Shen Leng bent over and picked up the book which Cen Zheng used to hit Wang Gendong in the head. Unexpectedly, he did not return the book. Instead, he took it with him and left the tent.

After they left, Wang Gendong was curious about what it was. Shen Leng passed the book to him. It was a book about the history of the local county.

“Why did you take this? Although the general did not ask you to return it to him.”

“It’s something they were going to give us in the first place, why should I return it?”

As Shen Leng walked, he flipped the book. “There are detailed records of Yangcheng county’s every village and town, the distribution of their population, and most importantly, there is a simplified map at the top.”

Earlier on, Wang Gendong did not pay any attention to that item at all. He could not help but to have a whole new level of respect for Shen Leng.

“You’re saying that the general gave it to us intentionally?”

“To me.”

Shen Leng stopped in his tracks. “Military officer, for now, leave this matter to me to settle. I’m guessing the Garrison E men and the local government might fight to handle it. Everybody wants to earn credit over this, including Military Officer Xing Shangxing over there. Over the next few days, take the men for training. I will take a few people with me to find out more details.”

Wang Gendong frowned. “You don’t even trust your own people?”

“It’s not that I don’t trust them; there will not be much action in the first few days. I am only taking some men with me to explore and find out more about the nearby terrain, as well as whether or not the Qiuli Empire’s men follow a fixed routine. Once I am done preparing, I will inform you immediately.”

Wang Gendong sighed. “Leng…exactly how many people did you offend?”

Shen Leng shrugged. “Actually, it boils down to only one person.”

Wang Gendong forced a smile and shook his head. He did not say anything further.

After he got back to his troops, Shen Leng called out to Wang Kuohai, Du Weiming and Chen Ran. He also selected seven more highly-skilled soldiers and formed a ten-man squad at the last minute. They were to leave the camp on that night itself.

Their mission took five days. After five days, when Shen Leng came back with his men, all eleven of them were extremely tanned, looking like black howlers. Chen Ran had more or less satisfied his curiosity.

However, they had only stayed in the camp for half a month. After they had replenished their equipment and supplies, they left once again. Several people in the camp were waiting to make a laughingstock of them, especially Xing Shangxing and men. In their eyes, for Shen Leng and his hundred odd men to bring back one Qiuli battleship back within a month was only but a fantasy.

This time, Shen Leng borrowed a fishing boat and set out into the sea with his ten-man squad. This fishing boat was slightly bigger – it was slightly more than twenty meters long. Shen Leng got his men to wear ordinary clothes, and the rest of the people went into hiding.

“We spent the last five days getting more information from several people nearby. We have more or less gotten sufficient intel. The Qiuli fleet will not go ashore without careful consideration. They are extremely fearful of Great Ning’s combat soldiers. Unless they have absolute confidence of winning, they will not even casually approach nearby waters.”

“The fishermen said that most of the time, they move in fleets of three, and intercept fishing boats and merchant ships in nearby territorial waters. Not only do they plunder Great Ning’s merchant ships, they do that to their own too.”

“Everything depends on luck. Even though the fisherman said that during this period of time, you should not run into them. It’s however the period of time where the Qiuli pirates go on the rampage. Nevertheless, the sea is extremely vast. We will not be that lucky to run into them.”

Du Weiming anxiously looked around. “We only have a boat with ten odd men. If we run into them, it’s not luck – it’s a misfortune.”

“The fishermen said that further up from here is where the Qiuli pirates appear the most. It’s not known why or how they possess such remarkable abilities, but as long as a merchant ship passes by, it’s safe to assume that everyone on it will be killed.”

Shen Leng opened up the book of county history. He pointed to a place. “This island is about thirty miles away from Yangcheng. It is written here that it is a deserted island, because there are sightings of a type of strange wild beasts that roam the area. Nothing can be seen. Apparently, the fishermen who went far into the sea to fish would come to this island to rest. Ever since more than a decade ago, the wild beats appeared on this island. All the fishermen who stayed on the island overnight would be killed. They died a tragic death.”

Shen Leng continued, “There is essentially nothing wrong with the potable water and food that we brought. Let’s go to that island and see what’s going on.”

Du Weiming said, “If the boats near the island get discovered, the biggest possibility would be that the island is being taken over by the Qiuli people. They probably constructed a watch tower on the island and are able to see what is going on in the sea over long distances. If they have field glasses, we would get discovered before we even approach the shore.”

“Then we shall flee.”

Shen Leng replied, “You are right. I also suspect that island is being taken over by the Qiuli people. It doesn’t matter whether or not we can get onto that island – as long as we get discovered, it will signify that there is something wrong with the island.”

As he spoke, all of a sudden, Chen Ran, who was standing on the mast, whistled. He raised his hand and pointed in front. “There are ships ahead!”

“How many?!”

“I can’t see clearly. There are at least three.”

“What should we do?”

Du Weiming felt anxious. This time, they were about to face the Qiuli Empire’s men – not their local water bandits. The Qiuli Empire’s Navy forces had always been known to be unrivaled at sea. The common folks who lived near the coastal regions hated them to the bone, but they also feared them greatly. It was said that their people were extremely agile like apes and monkeys. They committed innumerable murders and were extremely ruthless.

“Wait for a while.”

Shen Leng commanded, “Turn the ship around. We will decide what to do after we are able to see the military banners on their ships clearly.”

Every single one of them cooperated and turned the ship around. Chen Ran yelled from the mast, “They are indeed the Qiuli Empire’s battleships. I can see their military banners clearly. There are three of them, going at a high speed!”

Shen Leng commanded, “Turn back at full speed!”

The soldiers who were in hiding no longer dared to hide any further. They all started to row the boat. Even though the boat was not that small, it depended on manual labor. Apart from Chen Ran, who was standing on the mast keeping a lookout, the remaining ten men rowed with all their might.

Fortunately, they did not venture out too far ahead. All ten men were rather fit and strong. Hence, their return journey was rather fast

However, they realized that the Qiuli battleships were going at an even faster speed. It was unreasonably fast!

These men were the elites of the Navy. They were all extremely knowledgeable about the different types of battleships used by the Navy. Because of that, they were certain about one thing – the Great Ning battleships were a lot slower than the Qiuli battleships! And it was not only by a little – with absolutely no exaggeration at all, if both ships were to set out at the same time, within thirty minutes, the Qiuli battleship would be able to completely shake off the Great Ning battleship.

“The battleships are smaller than the Xiong Niu ships, but are bigger than the Fei Yu ships. Gauging visually, they are slightly more than forty meters long!”

Chen Ran yelled from above, “The speed is too fast, they will catch up in a short period of time!”

“Everyone, buck up!” yelled Shen Leng at the top of his lungs.

Every single one of them used all their might to row the boat. However, the distance between their boat and the ships kept closing in.

“Approximately a thousand meters!”

“Approximately 800 meters!”

“Approximately 500 meters!”

“Approximately 300 meters!”

Chen Ran’s voice was heard. It started to tremble.

They turned around and looked. They could already see the Qiuli men standing on their battleships brandishing their machetes, clamoring. Before they even started fighting, they had already taken the stance of a victor.

“People of Ning, you should just give up. There is no way out for you!”

“You Ning people are practically weaklings in the sea. If you are well-behaved and stop your boat right there, we will let you die with dignity!”

The Qiuli men spoke the same language, except that they had an awkward accent.

Shen Leng had seen the records on the book of county history. It was rumored that the Qiuli emperor was originally a roving bandit from Hujian and Xidong of Great Chu. When Great Chu was about to get vanquished, the Ning forces swept across both areas and ruthlessly killed those bandits. Out of fear, they headed down south and founded the Qiuli Empire on the outskirts of the territorial waters.

The locals were unable to resist against the roving bandits’ attacks. The leader of the roving bandits was the Qiuli Empire’s founding emperor, Ruan E.

Hence, Shen Leng was rather bewildered when he was looking at the book of the county history – why are the Qiuli ships different?

“Hundred meters!”

There was fear in Chen Ran’s loud cry – a fear that was hard to suppress. And at this time, Shen Leng’s battleship was at least three miles away from the shore.

“Send the signal!” yelled Shen Leng.

Wang Kuohai, who had already prepared to send the signal a long time ago, ignited it immediately. It was a huge firework. After it got ignited, it flew straight up into the sky. It was extremely eye-grabbing in broad daylight; not to forget, it made loud sounds as well.

“Be careful!”

At this moment, Chen Ran suddenly yelled. Immediately after, they saw a huge anchor being launched towards them from the Qiuli’s battleship. At the front of their ship was a device that looked like a ballista – it launched a rope with an anchor attached to it over. It immediately pierced through the tail of Shen Leng’s boat. The Qiuli battleship at the back abruptly slowed down!

Buzz!

Shen Leng’s boat was tugged so hard to the point one end of it tilted upwards. Everyone on the boat fell to the ground.

“Shield! Look for a shield!”

Shen Leng grabbed onto the side of the boat with one hand to stabilize himself and grabbed onto a huge shield with the other. They had prepared this in advance. In the split second when the boat landed, all the soldiers started grabbing a huge shield each and gathered together.

“Chen Ran, come down!”

“Got it!”

Chen Ran slid down from the ship mast. He grabbed a huge shield and squatted with the rest of them.

Briefly after he squatted, a rain of arrows came falling from above. If he did not think of the possibility of this happening earlier and did not make preparations to take with them huge shields, which were almost the height of a man, each one of them would have been pierced by multiple arrows, like a hedgehog, in an instant.

Their enemies were evidently furious; they continued firing their arrows. Within only a few minutes, Shen Leng and his men’s shields were pierced with a layer of feathered arrows.

“Get onto their boat!”

Shen Leng heard the yell of one of the Qiuli men. Evidently, since the arrows were of no use, their enemies were left with only this option.

He created a small gap in the formation and took a look. At a distance away, the Qiuli men started to toss their ropes towards them. There were iron hooks at the end of the ropes, which hooked onto the sides of their boats. The Qiuli men followed the ropes and slid over. They were shockingly swift.

They held their machetes with their mouths and continued with their clamors after getting onto the boat.

“Kill!”

Shen Leng suddenly bellowed. The troops who were squatting stood up at the same time. They lifted their shields up high with their left hand, and brandished their swords with their right hand…Their boat was not big in the first place, they barely had much space to contain the Qiuli men; only eight of nine of them got onto the boat. They initially assumed that they were the Ning Empire’s fishermen. Who would have expected them to be actual combat soldiers?

In the first round of attack, all the Qiuli men on the boat were killed off.

If not for Shen Leng’s intensified training recently, his Navy soldiers might not have been able to stand steadily on the rocky boat at sea. At this very moment, they truly realized the actual significance of Shen Leng’s harsh trainings.

“Make them die!”

“Cut them alive!”

“Kill them!”

The Qiuli men on all three battleships were riled up. They brandished their machetes; it seemed as though they were going to pounce on them in the next second.

Another round of arrows were fired. Once again, Shen Leng and his men squatted and got into a defensive formation with their shields. Even though the arrows were powerful, it was impossible for them to penetrate the shield formation. It seemed as though there was nothing the Qiuli troops could do.

“Sink them!”

It was uncertain which bastard yelled, but it caused Shen Leng and his men’s hearts to sink at the same time.

The only thing they were afraid of was the enemies playing dirty.

At this moment, from afar, a Great Ning battleship was making its way over.

“Sink their boat before heading back!”

The Qiuli men seemed to have realized that there was something different about those battleships, hence they did not dare to face them head on. Furthermore, they were not very far away from the shore. The conditions were unfavorable to them.

“Jump!” yelled Shen Leng with all his might, before being the first to jump.

Every single one of them jumped off the ship. This was one of the outcomes predicted by Shen Leng earlier on. Hence, when they jumped, all of them did not release the huge shield in their hands. This was the second way in which the shield could be used. .

One of the Qiuli Empire’s battleships collided into them forcefully, causing Shen Leng’s boat to overturn. Not only did it overturn, it was so close to wrecking it entirely.

Shen Leng and his men were all submerged within the water. The Qiuli men shot another round of arrows before turning their ship around and leaving.