I’m the Farmgirl You Can’t Mess With
Chapter 994 - Chapter 994 Encountering

Chapter 994: Encountering Chapter 994: Encountering Editor: Atlas Studios The Westerners who came to Great Qi came from various countriesaEUR”Portugal, Spain, England, and France.

They did not come together, but they bumped into each other on the route.

As England and France were currently at war, both sides were very unfriendly towards each other.

When they saw the Spanish and Portuguese fleets that had also come here as envoys, they immediately roped them in.

Marriage alliances between European countries were common.

In fact, the maternal grandfather of the Viscount Jose and his brother, who had come with the Portuguese fleet, was the current King of England.

Coupled with England’s power at the moment, they were biased towards England.

On the other hand, the Spanish envoys played both sides and did not wish to offend anyone.

As for the French envoys, they could not find any alliances and suffered all kinds of grievances along the way.

Thus, there was friction amongst France and the other countries.

When they were about to reach Great Qi, the four ships discovered another group of pirates.

The European countries used their ships to do business while they were at it.

Of course, they would also fight pirates at the same time.

Sometimes, they even had to act as “explorers” who expanded their country’s territory and planted flags on the new land they discovered.

Though it was good if the land was unoccupied, it would be even better if there were people upon it; this meant that they did not have to look for labor.

Along the way, the ships of the four countries had dealt with many pirates and split among themselves a lot of gold, silver, and jewelry.

Because France was weak, they had been pushed out to be the vanguard in front.

Yet when they distributed the money, they could only get 40% of one portion, or even less.

This time, when the resentment reached its peak, France was unwilling to put in effort and only chased after the pirates lazily.

They decided that they would first chase the pirates back to their island.

When the time came to go ashore, if the envoys of the other three countries did not contribute, France would send their men to rush to the pirates’ nest to rob them.

Anyway, since they were about to reach Great Qi, there was no need for France to give in to the English envoys any longer.

Considering the envoys of the two countries were almost equal in numbers, the English envoys would definitely not dare to attack.

Unfortunately, the French envoy’s plans fell through when they unexpectedly encountered Qi Haoran and the others.

If the cannons were casually fired into the sea to test their power, although they would not hurt anyone, it would still be a waste of the cannonballs.

At the thought that there were still some pirates in the sea and Pedro’s group had many cannons, there was no need to provoke them just to test the cannons.

However, there were still some pirates further away.

It would be good to destroy a group of pirates while testing the cannons.

Hence, the warship left the Guangzhou sea and headed out.

From afar, he saw a medium-sized ship fleeing desperately.

Coincidentally, Qi Haoran was very familiar with the logo on the sail: It was a group of Japanese pirates that he had chased out of the Guangzhou sea.

Originally, there were more than 500 Japanese pirates who had been killed and dispersed by him.

Now, there were only about 200 of them.

When Qi Haoran saw the logo, he was excited.

He directed the warship over, estimated the firing range, aimed at the ship, and fired.

The cannonball hit the hull of the ship, and the ship capsized in an instant.

The pirates on the ship fell into the water one after another.

The French fleet following from afar couldn’t help but stop when they saw this.

Looking at the overturned pirate ship in bewilderment, they noticed Great Qi’s warship from afar.

The warship quickly arrived at the place where the pirates had fallen into the water.

Qi Haoran would interrogate the local pirates and kill those who had lives on their hands.

If not, they would either be enlisted into the army or exiled or sent home.

Those barbaric pirates who had looted too much would also be executed with no exceptions.

There were some officials who impeached Qi Haoran for killing indiscriminately.

But firstly, it was suppressed by Qi Xiuyuan; secondly, there were not many officials in the court who supported the impeachment, so it was left unsettled.

Hence, Qi Haoran continued handling this matter in such a manner.

Qi Haoran and the others also discovered the French fleet and the fleets behind them.

Although they had some doubts, they were not timid.

Hence, he called for the interpreter to prepare while sending troops down to scoop up the pirates from the sea.

As the location of these pirates’ treasures had yet to be found, he would not kill them easily.

Though, he only kept four or five alive.

When the envoys on the French fleet saw how ruthless the other party was in killing the pirates, their faces turned pale.

Although they, too, robbed the pirates, they would not kill them all.

At most, they would snatch their treasures along the way and leave after chiseling the ship.

Seeing the other party’s actions, the envoy on the ship guessed that they were soldiers from a nearby country.

As expected, Qi Haoran quickly got the soldiers to flag and inform the other party that this was Great Qi’s territorial sea and ask for their identity.

The French envoy’s eyes flickered as he glanced at the pirates who had been pulled onto the ship by the other party.

He asked the soldier to flag and inform the other party of their identity.

Hence, Qi Haoran found out about the arrival of the envoys from the four countries in advance.

When Qi Haoran’s ship neared the English fleet at the back, he directly said that these pirates had disturbed the envoys’ ships.

As the host, Great Qi would stand up for them and directly take over the matter of the pirates.

Naturally, interrogating the pirates and destroying the treasures in the other party’s nest would be Great Qi’s responsibility.

Although the envoys of the four countries felt that it was a pity, they had just witnessed the iron-blooded methods of Prince Rong of Great Qi.

At this moment, no one dared to raise the question of the treasures.

Originally, the envoys from various countries should be received by the local government.

But when Little Bear and Little Treasure, who were on the warship, heard that they were going to pay for the accommodation and food of so many people, their hearts ached.

“How much will this cost?” Fan Zijin, who was standing at the side, was silent.

The four-nation fleet had indeed brought a lot of people.

Other than the shipwrights, soldiers, and servants, there were also merchants accompanying them.

After thinking for a while, he compromised and said, “We will only pay for the accommodation and food of the envoys of the four countries and their personal attendants.” The envoys of the four countries did not think that there was anything wrong with this arrangement.

This was because when they went on diplomatic missions to other countries, they also spent their own money.

At the thought of separating from their brigade, the envoys of the four countries rejected them and stayed at the Foreigners’ Chamber of Commerce.

The people they brought booked all the inns on that road, greatly increasing the development of the hotel business in Guangzhou.

Qi Haoran still wanted to generate income for more merchants, so he was urging the envoys of the four countries to bring their people and trade caravans to the capital.

In Qi Haoran’s words, “The capital is rich and prosperous, and the variety of goods available there is not something Guangzhou can compare to.

If the envoys and merchants of your country want to see more of Great Qi, they should go to the capital.” The envoys of the four countries were very tempted, but the prices of goods in Great Qi were too high.

As they had brought so many people to the capital, the expenses along the way were not small.

Therefore, they had been reducing their numbers recently and only planned to bring some exquisite goods and some guards to the capital.

The rest of the crew and servants would wait in Guangzhou.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese envoy contacted Pedro.

In the eyes of the Great Qi people, Pedro was a pirate, but in the eyes of the Portuguese, Pedro was their earl and a great “explorer”.

From Pedro, they learnt that Great Qi had dealt a huge blow to the pirates.

Most of the pirates who had originally occupied the seas of Guangdong had been eliminated.

Although the scope of his activities had moved out quite a distance, he still had conflicts with the soldiers of Great Qi from time to time.

He had suffered a lot of losses in the past year, so the profits no longer outweighed the risks of staying in Great Qi.

Even if he wanted to change his profession to doing proper business, he also had to change to a different location.

He hoped that the Portuguese envoy could come forward and discuss with the Great Qi Imperial Court to rent them a place to dock their ship so that it would be more convenient for them to move around in the future.

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