Chapter 57: Chapter 57: Schemes and a Killing Trap
"Wang Qing, how’s it going?"
On the ship, all the crew members were staring intently at Wang Qing on the lookout tower, and Du Ran, unable to hold back, spoke up.
"Don’t make noise, I’m looking!"
Wang Qing was observing very carefully. He turned the telescope 360 degrees around, looking closely for a while before climbing down from the lookout tower with a strange expression on his face.
"How’s it looking?"
Fang Yu couldn’t help but ask curiously.
"Captain, let me draw it out!"
Wang Qing took the nautical chart and a pen, and then he started to draw on the chart.
He marked a point on the chart: "This is our ship’s position."
Everyone nodded.
Then Wang Qing drew three points in front of the ship, to the left front, and to the right front.
"Currently, there are three waves of pirates ahead of us, each with about 2-3 ships. These three groups of pirates don’t seem to be working together as there’s quite a distance between them, and they all seem to be wary of each other."
After hearing Wang Qing’s words, everyone’s expressions turned very grim.
"Why are there three groups of pirates? Are they crazy?"
"No matter how valuable the sea ore is, it shouldn’t attract so many pirates. Could it be that our movements were indeed monitored by pirates as Zhang Zhuang said, early on?"
"If there have always been so many pirates watching this sea region, why haven’t the previous successful cargo ships encountered pirates?"
Luu Yuan and others muttered in low voices, their faces heavy.
The five rookie soldiers were already so scared they couldn’t speak.
As they sailed the ship here, the five rookies lived dreamily each day.
A massive amount of experience points as rewards took them directly to level three.
Moreover, the order handed over to Zhang Zhuang earned the crew an additional reward of 1000 Copper Coins, which is several months’ worth of salaries for many crew members.
Not to mention the reward triggered by Ma’s leadership skills.
Rich experience, abundant money rewards, and ahead-of-schedule ship progress, everything appeared so beautiful.
Until just now, upon hearing of the pirates, the five rookies were jolted awake from their blissful dream.
Damn... right! We are in a non-Safe Sea Region, and we could encounter danger at any moment.
With abundant rewards comes inevitable risk.
Fang Yu glanced at the five rookies but said nothing.
Currently, Ma is taking care of the new soldiers, and Fang Yu wasn’t bothered to reason with them.
If anyone deserts or doesn’t do their job, they will be kicked off the ship and blacklisted.
If someone deserts and endangers others’ safety, Fang Yu would definitely shoot that person.
"Wang Qing, continue! I noticed some other expression on your face earlier, was there something else you discovered?"
Fang Yu spoke in a low voice, his voice not loud but overcoming the crew’s chatter, bringing quiet back to the ship.
Everyone turned their gaze to Wang Qing again.
Seeing Wang Qing nod, a strange glint flashed in his eyes: "The captain is right, I did see something unusual."
"Behind our ship, there are actually four ships quietly following us."
Wang Qing took the pen and marked a point behind the ship.
"Huh?!"
Everyone was startled: "Wang Qing, are you sure? That direction is towards Sea Ore Island, how could there be pirates coming from there?"
At this point, Fang Yu sneered, looking towards the sea behind them, and spoke in a low voice: "Just as expected."
"Just as expected? Captain, what do you mean?" The crew was puzzled, looking towards Fang Yu.
However, Fang Yu ignored their questioning looks and appeared thoughtful.
From the beginning, Fang Yu felt something was off.
He had talked with Zhang Zhuang.
In this sea region, indeed there are pirates, but since it’s close to the Safe Sea Region, pirates wouldn’t dare linger here for long, nor brazenly dock to intercept ships.
At most they’d sail by, plunder quickly, and leave—where could there be three groups waiting at the gates of Sea Ore Island, waiting for a cargo ship to come?
That’s too brazen. Once Sea Ore Island’s military notices, any dispatched regular army could wipe out these three pirate groups.
The only explanation is that someone leaked their plans to transport sea ore, including the exact departure time from Sea Ore Island, to the pirates.
So, the pirates lay in wait at sea, ready to pounce.
The only ones privy to the departure information were those at Sea Ore Island.
After all, a cargo ship’s departure time must be registered at the port, and anyone with some authority on Sea Ore Island could access this information.
Zhang Zhuang is one, but he is on their side; he gains personally from the safe delivery of this cargo, so he would fervently hope for their safe arrival and would never leak the information to pirates.
The only possibility is that it’s Wang Chen’s faction.
They want to compete for the management rights of the sea ore project, so they took advantage of this opportunity to leak the information to the pirates, engaging in proxy murder.
Even if their ship were actually plundered by pirates and the cargo lost, ultimately, it would be seen as Lu Kun’s incompetence, rather than implicating Wang Chen’s side.
This guess was fully confirmed when Wang Qing mentioned there were four suspicious ships following them at the back.
Fang Yu sneered.
Those scoundrels indeed have bad intentions.
According to the plan, their ship would be plundered, and they would either be killed or captured by pirates and sold as slaves.
And those four ships at the back, commanded by four veteran captains from Blue Star, were expected to strike at this critical moment, kill the pirates, and reclaim the ore stolen by them.
In this way, the four veteran captains benefit from letting their ship expend some of the pirates’ strength, then eliminating the pirates.
They would gain experience as well as mission rewards.
Wang Chen’s faction, having successfully retrieved the stolen ore at a critical moment, would be deemed to have made a significant contribution, overshadowing Lu Kun and securing the management rights for Sea Ore Island’s project over time.
It’s a clever scheme that accomplishes two tasks at once.
If it were an ordinary captain, they would probably fall into the trap.
But as for Fang Yu...
A glint of shrewd readiness flashed in Fang Yu’s eyes.
Everyone underestimated his ship.
No one anticipated that his ship houses a crew member with Far-sighted Talent, along with a specially modified telescope that no captain would think of achieving in the early stages, giving Fang Yu a tactical advantage to crack open this deathtrap.
Now, Fang Yu is in the dark while everyone else remains unaware that he knows of the deadly plot at sea.
The second unexpected element is...
Fang Yu’s ship may appear weak, with only one ship cannon, and hasn’t undergone any upgrades.
Confronting pirates, the ship’s armament appears inadequate, and it seems helpless against pirates.
But... Fang Yu’s ship has a trump card.
—Fang Yu himself!