Fadler Sembarwood felt that his luck was really good. At the beginning of the civil war, he was only a 1-star Silver Guard Captain. Then, he was threatened by the Crown Prince's rebel army and became a cannon fodder captain at the frontline. Soon, he was abandoned due to his injuries in a battle. When he woke up, he found corpses and crows flying in the sky all over the ground.
It was also at that time that he found Lord Gammuk's corpse lying on the ground not far from him. He was shocked. Lord Gammuk was the most famous Gold Knight in the city when he was the Garrison Captain. It was said that he was about to become a three-star Gold Knight. Every time he entered or left the city, Sunbarwood would salute him respectfully. But Lord Gammuk didn't even spare him a glance. He didn't expect that he would die in this battle. This was too shocking.
Sunbarwood dragged his injured leg and moved to the side of Lord Gammuk's corpse. Only then did he realize that a roughly shaved crossbow arrow had pierced through Lord Gammuk's neck. Sunbarwood was stunned. He didn't expect that a famous Gold Knight would be shot by a stray arrow before he could even display his skills. Lord Gammuk must have died with grievances. How could he die so quietly? Even Sunbarwood couldn't compare to him. At least, Sunbarwood had to slash two enemies before he was injured …
Sunbarwood originally wanted to dig a hole for Lord Gammuk because they were from the same hometown. He didn't want Lord Gammuk's corpse to be exposed to the wild crows and dogs as food. But when he was cleaning up, he realized that Lord Gammuk was really a personal treasure trove. Needless to say, his body armor was of high quality. Even though he was shot in the neck, his armor was still intact. Sunbarwood couldn't help but sigh at how bad Lord Gammuk's luck was. How could he let a stray arrow hit his only unprotected weak point …
There was a big bag of gold coins from the old people of the empire. There were about three to four hundred of them. There were also many exquisite jewelry and gems. There was even a gold bracelet with blood stains on it. It seemed that Lord Gammuk had made a fortune when he occupied the small town two days ago. But Sunbarwood didn't understand why Lord Gammuk would carry so many things with him. Didn't he think it was a burden on the battlefield? But it didn't matter. These things were all his now.
What made Senbarwood the happiest was that he found a high-grade combat qi manual in a leather pouch that Sir Gammuc carried with him. Moreover, it was of the same metal attribute as his own. Opening the secret book called Metal Tempering Fighting Aura, Sunbarwood realized that Sir Gammuc's ancestor was a great swordsman. Unfortunately, he died on the battlefield a hundred years ago when the Empire attacked the Ford Commercial Union.
This Great Swordsman had left his family a secret book of tempered fighting qi, which was filled with his own experiences and insights, so that his descendants could avoid taking detours in their cultivation. It's a pity that his descendants didn't have the same Dou Qi attribute as him. It wasn't easy for him to have a Ganmock, but because of his greed and lust, he only managed to reach 2-star Gold rank at the age of 50.
As if he had found a treasure, Sunbarwood immediately decided to become a deserter. He found two horses nearby whose owners had died in battle and skinned Sir Gammuk like a newborn baby. He piled all the things on the horses and left.
As a cannon fodder, Sunbarwood knew some information about the war. He was smart enough not to foolishly run home. If he did that, he would be dragged into the war soon. He took the two horses and ran to the seaside. Then, he built a small thatched hut in the wilderness near the Sad Ocean. Usually, he would hunt or run half a day to buy some food from a town outside. Then, he would come back and train his metal tempering fighting aura. In this chaotic world, having good skills was the foundation of survival.
Sometimes, Sunbarwood felt that he was the main character in those knight novels. Once he had a fortuitous encounter, a romantic one would come soon. Three years later, the 27-year-old Sunbarwood finally reached 3-star Silver rank on his birthday. He decided to buy some wine to celebrate. In the end, on his way back, he found an unconscious beauty on the side of the road.
Just like in the novels, the beauty who woke up carried a blood feud with her family. It turned out that in the hills two days away from Sunbarwood's residence, there was a bandit's nest. However, the correct name for this bandit's nest should be pirates. The place where they robbed was on the sea. They rarely visited the inland. So, Sunbarwood didn't know that he was neighbors with pirates.
The beauty was the only daughter of the original boss of the pirates. The reason why she was called the original boss was because the spoils were not evenly divided. The beauty's father was killed by the second and third brother. The third brother even wanted to lower his status and become the son-in-law of the dead boss. Fortunately, the dead boss had a group of loyal subordinates. On the wedding night, when the beauty was about to be raped, they plotted against the third brother. Then, there was a big fight. The beauty was injured and chased. In a panic, she covered her head and fled. Finally, she couldn't hold on and fainted. She was picked up by Sunbarwood.
For the beauty, Sunbarwood pulled out his sword and took the beauty on the road of revenge. In fact, he heard that there were only four Silver Rank pirates. The dead boss was a 2-star Silver Rank. The second and third brother, as well as a beauty called Uncle Torin, were all 1-star Silver Rank. That Uncle Torin plotted against the third brother. Now, the only enemy left was the 1-star Silver Rank. If Sunbarwood didn't seize this opportunity, he wouldn't be a smart person.
Everything went very smoothly. Soon, Sunbarwood knocked the second brother to the ground and let the beauty take revenge. The rest of the pirates bowed their heads and with the help of Uncle Torin, they reorganized the pirates. Sunbarwood became the boss of the pirates and the beauty became his wife.
In the blink of an eye, ten years passed. Sunbarwood had two sons and a daughter. His life was happy, but his career was not smooth.
As the boss of the pirates, Sunbarwood knew that the early bird gets the worm and the early worm is eaten by the bird. So he was very cautious about the business of robbing at sea. Even if he was dispatched, he would only target those smuggled cargo ships or single merchant ships. He would never attack the ships of the big Chamber of Commerce and nobles. He would work hard and make a fortune in secret.
In the past ten years, the pirates have developed very fast. They are becoming more and more like a normal fishing village with a population of more than 1,000. Sunbarwood didn't focus on robbing. He recruited refugees to reclaim the wasteland of the hills so that the pirates no longer need to buy food from the outside world. He also arranged for the old, weak, women and children to pick up firewood and boil sea salt. He even organized caravans to trade excess sea salt and looted goods for urgently needed materials in the fishing village. Usually, when there was a chance to go out to sea, when there was no chance, he would honestly fish to support his family. His life was very free.
However, Sunbarwood was very sober. He knew that even if this pirate village developed into a normal fishing village, it could only be regarded as an unregistered village. Now the chaos outside was still peaceful. Once the situation stabilized, whether it was a lord or a regular army, they would have the right and responsibility to come and fight. At that time, all the peace and stability in front of him would turn into blood and ashes.
Moreover, the location of this pirate village was not very hidden. There were a lot of people outside who knew about it. The terrain was not dangerous, but it was close to the sea. First, it was remote, and second, it was hilly. The road was difficult to travel. The Lord was too lazy to look here. Anyway, the pirates did not rob the villages in his territory.
This hill belonged to Count Shelech's territory on the map. Count Shelech was originally a commander of the former Empire. But in the civil war, he led his troops to follow the Grand Duke of Lulm to establish the Duchy of Lulm. So he was promoted from baron to count and received this territory.
Count Shelech had three villages and one town, but they were concentrated in the south. The north was hilly and barren mountains, forests and tidal flats. Two years ago, Sunbarwood had contacted the Count of Shelech. He hoped to gain the recognition of the Count and legalize the fishing village. For this, he was willing to become the Count's knight and pay a large amount of taxes.
Unfortunately, Count Shelech held an important position in the Duchy of Lulm and was not in the territory at all. Sunbarwood's letter fell into the hands of the general manager who was responsible for the management of the territory. The general manager did not care about Sunbarwood's pirate identity, nor did he care if he was a three-star silver knight. His master was a golden knight. A silver rank pirate was not a big deal …
The general manager was concerned about how much income he could increase for the Count, but for Sunbarwood, a tax as high as 65% was unbearable. What was even more unacceptable was that the general manager sent people to the fishing village so that it would be more convenient to calculate everyone's income and collect taxes.
Sunbarwood's bottom line was 50% and the fishing village would pay it themselves. The general manager refused and threatened the Count to send troops. Sunbarwood responded tit for tat, saying that if the Count were to send troops, he would break up the whole army and lead his men to deal with the Count on this hill. He wanted to see how much the Count was willing to pay to annihilate them. As long as they were still there, they would attack the village in the future and turn the Count's territory into ruins.
The two sides were in a stalemate and could only acquiesce to each other's ability. The general manager turned a blind eye to the caravan sent by the fishing village and gave them the convenience to do business in the village and town. Sambarwood, on the other hand, would give gifts to Lord General Butler and Count Shellehe every festival, and the two sides got along peacefully for the time being.
Two months ago, things finally took a turn for the better. Because Sunbarwood had been promoted to 1-star Gold rank, Count Shelech, who was far away in the capital of Lulm Duchy, personally wrote a letter to Sunbarwood. In the letter, the Count promised that he was willing to recruit Sunbarwood as his family knight and divide the fishing village to Sunbarwood as the location of his golden knight's manor castle. Of course, the manor castle had to be built by Sunbarwood himself. The Count frankly said that he had no money and could not help Sunbarwood build the manor castle.
There were still benefits. After becoming a golden knight of the Shelech family, the people of the fishing village would become the people of Sunbarwood's manor castle and would only have to pay 30% tax. However, Count Shelech wanted Sunbarwood to go to the capital and listen to his orders. As long as Sunbarwood went to the capital, the Count would immediately hold a ceremony to recruit a family knight and announce Sunbarwood's identity as a knight.
To Count Shellehe, recruiting a knight from the Gold Family and recruiting a knight from the Silver Family were completely different. There were many silver knights, but golden knights were very rare. Even Sunbarwood's original identity as a pirate was not considered. After all, the world was dominated by Dou Qi. As Sunbarwood thought when he practiced every day, having good skills and mastering a higher level of Dou Qi was the foundation of survival in this chaotic world.
Sunbarwood thought for more than a month before he decided to accept the Count's invitation and become a knight of the Shelech family. But he couldn't just leave. At least he had to arrange for his men and choose a suitable place to build his manor castle. Of course, Sunbarwood only intended to draw a line, place a few stones, dig a ditch, and make a show of construction, because he did not have the financial resources to build a manor castle by himself.
Two days ago, Senbavood received a letter from the steward. The letter said that it would be Count Shelech's 50th birthday in 20 days. The Count hoped that Senbavood could become his family's knight on that day. It would also add a festive atmosphere to his birthday. The General Manager also reminded Sunbarwood of the Count's usual hobbies. This meant that Sunbarwood had to prepare a generous gift.
Sunbarwood didn't have much money. The most important thing was that he didn't have a suitable gift. So he turned his eyes to the sea. Before he went to the capital to become Count Shelech's family knight, he wanted to make a lot of money on the sea so that his wife and children could live a more comfortable life after he left …
"My lord, there are two ships tangled up before us. One is a medium-size, two-masted, fast-sailing merchantman, and the other is very queer. It looks like a medium-size ship, but it is in a bad shape, as if it had a burnt mast. Now that the two ships are tied together, it's very slow. Should we catch up with them? " The one who spoke was Tork. He was tall and sturdy, a 2-star Silver Warrior. He looked more like a pirate than his father, Uncle Torin.
Sunbarwood nodded. It was obvious that the two ships had just been robbed. Such a thing was not uncommon in the Sad Ocean. It seemed that the winner had tied up the loser's ship and wanted to bring it back. Sunbarwood might as well be the oriole in the process.
The process of boarding the ship was very smooth. No one resisted, no one shouted, not even a shadow was seen.
Sunbarwood brought two medium-sized two-masted armed merchant ships. This kind of ship was very fast with the wind, reaching 8 to 9 knots. But it was a bit difficult to move against the wind. It was a test of the pilot's ability to steer. However, this kind of ship was strong and could carry a lot of people. It was most suitable for fighting to seize the ship.
The two medium-sized two-masted armed merchant ships carried more than 330 pirates. At this moment, there were nearly 100 people jumping onto the strange ship. The strange ship's deck was full of people.
On the slipway of the strange ship, there was a small table covered with various animal skin papers and pens. A young man with long black hair in a ponytail was preaching to a middle-aged man in front of him. "… Why did I ask you to write down the formula and production process of green glass and oil glass and throw it out as bait? It's because in my heart, these two things are common goods. There's nothing fun about them. Look, this is a telescope, and this is a glass mirror. These are the things that can really make money. And these magnifying glasses, glassware, large pieces of flat glass, thick partition glass, and engravings on the glass. This is the future direction of glass development … Mr. Mancheni, you have a general understanding of my various designs and ideas for glass.
Mr Mancheni, you already have a general understanding of my various designs and ideas for glass. Once we send your family to the family's territory, you will have full control over the family's glass production and manufacturing. You can have all the manpower and money you need. We will provide you with everything you need. You can test and experiment as much as you want. You don't have to worry about the cost. I believe you will repay our family a hundredfold for the investment you've made now … "
Sunbarwood felt dizzy listening to this from the slipway. What was this? Glass production and technical improvement? It sounded so high-end that he couldn't understand it. And the situation in front of him seemed very strange, but he couldn't tell what it was …
Just as he was about to tell his men to be more careful and see if there was an ambush or something, he saw the black-haired young man on the slipway turn his head and reveal a mouthful of white teeth. He smiled happily at them.
"You're too slow. I'm getting impatient waiting." The black-haired young man smiled. "We've been floating in the Ocean of Sorrow for two days and only caught a small shrimp."
The black-haired young man gestured with his lips at the medium-sized merchant ship tied to the side. "But you've done well. There are many people, and the ship is neat. I'm very happy."
The black-haired young man stood up. "I am Count Norton, the lord of Sirovas Island and the North. I hereby announce that your ships and people have been requisitioned by me! "
Then he pointed at Sunbarwood. "I see that you're not bad. From now on, you're my captain of the naval assault …"
… …
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