Zhu Yuanzhang: My second son is invincible!

On the 23rd day of the first month of the eleventh year of Hongwu (1380), off the coast of

The weather was unusually fine, and the sea was as calm as a huge piece of blue glass, with only tiny ripples shimmering in the sunlight.

Three hundred warships of various sizes formed a training formation in the designated sea area, with masts like a forest and flags obscuring the sky.

On the deck of the flagship "Zhenhai", generals such as Xu Da, Lan Yu, and Chen Xuan gathered together, with Zhu Hui and Guanyin Nu also present.

Today we will conduct the final large-scale maritime exercise before setting sail.

"Your Highness, this is the newly cast Hongwu General Cannon. It has a range of five li and can fire solid shot, chain shot, and grapeshot." Xu Da pointed to a heavy cannon fixed in the center of the deck and introduced it.

The cannon was nearly ten feet long, and its muzzle was so thick that a human head could fit inside. The dark cast iron surface gleamed with a cold light.

Zhu Hui circled the cannon once, then reached out and patted the barrel, producing a dull thud.

"It's quite heavy," Zhu Li remarked.

"Weighing three thousand pounds, it requires eight people to operate." Xu Da gestured to the artillery crew soldiers to demonstrate the loading process.

The soldiers skillfully cleaned the chamber, loaded the gun, loaded the ammunition, and aimed—the whole process took nearly twenty breaths.

Zhu Hui watched, his brows gradually furrowing.

"Too slow," Zhu Li muttered to herself.

Xu Da laughed and said, "Your Highness, this is already the fastest gun corps in the navy. The guns on ordinary warships take more than thirty breaths to reload."

"What if the enemy charges right up to us?" Zhu Liang asked.

"Therefore, multiple cannons need to fire simultaneously to form a barrage, and it also needs to be coordinated with crossbows and muskets..." Xu Da explained.

Zhu Hui shook his head, clearly dissatisfied with this cumbersome method of warfare.

Guanyin Nu stood beside him, watching the complicated operations with curiosity.

She had seen bows and arrows and scimitars on the grasslands, but this was the first time she had ever seen a cannon, a weapon that spews fire from iron pipes, up close.

"Prepare for test firing!" Xu Da ordered.

The gun crew adjusted their aim and targeted an abandoned old ship three miles away, which was today's target ship.

"put!"

The gunner waved the command flag.

"boom..."

The deafening roar was deafening, and flames several feet long shot out from the cannon muzzle, billowing thick smoke.

The deck shook violently, and Guanyinnu instinctively grabbed Zhu Hui's arm.

The solid iron shot whistled through the air, leaving a visible trail, and accurately hit the middle of the target ship.

Wood chips flew everywhere, the target boat was smashed with a large hole, and the hull tilted.

"Good!" The surrounding generals cheered.

Xu Da looked at Zhu Hui and said, "Your Highness, would you like to give it a try?"

Zhu Li stared at the still-smoking cannon, then looked at the tilted target ship three miles away, and scratched his head.

"How many shots would it take to sink the ship with this?" he asked.

Chen Xuan replied, "Your Highness, it takes three to five shots to sink a target ship like this. If it were a new ship, it would probably take more than ten shots."

Zhu Li fell silent.

He walked to the ship's side, looked at the target ship, and then looked down at the tattoo on his left arm.

"Too much trouble," he muttered.

Then, before anyone could react, Zhu Li pressed his right hand against his left arm.

The Xingtian Axe appeared out of thin air in his hand.

The bronze-colored axe face gleamed with an ancient luster in the sunlight, and faint blood-red patterns flowed along the axe blade.

"Your Highness? What's wrong with you...?" Xu Da was taken aback.

"I'll try using this." Zhu Hui gripped the axe with both hands and made a casual upward swinging motion.

There was no build-up of energy, no shouting; it was just like casually snapping a vine blocking the way when chopping wood in the mountains.

The trajectory of the axe blade as it cuts through the air.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment.

Three miles away on the sea, at the location of the target ship, space suddenly distorted.

It was not wind, nor waves, but the seawater itself that was forcibly separated by some invisible force, creating a chasm that was three zhang wide and bottomless, stretching straight from the bow of the "Zhenhai" ship to the bottom of the target ship.

The seawater where the target ship was located vanished instantly, the ship lost its buoyancy support, and plunged straight into the deep ravine.

Then the seawater closed in.

Boom!!!

Giant waves surged into the sky, reaching heights of over ten zhang (approximately 33 meters).

When the waves recede, the sea returns to calm.

The target ship... is gone.

It wasn't split in two; it was swallowed whole into the sea.

No, to be more precise, it was Zhu Li who cleaved the seawater beneath the target ship with an axe, creating a brief vacuum fault. After the ship fell in, the seawater closed in, "burying" the ship on the seabed.

The entire room fell silent.

Only the sound of the sea breeze could be heard.

All the officers, soldiers, and sailors on deck who saw it gaped wide-eyed and their mouths dropped open.

Guanyin Nu was also stunned. She knew her husband was powerful, but... this was beyond powerful.

Xu Da was the first to come to his senses. He walked to the side of the ship, staring intently at the calm sea, then turned to look at the seemingly ordinary axe in Zhu Li's hand.

"Your Highness...where...where did you take the ship?" Xu Da asked, his voice hoarse.

"In the sea! It fell in, it should be sunk to the bottom of the sea by now!" Zhu Li said matter-of-factly, pointing to the area of ​​the sea.

"That ship... wasn't split open?" Lan Yu squeezed in to ask.

"I just chopped it casually. Who knew the seawater would be so easy to split? But it's good this way. The boat is made of wood. If it's split open, it'll be divided. It's much easier to just let the sea eat it." Zhu Li put away the axe, and the tattoo disappeared back into his skin.

He spoke of it casually, as if he had just thrown away some trash.

Chen Xuan swallowed hard, his voice trembling, "Your Highness, that...that was a two-hundred-ton ship, over ten zhang long..."

"I know! It's not that big. I'm just using my strength! If I use too much force, I might even split the seabed through," Zhu Hui said earnestly.

To cleave through the seabed...?

A single image flashed through everyone's minds at the same time.

With a single blow of his axe, Zhu Yue split the sea in two, revealing the silt and reefs beneath the surface, the fissure extending all the way to the Earth's core…

Xu Da immediately shook his head to shake off this terrifying thought.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

"Your Highness, how far can this axe... chop?" Xu Da asked a crucial question.

Zhu Hui thought for a moment and said, "I don't know. I haven't tried the furthest distance. Anyway, that distance just now was no different from being hit right in front of my eyes."

It's no different from splitting someone in front of you...

Xu Da and Lan Yu exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other's eyes.

For Zhu Hui, a distance of three li was practically nothing.

What does this mean?

This means that in naval warfare, as long as the enemy fleet enters Zhu Li's field of vision—no, it doesn't even need to enter his field of vision, as long as he knows its general location—he can split the sea with an axe and let the entire fleet be "swallowed" by the sea, just like the target ship just now.

What's the point of fighting now?

Let's just surrender.

However, this is from the enemy's perspective; for their teammates, it's a blessing.

When will war become a form of happiness...?

"Your Highness, next time... let's use cannons instead. Your axe... is too wasteful of the ship," Xu Da said, carefully choosing his words.

He originally intended to say it was too scary, but changed his mind at the last minute.

Zhu Liang scratched his head and said, "But the cannons are slow."

"There's a method to slowing down the fight, and artillery can train soldiers to coordinate. Your axe... it's over as soon as it appears. The soldiers have trained for so many years, they need to have some use for it, right?"

Xu Da smiled wryly.

This was said in a tactful way, but the meaning was clear.

You wiped out the enemy the moment you appeared, so what's the point of having us soldiers?

Want to watch a play?

After all, everyone still needs to earn merit in battle to support their families.