Chapter 1 Qi Zhentao

Qi Zhentao, holding his binoculars, stood on the bridge, gazing into the distance. The enemy fleet, with which he had been skirmishing for days, and which he had bled heavily several times, yet stubbornly refused to give up, reappeared on the horizon. "Damn it!" the old man grumbled, immediately issuing orders, "Change course, let's head north for a while today."

After skirmishing with the enemy for several days, the enemy's large fleet couldn't possibly keep focusing on his small escort fleet. The opposing side left behind forces five times the size of Qi Zhentao's, while the remaining ships headed towards the main battlefield. However, the old man's naval warfare skills had been on full display these past few days. He fought and retreated, making full use of the Tiger Tooth ship's excellent performance and the superior quality of his own weaponry. Circling around, he gradually wore down the enemy, sinking and damaging twice as many ships as he had lost, forcing them to withdraw more ships from the main battlefield to join the hunt for him.

Several generals of the Basar Kingdom were now incandescent with rage, issuing death orders to sink or capture Qi Zhentao's entire escort fleet. This was no longer a military decision, but a matter of pride and spite. But with the enemy's relentless pursuit, and the old man unable to break free, the situation was becoming increasingly precarious. Qi Zhentao's escort fleet hadn't suffered significant losses in combat these past few days; they had only engaged in one small boarding action. The rest of the time, ballistae and Huoxing (Mars) fireballs had been doing the work. However, after continuous combat at sea for so many days, food and water were running low, and even more troubling was the depletion of Huoxing fireballs. Now, the entire fleet combined had less than two hundred Huoxing fireballs left. Although the old man had stubbornly refused to use flamethrowers to launch Greek fire, everyone still had a final means of fighting. However, Greek fire was even more unreliable than Huoxing fireballs, and used up even faster. Once they encountered a battle of any size, they might use it all up in a single engagement. In the past two days, the old man had relied on the Tiger Tooth ship's speed to circle around the vast sea area. The old man knew that this was not a long-term solution; his room to maneuver was shrinking. The old man was thinking, should he take a risk and break out directly to the east, at worst it would be a bit embarrassing, but at least half of the brothers here today should be able to return to Hengbo Harbor.

The old man's luck in this regard was really bad. Asad and Qi Zhu's combined fleet was originally coming this way, but because the old man had been maneuvering at sea, they had actually missed each other. Asad and Qi Zhu arrived at the main battle area, but were caught up in endless fighting and could not come back.

As the fleet turned, the wind blew from Qi Zhentao's side, refreshing his heart and lungs. Qi Zhentao never felt like a powerful figure, but it was only at sea, constantly participating in various battles, that he felt a bit of meaning. And Qi Zhentao's flagship, apart from the captain's cabin being filled with his favorite things, was no different from other Tiger Tooth ships. The old man leaned on the bridge, stretched his body, ignored the enemy following behind him, and focused on planning what route to take today to lead the opponent away.

"Old man, there's some movement on Golden Leaf Island." The lookout on top of the bridge shouted at the old man.

"Oh? What?" The old man was startled. Golden Leaf Island was right in front of him to the right, or, as everyone was now familiar with saying, at two o'clock. If there were enemies ambushing behind Golden Leaf Island, he probably wouldn't be able to avoid a battle today. But when the old man picked up his binoculars and scanned over there, he tried hard to see what the lookout was talking about. At the top of the lush Golden Leaf Island, an airship was quietly hovering above the treetops, trying to keep a low altitude.

"Airship... haha, reinforcements have arrived!" The old man excitedly slapped the railing and shouted loudly, "Signalman, see if you can make contact."

The signalman, who was with the lookout in the crow's nest, had started calculating the angle of the sunlight as soon as he spotted the airship, using the reflection of a mirror to send signals. When the old man shouted, he responded with a "Got it!" and continued to fiddle with the mirror on the small wooden frame. Everyone understood that the airship must be one of their own. Although it was said that the Frankish Kingdom had already flown hot air balloons and that the countries that had suffered in the Middle Eastern war were also trying to develop such flying devices, at least for now, those with mature flight technology were their own people. The signals sent out quickly received a response.

"Old man, those are reinforcements from Hengbo Harbor. The airship is sending signals to their flagship as a relay for communication. Old man, what do you want to say?" The signalman grabbed the crow's nest and shouted loudly. Everyone on the deck was watching Qi Zhentao, waiting to see what decision he would make.

"Ask the other side for their specific location. If they are behind the island, have them set up a formation north of the island to meet us. Our side will pass through on one side of the formation and then turn to join the battle," Qi Zhentao said after thinking for a moment.

Using mirror reflections to send signals was tiring work. Both sides needed to repeatedly confirm, especially since the airship was a relay and not coordinating itself, which made the efficiency a little lower. But after some communication, the other side quickly sent a signal agreeing to Qi Zhentao's plan and was coordinating the formation. The old man laughed and ordered to quickly turn southeast after bypassing the narrow northern end of Golden Leaf Island.

The Basar Kingdom's pursuing fleet had gradually sensed the decline in the combat power of Qi Zhentao's escort fleet these past few days, and today they were chasing particularly fiercely. The oar-powered warships in the Middle East might not be suitable for non-contact warfare, and they reacted poorly to things like Huoxing fireballs. They had suffered a lot in this regard in previous naval battles. The Basar Kingdom's warships were superior in speed and had a large crew. Once they formed ramming tactics and boarding battles, the fearless Basar Kingdom axemen could exert great power. They were determined to win now that they had managed to drag Qi Zhentao down at such a great loss.

When Qi Zhentao took the lead in bypassing the northern end of Golden Leaf Island and just turned, he was shocked. The reinforcing fleet was not lined up quietly waiting on the sea, but was raising half sails, circling in the blind spot of both sides, maintaining a certain speed. The fleet divided into three teams circling constantly, ensuring that there was always one team ready to attack the enemy that might appear at the corner at any time.

Qi Zhentao clicked his tongue in wonder. He could not pull off such sophisticated fleet control at his present state. On the one hand, he clearly understood the requirements for dense communication for such precise command. On the other hand, the old man's naval battles had always been very bandit-like, and he never required the battle to be so refined. The old man glanced at the flags on each ship and saw the fleet flag he had never seen before, a purple-red flag embroidered with a white whale. And in the entire sizable fleet, the Ning Xuan suddenly jumped into his eyes. The old man was too familiar with various ships, especially the Tiger Tooth ships that he had participated in designing. But he had never seen this kind of Tiger Tooth ship with a forecastle, and used it as a flagship. The flag of the general and the ceremonial flag flying on the flagship made the old man shiver, and made the crew of the escort fleet, who were familiar with the flags, stunned for a second: a white background with blue cloud patterns, with a large Ye character, that was Ye Tao's marshal flag; a light blue background, with a Min character in an ancient font, that was a flag that naval generals from the Min family could use, and the thunder pattern on the edge of the flag showed that this must be an elder of the Min family, it could only be Min Yue; and white, with gold tassels on the edge, with a bright yellow tiger pattern in the middle, meant that there was a member of the Dongping royal family on the flagship, looking at this array, it could only be Princess Zhaohua, Tan Weixin…

"Really...showing some respect..." Qi Zhentao smiled and led the fleet past Ye Tao's flagship at a reduced speed. The old man and Ye Tao waved to each other across a not-so-short distance, and at this time, Tan Weixin was sitting next to Ye Tao, teasing a few white-headed eagle chicks while wearing leather gloves. Tan Weixin nodded calmly to the old man.

Qi Zhentao's fleet passed through the formation of the reinforcing fleet and then turned, but the Basar fleet chasing behind him was not so lucky. Seeing that Qi Zhentao's fleet had a tendency to turn, they began to adjust their course, taking a tangent, just to avoid losing too much speed when turning. As a result, they crashed head-on into the reinforcing fleet with a rumble. The fleet commander wanted to turn, but it was too late for a while, and the considerable number of Tiger Tooth ships around also made the crew and captains of the Basar fleet feel half cold in their hearts.

"The first team intercepts head-on, the second team approaches from the side, the third team inserts obliquely... let's do it this way." Min Yue had already planned the battle, and now he was just carrying out the previous ideas, adjusting who did what. The entire fleet immediately moved in an orderly manner, preparing to wipe out the enemy in one fell swoop.

The Ning Xuan only reduced some gun positions and ammunition, but it did not weaken the courage of the crew. They were in the first team to intercept head-on, which meant a melee at close and medium range, and Ye Tao steadily issued orders, performing his task as a first-class shooting instructor.

The Tiger Tooth ship was indeed suitable for non-contact warfare, but the Tiger Tooth ship was not afraid of collision. Seeing that the situation was not good, the Basar fleet simply rushed straight over. If they could not break through the interception, they wanted to at least form a stalemate, relying on their manpower advantage in boarding battles, so that the surrounding forces would not dare to use Huoxing fireballs at will, so as not to affect their own people. However, they soon discovered that this calculation was difficult to realize. Facing such a clear posture of the Basar fleet, Min Yue did not decelerate at all, but executed an extremely difficult full-fleet turn, turning a small angle, facing the Basar fleet obliquely. And at this time, a round of salvo from the entire fleet covered the devil's flames overwhelmingly…