Blue sky, white clouds, sea!

Lying on the fishing boat and following the waves of the sea, choosing a time in the afternoon when the sun is at its hottest to lie on the deck for a while, is the most comfortable time of every day for every fisherman. Of course, there is a premise for all this, which is limited to spring and autumn.

The fishing boat was not large, with only about eight crew members in the cabin, and a fish tank of about twenty cubic meters. The demand for the development of shipping in this world is not large, and the ocean is still dangerous in people's cognition, especially the storms that will appear at any time, as well as the reefs on the bottom of the sea, and all kinds of fierce and huge marine beasts in the ocean. In many cases, people traded in the open seas, and ships did not directly cross the entire sea, but followed the coastline in a half-circle and traveled further to the Byronic Empire.

In fact, it is not far, from Alexandria to Winster Port of the Byron Empire, a distance of about 4,000 kilometers.

But it is under this 4,000-kilometer distance that countless ships are silent, and countless cargoes are piled up.

The larger the ship, the more crew there were, and the more fresh water and food it had to carry, not counting the various fruit trees that took up a larger area. In addition, it is necessary to take into account that you can't sit still in case you encounter a pirate or something, a certain degree of armament and armor is also a must, as well as a certain amount of crossbow arrows.

Coupled with the huge, unknown risks, the price of sea freight has remained high. Of course, there were also adventurous merchants who were loyal to trade across the seas and the Byronic Empire by sea, and they would form their own fleets or chambers of commerce to and fro the Atlantic.

With the implementation of Ortlenburg's merchandise monopoly plan, Alexandria has become more prosperous, after all, not everyone wants to be slaughtered by Rennes. Some people think that instead of buying something that can be bought with only two gold coins for a hundred gold coins, it is better to take a hundred gold coins and try to go by sea, maybe you will succeed, right?

Fifty to one is a good deal, even if nine out of ten ships are sunk, as long as one ship returns safely, then they will make a lot of money.

However, this idea became unworkable when Wren issued a permit for privateering at sea. The pirates rode the ocean in sail fast ships, they didn't need much supplies, they didn't need to transport anything, and the brisk ships didn't need to take into account the threat of reefs and sea monsters, and it didn't take much time to return to the sea after grabbing things, which caused many fleets along the coastline to suffer heavy losses.

Fortunately, there were always people who were not afraid of death and began to try to trade directly across the Atlantic.

In the last three years, more than 400 adventuring parties have tried to cross the Atlantic—which means great wealth, and the price of a complete navigation chart without much risk has been speculated from the earliest 5,000 gold coins to 100,000 gold coins, and there is still no market. Of the more than 400 adventuring teams, only a pitiful seven managed to make it back and forth between Alexandria and Winster.

As for the others, they became food for the sea monsters and fish and shrimp, and eventually became feces and deposited on the bottom of the sea.

Of the seven sea routes given by the seven teams, two had proven to be fraught with danger, and the reason why they managed to make a round trip was only due to luck. Only one of the other five sea routes guarantees a certain degree of safety, while the others all present varying degrees of danger.

The five chambers of commerce that have mastered these five waterways are rapidly expanding into a monster, they don't even need to trade anymore, just take fifteen percent of the benefits of each ship, which is enough for them to eat until they can't hold on.

Of course, compared to these big merchants, the life of the fishermen in the southern part of the empire was as peaceful as ever.

The net was towed once in the morning, and about a third of the fish were loaded in the fish tank, and it was possible to return in the afternoon with another drag. It's offshore, so there are no sea monsters, and small and light fishing boats don't have to worry about reefs.

Seeing that the crew on the deck were about to fall asleep, the crew in charge of the lookout suddenly shouted. There is no fixed observer on the fishing boat, and everyone takes turns to observe the changes in the ocean, which is also the experience of countless blood accumulations. The changing climate of the oceans is often calm one moment, and the next moment it will be rough, and the apocalyptic storm will suddenly fall on a certain part of the sea.

The crew on the deck woke up one after another, and ran to the side of the ship to look at the place where the observer had pointed out, and the black and oppressive land was slowly approaching.

The captain of the fishing boat, a dark-skinned, lean man in his fifties, was also the elder of all the crew on board. Fishermen tend to fish as large families, mainly to avoid uncontrollable dangers. In addition to the well-known dangers on the sea, there is also a more threatening danger, and that is the people themselves.

Therefore, many of the crew members of fishing boats who go out to sea to fish are relatives to each other.

"What is it?", the old captain was a little difficult to use due to his age, he could only see a black line against the gradual rise of the sea level, he couldn't see what it was. He frowned at this time and asked, "Is it land? Our route is wrong?", this tone is mixed with some reproach, the navigator's responsibility is to ensure that the route does not go wrong, you must know that in this backward world, once the route deviates, it is often the end of the ship's destruction and death.

The navigator, a nephew of the captain, stammered a little, his face flushed at this time, and the green tendons near his temples bulged high as his emotions became impatient, and he explained intermittently and forcefully, "No...... No...... It's land!"

"Not land?", the old captain wondered, since the mouth of the Salme Mountains had become a nest for privateers, it was difficult to see large-scale caravans in the offshore sea. He seemed to have thought of something, his heart tightened, and he hurriedly asked, "Is it some giant beast?"

There are countless species of giant beasts in the ocean, the most common is the "largemouth" that often appears in the mouths of fishermen, the largemouth can be said to be a fish, it can also be said to be a giant beast, this kind of fish is more than ten meters to twenty meters long, and some people say that they have seen more than fifty meters long largemouth. The mouth of the largemouth is of course very large, about 4 to 5 meters wide when the mouth is opened, and it is densely covered with sharp and sharp teeth, which can easily bite through the bottom of the boat.

However, this fish is not a social animal, and there is no need to panic too much when you encounter a largemouth, just make a few holes in the barrel and throw it into the sea. Largemouth prefers beef, but also loves alcohol, and a barrel of wine is enough to make it leave satisfied.

In addition to this, there is also a common sea monster, which is also the most dangerous and terrifying, and that is the Neptune Snake.

The smallest of the Neptune snake is more than 20 meters long, and the length is about 40 meters, this snake is also a social animal, and they will attack all the large things that pass by. Whether it's other sea monsters or ships, they're on their list.

Such a scene was like a scene where a large number of Neptune snakes attacked together, and the old captain's scalp suddenly became numb, and his small boat could not resist those Neptune snakes with the thickness of a wine barrel. Once they reel the boat up, it only takes a squeeze to tear it apart, and they become the Neptune's lunch.

The young lads looked at each other better than the old captain, and one of them was shocked and blurted out: "It's a boat, it's a big ship, it's a lot of boats!"

Boat?

The old captain breathed a sigh of relief and comforted himself: "It may be a large caravan passing by, let's get out of the way, don't take their route." This is also the sad place for the boats and the fishermen. Everyone is begging for a living at sea, but the captains of the big boats look down on these fishermen, and feel that the fishermen are inferior and belong to the same class as the untouchables. It would be better if it ran into a big ship that was easy to talk to, and everyone would be fine. If you run into those who are not good at talking, they will directly bump into them, and it doesn't matter if there is anyone on the boat, whether these fishermen will die because of such actions.

The small fishing boat quickly ducked to the side, and this is the advantage of the small boat, which is fast and easy to maneuver.

The old captain and his sons and nephews stood on the side of the ship and watched the fleet slowly approach, slowly passing by them, and they all gasped.

"What kind of ship is this, how can it be so big?", the huge ship in front of them was almost ten meters high, and from their vantage point they couldn't even see the deck of the big ship, let alone anything else on board.

Just when they felt the strength of this fleet, a one-meter-square window suddenly opened on the side of the big ship opposite them, revealing the opening of a black hole.

The next moment, there was a buzzing sound, and a crossbow shot straight at it. The crossbow was nearly thirty centimeters thick, and it was stuck like a javelin on the deck of the fishing boat. Under the horrified gaze of the old captain and his nephews, the fishing boat sank violently, and then shattered into countless pieces!

The windows of the big ship slammed shut again, as if they had done a trivial thing, and no one even showed up to observe the results of the battle.

The old captain slowly floated up from the water holding a piece of wood, and he looked left and right in horror, three children were missing! His eyes were almost bleeding, and he stared at the fleet, which was gradually moving away, as if he wanted to engrave the appearance of this fleet in his heart forever.

A nephew beside him, whose forehead was cut by a broken piece of wood, said hatefully: "Are these people crazy? Why are they attacking us? Aren't they afraid of the Empire's investigation?"

When he said this, his heart trembled, and he remembered the announcement issued by the lord some time ago. It is said that there is a group of warships from the Byron Empire wandering in the coastal waters, and if anyone finds it, they must immediately avoid it and report it, is this fleet the warships from Byron in the announcement?

They didn't notice at this time that the blood flowing from the mouths of several people had melted into the seawater, and about three kilometers away, a group of offshore kings seemed to have received some signal, instantly gave up the fish in front of them, immediately turned around, and swam towards them.