Chapter 26: Pirates

Thanks to Christine's publicity, news of the wealth of Baron Stewart's domain spread like wildfire.

Even some of the disgruntled freemen from the original noble estates, unhappy with the high taxes, heard about it and discovered that Baron Stewart's estate was indeed as good as the rumours had suggested.

In fact, the domain's subjects benefited greatly from the absence of those onerous taxes, not to mention the fact that the tax rate was at least 10% and up to 20% lower than that of other lords.

The Barony of Stewart alone earns 5,000 gold coins a year from the sale of tea bricks. How much do other lords have to fleece their subjects to make that much money?

Don't look at Christine's extravagant lifestyle and the fact that she spends a lot of money studying at the Mage's Guild, but she's the only one of the entire Stewart family to do so.

What about the other nobles who have several children? Their pensions, the cost of their education and the cost of their carriages and servants add up to a lot of money, not to mention the fact that the noble couples themselves don't spend any money?

The expansion of Baron Stewart's territory required a large workforce, and the hundred or so free families who had sporadically moved there were simply not enough.

As word of this wealth spread, not only the nobles and free families became interested, but also some thieves.

The problem, however, was that Christine had increased the number of standing soldiers in the area, which increased the number of soldiers guarding and patrolling Longzhao City and some critical locations.

These thieves were third- or fourth-tier professionals at best. After all, fifth-level professionals, having acquired the fighting spirit, either swore allegiance to the nobles and sought rewards as knights, or operated in the capitals of various countries or cities in various counties. They didn't care about the little money in the villages and towns.

Generally speaking, formally trained militia members were equivalent to first class physical professionals, permanent formal soldiers were second class, squad leaders were third class, and a few talented individuals could reach fourth class and become knightly attendants.

Therefore, thieves who are not of fifth rank are definitely no match for the many soldiers once they are exposed, not to mention the cavalry in the area.

Compared to their land-based counterparts, the pirates of Brittany are very prolific.

This is because the Kingdom of France lies in the middle of the mainland's coastline, and ships travelling north or south have to pass through it. Brittany, on the other hand, is a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides, with many harbours, so pirates naturally prefer to plunder in this area.

The Navy of the Kingdom of France was actively involved in the suppression of piracy, but there is no way to defend against a thousand days of thieves, let alone the vastness of the ocean. Despite the results, the scourge could not be eradicated.

There were many pirate groups of varying sizes, one of which, the Red Beard Hull pirates, who claimed to be Red Beard Hull, were considered a relatively large force, with three three-masted sailing ships, five two-masted sailing ships and more than 500 men.

The image of a British sailing ship found on the internet gives a general idea.

After learning that Baron Stur was building the Mage Tower and expanding the port of Sarzau, Redbeard Hull gathered several other pirates to prepare for a joint attack on Sarzau.

Some may wonder, Sarzau is just a big village, is it worth the effort to attack with so many people? The construction of the Mage Tower requires a lot of rare materials, but the main structure is not even finished yet, and the rare materials are all stored in the castle.

Red-bearded Hel had his reasons, of course, as he had sent people disguised as merchants to investigate and gather information in Saerzu Harbour.

Most sea battles in this world are boarding battles, and pirates also use captured civilian ships. Unless they are obviously identifiable pirate leaders, there is no way to tell if someone is disguised as a merchant.

From the intelligence brought back by my subordinates, I have learned that the port of Sarzau has a large stockpile of building materials and tools due to its construction. While stones and wood are no problem, the tools and nails are much needed supplies for the pirates.

The pirates need weapons for their raids, and they also need tools and nails to repair their ships, but these are in short supply.

As the mines are owned by the nobles, they control the raw materials. On the mainland, the nobles have a monopoly on ironware, and this is one of their main sources of income.

Ordinary people, to say nothing of the merchant guilds, are not allowed to buy large quantities of ironware, and even the merchant guilds have to give a good reason for buying large quantities of farm implements and tools. As for weapons, what are you going to do if a merchant buys so many? You can't deny it with the divine polygraph.

In this situation, adventurers, mercenary groups and other professionals can get their own equipment, but pirates absolutely cannot buy large quantities. The weapons they use now are all bought in small quantities at high prices on the black market, stolen from merchant escorts during raids, and melted down and forged themselves.

Especially at sea, where there is a lot of salt and moisture, iron products are more likely to rust and rot, and have a shorter lifespan.

However, the large amount of iron products stored in the port of Sarzau, according to the subordinates who went there to investigate, is not only enough for everyone to forge a new weapon, but the remaining iron tools are also enough for the entire pirate group to use for three years.

More importantly, they discovered that the Mage's Tower construction site contains a large quantity of copper bars. And the other form of copper they have seen too much of is copper coins, which means it is all money.

In fact, these copper bars were materials used in the construction of the Mage Tower. They were used both to increase the strength of the building and as a channel for magical energy, so a stockpile had to be kept at the construction site.

Under normal circumstances, the construction site would be closely guarded by 50 soldiers, and there were another 50 soldiers and 30 militiamen in the harbour to provide support at any time.

However, Red Beard had gathered over a thousand pirates, and he felt that even if the weapons and equipment were not very good, the sheer number of people could overwhelm the port of Sarzau.

His plan was simple: he would send four ships disguised as merchantmen to the port and wait until nightfall to make their move.

The others would sail to a point not far from the shore and, as darkness approached, sail closer. The pirates would either board small boats or swim ashore, as the hill on which the Mage Tower was built was very close to the coast.

The reason for doing it at night is that during the day, the elven mage oversees the construction of the Wizard Tower. When the mage is in charge, no one dares to raid it. Even if the pirates are outnumbered and the mages cannot be killed, as long as a few ships are sunk, at least half of them will not be able to escape.

After dark, even pirates who deal with ships on a daily basis will be afraid to enter Saerzuo Harbour. If they are not careful, they will run aground on the reef and it will all be over.

As for why the pirates are not hiding in the cabin, it is because after the ship docks, the tax collector will board the ship to check the cargo and collect the taxes. If there are people hiding, they will be discovered immediately, and at that point it will be no different to a storming.

The other pirate leaders all agreed with Red Beard's plan. After all, Red Beard, who was said to be the second son of a small merchant family, was considered a highly educated man among the average pirate.

Without further ado, Redbeard selected more than 100 pirates with passable looks to pose as three merchant caravans and set sail for the port of Sarzau on one three-masted ship and three two-masted vessels.