Chapter 19 Steel and Wood
The room suddenly became quiet, with the only sound in the room being the rustling sound of Zeus brushing his hair.
Alexei pressed his chest and looked at his lord in surprise.
What did he hear? No sea tax! ? Ever since the Pirate King unified all the pirate forces on the Storm Ocean and promulgated the Thirteen Laws of Gem Bay, all the forces on the Storm Ocean had to pay sea tax to Gem Bay.
This order was quickly responded to from all over - the Black Sail Fleet stopped at the port, and the pirates held up documents and read them to the lords of all places. They could either leave with the sea tax or with the lord's head.
Not paying maritime tax means only one thing: declaring war on all pirates.
Indeed, generally speaking, wherever a border earl is appointed, there will be war, but Alexei is the chief secretary, and almost all matters on the island will go through his hands.
Start a war? Castel had not made any war preparations at all, so what could he use to fight?
What's more, this is on the sea. No matter how powerful the empire's army is, it may not be effective here.
Alexei's face twitched and his eyes fell on the two pirates.
Just now Jeremiah called the pirate king "Governor", but he didn't say it casually. It is a recognized term on the seven seas.
Governor is a title of the empire, usually awarded by the royal family, but the pirate king called himself governor, and the usually strong Queen was unusually silent.
The blade of the empire could not reach the sea for the time being, and the pirate king had no interest in going to war with the empire, so the two sides maintained a delicate balance: the subordinates of the sea governor would occasionally rob the imperial fleet, and border earls like Hughes were also authorized to expand freely into the Storm Ocean.
My Lord, even the Queen on the Ironthorn Throne has chosen silence. Are you going to go to war with Gem Bay now? Tomorrow, every inch of the sea you see will be filled with fleets with black sails, and before that, you will be beheaded by these two pirates and fed to the shit-eating horse-faced fish in the sea.
Or maybe you can drag the entire empire into this, making the Queen pay the price of losing all four western territories and going to war with the Pirate King - then don't even mention that you are just the illegitimate son of Duke Cohen, it will be useless even if you are his illegitimate father.
Jeremiah was also shocked by Hughes' words. He looked around awkwardly, as if a group of tin cans were about to jump out and chop him into pieces.
How long had it been since he heard of anyone daring to go against Gem Bay in the Storm Ocean?
Even Blood Harbor, where the Candlelight Society built the Cathedral of Saint Titus, did not dare to openly oppose Gem Bay, where the entire naval fleet of the Empire was stationed.
The lord in front of him had the guts to overturn the table? Could it be that one of his colleagues had set him up? Collecting maritime taxes was a lucrative job.
Jeremiah would rather suspect that Hughes was a traitor than to believe that Hughes really dared to refuse to pay sea taxes, just because going to war with Gem Bay in the Storm Ocean was so outrageous.
Perhaps countries on land can seek some neutral status by relying on their rugged terrain, but this is on the sea.
As long as he could go back today, the Black Sail Fleet would come knocking on Castel's door tomorrow.
Jeremiah was already secretly making gestures to the tattooed man, but Hughes' next words made him stop.
"If Gem Bay accepts equal trade, we can talk."
Equal trade? You're talking to pirates about equal trade?
Jeremiah's eyes gradually turned unfriendly. He wondered if he was overthinking. Was this noble just a kid who knew nothing? The tattooed man next to him didn't give any warning, so it seemed there was no ambush.
Am I overthinking it?
Jeremiah's face twitched.
Jeremiah reached for the scimitar in his arms. He was going to teach this lord a lesson and tell him how pirates act.
But just as he grasped the knife handle, Hughes's slow words came again: "For example, steel, or wood?"
Jeremiah's hand stopped.
He stared at Xius and said in a hoarse voice: "Are you kidding?"
Steel and wood? What is most lacking on the sea is steel and wood, or more precisely, weapons made of steel and ships made of wood.
This requires a blacksmith shop and a shipyard, which Gem Bay has in abundance, but it lacks raw materials.
Although the Queen's power is too weak at sea, it is different on land.
The empire cultivated with knives and gunpowder, and its external expansion had lasted for a full decade.
Although the empire still had many enemies on land, there were no enemies on the northwest coast. It was only across the sea from the Gem Bay, and border earls like Hughes were like sesame seeds sprinkled on a pancake, covering the entire coast.
Under such circumstances, the Pirate King's Court basically has no hope of obtaining any resources from the land. At least that's what it seems on the surface.
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If Hughes could find a way to sell steel and timber, not to mention collecting sea taxes on site, Gem Bay would even be willing to buy them at a price higher than the market price, and would buy as much as possible.
You want free trade? Absolutely no problem. Whoever buys it in the Storm Ocean will eventually end up in the hands of Gem Bay.
Even for this matter, opening up a separate trade route is not a problem at all, and Gem Bay will personally ensure the safety.
In the Ocean of Storms, Gem Bay has this kind of influence.
But could he really get such a sensitive thing? Jeremiah didn't know much about the empire, but steel and wood were controlled resources no matter where they were. Did he have such a strong background? Jeremiah looked at Hughes with suspicion.
Wait, Zeus, someone seemed to have told him about the origin of this lord before he came. Well, for those of them who went to the border earldoms granted by the empire to collect taxes, Gem Bay would give them some information about the lord. After all, the border earls were notoriously tough, and there were even cases of direct conflicts on the spot. If the two of them didn't go back, the black sailing fleet from Gem Bay would come to the island and knock on the door the next day.
Naturally, he also got the information about Hughes, but he was drinking at the time, and the person who told him the details only mentioned it casually because he was drunk.
Later, Hughes's honest payment of maritime taxes also made him completely relieved.
Jeremiah only vaguely remembered that the lord in front of him seemed to be the child of some important figure.
Wait, where did he say he was from before? The Dukedom of Cohen? The Duke of Cohen?
Jeremiah took a deep breath. His knowledge of the empire was limited to a few names that could be counted on two hands, but Duke Cohen was one of them.
Duke Cohen's territory covers a large area in the southern border of the empire, and judging from Hughes's young appearance, it is obvious that this territory was obtained with the help of his father, the Duke.
What was his title? Border Earl? How big was the title of Earl? Jeremiah didn't quite understand the rules of the empire's noble titles, let alone the civil and military officer systems. Even under Guess Gamon, he looked at Hughes with a different look.
(End of this chapter)