HLnovel Chapter 46 War, Imminent
Chapter 46 War, Imminent
After a long, long time, the tribute ships, laden with precious goods, finally adjusted their course and slowly but steadily sailed into the distance.
As the distance between them and Xu Tianyi gradually increased, these ships eventually disappeared from his sight, as if they had never existed.
The sea, which had been turbulent and splashing just moments before, gradually returned to calm.
At the same time, the merchant ships that had been stationary began to move slowly.
Its massive hull trembled slightly at first, then slowly moved away from its original position amidst the synchronized shouts of the boatmen. Seeing this, the other ships surrounding the merchant ship followed suit, starting their engines or raising their sails, one after another following the merchant ship forward.
In an instant, thousands of sails raced across the sea, and the shouts of sailors filled the air.
However, it will still take some time for the process to go from starting to moving forward.
The tribute fleet had already traveled a long way by this point.
On the flagship ship, Yang Ke, the commander of the Golden Guard, was ordered to assist in escorting the tribute mission to the Wuji Imperial City.
Along the way, he had already mobilized a large number of guards, dividing them into small teams to monitor the counties along the route.
This is considered a routine task.
General Lu Qian of the Dingxi Navy was in charge of escorting the shipment.
In addition, there was the eunuch supervisor Lu Ansheng, and the vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue Liu Sheng was in charge of the inventory.
The four individuals each have their own responsibilities and belong to different groups.
The eunuchs naturally sided with the emperor, and the vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue listened to the imperial advisor.
The naval general, however, obeyed the prime minister's orders and remained neutral, guarding the central position.
But all four of them share the same goal.
That's just to make a quick buck.
The Mingxing County mentioned earlier is where the group divided their spoils.
A total of 75 warships were deployed to escort the goods, 35 of which were treasures that had been brought as tribute.
The main ingredients are gold, silver, and medicinal herbs.
Yongzhou's tax revenue this year is two million taels of silver, plus medicinal herbs worth at least five hundred thousand taels.
Nature naturally arouses greed in people.
Of course, when is there a time when I don't get greedy?
This time they will receive 100,000 taels of silver, plus medicinal herbs worth 200,000 taels.
The four of them divided it up.
This was a characteristic of the Qi King's rule: rampant corruption.
It may not seem like much, but in reality, there's nowhere along the way where we don't need to make arrangements?
There is damage everywhere.
If they can get around 1.5 million by the time they reach the Imperial City, that would be considered pretty good.
The fleet had been sailing for a short while when Mingxing Port came into view.
All four of them showed expressions of joy.
The fleet's speed began to decrease.
Soon, the four large cargo ships quietly began to merge into the middle of the merchant ships that had made way for them.
This is the embezzled money that the four had already divided up.
There will naturally be people at the ferry crossing to meet them; they are all subordinates of the four men.
Wang Peng came here to escort the large ship carrying stolen goods, commanded by Shen Ke, to Mingxing County to unload the cargo.
He was originally a man of principle, but in the face of reality, he still bowed down.
Having endured the torment of reality, he knelt down at Shen Ke's feet, which gave him the opportunity to assist in the escort.
He watched the surrounding merchant ships warily until his cargo ship got close, at which point he breathed a sigh of relief.
The dock was bustling with people, and many workers were busy preparing for unloading.
Wang Peng stared intently at everything before him, not missing a single detail.
Just then, he keenly sensed something unusual—these people who came to unload the goods were actually emitting faint fluctuations of cultivation power!
Moreover, the dock, which should have been bustling and noisy, was unusually quiet at this moment. The workers were all silent and their movements were exceptionally orderly.
This unusual scene instantly aroused suspicion in Wang Peng's mind: Who exactly are these people? Why are they here?
Just as Wang Peng was pondering to himself, the ship loaded with cargo slowly approached the dock.
Seeing that the situation was not good, he was extremely anxious and waved his hands frantically while shouting for the captain to stop immediately.
However, his voice was drowned out by the sea breeze and the sound of the waves, and could not be conveyed to the captain in time.
In the blink of an eye, a battle cry resounded through the sky, and the seemingly ordinary dockworkers suddenly drew their long knives and charged towards Wang Peng's location like tigers descending a mountain.
What's astonishing is that, despite being at least thirty meters away from Wang Peng, they traversed the turbulent sea as if it were flat ground, moving at incredible speed. Judging by such skill, these people were at least at the Martial Master level!
At the same time, something even more alarming happened.
Suddenly, countless grappling hooks flashing with cold light were thrown out from beneath the water, sweeping towards the cargo ship like ferocious venomous snakes.
It was obvious that a large number of enemies had been lying in ambush underwater, waiting for this moment to launch a fatal attack.
Faced with this sudden turn of events, Wang Peng immediately sensed that something was terribly wrong, realizing that he had encountered a meticulously planned conspiracy.
Without the slightest hesitation, he quickly pulled out a specially made warning horn from his pocket, puffed out his cheeks, and blew it loudly.
A sharp and urgent horn pierced the sky, carrying far and wide in all directions...
On the other side, upon hearing the sound, naval general Lu Qian immediately ordered the fleet to halt its advance.
He wanted to send ships to the rescue.
But as soon as the fleet came to a stop, a large naval force was already approaching them from around the corner on the opposite side.
"Damn it!! Shen Ke!! What kind of work are you doing, Commander of the Golden Guard?! Who the hell is this army?!"
Shen Ke's face also turned somewhat gloomy.
"Zhang Bo, what exactly is going on up there?"
Zhang Bo's lips twitched: "The news that came in yesterday was that there was nothing unusual in the county town ahead..."
"Useless!! Yesterday? What about today?!"
He was silent.
The eunuch supervisor Lu Ansheng was so frightened that he cursed loudly and then hid.
Liu Sheng, the Vice Minister of Revenue, realized something: "Such a massive navy, could it be that it was organized by the five great families? Have the pirates landed?"
No one could have guessed it, but the situation began to turn dangerous.
Although the other side is going against the current, its momentum is obviously extraordinary, and the wind direction is also in its favor.
More than fifty large ships sailed toward the tribute fleet. Lu Qian had no time to argue and hurriedly shouted for everyone to turn around and try to bombard the enemy with the cannons on the flanks.
When his orders were passed down, he discovered to his despair that his fleet had begun to fall into chaos, with at least dozens of warships exploding and a large number of assassins killing his sailors.
Turning around, I saw merchant ships coming from the downstream behind me in a fierce rush.
At this moment, they were surrounded.
Caught in a dilemma, Lu Qian quickly devised a plan.
"Zhijinwei, quickly quell the rebellion on each ship and assist the large ship in changing course!"
All other armies, immediately inspect and repair your warships; no further instructions are required, proceed with your own operations against the enemy!
Shen Ke glanced at him and knew he had to help, so he naturally started blowing his whistle to command the others.
Soon, the mutiny on the fleet was quelled by the Imperial Guards who had jumped in from all directions, and the enemy also successfully turned the tide.
A war on the river has officially begun.
Amidst the roar of artillery fire, the entire river channel was thrown into turmoil.
Meanwhile, on the merchant ships sailing downstream on the west side of the fleet, the Black and White Impermanence and their entourage were already ready.
Further away, Xu Tianyi's merchant ship also witnessed this scene.
His expression became somewhat unnatural.
He thought war was far away from him, but in this world, war can happen at any time.