Chapter 235

Chapter 235.

His Majesty the King’s opinion hadn’t even arrived yet, and the two major factions of the Northwest Gulf couldn’t wait to get their hands dirty.

One of the Kent family’s vassal territories, Fort Biddle, was nestled right between Earl Malcolm and Viscount Johnston’s territories, and had undoubtedly become a thorn in the side of the anti-Kent alliance, so after the two sides formally tore each other apart, the Malcolm family and the Johnston family immediately sent out their troops to encircle Fort Biddle.

But the defense of Fort Biddle is very solid, the two families can’t gnaw it down for a while, and according to the information detected, the Kent family has quickly gathered reinforcements and swooped towards this side.

Earl Parker immediately wrote to the other lords in the alliance, summoning them to rush to Biddulph’s Castle to support the Malcolm family and the Johnston family.

……

“The lords of Biddle Castle are in-laws of the Kent family, and Maltz Kent will surely throw in a heavy force to relieve Biddle Castle, and the intelligence we have received suggests that this is indeed the case. We must take advantage of this opportunity to engage them in a duel at Biddle Castle …… to eliminate a large number of the other side’s troops in one go …… This will favor our side’s control of the situation in the future …… “

Chief Secretary Bernard Wood stood holding a letter in both hands and reading its contents in a very clear voice, while opposite him sat Paul Greiman.

“The location of this area is very important, and if it remains in the hands of the Kents, then the other side will be able to use it as a springboard to move in on the land between Fort Biddulph and the Gulf Coast, cutting us off into parts.”

Hearing this, Paul’s brow furrowed for a moment.

The Chief Secretary continued to read, “Based on the size of the enemy forces known now, I request that the Gleiman and Garnard Families be able to immediately send at least 1,000 soldiers to Fort Biddle to join the other families to defeat the other side in one fell swoop.”

“May God bless us! …… This concludes, my lord lord, and is addressed to the Earl of Price-Parker, which must have written the letter himself. Do you need to read it over again yourself?”

Paul rubbed his temples and said with a bit of a headache, “No need, Bernard, put the letter away for now.”

He rather disliked this feeling, there was always a feeling of being led by others. But Earl Parker was the organizer of the entire alliance, and his request had to be taken with caution.

Alas …… it’s better to rush back to Lakewood Town as soon as possible to discuss with the army executives.

Paul is now sitting in a room in the harbor office building of the Port of Richland, his purpose of coming to the Port of Richland this time is to visit the fleet of ships equipped with the new full-sail merchant ships.

After establishing a solid cooperative relationship with the Foster family of Horn Bay, the Foster family sent several batches of shipwrights one after another, which made the shipyard’s production capacity greatly increase, and it was no longer comparable to the small shipyard that could only repair and build a few small paddle sailing ships before.

Under the overtime efforts of the craftsmen and the concession of the navy, the shipyard has built four larger merchant ships in the past few months, compared to the previous warships, this merchant ship has made many improvements for the transportation of goods, with a larger size, higher cargo capacity, and two masts standing on the deck, and the canvas on top of them is not in the form of the previous type of full vertical sails, but the main mast is hung with a balance sail.

Of these four transporting merchantmen, two were retained by Paul for his own use, and two were sold to Mr. Bennett Todd, a ship merchant.

To-day was the day on which the four merchant ships were about to sail, Paul’s two ships, which were to carry a large quantity of china, and printed books to the Bay of Horns, and Mr. Todd’s two ships, which were to carry a large quantity of canned goods, and salt to the southern ports nearest the King’s capital, Jingyao, having chosen the same date for the first voyage of their respective voyages.

Bernard pulled out his pocket watch to take a look and reminded Paul, “Lord Earl, the merchant ships are just about to depart, do you think it …… is time?” “Is it? Let’s rush over there immediately.”

From the windows of the harbor office building, he had already seen the blackened crowd of send-offs on the pier.

……

Seeing the lord’s arrival, the crowd quickly made way. Paul slightly excitedly came to the side of the merchant ships still staying in the berths, with these merchant ships, his long-awaited ocean trade could finally be carried out.

Admiral Austin, as well as the ship merchant Bennett Todd, were already standing at the dockside, waiting for his arrival.

Mr. Todd first bowed to him, ”Honorable lord, these merchant ships you have made are truly fascinating! Thank you, this is exactly what a ship merchant like me needs.”

With the arrival of the new year, the Council of State sent a commercial delegation to the royal capital, a delegation made up of merchants from both Arda and Baildin – all of whom, of course, had a history of working with the Lords’ House.

During this trip to the royal capital, the merchants made every effort to sell the products of their factories to the powerful nobles of Jingyao. After all, the royal army would soon be heading south to quell the rebellion, and canned food, which was convenient, easy to store for a long time, and still tasted good, was naturally the generals’ first choice of munitions.

Bennett Todd’s two merchant ships, on the other hand, received commissions from other merchants – to transport goods to the south by sea.

Paul waved his hand, “No, no, no, I’m just providing ideas, the ships in front of us are all made by the shipyard’s craftsmen who worked hard to create them, so thank them if you want to.”

Mr. Todd nodded his head repeatedly in agreement, he knew that the earl in front of him was a bit unusually concerned about those lower class laborers.

A simple ceremony was held on the wharf to bid farewell to the four merchant ships, and Paul took the stage to make an old-fashioned speech about the importance of oceanic trade and the Council of State’s strong support for private commercial and industrial activities.

After the ceremony, the four merchant ships set sail amidst the sound of people saying goodbye, and left the port of Flanders to sail slowly into the distance.

As they were leaving the dock, Austin and Paul walked together, and the two of them discussed for a while about the Seamen’s School, which had just begun teaching, and finally Austin asked quietly, “Lord Graiman, will our navy have any chance to perform in the next war?”

Paul thought about it, although the territory controlled by the Kent family was basically inland, the navy still had a place to play, such as letting sailors go ashore to be used as infantry like the Maoists.

“Austin, we may face a shortage of troops in a short period of time, you can organize a fleet to constantly cruise in the Wise River, and once you receive a message of distress from the nearby land, immediately let the sailors go ashore to support them. So, let your men strengthen their firearms training.”

The current army was not able to control the borders very tightly, if he sent troops to cooperate with Earl Parker, the situation would be even more severe, he needed a relatively “mobile” force to face unexpected situations.

(End of chapter)