Chapter 43: Garry's Sinking Incense
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Three people had a bowl of sweet potato sugar water porridge, continued to stroll around the street, two women liked to look at those exquisite small ornaments, while Guo Yu inadvertently discovered something that sparked his interest.
At a street stall, Guo Yu squatted down and looked at the pieces of rotten wood and old tree roots, and an idea occurred to him.
He used to like playing with Wenwan, sometimes he would play with hand strings, walnuts, and sarira beads. He bought the old Tianzhu just because he liked Wenwan, which gave him the ability to travel through time.
Kuo Yu picked up an old tree root, weighed it in his hand, and felt very heavy. He smelled it and found that there was almost no smell. The colors of the roots here are also different, with green, dark green, and light yellow ones.
Guo Yu weighed the thing in his hand and asked the vendor, "What is this?"
"Sir, this is agarwood, all of which are high-quality agarwood from the island. If you need it, I can also make incense for you. I am a traditional incense maker, and in the past, I used to make incense as gifts for nobles." This man stood up quickly when Gu Yu asked him questions, and replied in Chinese, clearly an ethnic Chinese person.
"Tell me, where did you find all these agarwood?" Guo Yu asked again, picking up another piece.
"Some of these I encountered myself when collecting medicine, some were collected with the indigenous people. When I went to the indigenous village to collect herbs and told them that I was collecting agarwood, this thing is a medicinal material itself, so I asked them to help me find it in the mountains together." This Han Chinese man is about 34 or 35 years old, dark-skinned and robust, speaking with a slight tension and pause.
The words of the Hanzi man sparked Guo Yu's curiosity, and as they chatted, he gradually understood the situation. This Hanzi man was named Wu Qilang, a Hua ethnic minority, whose father had been a doctor and also knew how to make incense by hand. However, after offending a local noble in Burma, he fled with his son to Kalimantan Island to make a living.
He has been living here for 20 years and has fully integrated into the local community. He does business with locals, treats their illnesses, buys and sells medicinal materials, and sometimes makes incense to sell. Today he came here to set up a stall to sell incense, and these agarwood are just raw materials used to attract customers.
Actually, agarwood has a very high status in China and Southeast Asia, it is used for medicine, making jewelry, and making incense, Buddhist use agarwood-made incense as the best offering to Buddha.
In 1915, the price of agarwood was not low, and it is even higher in modern times. There was a saying that one gram of agarwood was worth three grams of gold, but in fact, it was more expensive. In 2003, an agarwood ornament was auctioned off for HK$7.95 million, with an average price of HK$10,200 per gram. The current price is several times higher than that.
Of course, people should not be mistaken that agarwood is not the same as agarwood tree. They are two different things. Agarwood is a kind of oily liquid secreted by agarwood trees and formed through long-term precipitation, while agarwood tree is just a type of wood.
Nowadays, people are crazy about Agarwood, but actually it's the mother tree of Agarwood, which is the tree species that forms Agarwood. These trees are very hard to find in modern times when they have grown into big timber, but on Kalimantan Island now, they are everywhere. All these are money! A single bracelet costs tens of thousands, how many beads can be made from one tree? A piece of furniture requires several million, there are so many forests here, just right for myself to open up a road and build a base, how much Agarwood will be produced? No way, I have to let someone take care of it for me, keep some for myself.
Guo Yu looked at the agarwood of various sizes scattered on the ground, estimated to be around 20-30 kilograms. This was worth tens of millions. In fact, he didn't lack this amount of money, but such items were extremely rare in modern society, and their quality generally wasn't as good as these. If he kept them for himself, they would make great gifts in the future, and he would definitely gain face when giving them out.
Looking at Wu Qilang, Gu Yu's mind to recruit him was rekindled. This guy had lived on the island for twenty years, often going into the mountains to pick herbs and coming into contact with the natives, so he was familiar with the surrounding environment and the situation of the natives. If utilized properly, he could play a big role.
Buy all the agarwood, call for bodyguards, and have them carry everything that belongs to Wu Qilang back to Duli Village.
Guo Yu asked Wu Qilang to sit down, and the two of them started chatting in the courtyard. Through his inquiries, Guo Yu learned about some situations in his garrison, especially the situation at the port and that of the local aborigines.
The indigenous people of Kota Marudu, mainly Kadazandusun, also divided into many ethnic groups, and there are Malays and Chinese. The Kadazandusuns are the native people of the rainforest, they are relatively easy-going, now the relationship between each ethnic group is still quite harmonious. The Malays came from other islands, similar to the situation of the Chinese, both are outsiders.
After understanding the general situation, Guo Yu felt that the indigenous people could still be subdued, but the Malays would have to wait and see. If all else failed, Guo Yu was not a kind-hearted person and would take action when necessary.
He also learned from Wu Qilang that the indigenous people's combat power was still very strong, especially in the jungle, where it was their paradise, their home. They would set traps and use poisonous arrows there, making it impossible to defend against them. Moreover, the jungle itself had many dangers. He suggested that Guo Yu should not make enemies with the local people, but Guo Yu indeed left him behind, letting him treat illnesses in Huafu Village in the future. After all, this was a rainforest, and many strange diseases required his expertise, such as snake bites.
Moreover, Guo Yu also arranged for Wu Qilang to continue buying agarwood in large quantities. After accumulating a batch, he planned to sell it in Hong Kong at a good price.
Wu Qilang's words made Guo Yu think, it seems that he needs to establish his own armed forces, set up an army, especially a special forces unit. The environment here is very suitable for jungle warfare mode, it seems that he needs to plan carefully.
Guo Yu didn't understand what special forces warfare was, but he could let others teach him. He found Er Zhu and had him select 1000 people from the current Huafu Guard Corps, choosing those with the strongest bodies, most agile minds, and who were most loyal to Guo Yu. Guo Yu had big plans.
Guo Yu ran to the modern era and called Chakri, the manager of a Russian mercenary organization, wanting to buy a batch of special warfare weapons and materials.
This time, Guo Yu flew to Africa himself and met the Russian arms dealer from last time at the Moles Hotel in Liberia. Still don't know what his name is, never mind, playing mysterious for now, will get familiar later.
Guo Yu suggested that he needs to purchase a batch of special forces individual equipment, requiring a full set, about 1,000 pieces, and asked the other party to provide a catalog.
Tactical vest, AK47, 5 magazines, spare bullets 300 rounds (excluding those in the magazine) RPG rocket, bulletproof helmet, goggles, leg guards, fireproof gloves, a military knife, a handgun, single soldier radio, single soldier medical kit, combat boots.
Guo Yu also required that it is not necessary to bring a satellite system, as long as it can be connected with the base command vehicle or command system and use radio signals.
It's like this, the unit price of each set of equipment has reached $20,000 to $30,000, which is quite expensive. It's said that a set of US special forces equipment costs only $20,000, and it's high-tech too. A set from China or Russia costs between 200,000 to 500,000 RMB. It seems like the other party wants to make a huge profit from us. However, there's no way around it, as military equipment transactions are always like this. You can't just buy them anywhere like vegetables; if you want to buy, you have to pay a high price. But Guo Yu also made demands on the other party: they must provide a complete set of special forces training outlines and video teaching materials in Chinese, Russian, American, and all three languages, covering various terrains such as jungle, swamp, snowfield, desert, etc.
