Chapter 68: Chapter 137 Vesper’s Leader, Zheng He
This was an almost laughably unlucky encounter, who would have thought that the leader of Vesper, Zheng He, would personally make a move so early in the game? It was almost as unfathomable that he would also bring out his prized aircraft carriers, of which he had too few of. If he were to lose the 3 that he brought here, it would turn out to be quite a big loss. If the two husbands were able to see it, then the scouts under Madam Zheng would have seen it too and would have likely informed her already of the developments.
The only thing that these two could do now was to pray for a miracle to happen since neither of them was confident that they could beat Zheng He in a head-on battle, even if he did not bring his personal fleet. It was a good thing that the two of them had already set up for a worst-case scenario as this was exactly that kind of desperate situation.
The first husband had ordered the mines to be set up underneath the waves so that the enemy would only be aware of them once they were already in sea mine-infested waters. Of course, to achieve this kind of result could only be done if they set up the sea mines to a depth that wouldn't allow them to detonate even if a ship was right on top of them, but the first had a plan to deal with that.
This sea mine plan took up a lot of time to set up so both of them were glad that that time had not gone to waste. Another benefit of this plan would be that they had set up so many sea mines that submarines would not be able to get through them without taking at least several losses. The two of them did not expect this to be the case, more of a deterrent, if you will. Their fleet consisted of a few WW2 submarines that were capable of shooting torpedoes quite accurately. The men of these subs were ordered to immediately get into position and be ready for the plan they had been focusing on the past few days.
Zheng He's fleet was not a small one, to say the least. The aircraft carriers were scary because they were now able to bring fighter aircraft into the battlefield. It was possible to build an airbase on one of the islands, but it would take too long to do, not to mention how easy it would be for an enemy to get ahold of such a valuable resource. From their best estimates, Zheng He had brought along at least 15,000 ships, possibly some submarines, and an unknown amount of fighter aircraft.
The fleet that was defending the island did not have as big of a fleet, but the difference wasn't huge. Perhaps the biggest challenge wasn't the number of weapons that either side has, it was the quality of strategists that were leading them. The two husbands of Madam Zheng were by no means your average naval strategists, in fact, they could be said to be within the top 10 within the entire Chinese community.
However, Zheng He was undoubtedly on a whole other level compared to these two. If the two played their hands right, they might be able to fend off Zheng He, but as they were now, they both knew that they stood virtually no chance of defeating him as they were now.
A major battle between the Vesper faction and the Forever Pirates was about to begin, and 3 naval geniuses would be facing off against each other, who would win? Sea mine plan began to take into effect once the unknowing Vesper fleet was venturing right on top of the sea mines. The submarines that were off the coast of the island got to work immediately blasting the sea mines that were underneath the Vesper ships. These mines, that were originally given to them by Baron, had been able to be researched enough that their development team was able to advance the technology to add timed explosions.
Not only that, they were able to sense a disturbance in the water around them and would float to the top of the water where it would then explode. The Forever Pirates were quite fond of this toy and had started to incorporate a lot of their warfare around this weapon. Submarines kept shooting as many torpedoes as they had and the Vesper ships kept falling one after another.
It was quite unfortunate that these sea mines did not pack too much of a punch when compared to the dexterity of the enemies' fleet, or else this would have been a devastating blow. Since they were able to damage many ships to beyond usable status, and even managing to sink one of the 3 aircraft carriers with their concentrated fire, the Forever Pirates was actually in quite a great mood. They had dealt some damage to the Vesper fleet without taking any losses which would have been a cause for celebration if it weren't for their enemies not even slowing down to reassess the situation after they got out of the sea mine-infested waters.
The two husbands had hoped that such an attack would give them some breathing room, but it seemed that Zheng He would not be giving them that luxury today. Both of them finished up their fleet composition rearranging and wished each other luck as they knew that it was likely one or both of them might fall on just the first day of battle.
Zheng Jing and 2 other elders were to take orders from the first husband while another 3 would have to take orders from the second husband. There was no room for error now because if they did mess up, only punishments awaited them if they did. Stepping down was a no go, as such, they would have to face one of the deadliest naval strategists within the Chinese community.
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