Torches crackled.

Wooden crates were piled up in the cramped cabins, some with linen sheets and pillows, and some mats in the aisles next to the boxes, where the foul air of the lower cabins was stagnant, making the well-armed Western soldiers look like they were in such an environment.

But when the first sturdy wooden box was lifted, everything was completely different.

In the dilapidated wooden crates lay planks and paved hay, neatly arranged with square silver bars that looked thicker than the wrists of a thin Spanish musketeer, as were the case in each box.

Silver is just a metal, sometimes a commodity, sometimes a commodity, and it's not surprising, but if there was anything that the Ming Dynasty and the Spaniards could agree on in this era, it was silver.

No matter how different the two countries were, they were of the same opinion on this matter, and every Spaniard was the same as every Ming dynasty - silver meant wealth, and wealth meant everything!

Not to mention the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion who stammered, most of the children of Zhejiang soldiers were born rich and noble, and they joined the recruitment only for fame and fortune, but there is also a degree of wealth, their wealth is relative to most of the guards, for tens of millions of trillions of Li living in the land of the Ming Dynasty, wealth in the general sense is not to worry about food and clothing, food and clothing.

Only when you don't have to worry about food and clothing can you be qualified to pursue advancement and choose what kind of person you want to become.

To achieve such a goal, the standard of how much wealth is needed can be quantified in silver, and if you master a craft, it will take about twenty taels.

Twenty taels, those who have craftsmanship can rent houses and shops as capital, those who have idle fields can afford tenant farmers to buy cattle, can operate and trade, enough to take care of food and clothing, and the high-headed horses who have dreamed for a long time can buy them home, and maybe the girl they like can come to the door this afternoon to talk to the matchmaker.

Twenty taels can mean everything.

In the past, everything meant a northern captive head.

Now, everything is close to them.

Take a silver bar out of these haphazard stacked chests and cut off a small portion of it, and you're all set.

Mation was happy to see the stunned look on the face of the Ming tough guy in front of him, this change made him feel relaxed and stable from the bottom of his heart, as if the lost initiative had returned, in the face of the collective gaffe of the Ming soldiers, he took a wooden branch from the supporting wooden pillar and lit it with a torch, and then lit his pipe, and slowly sat down against the wooden box.

The smoke seemed to be able to dispel the stench in the cabin, he looked at Luo Shangzhi and smiled, and said: "This ship is going from the port of Lima in the Viceroyalty of Peru to the port of Changsheng in Asia, transporting a hundred tons of silver to your General Chen, to mint silver coins for the royal family, you can open all the chests, it seems that you have not seen so much silver." ”

Luo Shangzhi really hadn't seen so much silver, and all the silver he had seen in his life didn't add up so much, he had no reason not to show his astonishment, if the silver was not packed in a box but piled up directly, it would have a greater impact on him.

"All this silver is dug in Peru, that Potosí, can you dig so much in a year?"

In fact, Luo Shangzhi didn't understand what a hundred 'tons' Ma Tien said, but he didn't care, he didn't need a clear number to make his worldview have a great impact, and he was full of thoughts about what they were doing in the past.

Of course, his mind was also full of thinking about why Chen Mu wanted to negotiate peace with the Spaniards, in order to fight for control of Potosi, they should pay everything for this, if the whole country of Daming knew that there was a silver mine thousands of miles away that could mine nearly three million taels of silver a year, no one would refuse to fight for it.

They will find a way to defeat any enemy in the world, and if necessary, even send them back to the trees.

At least Luo Shangzhi was thinking about the philosophical question of 'how to beat the Spaniards back into the trees' at this time.

It was a chain of problems, and the last thing that came to the mind of the general was that the Spaniards had controlled the Potosi silver mines for decades, and then there was the question of attacking the Spanish mainland.

Everyone will have evil thoughts, and how long it lasts and whether or not it is put into practice is related to morality and ability, so the next moment, this question was erased from Luo Shangzhi's mind, and he also recovered to be sober enough.

"The silver mines have just experienced a few years of decline, and the year before last we improved our technology, and next year there may be more, if your General Chen is willing to let the Indians work in the silver mines."

Martion chuckled, shrugged his shoulders and pouted: "But he doesn't want to, maybe next year, maybe the year after that, the output will decline, this is unavoidable, the decline in production is not good for you, fifteen percent of the income from the minting belongs to you." ”

Silver made Luo Shangzhi extremely curious about Potosi, but it was obviously not a good time to chat, he first appeased his subordinates, ordered everyone to go to the deck, and told them that when they returned to Changsheng Port, someone would search them before they could get off the ship, so let them not move any crooked thoughts.

Then he let Martion go to the deck with him, greedily breathe fresh air in the bow, and then ask, "Why is production declining?" ”

Although he was equally curious about the Indians, and he didn't stay in Changsheng for long, it was obviously Chen Mu's business, and he shouldn't ask more.

"People are dying so fast, and there are no new people, Peru is so big, and it's completely surrounded by you, Panama, Chile, Brazil...... Without new people, production will naturally go down, don't look at me like that, you look like someone who kills people a lot. ”

"What can be done, six thousand five hundred fires are lit on the mountain every night, and the mercury poison makes a radius of six leagues without grass, and for the soulless heavy animals to go to the mines is their best destination, and the gods they worship are blasphemy against Jesus."

The Spaniards, even those who had not fought against the Ming army as far away as Peru, were equally fearful of the Ming army.

It was as if Mation could think of the scene when he saw Luo Shangzhi's extremely burly body and dragged two Spanish soldiers and threw them out.

It seems that a person like this should not have the sympathy in his eyes like a pedantic monk.

Luo Shangzhi just shook his head.

Mining is a very dangerous livelihood, the Zhejiang soldiers in the Shenji Battalion under his command are very clear about this truth, many of them were mountain owners and miners in the past, and people would die from mine collapses and miasma at the bottom of the mine, but people don't die like this, not as the Spaniard in front of him said, thousands of deaths.

That's not mining, that's mass murder.

"It's getting closer and closer to Chang Sheng, and soon there will be a patrol fleet to escort it." Luo Shangzhi's back left the side of the ship, he didn't want to continue the topic, he believed that all the information he wanted could be answered by Chen Mu in Changsheng County, he just said to the Spaniards: "I'm not sympathetic, you should really be kind to them." ”

Before leaving, on the Spaniard's ship, he shook his head again contemptuously and cursed in a low voice.

"The fool who worships the evil god is not saved......"

Luo Shangzhi no longer cares about the silver in the cabin that is about to become the property of the Ming Dynasty, what he wants to do most now is to go to Changsheng to make a suggestion to Chen Mu, and the Asian co-governance region should govern the country according to law and implement the law of the Ming Dynasty.

"Da Ming Law" "forbids the evil witchcraft crime", all those who pretend to descend evil gods, write talismans and spell water, help Luan and pray to the saints, hang their heads, and follow the staff of one hundred and flow three thousand miles.

Just these guys who pretend to descend evil gods and write spells and spell water, one is counted as one, no more than three thousand miles, and they all have to be spanked and thrown into the sea.