Martin Stone then returned with his army to Yecheng. Before the battle, Dylan Stone had promised to make Martin Stone the crown prince. But after Martin Stone came back, he went back on his word and made his own son the crown prince instead. In a fit of anger, Martin Stone joined forces with another son of Eric Stone, James Stone, to launch a coup, executed Dylan Stone, and installed James Stone as the new emperor. At the same time, provoked by the Hu people's order to kill Han Chinese, Martin Stone decided to openly reveal his Han identity and restored his original Han surname, Ran.

After James Stone ascended the throne, he appeared to be completely obedient to Martin Reed on the surface, but secretly he repeatedly incited the Jie people to rebel, intending to kill Martin Reed and seize power for himself. Meanwhile, another son of Eric Stone, Dean Stone, with the support of the Jie people, declared himself king in Xiangcheng, opposing James Stone.

Martin Reed had to deal with both internal strife and external enemies. Under such circumstances, the Shi Zhao regime's control over Huainan and Qingzhou was greatly weakened, almost to the point of being nonexistent. This worked out perfectly for Isaac Hall, allowing him to smoothly lead over a hundred survivors, passing through prefectures and counties. Not only did they encounter no obstacles, but their group actually grew larger and larger. Many Han people who had not received news of the Jin army's advance, upon hearing that someone was going to lead them out of their misery, left their homes without hesitation and joined this band of refugees, traveling through Qingzhou to the seashore. Among them were even several Han county magistrates from the Jie Hu regime.

Along the way, Isaac Hall seemed deeply preoccupied, constantly muttering words that Sean Walker could not understand. The hundred or so survivors followed the crowd like walking corpses, moving their feet numbly.

The group walked along the winding coastline for two days, entering a ridge that rose along the shore. The ridge was not very high, only about one or two hundred meters, and on the seaward side it formed a sheer cliff. Isaac Hall seemed to be very experienced with the tides, and even in his numb state, he was able to lead everyone along the shallow beach left by the receding tide.

The ever-growing group of refugees wandered in the mountains for another two days. By this time, even those with the best sense of direction were completely disoriented by Isaac Hall, unable to tell east from west. Fortunately, most of these survivors were physically strong, and after a month-long journey across Qingzhou, surviving on grass roots and tree bark, they had managed to persevere.

The abundant fish, shrimp, and shellfish by the sea provided the refugees with much-needed nutrition. Only traveling after the tide had receded also gave them plenty of rest. After a few days, although the future was still uncertain, many refugees no longer had a vacant look in their eyes, and laughter gradually returned to the group. The discovery of food brought joy.

That evening, the group stopped at a cape jutting into the sea, where the waves crashed against the rocks with a thunderous roar. Isaac Hall stood there, head lowered, lost in thought for a moment for no apparent reason, then suddenly snapped out of it and gave a deep order to the Xianbei servant: “Eric Irwin, go ahead and scout the way.”

The Xianbei servant bowed deeply with hands clasped, whistled, and began climbing toward the mountaintop.

Before long, Eric Irwin whistled loudly from the top of the mountain, and then a deep sound of a war horn echoed from the other side.

The horn wailed—a kind of instrument commonly used as a military signal by the steppe tribes, while the armies of the Central Plains usually used gongs and drums. After the horn sounded, the refugee group was momentarily thrown into confusion, but soon calmed down again.

“There’s an army on the other side of the mountain? Hu people’s army?” Sean Walker asked, walking over to Isaac Hall with suspicion.

Isaac Hall did not answer. He took the lead, climbing up the ridge, and waved for the group to follow.

Let fate decide, Sean Walker sighed inwardly, closely following Isaac Hall. If the other side really wanted to betray them to the Hu people, they could have done so north of the Huai River—there was no need to trek over mountains and rivers all the way to the seashore to do it.

At first, only two or three people climbed, then more and more followed, and soon the whole group was moving, the refugees hesitantly ascending the ridge. The reason they did not run away was that they had nowhere else to go.

Beyond the ridge was a fjord, with mountains on both sides stretching deep into the sea, like arms embracing a pool of seawater. The refugees, who had climbed the ridge one after another, looked at the scene in the fjord and couldn’t help but gasp, all of them stunned.

Chapter 2: Spine-Chilling

What lay before them was a gigantic ship, with a hull as tall as a five-story tower rising above the water, about 80 meters long and 15 meters wide. On the upper deck stood three masts of varying heights, their sails dyed a deep red, now all furled. At both ends of the ship, several large iron chains extended into the sea, making it impossible to see what they were anchored to.

These refugees all came from the north bank of the Huai River and had seen large ships sailing on the Yangtze before. It was thanks to its powerful navy that the Jin dynasty was able to hold back the Hu people’s advance to the south. The tower ships of the Eastern Jin navy could carry about 2 tons of cargo and were already considered massive, but compared to this ship, they were like underdeveloped infants.

In fact, by this era, Chinese maritime technology was already quite advanced. Earlier, during the Yellow Turban Rebellion at the end of the Eastern Han, many people from Qingzhou had crossed the sea to Liaodong to escape the war. In the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan of Eastern Wu organized large fleets to campaign as far as Yizhou (Taiwan). The warships built by Wu at that time were up to five stories high and could carry 3,000 soldiers. As for the grand ships like the “Feiyun” and “Gaihai” that Sun Quan rode, they were even more magnificent. By the early Jin dynasty, China already had the “south-pointing ship,” the earliest use of the maritime compass.