Although the crew of the Nicole was not involved in the trade with the natives along the coast, they were too far from the coast to do business out of fear of the unfamiliar.

However, the people on board the Nicole thought that the fruit on the Pride should definitely have its own.

Sure enough, after a while, Xu Zhixu Xu took a few lifeboats to the first class of the Pride, and despite everyone's protests, he transported most of the fruit away.

Of course, it was not for nothing, Xu Zhi and the others left a lot of good things before leaving, such as axes and iron cooking utensils and pots and spoons for the kitchen, so the crew of the Pride had to exchange with the villagers again until they had exchanged the villagers' fruits.

That night, whether it was Nicole or Pride, the crew ate fresh fruits that they had not seen for a long time, and little Lori Sylvie also ate dragon fruit and snakeskin fruit that she had never eaten in her life......

Early the next morning, the communication room of the Nicole and the Pride received a telegram from the Red House at the same time, which was very short, with only one line:

"To all the crew of the fleet, treat the locals, please make good friends.

From: Supreme Executive Council, Sun.

On the morning of July 2, 1657. ”

Since this was the instruction of the Supreme Executive Council to the fleet, Gu Jin decided to immediately send Zhu Beiguo to lead the team to land and visit the nearby villages.

In addition to Zhu Beiguo, who led the team, Xu Zhi also participated in this visiting team, as well as the four brothers Rambo and Wei Dongli, who were obviously tasked with being bodyguards.

The locals are accustomed to the sudden arrival of strangers, and Manado is located on a major sea communication route, with many boats coming and going, and the locals are not a lonely jungle tribe.

Therefore, not long after Zhu Beiguo and his party landed, some villagers immediately reported to the village elders, and the managers of these villages were usually some respected family elders, and they were very happy about the arrival of Zhu Beiguo and his party, because this group of people did not come empty-handed.

When Zhu Beiguo and the others took out twelve axes, three hand saws, and three nylon fishing nets to display in front of the villagers, the elders were very excited, and even said something that Zhu Beiguo and Xu Zhi did not understand at all, but soon they understood that the locals did not want to ask for your things for nothing, and they had all kinds of items that could be exchanged.

Sure enough, after a while, the elders took Zhu Beiguo and them to an open field, where there were more than a dozen huge logs that had just been cut down, as well as dozens of baskets of coconuts, mangosteen fruits and bananas, in addition, there were four round wooden barrels, Zhu Beiguo opened the lid and saw that they were filled with some powder and some fermented plants.

Zhu Beiguo consulted the elders and learned that it was filled with mineral and plant dyes, including red dyes made from mangosteen husks, in addition to yellow and indigo plant dyes, as for the bucket of reddish-brown powder, Zhu Beiguo was secretly happy when he saw it, he recognized that it was cinnabar, the main ingredient is mercury sulfide, which is used by the locals to make dyes or medicines, and is also used as cosmetics.

Apparently this is the chemical raw material that the chemical team dreams of, and in addition, there are more than a dozen large bundles of sun-dried coconut fiber.

Zhu Beiguo immediately remembered the purchase list handed over to Captain Gu by several industrial tycoons before leaving, as if there was coconut fiber in it, and as for timber, it was a sought-after material that had to be purchased.

It seems that the locals are not less engaged in this kind of business, but it is clear that this time, the goods brought by the merchants from other places are very suitable for the needs of the elders.

Business was done quickly, and the local villagers spent the whole day transporting the items aboard the Pride.

The most troublesome of them were the logs, the logs in the clearing, most of which were rosewood, rosewood, mahogany, and ebony, which were dragged by hundreds of men to the seashore, and then the villagers used chained wooden boats to transport the logs to the side of the Pride, and in this way, the heavy logs were finally hoisted into the hold using the Pride's cargo poles.

At the same time, the Nicole sent a mapping team to carry out hydrographic surveys on the coast of the future port more than ten kilometers away in lifeboats, which did not disturb the locals at all, because the address of the Old World Port Manado was far away from these villages, and the port area at this time was still a deserted beach with no one in a radius of more than ten kilometers.

Next, under the leadership of Zhu Beiguo, the crew found a reef by the sea, so Zhu Ge personally went into battle and carved a line of words on the reef with a chisel - declaring that this place is owned by the Australian Federation......

In the afternoon, the Pride returned to the sea near the village, and after buying a batch of fruit again, it left, although the language barrier was different, but because of this series of trade, the relationship between the two sides was further narrowed, and the elders of the village also went to the coast to see them off, but because of the language barrier, the two sides could only cheer and wave goodbye in a friendly manner.

Later, the Pride joined up with the Nicole in the distance, and the huge log in the cabin was hoisted into the larger cabin by Nicole's boom, and after doing so, the fleet did not delay any longer, but set off from the sea overnight.

It's already the beginning of July, and it's not too short to go to sea, and this time, the fleet will reach the next target: the capital of the Kingdom of Sulu, the port of Holo.

......

Time: Morning of July 3, 1657, southeast of Hollow Harbor, a nameless and desolate island.

Now, there are five people in distress there, who are in despair.

Xue Laixiang and his four men have been trapped on this deserted island for two days and three nights.

There was no indication that they would be rescued.

Because they knew that this was a deserted island off the coast south of Porto Hollow, and there were no people nearby.

And because this desert island is not near the main channel, they haven't seen any ships passing by on the sea for a few days, and if they want to get rescue through passing ships, it will all depend on the blessing of the Sea Dragon King or the blessing of Mazu Niangniang.

In the past few days, they have had various self-rescue actions, including floating away with wooden planks.

The planks, which had been part of their ship, were now in a catastrophe, and they were the only thing left with them.

But soon after floating on the island, the experienced searunners were desperate to discover that the currents were pushing them south into the deep sea and not in any other direction. They know that there is land in other directions, but except in the south! Not to mention that this is the South Sea south of Sulu, a wild sea, and there is still nothing lacking in the sea, but there is never a shortage of man-eating sharks.

What's worse is that Xue Laixiang's brother Huang Zhiyan, his brother-in-law, was surrounded by sharks with a keen sense of smell because of injuries on his body......

Fortunately, the excellent water nature and strong desire to survive kept them out of danger, but their plan to float to sea ran aground.

These days, they can only eat shellfish picked from the beach raw on the desert island, and as for fresh water, there are no rivers on the desert island, only coconut palms, artemisia grass and dew from artemisia grass.

This desolate island doesn't even have much wildlife, except for a bonfire and a few coconuts.

Still, this desert island, less than half a mile in circumference, is everything they depend on for their livelihood.

Xue Laixiang was the leader of this group, and now this leader has become silent.

The same goes for his companions, who presumably realize that they are likely to be trapped here for the rest of their lives—if ever more.

Looking north at the homeland, the mulberry is far away, and the fallen leaves return to the roots into an impossible luxury, and finally become a lonely ghost is the reality in front of you.

For them, the most likely outcome is to starve to death, or to become a savage for a few days, but for them it is an end that is worse than death.

Huang Zhiyan, who was lying next to Xue Laixiang, was having a high fever at this time, his wound was suppurating, and his consciousness began to be unclear, so he muttered about the food of his hometown, and the person gradually passed out, and it seemed that most of them would not survive for these two days.

However, Xue Laixiang did not grieve, this emotion had long been far away from him, and Brother Huang could die in the arms of his relatives like this, perhaps it would be the best ending for their group.

Some of the companions wept, cursing at the pirates who had caused them to be in such a situation, and if this had been a few days ago, they would have soothed or cursed along with them, but for now, everyone was silent.

Xue Laixiang has never cursed those pirates, he knows very well in his heart that success and defeat have always been the first rule of this barren sea, speaking of which, he also blames himself for not being able to resist greed, thinking that he is strong and has a backer, and he has to drill into the trap set by others to cause this sad ending.

Don't...... Isn't that the case?