Chapter 346 Hunting (Part 2)

The convoy stayed on a higher mound to ensure terrain advantage.

The horses smelled the smell of sulfur and salt in the air, and snorted uneasily.

The Tiefeng County mission has entered a battle-ready state. The soldiers quickly unloaded the entire box of armor and helped each other put it on.

"I...I caused trouble for everyone..." Anna held Winters' hand tightly, biting her lips, blaming herself fearfully and uneasily.

"Don't say stupid things, it's just a small scene." Winters comforted Anna and helped Anna put on the half-armor neatly: "You stay in the carriage for a while, and try not to get off."

Anna nodded vigorously.

"Okay." After confirming that all the straps were fastened, Winters patted the plate armor on Anna's back habitually, and laughed inexplicably and uncontrollably.

"Why are you laughing?" Anna turned her head and asked suspiciously.

"I...I suddenly thought of a...dirty joke."

An educated lady shouldn't be curious, but Anna couldn't help but ask: "What?"

Winters whispered into Anna's ear.

"You...what do you know? The armor doesn't fit the body!" From her cheeks to her earlobes, Anna was so angry that she reached out to pull out the blunderbuss at Winters' waist.

"Be careful! There is ammunition in the gun!"

"Really? That couldn't be better!"

The blunderbuss still fell into Anna's hands - because Winters originally planned to leave it to Anna.

After finally helping Anna put on the helmet, Winters squeezed his lover's hand, turned around and walked out of the carriage.

The interpreter, accountant, precious metal craftsman and chef are important members who cannot be missed, so they are all protected in the center of the formation.

Father Kaman was also left in the "safe zone".

When Winters got out of the car, Carman was praying. He was holding scriptures in both hands, holding a hammer under his arm, and muttering something in his mouth.

Seeing Winters approaching, Kaman just nodded coldly, while Winters nodded solemnly in return.

Stepping out of the temporary circle surrounded by carts, taking the reins from Ciel, Winters jumped onto the horse.

In an instant, there seemed to be an invisible wave spreading in all directions with him as the origin, sweeping across the entire hill.

Some kind of subtle change happened to the riders. From the perspective of a bystander, it was difficult to tell what exactly had changed, but something was indeed different.

Involuntary salivation? Breathing becomes rapid? Is it the slightly sweaty palms? Or the dilated pupils... I can't tell whether the physical state affects the mental state, or whether the changes in the mental state are reflected in the body.

If they were just sharp blades hidden in a box before, now they are ready to go.

"Your Excellency." Heinrich asked in a deep voice, "Do you want to show your flag?"

"No need." Winters looked at the smoke and dust raised by the horses' hooves in the distance: "Don't scare them away."

As early as the night before yesterday, the scouts who went out discovered a group of Huds two hours away.

After receiving the reward, Winters ordered not to disturb the other party.

He did not intend to contact the other party, because "encountering him on the road" would only mean danger in the wilderness, especially since he was still an outsider.

The wilderness has hospitable hosts, but there is also no shortage of greedy, cruel, and hungry beasts. The law of the jungle is not a metaphor here, but a bloody way of life.

Whenever they lose a strong leader, the Hurd tribes will inevitably fall into this costly internal strife until the next person appears who can reforge order out of chaos.

Although Winters took the initiative to avoid him, as the day went by, the distance between the two sides not only did not widen, but became smaller and smaller.

Until the Hud people also discovered the whereabouts of the convoy and rushed towards them proactively and quickly.

The smoke is getting closer and closer, the sound of hoofbeats is getting louder, and the silhouette of the Herd rider is looming on the ridge of the undulating hillside.

Just when Lai Qi's actions were completely exposed, the sound of horse hooves suddenly stopped. The figure of the Hud disappeared in a flash, as if it plunged into the earth.

"What's going on? Where are the people? Where are the barbarians?" Vashika looked around and muttered softly.

Winters waved his whip and pointed to the hillside one kilometer away, and said with interest: "Hiding on the reverse slope of that hillside, he probably doesn't want us to see clearly what is real...an interesting guy."

Old Sergei glared at his son, obviously dissatisfied with Vashikar's timid behavior.

The old man drove his horse forward and volunteered: "Sir, let me bring some sabers over to take a look! Hmm, no matter what tricks he has, let him try them first!"

"There's no rush, just wait." Winters said calmly: "However, if you really want to fight, don't rush too far forward, Mr. Morozov, I'm afraid others won't be able to catch up with you."

"Hehe." Old Sergey took great advantage of these words, grinned, and returned to his original position proudly.

As Winters said, the silence is only temporary.

Not long after, where the smoke disappeared, there were three riders climbing over the hillside and galloping towards Winters' position.

The distance of one kilometer was reached in an instant. As soon as the three riders reached the bottom of the slope, they heard the leader of the riders shouting at the top of his lungs - the voice of a little lion: "Not the enemy! Not the enemy..."

The little lion panted and climbed up the hillside. Seeing the prepared posture of Winters and his team, he was startled for a moment, and then laughed: "Don't be nervous! They are not hostile."

The subordinates all looked at Winters, but Winters did not give the order to lift the alert.

"No hostility?" Winters asked.

"No." The little lion replied with a smile.

"Who are they?"

"Hunters, hunters from the Badlands." The little lion said meaningfully, "Actually, they are more afraid of you."

A quarter of an hour later, Winters met the leader of the Badlands.

"Batu, you don't know me." As soon as they met, the burly, dark-skinned leader of the Badlands tried hard to introduce himself in a unique way in blunt common language: "But I have seen you, I am Kuo Shihaqi, your men are defeated."

…

…

[The tenth day after leaving the Feiyubu wintering ranch]

[Wasteland, an unknown small valley]

Although their identities were confirmed, and although they were "on their way", the Tiefeng County envoy and the Badlands hunters still tacitly maintained a certain distance from each other.

The leader of the Badlands Tribe [Koshhaqi] is very independent and takes the initiative to visit the Tiefeng County envoy every day.

Koshhaqi has a strong curiosity about the world outside the wasteland.

What makes Winters interesting is that Koshhachi does not hide his curiosity about the outside world.

He is always asking questions: astronomy and geography, customs, religious science, institutional technology... whatever comes to mind. Some of the questions are laughably childish, while others are too profound to answer.

Winters saw no shame in Koshhachi's eyes when he asked questions; Koshhachi never showed any discouragement or resentment when he didn't get answers.

When Koshhaqi was not asking questions, he would observe every move of the Palatuan people with great interest, from dressing to eating, from setting up camp to traveling... He even carefully dug toilets for the members of the mission. Read it again.

Winters' men looked at the "savage" with surprise, disgust, or vigilance, but the "savage" seemed to feel nothing and continued to go his own way.

"...Leave the inland sea and sail southward until you leave the Golden Summit Mountains behind, and you will arrive at the [Broken Land]." Winters warmed himself by the fire while talking about the geography of the continent: "There are only barren hills there. There are more than a dozen principalities, big and small, and everyone from the nobles to the common people is impoverished..."

The campfire was crowded with members of the mission, some of whom liked to join in the fun, while others were fascinated by what they heard. Naturally, Koshhachi was also present. He sat among the Platoans as if no one else was watching, listening with his knees propped up.

As he was talking, Winters found that the glass was empty, so he got up and went to fill it with water.

When Winters remained silent, the area around the campfire immediately became noisy.

"Hurd!" someone asked Koshhachi mockingly: "Can you understand?"

"I don't understand!" Koshhaqi grinned and replied in a half-baked Common Tongue: "I understand a little more. The more I listen, the more I understand."

Within a few words, Winters had returned with an iron kettle.

"Batu." Koshhaqi said bluntly: "In the tribes, even the masters of tribes as small as horseshoes do not do things like fetching wine and milk! You do women's work, and the disciples only do it. I will look down upon you."

"[Excited vulgar language] Fart!" Charles felt as if he had been bitten by a dog. He immediately grabbed the kettle from his brother's hand and pushed it back tit for tat: "Do you think the blood wolf is worthy of your respect or contempt?"

Koshhaqi nodded thoughtfully: "It makes sense! Even if a warrior like Batu plays with needles and threads every day, a large number of his disciples will rush to follow him."

Winters: “Just to be clear, I don’t like needles or thread.”

A faint laugh came from the carriage five steps away.

Koshhaqi seemed not to care about the personal hobbies of the Palatine champion. He asked impatiently: "Batu, where is the south from the 'very broken land'? Where is the south?"

"Sea of ​​Sand." Winters recalled the content of "Geography": "An endless desert like the sea."

Koshhaqi scratched the top of his head: "What kind of desert is it?"

"Have you seen the sand on the river beach?"

"I've seen it."

"The desert is a place with nothing but sand. The book says so, and I have never seen a sea of ​​sand with my own eyes."

"Only sand, no grass? And no water?"

"right."

"Then how do you raise horses? Raise cattle and sheep? How do you farm?"

"Nothing can be raised, nothing can be planted." Winters added: "It is said that there are some small oases in the desert. I don't know if it is true or not."

Koshhaqi was disappointed to learn that grazing was not allowed in the Sand Sea. He continued to ask: "Where is the Sha Sea further south?"

"have no idea."

"Why don't you know?"

"Because I can't make it." Winters smiled wryly and spread his hands: "It is said that someone once walked south for a hundred days, but all he saw was sand.

The ancient scholar [Tosthenes] believed that the sand sea is endless, extending to the end of the world, and eventually merges with the ice cap at the pole that has never melted for thousands of years; some people say that the sand sea is another sea further south; others say Further south from the Sand Sea is the Pit of the World, where all sea water will eventually flow. But no one knows the truth. "

Everyone sighed in unison.

"What is an ice cap?" Koshhachi asked persistently.

"The ice cap is ice with no end in sight." Winters couldn't help but laugh: "The people of the ancient empire kept walking north, and when they reached the extreme north, they found that there was only endless ice left, so they thought that the extreme south The land is also filled with endless ice."

"How about taking a boat?" Pierre, who was sitting next to Winters, asked thoughtfully: "Isn't there a sea to the east of the Sand Sea? Can't we go south by boat?"

"Uh..." Winters was stunned by the question.

After thinking about it deeply, he said sheepishly: "Sorry, I don't know either. I also think it is feasible to take a boat, but for some reason, I have never seen a description of crossing the sand sea by boat in the book. It seems that scholars They all think that taking a boat is not possible, or that someone has tried it before but I don't know... I really don't know much about sailing. If 'Good Luck' Gold is here, he should be able to tell some reasons..."

"Is there something that Batu doesn't know?" Koshhaqi laughed loudly, causing others to glare.

“There’s a lot more I don’t know than I do know,” Winters admits to his ignorance with ease. But for some reason, he felt some subtle, sad regret.

"Ignore him." Charles jumped up emotionally: "What does a barbarian know?"

“Batu knows as many things as the stars in the sky.” Koshhaqi said cheerfully: “If Batu says he knows very little, then wouldn’t I be as stupid as a stone on the ground? "

Seeing the tall and thick barbarian in front of them say the most disgusting flattery in the most magnanimous tone, the members of the mission had mixed feelings in their hearts.

Only the little lion was overjoyed and laughed so hard.

Winters felt someone tapping his shoulder. When he turned around, he saw the impatient face of Father Carman.

"Here." Carman handed Winters a piece of paper folded in half, shook his head and left.

Winters, who didn't know why, checked the paper by the firelight, and his eyebrows immediately relaxed - because the paper was written by Anna Juanxiu.

Winters coughed twice, and the area around the campfire suddenly became quiet.

"I just learned some new knowledge." Winters told everyone solemnly: "The reason why we can't cross the sand sea by boat to the south is because to the east of the sand sea are thunder squalls, storms and winds that have never stopped. Stormy seas.”

Everyone held their breath involuntarily and could only hear the crackling sound of firewood.

Winters said with a smile: "The ocean to the east of the Inner Sea is called the [Ocean of Storms] because of its harsh sea conditions, and the Ocean of Storms is like a docile gelding compared to the ocean to the east of the Sand Sea - that ocean is called For [Raging Ocean].

Legend has it that the Sea of ​​Fury is where the Poseidon of the Golden Age died. Poseidon cursed mortals when he died, so mortals can never cross that sea.

Many Venetian merchant ships attempted to cross the Sea of ​​Fury, but all attempts failed. The vast majority of ships failed to return, and the ships that were lucky enough to return failed to clear the waterway. On the shore of the sand sea, there is a stretch of coast named Shipwreck Beach, which is said to be because it is covered with wrecks of shipwrecks.

After the rise of monsoon navigation, the focus of trade in the inland sea shifted to the east, and people were no longer interested in the worthless southern route... This is why the southern route is rarely mentioned in books and documents. "

After Winters finished speaking, there was a neat exhalation around the campfire.

"So that's how it is." Pierre nodded with admiration: "That makes sense. Raging storms, rough waves... So the sea is so scary? It's a pity that I have never seen the sea."

"The ocean is a moody beauty, but most of the time she is very gentle." Winters said with a nostalgic smile: "Otherwise, how could there be sea blue sitting on the shore of the inland sea?"

Vashika shouted unconvinced: "Centurion, when there is no more war in the future, let's go and break into that raging ocean! I don't believe it, it's not just wind and rain, but it can scare us Dusak." ?"

"What do you know?" Old Sergei raised his hand and slapped his son on the head: "Have you ever been on a sea ship?"

Vashika frowned: "What? Have you ever sat on it?"

"Your father has really been on the boat!" Old Sergey raised his hand and slapped his son again: "When Pierre's father and I took the boat to Piedmont, how many days did we take the boat? I almost threw my life into the sea! I was vomiting and defecating, and I had to crawl out of the boat. Just ride your horse honestly, and stop worrying about the boat if you have nothing to do!"

Winters couldn't help laughing, and the air around the small campfire was filled with joy.

…

at the same time

Raging Ocean

The fast sailing ship [Dauntless] is cutting through the waves, trying to cross this sea of ​​death.

There are no signs of the coming of Fury: one moment, the sea is calm; the next moment, raindrops as big as peas slam on the hull, storms come one after another, and the Furious Ocean instantly reveals its ferocious face.

The dark cloud-covered sky was illuminated by flashes of lightning, and thunder seemed to tear the air apart.

The strong wind raised huge waves more than ten meters high, and the water curtain was like a tall and dangerous wall, crashing towards the sailboat.

Everything is really like the dying Poseidon venting his unquenchable resentment and rage.

The sixty-ton fast sailing ship [Dauntless] was like an ant in the hands of a cruel child. It was thrown high by the waves and fell heavily to the sea the next moment.

If no expense was spared in the construction of the hull, just one heavy hammer would have broken the Dreadnought into two pieces.

One of the deckhands failed to hold on and was instantly thrown over the side of the ship. The safety rope failed to save the sailor's life. Instead, he was swept into the bottom of the boat, causing him to experience a more painful death than drowning.

On the stern deck of the ship, a muscular man yelled at another man at the helm: "Zi Guo! Zi Guo! Zi Guo! Zhi Guo must save his life first! You are going to trap us all here!!" !”

The man steering the wheel had a firm look in his eyes, and his hand holding the steering wheel did not tremble at all. He ignored the shouts of his companions and calmly gave the order: "Keep one-third of the sail!"

Sailboats rely on strong winds to sail and can also be capsized by strong winds.

Some people once praised the "sail" for taming the "wind", but the captains all know in their hearts: Facing the real power of the gods, the only thing you can do is to furl the sails and pray.

But, not now—at least not in the Sea of ​​Wrath.

Without the sail, the ship can only be carried along by the waves.

And the waves of the Raging Ocean point directly to the northwest—to the direction of the sand sea.

Any ship that loses its sails in the Raging Ocean will be mercilessly thrown to the coast by the waves, and will eventually be hopelessly shattered in the reef-covered offshore.

There was another frightening bolt of lightning, and the rotten wood and wreckage on the shipwreck beach took on shapes, like bones. They were the remains of ships, the only traces of countless failures.

Now, the only thing keeping the [Dreadnought] ship from being destroyed is the wind.

There is only the roaring, furious wind that threatens to destroy the Dauntless.

The man at the helm looked at the capable man and calmly repeated the order: "Keep one-third of the sail!"

Keep a third of the sail? Easy to say!

The winch of the Intrepid has long been destroyed, and the only remaining method of reefing the sail is to climb up the mast and operate it at the top of the yard - which is almost equivalent to suicide.

Even the selected brave sailors did not have the courage to climb the mast at this moment.

Their will has long been shattered by the fury of Poseidon. The only thing the sailors can do and the only thing they are still doing is to pray.

When the capable man saw this, he cursed angrily. He pulled off his shirt, threw off his pants twice, pulled out his sword and bit it in his mouth.

Suddenly, the strong man turned around, punched the man at the helm hard, climbed onto the sail rope, and climbed naked to the top of the mast.

The man at the helm spat out bloody spit and still firmly controlled the steering wheel.

At this moment, on this sailing ship with forty-two sailors, only the captain - the man at the helm and the first mate - the capable man were left able to perform their duties.

Winters Montagne would have been amazed at the coincidence of fate if he had had the opportunity to witness the feats of two warriors defying the gods.

Because both the captain and the first mate are Winters' "old acquaintances."

The capable man struggling to climb the mast at this moment is none other than the famous pirate captain, Union rigging master, [Frank Drake] who commanded the Tanilia fleet against Admiral Nareshaw in the Battle of Lighthouse Harbor.

The man holding the rudder at the moment is the man who rescued Drake at the last moment of the Battle of Lighthouse Harbor. He is also the master of the Union rigging and the captain of the Firebird [Edward Kenway].

In name only, the Taniriya Federation ceased to exist.

But the reason why the two sail masters and the two leaders of the Taniriya Federation appeared in the Ocean of Fury at this moment was precisely to complete an important mission entrusted by the Taniriya Federation-if the south of the Sand Sea really There is a route to the Empire's Far Western Colonies, find it!

Find it!

The storm showed no sign of abating, and the cables creaked from critical stress.

Finally, a small fiber could no longer bear it and broke.

Then came the second, third... the rapid chain reaction caused one of the main cables of the Dauntless to be torn off by a huge force in an instant.

The elastic energy accumulated inside the cable was suddenly released, and the cable swept across the rain curtain and was drawn straight towards Captain Kenway.

In a flash of lightning, Kenway used incredible agility to avoid a fatal blow that could crush his skull.

If the helm had been released, the cable might have had no chance of hitting Kenway.

But there were no ifs. Kenway paid the price of being hit hard on his left shoulder by the end of the rope, ensuring that his hands never left the steering wheel for a moment.

When Drake witnessed this crisis, he lost his center of gravity and fell from the mast.

Regardless of the pain in his bones, Derek stood up, grabbed the safety rope and crawled to the stern of the ship.

"Edward!" Derek shouted with tears in his eyes, "Don't die!"

The hull heaved violently with the waves, and Drake climbed into the stern with difficulty. Edward Kenway's hands were still firmly on the rudder.

Captain Kenway's face was pale, but there was no pain in his voice: "Is the sail ready?"

"Okay!" Drake shouted at the top of his lungs - otherwise, Drake wouldn't even be able to hear his own voice in the violent storm: "Then what?!"

"Steering the wheel for me!"

The Dauntless's steering wheel is connected to the stern rudder through a pulley and lever system, and the power of the stern rudder is directly transmitted to the steering wheel.

As soon as Drake's hands grasped the steering wheel, he immediately felt the huge reaction force on the stern rudder. He gritted his teeth and held on: "Then what?!"

Kenway climbed to the stern railing and tied himself securely to the wooden post with a rope.

"We are going to die here!" Drake has become a little crazy: "Hahahaha!!!"

"Sooner or later, you will die! Listen to me carefully!" Kenway's voice had an unusually penetrating power and passed clearly into Drake's ears: "I have thought it through! Sail along the coast! Headwind plus headwind Wave! It will never cross the Raging Ocean!"

"[Expletive]!!!" Drake used all his strength to fight against the steering wheel and ignored Kenway at all: "Hahahaha!!!"

"There has always been one and only one route across the Raging Ocean!"

"We are going to die here!!!"

All the noise disappeared, and the heavy rain seemed to stop at this moment.

For the first time, Edward Kenway's voice brought out the uncontrollable enthusiasm, and he stated his real plan word for word: "That is to go east! Go to the unknown! Go to the sea! Go to the center of the storm! Go where no one has gone before!”

"And?" Dredd yelled.

"Then?" After losing his temper for only a moment, Edward Kenway regained his composure and said calmly: "Then we take a longer route around the Ocean of Fury, and then we continue to fight until victory or death."

In the face of Kenway's crazy plan, even the crazy Drake is as wise as a philosopher.

Derek's eyes were bloodshot: "Do you know what you are talking about? How do you know you can do it? Bastard! Just because of this? Just because of this you brought me into the Ocean of Rage?!"

Kenway smiled contentedly: "Yes, do you want to buy me to win?"

"Hahahaha!!!" Drake laughed heartily: "Edward Kenway, it turns out you are the craziest gambler!!!"

"You're the one holding the rudder now."

"Hahaha! Give the order! Captain!"

Edward Kenway looked back at the familiar land for the last time and suddenly laughed: "My friend."

Derek gritted his teeth and asked, "What happened again?"

"Perhaps now..." Edward Kenway cast his gaze towards the unknown sea and smiled more and more wantonly: "This is the moment when we enter immortality!"

"Fuck you!" Drake wiped a handful of blood, tears and sea water, and yelled: "It's worth it for me to be buried with you!"

In the pouring rain, Kenway, who was exhausted and tied to the railing with a broken left shoulder blade, said in a relaxed tone: "First Mate Drake?"

"Captain Kenway." The naked Drake replied with a hat tip without a hat.

"Set course southeast!"

"Yes, set course southeast."

"Towards immortality!"

"Yes, towards immortality."

Edward Kenway gave his final roar: "Forward!"

"go ahead!!"

"go ahead!!!"

----appendix----

"...In February 560 of the Old Imperial Calendar, Edward Kenway and Frank Drake successfully crossed the Ocean of Fury... The logbook recorded Edward Kenway's famous 'Forward to Immortality' order... It is said that in Even at the most critical moment, the two of them maintained their excellent demeanor..."

——"History·Seventh Grade (Part 1)" [New Hailan Education Press]

[There is a subtle premonition that the naming structure of ‘Shangzhong 345’ will appear again]

[About Edward Kenway’s crazy plan: The first time in the history of human navigation around the Cape of Good Hope was to avoid the headwind and countercurrent waters near the Cape of Good Hope by using the method of “not approaching the sea, but taking the outer circle”]

[In popular perception, the early Portuguese navigation exploration was sailing all the way along the coast of Africa, which seemed not to be difficult]

[However, limited by navigation technology, sailing along the coast will still encounter insurmountable waters]

[It took Portugal more than 20 years to break through the short distance from Portugal to Liberia. During this process, the Portuguese even mistakenly thought that the westernmost point of Africa was the southernmost point of Africa, and they opened champagne at half time]

[As well as the Cape of Storms/Cape of Good Hope, we can obviously see the southernmost tip of the African continent, but because of the ocean currents and sea winds, we just can’t get through]

[In 1488, Bartolomeu Miu Dias turned his back to the land and bravely sailed into the vast ocean (note: America had not yet been discovered at that time). After more than a month of sailing, he crossed the Cape of Good Hope and arrived on the east coast of Africa]

[So the plot of this chapter is a parody of a fragment from the Age of Discovery]

[Of course, Dias's feat was achieved in a specific environment, latitude, ocean currents, climate...all are indispensable]

[The author knows nothing about meteorology, but in order to continue the story, please allow us to assume that similar conditions exist in a certain low-latitude sea on a certain continent in a different world where the story of this book is located (escape)]