The cruelty of a business competition was no less than a real war.
Malcolm knew exactly where Carina's weaknesses were. This time, he changed his aggressive stance and took the initiative to take a step back. The bait he threw out was not one that Carina could refuse.
If Carina wanted to grow, she couldn't just rely on the Jackdaw alone. Whether it was the secondhand goods trading center or the private trade with the black-market alliance, her goal was to counter Malcolm's blockade of her territory. Now that the opportunity was right in front of her, she had no reason to retreat.
In fact, if Carina was given another half a year, she could solve most of the problems she faced and turn her losses into wins. However, Malcolm obviously wouldn't give her that time.
"How much money do you need right now?"
"I need at least 700 gold coins to get the business going again. I don't know what's the point of continuing. We're losing a lot of money. In the past, the business wasn't very profitable, but now … now, we're losing money every day, every hour, and every minute." Carina's voice revealed a trace of frustration and exhaustion.
Recently, her business on the island had been at its toughest. What was even more frightening was that although she ran around all day, she couldn't see any hope of turning the losses into profits. Carina's problems were multifaceted. Due to the rapid expansion, her talent and capital reserves couldn't keep up, and the original market couldn't accommodate so many shipments. The customs increased the price, and the local merchants boycotted her business. All of these problems couldn't be solved in a short period of time.
"I can give you the additional 800 gold coins that I promised you earlier. I can lend you another 200 gold coins, "Zhang Heng said. This time, the Jackdaw returned from the sea with a bountiful harvest. Zhang Heng did a rough calculation. As the captain and the first batch of elders, he would get about 1,200 gold coins worth of income. This was undoubtedly a huge sum of money.
Even if he gave up and bought two farms or plantations on the island, he could still live comfortably. However, considering that he had a few more years, Roger Wood would bring his fleet to reclaim Nassau. Captain Wood was going to bring his fleet to reclaim Nassau, and Zhang Heng did not want to place his life in the hands of others.
The first governor of Nassau, Roger? After Captain Wood led his fleet to occupy Nassau, he finally pardoned most of the pirates on Nassau. However, Zhang Heng's current situation would not allow him to have a good ending once the British army arrived on Nassau. Including the Scarborough, he had already destroyed two naval warships. His current pirate ship, the Jackdaw, was also stolen from the navy. He also participated in the bombardment of Charleston by the Queen Anne's Revenge, and not long ago, he killed the highest commander of the British army in the Caribbean Sea, Walden.
Now that Blackbeard Teach was missing, Black Prince Sam was killed, and Honegg had retired, Zhang Heng and the Jackdaw had become the most powerful pirate group on the island.
What if Roger really took over Nassau? Considering that Nassau's development required a lot of young and strong workers, the others might be able to keep their lives. However, Zhang Heng would definitely be the first to be killed. As long as Roger Wood was not stupid, he would definitely use Zhang Heng's head as an example to others.
Even though Zhang Heng had completed the main mission, he couldn't just take a break. He was no longer alone. As the captain of the Jackdaw, his crew relied on him to make a living, and he had to take care of Anne. Without his support, the competition between Karina and Malcolm would have been over a long time ago.
Having come this far, it was already very difficult for him to stand alone or retreat bravely in the face of a crisis.
"But in return, I want to increase my shares by 10%," Zhang Heng said after a pause.
"That's not a problem. But are you sure you want to continue? At least in the short term, I don't see any hope of making a profit."
"What if I get rid of Malcolm's external threat?" Zhang Heng asked.
Considering the huge profits they had earned from this voyage, the Jackdaw's sailors would probably be slacking off for a long time. So, it would be a long time before they could sail again. After this legendary battle, the Jackdaw's status in Nassau was basically cemented.
Now, Zhang Heng had enough time and energy to deal with his final opponents — the black-market alliance and Malcolm.
Although Karina's business had been doing poorly during this period of time, she did complete her strategic plan and put pressure on the black-market alliance. Regardless of whether Malcolm was the one who took the initiative to give in, it was an indisputable fact that the secondhand goods exchange had expanded on a large scale.
The black-market alliance had their doubts, but Malcolm was strong enough to know that he could afford it, and Carina couldn't.
Now that Zhang Heng returned with a large sum of gold, the situation was completely different. On the other hand, the black-market alliance had lost five powerful pirate ships, especially Black Prince Sam and his Quidah. This was undoubtedly a huge blow to the black-market alliance.
Malcolm's current situation might not be any better than Carina's.
In the early days of the black-market alliance, they offered a very favorable price to each pirate ship. This was the time when profits were at their lowest. Now that the number of powerful pirate ships in their hands had plummeted, it was foreseeable that the number of valuable spoils of war would decrease as well. This would also exacerbate the internal conflict within the black-market alliance.
After that, Zhang Heng had a secret meeting with the black gladiator, Laeli, in Smoked Fish Alley.
The latter had also gained a lot during this period of time. With Rheia as his spy, Malcolm's study room had almost no secrets. Rheia used the opportunity to go through the letters in the study room while she was cleaning the room. To avoid alerting the black-market alliance, she did not bring the letters with her this time. Instead, she picked out some useful information and wrote it down in a notebook. After that, she asked someone to pass the notebook to Laeli.
Zhang Heng flipped through the notebook and found some interesting information. Other than that, there was also a lot of Rheia's impressions and analysis of Malcolm, which would help her understand Malcolm better. However, the information related to Carina's father, Fagan, was the only one he found in the letter.
Although it was confirmed from the letter that Malcolm's family was indeed in contact with Count Slaughter, who framed Fagan, it was difficult to bring charges against him due to the lack of substantial information. On the other hand, there was a previous letter in which Malcolm had secretly invested in a Whitehall member of parliament. The latter was a political enemy of Redmond's son-in-law.
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