Chapter 55: Southward Gaze

The Navy's foundation began to swell rapidly; the Transmigrators started buying ships while conducting live-combat training — using pirate gangs as practice targets. Liu Zhe and his crew openly started putting on Navy airs within the organization.

Of course, all this existed only inside the Transmigration Company. Given the current crude circumstances, they could only talk big — they had no means to play out any real Navy scenarios. Externally, the fleet could only exist in the form of Sea Merchants for now; proper regularization would have to wait until after they seized a piece of Territory.

As scattered pirates and fishermen gradually came to join them, Liu Zhe and his people now had the Capability to organize a three-ship fleet to put to sea. With the Beggar Sect's situation initially stabilized, the Transmigration Company's gaze began to focus back on the Navy — the days when the north wind would rise were not far off.

As the fleet's pillar, Liu Zhe was naturally under immense pressure.

As the person currently holding the highest naval rank among the Transmigrators, a once-down-and-out transferred Captain, Liu Zhe's reputation within the Company was quite solid: from the earliest founding days all the way to the current armed fleet, his organizational Capability had been fully demonstrated.

Another point was that his obedience was relatively good.

Although Bai Hongda often teased him with "You've gone dumb from staying in the army too long," everyone knew clearly that Liu Zhe, this Navy pillar, was competent. There was no helping it — no one dared hand the instruments of violence over to someone like Bai Hongda, who was constantly thinking of poking the leadership in the Stern, whether that leadership was one person or a group. Even Bai Hongda himself admitted that if he, the Old Man, ever became CEO, he would still have someone like Liu Zhe be Responsible For the Navy to feel at ease.

And now, returning from a long voyage, the group Sitting In the cabin discussing matters was worrying about future affairs.

The fleet had yet to install Radar and a propulsion system. This was truly unbearable. They had to Know that in just over a month, the north wind would begin to blow.

This voyage they had just returned from was the farthest trip since the Navy's formation: the fleet sailed all the way south along the Zhoushan Archipelago. After passing Zhoushan, they abandoned the traditional sea routes, left the coastline behind, sailed a zigzag course, and took the shortest direct line straight for Taiwan. Only when they could make out the Taipei coastline in the distance did the fleet begin its return. The whole process, with its stops and starts, took Half a Month.

Without the GPS so commonplace in Later Generations, Liu Zhe and his group had to return to nature — out came the sextant and marine chronometer. All the data brought from Later Generations — southeastern sea conditions, hydrology, coastlines, and so on — had to be surveyed and recorded anew. It could be counted as experiencing firsthand the hardship of building something from nothing.

Before long, they realized the importance of Radar and a propulsion system. Without Radar, the difficulty in predicting storms was only the first problem. The second was that medieval-era sailing ships were unlikely to sail along the coast at night, especially in the Zhoushan area, which was dense with visible and hidden reefs. Even during the day, the danger of brushing past reefs in the sea fog had several times drawn cold sweat from the Transmigrators.

As for the ship's propulsion system, that went without saying. Being able to sail straight against the wind on the Sea Surface at critical moments — that was the standard posture of a Transmigrator. Without this bit of Capability, what right did they have to pose as Transmigrated persons?

Just as the few of them were discussing how to storm the palace and demand equipment after returning, someone outside the cabin door loudly reported: "Great Boss, there's business!"

"Hm? Business again?" Liu Zhe pushed open the cabin door and came onto the deck at the sound.

Emerging from the cabin and looking up, the lookout in the mainmast's Lookout Basket was holding a telescope in one hand and a signal flag in the other, indicating direction. Liu Zhe and the others simultaneously raised the telescopes hanging around their necks and peered out. On the azure Sea Surface, where sea and sky merged into One Sample of blue, there was a black dot invisible to the naked eye. Yet under the magnification of the eight-power Zeiss lenses, that black dot became two sea ships lashed together, with two groups of people on board locked in slaughter.

"Looks like a robbery."

"Yeah, looks that way to me too."

"This can't be tolerated — we're the people's Navy!"

"Stop being disgusting. If you want to rob the robbers, just say so. Don't smear the Navy's name."

"You're such a bore. Brothers, shift the sails, grab the gear!"

The ancient script of the mantis stalking the cicada played out Once Again. Two hours later, the original two-ship formation had become a four-ship formation. Corpses had long since sunk into the sea, and blood was being washed away. The Sea Surface remained as spotlessly azure as before, as if nothing had happened. Boss Liu had already returned to the cabin by now and was interrogating the survivors together with Bai Hongda.

There were not many survivors — only two who were presentable. There was no helping it; by the time they arrived at the scene, the sea bandits had already slaughtered seventy to eighty percent of the people on the merchant ship.

These two were a married couple. The man was in his thirties and looked at a glance to be of scholarly origin: lean and refined in appearance, with an elegant bearing, three long strands of beard, and a robe of plain cloth. The woman also possessed a measure of charm, except that having just circled back from the gates of hell, the couple was still busy trembling. Sitting In the cabin, they had yet to recover from the shock and dared not even speak.

Only after drinking two mouthfuls of water did Both Sides communicate in the manner of civilized people. Once the scholar learned that the good men were retainers of the Huizhou Merchant Old Master Liu's household, he finally set aside his wariness, rose, and performed a grand bow to his saviors.

A heartwarming scene of host-friend and guest-courtesy, somewhat out of place, now played out inside the cabin. Having narrowly escaped death, the scholar's emotions surged; he seemed to have come to view life much more lightly. At this moment, setting aside all reservations, he began to tell his saviors the origins of himself and his wife.

The scholar's surname was Nan, with the single given name "Wang."

Nan Wang was a Native of Hangzhou. By the age of twenty, he had already earned the title of licentiate. However, the Provincial Examination was arduous; he repeatedly took it but never passed, wasting away the days. Later, as his livelihood grew difficult and his first wife fell ill and passed away, Nan Wang, struck by this blow, gave up on the dream of becoming a gentleman provincial graduate and began honestly earning money to live — working as a literary retainer in wealthy households.

In Hangzhou City, there was no shortage of people willing to spend some silver to affect cultured refinement, especially certain wealthy merchants utterly devoid of cultural depth. Nan Wang had good looks, and his eloquence and literary talent were both decent. Moreover, being a Native, he was familiar with local customs and allusions, so he got along very well in the mansions of some outside wealthy merchants.

The trouble lay precisely in those Three Words: "got along very well."

For the past half year, Nan Wang had been playing the straight man in Old Master Wu's mansion. Old Master Wu was a Yangzhou Salt merchant with a vast Family Fortune, and he also had a secondary residence in Hangzhou. Because he got along very well with his employer, Nan Wang had the fortune of drinking several times at the Wu family's outer residence. This kept woman was named Liu Niang, one of the dozen or so concubines Old Master Wu kept in various locations.

After This came the segment the masses delight in seeing — the hookup: one was a handsome licentiate, the other a pretty mistress; one a middle-aged widower, the other keeping lonely watch through empty nights. Through repeated encounters, before he knew it, Nan Wang had One Point of carelessness and helped Old Master Wu dye his hair green.

The ** pattern continued until Liu Niang became pregnant.

Upon first hearing of Liu Niang's pregnancy, Nan Wang's mood was quite good — he himself was still without a son at present. However, the two then began to worry: around the time Liu Niang became pregnant, Old Master Wu had not been in Liu Niang's bed.

In this case, Old Master Wu could not be fooled by the Routine. Once Liu Niang's belly began to swell and the affair came to light, given the Wu family's wealth and influence, the fate of the adulterer and adulteress could be foreseen.