Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 29 Close at hand

   Luck is relative. The luck of other pirates above the Inland Sea seems to be not very good. After all, not all pirates have the good luck of Gold, it can be said that the goddess of luck is on the side of the Skua again.

   On the next journey, the Skua, which avoided the main route, encountered only a few strange ships.

   However, the wind was strong at sea, and the Skua, which was moving forward with full sails, was brisk. Those unfamiliar ships only saw the mast of the Skua before being thrown far behind by the Skua.

   is like the proud boast of the fat captain: "This is the best clipper in the inner sea."

   But the Skua, which made a big circle, also delayed the voyage for three more days, resulting in the unforeseen delay of the trip, so Major Moritz, who had no flexible reserve, drank all the wine.

   The warrant officers watched as the gentle major's lips became dry and cracked, his temper became more and more irritable, and even his mental state began to become abnormal.

Major    either beats and beats on the ship every day; he just walks back and forth on the deck in the middle of the night without sleeping, so that all the warrant officers accompany him to sleep.

  Who is not afraid of mental illness? Even Major General Layton began to avoid Major Moritz intentionally or unintentionally, and the pressure on the warrant officers was even greater.

   Fortunately, they finally arrived at Hailan City safely. When they saw the landmark lighthouse of Hailan Harbor, the warrant officers could not help but shed tears.

   The reason is not only the excitement of returning home, but also the "little luck" of Major Moritz, who is finally able to get rid of severe alcohol addiction.

The closer    is to the sea blue port, the more Winters can feel the prosperity of the largest port in the alliance.

   At the end of the route, the Skua tried to avoid other ships and couldn’t do it. Because the sea blue port is the origin, the routes of hundreds of ships form a fan, either heading for or just leaving the port.

   Winters even saw a real battleship cruising offshore, a real big guy. Compared with the towering ship building and the huge hull of the other party, the Skua was simply a child.

   But what the warrant officers did not expect was that the Skua did not enter the port directly, but was moored on the sea outside the port.

  The acting captain was immediately surrounded by warrant officers who were eager to go home.

"A big port like Hailan Port doesn't allow small merchant ships like us to dock casually." The acting captain, who was sprayed with spittle stars, smiled bitterly and explained the rules of the sea to the army: "The Hailan Port has not been expanded for more than ten years. , There are few berths, and merchant ships have to wait at the anchorage outside the port first and queue up to enter the port.

  Let's anchor here first, and wait for some customs officials to take a boat to come and order goods. If you are in a hurry to go home, you can ask the customs tax collector if they can accommodate you and let you take their boats ashore. "

   But the warrant officers soon fell into disappointment again, because they found that the "customs boat" in the mouth of the acting captain was really a "small boat".

  This boat is not much bigger than a canoe, about two people wide and less than three meters long. Two tax collectors and two oarsmen filled the boat so much that it held up to one more person.

   Watching the boat go up and down with the waves, Winters was really worried that the boat with the four customs employees would be overturned in the next second.

   "This first mate is playing with us?" Andre was about to be mad: "Let's go home in this kind of boat? I might as well swim back!"

   "Then can you swim?" Bud asked suddenly.

  Andre suddenly lost his temper. After being silent for a while, he answered awkwardly: "No."

   But he asked Bud undeterred: "Then you can swim?"

   "I will." Bud replied calmly.

   "What are you bragging about?" Andre was furious: "When did the military academy teach swimming? The biggest swimming pool in the military academy is the water tank in the practice room. Don't tell me it was learned from the monastery?"

   "The monks don't teach swimming, and the monks don't know how to swim." Bud smiled and said, "But the monks like to eat fish, and the monastery has its own fish pond."

   Whether it is Orthodox or Catholic, fish and meat have a special religious status. In the age of ancient empires, the Western church was still an underground organization that was about to be attacked every three times. At that time, the church used the images of fish and wine glasses as secret signals. So Bud is not just bluffing Andre.

   "I can swim and I can't swim back. It's not close to the shore." Winters quickly stood up to end the big discussion about swimming skills: "Actually, there is a boat on the Skua?"

   "Where?" Andrei suddenly came to his senses.

   "It hangs just behind the poop."

   Hearing the good news, Andrea ran to the **** excitedly, and Winters and Bud reluctantly followed him.

   But when he actually saw the boat, Andre couldn’t help being disappointed, because the boat on the Skua was smaller than the boat at the customs.

  The small boat at Customs worked so hard that it might still be able to fit five people, and the boat on the Skua was a large bathtub, and it was visually estimated that there would be no place for three people to sit.

   "This ship is not as good as the customs ship." Bud smiled bitterly.

  Andrei began to count the words carefully: "Three people can sit at a time. Counting the two officers, we have thirty-six people. Thirty-six divided by three is twelve."

   He patted his thigh excitedly: "Twelve back and forth will be able to bring us ashore, it's actually not troublesome. It won't take long!"

Winters was about to be crying stupidly by dear classmate Andrea Cellini, and he finally realized that Major Moritz saw him and a few artillery warrant officers humming and humming during the pick-up battle a few days ago. The mood of the cannon.

He and Bud looked at each other sadly, confirming that they had realized that Andre's intelligence had lost its rescuing value: "Think about it, three people ashore, and someone has to row the boat back! One back and forth Just transport two people ashore. Considering that it will take longer to return with only one rower, it is estimated that it will not be transported until tomorrow."

"Yeah, let's wait for the port with peace of mind. We still have luggage, and if the luggage is loaded, the boat can only take two people." Bud was always thoughtful, he added the luggage that was ignored by Winters: "New Didn't the captain say it? The waiting time will not be long, and it will be docked tomorrow at the latest."

   But Andre obviously didn't listen to the second half. He added the two elements of "luggage weight" and "return rower" into his original mathematical model, and was thinking hard about a new solution.

   At this time, two tax collectors from the customs had already boarded the ship. They wore hard hats and black leather armor. The vital parts of the leather armor are reinforced by thin iron plates, and the joints are protected by chainmail.

   The two tax collectors were tall and sturdy, with swords hanging from their belts. From the appearance, it is better to say that they are a group of bandits or mercenaries rather than the civil servants of the Veneta customs.

   If it wasn't for the fact that one of them was holding a folio, Winters would have thought they were just tax collectors' bodyguards.

"Is this the customs tax collector? Why does it seem like he can fight better than pirates?" Winters said to Bud in surprise. Guaranteed to win.

Bud chuckled, leaning against the ship's railing relaxedly and replied, "Tax collectors have been a more dangerous profession than being a soldier since ancient times. When I was born, the emperor had been driven away, but since I was a child, I could always I heard that there are rumors of the federal tax officer slaughtering the corpse in the wilderness."

Winters laughed loudly. As someone who grew up in a city, I have never heard of any merchant or craftsman who resisted taxes to the point of causing death - sovereign wars don't count, sheriffs and city guards can settle any citizen who doesn't want to pay taxes. .

   "The Union-Provincial Republic is a republic established by urban militia, so the Union-provincial government does not have strong control over the countryside, and the Union-provincial government doesn't pay much attention to the countryside." Bud still had a faint smile on his face.

As a well-educated Unionist who grew up in the countryside, attended a military academy in the city, Budd understood the political system of the Union Republic far better than Winters: "For the citizens, the Union army shattered the emperor's Shackles, the city can develop freely. But in the rural areas, the federal republic has inherited all the rights of the old aristocracy, what it was before, and what it is now. So for ordinary farmers like my parents, it is just a change of Just the emperor."

   "It's still different." Hearing that his friend seemed to be attacking the Confederate States, Winters subconsciously wanted to refute. For him, the alliance, the militia coalition means Marshal Ned, General Antoine Laurent, and cannot be tarnished. But he actually didn't know much about politics, and he couldn't think of anything different for a while.

"Hahaha, it's really not the same." Seeing that Winters racked his brains and couldn't come up with anything different, Bud began to refute himself: "After all, the Republic still bans insulting nobles such as marriage taxes. Privileges, and it cannot be said that there is no progress, but when it comes to economic rights, we will not give in an inch.”

"Yes, there are still changes." Although the pure virgin Winters actually didn't know what a "marriage tax" was, he said with a consistent optimism attitude: "As long as there is progress, it is a good thing, and there is nothing wrong with it. Did it happen overnight?"

   Hearing that the tax collector had boarded the ship, the acting captain of the Skua hurried out of the cabin, tried his best to imitate the old leader, and stooped and trotted to meet the two customs officers.

   "What's on the boat?" The tax collector holding the folio was very indifferent. He had experienced too much of this flattering performance and had long been used to it.

"Tobacco, and sugar." The acting captain replied, stuffing the large and small bags in his hand into the tax collector's arms: "Try our fine tobacco, and white sugar as white as clouds, you can try taste."

   "What are you doing? Are you trying to bribe me?" The tax collector scolded, but he didn't take what was handed over. He thought to himself that this guy was so naive, he would give himself a gift in public.

   His attitude was even worse: "You dare to bribe the tax collector, you don't want it anymore? Don't do these useless things! Take me to inspect the goods on the ship, do you know the tax rate?"

   The deputy captain was in a cold sweat at the words of the tax collector. Bribe the tax collector to cut off his right hand according to the law, but the fat captain does this every time, and one fat hand is still alive. Could it be that there is something wrong with him? Hearing the tax collector ask about the tax rate, he hastily replied "I know, I know."

   "Hailan Port does not accept physical objects, you know?"

   "Know, know."

   "Take me to order."

   "Okay, okay."

   "Why are there so many people on board?"

   "All the officers of the army, take our boat back from Guitu City." The acting captain added: "It's our sea blue army."

   "Oh?" The tax collector raised his eyebrows as he surveyed the warrant officers in twos and threes on the deck. The warrant officers were all dressed in military cadet uniforms, and looked very energetic, and they didn't look like slaves no matter how they looked.

  The tax collector came to a conclusion and knew that these people were not slaves, but he still sneered and taught the acting captain: "If you dare to traffic people, you will die, you know?"

   "I know, I know." The acting captain nodded quickly. The laws of the member states of the Union were different, and their attitudes towards slaves were also different. But in the Hailan Republic, bribing public officials only beheads, while human trafficking requires beheading.

   "Take me to check the goods."

   "Okay, okay."

The acting captain of the Skua led the two tax collectors down into the cabin. The original chief mate was also an old sailor who had been at sea for more than ten years, but this time he still had to do it because of his lack of social experience. And suffer from social beatings.

   Welcome to the Skua will be a strict and thorough inspection. The fat captain who is still at sea does not know if he will suddenly feel colic?

"Hey! I know!" Andre suddenly shouted excitedly, and he danced with Winters and Budd to explain his latest mathematical theory: "I know how to use this boat as quickly as possible to get us all Send it ashore. Let the three people take the boat ashore first, and then come back with only one boat of luggage to go there, and the cycle goes back and forth.

   Use only one person at a time to paddle, and make sure everyone only paddles once, so everyone has plenty of strength.

   It only takes twenty-seven times to get us all ashore with our luggage..."

  Dare this dear man who hasn’t spoken for so long is just pondering over his mathematical theory.

   Winters and Bud looked at each other painfully again, Winters suddenly felt his phantom limb pain attacked again, and he couldn't help but sigh with his forehead.

Bud said to Andre seriously: "I never imagined that you are such a math genius. I still have a problem that I haven't been able to figure out, please teach me. An old man brought a wolf and a A sheep and a basket of turnips are crossing the river. The boat is too small, and he can only bring one thing at a time. The wolf wants to eat the sheep, and the sheep want to eat the turnips. How can the old man bring all three things to the other side of the river intact? "

   Winters let out a painful sigh from the deepest part of his chest, feeling his phantom limb pain worsen.

   Later, the tax collector ordered the goods, received the money, and left the bills, and then boarded a small boat to go to other ships for inspection.

  The Skua anchored at the outer anchor of the sea blue port overnight, and waited until tomorrow to enter the port.

   Major Moritz, a severely alcoholic brain patient, was still groaning around on the open deck.

  Winters lay on the deck, a few kilometers away from the hometown he thought about day and night, he tossed and turned and couldn't sleep.

   Not far from Winters, Bud seemed to be sleeping soundly.

   Winters suddenly thought that he had finally returned to his hometown, but Bud had left his homeland. In fact, he must not feel very well.

   was speechless all night.

   [Assuming that the luggage of two people is equal to the weight of one person, the maximum load of the boat is three people, and there are a total of thirty-six people. Can it be guaranteed that only one person will paddle at a time, and each person will only row once one way, and twenty-seven round trips will send everyone ashore? ]

   [actually not]

   [The history of customs is really very long, dating back to ancient Egypt, and it has always been one of the important sources of income for the ruling class. The methods of taxation by the ancients are similar to those of today. They all make a detailed list, even specific to a certain type of fish or wool. Tax collectors are also a dangerous occupation since ancient times. For a long time, feudal countries even adopted a tax system, tax collectors became contractors, and the ruling class received a stable source of income. But the tax package system is not so benign to those being taxed. In the French Revolution, Lavoisier was executed because he had served as a tax collector to the King of France. ]

   (end of this chapter)