Within the scope of his power, Major Johnson made the biggest concession, so that the rebate he left for himself was half less than originally expected. Only then finally persuaded the four captains to take their boat and take a trip to Cape Town.

Of course, the reason why these captains finally agreed was because Major Jossen assured them that they could bring some goods and smuggle them to the French or Dutch.

"They definitely need something, but for us, as long as what you smuggle is not arms, we say we can't see, we can't see; we say we can't hear, we can't hear."

"So what can they sell?" a captain asked.

"I think you have never dealt with the Cape Town's Dutch people before. What do they need, you don't know?" Jonson said strangely.

"Ah, major, do you know what they sold most from us in the past?" the captain said.

"What is it?"

"First of all, it is the fire in India. They have a lot of conflicts with the natives, and this is useful. And I heard that in recent years, many British immigrants have come to Cape Town. They have to eat and live a good life. The land in the Puton Valley area is limited, so the Dutch people can’t live a good life there. Let’s go to fight the Zulu people for turf? Therefore, the governor has been using various means to persecute the Dutch people. Leaving the Cape Town River Valley and freeing up the land there for us British. Those Dutch people who are leaving, don’t need guns and firearms? Guns are durable goods, but firearms are consumables. So, in the trade with those Dutch people in Cape Town, the fire is the most."

Fire gunpowder is the most important thing in gunpowder. Sulfur is produced in many places, especially charcoal.

"But can we sell this thing?" the captain asked in a sarcastic tone. In his opinion, the gunpowder is almost equivalent to gunpowder, and it must not be sold.

"Hot gun, don't say this thing, they really need it." Joson nodded, "Considering their cannons, um, the French army's new cannons are indeed unparalleled in power, but their requirements for logistics are also Unparalleled. Because their artillery shells are so exquisite that ordinary hand-crafted workshops simply can’t make projectiles that can be put into their cannons. Their artillery, every shell fired, is from France Miles They were transported in the past. And their artillery, the propellant used, in fact, is also specially made, although it must be indispensable because the French imports a large amount of nitrous oxide each year, but their propellant is definitely not a simple gun It’s a product of mixing with sulfur and charcoal. So, it’s not a big deal to sell things like sulphur and charcoal to the Dutch. Moreover, you can also sell these things to others along the way, such as the Portuguese. ."

"Portuguese? They can't eat much, they have too few people." The captain shook his head, "And even if you allow us to sell the fire to the Dutch, we don't have enough stock. You may not I know that a series of fire incidents occurred in the warehouse a few days ago, and even in India nowadays, the fire has become a popular and rare thing."

"So, what about fireglass?"

"Of course it's tea, porcelain and spices." Another captain interrupted, "but unless we ship to Cape Town, Europe, we can't eat that much."

After a period of discussion, everyone decided to load all kinds of common and easy-to-sell sundries first, drive the fleet to Maputo, and then look at the situation before making a decision.

So it took another half a month, and the fleet finally set off. They traveled along the east coast of Africa all the way south, and it took another month to reach Maputo, a Portuguese territory. A few ships entered the port. After anchoring in the port, the sailors all went ashore. Go to find their own happy. Even Major Johnson got off the boat, planning to have a drink in the tavern. By the way, let’s find out what happened to Cape Town in the past few months when I left.

The conditions in the Port of Maputo are good, but because of the limited power of the Portuguese, the port is not large in scale. There are not many berths in the entire port. Correspondingly, there are not many taverns in the port area, just such a tavern called "Sailor's House".

Major Johnson walked into the tavern and sat down in front of the dim bar.

"Sir, what can I do?" a waitress came over.

"A glass of beer." Joson said. Most of the wine sold in this tavern is fake, the more expensive the more fake. It's better to just order the cheapest, maybe it's a little bit more real.

The waitress turned and left. After a while, she took a large glass of beer and placed it in front of Johnson with a "boom".

"One rial," the waitress said.

"Well, it only cost two pesos last time." Joson said.

The rial is a silver coin popular in Portugal and Spain. One rial is equivalent to eight pesos. If it is in Europe, one peso is enough for such a glass of beer, but here, this black-hearted tavern actually asks for one riyal.

"Last time was the last time. Who told you Britons to drink it all up?" a guy next to him who was drinking said.

After yelling to Jonson, the man took a sip from the glass in front of him, then put it down and said, "Isabella, your wine has too much water in it. It was all drunk by the **** British guy." It’s gone. I can understand your price increase. But you can’t mix so much water. Is this still wine?"

"Come on, Jose, if there is a problem with our wine, why did you start talking nonsense after drinking such a little?" the waitress said with a smile.

"What's the matter with us Britons?" Joson asked.

"Look at how many British guys there are in this tavern. It's you who have pushed up the price of the wine." said the guy named Jose.

Jonson looked into the tavern, and many people in the tavern also raised their heads and looked at him. Then some people stood up excitedly, and even turned their chairs over.

"Major, are you back? How is the situation?" the man shouted as he walked towards him.

Johnson recognized the man as a judge in the Colonial Court in Cape Town. By the way, "Judge Anderson, why are you here? Could it be...is it?"

As soon as he saw Jonson’s face, Anderson knew that he was wrong, and quickly said, "No, at least for now, Cape Town is still in our hands. Of course, I think we are not far from losing it... , Let's sit down and talk."

Anderson took Johnson to their table and sat down. Their table is leaning against the window, and they can see the port and the sea from the outside.

Joeson sat down in his seat and was about to speak, but suddenly saw two plumes of smoke approaching outside the port.

"Look, that is, that's a steamship! The Frenchman came here?" Jonson stood up suddenly.

"Now that the sailors are all ashore, it will take a lot of time to find enough people to move the boat. We must be blocked and can't escape!" he thought.

"It's the French! We are blocked!" Joson said, "I'm so stupid, really! I only knew that the French warship might attack our ship near Cape Town, but I didn't know that they could still Get here!"

"No, don’t panic, Major Josson, this is not a French warship, but a French transport ship. They came here to send more British people here. In fact, we are all in their boats. I left Cape Town and came here. Of course, we gave the money for the ferry tickets, and those **** Frenchmen have no business ethics. The ferry tickets they sell are only the ferry tickets from Cape Town to here. , The price is enough to let me take a boat from Kolkata to London, and then take a boat from London to Kolkata. This is really a group of vampires!"

"Wait slowly... Judge Anderson, if you don't say it, I still understand a little bit. The more you say it, the more confused I am? Can you speak more clearly?

So Judge Anderson explained to him what happened after Jonson left.

"In that case, we reached an agreement with the French to move peaceful residents out of the war zone first, and must use their boats?" Qiaosen said.

"Yes, they pretended that they were worried that our own ship would carry war supplies and non-peace personnel. So they insisted that if we want to evacuate residents, we can only use their ships. Of course, this is all an excuse, they just want Take this opportunity to hack our money! We will also arrange observers on each ship to supervise whether they have sent us to Maputo safely. Only after the ship that sent us safely arrived in Maputo and returned to Cape Town , And then they can get the money only after they get the confirmation from the observers on the ship. Otherwise, who knows if they will transfer us to some Portuguese fishing boats on the way, the French can do it." Judge Anderson replied.

"How is the situation in Cape Town now?" Major Josson asked again quickly.

"I haven't fallen yet, but I can't hold on for long. Well, the French have sent reinforcements. Now there is a full French army outside Cape Town! There are so many cannons... last time. There were some small disputes in our negotiations with them. Well, we felt that their freight was too expensive. As a result, they launched a round of shelling, and then we were forced to accept their ticket prices. Then, they... …They increased their prices again because they included the price of the previous wave of shelling into the cost of the ticket. This is really, I have never seen such a brazen Rome."

"So now..."

"At least when I left, basically all the peaceful residents had been evacuated, and the civil servants were also evacuated. After this batch of people arrived at the port today, Cape Town basically has only military personnel left. Then, I There is no final negotiation when we leave, but I think we have no other way except to give up Cape Town. After all, on the battlefield now, the gap is too big, and it’s really fighting, except for our young people. To die meaninglessly, there is no more meaning. Maybe now the two sides have reached an agreement on our peaceful withdrawal from Cape Town. Of course, the specific situation, um, when the French ship docked, the people on the ship When you’re down, just ask them and you’ll know."

Since this is the case, then Major Johnson was relieved. However, he decided to go to the pier and wait, and at the same time to comfort the sailors who were still on duty on the ship. When they saw the smoke pillars, they must be frightened.

Sure enough, as soon as Major Johnson walked to the pier, he saw a lot of panicked sailors, including the captains of several other boats, all surrounding him.

"It's okay, it's okay, don't panic, don't panic." Qiaosen told everyone what he had just learned. Of course, in front of those captains, he naturally wouldn't mention the unscrupulous fare of the French. So his crew stopped panicking, but the captains were a little panicked.

"Damn it! We thought the cargo on the ship could be sold at a good price in Cape Town, but now that we can't go to Cape Town?"

"Then what should we do with the cargo of this ship? Let us sell it here? Where can we sell so much? It must be at a loss! Oh, major, look at this matter, we are here to help, you can't let us lose money Huh? Look at the ticket price..."

"Don't worry, don't panic." Joeson shouted, "We still have a place to sell our goods. We can sell it to the French. The French have sent a lot of troops to Cape Town. They definitely need it. A lot of things. And, you think, their ship, sending people here, is not going to go back empty? Thanks to the empty ship, but what can they buy from the Portuguese? Baobab I think we are here at the right time, just in time to sell them everything on board."

So everyone hurriedly figured it out. There are indeed a lot of things you brought that should be of interest to the French and can be sold to them, such as tea, spices, porcelain and so on. There are also some things that the French may not be attracted to, but those tourists may also be able to buy some. As a result, the gazes of the captains looking at the smoke pillars no longer looked like that worry and fear, and even carried some eager expectations.

In such anxiety and anticipation, the two French transport ships gradually approached the port. The port sent a waterman to lead them into the port, and stopped at the berth that had been prepared for them. Then a large number of British people got off the two boats.

Nowadays, the actions of the evacuees have come to an advanced stage. At this time, those who evacuated on the French ships were basically people related to official business. In other words, they were all people with higher status and relatively wealthy people. Up. This is not because of how gentle the British people are. Something happened and let the people with no money run first. It's because when the French were first responsible for transporting the British away, they were still worried about whether the French would not speak business ethics. Therefore, when the initial retreat was mainly made up of relatively poor people, one of the reasons was that if the French did not speak business ethics, the losses would be relatively small.

After hiring French people to transport people several times, everyone is still very positive about the French business ethics. It is said that Governor Prima said, “In a sense, the French are actually a bit like Jews. They are all shameless guys who ask for money. They are all focused on how to make money. But once they sign. Contract~lightnovelpub.net~ Generally speaking, they are very trustworthy. Of course, like the Jews, they always like to play tricks in the contract and leave loopholes for them to exploit. But this trick does not work for us. Because we are also proficient in this set..."

Since the French business ethics are still good, at this time, those British people with status can take the French ship and retreat.

As soon as the French ship landed, Jonson took the captains and found the French, hoping to negotiate a deal with them. Although the two countries are now at war, the war is war, and business is business. After all, both the British and the French recognize the value of gold.

After learning what the British came from, the French were also very interested in the British proposal. As Jonson judged, the French couldn't buy much worth taking back in Maputo, so when their ship returned, although the principle of not being able to run empty, the cargo hold on the ship was barely jammed. It's full, but the things you bring back don't make much money at all. If these transport ships were all requisitioned by the French army, they are, after all, merchant ships of the "Europa Shipping Alliance".

So the French immediately proposed with great interest that we want to go to your ship to see the goods. If the goods are good, we will discuss the price in detail.