Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Cage laughed as well, smiling as he said, "If I ever become a military inspector, I will take your army's funding to build ships for our navy."

Winters laughed heartily, "It's a deal... In fact, I have always admired people like you who have fresh ideas. I can't do it, I can only learn from you guys."

Cage shook his head repeatedly and waved his hand, "No, no, no, it wasn't my idea. All these are Captain Spire's theories. I'm just parroting them... Captain Spire is the captain of the Golden Lion. You're just in time to meet him on this trip with me."

As they talked, their small boat reached the side of the Golden Lion. A rope ladder was thrown down, and Winters followed Cage aboard the Golden Lion.

The conversation on the way nearly made him forget the purpose of his visit here. But after boarding the ship, Winters immediately remembered why he had come to the Golden Lion.

He instantly understood why Cage said, "The galley needs to make land every two days; you'll understand once you take a look on board."

Before his eyes, the open deck of the Golden Lion was densely packed with people, leaving no space to even set a foot down.

The open deck had been divided into two levels, roughly convex in shape. In the middle was the upper platform, obviously for the navy soldiers who, lacking space to lie down, could only rest while huddled together.

The decks on either side near the ship's sides were the lower part of the convex structure, sitting more than a meter lower than the middle deck. This was where the oarsmen sat. This structure allowed the oarsmen to be lower than the soldiers in the middle, so they would not block the soldiers' use of long-range weapons.

The haggard and emaciated oarsmen were chained next to their oars, with three or four oarsmen manning each oar. They didn't even have space to move, looking no different from the slave oarsmen on The Glorious.

Even though the deck was open to the air, Winters could still smell an odor. The Golden Lion, crammed with people, resembled a cattle transport ship, where humans were packed together like animals, unable to move. On this ship, there was no dignity left for a man.

Winters couldn't have lasted an hour in a place like that.

"Why are there so many people? How many does this ship hold?" Winters asked Cage in shock.

Cage countered, "How many were on The Glorious?"

"About two to three hundred?" Winters wasn't too sure.

Cage said expressionlessly, "The Glorious originally had over five hundred crew. To make it comfortable for you, now even with you added, there are less than four hundred. The Golden Lion carries about the same as The Glorious now, around four hundred people."

"This... This ship is so much smaller than The Glorious and it holds four hundred people? How can they stand it?" Winters was shocked by the appalling living conditions of the Golden Lion's crew. The Glorious was not only larger in size but also had multiple decks. Meanwhile, the vast majority of people on the Golden Lion were crammed into the open deck.

Cage, seemingly long accustomed to the cruelty of life at sea, said coldly, "They're not people, they're sailors. But even for sailors, they can't last many days on such a ship, so every two days they must go ashore to rest. Essentially, a galley is a floating fortress with very poor self-sustenance. More than half of our fleet consists of such galleys, and for us, capturing a supply port is far more important than destroying the enemy's ships."

"What about when it rains? There's nothing above to shield them."

"They endure."

"And these oarsmen? Why are they chained up?"

"They are all criminals; no free men are willing to be oarsmen." Cage walked ahead without turning back as he answered, "There's no need to pity them; it's their crimes that led to this fate. And if they survive the battle without dying, they can be pardoned, which is better than dying in a cell, isn't it?"

Winters fell silent as he followed Cage, navigating through the oarsmen's limbs to find footing, heading toward the sterncastle, which should be the best environment on the ship. The captain always resides in the best part of the ship.

Suddenly, a pair of hands clutched at Winters's legs, a seemingly delirious oarsman begging in a slurred voice, "Have mercy, give me some water to drink, please."

Cage, walking ahead, turned around and saw an oarsman grabbing Winters's leg and instantly flew into a rage, "You've got some nerve! Are you looking for death?"

With that, he drew his naval cutlass and turned back, the oarsmen in his way scurrying aside desperately, making way for him.

The others were also startled, navy soldiers from the upper platform poking their heads out to watch, whispering amongst themselves, yet no one intervened. Under such deplorable living conditions, the only reason there was no mutiny aboard was military discipline. As a criminal, an oarsman attacking an officer allowed Cage to execute him.

"Stop..." Winters raised his hand to stop Cage, who was approaching with his cutlass to help him, "This man... I know him."

Cage froze in place.

Winters looked at the face of the oarsman and uncertainly asked, "Gold, Lucky Gold, captain of The Lucky, is that you?"

Gold, who had been struck nearly toothless by Layton with the butt of his sword, trembled as he heard the words "captain of The Lucky" and burst into uncontrollable weeping.