"My lord, you said that our trip is so hard, is it really worth it?" Standing on the tattered deck, a sailor squinted his eyes against the scorching sun, stood beside a shirtless man, and complained weakly.

"It's not worth it, it's our task, so we have to do it." The shirtless man grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.

The ship under their feet was originally an Arrant Empire-made sailing warship, armed with two large ballistae, and its speed was quite good. After completion, it served as an offshore unit in the Aarantian Empire's Navy, responsible for patrolling and guarding.

Later, due to disrepair, the two ballistas on it were damaged, and the ship lost its ability to fight, and because of the aging of the hull, the speed was also reduced a lot, so it was lost to the ferry city in the north and became the "battleship" of the ferry city navy.

Later, because the navy of Ferry City did not have any decent combat missions, and the ship was at a decent speed, it was often sent out as a fishing boat to catch some sea animals - it became the flagship of the Ferry Navy and an armed fishing boat.

Even more sentimental is the fact that Iran Hill broke into the port and developed it into a large port. Now that more advanced fishing boats can be produced here, and there are trade products such as sea salt, the few broken ships of the navy have become idle.

Because there was no need to prepare for any naval battle in a short period of time, and there were 20 backward but still powerful guns on the batteries outside the harbor as cover, so the need for warships in the navy became very low, so a reality that made the naval officers cry and laugh was placed in front of them: they became the most useless people.

In the current city of Irranhill Ferry, the new fishing boats are faster than the few battered warships of the Navy. In the most painful days, the navy docked in the harbor had to watch a dozen new fishing boats sail out of the port every day when they went out for exercise, and the taste was really sour.

Finally, in the spirit of the crazy idea of waste utilization, the commander-in-chief of the navy, Lawns, personally led three old naval warships to the sea and went south to find the much-needed resource rubber of Iran Hill.

They traveled for two months, and even lost a warship halfway through, and finally found rubber on the island to the south, where the defenders of the Dothan Empire were generous when they saw the gold coins and flags that Lawance was carrying, and sold three full ships of rubber to Lawrnes.

Although one ship sank on the way, they brought back two full boatloads of natural rubber. Even judging from the loss and the gold coins spent, the natural rubber obtained by going south this time was definitely the highest price, but Lawrence still felt that they had accomplished a remarkable feat.

After all, along the way, you have to avoid the naval interception of the Arrant Empire, and you have to overcome bad weather and unfavorable sea conditions. It was a great thing that they were able to make it back to the ferry alive.

"Look! Starboard! Banner of the King of Irlanhill! A sailor leaned on the broken railing of the ship's side and shouted loudly as he pointed to the distant sea. His words aroused the minds of many sailors, and everyone leaned on the side of the wearer and looked in the direction of his fingers.

There, on a huge sailboat with fishing nets, the black Golden Eagle flag was waving in the sea breeze. It was probably a new boat with a new design, as it was significantly larger than the older generation of fishing boats.

"Raise the signal flag and greet your compatriots!" Lawrence held the steering wheel with one hand, and a smile on his face was full of unloading. There have been many difficulties along the way, and today they finally saw their compatriots.

A red flag was raised along with the blue one, both of which were a little dirty and a little worn out because they had been adrift at sea for too long. Still, they were raised to the top of the flagpole and fluttered in the wind.

Soon, two flags were raised on the opposite boat, the blue flag on top and the yellow flag on the bottom, and the blue and yellow flag represented welcome, just like the red and blue flag for friendship.

The officers and men of the navy let out selfless cheers, and there was also a faint cheer from another old battleship behind them. Five hours later, the two old ships of Ellan Hill finally saw the battery of Ferry City, and saw the gun emplacements covered by canvas.

"Finally, home!" Turning the steering wheel to adjust his course, Lawrence let out a sigh of relief, and happily hummed a war song from the sea:

"This good sailboat made of wood,

Light as a seagull chopping the waves.

Raise the sails! My sailboat!

How cool it is to be a sailor on this ship!

Fight the wind, fight the evil waves.

Raise the sails, wooden boats.

If you go forward unstoppable,

Then we'll keep driving,

Drive all the way to the end of the sea. ”

His singing voice floated on the sea, and the sailors around him also hummed along, they missed their hometown so much, and missed this ferry city that they hadn't seen for more than two months.

All the sailors sang to the tune of a familiar melody, and in the familiar melody they approached the new straight pier in the harbor:

"I'm going to leave my lover Margot on a long voyage for a few months.

Raise the sails, my sailboat

What a homesickness! I panicked!

The farther away from the light on the bright lighthouse.

Fight the wind, fight the evil waves

Sail Luo, you broken wood ship.

On the stormy sea,

Drive all the way to the end of the sea.

Some say there are treasures everywhere.

Raise the sails! My sailboat!

The bottom of the sea is full of gold. ”

"General Lawnes! Welcome back! Did it go well along the way? The officer, who was already waiting on the dock, pressed his sword and watched Lawrence jump off the board of the ship with a stubble on his face, and stood up and saluted.

"We lost dozens of sailors and soldiers, a ship sank, and other than that, it went well." Lawrence returned a military salute and said, "We've found the route, and we've got a lot of rubber. ”

"Rubber? This is the raw material that everyone has been waiting for. Hearing the word rubber, the officer could no longer care about the comrades who died on the way, and he immediately said: "You should come and see this, this was built before you left, but it was not on such a large scale at that time." ”

On the other side of the dock, there is a huge freight train station, where there is also a train repair workshop and the extended rails used for the wrong train. At the station of the train, there are even two cranes that can lift heavy goods, making it a miniaturized container freight station.

"The fish caught by the fishing boats, as well as the goods from the future maritime transport trade, will pass through here and be sent inland. His Majesty Chris said that the time of the sea has come, and the navy is no longer dispensable. The officer pointed to the terminal and spoke to Lawrence.

"Yes, it belongs to our navy. Just those two broken ships? Hehe. Lawrence smiled self-deprecatingly, feeling that everything in front of him seemed to make his two remaining broken ships look even more shabby.

In fact, it was indeed too shabby, and their navy could only rely on hand-to-hand combat with their opponents, and they didn't even have a modern cannon - although the coastal defense force was also assigned to Lawnes's naval command, he still cared more about the two poignant wrecked ships.

"My lord, it's not those two broken ships anymore!" The officer pointed to the dedicated dock at the other end of the distance and said to Lawrnes, "After you left, the Navy launched three brand new warships and trained a group of sailors. ”

"New ships?" Hearing this, Lawrnes's eyes lit up, he brushed aside the port officer in front of him, and walked quickly to the pier, and then his eyes gradually bypassed a huge cargo ship, and saw three new ships with a beautiful appearance hidden by the cargo ship.

The three new ships are much larger than the old naval warships, and what is even more exciting is that each of them has huge sails and numerous masts, and it is obvious that they are extremely fast.

"It can run at a super fast speed of 30 kilometers per hour in a tailwind state." The officer who followed Lawrence introduced the new ships with a deep sense of pride on his face: "The new hull design, 2 front and 2 rear, 8 on each side of the ship, a total of 20 75 mm long-barreled breech guns, and plenty of ammunition - these three ships can sink a fleet!" ”

"It's beautiful! I really want to go out with these ships right away! This time, I won't take a long detour, I won't hide from those naval warships in Arant, just kill all the way! Lawrence said loudly, "It's definitely going to be a lot faster than before." ”

"And you'll ship more than you did before." The port officer pointed to the huge cargo ship that had just blocked their view and said, "After two days of waiting, two more such cargo ships have been launched." His Majesty's order is that all of them be used to transport rubber! ”

"Still going south with gold?" Lawrence, who was already a little impatient, turned around, looked at the port officer and asked, "I think we can go this time and grab it directly." ”

"No, this time we only bring some gold, and for the rest of the cabin, we will bring porcelain, silk, soap, and all kinds of products, in short, what sells well, we will go to Dothan." The officer replied with a smile: "Then, we will only take the rubber belt back." ”

"If they dare to sit on the ground again." Looking at the open gun windows on the new battleships, and the dark gun muzzles peeking out of the gun windows, Lawrence showed an expectant expression.

"Then we'll save money, won't we?" Hearing Lawrence say this, the port officer smiled.