THE WIDOW ZHENG

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

Canton, eighteen-oh-one, the river smells of tea.

They say I worked a flower boat. They say a lot of me.

[Verse 1]

Lanterns on the water, a ledger in my head,

I count the men who pay in silver, I count the men in debt.

I learn a face in half a second, learn a lie in two,

The Pearl River taught me more than any school could do.

[Pre-Chorus]

Shi Yang is the name my mother gave,

The river is a market, and I was never the wave.

[Time]

[Drop]

I don't sell the night, I sell the math.

Twenty-six years old and I know which way the money travels.

The river keeps the books and I keep the river.

Shi Yang on the water. Remember the name.

[Verse 2]

A sailor from Xinhui, a merchant from Macau,

A magistrate who swears he's never been here, somehow.

Everyone's a customer, everyone's a tell,

I keep the silver in a jar and the secrets in a well.

[Bridge]

One night a pirate walks in from the war down south.

I know what he's worth before he opens his mouth.

[Outro]

Remember the name.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

Zheng Yi walks in with the sea still on his coat,

Two hundred junks behind him and a price on every boat.

[Verse 1]

He asks me for a wife. I ask him for the books.

He laughs like a cannon. I don't laugh at his looks.

A ring is a ring, a ledger is a ledger,

I told him I want both, and I'm not a beggar.

[Pre-Chorus]

Eighteen-oh-one. The paper's signed.

He gets a wife. I get the fleet's bottom line.

[Time]

[Drop]

Zheng Yi! Say it with the gongs!

I married the man, I married the two hundred.

Captain's wife on paper, partner in the hold,

He counts the cannons and I count the gold.

[Verse 2]

Eighteen-oh-three, a boy, Yingshi, on the deck,

A pirate's wife with a baby and a knife at her neck.

The men say she's lucky. The men don't know,

Who writes the pay and who says where we go.

[Bridge]

They'll call me Zheng Yi Sao. The wife of Zheng Yi.

A name that isn't mine. Watch what I do with it.

[Outro]

Wife of Zheng Yi. For now.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

Six flags on one agreement, eighteen-oh-five,

Red, black, white, blue, yellow, green, and only one of them drives.

[Verse 1]

Four hundred junks and forty thousand strong,

Fishermen with cannons who've been poor too long.

Guo Podai flies the black, Liang Bao the white,

Zheng Yi flies the red and the red's the one that bites.

[Pre-Chorus]

Everybody signs it. Nobody breaks it.

Nobody robs a brother. Everybody shares it.

[Time]

[Drop]

One red! Two hundred sails!

Say the color and the coast goes quiet.

One red, one red, from Canton to Hainan,

I didn't come to the sea to be anybody's fan.

[Verse 2]

There's a boy on the deck, Zhang Bao, fifteen when he was caught,

A fisherman's son from Xinhui, Zheng Yi's adopted, not bought.

He learns the rigging, learns the knife, learns to watch me think,

Keep an eye on that one. He'll matter. Have a drink.

[Bridge]

Six flags, one table, one river mouth,

And the Emperor in Peking doesn't look this far south.

[Outro]

One red.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

Sixteenth of November, eighteen-oh-seven,

The wind came up and nobody saw where it took him.

[Verse 1]

Forty-two years old, he went over the side,

No cannon, no cutlass, no enemy, just the tide.

They searched until the lanterns ran dry,

I stood on the stern and I did not cry.

[Pre-Chorus]

A widow at thirty-two with two sons and a fleet,

Yingshi is four, Xiongshi can't walk yet, and the captains want to meet.

[Time]

[Drop]

The sea took the man. The sea doesn't get the fleet.

Six captains in a cabin and they're measuring my seat.

Zheng Yi is gone. Say it once, then stop.

Who takes the red? Watch who's standing at the top.

[Verse 2]

There's family with a claim and captains with a grudge,

Guo Podai's got the black and he thinks he's the judge.

Two hundred ships don't wait for a funeral,

I finish my tea. I call the first meeting.

[Bridge]

Sixteenth of November. Mark it on the chart.

I bury my husband. I don't bury the part.

[Outro]

The sea took the man.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

A widow in a cabin with the captains in a row,

They came to pick a leader. I told them where to go.

[Verse 1]

I know who owes who, I know who's got the cash,

I know which captain's brother sold the salt and kept the stash.

I don't shout, I don't draw, I read the room out loud,

By the time the tea is cold I've got a very quiet crowd.

[Pre-Chorus]

Zhang Bao takes the red. Twenty-four and he's mine.

The fleet gets a face. I keep the bottom line.

[Time]

[Drop]

Widow at the helm! Say it to the coast!

Zheng Yi Sao, and I am not the ghost.

Zhang Bao on the deck, me in the hold,

He fires the cannon, I handle the gold.

[Verse 2]

The men call him Cheung Po Tsai, my husband's chosen son,

Keep it in the family. The family is the gun.

Six flags still at the table, but the red one sets the rate,

Guo Podai hates it. Guo Podai can wait.

[Bridge]

Eighteen-oh-seven, December, the coast knows who's in charge,

A woman with a ledger and a very big barge.

[Outro]

Widow at the helm.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

Forty thousand pirates who'd rob their own mother,

Need a list. Keep it short. Read it to each other.

[Verse 1]

Rule one. Desert the fleet and we take your ears,

We walk you round the ships. Nobody volunteers.

Rule two. One fifth to the junk that took the prize,

Four fifths to the common fund. Steal from it and you die.

[Pre-Chorus]

Rule three, and this one's mine to keep,

No hand on a woman captive. Break it, and the water's deep.

[Time]

[Drop]

The common fund! Count it twice!

Zhang Bao reads the rules and I set the price.

Three rules on the fleet, forty thousand strong,

Nobody's rich alone. That's the song.

[Verse 2]

The Qing have got a navy with a thousand little laws,

We've got three and a treasurer with very steady claws.

A pirate with a budget is a dangerous thing,

We pay the men on time. Go ask the Qing.

[Bridge]

They'll say Zhang Bao wrote it. Let them. He can have the pen.

I had the fund, I had the fleet, and the fleet knew who said when.

[Outro]

Count it twice.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

Salt comes down the coast in a long slow line,

The Emperor says it's his. The water says it's mine.

[Verse 1]

Fifty silver dollars for a hundred pao of salt,

Buy the pass, sail through, nobody's fault.

The merchants pay up front, the paper's stamped and clean,

Cheaper than the navy, and the navy's never seen.

[Pre-Chorus]

Eighteen-oh-eight. The navy tries it twice.

General Lin Guoliang, thirty-five ships. That's the price.

[Time]

[Drop]

Fifty a pass! Salt on the tide!

Buy it or lose it. You decide.

Lin Guoliang went down at Mazhou,

Sun Quanmou next spring at Dawanshan. Who's left? You.

[Verse 2]

I've got friends in Canton, in the markets, in the courts,

The magistrates buy salt like everybody. Short reports.

Lin Fa in October, Weiyuan, the same year,

The Qing keep sending admirals. The admirals disappear.

[Bridge]

Protection is the product. Salt's the second line.

Who needs the Emperor's monopoly when the monopoly is mine.

[Outro]

Fifty a pass.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

Humen. The Tiger's Mouth. Boca do Tigre, if you're Portuguese.

Six ships out of Macau and a treaty in the breeze.

[Verse 1]

September, eighteen-oh-nine, we take an Englishman,

Richard Glasspoole, three months, seven thousand six hundred for the man.

He writes it all down after. Good. Someone should.

The Pearl River burns that autumn. I never said we were good.

[Pre-Chorus]

November twenty-ninth, nine hours, gun to gun,

A frigate called Unconquerable. We pulled back. Call it what you want.

[Time]

[Drop]

Tiger's Mouth! Hold the line!

Three hundred junks and fifteen hundred guns are mine.

Forty-three fireships come down on the tide,

We put out the flames and we kept the wood. Nice try.

[Verse 2]

Twenty-eighth of January, the Qing light forty-three,

Twenty-ninth of January, we're through and out to sea.

Guo Podai took the pardon two weeks back,

The black flag's a sublieutenant now. Mind your back.

[Bridge]

Alcoforado's got his brigs, Bai Ling's got his fire,

I've got the tide and twenty thousand pirates who don't tire.

[Outro]

Hold the line.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

Everybody wants to know how a pirate ends,

Most of them in pieces. I came in with friends.

[Verse 1]

Eighteen-ten, April, I sat down with Bai Ling,

The Viceroy of the Two Guangs, a man who likes to win.

Arriaga from Macau sits between the chairs,

I bring the numbers. He brings the prayers.

[Pre-Chorus]

Seventeen thousand three hundred eighteen pirates, then

Two hundred twenty-six ships. Say the number again.

[Time]

[Drop]

Twenty-four ships! That's what I keep!

Fourteen hundred hands, and the rest can sleep.

No chains, no block, no name on a list,

I walked in a pirate. I walked out a wife.

[Verse 2]

Zhang Bao gets a rank, lieutenant in the Qing,

A pirate with a salary, a hat, a ring.

I get to marry him on paper, the Emperor says fine,

A hundred twenty-six got the sword. Not every line was mine.

[Bridge]

Thirteen hundred cannons handed over, counted, cold,

The fund stayed where I put it. Ask the Viceroy about the gold.

[Outro]

Twenty-four ships.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

The house always wins. I should know. I'm the house.

Canton, a gambling room, a lantern and a ledger.

[Verse 1]

Zhang Bao made colonel, died at thirty-nine,

Penghu, eighteen twenty-two, a navy man this time.

I took our boy Yulin back home to Guangdong,

Opened up the tables and I carried on.

[Pre-Chorus]

Dice on the table, the river out the door,

Same math as the flower boat, only now I own the floor.

[Time]

[Drop]

House rules! Mine!

I ran the biggest fleet alive and now I run the line.

Eighteen-forty, I sue a man for twenty-eight thousand taels,

Lin Zexu throws it out. Even the pirate queen fails.

[Verse 2]

Sixty-nine years old, Nanhai, eighteen forty-four,

Nobody hanged me, nobody shot me, I died in a bed, not a war.

Four hundred junks, six flags, the Qing and Portugal,

And a gambling house in Canton. I think I had it all.

[Bridge]

They'll call me Ching Shih, they'll call me Zheng Yi Sao,

Shi Yang from Xinhui. Settle up. Goodnight.

[Outro]

The house always wins.

[Fade Out]

[End]