Chapter 890: Plan
Ettoman, coastal waters.
Pirate ships started coming together, and in the center were the four legendary ships.
Fang Yuan’s clothes did not fully cover him, and his open collar exposed his sturdy chest. He wore his crown as an armband, which was shining brightly under the sun.
He went forward and shouted, “We… are going to dominate the ocean!”
“Woo! Woo!” The pirates’ agreements came from all directions.
“As the Pirate King, I need a territory of my own. Naturally, I’m not interested in the resources of the Nightmare Ocean nor any of my governors’ territories… What I want is this massive island country called Ettoman, an unsinkable warship used to peek in on the Opher Continent!”
Fang Yuan’s voice was loud and clear. “Pirates, help me take down a kingdom, and let’s have a grand plunder! From then on, you will be the nobles of this kingdom!”
“Woo! Woo?!”
The pirates’ cheers became even louder, but there were some slight doubts in their voices.
Even the four pirate governors were astonished.
They did not expect Fang Yuan to have such an idea.
But in Fang Yuan’s eyes, Ettoman’s location was indeed perfect. Just like an unsinkable warship, he would be able to forcefully control the throat of ocean trade across all of Opher.
He wanted to monopolize ocean trade completely. By controlling this final hub, he would undoubtedly save a lot of time and effort. This was the key to establishing an ocean empire!
Moreover… there are definitely going to be conflicts with the upcoming reformation that I’m planning. It’s always better to divert this conflict outwards than to have an internal dispute… Furthermore, I can get rid of those with a vested interest in Ettoman and use the resources to bribe those who rely on me…
Fang Yuan had extremely clear cut plans for this.
This was also why he was extremely firm and decisive about this.
It would not matter even if Ettoman tried to establish an anti-pirate alliance. Even before this could happen, it would have lost the very foundations of this ancient kingdom!
“Ettoman? This is truly a good choice!” Pirate Prince Edward rubbed his chin. “It’s lost at least half of its navy, so it won’t be able to stop our invasion. Even if we don’t occupy it, we can at least steal everything from its ports!”
“That’s right!”
With this tremendous amount of benefits, Elf Pirate Governor Aeoris grew interested as well.
“Ettoman has always been a strong force on the ocean. Since the establishment of the Golden Sea Route, how much wealth has it accumulated?” Wang Zhi’s breathing intensified.
The newly appointed Mermaid Governor Nymphadora commented, “Of course… we can’t neglect its army. However, Ettoman’s army is greatly inferior to its navy. It’s only about one-third of the navy’s size, and it’s spread out across various colonies…”
“I’m going to repeat myself once more. We’re not going there just to loot the riches but to take over the entire kingdom… Not only the docks, its lands, mountains, cities…” Fang Yuan emphasized once again.
“But Boss, even if Ettoman’s army is a joke, pirates like us inland are worse than a joke…” Only Bill and Wilson would say something like that. “Pirates can’t leave the ocean. Otherwise, what difference is there compared to a fish leaving the ocean?”
“I’ve considered all of your worries.” Fang Yuan clapped his hands. “Once we reach inland, I will have my arrangements. For now… Attack!!! The moment we embark on this plan, we have to be like a pack of wolves and attack all of Ettoman’s ports. We have to keep its navy and army busy while I lead our main forces to take down Birming Port. From there, we will attack the heart, its capital—Glass City!”
He quickly gave his commands and assigned the various wealthy ports to the pirate governors. This was to ensure that even if they were only going to be greedy in this operation, they were at least going to go in hard and viciously.
“Boss!” After distributing the tasks, Wilson suggested, “This way, I suspect these pirates will be very energetic while robbing the ports, but it might die down afterward. I’m afraid they’ll simply choose to watch on from the side…”
“If that’s what they choose to do, we’ll let them do that. Anyway, we have more than enough to bring trouble to Ettoman’s navy and to control its army!”
Fang Yuan nodded. “How many people do we have in our own pirate crew?”
“After this period of recruitment, we have nineteen ships and over seven thousand seamen. This is our limit…” Wilson replied. “This also includes everyone on the ships. The number of people we can send on to land will be five thousand at most. If we can’t display the true power of the legendary ships on land, we might suffer a heavy defeat!”
Even if Ettoman’s army was a joke, it was still a professional army. It was naturally going to be extremely easy for them to deal with a bunch of messy pirates.
“That’s more than enough! Let’s go take down Birming Port!” Fang Yuan waved his hands. “Don’t worry! We’ll soon be celebrating in Glass City!”
…
Birming Port.
Because it was very close to the capital, Glass, this place had the most amount of commercial trade activities in Ettoman.
Even with the news about the navy suffering a massive defeat, it merely made this place slightly less lively.
And even without the commodities from the Golden Sea Route, just the transactions from Opher alone was enough to keep the port busy.
Upon entering the port, tall buildings and plenty of large forts could be seen.
Numerous patrol vessels guarded the ocean with a bit of carefreeness.
After all, very few pirates would dare to attack an Ettoman port. Despite knowing that the navy had just suffered a heavy defeat, the citizens of Ettoman were still pretty confident that nobody would dare to challenge their dignity as the overlord of the sea.
As the sun shined brightly, waves of seawater flushed against the beach.
All of a sudden, a sharp bugle horn sounded from the port.
“Pirates!” shouted a hoarse voice full of panic and disbelief.
Where the sky met the sea, the dense and black shadows of sails appeared. Shortly after, they turned into nineteen ferocious-looking pirate ships.
This was especially true for the three ships right in the middle. Specter Ship, Sun, and King’s Throne sailed forward with oppressive prestige, which even Ettoman’s navy could not help but lament.
Bang! Bang!
The pirates fired the first shot, and their formidable cannons blew the small patrol vessels into pieces.
“Legend ability Diamond!”
Soon after, Sun’s machinery started driving rapidly as it transformed into a steel giant over a hundred meters tall. Its feet were spitting out flames while it charged toward the port.
Bang! Bang!
The cannons guarding the port opened fire, but their cannonballs only caused massive waves as they crashed into the sea.
Sun glided through the water in an unbelievably agile manner to dodge the cannon fire. It arrived on land and extended its arm.
Kaboom!
Reinforced concrete flew. One of the forts was thoroughly destroyed, and numerous cannon barrels started tumbling down, killing an unknown number of artillerymen.
Secondary cannons ready! Automatic calibration! Firing!
At the same time, a cannon barrel appeared on each of the giant’s shoulders and started spraying frightening flames.
Just like that, two more forts collapsed.
A clear order sounded from King’s Throne. “Attack!”
The pirates stared blankly at what they had just witnessed. When they realized that the originally secure defense system crumbled in almost an instant, they immediately let out deafening cheers. They roared while charging toward the port.
In fact, doing this was almost like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Given Fang Yuan’s current strength, as well as the three legendary ships, no port in the entire world would be able to defend against him.
Birming Port fiercely resisted the pirates’ invasion, fighting its final struggle.
Many soldiers fought bravely, making use of every street block to battle the pirates, fighting to protect their lives and wealth.
Once Fang Yuan set foot on the port, he commanded, “Pass down my orders! I need a lot of captives! As for the rest of the spoils of war, let the rest of the pirates split them evenly!”
“Mighty Pirate King!” Seeing this scene, Wilson went forward. “The enemies’ resistance is strong, and it seems like Ettoman’s army exceeded our expectations. Just by attacking this port, we’ve lost over a thousand men. This is with the help of our three legendary ships… We can’t continue like this!”
“I know…” Fang Yuan nodded. “From Birming Port to Glass City, there are at least three more hurdles. Furthermore, there are thirty thousand soldiers stationed in Glass City. They could even mobilize the people’s militia…”
“We’ll have obtained a lot of loot if we leave after attacking Birming Port, but if we continue moving forward, I’m afraid…” Wilson did not finish. Pirates were arrogant and obstinate, but their casualties were already very serious.
The next course of action would not only reduce their spoils of war, but the death count would also continue to increase significantly. If that happened, even as the Pirate King, Fang Yuan might find it difficult to suppress their grievances.
“You’re right. Which is why in the following battles, I’m not planning to use pirates anymore!” Fang Yuan snickered. “Let’s go take a look at the captives!”
He walked over to a plaza that the pirates were guarding.
This place was originally used to unload cargo. Presently, all the cannons on the pirate ships were aimed at the center. As long as there was any kind of movement among the captives, they would instantly fire.
Butcher walked over and laughed wickedly. “Following your orders, we’ve captured over three thousand strong, young men!”
“Great!” Fang Yuan nodded. He saw that only a few of the captives were wearing military uniforms. The majority were ordinary people.
However, he did not care as he took out a golden crown.
The Sun Crown!
After defeating the navy, Fang Yuan had excavated the tomb of the Sun King to dig out this Sun Crown!!
This was the moment for it to be useful!