Everyone on the island expressed support for taking the initiative to attack. The military felt that waiting to be beaten at any time on the island was too passive. People in the civil affairs department felt that maintaining a state of alert would not only require a large amount of military expenditures
It also requires mobilizing a large amount of valuable labor force, which is fine for a short period of time, but will not be sustainable over time.
But now there is the most important problem that needs to be solved, and that is to determine where the pirates are now. After all, Lawrence and the others have lost track of the pirates since the Elysion Navy broke away from the pirates.
"Although it is complicated to determine the location of the enemy on this sea, it does not 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
It can be judged from the above that the group of pirates should be in this sea area now."
Everyone nodded in agreement, because this is the edge of the Sea of Stars, and the only place the pirates want to repair is this island. It is easy for them to encounter it if they continue to go north, west, or south.
There is a powerful naval force, and if you continue to the east, there will only be a vast sea.
"According to the information we have, the other party should have fled here after being chased. In other words, they had gone on a long voyage without repair before." The captain said this and tapped the chart with a pen. "
After arriving at this relatively safe place, I believe the first thing they did was to find a place with fresh water to clean the bottom of the ship and repair the ship."
"Sorry, I have a question." Knight Joseph stretched out a hand to express that he had a question to ask. After getting permission, he asked the captain. "The journey from the New World to here is at best a medium-distance journey. It should be
There’s no need to clean up the ship.”
"This journey is indeed not a long-distance voyage." The captain nodded. "But if you consider that this area is tropical, various marine life grows much faster than that of the Old World. So the ship
Maintenance is also more frequent than in other places.”
"For example, our USS Enterprise has already had its bottom maintained once before. Thanks to the entrance of a river in this harbor, the maintenance of the vessel is relatively easy."
"No wonder a few days ago I saw the Enterprise leaving its berth on the dock and running to the mouth of the river to anchor." At this time, some of the people here suddenly remembered some of the things they had seen before. Naturally,
Everyone also understands why the pirates wanted to find a river mouth to renovate their ships.
"There are not many islands with fresh water among the many surrounding islands, and even fewer of them are ones that few people pay attention to. We only need to investigate those places to roughly locate the pirates." Finally, the captain concluded.
After further analysis, Lawrence and the others found that there were less than ten places that the pirate fleet could choose. After all, pirate ships are not sampans, and they cannot pass through places where the water level is too shallow. Therefore, this can just eliminate the inflow of many small rivers.
Haikou.
After the meeting, Lawrence and the others sent people to approach those suspicious spots to search for possible pirate fleets. As a result, the scouts sent out the next afternoon found the location of the pirate fleet.
"You said that group of pirates are on the east side of our island?" Lawrence didn't believe it at first when he received the reconnaissance report. He really didn't expect that the pirates he was looking for were actually on the same island as him. But after thinking about it, he
I think this is quite reasonable and not anything abnormal.
New Sauer Island itself is the largest island in this area. The island has lush vegetation and rich products. Naturally, it also has many freshwater rivers that flow into the sea and the wood needed to repair ships, and can provide a lot of supplies for pirates.
And because this island had a very low level of development before, the safety here is also very high.
According to the reports of the fishermen who discovered the pirate situation, they saw that two of the five pirate boats had been dragged to the beach to clean and repair the hulls. The other three boats were parked somewhat scatteredly at the mouth of the river.
The location looks very scattered.
"Did they find you?" Lawrence marked the locations of the pirate ships on the map based on the accounts of the fishermen who came to report, and then asked another important question.
"They must have seen us. After all, our boat is small and the mast is short. The people on the boat are just ordinary fishermen and not professional lookouts like those on pirate ships. So they must have been very early when we could see them.
We've been discovered." The olive-tanned fisherman said respectfully to Lawrence. "But you don't have to worry about anything, the pirates won't change their plans because of us."
"Why do you say that?" Lawrence was a little curious. He thought that if the fleet he led needed to hide for something, he would definitely kill those who found him around. If he couldn't kill him, he would definitely adjust his position. It was impossible to stay.
Remaining indifferent.
"Because it's not the first year that this group of pirates have been here." The fisherman said with some concern, "Based on previous years' experience, they don't attack us fishermen and fishing boats very much, let alone because we change their reservations.
Action plan——"
Hearing this, Lawrence immediately understood what these fishermen were talking about. Because the surrounding islands basically cultivated cash crops or provided services for ships as their main business, so for these marginalized people,
The fishermen basically don't pay much attention and don't care about anything except collecting taxes.
Because these fishermen are poor, both their boats and fishing gear are very crude, and they can only make ends meet by fishing on weekdays. And the island owners taxing them often causes their lives to fall into difficulties.
So they often choose to flee in boats when they hear that taxes will be imposed on them, 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 Sol Island is purely because it used to be a no-care zone, so the surrounding fishermen basically ended up here. However, since there was almost nothing on the island at that time, they wanted to buy necessities or get medical treatment.
, it is normal for them to trade through all sea ships here, including pirate ships.
As for pirates, except in some extreme cases, they will not rob fishermen who don't have a single coin on them. Therefore, a certain tacit understanding naturally arises between the residents of the area and the pirates.
The reason why many fishermen on the island are now willing to serve Lawrence is also very simple, that is, Lawrence has built a seafood processing plant and purchased various seafood from them at a fair and reasonable price. At the same time, hospitals and shops on the island have also
It is open to them without discrimination, and they find a sense of belonging in this place.
Lawrence naturally took this opportunity to strengthen his control over fishermen, such as establishing a fishing cooperative and providing housing for those fishermen who voluntarily participated in the fishing cooperative in the port and providing education for their children.
In addition, those who join the fishery cooperative can receive a guaranteed salary so that they can survive the time when they are unlucky and unable to catch fish. At the same time, they can also have priority in purchasing various fishing gear from Lawrence at extremely low interest rates.
Although the fishery cooperative has just been established for more than ten days, 1/3 of the fishermen who heard the news 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 cooperative to receive it directly, and Lawrence did not need to hand it to him.