Zheng Zhihu narrowed his eyes and studied the pale, beardless face before him.
Ah.
So that was it.
A court official.
The Great Ming had always trusted eunuchs with its grandest fleets. Wasn't Zheng He the most famous example? Ships of this scale, bristling with firepower and secrets, would never be left unsupervised. If the Emperor wanted to sleep soundly, he would place a eunuch he trusted at the helm.
Li Daoxuan spoke calmly. "My identity is not to be disclosed. Just call me Mr. Li."
Not a single lie.
Yet in Zheng Zhihu's imagination, Mr. Li instantly transformed into a powerful figure from the Eastern Depot or Western Depot. A trusted blade at the Emperor's side. A younger Zheng He in the making.
Zheng Zhihu bowed deeply. "Your subordinate greets Mr. Li."
"Why have you come?" Li Daoxuan asked. "What urgent matter brings you here?"
Zheng Zhihu straightened.
"Some time ago, my elder brother heard that a secret imperial fleet had arrived and stationed itself at Zhoushan Island. We did not know its purpose. Since the Emperor forbade inquiry, my brother intentionally avoided making contact."
He paused.
"But this time… we had no choice."
Li Daoxuan lifted a brow. "Oh?"
"Liu Xiang has grown increasingly reckless. Many major ports, fishing villages, and merchant fleets along the southeastern coast have been plundered by his pirate band."
"You intend to confront Liu Xiang?"
"Yes." Zheng Zhihu's voice hardened. "We have prepared hundreds of ships. This time we will fight him to the death. However, to prevent him from fleeing north, we had to inform you. If he escapes that direction, our forces will pursue relentlessly… and we may inadvertently enter Zhoushan waters and disturb Mr. Li's peace."
Li Daoxuan understood perfectly.
The words were polite. The meaning was not subtle.
Their northern encirclement was weak. Liu Xiang might escape that way. They wanted help.
He did not hesitate.
"Very well. When the time comes, I will dispatch a fleet to block his northern escape route. We strike from both sides and eliminate Liu Xiang. Let these waters return to peace."
Zheng Zhihu's eyes lit up. "That would be excellent."
He had expected resistance. Perhaps bargaining. Perhaps greed.
Instead, this eunuch agreed without fuss.
How strange.
"Oh! In coming to see Mr. Li, I brought some local specialties," Zheng Zhihu added hurriedly. "I nearly forgot to present them. How discourteous of me. Bring them."
At his command, men emerged from the junk ship carrying bamboo baskets.
They were placed before Li Daoxuan aboard the Wanli Sunshine.
"Local specialties" was a modest description.
These were expensive gifts.
A large basket of premium abalone, each one enormous.
Flower crabs. Beltfish. Eels. Mussels. Plump deep-sea prawns. Tiger prawns.
A direct strike at Li Daoxuan's lifelong weakness.
Fortunately, he was currently a silicone figure. Otherwise, the sight would have reduced him to drooling disgrace, social reputation utterly destroyed, forced to relocate to the moon out of embarrassment.
Zheng Zhihu smiled apologetically. "We are men of the sea. These are the only offerings worthy of presentation. We hope Mr. Li will not find them crude."
"Excellent items," Li Daoxuan replied with sincere approval. "Very much to my liking."
He turned toward the quartermaster.
The man was from Shaanxi. He had barely seen seafood in his entire life. Faced with such rare delicacies, he panicked.
"Dao Xuan Tianzun," he said nervously, "different shrimp and crabs require different cooking temperatures. I only know how to prepare common fish. If I mishandle these ingredients, it would be a terrible waste."
Li Daoxuan felt his mood wobble dangerously.
Zheng Zhihu laughed. "My men know how to prepare them properly. Shall I send a cook over?"
"That would be most welcome," Li Daoxuan said at once.
Thus Zheng Zhihu's chef boarded the Wanli Sunshine.
He cooked while instructing, patiently guiding the bewildered quartermaster through the mysteries of proper seafood preparation.
Meanwhile, sailors set up a large round table on the deck.
Li Daoxuan, Shi Lang, Wang Zheng, and Zheng Zhihu took their seats, waiting for the feast.
Wang Zheng, however, was still fiddling with a peculiar large clock.
The device caught Zheng Zhihu's eye immediately.
"And this gentleman?" he asked.
Li Daoxuan smiled. "This is Lord Wang Zheng. He once served as Judicial Commissioner of Guangping Prefecture in Zhili, Judicial Commissioner of Yangzhou in Southern Zhili, and Assistant Judicial Commissioner in Shandong."
Zheng Zhihu's eyes widened.
A high-ranking official?
He quickly bowed again.
Wang Zheng waved him off with a chuckle. "All that is in the past. I have resigned. I am merely a private citizen now. These days I amuse myself with strange and curious contraptions."
Zheng Zhihu leaned closer. "I have seen some Western devices before. Is this a Western clock?"
Wang Zheng smiled mysteriously. "No. This is not a Western clock. This is a Divine Clock, bestowed by the immortals of heaven."
Zheng Zhihu did not believe a word of that.
But contradicting a former high-ranking official seemed unwise.
So he kept silent.
"Observe," Wang Zheng continued enthusiastically. "Operate it like this. Then adjust here. Look at these markings. From this, we calculate our longitude and latitude. East Longitude 122.44 degrees. North Latitude 30.01 degrees."
As he spoke, he produced a hollow copper globe crafted by artisans from Gao Family Village and placed it on the table with a solid thud.
His finger traced along the engraved lines of longitude and latitude.
He stopped and pointed.
"Here. East 122.44 degrees. North 30.01 degrees. This is our current position."
Zheng Zhihu had been confused by the talk of coordinates.
But when he saw the globe, his expression changed.
And when he compared the indicated location with his own navigational knowledge…
He froze.
"What?! That is truly our position?"
He had personally navigated these waters countless times. As a seasoned pirate leader, he knew exactly where they were.
The point marked on the globe matched perfectly.
His interest in the nautical clock ignited instantly.
A land official might not grasp its value.
A seafarer understood immediately.
His voice trembled.
"This clock… it can truly calculate our position? Then with this… we would never lose our way at sea?"
Wang Zheng stroked his beard. "Never is an exaggeration. Its margin of error is five li. Is that not enough to cause trouble?"
"Five li?" Zheng Zhihu stared.
He had assumed there would be error. But only five li?
He spread his arms wide.
"For my fleet, five li is nothing! With that precision, getting lost would be impossible!"
Wang Zheng laughed. "On land, people get lost after one mistaken li. Yet you seafaring folk do not even flinch at five. Truly formidable."
Zheng Zhihu's eyes shone.
"A divine artifact! A true divine artifact! It truly is a Divine Clock bestowed by the immortals of heaven! This… this is extraordinary!"
And for the first time that evening, even the seafood temporarily lost its dominance in Li Daoxuan's heart.