A family of loyal martyrs, starting with nine wives to continue the family line.

That crisp "clang" sound was like the first domino being toppled.

On the silent beach, the sound of metal hitting the ground echoed one after another.

The struggle and ferocity on the pirates' faces were finally crushed when they saw the two completely closed black cavalry lines, a forest of swords and spears.

They were wolves of the sea, but now, even their way back to the sea has been blocked.

"Crouch down!"

A newly appointed cavalry captain rode forward and shouted sternly.

The pirates looked at each other in bewilderment. In the end, one of them was the first to throw down his knife, put his hands on his head, and slowly squat down.

Once there's a first one, there's a second, and a third.

In less than half an hour, the more than 300 elite scouts who had tried to break through the Xinwu defense line before dawn were all taken prisoner on the beach and were taken in batches to the temporary camp behind Quanzhou Port.

Liu Jingshuang did not immediately interrogate her.

She simply sat on her horse, quietly watching her taxi drivers tie the prisoners up tightly with ropes, and then lead them away in a string like grasshoppers.

Her gaze fell more on the speedboats that had been forcibly washed ashore by pirates and were now stranded on the mudflats like dead fish.

"General, everything has been taken care of." A lieutenant came to report.

"Tow those ships up here."

Liu Jingshuang pointed at the stranded ships, her voice devoid of emotion: "Not a single thing on board is to be missed. Take a complete inventory of everything."

"yes!"

The soldiers found thick ropes and planks and began laboriously towing the speedboats, which were much larger than ordinary fishing boats, onto the shore.

It was at this time that Shang Wanqing landed at sea.

The speedboat she was on stopped in the shallow water, and she practically jumped off the side of the boat into the knee-deep water, wading her way to the beach.

The seawater was icy cold, and her boots were filled with sand, making a crunching sound with every step, but she didn't care.

When she walked to Liu Jingshuang's side, her hair was a little messy from the sea breeze, and her face still showed signs of exhaustion from not having slept all night.

"How's it going on your end?" Liu Jingshuang didn't look at her, but instead gazed at the distant sea.

They ran away.

Shang Wanqing's voice was a little hoarse. She followed Liu Jingshuang's gaze and saw that on the horizon, Ke Zhenchuan's remaining fleet had shrunk to a string of blurry black dots and was slowly retreating into the open sea.

"They lingered outside the mudflats for an hour, and seeing that there was no chance of a beach landing, they left."

Shang Wanqing said, "I didn't chase them. I didn't have many ships left. Chasing them into the open sea would have put them in their territory."

She knew very well that although her fifteen fast ships were fast and had powerful firepower, their numbers were ultimately too few.

Once entangled with the main fleet of Kezhen-Chuan in the open sea, it would be a war of attrition with little chance of survival.

This element was not part of Wei Zhao's plan.

"He will come back."

Shang Wanqing withdrew her gaze and looked at the deep furrows that had been dragged out of the beach:

"This time it was just a trial run. Next time, he will bring more people and use a more comprehensive method."

Liu Jingshuang finally turned her head and glanced at her.

The merchant's wife, who could make all the craftsmen tremble with fear in the dock, now had a gaze as calm as ice.

"Then next time, let him bring an even bigger batch of men who will die."

Liu Jingshuang spoke in a very calm tone, as if she were talking about something completely ordinary.

She paused, then her gaze returned to the pirate ships that had been dragged ashore.

"Go and take a look."

She said to Shang Wanqing, "After we haul the boat up, we should examine what that layer on the bottom is. Your shipwrights should be able to figure it out."

Shang Wanqing's eyes lit up immediately.

She had noticed those ships long ago.

She didn't say another word, just nodded, and turned to walk towards the tugboat.

The soaked boots left a trail of deep footprints on the sand, each step quick and steady.

Liu Jingshuang watched her retreating figure, then glanced at the black dot about to disappear on the distant horizon. The tension in her heart did not ease in the slightest because of this victory.

Ke Zhenchuan, that old fox, is more patient and cunning than she imagined.

This beach landing may seem like a failure, but with the loss of a mere three hundred men, he managed to probe the strengths and weaknesses of the Quanzhou defense line, ascertain the firing range of the Xinwu fast ships, and even force Liu Jingshuang to reveal the cavalry's position.

No matter how you look at it, this is a win-win situation.

The real battle is yet to come.

That evening, the lights in Quanzhou Port came on much earlier than usual.

A corner of the harbor was temporarily cleared out, and several pirate speedboats towed back from Crescent Bay were moored crookedly on the sand, like several naked corpses.

Shang Wanqing had been squatting here for the entire afternoon.

She brought no one with her, only a few of the best craftsmen in the dock, who were hammering and tinkering around a speedboat that had its bottom facing the sky, looking at it and smelling it.

When it was completely dark, she had several torches lit.

She crouched at the bottom of the boat, holding a sharp dagger, carefully scraping off a layer of dark brown, fishy-smelling coating from the bottom.

The coating was thin but very tough; when you scraped it off, it felt like scraping a piece of dried cowhide.

She brought the scraped-off coating to the torchlight and examined it carefully by the flickering flame.

The old shipwright beside her couldn't help but ask, "Madam Shang, have you figured out what's going on? This thing is dark and smells fishy, ​​what use could it be?"

Shang Wanqing did not answer immediately. She rubbed the coating between her fingertips, then brought it to her nose and smelled it, her brows furrowing tightly.

After a long time, she finally raised her head and looked at the several curious old masters, her eyes shining with an almost fanatical light.

"It's fish oil."

Her voice wasn't loud, but it instantly silenced the surroundings.

"It's oil made from sun-dried sea fish, mixed with at least three kinds of resins and finely ground seashell powder."

She stood up, brushed the debris off her hands, and glanced at the smooth, flat bottom of the boat.

"This stuff, when applied to the bottom of the boat, not only prevents insect infestation and seawater erosion, but most importantly, it makes the bottom of the boat exceptionally smooth, reducing water resistance by at least 10%."

She paused here, her gaze becoming somewhat complicated.

"On shallow waters, this coating allows their boats to glide faster and less likely to run aground, as if they were oiled."

Several experienced workers gasped in shock upon hearing this.

They were all shipbuilders who had spent their lives building ships, but this method was unheard of.

"Damn it, these pirates are actually quite skilled!" an old craftsman couldn't help but curse.

Shang Wanqing didn't say anything; she simply turned around and walked towards the dock not far away.

"Madam Shang, where are you going?"

"Back to the dock." Shang Wanqing didn't even turn her head; her voice drifted over on the night wind, carrying an undeniable resolve.

"If we could make this too, my Clippers could be another 50% faster."

After she finished speaking, her figure disappeared into the brightly lit, huge doorway of the shipyard.

As night fell, the clanging and hammering sounds rang out again in the docks of Quanzhou Port, more frequent and urgent than ever before.

A new storm is quietly brewing in this seemingly calm harbor.