Chapter 1 The Island Meeting

The island chosen by the Seven Seas Trading Company for their meeting had a rather peculiar history. It was originally an important stronghold of the Black Eagle Gang, a notorious pirate group in the Chun Nan coastal area and the Nanyang region. The Seven Seas Trading Company had been dealing with the Black Eagle Gang for a long time. Since the establishment of the Seven Seas Trading Company, every meeting inevitably resulted in a battle, with no mercy shown on either side. As the Seven Seas Trading Company's power gradually grew, and with the introduction of new warships like the Tiger Tooth, the Black Eagle Gang was now being severely suppressed. The capture of this important stronghold of the Black Eagle Gang, not far from Yu Hang, by gathering forty warships and a total of over five thousand soldiers, could be considered a great success.

This place was called Jiaoya Isle, an archipelago consisting of two large islands and a string of small islands and reefs. The terrain was very complex, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. The Seven Seas Trading Company seemed to be planning to develop this place into a hub for the Seven Seas Trading Company on the Chun Nan coast. Although they had to be constantly wary of the Chun Nan navy, which would inevitably want to take advantage, the geographical location of this place was very sensitive and important. With this place, and with the fresh water on the island, the Seven Seas Trading Company and other Dongping maritime merchants could travel from Yi Cheng to Nanyang without stopping at any Chun Nan ports. The savings on landing taxes, pilotage fees, and other expenses at several Chun Nan ports each year were considerable. Not to mention the tributes to local officials.

But not everyone agreed with choosing this place for such an important meeting. The Seven Seas Trading Company had not acquired Jiaoya Isle for long. The Seven Seas Trading Company's fleet had not yet fully investigated the surrounding area, and had not even completed the clearing of all the islands, large and small. It was unknown whether there were any remnants of the Black Eagle Gang hiding there. Some experienced and prudent directors felt that it would be better to hold the meeting in Yu Hang, even though discussing those topics in Yu Hang seemed... quite provocative.

The Seven Seas Trading Company had not yet had time to carry out large-scale construction to renovate the living facilities and defenses on Jiaoya Isle, and it still retained its original pirate style. In addition to the rough hall on top of the island, there were scattered medium and small-sized houses and a number of natural or man-made caves distributed throughout the island. However, for many traditional merchants who were accustomed to grand halls and mansions, this was a good experience. Merchants who could sail the seas were not so delicate. And for maritime merchants like Qi Zhentao, who had transformed from pirates, it had an even more nostalgic flavor. Fortunately, Qi Zhentao was only a little nostalgic, but not so much that it fried his brain. In the end, he did not adopt the suggestion of holding the meeting in the largest cave with a bonfire lit. Qi Zhentao kicked the guy who made the bad suggestion and cursed, "Don't you look at the weather? Hiding in a cave and waiting for so many things to be discussed, people will be cooked."

The agenda of the Seven Seas Trading Company's meeting was very serious and crucial. Although it had not been many years since they had banded together to do business, the founders of these trading companies had fully realized the benefits of it over the years. And the power they had gathered together made everyone feel a joy that was different from simply doing business. The topics they were now discussing and the things they were doing had already far exceeded those of ordinary merchants.

The reclamation work in Nanyang was progressing smoothly, but the progress of recruiting people and migrating entire households was slow. In Dongping, as long as you had some strength and were willing to work hard, you would basically not starve. In this situation, very few people were willing to migrate to the remote and desolate lands thousands of miles away to reclaim land. Even though their reclamation conditions were very good, the Seven Seas Trading Company not only provided houses, land, and some guarantees, but also ensured their safety and guaranteed that they would receive considerable rewards after actively assisting the Seven Seas Trading Company's expansion and reclamation work. These rewards were rarely given in the form of gold and silver jewelry, because the underdevelopment of the local area meant that many small private transactions had reverted to barter. However, the local people captured as slaves, local specialties, precious plant seeds, fish, and livestock were all extremely valuable resources. At this meeting, some people had already suggested that they should not only recruit displaced people from Dongping to migrate, but also recruit some from Chun Nan and Xi Ling. Anyway, once they were thousands of miles away, they would be at the mercy of the Seven Seas Trading Company, and would soon be assimilated under the Seven Seas Trading Company's acting administration of Yazhou.

Perhaps it was true that those who took something from someone would be lenient, and those who ate something from someone would be soft-spoken. After receiving many benefits from the Samir family, they had to provide corresponding assistance to maintain the close relationship between the two sides. For the Samir family's nation-building war in the Gulf region, which had already broken out due to an accident, the most crucial thing was not money, not armaments, and not ordinary soldiers, but the generals who could lead troops in battle. The Samir family was, after all, a commercial family, and they lacked such talents. After several major battles, they fully realized that without a sufficient number of mid-level and senior officers, it would be too difficult to win battles. And the Samir family's background might be able to buy some capable generals, but it could not gain the loyalty of truly brave soldiers. Those most typical soldiers, in the fervent religious atmosphere of the Gulf region, regarded dedicating their lives to Allah as the greatest honor. Such people could not be persuaded in any way.

Therefore, the Seven Seas Trading Company began to consider retired soldiers from Dongping. Many of the company's directors had guards who were former soldiers. These wealthy merchants naturally chose the most elite veterans, and now several of them were receiving double or even several times their salaries in the Gulf region as military advisors, assisting in directing battles. The Dongping professional military system ensured that these veterans, who had been in the army for at least six years, all had relatively solid military experience. Limited by their original low positions, they might lack a big-picture perspective on battlefield command, but their ability to control grassroots troops in combat, organize daily tactical operations, march, and train troops was truly praised by the Samir family. It was probably not difficult to continue looking for people willing to go to the Gulf region as mercenaries to earn money, as there were many warmongers in Dongping. But how to find higher-level military commanders? No one had any ideas. Ye Tao did not express his opinion, but he felt that it should still be possible to find a few *xiaowei*-level officers from the retired veterans. And since the Dai family had ceded Yunzhou, a large number of middle-aged officers with real power from the Dai family or their in-law families who had originally been in the army had given up their military power and retired to their hometowns in order to facilitate Dongping's takeover. It seemed not impossible to find a few of them.

In other aspects, the Seven Seas Trading Company could do relatively little, as they were currently a trading group, not a military organization. And what they were most concerned about now was the establishment of a *zhou* in Nanyang, with the Seven Seas Trading Company acting as the administrator. Indeed, this Nanyang could be regarded as earned by the Seven Seas Trading Company itself, but they had not expected that the country would recognize this exclave, give the Seven Seas Trading Company great praise, and allow the Seven Seas Trading Company to continue to "contract" it. Merchants were indeed profit-seeking, but they also had a heart for serving the country. In the discussion on expanding rice cultivation on a large scale, no one mentioned even a word about the great losses in reducing spice production.

If the grain production on those islands in Nanyang could reach a certain scale, then the grain produced in Nanyang alone would be enough to maintain the daily consumption of the Dongping army. That would be an extremely powerful supplement to Dongping's overall strength. The Seven Seas Trading Company's preparations for various production tasks were very detailed. They not only transported a large number of farm tools and daily necessities to each household from thousands of miles away, but even transported a considerable number of oxen and draught horses to Nanyang. In the case of extremely limited manpower, Nanyang had, from the beginning, organized agricultural and planting, breeding, and other production work in the form of teamwork, with immigrants as the core and a small number of locals as assistants, based on natural villages and the farms they had established. And all kinds of problems that might be encountered in production were summarized at any time and coordinated through swift eagle communication. In Nanyang, there was even a special warship loaded with a dozen veterinarians specializing in various fields, as well as various tools, equipment, and medicines that might be used in treating livestock, shuttling back and forth to cope with various situations. The reason why people did not enjoy this kind of medical treatment was that there were doctors and medicine reserves in the villages, farms, and ports that connected these points, and from the current situation, it seemed that people were much more adaptable to the environment than animals.

In terms of development level and living conditions, Nanyang was much more difficult than most places in Dongping, but after the implementation of the Seven Seas Trading Company's various guarantee measures, it had a bit of a paradise-like atmosphere. However, this paradise had put a lot of effort into defense. Every household had simple weapons and armor, every village had special war-preparedness rations, medicines, and other things, and every port had ballistae, God's Arm Bows, catapults, and flaming oil bombs. The Seven Seas Trading Company had calculated that it would take about two years to reach a balance of payments at their current rate of investment and construction level, and that it would take five years before various systems in Nanyang Yazhou would be normalized and regularized, and production would have formed a sufficient scale, before remarkable benefits could be generated. Another auxiliary condition was that the Samir family could gain a firm foothold in the Gulf region and develop their own country. However, what everyone cared about now was not the length of time, nor the amount of investment, but that they were afraid that the investment would not be enough, fast enough, and that the construction would not be solid and stable enough. This was the territory that merchants had completely opened up for Dongping, and everyone was caught up in the fervor of establishing a career and making contributions. And people like Qi Zhentao knew that after Dongping and Chun Nan went to war in a few years, they would also have to launch a pincer attack on Chun Nan from Nanyang at the right time. By then, these merchants who had spent half their lives at sea might even be able to truly enjoy the heroic feeling of waving a flag and commanding thousands of troops.