In July of the first year of Qian Sheng, three young men were kneeling in front of the Wei Family Zhongxiao Temple built by imperial decree in Jiashan City.

The three of them just knelt in the heavy rain. After a long time, the older young man among them spoke.

"The ancestors are on top, and the unfilial descendants are here. If they cannot wash away the shame of my father being a thief, the unfilial descendants swear not to return home in this life!"

After that, the three of them kowtowed in front of the temple. When they stood up again, he said again.

"Second brother, third brother, I don't know whether I am going here alive or dead. Anyway, as I said, we will try our best to restore the lintel of the Wei family!"

My father has completely disgraced the Wei family. If the Wei family wants to raise its head again in front of the villagers, it must do its best to restore the Wei family's face.

"Brother, don't worry!"

…

Compared with the Ming Dynasty, even in the twelfth lunar month of winter in Nantianmen, it is still hot summer. Wei Yunmei still finds it difficult to adapt to such weather in all four seasons even after half a year has passed. He has even begun to miss it now. The winter in Jiangnan makes me miss the winter snow in Jiangnan.

Here...it's only summer.

It was raining non-stop. Wei Yunmei, who was standing on the boat, looked at Nantianmen City and asked.

"Mingzhi, do you know how Nantianmen City was built?"

Zhao Nianzong nodded.

"I heard that in the 15th year of Chongzhen's reign, Marquis Jinghai sent someone to pay fifty taels of silver every year and rented it forever from the King of Johor."

The Marquis of Jinghai he refers to is Sun Hejing, the son of Sun Yuanhua. He has been leading the navy of the Pinglu Army. As a hero of Conglong, he was awarded the title of Marquis of Jinghai after Emperor Qian Sheng ascended the throne.

"What about Bayou City?"

"I gave it to King Zhenla for a thousand taels of silver."

Nodding, Wei Yunmei said.

"Now there are no less than two million acres of fertile farmland at the mouth of the river. There are tens of thousands of immigrants from the interior. Millions of kilograms of rice are produced every year. In terms of wealth, it is as rich as Jiangnan, even Nantianmen..."

Pointing to the paddy fields around Nantianmen, Wei Yunmei sighed.

"There are also immigrants who have expanded their business to more than 100,000 acres. In a few years, this will be another Hekou City. If you and I weren't here, how would we dare to believe that this city only used a mere fifty taels!"

"Yeah, I really can't believe it!"

If you hadn't come here in person, no one would believe that there could be such a cheap thing in the world. Let alone that the world could be so big.

Finally, under the command of Wei Yunmei, the two-thousand-stone schooner ship left Nantianmen Pier and sailed toward the open sea as soon as it set out to sea.

…

A few days later, the "Zhizhi" sailed into the port of Surabaya. Surabaya is located on Java Island southeast of Nantianmen. On the west side of the island is the Dutch stronghold Batavia, and on the east side of the island is Surabaya. It turned out to be The desolate swamp was called "Sarimu", but after the Han people came here, they refined the name and turned it into the authentic Chinese name "Sishui".

When the ship entered the port, Wei Yunmei said to himself.

"Two cents per stone and rice, shipped to Nantianmen, the delivery price at the port is five cents, and then the profit is..."

Silently calculating the profits of this voyage, Wei Yunmei never thought that he would become a businessman. In fact, when he came to Nantianmen, he came with the mentality of atonement.

His father, Wei Xuelian, was a Jinshi in the 16th year of Chongzhen's reign and was considered a concubine by the late emperor. However, when the capital was captured by thieves last year, he first surrendered the Li thieves. Even though he soon hanged himself in shame, how could he be punished for the stain of surrendering the thieves? What about washing it off?

Even if the imperial court did not hold him accountable for surrendering a thief, as his son, standing in front of the Zhongxiao Shrine of his grandfather Wei Dazhong, thinking that the late emperor had vindicated his grandfather's injustice, and posthumously awarded his grandfather the title of Taichang Temple Minister, with the posthumous title of Zhongjie, to commemorate him.

Burial. The late emperor treated the Wei family with great kindness, but what about my father?

As the eldest son, Wei Yunmei chose self-exile, and his two brothers joined the army to atone for their father's sins.

Even until now, Wei Yunmei has not figured out why she bought this ship and started doing business in Nanyang.

"The Ming Dynasty needs the rice here, so this can be regarded as atonement!"

Wei Yunmei muttered secretly in her heart.

Like all Ming Dynasty ships, the "Zhizhi" was loaded with porcelain, cotton cloth and other goods from the Ming Dynasty. These goods were all popular among the natives from all over the country. Of course, soap, glass mirrors and the like were also indispensable.

commodity.

When the ship entered the port, Wei Yunmei ordered the sailors to prepare to enter the port as usual, but just as it entered the port, a small boat came over.

There were a dozen Han-looking Ming Shang on the boat, rowing anxiously. When they were still a few feet away from the boat, Ming Shang shouted loudly.

"Quick, don't enter the port, hurry back."

"Captain, that Ming Shang asked us to go back!"

"Let's go back? What happened?"

Wei Yunmei asked.

"Something happened, something big happened,"

He was also too impatient. Ming Shang, who had just boarded the ship, did not bother to elaborate and said to Wei Yunmei hastily:

"That Sultan Agung died. On the pretext of sending gifts to the new Sultan on his succession, Surabaya City directly robbed our shops and killed our people!"

Ming Shang was so anxious that his head was covered with sweat.

"Captain Wei, we can't stay in Surabaya now. Go back quickly. If you go there now, you are basically throwing yourself into a trap. I also bribed the guards to escape. These days, I have been waiting for an open boat to come over. If he robs me, I will not be able to escape."

If you wait half a year, there will definitely be no way to do business here."

"Yes, Captain Wei, a good man won't suffer the immediate loss. After a few months, we will come back here to do business. We must not enter the port this time. Otherwise, once we enter the port, the goods on this ship will have to be destroyed by them.

Robbed..."

For these Ming merchants, they seem to have long been accustomed to being blackmailed and blackmailed by the city lord. In their view, this seems inevitable.

"They killed us!"

Wei Yunmei touched the knife at his waist and stared at Surabaya.

"Some people didn't want to watch the natives snatching goods, so they naturally stopped them, hey, why bother, why bother... It's just money. If you lose the money, you can make more money, but if you lose your life, it's all over...

..." Looking at Ming Shang hiding on the boat, Wei Yunmei suddenly said in a deep voice!

"Are you just going to let them snatch your things?"

"Then what can you do? When doing business on other people's territory, you have to give them three points..."

"Let, let..."

Wei Yunmei shouted loudly.

"Why should I, the people of tomorrow's dynasty, accept such a tone from them? Listen up, brothers..."

yelled at the sailors.

"Push the cannon out, I will defeat Surabaya City today!"

As he finished speaking, he looked at the city of Surabaya in the distance and those bamboo buildings. The city he had seen when he came here several times in the past appeared in his mind. A thought suddenly came to his mind.
Chapter completed!