Chapter 168 Arrival at Horn Bay

Chapter 168 – Arrival at Horned Bay
Horned Bay, a place full of opportunities and wealth.

It was the most developed waters for shipping in the known world, with hundreds of huge cargo ships coming and going every day on some of the busy routes.

The cargo ships are all paddleboats, their holds filled with all kinds of goods, and hundreds of oarsmen sitting on seats on both sides of the holds, sweating like rain, pulling long oar handles to the beat of a horn or a drum to power the ship’s voyage. Only when the wind picks up and the modest quadrangular sails on the masts can provide a little power are they allowed to rest for a while.

Most of the oarsmen were slaves purchased by the ship’s owners, shackled to their seats and not allowed to go anywhere, and became slaves for a variety of reasons, from unpayable debts, to being born into slavery, to being captured in war.

And once chained to the oar seat, it pretty much sealed his miserable fate for life, and a large number of slave oarsmen continued to be chained even into their gray hairs, living a life of darkness under the threat of the overseer’s whip.

The land near Horn Bay has no decent plains, is dotted with hills, and the land is too broken up to have ever given birth to a large state; instead, there are city-states, large and small, dotted along the coast.

Because of the geography, it is not suitable for the development of agriculture, so the residents chose commerce to support themselves.

Each city-state adopted a mercantile approach, encouraging trade, and merchants played an important role in the country’s politics, with the big nobles in power often being big merchants as well.

Some of the more closely related city-states even formed alliances, canceling tariffs among themselves and imposing the same taxes on countries outside the alliance. Some alliances even shared the same foreign policy, speaking with one voice and breathing through one nostril. The Gulf of Horns alliance was one of the most influential.

Due to its proximity to the sea, commercial trade through shipping is almost a natural choice. Relying on this, generation after generation of Cape Bay merchants have slowly expanded their trade to the outside world, selling furs from the north to the south, grain from the south to the north, spices from the east to the west, and in general selling whatever makes money.

The developed commerce brought a great deal of wealth, and the living standard of the inhabitants here is supposed to be the highest in the world, and even the poor people here are not comparable to the poor people in other countries.

The economic prosperity and comfortable life made people pay more attention to the spiritual pursuit and enjoyment, and a large number of famous literary figures, artists and thinkers emerged in this land. This is also why at that time Paul Greiman commissioned Quiller Foster to bring him more popular works, maybe which writer will later be famous in history.

The Southern finally arrived in the waters of Horn Bay after more than half a month of sailing.

This all the way south is quite smooth, did not encounter pirates and other troubles, but they sailed to the southernmost tip of the kingdom’s coastline, there are sailors on board sick, captain Quirk had to order the Hope to dock, so that the sick sailors to the shore to recuperate and leave a sum of money for him to recover and return to the Northwest Bay from the land on their own.

If the ship’s sick man was not treated in time, it could be a big problem if he became contagious.

“Ah, Captain Quirk, I finally understand why all the boats here are rowed with oars.”

Allen lamented, after entering the waters of Horn Bay, the Southern ship had simply entered a windless zone, sailing at a speed as if a turtle was crawling on land.

“I guess the people on the other boats look at us like we’re idiots.”

The other alternate shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

Captain Quirk cheered them on, “Hmph! And that’s just in this one place, if we were in any other sea, our Hope would be able to outrun them in speed and range by a couple blocks. That said, have you learned to use the compass and sextant yet?”

One by one, the candidates puffed out their little chests and said proudly, “I learned a long time ago! Captain-sama.”

“Oh? Then let me put you all to the test!”

Whether it was these newborn prospects or him, a veteran who had been at sea for many years, it was still the first time they had undertaken such a voyage, facing unfamiliar waters and unfamiliar environments.

The officers on board did not dare to be careless, carefully recording the currents, weather, temperature and other information along the way, these are valuable hydrographic information, the later ships will be based on their information to avoid harm and determine the best route.

Quirk’s captain’s log has written a thick book, which records everything he sees and learns in detail.

And the voyage had been a good exercise for the Naval Candidates aboard the Southern, who had not had such a good opportunity on other warships.

……

Lardy looked at the alternates who were being inspected by Quirk, and her heart was filled with emotion.

When they had just been rescued by the Navy from the pirate’s den, the eyes of these little guys were still filled with confusion and fear of the future.

But now, they can be completely called the little man of the sea, one by one, they can climb the mast, know the whole process of sail operation, also know how to use the compass and sextant, know how to observe the stars to identify the position of the navigator’s professional skills.

“Mr. Dirac!”

Someone behind her suddenly called her “name.”

Lardy turned around and saw that it was one of the merchant representatives. The merchant representatives on the ship had suffered a great deal. Not long after they left the port of Flanders, they had become seasick and were vomiting and suffering from diarrhea, making it difficult for them to eat. Captain Quirk had suggested that they be sent back before the Hope sailed too far, but the men had gritted their teeth and insisted.

It was an admirable persistence, even if it was motivated by the pursuit of business interests – money.

As for Ladi herself, after all, she had been an adventurer for quite a long time, and had been in all kinds of environments, so she didn’t have any special discomfort during this journey.

If she had to find one thing that made her feel uncomfortable, it was the fact that she couldn’t bathe as she wished, and a long life at sea was really inconvenient for women.

The merchant representative asked, “I heard that Mr. Dirac is from Cape Bay?”

Lardy nodded slightly, “Yes.”

The closer she got to Horn Bay, the more her sense of place grew, and one of the things she had been doing from time to time in the last few days was to stand on the deck and look out into the distance, expecting land to suddenly come into view.

“May I disturb you for a moment?”

In this era of lack of knowledge, ordinary people have always been respectful of scholars, and La Di because of the relationship between female disguised as a man has never been easy to speak, learning to speak like a man is very uncomfortable, afraid of an accidental reveal the footsteps, which gives the ship to the crowd of people a cold and haughty impression.

“Talking about the disturbance, what is your business?”

Lardy smiled slightly, which actually put the merchant representative in a trance.

The merchant representative was overjoyed, I didn’t expect this scholarly gentleman to be so nice to talk to, but it was a strange feeling just now, that I was so happy with a big man ……

“Then, do you think that those goods of ours, is it …… appropriate to sell them in the south? Will anyone buy them?”

The merchant representative asked with slight apprehension, he and several other representatives were most worried about making a trip for nothing.

For them who came from the Northwest Gulf, Horned Bay was undoubtedly affluent and prosperous, would they be treated by the locals as country bumpkins from the north when they arrived in Horned Bay, would the goods they wanted to sell be treated as worthless contraptions, and be ridiculed loudly for coming all the way here to sell rags.

Lardy could see his concern and she smiled in relief:
“Mr. Representative, please rest assured that those things that Earl Gleiman has authorized you to produce should be very popular in Horn Bay.”

“As far as I know, Lord Earl has already established a cooperative relationship with the Foster Family of the Horned Bay Alliance, they arrange for caravans to pick up their goods in Lakeheart Town every month, even the war in the south of the kingdom hasn’t hampered them one bit, if it didn’t bring great benefits, I don’t think the Foster Family would be so persistent.”

The merchant representative was a bit surprised, “The Foster Family?” He who had done his homework before departing knew that it was a headline family that ranked high in the south.

“It turns out that Lord Lord has already quietly gotten on the line with the Foster family, surprisingly not bringing us to play ……”

The words of the merchant representative were a bit tasteless, with a slight grudge in his tone.

“Uh ……”

Lardy’s face appeared embarrassed, she suddenly thought, Paul and his own territory merchants are suppliers, counting to some extent constitute a competitive relationship, only now the supply is not enough to meet the demand, the competitive relationship is not yet obvious.

She seemed to have inadvertently revealed his trade secrets, and hoped that the Count would not blame her when he found out.

The merchant representative realized that what he said was a bit abrupt, and the scholar in front of him seemed to have a very close relationship with Earl Gleiman, so he immediately changed the subject.

“Speaking of which, Lord Quirk is really a man of his word on this ship.”

Lardy couldn’t agree more, “Yes, before boarding the ship, Commander Austin warned me that the captain is the lord of a ship and no one can challenge his authority.”

“We were warned the same thing, and it seems to be true now, the officers and men are all beholden to him.”

“After all, the biggest and sturdiest ship is as small as a floating leaf in the ocean, the crew needs a brave and decisive backbone and psychological reliance, and in a critical moment of encountering a big storm, even a wrong decision is much better than a pending argument.”

“You have a point.”

At that moment a sudden shout came from the mast, “Land in sight!”

The men on deck immediately looked at the lookout on the mast, only to see him pointing with his arm straight to the east and shouting excitedly.

They crowded to the side of the deck and looked in the direction that the lookout was pointing, and in a short while some of the men with binoculars on them also shouted excitedly.

“Land, land indeed!”

“Oh! That’s the building! That’s the harbor! We’re so lucky to have come across the harbor straight away!”

The news of the discovery of land quickly spread throughout the ship, and everyone crowded onto the deck to look into the distance, cheers resounding through the ship.

Quake waited for everyone to get excited for a while before yelling, “All go back to your positions! Don’t you have to work when we’re about to dock? It’s the last thing you do!”

Only then did the sailors disperse and continue their work, but everyone’s face was filled with excitement, discussing among themselves enthusiastically, what kind of exotic flavors will there be in this country thousands of miles away from home?
Is the food expensive? Is the food good?

And most importantly, what do the chicks look like?
It was only then that Quirk ordered the steersman to adjust his direction and head straight for the port of discovery.

……

The coastal city of Horn Bay, Asta, had welcomed a strange ship to her harbor for the day.

The ship didn’t have a single oar, just a thick, tall mast standing in the deck row, with an unusually large area of canvas propped up on top.

It looked as if the canvas powered the ship, allowing it to sail slowly into the harbor.

But in an environment like Horn Bay, where you are sailing a ship that relies solely on wind power, what on earth was the person who built this ship thinking?

The officer managing the harbor immediately led the soldiers to row closer to the strange ship and gave the universal signal of the sea – they wanted to board and inspect it.

The Southern ship sent a reply indicating that it agreed to be boarded.

The Asta official and soldiers climbed aboard the Southern via a rope ladder, and he introduced himself by flashing a metal tag:
“I’m the transactional officer of the port of entry and exit office, where are you guys from? This ship never seems to show up in the entry/exit port records?”

However, he spoke the native language of Horn Bay, and most of the people on the ship sounded confused.

Luckily, there was a Lardy in there who was from Horned Bay, and seeing that the crowd was at a loss for words, she immediately bowed to the harbor official.

“Greetings, seeing as this must be the harbor of Asta.”

“Yes, this gentleman.” The green-haired young man in front of her was poised and elegant, making the harbor official feel good.

“This ship is called the South, from the northwest bay of the Kingdom of Aldo, the purpose is to open up the trade route from the northwest of the Kingdom to the Horned Bay, the people on board are all Aldo people, they …… don’t understand your language.”

“I see, are you their interpreter? Listening to the accent is also from the area of Horned Bay, right?”

“Yes, my lord.”

A smile appeared on the harbor official’s face, they especially welcomed people who came here to do business, just that they came to do business and even brought only an interpreter, these people’s heads are really big, I hope they don’t get screwed over too much.

“Your guests have traveled a long way to work hard, please log in at the pier.”

Lardy immediately said to Quake in Aldorian, “This is the officer in charge of managing the harbor, he said you need to register at the docks.”

Then with immense puzzlement, she asked, “Captain Quirk, delegates, aren’t there any of you who speak Hornblower?”

Quirk still seemed unsure, “Horned Bay language? What is the Horned Bay language? Do people in the sky still speak words they don’t understand each other?”

Several of the merchant representatives were also at a loss.

The people from the Northwest Bay had never been out of the Aldo Kingdom, and most of them had never even left the Northwest Bay, and in their perceptions, there was no such concept as a foreign language, and they thought that people all over the world spoke the same language, and that their accents were different at best.

“This ……”

Lardy covered her face with her hands, with a defeated look, Count Greiman just let them run out, if not for the fact that she was also on this ship, it was estimated that it would take half a day’s effort to enter a harbor.

In fact, this is not to blame Paul, he subconsciously thought that this world is also as in general fantasy settings, the whole world speaks the same language, and contact with foreigners – Lichtman Adventure Group and the Foster family, they all speak a fluent Aldo, but also to deepen this view of him, so …… He also never considered the language barrier.

(End of chapter)