Chapter 383 Fresh Out of Water

One month later, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

Zhang Yang changed planes three times and traveled for more than 20 hours before finally arriving in this city in the westernmost part of Indonesia and the northernmost city on Sumatra Island.

The last time Banda Aceh entered the international spotlight was the 2005 tsunami, but Zhang Yang was only a few years old at that time and had no idea about it.

If it weren't for the invitation from Boss Li and Chen Yanguang, he would never have come here. With so many white hats on the streets, it's hard to imagine that this is in Southeast Asia.

Chen Yanguang is also here, and he is also here to participate in the Hai Lao Porcelain Supply and Sales Exhibition.

On the way from the airport to the hotel, the driver hired by Boss Li kept introducing the local customs to Zhang Yang.

Most people here believe in Islam, so laws with religious characteristics are implemented, including not wearing shorts outdoors, not buying or selling alcoholic drinks, unmarried people are not allowed to be intimate with others, etc.

Violators will be whipped, even tourists.

"Mr. Zhang, you don't need to be too nervous. At least the boss and I have been here for so many years, and no one has ever been whipped."

"If you are caught going out alone at night, remember to call us."

"Hahaha, okay." Zhang Yang smiled and nodded.

The driver's sentence of "going out alone at night" was very precise, and seemed to imply that Zhang Yang had some activities at night.

However, Zhang Yang was not here to experience the local customs this time. He wanted to see what treasures there would be at this Hai Lao Porcelain Exhibition.

It was actually able to attract Chen Yanguang from the prosperous Jakarta to the remote Banda Aceh.

When Zhang Yang arrived at the hotel lobby, Boss Li and Chen Yanguang were already waiting.

"Brother Yang, I've finally waited for you~"

Chen Yanguang seemed to be in a good mood. He hummed a children's song and helped Zhang Yang take the luggage and handed it to the hotel waiter.

But it stopped Zhang Yang from going upstairs.

"What, you don't want me to come in?"

"Here." Chen Yanguang pointed to the back of the first floor of the hotel.

"Master Zhang, I have prepared a reception banquet for you. Let's go have a meal. There will be more exciting activities later, I guarantee your satisfaction." Boss Li said enthusiastically.

"When the event is over, go back to the hotel and I will arrange for someone to take care of you and rest."

Everyone said this, Zhang Yang didn't hesitate, nodded and responded: "Okay, thank you very much, Boss Li. I'm a guest and host as you wish."

On the way to dinner, Zhang Yang asked Chen Yanguang in a low voice:

"Why are you alone? Where is your wife?"

"I'm not here. My father-in-law and the others are attending a fashion show in Italy, and my wife also went there. We'll meet up in Shenghai in a few days."

"Second Master Cheng has wandered off to Italy."

"Your wife actually trusts you to wander around Southeast Asia alone?" Zhang Yang asked pretending to be surprised.

With Chen Yanguang's financial resources, this is simply a dimensionality reduction attack, the kind where you can choose a concubine.

"Who do you think I am?" Chen Yanguang said with his head held high, "My wife trusts me very much. Let's take a photo together to show her later."

"Remember to remind me to take a picture of the hotel clock."

"Okay, okay, you are so trusting, right?" Zhang Yang almost laughed out loud.

"Stop talking, let's eat quickly and see the seafood feast that Boss Li has prepared for you..."

After finishing the feast, several people rested in the private room for about half an hour.

During the process, people kept coming in and whispering next to Boss Li, as if reporting the progress of the matter.

After seven or eight people came in a row, we were finally ready.

"Master Zhang, Boss Chen, they are ready over there, shall we go there first?" Boss Li stood up and tightened his belt, making final preparations before departure.

"Okay." Chen Yanguang pulled Zhang Yang and was about to set off.

Zhang Yang didn't even know what he was doing. Anyway, Chen Yanguang said that as soon as he got there, he could figure out what he was doing.

After getting into the car in a daze, the group soon arrived at a dilapidated dock.

There are many small iron fishing boats docked at the pier, most of which look a bit old.

"Damn, you're not going to go out to sea to fish for porcelain, are you?" Zhang Yang looked at the excited Chen Yanguang in horror.

If Zhang Yang remembered correctly, he was facing the sea, with the Indian Ocean on his left and the Strait of Malacca on his right.

This is indeed the only place that the ancient Maritime Silk Road must pass through.

When we were having dinner just now, Boss Li also introduced that Banda Aceh, as a place, first had exchanges with China during the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it became the only place for Chinese merchant ships to go to Arab countries.

Even in the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He made seven voyages to the West and passed here every time.

If you want to fish for porcelain from the sea, this is indeed a good place.

"As expected of Master Zhang, he knows his stuff."

Boss Li gave Zhang Yang a thumbs up, a disguised admission that Zhang Yang's guess was correct.

The entertainment activity for everyone later is neither sea fishing nor massage, but sitting on a broken fishing boat and fishing for porcelain in the sea.

"How about it? Isn't it exciting just thinking about it?"

"I'm not greedy either, okay, just give me some pieces of your porcelain."

Chen Yanguang was gearing up, as if he had already seen the scene of himself making millions.

"Well, you two, I have some problems. I can't swim, and I'm a little seasick..."

Zhang Yang didn't want to spoil the fun, but this matter had to be made clear.

After he goes out to sea later, he can only sit in the cabin of the fishing boat and play with his mobile phone. It will be very difficult for him to go out to help.

It's not that he is cowardly, it's that he is really incompetent.

"It's okay. Can you, Director Zhang, do it yourself? You say so, Boss Li." Chen Yanguang patted Zhang Yang on the shoulder and said.

"Master Zhang, just sit in the cabin and rest. Go out and experience the atmosphere of fishing for porcelain from the sea. I guarantee it will be an unforgettable experience in your life." Boss Li advised.

"Hahaha, I believe it." Zhang Yang smiled and nodded. He was really curious about how they fished out the porcelain from the deep sea.

…

Zhang Yang and the others were on an ocean-going fishing boat. Although it was not big, it was very modern. It was said that it was a new boat launched in 2019.

A boss with a net worth of over 100 million would definitely not make fun of his own life safety, so the safety on the ship was very good, and even a professional lifeguard was assigned to each of Zhang Yang and Chen Yanguang.

The lifeguard looks like a female bodyguard in a suit, but when he takes off his jacket, he wears a one-piece tight swimsuit underneath, which makes him feel very safe.

But only bosses have this treatment.

The members of the local salvage team who were going to launch the salvage later had to wait on the simple iron fishing boat behind the fishing boat.

Boss Li told Zhang Yang that it was because of the tsunami that year that all the fishing boats here were destroyed, so he had no choice but to buy such an iron fishing boat.

Otherwise, in the early years of the 21st century, the local salvage team would have to work on wooden boats equipped with diesel engines.

"How did you determine the location of the sunken ship?" Zhang Yang asked curiously.

Although this question is suspected of inquiring into other people's business secrets, in Indonesia, it is impossible to do salvage business without having some connections.

The locals won't look down on you at all, and you won't be able to find anyone who goes into the water.

Simply put, this kind of business has a deep "moat."

It is for this reason that Boss Li did not hide it, but generously explained it clearly to Zhang Yang:

"At the very beginning, we asked local fishermen."

"People who have been fishing for a long time have a good understanding of where there are sunken ships, because fish generally like to live near sunken ships."

"We fished all the shipwreck sites that have been talked about by anglers for decades. In two or three years, I made my first pot of gold in this way."

"It was easy to make money back then. I earned this amount in three years."

Boss Li made an "eight" gesture.

"Eight hundred million?" Zhang Yang asked tentatively.

"Eighty million, that was still 1999."

"Then it's still 800 million now." Zhang Yang nodded and said, "Three years are too easy, right?"

"Hahaha, at that time it was indeed equivalent to fishing for money in the sea. But later it was not so easy. I had to find the sunken spot again by myself."

"Then how did you find it now? Did you use sonar?" Zhang Yang asked.

Although Linhai is a coastal city, people of Zhang Yang's generation don't know much about the situation at sea.

He also heard on the Internet that the wreckage of the Titanic was discovered through sonar, and then he learned that the wreck can also be found using sonar.

"Sonar is not practical." Boss Li shook his head and explained, "The sunken ships on the Silk Road basically sank after hitting rocks. It is difficult for sonar to locate sunken ships in such a complex landscape."

"So we usually look for them near the reefs."

"How to find it specifically?"

"Let people go and look underwater." Boss Li pointed to the salvage team on the iron boat behind him. "These people I brought are all very good at water. Any one of them can dive for two hours."

Hire people to go into the water to find sunken ships - a very primitive method, but it is the most profitable for professional salvage.

Boss Li said that these salvage team members receive maximum salaries locally, and even bonuses are given to them based on the antiques they salvage every time they are salvaged.

It is through this operation that he has almost monopolized the salvage market in Banda Aceh.

Personal assets have also skyrocketed over the past few years.

Counting those unsold antiques, he is already the richest man in the local area.

However, in order to keep the price of Hailao porcelain stable, he sells it gradually and will not dump it all at once.

"Actually, money is just a number to me." Boss Li expressed the same emotion as Jack Ma, "But someone must do the business, so I can only continue to do it reluctantly."

Zhang Yang and Chen Yanguang were silently listening to his blowjob.

Soon the boat stopped.

Knowing that Zhang Yang was seasick, Boss Li only invited Chen Yanguang out of the cabin to take a look.

In fact, there is nothing interesting to see. There is a wide sea all around, and there is no island or anything.

Following Boss Li's order, Zhang Yang heard several "plop" diving sounds, which was no less impressive than the Philippine diving team.

The entire search process will last about three or four hours, and each salvage team member is equipped with two oxygen bottles.

Zhang Yang was really bored in the cabin and wandered over to the driver's side to look at the map.

As he looked, he noticed that the position of the ship was a bit strange.

Didn’t you agree to go to the high seas to salvage it?

This should still be within the waters under Indonesian jurisdiction.

Although foreign countries do not pay much attention to the protection of cultural relics, the ownership of treasures salvaged from the waters of a certain country must belong to that country.

If you bring these things back to the dock, aren't you afraid of being intercepted?

Zhang Yang was muttering in his heart when Chen Yanguang excitedly walked into the cabin holding a blue and white porcelain plate.

"It's been shipped. A large piece of fishnet blue and white porcelain has been delivered from outside. I spent a long time choosing it. This is the best among them."

"Brother Yang, help me see if it's true or false."

"Can porcelain fished from the sea be fake? Didn't you watch them fish it out of the sea?" Zhang Yang said casually.

"It's hard to say. After all, I've encountered fake tomb robbers before. It's normal to meet fake porcelain from the sea again."

Chen Yanguang was talking about Qiu Mingshan's time.

Ever since he was deceived by fake tomb robbers, he never thought about buying antiques from front-line tomb robbers.

"Okay, then I can help Mr. Chen with his eyes?"

Zhang Yang took the blue and white porcelain plate. On the plate was a large dragon with wings, hovering among the clouds and mist.

This is the traditional Yinglong pattern.

The shape of the Yinglong is somewhat similar to that of the Western dragon, both with wings. The difference is that the Yinglong has feather wings, while the Western dragon has bat wings.

"Is this inscription from the official kiln? I heard that Jiajing had the most official kilns in the Ming Dynasty. It makes sense that there are two on this sunken ship."

"Oh? You know this. It seems that you have been studying porcelain a lot recently, Boss Chen." Zhang Yang said with a smile.

The official kiln in Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty indeed fired the most. At its recorded peak, 120,000 pieces were fired in a year, which was three thousandths of that of the private kilns at that time.

You must know that official kilns were used by the emperor and his concubines, while private kilns were used by everyone in the world. This ratio of three thousandths is extremely exaggerated.

However, it seems that Chen Yanguang's research was crooked, and he even tried to fish out the official kiln from the sunken ship on the Silk Road.

It really feels like Emperor Jiajing’s house door is always open.

"This is a folk kiln. You see, although it is also a six-character double-row regular script [Made in the Jiajing Year of the Ming Dynasty], the person who wrote this character has obviously much poorer writing skills."

"It's not much different..."

"I just happen to have pictures on my phone. Let me show you the official kiln."

There are pictures and the truth. Zhang Yang took out the signature of the official kiln and compared it with the one in front of him. The difference was obvious.

The calligraphy of folk kilns is much thinner, and it is crooked when you write it, as if it is shaking.

"Damn, I know. This must have been baked in a folk kiln in the Ming Dynasty to deceive foreigners. Now it has deceived me."

"Hahaha, anyway, don't think about how valuable the porcelain is. The most expensive one at the moment is probably the Longquan kiln from the Yuan Dynasty on the sunken ship in Xin'an."

"Porcelain from the Ming and Qing dynasties is generally sold in large quantities. The blue and white porcelain from the private kiln in Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty costs two thousand apiece."

"Two thousand each..." Chen Yanguang calculated in his mind, "The bag just now contained at least forty or fifty items, so that's one hundred thousand!"

"Hey, Brother Yang, you said we rent a boat and fish it out ourselves, have you done anything yet?"

"Of course there is, and I've planned the place for you."

"Where?" Chen Yanguang's eyes lit up.

"Sri Lanka, that was the only place Zheng He would pass through on his voyages to the West, and I didn't find any news on the Internet about Sri Lanka producing sea-sourced porcelain."

"Well, I know this country...where women regard fatness as beautiful. When are we going to investigate?"