The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 750 At home, I don't mind if you call me by my nickname, but what do you call me outside?
Shen Le was eager to get started, ready to go all out. It's just shipbuilding, right?
It's just hand-making a boat!
He can make boats weighing 400 shi (a unit of weight), and he can also make small inland river boats weighing 50 shi or even smaller by hand. It's no problem for him at all!

However, the shipbuilding project had not yet begun—the family had not yet found a suitable dry dock, or begun digging one, or acquired a small shipyard, nor had they purchased suitable timber.

An order has already taken Shen Le directly from his clan's territory to the county:

"Yue, Brother Yue!" The man dismounted at the gate of the mansion and rushed in.

"The county has issued an urgent order; you must come immediately!"

"Um--?"

Shen Le raised an eyebrow. The man who arrived was one of his cousins, who had accompanied him on the expedition and, upon their return, had been casually placed in a position in the county government.

He hadn't earned much military merit, only some hard work, so becoming an official was out of the question. He couldn't even become a lowly clerk like a constable or a lowly clerk. At best, he could become a yamen runner or something similar, so he came running errands to deliver messages.

It's fine if you come alone; we can address each other however we like as family. The problem is, you have someone with you behind you. I don't recognize that person; they're definitely not a family member...

At home you call me Brother Yue, and I won't mind. But in front of outsiders, what should you call me?
"Clerk, Clerk!" Under his intense gaze, the uncle slammed on the brakes, his mind finally returning to normal. He stood shoulder to shoulder with the constable behind him, clasped his hands in a respectful greeting:

"The county has issued an urgent order for you to go there immediately!"

"Ah...so fast?" Shen Le stood up and quickly grabbed his backpack—the one he was carrying on his expedition, reinforced with old rattan in the back according to ergonomics—and started throwing his luggage inside:

"According to the documents, I still have ten days to settle down, so I don't need to take up my post so soon. Has something happened?"

Shen Le's uncle, who had just taken office, couldn't answer this question yet. He took a half step back, while the old yamen runner beside him puffed out his chest and said proudly:
"Pirates have landed and are plundering the villages, causing great harm to the people! The county magistrate is furious and requests that the clerk be dispatched immediately to apprehend the thieves and restore order to the people!"

As the county's thief-catching officer, apprehending thieves and maintaining public order was Shen Le's duty. His expression turned serious, he put down his backpack, and returned the salute.
"Understood. I'll pack my bags, get my men ready, and we'll head out immediately!"

At his shout, the clansmen who hadn't secured positions in the county quickly gathered their bows and swords and followed Shen Le to the county. Upon seeing the county town walls, Shen Le frowned:
chaos.

Very messy.

The energy, like tangled threads, drifted and swayed above the city walls, completely unable to coalesce into a coherent shape. If one had to make a comparison, it might resemble the clumps that formed after the Yellow Turban Rebellion's crushing defeat and the disintegration of the Yellow Heavenly Qilin in my previous life…

Has the people of this county become so fearful and disorganized?

He shook his head, went straight into the city, and headed straight for the county government office. The county town was not large; from the city gate to the county government office, it was only about seven or eight hundred steps. Along the way, he saw that the common people looked anxious, and the local gentry and wealthy families were filled with gloom.

Half of the grain stores, cloth stores, oil mills, and all kinds of shops, big and small, on the street had their doors and windows closed even in broad daylight.

As for the area inside and outside the county government office, it was even worse; the faces of the yamen runners were only slightly better than deathly pale...

After being informed, Shen Le was immediately led to Magistrate Zhou of the county. The magistrate was about forty years old, and his eyes were sunken and bloodshot.

Upon seeing Shen Le, she grasped his arm as if it were a lifeline, and before he could even bow, she grabbed his arm:
“Shen Yuancao, you’ve finally arrived! You must have heard on the way that the pirates are rampant, ravaging the countryside, causing heavy casualties among the people. This county… this county is so worried that we can’t eat or sleep!”

The common people are terrified, and the wealthy are restless. It is precisely because of young talents like you, warriors forged on the battlefield, that this crisis can be resolved!

Ah... isn't it a bit too early to flatter me like this? Shen Le silently grumbled to himself, but he also understood the magistrate's predicament:

Even now, the Wu state still follows the Han dynasty's rules for selecting officials. The Han dynasty's rules were that officials could come from the local area, while county magistrates were appointed from above and came from other places to take up their posts.

If a county magistrate doesn't have enough manpower and can't maintain good relations with local wealthy families, he won't even be able to collect taxes, let alone when faced with a sudden major event like a pirate invasion!
"Rest assured, sir, apprehending thieves is my duty, and I will do my utmost!" Shen Le replied in a deep voice. Looking around, seeing there was no map, he simply dragged him down to sit.

"Please provide details of the case, sir, so that I may depart as soon as possible to handle it!"

"Good, good!" Magistrate Zhou nodded repeatedly. He took a sip of water to moisten his somewhat hoarse throat and quickly said:

"Last night, a group of pirates landed at Heisha Bay in the east of the county and launched a surprise attack on the nearby Donggou Township, burning, killing, and looting. They killed seventeen villagers, kidnapped more than ten able-bodied men, women, and children, and stole countless grains and valuables!"

By the time the county received the report and organized a force to go, the thieves had already sailed away. Only scorched earth remained, and the cries of weeping echoed from every house. The county... was powerless to help!

Donggou Township… Shen Le tried hard to recall the map. This township was near the sea, with barren land and large tracts of saline-alkali land that couldn't grow many crops.

The only advantage is that there's a port there, with a barely passable waterway connecting it to the inland. If someone wanted to do sea-to-land transport business, they could make a fortune by taking over this port.
In his previous life, when he migrated with his family, he also investigated that village, but was ultimately defeated by the poor soil and chose this place instead.

Shen Le's strongest impression of it was that it smelled like stinky winter melon, stinky vegetable stalks, stinky fish, and stinky...

He subconsciously wrinkled his nose, his whole face contorting in pain. If it were a stern county magistrate, such a simple gesture would have undoubtedly earned him a reprimand for "disrespectful conduct."

However, Magistrate Zhou couldn't care less about that at the moment; he was only pounding his palms in anguish and despair.
"This is the second time this group of pirates has caused trouble! Last month, the neighboring county was also robbed once, and the robbery was even more brutal than ours."

Our superiors have issued a stern rebuke, and the people are in an uproar. If we cannot wipe this scoundrel out quickly, what will become of us…? Alas!

Shen Le lowered his head and remained silent. He drew several circles in the air with his index finger; the larger circles represented the county, the smaller circles represented several larger towns, and he also drew a winding waterway.
"The thieves came quickly and left quickly. They didn't rob rich places, but they were very precise and their actions were swift and efficient. Sir, how many thieves came? How many boats did they have?"

"We don't know yet... The county has sent people to inquire, but there's been no reply... The people who came to report the news were terrified and their words were incoherent; they only knew that many people had died and many people had been robbed..."

"Then... what did the county magistrate say? Did the nearby navy or patrol boats go out to sea to track them?"

Magistrate Zhou smiled wryly: "What navy do we have stationed in our county? Not even in the prefecture! We only have a few old ships, which are only good for fishing and fighting pirates on the beach."

He shook his head helplessly. Shen Le was practically rolling her eyes to the heavens.

We have no manpower, no ships, and no enemy situation. How can we fight pirates?

You want me to run on two feet and fight pirates on land?!
However, as a thief-catching officer, it was his duty, and he couldn't simply quit. Besides, the dead and wounded civilians, the kidnapped women and children, the terrified crowds… Shen Le saw all of this and wanted to resolve the issue as well. He thought for a moment, then bowed again:

"To apprehend the pirates, please allow me to interrogate the victims, investigate all suspicious persons, and search the shops!"

"allow!"

"Please allow me to mobilize available manpower within the county to survey various locations and deploy defenses along the coast!"

The last request made the magistrate hesitate. However, thinking of the consequences of being robbed again and being reprimanded by his superiors, he gritted his teeth:

"allow!"

"Please allow me to requisition civilian ships and supplies! If the county has any mules or horses, please gather them together as much as possible. If pirates attack, I can quickly lead men to provide support!"

"This..." The magistrate looked troubled. After hesitating for a long time, he quickly wrote down several notes:

"It's not that the county can't grant your request, but with spring plowing approaching, we can't afford to miss the planting season. So, the county allows you to inspect the county's available mounts, which you can immediately requisition in case of an emergency!"

What's the difference between this and not agreeing... By the time the news gets out and people go to each household to fetch horses and mules, it'll be too late!
Shen Le sighed inwardly, knowing that livestock shortages were common in Eastern Wu. It couldn't compare to Cao Wei, nor even to Shu Han—at least Shu Han had Sichuan and Yunnan horses!

There was no other way; even with limited resources, we had to keep working.

Seeing that he couldn't squeeze any more authority out of the county magistrate, he led his clansmen, along with the yamen runners under his jurisdiction, straight to Donggou Township, the victim.

Northerners are skilled with horses, southerners with boats. The three small boats, one after another, rowed steadily, and arrived at Donggou Township that very evening. Shen Le went ashore and frowned upon seeing the boats:

The scene was horrific; bloodstains remained wet among the broken walls, and the surviving people stared blankly, their cries echoing through the air.

But that wasn't the main point. All the signs and clues at the scene of the looting puzzled him:

Although the entire village appeared to have been swept clean, the biggest losses were suffered by a row of warehouses along the dock.

The rice stalks trampled into the mud, the sesame oil spilled on the ground, and the torn and bloodstained cloths all testify to the brutal looting that has taken place here.

Some warehouses even had their doors hacked open, pottery inside was overturned and smashed, woodenware was hammered with large holes, and beautiful lacquerware and polished bronze mirrors, even if they couldn't be taken away, were still slashed...

Food and cloth are one thing, but hard currency is something you can use for yourself, even if you don't sell it—especially for pirates who don't produce anything and only plunder.

However, lacquerware and bronze mirrors are both lightweight and valuable, so why not take them with you? Why just destroy them?
It can't just be because it's inconvenient to dispose of stolen goods, can it?

Furthermore, there were also civilians who were murdered and abducted. The wealthy and powerful were not killed; instead, the poor people near the docks who made a living by carrying goods were killed.

The abduction of women and children was not confined to any specific area; it seemed more like a random act. They would break down low, narrow shacks and drag people away as they pleased.

If the sole purpose is to maximize profits, wouldn't it be more normal to kill wealthy households and abduct women and children from prominent families? Why would anyone do such a thing?
While sending people to secretly investigate shops, warehouses, and black markets in and around the county, Shen Le patiently visited several prominent families in the county one by one.

To put it bluntly, Mao County is located in a remote area, not to mention far from the capital of the Wu Kingdom, it is also a hundred and eight thousand miles away from the prefectural capital.

Moreover, being located by the sea, the land was barren and the people were poor. Neither the four major families of Lu, Zhu, Gu, and Zhang, nor some newly emerging families that rose to prominence later, liked to come here.

Being considered someone of some standing here is just so-so, and their positions largely overlap with those of county officials, village elders, and village stewards.

Basically, the major households divided up the various profitable industries in the county, each taking a slice and then another.
The Li family mainly ran restaurants and inns, the Zhao family mainly sold grain, and the Wang family owned a large area of ​​rolling hills that produced the best timber and woodenware. They even had a small shipyard...

"Shen Yuancao! You must send troops as soon as possible! The market has been sluggish lately, and with the pirates causing such a ruckus, nobody walks on the streets anymore!"

The head of the Li family looked very anxious. As he spoke, he ordered his servants to send meat and wine to the yamen so that the yamen runners could "at least warm themselves up."

However, there was no further investment whatsoever. No money, no cloth, and no support in terms of even a few thugs to help with patrols.

The Wang family, who were in the timber business, were even more aloof, using the excuse that "the head of the family was frightened and ill," and only sent a young man to meet them briefly. Shen Le couldn't do anything about it.
The Wang family had deep roots in the county; one of their members even became a county magistrate, a higher official than him…

The head of the Zhao family was truly furious.
"If you need money or provisions, my family is willing to donate! If you need able-bodied men, my family members and tenants can also provide them! We only ask that the pirates be wiped out as soon as possible, so that my family can have peace!"

"No, no, no..." Shen Le saw that he was about to kneel down and quickly reached out to help him up:
"I'm afraid we can't send troops out right now. It's the busy farming season, and we can't conscript tenants to avoid delaying the planting season... So, do you have any clever guys here who can lend me a few to get some information?"

They asked around, one person here, another there, and even sent out the yamen runners, clansmen, and the hired help from the Zhao family, but they still couldn't find a clue.

More importantly, Shen Le did not discover any large quantities of unusual goods being sold as stolen goods:
Keeping the grain for oneself is one thing, but keeping all the cloth for oneself to wear? The lost items reported by the merchant include not only linen, but also silk and brocade!

The brocade produced by their Shen family!
These pirates aren't selling their stolen goods locally?
Are you going to carry something this heavy all the way to another city to sell it?
Why not carry the lacquerware away?

And then there's the killing of the port laborers...

"This doesn't make sense." After dismissing the yamen runners, Shen Le analyzed the situation with his clansmen's confidants.
"Either they have a fixed channel for selling stolen goods, not in this county, but in a more distant place. Or, their purpose in robbing wasn't just the money itself... Could it be?"

A fake business war: backstabbing and scheming, a back-and-forth battle where you cut off my supply chain and I spread rumors about you to consumers.

Real-world business warfare: sending someone to unplug your internet cable, killing your money tree with water, poisoning the boss's drink, hiring someone to commit murder...

He silently weighed his options, but didn't voice them. Instead, he traveled all along the coast, organizing the people of each village and town, and vigorously spreading the word about the brutality of the pirates;
Then, simple beacon towers were set up on several key high grounds. Once enemy activity was detected, smoke signals were lit during the day and fires were lit at night.

"I'm coming right away!"

(End of this chapter)