Chapter 236 On the Sea

The closer you get to Zangjin Bay, the more ships you will encounter.

Captain Wilson said, "My lord, we will be able to reach Zangjin Bay in three days, and we must be vigilant for the rest of the sea route." ”

"What's wrong?" asked Lorlist.

"My lord, the waters here are called the Sad Ocean, and they are one of the most rampant areas of piracy, and it is best not to let fishing boats or cargo ships come near them. Because this place is not within the patrol range of the Invincible Armada of the Fort Business Alliance, there are countless robberies and murders, and the sailors and crews who are smiling and asking for help one moment are likely to become murderous pirates the next moment, and even some captains and sailors who are losing money in business don't mind making a cameo appearance and robbing some goods to go back to make up for the losses......

This is where I used to be a cargo captain, and when we saw a half-sunken cargo ship with a few women on board calling for help, I didn't suspect that they were pirates, and I wanted to make a fortune out of it. As a result, when I got up, I learned that there were nearly 100 pirates ambushed in the bilge of the cargo ship, and I surrendered quickly, so I didn't order resistance, and those pirates let us live. Captain Wilson didn't hide what had happened to him.

"Sad ocean, you mean the sad place of the merchants of the sea," said Lorlist.

"Yes, that's what it means. This sea area can be called a three-way mouth on the land, leading west to the kingdom of Haneyabada and the kingdom of Shayya, both of which are archipelago countries, the kingdom of Shaya is rich in spices, and the kingdom of Haneyabada is famous for its slave trade, and its port of Nubit is the largest and most famous slave trading market. To the south is the bay of Zangjin, and to the east is the port of Ametlin in the Duchy of Rum, formerly a smuggling port to the former Krisson Empire. Now we have to add the sea route to our family territory to the north. Captain Wilson remembers these sea trades vividly.

"This sea area is so critical, why didn't the Invincible Armada of the Fort Business Alliance include it in its patrol?" Lorist asked.

"My lord, the battleships of the Armada are not suitable for running so far, this sea area is very windy and rough, for those castle-type warships of the Armadada, their wind resistance is a little worse, and it is easy to encounter strong winds and waves here and cause the ship to capsize. In fact, the purpose of the Fortune Business Alliance to establish the Invincible Armada is to protect the Hidden Gold Bay from being plundered by pirates, and the second is to maintain the golden trade route from the Golden Coast of the Hidden Gold Bay to the Romon Empire. Captain Wilson said.

"Are there any powerful pirate gangs in the seas?" asked Lorist again.

"No, my lord, that's the most ridiculous thing about Sadyang. Captain Wilson smiled wryly and said, "Compared with the nearly 1,000 large and small islands scattered in the Sunshine Sea, there is no place for pirates to hide here in the Sad Ocean. There used to be a group of pirates known as the Sea Dragon Pirates who divided this area into their sphere of influence, but they were quickly defeated by the fleets of the Fort Business Alliance and the Kingdom of Haneabada and Shaisia, who would not allow a strong pirate force to appear here.

Therefore, they can turn a blind eye to petty piracy, and it is the small chambers of commerce or free smuggling cargo ship owners who are unlucky anyway. Once they threaten the security of the merchant fleets of a dozen or dozens of cargo ships of the big chamber of commerce, they will take out the pirate gangs that are likely to take advantage of the danger.

For all the shipowners who appear in the sad ocean waters, they have to guard against pirates on the one hand, and on the other hand, they have to keep their eyes open to find suitable targets, and no one minds making a cameo appearance as a pirate in this sea. This is a fertile land of lawlessness, and countless sins and souls are buried under this thousand miles of blue water......"

"Woo ......" Dores on the side sighed after listening to Captain Wilson's exclamation: "Wilson, you're not lying to me, the sea here looks calm, you see those ships over there are all moving quietly, not as chaotic as you say, aren't they all wrong?"

"Hehe," laughed Old Jack, the first mate and helmsman, "Lord Dorus, it is precisely because of the large number of boats that they dare not fight other people's ideas, if there were only two or three boats, they would have been beaten all over the head with blood." None of the owners of the boats over there are fools, and they are also afraid that if they rob other people's boats, they will become targets if they are damaged, so the more boats, the safer they are. You don't know, there are several boats that are trying to beat us, but I've avoided them. ”

"Hit our idea?" Lorist was surprised: "Why didn't I find ......"

"Your Excellency, if you look at the cargo ship on the left that is more than a hundred meters away from us, it has bad intentions, and if we go straight, you will find that the cargo ship in front of us is changing its course and is leaning towards our course to block ahead of us. If our ship is also a cargo ship, if we find that the ship in front of us suddenly slows down, we may avoid it, we must turn and slow down, so that it is easy to be caught off guard by the cargo ship in front, and the sailors above can jump over and rob it. But this treasure of ours is not that easy to deal with......"

Old Jack turned the steering wheel a few times, and the Flying Fish of Dawn made a small arc on the surface of the sea, nimbly bypassing the oblique cargo ship in the channel ahead, and quickly left it behind.

There were a few curses from the distance on the cargo ship behind, and Old Jack laughed: "My lord, this ship you designed is really wonderful, it is flexible and easy to control, and the speed is so fast, almost twice as fast as those cargo ships, no one wants to catch us easily." ”

Before the words fell, El on the side slapped his palm on the railing angrily: "Old Jack, you don't have to avoid it just now, if they want to move, let them come and see who robs whom!"

Josk nodded, as if agreeing with El's words.

Lorist laughed: "It's not a question of who robs whom, El, even if we rob that cargo ship, we don't have enough manpower to take care of that ship, but it also drags down everyone's trip, forget it, let that ship go first, and then teach them a lesson." ”

November 16, cloudy, windy and rough.

Thanks to the wings of the lower part of the hull that are three meters deep into the sea, the Flying Fish of Dawn does not toss in the wind and waves like those cargo ships, the sharp bow breaks through the waves, and the slender hull is like a swimming fish, leisurely spreading its full sails, like a sharp arrow galloping across the rough sea.

The November breeze was already very cold, like a sharp knife blowing on the face. Lorist told Schward to stay in the cabin and stay out of the boat, still standing at the helm and learning from Old Jack how to steer.

It was almost noon, and the shout of the lookout came from the mast: "Six hundred meters ahead, a fleet of ships has appeared!"

Lorist regretted that he didn't get the telescope out, even if it was a monocular, this was an artifact for the fleet and fleet at sea, and it could calmly deal with all kinds of unexpected situations when the enemy found it. Unlike now, the lookout can see the situation within a kilometer at most, and with the weather, it is remarkable to be able to see five or six hundred meters away.

After a while, the lookout shouted again: "Four hundred meters ahead, a large merchant fleet, eighteen large ocean-going cargo merchant ships, and twenty medium-sized armed cargo merchant ships." Course south, sail half-sail. ”

Captain Wilson breathed a sigh of relief: "It's okay, the big merchant fleet that sails in this sea area is generally owned by the seven major chambers of commerce in charge of Niu Er by the Fude Business Alliance, and if you sail south, it should be the same as our purpose, they are all going to Zangjin Bay, but this weather can't see what their sign is, and it will take half an hour to approach them, and then you will know which chamber of commerce it is." ”

"Two hundred meters ahead, a large ocean-going merchant fleet, the flag is a sword stuck in a barrel, and the outside is a round border......" The lookout shouted again after a moment.

"Chikde Chamber of Commerce?" Captain Wilson was stunned: "Old Jack, turn, overtake the outermost part, don't pass through the middle of the fleet." ”

"What's the matter, why don't you go straight and make a big turn?" El asked unhappily.

Captain Wilson smiled bitterly, "Your Excellency, you don't know about the Chikde Chamber of Commerce. ”

Lorist patted El on the shoulder: "I know that the Chikde Chamber of Commerce is one of the seven chambers of commerce of the Fude Business Alliance, and its earliest name used to be Sword and Barrel. Later, when the current president Chikde grasped the power of the Chamber of Commerce, he disliked the unpleasant name and changed it to the Chikde Chamber of Commerce. The Chicked Chamber of Commerce in the city of Morent is very low-key, and few people will notice that the Chicked Chamber of Commerce is one of the seven. ”

"Your Excellency, you are right, the Chikde Chamber of Commerce is a giant of the seas, they have nearly a hundred large ocean-going merchant ships and countless medium-sized armed cargo ships, as well as seven or eight shipyards. In the Armada they have a big say, on land they are buyers and dumpers of bulk goods, and they are all wholesalers, so many people do not know.

On the sea, the Chiked Chamber of Commerce in the north controlled the trade routes to the Shaysa Kingdom and the Haneyabada Kingdom, and almost all the spices produced by the Shaysya Kingdom were underwritten by the Chikrid Chamber of Commerce, while the Haneyabada Kingdom used the huge amount of money earned from the slave trade to buy a large number of luxury goods and daily necessities from the Chikrid Chamber of Commerce every year. As for the southern part of the Golden Bay, the Chikde Chamber of Commerce has formed four large merchant fleets that take turns to the various coastal ports of the Gold Coast every three months for commercial trade......."

Captain Wilson licked his lips and continued: "Don't look at the Chicked Chamber of Commerce on land, they are very low-key, but at sea they are very arrogant, often relying on the boat to bully those small boat owners and small chambers of commerce who run away from the gang. If it were the fleet of other chambers of commerce, they might have let us pass through it, but the fleet of the Chikde Chamber of Commerce will make you suddenly attack you when you enter the center of their fleet, sinking your ship directly, leaving the shipowner and sailors at sea struggling to call for help, but they will leave without any indifference......"

"That's why you let Old Jack avoid them and go around from the outside?" said Lorlister with a smile, "Okay, I trust your judgment, anyway, our ship is fast, and going around it will soon leave them behind." ”

......

In a luxuriously decorated cabin of one of the largest merchant ships in the Chicked Chamber of Commerce's fleet, Chicked Murrayback was in a very depressed mood, seeing that it was really unlucky to encounter such a big storm when he was about to get home, he was not worried about any accidents, but such a storm delayed the return date and made him very upset.

As the third heir of the Chikrui Chamber of Commerce, he was always thinking about how to overwhelm his two elder brothers to gain his father's favor and praise, and for this reason, he also volunteered to take the fleet to the Shaisia Kingdom to buy spices. In the first half of this year, the old king of the Shayiya Kingdom died, and the newly enthroned little king did not want the Chikde Chamber of Commerce to monopolize the spice trade, and the Chikrid Chamber of Commerce had to go to someone who could call the shots to solve the matter.

Chicked Murrybak solved the problem smoothly, the newly enthroned little king suddenly fell ill and died, his eight-year-old brother became the new king, and the uncle Wang, who had been fed by the Chicked Chamber of Commerce, became the regent, and the spice trade went on as usual.

Murray Buck thinks that he has handled this matter well, and he will definitely be praised by his father when he returns. But he didn't expect that his life at sea would be so difficult, and it would take more than three months to come and go, so that he felt like he was living on the ship. If it weren't for the purchase of four trained slave girls in the Kingdom of Haneyabada, Murray Buck wouldn't know how to survive the life on this ship.

It was uncomfortable enough to encounter this big wind and waves, and although the merchant ship was large, it still swayed in the wind and waves. Murray Buck also wanted to call the four female slaves over to help him relax, but he didn't expect the four female slaves to get seasick and vomit. Murray Buck was so angry that he scolded the slave trader for being a liar, and he would get seasick and say that he had been trained, which is really unreasonable!

"Young master, don't worry, you will be able to reach the Zangjin Bay tomorrow night, bear with it for another day. It was his personal old servant who was persuading him.

There was a commotion outside......

"Why are these dogs so noisy, do you want to eat my whip!" Murray Buck scolded viciously, and then walked out of the cabin.

"Young master, young master, look, that ship looks so strange, it's really fast!" The younger brother saw Murray Buck's unhappy face and the sailor hurriedly pointed to the rear.

Murray Barker turned around and looked at it, stunned. I saw a strange ship behind it passing quickly fifty or sixty meters away from the periphery of the fleet, and soon passed the ships of the fleet, getting closer and closer to the front merchant ship of my own.

"Young master, the speed of this ship is already close to fourteen knots, this is the fastest ship I have ever seen. "It was the captain of the merchant ship who said this, and he had been the captain of the Chikde Chamber of Commerce for twenty years.

"Wouldn't it?" Murray Buck was taken aback, "Is it really that fast?"

"Yes, young master, trust my judgment. You can see that the ship is still sailing at full sail in such a stormy weather, and the ship is extremely resistant to wind and waves, and the structure is also very strong. Although the hull is narrow, it is very smooth to ride, unlike our merchant ships that jolt in the waves. The designer of this ship is a genius, he designed a horse that can run on the sea. The captain sighed.

Murray Buck believed the captain's words, and he believed in the captain's loyalty. In this case, such a good ship should be owned for yourself, and if you can get this ship, pull it to your own shipyard to see what makes this ship have such excellent performance. As long as you figure it out, you can improve your own merchant ship according to the advantages of this ship, and I believe that my father will greatly praise his performance.

Murrayback's heart was on fire, and he ordered the flag to be flown and the horn to come over, saying that I wanted to see the owner of the ship.

However, after tossing for a long time, the strange ship ignored the movement here, and left on its own, and soon became a small black shadow in front of it.

Murray Buck was like a big mouth, furious, how many times had he been so insulted that he dared to ignore his kind invitation. Very well, look at the direction of that strange ship is also galloping towards the Zangjin Bay, then, when we go back, we will find you, and let you receive the warm hospitality of the Chikde Chamber of Commerce......!

...... (To be continued.) )