Chapter 83: Scooping Silver

The next morning, the Great King rose early and followed the Grand Tutor in reading for a while; before the study session ended, the Great King's whole mind was drawn away by the noisy commotion outside.

The Great King excitedly ordered Tongchen to go inquire; shortly, Tongchen ran back saying they seemed to have encountered a school of fish, and the captain ordered the net to be cast for fishing!

If he could still study under these circumstances, that would be a ghost; the Grand Tutor sighed and let the Great King go free.

The Great King didn't even pick up his books, just sprang up and ran off without a trace.

The deck was already bustling, the ship's speed had completely slowed, and Huang Zhong was directing the fishermen to cast a large net into the sea.

The Great King, unable to make sense of it, ran back to the helm: "Chen Cang, why did you suddenly start casting the net? Have we reached the deep sea? Did you spot fish below? How did you notice?"

Bai Li Shi Wan Ge Wei Shen Jing came online.

The captain had no choice but to explain that he had observed the waves and vortices on the sea surface; here the water flows rather violently, possibly indicating a large gathering of fish. He also mentioned that many seabirds were seen here, blah blah blah; the more he said, the more the Great King's head filled with question marks: What is a warm current? What is a cold current? What does ocean current mean?

The Great King seemed to see another Grand Tutor, and he exclaimed, "I don't want to know all this theoretical knowledge!"

The Great King simply grew more frightened the more he listened, but soon he breathed a sigh of relief; fortunately he is a princely lord who doesn't have to fish every day—this fishing is no simpler than holding court.

The Great King swept his gaze over the few apprentices trained in the helmroom, saying, "Whether I understand or not doesn't matter; you lot must understand! If you don't, ask quickly—in a year you'll have to rely on yourselves for all this!"

The apprentices: … shivering with fear.

Even the fishermen who had fished before opened their eyes; the treasure ship is truly advanced.

They cast the large net tied to the crane into the sea, and the ship began to sail slowly with the current; when the ship stopped, the first mate gave the order, everyone took their positions at the places they had drilled many times, and hauled in the net!

When the Great King ran back, he saw the first mate leading the apprentices and a few fishermen straining to pull a thick rope on the crane; Chen Cang said this rope is the closing line.

Then came eight strong, healthy fishermen, four on each side turning a winch together with effort?

"What is that?"

"The crane."

"Can eight people move it?"

"Have you seen the biggest gear, Your Highness? Down below, all the way to the hull, there are many such labor‑saving designs; thanks to scientific design, a few people can pull the net. Actually this is physics knowledge, Your Highness……"

The Great King eagerly interjected, "I don't want to know."

Chen Cang: ……

Good grief, he saw Mengmeng say that the fishing improvement version had a bonus, thought it was superstition, and yet this captain gave him a lecture on theory.

Once the net surfaced, no one cared anymore how it was pulled up—a net full of big fish!

The Great King, ignorant of such sights, opened his mouth wide: "So big and fatty, I've never eaten anything like this!"

Wei Shen followed closely behind the Great King's steps, "I've never seen one either!" How could people from the southwest have ever seen such a huge sea fish!

Zhao Bao: ……

Chen Cang: "……Your Highness, this is a horse mackerel. It's very common in these waters, which explains why there were vortices on the surface just now—a large school of horse mackerel passing through."

A net full of horse mackerel was hoisted onto the deck, the net compressed into a teardrop shape; everyone on deck who had never fished before thought, …… fishing is too easy. Only the hard‑pressed coastal fishermen struggling to make ends meet had red‑rimmed eyes, realizing the sea held so many big fish, realizing fishing with the Great King was this simple—as long as they exerted effort they could catch fish.

Huang Zhong gave the rope a tug, and a net full of one‑meter‑long big fish dropped onto the deck.

He clapped his hands, "Everyone, do your duty, follow our practiced procedure, get to work! As long as everyone puts in effort, this voyage will surely return with a full hold!"

The Great King was also excited, trailing behind and painting big promises: "Work hard, aim to return with a full granary to Youzhou, and then I'll reward everyone!"

Right after that he remembered his main quest, and he asked Zhao Bao, "Have we in the Great Jin ever eaten this fish?"

Zhao Bao truly didn't know; he asked a young apprentice beside Chen Cang, who said they had eaten it, but they'd never caught such a large one before.

Finally the Great King managed to pull the corner of his mouth back—well, the achievement was still zero.

He hailed a local fisherman from Youzhou, 'From now on, whenever you pull up a species you haven't eaten, do you have to inform me? Just find any guard to report it.'

The fisherman in charge of moving the crates was suddenly stopped by the Great King with an order; excited, he was about to kneel and kowtow several times, but Zhao Bao quickly stopped him, saying, 'Get back to work—on the ship don't just kneel and kowtow at the drop of a hat; sincere loyalty to the Great King means keeping him in your heart.'

That man rose excitedly to get back to work, while the Great King pondered behind him: 'That's something I often say and it's fine, so why does it sound so strange when Zhao Bao says it? What's wrong?'

'Go fetch my Marine Biology Handbook!' the Great King commanded, looking at the deck abounding with harvest; he turned his head and gleefully found a new direction.

Wei Shen knew about that book; before departure he had sought him out to show it off.

'Didn't we already say it's edible?'

The Great King solemnly said, 'Being edible and being tasty are not the same; just knowing it can be eaten isn't enough—we also need to know how to prepare it to be delicious.'

Wei Shen: ……

Indeed, not a single pound of meat is wasted.

For lunch the Great King ate pan‑fried horse mackerel, and he added horse mackerel‑filled dumplings to the dinner menu.

In the morning they cast the nets, and the treasure ship seemed to have stabbed a fish nest in this stretch of sea.

Whether it was because the sea was overly abundant or the improved fishing ship's buff was too strong, in the afternoon they hauled up several nets in succession, catching two kinds of shrimp alone. Since the Great Jin does not eat shrimp, the Great King's afternoon main‑quest score increased by three.

He had discovered three kinds of seafood that the Great Jin does not eat, giving him confidence to begin main quest three; this was far easier than the first two—who knows how hard it will be to wipe out Youzhou's hunger index.

The Great King discovered the joy of fishing—not just him, but the Grand Tutor and Wei Shen also became excited; whoever sees this harvest feels envious, especially in this era of universal famine.

The Great King had already forgotten his diving enterprise; he crouched on the deck like a miser, watching box after box of fish being moved into the hold.

All of this is edible—even if he doesn't eat it himself, he can trade it for money!

No need to wait four months for crops to grow and worry about drought causing total failure.

If there were a few more ships like this, then Youzhou……

The Grand Tutor turned excitedly toward the Great King, 'Your Highness! If we had two more ships like this……'

The Great King understood their thoughts, and he harshly doused the Grand Tutor with cold water: 'This ship would exhaust Youzhou's resources; even in the short term we couldn't afford a second one. If you have time, better help the shipwright analyze how this vessel is made—don't expect me to foot the bill!' Who knows whether such a top‑grade item can even be drawn again, after all when he took the second mission Mengmeng gave him no reward. He speculated it might be because he already possessed the highest‑grade Bai Ze, so they wouldn't give a second one.

Who knows whether, after already drawing a top‑grade item, there's still a chance to draw a second one?

The Great King earnestly addressed those around him, 'The Canglang Island State can build treasure ships—why can't our Great Jin? Here's a sample for you to copy; have confidence! In the future, whoever can build such a treasure ship, I will grant them an official post!'

Others don't know, but the shipwright who came to observe is fired up. The chance to change one's station is rare in the Great Jin.

In the morning they dragged two nets of horse mackerel; in the afternoon the haul became mixed, with hairtail and paired shrimp, and even the net dragged from the seabed brought up two chunks of reef stone and some unknown seaweed. The Great King spent the whole afternoon looking things up in the dictionary, overjoyed, discovering new tasty things—he loves this work!

In the evening, King carried a plate of raw shrimp and found Brother Bai; this kind of seafood that the people of Great Jin don't eat, the first choice is still to sell it to Brother Bai.

Sure enough, Bai Yang is knowledgeable: "Holy shit! How many years have I not seen such a fat wild big shrimp?! Also, King, is your mantis shrimp becoming a spirit?"

Upon hearing this, King's eyes lit up immediately, and he went straight to the point: "Is it expensive?"

The manual lists many ways to eat it, but unfortunately there aren't many seasonings on his ship, so King's dinner was just two steamed shrimp, and his small belly was filled with dumplings stuffed with horse mackerel.

Bai Yang, while pressing the calculator, muttered: "In the deep sea, marine goods accumulated for hundreds or thousands of years have no one to fish them; I can't imagine how much fun you ancient people had deep-sea fishing~ Wild shrimp this big I'll give you 1.6 yuanbao per catty, wild mantis shrimp as long as to the elbow I'll give you 1.8 yuanbao, if shorter then 1.4, mainly because your sea is unpolluted, I'll directly sell to high-end restaurants……"

Just as he was saying that, he saw King get up to leave, and Bai Yang hurriedly shouted, "Why are you leaving already? Do you think it's too cheap? Let's talk some more!"

King hurriedly said, "It's still early; I'll have them cast another net!"

One catty equals sixteen taels of silver—how can you still sleep?!

Is this fishing for shrimp? This is fishing for silver!