The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 751 I am a thief catcher, you can't omit it as "petty thief"!

Given the pitifully small number of warhorses in Eastern Wu, it was certainly impossible for them to arrive immediately upon seeing the beacon fires.

Of course, war mules and donkeys can be concentrated to some extent. But consider the running speed of mules and donkeys, and especially their obedience to commands…

Shen Le should trust his own feet rather than believe in them.

Fortunately, there were other methods. Northerners are good at riding horses, and southerners are good at boating. After investigating, Shen Le made a decisive decision:

"Use a boat!"

"But the boat is too slow... and rowing is too tiring..."

Upon seeing the beacon fires, they rallied, boarded the boats, and rowed with all their might until they reached their destination. Then they disembarked and ran for their lives. Leaving aside whether they'd even make it in time, even if they did—

They paddled and ran all the way, and when they saw the enemy, they still had the energy to fight.
"Of course I know," Shen Le said calmly.
"It wasn't easy for us to go there, and it wasn't easy for those pirates to come ashore and loot and pillage either." He ignored his subordinate beside him, whose lips were twitching as he tried to suppress his complaints, and continued:

"If I were them, I definitely wouldn't retreat as soon as the signal fires are lit. I would calculate the time and estimate when we'd arrive before leaving. So, as long as we travel faster than they expect—"

So how do we get there in time?

"Change the ship."

Shen Le was confident. With the authority granted to him by the county magistrate, he requisitioned two fishing boats and began his operation.

Instead of employing the Wang family members who were in the timber business and also owned a shipyard, they directly recruited an experienced carpenter from their own clan to modify the carpentry piece by piece according to his requirements:
"Pull the boat up first! Scrape the bottom clean! Leave not a single piece of seaweed or shell!"

Various attachments on the hull are one of the main culprits for reducing a ship's speed. The more attachments there are, and the more irregular their shape, the more they will disrupt the ship's perfect streamlined shape.

Every time Yun Kun returned, it had to be set up in the dry dock, and the sailors would scrape the bottom of the boat, polish it repeatedly with fine sand, and then repaint it.

Of course, Shen Le didn't bother to ask whether Yun Kun was enjoying the massage and scraping or was simply too lazy to clean himself...

"Move all the unnecessary stuff off the ship! Dismantle it completely! Throw away everything that can be thrown away, including old fishing nets, stones, ballast, cooking pots, weeds, etc.! Make the ship as light as possible!"

Up to this point, everything was still within the carpenters' comprehension. However, Shen Le's next order caused the carpenters and the boatman to rush forward, almost grabbing his legs:
"Add a slant mast here!"

"No! Sir! No!" The boatman was almost in tears.

"Masts are something that are built along with the ship! If we add a mast now, are you going to drill a hole in the ship?"

"Ah...no need." Shen Le bent down and reached out to pull him up. She tried once, but couldn't. On the second try, she grabbed his shoulder, lifted him up, and put him aside.

He grabbed a piece of charcoal and, with a few quick strokes, drew lines directly on the hull of the boat.
"Here... about one-third of the way down the hull, use two thick planks to clamp the side of the ship, clamp it here as well. Then, nail a few more planks to the bow to make a mast mount."

Find a lightweight and sturdy pole, bamboo or wood will do, it doesn't need to be as long as the mainmast, just half the length of the mainmast. Insert one end into the mast base, angled forward, and secure it firmly with a support cable..."

The boatman stopped crying and started listening attentively; the carpenter also stopped crying and began gesturing along with Shen Le's ideas.
"With these ropes holding it in place, the mast does seem like it won't fall over! But it keeps swaying back and forth..."

"That's exactly what I want," Shen Le said decisively.
"A slanted mast with a fixed triangular sail, pulled back and forth by rigging, can sail in all directions! It can sail with the wind, sail in the crosswind, and sail against the wind!"
"If the pirates have calculated the wind direction and know we can't get here, we'll teach them a lesson! Oh, and let's modify the stern again, add a big oar, you know how to do that, right?"

The modification plan proposed by Shen Le was the famous Juexi salvage boat in later generations, known as the "Red Hare of the Sea".

What's even more remarkable is that Juexi is a village under the jurisdiction of Xiangshan, not far from here. It's fair to say that this type of boat was born to be used here, without any problems adapting to the local conditions!
Adding a slant mast and a triangular sail to a fishing boat is quite easy; a skilled carpenter can finish the mast in two days. As for the remaining sails, rigging, and so on…

Drawing on his experience repairing the Yun Kun years ago, Shen Le guided the craftsmen in hand-working the ropes without any difficulty. Once the mast was finished, the sail ropes were simultaneously completed, and they were hung up for a test run.
"Wait! Wait!—Why is this ship veering to the side?!"

Shen Le sighed, pushed aside the boat captain, and took matters into his own hands. Sigh, people who've never handled a triangular sail before really have no idea how to operate it…

After all, not every ship is a Yunkun and can sail itself, right?
Fortunately, he gained some experience in repairing Yun Kun, so operating a small fishing boat was not difficult at all.

At this moment, holding the sail rope, tilting my head back, feeling the breeze on my face, I feel as if there is a voice in my ear, and I naturally know what to do and which direction to pull the sail.

While shouting to the boat captain, he reached out and pulled the rope. Before long, the fishing boat nimbly turned around, went uphill against the wind, and headed towards the other side of the lake.

After modifying the fishing boat, Shen Le trained the sailors to operate the new vessel while traversing the entire coastline.

He rowed his small boat out to sea, repeatedly lowering a plumb bob to measure the water depth during high and low tides;

He visited local fishermen and inquired about the surrounding islands and whether any of them were habitable.

He talked and chatted with the locals, without mentioning their origins as pirates, their bases, or even where they had robbed. He only inquired about the local climate, their fishing catches, and the timing of the tides...

Half a month later, Shen Le's map was marked with more than a dozen red dots, all of which were places where the water was deep enough for slightly larger pirate ships to dock.

However, within just half a month, rumors were already spreading throughout the county:

"What's this new thief-catching officer doing?"

"All talk and no action, all you see him doing is running around on the beach all day long..."

"Could it be that he took our money and doesn't want to work?"

"They're not even training properly..."

"They're still practicing, but it's not him practicing; it's his clansmen leading the practice. But, can you understand those strange-looking things? Poking people with bamboo poles?"

"Do you think we haven't given you enough money? Do you want us to send you more money and silk?"

Under pressure, the county magistrate summoned him once, explicitly and implicitly urging him to produce results quickly;

The most anxious Zhao family head even visited him twice, bringing two pigs, ten sheep, and twenty jars of wine tied with red flowers, which were carried to his house in the county in a grand procession, attracting the attention of half the county.

Shen Le was both amused and exasperated, and could only offer him words of comfort:
"I only have this many men at my disposal. Even if I wanted to go out to sea to pursue them, I wouldn't be able to catch them! Let's just wait for those pirates to come and rob us. Then I'll wipe them all out in one fell swoop!" Sending a mere thief catcher out to sea was indeed too much. The county magistrate couldn't say anything, and the many wealthy families couldn't say anything either.

Shen Le patiently trained his troops and measured the water level. A month later, the flames of war finally ignited on the coast!

"set off!"

The yamen runners, servants, and clan soldiers quickly assembled and filed onto the boat. The captain rowed from behind, while Shen Le personally pulled the sail of the first boat.
"Sure enough... they came against the wind. That's how the wind is at the seaside; it blows inland during the day, and we arrived just in time to catch a headwind."

The wind blew out to sea at night, and by the time we arrived, huffing and puffing, they had just taken advantage of the low tide to leave! Today is the 18th, the weather is clear, the sea and land breezes are strong, and it's precisely when the water level is highest and the tide is going out in the evening!

By calculating astronomical phenomena and ocean tides, one can accurately predict when pirates will come ashore to plunder.

Let alone pirates, back when we landed at Incheon, we calculated the timing perfectly and warned North Korea in advance—but they didn't listen, what could we do!

The sails turned, braving the wind, and the boat reached unprecedented speeds. Shen Le manipulated the sail ropes for a moment, then handed the task over to the boatman, leaped to the stern, and raised his voice:

"Everyone saw it! Our ship is faster than the pirates expected! They won't have time to escape before the tide goes out, and we can catch them in advance!"

"Then, we'll catch them completely off guard and wipe them out! The credit, rewards, and official positions are all yours!"

The soldiers roared in muffled fury. Those clansmen who had followed Shen Le into battle and climbed cliffs with him shouted with particular fervor:
The more time Shen Le spent planning, the more confident he became, the higher his chances of winning, and the stronger the results they could achieve!

The specially modified fishing boat sailed downstream against the wind and current. As the sun slowly set, Shen Le kept watching the shadow cast by the mast, silently estimating the time.

Finally, around three o'clock in the afternoon, the boat lurched and gently came to rest against the shore. Before even disembarking, Shen Le could smell thick smoke and hear screams and cries carried on the wind!

"Enemy at the front! Charge!"

The constables and soldiers filed off the boat. They formed the same mandarin duck formation they had practiced before, ten men per group, and marched forward like a forest.

Shield bearers provided cover in front, wolf-tooth rake bearers swung their bamboo tips, spearmen thrust from the middle, and swordsmen finished off the attackers at close range.

The pirates were engrossed in their looting and had no idea that a well-equipped but oddly formed government army would suddenly appear, throwing them into chaos.
"The government troops are coming! Let's go! Let's go quickly!"

"Why are you leaving! There are only a few of them—take them all out!"

"Kill that little thief!"

Shen Le: ? ? ?
I am a thief-catching officer. Even if you can't pronounce the last few words smoothly, you can't omit them and just call me "little thief"!

Fortunately, while these pirates were individually brave and skilled, their advantage in individual combat vanished when faced with this coordinated formation.

Qi Jiguang's Mandarin Duck Formation was indeed reasonable. Even though Shen Le's troops were not well-trained, they still had an advantage against the pirates. In an instant, seven or eight of them were stabbed and cut down.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the bandit leader shouted and ordered a retreat. The remaining bandits abandoned their loot and ran in a sorry state toward the two shuttle-shaped speedboats moored on the beach.

Unfortunately, it wasn't night yet, and the tide hadn't risen, so both boats were stuck on the mudflats. The thieves had no choice but to go into the water and push them with all their might. Shen Le stopped on the shore and shouted:
"Fire arrows!"

He drew his bow and nocked an arrow, and with one shot, a bandit who was about to board the ship fell to the ground. The other villagers also fired their arrows, leaving several more corpses behind.

However, the soldiers' training level and the availability of bows and arrows remained major problems. Even with Shen Le and his men's best efforts in firing arrows, most of the bandits still managed to jump onto one of the boats and row away from the shore.

The remaining boat, along with the two wounded and captured bandits, fell into Shen Le's hands. As for valuables? What valuables? Beaten up like that, they still wanted to take valuables?

In this battle, Shen Le beheaded, captured, and seized ships, achieving a great victory. The news spread, causing a sensation throughout the county!
"In the past, only pirates robbed us! The government troops either didn't come, or they would only come after the pirates had left!"

The Zhao family, who dealt in grain; the Li family, who ran a restaurant; the Wang family, who dealt in timber; and other prominent county officials and village elders frequently raised their glasses in toasts:

"This is the first time! We gave them a good beating! Shen Yuancao truly lives up to his reputation as a young hero. We need people like you to protect the peace of this county!"

Copper coins, cloth, pigs, sheep, and wine once again filled Shen Le's residence in the county. This time, however, Shen Le did not quickly distribute the rewards, nor did he even allow his subordinates to drink:

"Eat as much rice as you like, eat as much meat as you want. Be prepared, we can leave at any time!"

After instructing his trusted brothers, he immediately began interrogating the two prisoners that very night. A few lashes and a few special techniques quickly broke the thieves.
"I said...I said!"

"We are the Sea Dragon Gang! Our leader is known as the Mixed Sea Dragon, and we have a hundred members and three boats!"

"The base... the base is on Shepan Island... roughly in the northeast direction. It takes a day to travel with the wind at your back, and two days to travel against the wind..."

"The stolen goods... I don't know anything about them! They're all under the leader's control. When to go to sea and who to rob are all decided by the leader..."

"The island has mountain streams and water! But there isn't much farmland, not enough to feed so many people..."

Shen Le separated the two and interrogated them thoroughly, especially about the sea journey and which islands they passed along the way. As he questioned them, he continuously marked the locations on the map, while simultaneously recalling maps from his previous life:
The sea route from here leads to the Zhoushan Islands, a collection of islands scattered like stars, any of which could potentially harbor pirates.

Meanwhile, as long as the government troops set sail and do not get lost, they can find an island and will not die of thirst or hunger, so the danger is not great!
"You intend to launch a night attack and wipe out our entire territory?"

In the dead of night, the county magistrate, startled awake, put on his robe and looked at Shen Le with a furrowed brow:
"Will it be too risky?"

"No problem." Shen Le opened the suitcase he had brought and pulled out a strange-looking new item:

"What's this?"

The magistrate looked completely bewildered. He followed Shen Le into the courtyard and watched as Shen Le picked up the wooden contraption, aimed it at the stars in the sky, and adjusted it little by little before bowing his head to record it on the silk map.

Without realizing it, his tone carried a hint of reverence.

Shen Le put down the strange contraption made of arcs, triangles, and circles, and smiled slightly:
"I call it a sextant; it's a simplified version of an armillary sphere, used to determine our location. With it, we won't get lost at sea—"

(End of this chapter)