Struggle in the Steam Age

"No, of course we won't break this rule." After hearing Mr. Lambert's accusation, the leading priest immediately argued, "Our Church of the Goddess of Trade and Wealth will never break these generally accepted rules. I just want to ask, besides His Majesty's statue, have you found any other special extraordinary items."

"In addition to this statue, there is also a veil that can create a large area of ​​ordinary fog." The priest of the Agricultural Church next to him said. "But I can confirm that the gauze dress cannot belong to your church, because the pirate group was famous in the entire sea area for the fog created by that dress before they robbed your church."

"Of course, of course." said the leading priest of the Church of Trade and Wealth. "I mean, apart from these, have you found any other extraordinary items?"

"Can you stop playing charades?" Mr. Lambert looked a little angry at this time. "Can you describe what you are looking for in detail, instead of asking us vaguely like this now."

"Because we don't know what we lost?" The priest of the Church of Trade and Wealth smiled bitterly and said, "The thing that was lost was our utility room that hadn't been cleaned much since it was established. We only found that the door was pried open, and from the traces on the dust, it seemed that someone took something from it. But because there is no list, we are not sure if something was really lost, and now we are looking for You are just asking."

"In the name of the gods, we will give you a list of all the transcendent items we seized in this battle. Take a look to see if there is anything you want in it." Mr. Lambert took out the paper after finishing speaking I started writing with a brush, and from time to time I asked the priest of the Agricultural Church next to the Lawrence River for supplements. Because there were not many Transcendent items seized this time, it only took half a piece of paper to write all the seized items this time.

"Indeed not." As soon as the note was written, the priest of the Church of Trade and Wealth took the note and read it carefully. But he read it several times and couldn't find what he wanted.

At least he still trusts Mr. Lambert in terms of treasure appraisal, because in this regard the priests of the Church of Knowledge can be regarded as the top group of people, at least it is impossible to appraise such high-end supernatural items. There are things like looking away.

"It seems that those pirates may have just moved the things in that warehouse, but did not take it away. They may have hidden those treasures in other places." The priest of the Church of Trade and Wealth put down the note and nodded seriously. To: "However, it is very good to be able to welcome back the statue of our Lord this time, and I shouldn't expect too much."

"Then what if we can find your lost wealth in the future?" Lawrence asked in a voice at this time, because he remembered the seized nautical information. Although he took a cursory look on the return boat and found nothing related to treasure inside, he was a little suspicious about some of the voyages.

"I think you may have found something like nautical notes, and think there may be pirates hiding treasure." As a clergy member of the Church of Trade and Wealth, the leading priest knew Lawrence when he opened his mouth to speak. what to express. "But what you may not know is that the real pirates are different from the pirates in the novel. They basically don't hide treasure."

The industry of piracy is carried out simultaneously with ocean trade. From a certain point of view, the two have both interdependence and mutual struggle. And this entanglement runs through the entire history of maritime trade. So the priests of the Church of Trade and Wealth knew more about pirates than most pirates themselves.

These priests seemed to be in a good mood because they welcomed back the statue. So after seeing Lawrence's puzzled expression, he took the initiative to introduce the specific situation about the pirates to them.

Pirates in this era are generally divided into two types, one of which is related to various factions. This type of pirates is well-equipped and well-trained. It is often just to deal with some inconvenient things for those countries and forces to deal with on the surface. Therefore, they can be regarded as a navy in the dark, which is not the scope of today's discussion.

The Killing Fog Pirates belonged to another category, they were criminal groups sailing on the ocean. Participants are either coolies who have been coerced into it, or a bunch of scum.

It is safe to say that such a team hides a lot of contradictions. Each member has difficulty trusting the other, and violence, strength, and a thirst for ill-gotten riches are the only bonds that hold them together.

Hearing this, Lawrence nodded in agreement. Because when he was searching for loot after the war, he discovered that there was a huge difference in the concept of preserving private wealth between the members of the pirate group and the crew on his own ship.

For example, in the captain's cabin of the Enterprise, there is a large safe that is divided into countless small spaces. Every crew member is happy to keep their valuables in this safe to ensure the safety of their wealth. , not worried that the captain guarding the safe took the wealth for himself.

And on those pirate ships, every crew member would hide their wealth in an inconspicuous corner of the ship or carry it with them, and they didn't dare to trust other people on board. The interrogation of the captives afterwards also confirmed this point. Many captives had been seen hiding the money by others because of carelessness in hiding the money. As a result, all the wealth disappeared after waking up. Naturally, under such circumstances, it is impossible for those people to entrust their wealth to the captain for safekeeping.

On the other hand, although the income of pirates is not low, the risks are also recognized. According to some statistics, the average time for a pirate to die is only three and a half years. Therefore, they often have little habit of saving. After getting the money, most of the pirates will squander the money in eating, drinking, whoring and gambling as soon as they come to Hong Kong.

Because of these two factors, pirates often don't have much wealth with them, and naturally it is impossible to have the wealth to create a pirate treasure. More importantly, it is very abnormal for pirates to hold wealth in their hands instead of spending it but hiding it.

"However, there are always exceptions to everything in this world." After briefly introducing why real pirates seldom hide treasures, the leading priest of the Church of Trade and Wealth finally concluded. "For example, if the pirate captain is a fallen black priest, then he may also hide treasures that are not suitable for carrying around. But this can only be regarded as a private treasure, and has nothing to do with the pirates."

"Then what if we really found his private treasure spot?" Now that the words were out of the way, Lawrence stopped asking so veiled insinuations. "What if we do find the treasure that was lost from your treasury?"

"If you really found it, it means that you just received the favor of our Lord at that time." The leading priest of Fortune Church said with a smile. "At that time, whether you are willing to give that thing to us and get a reward from us or keep it for yourself is the will of the gods, and we will respect your idea."

"It would be fine if this is the case." Lawrence was very satisfied with the other party's answer, which means that if he really finds the treasure, he can directly stuff this thing into his pocket, so that he won't have to spend a lot of effort to find the treasure. , the result suddenly popped up so-and-so said that this thing is such a bad situation in his house.