Chapter 203 - The Bait
The group proceeded to wildly embellish the biography of Li Huamei from the Koei video game, including such implausible elements as the "Conqueror's Proof." Ma Jia, noticing that the gaming enthusiasts were getting increasingly carried away and that Li Huamei's expression was growing more skeptical, quickly cut them off before they gave themselves away.
Li Huamei did not ask further questions. Through their conversation, they learned that this Li Huamei was currently running trade routes between Goa, Macau, and Taiwan with a twin-masted clipper. She had come to Macau to see if there was any suitable navigational equipment she could acquire. This excited everyone—here was a genuine professional seafarer! They introduced themselves in turn, claiming to be descendants of the Southern Song who had returned from Australia and were now temporarily residing on Qiongzhou Island. She seemed somewhat skeptical of their story, though whether she believed them or not hardly mattered. Now that they knew she was a professional navigator—and such a beautiful young woman at that—several of the Navy crowd began entertaining thoughts of recruiting her as a foreign instructor. After all, there were so few people who understood Western sailing techniques. Director Wen might know a great deal, but he was essentially a theorist.
When Meng De put forward this request, Li Huamei only smiled without answering, while contemptuous looks appeared on the faces of the men around her. These looks greatly stung the transmigrators. Meng De, ignoring Ye Yuming's attempts to restrain him, raised the offered salary to five hundred taels of silver per year—already seriously exceeding the budget—but still received no response. Meng De then deployed his trump card: the modern plastic trinkets that had proven irresistible to local women in Linggao. Li Huamei showed no interest whatsoever.
In the end, everyone retreated in defeat. Only then did Li Huamei laugh: "You lot must be first-timers at maritime trade, aren't you?"
Being seen as greenhorns was not a pleasant feeling, but they had to admit that was exactly what they were.
"Oh, you people." Li Huamei laughed so hard her shoulders shook, and the group's hearts fluttered. To be honest, by modern standards Li Huamei was merely average-looking, but these fellows had been starved for months. After nearly half a year since landing, the women they saw most often were dark and thin. Having a woman who actually met modern tastes suddenly appear before them naturally set their hearts racing.
She drained a glass of wine boldly: "You cannot even tell the difference between Puerto Rican rum and Batavian rum, and you want to recruit me as your captain!" She flicked the bottle lightly. "Do you know how much I make on a single Goa-Macau run? Do you know how much I had to spend to get a trading permit from the Governor of Goa?"
The Navy crowd was thoroughly humbled, their faces showing a mixture of shame and indignation. Ma Jia and Ye Yuming, who had not been particularly keen on recruitment in the first place—after all, that was the Executive Committee's prerogative, and acting without consulting leadership was inexcusable no matter how you looked at it—hurried forward to smooth things over. Coming from an office background, Ma Jia was far worldlier than Meng De, who had only recently graduated and started working: given their current lack of strength, it was no wonder she looked down on them. If they truly became the overlords of China's coastal waters, would she dare refuse to help as an instructor? When Zheng Zhilong had demanded navigation taxes from the Dutch and English, had any of them dared refuse? That was the embodiment of real power.
Fortunately, this was precisely the time when they were broadly cultivating relationships in all areas. Even if they could not employ her, they could still discuss cooperation. Business deals might fall through, but goodwill remained.
After hearing Ma Jia and the others out, Li Huamei nodded. She asked several more times whether they were really Australian merchants. Upon receiving an affirmative answer, she nodded noncommittally without expressing any opinion. Then her gaze suddenly shifted to their waists. "Are those firearms?"
"Of course." These Derringer-style single-shot percussion-cap pistols had been manufactured by the Machinery Department late last year, intended to equip officers and sergeants of the New Army. The barrels of the first batch were made from the same boiler steel tubes as the Minié rifles—top-quality work. Because this operation carried certain risks and they wanted to minimize the chance of losing modern weapons, aside from a small reserve of SKS rifles stored on the ship, very few modern handguns had been brought along. Most people had switched to these Derringer-style single-shot pistols.
"Flintlocks?"
The group thought Li Huamei certainly had a keen eye—seeing the guns had no match cords, she immediately made the association—clearly someone well-versed in firearms. Little did she know these guns were far more advanced than flintlocks.
"So small—what good are they?" the young woman asked skeptically.
Got her, Meng De thought. What navigational equipment in Macau could compare to their firearms, which were over a hundred years ahead of their time? With this in mind, Meng De said mysteriously to Li Huamei: "Miss, these are actually more powerful than matchlocks. If you don't believe me, let's find somewhere to test them."
"Alright." Li Huamei was just as direct. After paying the tab, everyone headed out together to find a place to test the guns.
This era's Macau had plenty of open land—it had not yet reached the point of later centuries where land reclamation was necessary. Walking not far along the coastline from the docks, they came to the end of the harbor district. Though still within range of the city walls and fort, this was an expanse of barren tidal flats. Several broken-down small boats and some scrapped ship materials lay on the beach—perfect for use as targets.
After firing several shots into a derelict hull, Li Huamei had an extremely direct sense of the weapon's superiority. Thick oak planking was punched through effortlessly, even blasting away a second layer of wood behind it. The gun's accuracy was beyond her imagination—at a hundred paces, Meng De could easily hit a target no more than three feet across. By 1629 standards, this was almost inconceivable.
She asked if she might try it herself. Meng De agreed immediately, which made Ye Yuming frown—even if the other party had no ill intentions, this was their first meeting, and casually demonstrating their main weapon to someone and even letting them try it seemed rather unwise.
Meng De taught her how to load the weapon and seat the percussion cap. Li Huamei watched and listened, secretly impressed: everyone said Australian goods were exquisite—and sure enough, even such a small firearm was made to perfection. Loading ammunition alone was vastly faster than the matchlock she normally used. In combat, setting aside accuracy and power, the firing rate advantage alone would be enough to kill.
After a few trial shots, she had mastered the essentials of shooting and loading. Unable to resist, she examined and caressed the small, exquisite weapon repeatedly, clearly reluctant to let it go.
"What a fine gun."
"Since you like it—" Before Meng De could finish, Ma Jia cut him off:
"These guns are quite good. Perhaps we will make more in the future. If you are interested, Miss, you are welcome to come to Linggao to purchase some."
Seeing their awkward expressions, Li Huamei understood the item was quite valuable. She did not take offense, simply smiling faintly and returning the gun to Meng De, then going over to examine the results of the shooting.
Meanwhile, Ye Yuming said quietly to Meng De: "Have you lost your mind? Just casually giving away guns—"
Meng De looked reluctant. "But she's Li Huamei."
"Li Huamei, Li Huamei—you think you're playing Age of Exploration or something!" Ye Yuming glanced at the woman. "We don't even know who this woman really is, and you're giving her guns. Do you want to be finished when we get back?"
Only then did Meng De realize how inappropriate that had been. His head cleared a little. Ma Jia sighed to himself: these video game addicts were always unconsciously equating reality with games.
Perhaps wanting to liven up the atmosphere after that awkwardness, Li Huamei invited them to come see her ship—which was moored right at the dock.
"Let's take a look," Ma Jia suggested. Although he was not entirely comfortable with Li Huamei, his curiosity was strong.
"Just as long as we don't go aboard," Meng De muttered. He seemed somewhat dejected, as if some illusion had been shattered.
"Everyone stay alert." That said, this was still Portuguese-administered territory—no matter whom they were dealing with, things would not get completely out of hand.
With arrangements made, everyone walked back together. Her ship stood out conspicuously among the many vessels in the harbor—a compact single-masted ship, though still considerably larger than the transmigrators' Tongji.
This single-masted clipper had a bowsprit as long as the hull itself, like a swordfish's bill, allowing it to carry an array of sails. It was even more maneuverable than twin-masted ships. With a fair wind, it could reach eleven knots—an excellent vessel for smuggling and piracy.
"This is my Hangzhou. Beautiful, isn't she?" Li Huamei was clearly attached to her ship.
Meng De estimated the vessel at about a hundred tons, with a fairly deep draft. One side of the hull had five closed gunports, and adding the swivel guns visible on deck, there were about fourteen cannons in total. As for crew and cargo capacity, he could not estimate—his knowledge of European sailing ships was limited.
Everyone joined in with murmurs of appreciation, though their understanding of ships was even less than Meng De's.
While this group was admiring the ship at the dock, one of the short sailors who had been accompanying Li Huamei had disappeared at some point. Now this man appeared near the warehouses behind the dock district, quickly ducking into a rather shabby alley. He came to a busy freight depot, looked around to make sure no one was watching, then slipped around to a side door and knocked softly several times.
The door opened immediately. Without greeting the doorman, the sailor walked straight inside.
Beyond the door was a small courtyard with many large and small buildings, all seemingly unused and locked. Various odds and ends were piled in the yard. The sailor came to a second door and pushed it open. Inside was an entirely different world.
In a Moorish-tiled central courtyard, two dark-skinned guards were dozing. Hearing someone enter, they immediately sprang alert and grabbed their curved swords.
The sailor waved them off and continued deeper inside. At the top of some steps was a dim reception room, light filtering in through high, narrow windows. The sailor stood at the entrance for a moment, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. He saw his mistress—Li Siya—wearing a loose silk robe, reclining sideways on a low couch heaped with cushions embroidered with beautiful patterns. She was studying a piece of paper in her hand, lost in thought.
(End of Chapter)