Chapter 67: The Great Voyage of Another World
In the first few days, Dany stood at the bow and watched the scenery with great interest, and even imitated Jack and Rousi and shouted "I am the king of the world".
Well, she shouted behind Dahei - very confident, and in Chinese - not afraid of being heard.
But after a long time, the blue of the sea and sky seemed so monotonous that she could no longer generate any interest.
There are two small things worth mentioning. First, the centaurs are really tough, and they get used to it after spitting. Ilijiqi ran to the side of the ship whenever she had time, watching the dolphins swimming with the ship and laughing foolishly.
The second thing was that at the beginning, the crew was still very worried that the dragon would burn their ship. When Blackbeard Grolai saw the three dragons flying around the main mast in the sky, he was as nervous as a girl.
He shouted to the sailors to fill the empty wood with sea water and hang it on the side of the ship to prevent fire.
Later they found that the dragon would only spit fire in two situations: Dany ordered it and encountered fresh food.
The worries in their hearts faded away, and the sailors were surprised to see that wherever the three dragons went, rats fled like crazy.
Then, Dany took the dragons to the bottom of the cabin. That night, the sailors added a dish: braised rats in oil.
The rats seemed to have lost their minds, running directly to the deck and jumping into the sea.
A total of 146 rats were found on the three ships, and the largest one weighed more than half a pound.
Dany did not eat rat meat, but the centaurs loved to eat rats, second only to their love for horse meat.
Gradually, when the sailors saw the dragons flying in the sky, they would spontaneously feel a strange and strong pride. They often said, "We are the queen's subordinates, under the wings of real dragons, fighting for her, dying for her, and honoring the dragons."
The centaurs like to lie on the side of the ship to watch dolphins, and from the captain to the kitchen helper, they all like to watch the three big black flying.
Dany was bored in her room, practicing the "108-letter standard pronunciation table" she learned from the Undying Temple. They are the basis of ancient Valyrian spells.
"Ahaigele-mu" she stumbled over the iron plate.
The "108-letter pronunciation table" only taught Dany how to read the spells, but she didn't understand the meaning at all, and there was no advanced stuff like guiding magic and meditation. There was not even a complete spell for Dany to read. In the end, she could only take out the identity card she found from the dragon king's body and recite the runes on it like a child reading pinyin.
On the back of the one-yuan silver coin of the Celestial Empire, there is a circle of letters "zhongguo renmin yinhang" outside the chrysanthemum. It is at least a group of two words, separated by a space character in the middle.
The iron plate in Dany's hand is a series of rune letters, and she doesn't even know how to add "punctuation".
If you show "zhongguorenminyinhang" to a Chinese, he will be stunned for a while before he can react. What if you give it to a foreigner who doesn't understand Chinese at all?
Dany is facing this situation now. With the "108-character alphabet", she can read "a, b, c, d" together, but she doesn't know what it means or how to read it.
"We are in trouble, Khaleesi." Doreah walked into the room holding a pottery jar full of milk.
The maid of Lys was used to the sea and had been with the dragons for many days, so she didn't mix with the sailors and centaurs on the deck.
"What trouble?" Dany asked casually.
Doreah first poured her a large bowl of fresh mare's milk, and then said with a sad face: "The wind on the sea is weakening, and it won't be long before the ship will be stuck in the sea and can't move."
There are five seas in this world that are closely related to human civilization. The Jade Sea in the east, from the Jade Sea through the Strait of Qarth, a large sea area in the south of Essos is the Summer Sea; the ocean in the north of Essos is called the "Shivering Sea"; there is a narrow sea between Essos and Westeros, with an average width of 500 kilometers, named "Narrow Sea".
There are two common names for Westeros people in Essos, "Andals" and "Visitors from the Land of the Setting Sun". Westeros is located in the westernmost part of the world, but there is also a vast ocean to the west of Westeros.
It took Dany's fleet a day to leave the Strait of Qarth and only two days to enter the Summer Sea. It is still some distance away from the easternmost city of the Summer Sea, New Ghis, and there is no trace of the Slaver's Bay further west!
Dany left the room and asked Blackbeard Grolal about this. He said nonchalantly: "We have two rowing boats!"
At first, Dany didn't quite understand why the sea ship had so many oars. The Summer Sun had a full 300 oars.
After the wind completely stopped in the afternoon, Blackbeard gave an order, and the sailors on the main mast lookout waved the flag, and the two narrow sea ships in front dropped two small boats.
On the boat was a bundle of thick hemp ropes that were taller than a person and almost as thick as Dany's wrist. The boat let out the ropes while approaching the sea ship, and finally buckled the iron chain at the end of the ropes to the ring on the protruding point of the keel at the bow.
As the flags waved, the two rowing boats suddenly sounded with a clear rhythm of drums. Dany saw a white water line on the outside of the two ships' sides, which was hundreds of sailors paddling hard.
"Bang--creak, creak"
The rope in front had been sinking into the water, but now it suddenly bounced up and tightened. Water mist spread around the hemp rope. The fat-bellied sea ship trembled, and then groaned and moved slowly forward.
The rowing boat in front was 60 meters long and about 12 meters wide, narrow and long like a plow, while the sea ship behind was extremely wide, like a fat man with a big belly.
At this time, the three ships sailed slowly on the sea with the same drum beats, like three small ants marching in step on the endless blue canvas.
"This won't last long." Dany murmured.
"It won't take long. We are not too far from the Ghiscari Strait. We can stop in New Ghis for a while and wait for the windless period to pass." Blackbeard said calmly.
The old sailor was indeed experienced. At noon the next day, the big black flying in the sky brought them the smell of land, a charred sheep leg.
In the evening, the lookout on the rowing boat in front shouted loudly: We have arrived at the Island of Jean!
Jean Island is about the same size as the Bear Island of the Mormont family. The longest straight-line distance on the island does not exceed 100 kilometers, but the value is completely different. Bear Island is remote and no foreign merchant ship will be encountered in a year or two.
Jean Island is located in the middle of the waterway between Slaver Bay and Qarth. There is also the New Ghis Harbor at the south end. Most of the ships traveling between the east and west continents will get supplies in New Ghis. It can be called the pearl on the eastern end of the Summer Sea.
Blackbeard Grolai also planned to wait for the sea breeze there.
If the fief of the Mormont family was Jean Island, his wife would never run away no matter what.
"The Gis people do not welcome outsiders to enter the island of Gien, but the new Gis port at the south end is open to outsiders. If we do not go near the harbor and just stay in the bay, the Gis people will not even collect taxes from us.
So, even though New Ghis is not far from Qarth, the ships will still go there to anchor for a while. "Standing on the bridge, looking at the black dot in front, Grolai Blackbeard explained to Dany.
"Are the taxes in the Free Cities very expensive?" Dany asked.
Blackbeard thought for a moment and said, "If you don't sell goods locally, you will only charge the anchorage fee for the ships. The bigger the ship, the larger the dock area it occupies, and the higher the price.
For three ships like us, if we enter the New Ghis dock, the anchorage fee for one day will be more than 10 gold coins, about three gold dragons."
"Wow, it's just robbing money!" Dany exclaimed.
"It's not too expensive, all the major city-states charge this price." Grolai Blackbeard shook his head and said, "You may not know how high the profits of sea merchants are.
Let's put it this way, even if a sea merchant who doesn't have a very good business mind only needs to go around the 'Summer Sea - Jade Sea' to get wealth that he can't spend in his lifetime.
The profit starts at 20 times, and there is no upper limit. Smart merchants keep buying low and selling high in major ports. After one trip, the profit rate can generally reach 100 times.
People with connections like Lord Xaro and Governor Illyrio can have an average gross profit of 150 times."
Not only was Dany stunned, but Jorah and Whitebeard also opened their mouths in surprise.
"Is it really that profitable?" Jorah said in disbelief: "Then everyone will become a sea merchant?"
If he had known that the profit of being a sea merchant was so high, the voyage he took his wife to attend the party that year would be enough to travel to the Jade Sea several times, then.
"Hehe." Blackbeard stomped his feet hard, and the wooden boards made a dull "bang bang bang" sound, "Do you know the cost of my baby ship?"
"It's not like I haven't built a ship before? "Jorah sneered, looked around, and estimated: "I used 2,000 gold dragons to build a large sea ship, which is probably only one-third of yours. It is said that the largest warship in King's Landing costs up to 100,000 gold dragons. Although your ship is big, it is not a warship. It does not exceed 30,000 gold dragons at most."
Blackbeard raised a thumb and praised: "So you are an old hand! It cost 28,000 gold dragons to build my Saidullion."
Jorah smiled proudly.
"But do you know the loss rate of sea ships?" Blackbeard continued: "On average, if 80 of the 100 ships that go out to sea can return, the sea merchants will cheer and even go to the temple to donate money to fulfill their wishes; if 70 ships come back, he will breathe a sigh of relief: he can finally make a fortune; if 50 ships come back, he will sigh and go home to continue building ships; if none of them come back, he will go home to write a will and drink a glass of poison to end his life.
If an ordinary merchant loses a sea ship like mine, who can bear it? "
Silence!
" There was silence on the bridge, and everyone was stunned by the cruel living environment of the sea.
"Every year, there are as many big businessmen who commit suicide as those who become rich overnight, such as Governor Illyrio." Blackbeard continued, "When he was young, he was just a street warrior who hung his head on his belt. Well, he did a lot of stealing, robbery and assassination.
Do you think that if no one else gave up their position, how could a gangster step up step by step and eventually become the Governor of Trade? How did those people give up their positions? Because they failed in business!"
Read 70+ Advanced Chapters At Pat Reon
[email protected]/FicToric
(End of this chapter)