Section 14: Escaping from Death

  Zhong Fu saw the long-awaited signal! A red lantern rose unobtrusively from the top of a large reef rock behind, gently swaying back and forth.

  "Old Second Brother, signal! The signal has arrived!" Zhong Fu excitedly shouted, he and the brothers on the boat wanted to fire a few more cannons at the red-haired ship. Seeing the opponent being beaten without being able to fight back was undoubtedly an exciting thing.

  "Damn it! I saw it, everyone get to work, row! Try to get as close as possible to that red-haired ship on fire!" Jin Lao'er knew the implication behind the lantern's appearance - Mao Si Lao Da was going to take the water ghosts to blow up the red-haired ship! Because, relying on the small cannon on their own ship, it was impossible to eliminate the six main warships of the Red Hair Gang before dawn. And under current conditions, the risk of blowing up the ship was too great, Mao Si Lao Da and the Water Ghost brothers were likely to be killed! So, Jin Lao'er, who was extremely uneasy in his heart, pushed back the excited Zhong Fu. "This kid is simply an idiot! He only knows how to fire cannons for fun, he doesn't even know that his own boss is almost gone?! No way, I can't just stand by and do nothing! What should I do? Besides trying to attract the attention of the foreigners, what else can be done?"

  Jin Lao Yao decided to go find his brothers who might be struggling on the sea surface as soon as he finished his task!

  Mao Si and Zhang Xiao Wu's boat, sheltered by a tall black reef rock, moved swiftly through the reefs under the powerful rowing of six other people. They had to take advantage of the gap that might appear in the red-haired fleet when several ships were dispatched to chase them, and move their small boat to the back of the foreigners before Jin Lao's cannon fired. After achieving this goal, the water ghosts would dive into the water, carrying zha medicine, approach the red-haired ship while the foreigners were paying attention to the front, fix the package of zha medicine on the side of the ship, and tear open the package wrapped in white phosphorus oil paper to complete their mission. As for whether they could return to the small boat, that would depend on the will of heaven!

  The "Pom-Pom" 75mm cannon let out a dull roar, sending the nearly 10kg long shell flying out, and a water column burst a few meters to the right of the "Kan-Kon" ship.

  "Alas! Missed!" Almost everyone was sighing, of course, except for Jin Lao'er who was in charge of aiming and Huang Tianxi who was busy opening the cannon gate, pulling out the shell, and loading the cannonball.

  Jin Lao Yao felt embarrassed, re-estimated the distance, and shook the altitude and direction machines. This time, it should be okay! The stupid red-haired ship still didn't react, if it didn't accelerate soon, it would be troublesome! At least this time, it was impossible to send it to feed the fish.

  "Fire!" Jin Lao shouted loudly. Another precious shell, with a loud noise, was fired as Huang Tianxi pulled the lanyard!

  About 5,000 meters away, the middle of "Kanconee" suddenly flashed brightly, followed by several small sparks flashing. About half a minute later, "Kanconee" suddenly emitted a dazzling white light, and a huge explosion sound reached the ears of the people on the boat shortly after.

  "Oh! Hit it! That ship is done for!" People involuntarily cheered up.

  "The Canberra" is indeed done for. It has broken in two amidships and is drifting helplessly on the surface, slowly sinking.

  All the red-haired ships have been stirred up, and from the first shot they began to move. Several ships are heading in the direction of Jin Lao's pontoon. The purpose is simple: to bite this ship that has made 5 sneak attacks, and then use dense shells to blow the ship and all the despicable yellow people on it into powder.

  "What the heck, what happened to 'Kankoni'?! Dammit, those despicable Chinese!" Sarici put down his monocular telescope, he couldn't figure out how a 500-ton displacement "Kankoni" could be split in two by just one cannonball, even if it had caught fire earlier! He didn't know that the pirates on board "Kankoni" had been forced to pile up the dangerous goods, including gunpowder and explosive shells, onto the relatively safe central deck in order to put out the big fire and prevent it from reaching the ammunition storage room.

  "Give the signal, let El Dorado go to rescue, other main battleships are not allowed to move, and let the two wing ships chase after them. This time we must get rid of that annoying thing!" Sarizi gave orders. He did not want to use his only five main battleships to chase after it, because he could no longer afford a loss like "Kan Koni". The target was too big, with a range 1000 yards less than the opponent's, in the dark reef group at night, using main battleships would be a foolish idea.

  The few capital ships that had just been launched into motion again hastily turned back to return to the formation. The capital ships can only exert their maximum firepower by forming a complete combat line! This is a common sense of war in the age of sail. So even if the captains could not buy new sails, they had to accept this order willingly.

  None of the Red Fleet noticed that when the main fleet left formation, a gap of about 1 nautical mile appeared between the main fleet and the auxiliary ship on the left wing. On a moonless night, a gap of 1 nautical mile was enough for a hundred-ton ship to pass through the formation. What's more, the task was carried out by a small boat, only 7 meters long and less than 1 meter wide!

  Ma Si and Zhang Xiao Wu exchanged a glance, both exhaling a long breath. The six people behind them also relaxed their tense nerves. If they had been discovered by even one foreign devil just now, the shells would have rained down on their heads immediately, and they really would have been torn to pieces! Everyone admired Ma Si very much, because earlier, he had grasped the best opportunity to order everyone to advance with all their might, completing the most critical crossing mission!

  Jin Lao Xiao started to get arrogant again, commanding his subordinates to row the boat with all their might while sneering at the few red-haired ships that were catching up. He didn't want to waste precious 75MM cannonballs on these small boats! Let's see who can outmaneuver whom! You Jin Lao Xiao, Old Man Jin, is the local snake here! After getting rid of you, we'll go after your big ship too! Bah! The main force of the enemy fleet is completely vulnerable to a single shot!

  Mao Si dove into the water, and the place where he dove was only a mile away from the main fleet of the Red Hair Gang. It was a reef submerged in seawater. The small anchor was dropped here, and then Zhang Xiao Wu and others also slipped into the water one after another. After seeing Mao Si point forward, each person quietly swam towards their respective targets. These heroes in the water used one hand to hold the poison package and quickly swam away.

  "It's really been a terrible day! We lost one of our main battleships this afternoon and another tonight." A scruffy pirate muttered under his breath, keeping his voice low enough that only the partner next to him could hear.

  "Who says it isn't? I saw the old man Rogelis flying out of Contiro." The dwarf pirate chimed in. Tonight was their most infuriating night, from around 12 o'clock on, that annoying little boat had been constantly coming over to fire cannons, escape, fire cannons, and escape! It kept the pirates who were busy all day from getting any rest. Then there was the miserable encounter with the "Cannone" which made the captains nervous, making everyone keep their eyes wide open, staring intently at the sea in the direction of Devil's Island, ready to fire as soon as there was any movement!

  So it was absolutely impossible to rest before dawn. For the Red Hair Pirates who had set sail four days ago, tonight was a test of willpower and physical limits.

  "Take a look around, I'm going to the starboard side to pee," said Huzi.

  "Oh! Masiris, you've already gone 6 times tonight!" The short guy teased his partner, but he knew that his partner was drinking a lot of water to stay awake, which made the number of times he went to pee exceed any other day. Wasn't he doing the same?

  Huzi Masiris ignored the ridicule of his companions and solved the problem. He half-closed his eyes, unbuttoned his pants, and a stream of urine gushed out. Unbeknownst to him, the water he released just happened to pour onto the head of a Chinese water ghost below the ship's hull.

  This extremely unlucky water ghost was none other than Zhang Xiaowu, who cursed the wicked ghost ninety-nine times, along with his ancestors for eighteen generations. He exerted all his strength to press the nail of the wooden frame under the medicine package against the wooden material on the side of the boat. He waited and waited for the foreign devil who urinated to leave.

  Ma Xi Li satisfiedly pulled up his pants, humming a little tune from who-knows-where as he returned to his post. Zhang Xiao Wu waited until the foreign devils had left before removing the oiled paper from the fuse head, and the white phosphorus ignited in the air with a "hiss" sound, turning into a bright flame that set off the black gunpowder in the fuse, which rapidly shortened towards the explosive pack.

  Zhang Xiaowu quickly dived into the water, his feet pushing off from the side of the Red-Haired Devil's boat and sliding out a good distance. He then stuck his head out of the water to take a breath before swimming further away.

  "Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble!"

  The continuous loud noise shocked the South China Sea in the dark night, and the huge power of 20 kilograms of explosives almost capsized the red-haired ship! The wooden structure of the sailboat could not withstand such a ravage, and it was torn apart, flying with countless broken limbs and bodies! In just a few short minutes, all five main ships of the Red Hair Gang were destroyed in the earth-shaking explosion! Sarizi, who had just taken over as the leader of the Red Hair Gang, also followed his predecessor to report to heaven.

  The remaining red-haired boat came to after a brief unconscious state, busy with rescue and search efforts! As experienced pirates, most of their ships were searching in the opposite direction of Devil's Island.

  Mao Si was discovered as he quickly swam to the small boat! At the same time, the small boat and the three brothers who had returned to the ship were also discovered. The red-haired devils poured explosive shells towards the small boat with anger and horror. In an instant, they smashed the small boat into powder, and the three people on board disappeared into the sea surface along with it!

  Mao Si lost consciousness after feeling a strong force pushing him hard!

  He was rapidly sinking down to a depth of over 100 meters under the sea.

  "Remember, your password is your birthday, 20030619, be sure to remember it!"

  "You're the Dragon God! You're the Dragon God! You're the Dragon God!"

  "Child, we will all be waiting for you, waiting for you to succeed in changing history!"

  "Ensign, about face! Target transmission room, double time, march!"

  "Xiao Si, you and Da Jie are in charge of guarding Bei Ya!"

  "Fourth brother, I, I'm waiting for you, you must come back!"

  One voice after another echoed in Mao's mind, desperately calling out to his consciousness, and stirring up the potential of humanity from within his body.

  Miraculously, Mao Si began to wake up from his coma and started to struggle upwards instinctively. Until, a few powerful hands firmly grasped him.