Chapter 432 -432-A Shocking Battle Plan
The situation was so bizarre that several captains exchanged bewildered glances, a chill of fear rising in their hearts.
Cold sweat poured down their foreheads.
What was going on?
Why were all the cannon shells defective?
While they were still confused, one of the masts suddenly snapped in half.
Then came the second.
The third.
The fourth.
The fifth.
The sixth.
The seventh...
Across countless warships, masts began snapping almost simultaneously!
And once a ship lost its mast, it effectively lost its mobility.
Without mobility, they had no speed advantage.
And for pirates fighting at sea, losing their ability to maneuver meant only one thing—
disaster.
What made the situation even worse was that every single one of their warships had failed to fire.
It was as though a hunter had watched his prey willingly leap into a trap.
Except the trap turned out to be useless.
And that wasn’t even the worst part.
The hunter suddenly discovered that his blade had rusted inside its sheath and couldn’t even be drawn.
His gun had no bullets.
And at that exact moment, his legs cramped up as well.
In an instant, the hunter had become the prey.
Everyone immediately panicked.
The captains of the Erlong Pirates were practically beside themselves with anxiety.
Some were so desperate they were nearly in tears.
Their gunpowder had all failed.
And now their masts had snapped as well!
It didn’t take long for them to realize what had happened.
There had to be traitors among them!
And there couldn’t possibly be only one or two.
There had to be more than a thousand!
Worse still, those traitors had to occupy fairly high positions, perhaps even within the core ranks of the alliance.
Could it have been their great chief, Wild Rose?
Impossible!
Wild Rose was their Alliance Leader.
If they lost this battle, she stood to lose more than anyone else.
There was absolutely no reason for her to betray them.
Then had something gone wrong within their own factions?
The captains and pirate chiefs couldn’t understand it.
Facing the situation before them, they were already sinking into despair.
How the hell were they supposed to fight like this?
They might as well surrender immediately!
...
Meanwhile, aboard the Pirate Alliance’s flagship.
The numerous pirate chiefs stared at the scene in horror, their faces turning deathly pale.
Only Hilt revealed an almost imperceptible smile.
Every shell aboard the fleet had already been replaced with duds under her orders.
And the masts of the warships had all been partially sawed through beforehand.
Once enough stress accumulated...
they would snap.
The members of the Pirate Alliance would never have imagined, even in their wildest dreams, that the traitor among them was none other than their own Alliance Leader!
John didn’t know the exact details of Hilt’s plan.
There had been no need.
The two already understood one another well enough.
Everything had been arranged entirely on mutual trust.
When the warships of the King’s Edge Pirates charged straight into the Pirate Alliance formation and discovered that the enemy’s cannons were useless while their masts were breaking one after another, the captains were overjoyed.
Naturally, they assumed that all of this had been arranged by John.
And that thought sent chills through their hearts.
Their Chief had actually managed to accomplish something like this?
He had decided the outcome of the battle before the battle had even begun!
It was simply unbelievable.
As for the captains of the Pirate Alliance, the moment they saw the King’s Edge Pirates’ heavily armed warships bearing down on them, what little fighting spirit they had left vanished completely.
They couldn’t fight.
They couldn’t run.
There was only one option left.
Surrender.
And so, without the slightest hesitation...
one white flag was raised.
Then a second.
A third.
And soon—
countless white flags rose across the sea!
The Pirate Alliance had surrendered...
without firing a single shot!
The largest naval battle in the history of the pirate world—
and at the same time, the strangest—
ended just like that.
...
After the battle...
John took complete control of all the Pirate Alliance’s forces, territories, and resources.
He replaced the captains and senior officers of every Pirate Crew with his own trusted men.
Then he spent tens of millions of gold coins to win over the pirates.
He promised that every pirate under his banner would receive a salary on time every month.
He even established retirement benefits for aging pirates.
In no time at all, the pirates wholeheartedly accepted his rule.
Even if a few people remained dissatisfied and wanted to stir up trouble, the ordinary pirates beneath them would be the first to object.
Piracy had always been a profession where no one knew what tomorrow would bring.
Every pirate risked his life on the edge of a blade.
No one knew whether they would have food for their next meal.
No one knew whether they would still be alive a moment later.
But John had given them security.
Stable income.
And even support once they grew old.
How could the ordinary pirates possibly refuse to support him?
John’s prestige among the pirates reached an unprecedented peak!
By now, he had absorbed the pirate forces of both the Lather Kingdom and the Leiper Kingdom.
Thousands of warships.
One million men.
Tens of thousands of cannons.
And resources beyond counting...
In terms of sheer strength, John’s forces had already surpassed the naval power of any single kingdom.
Even if that superiority existed only on paper for the time being.
"The battleships are almost ready for delivery."
"It’s time to finish this qualifying round."
The reason John had not immediately attacked the Lan Sea Duchies was simple.
The Lan Sea Duchies were not weak.
Their foundations were far deeper than those of pirate forces.
So John had decided to wait a little longer.
But now...
with eight battleships about to join his fleet...
John’s strength would rise to an entirely new level.
...
Several days later.
At shipyards throughout the various Lan Sea Duchies...
the battleships were finally completed.
John immediately sent people to retrieve them.
Eight battleships officially joined his forces.
With those eight battleships added to his fleet, John’s strength skyrocketed once again.
Now, even the individual Lan Sea Duchies no longer possessed enough strength to stop him.
Some might wonder—
Why would the Lan Sea Duchies be stupid enough to sell such trump cards, such revolutionary capital ships, to a pirate?
There were several reasons.
First, the Lan Sea Duchies were places where capital reigned supreme.
Money talked.
If you had enough money, you could even convince capitalists to sell you the rope that would eventually hang them.
Second, John had purchased the battleships from shipyards spread across several different nations.
He wasn’t draining the resources of a single Lan Sea Duchy.
Third, these battleships had already been under construction.
Through bribery, John had simply changed their ownership midway through the construction process.
That was why the entire transaction had taken so little time.
In short...
John successfully obtained all eight battleships.
Including the Golden Merry, he now possessed a total of nine battleships.
A single Lan Sea Duchy usually had no more than four.
That alone showed just how terrifying John’s forces had become.
Once the battleships joined his fleet, John immediately ordered the warships under his command to turn their sights toward—
Cloudspire Harbor.
It was the first city John had encountered after entering this world.
...
The armed merchant vessel White Cloud sailed peacefully across the sea.
In another half a day, it would reach Cloudspire Harbor.
The captain stood leisurely on the deck, enjoying the sea breeze.
This voyage had gone extraordinarily smoothly.
They hadn’t encountered a single pirate.
"Maybe the rise of the King’s Edge Pirates isn’t such a bad thing after all."
"At least after taking our protection money, they really did stop raiding our merchant ships."
"Unlike the other pirates."
"They take your money and rob you anyway."
"Not a shred of credibility."
The captain couldn’t help feeling pleased.
Because there had been no pirate raids, the cargo aboard his ship could be sold at lower prices than usual.
Lower prices meant greater appeal to customers.
Sales would soar.
And if sales soared, the merchant guild’s profits would naturally increase as well.
Everything was perfect.
Just as the captain was thinking this...
four fast ships suddenly appeared ahead.
The small, swift warships raced across the sea like arrows and quickly moved to encircle the armed merchant vessel from both sides.
The sailors aboard the merchant ship spotted them and immediately sounded the alarm in panic.
"Pirates spotted ahead!"
"All hands, report to battle stations immediately!"
The captain’s expression changed drastically at first.
But when he saw the flags flying from those fast ships—
black banners bearing simple white skull emblems—
he instead let out a sigh of relief.