Sicily. This island in the center of the Mediterranean Sea was once the core territory of the Seven Hills Empire, but now it is occupied by the Holy Kingdom of Efilika, a tributary of the Tianfang Empire.
As a theocratic country ruled by priests, the temples in Sicily were the first to be transformed into the style of the Tianfang Empire. Hundreds of years later, the style of ordinary buildings in Sicily also gradually changed under the influence of time. Today's style has become a mixture of the Tianfang Empire and the Qiqiu Empire.
The islands are changing, but the sea remains the same as it was hundreds of years ago. The golden sandy beach and the blue sea are as quiet as a painting. Fortunately, there are flying seagulls, which give this scene a sense of reality.
Ella sat barefoot on a smooth rock on the beach, paper and pen in hand, looking as if she was ready to actually paint this beautiful scene.
But if anyone dared to stand up to the fierce looks of a group of pirates, walk up to Ella and bend down to read the content on the paper, they would find that there were only a few numbers written on it.
What was written on Ella's paper was not some advanced math problem, just simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. But Ella frowned, looking like she was encountering great difficulties.
"Amy, please confirm, how did I equip the fleet at that time?"
"There will be a total of seventeen days, one ship each morning, noon and evening from Azov, a total of fifty-one."
"How many people are on each ship?"
"Except for the 1,200 soldiers forced into His Majesty's Najirfa, each of the other ships carried 24 people from the caravan stranded in Azov City, plus 176 of our soldiers. . After arriving in Sicily, the caravan members took a boat back to the Republic of Liguria on their own, while our soldiers stayed to assemble, a total of ten thousand people."
"How many days since the first ship departed today?"
"Day 23, Your Majesty."
“How many days does it take to sail from Azov to Sicily?”
"Generally speaking, fifteen days is enough."
Ella suddenly tore the paper in her hand into two halves: "If you calculate it this way, all the ships that set out in the first eight days should have arrived! That's twenty-four ships with more than 5,200 people! But I’ve called it several times, and there are only 2,000 of our soldiers gathered in Sicily! Where are the other half of them? Where have they gone?”
"Your Majesty, you should be lucky that there are only more than 2,000 people here." Amy whispered, "We pretended that the cargo ship was docking, but there was no transaction at all. Only the number of people kept increasing... The way the people on Sicily looked at us It’s already very strange. You can see that there are far fewer people at the port than when we first arrived. I heard rumors from the tavern that the Sicilian defenders have begun to strengthen the city defenses.”
"But where are my soldiers? Where are my soldiers? There are many experienced sailors among them. They shouldn't get lost...Wait a minute!" Ella suddenly thought of something and jumped from the stone anxiously. Get up, "Did Aulus go back on his word and attack them?"
"This possibility is very small, your Majesty, don't panic." Amy patted Ella on the shoulder to comfort her, "Your Majesty, have you forgotten? Each of our ships will find a small port to stop midway after passing through the Black Sea Strait. , and left a few soldiers behind. If there are no new soldiers reported one day, those who stayed will immediately find a way to send an alarm to Sicily and Azov. But we have not received such an alarm so far, have we? ?”
This is a plan proposed by Amy to Ella. Before setting off, Amy felt that Ella's plan was a bit unreliable. When she was a child, she went out with a group of friends. If they didn't set off together, there would always be a few children who couldn't reach the scheduled place for various reasons. What's more, Ella was planning to separate more than 10,000 people this time. march. That's why she proposed this plan.
Now it seems that this measure is very necessary. Although the number of people who should arrive is still less than half, at least they can be sure that those soldiers have passed through the Black Sea Strait safely.
"Moreover, General Aulus has no reason to attack us now. After all, His Majesty has reached a deal with him, and he will at least wait for His Majesty's return..."
"Who wants to return! I won't give him the crown of the Scipio family! Can't I go back along the Black Sea Strait? Can't I just go around the Strait of Gibraltar after taking the supplies?"
Thinking from Aulus's perspective, the route Ella mentioned was unworkable. This is an ocean route, which greatly tests the ship's long-distance navigation ability and the sailor's experience. Even if Ella had the courage to take this route, the long route would destined her fleet to stop at coastal ports for rest. What Ella has in hand is not a caravan but an army. It is difficult to get supplies from the hostile Alemannic Federation and Great Britain. Even just approaching the port will cause conflicts and wars.
When Aulus was teleported to Antilia, there was no confidence that he could return to the Seven Hills Empire via this route.
However, Ayla's soldiers actually have plenty of sailing experience. In addition, Alfred of Britain was Ella's ally. For Ella, this route is quite safe.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I have never heard you say this! Putting aside the feasibility of this plan, I thought that Your Majesty would definitely abide by the agreements with others, even if it is just a verbal agreement..."
"I am not Baselisa now, but the Pirate King! Who wants to abide by the agreement with that traitor!"
After this conversation, Ella felt a little relieved and sat back on the rock. But she couldn't figure out where the problem was.
"It's unlikely that he got lost, and he wasn't attacked by the Qiqiu Empire. What could be the reason? Could it be that he was attacked by pirates?"
Amy reminded in a low voice: "Your Majesty, you just said it yourself, you are the pirate king."
"Then what's the problem? If there are 10,000 people, they can force the island republic to ask for supplies! But if there are only 2,000 people, then they can only choose peaceful negotiations!
!
"
Ella held her head and cried.
Just when Ella was thinking hard about why the more than two thousand people were missing, a mast appeared on the horizon. After a while, the hull also appeared in view. As the ship drew closer, Ella determined that it was one of her fleet.
"Thank God, another ship arrived safely..."
"Your Majesty, something is not right!" Amy suddenly remembered something, "We have already had three ships entering the port today! Where did this ship come from?"
"Gu——?" Ella also responded, "Go over and ask!"
The ship has docked. A large group of Ella's soldiers came clattering down from the ship. Different from the soldiers who arrived earlier, this group of soldiers struggled to carry several large boxes. Seeing Ella coming this way, they quickly put the box on the ground and stood up straight.
"Which batch did you set off in?" Ella asked with a frown.
"Report to the King of Sweden! We are the third batch!"
"The third batch???" Amy shouted from behind, "The third batch left in the afternoon of the first day! It should have arrived eight days ago! Why are you here now?"
"Report to the King of Sweden! After we arrived in Sicily, we felt that we were idle anyway, so we went to sea with others to rob! You see, these are the trophies we took back!"
"Going to sea to rob?" Ella cried out in shock, "Where did you go to rob?"
"Don't worry, King of Sweden! It's not the Alemannic Federation, it's not the Empire of the Seven Hills, it's not the Island Republic, it's not the Republic of Liguria. You told us not to touch these places. So we went to rob the Tianfang Empire. We're on the coast! Look, these boxes are full of loot!"
"Hmm... um... if you harass the coast of the Tianfang Empire... okay. Are other ships like this too?"
"We don't know about the other ships. On our way back, we encountered a ship that had just passed through the Black Sea Strait. They seemed to be planning to rob the coast first and then come to Sicily. Looking at the direction, it seemed that they were heading to Malta."
"Malta?" Ella almost fainted. "Isn't Malta from the Holy Kingdom of Efilika? Are we borrowing their port to stay?"
"Don't worry, King of Sweden. Even if Malta is robbed by us, if they run to report it to their leader, it will still take several days before their leader gathers soldiers to kill us!"
The pirates looked at Ella with smiles, as if they were used to this kind of thing.
"More than two thousand soldiers...randomly selected cities along the Mediterranean Sea to rob them..."
Ella's body swayed and she finally fainted.
That night, Ella woke up from a coma and fled Sicily overnight with more than 2,000 pirates.
