Master, the court has raised the maritime defense tax again. This concubine is blind and can't do hard labor. Sister Liu, the widow of our neighbor and benefactor, is willing to sell herself to help us pay. Why don't you... why don't you take her as a concubine? It's better than being sold to a brothel.
Shen Yi unexpectedly transmigrated to the turbulent early days of the Great Yong dynasty's first lifting of its maritime ban. Japanese pirates and sea bandits plagued the coast, and most able-bodied men were conscripted into the navy. Nine out of ten never returned, leaving fishing villages full of widows and women whose lives were worth less than grass.
Looking at his blind wife, breathtakingly beautiful and considerate in his arms, then at the benefactor's widow kneeling outside in the pouring rain, radiating charm yet willingly offering herself as a slave, Shen Yi sighed and placed the last half of the family's coarse-flour flatbread in the two women's hands.
"Why sell women? This sea is our granary!"
To protect his beautiful wives in this brutal world, Shen Yi, a landlubber who should have drowned, was forced to dive into the deep sea.
Starting with fishing and pearl diving, he built great ships, forged heavy cannons, and gathered refugees. Before he knew it, he had become the uncrowned king feared by pirates across all the seas!
