Chapter 21: The Mooring Ship

  Bulinna saw that the fleet's supervisor was getting impatient, pacing back and forth on the dock. He hastily apologized to Oula and ran back to continue arguing with the supervisor, trying to stall for time so that the guard team could deploy smoothly.

  Then a very dramatic scene appeared on the dock.

  At first, the head of the fleet, a certain Andrei Borun, freed the slaves. He had a big argument with Brynna and insisted that she let them go immediately. But Brynna kept smiling at him, muttering something about formalities being troublesome, which even he didn't believe himself.

  However, as the guardsmen arrived in large numbers, Andro saw more and more arrows pointing at the bow of the ship, shining with a cold light, and his attitude began to soften, turning around to smile at Brynna. At this time, Brynna became tough, allowing that wicked black man to stuff Tegel coins into his own pocket, with a righteous expression, but not agreeing.

  Eula stood under the shade of the city wall, her eyes wide with excitement as she watched this living, breathing human comedy.

  At this moment, a large number of armed men rushed out from the other end of the street. At their forefront, a noble wearing a purple robe and sash was proudly sitting on a horse, with a slave holding the reins of the high-headed horse beside him.

  The man came up close and reined in his warhorse. A slave hurried over and knelt down on the ground with both hands supporting himself.

  The nobleman stepped down from his horse, trampling on the back of a slave, and staggered to Brinna's side. He slammed his whip into Brinna's face and shouted: "You old dog, are you itching for a beating again? How dare you block my ship!"

  Bulinna glanced at the city head, still no movement, with some anxiety in his heart, but still accompanied by a smile, said: "Dobella old man, how dare I stop your ship? It's just that the Circulation Law stipulates that grain cannot be exported casually."

  Dobella cracked his whip and cursed, "You damn fool, can't you see that I'm transporting parrots, not grain? And all the formalities are complete. How dare you block my ship? Believe it or not, I'll beat you to death right now, you dog!"

  Brynhild dodged his whip with a quick movement to the back, still smiling and said: "But Mr. Doblara, are those big packages on your ship all filled with grain?"

  Dobell suddenly burst into a rage and cursed: "Bastard! The big package on my boat was clearly parrot feed."

  "Your old man has only three parrots on the boat, but there are several hundred packages of food."

  Dobela kicked one foot away and scolded: "Who stipulated that only you, this old dog, is a rice bucket? My parrot is also. With just these feeds, I'm afraid there's not enough for Master, they eat eight meals a day, each meal eats dozens of bags of feed."

  Ye Feng stood high on the city wall, looking down at Dobella who had already entered the ambush circle. He slowly drew out his long sword and pointed forward decisively.

  As he gave this signal, the heralds beside him blew their horns. The soldiers hiding in ambush emerged from their concealment.

  Dobella and his men saw the dense shadows of people on the city walls and rooftops, knowing they had fallen into a siege. A wave of unrest immediately appeared in the troops he brought with him.

  Ye Feng nodded in satisfaction, this sudden appearance gave the opponent a strong pressure, although it was not mentioned in advance, but the soldiers were still able to do so, it can be seen that they are well-trained as a result of daily training.

  Duobela didn't think that the defender would really take action against herself, and there wasn't even a hint beforehand. She was so scared that her face turned pale.

  He cowered behind the slave (which was very disreputable to the soldiers of the guard), shouting loudly: "You're making a mistake, I'm a member of the Senate. Killing a senator is treason, punishable by confiscation of property and extermination of the family."

  Both sides were momentarily at a stalemate, neither willing to make the first move. But at the same time, everyone was also fully prepared to slash and kill each other with their knives.

  Ola had been holding the crossbow and aiming at Dobella for half a day, getting somewhat impatient. "What's the hold up, just get it over with, I want to go back and have lunch."

  Ye Feng exclaimed in surprise: "Under broad daylight and in public, you beheaded a senator of the Senate? I really admire you!"

  "Hey, what are we doing here?"

  "Wait!" Ye Feng said with a profound and mysterious smile.

  "What are you waiting for? What's good about waiting?"

  Yefeng pointed at the pale and frightened Dolabella and his men below the city, saying: "Wait for them to make the first move, then attack the defenders with the intention of killing these guys on the spot for treason. Or wait for them to surrender, slink away, and let us seize those ships. Then find other ways to avenge ourselves."

  Oola climbed up onto the city wall and looked down, asking: "What do you think he will choose?"

  "What do you think?"

  Then, from outside the circle of onlookers, a man dressed as a nomad ran in. He ran all the way to Dobella's side and whispered something in his ear.

  Dobela's face changed greatly. He shouted loudly towards the city head: "So, Lord Ryūjin of the Scarlet Blood Dragon Knights is here, why didn't you even greet me? Is it that you look down on me, a member of the Senate?"

  Ye Feng smiled wryly and walked to the top of the city wall, revealing his figure. He waved his hand and laughed: "Lao Duo, how are you?"

  Dobela wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and his heart grew even more timid. When the pirates attacked the city, he hid aside to watch, and when Ye Feng charged into the pirate's army alone, like a tank entering a cornfield, leaving behind a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood on the road, it left a very deep impression on everyone.

  He forced a smile and said, "Lord Ye, I don't know why you want to detain my ship. My documents are all in order, there's not a single problem with them. If your reason is unjustified, be careful that the Imperial Senate doesn't investigate you for contempt of court and abuse of power."

  Ye Feng rubbed his chin and said with a smile: "So! But I found that your procedures seem to be still somewhat incomplete."

  Dobella looked angrily at his black supervisor and asked in surprise: "Not quite complete?"

  Ye Feng came down from the city wall, took the documents of the Dobella merchant ship from Bulinna's hand, and walked to his side. He flipped through a stack of documents in his hand, pulled out one of them, pointed at it, and said: "Don't believe me? You see for yourself, this letter is clearly misspelled. And look here, wow! There's even such a big ink stain. If we take this kind of thing abroad and let foreigners see it, they'll think that we can't even do these small things well, which will greatly affect the image of our great country."

  Duobela's heart suddenly relaxed, and she immediately understood - Ye Feng was extorting a bribe. Even Ye Feng wouldn't dare to lay hands on the noble elder.

  As long as her life was not in danger, Lady Dobra's energy returned instantly. But a penny dropped on the ground would shatter into eight pieces, and every piece of money would hurt Lady Dobra's flesh.

  How could he be blackmailed by others when he usually blackmails others?

  He snorted and said, "You're intentionally making things difficult for the noble elder. You're obstructing the empire's free trade, it's extortion. If I report you to the Elder Council, not just a small fry like you, even that playboy Sis will be in trouble."

  Ye Feng smiled slyly and retorted: "Does the Senate know that you've violated the Circulation Act, smuggling grain?"

  Dobella's face changed, and she said sternly: "Then deduct it. We can only meet in the conference hall of the Senate. Hmph, I'd like to see who will laugh last!"

  As he spoke, he snatched the file from Ye Feng's hand and turned to leave.

  Ye Feng waved his hand behind him and said with a smile: "Take your time, Old Duo, I won't see you off."

  Duobela gave him a venomous glance, then she and her subordinates instantly retreated cleanly, even the people who were originally on the ship all ran away. Ye Feng looked at those several cargo ships that were full of goods but had no one driving them and muttered: "This is indeed a big fish."

  Oola ran down from the city wall, complaining: "How did you let him get away? With so many people mobilized, I thought we could have a good fight. Who knew it would be all thunder and no rain. It's really disappointing."

  Bulinna listened beside, her teeth aching with cold air. This young master was truly bold and reckless, a role that feared the world would not be chaotic. In broad daylight, in front of everyone, he slaughtered the noble elder like a chicken, and everyone didn't go blind. As long as this matter was spread to Norman City, Xiniya had no second way to go except for rebellion.

  But the entire city of Xiniya only has a population of tens of thousands, whereas the Northwestern Legion stationed in the northwest is already more than that. In the end, it's just waiting to be slaughtered, because the Empire's tradition is to never tolerate rebels.

  He stepped forward and asked, "What shall we do now? Should we put those ships and their cargo into the spare dock?"

  Ye Feng thought for a moment and said, "This is better, but don't unload the cargo yet. I estimate that these grains will be sold out soon. By the way, Oola, does Nia still plan to sell grain?"

  Orr nodded and said: "It seems that there is still some, but what's the use of that. We don't have a license to trade in grain."

  Ye Feng pointed at those unmanned ships and said: "He didn't have permission either."

  "Are you talking about smuggling?" Ora suddenly realized, and then said disappointedly: "But none of us know anyone, we don't have any connections. And Nia has always said that we are being watched closely by the Imperial Capital's people, so we can't make any mistakes, or they'll catch us off guard."

  Ye Feng looked at him in surprise, originally thinking that Oola would have a hard time accepting smuggling and other illegal activities, but it turned out that he didn't have any objections to committing crimes. Later, he came to understand that these aristocratic masters simply didn't take the law seriously.

  What sacred Twelve Copper Tablets Law, those are things that cheat the common people to death. In their eyes, that thing is not even worth a pair of smelly socks.

  The Emperor later shouted out the strongest voice representing the hearts of the nobles: "I am the State!!!"

  Ye Feng let out a sigh and said, "Who dares to say we're smuggling? This is our territory. If anyone says we're smuggling, let them bring evidence to the Duke's Mansion to report to His Excellency Ming Zhaqiu."

  Ouyang thought for a moment and asked, "But what about the problem of channels? We can't just drag grain around in Dianchi Lake and ask everyone we meet: 'Do you need grain?'"

  Ye Feng gazed in the direction where Duobela had disappeared, smiling as he said: "No need to rush, I believe it won't be long before we don't have to look for a channel, and the channel will come looking for us."

  ………