Chapter 44: Death Valley (Part 1)
"Captain, they've hoisted flags towards us!"
As lookout Bill went below into the gunroom, a man of over thirty years took his place on the crow's nest. He pointed ahead and shouted loudly.
"What did they say?" Tang Jie asked loudly.
"They say, let us lower the sails and gather on deck, and surrender to them!" the lookout shouted.
Tang Jie furrowed his brow tightly, and even if he didn't understand naval warfare, he knew that with their two ships challenging these ten ships would be a suicidal move.
Not to mention the small size of the Double-Masted Flying Fish-class Hell Ship, its own firepower is not strong. Let's just say that among these ten warships of the opponent, the smallest level is the Three-Masted Vulture-class warship, with a standard armament of 25 cannons!
Even if this warship under Tang Jie is powerful, it's still hard to defeat four hands with two fists!
How should this battle be fought?
The sailors on deck were all tense and gazing at their captain, waiting for his orders.
Tang Jie hesitated for a moment and turned his gaze to Nia beside him: "What's your opinion?"
Niya's face was very unsightly, she had been through many battles, but never one as perilous as this, with a disparity in strength like this!
She took a deep breath, gritted her teeth, and said in a firm tone: "Two options, one is to turn around immediately and run away! The other is to charge forward!"
"Turn back? No way! Bi Sai Liu is right behind us!" Tang Jie's eyebrow shot up, flatly denying "Of course we have to charge forward! But the question is, how do we get past?"
Niya said in a low voice, "No matter how we run, we must pass through their line of defense and will definitely go through the crossfire of their two ships. This kind of left and right, one ship on each side, pincer situation is absolutely unacceptable! Once caught in the pincer attack, this warship means being sunk, no matter how sturdy the ship is, it cannot withstand the fierce attack of cannons from both sides at the same time!"
"I recall Old Bar telling me about this once...". Tung suddenly remembered some basic naval tactics that Old Bar had taught him. "This pincer movement, you guys call it 'Death Canyon', right?"
"That's right!" Nia nodded "They have ten warships, once we decide to force our way through, they can immediately use three to four warships to hold us back, and then the other warships will come from both sides to surround us. We can only be surrounded by them helplessly, there's nothing we can do! This is a difference in strength..."
Tang Jie clenched his fists: "You mean that as long as we are sandwiched by them, we will definitely lose?"
Nina's face was heavy: "Right! So we absolutely can't fall into their encirclement! However..."
"But what?" Tang Jie asked.
"But even if they don't sandwich us, our chances of winning are almost zero..." Nia's tightly clenched fist trembled slightly, her eyes fixed intently on the Xixis warship growing larger and larger on the surface of the sea.
Tang Jie's face gradually sank, his eyebrows tightly furrowed.
Since he came into this world, he has been from one desperate situation to another, in which he has relied on his fearless calmness to get through the difficulties time and again, creating one impossible miracle after another.
But this time, Tang Jie knew clearly in his heart that this battle had nothing to do with his bravery or strength. This was a real naval battle, and the only thing he could do was pray that the enemy commander would relax for just a moment due to the overwhelming disparity in strength.
Because of this, Tang Jie quickly thought of a bold and shocking plan in his heart!
"Pass the word!" Tong Jie raised his head, with an unusual gleam in his eyes. "Lower the mainsail, gather all sailors on deck, and gunners remain at their posts, awaiting my orders at any moment!"
Niya's eyes widened: "Lower the mainsail? Are you crazy? We'll be made targets and beaten to death!"
As soon as she finished saying this sentence, Nia quickly reacted and was tongue-tied, seemingly shocked by Tang Jie's idea!
"Ah, you...you mean we're going to feign surrender?" Nia said with a chuckle.
Tang Jie nodded heavily, clenched his fist and struck it into the palm of his hand, saying resolutely: "Since everyone thinks that Death Valley is a place where one must die, I will deliberately go in! I want to turn their stomachs upside down!"
Nia knew that Tang Jie was referring to the fact that the enemy fleet commander had lowered his guard due to their fake surrender, and then suddenly opened fire on them from a pincer movement!
"But once we stop, it will be easy for the enemy to sandwich us and make us unable to move! Moreover, we are likely to fall into a precarious situation where we are attacked by cannons from both sides!"
Tang Jie's expression didn't change, his eyes fixed firmly on the front: "This point you mentioned, I naturally know! But this blow is short-term, we must endure it!"
"In this brief moment, whether we can escape from Death Valley depends on how fast our actions are!" Tang Jie's voice was like iron, and the light flashing in his eyes was like that of a most frantic gambler!
Niya opened her mouth, but didn't say anything else. She was stunned by Tang Jie's gambler-like madness.
And she also understood that apart from this method, they had no other way to choose.
They can only gamble, betting their reactions and actions are faster than their opponents!
The captain of the enemy ship, they are arrogant and underestimate us due to this huge difference in strength!
Nina was persuaded by Tang Jie. Once she made up her mind, she would do everything in her power to help Tang Jie without hesitation!
Niya conveyed Tong Jie's order meticulously and swiftly to every corner of the ship, all the sailors who heard this order were shocked!
An old sailor with a full beard stared at Tangie on the helm in shock, stuttering: "I've been sailing for eight years and I've never seen such a crazy guy..."
The pirates quickly made the flag signal, the sail on the main mast slowly lowered, and the speed of the ship gradually slowed down.
The old Bal of the Hell's number stared at Tang Jie's warship in front with wide eyes, and slowly let out a long breath: "He is more crazy than I imagined, more like a real gambler!"
The warships of the Xixis First Marine Defense Force were already less than fifty meters away from Tongjie, and the pirates could even clearly see the Xixis marine defense soldiers in blue and white stripes on the deck.
"I hope the sea god Teira is on our side this time..." Nia gazed deeply at Tangie's figure, silently praying in her heart.
Seeing Tang Jie's flag language on the ship and their lowered mainsail, Xixi's coastal defense team visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
Captain Smith put down the monocular and turned back to his first officer with a smile, saying: "Pirates are pirates, a bunch of gutless wonders. I thought they'd at least put up some resistance with this three-masted Lion-class warship!"
The deputy officer smiled and followed his words: "This is because the difference in strength is really too far, they themselves also know that it is impossible to beat us!"
"Tell them," Smith said with a smile, "to sail slowly between the Victorious and the Azure, and surrender to us!"
Because they were now close enough, the sailors at the bow no longer signaled with flags but instead shouted loudly at the pirates.
Tang Jie left the helm and stood at the nearest position to the mainsail halyard, in the sudden surprise attack that followed, the position of the helm was not the most important.
Most importantly, once the bombardment begins, they must raise their mainsail at the first opportunity and break out of the encirclement before other warships come to their senses and surround them!
Tang Jie watched as his warship slowly entered the death valley formed between the Invincible and Azure, and he unconsciously clenched his fists, finding that his palms were full of fine sweat.
The lives of all these people are in my hands!
Am I right?
When he saw the Azure and Invincible, two three-masted Lion-class warships towering over him like cliffs on either side of a valley, the blue sky around him seemed to disappear. The majestic warships and their icy cannons stood like forests, and a suffocating sense of oppression washed over him, almost stopping his heart from beating!
When he saw the captain of the flagship "Bisheng" of the Xixi Sea Defense First Fleet, with a proud and disdainful expression on his face, Tang Jie's heart suddenly shook!
He won half of it!
His opponent was indeed careless in this situation where their strengths were vastly different!
Tang Jie raised his hand and rubbed his nose.
This was his signal to all the pirates. Nia saw it and walked to a position near the cabin where she couldn't be seen, making a gesture to the sailors inside.
Orders were passed from one to another to the gunroom, Bill was so tense that his back was covered in cold sweat, but he himself didn't feel it at all.
He turned around, looking at the other tense sailors who were almost out of breath, and said in a low voice: "Get ready!"
"With a 'whoosh' sound, the sailors moved in unison to pour the gunpowder, then loaded the cannonballs into the barrel. Two more sailors waited behind the cannon, ready to push it out of the cabin as soon as they heard the command!"
The normally spacious gunroom was now crowded and hot, with bare-chested sailors everywhere. Some of them were peering out through the gaps between the gunport lids to see what was happening outside, while others were staring fixedly at Bill, waiting for him to relay the captain's orders down into the hold!
These muscular sailors were one by one drenched in sweat, unable to distinguish whether it was due to busyness or nervousness!
It's so hot here that it seems like just a spark would set off a fierce explosion!
Second update, officially on shelves tomorrow
No more nonsense, I still hope you guys can support me a lot
If subscriptions are poor, then I'll have to drink the northwest wind...
