Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather.

Chapter 629 You have lived too comfortably and have forgotten how to fight!
The old man opened the bamboo tube and took out the note inside.

"Hey! The Tarot Dynasty actually dispatched the Giant Whale Navy?"

Seeing the contents of the note, the old man couldn't help but exclaimed in surprise.

"Coming towards the north? It's the same direction as ours!" the old man thought.

The Giant Whale Navy is the elite navy of the Tarot Dynasty. It has not been on a long voyage for many years. Now it suddenly goes out to sea, which makes the old man a little confused.

"Yuan Ke, what do you think their goal is? Are they here to capture me?" the old man asked.

The big man standing next to him, Yuan Ke, twitched his lips slightly and said, "Master, even if they want to capture you, there is no need to send out the Giant Whale Navy!"

The old man glared at him, "You're saying that my master is not worthy of them sending out the giant whale navy?"

"No, what I mean is that it's useless for them to dispatch the Giant Whale Navy. In front of the Master, the Giant Whale Navy is just a small fry navy, not worth mentioning at all!" A flattering smile appeared on Yuan Ke's silly face, and he flattered him implicitly.

The old man smiled brightly, "You are right, those damned giant whale navy are just a bunch of trash, they are not worthy of being compared to me!"

"But what is their goal?"

"If it weren't for me, what else would be worth the Tarot Dynasty sending out the Giant Whale Navy?"

"Could that old man Xiang Anxu also be on the ship of the Giant Whale Navy?"

Yuan Ke thought for a moment and said, "They might be after Xingyue Island!"

"Xingyue Island?" the old man asked in surprise, "Did you receive any other news?"

Yuan Ke explained: "I have heard before that the Tarot King Court has always wanted to expand the northern maritime trade, and the most prosperous force in the northern maritime trade is Xingyue Island!"

"If they want to develop maritime trade in the north, they will definitely not be able to bypass Xingyue Island!"

The old man nodded, "You are right, it should be that old fellow Xiang Anxu who wants to conquer Xingyue Island!"

"How strong is Xingyue Island?"

Yuan Ke shook his head slightly, "I'm not sure. The Xingyue Island Yang family is very close to the Dihuo Island Zhu family. Their strength should be similar to that of the Dihuo Island. Even if they are weaker, they should not be much weaker. And it is said that the Xingyue Island Yang family has the support of Darong behind them!"

The Yang family of Xingyue Island has a great reputation in the southeastern and southern waters of Dayong, but its reputation in the Wanli Sea is not very loud.

The Wanli Sea is too vast, and the Yang Family Merchants' fleet's activities are limited to the northwest of the Wanli Sea.

In other words, the forces near Xingyue Island are more familiar with the island, while the forces farther away only have a superficial understanding of the island.

"That means Xingyue Island is not weak!" said the old man.

The Zhu family of Dihuo Island is much more famous in the Wanli Sea than the Yang family of Xingyue Island. In the old man's mind, the strength of the Zhu family of Dihuo Island is still relatively strong, and the Yang family of Xingyue Island can be compared with the Zhu family, which means that the strength of the Yang family is not weak either.

"Not necessarily. Maybe it's because Xingyue Island has the support of Darong!" Yuan Ke said.

The old man shook his head. "Da Rong, if it was the Darong of the past, people would still be a little scared of him, but the Darong now, haha, is just an old dragon. They can't go into the sea anymore!"

Among the many forces in the western part of the Wanli Sea, Dayong is a behemoth, but not all forces are afraid of this behemoth.

Just like the Tarot Dynasty, they may not dare to go to Dayong to cause trouble, but they will not be afraid of Dayong on the sea.

The same was true of the Zhang Dynasty.

The old man in front of him was Zhang Juhai, a powerful man from the Zhang Dynasty. The Zhang Dynasty and the Tarot Dynasty were old enemies, and the closest distance between the territories of the two dynasties was only less than thirty miles.

In order to compete for territory and maritime trade rights, the two dynasties often broke out in brutal wars.

The specific location of the Zhang Dynasty is almost exactly south of Xingyue Island, and the Tarot Dynasty is slightly to the east, almost southeast of Xingyue Island.

The reason why Xingyue Island does not develop maritime trade to the south is because wars often break out between these two guys, making that area of ​​the sea almost a restricted area for maritime merchants.

No merchant would be willing to risk being affected by war to trade. Losing all their money would be the least of their worries. If they are not careful, they might even lose their life.

"What do you think? Should we go to Xingyue Island to help out? Since the Tarot Dynasty wants to attack Xingyue Island, can we win over Xingyue Island?"

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend!”

"Haha, let's go make friends with Xingyue Island!"

"I love making friends the most!"

Zhang Juhai laughed.

He is willing to get involved in anything that could cause trouble for the Tarot Dynasty.

For him, the greatest pleasure in life is to cause trouble to the Tarot Dynasty and embarrass that old man Xiang Anxu.

……

Dihuo Island, inside the Zhu family city.

Zhu Family City is a city. All the people living in the city are descendants of the Zhu family. A family needs a city to live in, which shows how many descendants of the Zhu family there are.

The Zhu family is such a strange existence. On the Dihuo Island, the Zhu family is the master, and people with other surnames are slaves.

For people with other surnames, giving them the surname Zhu is the most glorious gift.

There is also a strict hierarchy within the Zhu family. A branch line with a congenital warrior can become the main line. Once the congenital warrior dies, the main line will become a side branch.

Once they become the direct line, the descendants of this branch will be able to enter the center of power of the Zhu family.

After the innate warrior passes away, these descendants will gradually withdraw from the center of power.

Therefore, a unique hierarchy was formed within the Zhu family.

The direct lineage is the collateral branch whose ancestors produced innate warriors, and the collateral branch whose ancestors have not produced innate warriors.

This hierarchy seems to respect innate warriors, but in fact, those branches firmly control the power of the Zhu family.

Because power represents resources, and resources tend to give birth to strong people.

Once a congenital warrior appears in a branch of the family, the descendants of this branch will be able to obtain a large amount of resources for cultivation, and will have a better future.

So the final result is that there are four branches of the Zhu family that always control the power of the Dihuo Island, and most of the innate warriors trained by the Zhu family come from these four branches.

As for the claim that those with extraordinary talents can change their fate, don't joke about it. The class structure within the Zhu family has long been solidified, and they simply do not allow talents outside of the four direct branches to grow.

This is also the thing that Yang Zhengshan despises the most about the Zhu family.

However, it doesn’t matter whether Yang Zhengshan thinks highly of it or not. The Zhu family has been able to pass down for hundreds of years, so naturally they have their advantages.

Today, the Zhu family still has three masters: the eldest master Zhu Bowen, the second master Zhu Changxing, and the third master Zhu Yanshan. When the original eldest master passed away, the following masters took his place, so Zhu Changxing became the second master from the third master.

In the study room of the Zhu family mansion, Zhu Changxing held a wolf hair brush and splashed ink freely.

In a blink of an eye, the four characters "The Sea Flows Across" appeared on the rice paper. Zhu Yanshan, who was standing next to him, looked at the four characters and pulled at his messy beard. He had a big beard covering his chin and was extremely tall, more than two meters tall. His strong arms were thicker than the average man's thighs. He wore a short shirt, revealing his dark and strong arms, with bulging muscles like anvils.

"Third brother, how about my handwriting?" Zhu Changxing said with a complacent look on his face.

Zhu Yanshan looked at the big characters on the rice paper for a long time, and finally said, "OK!"

"Just good?" Zhu Changxing felt dissatisfied with his answer.

"Uh, good!"

"..."

Zhu Changxing threw down his brush in boredom, "Can't you read more books?"

"Second brother, our Zhu family makes a living by blacksmithing. Studying is not as good as blacksmithing!" Zhu Yanshan said very reasonably.

Zhu Changxing was completely speechless.

Although this is true, it still won’t hurt to read more books.

As for blacksmithing, well, he, the second master of the Zhu family, has never liked blacksmithing.

"Forget it. Have you finished making the thing I asked you to make?" Zhu Changxing didn't want to chat with this fool, so he got straight to business.

"It's ready, I'll get it for you!"

Zhu Yanshan didn't wait for Zhu Changxing's consent and ran out of the study. A moment later, he walked in holding an eight-foot-long spear.

The spear was eight feet long, much taller than Zhu Yanshan. It was dark black in color, with a sharp tip. A few inches below the blade was a small round plate with a blade on it. There was an iron spike at the end of the shaft, which was four inches long.

The tips of the guns were all dark in color, as if they had no edge at all.

If you only look at the appearance, there is nothing special about this spear. It does not look gorgeous at all, just ordinary.

Zhu Yanshan slammed his spear into the ground like he was presenting a treasure, and the heavy iron spike at the end of the spear immediately smashed the thick floor tiles.

"Brother, look, this is the heavy black iron spear that I spent a month to make!"

"The spear is eight feet and three inches long and weighs two thousand four hundred and eighty-two kilograms. The spear tip is made of high-quality black iron, forged using the same method we use to forge Earth Fire Steel. I call it Earth Fire Black Iron Steel!"

"The spear shaft is made of half black iron and half Qingshan copper. After being forged 100,000 times, it is fused into one. It is not only solid and heavy, but also has good elasticity!"

As he spoke, he shook the gun barrel, and the gun barrel shook, forming an arc about a foot wide.

"There is also the tail-grabbing iron. Even though it is only four inches long, this iron spike weighs two hundred and thirty kilograms. It is powerful enough to shatter gold and crack stone when it hits you."

"It took me more than half a year to forge this. Every hammer is just right, and every detail has been carefully studied by me!"

He acted like he was so great and asked his second brother to come and praise him.

However, Zhu Changxing kept looking at the floor tiles.

One piece, two pieces, three pieces, stones, damn, these are all top-grade blue-white jade, each piece is worth a thousand taels of silver. The most important thing is that the blue-white jade floor tiles in this room are cut from a large piece of jade. The quality, color, and texture are all integrated, and there is no replacement at all.

"Stop it, you idiot!" Zhu Changxing couldn't bear it any longer.

"Ah!" Zhu Yanshan was a little confused.

Zhu Changxing wanted to cry but had no tears. "Take your gun and get out!"

As for his blue-white jade, he either had to replace it all or replace it with a few pieces of similar jade like a patch.

Most people may not be able to see the difference, but he can see it.

Zhu Yanshan looked at his second brother who was a little angry, feeling a little confused.

However, he still walked out of the study in a flash, spear in hand.

"Wait, send the gun to Brother Yang on Xingyue Island. We can't help with the matter on Shenmu Island now, so just give Brother Yang a handy weapon to help him!" Zhu Changxing said.

"Okay!" Zhu Yanshan responded, then ran away with big strides.

My second brother is angry. If you don’t run away, you will be beaten. It’s better to run away first!
……

Inside the government office of Xingyue Island.

"Dad, I've found out that Shenmu Island's reliance is not Jiuxing Island, but the Tarot Dynasty. It is said that the Tarot Dynasty's giant whale navy has arrived at the outer waters of Shenmu Island, and they may attack at any time!"

Yang Mingzhi stood next to Yang Zhengshan and said in a deep voice.

No one on Xingyue Island took Shenmu Island seriously. In their opinion, if Shenmu Island provoked Xingyue Island, it would be courting its own destruction.

But when facing the Tarot Dynasty, they are still cautious.

There is an essential difference between dynasty power and island power, and this difference mainly comes from population and resources.

An island power has a population of at most one million, and having a navy of thirty to fifty thousand is already the most it can have.

But the population of a dynasty is basically over 10 million, and perhaps their high-end military forces are similar, but when it comes to navy and army, there is still a big gap.

Then there are resources. These resources are not just cultivation resources, but also various useful resources, such as the wood needed for shipbuilding. Even if all the trees on Xingyue Island are cut down, not a single large ship can be built.

A large lucky ship requires thousands of towering trees. Where can there be so many towering trees on Xingyue Island?
Therefore, all the ships owned by Xingyue Island were purchased from Dayong.

The gap in population and resources creates an irreparable disadvantage between island forces and dynasty forces.

"Tarot Dynasty? Are they no longer fighting with the Zhang Dynasty?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

"It seems like there hasn't been a war for two years!" said Yang Mingzhi.

Yang Zhengshan thought for a moment and said, "The Tarot Dynasty is indeed a problem, but there is no need to worry too much. We can wait until the Tenglong Guards' navy arrives!"

"I'm afraid that the navy of Tenglongwei has not arrived yet, but the navy of Tarot Dynasty and Shenmu Island has arrived first!" Yang Mingzhi said with some concern.

Yang Zhengshan stroked his beard and said calmly, "Come if you want. You have lived too peacefully these years and almost forgot how to fight!"

Xingyue Island only has two thousand naval forces, which naturally cannot be compared with the Giant Whale Navy of the Tarot Dynasty.

However, there are more than 30,000 people on Xingyue Island, most of whom are warriors, and they are warriors who have undergone basic military training.

On the sea, the Star-Moon Island may not be a match for the Giant Whale Navy, but on the Star-Moon Island, as long as the Giant Whale Navy dares to land on the island, they will become meat on the chopping board.

"What does Dad mean?" Yang Mingzhi asked with some surprise.

"Get everyone out there to practice. It's not impossible to live a peaceful life, but you have to be ready to fight at all times!"

"It's a good opportunity to temper their pride!"

(End of this chapter)