Lord of Winter: Beginning with Daily Intelligence - Chapter 629 - 369: Harvest and Voyage
Chapter 629: Chapter 369: Harvest and Voyage
The night fires have been extinguished, and Dawn Port has returned to tranquility.
The sea water beneath the dam mixed with the smell of tar and blood, but the roar of battle has ceased.
The Dawn fleet triumphantly returned to port, nine warships entered neatly, none sunk, only two had minor damage on the sides, requiring slight repairs.
The outcome of this battle will shake the entire North Sea.
Of the thirty-seven black sail ships under the Mad King, twenty-three have turned to ashes, the remainder all captured by the Dawn fleet.
And during the night battle, the pirates were utterly defeated, leaving very few survivors.
Except for a few important leaders who were captured alive for interrogation, the rest were executed at sea, their bodies scattered by the tide.
The news of the Dawn fleet’s safe return spread like a storm through Dawn Port, many of the people came out spontaneously to welcome them.
As the Red Tide flag appeared in the mist at the bow, workers and townspeople on the dock began to cheer spontaneously.
The cheers surged like waves, hitting the piers and stone embankments, shaking the planks to trembling.
“The Dawn is back!”
“Red Tide undefeated!”
“For the Northern Territory, for Dawn!”
More people joined in the shouting, their voices rising wave after wave.
Children jumped around at the edge of the dock, waving homemade small flags.
Artisans lifted their oil-stained cloth hats with their hands, shouting the names of each ship: “Dawn!”, “Sunrise!”, “Tide!”…
Many workers had seen the flames ignite on the sea surface, they knew how the Dawn fleet fought in the night fog.
The memories were forged by their own hands, so they felt they had also participated in this glorious war.
Of course, this was the result of Louis always fostering a sense of collective honor among them.
As the hulls docked, the loud drop of anchors into the sea echoed in the harbor, and battle flags fluttered in the morning wind.
The artisans and knights of Dawn Port swarmed onto the dock, some checking damages, others transporting the spoils, the air was filled with the excitement and busyness following victory.
Louis and Eliot stood side by side atop the embankment.
Eliot watched the bustling crowd below, a feeling of indescribable reverence rising in his heart.
He had always admired the young lord, now he almost held him as a belief.
He understood that if he had commanded this battle, he could have won with the Dawn fleet’s strength but never so effortlessly.
Every time an enemy ship appeared, every change in wind direction, Louis seemed to predict it in advance.
That sense of control, almost foresight.
Eliot whispered, “My lord, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe anyone in the world could anticipate the battle this precisely.”
Louis glanced at him gently, “Stop flattering, Eliot.”
The governor of Dawn Port smiled and shook his head, but his tone was sincere, “I’m not flattery. Like you, my lord, there’s no one in the Northern Territory who can foresee and command like this.”
Louis thought, what you say is nonsense, does this world have a Daily Intelligence System?
But he couldn’t reveal this secret, so he turned his head and switched topics, “How goes the interrogation?”
Eliot quickly answered, “All have been questioned, my lord. Now we’re searching his treasure spots according to confessions, quite a lot, the cunning rabbit has three burrows.
And the two devices you provided are really useful, we hardly began questioning and he confessed everything.”
Louis chuckled softly, “That’s good.”
……
The salvaging continued for a full half-day.
Divers repeatedly submerged to the seabed, air hoses swelling in the waves, pulling out wreckage with iron hooks.
The first batch of salvaged iron boxes weighed hundreds of pounds, sealed in whale fat.
Once pried open, silver coins poured out like a flood, the sunlight on the dock reflecting off that sea of silver, blinding people.
Every coin was engraved with the Ashen Guild’s emblem.
There were even account books recording transactions, clearly specifying the guild’s North Sea support amounts.
In the tidal sand of White Bay Cave, artisans dug out three wooden barrels, the second with a concealed slot at the bottom.
After chiseling it open, the barrel was filled with gold bars and blue magic crystals, gleaming coldly, the gold bars engraved neatly with serial numbers, the crystals sparking like stars in firelight.
A sailor exclaimed, “This one barrel can repair three ships.”
And on the old fishing boat North Reef No.3, scrolls and sea charts piled to almost fill the entire cabin.
Knights carefully unfurled them, the marked red routes extending from Ice Abyss Islands to unknown seas, perhaps this was the Mad King’s most important treasure.
Finally, in the ruins of the Mad King’s flagship Wave Eater, they salvaged the core of the explosive cannon and several bottles of alchemy petroleum.
As the sun rose, the embankment was already piled with boxes of spoils.
Gold Coins, Silver Coins, Gold Bars, Magic Crystal, Contracts, Sea Charts, Account Books…
The Mad King’s life was disassembled into neat iron boxes.
Under the opened box lids, cold light flickered, the sea wind stirring the clinking of metal, as if singing the echoes of victory.
The air mixed with the smell of tar and salt, reminding everyone that this wealth was salvaged from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, every piece stained by the great pirate’s crimes.
Not far away, a clerk in a black robe was quickly recording the inventory results.
“Thirteen thousand three hundred ten gold coins, forty-four thousand five hundred silver coins, eighty gold bars, three hundred seventy-two magic crystals, twelve account books, nine contracts, seven sea charts.”
He listed each item, and the scribe beside him swiftly transcribed.
Eliot clicked his tongue repeatedly, marveling, “The Mad King was truly wealthy, richer than most lords in the Northern Territory.”
Louis smiled and patted the box with his hand, “Indeed, a bite full of oil.”
