Chapter 344: The Ship Model Was Completed
Chapter 344: The Ship Model Was Completed
Bai Yuan returned to the shore again, and a few hundred steps away from the shore, he found a small earth pit and lay down in it.
He pitied the white robe he was wearing; with this lying down, it turned completely yellow.
He took out the flintlock rifle, loaded the bullet, pressed the gunpowder, and only understood how after quite a while.
By the time he was ready, the fleet had already reached Qiachuan Port.
The few fishing boats that were originally on the dock had long since fled, and the bandit army’s fleet docked.
Bai Yuan immediately scanned the ships with his eyes, looking for the flagship.
He found it right away: on a medium-sized merchant ship, a tattered large banner was stuck, with the character “Wang” on it, flapping sharply in the river winds.
“Heh, did Wang Jiayin come personally?” Bai Yuan grew excited; if he shot and killed Wang Jiayin here with one firearm blast, the bandit army would certainly fall into chaos, frightening them to tears.
He focused his eyes for a closer look…
His expression instantly turned strange.
The man standing on the ship looked so familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before? But he definitely hadn’t met Wang Jiayin, so it was strange.
At that moment, a servant beside him whispered, “Huh? Isn’t that Bai Shui Wang Er? I saw him once during the great chaos in Chengcheng County.”
Bai Yuan suddenly remembered, “Right, right, it’s Bai Shui Wang Er. I saw him once in Gaojia Village, and I remember it very clearly.”
After thinking about it, he put away the firearm in his hand.
The servant asked, “Huh? Master, why are you putting away the firearm? Aren’t you going to kill Wang Er?”
Back when Bai Yuan had rushed to reinforce Gaojia Fortress to hold off Zheng Yanfu and Zhuang Guangdao, he had come to help at Gaojia Village all alone, with none of his servants following. Afterward, Wang Er, to avoid implicating Gaojia Village, had lied that his attack on Gaojia Village had failed and he had been severely injured, so outsiders didn’t know about Wang Er’s grudge with Gaojia Village; even Bai Yuan’s servants were unaware of Wang Er’s affairs.
Bai Yuan sighed lightly, “Wang Er is a true brave man. I can’t simply shoot him dead without knowing the reason; let’s see the situation first.”
He saw the bandit fleet dock at the port but didn’t come ashore. Wang Er seemed to shout something at them, and the entire fleet obediently waited at shore.
Wang Er only brought a small team, less than ten people, and jumped off the ship.
First, he carefully looked around left and right, then started running rapidly towards the west.
Bai Yuan saw this and vaguely guessed something. He stopped lying in the earth pit, pushed himself up with both hands on the pit edge, and sprang up with a swish.
Wang Er was running rapidly while staying alert to his surroundings. He didn’t expect someone to suddenly pop up not far ahead, startling him greatly. He swiftly drew the knife at his waist, but when he clearly saw the person before him, he paused slightly, “Huh? Mr. Bai from Bai Family Fortress?”
Bai Yuan smiled, took out a fan, flicked it open with a swish to reveal the words “gentleman,” and said, “Indeed, it is I.”
Wang Er paused for a moment before happily saying, “I was just thinking of returning to Gaojia Village, I didn’t expect to meet Mr. Bai here—what an unexpected delight.”
He hadn’t forgotten that when Zheng Yanfu and Zhuang Guangdao had betrayed him, stabbed him, and locked him in a cave, Bai Yuan led men walking several miles of mountain roads overnight to rescue him and heal his wounds. These past events were still fresh in his mind, causing deep emotion.
Bai Yuan asked, “Brother Wang, back then you chose to leave Gaojia Village and go out to carve your way in the world. Everyone respected your opinion and let you go. Now you’re back with Wang Jiayin’s men? Why?”
Wang Er replied, “I just wanted to come back to discuss this matter. Meeting you here is really great. Please, Mr. Bai, take me to Gaojia Village.”
Bai Yuan said, “Good! Then come with me.”
At evening, the doorbell was pressed repeatedly, making a continuous jingling sound.
It was mealtime. Li Daoxuan was holding a bowl of stir-fried instant noodles in his left hand, a pair of chopsticks clenched in his teeth, and opened the door with his right hand.
Unexpectedly, Cai Xinzi stood outside, smiling widely, “Hi! Daoxuan, the ship model you asked me to custom-make for you, the first one is finished. I brought it over specially to deliver it and also to see your new house.”
Li Daoxuan laughed, “A shabby standalone villa isn’t that impressive.”
“Tsk, a three-hundred-square-meter standalone villa, and you say it’s not impressive?” Cai Xinzi looked around everywhere, clicking his tongue in undisguised amazement; he saw every corner of the first floor. But when he tried to go up to the second floor, Li Daoxuan grabbed him by the hand, “You can’t go to the second floor.”
Cai Xinzi’s face showed an “I understand” look, and he whispered softly, “Brought a woman back and don’t want me to see?”
Li Daoxuan rolled his eyes, “That’s right, fifteen naked women are having a topless gathering with me upstairs. If you go up and see parts of them you shouldn’t see, I’ll get jealous and have to gouge your eyes out.”
Cai Xinzi laughed loudly, “Can’t even tell a lie properly. If there really were fifteen women in the house, how could you be eating stir-fried instant noodles? If you opened the door holding a lobster, I’d believe you.”
Li Daoxuan silently stood there.
Cai Xinzi said, “All right, all right, the most important thing between brothers is respecting each other’s privacy; I won’t go to the second floor. Now that I’ve seen the great mansion, come take a look at the ship I made.”
He opened the box he had brought, took out a ship model about fifteen centimeters long from it.
At Li Daoxuan’s request, this ship was made of thick iron sheets, with a very sturdy overall structure—the quality was truly first-class good. Just for sun protection, a layer of composite material was laid over the deck and cabin.
The ship’s appearance imitated an ancient-style river cabin ship; the iron sheets were coated with “wood-grain paint,” making it look very similar to a wooden ship.
It had a cabin three stories high, very old-fashioned with an artistic beauty reminiscent of a Chinese-style lofted ship. The top of the cabin was opened with defensive positions as shooting holes; standing in the cabin, one could shoot arrows or firearms downward, looking very dashing.
The bow had a bow cannon, the stern had a stern cannon, and both sides of the ship had two rows of cannons. But they were all dummies because Cai Xinzi couldn’t install real cannons—even if they were micro ones, making them real would be very risky.
Previous ideas of cannons shooting plastic pellets weren’t successfully installed since the ship was only fifteen centimeters long, while a pellet-shooting cannon would be eight to nine centimeters, affecting the cabin deck appearance; it was canceled in the end.
Similarly, the idea of using lighters as cannons wasn’t implemented either, since it could easily set itself on fire.
Li Daoxuan counted; one side had five cannons, plus the bow cannon and stern cannon, making twelve in total.
The number of cannons wasn’t large!
After all, it was just a small ship model fifteen centimeters long.
If placed in the late Ming world, it would be about thirty meters long.
Li Daoxuan calculated silently in his mind: thirty meters is roughly the length of the early “Spanish sailing ship.” Later, Spanish sailing ship manufacturing technology improved, and mature versions were commonly over fifty meters.
That meant his ship was not as large as the active Spanish sailing ship.
In the sea, it was a very small ship.
But in the Yellow River, it was already a behemoth.
River ships didn’t need to be made any larger; this size was just fine. If there was any flaw to mention, it was that it wasn’t painted in the multi-colored “Deity” style.