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

The night in Quanzhou Port is more bustling than ever before.

The battle at Crescent Bay had just ended, and the heavy smell of blood and burnt flesh in the sea breeze had not yet dissipated when Shang Wanqing's eighteen fast ships, like a flock of black falcons returning to their nest, patrolled the nearshore waters all night.

They were waiting, waiting to see if Ke Zhenchuan's fleet would launch a surprise attack.

But on the sea surface, there was nothing but undulating waves and a few charred planks.

It wasn't until the next morning, when the first light of dawn illuminated the sea and it was confirmed that the other side had not secretly turned back, that the eighteen fast ships, exhausted and still covered in gunpowder, slowly returned to the port.

The dock was already piled high with weapons captured from the mudflats. Rusty longswords, broken armor plates, and shattered crossbows stood like small mountains, silently telling the story of the fierce battle of the previous night.

The wreckage of several pirate troop transport ships that were forcibly dragged ashore was burned down to just charred keels, resembling several huge, twisted skeletons that looked particularly grotesque in the morning light.

Liu Jingshuang did not rest.

She dispersed all two thousand-plus prisoners and interrogated them overnight.

She didn't use any torture; she simply singled out the pirate leaders and veteran soldiers, locked them up in separate rooms, starved them, and deprived them of water.

Then they sent people to interrogate them one by one, asking the exact same questions.

How many people did Ke Zhenchuan leave on the island?

How much did the main force take? Where are the grain depots? Who is guarding them?

Most of the pirates were clueless or spouted nonsense. But some couldn't withstand the pressure.

A new statement was compiled and placed on Liu Jingshuang's desk at dawn.

"Ke Zhenchuan left only two thousand men on the island. This time, he sent out all his men, taking almost all of his main fighting force with him. What remained were the old, weak, sick, disabled, and newly recruited refugees, scattered across two adjacent small islands."

"The granary is still in that sheltered valley on the west side of the main island, and the garrison is less than five hundred men."

Looking at the numbers on the confession, Liu Jingshuang's eyes showed no joy, but instead became even colder.

She knew all too well what this meant. Ke Zhenchuan had staked everything on this battle; he could only win, not lose.

But he lost.

They suffered a complete and utter defeat.

She handed the statement to Shang Wanqing, who had just disembarked from the ship.

Shang Wanqing's face still bore the marks of gunpowder, and her eyes were bloodshot, but she was unusually excited.

After reading the statement, she simply gave a cold laugh.

"The people he can bring out this time are his last remaining assets."

Liu Jingshuang's voice was calm, as if stating a given fact: "After he withdraws, he will regroup, but the number of people he can use will only decrease."

She paused, then looked up at Shang Wanqing's incredibly bright eyes.

"The next time he comes, he'll either come back to gamble away the last bit of his wealth, or he'll never be able to come back again."

"Then let's not let him have a next time." Shang Wanqing slammed the statement on the table, her eyes revealing a kind of obsessive madness.

She stopped discussing tactics with Liu Jingshuang and instead turned and rushed towards her shipyard.

There, three speedboats were damaged in last night's fierce battle.

One ship had a half-foot-deep gash torn in its side by the long hooks of the pirate warships, while the other two had their rudders damaged in the collision.

"Three days!"

Shang Wan-qing pointed at the three damaged ships that had been towed into the dry dock and shouted at the shipwrights who had surrounded her:

"I don't care what methods you use, they must be repaired within three days! All the ships, refill the oil tanks, replenish the crossbow bolts, and reinforce the rams again!"

After a brief period of calm, the entire dock was once again filled with the urgent sound of hammering.

Shang Wanqing was busy in the dock, while Liu Jingshuang sat in the central command tent, staring at the huge nautical chart for an entire afternoon.

As evening fell, Shang Wanqing, covered in grease, rushed into Liu Jingshuang's command tent, holding a newly drawn blueprint in her hand.

"I have an idea." She spread out the drawings on the table, which were drawn in charcoal, showing the dense cluster of islands and shipping lanes near the Qiongzhou Strait.

"Next time, don't wait for him to come."

Shang Wanqing drew a heavy circle with her finger at the narrowest point of the Qiongzhou Strait: "I'll lead my fleet there to intercept him. Although he has many ships, this is the only deep-water channel he can use to exit the strait. My eighteen fast ships, divided into three squadrons, will harass him day and night. Even if he has extraordinary abilities, he won't be able to sail out safely!"

This idea is ruthless, bold, and even somewhat insane.

This is equivalent to escalating a passive defensive battle into an active annihilation battle.

Liu Jingshuang stared at the circled strait exit on the drawing, and at Shang Wanqing's eyes, which were sparkling with excitement, and fell silent.

She knew that Shang Wanqing was right.

With the Clippers' speed and mobility, waging a blockade in the narrow strait is indeed the best way to maximize their advantages.

But this also means that Shang Wanqing's eighteen ships will have to face the wrath of Ke Zhenchuan's entire fleet alone.

That will be a truly bloody battle to the death.

"Is your boat enough?" Liu Jingshuang asked the same question as last time.

"Not enough, but enough to trap him in his stronghold."

Shang Wanqing's answer was equally straightforward: "As long as we block him, we can starve him to death!"

Liu Jingshuang stopped speaking.

She stood up, walked to the desk, picked up her pen, and began writing an urgent report to the capital.

She wrote in detail about the day's battle, from how Shang Wanqing lured the enemy, to how she set up the ambush, to the final capture of more than two thousand people, and the entire process of Ke Zhenchuan's main force being severely weakened and fleeing in panic.

She paused for a long time at the end of the letter.

The lighthouse light outside the tent shone through the gaps in the tent, casting a bright beam on the nautical chart, which landed precisely on the waters representing the Qiongzhou Strait.

Liu Jingshuang's gaze fell on the circle that Shang Wanqing had drawn.

She picked up her pen and, with an unprecedentedly firm stroke, added her suggestions at the end of the letter.

"Ke Zhenchuan's strength has been severely damaged, and his main force is less than one-tenth of what it used to be. He will certainly not dare to launch another large-scale attack in the short term. This is a golden opportunity that comes once in a lifetime."

"I suggest that while they are in a state of retreat, we should act with swift and decisive force to eliminate the threat to the southeast once and for all!"

"Your Majesty, please grant permission for Shang Wanqing to lead eighteen fast ships northward immediately to block the northern entrance of the Qiongzhou Strait and cut off its escape route."

"I personally led my 20,000 cavalrymen southward along the land route from Quanzhou, reaching the north bank of Qiongzhou."

"We will encircle them by land and sea, laying a trap that stretches to the heavens. When their supplies are exhausted and their morale wavers, that will be the day I, Your Majesty, pacify the South China Sea and present you with Ke Zhenchuan's head!"

After writing, she blew on the letter to dry it and carefully sealed it in a wax-sealed envelope.

It was completely dark when she handed the letter to the messenger waiting outside the door.

The lighthouse in Quanzhou Port lit up in the twilight, its huge beam sweeping across the sea and illuminating the dark silhouettes of ships still undergoing emergency repairs overnight at the dock.