The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

It was difficult for Min Xi and Yun Ji, working with a group of Europeans on a ship in harsh conditions. The pungent body odor was simply unavoidable. Fortunately, they had a separate cabin. At least when hiding in it, they could stay away from the body odor and sleep well.

But when they work together during the day, it is unavoidable. After so many years of adapting to it, they still can't adapt.

They washed and scrubbed each other's backs in the water for a long time. When they finished taking a bath, they felt as if they had lost five pounds, which showed how thick the mud and dirt they had rubbed off was.

After taking a bath, they sat in the water again and washed their dirty clothes. To be honest, it was impossible to have clean clothes after staying on the boat for such a long time. Everyone prepared to wash their clothes, put them on the river beach to dry, and then put on the clothes to go back.

Only Min Xi and Yun Ji, who took all their belongings with them, still had some clean clothes left, so they could change into clothes after taking a shower.

I was washing clothes when I heard someone shout, "Look, God is spreading the tablecloth!"

Upon hearing this, everyone looked towards Table Mountain in the distance. They saw white clouds gradually gathering on the flat top of Table Mountain in the distance.

This is a special wonder of Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope. It can only be seen in summer. The water vapor blowing from the sea condenses into water droplets when it meets the cold on the top of the table mountain, and slowly forms clouds, which surround the flat top of the mountain, like a white tablecloth. The sailors passing by call it "God's tablecloth".

Min Xi and Yun Ji turned their heads to look at the tablecloth that was gradually forming. Min Xi smiled and said, "We are lucky this time. We missed it last time, but we saw it this time."

Yun Ji said: "It is indeed magical, no wonder it is called God's tablecloth."

They were just looking at the spectacle when they suddenly heard the Little Overlord shouting. Min Xi and Yun Ji turned their heads to look. They saw a group of people coming in without them knowing. They were standing on the river bank, bending over to pick up clothes spread out on the river bank to dry. From the way they were dressed, they could tell that they were a group of sailors.

One of the crew members shouted, "Oh no! Those damn Spaniards are stealing our clothes!"

Those people bent down to pick up some clothes on the ground, laughed and said, "So what if I stole them? Come chase me!" Then they turned around and ran away.

The crew members in the water were so anxious that they shouted, "Don't run, leave your clothes behind." They didn't dare to chase him because they only had a piece of cloth to wipe the water, and all the clothes were hanging on the river bank.

Min Xi and Yun Ji, who were bathing in the upper reaches of the stream, saw this and quickly picked up their clothes that had not been stolen and put them on. Yun Ji said, "Ninth brother, don't worry, I'll be there."

He put on his clothes quickly, without even having time to fasten his pants, and chased after them barefoot, holding up his pants with one hand. The Spaniards who stole the clothes had already landed and were running towards the street at full speed. However, Yun Ji's speed was amazing. Just as they entered the street, he had already caught up with the last person and kicked him to the ground.

The man fell flat on his face, cursing. His companions heard the noise and turned around to see that only one person had caught up with him. They were no longer worried and turned back to surround Yun Ji: "How dare you, a man, follow us!"

Yun Ji was not in a hurry. He tied his pants slowly and said, "Give us back our clothes. I will pretend nothing happened."

The other party looked at him with a sarcastic expression on his face: "As if you have the upper hand, if you want it, come and grab it!"

Yun Ji grabbed the clothes in the hand of the man who was talking. The man tried to take it back, but found that Yun Ji's hand was terribly strong. Yun Ji grabbed the clothes with one hand and chopped at the man's neck with a knife. The man was almost a head shorter than him, so this height advantage was very useful.

The other party didn't have time to guard against it. He only heard a muffled groan, and then he went limp.

When his other companions saw him faint, they threw the clothes in their hands to the ground in panic and rushed up to teach Yun Ji a lesson.

Yun Ji kicked one of them, and the remaining two were close to him. He twisted his body and hit one of them in the jaw with his elbow. When he landed, he bent one leg at the knee and hit the opponent's crotch. In a moment, five or six people were all knocked down by him.

Yun Ji raised his foot and stepped on a man's chest, saying in Spanish: "Today I will treat it as a prank and teach you a lesson. I don't want to see blood. If you don't accept it, just come at me."

The faces of those people suddenly became very ugly. They originally wanted to take advantage of the Portuguese people taking a bath to cause some damage, but they were completely subdued by just one person. This person was definitely a martial artist, not an ordinary person.

Yun Ji bent down and picked up all the clothes, and carried them back to the stream. When everyone saw Yun Ji returning safely with the clothes, they immediately gave him a warm round of applause: "Yun, you are amazing!"

Min Xi asked: "Seventh Brother, have you taught them all a lesson?"

Yun Ji put the clothes on the riverbank and said, "Some of them may be dirty, take them and wash them again. They were all punished, but there was no bleeding."

"You can beat six people by yourself, that's amazing!" Min Xi smiled proudly.

Yun Ji smiled and said, "It's okay, the main thing is that those people are not good enough."

Yun Ji's move completely dispelled the Spanish's arrogance, at least they didn't dare to provoke the Portuguese again. And this move also established a tall image among the sailors of the Jazz. Before, when he taught Nick a lesson, everyone mainly heard about it, but didn't see it in person. Besides, two people fighting one person doesn't mean that he is very good at fighting. Now one person beat six people and helped everyone get their clothes back, which is really admirable.

The Spaniards left the day after they arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, while the Jazz stayed at the Cape of Good Hope for three days, one to replenish supplies and rest, and the other to wait for the Harvest. Everyone still had some fantasy, in case they were caught up from behind.

Another reason was to keep a distance from the Spanish fleet. After all, the other side had three ships and they only had two. If something bad happened at sea, the ship might be destroyed and people might die.

However, after waiting for three days, the Harvest did not catch up, so everyone had to give up waiting and sailed forward with a full cabin of supplies. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, they entered the Indian Ocean. At first, they were in the westerly belt, which was completely a tailwind for the ship. The ship was very fast. When they entered the Indian Ocean, the wind direction was adjusted to the north, and then it became a southeast wind. For them, it was also a tailwind, and they only needed to slightly adjust the angle.

Moreover, there are very few typhoons in the South Indian Ocean this month, making it the safest time for sailing. The ship speed is much faster than in the previous sections.

So the voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to Phoebe Island was faster than expected, and they didn't even finish eating the fresh fruit they had replenished at the Cape of Good Hope.

Because the Shark had a bad relationship with the natives on the island, the natives hated foreign ships very much. They chose to dock for supplies on the African continent (in Mozambique), which was almost parallel to Phoebe Island. There was a stronghold established by the Portuguese here.

However, since the stronghold was seized from the locals and relies entirely on gun violence for deterrence, conflicts with the locals occur from time to time and it is not very safe.

But in order to get fresh vegetables and fruits, we have to replenish them.

They were unlucky as they were told right after they arrived that there had been a small conflict with the local indigenous people two days before. Although no casualties were caused, a lot of their stored supplies were destroyed by the locals.

The two ships did not dare to stay too long. They loaded whatever they had and withdrew quickly after loading. Because the supplies were not as sufficient as expected, the two captains discussed and decided to go to Malindi for supplies.

Yunji was very familiar with this place name. A few years ago, their ship encountered a storm while returning from Malindi after a trade.

Yun Ji suggested to Captain Almeida: "We can go to Malindi to buy some specialties and bring them back to Daming to sell."

Captain Almeida asked, "Okay, what can I buy there?"

Yun Ji said: "Ivory, rhino horn, spices and hematite are all fine."

When Min Xi heard about ivory and rhino horns, he felt conflicted. Should he tell him that these things would be protected animals in the future, and that buying them would lead to the extinction of species?

After they finished talking, Yun Ji realized that Min Xi was silent and asked, "What's wrong?"

Min Xi said: "I think it's okay not to do business in ivory and rhino horn."

"Why?" Yun Ji asked in confusion.

Min Xi smiled awkwardly: "Because the locals hunted many elephants and rhinos in order to obtain ivory and rhino horns in exchange for money and materials from foreign merchants like us, these animals were almost on the verge of extinction in our time."

Yun Ji looked at him in surprise: "If you hadn't told me earlier, I wouldn't have let him buy it."

Min Xi shrugged: "Actually, if we don't buy it, there will be others who will."

Yun Ji said, "Then we won't buy them anymore. We don't need them. Rhino horns have some medicinal value, but ivory is just for display. We don't need them."

Min Xi laughed: "Well, we can't stop others from buying and selling, we can only make sure we don't buy and sell."

With favorable winds and currents, the ship arrived at Malindi in just a few days after leaving the supply point in Mozambique. Since the ship could not dock directly, it could only launch a small boat. The crew of the Goddess first rowed the small boat towards the shore, but before they reached the shore, they were greeted by bows and arrows by the locals, who would not let them dock at all.

The people on the Goddess were inexplicable. Although they had guns and could kill directly, it would be difficult to purchase the necessary supplies if they were at odds with the locals. Last time when they were replenished, everyone did not have enough supplies. If they could not be replenished this time, they did not know whether they could hold out until the Kingdom of Tianfang.

Yun Ji said in surprise: "How could this happen? The last time we came here, the locals welcomed us very much and even exchanged their things with us."

Min Xi said in Chinese: "Maybe they only welcome people from the Ming Dynasty and don't welcome Europeans at all."