Chapter 65: Pig Head
Next, Li Kuiqi pointed out more than ten islands in a row, all rejected one by one by Lin Qian.
Each time the reason for rejection was a long explanation, well-reasoned and evidence-based, leaving Li Kuiqi without a single point to refute.
Finally, he could no longer tolerate it and slapped the table: “Brother Lin, do you really think I can’t guess what you’re up to?”
Lin Qian looked completely at a loss: “What does Elder Brother mean by that? All I seek is just a place to settle down.”
Li Kuiqi said: “Brother Lin wants to stall for time, waiting for someone to rescue you, right? Even if your men are right outside the door now, I can still kill you first!”
“Then be hacked to death by my men with random knives?” Lin Qian also hardened his face.
Between people, sometimes it’s nothing more than who dares to go all out more.
During the conversation, Lin Qian had already figured out Li Kuiqi’s game.
Li Kuiqi thought highly of himself; such people all cherished their lives, and he had only brought one ship to the island, clearly not here for mutual destruction.
Even if he luckily killed Lin Qian, the thousands of islanders were still there; they made the island their home and had nowhere else to go.
Li Kuiqi still wouldn’t be able to force them to relocate.
Instead, the islanders without Lin Qian’s restraint would plunder freely around, drawing the Imperial Court army to encircle and suppress them in the nearby seas, which would harm Li Kuiqi even more.
So killing Lin Qian not only had no meaning but would also backfire.
Lin Qian had seen through this point and thus boldly retorted.
As expected, Li Kuiqi’s momentum weakened by half, and he sneered: “So, Brother Lin is determined to occupy Nan’ao Island and become enemies with Ship Owner Li?”
Seeing this, Lin Qian instead calmed down, just toying with the tea cup without speaking.
Li Kuiqi clenched his fists tightly, his tiger eyes glaring deadly at Lin Qian, and said hatefully: “Ship Owner Li commands thousands of warships and tens of thousands of sailors; you’d better think it through!”
Lin Qian hadn’t answered yet when someone outside shouted: “Elder Brother, that cannon ship is coming toward us.”
Li Kuiqi stood up, staring viciously at Lin Qian, lost in thought.
Bai Langzai stepped forward, drew his dagger, and gripped it in his hand.
Li Kuiqi pondered briefly, then smashed his fist on the table with a crisp bang; the four legs of the tea table all shattered, and the tabletop was smashed through with a hole.
Tea splashed everywhere from the table, and the tea ware shattered all over the ground with crackling sounds.
“Take good care of yourself!” Li Kuiqi threw down a harsh remark and stormed out.
After the footsteps faded away, Lin Qian stood up and coldly swept his gaze over Garrison Commander Huang.
Huang Hetai shrank in fright and hurriedly said: “It was he who told me to call the leader; I didn’t know you two leaders were at odds. Next time this person comes, I will definitely inform the leader in advance.”
Lin Qian leaned close to his ear and said coldly: “No matter. It’s almost Mid-Autumn; tomorrow I’ll have someone bring a generous gift for the garrison commander.”
The words were polite, but the threat was thick; Huang Hetai felt goosebumps all over.
Only after Lin Qian left did he breathe a sigh of relief.
After Lin Qian went out, he quickly left the General’s mansion and arrived in front of the dock.
That Haicang Ship had already raised anchor and set sail, slowly heading out to sea.
Li Kuiqi stood at the stern, locking eyes with Lin Qian, his face full of wild arrogance.
At this time, the Santa Ana was sailing around the ridge of Guo Lao Mountain.
Li Kuiqi spotted the hull of the Santa Ana from afar, his arrogant expression even more intense; he pointed at the Santa Ana, then at himself, and afterward looked provocatively at Lin Qian.
The Haicang Ship had all three sails fully set and soon sailed far away; Li Kuiqi’s face was no longer visible through the telescope, but his pair of tiger eyes still glared murderously at the shore.
At this time, his subordinates had already brought a small boat.
Lin Qian put away the telescope, took the other subordinates, and boarded the small boat.
Bai Langzai rowed the oar, and the small boat nimbly turned around and headed toward the galleon.
The first thing after boarding, Lin Qian ordered pursuit toward the direction where Li Kuiqi had gone.
However, the Haicang Ship was very fast, and on the vast sea, it was already out of sight.
The Santa Ana sailed for two hours in the direction where the Haicang Ship had vanished but saw no trace on the sea surface.
At this time, the sky was overcast, rain was imminent, and visibility on the sea surface was getting lower.
Pursuing further would likely yield no result, so Lin Qian ordered the galleon to turn back.
When the galleon reached shore, the overcast sky finally began to rain.
Lin Qian had the crew find merchants to buy a live pig, slaughter it on the spot, and serve it as dinner for the crew.
The crew didn’t know what celebration there was today, but fresh pork was always good, so they all gathered on the deck to help slaughter the pig.
After dinner was ready, Lin Qian called Bai Qing aboard to eat stewed pork together.
During the meal, Lin Qian casually asked: “Is there a way to sneak into the General’s mansion at Shen’ao Port?”
……
The next day.
The sky cleared after the rain, cloudless for miles.
In a side room of the General’s mansion, Huang Hetai woke early and felt utterly refreshed.
Recalling yesterday’s ordeal, he still felt some lingering fear; neither of the two sea bandit leaders was someone he could afford to offend.
Fortunately, it was all past.
Leader Li had slunk away.
Leader Lin hadn’t made trouble for him either.
Truly fortunate.
He was just about to get out of bed and dress when, turning over, he felt a patch of cold dampness.
Huang Hetai grew uneasy, touched it again; the dampness was somewhat slick, and reaching further, he touched a cold limb.
Huang Hetai jumped from the bed like he’d been stung and yanked back the bedding.
The sight before him terrified him, his eyes bulging.
There was a pig head on the bed, surrounded by dark red pig blood that had soaked the entire bedding.
A bloody stench assaulted him.
Huang Hetai retched violently at once, rushed to the courtyard, and gulped several breaths of sea wind before recovering.
“Garrison Commander Huang.” A soldier came up to greet him.
“Get lost!” Huang Hetai roared.
Seeing the garrison commander in a foul mood, the soldier immediately slipped away.
Huang Hetai understood; this was Lin Qian’s warning to him.
Only now did Huang Hetai feel waves of after-fear.
Unlike the General, who could assemble household soldiers, the meager graft he could collect barely sustained himself.
To stay alive, he had no choice but to submit to Lin Qian, this sea bandit leader.
Huang Hetai looked up at the sky and sighed deeply: “What a sin!”
……
After Mid-Autumn, construction on the island fortress had taken initial shape.
Lin Qian went ashore every day to inspect.
At his request, watchtowers were built on the peaks of Guo Lao Mountain and Da Jian Mountain.
People took turns on duty through all twelve hours.
Not only were activities at Shen’ao Port fully in view, but the surrounding tens of li of sea were also clearly visible.
Around the central island fortress, a fence wall was built, with people patrolling and guarding nearby day and night.
The blacksmiths rushed out a batch of spearheads mounted on wooden rods as simple long spears; the patrol teams basically had one each.
Further out, at the southern island forest edge, porcelain shards strung on thin ropes would rattle if enemies touched them, serving as an early warning.
All these were preparations against attacks by Li Kuiqi.
Lin Qian had sent someone to ask Huang Hetai, but Garrison Commander Huang didn’t know Li Kuiqi’s base either.
He only knew Li Kuiqi had over a thousand sea bandits under him, going to Tuolin Bay every three months to deliver tribute to the General’s subordinates.
Tuolin Bay was right off the north bank of Nan’ao Island.
Li Kuiqi going once every three months meant his range of activity wasn’t far from Nan’ao Island; they had to stay vigilant.
Perhaps due to solid defenses, the island had been quite peaceful lately.
The watchtowers on the two peaks often spotted passing merchant ships, making many itch for action.
However, with Li Kuiqi lurking nearby, Lin Qian felt it best not to court extra trouble and forbade his men from plundering.
While checking defenses, Lin Qian inspected fortress construction daily.
It must be said that craftsmen of this era were conscientious; workmanship and materials were impeccable, with built houses having almost no quality issues.
Currently, few shops on the island; besides several blacksmith shops, only a few casinos, brothels, and medical halls had opened.
Most other vendors arrived by boat early morning, sold out, and returned by boat in the evening.
No one yet realized the economic potential here.
During inspections, Lin Qian saw prime vacant shops going to waste, so he bought some with silver and hired people to run businesses.
Once profitable, he would reward them to meritorious brothers.
So far, Lin Qian had opened one restaurant, one inn, and one dessert shop.
Just as he pondered opening a clothing shop too.
A crew member ran up hurriedly, face full of urgency: “Helmsman, Zhou Zhiku and the others are in trouble!”
