Chapter 1727: Chapter 43: Firepower Coverage

Tang Zheng felt a pair of softness pressed against his back, his brows furrowed, and he grabbed Fang Zhiwen’s arm, pulling her to the front.

“Ah, you hurt me!” the white, rich, and beautiful girl screamed, putting on a pitiful expression.

“If you don’t want to live, don’t drag me down with you. This is my last warning, stop causing trouble for me.” Tang Zheng stared into Fang Zhiwen’s eyes, delivering his final ultimatum.

“That’s not what I mean.” Fang Zhiwen hadn’t finished speaking before Tang Zheng pinched her cheek, her red lips pouted, making it impossible for her to say anything.

“I don’t want to hear excuses. I won’t let you do dangerous things, nor will I give you special treatment. In the Holy Land War, even the Seed Team dare not slack off. Do you think I have the leisure to flirt with you?” Tang Zheng erupted, “I can’t even guarantee my own survival in this fight. Do you think you can?”

Fang Zhiwen’s expression darkened. She had long known this outcome, just unwilling to accept it.

“Leave, and consider it carefully.” Tang Zheng released the white, rich, and beautiful girl, “Don’t forget to tell Jiang Xiuming to keep a distance.”

Seagulls darted around, the sky was azure, and absurdly clear.

For two days, Tang Zheng’s two sea ships navigated the route, attempting to collide with those returning sea ships.

“What’s wrong with her?” Seeing Fang Zhiwen sitting on the deck, staring blankly at the endless seawater, Tao Ran couldn’t resist asking.

Ever since being scolded by Tang Zheng, the white, rich, and beautiful girl accepted reality and suddenly lost hope and power, muddling through each day.

“Don’t worry about her. In this world, being weak isn’t scary, it’s terrifying when even one’s will is weak.”

Dong Zixuan didn’t care about her, holding a goose quill pen and writing parameters on sheepskin paper. Beside her, a cannon was placed, and three artillerymen were cleaning the cannon bore, loading gunpowder and cannon shells.

After all preparations were complete, the artillerymen handed a burning torch to the policewoman.

Dong Zixuan raised her armature, aimed at the imaginary target five hundred meters away, adjusted the muzzle angle once, and lit the gun rope with the torch.

Fizz, fizz, the gun rope burned, and after two seconds, with a loud bang, the muzzle spewed out a white cloud of smoke, a six-pound solid iron ball shot out, finally falling into the sea, splashing up a column of water.

“Reload, fire another!” Looking at a distance missed by at least fifty meters, Dong Zixuan’s face turned iron blue. She felt she had a talent for shooting, why couldn’t she handle the cannon?

“Artillery is a technical job,” Yin Shangwu teased, holding a monocular telescope, observing the surrounding sea.

Dong Zixuan was unconcerned, as gunpowder and cannon shell reserves were sufficient, unafraid of waste. She planned to fire a hundred shots today when the faint sound of cannon fire suddenly reached her.

“Hoist the sails, full speed ahead.” Yin Shangwu’s ears were sharper, shouting loudly, looking toward the direction of the cannon fire.

The sea ship galloped across the ocean like a fine horse.

The cannon fire grew louder, ten minutes later, using a high-powered telescope, Yin Shangwu saw the warring parties.

Jiang Xiuming’s sea ship was fleeing miserably toward them, behind him were two three-masted warships adorned with skull flags, in relentless pursuit.

“Didn’t encounter merchant ships, but first ran into pirates.” Already on deck, Tang Zheng didn’t wait for the watchtower sailor to report, already seeing the situation clearly, “Sound the alarm, prepare for combat.”

Jiang Xiuming felt miserably doomed. Seeing a sea ship, he wanted to seize it, unexpectedly within three minutes of battle, another pirate ship emerged. Only then did he realize, he was engrossed in the excitement of the Great Voyage, far apart from Tang Zheng.

Even as an English third-order, Jiang Xiuming was a rookie captain, facing battle-hardened pirates, he was like a newborn baby, ravaged thoroughly.

If not for perceiving danger and ordering a timely retreat, Jiang Xiuming would have definitely been sunk before meeting Tang Zheng.

“Signal flags, have Jiang Xiuming block their route.” Tang Zheng shouted, “Guys, seize the T-head!”

Sea ships are all elongated designs, cannon ports on both sides of the hull, so aligning in a T-shape with the enemy maximizes firepower projection.

“Damn, Tang Zheng is asking me to be a meat shield!” Jiang Xiuming wiped the seawater splashed onto his face, cursed once, and executed the orders unconditionally. He knew for a band of rookies, this was the safest tactic.

“Captain, can’t do that, we’ll die.” The first mate wore a miserable expression, strongly recommending Jiang Xiuming.

“Do it, or I’ll kill you.” Jiang Xiuming drew his handheld gun, his face fierce.

While they argued, the enemy already began a gun battle upwind, executing a T-move.

Pirates are not like Tang Zheng’s newly established fleet, their team had long been honed, within minutes they occupied the advantage, commencing bombardment.

Amidst the booming cannon fire, cannon shells with shrill whistles shot over, grazing the sea ship and dropping into the seawater, splashing up tall pillars of water.

“Fight back!” Dong Zixuan shouted, but it was useless, this required training, not something that could be remedied by shouting a few times.

“What do we do? We fire in unison, they’ve already fired two rounds.” Yin Shangwu also felt that things were seriously wrong, advising Tang Zheng, “Retreat, it’s still possible to leave on time.”

According to the original plan, it was two ships suppressing one sea ship, using numbers to make up for the lack of skills, but who would have thought to run into pirates.

“No, keep sailing, seize the T-head.” Tang Zheng refused, “Running away now will only lead to being chased and beaten.”

“But we can’t hit them at all, what kind of gunners did you choose, they’re terrible.” Dong Zixuan couldn’t help but complain.

“Sister Shangwu, you’re in charge of the sea ship, I’ll head to the gun bay.” Tang Zheng ignored the policewoman, gave his instructions, and rushed into the bottom cabin.

The gunners were working hard, each busy and sweating, but their level was really too poor.

“You guys leave, leave this to me.” Tang Zheng pulled aside one of the gunners, “Get out quickly.”

Although the crew didn’t understand the captain’s intentions, after the gunner trying to advise got a slap, they quickly left.

Tang Zheng glanced through the gun gate at the opposite sea ship, and released the female gunners. In the blink of an eye, a hundred female gunners wearing Baroque-style clothing, each carrying silver muskets, appeared in the gun bay, all looking valiant.

“Gunners, it’s your turn, sink those two pirate ships for me.”

Tang Zheng roared, ever since reaching the peak of the third-order stage, the number of female gunners he could summon increased again, reaching one hundred. However, as the battles became more advanced, Tang Zheng no longer had enough equipment to arm them, and gradually stopped using them, but didn’t expect they would come in handy this time.

“At your command, Master!” The gunners, led by Sophie, shouted in unison and quickly got busy.

“These cannons are too shabby.” A third of the female gunners as artillerywomen glanced at the twelve-pound cannons in the gun bay and immediately scoffed, lifting their knee-high boot-clad legs, and kicked them aside.

White light flashed, and a series of twenty-pound cannons appeared. Groups of three gunners pushed them into place.

“Whoa, couldn’t you summon fewer cannons?” Tang Zheng immediately felt life energy draining, the female gunners could generate infinite ammunition but had to consume his energy to do so.

“Ever since we followed you, we haven’t had a satisfying barrage, today we must enjoy ourselves!” Marilyn licked her red lips, already eager to pull down the gun rope.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The right side gun gate of the sea ship, with rhythmic gunfire, fired continuously, spewing out gouts of anger.

In the ascent of white smoke, fifteen cannon shells, with the noise of tearing through the air, shot towards the leading pirate ship.

Without any suspense, as many as eight shells accurately hit the ship, the deck under the bombardment of shells, exploded open, debris flying everywhere, piercing into the pirates’ bodies.

In less than five seconds, another volley followed, this time with higher accuracy.

A shell hit the sail, tearing it, then broke the mast, and only ran out of momentum when it dropped onto the deck.

“No way, so fierce?” Seeing Tang Zheng’s sea ship fall into a disadvantageous position, Jiang Xiuming, who was ready for a hard fight or even abandoning ship, did not expect the situation to reverse in an instant.

“Aim at the gun bay, volley fire.” Sophie commanded the combat.

“Stop quickly, don’t sink it, I want the ship.” Tang Zheng’s words were too late, with an earth-shattering roar, a volley of shells shattered the side of the pirate ship, and several even rushed into the powder magazine, causing explosions.

The other ship, seeing this situation, dared not linger in battle and turned to flee.

“Chase, don’t sink it this time.” Tang Zheng looked at the pirate ship beginning to sink from leakage, sighed, and noted how he lost a captured warship just like that.

“Signal Jiang Xiuming to intercept the escaping pirate ship.” Yin Shangwu felt a bit heartbroken; having three ships would greatly increase their strength.

The opposing sea ships were identical, their speeds naturally matched, if the other side was iron-hearted to escape, it was indeed difficult for Tang Zheng to catch up.

“Continue the chase, it’s rare to encounter such prey, we can’t give up.” Tang Zheng gritted his teeth and became determined.

“Pirates aren’t merchant ships, what kind of spoils could they have?” Fang Zhiwen, still in shock, really didn’t want to go through another cannon battle.

“There’s treasure, these guys are obvious veteran bandits, surely hiding a lot of money. Let’s go overthrow their old nest.” Tang Zheng individually summoned three gunners, had them place the cannons on the deck, firing at the target, as long as they break one mast, speed would surely decrease.

The chase lasted a whole day, Jiang Xiuming’s ship, due to partial damage, slowed down and had fallen out of line, but with Tang Zheng’s gunners at hand, he remained unfazed.

By dusk, the pirate ship neared a small island, no need to guess it was their lair.

“This is tough, easy to defend, hard to attack.” Yin Shangwu observed and found it was a U-shaped harbor, flanked by tall reef rocks, with artillery batteries constructed on them.

“This is called hard to attack? Watch me take it apart for you!” If leading this ragtag bunch, Tang Zheng would have long bolted, but with utmost confidence now, as the gunners’ precise marksmanship was his assurance.

Blasting these stationary targets, for the gunners, was not too easy. (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)