Chapter 20: Tuna in the Mangroves!

"Kodo, what should we do? We can't just run away, can we? We have so much farmland and orchards here!"

"Run away? Why run away? We just need to kill that guy!"

"Kill... kill him?" The wealthy households were terrified.

Kodo looked at the crowd with contempt. "What, are you afraid? If you're afraid, then just wait to die! That lord has already decided to kill, and he certainly won't let you go!"

"But Kodo, killing a noble means the whole family will be hanged. Besides, he's hiding in the castle with so many guards; we simply can't kill him!"

"No, didn't you hear? His Knight Commander is preparing to go to Iron Wolf City to purchase grain. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us!"

"Moreover, how many lords have died in Storm Domain? So, by then, I'm afraid no one will suspect us!"

As he spoke, Kodo himself became excited, feeling it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

"Each of you, hand over five gold coins to me later. I will handle this matter upon returning and find someone to eliminate that lord!"

"Five gold coins?" The wealthy households hesitated.

"If you lose your lives, will you still be reluctant to part with gold coins?"

Hearing this, the wealthy households hesitated but ultimately had no choice but to hand over the gold coins.

"Alright, now you all go back first. Remember, if you don't want to die, do not reveal the conversation just now to anyone, not even your wives and sons!"

After the wealthy households left with heavy faces, Kodo turned to the subordinate confidant who had reported to him. "You go to the Chaos Wasteland immediately, take this iron token to find Boss Kunto of the Scorpion Bandit Gang, and tell him I have a big deal that needs his help."

"Remember, you must be fast, because the best time to act is tomorrow!"

"Yes, Lord Kodo!"

"My lord, the three hundred men you requested have been recruited!"

"Very good, then let's go!"

Gervas waved his hand, took the three hundred newly recruited men and women, and headed toward the eastern coast.

This year's locust plague will indeed affect harvests in various areas.

And the production of Storm Domain, even if Gervas really eliminated a few wealthy households, would at best barely sustain them.

Therefore, the tuna in the intelligence system has become one of the important ways to increase food supplies.

"My lord, going further ahead is the coastline. I heard that the coastline has been unstable these past few days; serfs far away on the cliffs have seen sea monsters appearing on the beach!"

Thomas had already deduced that Gervas might be leading them to the coastline.

But regarding his warning, Gervas only nodded, then let his unicorn continue to lead the way.

This made Thomas both worried and helpless.

Unknowingly, they walked for another twenty-plus minutes through the forest and along small paths. Although they didn't head straight for the seaside, they were definitely not far from the coast.

"We've arrived. Everyone, get tools from the carriages and follow me!"

At Gervas's command, all three hundred serfs grabbed their wooden fish spears and baskets.

After confirming everyone was ready, Gervas led the group through a dense mangrove forest ahead.

And when they passed through the mangrove forest, the view suddenly opened up, followed by a scene that left everyone dumbfounded.

Ahead was a river estuary.

Thomas then remembered, this should be the estuary of Duonaohe.

And at this moment, due to the receding tide, vast mudflats were exposed.

Between these exposed mudflats and the mangrove forest, pools of water of various sizes had formed.

Inside those pools, there were fish with silver-white bellies and dark blue backs jumping about.

These fish varied in size; the large ones were as long as a person, while the small ones were as long as an arm.

More importantly, the forest was so dense that, looking around, they were almost everywhere.

"This... am I seeing things?" Thomas spoke blankly, rubbing his eyes unconsciously.

"You're not seeing things, Thomas. However, if you don't hurry up, the tide will rise again later. So every minute wasted means hundreds of jin of food being wasted!"

Thomas suddenly realized, "Lord, I will immediately order people to start catching them!"

Immediately, Thomas shouted loudly, "What are you lot standing around for? Hurry up and catch the fish!"

"Whoever dares to waste another minute, I'll give them a severe beating later!"

"Wow, catching fish!"

In an instant, the awakened serfs, young and old alike, rushed toward the mudflats ahead.

Even Knight Mi Gen and the other squire knights, seeing this, couldn't help but ask, "My lord, shall we go catch some too?"

"Go ahead!"

Just like that, hundreds of people caught sea fish on these mangrove mudflats for over two hours.

If the tide hadn't started rising, the crowd certainly wouldn't have wanted to go ashore.

Because there were still too many sea fish left uncaptured.

"Damn it, why didn't you let us catch a bit longer? If we had caught for just half an hour more, we could have gotten at least ten thousand jin more."

"Let's go, Thomas. We can't be too greedy. The sea fish caught today, if distributed, will be enough for the entire small town to eat for at least two months!" Gervas was quite open-minded.

With the intelligence system in place, such opportunities will certainly not be lacking in the future.

Afterwards, everyone returned fully loaded. One carriage was obviously not enough to hold everything, so they had to have all the serfs carry the fish.

And regarding carrying food, even with over a hundred jin per person, they didn't feel tired.

When the group returned to the small town, since it was already dark, the townspeople didn't know what Alan had done with these three hundred people, nor how many fish they had caught.

This was just fine. Alan ordered everyone to go directly to the castle and then start processing the sea fish overnight.

With so many sea fish, they could only be preserved by salting them.

Fortunately, this was the seaside, so salt was not lacking. In one night, two or three ten-thousand jin of sea fish were cleaned up by the craftsmen.

As the dawn serfs prepared, Gervas issued a silence order and simultaneously awarded everyone five kilograms of sea fish meat.

Receiving so much fish meat as a reward, the serfs were overjoyed, repeatedly promising to keep the secret.

"These serfs are truly easy to satisfy!"

Watching the serfs, who had been busy for a day and a night yet were overjoyed despite receiving less than a fraction of the expected reward.

Gervas felt that with such a group of serfs, if he still failed to develop, he would truly be unworthy of being a transmigrator.

The darkest hour had passed, dawn was approaching; a streak of red mist bloomed on the distant earth, heralding the arrival of a new day.

【Ding! Daily intelligence has refreshed...】

【Intelligence One: The news that you intend to deal with the wealthy households has reached Kodo and others; for this, he spent twenty gold coins to find members of the Scorpion Bandit Gang.

Members of the Scorpion Bandit Gang will arrive in Storm Manor at dawn, totaling six people: two Great Knights and four formal Knights.

They will join Kodo in seeking an opportunity to assassinate you, the new Lord!】