Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 28 Close at hand
Luck is relative. The other pirates on the Inland Sea don't seem to be very lucky. After all, not all pirates have Gold's good fortune. You could say that Lady Luck is on the Skua's side again.

During the rest of the journey, the Skua, having avoided the main shipping routes, only encountered a few unfamiliar ships.

However, the wind at sea was strong, and the Skua, sailing at full speed, moved swiftly. The unfamiliar ships could only see the Skua's mast before being left far behind.

Just like the fat captain proudly boasted: "This is the best fast boat on the inland sea."

However, the Jaguar's detour also delayed the voyage by three days, causing Major Moritz, who had not anticipated the delay and had no spare capacity, to drink all his wine.

The warrant officers watched as the once gentle and refined major's lips grew increasingly dry and cracked, his temper became more and more irritable, and even his mental state began to deteriorate.

The major was either throwing things around on the ship every day, or pacing back and forth on the deck late at night, keeping all the warrant officers up at night with him.

Who isn't afraid of mental illness? Even Major General Layton has started to intentionally or unintentionally avoid Major Moritz, and the pressure on the warrant officers is even greater.

Fortunately, they finally arrived safely in Ocean City. When they saw the iconic lighthouse of Ocean Harbor, the warrant officers couldn't help but shed tears.

The reason for this is not only the excitement of a wanderer returning home, but also the "small joy" of finally being able to get rid of Major Moritz's severe alcohol addiction.

The closer Winters got to Ocean Blue Port, the more he could truly feel the prosperity of this largest port in the alliance.

Towards the end of the route, even if the Skua wanted to deliberately avoid other ships, it couldn't. Because with Blue Harbor as the origin, the routes of hundreds of ships formed a fan shape, either heading to or having just left the port.

Winters even spotted a real warship patrolling the nearshore waters—a truly massive vessel. Compared to its imposing superstructure and enormous hull, the Skuas was practically a child.

However, to the warrant officers' surprise, the Skuas did not enter the port directly but instead anchored on the sea outside the port.

The acting captain was immediately surrounded by warrant officers eager to get home.

"Large ports like Hailan Port don't allow small merchant ships like ours to dock freely." The acting captain, his face covered in spittle, explained the rules of the sea to the group of army soldiers with a wry smile: "Hailan Port hasn't been expanded for over a decade. There are few berths, so merchant ships have to wait in the anchorage outside the port and queue to enter."

We'll anchor here first. Customs officials will come by in a small boat to check the goods shortly. If you officers are in a hurry to get home, you can ask the customs tax collectors if they can make an exception and let you go ashore in their small boats.

However, the warrant officers were soon disappointed again, because they discovered that the "customs boat" the acting captain had mentioned really was a "small boat".

This small boat was not much bigger than a canoe, about two people wide and less than three meters long. Two tax collectors and two oarsmen filled the boat to the brim, and it could barely fit one more person.

Watching the small boat bob up and down with the waves, Winters was genuinely worried that the boat carrying the four customs employees would capsize at any moment.

"Is this first mate messing with us?" Andrei was furious. "They want us to go home in this little boat? I'd rather swim back!"

"Can you swim?" Bud asked abruptly.

Andrei was speechless for a moment before awkwardly replying, "No."

But then, as if unwilling to admit defeat, he retorted to Bud, "So, can you swim?"

“I will,” Bard replied calmly.

"What nonsense are you spouting?" Andrei roared. "When has the military academy ever taught swimming? The biggest swimming pool in the military academy is the water tank in the training room. Don't tell me you learned it in a monastery!"

“The monks don’t teach swimming, and the monks can’t swim either,” Bard said with a smile. “But the monks like to eat fish, and the monastery has its own fishpond.”

Whether or not it's Orthodox or Catholic, fish holds a special religious status. In the ancient imperial era, when the Western Church was a clandestine organization frequently targeted by attacks, it used the image of a fish and a wine glass as a code. Therefore, Bard wasn't just making things up to deceive Andrei.

"Even if you can swim, you can't swim back; it's quite a distance from the shore." Winters quickly stepped in to end the long discussion about swimming skills: "Actually, the Skua has small boats, doesn't it?"

"Where?" Andrei suddenly perked up.

"It hangs right behind the sterncastle."

Upon hearing this good news, Andrei excitedly ran towards the stern, and Winters and Bud reluctantly followed him.

But when Andrei actually saw the small boat, he was greatly disappointed, because the small boat on the Skua was even smaller than the customs boat.

The customs boat might be able to fit five people if it tried, but the small boat on the Skua is just a giant bathtub; judging by its appearance, there would be no room to put your feet down after three people sit in it.

“This ship is even worse than the one at customs,” Bud said with a wry smile.

Andrei, however, began to calculate in his head: "Three people can sit at a time, and if we include the two officers, we have thirty-six people. Thirty-six divided by three is twelve."

He slapped his thigh excitedly: "Twelve round trips will get us all ashore. It's not that complicated. It won't take long!"

Winters was almost driven to tears by his dear classmate Andrea Cellini's stupidity. He finally understood how Major Moritz had felt a few days earlier when he saw him and a few artillery warrant officers struggling to move cannons during the boarding action.

He and Bader exchanged a sorrowful glance, confirming that they both realized Andrei's intelligence was beyond saving: "Think about it carefully, three people get ashore, and someone has to row the boat back! A round trip can only transport two people ashore. And considering that there's only one rower on the return trip, it will take even longer. I estimate we won't be able to finish transporting them by tomorrow."

“Yes, let’s just wait to dock. We still have luggage, and if we load it in, the small boat can only seat two people.” Bud, always thoughtful, added the luggage that Winters had overlooked: “Didn’t the new captain say that the wait won’t be long? We should be able to dock by tomorrow at the latest.”

However, Andrei clearly didn't listen to the second half. He added the two elements of "baggage weight" and "returning oarsmen" to his original mathematical model and was racking his brains for a new solution.

By this time, two customs tax collectors had boarded the ship. They wore peaked caps and black leather armor. The vital parts of the armor were reinforced with thin iron plates, and the joints were protected with chainmail.

The two tax collectors were tall and burly, with swords hanging from their belts. Judging from their appearance alone, they looked more like a group of bandits or mercenaries than customs officials from Venetia.

If it weren't for the fact that one of them was holding a folio, Winters would have thought they were just bodyguards for the tax collectors. "These are customs tax collectors? They look even stronger than pirates!" Winters said to Bud in surprise. He looked the two tax collectors over and felt that he wouldn't be able to guarantee a win even in a one-on-one fight.

Bard chuckled softly, leaning relaxed against the ship's railing as he replied, "Taxation has always been a more dangerous profession than being a soldier. I was born after the emperor had been driven out, but I've always heard stories of provincial tax officials lying dead in the wilderness."

Winters laughed loudly. As someone who grew up in the city, he had never heard of any merchant or artisan resisting taxes to the point of causing death—excluding sovereign wars, the sheriff and the city guard could handle any citizen who didn't want to pay taxes.

“The United Provinces Republic is a republic established by urban militias, so the United Provinces government does not have strong control over the countryside, and it also lacks attention to the countryside.” Bard still had a faint smile on his face.

As a well-educated man from the United Provinces who grew up in the countryside, attended military school in the city, and received a good education, Bard's understanding of the United Provinces Republic's political system was far deeper than Winters': "For the citizens, the United Army shattered the emperor's shackles, and the cities were able to develop freely. But in the countryside, the United Provinces Republic inherited all the rights of the old aristocracy, and things were exactly the same as before. So for ordinary farmers like my parents, it was just a change of emperor."

“It’s still different.” Hearing his friend seemingly criticizing the Allied Powers, Winters instinctively wanted to retort. To him, the Allied Powers and the militia coalition meant Marshal Ned and General Antoine Laurent, figures not to be tarnished. But he didn’t really understand politics and couldn’t immediately see what the difference was.

“Haha, it is indeed quite different.” Seeing that Winters was racking his brains but couldn’t think of any difference, Bard began to refute himself: “After all, the Republic has abolished the marriage tax and other aristocratic privileges that are insulting to one’s dignity. It can’t be said that there has been no progress, but when it comes to economic rights, it will not give an inch.”

“Yes, things have changed.” Although the naive virgin Winters didn’t actually know what a “marriage tax” was, he said with his usual optimism, “As long as there is progress, it’s a good thing. Nothing can be accomplished overnight.”

Upon hearing that the tax collectors had boarded the ship, the acting captain of the Skua hurriedly came out of the cabin and tried his best to imitate his old leader, bending over and jogging to greet the two customs officials.

"What's on board?" The tax collector, holding the folio, was very indifferent. He had experienced this kind of fawning performance too many times and was already used to it.

"Tobacco, and sugar," the acting captain replied, stuffing the large and small bags in his hands into the taxpayer's arms. "Try our finest tobacco, and some sugar as white as clouds."

"What are you doing? Trying to bribe me?" the tax collector shouted, refusing to take the gift offered. He thought to himself how inconsiderate this guy was, trying to give him a gift in public.

His attitude worsened: "You dare bribe the tax collector? Don't you want your hands anymore? Stop with this nonsense! Take me to inspect the cargo on the ship. You know the tax rate, right?"

The acting captain was terrified by the tax collector's words, breaking out in a cold sweat. Bribing the tax collector was punishable by having his right hand cut off, but the fat captain had done it every time, and his fat hand was still intact. Could he have gone wrong somewhere? Hearing the tax collector ask about the tax rate, he hurriedly replied, "I know, I know."

"Hailan Harbor does not accept physical goods, you know that?"

"Know, know."

"Take me to check the inventory."

"Okay, okay."

Why are there so many people on the ship?

"They are all army officers, returning from Guitu City on our ship," the acting captain added. "They are our Blue Sea Army."

"Oh?" The tax collector raised an eyebrow, glancing around at the small groups of warrant officers scattered across the deck. The warrant officers were all dressed in military academy uniforms, looking energetic and spirited; they certainly didn't look like slaves.

The tax collector had come to a conclusion: these people were not slaves. But he still sneered and reprimanded the acting captain: "If you dare to traffic people, you're dead, you know that?"

"Yes, yes," the acting captain nodded hastily. The laws and attitudes towards slavery varied among the member states of the Alliance. However, in the Republic of Aquamarine, bribing government officials only resulted in the beheading of a hand, while human trafficking was punishable by death.

"Take me to inspect the goods."

"Okay, okay."

The acting captain of the Skua led two tax collectors down into the cabin. This former first mate was a veteran sailor who had been at sea for over a decade, but this time he was going to suffer a harsh lesson from society because of his lack of social experience.

The Skua will be subjected to a rigorous and thorough inspection. I wonder if the fat captain, who is still adrift at sea, will suddenly feel a sharp pain in his chest?

"Hey! I know!" Andrei suddenly shouted excitedly, gesturing wildly as he explained his latest mathematical theory to Winters and Bard: "I know the fastest way to get us all ashore in this little boat. First, let three people go ashore, then come back and take only one boatload of luggage, and repeat the cycle."

Only one person paddles at a time, and each person paddles only once, so that everyone has enough energy.

"It will only take twenty-seven trips to get us, along with our luggage, ashore..."

So this guy had been keeping quiet for so long because he was pondering his own mathematical theory.

Winters and Bard exchanged another sorrowful glance. Winters suddenly felt his phantom limb pain flare up again, and he couldn't help but sigh deeply, rubbing his forehead.

Bud said seriously to Andrei, "I never imagined you were such a mathematical genius. I still have a problem I can't figure out, please teach me. An old man is carrying a wolf, a sheep, and a basket of turnips across a river. The boat is too small, so he can only carry one item at a time. The wolf wants to eat the sheep, and the sheep wants to eat the turnips. How can the old man get all three items safely to the other side of the river?"

Winters let out a painful sigh from the deepest part of his chest; he felt his phantom limb pain worsen.

Later, the taxpayers checked the goods, collected the money, kept the receipts, and then boarded a small boat to inspect the goods on other boats.

The Skua anchored overnight outside Ocean Blue Harbor and will enter the port the next day.

Major Moritz, a patient with severe alcohol-induced brain disease, was still pacing around the open deck, sighing and groaning.

Winters lay on the deck, his homeland just kilometers away, and he tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Not far from Winters, Bard seemed to be sleeping soundly.

Winters suddenly realized that he had finally returned to his hometown, but Bud had left his homeland, and he must be feeling bad too.

Silent all night.

[Assuming the luggage of two people equals the weight of one person, the boat's maximum capacity is three people, and there are a total of thirty-six people. Is it possible to guarantee that only one person paddles each time, and each person paddles only once one way, making twenty-seven round trips to get everyone ashore?]
[Actually, it's not possible]
The history of customs is truly ancient, dating back to ancient Egypt, and it has always been a significant source of income for the ruling class. The methods of taxation in ancient times were similar to those of today, involving detailed lists, sometimes specifying particular types of fish or wool. Tax collectors were also a dangerous profession throughout history; for a long time, feudal states even adopted a tax farming system, where tax collectors became contractors, providing the ruling class with a stable source of income. However, for those being taxed, the tax farming system was far from benevolent. A major reason for Lavoisier's execution during the French Revolution was that he had served as a tax collector for the French king.
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(End of this chapter)