Section Five

The three ships of the *Return* formation were positioned advantageously, exactly blocking the pirates' line of sight. Therefore, although the pirates realized the battle was fierce and something was amiss, they never imagined that the dozen or so preceding pirate ships could have been completely wiped out. In their view, such an outcome was utterly impossible; even when facing the current maritime superpowers of Europe, Britain and France, they could at best defeat them in artillery duels. Yet once boarding maneuvers were successfully initiated, victory was almost invariably destined to belong to these free men of the sea. However, they were still unaware that there is a saying: nothing in this world is absolute, and small-probability accidents always happen. Even more unfortunate for them was the fact that the expeditionary fleet happened to fall into this exact category of low-probability anomalies.

Driven by this cognitive bias, the pirates chose not to retreat. Instead, they left two galleys to maintain contact with the armed merchant vessel, while the remaining five galleys maneuvered to deal with the six charging warships.

Murong Wu's attention, however, was no longer on those six warships; he and old Traver were observing the armed merchant vessel. Every shift in the wind and current had been fully utilized by them; otherwise, they could not have entangled with the pirates for so long. Moreover, anyone capable of drawing such a relentless pursuit from so many pirates could hardly be a simple character.

These very considerations were why Murong Wu had hesitated earlier. Otherwise, relying on precision telescopes and a wider field of view than the pirate vessels, he could easily have evaded them. The pirates' aggressive advance merely solidified his resolve. Throughout the journey, old Traver had provided him with detailed accounts of the North African pirates—driven, of course, by the fact that old Traver himself had suffered greatly at their hands, having encountered pirates four times in the North African region alone during his decades-long seafaring career.

It was through old Traver that Murong Wu had come to understand pirate tactics. Generally speaking, even North African pirates operated mostly independently; having more than two warships together was already considered impressive. Yet now, this single armed merchant vessel had managed to attract such a massive swarm of pirates. Murong Wu even half-suspected that the armed merchant vessel might have provoked every single pirate along the entire coast of Morocco.

The process and outcome of the battle were equally devoid of suspense. The two pirate vessels didn't even get a chance to flee. Having lost a portion of their crew and realizing the general trend was lost, these two ships wisely chose to surrender rather than fighting stubbornly to the bitter end like the other five.

Murong Wu sat upright in his command chair, sizing up the young man before him: ash-brown hair and a clean-shaven face. He looked much more like a scholar than a pirate.

"Respected sir, thank you so much for your life-saving grace. You have saved the lives of the crew aboard the *Adventure*. Please allow me, Kidd, on behalf of the *Adventure*, to express my most sincere gratitude!"

Having listened to Kidd's respectful words, Murong Wu nodded. To be honest, the young captain before him genuinely surprised him. Ever since meeting old Traver and his subordinate captains, Murong Wu had always believed that being a captain required immense seniority, because aboard a ship, the captain's word was absolute. Even Murong Wu, within the expeditionary fleet, held only the authority to choose whether or not to engage in battle. He was a general commanding a nation of millions of troops, and the military that had defeated countless formidable enemies possessed a mere five generals in total.

Through Kidd's narrative, Murong Wu came to understand the origin of the events. Strictly speaking, this could be considered a hurricane stirred up by the butterfly effect of Lin Feng. Ever since the establishment of the Han State, foreign trade had been consistently encouraged, leading to a resurgence of the Maritime Silk Road. Concurrently, this meant the rise of pirates, and countless pirates gathered along this trade route like sharks smelling blood. Kidd was one of them. This young captain, who sailed back and forth between the New World and England, had been unable to resist the temptation of gold coins instigated by his crew, and thus plunged into this massive tide.

Initially, they had cruised near the Gold Coast, and under Kidd's command, they had indeed pulled off a few decent ventures. It was during this period that they rescued a shipwrecked sailor named William Dampier. William possessed extraordinary nautical knowledge. Under his insistence, Kidd had successfully narrowly escaped a ferocious storm that would have stripped them of their skins had they survived. Kidd found this deeply puzzling, and upon inquiry later, he discovered that unlike Kidd, who was a scholar merely in appearance, William Dampier was a rare, genuine scholar among pirates. He possessed systematic analyses and unique insights regarding hydrography and weather patterns. Because of this, he held authority equal to that of the captain on his previous pirate vessel. On a pirate ship where the captain's authority was supreme, this was absolute bad news, and consequently, the stubborn captain had flatly rejected William's correct advice. Left with no alternative, William Dampier could only watch helplessly as they stepped step-by-step into the abyss.

Once the *Adventure* returned to port, this rumor spread rapidly among the sailors. To make matters worse, to express his gratitude for saving his life, William revealed a secret unknown even to the crew of his former ship: William possessed detailed navigational charts of the North African coast, the New World coast, and various maritime routes, which included many newly discovered islands and convenient shortcuts. Unfortunately, this piece of news was accidentally overheard by sharp-eared crewmen, and it instantly became an open secret.

The entire Gulf of Guinea was thrown into a frenzy. To the pirates, this was undoubtedly a divine artifact; even if they stopped pirating in the future, vast fortunes could be easily acquired simply by relying on these charts. Thus, Kidd, still a relative newcomer, became the target of universal hostility. The pirates united to hunt down Kidd.

The combined might of Kidd and William now fully manifested itself. Kidd had pushed the potential of his *Adventure* to the absolute limit, and his crew consisted of veterans who had followed him for years—otherwise, Kidd would never have abandoned the fairly lucrative New World route to become a pirate here for their sake. Consequently, the *Adventure* was second to none in New Guinea when it came to agility, and William's mastery of weather and ocean currents added wings to a tiger, allowing the *Adventure* to slip away from several encirclements and interception attempts.

After escaping the Gulf of Guinea, the two men consulted and concluded that returning to their home country of Britain was the safest option. As long as they handed over a portion of the navigation charts, and considering Kidd had never plundered British vessels, they should receive British protection. Therefore, they found a secluded port, slightly disguised the ship, hoisted the Portuguese flag, and set sail for Britain.

What they never anticipated, however, was that someone had beaten them to the punch by tipping off their North African peers. Although their religious beliefs differed, their craven desire for the charts remained identical, and they were reluctant to harm William. This led precisely to the scene Murong Wu had witnessed earlier.

From Kidd, Murong Wu also learned that William had little interest in gold and silver treasure; his true passion was collecting hydrographic and meteorological data from around the world. Therefore, even after charting maps that could have made him a wealthy man, he still insisted on wandering from place to place aboard pirate ships.

Having listened to Kidd's account, Murong Wu knew that this operation of his had been thoroughly worthwhile...