The sea breeze gently brushed past as Zhao Changhe lay languidly on the deck, gazing at the blue sky and white clouds, taking small sips from his wine gourd.
Although one could say he had been through the wringer, with unpredictable storms looming ahead, it was on this kind of journey that he paradoxically found a rare form of leisure. Perhaps this was the greatest difference from the past.
It was a pity that he couldn’t travel together with Chichi in the end.
She had headed directly to Langya’s seaport to take a legitimate route out to sea, which Zhao Changhe couldn’t do; he needed to head south to Ningbo.
Everyone had different reasons for setting sail, and even though the destination might be the sa, Zhao Changhe preferred to covertly observe the secrets and movents of the Sea Race. If he were with Chichi, they would be exposed to the gaze of the Sea Race, which might not be conducive to getting things done, revealing that the Four Symbols Sect and Zhao Changhe were in cahoots—a loss-making idea.
It was better to have one in the light and one in the shadows, which offered much more operability, only it was a sha that he couldn’t live an unashadly bohemian life at sea with Chichi.
Zhao Changhe didn’t know that Chichi had been copying books even during her seafaring journey and hadn’t finished to this day... Maybe the Venerable agreed with Xia Longyuan’s view that she "lacked tranquility," intentionally training her, allowing her to calm her mind a bit more...
As for the Tang family’s ships, they too had a legitimate reason for taking to sea.
In the recent proposal to replace grain transport by canal with mariti trade, due to the timing Tang Wanju had objected, whereas most of the Tang family supported it, even Tang Buqi unusually did not play the flatterer to his aunt on this issue, because it was advantageous for the family. Who cares about wrong timing or the greater good, who the hell thinks like their aunt, filled with nothing but blind loyalty to the state and the well-being of the world? We are, after all, an Aristocratic Family.
And then Tang Buqi was beaten and sent back to Gusu by his aunt.
Mariti transportation had been temporarily halted due to the Cao Gang causing trouble, but the Tang family had long been attempting overseas trade on a small scale, mostly exploratory in nature. They had so minor dealings with a small country on Haitian Island called Penglai.
This ti when Tang Buqi returned to Gusu, he directly started to arrange a new round of mariti trade to Penglai. He thought his aunt would be angry, but her letter said, "Changhe is going out to sea; make the arrangents."
Tang Buqi felt like a herd of llamas had stampeded through his gut, truly at a loss for words.
We open sea trade, you oppose. Your Zhao Changhe wants to go to sea, and suddenly you stop opposing. Now we’re useful, right? Allows you to show off to your lover, "all prepared in advance," right?
So much so that when Zhao Changhe ca to ask for a ship, Tang Buqi’s face slled sour, he couldn’t be bothered to speak to Zhao Changhe from start to finish.
Zhao Changhe lay on the deck recalling Tang Buqi’s snobbish expression, and even now it made him want to laugh.
"Young Master Zhao, the sun is about to set, and the wind is strong at night. It would be better to go below deck," the Tang family Captain called out from the cabin.
The captain’s na was Tang En, a na fitting for a main character in a Chinese fantasy story, which seed quite appropriate against the backdrop of a great voyage. He was a son of the Tang household, with over twenty years of mariti life and experience. He had been to Haitian Island before as well. This ti, with a legitimate reason for mariti trade, it was conducive to cover up Zhao Changhe’s presence.
Zhao Changhe laughed and replied, "If the ship isn’t afraid of the storm, neither am I. I really didn’t expect the Tang family’s ship to be this strong."
This was a real ocean-going ship. Zhao Changhe was unfamiliar with such matters and didn’t know about tonnage and the like, but it truly was big and stable, inspiring confidence just by looking at it. A smaller fleet followed behind, and he wondered about the profits from a single voyage, no wonder Tang Buqi didn’t listen to his aunt...
Tang En replied, "It’s good timing. Last year, the Gusu hadn’t been completed yet, and only started its trial voyage in the first half of this year, now it’s officially in service."
Zhao Changhe inquired, "How do you determine the bearings? By lodestone?
"It gets complicated... We mainly rely on a combination of the Jacob’s staff and compass needle path to asure the altitude angle of stars and so on. Observing the astronomical phenona, wind direction, tides... without ten years of sailing experience, one wouldn’t dare to venture out blindly to sea, at most they would navigate along the coast by land."
Zhao Changhe nodded and sighed, "There’s a world of difference between different fields."
In fact, what he marveled at was not the divide between Martial Arts and navigation but the realization that he was a liberal arts student; in the age of great mariti exploration like this, he felt out of place, unable to boast, as local navigation experience and scientific knowledge could leave him high and dry.
The Tang family wasn’t even at the top in this area; the Wang Family might be stronger.
Thinking about it, his own way of thinking had beco quite unmodern too, previously even educated on materialist dialectics by a blind man... Including the mariti ventures, his mind was full of dicinal materials, Martial Arts secrets, and mystical realms, while Tang En and the others were after various spices, latex, precious tals, produce, and brand-new crop seeds. His train of thought was completely different.
In an era where everyone revered Martial Arts, civilization was still developing unstoppably. It’s just that his usual perspective paid too little attention to this aspect, having been assimilated into Martial Arts thinking.
Zhao Changhe felt a bit embarrassed, given that he used to consider himself a man well-versed in the ways of the "Spring and Autumn"...
He strived to justify his Martial Arts mindset, "Are there any pirates?"
"In the early years, not many, just occasionally seen. These past few years, however, they have beco increasingly frequent, but they won’t appear in these near seas, usually lurking around the distant island waters." Tang En pointed behind him, "Our fleet numbers in the thousands, with countless strong bows and crossbows, we’re not afraid."
Zhao Changhe keenly sensed sothing was amiss here, "Why have there been more in recent years? Have the frequency of your mariti trade increased? Or have there been more fishern venturing out to the high seas?"
"We haven’t, others are unknown," said Tang En. "Sea trade is highly profitable, but not everyone can do it. A boat capable of going out to the high seas is like a Heavenly Chasm. If it capsizes once, not to ntion losing all capital, lives would be lost too. If soone has increased the frequency of sea trade, it could only be the Wang Family. Perhaps these past years of accumulation have made them wealthy enough to defy the state, boldly rebelling..."
Indeed, there were likely economic factors related to the Wang Family’s rebellion, a consideration which had often been overlooked.
Zhao Changhe pondered, "So to put it another way, pirates are mainly causing trouble for the Wang Family? Could there be an organization deliberately targeting them?"
"That we really wouldn’t know," Tang En said, "The young lady has analyzed before that if there’s an organization involved, it could only be that person..."
A na surfaced in Zhao Changhe’s mind.
Seventh on the Heavenly List, Dragon King Hai Pinglan.
Whether it was his na or his moniker, they suited soone who made a living on the sea, yet in reality, his fa was established in Central Earth, having nothing to do with the sea.
This person once held the third place on the Heavenly List and was the king of the southern separatist forces. He was called the Dragon King because of the battles on the Yangtze River, not for being a Dragon King of the sea. Later, he was defeated by Xia Longyuan, who was then the seventh on the Heavenly List, not only swapping places to fall to seventh but also losing his kingdom. He fled alone and went missing...
After Xia Longyuan advanced to third place, he consecutively challenged Tie Muer, the then second place, and the Great Shaman Bo, the first place, beating them into second and third places, and reached the pinnacle himself. As for the subsequent cultivation that beca even more perverse and his acting like a lunatic on the grasslands, that was a story for later.
In the process of unifying Central Earth, Xia Longyuan was absolutely the hero of an exciting narrative.
Under the illustrious military exploits of Xia Longyuan for his ascent, Hai Pinglan beca rely a backdrop, and since then, he vanished without a trace. It’s been over thirty years since anyone heard news of him, almost as if he never existed. If it weren’t for the fact that his na was still not struck from the Chaotic World Book, people might think he died...
If this man went into hiding at sea, causing his disappearance, then it made sense. With his strength, becoming the head of a large pirate organization would be quite normal, but the question was, shouldn’t he have been collaborating with the Wang Family against Xia instead of dragging them down?
This conjecture might not be true.
In fact, in the overseas information report from the Demon Suppression Departnt, there was another suspicion that even Penglai Country could have been established by Hai Pinglan.
One theory posited a King, another, a pirate; quite a discrepancy.
Xia Chichi’s last venture to sea also sought news of this man, to no avail. The king of Penglai Country was said to have the family na Yuan, seemingly unrelated to Hai Pinglan. Of course, if Hai Pinglan deliberately concealed his na to keep Xia Longyuan from finding out, that would not be surprising.
Zhao Changhe was rather curious. These overseas lives, whether pirates or the various small nations in the sea, as well as the fish-people of the Sea Race, not a single word about them was listed in the Chaotic World Book... Even Miao Region has an Earth List, but overseas had not even seen a Hidden Dragon.
It seed unlikely they were genuinely low in cultivation; it’s more probable that the Chaotic World Book for so reason did not include them.
I wonder how strong are the overseas experts in Martial Arts?
As he was thinking, the sun dipped below the sea’s horizon. Half the sun was still showing its face at the edge where sea and sky et, casting a radiant glow on the distant waters.
Several sailboats appeared far away, their sharp angles peeking out as a fleet approached, breaking through the waves.
Tang En’s expression changed dramatically, "How can there be pirates here?"
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PS: I didn’t manage to stay in the top ten this month; I’ll fight again next month. There will be an additional release at midnight.
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