Chapter 54: Casting Nets In Vain For Cold Moonlight
After bidding farewell to the fat councillor.
Lin Qian returned to the inn to pack his things, preparing to set off back to the Santa Ana.
Zheng Zhilong did not stay at the fat counsellor’s place, but came out together with Lin Qian.
After walking a distance, Zheng Zhilong recounted how during the meeting, the councillor had confirmed the news with him using eye contact.
Lin Qian expressed thanks, noting that without Zheng Zhilong’s nod of approval, the councillor probably wouldn’t have believed so quickly.
After returning to the inn, Lin Qian casually asked, “Brother Yiguan, now that matters here are settled, I wonder what plans you have next?”
Hearing this, Zheng Zhilong knew it was time to pledge loyalty, and immediately knelt down, saying, “If you do not disdain me, Zheng Zhilong is willing to serve loyally for Elder Brother Lin from now on, offering the labor of a dog and horse!”
Lin Qian had been waiting for these words, and with a face full of smiles, helped him up: “From now on, we are brothers of one family, together carving out a piece of heaven and earth on the sea!”
Zheng Zhilong’s ancestral home was in Fujian. From childhood he had envied the grandeur of sea merchants. At sixteen, he came to Macau with his uncle to make a living, having seen all sorts of people, but none could compare to Elder Brother Lin.
At this time, being accepted onto the ship by Lin Qian, he felt much like a loyal minister meeting a wise lord.
Zheng Zhilong sighed inwardly: “Zhuge Liang must have felt the same in his heart when he met Liu Bei.”
Lin Qian and the other two stayed one night at the inn. The next day they packed their things properly and checked out.
Then they went to Qingmei Workshop for one last attempt to recruit Su Kang.
However, this doctor had a strange temper, preferring to endure exploitation by officials in Guangzhou City rather than board the ship with Lin Qian.
Lin Qian offered a sky-high price of ten taels of silver per month, but Su Kang remained unmoved.
The girl called Mei’er was quite tempted, but her thin arms couldn’t twist thick thighs, and she couldn’t persuade Su Kang.
Lin Qian had no choice but to give up.
Afterwards, the three hurried to Poshan Wharf and took a Tanka Boat to the Santa Ana’s anchorage.
It wasn’t noon yet, so they should be able to return to the ship before dinner.
Following their boat, there were also twenty Tanka Boats, with about over a hundred Tanka People.
Because Tanka People practiced collective punishment, and the Imperial Court encouraged mutual reporting and denunciation, Bai Langzai and his elder sister could only find opportunities to talk to people about boarding the ship.
In the end, only these over a hundred Tanka People agreed.
Fortunately, these people were enough to alleviate the labor shortage on the ship. Once they reached Nan’ao Island and stood firm, there would be no worry about no one coming to join.
With the bone-sucking Great Ming government offices and pearl farms as precedents, as long as Lin Qian promised to collect less tax, it was already a fatal attraction to Tanka People and even ordinary folk.
In the evening, amid a red glow over sea and sky, the Tanka Boat fleet arrived at the galleon.
After the Tanka People took their personal belongings, they abandoned the Tanka Boats and boarded the Santa Ana.
The ownerless Tanka Boats drifted with the waves on the sea, gradually floating away with the waves and disappearing into the sea and sky.
Lin Qian ordered to sail west for two hours.
Lei Sanxiang and the others took this time to settle the newly boarded Tanka People, grouping every two boats’ worth into one group, supervised by an old ship worker.
Then they arranged hammocks, bunks, and distributed dinner.
They bustled until the middle of the night before settling everyone down.
The next day, Lin Qian ordered the Santa Ana to continue sailing west for half a day, anchoring at Hailing Island.
This was a small coastal island west of Macau, with sparse residents, the garrison in ruins. Tanka People often overnighted here when traveling between the pearl farm and Guangzhou.
Anchoring here was first to avoid the fat counsellor’s eyes and ears, and second to wait for Bai Qing.
The mother of the Bai family siblings was left at the pearl farm and couldn’t be ignored, so Lin Qian had agreed with Bai Qing that she would first return to the pearl farm to pick up people and by the way recruit some pearl farm Tanka People, then rendezvous here.
A few days later in the early morning.
A Tanka Boat fleet sailed toward the harbor.
Lin Qian came to the ship’s rail and raised the telescope.
In the view, there were about over ten Tanka Boats.
As the fleet drew near, faintly a salty water song could be heard coming.
“Rich people have alcohol and meat, poor people suffer, casting nets only scoop cold moonlight…”
Singing this tune was pre-arranged to identify themselves.
But the melody was exceptionally mournful.
Salty water songs have no fixed tune, the melody follows the singer’s mood.
Hearing such a song made Lin Qian faintly uneasy in his heart. Raising the telescope again, he saw that most of the people rowing the Tanka Boats had white cloth wrapped around their arms.
Bai Langzai came to the side of the ship, originally full of joy on his face. Upon seeing this scene, his face suddenly changed, hands gripping the railing tightly, knuckles white, breathing heavy, staring intently at the approaching boats.
The Tanka People on the Santa Ana also gathered at the ship’s rail, gazing intently at the approaching boats, their expressions heavy.
Finally, the Tanka Boats sailed up close, and the Tanka People brought their personal trifles and boarded via the rope ladder.
It could be seen that the boarding Tanka People all had white cloth tied around their arms, and some had white headscarves—this was wearing mourning!
Bai Qing came up the rope ladder last, her expression anguished. She walked to Lin Qian and introduced: “Helmsman, these are the Tanka People from the pearl farm. Having heard of the helmsman’s righteous act, they voluntarily boarded the ship.”
Bai Langzai looked around left and right, seeing no figure of his mother, his face already deathly pale. He staggered to his elder sister who was in mourning and tremblingly said: “…Elder Sister… where is our mother?”
Bai Qing’s body shuddered. She looked up at the sky and softly said: “Dead… threw herself into the sea…”
“Wha… how…” Bai Langzai was struck as if by lightning, standing dumbstruck on the spot.
Bai Qing took a deep breath, forcing back tears: “Four days ago, the pearl farm issued a major pearl diving corvée. In previous years, it was by boat quota.
This year, the eunuch overseer said to take advantage of the hot summer water to harvest more, changing it to per person quota…
Our mother… our mother… our mother didn’t want to implicate us, so that night she threw herself into the sea…”
Bai Langzai couldn’t believe it, like grasping at a lifesaving straw. He took out a small bag of pearls from his bosom, held it in both hands, and offered it to his sister: “Sis, don’t we have pearls? Mom doesn’t need to worry, we have pearls!”
Bai Qing shook her head: “Too late… when Elder Sister hurried back to the pearl farm, our mother had already been in the sea for two days…”
Bai Langzai felt as if stabbed through the heart. His body went soft and he collapsed to the deck. That bag of pearls fell on the deck, scattering with clinks everywhere, falling through the deck cracks into the sea.
Bai Langzai was oblivious, his eyes vacant and lifeless, tears streaming down his face.
The surrounding mourning Tanka People also wiped tears similarly. Evidently their family relatives had also perished in the same way.
“Don’t cry!” Bai Qing wiped her tears and fiercely pulled her brother up, scolding, “Our mother was killed by corrupt officials. If you’re a man, follow sister to avenge our mother!”
Bai Langzai awoke as from a dream, wiped his tears, and said: “Right, revenge!”
Then, Bai Qing looked at Lin Qian, steeled her resolve, knelt down with a thud, and said: “Helmsman! You are Bai Langzai’s sworn elder brother, and also the Elder Brother I, Bai Qing, admire. Today our siblings’ mother was killed by corrupt officials. I beg elder brother to help us siblings take revenge!”
With that, without waiting for Lin Qian’s response, thud thud thud, she kowtowed three times in a row.
She kowtowed with extreme force, shaking the deck lightly. When she straightened up, blood was flowing from her forehead.
Bai Langzai also imitated his sister, knelt and kowtowed three times, breaking his head and bleeding.
Seeing this, the Tanka People who came with Bai Qing also followed suit one after another.
It wasn’t that their knees were soft.
But because the pearl farm was heavily guarded, and they simply couldn’t get close to the pearl farm eunuchs.
With these Tanka People rashly going, let alone revenge, they couldn’t even get close to the enemy.
At present, this group could only pin their hopes on Lin Qian.
The scene quieted down for a moment, only the sound of waves lapping against the ship’s body could be heard.
Everyone turned their gazes to Lin Qian.
But Lin Qian fell into contemplation, silent for a long time.
Everyone knew in their hearts that attacking the pearl farm was a nine-deaths one-life affair, not to mention, even if luckily successful, it would be a great crime of rebellion.
If they became sea bandits, the Imperial Court might turn a blind eye.
Once they attacked the pearl farm and killed the court eunuchs, bearing the crime of rebellion, the Imperial Court wouldn’t sit idly by, and then they would be hunted to the ends of the earth.
Seeing Lin Qian silent for a long time.
Zheng Zhilong realized that Lin Qian had been put in a bind by the Tanka People: agreeing would mean rebellion, disagreeing would mean abandoning brothers, blocked both ways.
It was time for him to step in and provide a way out.
“Helmsman…”
Zheng Zhilong had just started when he was stopped by Lin Qian.
Lin Qian slowly swept his gaze over everyone, then gravely said: “This vengeance, I, Lin Qian, will take!”
