One Piece Gunslinger

"So what about our Revolutionary Army and the Celestial Dragons? They also have a conflict of interests. They want to oppress us to gain benefits, but we don't want to be oppressed. Their gain means our loss, so there is conflict, revolution, and war."

It's unclear how much of Jack's explanation the two of them truly grasped. However, the explanation was clear enough; now it's up to them to slowly understand and comprehend it. These things are more easily understood than explained.

Chapter Ninety-One: Slipped Away

The deafening roar of artillery fire echoed in waves, each booming sound claiming countless lives. Seeing that the enemy was paying a heavy price even to close the distance, Hardman should still hold the advantage.

However, Hardman was not happy at all; instead, his face turned ashen and his brows were furrowed.

The reason was that, through observing Yuri and his group's route, Hardman clearly knew that it matched the reef marked on the nautical chart exactly. In other words, Francis went to sea but made no contribution whatsoever; he died before he even got started.

What is this indicating?

Firstly, this shows that the enemy can still advance using the nautical chart. Once they reach firing range, Hardman's advantage will disappear, while Yuri's side, having gathered the forces and manpower of the three major gangs, will suffer heavy losses. Once they reach a range where both sides can fire at each other, Yuri's firepower will not be inferior to Hardman's.

This means that whether Hardman can win is now uncertain. If Jack were to harbor malicious intentions and betray Hardman at this point, then Hardman's defeat would be a foregone conclusion.

The only thing that gave Hardman some comfort was that Jack was still bombarding Yuri's ships alongside him and was still following Hardman's orders.

If Jack were truly of one mind with him, they could still win this battle. However, Hardman was unaware that Jack had actually betrayed him from the very beginning and was simply using Hardman to incite conflict between the two families, forcing both sides to fight on a battlefield that was disadvantageous to them.

Secondly, this also shows that Hardman's every move was under the surveillance of someone or some force. Otherwise, how could Francis have died so quickly after entering the water, without making any contribution?

Hardman was well aware of the nature of spies; they were impossible to eradicate completely, the only option being to prevent them from infiltrating higher levels. Even Jack had actually planted a spy within Hardman's inner circle, but that wasn't his doing, so we won't discuss that further.

Hardman had secretly observed his superiors and confidants, so it was practically impossible for him to have any spies around him.

It was precisely because Hardman was inherently suspicious and did not relax his surveillance of senior officials and those around him that he was able to know that General Hatton actually harbored ulterior motives and had his own ulterior motives.

However, Francis's death still made Hardman wonder who was hiding so deeply.

Thirdly, the people monitoring Hadman not only had to be deep in the water and well hidden, but they also had to be incredibly capable. Whether they were commanding sea monsters or personally going into the water to fight, they had to possess a certain level of underwater combat ability.

When it comes to naval warfare, Hardman is undoubtedly an expert. Even those who aren't experts understand this principle: if one side possesses the capability for underwater warfare while the other doesn't, that's a huge advantage. And now, this hidden enemy possesses that capability.

However, Hardman doesn't have the time or the inclination to think about these issues in detail right now, so he can only put them aside for the time being and deal with the troublesome problem at hand first.

As time went on, Yuri and his men sacrificed many lives to finally clear this path of death and bring it within Yuri's firing range.

Although they were still suppressed in terms of firepower, as more and more ships entered the firing range, Hardman's firepower advantage gradually diminished, and Hardman's ships began to suffer varying degrees of damage.

Even Jack's few warships, which were a size smaller than the standard ships of Hadman, were hit by several cannonballs.

However, Jack was a skilled marksman and managed to shoot the cannonballs that were about to hit the ship in mid-air, thus preventing any serious damage.

Jack's smaller ships were not comparable to Hardman and Yuri's main warships; a few hits from them might have been enough to destroy them.

After blowing up those shells, Jack was still indignant, saying, "They said they wouldn't attack friendly forces, they said they would avoid us. These guys really don't keep their promises. I even reminded them of Hardman's plan and gave them the nautical chart."

That's incredibly shameless. You were the one who attacked first! Besides, in this darkness, who can even see who you are? You'd just shoot any ship you see, wouldn't you? And that so-called warning was completely malicious. It's because of Jack's warning that the two sides are now locked in a fierce battle.

Meanwhile, Hardman continued to direct the fleet in bombardment. Seeing that his advantage was diminishing and about to disappear, he immediately ordered the abandonment of the first line of defense and a retreat to hold the second line.

Hardman originally thought that this first line of defense could hold out for a long time, and that it was even very likely that they would not need to retreat a single step until the very end, and that they could steadily wipe out all the enemy forces here.

However, due to Francis's early departure and Yuri and others obtaining the sea chart, the first line of defense fell far short of Hardman's expectations.

Francis made no contribution, but this mysterious and unpredictable reef was a powerful weapon at night. Even if the terrain and the nautical chart remained the same, once the battle lines were stretched out and the situation became chaotic, who would be able to see which five ships had initially struck the reef? Yuri would then pay a price.

After Hardman gave the order, the ships began to move, gradually disengaging from the first line of battle and retreating to the second line of battle.

Jack had been waiting for this moment. After waiting for so long, he finally got Hardman to order a transfer. Otherwise, Jack would have been a little hesitant in the face of Yuri's increasingly intense artillery fire.

Jack pretended to cooperate, doing whatever Hardman said, and retreated in a pretense, following the battle plan that Hardman had previously explained to him.

It must be said that Jack's ship is a size smaller, which puts him at a disadvantage in direct combat, but it is much better at escaping.

Jack didn't stand on ceremony and dashed off, getting ahead of Hardman's fleet.

Hardman didn't pay much attention to this anomaly, since Jack's ship was light and running ahead of the capital ships, which was perfectly understandable.

Little did anyone know, Jack's move was premeditated. He had even calculated that he would be faster than Hardman when it came time to escape.

As Jack ran faster and farther, eventually falling completely behind, even the slow-witted Hardman couldn't help but notice something was wrong.

Just as Hardman sensed something was wrong, he suddenly stumbled and almost fell to the ground.

Chapter Ninety-Two Misunderstanding

If someone as battle-hardened, physically strong, and highly skilled as Hardman stumbled so suddenly, how could the others possibly fare any better? On the spot, many soldiers fell flat on their faces and crashed to the ground.

It turned out that the ship Hardman was on suddenly came to a complete stop, shuddering violently. Just like a sudden hard brake, the others, due to inertia, naturally tumbled over.

Hardman immediately shouted, "What exactly happened?"

A moment later, someone replied to him: "Report, it seems we've run aground."

"Run aground? How could that be? There aren't many reefs around here at all." Hardman asked incredulously. "We've practiced here several times, running back and forth countless times, always managing to avoid the reefs. How could we possibly run aground?"

Indeed, as Hardman said, he had been preparing for this war for a long time, and he knew this sea area like the back of his hand. He had memorized the nautical charts, and he remembered clearly where the reefs were and where it was safe. It was impossible for Hardman to make the slightest mistake.

As the saying goes, good fortune never comes in pairs, but misfortunes never come singly. Just then, Hardman received a series of bad news.

"Report, Ship No. 2 has stopped. Upon inspection, it was found that Ship No. 2's hull was damaged by a reef and repairs are underway."

"Report: Ship No. 3 has run aground and been forced to stop. The hull has been damaged."

"Report, Ship No. 4..."

……

After a series of reports, Hardman's heart sank further and further. When he finally confirmed that all of his capital ships, a total of 22, had run aground, he almost fainted.

"How is that possible? How could every single ship have run aground? Not to mention that we've already traveled back and forth here many times, there simply aren't that many reefs here. There aren't even twenty-two reefs in the entire area."

"This is impossible, impossible, impossible, no..."

Then Hardman remembered something, and seeing that Jack had already run quite a distance and showed no sign of stopping, he asked, "Where's Jack? Didn't Jack avoid hitting the reef? Which route did they take? Let's follow them."

Then someone said, "They didn't take any special route. In fact, Ship 15 was sailing along the same route as Jack's ship, but Ship 15 still managed to get out of control."

"What?!" Hardman exclaimed, his face filled with disbelief. "How is this possible! He didn't run aground, but the ship number 15 following behind him did."

At this moment, Hardman realized something and asked in an unquestionable manner, "Report again on the damage to all the ships."

The soldiers who had just reported, though they did not understand Hardman's intentions, still carried out Hardman's orders conscientiously.

"Report, Ship No. 2 has stopped. Upon inspection, it was found that Ship No. 2's hull was damaged by a reef and repairs are underway."

"Report: Ship No. 3 has run aground and been forced to stop. The hull has been damaged."

"Report: Ship No. 4 has run aground on a reef. The damage is not serious and repairs are underway."

"Report, Ship No. 5..."

"Stop, stop!" Hardman shouted, clutching his chest. "Boat bottom, boat bottom, boat bottom. All I can hear is 'boat bottom.' Jack, Jack!"

This is a detail that is very easy to overlook, and it has been mentioned many times before. Jack's ship is one size smaller than Hardman's, which means that its combat power is lower than Hardman's ships, but its speed is faster. And at this point, it also means that its waterline is lower than Hardman's ships.

In other words, Jack avoided the disadvantages of having a small boat and few people, and made full use of all the advantages he could, which could not even be called advantages, but rather characteristics.

After Sergei ate the Devil Fruit, Haku led him to lay this screening reef in the retreat area. Jack's ship was small and had a low draft, so it could just navigate over the reef, while Hardman's ship could not, resulting in its hull hitting the reef and breaking.

From the moment Francis was pulled ashore until all the other ships ran aground and Jack sailed away, only a little over an hour had passed.

In that short hour or so, Hardman experienced what it felt like to be on a roller coaster; his fortunes plummeted like a dive, plummeting from the peak to the bottom in an instant. His feelings at that moment were probably like those stock market investors who went to the rooftop, betting their entire fortune only to lose it all in a short time.

However, Hardman is still Hardman after all. He quickly rallied his spirits and remembered Francis, who had become a headless corpse.

Because in Hardman's mind, only Francis's Devil Fruit ability could accomplish such a feat, creating numerous reefs out of thin air on the seabed.

However, Hardman had already examined Francis's headless body when it was pulled up. Even without a head, based on his years of experience living with Francis, Hardman was able to confirm from the various details on the body that it was indeed Francis's body and could not be faked.

After all, sometimes the people you spend every day with understand you better than yourself, especially in certain details.

So even if Francis betrayed Hardman behind his back and then fabricated a scene where the body was already decapitated, Hardman would still be able to tell the difference between the real and fake corpse.

"Eliminate all the impossible, and what remains, however improbable, is the truth."

This is a famous quote spoken by Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Although there is no Conan Doyle or Sherlock Holmes in this world, the principles are the same, and Hardman, being a smart man, quickly figured out this "truth".

"It was Francis who did it. It's hard to believe, but it must have been Francis," Hardman thought bitterly.

"Francis betrayed me, and even the World Government. He helped Jack accomplish all of this. Moreover, he was essentially a spy planted by Jack, and Jack was watching my every move. I never expected that Francis, whom I always thought was loyal, was actually loyal to Jack, even willing to sacrifice his life and use his corpse to mislead me and make me make the wrong judgment. Unbelievable, truly unbelievable."

However, the truth is not what Hardman speculated. If Francis could know this from beyond the grave, he would probably jump up and cry foul. And this misunderstanding may only be cleared up when Hardman goes down to find Francis.

Chapter Ninety-Three: A Chance Encounter

Regardless of what Hardman might have misunderstood, the primary problem facing him was the approaching gang fleet. Those gangsters were mostly clueless; if you can run, I'll chase you.

However, due to Yuri and his men's lack of familiarity with the terrain, Hardman managed to pull ahead a little further and failed to achieve his goal of retreating to the second line of defense. He barely managed to establish a 1.5 line of defense.

There was no other way; the road ahead was now riddled with hidden reefs laid out by Jack, effectively trapping Hardman's fleet. They were trapped, unable to escape. They could only slowly deploy their formation and wait for the gang's fleet to advance.

Hardman stood in the broadcasting room, using the Den Den Mushi to address all the ships and all the crew members.

"My men, we've reached a dead end. Our path ahead is blocked, and we're being chased by wolves. Our only hope for survival is to lean against a cliff and kill the wolves. I know that apart from our weapons and equipment, we have nothing that can match those wolves. But we are one, we are of one mind, while their cooperation is only temporary, and internal conflicts exist within them. Their alliance won't last long. Our hope lies here. Let's work together now, win or lose, this is our final battle."

Yuri, who had been pursuing them, saw that Hadman had stopped and regrouped in the distance. He thought to himself, "Is this Hadman's second line of defense? The first part of the road hasn't been altered, but I'll have to be careful on this part too."

Thinking it over, they decided to follow the same procedure as the first time, sending out the unarmed scout ship commando team first. Just as Hardman had said, the relationships between these gangs were not entirely harmonious.

Take these suicide squads as an example. They are basically drawn from small gangs and factions. If you asked people from the three major gangs to be these scouts, the three leaders would definitely not agree. Only these small fry, who have no say, are used as the troops to be sent to their deaths.

Even if all these suicide squad members were wiped out in the end, it wouldn't be a big loss for the three major gangs. Their main forces would still be there, and their combat effectiveness would not be damaged at all. On the contrary, they would use these low-strength cannon fodder to successfully wear down Hardman's advantage.

Yuri was unaware that Hardman's actions were a desperate measure, devoid of any real schemes or tricks, driven solely by a do-or-die spirit. If he hadn't engaged in these charades and had simply charged forward headlong, Hardman would have been the first to crumble.

Who told Jack to cut off their escape route? He forced them into a do-or-die situation.

At Hardman's command, the intense roar of cannons erupted once more. People are driven by necessity; fueled by this do-or-die mentality, every soldier operating the cannon became an elite. Normally, loading a shell, aiming, and firing might take a minute, but now these men cooperated like twins, their movements fluid, seamless, and perfectly synchronized. Their hand movements quickened, their steps became more steady, and they managed to shorten the firing interval by more than ten seconds.

It's important to understand that this achievement is very close to that of an elite artilleryman. Normally, only a few dozen people can reach this level, but now everyone is an elite artilleryman.

Yuri on the other side was clearly stunned by the series of shots fired in quick succession. What the hell? Everything was fine just now, but now the interval between the shells has suddenly shortened so much. Was he kidding me? This doesn't make sense.

No matter how dense or fierce Hardman's artillery fire was, they still had to charge. When the scout ships had gone far ahead, apart from those that had been sunk, the others were all safe and sound; not a single ship had run aground. Yuri was dumbfounded again.

"Where are all the reefs in this area? They've all disappeared? It can't be that we were just lucky and didn't encounter any. What is Hardman up to now?" Yuri couldn't help but think.