There is a reason why the Yuandou left the mouth of Jilong River and went straight west.

Because Taipei's iron ore is located on the beach sand dunes between the mouth of the Wanli River and the middle corner of Jinshan. The higher-grade and most valuable areas for mining are located near Suangang and Shuiwei on both sides of the Jinshan headland.

The above location is actually along the coast of Jinshan District in later Taipei, near the upper left corner of Taiwan.

The Yuandou is setting off now, heading straight for Suangang.

Since the outlet of the Sulfur River connected to the Datun Mountain volcanoes is near Sulfur Port, this place was originally an important sulfur export base planned by the crossing forces. Now with the addition of iron sand mines, Sulfur Port in the future will inevitably be affected by sulfuric acid and iron.

It thrived on two industrial raw materials.

When the Yuan Dou arrived at the outer sea of ​​Suangang, the sky had already darkened. The area around Suangang in the 17th century was still a stretch of beaches and lagoons. There is no trace of the beautiful ports and neat coastal avenues of later generations.

Early the next morning, the weather finally became clear, and the Yuandou began to launch small boats to survey the entrance of the Sulfur River. What was surprising was that before the Yuandou entered the entrance of the Sulfur River, there were already people on the shore.

The natives were waving and jumping.

When the boat entered the river mouth and took a closer look, it turned out that it was a man wearing a bun waving, followed by five or six natives with sarongs wrapped around their waists.

Lei Jian was standing on the bow of the boat at this time, looking at the people on the shore who kept running after the boat. He couldn't help but think of the rural aunts who rode in green leather cars and sold roast chicken outside the car window. After sighing for a moment, he shook his head.

Shaking his head, he said to Pan Mingzhong next to him: "It seems that the information is still accurate. There were people from Ming Dynasty who lived in Taipei during this time period."

"In fact, the natives don't care about strangers building a territory. Otherwise, how could Manhattan come here?" Pan Mingzhong nodded and said, "Don't the Japanese and Ming people all have villages? In addition, before the Dutch deliberately intensified the conflict,

The merchants of Ming Dynasty had free food and accommodation in the aboriginal villages, and there was not a single murder incident."

"I'm afraid people here in Taipei are not that easy to talk to."

"Yeah, just take it one step at a time. It's best not to kill people. If you do, your reputation will be bad."

"Well, if it doesn't work out as a drill, it's the same old method."

"hehe."

While the two were chatting, the Yuandou had already docked at a bend on the east bank of Sulfur Creek, guided by the boat and Mingren running on the shore.

In the 17th century, the widest point of the water surface of the Wuxi River was far more than 40 meters away, and the water flow was rapid. Due to the high rainfall in Taipei, the large and small creeks have abundant water throughout the year.

The river bend where the Yuan Dou docks looks like a convention and exhibition center used to receive foreign guests all year round: the land in the river bend is flat, with a row of straw huts for temporary resting in the distance. In the open space between the ship and the huts, there are

A few smooth boulders and a few tree roots as thick as a round table were prepared for the trading desk.

"Hahaha, the ancients also had a strong sense of service!" After seeing the layout here clearly, Lei Jian laughed.

Pan Mingzhong also couldn't help laughing and said with a smile: "It seems that after thousands of years of trade, the natives have finally learned something."

"Shit, this arrangement is clearly done by Mingren."

"Okay, okay, I'll find out when I go down and ask."

When the Yuandou docked at the shore, the Fujian translator on board got off the boat and met the Mingren.

As expected, this Mingren is a Fujianese who has always lived here. His name is Liao Tianding, a small businessman, and he is also the village chief of a small Mingren village three miles away. The small village has only about 10 permanent residents in total, and usually

They relied on hoarding goods and picking up ships from Fujian merchants to survive.

In fact, the Yuan Dou was discovered early this morning. Seeing this large sand ship with a deep draft and slowly launching a small boat to explore the way, Liao Tianding knew that the Yuan Dou was a pirate ship coming for trade, and it was a sneak attack with a shallow draft.

Flow, that's not the style.

With local snakes in charge, things went much smoother. Next, Liao Tianding first introduced the natives to Pan Mingzhong and the others.

The few natives holding spears, wearing feathers on their heads, jewelry around their necks, and ramie skirts wrapped around their waists are the village chiefs and warriors of the Fengli Society of the Ketagalan tribe closest to this place.

The Ketagalan people who once occupied Taipei have disappeared in later generations. There is no way, who made this land the first place where Fujian immigrants set foot. During the Qing Dynasty, a large number of immigrants came here, so Ketagalan

The clan disappeared silently.

The Fenglishe natives that Pan Mingzhong and the others met today were all wrapped in cloth aprons, and they must belong to the wealthy class of wealthy villages. Judging from the attitudes and body language of these people, it is obvious that they have extensive experience in foreign exchanges.

, similar to those ethnic minorities in tourist areas in later generations.

Very good, Pan Mingzhong couldn't be more satisfied with the current situation. He used the indigenous etiquette he learned from Liao Tianding: after lightly touching his forehead with his left fist a few times, a group of yellow people with black hair and black eyes recognized their relatives.

The next moment, the sailors on the sand ship carried down some trade samples and placed them on the smooth stone surface.

After seeing the goods brought out by these Kunfa people who claimed to be Taiyuan Island maritime merchants, Liao Tianding couldn't help but be overjoyed.

These goods not only include various fabrics and porcelain bowls that the natives like most, but also some exquisite daily necessities and straw products. In addition, there is table salt.

This does not mean that people who live by the sea can eat a lot of salt: before the invention of boiling salt in iron pots, people by the sea could only eat a mixture of salt and mud that was bitter and astringent.

This principle is more directly reflected in the indigenous people: a group that does not even have an iron spearhead cannot cook out salt grains. As for salt fields with higher technological content, it is better not to make it difficult for these light-hearted warriors.

So when Liao Tianding saw these big bags of salt, he still welcomed them. You know, in Mingren Village, they occasionally boil a little salt in an iron pot, but they are all reserved for themselves.

There is no way, no one knows when the next trading ship will arrive, and whether there will be iron pots on the ship. The so-called iron materials of this era were all produced from low-temperature kilns with substandard phosphorus and sulfur, and they are completely different concepts from the iron pots of later generations.

If you let go of the boiling salt, the pot will be destroyed soon. There are no such professions as blacksmiths and tinkers here.

In addition to large grain salt, Liao Tianding was also amazed by some other fine and high-quality salt. In fact, no Fujian businessman would bring this kind of salt to the natives in exchange for sulfur. Fujian itself is extremely short of salt, let alone this kind of salt.

It requires a kitchen household to spend several times the cost to cook high-quality refined salt.

Liao Tianding's surprise seemed redundant here. The main purpose of the Yuandou's trip to Taipei was exploration and reconnaissance, so he brought some of them regardless of the goods. After recording which products were marketable,

When the next boat comes over, we can have a clear target.

After several natives saw the goods on the booth, they chatted for a few words and then left. Liao Tianding told Pan Mingzhong with a smile: He was going to prepare trade goods, and the natives will come back soon.

In this case, the sailors quickly unloaded more cargo from the Yuandou.

At this time, Pan Mingzhong pulled the man named Liao aside and carefully questioned him about the local customs, customs and trade pattern.

Naturally, Liao Tianding knew everything: he also hoped that the Yuandou would give him the tail cargo She before it left.

According to his experience, the goods from Mingren Village and Fengli Society today will be the first wave of trading teams to arrive.

Since Mingren Village and Fengli Society have already sent messengers to the surrounding areas in accordance with the default rules, there will be trade fairs tomorrow and the day after tomorrow: nearby tribes will send people to exchange supplies.

Pan Mingzhong nodded when he heard this. Then he asked some questions about volcanic sulfur.

The straight-line distance between Suangang and Yangmingshan Forest Park is less than 10 kilometers. The entire Datunshan extinct volcano group is located in the park.

Yangmingshan's original name is "Caoshan", which generally refers to the mountainous areas around Datun Mountain, Qixing Mountain, Shamao Mountain, and Xiaoguanyin Mountain, rather than just a certain peak. The entire volcanic group has beautiful scenery, including volcanic cones, craters, and fumaroles.

, hot springs, geothermal and other natural scenery, of course, the most important thing is the natural sulfur blocks.

The name "Grass Mountain" comes from the fact that during the Qing Dynasty, the local officials were worried about bandits hiding in the forest to steal sulfur, so they regularly set fire to the mountain, so that only miscanthus could grow in the entire mountainous area.

The sulfur in Taipei's extinct volcanoes was an important strategic resource until the late Qing Dynasty: in fact it was the only sulfur resource in the country that could be easily obtained.

Of course, in the 17th century, it was not easy to enter the volcanoes: the 10-kilometer distance only refers to the periphery. To enter the core sulfur production area, natives still needed to drill into the mountains and forests to collect it.

"It seems that we can only wait until the large forces arrive to open up the Sulfur Creek." Pan Mingzhong and Liao Tianding basically understood the difficulty of mining sulfur after talking to this point.

At noon that day, Mingren Village and Fengli Society, two groups near the water, came to trade with a lot of sulfur, deer skins, dried venison meat, and dried fish. In addition, there were also some staple foods of Taiwanese indigenous people: millet.

The poor Spaniards claimed that they would not sell grain to Yuandou Hao, but when the natives saw the blue and white porcelain bowls and cotton cloth, they took the initiative to deliver the grain to the travelers.

Pan Mingzhong said he would not refuse anyone who came.

He was satisfied with the poor variety of trade products of the indigenous people. They could not provide enough exchange materials. Facing more and more industrial products from the traveling people, they could only increase the collection of sulfur. There was no other way.

.

The day's trading ended quickly.

Most of the materials had agreed-upon exchange prices, except for the refined salt brought out by Chuanzhong. This problem was quickly solved: it didn't take long for Liao Tianding to agree on the price with the natives.

In the evening of that day, Chuan used a large iron pot, venison, salt and five-spice powder, and treated 10 villagers from Mingren Village to a good meal.

The following agreement was reached during the meeting: First, starting from tomorrow, Akito, who is free, will send someone with the Thunder Sword team to explore for iron ore nearby.

Second: Before the Yuandou leaves, it will leave a translator and part of the cargo in Mingren Village so that it can continue to purchase sulfur from the natives in the future.

As a reward, Liao Tianding and the others received a high-end cast iron cauldron produced in the kiln area. This is very precious, because steel is currently a controlled material and it will not appear in the usual trade list.

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