While the Smith Republic was embroiled in a dispute over the second batch of goods sent by Great Zhou, the Great Zhou fleet led by White Butcher had already arrived once again in the northern seas of the Barton Empire.
Because the large number of troop transports they were carrying moved slowly, this voyage had taken more time than usual.
White Butcher deliberately wanted to train Lin Youshu under relatively safe conditions. Therefore, for the upcoming naval battle, he directly handed command over to Lin Youshu, while he himself planned to land alongside the subsequent landing forces.
Before their main fleet reached Barton's northern seas, the Wyvern Riders responsible for reconnaissance had already returned with intelligence.
Before the battle had even begun, they had confirmed that twenty Fast Ships were currently stationed in the northern seas.
Clearly, during the time they had been stationed at Volcano Island, the Barton Empire had not been idle either.
The disappearance of two main fleets in succession had caused an uproar throughout the Barton Empire.
While the entire country was in turmoil, they had also hurried to build warships and increase their garrison forces.
However, judging by the time involved, no matter how urgently they built them, producing twenty Fast Ships in such a short time was hardly realistic, unless...
"Were they converted from fishing boats?"
The only possibility was that they had converted civilian fishing boats.
The Barton Empire was an island nation scattered across the sea. Since its fishing industry was well developed, it naturally had a large number of fishing boats.
As long as they requisitioned fishing boats of suitable size and adequate condition for conversion, cobbling together twenty warships in a short time would not be too difficult.
"Lieutenant, just as I said before, you can bombard the defensive facilities