Chapter 0935 – Insider (I)

“The Zheng He fleet back then, if we could learn from what Europe and other countries did, our country wouldn’t be so weak in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.”

With the ferry slowly approaching its destination, Zhuang Rui standing at the bow of the boat has some feelings, the sea road he is now traveling is the route that Zheng He took when he went to the West Ocean.

When Zheng He first went to the West Ocean, it was from Liu Jia Harbor, crossing the Strait of Malacca and entering into the Indian Ocean, visiting a total of more than thirty countries.

Zheng He’s fleet was a super flotilla consisting of more than 240 ships and 27,400 crew members, which was formed in accordance with the maritime navigation and military organization, and was considered a powerful maritime mobile fleet in the world at that time.

The famous international scholar, Dr. Joseph Lee of England, made the conclusion that “the Ming navy was probably superior to any Asian nation in history, and even any European nation of the same time, so that all the European nations united, could be said to have been no match for the Ming navy.”

But unfortunately, China has always revered the so-called state of etiquette, empty of such a powerful force, but deliberately befriended countries, if follow the example of Britain and Portugal and other countries, perhaps China will also have many colonies in the world.

“Boss, there are still two hours of voyage from the coordinate place you gave, whether to anchor at the coordinate point, please instruct.”

While Zhuang Rui was reminiscing about his ancestors, the intercom in his hand rang, it was the bearded captain asking for instructions from Zhuang Rui.

As a captain who had only signed a one year contract and was hired on a temporary basis, Clyde had put himself in the right position and turned a blind eye to everything else except for issues related to sailing that he could make his own decisions.

These days Zhuang Rui’s men had been carrying out some kind of remodeling work in the bilge, but Clyde had never gone to ask about it, and had once severely punished one of his first mates because this first mate had been drunk at the time and insisted on going to see what was going on in the bilge.

“Clyde, you’re the captain, you know, on this ship, you’re the boss, is it necessary to report to that young man on everything?”

In the cockpit at the bow of the ship, a first mate with three horizontal bars on his shoulders and an indignant look on his face was verbally agitating Clyde.

“Jack, that’s our boss, he can fire you and me at any time, when that happens, I’m afraid you won’t even be able to stay in Macau, not to mention entering the casino.”

Clyde gave his subordinate a disgruntled look, if it wasn’t for the fact that he had been with Jack for over a decade and had always served as his second in command, Clyde would have kicked the drunkard and gambler off the ship.

“Oh, much better, Captain, I guess you’re right, just what the hell are they doing down at the bottom of the ship? Couldn’t be dealing drugs, could they? Geez, if that’s the case, then let’s ……”

With a twinkle in his eye Jack brought the conversation back to the bottom of the ship being remodeled, he’d gone down there once the other day pretending to be drunk, but had been carried up by two holey security guards and hadn’t seen a thing.

“Drug trafficking, joke, do you know how much our boss is worth? At least a few billion, know Klaus gold anchor treasure? That was obtained by our boss.”

Clyde scoffed at Jack’s words, a boss worth billions of dollars to deal drugs? Unless Zhuang Rui made his fortune by dealing drugs, or his brain is broken, only now would he do such a thing.

“Oh god, the golden anchor?”

Jack really didn’t know about this, but the shock on his face after hearing about it wasn’t feigned, looking at the ship constantly approaching the coordinate point on the electronic instrument, Jack suddenly covered his stomach with one hand and said, “Hell, Captain, I’m going to the restroom.”

“Go ahead! I haven’t seen you that much before, if you’re not feeling well, go back to your room and rest for a while, I’ll just be here.”

Clyde didn’t doubt it and waved his hand, he had always been lenient with his old buddies, if there was a newbie today, Clyde wouldn’t have been as nice.

“Damn, that kid is actually so rich, half a million dollars is too little, at least knock him for ten million dollars, then I can leave this hellhole.”

After leaving the cockpit, Jack’s eyes were darting around, muttering in a voice only audible to himself, “Macau is really a good place, of course, Las Vegas is not bad either, the blonde girls are more flavorful than oriental women, but that young man’s woman is so fucking beautiful.”

Nasty thoughts flashing through his mind, Jack walked all the way back to his room, and when he entered, he immediately shut the door securely behind him, and took out a satellite phone from the safe above his bed.

Unlike many other crew members who have families and children in Macau, Jack has been single for more than ten years, and when he is not on a voyage, he is either gambling and drinking or fooling around with some prostitutes, and the wages he is paid are always gone at the beginning of the month.

The good thing is that the ferry crew’s lodging and meals are free, so Jack can act as a big spender once a month, and then go back to the ship to dabble in the food and drink, the days are not quite down and out, but definitely can’t be said to be good.

A week ago, however, Jack’s life of year after year, day after day, was disrupted by a bet.

In that game, Jack inexplicably lost more than 30,000 U.S. dollars, and do not know why he asked the loan sharks to borrow 50,000, and lost all of them, which made Jack sober up, almost did not collapse.

In Macau stayed for more than ten years, Jack is well aware of these loan sharks terrible, only by their own salary, half a year to pay back the fifty thousand dollars, but half a year later, I’m afraid that fifty thousand has long become one hundred and fifty thousand, if you can’t pay back the words, you will definitely be missing a part of the body.

Just when Jack touched his own small dd chills all over his body, a just and he bet against the Oriental, suddenly appeared in front of Jack.

Jack swore that at the beginning, he was sure that this man was the devil, but after that Oriental man took out a whole hundred thousand dollars, he immediately upgraded to God in Jack’s eyes.

With a deposit of one hundred thousand dollars, and another four hundred thousand dollars to be taken after completing what the man had explained, Jack had long since put the matter of his being a first mate behind him, and told the Oriental man all about the changes that had taken place on the ferry as they were.

It was the previous time that he deliberately used drunkenness to enter the bilge, which was also explained by that orientalist, only that Jack was not able to go down there, and in order to be afraid of being blamed, Jack simply said that everything was normal on the ship, and there were no other changes except for the newly built drilling platforms and floating cranes.

“Hello, this is Jack, oh generous boss, I have good news to report to you.”

After picking up the phone, Jack couldn’t wait to tell the other party about his latest discovery, he had been at sea for a decade or two, and had already guessed eight or nine times about the other party’s identity.

It is a pirate so what? Jack can not care so much, as long as the money given to him, is to let him go to be a pirate also does not matter, he believes that, like their own so a promising and skilled first mate, the other party will not do unloading things.

“Boss, Klaus’ golden anchor ah! That one thing is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention the fact that you guys can ……”

Jack stopped his mouth here, he believed that the other party would be able to understand his words.

“Well, Jack, you’ll get an unexpected fortune, all you need to do now is to monitor every move on the ship, and also you need to ask around, how many days will this ship stay at that coordinate point?”

The voice on the phone was a bit low, probably due to the wind and waves at sea, there was some rustling at one point during the call, but neither Jack nor the other party cared about it, it was a normal thing to do.

“Thank you boss, I will make you satisfied.”

After Jack hung up the phone, there was a sudden chill in his heart, how did he say this so much like the bitch in front of the casino in Macau, what he said in bed ah?

After half a day’s sea voyage, the ship finally came to the coordinates of the location that Zhuang Rui said, which is located at the entrance of the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca, just in the open sea waters, if a little further, then it is going to enter into the waters of Singapore.

Malacca Strait is located in Southeast Asia between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra Island, connecting the South China Sea and the Andaman Sea, communicating with the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, an important waterway, northwestern to southeastern direction, a length of about nine hundred kilometers.

The Strait of Malacca is now shared by Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, the strait is in the equatorial windless zone, there are many calm days throughout the year, the bottom of the strait is flat, mostly sandy and the current is gentle.

But in this section of the entrance into the Strait of Malacca, is a large number of reefs, deep waves, the deepest up to more than 3,000 meters, from the age of sailing into the great age, I do not know how many ships in here to sink.

According to the relevant records, the South China Sea location of the waters of a total of more than two thousand ancient shipwrecks, and in this entrance, I am afraid to account for more than half.

Although this place is located in the open sea, the salvaged items can all belong to themselves, but here the waves are big and the water is deep, and it is difficult to detect the specific location of the wrecks, so there have been very few adventurers to come to the operation, the seabed wrecks are relatively well preserved.

“Mr. Zhuang, is this the location?”

Zhang Gong walked to Zhuang Rui’s side, although he had a long period of time at sea every year to debug his equipment, but going out to sea on such a luxurious cruise ship was also the first time for him.

Moreover, the salvage equipment installed this time was extremely advanced, it was the latest developed by their company, if this salvage was successful, it would also be a very favorable publicity for their company.

“Right, when the anchoring is completed, it will have to be positioned first, it’s up to you, Mr. Zhang, at that time.”

Zhuang Rui nodded and watched as from the ship’s hull, one huge iron anchor was thrown out from the hull, making a dull ringing sound before sinking to the bottom of the sea, the chains as thick as a child’s arm were making a clattering sound and were constantly being pulled towards the bottom of the sea by the iron anchors.

There was no mistaking the location, on the previous trip home on the yacht, Zhuang Rui had memorized all the coordinates of the shipwrecks in the open sea along the way, and just now, he had also probed the seabed with his aura.

Obviously, this sea area must be more than just a shipwreck, within a radius of four or five nautical miles, at the bottom of the sea that gentle riverbed, Zhuang Rui felt at least a dozen places, are emitting a rich aura.

Eyes aura feel the bottom of the sea that a group of thick but not scattered breath, Zhuang Rui heart is also some excitement.

The items inside the shipwreck in the sea, generally in addition to gold and silverware, it is necessary to count the sea salvage porcelain is the most valuable, the so-called sea salvage porcelain, refers to the Chinese history of export porcelain of a classification.

China’s late Ming Dynasty, a large number of porcelain exports, and Zhuang Rui is now in the Strait of Malacca, as Asia, Africa, Europe and other places to and from the sea hub, become China’s merchant ships must pass through the place, some merchant ships sank for some reason in this, containing porcelain salvaged collectively referred to as the sea salvage porcelain.

Insiders believe that the sea porcelain can not be compared with the Ming and Qing dynasty official kiln porcelain, but because from the wreck, with a more obvious historical background, reflecting the cultural and historical value should not be underestimated.

In previous years, the price of sea salvage antiques has not been very high, but in these years the price is soaring, not long ago there were people salvaged more than three hundred pieces of Ming dynasty sea salvage porcelain, actually shot more than forty million dollars.

With Zhuang Rui’s sense, the items inside the shipwrecks under this sea will definitely be worth the ticket this time, and several relatively well-preserved ancient ships inside will also be used as an important exhibit in their own museum.

“Brother Zhuang, if you have time, come to the monitoring room for a moment, something very interesting has happened on our ship.”

Just when Zhuang Rui and Zhang Gong were talking, the walkie-talkie in his hand suddenly rang, the person who was talking was Shura Li Zhen, this dude was bored in his room all day and didn’t come out, Zhuang Rui didn’t know what he was doing.

And Zhang Gong briefly chatted a few words, Zhuang Rui returned to the cabin into the elevator, came to the fifth floor, on the fingerprint lock to be able to enter the room where Li Zhen worked.

Zhuang Rui into the room, found Peng Fei is also inside, can not help but froze for a moment, this kid just now is not and his daughter-in-law went to the back deck fishing?

“Hey, Brother Zhuang, we definitely won’t be lonely these days!” Seeing Zhuang Rui come in, Peng Fei had a bad smile on his face, and there was some excitement between his looks.

Zhuang Rui thought that Peng Fei was talking about salvaging the shipwreck, and said in a bad mood, “Nonsense, of course we won’t be lonely, if you have a pain in the ass, it’s okay to go diving, but don’t let the sharks eat it!”

“Brother Zhuang, it’s not about that, come, you listen to this recording.”

Peng Fei waved his hand, pulled Li Zhen to one side, and let Zhuang Rui sit down before playing a conversation out.

“This …… is our crew?” Zhuang Rui listened to the recording and his face was filled with shock.

“That’s right, Brother Zhuang, there’s a good show to watch!”

Li Zhen smiled triumphantly, out of his profession, he would listen to the signals sent outwards from the ship, but he never thought that he had actually caught a mole.