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

The next day at noon, the sky over the sea off Quanzhou was still clear, but the sea was shrouded in a huge shadow.

"They're here!"

On the flagship's mast, the lookout's voice, tinged with barely suppressed tension, carried on the sea breeze throughout the entire speedboat.

Shang Wanqing raised her monocular telescope at almost the same time.

The cold, copper lens barrel pressed against my eye socket, and inside the barrel, a dense patch of black dots appeared on the once clean line where the sea met the sky.

The black dots rapidly magnified in the field of vision, becoming one, two, ten... and finally, a massive, suffocating fleet.

Ke Zhenchuan's main force has arrived.

Shang Wanqing counted silently, her heart sinking little by little.

Fifty ships.

A total of fifty ships.

They are arranged in three rows, like three giant pythons swimming side by side in the sea.

At the very front were twenty tall and sturdy warships, with crossbow windows and rams faintly visible on both sides of the bow, exuding a menacing aura.

In the middle were twenty relatively short and stout troop transport ships, their decks packed with people, like a swarm of ants.

At the very back, ten ships were responsible for covering the rear, forming a well-organized and impenetrable formation.

When the fleet deployed on the open sea, it almost covered half of the water's surface. The oppressive feeling created by their sheer number swept over them with the sea breeze, making every new sailor on deck feel breathless.

"Ten more than I expected."

Shang Wanqing put down the binoculars, her voice not loud, but unusually calm.

She turned to her serious-looking deputy beside her: "Is the outside shooting team enough?"

The old captain, who had fought his way with her from the dock, nodded vigorously, his voice hoarse but firm: "Enough! It'll take them at least two hours to get behind us. Our ships are fast; we can keep up!"

"it is good."

Shang Wanqing said no more, but turned her head back and looked at the steel jungle that was slowly approaching.

Her eighteen fast boats had already been divided into three teams, like three groups of sharks waiting for their chance, silently sailing out from the hidden channels on both sides of Quanzhou Port.

She did not choose the foolish option of a head-on collision.

"Cut diagonally to the left front!"

With a sudden wave of her hand, Shang Wanqing led a commando team of six fast boats. The sails swung sharply, and the entire ship drew a beautiful yet deadly arc on the sea.

Instead of charging towards the enemy's strongest warship line, they moved like a sharp scalpel, skimming along the edge of the shallow water, and at an extremely tricky angle, fiercely slashed towards the weakest point on the left flank of Ke Zhenchuan's fleet—those twenty troop transport ships crammed together!

"Damn it! They want to shoot my troop transport ship!"

On Ke Zhenchuan's flagship, he saw through Shang Wanqing's intentions almost immediately.

This woman's fighting style was unlike any other naval commander he had ever seen; she was ruthless, cunning, and unpredictable.

"Turn to the left! Stop them!" Ke Zhenchuan's roar echoed across the flagship.

The order was quickly relayed, and the seven or eight warships on the left flank of the pirate fleet began to clumsily turn around, attempting to form a defensive line to block the black phantoms charging towards them.

But Shang Wanqing didn't give them that chance at all.

Just as the enemy's formation became slightly chaotic due to the shift in direction, she gave the order again.

"Turn right! Cut off their right flank!"

The six fast boats moved in perfect unison, almost skimming the surface of the sea as they completed their second turn. They abandoned the troop transport ship that was about to be captured, and once again drew an arc, circling around to the right of the Ke-Zhenchuan fleet.

Two consecutive large-scale maneuvers left Ke Zhenchuan's massive fleet like a bull being toyed with, clumsily spinning in circles.

They had many ships, and their ships were sturdy, but they were powerless against such a slippery opponent.

Ke Zhenchuan stood at the bow of the ship, looking at the black speedboats that were regrouping in the distance, his face so gloomy it could drip water.

He had fought in water battles for half his life, but had never been mocked like this before.

He finally realized that the other party never intended to fight him head-on; they were simply using this underhanded tactic to constantly dodge and wear him down, and to deplete his patience.

"Pass down the order! Ignore them!"

Ke Zhenchuan suppressed his anger and regained the composure and ruthlessness of a veteran general: "Maintain course, full speed ahead! Destination: Quanzhou Port!"

He figured it out: as long as his main force could rush into the port and get people ashore, those few annoying flies would no longer be able to cause any trouble.

The pirate fleet abandoned its pursuit, reorganized its somewhat scattered formation, and like a moving city wall, began to press straight towards Quanzhou Port.

Shang Wanqing stood at the bow of the boat, watching as the other party no longer fell for her tricks, a cold smile curling at the corner of her lips.

This is the moment she's been waiting for.

"The whole team, turn around!" Her voice rang out clearly in the sea breeze. "Attack from behind!"

The six speedboats accelerated again. This time, instead of pulling left and right, they pounced on Ke Zhenchuan's fleet from behind like a pack of hungry wolves that had smelled blood!

Their target was still not the thick-skinned warships, but the relatively empty gap between the warships and the rearguard fleet—the rear of the troop transport fleet!

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The moment the speedboat reached effective firing range, more than a dozen light crossbows, already cocked, fired simultaneously.

Hundreds of specially made short arrows drew a dense web of death in the air, not aimed at the people on the deck, but precisely covering the huge mainsail of one of the troop transport ships.

"Sizzle—"

With a deafening crash, the sail, billowing like a small mountain from the wind, was torn open with more than a dozen huge gashes, as if slashed by countless sharp knives at the same time.

The troop transport ship, having lost power, was like a giant with a broken leg; its hull suddenly came to a stop, and it began to spin uncontrollably in place.

The other ship following closely behind it couldn't dodge in time, and with a loud "boom," the two ships collided violently.

Chaos began to spread like a plague.

"Boss! They're attacking from behind! Our troop transport ships are entangled!"

On the flagship, Ke Zhenchuan was furious when he heard the report from the rear.

He slammed his fist against the gunwale, veins bulging on the back of his hand.

He was utterly enraged.

"Frontline! All frontline warships, turn around!"

He pointed at the black speedboats behind him that had hit and run, and roared hoarsely, "Forget about formations! Surround those boats! Ram them! I'll make that woman surnamed Shang feed the turtles to her boat and all!"

Shang Wanqing had been waiting for him to say those words.

Seeing that the enemy's twenty main warships had finally abandoned their escort mission and turned to pounce on her like a pack of enraged mad dogs, she showed no panic on her face. Instead, a glint of triumphant cunning flashed in her eyes.

"Disperse!"

She uttered only one word.

The six speedboats scattered in all directions like pebbles thrown into water, each fighting its own battle.

Instead of gathering together, they relied on their unparalleled speed and familiarity with the coastal terrain to plunge headlong into the shallow waters filled with reefs and swift currents.

Ke Zhenchuan's vanguard fleet chased to the edge of the shallow waters, but dared not take another step forward.

Their large, deep-draft ships, once they enter these deadly waters, will only end up running aground or hitting reefs.

They could only watch helplessly as the six black speedboats nimbly weaved through the reefs, as if strolling in their own backyard, and soon regrouped in the safe waters far away, confronting them from a distance.

The sea breeze blows, stirring up thousands of waves.

Ke Zhenchuan's fifty main fleet ships were completely outmaneuvered by a mere eighteen fast ships on the sea, which was still more than ten miles away from Quanzhou Port.

Before they had even reached the shore, or even seen Liu Jingshuang's eight thousand cavalry, their own formation had already been completely disrupted by their own men.