"Did you get any news about Welikro in the royal capital?" asked Claude.
Welikro was a good friend of Borkal and Claude's. Their family moved to the royal capital and Welikro joined the royal guard.
During the war five years ago, Claude met Welikro once. It was during the ceremony where he was awarded the Knighthood. Welikro, like Claude, was awarded the Knighthood for his marksmanship and killing more than 200 enemies on the battlefield.
Borkal nodded before shaking his head. "I didn't meet Welikro, but I did get some news about him.
It was at the gathering that Maria hosted that I got to know a major in the royal guard's logistics department called Nickerson.
After talking for a while, I found out that he was Welikro's brother-in-law.
He told me that Welikro was promoted to lieutenant-colonel due to his contributions in the kingdom's civil war. However, he wasn't stationed in the royal capital. Instead, he was stationed in Limasosia.
Five years ago, Welikro got married as well. His wife was the second daughter of a hereditary count and her dowry was a huge manor in the county of Limasosia.
That's why Welikro applied to be stationed in Limasosia. He already has a son and a daughter and lives a happy life.
His father, Uncle Kubrik, is getting on in his years and likes to drink. His health isn't that great, so he's staying in the manor as well. "
"Time really flies. Back then, we were still middle school students in Whitestag. We didn't have a care in the world and only knew how to play around. In the blink of an eye, we're already far apart and even have children," sighed Claude. He went to the cabinet and picked out a bottle of fruit wine to pour everyone a cup.
However, Uncle Rubwill stopped him and said that he was getting on in his years and it was better for him to continue drinking black tea.
Borkal sighed as well. He was probably reminiscing about the happy times they had back in Whitestag.
After a moment of silence, he watched as Claude poured him a glass of fruit wine and took a sip before he said hesitantly, "Actually, I saw Eriksson on the way back. The Blacksail Pirates he led robbed our refugee fleet …"
Claude looked at Borkal and downed his glass in one go before pouring himself a second glass. "What did he say to you?" he asked indifferently.
"About that …" Borkal thought for a moment and said, "He wants to make a deal with us …"
Claude didn't ask about the deal. Instead, he walked around the room with a frown. "Tell me everything about your meeting with him."
"I didn't recognize him at first. His current appearance is completely different from when he was young. He gives off a wild and tyrannical feeling.
His long hair almost reached his waist, and there was a scar on his face. His eyes were very bright.
Even though he's grown up quite a bit, he's still the shortest of the four of us.
When we discovered the fleet of the Black Sail Pirates at sea, their dozen pirate ships saw that our refugee fleet didn't have any escorting warships, so they unhesitatingly raised their sails and charged towards us.
"I could only order my guards to spread out and hide in different parts of the ship so that they could use their accurate marksmanship to decapitate the leader of the pirates.
Therefore, my ship met the incoming black-sail pirate ships and hoisted the flag of negotiation.
The Black Sail Pirates were very disciplined. They surrounded our refugee fleet, but they didn't board the ship. Instead, they used the cannons on the pirate ship. The pirates also brandished all kinds of weapons. They used vicious expressions and words to scare the refugees on the ship. Many of them cried on the spot.
Eriksson stood at the bow of his pirate ship and commanded his ship to sail towards me. The closer I got to him, the more familiar I found him. Only when I called out his name did he recognize me. He didn't even dare to recognize me because of my stature.
Only after discovering that it was me did he order his ship to converge with ours.
However, he was cautious and didn't come to my ship. Instead, he invited me and my father to his ship for a meeting.
We boarded his ship. It was a Stormfleet's Tristar warship, which was currently his flagship.
It had undergone a major modification. The cannons on the deck were reduced and two sails were added. Its speed and stability were greatly improved.
There were a few pirates on the ship who recognized me and my father. They were very happy to see us and greeted us.
I didn't really know them. My father later told me that they were once residents of Whitestag. They were sailors on Captain Altroni's ship, Shark of the Red Sea. They followed Eriksson and his family away from Whitestag when Stormfleet rebelled.
Eriksson served us in his cabin. When he asked me what I wanted, I told him that we'd like some fresh meat.
After drifting at sea for half a month, we ate those bread dumplings every day. Even in my dreams, I dreamed of eating big mouthfuls of meat.
Eriksson laughed heartily and asked us what happened to the fleet.
I told him what happened. When he heard that Whitestag was in ruins, he couldn't help but sigh. He then ordered the ship's chef to make us a sumptuous meal.
After we ate our fill, Eriksson suggested that we follow him to the place where his parents were living in seclusion. He wanted to go home to see his parents.
Based on what he said, I guessed that he joined Stormfleet to find his father and betrayed the fleet to bring his mother and the other sailors back to Whitestag. That was how he officially became a Blacksail Pirate.
It was said that his parents lived in seclusion on a large island in the depths of the Silent Ocean. There were a total of three large islands and a dozen smaller ones there, forming an archipelago.
The island his parents lived on could house twenty to thirty thousand people. Currently, all of the Blacksail Pirates lived on that island, numbering around six thousand.
Eriksson, on the other hand, took over a few more islands in the Nubali Archipelago and became one of the pirates in the Thousand Isles.
Every three months, Eriksson would bring a rotating fleet back to the island his family lived in seclusion to deliver supplies and daily necessities to the families of his pirates.
He wanted to bring our entire fleet over, but I refused and told him that things weren't that simple.
There were around sixty thousand people in our fleet. Sending them over would only make us bully the host. Eriksson also couldn't guarantee that he could provide the food and daily necessities for so many people.
Then, I suggested that if he wanted to migrate, he could go to the mainland and recruit the sailors and craftsmen who had lost their jobs. Then, he could arrange for their families to live on the island.
That way, he could increase the population of the island and ensure their loyalty. It was much better than trying to take advantage of my fleet.
Furthermore, he could control the number of people he recruited and the progress of his recruitment. He wouldn't have to worry about the island becoming chaotic if there were too many people.
Eriksson laughed heartily and said that I'd changed a lot and become much smarter.
He said that he could give up on the refugee fleet, but he hoped that my family would follow him back. One day, he would establish an archipelago kingdom like the Fox Islands United Kingdom. At that time, he could make me a Grand Duke and make me a hereditary noble.
I rejected his request right away and told him that it was his duty to not stop me from reporting back to the theatre if he cared about old times.
Eriksson only sighed and didn't try to recruit me.
He was rather well-informed in the Nubali Archipelago and told me that the theatre had defeated Shiks and won the war.
He also told me that he had let you down back in Whitestag because he didn't know that his father was your father's partner. He only thought that his father was hired by your father to be attacked by the pirates.
He knows a lot about the colonies and I suspect that his Blacksail Pirates have spies in our theatre as well.
He said that he knew that you were one of the five heads of the theatre, which was why he restrained his subordinates from raiding and pillaging the coast. He didn't want to cause trouble for you.
However, he asked me to pass on a request to you.
If our theatre could do some business with his Blacksail Islands, he promised that his Blacksail Pirates wouldn't do anything to our theatre in the future. They could even be hired by us to deal with the Shiksan fleet and other pirate groups that come to harass our coast.
As for the content of the deal, it would be nothing more than ammunition and other supplies, as well as daily necessities like food and fodder.
I found it strange and asked him if he didn't have any reliable channels to sell and purchase goods after being a pirate for so many years.
Eriksson cursed out loud and said that there were smugglers from the western colonies in the Nubali Archipelago. However, the prices they offered were too low, usually a third to a quarter of the market price.
Most of the Blacksail Pirates were Auerans, so they were at an even greater disadvantage. They offered the lowest prices and the highest prices when dealing with merchants from other countries.
But if they didn't deal with those black-hearted merchants, they wouldn't be able to get any supplies.
They could only swallow their pride and take the bait.
That's why Eriksson asked me to ask you if you could make a deal with the Blacksail Pirates. "
"So, Eriksson released your fleet and even gave you some food and water?" Claude asked. Borkal nodded.
Claude looked at Borkal's father who was sipping his tea quietly on the sofa and suddenly asked, "Uncle Rubwill, what do you think of Eriksson?"
Mr. Rubwell raised his head. "My opinion is that all of you have changed a lot since your youth. You are now in a high position, and your reputation has spread throughout the colonies and the West Coast. In the war zone, your words are followed, and many things can be decided with just a word.
Eriksson, on the other hand, has changed almost as much as you did, except that he became a pirate and you became a general.
Even though you're one of the five heavyweights of the theatre, there are still rules above your head. You have to think carefully before you do anything and don't give others anything to use against you.
I don't see that in Eriksson. He doesn't have any qualms about doing things. For example, when we told him that it was a fleet of refugees, his first thought was to bring them back to his base. He didn't consider whether he could accommodate that many people at all.
When he said that he would sooner or later form an archipelago like the United Kingdom of the Fokes Islands, and that he would make Boa a grand duke, I knew that he was ambitious, and that he had no regard for the royalty of this world.
Perhaps it's because he can no longer be bound by rules after becoming a pirate. Everything revolves around him and he's free to do as he pleases.
As for Eriksson's proposal to make a deal with the colonies, I suggest that you don't agree to it.
Doing a deal with him will only increase his strength and expand the Blacksail Pirates.
Now, I really regret Borkal's idea of going to the mainland to recruit people for him. However, Borkal had no choice but to do so in order to get his fleet out of trouble. "
Claude lowered his head and slowly sipped on the fruit wine in his cup. Lubiwill's opinion was simple. He didn't care whether Eriksson was Claude and Borkal's childhood friend or not. He only expressed his opinion of Eriksson.
Of course, as a merchant, he naturally hated bandits. Pirates were a gang that relied on robbery to get rich and were natural enemies.
However, there were a few points that were worth Claude thinking about. Firstly, Lubiwill said that Eriksson was an ambitious fellow who wouldn't be bound by rules or grievances.
That was a subtle way of saying that he didn't think Eriksson would accept the offer of enlistment in the colonies. He also brought up Claude's current status and the fact that Eriksson wanted to establish an archipelago nation to show that Eriksson wouldn't be willing to submit to anyone, especially not to Claude's command.
Secondly, ever since Borkal suggested that Eriksson go to the mainland to recruit people, Eriksson gave up on the idea of raiding the refugees. It was obvious that he had taken the suggestion to heart.
Next, he would carry it out and expand the Blacksail Pirates' influence. The mainland didn't have any fleets to protect the coast, so it was basically an undefended area for the Blacksail Pirates to plunder as much wealth and manpower as they wanted.
Thirdly, with manpower and wealth, the Blacksail Pirates would definitely be able to expand their influence. However, they would need large amounts of equipment and ammunition, which couldn't be obtained by plundering.
At the same time, they would have to provide enough living necessities for the people who migrated to their base. Those weren't things that Eriksson could purchase from the colonies on the west coast. Even if he could procure a portion of them, it wouldn't be worth it due to the long shipping distance.
So, the best trading partner was the war theatre. That was also the reason why Rubiwell didn't want Claude to agree to the deal with Eriksson's Blacksail Pirates. His son, Borkal, suggested to Eriksson to recruit people in the mainland in order to escape. Not agreeing to Eriksson's deal with the war theatre would be able to curb the Blacksail Pirates' rapid expansion and prevent them from becoming accomplices of the pirates.
What Rubiwell didn't understand was that the war theatre needed time to digest the profits of the war and recover from the trauma of war, as well as to revitalize the economy of the war theatre.
That was something Claude had thought through more thoroughly. Not doing the deal with Eriksson's Blacksail Pirates was simple, but it would offend them and bring the risk of pirate attacks to the coast.
During the colonial war, pirates rarely came to the war theatre's waters, mainly because they were afraid of being caught in the crossfire of the two Shiksan fleets.
Now that the war had come to an end, the coastal shipping routes of the colonies would inevitably become even busier and more prosperous. Furthermore, a stable sea trade route without the threat of war would attract the attention of pirate gangs of all sizes. Before the war theatre's integrated ocean patrol fleet could form a fighting force, the coastal shipping routes would have a high risk of being attacked by pirates.
That was why Eriksson was so confident in striking a deal with the war theatre. He should have noticed that too, which was why he offered to take on the pirate gangs that harassed and attacked the coast.
This was also a way to draw territory, and at the same time, it was also a way to threaten the direct territories into accepting his terms of trade …
It seemed that Rubiwell was right. Eriksson was truly ambitious and Claude didn't have to think of recruiting him as an admiral.
It was a pity that his young friend didn't have a long-term strategic vision. Did he think he could live a carefree life as a pirate and pass it on to his descendants?
Claude had never thought much of pirates, but what he needed now was time.
After the development of the train and railway in the immediate territories was successful, the next task was to move the steam engine onto the ships, and at the same time build an ironclad or iron-shelled steam-powered ocean fleet.
At that time, even the supposedly invincible fleets of Freia would be nothing more than tofu, let alone the sails of the pirates.
Eriksson's Blacksail Pirates were indeed a force to be reckoned with in the age of sail warships, but after the advent of ironclad warships, they could only hide from one place to another.
They had plenty of manpower and craftsmen to build sail warships, but not a single pirate faction could build ironclad warships. That was precisely the foundation of a powerful maritime nation.
But before ironclad warships became a reality, the war theatre would have to rely on the captured warships of the Alliance to form an ocean-going fleet and train their own officers and officers to lay the foundation for the future ironclad warships. At the same time, they would be used to protect the safety of the war theatre's waters.
Claude rapped his fingers on the table. There were many things he needed to do. Before considering whether or not to strike a deal with the Blacksail Pirates, the war theatre would have to deal with the royal capital's envoys and censure.
It had been almost four months since the victory over Shiks. The royal capital should have received the news long ago.
Without the threat of war, the rising merchant nobles would probably embark on their warships in high spirits.
Perhaps to them, the war theatre was like a juicy piece of meat waiting for them to take a bite.