The island chain in the south of Meredith Isthmus was nominally the territory of the Kingdom of Meredith. The northern end of the isthmus was close to land, and the islands in the chain were all large and close to each other, so they were effectively ruled by the Kingdom of Meredith.
The island chain stretched south for tens of thousands of kilometers, and the further south it went, the smaller and sparser the islands.
As the distance increased, the size of the islands decreased, and the rate of return decreased. When the island chain stretched south for more than three thousand kilometers, the deterrence of the Kingdom of Meredith's rule on the islands began to decrease rapidly.
When the island chain was more than five thousand kilometers away from the mainland, and the size of the islands shrunk to about a thousand square kilometers, it was difficult for the lords of the kingdom to establish themselves.
The southern island chain was an island formed by the continental shelf of the northern continent. There were many mountains on the island, and except for a few islands, the plains were relatively small.
It was often difficult to develop a viscount's territory on an island with mountains of a thousand square kilometers. Without the support of a rich territory, it was difficult for the lord to maintain a strong military force. Without military force, there was no way to fight against the numerous pirates on this busy and rich waterway.
Therefore, the southern half of the southern island chain was basically ruled by the Kingdom of Meredith in name, but in reality, it was already a pirate's paradise.
But there were exceptions.
In the three thousand kilometers of sea where the southern island chain and the southern equatorial current crossed, there were more than thirty islands of various sizes. The largest of these islands was more than one thousand three hundred square kilometers, and the smallest was only a few square kilometers.
After arriving here, the ocean-going merchant ships heading south would turn east. Next, they would face a vast sea of fifteen thousand kilometers. During this long journey, they would not see a single island, nor would they be able to get any supplies.
Therefore, the southern island chain became their last supply station.
The Kingdom of Meredith, the Church of the Goddess of Commerce, and many large ocean-going merchant organizations in the northern continent worked together to choose the best islands in this part of the island chain and build two large supply ports.
These two ports were called Barquet Port, located in the northern part of the southern equatorial current. The other was called Barabak Port, located in the middle of the southern equatorial current.
Baquet Island, where Baquet Harbor was located, was the largest island in the southern equatorial current region of the southern island chain. This long and narrow island covered an area of 1,300 square kilometers. In the middle of the island was a mountain range which penetrated through the entire island. There were many coastal areas on both sides of the mountain range.
With the support of the Meredith Kingdom and the Church of the Goddess of Commerce, the Baquet family established a viscount on these two islands.
Baquet Port was located in a bay in the middle of Baquet Island. This medium-sized port with a population of more than 30,000 did not belong to the Baquet Family. Its highest administrative body was the city council of the port, and the Baquet City Council was controlled by several major forces such as the Kingdom of Meredith, the Church of the Goddess of Wealth, the Tailun City Alchemy Club, the Storm Commerce Union, and the East Coast City Chamber of Commerce.
Viscount Baquet's family had almost no influence in the port city. The main function of this viscount territory was to provide vegetables and some food to Baquet Harbor.
The rise of Barabac Port was after that of Baquet Port. The main reason why Barabac Port could rise was that Baquet Port's throughput was insufficient.
The geographical conditions of Baquet Harbor were not very good. The bay it was located in was not big enough, and the berths were limited. The harbor was located halfway up a hill, and the space for development was limited.
As the southern continent sea route became more and more popular, Baquet Harbor was soon overwhelmed. There were many times when sailing ships had to queue for two to three days at sea to enter Baquet Harbor to resupply. This was undoubtedly a huge waste for long-distance ships.
In desperation, people had to choose another good harbor.
Barabac Island, where Barabac Port was located, was only eight hundred square kilometers. It was the third largest harbor in the southern island chain that entered the southern equatorial current region.
However, unlike Baquet Island, Barabac Island was not an island. It was a small archipelago made up of eight islands, one large and seven small.
Barabac Port was located in the strait between the main island and the second largest island of Barabac Island.
This strait was a rather good natural harbor. The thirty-kilometer-long strait was not only an excellent harbor, but also provided a lot of berths.
The Barabac Islands added up to more than 1,200 square kilometers. However, the natural conditions of this island were far inferior to Baquet Island. The area of the islands that could be cultivated was very small, and there was not much development value.
The Barabac Port Council spent a lot of effort to open up two Baron territories on the two largest islands, which could barely supply vegetables to Barabac Port.
After many years of development, the scale of Barabac Port had long surpassed Baquet Harbor. Now, it was a port city with a population of more than 50,000 people.
Barabac Port's food was completely transported from the mainland, so the supplies here were not cheap.
The high food prices of Barabac Port also affected Baquet Harbor, which was closest to him. Under the stimulation of high food prices, Viscount Baquet would transport large amounts of food from Baquet Harbor, which was already short of food, to Barabac.
When the Pioneer Knight arrived at Baquet Harbor, the harbor, which had been short of berths for many years, still had a yellow flag that indicated that the berths were full.
Fortunately, Feng Chou did not plan to stop at Baquet Harbor.
Barabac Port was about a thousand kilometers south of Baquet Harbor. Along the way, they had to pass by six uninhabited islands. The Pioneer Knight followed an arc route to avoid these islands. The next morning, they circled half a circle from the west of Barabac Island and entered Barabac Port from the southern entrance of the strait.
In this ocean far away from the mainland, apart from a few ports, most islands, especially those with fresh water, were sources of danger.
Even pirates needed a place to rest and replenish their supplies. They could not drift on the sea forever.
Therefore, in the ocean far away from the mainland, any fresh water island was a pirate's lair or a potential pirate's lair.
In this sea route between the northern and southern continents, islands represented both hope and danger.
Under the light of the morning sun, the Pioneer Knight had just entered the open entrance of the bay when they were stopped by a tax inspection boat sent by the port.
The Pioneer Knight anchored according to the tax inspection boat's request. After the inspection boat docked, the Pioneer Knight lowered a rope ladder from the high side of the ship to the inspection boat.
A tax official wearing a red-rimmed black triangular hat and black Frac formal attire led a clerk and a navigator onto the Pioneer Knight.
After the tax official measured the Pioneer Knight, he said that according to local tax laws, any ship that wanted to enter Barabac Port had to pay a tax of one crown per ton of displacement. According to his estimates, the Pioneer Knight had a displacement of twelve thousand tons and had to pay a tax of twelve thousand crowns.
If it was on the mainland, such a heavy tax on merchant ships that entered the port for replenishment and not trade was no different from robbery. It would have caused a collective boycott of the merchant ships long ago. However, in Barabac Port, this tax was normal.
Chapman and the tax official had a fascinating debate about the tonnage of the ship. In the end, they convinced the tax official to levy a tax of ten thousand tons of displacement.
After paying ten thousand crowns, the clerk issued a tax payment form for them. The tax official and the clerk jointly signed it and handed it to them.
After the tax was collected, the tax official and the clerk returned to the inspection boat via the rope ladder. The navigator stayed behind and was responsible for leading the Pioneer Knight into the port.
Generally speaking, to avoid the wind, ports would choose to be built in bays or on coasts with more complicated topography. This caused many ports to have more complicated hydrology. Without a navigator familiar with the port's hydrology, foreign ships would easily run aground or run into reefs.
For example, the hydrology of the strait where Barabac Port was located was rather complicated. The strait was nearly thirty kilometers long, and the width of the strait varied from ten kilometers to one kilometer. The two sides of the strait were the foundation of the coast, and the situation was very complicated. There were also many reefs at the bottom of the sea. Without a navigator, it would be very difficult for foreign ships to enter safely.
Barabac Port wasn't a single port, but a collective name for more than thirty ports. These thirty or so ports were distributed on both sides of the strait that was more than ten kilometers long, forming more than thirty relatively independent port towns.
These thirty or so ports had more than a thousand berths of various sizes, completely solving the problem of Barabac Port's lack of berths.
Feng Chou rejected the port recommended by the navigator and directly said that they wanted to go to Brown's Wharf.
Feng Chou directly threw a small bag of crowns to the navigator. The navigator, who still wanted to say something, closed his mouth and obediently walked to the bridge to lead the way.
Not long after, the Pioneer Knight entered a rather large port. In this port, the most eye-catching thing was undoubtedly the huge iron ship that was almost identical to the Pioneer Knight.
Seeing this ship, the navigator understood why the ship owner insisted on going to Brown's Wharf.
The Pioneer Knight steadily docked. After sending the navigator away and paying the three-day berth rental fee, Feng Chou boarded the Warrior with Natasha, Gliss, Owen, Chorre, and Chapman.
Feng Chou introduced Captain Haddock, Old Captain Drake, their first mate, second mate, and boatswain to everyone.
Next, Feng Chou adjusted the positions of his subordinates. He officially appointed Old Captain Drake to replace Natasha as the captain of the Pioneer Knight. Natasha would be the first mate, and the old captain's former second mate, Lakham, would continue to be the second mate. The Norman, Ivar, would still be the boatswain.
The boatswain was called the Captain of Marines on the warship. He was the existence that commanded the melee soldiers on the ship.
Feng Chou also appointed Owen as the quartermaster of the Pioneer Knight.
Captain Haddock's son, Herman, was appointed as the Navigator.
The Navigator was responsible for formulating the ship's sailing route and sailing plan. He was an important staff member of the captain.
A Level-11 Mage (specializing in Alchemy), a Level-9 Warrior, and a Level-4 Rogue named Cecil, was appointed as the Gunnery Captain.
The Gunnery Captain was the officer responsible for the maintenance of the ship's cannons and firearms. He was also responsible for the command of the cannons, assisting the captain in directing the ship's cannons to fire a volley in battle.
A Level-9 Goblin Engineer was appointed as the Engineer of the Pioneer Knight. He was responsible for commanding and maintaining the steam turbine.
This Goblin Engineer named Lazer was also a Level-12 Rogue.
As for the Warrior, Captain Haddock's position remained unchanged. The Earth Goblin Noggenfogger's first mate and Engineer's position remained unchanged. The Red Dragon Balasar's boatswain's position also remained unchanged. Feng Chou also appointed Gliss as the Warrior's second mate, Chorre as the third mate, and Chapman as the quartermaster.
He also appointed a Level-10 Alchemist named Jared, who was recruited from Kavin, as the Gunnery Captain.
An experienced old sailor named Lyle was appointed as the Navigator.
This Lyle was a Level-13 Warrior and a Level-7 Mage. He had followed three different magical merchant ships to the Southern Continent and returned successfully.
These sea elites were all brainwashed by Feng Chou through Qiankun Pagoda.