Chapter 152: Secret Orthodoxy: Startling the Dragons Together!

Screech—!

At this moment, Wang Cheng's top guardian spirit general, the white-headed eagle Ah Ji, had already arrived ahead of time above the battlefield.

It took in everything at a glance: the towering flames, the rolling thick smoke, the fierce and brutal slaughter, the floating corpses in the sea, and the crimson gun flashes.

It also transmitted the scene in real time directly to the eyes of Wang Cheng, Shen Yueye, Zhang San, Dong Piao, Huang Yuanzhou, the bald monk, and the rest of his core cadres.

The strongest warship previously held by the East Sea Kingdom, the Wufeng Flagship, had fallen into the hands of the imperial court last year along with the ambush and murder of the King Who Pacifies the Sea.

They had all gathered on a fifth-rate sailing warship specially prepared for Wang Cheng, the Yunjing, while their respective flagship vessels acted as its escorts.

The total number of sailing warships and armed merchant ships controlled by the core cadres was only slightly inferior to that of Mao Haifeng, ranking them as the second major faction.

Protected by the strategy of crossing the Chencang secretly under the guise of repairing the plank road, as long as they did not initiate an attack, they had no need to worry about being discovered.

"Naval warfare is even more brutal than land warfare; once a warship is defeated, everyone on board dies together.

Now that it is already late at night, the evil spirits in the sea have all come out, sniffing the scent of blood and the negative emotions of people before they die.

Drowned ghosts, soul-calling specters, beautiful severed heads, white cabbage ghosts, sea yakshas, Yama lighting lamps, mud bodhisattvas—just a glance sweeps across so many, and there are still many I do not recognize.

Under such circumstances, as long as one accidentally falls into the water, it should be impossible to survive, right?"

Unlike the others who had rich experience in naval warfare, Shen Yueye was witnessing a chaotic melee of hundreds to thousands of large and small warships for the very first time, her face written all over with shock.

Her psychological activities were even more complex than her expression:

'If one compares the number of warships and cannons of the twenty-four coastal guards of Great Zhao today, it remains a huge question mark whether they can even surpass the Wufeng Fleet.

It is no wonder that the Great Zhao court bites onto them relentlessly, and the strategy of bestowing titles and sowing division is primarily aimed at them.

The Emperor has no time to probe whether a person has the intention to rebel; he only looks at whether you have the ability to rebel, and if you do, you deserve to be executed.

Even though I tried my best to overestimate the Wufeng Fleet, I still somewhat underestimated my junior brother's family foundation.

As long as we can suppress the internal traitors this time, successfully reclaim the fleet and reorganize it, then my junior brother will have troops in his hands, and we, the wealthy Shen family, happen to have money.

I suddenly seem to have thought of an extraordinary idea.

One day, the injuries the old man suffered in the South Seas might actually have hope of recovery—'

Because she had been living in such straitened circumstances lately, Wang Cheng had long forgotten that his stunning and alluring senior sister was actually a wealthy heiress, and he could not guess what wicked scheme she was plotting.

Watching the gruesome scenes of fallen sailors being dragged away by evil spirits, he maintained a normal complexion and said:

"These are merely appetizers; the main show is just beginning.

Look, the sailing warships of the three opposing sides are moving!"

Ordinary hard-sailed Fuchuan typically adopted traditional line-ahead tactics, making ships advance side by side, bombarding first with cannons at the bow, then seizing the weather gage, advancing with the wind, and closing in on enemy ships for boarding combat.

In reality, it was fighting a maritime siege war.

Translating land warfare thinking to the sea: treating ships as mobile fortresses, infantry deciding the victory, competing fiercely through tall ship superstructures, bulwarks, anti-personnel small cannons, and matchlock firearms.

Despite the intense combat, in truth, a major battle rarely sank more than a few ships.

Great Zhao's Tower Ship General was born for such a battlefield, and the invincible armada of Eastern Frangia that once dominated the seas had adopted the exact same tactics.

However, the warships provided by the up-and-coming Netherlands East Borneo Company were already distinct from the veteran sun-never-sets primary empire of Eastern Frangia, allowing the Wufeng Fleet—which had fully procured them and undergone Dutch training—to achieve a corner-overtaking maneuver ahead of time.

"Starboard tack, sailing close to the wind! Seize the weather gage!"

"Port tack, sailing close to the wind!"

The three sailing warship fleets under the command of the Thousand-Gold Peddler Xu Weixue, the Credit-Knife Man Peng Laosheng, and the Black Qilin Mao Haifeng tacked on the sea surface simultaneously.

Two against one, heading towards each other.

"Burn incense, pay homage to the ship god!"

A plume of cyan smoke rose from every single ship.

The four major talismans of the fleet—the head lion, dragon eyes, tail wings, loach gudgeon, and even the figureheads passed down from the Western oceans—all began to unleash their might.

In a short span of time, the sailing speed of the three fleets gradually soared all the way to 12 knots, far surpassing ordinary warships.

Or rather, this was the normal state of regular armies fighting naval warfare under the command of middle-third-rank officials.

The performance of the warships themselves was merely the foundation and figures on paper; the various talismanic talismans in hand could equally become the crucial link determining victory!

A quarter of an hour later, the three fleets formed a configuration with Mao Haifeng in the middle and the other two major ship captains on the flanks, resembling three parallel lines.

Under normal circumstances, a fleet anchored by a fourth-rank White Water Lad would absolute never allow enemy ships to seize the advantageous battle positions so smoothly.

Both major ship captains were pleasantly and greatly surprised, and the fleet was filled with jubilation, as if victory had already been secured in advance.

"Hahaha, Heaven aids me; Mao Haifeng's body must truly be failing."

"A doomed ghost daring to learn from others and seize the throne—he deserves this retribution!"

To capture the bandits, capture their leader first; Xu Weixue and Peng Laosheng drove their respective flagships, charging head-on together toward Mao Haifeng's talismanic flagship, the *Santiago*.

They were, after all, giant merchants and formidable bandits of the East Sea; they did not lack a ruthless streak.

No matter how formidable the *Black Qilin* was, he had now unambiguously become a sick tiger, so naturally, they had to strike while he was sick and take his life.

"Port and starboard side broadsides, load solid shot."

The deputy ship captains stood at the hatchways, transmitting their orders down to the lower gun decks. All the soldiers methodically completed battle preparations, and the gunners gripped their long-since-ignited match cords.

However, Mao Haifeng aboard the opposing *Santiago* showed no sign whatsoever of being in a disadvantaged position.

His greenish-white face was ferocious and twisted, no longer bothering to disguise himself:

"Xu Weixue, Peng Laosheng, get the hell out of your grandfather's way!

You two fools are being used as tools and still remain utterly oblivious!"

While his personal destiny was tottering, the stubborn arrogance brought by his heavy bone-weight of five taels and nine qian was also wavering, which instead allowed him to see things much more clearly than usual.

Wang Cheng—who in his eyes had originally been a foolish boy to be kneaded into any shape—had also grown mysterious.

After all, one failed assassination could be a coincidence, but could two be coincidences as well?

At this moment, he only felt that the sense of threat Wang Cheng posed to him surpassed even these two seasoned major ship captains.

"The sorcery tung-wood effigy in the hands of that scapegoat Wang Fugui must have gone wrong.

Since I have already broken all pretense with Xu and Peng anyway, there is no need to worry about appearances anymore.

Only by killing Wang Cheng in the shortest possible time, achieving the convergence of all rivers, and ascending to the upper-third-rank *Living Ghost and Deity* can I save myself."

Of course, Mao Haifeng was not naive enough to think that mere words could shake the two factions.

For even he himself did not believe that once he killed Wang Cheng and completed his promotion, he would spare these two thorns in his side.

Personally gripping the steering wheel, he gave orders to the men around him:

"Helmsmen, sheet-tenders, lookouts, anchor-hands, and fire-masters—each to your post. Guard me!"

Voyaging upon the waters had always relied on collectivism. A ship, besides experienced navigators, fire-masters, and ship captains, required the collaborative teamwork of specialized groups wielding different techniques.

The "helmsman" was responsible for steering, controlling the direction of the ship's navigation at sea; the "sheet-tender" was responsible for managing the sails and ropes;

The "lookout" climbed the masts via the halyard ropes, responsible for observing the wind and looking ahead; the "anchor-hand" was responsible for raising and lowering the ship's anchors.

The secret esoteric method *Startling the Multitude of Dragons* from the *Guidebook to Fair Winds and Correct Methods* states:

"The helmsman is like the heart of a person; the sheet, look, anchor, and fire are like the four limbs of a person; the multitude of soldiers on the ship are like the hundred bones of a person.

If the heart maintains correctness, then the four limbs and hundred bones all attain their proper path; if the heart's administration lacks correctness, then the four limbs and hundred bones lose all their appropriateness. Therefore, a ship exerting force relies entirely upon the helmsman."

Mao Haifeng affixed a cyan talismanic seal onto the steering wheel, formed hand seals, and chanted aloud:

"Summoning dragons and causing rain, gathering breath and collecting smoke. Sun, moon, and five stars, the seven primordial stars of the Northern Dipper. Joining the Heavenly Emperor of Great Brightness, decreeing down to the Great Profound. Manifesting might across the three realms, suffer no procrastination! Swiftly, in accordance with the statutes and edicts!"

"Awoo—!"

With a dragon's roar, a gale swept through, and wisps of white mist rose from the water, rapidly entangling around the *Santiago* and transforming into a giant dragon head.

Then it rapidly spread along a single column formed by nearly twenty sailing warships, connecting them into a long white dragon.

The spiritual light of everyone in the fleet merged into one through this long dragon, bestowing upon it the immense might of a thousand people lifting together.

A misty dragon actually began to writhe and swim across the sea surface like a living dragon.

This was one of the most powerful secret esoteric methods of the Water Faction: *Startling the Multitude of Dragons*!

Concentrating the power of everyone on a single ship or a naval fleet to bless the warship; even fierce dragons in the sea would be startled away by it, and legend has it that when practiced to its ultimate extreme, a wooden canoe can transform into a dragon, breathing clouds and exhaling mist!

Other White Water Lads lacked Wang Cheng's unique talent of *Gathering Beasts, Taming Fowl, and Animating Myriad Kinds*, and could not casually imbue lifeless objects with life.

Yet as long as they learned this *Startling the Multitude of Dragons*, it was possible to pool the strength of the multitude to animate a warship.

Moreover, the *Santiago* was already alive to begin with, and its might was superior still!

Without any warning, the misty dragon lashed out a claw toward the flagships of Xu Weixue and Peng Laosheng on its left and right.

Whoosh—!

The wind speed on both flanks suddenly soared, surging violently to 25 meters per second. The crests of the sea waves rolled backward, the sails of both fleets flapped noisily in the gale, and the topmasts snapped and collapsed with a resounding crash.

The line-ahead formations originally deployed were blown into disarray, and the advantageous battle positions vanished into thin air.

The wind speed suitable for warship navigation generally ranged between 10 and 40 knots. When below 5 knots, even if a warship hoisted all its sails and splashed water on them to "catch the wind," it could not move.

When exceeding 40 knots—which is a level-9 gale of 24 meters per second—the topmasts and topgallant masts already faced the risk of snapping.

Under wind speeds greater than 50 knots, almost all primary rigging had to be furled, and the mast lowered by a section to prevent the gale from tearing the sails and snapping the entire mast.

At this moment, relying on *Startling the Multitude of Dragons*, Mao Haifeng and his party, despite being in the center, simultaneously gained the weather gage over both the left and right flanks.

He turned a deaf ear to the curses of the two major ship captains—"When did you secretly learn the old shipmaster's *Startling the Multitude of Dragons*"—and coldly gave the order:

"Fire!"

The twenty 12-pounder cannons and twelve 6-pounder cannons on the ship fired sequentially toward the flanks, followed similarly by the other warships arrayed in single column behind them.

The two sides were separated by merely dozens of zhang, mutually bombarding each other in motion using line tactics, and wave after wave of thunderous roars shattered the night sky.

Mao Haifeng's sailing warships were already more numerous than the other two factions combined, and they had additionally gained the super-extraordinary organizational enhancement at the level of esoteric arts.

After a round of mutual broadsides, the losses of the other two factions were far greater than those of the Black Peak Flag, and wails and screams echoed across their ships.

"Ah, ah, ah, ah..."

The Black Peak Flag fleet adjusted its tacks downwind; in just two more turns, it was fully capable of shattering the entire battle line of the other two factions!