Chapter 444 -444-Taking Control of Qinka
Captain Madman was grinning from ear to ear.
He burst into wild laughter.
"Damn, this feels incredible!"
"We can hit them, but they can’t even touch us!"
As the fleet continued bombarding the royal capital, the outer city walls were already on the verge of collapse.
The defenders’ morale had also fallen to rock bottom.
After all, no matter who you were, being forced to take hits without any way to fight back was unbearable.
They desperately wanted to retaliate.
But they simply couldn’t.
Even at the absolute limit of their artillery range, their shells still couldn’t come anywhere close to John’s fleet.
John sat in command at the rear, observing everything through his monocular telescope.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
With the Super High-Angle Cannons, attacking any Maritime Kingdom would become far easier than before.
Thinking of this, John calmly said,
"It’s about time for the entire army to move."
"Pass down my order."
"Attack!"
The moment John gave the command, tens of thousands of warships began accelerating one after another, surging toward the royal capital of the Qinka Kingdom.
More than ten thousand warships carrying two million troops spread across the sea like an enormous tide.
The sight was magnificent beyond description.
Wherever one looked, there were warships of every size and type.
Dense.
Black with numbers.
Stretching beyond the horizon.
Just one glance was enough to create an overwhelming sense of pressure.
By the time John’s forces launched their full assault, the Qinka Kingdom’s defenders had already been battered apart by the prolonged bombardment.
They could barely organize an effective response.
All they could do was watch as John’s fleet rapidly closed in on their harbor.
...
Inside one of the large Naval Corps fleets stationed at the Qinka Kingdom’s harbor, Odelle watched the countless approaching warships.
Her heart was filled with excitement.
Yet outwardly, her expression remained completely calm.
Ever since she heard that John had risen to power and conquered an entire Maritime Kingdom, she had immediately guessed that his next target would most likely be the Qinka Kingdom, where she was currently stationed.
And sure enough...
after reorganizing his forces, John had come directly for Qinka.
By now, Odelle was no longer merely the captain of a single warship.
She had risen to become the commander of the strongest Naval Corps division in the kingdom, controlling the largest number of warships and possessing the greatest combat strength.
Above her stood only the overall Naval Corps Commander—
the supreme commander himself.
Odelle had relied entirely on her own ability to rise step by step into the upper ranks.
And now that John had arrived with his fleet...
she already knew exactly what she needed to do.
"The enemy is overwhelmingly powerful."
"A direct confrontation would most likely end in defeat."
"We should abandon the fleet, return to land, and enter the royal capital."
Odelle summoned her deputies and continued,
"There is no meaning in sacrificing ourselves here."
"It would be better to preserve our strength, stand beside His Majesty, and defend the king to the death."
Her deputies were somewhat confused.
The Naval Corps existed specifically to fight at sea.
Defending the city on land should naturally have been the responsibility of the garrison.
Still...
Odelle’s reasoning made sense.
The enemy fleet seemed practically endless.
Their artillery was devastating.
And worse still, they possessed weapons with absurdly long range.
If the Naval Corps remained stationed outside the harbor, they would simply become stationary targets.
It would be no different from waiting to die.
Besides...
Odelle’s prestige among them was extremely high.
So in the end, the deputies could only accept her decision.
After convincing her subordinates, Odelle ordered the fleet to sail back into the harbor.
The soldiers disembarked, moved onto land, and entered the royal capital.
The supreme commander was somewhat puzzled by Odelle’s actions.
But he had no time to think about it.
John’s fleet had already begun attacking the harbor.
Countless cannons opened fire simultaneously.
With just one volley...
one-third of the Naval Corps warships stationed outside the harbor were destroyed.
John had tens of thousands of warships.
Even if only a few thousand fired at once, that still meant tens of thousands of cannons unleashing their firepower simultaneously.
And some of them were loaded with scattershot.
Hundreds of thousands of projectiles filled the sky.
What kind of absurd firepower was this?!
In an instant, the remaining Naval Corps fleet suffered catastrophic losses.
Countless Qinka soldiers died beneath the first round of bombardment.
Even more Naval Corps soldiers had their morale completely shattered by the terrifying artillery strike.
Then came the second volley.
The third.
And the fourth...
The bombardment continued until the tenth full salvo.
By then...
the Qinka Kingdom’s Naval Corps had been completely annihilated by John’s fleet.
John continued pushing forward without pause.
After destroying the Naval Corps fleet, his warships began bombarding the harbor itself.
Dozens of volleys followed.
Under the overwhelming firepower...
the buildings and facilities throughout the harbor were blasted into ruins.
The soldiers stationed there were also wiped out.
John then sent men forward to clear the harbor and prepare for a landing operation.
This invasion of the Qinka Kingdom had gone so smoothly that it was almost unbelievable.
When John attacked the royal capital of the Lather Kingdom, he had already lost nearly a million troops by the time he finally broke through the harbor defenses.
But now...
John’s losses were practically negligible.
After the harbor was secured, John led his pirates ashore.
They surrounded the royal capital, positioned their artillery, and began resting in place.
...
At this moment...
the royal capital of the Qinka Kingdom was already completely surrounded by John.
The truth about the terrifying artillery possessed by John’s forces could no longer be concealed.
That fact alone caused the morale of the entire Qinka Kingdom to plummet.
This was completely different from the final battle for the Lather Kingdom’s royal capital.
Back then, the Lather capital had almost been destroyed before it fell.
But now, the moment John surrounded the Qinka royal capital...
the city immediately became restless.
The upper and lower ranks began losing faith in one another.
John instantly noticed the change.
"This can be used."
He immediately sent envoys into the city to contact its senior officials.
He promised enormous benefits to anyone willing to surrender.
Yet at such a critical moment...
no one wanted to be the first person to openly betray the kingdom.
For a time, the situation fell into a stalemate.
That was when Odelle acted from inside the city.
She had already finished persuading the soldiers under her command and gradually prepared them psychologically for surrender.
She also instructed her subordinates to eliminate anyone who remained determined to resist to the end.
Then...
Odelle opened the city gates.
And allowed John’s pirates inside.
A million pirates surged into the city.
At the cost of only one hundred thousand casualties...
John captured the king of the Qinka Kingdom.
The royal capital officially fell.
And John obtained his second Conqueror’s Proof.
At the same time...
another member of Valhalla finally reunited with the group.
...
After taking the royal capital of the Qinka Kingdom, John immediately began attacking in every direction.
Within a single month...
he occupied the entire Qinka Kingdom.
John now controlled the territories of both the Lather Kingdom and the Qinka Kingdom.
Without question...
he had become the strongest power among all the Maritime Kingdoms.
John immediately ordered the Qinka Kingdom to adopt the same military merit system.
At the same time, he repeated the reforms he had already implemented in Lather.
He established naval warfare academies.
Encouraged research into cannons and warships.
Treated civilians well.
Placed new requirements on the merchant guilds.
And increased taxation.
After another three months of consolidation...
John obtained yet another massive supply of recruits and powerful artillery.
Then his fleet set sail once again.
This time...
their target was the Rogeka Kingdom.