Struggle in the Steam Age

All people on the island expressed their support for taking the initiative to attack. The military felt that waiting on the island at any time to be beaten was too passive. The people in the civil affairs department felt that maintaining a state of alert not only required a large amount of military expenditure but also mobilized a large amount of precious labor. If a short period of time is fine, it will not be maintained over a long period of time.

But now there is the most important problem to be solved, and that is to determine where the group of pirates are now. After all, Lawrence and the others have lost track of pirates since the Erythion Navy had disengaged from the group of pirates.

"It's complicated to determine the enemy's position on this sea, but it doesn't mean that there is no trace." The captain of the Enterprise took out a chart marking the surrounding area and said, "We are basically now You can tell that the group of pirates should be in this sea area now."

Everyone nodded in agreement, because this was the edge of the sea of ​​stars, and the only place the group of pirates wanted to fix was this island. For them, if they continue north, west and south, they will easily encounter powerful naval forces, and if they continue east, only a vast ocean will remain.

"According to our existing intelligence, the other party should have fled here after being hunted down. That is to say, they had gone on a long-distance voyage without trimming." The captain said, tapping the chart with a pen and said, " After arriving in this relatively safe place, I believe the first thing they did should be to find a place with fresh water to clean the bottom of the boat and repair the boat."

"Sorry, I have a question." Knight Joseph stretched out a hand and said that he had a question to ask, he asked the captain after getting permission. "The journey from the New World to here is at best a mid-range journey, so there should be no need to clean up the ship."

"This part of the voyage is indeed not a long voyage." The captain nodded and said. "But if you consider that this area is tropical, all kinds of marine life grow faster than the old continent. So ship maintenance is more frequent than in other places."

"For example, our Enterprising has already done a maintenance of the bottom of the ship before. Thanks to the estuary of a river in this harbor, the maintenance of the ship is fairly easy."

"No wonder I saw the Enterprising leave its berth on the pier the other day and ran to the river estuary to anchor." At this time, some of the people present came to remember something they had seen before. Naturally, everyone also understood why the group of pirates was looking for a river estuary to repair their ships.

"And there are not many islands with fresh water among the surrounding islands. Few of them pay attention to less. We only need to investigate those places and we can probably locate the pirates." Finally the captain concluded.

After further analysis, Lawrence and the others found that the pirate fleet could choose less than ten places. After all, the pirate ship is not a sampan, and those places where the water level is too shallow can't get through. So this can just eliminate a lot of small rivers entering the sea.

After the meeting, Lawrence and the others dispatched personnel to approach those suspicious spots to search for possible pirate fleets. As a result, the scouts sent in the afternoon of the next day found the position of the pirate fleet.

"You said the group of pirates are on the east side of our island?" Lawrence didn't believe it when he received the reconnaissance report. He really didn't expect that the pirate he was looking for would be on the same island as himself. But after thinking about it, he felt that this was quite reasonable, and it was not an abnormal thing.

Neuschauer Island itself is the largest island in this area, with lush vegetation and abundant products. Naturally, we also have a lot of freshwater rivers that flow into the sea, as well as wood needed to repair ships, and can provide a lot of supplies for pirates. And because of the low level of development of this island before, the safety of this place is also very high.

According to the report of the fishermen who discovered the pirate situation, they saw that two of the five pirate ships had been towed to the beach to clean up and repair the hull. The other three boats were parked at the mouth of the river in a scattered manner, looking very scattered.

"They found you didn't?" Lawrence marked the location of the pirate ships on the map according to the description of the fishermen who came to report, and then asked another important question.

"They must have seen us. After all, our ship is very small and its mast is short. The people on board are just ordinary fishermen instead of professional watchmen on pirate ships. So they must have been very early when we could see them. Found us." The fisherman whose skin was sun-tanned respectfully said to Lawrence. "But you don't have to worry about anything. Those pirates won't change their plans because of us."

"Why do you say that?" Lawrence was a little curious. When he wanted to do something hidden in the fleet under his leadership, he would definitely kill those around him who found him. If he couldn't do it, he would definitely adjust his position. It is impossible to stay indifferent.

"Because the group of pirates is not here in the first year." The fisherman said with some expectation, "According to previous years' experience, they will not attack us fishermen and fishing boats very much, let alone because we change their reservations. Action plan—"

After hearing this, Lawrence immediately understood what these fishermen meant. Because the surrounding islands are basically planting cash crops or providing services for boats as their main business, the fishermen who are marginalized people basically do not pay much attention to everything except tax collection.

Because of their poverty, these fishermen are very primitive, both in boats and fishing gear, and they can barely make ends meet in daily fishing. And those island owners taxed them very often, causing their lives to be trapped.

So they often choose to flee in a boat when they hear that they will be taxed, but this makes them even more unpopular. Therefore, there are no fishermen on many islands.

The reason why there are so many fishermen on New Sauer Island is purely because it used to be a trivial zone, so the surrounding fishermen basically ended up here. However, because there was almost nothing on the island at that time, it was normal for them to trade through all the sea ships here and even the pirate ships in order to buy necessities or treat diseases.

As for pirates, except for some extreme situations, they will not rob fishermen who do not have a copper plate on them. Therefore, some tacit understanding between the residents of this area and the pirates naturally developed ~www.ltnovel.com~ and the reason why many fishermen on the island are willing to serve Lawrence is also very simple, that is, Lawrence has built a seafood processing plant and offered They buy all kinds of seafood at a fair and reasonable price. At the same time, hospitals and shops on the island are open to them without discrimination. They found a sense of belonging in this place.

Lawrence naturally took this opportunity to strengthen the control of fishermen, such as establishing fishery cooperatives and providing fishermen who voluntarily participate in fishery cooperatives with housing at the port and education for their children.

In addition, anyone who joins a fishery cooperative can get a guaranteed salary so that they can spend the time when they are unlucky and cannot catch fish. At the same time, it is also possible to purchase various fishing gear on credit from Lawrence at a very low interest rate.

Although the fishery cooperative has just been established for more than ten days, 1/3 of the fishermen who heard the news around have actively joined the cooperative. For example, the fishermen who came to report this time are members of the cooperative.

"Thank you for the information." After asking all the questions he wanted to ask, Lawrence thanked the fisherman and let him leave. As for his reward, he went to the co-op to receive it directly, and Lawrence did not need to hand it to him.