February 5, 1646, the fifth day of the lunar calendar, Malacca City.

"I heard you need a lot of young women?"

When Sheng Wencheng, the representative of Qiguo Hanzhou General Trading Company in Malacca, was invited by several local Chinese, he came to a restaurant in the east of the city to discuss how to represent Hanzhou products locally. While the atmosphere was full of wine and the atmosphere was warm, two uninvited guests came

When they arrived at their table, one of them was clearly Ma Huaiyu, who once had a wide circle of friends in Batavia, while the other was a gloomy man with a distinctly Ottoman face.

That Osman came to the crowd and said a few words directly, and then translated to Sheng Wencheng, the representative of Hanzhou Trading Company, with Ma Huaiyu's face grimacing.

"What do you mean by that?" Sheng Wencheng frowned, feeling a little unhappy at the visitor's blunt inquiry.

"We have a lot of high-end women in our hands!" Amari said proudly: "I heard that your Hanzhou needs a lot of women, especially young women. I think we can start business cooperation on this."

Hearing this, Sheng Wencheng frowned even more tightly, and nodded apologetically to several local Chinese businessmen present. How could this stupid human trafficker be so careless, talking about it directly in a restaurant, in front of so many people?

Buying and selling women? It’s really shameful!

Although everyone knows that Hanzhou will purchase Nyonya with Chinese ancestry in Nanyang, or some better-quality native girls from Johor, Aceh, Jambi and other places, and even buy female slaves from India and Persia, but it is also

You can't just come up to an Ottoman you don't know and ask if you want a woman. This makes me, the owner of a dignified Hanzhou trading company, just like an "old bustard" who buys women wantonly!

It’s really insulting to gentlemen!

"Tell me about it. What do you have in your hands?" After saying goodbye to several local Chinese businessmen, Sheng Wencheng followed Ma Huaiyu and the Ottoman to a quiet courtyard. Seeing that there were no other people waiting, he said calmly.

Face, asked coldly.

"White slaves!" Amari said with a smile: "We have white slaves from the Christian world in Europe, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, French, and even English. We have them in our hands. Strong men, young and beautiful

Women, wise old men, and skilled artists. Whatever you want, we can provide it!"

"Craftsman, young woman!" Sheng Wencheng was stunned for a moment, then said: "We only want these two kinds of people."

"I heard that your population in Hanzhou is not very large. Shouldn't you buy more mature men to serve as slaves?" Amaliqi said.

"We can get some mature men ourselves." Sheng Wencheng said, "We only need some young women now."

"Oh, I understand." Amari nodded and said: "You Hanzhou only need women's bellies, and you need them to help you give birth to Hanzhou people's children. You need to guarantee your Hanzhou people's blood, right?"

"How much can you provide every year?" Sheng Wencheng didn't want to discuss topics such as bloodline with an Ottoman barbarian.

"How much can you eat every year?" Amari asked.

"..." Sheng Wencheng couldn't help but be a little surprised when he saw the determined look on the other party's face. Listening to his tone, it seemed that Hanzhou could provide them with any number of women we needed.

"How to calculate the price?"

"The average price of a young woman is around 60 Akç (Ottoman currency), and for a craftsman, it is between 200 and 300 Akç, depending on the specific circumstances." Amari's eyes flashed with a cunning light.

"Huh?" Sheng Wencheng looked at Ma Huaiyu in confusion.

"Well, based on your Hanzhou currency, the price of a young female slave is about thirty-five Hanzhou silver dollars." Ma Huaiyu made an estimate in his mind and quoted a price in Hanzhou terms.

"It's too expensive!" Sheng Wencheng shook his head and said, "Do you know what the price is in Johor and Aceh? It's less than half of the price you gave!"

"But, the women in our hands are all white slaves. If you take off all your clothes, you will be a dazzling white slave!" Amari shouted urgently.

"Tsk!" Sheng Wencheng sneered disdainfully, "We in Hanzhou purchase women to have children. As for white skin and dark skin, what is the difference to us?"

"But if we want to transport women here, it will take at least two months!"

"So, the women you provide are not cost-effective!" Sheng Wencheng said with a smile: "Although the cost of obtaining female slaves is almost zero, the price you offer us is indeed not very attractive."

After listening to Ma Huaiyu's translation, Amari was stunned for a moment, with a confused look on his face. Isn't it that Hanzhou people are more generous and like to buy young women from all over the world? Why are they so picky now?

Ma Huaiyu approached Amari and whispered something to him in Ottoman. While speaking, he looked at Sheng Wencheng who looked very relaxed from time to time.

Afterwards, Amari had a look of surprise on his face and kept asking questions. It wasn't until Ma Huaiyu nodded affirmatively that he showed a smile of satisfaction.

"If your annual purchase quantity in Hanzhou is not less than 2,000 people, our price can be reduced by another 30%, and we can deliver it to your door!" Amari said solemnly: "But we need to obtain the artillery produced by your Hanzhou

, muskets, as well as sharp swords and spears and hard armor.”

Oh, these human traffickers still have economic acumen. They know that our Hanzhou has sharp firearms and want to use the money from selling white slaves to purchase firearms from our Hanzhou. By the way, these Ottomans are really brave. They can actually

They went deep into the European continent, plundered the Western barbarians, and sold them everywhere.

"So what if they plundered Europe?" Ma Huaiyu said with a smile: "They are the famous Barbary pirates. They are supported by the great Ottoman Empire and have strict national institutions. Their ruler also calls himself Pa.

Xia. They were sometimes one of the main forces of the Ottoman Empire's navy."

After Amari left, Ma Huaiyu continued to talk to Sheng Wencheng about the intentional human trafficking agreement they had just reached, and briefly introduced Amari's identity to him.

Barbary pirates refer to all the True God pirates operating on the coast of North Africa, including Turks, Berbers and Greeks. Those captains from Algiers and Tunisia usually have the support of some powerful local figures behind them.

, at the same time, they can get about 10% dividends from the pirates' profits.

Barbary pirates plundered merchant ships of Catholic countries throughout the Mediterranean for the Ottoman Empire and collected protection fees for passing ships, which made Catholic countries throughout Western Europe feel great fear. Moreover, he joined forces with Algeria and Tunisia to carry out military operations within the territory of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

It is autonomous and maintains its own economic system through piracy, and its pirate groups are highly organized and disciplined.

According to rough statistics, from the 16th to the 19th century, Barbary pirates captured approximately 800,000 to 1.25 million European coastal residents and sold them into slavery. Starting from the 16th century, the advanced ships and technology brought by European pirates made the Barbary

The scope of pirate activities expanded and reached its peak in the mid-17th century. Coastal villages and towns in countries such as Spain and Italy were deeply disturbed by it, and residents moved inland one after another.

By the end of the 17th century, the navies of European countries gradually rose and began to expel the Barbary pirates along the coast of North Africa, causing piracy activities to decrease. However, coasts and ships not protected by the navy were still harassed by Barbary pirates from time to time. Until 1830, with the

After France occupied Algiers, the Barbary pirates lost their base of operations and were completely wiped out.

"Since the Barbary pirates backed the Ottoman Empire and were enemies of the entire Christian world, what was their attitude towards the Dutch?" Sheng Wencheng asked tentatively.

"The Dutch are also a member of the Christian world." Ma Huaiyu looked at Sheng Wencheng with deep eyes and said softly.

Although the Han Chinese had signed a peace agreement with the Dutch East India Company, deep down they still regarded the Dutch as their biggest potential threat and always wanted to win over more anti-Dutch forces.

God bless me, and I hope that the Han people can fight the Dutch again to completely weaken the power of the Dutch, so that the people of God in the East Indies will be less oppressed and gain some freedom.

"How did they plunder white slaves from the Mediterranean and transport them to Hanzhou?" Sheng Wencheng then asked curiously: "In addition, do they really have tens of thousands of white slaves in their hands every year?"

"After they obtained the white slaves, they naturally transported them to Egypt first, and then escorted them overland to the Red Sea through the local pasha, and then crossed the Indian Ocean by boat, and finally came to your Hanzhou mainland." Ma Huaiyu said: "As for

You don’t need the number of white slaves

Worry. Even if they cannot capture a sufficient number of female slaves in Europe, they can get some from Crimea (the largest white slave trading market in the 16th and 17th centuries). You know, in Crimea, where

The number of white slaves will only increase."

"If this is the case, then whether it is the Barbary pirates, the Crimea, or even the Ottoman Empire, there is also a huge demand for firearms, right?" Sheng Wencheng asked thoughtfully.

"You can say that as long as your Hanzhou is willing to sell, we will buy all the firearms produced by your Hanzhou." Ma Huaiyu said: "We even have a certain demand for the Western gunboats you have."

During this period, when the Ottoman Empire faced the European Catholic League, in addition to no longer having an absolute advantage in land warfare, their navy also began to gradually decline. It was suppressed by Spain, Venice, Genoa and other European countries along the Mediterranean coast, and was continuously suppressed by Spain, Venice, Genoa and other European countries.

After losing the battle, they now competed with Venice for the island of Crete, falling into a long-term war from which they could not extricate themselves. This greatly dragged down the Ottoman military strength and urgently needed the support of various weapons.

If it weren't for France, an outlier in Europe, who formed a powerful military and economic alliance with the Ottoman Empire and provided it with a certain degree of material and military assistance, the Ottomans would have really struggled to face the gang fights from several Catholic countries in Europe.

Therefore, Ma Huaiyu, who had an Ottoman background, tried his best to win over Hu Wenjin in the early stage, trying to find a potential partner for the Ottomans in the East Indies to restore and expand their influence here.

Now, seeing that although Hanzhou has maintained peace and continued in-depth economic exchanges with the Dutch East India Company after the war, it still regards the other party as a potential threat behind the scenes, Ma Huaiyu has another idea. Osman can and

France in the Catholic world has formed an alliance, so can it form a similar alliance with the Far Eastern forces in Hanzhou?

Although this country is still very weak, its strength is increasing day by day, and it will definitely have a strong influence on the entire East Indies in the future. Then, Hanzhou can be used as the most reliable starting point for the Ottoman Empire to exert influence here.
Chapter completed!