The icy cold wind mixed with snow particles rushed head-on, and the battleship bumped and heaved in the endless furious waves, just like a dancing dancer avoiding fierce waves with clever dance steps. Draw an arc and gallop into the distance.
The northern waters are scary in winter, the place where the sea and the sky meet is always gray and black, and no one can clearly distinguish the boundary line between the sky and the sea. The waves of the sea are the most turbulent in a year, and the howling cold wind is also extremely cold and biting. Without good enough cold-proof clothing, staying at the bow for a while may freeze the whole person stiff…
Standing on the berth, Sambawood is not afraid of the oncoming cold wind and the snow particles mixed in the wind. No matter how cold the wind is, no matter how icy the snow is, it can't extinguish the fire in his heart. It has been ten years, when he was a pirate who was coerced by Lorist to join the Norton family, after waiting for ten years, he finally got his chance to show his talents.
At the New Year's celebration just a few days ago, Sambawood was conferred the title of Baron of the Territory. This was not an incentive for him to fight the Armada Fleet, but for his dedication to his duty for more than ten years, commanding the North Sea Fleet to maintain the northern waters and rewards for trade and shipping safety. Thinking of the promise made by His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of the Northland when he came to see him off that night when he left Angry Bear City, Sambawood clenched his fists even more. After destroying the Armada of the Commercial Alliance, I will be able to go one step further in the title. At that time, I will become the only Viscount among all the Golden Knights in the family...
The Armada... We can finally have a good contest to see who is truly invincible at sea... Semba Wood murmured to himself, wishing to fly to Hilovas Island, where the North Sea Fleet still stays The eight Thunderbolt battleships of the Second Squadron. After I go back, within three days at the latest, I will lead sixteen Thunderbolt warships to attack the southern waters. What awaits me will be meritorious deeds and countless enemy warships that have been sunk!
There are also the Golden Knights of Tiger Rose, Farea, and Jost family. They have always looked down on themselves, saying that they were born as pirates, and that they would only flatter His Royal Highness and send Genorio to His Royal Highness. Be a disciple. They didn't want to think about it, if Genorio was not outstanding, would His Royal Highness accept him as a disciple? It's clearly jealousy, just like Farea's twin sons, didn't His Royal Highness take them by his side and teach them personally
After I wiped out the Armada of the Business Alliance and was promoted to viscount, how dare you people say that our North Sea Fleet will only dawdle in business, and honestly rely on seniority to be conferred a title. After ten years of sharpening the sword, now it is time for the North Sea Fleet to unsheath the sharp sword, and the Armada will be the first sacrifice. If you don't win, you're done, and if you win, you'll shock the world!
A big wave hit it from the side, and the battleship shook violently. Sembawood has taken root under its feet and stands like a mountain on the slipway. He looked up and saw the half sails on the three masts, which were bulging into a semicircle with the wind. This is already the limit of the sail. If you sail in such a raging sea with a full sail, it is easy for the whole ship to be capsized due to the strong wind. This is a lesson learned.
"Blow the horn! Remind the other seven warships to be vigilant. We will arrive at Hilovas Island tomorrow after crossing this ocean. I don't want any accidents!" Semba Wood yelled.
The sound of the humming conch echoed on the dark ocean, and the eight dark lightning warships pierced through the layers of angry waves like arrows, and galloped forward...
Sailfish Ridge on Hilovas Island is one of the bases of the North Sea Fleet. The cliff that penetrates into the sea is like a curved arm, protecting the clear water inside. Compared with the raging sea outside, the small bay is calm and calm.
Sambawood jumped out of the boat and strode to a small bluestone castle on the slopes of Sailfish Ridge, the command center and administrative headquarters of the North Sea Fleet. Several soldiers standing guard were shrinking aside and shivering, and when they saw Semba Wood, they immediately stood at attention and saluted. Sambawood nodded in return, then strode up to the second floor, pushing open a heavy wooden door.
This is the duty office of the North Sea Fleet. The fireplace in the room is burning brightly. A man like an iron tower is sitting in front of the fireplace, roasting chicken wings and humming obscene ditties. There is a huge ale log next to him. bucket.
"Strange, why did you come back so quickly this time, and you didn't stay with your beautiful wife and concubine for a while? Didn't it mean that His Royal Highness the Grand Duke will confer you as the baron of the territory when you go to participate in the New Year's celebration this time? I thought you I will come back..." The tower-like man is the commander of the Second Squadron of the North Sea Fleet and Tok, who was also a pirate, turned his head and asked Sambawood who was taking off his cloak in confusion.
"Haha, old man, we have work to do, and it's still a big job!" Semba Wood proudly opened his bloody mouth and laughed: "Oh, sorry, old man, I didn't have your leave slip Pass it up, it seems that you have to wait for this big job to be completed before you can ask for leave to be promoted to the golden rank. Because I think that compared to the big job to be done this time, you must be willing to let yourself postpone the day of being promoted to the golden rank, otherwise you I will regret for the rest of my life that I missed this great job."
"Really?" Toke shrugged indifferently: "Tell me, what kind of work will I do this time? I don't mind delaying the promotion. Anyway, my aptitude is not very good, so I can't guarantee 100% success. But you are sure Do you go to sea to work in this weather?"
"Hehe, that's right, we are going to attack in this weather. The target this time is here, Zangjin Bay, the Armada!" Semba Wood stood in front of the wall with the map of the sea area, and punched the marked Armada name on the map.
"What did you say?" The iron fork of roast chicken wings in Tok's hand fell into the fireplace, and he jumped up in surprise: "Your Highness has allowed us to attack?"
Three years ago, the Norton family armed forces attacked several provinces of the former Krissen Empire occupied by the business alliance, and at the same time destroyed the Vicia Chamber of Commerce, one of the seven giants. The Chicod Chamber of Commerce and the Peterson Chamber of Commerce of the Business Alliance severed their dealings with the Norton family. Seriously speaking, these two chambers of commerce are still in arrears of 400,000 to 500,000 goldfords for the purchase of goods. With the signature here, the North Sea Fleet specially submitted an application, requesting to take the initiative to go to the southern waters to intercept and destroy the relevant fleet of the business alliance.
However, at that time, Lorist considered that the strategy of forcing the commercial alliance to sue for peace presided over by His Royal Highness might have a great chance of success, so he did not want to provoke the commercial alliance at that critical moment, or let the commercial alliance vent its anger on Norton. family, so they rejected the North Sea Fleet's request to attack.
But what I didn't expect was that the business alliance was not prepared to compromise with the Second Highness, but set up a trick in an attempt to let the Storm Swordsman hold the Second Highness and the nobles of the elite territory of the Antinak Kingdom to Morente City, so as to achieve no war And the purpose of victory. As a result, Lorist and the Storm Juggernaut fought to the detriment of both sides, and the Merchant Alliance and the Kingdom of Antinac started a bloody battle to the death.
At that time, the North Sea Fleet submitted several applications one after another, requesting to attack the southern waters. It's just that at that time Lorist was hiding in Tibet just to find a secret place to heal his wounds, and in the family territory, Chief Hansk initiated a family civil strife, and the entire family administrative system was in chaos. The North Sea Fleet's application letter fell into the sea without any reply. It was not easy for Lorist to heal his wounds and return to the family territory to make things right, but at that time all the armed forces of the Norton family returned to the Northland, so the top management of the North Sea Fleet lost their intention to take the initiative to attack.
Now it was Lorist himself who gave the order to allow the North Sea Fleet to take the initiative to attack, and the target was still the Armada they had never been able to see. Come here, everyone. We should have shown those sea monkeys a little bit more!"
Both live at sea, and the North Sea Fleet and the Armada are not without intersections and contradictions. The division of the northern sea area and the southern sea area does not have any recognized official documents or supporting documents. It is just a tacit private agreement between the Norton family and the Qikede Chamber of Commerce, the overlord of the southern sea area. As far as the sad ocean at the junction of the northern sea and the southern sea is concerned, it belongs to the northern sea geographically, but for the Armada in the Golden Bay, it is a warning ocean that must be patrolled. Not only pirates Rampant and too close to Tibetan Gold Bay to be controlled by others...
Many conflicts have gradually intensified over time, and the same is true for the North Sea Fleet and the Armada. The Armada Fleet has always been over the top, thinking that the world is invincible. If it weren't for the high winds and waves in the northern sea, the famous cursed coastline, and the hostile relationship with the Antinak Kingdom, otherwise they would have controlled the entire northern sea long ago, so what? Can tolerate the North Sea Fleet showing off its power in front of them. Under such circumstances, they believed that the northern seas were controlled by the Norton family's fleet, so how could they take the North Sea Fleet seriously.
The North Sea Fleet also regards the Armada as an artillery target, just like the high-level fleet executives such as Sambawood and Tork, with the invincible long-range attack power of the bronze artillery, coupled with the unique battleship design and sturdy hull, With that super high flexibility and fast maneuverability, Sembawood and Tok have long stopped putting the Armada, which relies on near-board jumping gangs, as an equal opponent. They mocked that the Armada was just a bunch of jumping sea monkeys, with no other advantages except numbers.
Therefore, when the squadron of the North Sea Fleet met the patrol fleet of the Armada in the Sad Ocean, they were all yelling and cursing, except that no one fired the first shot or the first arrow to avoid provoking a naval battle. The insults and yelling became more and more intense. People queue up to urinate on each other, wave women's underwear at each other's boats, and so on.
The two large armed warships of the patrol fleet sent by the Armada last summer wanted to use the angle to hit a small fast patrol warship of the Norton family. It was already equivalent to a naked provocation and a declaration of war, but Semba Wood remembered that Lorist had just returned to the Northland to quell the chaos, so he suppressed this tone abruptly.
The convening bell rang, and soon the large conference room in Bluestone Castle was filled with tall and thick men, all of whom were captains and first mates of the North Sea Fleet. When Sambawood announced Lorist's order for the North Sea Fleet to take the initiative to attack and destroy the Armada, the entire conference room burst into cheers, and all the men of the North Sea Fleet were gearing up, eager to set sail to attack the Armada immediately.
"This time, Tok and I led twelve Thunderbolt warships to set off first, followed by eight large armed warships to provide us with supplies and receive captured warships. Each Thunderbolt warship dispatched was equipped with a sea charge of 100 people. The team is used as a reserve personnel to prevent the enemy from jumping to fight and to control the captured ships.
The remaining four Thunderbolt battleships are used as a patrol fleet to prevent the enemy from attacking Hirovas Island. Don't be careful. Although you are not the first wave of attack warships, you can be rotated to you in the second wave. It is now January 10th of the new year, and there are still fifty days until the rainy season. We have plenty of time to attack, so don't worry that it won't be your turn to make contributions.
The rest of the warships that have not been named will all set off to return to Beihai City the day after tomorrow. Don't worry, this is not to let you miss this battle, but to let your warships be reinforced and remodeled at the Niujiaowan Shipyard to install bronze cannons. Although the bronze cannons installed on your battleships this time are not as many as our Thunderbolt battleships, they will still have enough long-range attack power.
The decisive battle with the Armada will be in April and May after the rainy season, and now it is just giving them some small hardships, so you can catch up with the decisive battle, there is no need to worry. His Highness has prepared two hundred bronze cannon firing teams for us. They are not used to firing cannons on ships. You should cooperate with them in training and return as soon as possible, understand? "
The sad-faced captains who didn't click on the name of the attack all smiled happily, and responded one after another: "Understood, please rest assured, my lord..."
Semba Wood laughed and scolded: "Now you are all right, don't envy us, you are also artillery warships, please take it easy for me, don't cause any safety accidents. Otherwise, I will take your skins and hang them on the mast to make sails... That’s enough, those who are going to modify should go back and prepare for departure first. The rest who want to attack stay and discuss the target of our first attack.”
After more than half of the people in the meeting room were gone, Sambawood stood in front of the sea map, clicked on the sea map and said, "Our first target for this attack is the patrol fleet of Sad Ocean. Although it is winter, The Armada still keeps patrolling the Sad Ocean every half a month. This time we will wipe out this patrol fleet, so that no one can slip through the net!
The second target is the Port of El Niba, which is the closest port city to the Golden Bay. It is only a one-day and one-night voyage, and it is also the starting port of the Golden Coastline. Further south is the long coastal zone of the Titanini Mountains, and it will take three days and four nights to reach the next port. Although the Port of El Niba is located on the edge of the Cristo Hills and belongs to the territory of the Commercial Alliance, it takes four or five days to travel from land to Morente City.
Therefore, the port of El Niba is the most important transit point of the business alliance, and all ships from the south will stop here before heading to the Golden Bay. After we wiped out the patrol fleet of the Armada, we bypassed the Golden Bay and went straight to the port of El Niba, blasting the port into ruins so that it could no longer function as a transit point. Then we will seal off this sea area, and all ships from the south will be our targets! "
"Master Admiral, why don't we just rush into Tibetan Gold Bay to destroy the Armada?" Tork asked suspiciously.
Samba Wood rolled his eyes: "Are you stupid? Rushing into the Golden Bay and throwing yourself into the net? Do you know how many ships the Armada has in the Golden Bay now? Don't even think about the bronze cannons on our battleships* How many rounds can be fired in total! We have to lure the Armada out of the Golden Bay, the sky is high and the sea is wide outside, the wind is high and the waves are rough, that is the battlefield for us to compete with the Armada, understand?"
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