Chapter 184: Shocking Losses

The light of a newborn red sun covered the sea, melting into the morning glow and morning mist, giving the water surface endless brilliance. The sky, the buildings, and the fishing boats, all unclear backgrounds in the morning mist, together highlighted the cruelty after the night raid.

Thick smoke rose from the charred docks in all directions, and even under the cover of ruins, flames continued to burn stubbornly. These tiny sparks waited, waited for enough fuel to become a raging fire.

The day after the battle, George only received this news, while he was still studying the new knowledge he had just gained! Just like a foodie unable to move his feet when facing the delicious food on the table, George felt the same way about these newly learned power systems; he could not put them down.

Overall, Brandenburg seemed much more relaxed after the battle than before, let alone compared to the time of war. Of course, after the celebration, the initial lazy mood had already disappeared. However, during the duty process, it was clear that the overall intensity had dropped significantly.

But the leaders of the army would not let the ordinary soldiers come here to collect their salaries and enjoy themselves. In the training exercises after duty, most of the territories increased the intensity. This was like making up for the shortage in the fields by working outside, consuming their physical strength to the maximum extent while steadily improving the soldiers’ quality. This was done to prevent these hot-blooded young men from causing trouble.

To put it bluntly, this was the same trick as the North Korean country before George transmigrated. It was to keep people from having any free time, so that the people below had no time to cause trouble and no energy to think wildly. Although it seemed a bit barbaric on the surface, the effect was quite obvious.

Of course, this only applied to ordinary soldiers. George, on the other hand, could be said to be training from morning till night, even while on duty.

“What! Morbihan Port was attacked.” Upon hearing this news, George was shocked first, and without thinking, he immediately asked, “How about the casualties?”

Knight Val looked left and right, using his eyes to signal that this was not a good place to talk.

George did not even need to look around; he knew that on top of the city walls, in an environment where someone might come at any time, talking about the situation within the territory was indeed somewhat inappropriate. After all, if they kept talking, they might accidentally leak the secrets of the territory.

George had just been too worried and acted rashly; otherwise, he would not have spoken out so quickly. As for the attack on Morbihan Port, it was impossible to keep it secret. So many people had seen the entire attack process that night. It was obviously an impossible task to make them all shut up. Plus, the impact of this attack on the daily operations of the port meant that within a week, the news would spread throughout the Duchy of Nohan.

It was still the same dormitory, but this time Hiren insisted on coming along no matter what. No matter what looks or expressions Knight Val used, Hiren remained unmoved.

Seeing this, George had to speak up: “Anyway, there are some things Hiren needs to learn now. Knight Val, you shouldn’t always look at him with old eyes. People can grow, can’t they?”

Knight Val was a bit speechless and could not help but smile bitterly at George’s retort. After shaking his head and smiling for a while, he finally said, “Fine, let him come along! Once we get there, I will tell you what kind of good deeds this brain that is no better than a Goblin was planning to do recently.”

‘Looks like Hiren really made Knight Val angry this time! I wonder what trouble he got into!’ George thought with these doubts and returned to his dormitory with Knight Val and Hiren.

“How is the situation?” As soon as they entered the room, George could not help but ask again.

“Sit down first, we will talk slowly. Let me have a drink of water first!” Knight Val shrugged and said.

George had to wait patiently for Knight Val to finish his personal business. Meanwhile, Hiren, facing Knight Val’s constant intentional pressure, could only sit down tremblingly with his head down.

For Knight Val, what he just did was not to be deliberately suspenseful. He hoped to use this short buffer time to let George calm down a little, so that he would not make any wrong judgments later. In this situation, one had to admit that Knight Val’s attention to detail was impressive, even though it might not have been necessary for George.

“From the news we just received, Morbihan Port was attacked by pirates between 10 PM and 11 PM last night. Fortunately, thanks to the stubborn resistance of the defenders, most of the pirates were finally stopped at the docks and the beach,” Knight Val explained concisely.

“Most were stopped at the docks and the beach, so that means some pirates still managed to break into the port, right?” George frowned and said. He was not in a good mood at all.

Because once the pirates broke into the port, the subsequent burning, killing, and looting was inevitable. After such a rampage by those bandits, the losses in terms of both personnel and materials for Morbihan Port were certainly not small.

“In this regard, George, you can relax,” Knight Val said, shaking his five fingers to deny George’s previous guess and worry.

Then Knight Val said with great pride: “If those pirates who could not even stand steadily on land had broken through the defenses and entered the Commercial District and residential areas of the port, then there would be no need for the City Guard who are fed with so much money every year. With such high salaries and such good weapons, they could never lose to those pirates who are far inferior to them in their own home!”

“You are absolutely right, Knight Val. Perhaps out on the vast sea, we have no way to deal with them. But since they avoided their strengths and came to land, our chances of winning are indeed much higher,” George suddenly changed his tone. “However, if the number of pirates attacking this time is too large, I think some of them breaking through our City Guard’s defenses would be normal, right?”

“Do you think there could be that many pirates attacking our Morbihan Port? Pirates are generally a group of arrogant and unruly people. There is not much trust between different pirate gangs. Some pirates even have deep-seated hatred for each other. Plus, large pirate gangs have never appeared before. So, the fact that they could gather more than ten pirate ships to attack our Morbihan Port is already a surprising thing,” Knight Val explained with a smile. As he spoke, he patted his chin quite satisfied. Although he did not have the bad habit of lecturing others, he was very satisfied to be able to teach George outside of his cultivation. You know, among the younger generation, if the target is George, such opportunities are not that many.

Knight Val’s explanation gave George a more comprehensive understanding of the pirates of this world. In fact, in most aspects, the pirates here were not much different from those before George transmigrated. But the most important point that made the two fundamentally different was that this world could not produce large-scale pirate gangs.

As long as they could not form a sufficient scale, those drifting on the vast sea were just bandits. For a regime, they were merely a minor skin disease. Even if they could not be cleared away completely at one time, they could not affect the overall situation.

But if they managed to form a scale, it would only take a certain amount of time to find a suitable small island and slowly grow into a force. After that, it would be possible to establish their own state, like the scholars of Norway and Sweden, the predecessors of the Nordic countries, by taking over land. Or like Zheng Zhilong, who appeared to submit but actually ruled independently, monopolizing large areas of maritime trade.

However, in this world of Magic and the Church, even without past examples, the Nobles and the majority of the Church would not allow the pirates to grow big. Moreover, a single pirate ship is easy to hide in the vast sea. But once the number of people increases and the fleet becomes large, their whereabouts will inevitably be exposed.

If a single pirate ship is not worth the Nobles sending a fleet to hunt them down, then a large group of pirates is completely different. Not to mention anything else, the pirate ships themselves are valuable Loot!

And the pirates were not completely otherworldly beings; even pirate ships needed maintenance. This meant they had to enter ports, and dry docks for major repairs were often necessary.

If you were a famous person, then even spending a lot of money, in this world where supernatural abilities were rampant, it was often a dream to enter a commercial port. Especially if there were really large-scale pirate gangs, the possibility of entering the port would be even more slim. Who knew if you were coming as an inside man?

As for the pirates’ own ports and bases on small islands like before George transmigrated, this was even more of a joke in this world. In such a situation, they could not escape the detection of prophecy spells. What awaited them would be large-scale cleanup operations.

It was precisely because of this situation that Knight Val was so amazed by the efficiency of the mastermind’s actions! In such a short time, he was able to contact more than ten pirate forces and persuade and arrange them to attack Morbihan Port together. Even during this period when pirates were exceptionally rampant, it was not an easy thing to do!

George scratched his round back of his head and said, “If there are more than ten pirate ships, then the number of pirates must exceed 2,000, right! I don’t think the Guards left in Morbihan Port can stop them all. Although the disadvantage in numbers can be made up for by the soldiers’ strength, if they do not engage the Guards, they cannot be stopped!”

“This time, the pirates who attacked the port, counting from beginning to end, totaled about three thousand people. It seems to be a considerable number,” Knight Val said, waving his index finger. “But George, do not be scared by this number. Among them, the number of assault teams that could actually go ashore to loot was at most about one thousand. The rest were either servants who were forced onto the pirate ships to do menial work, or rare personnel among the pirates like Craftsmen and Navigators who could not be easily sacrificed. Of course, there were also the most important personnel left behind on the ships. If the ships were lost, even if they looted the most things, they would have to stay in the port forever.”

Hearing this, George finally solved his previous doubts. He had seen merchant ships arrive at the port before, and the number of personnel left on the ships was at most one-quarter. The vast majority of the crew were resting in the port. Of course, the task of staying behind was rotated, otherwise, over time, conflicts and disputes would arise.

“So, when you said earlier that most pirates were stopped at the docks and the beach, you meant that some pirates did enter the port, right?” Just as George solved one of his doubts, another new question was born for him.

“These were the people who mixed into the port to cause chaos earlier. However, according to the subsequent interrogations, these guys could not be considered true professional pirates. So, after causing several fires initially, they were ready to take advantage of the chaos in the subsequent war. But they could not see the pirates they thought should have broken into the port for a long time. As a result, most of them shrank back, and the few brave ones did not cause much trouble under the control of the Security Squad,” Knight Val said with great disdain, labeling those guys as cowardly and unwise.

“That’s good! Although we cannot rely on the enemy’s stupidity and incompetence for victory, if we are talking about it, the more stupid and incompetent the enemy is, the better!” Hearing this, George, who finally breathed a sigh of relief, even had the mood to make a joke.

Knight Val replied with a smile: “Seeing you like this makes me feel much more relieved. I thought you would immediately demand to hold the soldiers of that day responsible!”

“Now the most important thing is to handle the aftermath and restore the normal operation of the port as quickly as possible. As for holding people responsible, I will talk about that when I get back. After all, they did not discover the disguises of those who mixed in. Otherwise, the battle last night might have been even easier! As for whether they need to be held responsible, we will have to wait for the final investigation results before drawing a conclusion. I will not unfairly blame those soldiers without any basis for this matter,” George sat up straight. His answer to Knight Val was quite in line with his identity and his usual habits. “Of course, the most important thing is to find the reason for the loopholes that appeared this time, learn from the lessons, and prevent the same thing from happening again.”

“In this regard, I believe you will not do anything rash!” Knight Val nodded. “Then let’s talk about the specific losses next!”

Then the critical moment had arrived. George even started to hold his breath, waiting for the news from Knight Val.

“Thirty-eight City Guards were killed, forty were seriously injured, including six disabled. The Security Squad had three killed and two seriously injured. Fortunately, they successfully blocked the pirates’ invasion, so the number of civilian casualties was not large. However, the statistics in this regard are much more troublesome than those of the army, so specific news has not been transmitted yet. Also, due to the fire, the fenders and cranes on the docks were all destroyed. So, based on the information transmitted, it is not very likely to restore the use of the port in a short time,” Knight Val said with a heavy face, shaking his head helplessly.

“So many were killed, over thirty! And the combat losses are close to eighty! This is a loss that even the over 100,000 Barbarians from the Northern Lands did not cause us!” George said through gritted teeth.

“This is different!” Hiren, who had been quiet all along and did not seem like himself, suddenly reminded.

George spread his hands and lowered his head, saying, “I know this aspect! I did not expect that a carefully trained army would suffer such heavy losses when facing pirates!”

“According to the news transmitted, in fact, most of the casualties came from the Ballistas on the pirate ships. The direct fighting with the pirates actually caused relatively few casualties!” Knight Val defended those warriors.

“Ballistas? It seems I need to find a way to deal with these siege weapons in the future,” George said, touching his chin.

Knight Val reached out and patted George’s head, saying, “Things in this regard are not so easy to figure out. After all, this is a problem that has had no good solutions for many years! I hope you do not get stuck on this.”

“In this regard, Knight Val, you can rest assured,” George immediately assured him.

Knight Val, who knew George well, did not suspect him of anything else: “Now there are two urgent issues to deal with. First, the burned materials on the docks. Since we set the fire to prevent the pirates from landing, the ship owners hope for compensation. And there is also the disposal of the pirate prisoners.”

“The issue of compensation is easy to discuss! We have statistics in our port. We will compensate half of the landed price of the destroyed goods on the other side, because this was a necessary act to protect their personal and property safety. Of course, if those merchant ships underreported to evade taxes, then it has nothing to do with us.” Then George lowered his head and thought for a moment, “As for those pirates, those with wanted posters will be taken to exchange for bounties. The rest, if they have stained their hands with the blood of our Bolerum Territory soldiers, will be hanged on the rocks near the port according to the customs of various countries. The rest will be sent to the Quarry to work as laborers. The labor shortage in our place is getting bigger and bigger.”