As dawn broke, Kakxim arrived at the dock.
Unlike usual, the dock was crowded with silent people, carrying backpacks and long guns, like a dense forest standing in the wind and snow. Despite the large number of people, the order on site was very good. Soldiers boarded paddle steamers one after another. The momentum alone made him feel an unspeakable power.
Kakxim couldn't help but swallow.
These were His Highness the Prince's warriors.
It's unbelievable, the old man thought. When he was young, he had traveled through most of Graycastle, from Seawindshire to Clearwater Port, and had led merchant fleets to the Fjord Islands. He had witnessed the imposing iron-clad knights and had seen fierce barbarians who could fight wild beasts with their bare hands. To him, those people were undoubtedly extremely powerful and brave warriors, but he never expected that he would once again feel this power in front of a group of ordinary people, and it was even stronger than before.
That's right, these people are all ordinary people... Kakxim had been in Border Town for almost four months, and his understanding of the town was deepening. He knew that the First Army members were basically selected from the local natives. Most of them were already adults when they joined the army, and their previous occupations were varied, including miners, hunters, kiln workers, and bricklayers, but there were no warriors. In other words, they had no experience in combat training from a young age.
However, in just a few months, these people already possessed a momentum that was not inferior to any knight order. What kind of magic did His Highness the Prince use?
"You... are you really going?" Behind him came Wei De's deliberately lowered voice. It could be heard that he was also infected by this silent team.
"Why else would I apply for the position of captain?" Kakxim took a deep breath.
"But they're going to war."
"They are all serving His Highness," the old man said without looking back, "and so am I."
The voice behind him was silent for a moment, "Just don't die out there."
He didn't answer, but waved his hand.
...
Braving the snow, Kakxim boarded the sixth paddle steamer. According to tradition, the captain could name his own ship. Although this strange paddle steamer belonged to His Highness the Prince, he was still told that he had this power.
However, the old man had not yet made up his mind.
This was the first time he had served as captain again after more than ten years of saying goodbye to sailing. He hoped he could think of a name that was commemorative.
"Boss, you're here!" Walking into the cabin at the bow, his deputy immediately greeted him, "The boiler is preheating now, I guarantee it will be running soon."
This young man was called Barracuda, and he came from the Southern Territory. He had several years of experience fishing at sea. If he were in other fleets, he might not even be able to be a sailor, but it didn't matter here. Everyone was a novice.
"Are all the crew here?"
"They've been here for a long time, you're the last one," the other party winked.
"If you don't know how to respect a captain, I'd be happy to let you scrub the deck for a whole day."
"No, respected Captain," the young man immediately stood up straight, "Of course I know!"
"That's more like it," Kakxim stroked his beard and said, "Notify the boiler room, let them burn the fire even hotter, but don't close that damn steam valve, I don't want to crash into the ass of the ship in front again!"
"Okay, got it." Before he finished speaking, Barracuda revealed his true form again. He blinked at the old man and then ran out of the cockpit.
"This little bastard," Kakxim shook his head with a smile. The serious atmosphere brought by the First Army was diluted a lot, and he seemed to have returned to the days of galloping on the sea. Walking to the helm, the old man gently stroked the wooden handle and began to calm down and review the operation process of the paddle steamer.
The stone boat invented by His Highness was completely different from the sailboat. It had no masts and no cabins under the deck. There were only two rooms at the bow and in the middle of the hull. The front one was called the cockpit, and you could clearly see the course through the two large windows. The middle one was the boiler room, and the power of the ship came from there.
The rear and tail of the cockpit were bare decks. During training, they often brought some miners and went west along the Redwater River to dig some coal back from the edge of the Misty Forest – this stuff was more durable than firewood and was also a relatively common heating material in Seawindshire. And now, windbreak cloths were pulled up around the deck, and sheds were built on top, obviously prepared for the soldiers on board.
Although he had never been exposed to this new thing before, Kakxim quickly discovered during training that it was not difficult to get it moving, even easier than a sailboat. Just not needing to adjust the sails according to the wind direction and force saved a lot of manpower and time – any villager could burn the boiler brightly, but it was impossible to master climbing the mast and operating the sails in half a year. As long as white smoke came out of the chimney and the valve was closed, the ship would move.
At this moment, a dull whistle sounded from the front, breaking the tranquility of Border Town's morning.
This was the signal to set off.
"Boss, the water in the stove is boiling!" Barracuda rushed back into the cockpit again.
"Ring the bell, notify Big Foot and Grizzly to engage the clutch, speed, forward one!" Kakxim solemnly gave the order.
"Yes, forward one!" Barracuda pulled a thin iron wire on the wall. Along this wire, the corresponding bell in the boiler room would vibrate to convey the order from the captain.
The hull shook violently, and the wooden wheels on both sides slowly turned.
Kakxim gripped the helm and looked straight ahead – when Wei De asked that question, he didn't say what he really thought, or rather, serving the lord was only a small part of the answer.
He simply liked the position of "captain" more.
Whether it was a sailboat or a steam paddle steamer, Kakxim felt sincere joy when he held the helm and braved the waves on the water.
This was the life he wanted.
"Pull the sail... no, keep adding coal!" The old man turned the helm to the right and shouted, "Boys, hold on tight, we're setting off!"
*******************
"As long as you can take me to Border Town, the Silt family will reward you handsomely... How about five, no, ten gold dragons?" The steward blocked the door of a small wooden house by the river, asking the boatman who was in a dilemma. His left foot was stuck in the door seam to prevent the other party from directly closing the dilapidated door panel and rejecting him.
"M-Mister... It's not that I don't want to take you, but I really can't do it," the boatman stammered, "Y-You see, my boat only has a bare bottom, and there's not even a shed to block the snow. It's okay to use it to cross the river, but you said you want to go to Border Town, which will take several days! Not to mention whether I can get there with a punting pole, but in the icy and snowy night, where do we s-sleep! If you say sleep on the boat, we'll be frozen into two ice sticks all night long, won't we?"
"Are there any other boatmen nearby who can go to Border Town?" the steward asked unwillingly.
"No, no," the other party waved his hands repeatedly, "We're just small boats. Only the fortress has large sailing ships that can stay overnight. You should go there to find them."
If he could enter Longsong Stronghold, why would he bother to find these boatmen who lived by fishing and ferrying in the suburban docks?
The steward stomped hard on the snow on the ground. Since the Four Families began attacking the fortress, all the city gates had been closed. He had spent half a day bypassing the fortress to get here, but unfortunately, it was still in vain after searching until now.
Seeing that it was about to get dark, how could he complete the task assigned by the master?
The steward looked at the Redwater River with a bitter expression, but he was soon stunned in place.
Good heavens, what is that thing?
He rubbed his eyes, making sure he wasn't mistaken – an extremely large fleet was heading in his direction. The ships looked different from the sailboats he had seen. In the heavy snow, the fleet made a rumbling sound and advanced rapidly along the river. Except for the first strangely shaped sailboat, the rest of the ships clearly had no sails, but they were sailing against the wind. The bows cut the water surface into two sections, as if they were splitting the waves.
The flagship's flag fluttered in the wind, with the coat of arms of a high tower and a spear embroidered on it. The steward couldn't help but hold his breath. This was Roland Wimbledon's fleet!(。)