Chapter 2415: Gourmet Empire

Chapter 2415: Chapter 2132: Gourmet Empire

When Gan Ning started to speak, Sun Ce limped out of the cabin and, after a moment’s pause, looked at Gan Ning on the Seventh Generation Ship opposite and said, “Gan Xingba is indeed someone remarkable. To be selected as the commander-in-chief of the navy is truly commendable.”

Zhou Yu said nothing, just stared at Gan Ning, then after a while, as if coming to a realization, looked at Sun Ce, “Bofu, it’s surprising that you would say such a thing.”

“Why shouldn’t I say such a thing?” Sun Ce glared at Zhou Yu. Despite his frequent brainlessness, occasionally his brain, used as muscle, would come online.

“Hahaha.” Zhou Yu chuckled softly, “Gan Xingba returned north with laughter and curses, leaving many things unsaid, but now he is speaking out promises. Bofu, some matters, even if known to be difficult, still require confidence for our people.”

“Huh?” Sun Ce looked at Zhou Yu with a face full of confusion, “Aren’t difficult matters for you to handle?”

“I am only responsible for making plans and dealing with enemies. As for Eastern Wu, only you can truly make the decisions.” Zhou Yu explained with a gentle shake of his head, leaving Sun Ce puzzled.

Gan Ning is a man who keeps past events in his heart and generally does not mention them. This time, he spoke out more because he saw his former subordinates.

Unlike ground battles, naval warfare often results in the complete annihilation of the losing side. In the last South Blue battle, Gan Ning’s forces were nearly entirely wiped out.

Now looking at those who had once followed from the Yangtze River to Liaodong and then to South Blue, seeing only a few hundred left, even Gan Ning, whose heart had grown cold after experiencing the unification of Indian Ocean pirates and the second war against the Kushan Navy, felt grief overwhelming him.

The pain of having one’s followers destroyed due to one’s own decisions can only be understood by someone who has truly experienced such things.

Smoothing the sorrow from his face, Gan Ning patted the shoulders of all his soldiers, “You will be my trusted aides from now on. I will retrain you, it may be very painful, but none of you are allowed to quit!”

“Now, arms in hand, come with me to Lul Jicai’s place. First, let’s get ten Seventh Generation Ships!” Gan Ning roared, as if the previous sorrow had completely vanished. In truth, Gan Ning had merely kept his vow eternally in his heart, waiting for the moment to fulfill it.

At this time, Xu Sheng had entirely lost control over the navy. Compared to Gan Ning, Xu Sheng was still too immature. Now, even if Gan Ning said nothing, everyone in the naval camp, including the recruits in training, knew who the real commander-in-chief of the navy was.

“Novica!” Gan Ning shouted using Telepathy. Novica hurried over, having already understood upon entering the Central Plains that his boss hailed from another country, an empire called the Han Dynasty.

Such matters, however, aren’t a big deal for pirates. They have already severed ties with their own country and even fought a major battle with their country’s navy. For them, there’s no strong national allegiance; their goal is simply to live better, and Gan Ning brought them here with nothing they couldn’t accept.

“Boss, what is it?” Novica ran over quickly to inquire.

“Unload goods. Unload the iron ore into Donglai Port’s warehouse. This is my country, so first maintain military discipline, second, take this to the Money Exchange to withdraw money, then buy wine and meat with the money. Let this guy take you, and familiarize yourselves as you will be comrades in the future!” Gan Ning handed the Seal ribbon to Novica and then pointed to the bruised Xu Sheng.

“Wen Xiang, take Novica and Sakara to show them around. These are my subordinates recruited in the Indian Ocean. You lead them for a tour.” Gan Ning turned his head to instruct Xu Sheng.

Xu Sheng and Novica along with Sakara couldn’t understand each other’s language, but Gan Ning did not specially explain. He had already clearly instructed, simply letting Xu Sheng take the pair to see the sights.

Though Kushan does have bustling places, compared to the Han Dynasty, they fall short, especially in places like Qingzhou, Yanzhou, and Xuzhou that were planned and constructed early. The allure of prosperity is not a joke.

At this point, no matter Xu Sheng’s reluctance, he had to obey Gan Ning’s command and take Sakara and Novica to Donglai Port. As a large material distribution center, this place has everything you want to purchase.

Xu Sheng struggled to use sign language to communicate thoughts with Sakara and Novica. Luckily, Sakara and Novica had already reached the limit of Qi Refining to Gang, starting to touch upon Inner Qi Separation, barely possessing a part of the Telepathy ability. Although they might misunderstand, the errors would not be significant.

“How on earth do we communicate?” Novica and Xu Sheng gestured wildly, managing to vaguely understand each other’s intent, but the communication was extremely difficult. Finally, Novica hesitated for a long time, ran back to the cabin, and took out a Telepathy Bead.

Thankfully, at departure, when Gan Ning and his men looted the Kabe Bay port city, they obtained a box of these from the Government Treasury, containing only about ten beads. Seeing the current communication difficulty, Novica, after much hesitation, decided to use one.

“Is this for me?” Xu Sheng asked, puzzled, as he took the Telepathy Bead, looking at Novica and Sakara, but both shook their heads repeatedly.

Xu Sheng looked at the two, confused. If it’s not for me, why are you giving it to me? So he handed it back, but Sakara and Novica both pushed it back to him. Now Xu Sheng was baffled. If it’s not for me, why push it to me? If it is for me, why shake your head?

Sakara struggled to gesture to Xu Sheng, but he wasn’t really sure what he was gesturing either. Xu Sheng, equally puzzled, gestured back, not really understanding it, either.

Finally, before Novica reached his breaking point, Sakara suddenly raised his left hand, a shimmering Inner Qi began to appear on it, and he waved it at Xu Sheng. Xu Sheng understood this, and so released his own Inner Qi from that hand, and thus the Telepathy Bead instantly merged into Xu Sheng’s body.

“What on earth is this thing?” Xu Sheng exclaimed in surprise.

“Telepathy Bead. It allows people to understand every language,” Novica said wearily. “Finally, we can communicate.”

Xu Sheng suddenly realized he could understand Novica and Sakara’s words, surprising him. But after listening carefully, he understood that they weren’t speaking Chinese, and coupled with Novica’s words, he instantly realized it was a magical artifact.

“There’s actually something so amazing,” Xu Sheng praised.

“These things are very rare,” Sakara said helplessly. “Kabe Bay is one of the three major harbor cities, and it’s a trading port with a specially arranged black market for dealing with pirates; we plundered such a city and only got about a dozen of these beads. Kushan doesn’t have many of them either.”

“Haha, as long as we can communicate, that’s good. I’ll take you to the Money Exchange; once you see the process, you’ll understand,” Xu Sheng didn’t ask too much; as long as they could communicate, many issues could be resolved.

The Donglai Money Exchange is also an official exchange, therefore it’s built solid and durable, with four shopkeepers, two inspectors, and three elite Hundred-Man Squads inside.

“I’ll do it once, you watch the process.” Xu Sheng first reached out and took the seal ribbon from Novica’s Gan Ning.

“Withdraw money.” Xu Sheng shook the seal ribbon in his hand. Since it’s an official Money Exchange, using the seal ribbon to withdraw money not only serves the usual purpose but also proves he’s alive and back, which is another means of transmission.

“This is General Gan’s seal ribbon; has he finally returned?” The shopkeeper glanced at the ribbon, a hint of happiness appeared on his face, and he congratulated, “Roughly how much do you need to withdraw? Your navy has about fifteen billion in military funds available on the account.”

“A million ticket exchange,” Xu Sheng simply stated, “These two are my future colleagues, but they don’t speak the official language yet, brought here to get acquainted.”

The shopkeeper looked at the two, seemingly needing to remember their faces, and after a while, nodded to show he remembered before quickly checking the account, soon handing Xu Sheng a million ticket exchange, broken into ten tickets of one hundred thousand currency each as requested.

“This is the Money Exchange, which you can use to withdraw money,” Xu Sheng explained to the two while walking out.

“Is this money? I remember us using gold coins over there.” Sakara, being a member of the Cecil Clan, had been a minor tycoon for quite some time, thus he was slightly puzzled seeing the paper in Xu Sheng’s hand; they currently don’t have such things there.

“Yes, this is money, but it’s large-denomination currency,” Xu Sheng said while pulling out a Five Zhu Coin, the golden Five Zhu Coin gleaming somewhat like gold coins. “This is one cent, which is the common currency, how should I explain it, right.”

Xu Sheng turned his head and saw the meat pie by the Mi Family Restaurant, took out three cents, “Give me three meat pies.” The shopkeeper used some unknown leaves to knead three meat pies and handed them to Xu Sheng, who then handed them to Novica and Sakara while addressing the shopkeeper, “You didn’t mix fish in this again, did you?”

“No way.” The shopkeeper said with a smile, “That guy was greedy before, always trying to cut corners, got chased away by us. Our pies now, genuine!”

“These pies taste quite good.” Novica said while eating. Compared to Kushan, where food is still mostly roasted or boiled, the Han Dynasty’s cuisine has been taken to an unknown direction by Chen Xi, including stir-frying, quick-frying, flash-frying, deep-frying, stewing, braising, simmering, boiling, and baking, thanks to Chen Xi initiating it; various styles followed suit.

Back then, Chen Xi experimented with extracting oil from soybeans, then made soybean residue cakes with the remains. Nothing is wasted, and various oils followed.

There’s rapeseed oil, walnut oil, sesame oil, anyway, Chinese people have an astounding talent for food; apparently, since this skill was introduced by Chen Xi, the Central Plains people have been trying to extract oil from every kind of seed.