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By now, it had been almost three months since Annie Hastur, Grand Admiral of the Li family of Great Ming, had left Ming waters and sailed west.

At the time, she had taken a fleet of five warships, including her flagship, the super-battleship Flying Crimson Tiger, but left behind a big-bearded East Sea admiral, fifteen ships of the same size, and an entire fortress city at Tamsui, complete with shipbuilding facilities and the know-how to manufacture cannons and muskets.

And so, a certain big-bearded man had set about building up his business in Ming waters.

In the meantime, plenty of good news had arrived from the South Seas. For instance, Grand Admiral Annie had defeated the Portuguese, subdued the Dutch, recovered the entire South Seas from the Westerners, and captured nearly a hundred merchant ships and warships of various sizes, along with countless rare treasures. Her exploits were the stuff of legends.

No one knew how she had managed all that with a mere five warships, but the big-bearded man and his people had already learned that the news was true and had been verified.

After all, merchant ships had been arriving in a steady stream, flying the banner of the Li family trading company and carrying large quantities of spices, medicinal herbs, gold, silver, sugar, pearls, coral, and other precious, highly sought-after goods from the South Seas to Great Ming. The Li family's trading company, which had been somewhat short of funds due to its expansion, had grown rich.

However, because of the war in Great Ming and the lack of communication between local governments, the Li family's goods could only really be sold in places like Hangzhou and Quanzhou along the coast, which were under the Li family's control, or in Silla and Japan. The north of Great