Chapter 275: I'm Still Preparing a Fart!

"I'm afraid it's hard to cover up." Gongsun Bu shook his head.

Niu Youdao asked: "The reason."

Gongsun preached: "Follow your order to investigate, but have not found it, and you are sure that the other party will use sea boats to transport it. So my disciples asked an experienced old fisherman who often goes fishing to make detailed inquiries. I have asked many old fishermen on the coastline. Because Qi State prohibits the private sale of war horses outside the country, so I have never heard of a ship dedicated to transporting horses."

Niu Youdao: "There is no special one, can't cargo ships work?"

Gongsun Bu shook his head: "We have the same question here. According to experienced old people, ordinary cargo ships can't be loaded. It's not that they can't be loaded, but most horses are used to being on land. They will not get used to being on the ship or floating in the sea. They will have bad symptoms, and they will cause problems if they are crowded together. Therefore, they need to be separated separately and maintained by experienced horse breeders. If they are to be transported in large quantities, the interior of the cargo ship must be remodeled."

"And our people checked some suspicious ships along the coastline, and found no internally modified ships. According to you, I'm afraid it can't be solved with a few ships. A large number of ships are needed. We can't deliberately build a large number of new ships for these horses, right? To build a large cargo ship that can go to sea requires specialized shipbuilders. It is not possible to build one in a short period of time. The possibility of mass production is even less, and no similar new ships have been found."

"After our people walked the coastline, we ruled out the places where ships can't dock. All the areas where ships can dock, we sent people to patrol every day. In the case of insufficient manpower, there may be omissions that cannot be discovered in time due to the small number of ships. However, in the case of a large number of ships, there will be more or less discoveries. So for now, the situation that Daoist you mentioned has not been found yet."

"Master Dao, could it be that your news is wrong?"

Niu Youdao thought silently. Although the Shang Dynasty Zong wanted to form a special cavalry, the Beizhou was such a large territory that he needed more horses than the Shang Dynasty Zong. Since Shao Pingbo had a way to get it, he would not be petty. That guy's ambition probably required at least tens of thousands of horses.

After pondering for a while, he asked, "Gongsun, I have never been in contact with the sea ships of various countries. Please help me estimate how many ships are needed to hold 10,000 war horses."

Gongsun Bu was thinking, but it was Hei Mudan who interjected: "Master Dao, we rogue cultivators used to go overseas to search for spiritual herbs, and we have been on the sea many times, and we probably know something about the boat."

Niu Youdao said oh, and turned to look at her, "Then tell me."

Black Mudan said: "If it is 10,000 horses... it depends on the size of the boat. For small boats, long-distance sailing on the sea is very dangerous. The sea conditions are unpredictable, and small boats are easy to capsize and capsize when encountering big waves. Horses are not cargo, so they cannot be stacked and stacked. They must be given a certain amount of space, and small boats cannot transport so many horses, so it is impossible to transport so many war horses in small boats."

Niu Youdao nodded: "That makes sense! How much can a big ship hold?"

Black Peony: "I've seen the largest sea-going ship. I think it should be no problem to ship 200 horses at a time. However, there are not many such ships in various countries. If you want to transport tens of thousands of war horses, the biggest possibility should be a medium-to-large sea-going ship that can carry hundreds of horses. There are many and not many of these ships in various countries, but they are not rare."

Niu Youdao looked at Gongsun Bu for confirmation, and Gongsun Bu nodded and said, "Sister Peony is right, that's what happened. I rarely went to sea before, and my experience in this area may not be as good as that of Peony."

Niu Youdao hesitated and said, "In other words, at least a hundred of these big ships are needed."

"Yes!" Black Peony nodded and said, "At least one hundred ships are needed. It's not that simple to transport so many live animals for a long distance by sea. There will be various situations, and you need to make adequate preparations, otherwise there may not be many alive after arriving at the destination. If you count the consumable supplies of the horses on the way, there must be more than one hundred. I don't think they can transport so many horses all the way to the shore for supplies from time to time, right?"

Niu Youdao wondered: "Is it difficult to build hundreds of such big ships? Do you think they were hidden somewhere and built secretly?"

"Impossible!" Hei Mudan and Gongsun Bu almost denied it with one voice.

Niu Youdao glanced at the two of them and asked, "How?"

Black Mudan said: "As Brother Gongsun said just now, ordinary craftsmen can't build such a large boat that can go to sea. It is not comparable to the fishing boats made by some craftsmen that you usually see in Neihu Lake. There is no comparison at all. Those who can build this kind of boat must be experienced sea craftsmen in coastal areas."

"Compared to ordinary people, they are more or less afraid of the boundless sea. Except for those merchants who take risks to make money, most people still focus on road transportation. People who fish along the coast to make a living will not use such a big boat, nor can they afford it. Even if they can afford it, to drive this kind of big boat, the boatman needs 10 or 20 people. How far does it have to go fishing? If you go too far, the fish you catch will be spoiled when you bring it back. Is it?"

"Under the constraints of demand, in troubled times, there are not many people who want this kind of ship, and naturally there are not many craftsmen who can build this kind of big ship. Even if it is a hundred ships, Dao Lord, any country can build a hundred new sea ships of this size. Even if it takes a year, it will be difficult for the whole country to do it. This kind of craftsman's work is exquisite, and it is useless even if you recruit a bunch of monks to help. This is not something that can be done with high mana."

"Master Dao, I think what Brother Gongsun said just now is correct. There is a great possibility of remodeling the interior of the cabin. This kind of work can be done by a carpenter. It saves time and effort and does not require too much trouble. To build such a large ship, and to build so many, it is easy to cause a big commotion if they are scattered slightly. There is no secrecy at all, and the other party probably won't do it."

Gongsun Bu also nodded, "That's the reason."

Niu Youdao nodded silently. He also felt that what he said was reasonable, and he understood some of the truths, but he had never touched the sea ships here, so he didn't know what to do, so he asked in detail.

Now it seemed that he had taken it for granted that he wanted to transport the war horse by sea. He didn't expect that there would be so many complications in it. He thought it would be easy to find the ship.

After thinking for a while, he asked again: "How many such big ships do you think there are in all countries?"

Gongsun preached: "It's hard to say. It is estimated that ordinary monks usually don't pay attention to this, but I have the impression that there should be more large ships like this in Weiguo."

Black Peony agreed: "In terms of location, a desert and an insurmountable plateau separate the seven kingdoms into two regions. The four kingdoms of Song, Han, Zhao, and Yan are squeezed together, and the three kingdoms of Jin, Qi, and Wei are also together. Among the seven kingdoms, the first four are relatively poor, and the latter three are richer. Among the latter three, Jin is relatively poor. However, Jin is good at forging weapons, and its force is the strongest. The national strength of Qi and Wei has been suppressed by the joint efforts of the two countries. Individually speaking, no country is the opponent of Jin."

Niu Youdao couldn't help laughing, he knew this, he didn't need her to talk about it, he just found out that the woman had really changed a bit after she went to Qingshan County and witnessed something, so he interrupted with a smile: "Does this have something to do with the number of ships in the Wei Kingdom?"

Black Peony: "Of course it has something to do with it. Qi is richer because other countries have needs for its war horses. Every year, they need to exchange a lot of money and supplies for war horses. However, Qi does not dare to let go of selling war horses. Similarly, Jin is unlikely to sell weapons to other countries in large quantities so as to threaten itself. Only Wei, which has a unique geographical advantage and climate environment, can grow three crops a year with almost no need for much management."

"Every year, a large amount of grain is sold to other countries in exchange for money. If the four countries of Song, Han, Zhao, and Yan hadn't received the food supply from Wei, they would have collapsed already based on the domestic situation of the four countries. As long as the Wei country cut off the grain sales to the four countries, the four countries would collapse immediately. Of course, the Wei country did not dare to do so.

"Of course, although the country of Wei is rich, the people are not much better off, and the only ones who are rich are those sects of practice who snatch it behind their backs..."

Niu Youdao blinked and blinked his listening eyes, why did he feel that this woman was getting further and further away.

"Ahem!" Gongsun Bu couldn't bear to listen to the long speech, and interrupted with a dry cough, "Master Mudan, what Miss Mudan means is that Weiguo often transports grain to other countries by sea boat, so Weiguo has more large ships like this."

Niu Youdao snorted and asked him, "About how many are there?"

Gongsun Bu shook his head and said, "I really haven't paid attention to this, and I don't know."

Hei Mudan said: "There must be at least a thousand such large ships in Weiguo, and the other countries may not have as many Weiguo. But I guess it is impossible for Beizhou to use ships from Weiguo. Hundreds of large ships, if they come from one place, it is still too eye-catching."

"With such a quantity, it seems that it is not difficult to obtain it. In this way, the possibility of transformation is indeed very high..." Niu Youdao rubbed his chin and muttered for a while.

Black Mudan: "Master Dao, having come to this point, if our war horses want to go by sea, we must prepare for the transportation of ships as early as possible."

Niu Youdao said angrily and amusedly: "Prepare? How to prepare? It's so troublesome. We only talk about preparation now. Our current manpower waits until the boat is quietly ready and we don't know when it will be. What's more, we don't know if we can get a war horse. I'm also to blame for this matter. I didn't pay attention to it earlier, and I missed it when I made a temporary decision. The difficulty is beyond my imagination."

Black Peony asked: "Could it be the land route? I'm afraid it will be more troublesome, and there will be more joints to be opened."

Niu Youdao didn't pay attention to this, he walked back and forth for two steps with his hands behind his back, and suddenly waved to Hei Mudan, "Map!"

Black Peony immediately took the map, opened it, and hung it on the wall.

Niu Youdao stood in front of the map and uttered cruel words, "I don't believe in evil anymore. Can so many ships be invisible? Regardless of other things, I must dig out the ships of Beizhou. If I want to see the boat, I want to see the corpse. If I can't get it, Beizhou can't get it either!"