Chapter 342 – Shocking News
Chapter 342 – Shocking News
At the dawn of the day, a rush of hoofbeats broke the early morning tranquility, the rider anxiously pumped his crotch horse and galloped through the streets of Lake Heart Town, fortunately at this time, most of the residents were still sleeping and the streets were empty. The rider quickly crossed the bridge and arrived at the old town on Lakewood Island.
Along with the expansion of the ruling area and Paul’s reference to the memory of his past life day after day to improve their own bureaucratic team, Alda’s administrative system has also dramatically expanded, many organizations have built an independent office, because the lake is surrounded by the natural closure of the lake island, in the secrecy and security has a unique advantage, and the lord Paul’s daily life of the castle is also located here, so most of the department’s The public office also chose to build on this small island. The inhabitants of the island were mainly the officials and their families. As for those who originally lived on the island of the “old lake town”, they have long been happy to take the State Council issued “demolition money” to move to the south shore of the new house, the State Council to their new house is bigger, newer, more comfortable. In these days of powerful lords, no one dares to be a snitch.
In fact, when the islanders learned that the Council had given them a sum of money (not a lot, of course) in addition to a new house, everyone was so shocked that they fell to their knees and cried out “Long live the Lord”.
The rider continued to whip his horse along the street to the entrance of the Intelligence Ministry’s office, when suddenly he remembered that the Intelligence Ministry was not yet at work at this point in the day, and turned his horse around to gallop again.
The rider soon arrived at the door of the residence of Cecil, the head of Intelligence, and jumped off his horse, rapping vigorously on the door. Cecil’s servant opened the door to receive this uninvited guest with a mutter.
Twenty minutes later, a disheveled Cecil rushed out of the house, mounted the horse still tied to the door, and galloped toward the lord’s mansion.
“What’s the matter? In such a hurry?”
Paul yawned, sleepy-eyed. Just now, he was still dreaming beautifully under the covers, but suddenly he was dragged out of the covers by Butler Philip. On such a cold winter morning, what a crime this was.
“Lord Earl, shocking news has come from Jingyao.”
Cecil handed Paul a document, “You must immediately send someone to notify the Port of Fulan and stop those merchant ships that are about to leave for the south.”
“News of the Crystal Flare? What does it have to do with merchant ships?”
Paul received the document with a puzzled face, from the anxious expression on Cecil’s face he had a feeling that something bad was going to happen.
Sure enough, when he opened the document, the words that met his eyes made his heart thump – “Pirates raided the West Harbor, and the Kingdom’s maritime forces stationed here were all wiped out.”
After freezing for a few seconds, he remembered Cecil’s suggestion just now, and he recruited an attendant to command, “Quickly, send a telegram to send a letter to Mayor Theodore and Commander Austin in the Port of Flanders, asking them to stop all ships heading south, saying that they may encounter pirates.”
“Yes, Lord Earl!”
Paul added: “Have the navy call back any ships that haven’t gone far as well! Just use an explicit message, the sooner the better.”
The squire turned and hurried out.
Paul and Cecil immediately summoned the military and political top brass of Lakewood to hold an emergency meeting to discuss oh countermeasures, whether it’s to the south of Aldo or to Horn Bay, Westport is an important target port or midway supply place, if it’s controlled by an unsuspecting force in the hands of the Northwest Bay which is increasingly reliant on sea transportation is undoubtedly being strangled in the throat.
“Lord Earl, you should immediately dispatch your navy to retake West Harbor for the Kingdom!”
Hansel, who had learned the news, was very emotional.
“Hmph! Your Excellency, Head of Agriculture, you don’t understand military matters, so it’s better for you to keep your mouth shut.” Bryce snorted coldly, many local military and political officials in the Northwest Bay represented by him are very dissatisfied with Hansel, this guy ignores Alda’s interests whenever there is something wrong in the kingdom, and impatiently asks the Count to do this and that, why doesn’t he think about it, that the name of “royal commissioner” has ever brought him any real benefits? Who pays your salary? The Earl of Graiman? King Rodney?
The two men argued, and Paul was further distracted.
Laddie Sertia beside him quietly tugged at his shirt and said quietly, “Betty telegraphed me two days ago that the merchant ship she’s traveling on will be leaving soon. That means that ship of hers has been gone for two days ……”
Paul’s face sank.
Lardy asked apprehensively, “Can the Navy’s longships catch up?”
Paul said worriedly: “Merchant ships are slow and loaded with cargo, so they should be able to catch up …… Heaven forbid.”
The meeting continued, and by the time the discussion came to whether or not to send troops south, Schroeder, who was the chief of staff, reported on the navy’s situation: “Lord Earl, the two earliest sail battleships to be commissioned-the Hope and the South-are in the port of Fulan for Overhauled, the total number of ships we can send out right now is 12 paddle ships and 6 other sail battleships – including two newly commissioned transoms.”
“Overhauling? What for? The Hope and the South were built just the year before, eh?”
“Uh …… at that time, because they were in a hurry to test the practicality of windsurfing ships, the timber used to build them were not sufficiently dried, which caused the hulls to erode very quickly ……”
“Alright, I see. So we have a lot less war power for the time being?”
“You can’t say that, the two newly commissioned two-masted schooners have larger hulls and more firepower, they’re armed with two rows of 12-pounders on their sides, and are capable of blasting enemy warships into a hornet’s nest from afar – just a bit slower, but again, only in relation to the longships.”
Paul breathed a long sigh of relief: “That’s a relief.”
The people discussed for many hours and felt that they couldn’t just let the sea trade routes be choked off and leave them unattended, as the current economy of Arda was heavily since to foreign exports. At the suggestion of the military, the first priority is to find out the strength of the pirates entrenched in the West Harbor, the pirates who can annihilate the kingdom’s maritime power cannot be ordinary pirates.
In addition, the contact with the kingdom’s military is also a top priority, if the pirates are too strong, Alda Navy single-handedly to challenge them is obviously unwise, and the kingdom’s government is not likely to let such a dangerous force wreak havoc on its own coast.
Hansel was so pleased with the outcome of the meeting that he volunteered to travel to Kageyo to make contact with His Majesty’s Government.
We all knew what he had in mind: with him as the representative, the bigwigs in Jingyao would easily think that he had facilitated the Alda Navy’s efforts to bring the King to the throne, and they would look at him even more favorably.
Seeing that Hansel was so enthusiastic, Paul simply agreed to his request. However, Hansel insisted on going south by land, and refused to agree to take a naval warship south – on the one hand, he did not have the experience of long-distance boat ride, on the other hand, he was afraid of the pirates that he might encounter – in order to seize the time, he decided to set off tomorrow.
And the specific actions of the Navy, but also to wait for the arrival of the generals of the Fullan Harbor specific discussions.
Paul also secretly worried about “Betty”, silently praying for her boat can be recovered.
(End of chapter)