Chapter 496 Hope
After the two partners, Heath and Ziggs, finished remodeling the magic ship, they did not waste any time. They are now ocean-going ship owners, and time is as valuable as money.
After loading a batch of in-demand goods at Starlight Castle, Ziggs also received some official transportation tasks.
After the ship was filled with goods, the newly modified magic ship left the port and headed south along the coastline.
Compared with the neighboring coastal countries, the Kingdom of Harland attaches great importance to marine trade, and each seaport city has established a port authority and customs. Special personnel responsible for cleaning and sanitation were recruited. The coastal docks were clean and tidy, without any domestic garbage, and the air was very fresh. The workers were strong and orderly, and they had undergone long-term discipline training.
Even the public toilets on the docks were built 500 meters away from the coastal embankment, which shows the details of governance.
In the kingdoms of Heath, Parame, etc., the port docks are always messy and smelly, and look very chaotic and disorderly. The slaves working on the docks will urinate and defecate anywhere.
After sailing south from Starlight Castle, it sailed for about two and a half days and stayed overnight at Xiaguang Castle.
Xiaguang Castle is located at the southernmost part of the Harland Kingdom. Its development level is far less than that of Xinghui Castle. The city has a population of about 20,000 and has built a ship repair factory. Although craftsmen and technicians were sent from the local area, due to the lack of funds, talents and machinery, this repair factory can only repair some simple damages, and most of the time it replaces the shipboard, sails and masts.
However, the port is small but complete, and the dock is still very clean and tidy.
After resting for a night in Xiaguang Castle, we continued to head south and sailed for about four days to arrive at the shipping transit station of Silver Moon Island.
Silver Moon Island still belongs to the Earl of Silver Moon, but the Kingdom of Harland has a lot of industries on the island.
After all, this archipelago was conquered by the Harland people. Although the island was returned to the original owner at the request of the Kingdom of Roger, Richard also took advantage of the war to acquire a large amount of real estate on the island.
Now the Kingdom of Harland has built a dock on the island and sent management personnel.
The dock area not only has a shipyard, but also a large number of warehouses and cargo stations. There are also hotels and inns in the living area one kilometer away from the dock area.
These industries are connected together. Not only do they not pay taxes to the Earl of Silver Moon Island, but they also have independent law enforcement powers, just like a concession.
For this situation, the Earl of Silver Moon Island chose to turn a blind eye.
After all, the strength comparison between the two sides is extremely obvious. For long-term considerations, the weaker party must compromise.
Moreover, the Earl of Silver Moon knew that Richard wanted to swallow up the strategic location of Silver Moon Island, but King Roger firmly opposed it and did not achieve his wish.
Because of the special geographical location, once Harland and Grant Kingdom fell out, Silver Moon Island would immediately become a powder keg.
The situation of the enemy being strong and we being weak is very obvious. The Grant Kingdom has long been unable to match the Harland Kingdom in terms of military strength. If the Harland people are really angered at that time, the Silver Moon family may be in danger of extermination.
Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, Earl Silver Moon chose to please both sides and treat the Kingdom of Harland as if it were his suzerain, so that Heath, Ziggs and others felt like they were in the native land of the Kingdom of Harland.
After unloading some of the goods at Silver Moon Island and replenishing some water, they continued to sail south for about ten days before reaching Soya Castle in Rex Province.
This section of the journey is relatively more dangerous.
In the waters north of Silver Moon Island, there are often warships of the Kingdom of Harland cruising, and domesticated lion ducks will hunt in the waters south of Xinghui Castle and north of Silver Moon Castle.
When the snow crystal fish returns to the season, this abnormally large population of magic beasts will also kill competitors.
Due to various factors, there are basically no marine magic beasts in this sea area, let alone intelligent creatures such as murlocs and sea elves. The biggest threat to ships is mainly bad weather. This problem is relatively easier to overcome, because the sailing ships will not be far from the coastline. Once they encounter stormy weather, they will quickly dock.
When they arrive south of Silver Moon Island, they will face the threat of murlocs and deep-sea magic beasts.
A few years ago, Richard led his fleet to the waters of the Kingdom of Sith and killed a legendary deep-sea monster. If the Hope, which was modified by Sith and Ziggs, encountered a legendary deep-sea monster, it would not be spared.
The only large magic ships that can fight against the legendary deep-sea monster are the large magic ships that use legendary energy as the core. And there are only two large legendary magic ships in the Kingdom of Harland.
The Hope was attacked by more than a dozen fishmen on the third day after it passed the Silver Moon Island.
These fishmen are not of high professional level, with green skin, darker back and lighter belly. Some have dark stripes, ribbons or spots. The fishmen are 6 feet tall when standing up, weighing about 200 pounds, with a fish-like head, and their muscles and bones are stronger than humans.
Under the crotch of the fishman, there is also a shark-type magic beast, which cannot be distinguished for the time being. Judging from the momentum alone, it should be two or three levels.
The fishmen are intelligent life, and their natural lifespan is not as long as that of humans, about thirty to forty years.
This creature has a gestation period of seven months and is an amphibious creature. Although it looks a bit clumsy, the fishmen are very flexible and good at fighting in the ocean.
According to the intelligence obtained by Harland, these fishmen are from the Yaslan Sea, 1,500 kilometers away from the coastline of the Central Continent.
The Aslan Sea is shrouded in fog all year round, and there are no conditions for navigation. Only the fishmen living in Aslan have mastered a special underwater passage to get out of the Aslan fog.
One thousand or several hundred years ago, the fishmen from Aslan even crossed the ocean and entered the current land of Sith and Rex provinces to reproduce. It is rumored that the fishmen also established a dynasty.
Although the fishmen are brave and good at fighting in the ocean, they cannot compete with the human army on land.
After discovering the fishmen, the lookout holding a telescope immediately blew the horn and shouted to his companions. After the alarm sounded, Sith and Ziggs immediately came to the side of the ship.
Ziggs' ears are very flexible, and he heard a mysterious language in an instant.
The fishmen have a special language with a small vocabulary, low and short. Because of their high intelligence, many fishmen also master the sea elf language.
Some fishmen priests who have more contact with humans can even use spell power to master the common language of humans.
The fishmen of Aslan have a deep hatred for humans. If the two sides meet at sea, a war will inevitably break out.
After the fishmen appeared, they attacked the Hope without any hesitation.
Both Heath and Ziggs have been on the battlefield for a long time and have rich experience in war. They did not panic when the fishmen attacked suddenly.
Because the targets of the fishmen are scattered and the speed of moving in the water is very fast, it is difficult for the magic crystal cannon to hit them effectively. Therefore, magic crossbows are more suitable for dealing with small targets such as fishmen.
There are more than 100 crew members on the Hope, including six retired officers. There are less than 10 people who are good at using magic crossbows, including the magician Heath, whose archery skills have reached the fourth level.
Under the command of Heath, Ziggs and others, the crossbowmen held their breath and fired a volley at the fishmen. In an instant, seven or eight fishmen were hit by arrows.
The fishmen have very hard scales, as if they were covered with a thin layer of iron armor. Only one of the murlocs was killed in one blow, and the rest were not seriously injured. They were seen with arrows hanging on their bodies, firing ice arrows at the Hope.
They found that more than a dozen spells were coming at them. Once the side of the ship was pierced, the ship would inevitably sink and not be spared.
Heath no longer felt sorry for the consumption of magic cores. A light curtain suddenly bloomed on the Hope, which was a protective force field spell that blocked more than a dozen ice arrows.
Seeing the defensive spell released on the side of the ship, Ziggs, holding a medium enchanted bow and arrow, fired more than ten arrows in a row in just one minute, quickly killing four murlocs, making the attacking murlocs terrified.
Seeing this scene, the murloc leader let out a shrill roar, and immediately changed his tactics and dived underwater, preparing to swim to the bottom of the Hope and sink the ship's planks.
This tactic is the most classic tactic of the murlocs. Once the planks are pierced, the ship is in danger of leaking and sinking. In the vast and boundless ocean. Even a legendary knight cannot go back alive.
In order to defend against the tactical characteristics of the fishmen, the magic ship will install magic alloy steel plates on the bottom of the ship.
When the Hope was converted into a magic ship, magic alloy steel plates were also installed on the bottom of the ship, but the two had limited resources and the thickness of the alloy steel plates was relatively thin. If left alone, they would still be pierced by the fishmen.
Facing this classic tactic of the fishmen, Heath was not panicked. He looked at Ziggs and bravely jumped into the ocean. He first released an underwater breathing spell for himself. In an instant, a pair of artificial gills appeared on his neck, and his water nature immediately became like that of a fishman.
Heath dived into the bottom of the ship and found a fishman rushing up, and immediately released a magic curse ray.
In the blink of an eye, the fishman who rushed over was hit by the curse ray, and his spirit seemed to be stagnant.
Before Heath could make a move, Ziggs had already jumped into the water in a diving suit to rush over for reinforcement. Because the underwater magic crossbow could not be used, Ziggs held a magic spear gun and decisively released magic power to directly shoot the sluggish fishman.
The two cooperated very well, and together they fought off the three tentative attacks of the fishmen. At the same time, more than a dozen sailors on the Hope also jumped off the ship with fishing nets in hand to help Heath and Ziggs fight.
In the Dawn Plane, all crew members who dare to sail have a character that is not afraid of death and like adventure.
Although their underwater combat effectiveness is far inferior to that of the fishmen, more than a dozen crew members still sacrifice themselves to fight for the opportunity and time for Heath and Ziggs to hunt the fishmen.
After killing many ordinary crew members and destroying the fishing net formation, the fishmen team also lost three people again, and more than half of the casualties were already dead and wounded. Seeing that the Hope had completed the second wave of organizational mobilization, more than a dozen crew members went into the water this time, and they were not afraid to fight a war of attrition with the fishmen.
Seeing this scene, the fishmen leader suddenly became flustered and hurriedly called on the remaining members to retreat, not daring to provoke the human magic ship again.
After repelling the fishmen, Ziggs's face became very ugly. He never expected that his luck would be so bad, and he encountered danger twice in three sea voyages.
If they had not met Heath, their partner, and transformed their ship into a magic ship, they would not have survived the attack of more than a dozen fishmen.
More importantly, more than a dozen crew members died in this voyage.
For each crew member killed, a pension of 80 gold coins must be paid. If it was an officer, the pension would be calculated separately. After a battle, the loss of personnel alone would cost a lot of money.
Fortunately, Ziggs had insured the Hope, and the insurance company was able to pay a sum of money on his behalf, alleviating some of the financial pressure.
As for the spoils, although ten murlocs and six tiger sharks were killed in this battle, only five magic cores were dug out. The level of these five magic cores was not high, and the best one was only level three, which could not be sold at a high price.
The murlocs and magic beast materials combined could only be sold for five or six hundred gold coins at most, which was less than half of the pension. Only by relying on insurance compensation could he avoid losing money.
Ziggs had no time to feel sad. A man on the sea took life and death lightly. He and Heath personally salvaged the bodies of the dead crew members, first tidied up the remains and changed into clean clothes, then prayed to the goddess of dawn, held a brief funeral, and finally put the bodies into body bags, tied them with stones and sank them to the bottom of the sea.
There were no conditions for preserving corpses on the ship, nor were there conditions for cremation. Burial was as simple as that.
A man on the sea will also end up in the sea after death, and his body will also be fed to fish and turtles.
After the funeral, the following voyage became smooth. Thirteen days later, the Hope sailed into the waters of the Rex Province, sold the magic beast materials at Soya Castle, and rested for two days.
This time, the destination of the Hope was the Kingdom of Parame. The voyage was 5,000 kilometers away. It was only halfway to Soya Castle.
The second half of the journey was more dangerous than the first half, and there were no more supply bases of the Kingdom of Harland along the way.
After discussing with Giggs, Heath decided to wait a few days to see if there were any ships to accompany them?
The Kingdom of Harland and the Kingdom of Parame have opened a route, which is mainly for transporting troops and supplies into the Red Moon Plane.
Sutton has been active on this route for seven years with the naval fleet of the Kingdom of Harland.
Now the Red Moon Plane has been fully garrisoned, and the mainland can also provide some simple weapons, which has reduced the transportation pressure.
Now the supplies replenished from the mainland to the Red Moon Plane are mainly magic crossbows, alchemical bombs, magic crystal cannon shells, magic airship accessories and other scarce resources.
In order to save consumption, the plane teleportation array of Auxerre Castle is now opened once a month, and the Kingdom of Harland will basically send out a batch of supply ships once a month.
The Hope waited for five or six days, and two magic ships appeared outside Soya Port with more than ten steamships. Ziggs directly negotiated with the navy and rushed to Hawkins Castle together. The supply fleet was also very happy to be able to travel with a magic ship. After all, the second half of the route is more dangerous than the first half.
The Hope reunited with the navy supply fleet and continued to sail for about a month before heading to the end of this voyage.