Chapter 402 Jumping into the Sea
In front is Guiyun Island, and behind are four hundred cannons.
Everyone on the ship understood what was going to happen next. Either they had to reach the island before the enemy caught up, or they would be bombed to the bottom of the sea by the enemy's cannons and become food for sharks.
Shen Yuexi found the captain at the stern and asked, "Captain, will we be able to arrive in time?"
The captain looked up at the bulging sails, then estimated the distance to the enemy fleet. He said, "Don't worry, Princess An. Their warships are equipped with dozens of cannons, but they're not as fast as ours. As long as the wind doesn't change, we'll be able to reach the island first."
Shen Yuexi said: "That's good."
The captain, in turn, worriedly said, "Princess An, our original plan was for us to disguise ourselves as enemy ships, with Prince Ping and his wife escorting us to the island. Now that Prince Ping and his wife have been abducted by assassins, and the enemy fleet has discovered us, Guiyun Island will surely know. Even if you and Prince An land on the island, how can we, with only a few dozen men, fight against these traitors?"
The captain had never dealt with Shen Yuexi before; this was his first time. Seeing that this princess wasn't physically strong, couldn't wield a sword, had a noisy parrot on her shoulder, and was even pregnant, she seemed completely unreliable.
Shen Yuexi said: "We are going to the island to see our mother. Your task is to find a way to send us to the island."
Her greatest resource was the universal manufacturing machine. From her humble beginnings, only able to make fever-reducing medicine, she later mastered the art of controlling the wind and rain like a god. As long as the boat could reach land, it was her and Xiao Zhuo's territory. As for the sea, she, a landlubber and terrified of water, declined.
Although the captain didn't understand the reason, he thought Shen Yuexi looked very powerful, so he stopped talking.
"Captain, it's bad," the sailor on the lookout leaned over and shouted below, "the wind has died down."
The boat's sails gradually flattened from inflated to flat, and it slowed down on the sparkling sea.
A sailboat's speed is completely different when there's wind and when there's no wind. When there's wind, it's incredibly fast, requiring no oars at all. But when the wind stops, the sailboat simply drifts on the sea, like a piece of floating wood. At this point, the sailor must use the oars to propel the boat forward. While this is much slower, it's still better than being stuck in the same spot.
Normally, the captain would have taken advantage of the calm to let everyone out on deck to sunbathe, fish, or something. But things were different now. With an entire fleet following them, being late would mean being bombarded.
The captain's face turned pale. He looked up and shouted, "How many miles are we to Guiyun Island?" The sailor stretched out his ten fingers and said, "Ten miles!"
"Got it," the captain didn't even bother shouting from the lower deck. Instead, he leaned over the side of the ship, slapped the boat hard, and shouted to the people below: "Everyone, row! The enemy ship is catching up."
Chen Yuexi looked at the enemy ships chasing behind and found that their sails were also deflated. However, each of the twenty enemy ships had two rows of oars extending from both sides of the hull, and they were rowing circles across the sea at high speed, splashing water everywhere.
Then dozens of wooden oars extended from the side of the boat under her feet, paddling in the sea water, and the boat began to move forward slowly again.
Now it depends on who can row faster.
On the flagship of the Guiyun Fleet, the fleet leader was looking through a monocular telescope. He was a man in his thirties, his face dark from years of sailing on the sea.
Long stood beside him, pointing at the ship in the distance and saying, "Hurry up and chase them! They'll be reaching Guiyun Island soon."
"Stop shouting, we're chasing them," the fleet leader said. "Didn't Qiong drill a hole in their ship? Their sailors must be exhausted now."
Long shouted, "If we can't catch up, the master will definitely kill us."
"Who is it that says I'm a pirate and even more cruel than the young master?" the fleet leader said, holding up a telescope. "After all, I was once the commander-in-chief of the Great Yan Dynasty's navy. I don't want a daughter like that."
"It was to scare the young master. He and the young mistress insisted on following those two, so they just told a lie," Long explained hurriedly. "Anyway, if we don't kill Xiao Zhuo and Shen Yuexi, the master will definitely not let us off."
"Don't worry, they won't be able to escape," the fleet leader turned and ordered the first mate behind him, "Send flags to each ship and load the cannons."
While the fleet leader was talking to someone, Long snatched the telescope and raised it to look at the ships in the distance.
Just as the fleet leader had predicted, the distance between the two sides was closing. The Guiyun fleet's artillery had been loaded, and the gunners stood beside their guns, gripping the slowly burning matchlocks, awaiting the order.
"Hey, what's that Shen Yuexi doing?" Long said, holding up a telescope. "She's waving a white cloth."
The fleet leader heard the sound and looked. At this time, the distance between the two sides was only two miles. Without a telescope, he could see a woman on the deck of the ship holding a white cloth and waving it, and a white flag was raised on the mast.
"Are they surrendering?" the fleet leader asked, "Then we can take them all to the island and let Jingyun decide their fate."
Hearing this, Long turned around and shouted, "Dad, you don't want your daughter's life anymore. The master said we must kill those two people. If they land on the island, your daughter will be gone."
"But the other side has raised the white flag."
"Dad, you're too naive. This Shen Yuexi is the master of tricks. Back then, when the Second Prince wanted to attack Shengjing, she used a white flag to lure him closer... She's still deceiving us this time. If she wants to surrender, she won't stop the ship!"
Long's guess was correct. Shen Yuexi was indeed deceiving the enemy. She had the captain raise the white flag, and the sailors rowed furiously. Afraid the enemy wouldn't see clearly, she waved a white cloth over the bow. Guiyun Island was already within sight; as long as they hesitated to fire, they would be considered successful.
As she swayed, she found that the enemy warships did not stop at all, but rushed towards her in two teams, as if intending to sandwich her ship in the middle.
Xiao Zhuo came up to her, holding the Yanque Sword, and said, "Yuexi, the other party didn't fall for it. Let's quickly hide in the cabin."
Shen Yuexi held the white cloth in both hands and stared blankly at the enemy warships catching up and moving side by side, as if they were competing to see who could reach Guiyun Island faster.
"Husband, what are they doing?"
Xiao Zhuo said, "Yuexi, the warship's cannons are all on the broadside. They are about to fire."
"Then why are you still hiding in the cabin?" Shen Yuexi threw the white cloth. "If you still hide in the cabin, you'll be dead."
She had seen the shells from the Tiger Crouching Cannon, the iron balls as big as volleyballs, enough to bring down the walls of Leshan. If it had hit a wooden ship, it would have surely made a huge hole. Was she hiding in the cabin, waiting for the iron balls to crush her?
Seeing the heated conversation between the two, the parrot Liuli, who was standing on her shoulder, joined in the fun and called out, "Yuexi, good luck!"
"Prince An, they're firing!" the captain's terrified voice rang out from behind. "Jump overboard quickly, or you'll be dead."
In the distance, several enemy warships fired a series of cannon shots, and thick smoke billowed from the sides of the ships. Then, Shen Yuexi saw tall columns of water rising from all sides of her ship. One column of water rushed up from the bow, splashing her face with seawater.
"Husband, jump into the sea," she grabbed Liuli, "I have a way."
As soon as she finished speaking, Xiao Zhuo hugged her and the two of them jumped off the bow of the boat and fell into the sea.
The captain and sailors also panicked and fled from the lower deck, jumping into the sea. As sailors, they could swim, and facing the bombardment, jumping into the sea had a chance of survival, but if they stayed on the ship, they would basically die.
Dozens more shells flew in, hitting the hull with a deafening crack. The mast was broken by the shells and fell down first, and then several large holes were punched in the hull, and the sea rushed in violently.
The Guiyun Island fleet sank the ship Shen Yuexi was on with just one round of artillery fire. The fleet leader ordered his men to launch a lifeboat and rescue all the sailors who fell into the sea.
Finally, the captain was rescued, but after counting again and again, Shen Yuexi and Xiao Zhuo were nowhere to be found.
The fleet leader asked, "Could it be that these two men have drowned?"
Long was overjoyed and said to the fleet leader, "Dad, we succeeded. Let's return to Cloud Island and see the master. She'll be delighted to know those two are dead and to see her son and daughter-in-law again."
The fleet leader nodded and looked towards Guiyun Island, which was only two miles away. The towering city wall at the highest point of the island was clearly visible.
Pei Jingyun stood on the city wall and watched everything that happened on the sea.
"Master, General Ling's navy sank that ship," Jiang Tongshan pointed to the small section of the ship's stern two miles away on the sea. "According to the news sent back by Long, Xiao Zhuo and Shen Yuexi are on that ship. They are dead."
Pei Jingyun's face was devoid of joy as she shook her head and said, "I don't believe Shen Yuexi will die so easily."
She had witnessed Shen Yuexi drink poison and survive, and she knew the Xirong people's legend that the gods protected Shen Yuexi, making her invulnerable to bows, arrows, swords, and spears. This was still the case now; even the bombardment of hundreds of cannons could not harm this extraordinary woman.
She didn't believe in God, but she felt that there was indeed a mysterious power helping Shen Yuexi.
But she didn't care. She had anticipated all of this and had made preparations. When Shen Yuexi and Xiao Zhuo stood before her, nothing could stop her from killing them.
She was born to fight against fate, and even gods could not stop her.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com