Chapter 84: Little Ice River

The Da Wang, who had said he was going to bed, appeared again in the cockpit; the whole ship stirred. Chen Cang went over and asked the Da Wang, "My lord, is there something?"

"Captain, can we catch a few more shrimp? I found a buyer, just one net!" The Da Wang stretched out his chubby hand and showed one finger.

Chen Cang was a qualified NPC; he would not question any decision of the current lord. After hearing, he nodded and gave the Da Wang popular science: "If catching shrimp, night is suitable; we caught plenty of those shrimp during the day in this sea area. Shrimp hide on the seabed by day and are active at night."

He quickly selected a sea area, switched to a shrimp net with finer mesh, and the whole deck stirred again.

Huang Zhong personally directed the casting of the net; the boat towed the shrimp net at sea for the time of an incense stick, feeling the heavy net dragging behind, Chen Huai notified Huang Zhong to haul the net.

The Da Wang led a few little eunuchs standing expectantly at the deck corner; behind him, Tong Chen held his thick "Marine Life Dictionary".

When the heavy net of catch was hoisted onto the deck and the net spread open, the Da Wang almost jumped up.

So much silver!

Looks like half of it is shrimp!

"The captain is the best!"

The sea area untouched by humanity is indeed abundantly rich beyond imagination.

The Da Wang turned to find Chen Cang: "Pack the shrimp by species separately in boxes, pick out the small ones; I want to take them to the homeland to sell."

"The humble citizen will arrange it; once tidied up, I will notify the Da Wang to come collect." The Da Wang was extremely pleased.

A whole deck's catch contained countless novel varieties; as the fishermen sorting them spotted an unknown kind, they shouted, and the little eunuch behind the Da Wang ran over with a tray to receive it. The Da Wang, under the bright lamp in the sheltered part of the deck, opened his thick dictionary to look up their names.

If the entry says edible, with tender, delicious meat and high nutritional value, the Da Wang summoned the head cook of the dining hall and gave detailed cooking instructions.

If it says edible but the meat is fibrous and the texture ordinary, the Da Wang had Tong Chen note the name, then later teach the fishermen to recognize it, applying distinct treatment thoroughly.

The Da Wang even assigned them a value based on texture.

Because the Da Wang intended to sell the catch to the homeland, Chen Cang had previously bypassed weighing and stored the haul directly; the moving fishermen were divided into three groups so that no one could grasp the exact numbers.

While the Da Wang was diligently checking the dictionary, he suddenly heard a crowd exclaim, "Snakes!" "Many snakes!"

Snakes caught from the sea?

Upon hearing such a specific description, the Da Wang threw down the dictionary and pushed in, saying, "Let me check whether it's a sea snake or a sea eel!"

These days the Da Wang has read the gourmet food chapter twice; he knows the several top-tier ingredients from the sea.

Right now the Da Wang only feels there are too many people on the deck; his build is completely blocked, giving him no advantage.

The Da Wang stood behind the crowd and shouted loudly, "Sea snakes are poisonous! Everyone, clear out!"

A clear child's voice echoed across the deck; the crowd loosened, and he was also carried away by the personal guard……

Da Wang: ……

Originally everyone was there craning their necks to watch the fun; the Da Wang's shout about poison made the personal guard carry him back over twenty meters.

Zhao Bao rushed over to block the restless Da Wang, saying, "Your Highness, quickly follow me back to the room and lock the door!"

His Highness slid like a little loach, yet possessed immense strength. He refused to go, instantly breaking free of Zhao Bao's hand, spotting a gap in the loosening crowd, he darted in and at a glance saw a ball of wriggling sea eel mixed among the shrimp on the deck.

Yes, a sea eel.

After looking at grilled eel and eel rice, the Da Wang had clearly grasped the appearance of the sea eel.

"A cylindrical body with a flat tail, scaleless, yellowish-brown, with the dorsal fin connected to the caudal fin—it's a sea eel!"

With each sentence the Da Wang spoke, his eyes brightened a bit; this is written in the precious seafood section, surely worth more silver than the shrimp!

The bottom-dwelling small-eyed shrimp net swept this area, and the Da Wang gained another six new categories.

Having obtained the plump sea eel, the Da Wang, unable to contain his excitement, went to Wei Shen's room, shook him awake, and asked, "Cousin, do you want your grilled eel for tomorrow's breakfast sweet or salty?"

Wei Shen, just fallen asleep, was awakened and still dazed; he subconsciously repeated, "Salty…"

The Da Wang released him, ran away pattering, leaving only the words: "…Second cousin votes salty, let's have salty tomorrow~"

Wei Shen sat on the bed, dazed for a moment, realizing he had been woken just to vote on tomorrow's breakfast flavor?!

"Bai! Li! Jing!" gritted teeth·JPG

His attendants, hearing the commotion, came to help him close the door, and couldn't resist reminding him, "Second Young Master, showing disrespect to a prince in the Great Jin… punishment is waist‑slash."

Wei Shen: ……

This life is unbearable!

After this net's catch was sorted, Chen Huai personally went to fetch the Da Wang, who was still waiting up late, avoided the crowd, accompanied him down to the ice‑cold storage, and pointed out the deliberately kept outer‑layer shrimp, mantis shrimp, and sea eel to the Da Wang.

The Da Wang felt each item and stored them in his homeland's warehouse; indeed they occupied only three slots.

Nonstop, they were sent to Bai Yang's place; Bai Yang directly moved them to his own warehouse, saying he would have someone weigh them tomorrow before payment.

As the Da Wang expected, uncontaminated wild sea eel is valuable. Bai Yang offered three ingots per jin; two crates of eel could sell for about six hundred ingots!

Lying in bed, the Da Wang still fidgeted with his fingers; fishing holds great promise!

Before drifting off, everyone was using their shoddy arithmetic to estimate how many ingots these two nets of shrimp could fetch, maybe enough to buy a batch of sabers?

——————new chapter——————

——————new chapter——————

——————new chapter——————

The Da Wang's days on the ship were those of a happy little boy; he had a little eunuch bring him a small stool, and he stayed in the sheltered part of the deck to watch the fishermen constantly casting nets to haul in silver.

The weather grew strangely colder each day; even the fiery youth Wei Shen hardly went on deck, only the Da Wang, strong as steel and bone, never tired of it.

As the ship ventured farther into the open sea, the varieties of catch increased and their sizes grew.

The new kinds he sent to Bai Yang also grew ever more.

By that afternoon, the ship had hauled up two large sea turtles, the extra‑large kind, with carapaces 1.5 meters long.

The Great Jin has land turtles, long‑life symbols; many places use tortoise‑shell patterns as decoration. Yet none of the fishermen aboard had ever seen such a huge green sea turtle; these two crawled out of the Fish Mountain, and the whole deck fell to their knees in a hushed rush.

This head, it must be a divine turtle!

After his noon break, the Da Wang ran up, seeing the two huge sea turtles his eyes lit up, and he repeatedly called out to Chen Cang.

Chen Cang, Chen Cang! Can we bring this sea turtle back to Youzhou to raise? If he can't raise it all, he can sell it to wealthy merchants—how rich and noble!

The sea is truly amazing; there's no turtle this big on land at all!

Chen Cang: "... Youzhou, logically speaking, is not a habitat they would choose."

The King's little face, reddened by the cold wind, instantly showed disappointment—can't Youzhou support it? After learning about it these past few days, even Elder Brother Bai won't take it; over there it's some kind of protected animal—if you keep it, you'll end up in prison.

Seeing this, Chen Cang hesitated a moment, then awkwardly comforted his lord: "... We might be able to reach the vicinity of Jiaodong Commandery to the south; if my lord has an idea, we could dock there and sell a batch of catch, and by the way sell this sea turtle to the wealthy merchants along the Jiaodong coast."

The King immediately perked up, "Right, let's catch more fish—we'll first go to Jiaodong Commandery to sell a batch!"

The King immediately set about raising the giant sea turtle on the deck; flipping through the manual, he found it was easy to keep: gather the seaweed, small fish, and shrimp hauled up with the nets, feed them to it, and have the little eunuch regularly give them seawater baths. As for other habits, he had Tong Chen copy them all out to hand to the buyer, figuring those people wouldn't dare let such an auspicious sign die. Indeed, a turtle this big isn't considered an auspicious omen in the Great Jin!

When Wei Shen heard the news and rushed over, he also liked it a lot—this thing would make a flashy mount!

Upon learning that these two big creatures couldn't completely leave seawater, he was very disappointed.

"I thought I'd finally get to rub shoulders with those who ride elephants..."

The King: "... Indeed, worthy of being my cousin."

In the evening, having settled with Bai Yang to account for the past few days' catch, at the appointed time the King took his little notebook and went to the manor.

The catch is settled every three days; Bai Yang goes item by item to report the accounts, the King writes them down in his little notebook, also learning from Mengmeng and his Elder Brother Bai to use those crooked Arabic numerals. The King thought that even if someone else picked up his little ledger, besides him and Zhuti no one could read it. He also plans to have Zhuti calculate the accounts later; the King only looks at the number of ingots for each item.

Mantis shrimp: 3,102 kilograms, 4,936 ingots.

Peanut shrimp: respectively 980 kilograms and 322 kilograms, 2,214 ingots.

Sea eel: 879 kilograms, 2,673 ingots.

Hairtail: 5,422 kilograms, 6,506 ingots.

The King, with his shaky math skills, couldn't quickly work out the total; he stared eagerly at his Elder Brother Bai tapping away on the calculator, "Could you let me try it, Your Majesty?"

Bai Yang was amused by his little gaze, pulled out a brand-new calculator and handed it to the King, "Here, for you to use at the manor; just leave it at my shop."

The King hadn't expected to do this, he tossed aside his little notebook and caught the pink-pink calculator, not minding his Elder Brother Bai's vulgar taste.

"It looks great! Elder Brother Bai, let me pay you—this must be expensive."

His Elder Brother Bai said gloomily, "One catty of sea eel can be exchanged for two."

! So cheap!

The King almost teared up with envy—how great it would be if their internal affairs office could use one; it's not much more expensive than an abacus, and the key is they won't make mistakes!

Bai Yang taught him the simplest—how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide—and the King became more curious about those miraculous electronic products of the future. He picked up the pink calculator and shook it, "How does just pressing buttons give the answer? Are there tiny people inside working an abacus to help?"

Bai Yang was amused to death by him, "How tiny would those little people have to be to get in there?"

The King objected, "Mengmeng's shiny little board isn't that big either—yet we all crowd in there to play!"

Bai Yang: "... That makes a lot of sense."

He watched the King's novelty for a while, then started seriously pressing the calculator himself to check the accounts.

He couldn't help but wonder, "My lord, seeing something so far beyond your agrarian civilization, aside from curiosity, aren't you panicked? Or aren't you in a hurry? Do you want to make the Great Jin as formidable as the future?"

The King was bewildered, "No way~ You also said we're at least two thousand years apart; this isn't something the Great Jin could catch up to in a year or two, or even a generation or two. Our Great Jin's primary task is to eliminate hunger and quell bandit chaos; you're too far from the Great Jin~ Besides, the Great Jin's external threats come from the Xianbei tribes and the Western Regions states; they can be wiped out with spears and sabers—I don't need to fantasize about those countless zero sniper rifles. When the day comes that life in Youzhou is good, I'll step forward gradually, without rush."

The King's clarity made Bai Yang feel ashamed; when he first obtained the manor, he was drifting even further than the King—keep in mind he was already an adult then.

This little fatty is truly a born ruler, his mind very clear.

However, from analyzing the King's situation, Bai Yang, who has observed thousands of years of history, couldn't help but start worrying about the King.

Feudal lords carving up domains, bandit chaos, droughts and floods, freezing weather, people unable to make a living—looking at it however, it resembles a new little Ice Age.

He suddenly asked, out of the blue, "What kind of ruler was your father, the emperor?"

Such a question the King doesn't even need to think about: "My father, the emperor, is in his thirties, looks decent, treats the eldest and second sons well, and occasionally is generous to me. He doesn't much like attending court, but loves banquets, music, and dance. Oh, he's also superstitious. I heard that when I was born he saw the planet Venus (Tai Bai) associated with weapons, so he gave me the name Jing to suppress it, thinking it wasn't auspicious."

Bai Yang:...

"Ma De" is even more like it!

Looking across three thousand years of official and unofficial histories, the Great Jin bears the air of a dynasty at its end.

Moreover, the King said he is the twelfth imperial generation—meaning the Bai Li family's realm has been passed down eleven generations to the current emperor; with just this textual description, only a small trigger is needed for the Great Jin to plunge into chaos.

"How does the Great Jin handle succession? Is it currently your second brother who has the stronger ambition?"

The King shook his head, bewildered: "I don't know about the fifth and sixth; there are four princes aged five and up—aside from me, they all have ideas. The eldest: his maternal clan is the great Wang clan, he holds the title of crown prince and is favored by our father the emperor. The second: the son of the empress, his maternal family is the wealthiest under heaven, his claim is legitimate and proper. The fourth: the son of the current empress, his maternal family is the Boling Cui clan; the Cui clan is a prestigious aristocratic family, their influence fills the world.... It's hard to say who will get that position." The King had indeed pondered this question.

Upon hearing this, Bai Yang exclaimed, "What a worthy opponent—they're evenly matched!"

As for this person before us, seen as a helpless, isolated little pitiful figure in the harem, once he steps out and leaves Chang'an, he also has a maternal family in the southwest that controls the army and on which he can rely. If true chaos arrives, having a maternal family that commands the southwest border troops would be far more useful than any title of empress's son.

"And what about those uncles of yours—are they honest?"

The King, looking innocent: "Eh! How would I know? After I was born, the feudal princes hadn't yet returned to Chang'an—I've never seen them; feudal princes aren't allowed to return without a summons!"

Bai Yang grew even more worried upon hearing that.

You silly child, they have no idea what sort of development lurks in their fiefdoms, all shriveled and stunted!