Chapter 109 – Remnants of the Pirates
Chapter 109 – The Remnants of Piracy
After the Hope’s successful trial voyage, the Navy soon officially took over the warship, which was eventually equipped with 8 side guns, 4 each on the left and right, as well as 4 swing guns, and was manned by 50 sailors.
Given that Quirk was relatively the most knowledgeable maritime man in the Navy, and that no dissent was found in the man after this period of inspection, he was appointed captain of the Hope after Paul’s consent, jumping several ranks in rank to temporary captain.
Quake was grateful, after a few months in the navy, he slowly found that Count Greiman is not the kind of brutal and unkind, eat people and not spit out bones of the Lord, but also gradually up to serve the mind, and now a great opportunity is in front of his eyes, he is sure to seize it.
He led a ship of sailors to train desperately every day, even sleep on the ship, and soon familiarized himself with every inch of this new ship.
After spending a few days in Richland Harbor, Paul planned to return to Lakewood. Before leaving, Austin introduced himself to Paul and Schroeder’s long-planned plan to round up pirates.
In a conference room at the naval base, a huge sand table was placed in front of the crowd, which presented the topography of the entire coast of the Northwest Gulf, including the large and small islands in the sea.
Of course, limited by the current technical means, this sand table is not very accurate, but for the current navy is already enough.
“To summarize, our plan is ……”
Austin took a thin stick and pointed on top of the sandboard.
“…… With the help of the militias of the towns along the coast, and so on …… the first target to be eliminated will be ‘Mudskipper’ Gaden, who, ever since the overthrow of the Shark Gang , he has become the largest pirate force on the Northwest Gulf.”
“Wait!” Paul interrupted Austin, rubbing his chin and asked, “Mud Loach? Why does that nickname sound so familiar?”
Quake, who was standing behind Austin, coughed awkwardly and said, “Lord Gleeman, when I was a pirate I wanted Gaden to cooperate with me in attacking Lake Town, then he ran away midway when he saw the situation, and then I was captured by you.”
Paul then remembered, “So it’s that dude who slipped away on his feet, no wonder his nickname is ‘Loach’.”
Quirk said, “Yes, this person is very cunning and good at seeing the wind.”
Austin continued, “They are very good at picking places where our defenses are weak to strike, and it’s my fault for being so incompetent that I let them come ashore and get their hands on them several times.”
Paul reminded him, “There’s a good chance we have a mole in our army that he’s put in place, so you’ll want to keep an eye on that. Quake, don’t get any ideas, I’m not holding it against you.”
“Lord Earl, I’m already suspecting this and will be sure to check it out in detail.”
“According to the information we have so far, the Mud Loach Gang doesn’t have any fixed strongholds, and all the members in this pirate gang are good at oars, it’s not a ruthlessly easy thing to trace their movements.”
Paul asked, “Couldn’t our boats catch up with them, the other party uses oar sailing boats as well, right?”
Austin admitted, “Yes, but they probably also have some kind of unknown modification technology that can make the boats much faster, and even if they were to be hit by our patrol when they were committing their crimes, they would still be able to leave us far behind their asses.”
Quirk added, “I haven’t heard of the Mudskippers gang doing that before.”
Paul said, a little disgruntled, “I didn’t come here to hear you guys complain about how difficult it is.”
Austin immediately changed his words, “Of course, Lord Earl, all that was said just now is a thing of the past, because we have the ‘Hope’!”
“No matter how fast the other party’s ship is, it is still rowed by human power, while our Hope can keep sailing as long as there is a wind, so we don’t aim to catch them right away, as long as we can bite down far and low, we can surely exhaust the strength of the other party’s oarsmen, and eventually catch up with them.”
“Taking a new type of ship that has just been tested for not more than a few days to fight with pirates, is it really okay to do so? And in case the other side has many boats, wouldn’t that be a double-fisted fight?”
Although he knew that a sail battleship was the right way to go, Paul was a bit uncertain about the Hope, which was still a test model.
Quake immediately stepped forward and patted his chest and assured, “Please don’t worry, Lord Earl, my sailors and I have absolute confidence in the Hope and will definitely be able to hold out until the other captains come to support us.”
Thinking of the 8 cannons and 4 roundhouse cannons equipped on the Hope, Quirk felt that he had the courage to fight against the giant pirate Edward at sea. He recalled the shock in his heart when he first came into contact with the artillery, this kind of sharp weapon was simply made for sea battles, as long as one had the artillery and enough of it, one could blast the other party into pieces from afar, and even gang jumping battles could be avoided.
The crowd continued to discuss for a while, and finally Paul looked at Austin and said, “I’ll leave the sea matters to you.”
“In addition to eliminating the pirates, the matter of opening up the southern route should also be taken care of, so when the second ship is launched, send it south,”
Austin and a group of captains saluted in unison, “Yes, please rest assured, Lord Earl.”
Paul suddenly remembered something and said, “I will leave behind the language advisor, Miss Diaz, to help you enrich your means of communication at sea, she has already helped the Army to come up with a set of semaphore, which has been tested to work very well.”
Austin nodded, “That look couldn’t be better, thank you Lord Earl.”
……
A house went up in flames, the sounds of men begging for mercy and the cries of women and children intertwined.
It was a village on the coast, located in the territory next door to Arda, now being ransacked by pirates.
A large number of pirates searched around the village, loading the belongings they found into individual wooden crates and carrying them to their ships.
The rest of the pirates gathered the villagers in one place and began to select slaves.
One pirate took a fancy to a teenage boy and entered the crowd and lifted the boy up.
The boy was already six and shivering, but the woman next to him held the boy’s legs in a death grip.
“Please don’t take my son away, he’s the only family member I have left.”
She stared with tearful eyes and a terrified look as she kept begging the pirates.
“Let go!” The pirate who had grabbed the boy glared at the woman and shouted at her.
The woman just kept begging the pirate, still holding on to her son’s legs, but with no intention of letting go.
The pirate got impatient and raised his left hand with the knife forward, and the woman fell into a pool of blood.
“Mom!!!” The boy who was grabbed by the pirate cried out in grief, “You demons!”
He bit down hard on the pirate’s arm, and with his size, making this level of resistance was already the limit.
The pirate cursed the little brat under the pain, then knocked the boy unconscious in one fell swoop with the hilt of his knife, dragging him and throwing him at the feet of his other companion.
These little boys who have not yet grown up and lack the ability to resist are the best candidates for slaves, after boarding the pirate ship, if they can quickly adapt to this big saucepan, they will become the pirate’s backup and eventually grow into a real pirate, if they can’t adapt to it, then they will be a slave for life.
The other villagers sat trembling on the ground and watched this, no one dared to stand up and resist, just praying that bad luck would not befall them.
The pirate who selected the slaves once again came into the crowd and searched for the next slave ……
(End of chapter)