Chapter 10 The Tide Turns in the South Seas

Ye Tao chose this slightly risky attack method because he trusted the power of the ballistae and Greek fire, but also understood the weaknesses of these powerful weapons. Except for the three-man ballista crews with metal frames specifically for close combat, other ballistae were not very convenient to move, either horizontally or vertically. On these ships, to reduce structural weight, the ballista mounts used a two-stage adjustment system, allowing free movement within a small range, but only offering high-angle and direct fire settings for large adjustments. There was still a considerable firing distance gap between the ballistae's high-angle fire and the flamethrowers. Once close, using direct fire combined with a flamethrower attack would essentially finish off an enemy warship, with no chance of survival. The fire oil and spark bombs fired by the ballistae exploded, producing numerous fragments that inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy, while the Greek fire could burn thick wooden planks to ashes in a short time. After such an attack, even if the enemy wanted to ram and fight to the death, they would have to consider whether they could even get close. The ships engaging in this kind of close-range volley fire didn't need to worry much about accuracy, and basically maintained a high speed, firing while moving...

Although this tactic was somewhat risky, the Seven Seas Trading Company and the Samir family had used it many times before. They had fought countless sea battles with many opponents in the South Seas and the Middle East, and had tried all sorts of combat methods. This method of close-range, high-speed firing was widely used because it was very exciting, very lethal, and tested everyone's ship handling and shooting skills. Originally, everyone was worried that their fleet was carrying such a large group of important personnel, and they would have to be more careful about safety, even preparing to keep Qi Zhu's flagship away from the battlefield, not joining the battle. Unexpectedly, Ye Tao and Qi Zhu not only demanded to participate in the battle, but also became the command ship for the entire operation.

The full sails kept Ye Tao's Fangtooth ship at a high speed, cutting into the center of the battlefield at a sharp angle, directly between the outer ring of the pirate fleet surrounding them, and the inner ring where the besieged merchant fleet was located. The moment the ship opened fire completely, orange-red flames erupted from the wide, copper-clad gun ports on both sides of the hull. In that instant, everyone on the ship was filled with that bright color. One spark bomb after another, leaving black trails of smoke and elongated flames, shot towards the enemy warships in a straight trajectory. Considering that their first-round target was a pirate ship much smaller than the Fangtooth, Ye Tao only ordered a third of the ballista positions to fire.

Almost instantly, the pirate ship was engulfed in flames. The sound of creaking and cracking was incessant. In this situation, not only the attacked pirate ship, but even the surrounding pirates were stunned. The pirate fleet's blockade line, which had been somewhat loose and ready to flee if the situation looked bad, offered almost no resistance to the mixed fleet. The mixed fleet rumbled through the blockade, deploying a pincer movement to annihilate the pirate fleet.

The entire battle lasted less than an hour. After chasing for more than ten *li*, the pirate fleet was completely annihilated. The merchant fleet had now basically completed its recovery work. This merchant fleet, mainly from Chun Nan Maritime Trade, had experienced two twists in just a few hours, and one could only imagine what they were feeling. Although Dongping and Chun Nan were allies, in the South Seas, most people from the Central Plains still took care of and understood each other. They were even more united in fighting against the three great evils: hurricanes, pirates, and the Xuanyi Society.

Having encountered such an ordeal, the merchant fleet could only follow the combined fleet closely to the Seven Seas Trading Company's home port in Yazhou. However, they had no complaints. It was already very good that this powerful fleet was willing to accommodate their speed and escort them. The Seven Seas Trading Company's home port, built up over many years, was not only a fortress with abundant defenses, but also a wealthy city that brought together branches of many merchant houses, numerous workshops, and many unique products. This place, called Hengbo Port, was not only the capital of Yazhou, but had also become the center of the entire South Seas.

Hengbo Port now had more than a hundred thousand permanent residents, and a slightly smaller number of transient residents. The various employees, shop assistants, craftsmen, laborers, and the families of the numerous auxiliary institutions attached to the Seven Seas Trading Company alone accounted for tens of thousands of people. Although the Seven Seas Trading Company had gained a firm foothold in the South Seas thanks to the numerous products from the Central Plains and the many unique products of the Ye Family Workshop, the Seven Seas Trading Company had also tasted the sweetness of land reclamation in the South Seas.

The tropical plantations established according to Ye Tao's ideas, although only just taking shape, generated extremely high profits for the Seven Seas Trading Company with tropical products such as rubber, coffee, and chocolate. The Seven Seas Trading Company now had nearly fifteen thousand employees and their families just in the planting sector. Of course, not all of them were planting tropical cash crops; rice cultivation was also a very basic business. Using the concept of modern large-scale farms for intensive management, the farms caught up with the late rice planting last year, plus the season that had already matured this year, and had fully recovered the high costs of leveling the land, reclaiming wasteland, and even transporting a batch of water buffaloes from thousands of miles away. According to the Seven Seas Trading Company's estimates, their current planting area, based on tropical climate output, could probably support four to five hundred thousand people without any problems. However, for the time being, grain was prioritized for supply to the Samir family, who were still in the midst of their founding war, and there were no plans to significantly increase the population needing support in the South Seas.

These cash crop plantations, along with large tracts of farmland, radiated out around Hengbo Port. Small towns with clear planning were located among them, housing farmers and their families. At the same time, these small towns were also fortresses that could be used to resist threats from the ground. Each small town had its own independent defense system, and regardless of their freedom, all farmers had to undergo military training during the slack season. The Seven Seas Trading Company's main business was maritime expansion. Although the merchants from the Central Plains were far more interested in land reclamation than the Samir family who had originally ruled here, land reclamation itself was quite challenging. The Seven Seas Trading Company did not simply raise the butcher knife, but instead used a combination of appeasement, domestication, and suppression. After several years of operation in the South Seas, many tribal remnants who had originally been hostile to the Seven Seas Trading Company had become Yazhou residents loyal to the Seven Seas Trading Company and loyal to Dongping because of the improvement in their lives and the influence of education. These people were now completely different from those who still coveted the wealth of the Seven Seas Trading Company and were always thinking about how to drive out the Seven Seas Trading Company and any other non-native forces. With such a group of people as a buffer, Hengbo Port was even more impregnable.

Ye Tao took a hurried stroll around Hengbo Port and could feel how careful and cautious the Seven Seas Trading Company was in managing the South Seas, and also understood why the Seven Seas Trading Company's total net profit in recent years had been so low. The area occupied by Hengbo Port, which had more than a hundred thousand people, was actually larger than Yicheng Port, which now had hundreds of thousands of people. The defense system surrounding Hengbo Port, whether on land or water, was very complete. The density of various heavy equipment deployed around Hengbo Port was probably not much different from Danyang. Ye Tao was surprised to find that almost everyone in the core force of 40,000 men, recruited from poor people and refugees from various parts of Dongping, plus a large number of highly paid retired soldiers as the backbone, was able to operate ballistae and Shenbi crossbows. Among the commanders of this army, many were even retired generals from the Blood Unicorn Army. Retired soldiers from the city guard armies of various places were even more numerous and countless. The fifteen battalions of this army, regardless of their organization, training, or weapon configuration style, were very similar to the Blood Unicorn Army and the armies of Yunzhou, which had a strong Ye Tao style, emphasizing the professionalism of the soldiers on the one hand, and also paying attention to the ability of the various armies to switch battlefield functions in emergencies on the other hand. The only slight difference was that, due to the characteristics of the tropics, the three heavy equipment battalions basically had no need for movement and deployment in combat, and were completely based on city defense. There were only two cavalry battalions, each with a scout cavalry company. The others were two longbow battalions, five light infantry battalions, and three logistics battalions. These troops were not bad in terms of equipment. Since many Dongping armies had been constantly replacing weapons in recent years, and the Seven Seas Trading Company, with Tan Xiaopei's personal support, purchased weapons very cheaply, the equipment of these troops was better than that of the Dongping military before Ye Tao came into contact with the army. The configuration of various weapons and armor was quite complete, but because this army expanded too quickly and the sources of soldiers were complicated, they were not yet fierce enough in temperament and had not yet formed an invincible spirit.

Because local labor was super cheap, the Seven Seas Trading Company even had tens of thousands of indigenous military farmers, whose combat power far exceeded that of the many tribes hidden in the super large island, slightly smaller than a continent, where they were located. According to Qi Zhu, the cost of supporting these tens of thousands of people was less than one-tenth of that of the army recruited entirely from the mainland. In addition to grain, simple weapons, training and combat incentives, and post-war rewards and pensions, almost nothing else was needed, and there was no such thing as a salary at all. These military farmers were especially brave in combat in order to protect the land they had obtained from the Seven Seas Trading Company and the current Yazhou Prefecture Governor's Office. The last two tribal coalition invasions were almost frightened back by the courage of these military farmers fighting to the death. Because of this situation, the Seven Seas Trading Company and the Yazhou Prefecture Governor's Office were discussing strengthening the education of the military farmers, improving their equipment and treatment, and gradually granting these military farmers, most of whom were converted from slaves and prisoners of war, the treatment of local residents.

Compared with the developed workshops in Hengbo Port, Ye Tao really couldn't figure out which stage Hengbo Port was in. Was it a semi-colonial society? Or was it a primary capitalist society? ... Judging from the governance mechanism of Hengbo Port and the entire Yazhou, it was very unfeudal anyway. Here, there was complete joint discussion and joint decision-making. Whether it was the Seven Seas Trading Company or the official system of the entire Yazhou Prefecture Governor's Office, which had not been here for long, no one would bypass the other party to decide anything alone. Everything had to go through collective decision-making.