Chapter 118 - Beihai Navy
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
The conversation that took place in the warchief tent of Tian Qi tribe was not known by Ouyang Shuo nor the war chief of Tian Feng tribe, Dariachi.
The State of Lian, Tian Feng Tribe Warchief's Tent.
"Huqitu, what do you think of Tian Lian tribe's annihilation?" asked Dariachi.
Sitting a few levels down from the throne of Dariachi is a young man in his twenties. He has a tall and muscular body figure, handsome features on his face, and his curly hair added even more points in his charm. This man was Huqitu, the only general in Tian Feng tribe. He led every soldier of Tian Feng tribe except for Darichi's elite guards.
Upon learning that the Tian Lian tribe was wiped out, Huqitu actually rushed to the scene as fast as he could. He too, came to the same conclusion that Lakhshen had made after examining the remains of the tribe. The only thing different was that Huqitu knew that this was not a doing of his tribe.
From Huqitu’s perspective, the truth to this incident was covered with a thick layer of mist, preventing people from understanding the truth. The surrounding tribes had no motives to do it, but this incident still happened just like that.
"Warchief, this case is very strange. I am thinking that maybe there's a tribe that is trying to frame us." Huqitu said cautiously.
Dariachi frowned and said in a deep voice, "Yes, this man has an ill intention. It appears that he wants to provoke our relationship with the Tian Qi tribe."
"Who do you think did this?" Huqitu asked.
Dariachi shook his head and said, “I am not sure. It could be the tribes from the west or the tribes from the north. It could even be the Tian Qi tribe themselves that did this."
"Tian Qi tribe!?" said Huqitu shockingly.
"Yes, Mengke is an old fox. In order to suppress the smaller tribes, he could do anything for it. Don't forget, there's a reason why he is called the 'bloody butcher’. If there is a reason for him to suppress us, a small tribe would mean nothing to him at all."
Huqitu couldn't believe it, and said, “Warchief, I still don't understand. If it really was the Tian Qi tribe, they should've sent people here to question us. However, they did not do anything at all."
"Yes, this is the part where I can't understand. That is why it is really confusing." Even with his capability, he still could not figure out anything at all.
"Could it be our new neighbour from the south? Huqitu asked boldly.
Dariachi's heart skipped a beat upon hearing it. However, he shook his head and said, "It shouldn't be. First of all, they do not have the strength to do it for now. Second, they do not have the motives. As you can see, they hope to maintain business trading with our tribes still."
Huqitu did not believe his statement as well, as he’d just simply made that statement. After hearing what his war chief said, he cleared his confusion, but the biggest mystery was still not clear yet.
"Anyhow, what done is done. It'll not just stop at this point. There'll be some unknown changes in the future that cannot be foreseen right now. However, no matter what the changes arge, it will still come down to the comparison of strength between us and our enemies." Dariachi concluded. He said in a serious manner, "Huqitu, order your army and tell them not to let their guard down no matter what. During this period of time, strengthen the patrol on the border. Other than that, increase the strength of our army as much as you can. You could also consider maintaining the trades with the Friendship Town of the south to gather as much iron ore as possible."
"Understood!" Huqitu said loudly and left.
After Huqitu left the tent, Dariachi looked up to the top of his tent as if his stare could pierce through the tent and look far into the sky. He then muttered to himself. “A great storm is coming. The god of savanna, will this be a chance for our Tian Feng tribe to rise and become the greatest tribe in the savanna?”
……
11th of May, Beihai Town Harbour
After one month of development, the construction of Beihai Harbour was officially completed. Beihai Harbour was located near the estuary. It belonged to a natural harbour with a naturally-protected bay for ships to dock in.
Beihai Harbour was built for military purposes. It mainly provided services to the navy. The services included providing a docking place for the warships, supplies, shelter, equipment, and so on. Therefore, Beihai Harbour was also known as the naval base, well-equipped with appropriate technology and various facilities. The navy camp was transferred to Beihai Harbour as soon as the harbour’s construction was completed.
The current state of the Beihai Harbour was that it also carried the responsibility of a fishing port, allowing the fishing vessels to anchor, and load and unload goods. It provided shelter and resource replenishment. It also provided services like processing of the caught fish, vessel maintenance, manufacturing of fishing gears, and a resting place for the crews.
The southern water of Beihai Town was the South Sea North Bay. The largest island north bay was of course the Qing Zhou Island. After the modification of the game system where the island was magnified by 10 times, it now covered an area of about 350 thousand square kilometres, 1.5 times Lianzhou Basin’s size. There were of course some other smaller islands other than Qing Zhou Island.
However, most of these islands had no inhabitants. They were mostly deserted islands, but also some of the islands had formed their own ecological systems, where resources suitable for inhabitation were abundant due to the existence of an inland lake or river. As such, these islands had become the ideal places for the pirates.
Especially after the game map enlargement, those tiny islands in the reality had suddenly become suitable for inhabitants. Because of this sole reason, Ouyang Shuo had decided to order his navy to launch expeditions around these islands. This was because he dared not draw conclusions based on reality, as they may have been altered drastically in the game.
Somewhere in the northwest corner of the North Bay, near the border between Vietnam and China, there was an island called Moon Island. This island covered an area of about 50 square kilometers, equivalent to the area occupied by a grade 2 village. In reality, this island would’ve only been a 5 square kilometer island.
The Moon Island was infested with a group of approximately 3000 pirates, calling themselves the Black Shark. Their leader was called Black Beard. Because of the geographical location of Moon Island which was nearer to Vietnam, their main plundering targets were often the Vietnamese coastal villages.
In the Vietnamese coastal areas, Black Beard had become the nightmare, especially among the ranks of the lord-type players. Ever since the game was launched, the Black Shark, along with its leader, Black Beard, had raided no less than 30 players’ villages.
Of course, the Black Shark knew their own limits and never tried to test their luck by provoking the system-built cities.
One day, as if they’d all gone mad, the Black Shark did not proceed to raid the Vietnamese coastal villages, but instead headed to the Northern Chinese coastal areas.
Needless to say, the patrols had spotted them before the Black Shark could even reach Beihai Town. While preparing for the encounter, the soldiers on the Meng Chong warships also launched their emergency flares upon seeing the pirate ships.
This time, Black Beard had brought 3 pirate ships with him, carrying around 300 pirates in total. He was shocked when he saw the Meng Chong warships. He was even more shocked when Beihai Harbour appeared in his sight, as this kind of harbour only existed within the game system.
On the other side, upon seeing the flares fired by the patrols, Pei Donglai quickly boarded the warship and led the remaining 4 Meng Chong warships to the scene. Meng Chong warships were designed to be long and narrow for mobility purposes in order to pierce through enemy formation fiercely.
Meng Chong warships’ cabins and floors were all covered with cow hides to increase their fire resistances. Both sides of the warship had a few slots for the paddles. Above the deck was a 3- floor cabin, all wrapped with cow hides as well. Each layer of the cabin had places allocated for crossbows for offensive purposes.
Therefore, in around 20 minutes, while Black Beard was still hesitating, the 4 Meng Chong warships and Pei Donglai had arrived and joined the patrols.
Upon seeing the superior capabilities of Meng Chong warships, coupled with the reversal of strength in both parties and the lack of information about the opposite party’s strength, Black Beard ordered his pirates to retreat without hesitating.
As the pirates retreated, Pei Donglai chased after the enemies for a short distance, and returned back to the base.
There were several reasons why Pei Dong Lai did not pursue the pirates even further. 1st, there wasn’t much of a gap between his navy and the pirates in terms of their strengths, thus they could not overwhelm the pirates with strength. 2nd, the navy had not experienced any real battles, so if they were to fight with the pirates, chances were that they might’ve lost the battle.
As it went in the art of war, it was not very wise to chase after fleeing enemies irrationally, not to mention a group of pirates at full strength.
After returning to Beihai Town, Pei Donglai immediately wrote a report about the encounter and sent it to Ouyang Shuo for further orders.
……
On the 12th of May, Ouyang Shuo received the urgent report from the navy.
After reading the letter, thousands of thoughts ran around crazily in Ouyang Shuo’s mind. The encounter indicated that the pirates had learned about the existence of Beihai Town, and that the town would no longer be able to develop peacefully.
In order to protect Beihai Town, to ensure the safety of this strategic fortress, Ouyang Shuo wrote a letter to Pei Donglai requesting him to expand the navy and to form a navy fleet. At the same time, he also requested Pei Donglai to find out more information about the pirates as soon as possible. If possible, it would be best to locate their lair.
To Ouyang Shuo, only the elimination of each and every single one of the pirates and their lairs would Beihai Town continue to develop peacefully. If not, god knew if they would just pop out of nowhere and launch a surprise attack.