Xie Nanxiao quickly explained, "These men claim they used to serve in the navy."
He pointed to a man standing in front and said, "His name is Wang Liang. He was the helmsman of a massive warship. I thought he might be useful, so I brought him here for you to see."
As he spoke, he couldn't help but recall what had happened earlier. When Wang Liang saw him, he showed no fear at all. Instead, his face lit up with hope as he asked, "Are you soldiers of the Jinyang Army? Are you Han Chinese? How far have you advanced? Is our Han nation truly lost?"
Even Xie Nanxiao, with his quick mind, was momentarily stunned. Though Wang Liang was Han, he was also a prisoner. Why was he so excited?
After a conversation, he learned who Wang Liang was. He never expected that the happiest person about the ship being seized wasn't him, the captor, but the captive.
He realized they now had three more ships. Oarsmen were easy to find—the Jinyang Army had sailors trained in just a few days who could handle that task. But helmsmen were harder to come by.
Among these people, there weren't just helmsmen but also two shipwrights. That was why Xie Nanxiao had brought Wang Liang and his men to see his lord.
Jiang Jin grew interested. Looking at Wang Liang and the others, she said, "Oh? Tell me about your situation."
It wasn’t until Xie Nanxiao addressed her as "Lord" that Wang Liang and his companions realized Jiang Jin was the leader of the Jinyang Army. They hadn’t expected the army’s master to be a woman, and a strikingly young one at that.
Recalling the powerful crossbows they had just seen and the decisive fighting style, they knew better than to underestimate her.
Wang Liang saw no reason to hide anything and said simply, "We were captured. After that, Qu Zhao used our crewmates and shipwrights as leverage, threatening them to force us to work for him."
Jiang Jin pressed on, "Are there many prisoners like you in Xianglu County?"
Wang Liang's eyes filled with sorrow. "Not many. Fewer than a hundred."
Jiang Jin frowned. "How many shipwrights are there?"
Wang Liang cast a glance at her. Though he didn’t understand why she was asking, he answered honestly, "There are five shipwrights left at the dock. The rest are oarsmen or sailors. There are also a few helmsmen like me."
Jiang Jin understood. "So all the oarsmen on these three ships are ordinary Han civilians?"
Wang Liang nodded. "Yes. They are Qu Zhao’s Han slaves."
Qu Zhao naturally wouldn’t use his own soldiers for the grueling labor of rowing.
Jiang Jin didn’t dwell on the subject and asked her most pressing question, "How much grain is on the ships?"
Wang Liang replied, "There’s about 3,100 dan of grain and roughly 140,000 jin of salt."
Jiang Jin nodded. That wasn’t a huge amount, but it couldn’t be helped—ships in this era, even the largest, had limited carrying capacity.
"Are you willing to sail for me?" she asked.
Wang Liang exchanged glances with his companions. Without much hesitation, and without even asking where they were going, they answered, "Yes."
Jiang Jin was satisfied with their response—whether it was because they were being sensible or because they truly identified as Han Chinese. As long as they obeyed and helped sail the ships to Xunfeng Island, they would be good comrades.
"Very well. Set sail immediately. Destination: Xunfeng Island. Clean the deck and throw the bodies into the sea," she ordered.
The stench of blood from the corpses might attract large creatures in the sea, so it was best to leave quickly.
Xie Nanxiao nodded quickly. "Understood."
Crew were assigned promptly. The three captured ships were each manned with Dragon Shadow Guards and Jinyang soldiers. There was no way she would fully trust these new recruits.
Standing in the lookout tower of the great warship, the view was much broader.
Xie Nanxiao was excited. "Lord, should we call this one Freedom too?"
Jiang Jin shook her head, thinking for a moment before saying, "Let’s call it the Ge Feng."
Xie Nanxiao rubbed his chin. "Lord, are you planning to name warships after places?"
Jiang Jin nodded. "Yes. I’m too lazy to think of names."
Xie Nanxiao winced. "If that’s the case, should the big warship be called Shan Guan? And a smaller one Chun Rong?"
Suddenly recalling something, he gasped. "Then... what do we do if we get more warships? We don’t have enough territory for names!"
Jiang Jin: "...That’s a good question. Simple—if we run out of territory, we expand. No rush. But medium and small ships shouldn’t use place names. That’s too chaotic."
Xie Nanxiao: "...Fair point."
"Aunt, Aunt! Why does the compass only point south? Can’t it do anything else?" Yun Chengxuan, who had been pacing and examining the compass in the lookout tower, suddenly noticed a problem and gasped.
Jiang Jin: "...Because it’s called a compass."
"Huh?" Yun Chengxuan looked puzzled, then lowered his head to study the compass again.
"But I’ve tried turning it in different directions, and it still points south. I even covered the south, and it still pointed south. Is it a bit stupid?"
Jiang Jin: "...Because it’s called a compass."
Yun Chengxuan scratched his head, utterly confused. He felt his aunt was stating the obvious, but he didn’t dare say that.
He bent over the compass again, studying it for a long time before sighing. "This is so hard. I’ve decided—I’ll call it ‘Hard.’"
Xie Nanxiao was equally perplexed. "Why call it Hard?"
Yun Chengxuan sighed wearily. "I feel like this compass is a bit dumb, but since my aunt gave it to me as a treasure, I don’t want to call it Stupid. So I’ll call it Hard instead."
Xie Nanxiao was baffled by the logic but showed respect anyway. "Uh... fitting."
Yun Chengxuan accepted the forced compliment wholeheartedly. "Right? I thought so too."
Jiang Jin opened her mouth, then decided to stay silent.
If he called it Stupid, at least it targeted the compass. Calling it Hard just made his own intelligence the punchline.
He had exposed his poor understanding without holding anything back.
Still, not much difference. Stupid and Hard pointed to the same problem.
Jiang Jin shook her head and walked down the stairs.
She first went to the fourth deck, which was mainly used by crossbowmen in battle. Now it was stacked high with sacks of grain, taking up most of the space.
She noticed that most of the warship’s mounted crossbows were broken. Only a few were still usable, which showed how poorly Qu Zhao had maintained them.
No wonder Qu Zhao had fought so badly earlier. Lack of naval experience was one issue, but the root cause was his disregard for sea warfare, turning his strengths into weaknesses.
Xie Nanxiao shook his head. "I bet they never even considered fighting at sea."
This was very different from the Jinyang Army’s philosophy. One of Jiang Jin’s first military training principles was: Once you leave the city, you are on the battlefield—be ready at all times.
Of course, their situations were different. Even now, with three cities under her control, everyone outside those cities was an enemy.
While Jiang Jin was inspecting the Ge Feng, chaos broke out on the ship headed to Daqing Commandery, where Dong Si was.
Just as the helmsman was about to turn the ship around, Dong Si stopped him.
Upon learning that the ship was heading to Daqing Commandery, the helmsman could no longer hold back. "You hermaphrodite overseer! You’ve changed the course without permission? You think you can cast aside trust and honor like this, not caring about what the great families think?"
The tall deputy chimed in. "Hah, what do you expect? Your master is a woman. What credibility do women have?"
Shuangjiang couldn’t stomach that. Besides, the Freedom II didn’t lack for crew—Guo Meng and Xiao He were both on board.
She stepped forward, grabbed the shouting helmsman, and tossed him aside.
With a swoosh, the helmsman arced perfectly into the sea, sending spray a dozen feet into the air.
