British hegemon

Chapter 38 Stationing on the Small Island

"Then leave the little good-for-nothing behind." Roger knew that Bitter Gourd Face was still worried about him and insisted on sending a tail to follow him.

The man with the bitter face nodded his thanks, then walked over to the young stable boy and whispered a few instructions before organizing his men to carry the badly injured Black Dog off the boat.

"Stinky fisherman!" the bald man called out to an honest fisherman who was about to climb onto the gangplank to disembark.

The honest fisherman was too timid to charge last night, and only joined in the fun after the situation was settled.

But he was timid and dared not search for corpses to pick up bargains. In addition, he lost the initiative when scrambling for leftovers today. After a whole day of hard work, all he managed to grab was a pair of tattered leather shoes and rotten socks.

Fortunately, young master Roger paid a gold coin in advance, otherwise he would have lost everything.

Upon hearing the call, the honest fisherman quickly stopped what he was doing and turned to look at the bald man.

The bald man rummaged through his black wool coat and pulled out a cloth bag. He opened the pocket, lifted it up, and looked inside. The bag was mostly filled with silver coins and various other coins. He took out a few gold pieces and estimated that there were still a hundred pence left.

The bald man thought for a moment, then took out a small handful of silver pennies from his pocket and put them into his cloth bag. He weighed them in his hand and walked up to the honest fisherman. "Take this money back to Brodick and give it to my grandmother in person so she can buy more food and a nice set of clothes."

"I told my grandmother that I'm now doing great things and making a lot of money with Young Master Roger, so she doesn't need to worry. I'll come home after I'm done with this."

After saying that, the bald man took out a chipped silver penny from his pocket and slapped it into the honest fisherman's hand. "This is for you. Be sure to deliver the money and my message to me. Don't even think about swallowing my money. I'm a ruthless killer these days. Be careful, or I'll chop up your whole family."

The honest fisherman quickly accepted the money, bowed his head obsequiously, and slipped off the boat in a few steps.

After the group disembarked and walked ashore along the pier, Roger instructed the bald man and the ponytail-wearing man to put away the gangplank and continue rowing towards Holly Island on the other side.

The bald-headed, ponytail-wearing group were all islanders, and they were somewhat skilled at sailing and navigating boats, so they worked together to moor the boat on the salt flats of Holly Island.

Holly Island is about two miles long and less than a mile at its widest point. The island is almost entirely barren hills, with the highest point reaching about 980 feet. There are only some flat areas in the north and south corners, one of which is this salt flat.

Salt Flats are located on the northwest corner of Holly Island. As the name suggests, they are a salt-producing mudflat, just a mile away by boat from the small fishing village of Ramrush.

A small stream flows down from a small lake on the mountain and into Ramlash Bay at the sea salt flats. The flow is small, but it is continuous all year round.

If you don't count the small amount of low-quality coarse salt that the islanders boil and cook themselves, the salt flats are the only place on Arun Island where salt can be produced in large quantities.

Because Holly Island and Arun Island block the summer ocean currents, this area experiences windy and dry weather in August and September each year. In addition, Ramrush Bay is calm year-round, allowing the salt from the evaporating seawater to accumulate, resulting in a much higher salt concentration here than in other places.

People of this era were naturally unaware of these scientific theories, but they inherited the experience of their ancestors, and every year from the beginning of August, salt workers would come to Haiyan Bay to make sea salt.

A few years ago, Holly Island was assigned to Roger's adoptive father and became part of a knight's fief. Therefore, this salt flat, including the entire Holly Island, was Roger's father's territory. Every year during the salt-making season, the grumpy-faced butler would arrange for people to come here to dry sea salt.

After deducting the taxes paid to the Baron of Arran, the remainder would be sold to the people of Arran and the surrounding islands. A small amount of finer salt would also be shipped to Irish merchants, making it an important source of revenue for the knight's estate.

Fishing, mining, and salt production were among the least desirable occupations of the time, so although Roger knew his family owned this saltworks, he had never visited it himself.

The pirate ship approached the salt flats. Because of its flat bottom and lack of cargo, it was able to navigate into the shallow waters.

Upon reaching the anchorage limit, the bald man and the ponytail-wearing group dropped the anchor and worked together to lower the gangplank.

"You guys stay here, Baldy. Ponytail and Little Horseman, come down with me to check things out." Roger said as he climbed onto the gangplank and stepped down into the water, which was up to his thighs.

Walking along the gentle salt flats, the girl with the ponytail followed first. The young horse herder hesitated for a long time before rolling up his trousers and jumping into the water, where the seawater submerged most of him.

"Young horseman, is this our saltworks workshop?" Roger looked at the row of dilapidated thatched huts and a small stone house in front of him and fell into deep disappointment.

I had imagined that a salt-making workshop would have some tall buildings like wooden houses and warehouses, but when I arrived at this salt-making site located on the hillside above the beach, I only saw a few low buildings that looked like refugee shacks.

The young horse herder, who was not far behind, was wringing out his clothes and shaking off the water droplets. He replied, "This is the saltworks. In a while, we will send people over to repair these sheds and then dig new irrigation canals and salt pans on the beach."

"You can even make salt here?" Roger was a little surprised. The place is cold and humid all year round, and even the short summer doesn't produce much sea salt.

The young horse herder had already squeezed out the last drop of seawater. He shook his clothes and replied, "Of course, you can't make sea salt by sun-drying it. The key is to sun-dry as much water as possible before boiling the brine, which will save a lot of coal for fuel."

"Peat? There's still coal here?"

The young horseman stared at Roger as if he were a monster, and after a long while he remembered that his young master had only returned to the island this year and had just been hit on the head, so this was normal.

"Holly Island is mostly barren mountains, and Arran Island doesn't have much timber, so they wouldn't want to use firewood to boil salt. There's plenty of peat around the small lakes in the mountains, which can be dried and used to make salt."

The young horse herder pointed to the small stone house with its door tightly locked. It was the only thing that could be called a "building". "Inside are iron pots, buckets, cloth bags and other utensils for boiling salt. There is also peat that was dug up last year. It has long been dried and is ready to be used to boil salt this year."

Roger had smuggled a lot of European liquor in his previous life and had some basic knowledge of whisky, and had naturally heard of peat.

"Is there a lot of peat in that area?" Roger seemed to have discovered a new energy continent.

"I don't know, who cares? As long as it's enough." The young horse herder had little interest in the stinking mud.

Roger considered it for a moment, then shook his head, dismissing those unrealistic ideas from his mind.

The three of them walked into the salt-making workshop on the soft sand.

The terrain here is flat and slightly elevated, preventing seawater from flooding in. Apart from the stone house where peat is stored, the rest are thatched huts supported by a few pillars, with walls made of straw mats woven from straw stalks, which is suitable for the ventilation requirements of the salt-making workshop.