Chapter 990 - 998: Maritime Trade Bureau Fleet Attacked_2

"Wait, the match is about to end." Chen Mo wrapped his hand around Yue Ruyan's face, covering her mouth.

Yue Ruyan heard this, her complexion changed slightly, but with Chen Mo covering her mouth, she could only make muffled sounds, her delicate body tense to the extreme, causing Chen Mo to involuntarily take a deep breath.

Darn vacuum cleaner...

"Your Majesty, General Nangong said something happened on the sea ahead, please go down and take a look."

The maid's voice sounded outside the room.

Yue Ruyan quickly pressed her lips together, not making a sound.

Chen Mo removed his hand, regained his composure, and said, "Got it, I'll go down right away."

After a little while, a "pop" sound was heard as Chen Mo pulled away, looking at Yue Ruyan lying on the bed, blushed all the way to her earlobes. He pulled the quilt over her, saying, "Ruyan, rest here first, I'll go check."

Yue Ruyan did not respond.

Upon arriving on the first floor, Chen Mo saw rows of bodies covered with white cloth on the deck outside. Seeing Chen Mo approaching, Nangong Xian, who was directing people to work below, quickly came over and respectfully said, "Your Majesty."

As he spoke, he was about to bow and salute.

Chen Mo waved his hand, saying, "What is going on here?"

"Your Majesty, please come and see." Nangong Xian led Chen Mo to the bow of the ship, under the glow of the ship's lights, where bodies and broken wooden boards floated on the sea below, looking like a massive shipwreck had occurred. The Fish Scale Guard was salvaging these bodies.

Suddenly, Chen Mo saw something and frowned, saying, "Our people?"

Chen Mo saw a "Wei" character, written in Central State's script, on a piece of smashed wood.

Nangong Xian nodded, saying, "Not only are they from our Great Wei, but they are also personnel from the Maritime Trade Bureau's fleet that sailed out."

Saying this, Nangong Xian turned and lifted one of the white cloths, revealing the body underneath, which was dressed in an official robe from the Great Wei's Maritime Trade Bureau. Moreover, there was a bloody hole in the chest of this body.

Chen Mo immediately recognized that this was a gun wound.

"Your Majesty, our fleet from the Maritime Trade Bureau was attacked by enemies. It seems the loss might be heavy," Nangong Xian said.

"Wasn't this route supposed to be free of pirates? Who would be so bold as to attack our Great Wei's official ships?" A hint of hostility flashed in Chen Mo's eyes, attacking the sailing official ships, with just the bodies salvaged amounting to no fewer than hundreds; this was not just any ordinary crime, this was a slap in Great Wei's face.

Nangong Xian smiled bitterly, he didn't know either, and from the state of affairs on site, it was unclear where these bodies floated from; this might not be the original scene of the crime.

"Quick, someone's still alive..."

At this moment, one of the Fish Scale Guards salvaging bodies at sea discovered that a "body" lying on a wooden board was still breathing and immediately shouted for help from surrounding people.

Soon, this "living person" with a breath left was salvaged by the Fish Scale Guard.

No need for Chen Mo to instruct, Nangong Xian had already called over the attending doctor to rescue.

This person seemed to have drowned for quite some time, his skin cyanotic, lips turning blue, chicken skin visible to the naked eye on his body, and his skin was beginning to swell.

"Your Majesty, this person is the minister under the Honglu Temple's Guests Bureau." The doctor found a waist plaque on this person, and handed it to Chen Mo.

"Xue Gu." Chen Mo flipped the waist plaque to see the name carved on the other side.

Honglu Temple oversees Guests Bureau and Ritual Department.

The Guests Bureau manages diplomatic relations and border tribal affairs.

Under it are two ministers, the main officials of the Guests Bureau, Secondary Sixth Grade and above.

"Whatever it takes, wake him up for me, I want to know what exactly happened here?" Chen Mo's face sank.

Since the Maritime Trade Bureau resumed operations, all fleets sailing out had returned safely; no one dared to provoke them.

After all, the fleets sailing out were escorted by the navy, armed to the teeth, even pirates in the Han Yang Sea Area only caused minor losses to them, paying with a bit of property.

Moreover, the property loss here refers to ships being slightly damaged by Sea Ghosts, not causing any casualties; they didn't dare to confront directly, and in the end, could only retreat obediently.

But now, it seems not only are the ships lost, the cargo is lost, even the people are gone.

This matter cannot be tolerated and must be thoroughly investigated.

"Yes."

The doctor knew the gravity of the situation, pressure immediately mounted.

...

While the doctor was treating Xue Gu, Chen Mo asked Nangong Xian where it was, what countries were nearby.

Destroying a fleet at sea couldn't have been done by mere pirates.

It must have been by a country's regular army.

Nangong Xian had someone bring a map, calculated for a while, and said: "Your Majesty, we have crossed the Heluo Strait, this place is not far from Boli's trade route, there are three countries around here…"

"You said this place is not far from Boli's trade route." Chen Mo interrupted Nangong Xian.

Nangong Xian paused, then said solemnly, "Your Majesty suspects Boli?"

Chen Mo didn't answer directly, instead asked about the military strength of the three countries nearby?

"This…" Nangong Xian was stunned, quickly called someone familiar with it to come up and answer.

He, a chief of the Fish Scale Guard responsible for the Cangzhou Maritime Trade Bureau's affairs, did not go to sea often, could not master everything.

Soon, a robust man with a dark complexion, rough cracked skin, came nervously and excitedly before Chen Mo.

Nangong Xian said: "It's fine, don't be afraid, just tell His Majesty what you know."

This man couldn't speak in official language, using local dialect.

Chen Mo listened throughout and got the information that basically these three countries were terrible, couldn't even build a decent warship, their ships couldn't compare to Great Wei's ordinary merchant ships.

Great Wei's warships could easily ram and smash their ships.

Thus, by the military strength of these three countries, they absolutely could not cause a devastating blow like the scene ahead.

Chen Mo's face turned grim.

...

Next morning, the sky was bright.

Last night, Chen Mo's fleet did not leave this sea area, because it was simply too busy, stayed here.

Seeing the daylight, they were stunned.

At night, relying only on the little bit of light from the ship couldn't see far.

But now, everything around was clearly visible.

Last night, over two hundred corpses had been salvaged, yet now, scattered across the sea, there floated thousands of bodies, shattered wooden planks were everywhere, also goods spinning floating on the sea surface.

The bodies, bloated, white from soaking.

They didn't drift away due to the swirling water currents here.

"What's Xue Gu's condition now?"

Chen Mo said sternly, though his voice didn't have much fluctuation, everyone who heard it could sense the immense anger in Chen Mo's heart ready to erupt.

...

On the other side, Boli Kingdom.

"Quickly move, quickly move, get it all ashore."

At the port, Zhang Feng's mouth split into a smile, his mood extremely joyful.

He hadn't been this happy for a long time.

"Hmm? Where did you get so much cargo?" Nangong Jin walked over at this moment, looking at boxes of cargo being unloaded from the ship, suddenly having a bad premonition.

Indeed, Zhang Feng's next words almost made Nangong Jin storm off.

"Brother-in-law, a few days ago we encountered Great Wei's fleet at sea, I gave a good vent for our Nangong Family's anger." Zhang Feng hadn't realized the seriousness of the situation; he only felt great satisfaction after venting anger, he laughed, "This cargo is all Great Wei's, I roughly had people calculate, just this cargo alone is worth over tens of millions of taels.

Our previous losses are almost all recovered now."

After saying this, Zhang Feng laughed, waiting for brother-in-law Nangong Jin's praise.

But instead of praise, what awaited him was a loud slap.

"Slap!"

"Fool, you've created a huge disaster!"