Mystery: The Returner of the Stars

Chapter 291 Navy and Pirates

In the vast sea, a ship departing from the Southern Continent, carrying a lot of rare treasures from the Southern Continent, is preparing to go to the Kingdom of Loen to avoid this war that has not stopped.

The sky was bright and sunny, but the temperature was much milder than usual. Even standing on the deck under the sun, it was not as hot as before.

Outside the captain's room, there is an old man who has sailed on the sea for more than 40 years, old Thorne, he is an old antique in this line, and he knows everything about the sea and the sky.

You can smell the signs of a storm coming from an unusual cloud, or a slight breeze from the sea.

Learning to observe the stars in the sky is a compulsory course, and he is also very good at it.

Recently, he has always felt that the sun this year is not as hot as in previous years. Although the change is very slight, he still observed some abnormal phenomena.

Something will happen to the sun?
Such an idea is simply ridiculous. No one would believe his words, and he knew it well, so he never talked about it with others, but he spent more time observing the sun in the sky every day.

"Old Thorne, we are almost at Puning Harbor. Thanks to your guidance along the way, we were able to avoid all kinds of storms and huge waves so easily."

The captain brought over a dark beer filled in an oak cup. This kind of wine has a strong bitter taste, and young people nowadays don't like it, but old guys like him like this kind of bitter wine the most, and it has a better taste .

Old Thorne took the wine and took a big gulp. The slightly cloudy wine flowed down his beard, and his collar was immediately wet.

After belching comfortably, old Thorne said, "Captain Rolle is too polite. This is what I eat. Naturally, I must try my best to keep the ship away from possible dangers."

After finishing speaking, he laughed again: "I am also on this ship, so I can't use my old life to make fun of the god of death."

Captain Roll smiled and chatted with him for a few words, and was about to leave. Before leaving, Old Thorne grabbed his clothes and said in a low voice, "Don't blame me for talking too much, the natural factors in the sea are easy to overcome, but dangerous It often comes from man-made disasters, and I always have an ominous premonition for this trip, so you should make more preparations."

Captain Roll patted Old Thorne on the shoulder, saying that he would pay attention to these problems, and let him stay on the ship with peace of mind.

When the lighthouse of Puning Harbor was already in sight, most of the worries in Old Thorne's heart were put aside. In the absence of pirates, the safety index of the coastal port in South Wales was still very high.

Just as the crew on the ship relaxed their vigilance, the sailors on the watchtower noticed that there were strange ships approaching from three directions in the distance.

"It's a pirate!"

"The pirates are here!"

The sailor quickly rang the alarm bell, and everyone on the ship raised their vigilance, and under the orderly arrangement of the captain, they began to stick to their combat positions.

This place is already very close to Puning Port. Once a battle occurs, the defenders of the port will come to support them. They just need to survive this period of time.

The captain and the crew on board thought so, only the old Thorne looked worried. He had been sailing at sea for so many years, and he was used to the weakness of South Wales to pirates in these years.

The defenders of Puning Port may refuse to send naval support on the grounds of keeping the port safe, even if the pirates have already ravaged their doorstep.

Good premonitions are often daydreams, but ominous premonitions often come true.

Under the watchful eyes of all the crew members, Puning Port only sounded the alarm to prevent pirates from attacking the port, and did not send even a single warship to support it.

Old Thorne and others were dumped alive by six or seven pirate ships.

Seeing that he could no longer rely on the defenders of Puning Port, the captain could only grit his teeth and give the order to move forward at the highest speed. Even if the ship hits, he must rush out a safe way!

With full power and sailing at full strength, the ship rushed forward with the momentum of burning jade and stone, and the pirates who had surrounded them were thrown into chaos, revealing a safe passage.

The captain immediately commanded the crew, seized this opportunity, and escaped from the encirclement.

They were very lucky and successfully escaped from the encirclement of the pirates, but during the process of breaking in just now, the whole ship was almost sunk by the pirates' artillery fire, and dew and fire broke out everywhere.

Even though they had broken out of the pirates' siege and were very close to the port, the defenders of Puning Harbor still had no intention of deterring the pirates.

They would rather put the warship in the port to blow the wind than drive it out for a turn.

The old Thorne, who was used to the incompetence of the port defenders in South Wales, just sighed, and then sat and watched the young crew and passengers greet the defenders of Purning Port, the Grand Duke of South Wales and all the stupid people in extremely vulgar language. Aristocrats who are afraid of death.

Fortunately, the small pirate group with only six or seven ships did not dare to directly clash with the defenders of Puning Harbor and left angrily.

The burning ship finally docked, but the wait was not a cordial greeting, but a ruthless tax bill for calling at the port.

In the face of those crew members and passengers who dared to insult, the defenders of Purning Harbor were extremely brave at the moment.

If you don't cooperate, you will be beaten, and if you don't cooperate, you will be locked up. If you dare to make trouble, you will be shot on the spot.

No matter how angry the captain was, he could only obediently pay a large fee.

The huge tax bill, plus the cost of repairing the ship, even though a lot of money for the ticket has been collected for this trip, part of the money still needs to be subsidized.

Old Thorne could hear the captain's constant swearing and cursing from a distance, and he no longer had the amicable expression that he had just served him with wine.

In addition to the captain and crew, he also heard several passengers who were obviously nobles of the Loen Kingdom, who were filled with righteous indignation, saying that they would report to the king when they returned to Backlund, and loudly reprimanded the South Wales Navy for its uselessness.

Old Thorne listened for a while, then went to talk to Captain Rolle, and soon Captain Rolle put away the anger on his face, and went to chat with the passengers, accusing the South Wales admiral From the Grand Duke, down to the incompetence of an ordinary navy.

In a three-story hotel room in Puning Harbour, Hastur is looking through the window to see what is happening.

The incompetence of the South Wales navy, and the fear of pirates, really opened his eyes.

He found out clearly that in Puning Port, there are more than 20 small warships, eight medium warships, and one heavy warship.

The overall naval combat power is much higher than the seven pirate ships just now.

Except for one barely considered medium-sized ship, those pirate ships are all small ships, which cannot be compared with well-equipped warships at all.

Even if only two medium-sized warships were dispatched, it would be enough to deter the pirates.

But the result was surprising, which made Hasta deeply worried about the coastal defense issue of the Loen Kingdom.

With such combat effectiveness and atmosphere, once the flames of war in the Southern Continent spread, the entire coastal defense line would be destroyed in one blow.

After all, a navy that fears even pirates cannot compare with the regular army of the Southern Continent.

Sharon, who was standing by the window on the other side, looked over. She knew that half of the purpose of Hastur's trip to South Wales was to consolidate South Wales' coastal defenses.

"It's really disappointing, even I can't stand it anymore." Hasta said with a smile.

Sharon calmly uttered a word, "It's hard."

"The civil strife in the southern continent will not be over for a while. If you want to attack South Wales, you need at least half a year to prepare, and there is still a lot of time." Hasta is still very optimistic about the future.

"You can take advantage of it."

"Miss Sharon, how do you know what's in my heart?"

Hastur looked at Sharon in surprise. He was indeed planning to use the hands of the Loen nobles who had returned from the southern continent to sue the king and put pressure on the Grand Duke of South Wales to let him delegate power to himself.

Sharon glanced at Hastur lightly, "Do I look stupid?"

Hastur quickly explained that he didn't mean it, and Azshara, who was lying on the window sill, meowed to Sharon at the right time.

It means that his master just looks down on her IQ.

There was a slight coldness in Sharon's eyes, she glanced at Hastur, and then began to knead Azshara who was stirring up trouble.

Not long after becoming an instigator, he has already learned how to fight fire.

……

"Dear sister, your worrying second brother has returned safely from the Southern Continent, and set foot in the kingdom's territory at four o'clock in the afternoon on March 3th."

"This should have been a happy thing, but when we were approaching Puning Port, we encountered a small episode. The heroic navy of our kingdom was afraid of little pirates and allowed them to plunder merchant ships outside the port. We are deeply worried about the issue of coastal defense.”

"Didn't the always wise Earl Hall see this clearly? He was also blinded by the illusion of boasting?"

"If one day the war from the south spreads, this place will become the most powerful stepping stone for them to attack the kingdom."

"Maybe I can stay here, wait for the war to come, and fight for the title of earl on the battlefield."

"Sigh, I really don't want to go back to Backlund and see Hibbert's smug smile. He will definitely take the opportunity to ridicule me for leaving the Southern Continent, and use this to nail me to the pillar of shame."

"But the wanderer who came back from afar misses his family very much, especially his lovely and kind sister. He hasn't heard her call second brother for a long time."

Late at night, under the dim light in the hotel room, Alfred Hall, who was wearing a black coat, was writing hard.

After writing a letter full of paper, Alfred Hall checked it carefully several times, and after confirming that there was nothing wrong with it, he asked someone to send the letter back to Backlund first.

He is going to stay in South Wales for a few days to find out the situation here and see if it is suitable for him to stay here to make contributions.

At the same time, he also wanted to test Earl Hall's tone, to see if he hoped that he would return to Backlund more, or would arrange other ways out for him.

(End of this chapter)