The Rise of the European Emperor

The vitality of these tortoises is actually quite tenacious, and it is easier to feed them. In addition, Marin was taking a tropical route, and it wasn't hot all the way, so the two tortoises shouldn't have died.

However, two of the Galapagos tortoises were too timid, and the boat swayed from side to side when sailing in the sea. This environment is too different from the land where the Galapagos tortoises usually live, which caused the two tortoises to panic. Therefore, the two dead Galapagos tortoises were actually scared to death. After all, coming from a calm land to a swaying boat is really scary, oh no, it’s a turtle...

The mental state of the remaining 13 Galapagos tortoises is also not very good. After all, tortoises are not well adapted to the bumpy life at sea, and it is considered good if they can persist.

Therefore, when he arrived at Keelung Heping Island, the first thing Marin did was to have all 13 Galapagos tortoises lifted off the boat for repairs. Yes, lift off the boat. Because it is too slow to let the tortoise run by itself. Therefore, it is better to let people carry it and walk faster.

In addition, the war horses brought by Marin were also taken off the boat for repairs. These war horses are more suitable for the life on the ship, because they are all specially selected flattery to adapt to the life on the ship. Although none of them are famous famous horses, they are tall and strong, and they look more bluffing. In fact, although this typical European war horse has great strength and runs fast, its endurance is relatively poor. Generally, knights don't ride very much when they are on the road. Otherwise, the horse's physical strength will be consumed prematurely, and it will not be used when it is necessary to fight. It is said that in the 19th century, due to the shortage of horses and no replacement horses, many cavalrymen often marched with their horses on the march, for fear that they would wear out the horses after riding for too long. Only horses with good endurance, such as Mongolian horses and Arabian horses, can be ridden for a long time, but they must also rest frequently. Like the Mongolian cavalry who marched across the Eurasian continent and traveled thousands of miles at every turn, they had to have one man with two horses, or even one man with three horses.

Of course, Marin didn't come all the way to send warmth to Daming. The reason why he chose such a tall horse is to bluff people, especially those literati. Those literati who don't understand horses like riding tall horses the most. For example, the number one scholar in the Ming Dynasty liked to ride tall horses and parade in the streets to praise officials. If you're riding a small southern horse, it's a shame to parade through the streets. Therefore, the tall European horse brought by Marin is definitely a weapon welcomed by scribes.

...

The master Marin came, and Kong Tai, as the local manager, naturally had to come to greet him in person. However, when Marin first landed on Peace Island, Kong Tai was not on the island. After inquiring, it turned out that Kong Tai supervised the construction of the city on the main island of Taiwan Island, which is opposite to the south of Heping Island...

At the beginning, after Kong Tai arrived in Keelung for the second time, with the help of Liu Laogen, he fooled a few Pingpu aborigines near Keelung and bought a piece of land next to Heping Island at a relatively small price.

Afterwards, Kong Tai asked people to build a small blockhouse on the land on the opposite bank, and arranged for the people to plant sweet potatoes on the shore as a source of food for Heping Island.

On the south coast of Keelung Bay opposite Heping Island, several square kilometers of coastal land were exchanged by Kong Tai. Kong Tai sent people to reclaim 500 mu of land here to plant sweet potatoes. The yield of sweet potatoes is more than 1,000 catties per mu (without pinching flowers), and two crops have been harvested, with a total output of more than one million catties. Now, beside Majiabao, Kong Tai specially built a warehouse for storing sweet potatoes.

Moreover, in order to facilitate farming, Kong Tai also sent someone to quietly buy ten cattle from Hu Jian's Meizhou Island via a smuggling boat.

Although farming cattle are treasures in Daming and are not easy to sell, Kong Tai is willing to pay a high price for it!

In Daming,

The price of a farm ox is only six or seven taels of silver, which is very cheap. In order to buy farming cattle, Kong Tai paid 20 taels of silver a head, three times the normal price. Driven by huge profits, Hu Jian's smuggler naturally helped to get 10 cattle.

You know, these smugglers are masters who want money but not life. Although the cattle were registered with the government and it was difficult to buy them through normal channels, these bold smugglers directly hired desperadoes to steal the cattle. They stole 10 cattle and sent them to Kong Tai overnight. Stealing cattle was a serious crime in the Ming Dynasty and was sentenced to exile. However, after those smugglers offered a reward of 2 taels of silver for a cow to each desperado, they quickly got enough 10 cows. But as soon as they changed hands, they sold it for 20 taels...

...

At the beginning, Kong Tai planned to wait for Marin's fleet to arrive before building the city on the south bank of Keelung Bay. For this reason, Conte specially asked Amerigo who returned to China to bring the news back, and asked Marindo to bring some cement. And Marin did bring a lot of cement when he came this time.

However, after a long time, Kong Tai found that the Pingpu aborigines near the south bank of Keelung Bay seemed to be relatively gentle, not brutal. So, he changed his plan and sent people ashore to build the city in advance.

In addition, his men mined a lot of stone on Heping Island, which can be used to lay the foundation for the city wall. Later, more and more stone materials were mined, which was enough to build the city wall. So Kong Tai immediately sent people to build the city wall on land while the fields were slack.

In order to solve the problem of insufficient stone materials, Kong Tai also hired local Pingpu people to help mine stone materials. Moreover, he also built several earthen kilns specially used to burn bricks to make up for the shortage of stone materials. As for the fuel for burning bricks, there is a lot of wood nearby... Later, when the output of bricks exceeded that of stones, Kong Tai asked craftsmen to build stones outside the city wall to strengthen the city wall. On the inside of the city wall, bricks are mainly used...

When Marin arrived, Kong Tai was supervising the construction of the city wall on the south bank of Keelung Bay. At this time, the four walls of this small city with an area of ​​one square kilometer were basically completed. However, the city gate has not been finished yet, and there are no buildings in the city, just a pure super compound...

What made Marin dumbfounded was that through Liu Laogen and the young translators in Jilong Village, Kong Tai organized the young and middle-aged indigenous people from many nearby Pingpu villages to help them build the city wall. Otherwise, the progress is not so fast.

It is estimated that there are five or six hundred young and strong natives in many nearby villages who were hired by Kong Tai to help build the city wall. Of course, they don't know how to do bricklaying work, and they mainly put the bricks and stones in the designated positions according to the instructions of the masons sent by the Beihai Kingdom. The final technical work was done by craftsmen from Beihai. However, most of the physical work was done by these young and strong natives, and the masons in Beihai Kingdom didn't really consume much energy. In construction, the handling of bricks and stones is the main physical work.

And according to Kong Tai’s adjutant, Kong Tai hired these young and strong natives with very low wages, only sweet potato rice was enough, and occasionally venison and fish were provided, and each person was given a small packet of salt every ten days...

In this way, the local native Qing Zhuang sold himself to Kong Tai as a migrant worker...

In fact, this is not difficult to understand. In the eyes of the people of Beihai, salt may not be considered a valuable thing. After all, Marin is a big salt producer, and Beihai will never lack salt. However, in the eyes of the aborigines of the Pingpu ethnic group in Taiwan, salt is a very precious thing. Giving a small bag of salt (less than half a catty) for ten days is definitely a very generous reward. What's more, when working on the construction site, Kong Tai is in charge of food. The sweet potato rice is already sweet, much better than what the local aborigines usually eat. And, now and then, venison soup is served. And those venison were bought by nearby hunters with bows and arrows bought from Kong Tai, and they were used to exchange salt with Kong Tai. And Kong Tai, when he and his subordinates still had enough to eat, he also used it to cook broth to entertain the young and strong natives. What's more, the soup has salt in it...

Moreover, Kong Tai has a fishing team that goes out to sea from time to time to fish. Therefore, the indigenous migrant workers can often drink fish soup... For the Pingpu indigenous people who are still in a semi-primitive society, it is definitely a fairy-like day. Therefore, Kong Tai, a black-hearted contractor, oppressed them so much, and they were happy with it. After all, the food here is much better than theirs before. Just the fact that there is salt in the food is something they never could do often before...