Stealing the Ships!

Wulu was using those life-saving ships as bait to lure them into an attack, intending to smash every squad that came and cut down every hundred that stepped forward. "No rush. Wait a bit longer." He Lingchuan poured himself a cup of hot tea and drank it slowly, taking ten sips to finish it. As everyone watched with bated breath, He Lingchuan set down his teacup and finally nodded. "Weigh anchor. All forces, advance!" The massive fleet doused all lights and advanced toward land under cover of darkness and thick fog. After sailing ten li, thirty large vessels broke off from the fleet and headed toward Luting Beach to extract the Bailong refugees, while the rest closed in on Storm Bay at full speed! If there had been any other choice, He Lingchuan would never have chosen to land at Storm Bay—it was right under the enemy's nose. Yet constrained by the peninsula's terrain, the fleet could find no better landing site. Storm Bay was the only bay capable of accommodating so many sea vessels landing simultaneously; everywhere else was studded with jagged reefs where even small boats would struggle to navigate. Thus, the first obstacle of this operation was the Yangshan Guard's beach assault. The enemy wasn't blind. Even cloaked by the heavy fog, with so many ships and such massive commotion, how could they hit the beach while minimizing casualties? He Lingchuan had already realized that Wulu did not believe the enemy had any naval reinforcements left—or that even if any arrived, they would be negligible. After all, Blade Harbor, the nearest major port, didn't even have enough cargo ships for its own needs, and by any reckoning, there were no stronger armed forces anywhere in the vicinity. When leading troops in battle, one couldn't plan around such implausible, low-probability events. Therefore, the Ya troops had deployed their main force before Luting Beach, decisively cutting off any possibility of Lu Qingbang and the Bailong charging over to seize the ships. Although numbering under seventeen hundred, the Bailong warriors fought with terrifying ferocity when backed into a corner. Wulu had to devote his full attention to keeping them suppressed, inevitably thinning his defenses at Storm Bay to just five hundred men guarding the vessels. Five hundred men was by no means a small number. If Lu Qingbang and Moqi Tong sent small infiltrator squads to steal the ships, they would first have to get past those five hundred defenders. Wulu's troop deployment was entirely sound. *** Wulu had secured an excellent vantage point for himself. While not on the highest peak, it overlooked most of Storm Bay and the entirety of Luting Beach. The latest reports from Luting Beach reached him in real time. Though the Bailong were renowned for their martial prowess, the tenacity they displayed today still exceeded his expectations. Ten shichen! These stray dogs of Bailong had actually held out on the disadvantageous terrain of Luting Beach for ten full shichen! A hopeless battle was the surest way to wear down an army's morale. Why hadn't the Bailong's will broken yet? He had considered whether being cornered like trapped beasts had backfired by stoking their fighting spirit. Because of that, he had deliberately ordered his Ya forces to feign an opening—a flaw—hoping the Bailong would seize the chance to break out. If there was a way out, they wouldn't fight like trapped beasts anymore, and their unity would fray. Yet the Bailong had refused to take the bait! Was it because of the Bailie elite troops led by Lu Qingbang? The thought flashed through Wulu's mind for barely a second before he dismissed it. He had never personally tangled with Bailie forces, but everyone in the Ya Kingdom knew their standard. If he subdued the Bailong today, Lu Qingbang and his few hundred Bailie men would just be an added bonus. After all, few in the Lu family could actually fight. Clearing away an obstacle on the Ya Kingdom's western front along the way would simply be another merit to his name. Soon, a dispatch arrived from the front line: According to prisoners, Young Chieftain Moqi Tong and Lu Qingbang had been encouraging everyone with promises that reinforcements from the west would arrive shortly! Reinforcements? Wulu bared his teeth in a smirk, though he didn't laugh aloud. Bailie had already arranged ships in Storm Bay to receive the Bailong, so would it really be surprising if they had prepared an extra card up their sleeve? Even if reinforcements existed, how soon could they arrive, and in what numbers? After a moment's thought, he raised a hand to summon down a golden eagle, ordering it to expand its patrol perimeter and thoroughly search the surrounding waters for anything unusual. Fog was now rising over the sea, severely limiting visibility. However, this golden eagle possessed discerning golden eyes; though it couldn't pierce the fog completely, its visual range was several times greater than a normal person's. Where an ordinary person might only see ten zhang through such thick fog, it could see thirty-five or thirty-six zhang. Before Wulu could finish assigning its tasks, fresh intelligence arrived: Bailong were trying to seize ships in Storm Bay again! Why "again"? Moqi Tong had previously sent two infiltration teams to seize ships in Storm Bay, and both had been repulsed. Now that Moqi Tong was critically wounded, the Bailong still hadn't given up and wanted to try once more? Wulu didn't take it to heart at first, intending to casually order the shore guards to execute the intruders. To his shock, the dispatch runner's next words were: "Three large vessels have been sailed away! Ah—four vessels!" Wulu was stunned. He rushed to the edge of the cliff to look down, but waves of milky-white fog happened to surge toward the shore, shrouding everything in Storm Bay. An army's origin power could see through celestial phenomena created by supernatural techniques, but origin power was useless against a natural phenomenon of heaven and earth like sea fog. Thus, Wulu had no choice but to pull out a cylindrical scope and hold it before his eyes. This cylindrical scope not only possessed magnification and telescope functions, but could also see through dense fog, illusions, miasma, and the like. It was an invaluable asset for military campaigns, which Wulu had acquired by chance in a past battle. With the aid of this magic artifact, he could see three large ships in the bay already pulling away from the shore, while a fourth was turning its bow to head out to sea. How was this possible?! His five hundred guards stationed in Storm Bay hadn't been attacked, as he could see them running along the shoals holding torches. There was only a single, long-abandoned pier here. Most of the large vessels had deep drafts and couldn't dock, forcing them to anchor in the bay. To be safe, he had even left men aboard every large ship to guard them, preventing Bailie infiltrators from sneaking aboard and sailing them off. Were all the guards on the ships dead? He adjusted the scope to zoom in, only to discover that the four fleeing ships had people at their bows and sterns—alongside strange creatures. They resembled giant pythons or giant moray eels, but had shoulders and four arms. Jet-black, with a few bearing white stripes, they were larger than humans. What kind of damned creatures were those? Looking closer at the living people scurrying about the decks, they indeed bore the features of Bailong people, several even sporting their signature loose braids. Had the Bailong in Storm Bay sneaked across and finally succeeded in stealing the ships with the help of these monsters? Were these monsters the "reinforcements" Lu Qingbang had spoken of? Right before his eyes, two more large vessels were stolen. This time, he finally saw clearly how they were operating. The snake-men did not come from the land pier; instead, they popped their heads straight out of the sea and scaled the hulls up to the decks. They moved just like snakes, truly epitomizing what it meant to slither and glide. The angles of the hulls posed no obstacle to them whatsoever. Clinging to each snake-man were three or four humans. It seemed these monsters possessed astonishing strength as well. They slipped onto the ships from the blind spots of the guards on the pier and vessels, launched swift assaults, and seized control of the ships in the blink of an eye.