After adjusting their positions, Feng Chou gave his first order to the two captains. He asked them to work together and split the 1200 crew members on the Warrior into two halves. Half of them would stay on the Warrior, and the other half would move to the Pioneer Knight to replace Feng Chou's apprentices to pilot the Pioneer Knight.
Feng Chou never planned to waste his talented apprentices on the ship. Their current mission was to learn and tap into their potential.
The two captains, together with their assistants, spent more than a day to divide the 1200 crew members into two groups.
Next, Feng Chou asked them to split the 5000 civilians on the Warrior into two halves and move half of them to the Pioneer Knight to reduce the space pressure on the Warrior.
During the shift, Feng Chou moved 2000 teenagers to the Pioneer Knight.
After the shift, the crowded Warrior suddenly became more spacious. About a quarter of the bottom cabin was even vacated.
Feng Chou had secretly placed a tenth of the alchemy products in the bottommost warehouse of the Warrior.
After the shift, the Warrior and the Pioneer Knight still had about a quarter of the empty warehouse, and almost 80% of the cargo capacity of the two ships.
As a merchant ship, Feng Chou of course had to fill up the empty space as much as possible.
After everything was sorted out, Feng Chou followed the old captain to visit the manager of Brown's Wharf.
Barabac Port was made up of more than 30 docks. These docks were distributed on both sides of the strait that was more than 10 kilometers long, forming more than 30 independent dock towns. These dock towns were basically independent of each other. The so-called Barabac Port Government could only coordinate the docks, but had no right to interfere with the internal affairs of the docks.
With such a loose structure, it was easy to imagine how chaotic Barabac Port was.
According to the old captain, at least half of the 30 independent docks in Barabac Port were secretly helping the nearby pirates to sell their stolen goods.
Since they were stolen goods, they naturally wouldn't be too expensive.
In fact, according to the old captain, the same kind of goods in Barabac Port were one-third to one-half cheaper than in Tailun Port.
With the old captain as the middleman, Feng Chou and the manager of Brown's Wharf quickly finalized the deal.
Unfortunately, Brown's Wharf could only meet half of Feng Chou's needs.
Fortunately, the old captain told Feng Chou that there would be a chance to restock in the future.
After Feng Chou paid the deposit, the next day, the dock workers began loading the two ships.
Because of the small amount of cargo on the ship, Feng Chou excluded cloth products that took up a lot of space and did not have a high profit margin. He mainly chose stainless steel, secondary black steel, stainless steel weapons and armors, secondary black steel weapons and armors, and primary alchemy products that were refined using alchemy furnaces.
Four cranes and hundreds of dockworkers were busy for three days before all the goods were sent to the warehouses of the two ships.
The cargo filled half of the remaining quarter of the cabins of the two ships, and thirty percent of their carrying capacity.
After paying the balance, the two merchant ships slowly left Brown's Wharf. Under the guidance of the navigator at Brown's Wharf, they left the strait and headed towards the depths of the vast sea in the east.
After leaving Barabac Port, the two ships would be greeted by a vast sea route of fourteen thousand kilometers. There would be no resupply in between.
According to the information that Feng Chou had gathered, the journey away from the resupply point was the most dangerous for merchant ships.
This was because pirates always liked to hunt for prey at the resupply point. They would tail and kill their prey after they left the port.
Therefore, as soon as the two ships left Barabac Port, Feng Chou requested that the two ships start their steam engines and use hybrid power to speed up their departure.
The old captain who was on the same ship as Feng Chou did not hesitate to execute Feng Chou's order, but Feng Chou could see the disapproval in his eyes.
After asking for the reason, the old captain told Feng Chou that pirates always bullied the weak and feared the strong. They would not choose a powerful and fast armed merchant ship like the Pioneer Knight as their target. The pirates' favorite target was actually ordinary sailing merchant ships. Sailing ships were slow and had weak firepower, making them the best prey to eat.
The old captain also told Feng Chou that there were no powerful pirate groups in the southern island chain. With the speed and firepower of the Pioneer Knight and Warrior, there was no need to fear or avoid the pirates here.
Feng Chou agreed with the old captain's opinion, but he did not change his order. After all, it was better to be safe than sorry.
It turned out that the old captain was right. Feng Chou's two merchant ships had been sailing for a day without encountering any other ships.
After more than a day of sailing, they were basically out of the hunting range of the pirates in the southern island chain.
In order to avoid the pirates, merchant ships would not take a fixed route after departing from Barabac Port. They would take a random route away from the port. After all, after departing from Barabac Port, the merchant ships faced a two-thousand-kilometer-wide ocean current route. The merchant ships could choose any route on this three-thousand-kilometer-wide route.
For the pirates, the closer they were to Barabac Port, the easier it was to intercept and capture their prey. The farther they were, the greater the range, and the harder it was to intercept.
Of course, they could not be too close. If they were too close, they would be attacked by the fleet in Barabac Port.
After more than a day of sailing, it would be difficult to successfully intercept them even if they received information in advance. Moreover, the cunning merchant ships would change directions randomly after leaving the port.
After reaching a safe distance, Feng Chou ordered the steam boilers to stop and used magic power to cruise. At the same time, he lifted the alarm and let the crew arrange for the passengers to take turns on the deck.
The next ten days of sailing were uneventful. Other than a storm, there was nothing special.
The sea in this world was bigger than Earth's, so the storms were naturally more terrifying. However, for a ten-thousand-ton ship, an ordinary sea storm was not much of a threat.
Huge waves caused by the storm surged onto the decks of the two merchant ships. However, the drainage system designed by Qiankun Pagoda was quite excellent. The seawater on the deck quickly flowed back into the sea through the drainage system. The two captains praised the airtight performance of the decks of the two merchant ships. Although the deck was overflowing with seawater, the cabins below the deck could remain dry without any leakage. This was a medium-sized miracle for the shipbuilding technology of this era.
Of course, it was not without trouble. The turbulence caused by the storm caused a large number of passengers to experience seasickness.
Fortunately, Feng Chou had already foreseen this situation. He prepared a large number of seasickness potions and quickly controlled the situation.
The next day, the merchant ships left the storm zone and the sun was shining brightly on the sea.
As the next supply point got closer, Captain Drake's face became more and more serious.
The old captain told Feng Chou, "If the southern island chain is still within the radiation of the Northern Continent's official forces, then the area we are about to enter is completely the world of pirates."
They were about to enter the next supply point, which was a large archipelago. This archipelago was actually the end of the Eastern Archipelago of the Northern Continent.
After the eastern mountains and the Northern Continent parted ways, a huge archipelago belt was formed on the east coast. This archipelago belt was inserted into the Northern Equatorial Current to the south. Its front end crossed the equator and entered the Southern Equatorial Current. It gradually disappeared after crossing the Southern Equatorial Current for two to three thousand kilometers.
The Eastern Archipelago belt was the widest when the eastern mountains had just separated from the Northern Continent. It was also the densest and the islands produced were also relatively large.
When the archipelago belt extended south to the equator, it gradually became sparse and the large islands in the archipelago gradually became fewer.
On one hand, it was because the islands were small and sparse. On the other hand, it was because the climate near the equator was hot and rainy. The islands were densely covered with rainforests and were not suitable for human survival. The human development of the Eastern Archipelago stopped north of the equator. Most of the islands south of the equator were deserted.
The Sea Church of the Northern Continent, the Church of Riches, the Tarun Alchemy Club, the East Coast City Chamber of Commerce, and other large sea trade organizations built a few supply fortresses in this archipelago that was inserted into the Southern Equatorial Current.
These fortresses were the lifeline of the merchant ships that came and went. They were also the gates of hell that were difficult to break through.
As for how to break through this archipelago that was known as a pirate paradise, Feng Chou had no idea. He handed over the command to the old captain.
Under the command of the old captain, the two ships turned a corner at a place that was a day's journey away from the archipelago and headed northeast.
The old captain told Feng Chou that he knew a safer route. On that route, there were no large islands with fresh water nearby and there were fewer pirates.
Under the lead of the old captain, the Pioneer Knight and the Warrior safely arrived at their destination, the Port of Tortuga.
The Port of Tortuga was not a supply port built by the large forces of the Northern Continent. On the contrary, it was actually a free port built by many pirate forces in the archipelago.
The original intention of this port was to provide a place for the pirates to sell their stolen goods.
Feng Chou was actually hesitant about whether to come to the Port of Tortuga to replenish the goods. According to his idea, he would rather leave part of the warehouse empty than risk going to a pirate port. After all, his ship was carrying thousands of people.
However, Old Captain Drake and Captain Haddock felt that the worries of the ship owner were unnecessary. According to the two captains, the Port of Tortuga was a safer place than the fortresses built by the large forces of the Northern Continent.
In order to maintain this port to sell their stolen goods, the pirates of the archipelago strictly forbade any pirates from robbing or even causing trouble in the Port of Tortuga. Those who violated this rule would be hunted down by the large pirates.
There was even such an unspoken rule in the archipelago. As long as a ship purchased a large amount of goods from the Port of Tortuga, the large pirates would let it go and would not take the initiative to rob it. Of course, this was only limited to a few large pirate groups.
Under the persuasion of the two captains, Feng Chou finally agreed to their suggestion to take a look at the Port of Tortuga.