Chapter 622: Even the Heavenly Lord Was Speechless
The pirates burst into laughter at the sight of this hand grenade.
"They're throwing rocks at us."
"Hahahaha!"
"Can't hit us with their flintlock rifles, so now they're resorting to rocks?"
"And they didn't even pick a bigger one."
The pirates' laughter grew brazen.
However, at that very moment, another militia soldier produced a hand grenade.
This soldier was different. He was the "Gao Family Village First Militia Games Bronze Medalist in Throwing Events." Gao Chuwu had won gold, Zheng Daniu silver, and this fellow was the bronze medalist.
In the Gao Family Village Militia Games, winning a bronze medal was equivalent to an ordinary person winning gold.
The bronze medalist lit the fuse, tossed the hand grenade lightly in his hand, and bellowed with laughter at the brother who had thrown it askew earlier: "Watch closely! I'll show you how to throw a hand grenade!"
With that, he swung his right arm forward...
The hand grenade, its fuse spitting sparks, soared toward the lead pirate vessel.
It described a perfect arc, having even factored in the forward momentum of the pirate ship. It was incredibly precise, utterly flawless, landing squarely inside the vessel.
The five pirates on that ship were still roaring with laughter: "Hahaha, they threw a small rock at us, and missed..."
"Brother, why is this rock burning?"
"Is that a fuse on top?"
"Boom!"
The hand grenade answered their foolish yet adorable questions with a deafening blast.
All five pirates on board were simultaneously flung from the ship, plummeting into the murky river waters.
This sudden turn of events startled every pirate nearby.
Someone shrieked: "The rocks they're throwing explode!"
"Bloody hell, what in the devil is that?"
"It's gunpowder! Gunpowder charges!"
"Damn it, how can such things even exist?"
"Here comes another one!"
Another militia soldier hurled a fuse-lit hand grenade.
With a splash, it landed squarely on another pirate ship.
The six pirates on board screamed in terror.
One man reached out to snatch the grenade, hoping to toss it into the river before the fuse burned down. But no sooner had his hand grasped the explosive than the fuse sizzled to its end.
"Boom!"
The fool holding the grenade had his entire palm blown off, his chest riddled with several shrapnel fragments. His five companions nearby were simultaneously raked by shrapnel, and in the blink of an eye, the entire boatload of men had punched their tickets to the Underworld.
"Waaah! Waaah! Waaah!"
The pirates shrieked in disarray: "What kind of demonic weapons are they using?!"
Even 'Boat Flipper Dragon,' their leader, was somewhat stunned. Confronted with weapons beyond his comprehension, he was momentarily at a loss. It took him several dozen seconds to react: "Get closer! Get right up to them and board! They can't blow up their own ships!"
At this point, it was their only viable tactic.
The pirates desperately paddled their boats, eager to close the distance as quickly as possible.
However, they soon realized that the massive flat-bottomed boats were also rushing toward them with full force...
"A head-on collision? What's there to fear?!"
Small boats genuinely feared head-on clashes with larger vessels. Typically, in such encounters, smaller boats would rely on their agility to first pull away horizontally, evade the larger ship's direct charge, and then approach from the side.
The pirates quickly maneuvered their boats, attempting to pull away laterally.
But they immediately sensed something was wrong. The medium-sized flat-bottomed boat before them was incredibly fast, swifter even than their small sampans at full paddle.
It was so fast that the small sampans didn't even have a chance to pull away laterally.
"It's going to ram us! Argh!"
"Look out!"
The pirates on the small boats shrieked in agony.
A deafening "CRUNCH!" echoed as the small boat was struck and capsized in the river.
Five of the six pirates on board were thrown into the water. Only one, the most agile, standing at the bow, managed to leap forward with all his might and actually land on the flat-bottomed boat.
Alas, his valiant leap was utterly useless. Before his feet could even find purchase, five bayonets simultaneously plunged into his body.
The five militia soldiers simultaneously withdrew their bayonets, then kicked his corpse into the river.
The same grim fate befell more than just this one pirate vessel.
Several pirate ships, struck head-on by the flat-bottomed cargo vessels, suffered nearly identical ends. Either they capsized outright or were sent spinning helplessly on the water. The militia soldiers on the cargo ships seized the opportunity to attack, wiping out the pirates on board in the blink of an eye.
"From the flanks!"
"Approach from the side!"
"Throw the grappling hooks!"
The pirate ships maneuvered from the side, throwing grappling hooks to board. But the flat-bottomed boats' flanks were prime firing positions for the flintlock riflemen. "Bang! Bang! Bang!" went a volley of rifle fire, and the pirates attempting to approach from both sides fell en masse. The men throwing the grappling hooks, having exposed half their bodies, caught the most lead shot, instantly becoming riddled like sieves.
Then a militia soldier swung his saber, severing the rope trailing from a grappling hook, preventing the pirate's small boat from successfully drawing alongside for boarding.
"Fire arrows! Torches!" 'Boat Flipper Dragon' roared. "Burn their strange boats!"
The pirates had already prepared fire arrows—arrows with their tips wrapped in oil-soaked rags. When these struck an enemy ship, the rags would cling to the hull and burn, eventually starting a fire. Torches served the same purpose.
The pirates immediately sprang into action, unleashing all manner of "incendiary weapons" upon the flat-bottomed boats.
Yet, they quickly realized something was amiss.
A dedicated team on the flat-bottomed boats, remarkably, wasn't engaged in combat but solely tasked with firefighting. Wherever a fire arrow ignited, they appeared, and within a few blinks of an eye, the arrow was extinguished.
Once a blaze was contained, they would retreat from the fight, resuming their vigil for the next outbreak.
Such a degree of discipline was truly unprecedented.
The pirates collectively gasped, drawing in a sharp breath. "Who in the heavens are these people?"
They had clashed with all kinds of armed merchant ships and countless government troops, but they had never encountered such a well-drilled, composed, and utterly unassailable enemy. They were completely helpless against them.
The few flat-bottomed boats moved freely among hundreds of pirate sampans, like Zhao Zilong at Changban, charging in and out seven times, repeatedly clashing and inflicting such heavy losses that the pirates cried out for their mothers and fathers.
Bai Yuan stood on the bank of Hengshui Town, watching the battle unfold on the river, a peculiar expression on his face. "Oh dear," he muttered, "I haven't even given a single order, and they've already managed this? Could it be that our fleet no longer needs a naval admiral?"
From the golden image of the Heavenly Lord on his chest, a chuckled voice resonated: "The better the training in peacetime, the clearer the soldiers are on what to do in combat, and the less they need a commander. The role of captain increasingly becomes like a mascot."
Bai Yuan simply said, "Huh?"
The Heavenly Lord continued, "So from now on, for admirals and captains, just pick the prettiest handsome men and beautiful women!"
Hearing this, Bai Yuan was instantly overjoyed. "Then there's no problem at all!" he declared. "I fit the bill perfectly!"
The Heavenly Lord was silent.
Beside them, Jiang Cheng wiped a bead of cold sweat from his brow. "Mister Bai actually rendered the Heavenly Lord speechless," he mused.
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