Chapter 34: Pirates

The cargo ship "Popeye" sailed steadily northward, and 16 days had passed unknowingly.

On the way, it only had a short supply of fresh water, fresh vegetables and fresh meat at another commercial free port, the Port of Lyon.

The rest of the time, it was driving at high speed day and night.

Since the weather was good along the way, it was sunny and windy every day, so it was getting closer and closer to the territory.

According to Saberi's estimate, it should only take another four to five days to reach the destination.

Of course, it was not so fast originally, because the shipping in this world was not developed. In order to avoid danger, the ships all meandered along the coastline, which not only increased the distance, but also could not move forward at night.

But Saberi invented a set of compasses and astrological positioning methods.

As long as the weather is good, not only can it move forward day and night, but it does not need to walk along the coastline. It can go a little deeper into the sea and walk in a straight line, which greatly shortens the journey.

Once a certain route has been traveled once and recorded on the compass, the operation becomes extremely simple.

As long as you stay in the direction indicated by the compass, you can reach your destination steadily.

Therefore, the voyage that originally took about two months was compressed by Saberi to about 20 days.

If the speed of the ship can be increased, according to Saberi, he can shorten the time to less than 10 days.

Although the voyage time has been shortened so much, there is no need to bump on the sea for too long, but Ethan is not happy.

These days, he has been thinking about how to solve the problem of station and supplies every day.

And asked the three wilderness experts who went to the territory with him. Some of them said that they could build simple winter shelters, and some said that they would find natural shelters.

Although the methods are different, they all said that as long as they do a good job of keeping warm, they can survive the winter.

But when Ethan asked them whether the above method can store winter supplies, they all shook their heads.

It means that the supplies can only be thrown in the wild, and at most some waterproofing work can be done.

However, Ethan knew that there were not enough waterproof materials on the ship.

In this way, it is unknown whether the supplies can be waterproof or whether they will be destroyed by some large creatures.

These are actually not bad, after all, it's winter, even if they are not waterproof and are damaged by the black beast, there won't be much loss.

The most terrible thing is that the enemy is coming.

Even if they beat the enemy back, they secretly send someone to burn the supplies, and it will be the same.

It is said that the orcs will cross the Anji Mountains to rob every winter without fear of the severe cold.

If they see so many supplies thrown in the wild, won't they call the whole tribe?

Ethan didn't want to cause trouble for himself, and asked them if there was a way to safely protect the winter supplies. They all said that they could only rely on God's will.

Ethan couldn't accept the idea of ​​God's will. If they really did what they said, just build a simple shelter, keep warm, throw the supplies in the wild, and then rely on God's will, then Ethan thought they would die.

But how can we build a warehouse that can store so many supplies at once?

For this matter, Ethan couldn't sleep well every day, and he was bald from thinking about it, but he couldn't think of a solution.

"Why are you still looking so miserable?" Saberi handed a cup of steaming hot coffee to Ethan, who was sitting in a daze at the bow.

"Thank you!" Ethan took the coffee and said with a wry smile: "I still can't think of a solution! I guess this winter will be difficult."

"How about I give you a suggestion?" Saberi said mysteriously.

"Do you have any good suggestions?"

"Not a good suggestion." Saberi waved his hand and said: "It's just a way out.

If, I mean if, your supplies are really destroyed. You give up the territory and go along the only road. There is a border fortress 50 miles away, where you can save your life!

You just have to wait until the spring of the second year, when the sea thaws, and we will send supplies again.

Of course, you have to keep an eye on the people in the fortress, they may also want your life!"

"Thank you for your advice, I have also thought about this!" Ethan did think about it, but he felt it was more dangerous there.

If I guessed correctly, the people who could rush to the territory to attack could only come from there.

Ethan believed that there must be hostile forces hidden there, but he just didn't know how many there were.

Without supplies, he might still be able to survive in the wilderness.

Going there would probably be like walking into a tiger's mouth. You never know who will attack you.

Although he did have the ability to avoid assassination, Angelina and the others couldn't.

Ethan couldn't accept this situation either.

Just when Ethan was at a loss, he suddenly saw a medium-sized cargo ship coming towards him.

Looking at the direction, it seemed to be heading straight for the bow of the "Popeye", and Ethan was immediately startled.

"Sabery, a ship is heading towards us!"

"It's okay!" Saberi said easily, "They will get out of the way in a while! This is their old trick!"

"What do you mean?" Ethan didn't understand what Saberi was saying at all: "What about them, what old trick!"

"Oh!" Saberi suddenly realized and explained, "I forgot that this is your first time on the ship and you don't know the situation.

These are pirates who specialize in robbing our cargo ships.

Although they are called pirates, they actually have backgrounds, and their purpose is to prevent us from shipping.

See the skull flag on the other ship. Pirates flying this flag are secretly supported by the Trion family.

If the flag is a sword, it means that the pirates are supported by the Adrian family.

Both families suffered serious losses from land transportation and sea transportation.

Their territories are located in the center of the empire, with convenient transportation and the only way to various important towns.

Therefore, when it was still land transportation, they did nothing every year, but they could make a lot of money just by charging high tolls.

Because of their existence, many families in our Maro City suffered huge losses, especially our Lawson family.

I still remember clearly that there was an emergency of food shortage at the border.

After our family got the news, we organized a lot of manpower and material resources to transport food to the border on a voluntary basis.

Among them, all the manpower, material resources, and food sent to the border for emergency relief were paid by our family, and the empire did not pay a penny.

We mobilized thousands of people, hundreds of knights, countless cattle and horses, day and night, just to deliver food to the front line as soon as possible.

But at this critical moment, the two families not only did not reduce the toll, but raised the price by thirty times.

That time, we endured it so that the frontline soldiers could have food!

We immediately paid cash from the Imperial Capital Chamber of Commerce and continued on our way, just to avoid wasting food.

But since then, we have made up our minds to resolutely go by sea.

And you also know the person who led all this! She was only seven years old at the time! "

"Sophia?" Ethan was shocked and asked tentatively.

Sabery nodded gently, his eyes full of admiration: "So you have never thought about why the entire Maro City, or even the entire Aslan Empire, only my Lawson family can open up such a territory on the border?"

Ethan was shocked again: "You mean, that territory was given by the Duke of the Northern Eagle?"