Chapter 942 What in the World is This Speed?
Phantom Bat initiated his desperate escape!
He knew that, purely in terms of combat power, his six medium-sized ships were no match for the terrifying behemoth. What's more, he didn't even have a single cannon on board.
His only hopes lay in Liu Xiang's fearsome reputation and the small, nimble nature of his own ships, which he expected to outpace any larger vessel.
But the moment he put his plan into action, he realized something was terribly amiss.
The colossal ship chasing them should have been sluggish, given its size, but to his utter shock, it was unbelievably fast. He'd encountered Westerners' three-masted galleons—among the fastest vessels on the seas—and even they could only manage seven to ten knots.
But this colossal vessel, currently bearing down on them, was easily twice as fast as any Western galleon, clocking at least twenty knots! "What in the world is this speed?!" he internally screamed.
He had no way of knowing that Li Daoxuan had deliberately reined in its speed.
Outside the diorama box, Li Daoxuan's miniature vehicles could travel 200 meters per hour. Inside, that translated to a staggering 40 kilometers per hour.
Any model boat, powered by even the smallest motor, could easily achieve speeds far exceeding that glacial pace.
Yet, even with those deliberate restrictions, the Wanli Sunshine effortlessly maintained a speed of over 20 knots.
At such speeds, the paltry pirate ships simply couldn't compete.
Phantom Bat had barely sailed a short distance before realizing his dire situation: the colossal ship behind them wasn't just holding its ground; it was steadily closing the distance.
Thankfully, the behemoth had to point its bow directly at them to maintain pursuit, allowing only its forward cannon to fire a single shot. Its powerful broadside batteries remained useless.
Otherwise, with dozens of those cannons firing in unison, Phantom Bat's meager fleet would have been annihilated instantly.
Sweat slicked Phantom Bat's forehead. "We can't escape!" he bellowed. "Signal the other five ships! Prepare for boarding action! We'll grapple that behemoth! Our men from all six ships will swarm their deck for close-quarters combat. If we seize that grand vessel, Captain Liu Xiang will reward us beyond our wildest dreams!"
At this, a faint ripple of excitement ran through the pirates.
Indeed, a ship of such immense proportions, if successfully captured, would undoubtedly bring them a fortune.
"Prepare for boarding!"
All six pirate vessels scrambled into action. Pirates swarmed onto the decks, some clambering up the masts, others even swinging from the rigging, a dense mass of bodies crowding the gunwales.
Every man gripped a blade, and many carried firearms.
Phantom Bat himself wielded a superior Spanish flintlock, a firearm introduced to East Asia by Spain years ago, which had since become a renowned weapon, commonly seen among seafaring men.
With an arrogant flourish, Phantom Bat loaded his flintlock, readying it for the hand-to-hand chaos of the boarding assault.
As they completed their preparations, the Wanli Sunshine bore down on them, closer than ever.
Phantom Bat's voice boomed across the waves: "All six warships, fan out! Prepare to encircle the enemy!"
His subordinates frantically relayed the command via flag signals. The six pirate ships instantly fanned out, forming a wide, crescent-shaped trap, waiting for the Wanli Sunshine to sail into their embrace before swarming it from all sides.
They had, however, overlooked a critical detail: while pursuing, the Wanli Sunshine had been limited to its bow cannon. Now, with the pirates spreading out to encircle it, its powerful broadside cannons were free to unleash hell.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Cannons on both broadsides roared in unison.
Massive iron cannonballs tore through the air, slamming into the pirate ships. One struck a vessel's side with a thunderous crash, ripping a gaping hole and showering splinters. The projectile plunged into the hull, obliterating everything in its path.
By a cruel stroke of fate, another cannonball slammed onto the deck, pulverizing a pirate into a bloody smear. It then carved a jagged hole in the planks before disappearing into the ship's depths.
The death of a mere man, however, barely registered with the pirates.
They had fought countless naval engagements like this.
Against the red-haired Westerners, against the Franks, against the Ming imperial navy, against Zheng Zhilong's formidable fleet...
A cannonball tearing through a comrade meant nothing. As long as it didn't strike them, they wouldn't even bat an eye.
What they failed to realize was that after Gao Family Village's forces had fired a round of solid shot, and finding its impact wanting, Jiang Cheng immediately bellowed, "Switch to explosive shells!"
The second volley, therefore, proved to be a stark contrast to the first.
"Boom!"
With a thunderous roar, an explosive shell hurtled onto a pirate ship, followed by a secondary detonation—*Boom!*—sending a wide swath of pirates on the deck spiraling skyward, torn apart.
"What the hell?! What's happening?"
"Their cannons aren't firing solid shot; they're firing explosive shells!"
"Damn it, explosive shells are incredibly rare! Even the Westerners barely use them!"
While the technology for explosive shells existed in both the West and the East during this era, it largely remained confined to legends or theoretical treatises like the "Wubei Zhi." It was almost never deployed in actual combat.
Only after enduring this devastating barrage did the pirates grasp that their adversaries had actually perfected and deployed explosive shell technology.
"We can't take these cannons! Damn it!"
"No, we must charge forward, full speed ahead!"
"Charge!"
The pirate ships, weathering the relentless cannon fire, valiantly surged towards the Wanli Sunshine.
Boarding was their final, desperate hope!
Just then, along the Wanli Sunshine's towering gunwales, a sudden surge of sailors' heads appeared, each swiftly followed by the ominous glint of a gun barrel extending from beside them...
Perched high on the colossal vessel, they gazed down upon the six approaching pirate ships. This elevated position offered an incredibly advantageous firing angle.
"Fire!"
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The pirates, densely packed on their decks, poised for boarding, became nothing short of perfect targets.
In a single devastating volley, a swathe of pirates collapsed.
Phantom Bat, too, raised his Spanish flintlock and returned fire with desperate ferocity.
"Bang!"
His flintlock cracked, but the bullet he fired vanished into the churning air, its trajectory utterly meaningless...
Such was the brutal reality of smoothbore firearms!
"Closer! Closer! Grapple!"
Through a relentless storm of cannon fire and musket volleys, the pirates, with desperate, tragic courage, finally brought their ships alongside the Wanli Sunshine, grappling it!
But the enemy's gunwales loomed impossibly high, forcing them to crane their necks.
They still had to hurl their grappling hooks upwards...
Meanwhile, the sailors on the towering ship began lobbing hand grenades down onto their decks...
Grappling hooks soared upward as hand grenades plunged downward, crossing paths in mid-air.
The grappling hook, almost smugly, waved at the hand grenade in passing, as if greeting it, proudly displaying the sharp, glinting cross-shaped tip of its formidable claws.
The hand grenade, however, remained cold and aloof, disdaining to acknowledge the hook.
Then, each continued on its predetermined trajectory.
With a sharp *clank*, the grappling hook latched onto the Wanli Sunshine's gunwale, clinging tightly and perfectly fulfilling its deadly purpose.
The hand grenade, meanwhile, plummeted onto the pirate ship, exploding with a deafening *boom* and sending the very pirate who'd launched the grappling hook sprawling.
Only then did the grappling hook "look back." "Huh? Where's my master?" it seemed to question. "My big, powerful master was just here! Master, why are you down? Weren't you going to pull me up? Get climbing, then!"
The pirate, his body riddled with shrapnel, groaned weakly, "I'll climb your... bloody... hell..."
His head lolled to the side, and with a final breath, he departed from the world.
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