Chapter 1226 - Disposing of the Spoils
Galle was an important commercial port on Ceylon, a waypoint on the route to trade with India. Ceylon itself also produced considerable quantities of spices and gemstones, so many ships called here to replenish water, repair their vessels, and trade goods. The shipyard's scale was quite impressive.
However, when Li Huamei towed the Griffin into the shipyard, the estimate came to a steep three thousand Spanish pesos—the 12-pounder cannons' power had been too devastating. The hull had numerous holes shot through it, and the Lingao-exclusive grapeshot had completely wrecked the rigging—all masts needed replacing, with three requiring complete renewal. The deck also had extensive damage requiring repairs. Besides money, three months of work would be needed.
Li Huamei hesitated. She'd originally planned to repair the Griffin and use it as her flagship—since she was officially joining the Australians, her "capital" needed to be more substantial. The Griffin's tonnage and design both suited her well. But the cost and timeline were both unacceptable.
While she hesitated, a Spanish gentleman wearing an eyepatch appeared and offered to purchase the Griffin for nine thousand Spanish pesos—including all cannons, gunpowder, and weapons in the cargo hold: several hundred matchlocks, some swords, and several small cannons.
The proposal immediately appealed to her. True, the Griffin was a fine ship, but firstly she couldn't afford the delay, and secondly she didn't want to spend too much money on it. Besides, once she officially joined the transmigrators, she'd likely be able to obtain an even better ship from them.
So the deal was struck after haggling at ten thousand pesos. The Spanish gentleman readily produced a check drawn on an Indian Brahmin merchant, cashable in Goa and Macau.
Her only request was to remove the griffin figurehead from the bow—this cost her nearly five hundred pesos, but Li Huamei thought it well worth it: she finally had something even the Australians didn't possess.
With the badly damaged Griffin sold, repairs to Hangzhou proceeded quickly. Li Huamei supervised the shipwork while disposing of spoils.
The main spoils were prisoners. Due to the minor unpleasantness between the Li sisters and the Portuguese colonial authorities here last time, she had to half-sell, half-gift these Danes to the governor as a demonstration of goodwill, allowing His Excellency to make a small fortune.
Those who could fetch ransoms were all officers and senior crewmen. No one would pay ransoms for ordinary sailors. Moreover, there weren't many actual Danes among them. Li Huamei simply gathered the rest and offered them two choices: either follow her, or rot in the governor's dungeon awaiting interrogation by the governor and bishop. If lucky, they'd be hanged for secular piracy. If unlucky, they'd be processed as religious "heretics"—the repentant would serve as galley slaves; those who held to their faith would be burned directly.
Everyone immediately switched allegiances. The lightly wounded received simple treatment. The severely wounded didn't need tending—they'd already died at sea.
The violated and sickly Arab slaves were sold right there on the docks. Those who still looked passable were given some salted fish to recuperate and transported to Lingao along with the European women. This leg would be quite safe—by Mistress Li Siya's standing rule, there was absolutely no messing with women on board. Off the ship, anything goes.
From among the prisoners, Li Huamei kept a ten-year-old Aksumite girl as a servant—Ethiopian slaves were a regional specialty. These East Africans were tall and powerful with beautiful lines, highly prized in Middle Eastern slave markets. Properly trained, she'd definitely become capable. To commemorate this victory, she named the girl Li Ying—"Eagle Li."
As for Pastor Karlsson, the moment he heard they'd reached Portuguese territory, he hid below deck, terrified of being caught and "saved" by the Portuguese. In this era, heretics were often at more risk than heathens. Muslim prisoners might at least become slaves or sailors. Unrepentant heretics would taste the Inquisition's stake.
As the price for protection, Karlsson would work as a sailor until they reached Lingao. His wife and the other women would be locked in the hold together to prevent "accidents." Li Huamei vaguely recalled there seemed to be one or two Protestants among the Australians, but she wasn't sure and couldn't be bothered to figure out whether they were Luther heretics or Calvin heretics. She herself believed in nothing. To humor the crew, she pretended to believe in both Mazu and the Virgin Mary.
They didn't reach Lingao again until late August. She delivered the urgent orders on time and proposed to the Colonial and Trade Department that she had a batch of goods for sale—she could give the Colonial and Trade Department first right of refusal.
This time Li Huamei recaptured some of her glory from her first visit to Lingao: although Quark had already delivered a shipload of Western mares, the market was far from saturated. A dozen more was quite welcome—especially since this batch of slave women included rare Nordic varieties.
Skade had been gloomy lately: several radical transmigrators kept publishing pseudonymous articles in the newspaper attacking "right-wing capitulationism" and "turtle conservatism." Skade was suffering in silence—the Colonial Department had long had a full slate of expansion and trade plans. The long-submitted proposal for distant expeditions to Hokkaido to find coking coal deposits, and the proposal to establish seasonal trading posts and permanent bases in the Ussuri and Amur River estuary regions for reindeer hide and lichen dye trade with plans for further inland penetration—had all sunk without a trace. He'd heard someone had criticized him for "left-wing adventurist recklessness."
"Mother of—this is capitulationism, that's adventurism—am I a mouse in a bellows or what?" Skade fumed in his third-floor office overlooking the great sand table. "Seems like being on the Executive Committee is 'lonely at the top'—those without a power base can't hold on!"
Counting on his fingers: among the current Seven Executive Committee Members plus the non-voting Government Office Director, aside from himself, every one either had their own power base or was connected to other Committee Members. He, by comparison, not only had little interaction with other Committee Members but had no reliable allies in the Senate. Within the Colonial Trade Department, the powerful Guanglei faction was a self-contained system. Though they supported his work, they weren't close—on matters of major principle, they might not be dependable.
In the midst of his gloom, hearing news of Li Huamei's return didn't particularly excite him—he'd long known about Li Huamei's application to "join." But that wasn't his jurisdiction: naturalization was the Civil Affairs People's Committee's business, with the Political Security Bureau handling the actual vetting. He wasn't some fan of the Age of Sail; the name and the woman meant nothing special to him—Li Huamei was just a very useful merchant. The urgent order arrangement had been made per the Planning Commission's requirements.
"Just follow normal procedures—" Skade waved his hand.
"Chief, she's also brought a shipment of 'Government Office Special Use'..."
Skade perked up—"Government Office Special Use" was a euphemism for female slaves specifically for transmigrators.
His spirits immediately lifted: "Send them for purification first! Tell the dock and quarantine camp: I'll be there shortly."
The moment Skade saw the merchandise's quality, his heart bloomed with joy. He immediately sent for Xiao Zishan to come "inspect the goods."
The Government Office Director appeared at once. Skade was beaming as he held forth to the "inspecting" Xiao Zishan on the finer points of "Western mares":
"...Western mares actually come in many different breeds. From my experience traveling in Europe, Nordic women have a reputation as 'flat-chested goddesses'—their breasts are relatively small. Look, these here are typical Nordic mares," he said, pointing. "B-cup at most. But don't underestimate them just because they're generally flat-chested—their frames and jawlines aren't as wide as German mares', nor as narrow as English women's. Their legs are very long and slender, which better matches transmigrator aesthetics."
Xiao Zishan nodded repeatedly.
"...Also, Nordic Aryans evolved in cold climates for millennia, weathered by high-fat diets. They don't put on weight as easily as Eastern European women, nor age as quickly as Southern Europeans. Besides, Nordics currently still mainly eat fish and meat, so even small-chested, they're still better than Ming or Japanese women..."
Xiao Zishan was quite impressed by his theory and nodded: "Too bad there are so few."
This batch of slave women, excluding the Arabs, had only seven from Northern Europe: one Swedish wife, three Danish widows, one Danish loli, and two German women. But the German women came from the Holstein-Schleswig region, so they could roughly qualify as Nordic mares.
"No worries, we can develop supply channels slowly," Skade patted his chest. "Didn't this trip also bring in some Swedish pastor or whatnot, plus several Danes? We can open up channels through them..."
Skade wasn't too worried about Northwestern European mare sources. The Thirty Years' War was an extremely brutal conflict that had plunged all of Central Europe into blood and fire. Displaced populations were common. Men without homes could become mercenaries; women had no choice but to follow armies as prostitutes. As long as they were willing to spend money, they could definitely buy women—the journey was just terribly long, even more troublesome than going to Basra. One round trip would take three or four years...
Thinking of this, he couldn't help sighing again: it could only be a long-term plan.
Just then, in Hangzhou's captain's cabin, Li Huamei was calculating this voyage's gains and expenses in her ledger.
Though Li Siya and Li Huamei lived lavishly, spending money like water with the air of noble young ladies and maritime heroines—in truth, the sisters maintained very tight control over their finances. Besides a large house and two ships, Li Siya had no fixed assets. Though maritime trading, piracy, and selling intelligence and contraband were highly profitable, expenses were also large: maintaining their Macau façade, protection fees, and their intelligence network across various locations alone cost a considerable fortune. Without careful budgeting, they'd soon be stretched thin.
(End of Chapter)