Chapter 429 -429-Destroying the Grand Pirate Alliance
The thunder of cannon fire continued without pause as one Pirate Alliance warship after another was torn apart.
Woop had been fortunate enough to receive command of a medium-sized warship.
At this moment, he directly commanded several hundred pirates as they launched an assault on the Pirate Alliance forces before them.
"Attack with everything we’ve got! Open fire! Don’t hold anything back!" Woop shouted.
At his command, the pirate gunners immediately began loading and firing.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Cannonballs roared through the air and smashed into the Pirate Alliance’s warships.
Woop thoroughly enjoyed the feeling.
"As expected, being the one in command feels so much better. Back when I was just a sailor... those days were practically a nightmare."
Then he thought of John.
John must be enjoying this even more than he was.
After winning this battle, John’s forces would expand tremendously once again.
When that happened, the entire pirate force under his command would inevitably grow even larger.
Perhaps Woop himself might even be given command over more than a thousand sailors.
If he could truly command a thousand men, he felt that even if he only got to enjoy it for a single day before dying, his life would have been worth it.
The more Woop thought about it, the happier he became.
Come to think of it, it really wasn’t impossible for John to dominate all the pirates of the Lather Kingdom.
Who would believe it if he told them?
His childhood friend might actually become the Pirate King of these seas one day.
As he thought about this, Woop raised the monocular telescope beside him and looked toward the enemy warships burning within the sea of flames.
Suddenly, he spotted an extremely familiar face.
It was none other than the second leader of the Hunterfang Pirates!
Woop’s eyes immediately lit up.
Wasn’t this merit practically delivering itself to his doorstep?
Woop had no intention of remaining merely the captain of a medium-sized pirate ship.
His goal was to command a large warship.
The kind equipped with a hundred cannons!
As long as he captured or killed that second leader, he would earn himself a major contribution.
At that thought, Woop’s gaze sharpened. In a hoarse voice, he ordered,
"Adjust course. Target the ship at nine o’clock..."
"Fire!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Cannonballs roared out of the barrels, tracing beautiful arcs through the sky before crashing down from above.
Out of several dozen shells, only a handful struck the second leader’s warship.
But those few hits were more than enough to send him to his grave.
Through Woop’s telescope, he watched as the second leader’s warship sank beneath the waves.
He could not help but cheer.
"Beautiful!"
Then he turned his attention back to the overall battlefield.
"The great naval battle is almost over."
...
Outside the battlefield.
Aboard the vessels of the major merchant guilds, intelligence agents personally witnessed this unprecedented naval war.
Eighteen hundred warships.
More than ten thousand cannons.
Over seven hundred thousand men.
The Pirate Alliance had mobilized all of this power to surround and annihilate the mysterious fleet.
By all rights, they should have swept through their enemy with overwhelming force.
Yet no one had expected them to walk straight into an ambush laid by the mysterious fleet.
The sea of flames had become the Pirate Alliance’s nightmare.
It had also become the fundamental cause of its destruction.
The outcome of this battle had surpassed everyone’s expectations.
The side that should have won...
failed to win.
And the side that should have lost...
refused to lose!
...
John coldly looked upon the apocalyptic scene before him.
Raging flames illuminated the sea, while screams of agony echoed endlessly from within them.
The scene was even more brutal than hell itself.
This battle was extremely important to John.
From this day onward, there would no longer be any pirate force in the Lather Kingdom capable of threatening him!
Before long, more and more warships began raising white flags.
They wanted to surrender.
Only then did John order his fleet to cease fire and dispatch warships to accept the surrendering pirates.
The great pirate war of the Lather Kingdom had officially come to an end.
The postwar results were soon compiled.
John’s forces had captured 450,000 pirates.
They had also seized 150 large warships, more than 200 medium-sized warships, 588 small vessels, and an enormous quantity of ammunition.
His power skyrocketed overnight.
In one battle, John had become the strongest pirate in the entire Lather Kingdom.
And there was something else worth mentioning.
Before the battle, John had bet on his own victory.
As a result, he made an enormous profit from the betting markets—
ten million gold coins.
...
After the battle, John began throwing money around generously.
Through enormous rewards and generous treatment, he quickly won over the hearts of the pirates under his command.
At the same time, he dispatched his trusted men to take control of the territories formerly belonging to the Gortar Pirates, the Logar Pirates, and several medium-sized Pirate Crews as quickly as possible.
Countless resources fell into his hands.
...
The current John...
had become a Pirate King in every sense of the word.
He now commanded more than a thousand warships of various sizes.
Five hundred thousand men.
More than ten thousand cannons of various models.
His territory stretched across the waters of the entire Lather Kingdom.
And the resources under his control were almost impossible to count.
Some people had even begun referring to his faction as—
the King’s Pirates.
While John was reorganizing the various systems and structures of his rapidly expanding forces, envoys from countless merchant guilds arrived to request an audience.
"Honorable Chief of the King’s Pirates."
"I represent all the merchant guilds of the Lather Kingdom and have come to pay my respects."
"We hope that our merchant vessels may sail under your protection!"
The envoy spoke to John with extraordinary respect.
Pirates and merchant guilds within the same kingdom were natural enemies.
However, some merchant guilds had always paid protection money to pirate crews in exchange for being left alone.
In the past, they had mainly paid tribute to major factions such as the Logar Pirates and the Gortar Pirates.
But now...
John had become the greatest pirate chief of them all.
Naturally, they had to curry favor with him.
John glanced at the envoy representing the merchant guilds of the Lather Kingdom and said calmly,
"We’ve just gone through a major war. Everything here needs to be rebuilt and replenished."
"How about this?"
"From now on, every merchant guild will pay me ten thousand gold coins every month."
"In exchange, your ships may travel freely throughout the waters of the Lather Kingdom."
The merchant envoy’s expression changed dramatically.
Ten thousand gold coins...
from every guild?
Every single month?!
There were hundreds of merchant guilds throughout the Lather Kingdom.
Wouldn’t that mean they had to hand over millions of gold coins every month?
Most merchant guilds only made tens of thousands of gold coins in net profit each month.
John did not even have to do anything, yet he wanted to earn more than entire merchant guilds that actually conducted business.
And as for his claim that everything needed to be rebuilt...
The envoy could not see it.
At most, John needed to repair some ships and facilities.
Could that really cost so much?
It was obvious.
John was simply robbing them.
"There’s nothing more to discuss."
Seeing the envoy hesitate, John directly gave the order.
"Get out."
"If I don’t receive an answer within three days, then none of your merchant guilds should even think about sailing another ship across these waters."
The envoy awkwardly withdrew.
This was not a decision he had the authority to make.
He would have to report it to the merchant guilds first.
For now, all he could do was leave.
But after he departed, merchant envoys from other kingdoms arrived one after another, each carrying large quantities of gold coins.
Under the guise of congratulating John, they were clearly here to buy his goodwill.
"Great Pirate King of the Lather Kingdom, congratulations on becoming the strongest Pirate King in history. I represent the Seal Kingdom. Please accept these modest gifts as a token of our congratulations."
"I am an envoy of the merchant guilds of the Sea Cat Kingdom. Please accept our gifts."
"I represent the merchant guilds of the Seahorse Kingdom. These gifts are for you."
"I am an envoy from the Sea Cow Kingdom. Congratulations on your great victory. Please accept our gifts."
John accepted every gift without hesitation.
Altogether, they were worth roughly one hundred thousand gold coins.
The reason these foreign merchant guilds were so eager to visit John and practically throw money at him was simple.
They wanted John to continue stirring up trouble throughout the Lather Kingdom.
Even better, they hoped he would severely suppress the merchant guilds within the kingdom itself.
Competition between merchant guilds could be every bit as brutal as competition between pirates.
John accepted their gifts.
But accepting their money...
did not mean he intended to do what they wanted.