Tang coins, which is much cheaper than one tael of gold or 8,000 coins in the Central Plains.

It is actually not cheap for the natives to exchange one tael of ambergris for twelve taels of gold, but when trading with Zhao Cheng and others, one tael of ambergris is actually sold for 2,500 taels, and then traded to them for 2,500 taels of goods. ,
The real cost of this product may not be even 500, or even only 50, so this transaction is very profitable.

The thirty-two taels of ambergris in Zhao Cheng's hand was exchanged for 80,000 yuan of Tang goods for the native leader. In fact, they were porcelain, silk, iron pots and pottery urns. He exchanged a lot of them. The actual purchase cost Only about eight thousand,
And when you get it back to Chang'an, it's absolutely no problem to sell it for three to five thousand guan, not to mention 10,000 guan.

This is the charm of great maritime trade,
So addictive.

Wu Huaiyu looked at the ordinary piece of ambergris in front of him, which looked ugly and had no fragrance, and then looked at the four pieces of gold nugget weighing eight pounds each pressed against the drawing paper on the ebony table.

Well, they are all good things worth thousands of dollars.
The emperor must not know this, otherwise Tian Khan Li Shimin will probably send troops to expedition to Luzon Island with red eyes.

Although this thing is hard to come by, Wu Huaiyu encountered it once or twice, which is enough for the Wu family to continue to spend money on development in Luzon in the future. No matter how much money they spend, they will not lose.

Wu Huaiyu did not reveal that ambergris was actually produced by sperm whales eating squid.

Even if Zhao Cheng and others heard that the tribe's big ambergris came from the belly of the whale, they all just thought that the whale happened to swallow the piece of ambergris in the sea, and had no idea about it. In fact, it comes from sperm whales, not ambergris at all.

However, Wu Huaiyu, who knew this secret, had no intention of hunting whales to find ambergris. He was lucky enough to find ambergris from one of the hundred whales, but the quality of that ambergris was not good. Although it was rinsed in sea water It would take a hundred years to become top-grade, but he felt there was no need to risk hunting whales to find ambergris.

"Zhao Cheng, try your best to find out about the piece of ambergris. If it is really there, then trade it with the tribe at any cost."

"No matter how expensive it is, it's worth it."

(End of this chapter)