Gui Xingfu, Tu Liwen, Hai Wuyan, Ashi Zhuo, Tu Lingchen and others were all on their respective flagships.
When they first saw Sauron’s Queen Island fleet, their hearts were shaken.
They had not expected that Sauron would actually take the initiative to move north to engage in battle with merely one hundred small ships and seven thousand Rock pirates.
With merely one-tenth the strength, he actually dared to take the initiative to attack. This was truly too mad.
However fierce the Rock pirates, one against two was the limit. One against ten held no chance of victory whatsoever.
But immediately after, a wave of wild joy surged up. Originally they had still worried about Sauron escaping. Now this was perfect for close-quarters combat, catching a turtle in a jar, resolving the battle thoroughly within several shichen.
Tu Liwen’s flagship began roaring out orders.
“Draw the great crossbows.”
Then, nearby ships passed the orders on to surrounding ships.
“Creak, creak…”
Immediately, ships arranged at the very front began drawing their great crossbows.
These great crossbows could shoot several tens of jin heavy giant arrows nearly four hundred meters, considered large-scale killing weapons on ships.
Of course, the truly effective killing distance was merely two hundred meters.
The Rock Queen did not directly issue commands, but directly on the flagship, waved flag signals.
Immediately, the over one hundred Queen Island fleet ships all adjusted their sails, their speed stagnating. Looking at this posture, they did not intend to continue advancing, but paused in place.
The allied fleet moved south at full speed.
This over one thousand ship giant fleet truly seemed like an enormous lion and tiger.
And Sauron’s Queen Island fleet truly seemed like a rabbit.
The distance between the two fleets grew closer and closer, closer and closer.
Five thousand meters.
Three thousand meters.
One thousand meters.
Eight hundred meters!
At this time, all the counterweight lever catapults on the Queen Island fleet were fully prepared.
The fireball bombs in the throwing trays were also ready.
Distance between the two fleets, six hundred meters.
At the Rock Queen Yan Chuor’s command.
Immediately, warriors behind each catapult lit fires, igniting the fireball bombs in the throwing trays.
These several tens of jin heavy fireball bombs were cloth strips wrapped around pottery jars. The cloth strips were all soaked in fish oil, igniting into fierce flames upon lighting.
And the fish oil inside the pottery jars would not be ignited. When thrown out and smashed onto enemy ships, the pottery jars would explode, the fish oil inside splashing everywhere, instantly ignited, almost impossible to extinguish.
Of course, crude oil could also be loaded inside these pottery jars. But then, the true top-secret killing weapon might be exposed, so Sauron used fish oil instead. Although this way, the cost of each fire oil bomb was over a hundred times higher.
“Fire…”
The Rock Queen Yan Chuor suddenly gave the order.
Immediately, warriors behind the catapults smashed down hard, releasing the catapults’ tightly wound restraints.
The counterweight slid, generating enormous kinetic energy, and through long levers, viciously threw the over one hundred jin heavy fire oil bombs out.
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh…”
Over one hundred catapults all fired. Many Rock pirates felt the ships beneath their feet suddenly lurch, as if about to capsize.
One hundred fiercely burning fire oil bombs, tracing trajectories of thick smoke and flames through the air, like meteors, viciously flew toward the allied fleet, emitting a piercing whistling sound in the air.
Seeing this scene, Tu Liwen, Gui Xingfu and others on the fleet to destroy Sauron were greatly shocked.
What, what kind of weapon was this, that could actually throw so… so far?
A full four to five hundred meters?
Of course, this distance was not rare, many powerful great crossbows could achieve it.
But an arrow at the end of its flight cannot penetrate silk paper.
And these several tens to over one hundred jin objects, falling from high altitude, their killing power was completely enormous.
“Bang bang bang…”
Over one hundred fiercely burning fireballs, after flying four to five hundred meters, fiercely crashed into… the sea.
Correct, this was the tragic accuracy.
Of over one hundred fire oil bombs fired, merely three hit.
Moreover, this had an absolute relationship with the allied fleet being too densely packed. Otherwise the accuracy rate would not even reach one percent.
This accuracy rate was indeed as Sauron had imagined.
But…
Merely three hits, the effect was also incomparably astonishing.
These several tens to over one hundred jin heavy fireball bombs viciously smashed onto ships, the cloth-wrapped pottery jars suddenly exploding, the fish oil inside spraying out, meeting fire and burning fiercely.
Once ignited, it was over ten square meters, and extremely difficult to extinguish.
“It is fish oil.” City Lord Tu Liwen could identify it from smelling the thick smoke.
“Fish oil?” Tu Lingchen sneered, “Sauron is truly wealthy, truly willing to spend blood capital.”
Fish oil was extracted by boiling fish alive. The price of one jin of fish oil was around forty copper coins. That is to say, the fish oil cost alone for one fire oil bomb required over ten silver coins, one-third of a gold coin, converted to Earth RMB over four thousand yuan per bomb.
There was no way. The productivity level of this world was too low. Whether candles, tung oil, or fish oil, all were very expensive.
Sauron’s first round of attack alone cost several tens of gold coins.
Hai Wuyan sniffed the air, “Fish oil bombs, this Sauron is truly enormously wealthy.”
…
The first round of firing, only three fire oil bombs hit.
Then, a dozen or so Rock pirates desperately pulled the catapult levers, preparing for the second round of firing.
At the same time, the Rock Queen ordered the sails to change direction.
Originally they had been moving north, then stopped, now ordered to move south.
“Hoo…”
Immediately, the one hundred ship Rock pirate fleet moved south with the wind.
Rock Island ships had a characteristic, they were small and fast!
Two ke later, the distance between the two fleets was once again pulled open by over one thousand meters.
And the second round of firing for the over one hundred catapults was also prepared.
The Rock Queen ordered the fleet to once again change sails, stop rowing, half-stopped in place, waiting for the allied fleet to approach.
Approaching, eight hundred meters, six hundred meters, five hundred meters, four hundred meters…
“Fire…”
“Fire…”
Both sides gave orders simultaneously!
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh…”
From the fleet to destroy Sauron, several hundred giant powerful crossbows flew out.
From Sauron’s fleet, one hundred catapults fired in unison.
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh…”
Over one hundred fireballs again traced magnificent trajectories, whistling as they smashed toward the allied fleet.
And several hundred giant arrows whistled as they shot toward Sauron’s fleet.
After several seconds.
“Bang bang bang…”
“Bang bang bang bang…”
Sauron’s fire oil bombs’ second round of throwing, over one hundred fired, hit… four!
“Boom boom boom…” Another four ships of the allied fleet burned fiercely, several tens of soldiers perishing in the sea of flames.
Surrounding naval troops desperately splashed water to extinguish the flames.
It looked like improvement, but everything was accidental.
And the allied fleet’s great crossbows had somewhat higher accuracy, with over ten giant arrows hitting Sauron’s ships.
But…
Firing from four hundred meters away, it was absolutely an arrow at the end of its flight. Even when hitting, it merely bumped once, almost causing no damage whatsoever.
Seeing this scene, Sauron had only one feeling in his heart.
No wonder naval battles in this era basically consisted of both sides’ ships approaching, first exchanging arrow fire, then boarding for close combat.
Because this kind of long-distance fighting, whether catapults or great crossbows, the accuracy was too pitiful.
In this kind of naval battle, as long as there was sufficient ammunition, one could truly fight until next year.
…
Next, this naval battle became deadlocked.
The tactics of Sauron’s fleet were very simple. Using their speed advantage, after firing they immediately moved away, pulling distance from the enemy fleet, then preparing for the second round of firing.
This was completely a rogue style of fighting, never approaching the enemy fleet within two to three hundred meters.
And the only difference was, although Sauron’s thrown fire oil bombs had bizarre accuracy, once they hit, they would cause tremendous killing damage to enemy ships.
And the allied fleet’s great crossbows, although having somewhat higher accuracy, from four hundred meters away almost had no killing power.
So, this colossal creature of the allied fleet had actually fallen into a completely passive position of being beaten.
The reason was only one, Sauron’s Rock pirate fleet was faster, and could freely pull away distance.
Thus, next the two fleets fought from dawn until dusk, then until dawn again.
A full day and night of great battle.
Sauron’s Rock pirate fleet fired a full one hundred rounds, shooting out over ten thousand fire oil bombs.
And the allied fleet to destroy Sauron also fired one hundred rounds, shooting out tens of thousands of giant arrows.
Sauron’s fire oil bomb accuracy rate never exceeded four percent. Over a day and night, merely three to four hundred fire oil bombs hit the allied fleet.
The battle result achieved was killing over one thousand enemy naval troops.
Sinking five enemy ships, damaging several tens.
And Sauron’s fleet losses were even smaller, not a single warship sunk, casualties less than one hundred.
However, catapults had already broken several times, the expensive leather ropes on them already replaced several times.
And even so, nearly ten catapults had already been destroyed beyond repair.
The casualties of the army to destroy Sauron were also actually minuscule, but over this day and night, they were completely suppressed and beaten by the Suo clan fleet.
The four family leaders nearly jumped with fury, cursing Sauron for being too despicable, fighting and stopping, completely not giving any chance to approach.
Otherwise within at most one shichen, the seventy thousand naval troops to destroy Sauron could completely annihilate Sauron’s Rock pirate fleet, killing not a single one remaining.
…
The two fleets again fought from dusk until dawn, dawn until dusk.
Another day and night of great battle.
To date, Sauron had sunk six enemy fleet ships, damaged over one hundred, killed nearly three thousand enemy naval troops.
And Sauron’s fleet losses were still minuscule.
Because he still used despicable tactics, absolutely not approaching the enemy fleet. At four hundred meters distance, the powerful crossbows of the army to destroy Sauron could not cause fatal damage.
But, the bad news was, over twenty percent of his over one hundred catapults were already damaged.
…
Another day and night passed.
Another day and night passed.
Although they took turns resting, turns fighting.
But both fleets were completely exhausted.
In the latter two days, Sauron’s fleet still suppressed their opponents, but the battle results became even more minuscule.
This fighting and stopping, a full four days and four nights, the allied fleet ships sunk merely reached ten, naval troop casualties merely reached over five thousand.
And Sauron’s fleet casualties were still minuscule.
But…
The catapult damage rate had already exceeded the majority.
Moreover, fire oil bombs were also nearly exhausted.
In these several days and nights of great battle, while fighting they sailed south, a full over two thousand li.
At this time, they had already reached the Rocky Island waters.
But Sauron’s Rock pirate fleet did not pause at all, continuing south.
“City Lord Tu Liwen, ahead is the Rocky Island salt works, the Sauron fleet is not pausing at all.” A naval officer reported.
Tu Liwen ordered one ship to sail close to Rocky Island to investigate the situation.
The report returned that the entire Rocky Island salt works was empty, not a single person, not a single ship on the sea surface. Sauron had completely abandoned the Rocky Island salt works.
“City Lord, shall we dispatch troops to occupy the Rocky salt works?” A naval officer asked.
“What is the hurry? This Rocky salt works does not have legs, it will not run.” Tu Liwen said.
“Count Tu Liwen, the Sauron fleet is running, their fire oil bombs are used up.” Tu Lingchen said.
Count Tu Liwen raised his eyes, seeing that Sauron’s fleet was indeed continuously moving south, no longer stopping to fire fire oil bombs.
“Full speed pursuit!” Count Tu Liwen ordered.
Immediately, the over one thousand ships to destroy Sauron, sails fully unfurled, pursued south at full speed.
“Sauron cannot escape.” Tu Lingchen said.
Count Tu Liwen nodded.
Over these several days and nights, on the surface it appeared Sauron had gained the upper hand completely, but his fate of destruction was already sealed.
Correct, Sauron’s fleet because the ships were small, so their speed was very fast. But the fresh water and grain on the ships were limited, and there was no resupply fleet behind them. So how many more days could he sustain?
After ammunition and food ran out?
Sauron’s fleet drifting on the sea was death, and once he chose to land, it was even more seeking death.
In short, the over one thousand ships of the allied fleet to destroy Sauron always closely bit onto Sauron. Waiting for him to run out of ammunition and food, or waiting for him to land.
In any case, it was a dead end.
Next, both fleets stopped attacking.
Sauron desperately fled south, the allied fleet to destroy Sauron desperately pursued.
…
At sunset!
Sauron’s fleet entered the Tianshui City waters, still over one hundred li from Devil Bay.
Here was the burial ground Sauron had prepared for the enemy.
And the allied fleet merely followed behind, distance not exceeding one hundred li!
Sauron looked toward the Rock Queen, saying, “Aunt, it is time to lead them into hell. Do you think they will follow?”
“They certainly will.” Yan Chuor said.
Over these several days and nights, the allied fleet had been suppressed and beaten by Sauron, completely furious and exasperated, wishing they could skin him alive and pull his tendons. They would certainly not let him escape.
Moreover, the allied fleet’s landing location was also chosen to be Devil Bay, almost the only place suitable for large-scale landing.
Night fell, darkness swallowing everything.
Sauron’s gaze flashed with a demonic light, saying coldly, “Enter Devil Bay.”
At the same time, over one hundred cargo ships were moored in Devil Bay. The ships carried nearly one hundred thousand barrels of crude oil, a full several tens of millions of jin.
This astronomical amount of crude oil could completely turn this bay into a burning hell, completely swallowing the entire allied fleet!
At that time, over one hundred li of sea surface would burn fiercely.
The four allied fleets, over one thousand ships, would have nowhere to escape!
In a terrifying silence, Sauron’s Rock pirate fleet sailed into Devil Bay.
Several tens of thousands of meters behind, the allied fleet stretched out magnificently, covering the sky and earth, pursuing relentlessly.
Over one thousand ships, over one hundred thousand troops gradually sailed into hell!