novelAbuy Chapter 81 Welcome, Miss Captain
Chapter 81 Welcome, Miss Captain
Levi's plan was simple: he instructed Isabella to secretly transfer the truly important munitions to a small supply ship disguised as a fishing boat, which would then follow the "Viper" at a distance.
She herself remained aloof on the Viper, and after the mutiny broke out, she took the initiative to fire on the British warships, directing the Vigilant's anger entirely towards Juan and the traitors.
As for the crew members who are truly loyal to them?
Isabella doesn't need to screen them at all; the rebellion will choose them for her.
The final step of the plan was to wait for Seamus's "Sea Dragon" to appear and rescue her from the battlefield.
In this battle, Isabella lost the Viper and more than twenty traitors, but she also got rid of a trusted confidant who might stab her in the back at any time, as well as all the dissenting voices in the fleet.
In Li Wei's words in the letter, this was a stop-loss transaction, a costly but equally rewarding asset restructuring.
She turned her head and looked at the man who was as silent as a mountain.
Seamus was leaning against the mast, slowly and meticulously wiping the barrel of a rifle with an oilcloth. His movements were precise, as if the surrounding noise was irrelevant to him.
"Aren't you curious?" Isabella walked over.
Seamus raised his head, his cold face devoid of any extraneous expression.
"What are you curious about?"
"Aren't you curious why I suddenly started firing at the British? Aren't you curious how your boss foresaw everything?"
"I am only responsible for carrying out your orders, sir."
"As for you, you are both the gentleman's guest and his business partner. Your decision has its own reasons."
Isabella found this airtight answer somewhat uninteresting. She changed the subject, pointing to the rifle in Seamus's hand.
"You really like this?"
"It can protect my family," Seamus replied, his answer still brief.
"Your family...is in Boston?"
"Yes." Seamus paused for a moment, took out the smooth wooden top from his pocket, glanced at it, and then quickly put it back.
This subtle gesture touched something deep within Isabella's heart.
"Mr. Li, is he always like this?" Isabella looked at Seamus with utmost seriousness this time.
"how?"
"To calculate everything perfectly. Like... God."
"The sir only does business." He thought for a long time before finally managing to utter this sentence. "The sir said that everything has a price. The price of betrayal is death. The price of loyalty is to live, and to live better."
"Why are you risking your life for him? Someone like you could be a leader anywhere."
"My daughter is five years old this year. Before she lived with my husband, she could only eat moldy black bread in the winter. Now, she can drink milk every day."
She suddenly understood.
What Li Wei gave these people was neither money nor power, but a kind of individualized approach.
He gave Finn, that one-eyed man, an orderly harbor to house his rage and lust for power.
He gave the burly man in front of him a job that could support his family, to settle his guarding and inflexibility.
These people followed him not out of fear, but because he offered them something more precious than gold, or perhaps what could be called trust.
And what about myself? What do I have?
A ship that could betray them at any moment, a group of desperados who could break up at any moment.
Looking at the boundless sea, Isabella began to doubt for the first time the "rules" she relied on for her livelihood.
……
Two days later, the "Sea Dragon" and the supply ship carrying munitions did not return to Boston, but instead quietly sailed into a remote estuary in New Hampshire in the pre-dawn fog.
Finn paced anxiously back and forth on the makeshift dock at the river mouth.
Behind him stood hundreds of dockworkers dressed in black short-sleeved shirts, completely silent.
When Isabella saw Finn, the one-eyed man merely snorted through his nose, offering no greeting, and immediately waved his hand to give the order.
"Get to work!"
Hundreds of workers sprang into action immediately. They divided into groups, as if they had rehearsed countless times.
One group was responsible for setting up the gangplank, another group rushed onto the supply ship and carried the heavy wooden crates on their shoulders, while the third group used pulleys and ropes on the shore to quickly hoist the crates onto the waiting wagons.
The wagon was covered with hay and wood, with the ammunition boxes printed in French cleverly hidden at the bottom. Throughout the entire process, aside from the sounds of footsteps and the friction of ropes, almost no extra conversation could be heard.
Highly efficient, precise, and discreet.
In less than an hour, all four hundred rifles and their ammunition were loaded onto the wagons. At the drivers' shouts, a dozen or so carriages split up and headed off onto different roads leading to Boston.
Finn walked up to Isabella, pulled a dirty flask from his pocket, and took a big gulp.
"Mr. Li is waiting for you at the dock," he said in a muffled voice, which served as a greeting.
It was afternoon when Isabella's carriage returned to the North Wharf in Boston.
Li Wei stood at the entrance of the warehouse at Pier No. 7. He was still wearing that dark silk robe, as if he would never be tainted by the fishy smell and sweat odor of this place.
Isabella jumped down from the carriage, followed by her ten surviving henchmen. They looked at the frail-looking Easterner before them with complex expressions.
"Welcome back, Captain." Levi's tone was calm, revealing neither joy nor anger. "Was the journey smooth?"
Isabella twitched the corners of her mouth. She couldn't find any other word to describe this trip except "smooth".
Everything is within the other party's script.
"Thanks to you, some unnecessary goods were cleared out."
Li Wei didn't respond to that topic, nor did he mention the sunken "Viper." He simply handed over a document, still fresh with the scent of ink.
"This is your new gift. The 'Black Pearl,' a three-masted fast sailing ship, displacing 30% larger than the 'Viper,' with twelve cannons on its sides and a copper-clad hull. It's docked in Rhodes Island's shipyard; the paperwork is complete, and it's ready for you to take delivery at any time."
Isabella took the purchase contract, her fingers trembling slightly.
She had imagined countless scenarios for their reunion. She thought Levi would take the opportunity to reprimand her or impose even harsher conditions, demanding compensation for the lost arms orders.
But the other party didn't say anything and simply gave her a better and faster ship.
He seemed completely unconcerned about the loss of the weapons or whether she could complete the mission.
This Easterner seemed to be telling himself:
I'll make up for your losses; I'll eliminate your traitors; if your ship is gone, I'll give you a better one. All you need to do is continue being my partner.
At that moment, all the remaining pride, calculation, and probing in Isabella's heart were shattered by this flimsy contract.
Looking at the calm Eastern man before her, she bowed her head to someone for the first time from the bottom of her heart.
This is not the pirates' fear of the strong, but the merchants' submission to capital.
"Mr. Li," she took a deep breath and spoke with unprecedented solemnity, "from today onwards, all Caribbean shipping routes are open to you."