Smuggling Daming

The Strait of Malacca is located at the junction of the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and the equator just passes through the south side of the strait. It is precisely because of this that the climate here in the Strait of Malacca is hot and rainy. The land on both sides of the strait is full of dense forests, and a large number of animal and plant resources grow in the forest. , even the natives living here don't have to work too much at all, the food produced naturally is enough for them to live, and they don't have to worry about starvation at all. This is much better than Daming, which has been plagued by disasters.

The current Strait of Malacca is ruled by the Kingdom of Malacca, to be precise, it should be the Sultanate of Malacca, because it has been occupied by Islam, and the whole kingdom believes in Islam, and even the title of "Sultan" is added in front of the king's name. This shows the influence of Islam.

The Kingdom of Malacca is also known as the "Manlajia Kingdom" in Daming. This kingdom has sent envoys to Daming many times, and Daming is also very good to the Kingdom of Malacca. It ordered it to pay tribute every other year. The annual tribute is much stronger. From this, it can be seen that the status of the Kingdom of Malacca among the vassal states of Ming Dynasty is still relatively high.

From the map, the Kingdom of Malacca is divided into two parts by the Strait of Malacca, which are located on the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra. On the traffic arteries of the Strait of Malacca, all ships need to berth here, and the taxes collected every year are tens of thousands, which can be said to be an inexhaustible cornucopia.

Today's weather is fine, blue sky without a cloud.It looks very transparent. If you stand on the beach and look far away, you can only see the sea and sky in the distance. You can't tell where is the sea and where is the sky?

Palak yawned and came to the port. Although the sun had not risen in the east at this time, the morning in Malacca was already very hot. Although he was only wearing a single shirt, he couldn't help sweating.

"Damn the weather!" Palak swore under his breath.Although no amount of scolding could make the weather cooler, it was better than doing nothing.

Palak is a small official in the port of Malacca. He is mainly responsible for providing fresh water to some ships on the port. After all, the seagoing ships that come and go have a great demand for fresh water. Almost every ship needs to fill up the fresh water after docking at the port.So don't look at his official status, but he is very busy. Of course, there is plenty of oil and water. At least his monthly income can not only easily support the whole family, but he even raised two women outside. Last night he was Stayed overnight at one of the women's homes.

Thinking of last night's one-night affair.Palak couldn't help humming a ditty. Speaking of which, their Palak family is also a well-known nobleman in Malacca.More than 50 years ago, their family had a well-known figure named Tun Palak, who once served as the prime minister of the kingdom and assisted three kings in a row. At that time, the Palak family also weakened.In addition, he is not a direct descendant of the family, so he only gets such a small official who supplies water to the port.But this is already considered good, some families' children can't even get an official, and in the end they can only tinker with some goods and sell them to the past sea merchants to make ends meet.

I saw Palak humming a little song and came to the east side of the port, where he was in charge of the water supply area. Although the Palak family is weak, after all, the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse. The port that Palak is in charge of belongs to Malacca The best part of the port, the berths are large and deep, very suitable for berthing large sea ships, and the berths here are almost never empty.

However, as soon as Palak arrived at the port, one of his subordinates rushed over and said, "My lord, why did you come here? Now the tribute ship is about to leave, but the fresh water on the ship has not been filled yet." , everyone on the tribute boat has already lost their temper."

"What? The ship of the tribute envoy?" Palak was taken aback when he heard this, and finally remembered that this year happened to be the year of paying tribute to Ming Dynasty, and the tribute was already ready to be loaded on the ship, and just Stopped at the port under his management. Originally, he planned to fill the boat with fresh water yesterday afternoon, but the people on the tribute boat said that the envoy was not there, and they dared not let anyone board without the order of the envoy. They were loaded with valuable tributes, and they couldn’t be held responsible if they lost them, so I asked them to install them tomorrow, but Palak forgot about it.

"What are you still doing in a daze, the order passed on, hurry up and get someone to fill the boat of the tribute envoy!" Palak finally came to his senses at this time, and immediately roared at his subordinates.Although he has been yelling at the tribute envoy for being in the way, otherwise he would have filled the water yesterday, but it is too late to say this now. If the ship cannot leave the port due to the problem of fresh water, then his crime will be serious Well, it's a small thing to lose his job, and maybe he will be arrested and jailed, after all, the family can't protect him now.

Thinking of this, Palak immediately ran to the pier to personally urge his men to speed up the loading of water to the tribute boats. In the end, he wished he could do it himself. Fortunately, there were not many boats that needed to be filled with water in the morning, so Palak could transfer everyone to the boat. Come to add water to the tribute boats, and finally fill up the water on several tribute boats when the sun is fully risen.

"Huh~, it's finally full!" Palak breathed out at this time, found a bucket on the pier and sat down to rest for a while. After all, he was jumping and jumping when commanding the people just now, and he was very tired. light.

However, just as Palak sat down, he suddenly heard a commotion not far away. When he turned his head to look, he saw a group of Malacca city officials walking towards this side. Among these officials, there was one The official in white robes, this person is the envoy of Daming this time, and what's more, Palak actually knows this person.

"It turned out to be a damned Tamil bastard. In the future, our Palak family will definitely drive you all out of Malacca!" Palak looked at the envoy surrounded by officials and cursed in a low voice. The envoy's name was Baba. Man, unlike Palak, Barman is not from Malacca, but a Tamil who came to Malacca from India.

Speaking of which, the ethnic groups in the Kingdom of Malacca are very complicated, but they are generally divided into two types. One of them is the native Malaccans. According to later generations, they should belong to the Malays, while the other is the foreign race. Including the original Han Chinese, Tamils ​​from India, etc., among which the Tamils ​​have the largest number.

About ten years ago, the royal family of the Kingdom of Malacca fought for the throne, which led to political instability and a weakened national power. At this time, the Tamils ​​in the Kingdom suddenly united and seized the power of the Kingdom of Malacca in one fell swoop, such as prime ministers, generals, etc. The more important positions are all held by Tamils. The current King of Malacca, Sultan Mahmud, is just a puppet in the hands of the Tamil nobles.

The Palak family also declined during the Tamil seizure of power, so Palak naturally has a reason to hate the Tamils. The envoy named Baman not far from him is the current prime minister of the kingdom. Shu Ertai's most valued son, it is said that he is very likely to succeed Shu Ertai's position. Before, Palak saw him from a distance during a certain celebration and was very impressed, so he recognized him at a glance today.

Of course, Palak only dared to curse in a low voice. After all, with his current status, he couldn't afford to offend that Barman. He didn't even have the qualifications to meet him. The officials came to the side of the boat talking and laughing, and then accepted the blessings of the surrounding officials before turning around and boarding the boat.

"I wish you a Tamil bastard who encountered a storm when he went out to sea. It is best to sink to the bottom of the sea with his people and boats, and then piss that old bastard Shuertai to death, so that my kingdom will lose two scourges!" At the high-spirited Barman at the bow, Palak cursed again in a low voice, don't blame Palak for being vicious, in fact, his words also represent the aspirations of many fallen nobles in Malacca.

It's a pity that Palak could only curse a few words like this. That Barman couldn't hear him at all. After he stood at the bow and said goodbye to the officials below, the ship also set sail slowly, and immediately turned to the east after leaving the port. Once again, this road of tribute that has been passed down for many years has been opened.

After watching the smooth-moving tribute boats disappear below the sea level, Palak then retracted his gaze. At this time, the officials who saw him off also left the port in twos and threes. Palak had almost rested at this time, and stood up immediately. Assigning other tasks to his subordinates, he went to a hut at the port to catch up on sleep. After all, he had exhausted a lot of energy last night, and he had to go to another woman tonight. How about raising your spirits?

When Palak woke up, it was already past noon, and the weather was even hotter at this time. He was not so much awakened by sleep as by heat.At that moment, Palak got up and picked up a basin of cold water and poured it over his head. This was not for cleaning, but mainly for cooling down.

After taking a shower with cold water, Palak's clothes were also wet, but he didn't change. After all, in the current weather, his clothes would be dried quickly, so Palak walked out of the house wearing wet clothes like this , Came to the pier to check if the men were lazy?By the way, I bought a few fruits to satisfy my hunger.

However, when Palak was gnawing on the fruit, he suddenly saw a mast appearing on the sea far away from the port, and with the first one, there would be a second one, and soon a giant forest of masts appeared on the entire sea.As these masts got higher and higher, tall ships appeared on the sea, but when he saw these familiar ships, the fruit in Palak's hand rolled down to the ground, his face was full of panic . (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)