Chapter 242: Weeping Pine Naval Battle - Part 1
The Iron Lump’s captain’s room.
After Cang Xu boarded the Iron Lump, the first thing he did was to contact the dragonman youngster to alter the battle plan.
Cang Xu had an enormous gain from this undead gathering.
He didn’t want to execute the prior plan.
In the previous plan, the battlefield would be near Weeping Pine Island.
“If battle takes place here, the undead gathering will be held at the different place and time, they might even exclude me, a significant loss.”
“In the short term, this kind of gathering is valuable, it cannot be replaced!”
With this opinion in mind, he activated the alchemy communication device.
Upon activation, the dragonman youngster transmitted, “Cang Xu, you finally appeared!”
“The situation has changed, we have discovered a large group of pirates. They are headed straight for Weeping Pine Island, stall as long as possible, we are rushing over at top speed to provide assistance!”
The transmission shocked Cang Xu.
A group of pirates suddenly appearing had upended his original plan and had also prevented him from changing to a new one.
Cang Xu thought of Ku Feng’s words – “if nothing unexpected happened, a year later, it would be at the same time and place.”
“As expected, the unexpected happens often.” Cang Xu bitterly laughed.
The dragonman youngster continued to give him information, “This group of pirates are our old friends.”
“All of them were pirate groups involved in the battle for Two Eyes Island. The Stench Pirates, the Applaud Pirates, and the Lighting Pirates.”
“All of their ships are covered in camouflage magic and were concealed from the Deep Sea Monster Fish’s detection for some time.”
“If you were just relying on your own detection methods, you wouldn’t have noticed the pirate ships.”
“Maybe we can make use of this.”
“In short, please procrastinate as much as possible until we arrive.”
“Zong Ge has suggested that you can abandon ship and go onto the island, flee into the pine forest and fight for time.”
Cang Xu became heavy, and he took a deep breath, “All three pirate groups are silver level, but I don’t want to abandon the Iron Lump before the battle starts!”
The dragonman youngster was silent for a moment, “Everything will stem from your decision, Cang Xu. I trust you.”
“I understand, Lord Commander.” Cang xu severed the communication.
The dragonman youngster trusted Cang Xu and had given him full authority to handle it.
Similarly, the necromancer also trusted the dragonman youngster completely, he didn’t doubt the dragonman youngster would support him with all he had!
According to common sense, retreating to the island was the dependable option.
But because of this trust, Cang Xu decided to take a risk.
“Running away before battle and surrendering the Iron Lump without resistance is inappropriate.”
“A large amount of people going into the pine forest will be very difficult to conceal, I am not good at that kind of magic, nor is Qing Xin.”
“If we abandon these dwarfs, then the dwarfs will be massacred by pirates or the undead, how will Men Shi react?”
“If I abandon those humans, what will Qing Xin think in the future?”
“Calm, keep calm, I can ponder over the best strategy.”
Cang Xu was inevitably nervous.
The enemy was too strong.
And their side was too weak.
Cang Xu was only an iron level, and with the fire path rings, he could only pretend to be a silver level for a short time.
Deceptive Disguise and the other spells could not amplify his military might.
When he fought the summoner Ya Ma on Two Eyes Island, this became apparent.
Qing Xin was actually the strongest person on the Iron Lump.
But she had barely any equipment, despite the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps doing their best to make up for that deficiency.
What made Cang Xu most worried was that they only had one ship.
The Iron Lump was a bronze level magic ship, but its maritime military strength was very low.
Because they didn’t have suitable sailors, and after the battle for Two Eyes Island, the Iron Lump had left the island without getting the chance to repair the cannons and other parts.
The Iron Lump was essentially a cruise ship.
“In an open battle, the Iron Lump will be crushed!”
“The swordsmen guards on board can be relied on, but they can only be effective when we are boarded.”
“If this kind of battle happens, the humans and dwarfs on board will suffer disastrous casualties.”
Cang Xu really wanted to prevent this situation.
Cang Xu tightly scowled, and felt puzzled, “Why did these pirates group unite and head towards Weeping Pine Island?”
“This island has pine trees everywhere but lacks common resources.”
“To cause pirates to band together, it must be a major interest. What can it be?”
“If the empire had dispatched troops to encircle and annihilate the undead gathering, then that would be expected. How come pirates came?”
Cang Xu had limited information.
After thinking deeply, he had a feeling, “The pirates might be following me.”
“I exposed myself on Two Eyes Island, outsiders know I purchased many good things from the auction.”
“Although I seized the Iron Lump, its naval battle capabilities is very limited, and not worth it to these pirate groups.”
“Therefore, they might not know there was an undead gathering being held here!”
“Can I take advantage of this though?”
Cang Xu was not the dragonman youngster, he wasn’t strong enough to fight them all alone.”
Cang Xu wasn’t Zong Ge either, he couldn’t lead troops and didn’t have an uncompromising nature for battle.
Cang Xu was himself.
He had a magician’s calmness and had the vicissitudes and the experience of the old, he had served as a noble steward for many years, and he had been very good at it.
He had outstanding communication skills and political acumen.
Everyone handled the same problem differently.
Zong Ge proposed that he abandon the Iron Lump and travel further into Weeping Pine Island, using space to obtain more time, it was a military strategy.
Cang Xu decided to use a political stratagem.
He moved his brain, imagining, “Can I use the people from the undead gathering?”
“How can I exploit them without making them disgusted with me and make it possible for me to continuing participating in this undead gathering?”
After a few seconds of hurried pondering, Cang Xu immediately acted.
He first gave the order to set sail, then informed Qing Xin that his ghosts detected a pirate attack.
After that, he used an alchemy communication device to connect to the other necromancers.
Fortunately, the necromancers hadn’t teleported to other islands with the Eulogy Tombstone yet.
But Cang Xu didn’t offer a high price, he was asking for help.
He informed them of the urgent military situation.
“These people might have followed the Iron Lump all the way here.”
“If this is true, I will find the opportunity to compensate everyone for this in the future.”
“So sorry for bringing trouble to everyone.”
“I have already set sail and look forward to seeing you next time!”
Cang Xu didn’t provide any help, instead after giving a warning, he immediately retreated.
The Iron Lump became chaotic.
After Qing Xin was informed by Cang Xu, she instantly unlocked the ship cabins, allowing the humans and dwarfs to move freely.
Qing Xin spoke forthrightly about the situation and hoped that everyone would work together to cross this crisis.
The humans and dwarfs didn’t want to fall into pirate hands either, and although they didn’t trust the necromancer, in this cruel situation, they were in this together, for better or worse.
Cang Xu promised to everyone that he and Qing Xin were friends. Although he was a necromancer, he would never slaughter living beings, and after getting through this crisis, he would set everyone free.
Despite encouraging everyone, unfortunately none of the humans on board were able to steer the ship.
The dwarfs came from the same clan and had always lived on a mountain.
The humans were also from inland areas and had scant chances to sail ships.
The dwarfs still had the star iron hand axes, and if boarding actions took place, they could fight.
The Iron Lump set out and left its berthing.
It moved to the western side of Weeping Pine Island.
The reason why they were moving this direction was because the dragonman youngster had given Cang Xu information.
The three silver level pirate groups weren’t all coming in from the same direction.
The Applaud Pirates were coming in from the north east, the Stench Pirate from the east, and the Lighting Pirates were approaching from the south east.
This military deployment had an obvious opening to the west.
Therefore, from being berthed on Weeping Pine Island’s eastern shore, the Iron Lump’s best route was winding around the island and going west of the island to make it more likely to break out o the pirates’ encirclement.
The Applaud Pirates’ new commander Bei Xiang was on top of the ship’s bow, holding a telescope and watching where the Iron Lump was moving towards.
He immediately said, “Not good, the target is escaping.”
“It seems our opponent is not simple; they can at least see through our camouflage!”
“Damn it, you can’t just let me rob you.”
Bei Xiang scratched his back.
He knew this would be a crucial battle for him.
Because he had just ascended to leadership and needed this victory and its generous spoils of war to stabilize his authority.
He quickly shouted, “Top speed, chase them down!”
The new first made hurried to ask for instructions, “Commander, do we need to use the battle squad?”
Bei Xiang hesitated, then waved his hand in refusal, “It is too early to use it now, don’t separate the flagship from the fleet rashly. The target is nothing to worry about, but we need to be on guard against the other pirates.”
Although the pirate groups had reached a temporary alliance, they were vigilant against each other.
Meanwhile, in the Lightning Pirates’ fleet, Dian Wan also discovered the Iron Lump was moving abnormally.
He raised his head and laughed, appearing very confident, “Based on the Iron Lump’s speed, how can you escape? Hehehe.”
To the east, in the Stench Pirates’ fleet, Yang Cong Tou narrowed his eyes, his heart still worried, “It would be best to adopt a blitzkrieg strategy. If we delay any further, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps will notice, and they’ll stir things up terribly!”
“Perhaps my worries are superfluous, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps is a bit tactful, they won’t oppose an alliance of three silver level pirate groups.”
When the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps discovered the three pirate fleets, the pirates had already found them first.
They had been in the battle for Two Eyes Island, and although they hadn’t fought the dragonman youngster personally, they could see this mercenary corps was very strong.
The pirates sought riches and wouldn’t fight the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps to the death.
Therefore, they took the long way to avoid the island the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps stopped at.