Chapter 607-Disguising Their way In
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
"Focus all your fire to blow a path in the middle of their squadron!" Facing their relentless assault, Zheng He remained calm; he acted like nothing was up and quickly found a solution.
The moment his order sounded, the cannons fired.
What kind of scene would 150 cannons firing together create? Zheng He gave an answer.
Like a monumental sword from the heavens, the warship cannons cleaved the closely packed enemy squadron into half. Suddenly, a ninety odd meter wide path opened up in the middle of the squadron.
The debris of many warships floated on the surface of the water. The cannonball shrapnel struck tens of thousands of adventure gamemode players. It left them badly injured, and they struggled to survive in the ocean.
If one had not witnessed such a scene, they could not feel the current shock and awe.
The enemy arrow rain stopped.
Zheng He was not shocked in the slightest, and he continued to instruct, “Form up into a battle formation and swiftly pass through the middle. Shoot fire arrows from the sides toward the ships on both sides."
When the squadrons quickly moved on the water, it was extremely difficult to shoot the cannons. Especially such cumbersome and backward cannons, the great momentum might cause the warship to overturn. Hence, Zheng He could only use the next best option and fire arrows to disturb the enemy formation.
"Yes, admiral!"
"Navy soldiers, prepare to board and fight." Zheng He continued to order.
"Yes, admiral!"
The Shanhai Squadron shifted its formation and increased their speed.
Since it was a combination attack composed of three squadrons, there was a slight lapse in communication. Luckily, after a few hiccups, they finally managed to form up.
Even after the Annan region warships took such massive hits, their combat strength did not completely falter. After all, their huge numbers were not easily crushed.
The warships on both sides swiftly closed in on the center and tried to pincer the Shanhai City Squadron. The eyes of the adventure gamemode players were red with rage, as they screamed out; they wanted to avenge their fallen brothers.
Of course, they had to avoid the fire arrows first.
The current fire arrows were a utterly different concept compared to the alchemical oil fire arrows. The most representative aspect was naturally the Water Dragon, which was a new missile-like weapon.
A 1.5 kilometer range was enough to cover both wings of the enemy squadron.
The fire arrows instantly set the enemy ships ablaze, sending the people on board into a state of panic. This panic spread to the ships around them.
Hence, the attack of the enemy troops could be called ineptly planned and executed.
Even so, the huge number of small warships were like ants that bit onto the warships of Shanhai City. At this point, it was time for the navy soldiers.
This was the first time the two sides had gone head to head. This finally allowed the Annan players to vent their frustration. All of their eyes were red, as they engaged the Nanyang Navy soldiers.
"Handgun squad, get ready!" Zheng He gave another order.
Going head to head was not his style.
He was best at employing the Ming Dynasty firearms. As such, the Combat Logistics Department had followed his demands and prepared various firearms for the squadron.
Originally, Ouyang Shuo had eliminated these firearms.
However, since Zheng He personally requested it, Ouyang Shuo had no reason to reject. With the current steelmaking standard of Shanhai City, crafting a batch of firearms was not a difficult matter.
Who knew that this batch of firearms would actually be so mighty.
Under the support of the handgun unit, the soldiers managed to gain a foothold on the battle. The number of enemy casualties grew and grew. When the Shanhai City Squadron passed the middle passage, the left behind a blood ocean.
After breaking through, Zheng He still did not want to let the matter go, "Stop advancing, form up once more!"
"Yes, admiral!"
The alliance squadron had started to slow down, as they turned back their cannons.
"Fire!"
Even without Zheng He’s orders, the three squadrons were ready.
Before the left behind enemy ships could even recover their senses, another round of the death god welcomed them.
Ouyang Shuo did not expect that a battle that seemed so difficult would actually be so easy to Zheng He. The enemy ships were completely on a back foot, and they could only endure hits.
A God Rank navy general was truly different.
It seems like Gaia had strengthen Zheng He's commanding ability. China only had a small number of famous navy generals. If Gaia did not strengthen them, they definitely could not be used.
On this note, the generals of other regions should also have been strengthened. Only then could Gaia maintain the usual standard of fairness.
The following battle was just a lop-sided affair.
After a few rounds of cannon fire, the seemingly menacing enemy ships finally woke up. Under the punishment of death itself, they had to admit defeat and flee.
From this battle, Ouyang Shuo had obtained twenty thousand points.
…
Making use of the buffer time from cleaning up the battlefield, the sima boats finally returned with new intel. After learning that the proper Annnan squadron had set sail, Ouyang Shuo could not help but frown.
During these few battles, it looked like Shanhai City had obtained victory easily, but they had still incurred some losses. In terms of war resources alone, they had already used up a third.
If this carried on, Ouyang Shuo was not sure if they could smoothly reach the unnamed island. In the end, this country war was just a secondary matter; the main goal was still the treasure.
"General, we need to change our strategy." Ouyang Shuo said.
"Lord, what you're saying is?" Zheng He was also a little worried.
Ouyang Shuo gave his answer, “Pretend to proceed, while secretly going through another path."
"Split the troops into two?" Zheng He understood immediately.
"That's right." Ouyang Shuo smiled, "General will lead the main force to attract the enemy attention. I'll lead a small elite group to secretly proceed to the unnamed island."
"Lord is wise."
"However, there is one problematic point. It is truly a difficult matter for you to restrict the ships of an entire country alone." Ouyang Shuo voiced his worries.
"Do not worry Lord, I can handle it." Zheng He was exceedingly confident.
"Then I’ll depend on you, general!"
Ouyang Shuo cupped his fists and set the meeting place. Then he prepared himself to lead his personal guards off the boat.
Since he was sneaking out, he naturally could not sail Dragon Head, and even the other turreted ships would pose a problem. They were too eye-catching and would be instantly noticed.
Hence, Ouyang Shuo was ready to sail on the Mengchong Warship.
At this very moment, Ouyang Shuo turned around and looked at the sea region. Suddenly, he had an idea.
On the water surface, the enemy warships had already escaped, and only some wreckage remained. Apart from that, there were still some relatively good warships that were abandoned.
"Men!" Ouyang Shuo said.
"Present!"
"Send someone to gather ten enemy ships, load them up, and use them as our warships."
"Yes, my Lord."
Wasn’t sailing on an Annan warship the best disguise? The Annan region players would never expect that one of their allies had snuck into their land.
Ah hour later, they had prepared everything.
Without any extra words, Ouyang Shuo ordered them to set off. Apart from the personal guards, Zheng He had arranged the lost elite sailors, captains, and navy generals.
This small squadron crept toward the unknown sea region.
On the other hand, Zheng He led the alliance squadron to proactively sail toward the Annan Alliance Army. Their mission was to attract all the enemy attention.
The busy seas slowly regained its calm.
Just as Ouyang Shuo went out to sea, a huge scheme was slowly forming.
After the lantern festival, thousands of players would store their money at the Four Seas Bank every day. These people were not random customers; they were working together.
They were in the middle of a large number of people there to store money, so they did not attract any attention.
It was just like that for three consecutive days.
Following which, the Chang An Night News and other media outlets started to reveal information. Every article released had to do with something negative regarding the Shanhai Alliance.
"Shanhai Alliance, ever since the Four Seas Bank obtained low-interest savings, more than 90% was used to build territories. Totally no profits were made; this is a huge risk…."
"Shanhai City used up the reserves of the Four Seas Bank, the treasury is just an empty shell…."
"The Blood Evil Mercenary Group was forced to invest. Blood Romance already has the intentions of withdrawing his investment...."
Every article seemed real. It seemed like rumors, but it also seemed like insider news. If a lot of news like this appeared at once, the players would naturally notice.
Three people can become a tiger; these were not just some random words.
Ouyang Shuo was not in Shanhai City. Naturally, he was unaware of these events. Furthermore, such news mainly came from local media outlets such as Chang An Night News, so Ouyang Shuo did not pay attention to them.
Not to mention Ouyang Shuo, even Bai Hua and the others knew nothing.
Only the Black Snake Guards intel station in Chang An reported the matter to headquarters.
Helplessly, in the Gaia 3rd year, the Black Snake Guards had expanded once more, and its reach had grown extremely wide. Each day, thousands of intel would reach the headquarters. They naturally ignored such baseless allegation. It even did not make it to the desk of Black Snake, and it was removed as a normal case.
Chang An was temporarily a blank spot in the Shanhai Alliance, as there were no guilds that worked with them from Chang An. As a result, such negative news would fester and grow worse.
If not, their allies would have known long ago.
Just as the players in Chang An felt a little distrust, the group of players who had stored money appeared once more.
This time, they were not here to store but to withdraw. The Four Seas Bank had just opened for a few days, so such a large scale withdrawer was rarely seen.
Since it was unusual, it naturally attracted attention.
Just hearing about the matter caused an uproar.
Those players spread the negative news from the Chang An Night News and exaggerated the matter, as they said it, “This bank is too risky, it’s better to remove the money. It’s all my hard earned money."
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" some people agreed.