Chapter 315: Unexpected Naval Battle
Things don't always develop in the direction people imagine. No one can truly have a perfect plan, and this of course includes Zhang Daye and Ye Yan.
Although they had gained the trust of the guards and had obtained a clear understanding of the terrain, number of people and other information here, they also easily found the place where the prisoners' roster and handcuffs keys were placed with the help of the flag monster.
Even the final action plan had been prepared and revised, and they were just waiting for the transport ship to arrive before taking action. However, something unexpected happened the next day.
The drunken captain of the sentry tower promised to arrange accommodation for Zhang Da and his men in the tower, but Zhang Da refused to avoid suspicion, so as to avoid suspicion of them . Besides, the accommodation environment of those soldiers was not necessarily better than that of the Amber.
At night, Zhang Da was on duty in the first half of the night, while Ye Yan was on duty in the second half. Brooke got up at 4 a.m. to replace Ye Yan, so that Ye Yan could stay more energetic during the day.
Old man Brook said that 5 hours of sleep a day is enough for him. In fact, he doesn’t need to sleep at all, as he doesn’t have to worry about sudden death. He just wants to keep more habits as a human being.
Early the next morning, the flag monsters were sent out to patrol the surrounding area to see if there were any traces of transport ships. Among them, Jin Erpeng, whose eyesight was better than that of an eagle, was the main force.
At noon, the aroma of food wafted from the kitchen. As everyone was looking forward to today's delicious food, Ye Yan received a message from Jin Erpeng through mental communication.
"There are ships coming, five coming from the southwest, and ten coming from the northwest." Ye Yan relayed, "They are all coming here, but it seems that they are not just transport ships?"
Zhang Da also thought about it and asked, "Could it be that the transport ship was targeted by the pirate ship?"
Ye Yan exchanged some words with Jin Erpeng and replied, "It doesn't look like it was premeditated, but now the ten pirate ships are turning around, and it seems that they want to make a profit."
"So brave? The transport ship belongs to the World Government, right? How dare someone in this shabby place of East China Sea take action?" Zhang Da also asked, "Which pirate group is it?"
"The flag has a skull that looks a bit silly, with a red hourglass on each side..."
…
A few kilometers away from the bridge, on the flagship of a fleet consisting of ten pirate ships.
"Captain Creek, the Bridge Kingdom is ahead. However, the Navy Marshal and the Admiral have just taken office. Do we really have to take action at this time?" asked Eddiman, the staff officer of the Creek Pirates.
Creek, who was standing at the bow, was more than two meters tall, with a muscular build, short purple-gray hair, and an arrogant smile on his face:
"What does that have to do with us? Should we tremble in fear like those rubbish? Of course not! I will take this opportunity to expand my pirate fleet, become the strongest pirate group in the East China Sea, and then... head to the Grand Line!"
As he spoke, Creek clenched his fists. He is in his thirties now. Although he is middle-aged, Creek still has a dream, which is to dominate the East China Sea first and then dominate the Grand Line.
But he heard that places like the Grand Line were very dangerous, so he had to be cautious and set a small goal to recruit another 4,000 people.
Unfortunately, recruiting people is not that easy. It took him many years to build this pirate fleet with ten pirate ships and more than a thousand members. If he wants to recruit another 4,000 people, who knows how long it will take, ten or twenty years? Will he still be able to lift his own big gun in twenty years?
Creek, who was still worried a while ago, heard about a place called the Bridge Kingdom, where thousands of criminals were imprisoned, many of whom were originally pirates!
Creek was overjoyed. Isn't this the source of soldiers sent to him by God? As long as he rescued these people, most of them would choose to follow him, right?
As for the consequences of doing this, after the large fleet is formed, not to mention being surrounded by the navy, he might even be able to attack the navy branch in return! What new marshals and new generals may not come to the East China Sea once in decades, so there is nothing to be afraid of.
With this idea in mind, Creek decided to give him a try.
The lookout suddenly shouted, "Captain Creek! We have spotted a fleet of five ships. They seem to be targeting the same ship as us!"
"What?" Crick asked in surprise, "Who is it?"
The lookout observed carefully for a while and reported: "It's a World Government ship. Judging from the waterline and the number of troops on it, it should be a fully loaded transport ship!"
"Hehe~" Creek showed a proud smile, "Transport ship, recruiting so many people at once, our ships will not be enough."
Staff Officer Eddieman looked at Creek's expression and said uncertainly: "Captain, you think... that's the World Government's ship!"
"So what? We'll have to fight them when they get to the bridge anyway, so why not kill them now before the two sides meet up? And since we're going to rob them of their people, what's the big deal about robbing a few ships as well?"
Creek reached out and took off his coat, revealing the glittering golden armor underneath, and ordered, "Ajin, everyone prepare to fight, we only need the ships, not the people!"
"Yes, Captain Creek!" A young man wearing a striped turban responded, then turned and left. In addition to conveying orders, he would also be responsible for leading the charge.
Staff Officer Eddiman looked at him in awe. Although Ajin was young, he was very strong. He was good at using crutches with iron balls on the end. Any enemy he targeted would be smashed to pieces.
It was precisely because of his powerful strength, loyalty to Creek, obedience to his orders, and meticulous execution of any task, no matter how cruel, that Ajin was able to serve as the combat captain at the age of less than 20 and was also known as the "ghost man".
Creek turned to another person and said, "Palu, prepare to defend against the bombardment immediately."
"Leave it to me, Captain." Palu responded confidently.
Palu's nickname is "Iron Wall". He has a large shield in front and behind him, and a small shield on his knees, elbows and hands. It is said that the hardness of his shield is enough to block the cannons on warships.
In the middle of each shield is a fire pearl, and when he gets angry, he will use these pearls to ignite fire and attack the enemy. (Whenever I see a fire ability, I have to mention the Flame-Flame Fruit...)
Relying on his strong defensive ability and good offensive ability, Palu's position in the pirate group is second only to Creek and Kin. Now that Creek has arranged him to be in charge of defensive matters, he can be regarded as someone who knows how to use people.
At Creek's command, the entire pirate fleet moved quickly, some turning the rudder as needed, some preparing shells, and of course more of them took out grappling hooks, guns and swords, ready for boarding battle.
At first glance, the entire pirate group is well-trained, and Creek's years of hard work have not been in vain.
At the same time, the lookouts on the five transport ships also noticed Creek's fleet, and they were now... a little panicked.
If five warships encounter ten pirate ships, then there is no doubt that both firepower and manpower will be able to suppress the pirates, so there is no need to be afraid.
The problem is that these five ships are all transport ships. Most of the space on board is used to store supplies, and the manpower is limited. If they are only facing five pirate ships, they can still rely on their more numerous and better quality cannons and shells to fight them. But now there are ten pirate ships. What a fight!
The commander gave the order without thinking, and the five transport ships turned around and ran away.
When Creek saw that the other party was scared, he felt more confident and chased them! Five good ships were right under his nose, so he had to chase them!
One side chases, the other side flees.
The commander of the transport ship soon discovered that his side was no match for those pirate ships in terms of speed. Even if he requested support immediately, it would take some time for them to arrive.
The commander cursed him as a lunatic: "How dare these guys target us? Aren't they afraid of retaliation from the World Government?"
Generally speaking, a pirate group of this size would never be so stupid. They can easily deal with smaller pirate groups. That's why they dare to transport supplies so brazenly, otherwise they would have to call on a few warships for escort.
Who knew I would be so unlucky this time to meet such a lunatic!
As the distance was getting closer, the two sides started an artillery battle, but because of the direction and relative positions of the ships, the artillery battle was not very effective.
The transport ships were firing at full speed, but unfortunately their hit rate was extremely low. Occasionally, Palu would block a shot with his shield, so it seemed that the claim that they could block the shells was not an exaggeration.
The Creek side fired intimidatingly, and their accuracy was off the mark. After all, it was their own ship soon, and they would feel bad if it was damaged, so it was enough to scare them.
The commander of the transport ship considered the possibility of abandoning the supplies to speed up the escape, and then found sadly that he had brought too much stuff and it was too late to act immediately. He could only continue to yell at the gunners to continue attacking.
As the two sides got closer and closer, the transport ship's shells finally began to hit the pirate ship's hull, but this was not worth being happy about, because soon, the first grappling hook was attached to the transport ship's mast, followed by the second, and the third...
With a series of bangs and pops, the battle entered the stage of a gunfight, with people falling down continuously on both sides' boats.
Occasionally, a 'clang' sound could be heard as bullets hit Creek's golden armor, picking up a string of sparks and bouncing off, but he himself remained motionless, looking at the other party with contempt.
As the captain, Creek knew very well what he had to do. At this time, as long as he stood at the bow and did not get knocked down, the morale of his side would continue to rise. If he also promised to give a certain amount of bonus for killing an enemy, the effect would be even better.
In fact, he did so. This was a transport ship. The profits would be huge after robbing it, so it didn't matter if he made more promises.
There will always be brave men when there is a big reward. This saying is very appropriate here. Under the reward promised by Creek, one fearless pirate after another swung over with a grappling hook, biting a knife in their mouths.
Those who are lucky can land successfully and draw their swords to kill people, while those who are unlucky will be shot to death as soon as they jump, or their ropes will be cut by clever soldiers and they will fall into the sea.
When Creek's pirate ship completely caught up with the transport ship, Akin led the impatient pirates to jump over by stepping on the railing. The two pirate ships sandwiched a transport ship, and the soldiers were beaten into a panic.
Gunshots, the clashing of swords, shouts, strange laughter, screams...all kinds of sounds were heard together. The soldiers and pirates, who were so bloodthirsty that they almost forgot what they were here for. All they wanted in their minds was to "survive" and "kill him."
The pirates have a great advantage. On the one hand, they have a large number of people, and on the other hand, they have two generals, Akin and Palu, who can charge into the battle.
The power of Ajin's pair of crutches with iron balls on them was too strong. If they hit someone, they would either die or be seriously injured. The mildest injury would be a broken arm, while the worst would be a broken rib, and the person would fall to the ground vomiting blood.
The most creepy thing is that this guy would occasionally use the tip of his tongue to lick the blood that splashed on his face, with an expression like a devil crawling out of hell. Soldiers who got too excited in a fight would be scared awake by him, and then... they would be even less able to fight.
Palu relied on the shields covering his whole body to withstand the opponent's swords and bullets, and took the opportunity to hit the opponent's head with the shield in his hand.
Some smart pirates will hide behind Palu, use him as a mobile shield, and then suddenly pop out to stab people.
It didn't take long before the soldiers were completely suppressed by the pirates. Seeing that the time was right, Creek jumped over from the pirate ship and knocked the commander down with a punch using his diamond-studded gloves, declaring victory in the battle.
"Oh!!!" The pirates raised their weapons and roared to the sky, celebrating briefly in excitement.
After they counted the supplies on the ship, they became even more excited. The harvest from this trip was equivalent to what they would get from robbing several small villages.
"Okay, clean up the boats now, repair any broken parts immediately, and distribute all the food to each boat." Creek was still clear-headed and knew that this was just the beginning. The main purpose of this trip had not yet been achieved, so he gave orders in an orderly manner:
"Ediman, select some people from each team to temporarily take charge of these five ships. After receiving new personnel, we will reorganize the team!"
"yes!"
"One more thing." Creek gave a sinister smile, "Draw a few more flags based on the ones on the transport ships and hang them on our own ships."
Creek does not take his flag as seriously as other pirates do. When necessary, he has no psychological burden in taking down the flag and disguising himself as a merchant ship or a warship to approach the target.
Edman smiled knowingly. This was not the first time this had happened. He was now particularly good at drawing various flags.
After Creek's orders were given, the pirates became busy, moving things, repairing the ship, or throwing the soldiers on the deck into the sea with happy expressions on their faces.
The pirates gathered in groups of three or five to discuss how much they would get this time and how to celebrate next.
At this time, they did not realize that their actions not only disrupted the plans of a group of people, but also disturbed their lunch.
