Frontier Army Warrior

Chapter 1039 Burning the Ships Amidst the Chaos

Torches flickered in the distance, and voices rang out.

It seems the commotion here has alerted the pirates' forces.

Before long, a long dragon of torches appeared in the distance, winding its way toward them.

Lin Feng thought for a moment while running, then suddenly changed direction and ran towards the long line of torches.

When they were still about a hundred feet away from the torchlight dragon, Lin Feng stopped and began to draw lines on the ground with his hands.

This is a salt field. There are no stones on the ground, but there are many large salt particles scattered everywhere, each about the size of a peanut.

Lin Feng picked up a dozen or so raw salt blocks and held them in his hand. As the long line of torches drew closer, he could clearly see the faces of the pirates, their menacing expressions gleaming in the torchlight.

Lin Feng flicked the salt particles in his hand outwards, using both hands separately. He didn't need to be too accurate; he just wanted to slightly slow down the pirates' advance and buy more time for the large group of slaves who were stealing salt.

As the salt grains were ejected, the pirate squad dozens of steps away, the one in front of them, screamed in pain and fell to the ground for some unknown reason.

More than one soldier was hit, one after another, some lightly, some heavily. More than a dozen men fell to the ground, clutching their wounds and rolling around in pain.

The leader immediately ordered a halt to the advance and sent someone with torches to check the situation.

The leader reacted quickly, realizing he was under attack, and immediately ordered his soldiers to retaliate with bows and arrows.

It was pitch black ahead, and nothing could be seen clearly. The pirates simply fired their arrows, regardless of whether there were any people around.

Upon seeing the pirates halt their advance, Lin Feng immediately turned and ran.

He was fast enough to be out of range of the arrows.

They retraced their steps back to the salt warehouse, where hundreds of dark figures were busy loading salt. Once the bags were full, they carried them on their backs and ran towards the warships on the shore.

Seeing that they knew to act according to plan, Lin Feng turned around and rushed towards the other ships docked in the port.

The next target was to set the ship on fire.

If warships are left for the pirates, they will still be attacked while fleeing at sea.

At this moment, the entire harbor had descended into chaos, with shouts everywhere, people running around haphazardly, and some carrying torches, loudly warning others.

Any pirates who got even slightly close to Lin Feng were shot down by him with salt pellets.

Soon, Lin Feng arrived at the foot of a warship. This ship was the same as the one he had come from. It was very large, and pirates were holding torches below the ship, waiting for the crew to assemble and disembark.

Lin Feng was too lazy to kill anyone again. He took a running start from the stern of the ship, leaped up, used the ship's hull for leverage, and jumped onto the warship.

There were torches and oil lamps on the warship. Lin Feng was fast and swept past like a whirlwind. He casually smashed the oil lamps, took the torches from the ship's side, and threw them onto the flammable materials.

He ran while shouting loudly.

"Listen up, everyone! Disembark and head east. There are ships there to meet you..."

Lin Feng ran from the stern to the bow, lit the fire, and then turned around and ran from the bow to the stern.

Whenever pirates came to put out a fire, he would cut them down with a single stroke of his sword.

When he reached the stern, thick smoke was billowing from the entire ship, and flames were beginning to appear.

However, as he turned to look at the salt field, he could faintly hear the roar of warhorses galloping.

It must be that the main force guarding the salt fields has been alerted and is rushing over here.

Lin Feng climbed up a nearby mast and looked around.

In addition, some ships started to smoke and catch fire.

It seems that Rong Rong and Ye Haishan haven't been idle either. They may not kill anyone, but setting a fire should be no problem for them.

Lin Feng silently calculated the time and decided it was time to leave.

If we don't leave now, once the main force of the pirates arrives, those large numbers of slaves won't be able to escape.

Slide down the mast and then jump off the stern.

Lin Feng ran back to the warship he had come on.

A lot of stolen salt would be loaded onto this ship, and large numbers of slaves who came with it would also escape on this ship.

One ship isn't enough. We'll take as many ships as we can. If we can't escape, we can only blame our bad luck.

Lin Feng returned to the warship and ordered the large number of slaves to set sail, no longer waiting for those who couldn't get on.

He had already spotted the pirates' cavalry, which were less than a mile from the ship. With their horses accelerating, they would reach the ship in less than a quarter of an hour.

The warships slowly left the pier, and many slaves, unable to board in time, jumped into the sea from the pier.

The pirates came with overwhelming force; those who couldn't escape certainly wouldn't survive.

On the distant harbor, two other ships followed Lin Feng's ship as it departed.

It's unknown how many large numbers of slaves were transported on board.

Besides the departing warships, six of the other anchored ships emitted thick smoke, accompanied by red flames.

Lin Feng lay on the stern of the boat, watching the chaos in the salt field, and chuckled to himself.

I wonder if the pirates would be so angry they'd vomit blood if they saw this scene.

General Atsumi Masao, the highest commander of the salt fields in Quzhou Prefecture, drank a little too much at dinner and slept soundly.

He had been guarding the salt field for more than two years without any incident, which made him complacent.

When the guards woke him up, the outside was already in complete chaos.

Many of the guards and generals had already led their troops toward the sea, not waiting for General Wei's orders.

Masao Atsumi put on his clothes, stepped out of the room, and frowned as he looked towards the harbor. Flames were rising from the ships, flickering like demons, as if mocking him.

"Mobilize all troops and spare no expense to capture these troublemaking bastards!"

His deputy immediately led messengers to deliver orders and organized troops to head to the port.

Masao Atsumi left a portion of his men to guard the main gate of the saltworks, while the rest were transferred to the port.

When he arrived at the port, the other teams were already on the ships fighting the fire. The ships that were not on fire were cargo ships, which had no offensive capabilities on the sea and could not match the speed of warships.

Therefore, the other teams could only wait on the sidelines for the arrival of the supreme commander.

Upon seeing Masao Atsumi arrive, an officer stepped forward to report.

"Report, General, three warships have left port, hundreds of slaves have escaped, and two warships and four cargo ships are on fire."

"Who is it?"

Masao Atsumi sat on horseback, looking at the dark sea in the distance.

"Reporting to the general, it is still unclear which side is causing trouble."

"Go and investigate the losses, and keep a close watch on the large number of slaves. If there is any unusual behavior, kill them without exception."

He gritted his teeth and gave the order.

Without needing to investigate in detail, just looking at these ships engulfed in flames, one can tell that the damage is severe. How am I supposed to explain this to Atsumi Akiyama?

It doesn't matter how many slaves escaped, or how much raw salt was stolen.

The main focus was on ships; these were the crucial weapons for combat. Masao Atsumi knew very well how much effort it took to build a ship.

Six ships were burned and three warships were stolen.

Seeing that only a few large and small ships remained in the harbor, it seemed unlikely that he could save his life.

We need to find a way to catch up with the three warships, capture the ringleader of the disturbance, and maybe we can explain things to the boss.

As dawn broke, the fires on the warships were extinguished.

Three ships were severely damaged and are unlikely to be repaired.

The remaining ships can be repaired and are still usable.

Masao Atsumi rode his warhorse slowly back, pondering how to pursue the enemy while also wondering who was really targeting him.

Along the way, we passed a row of fences and saw twenty or thirty dark-skinned, thin slaves hanging from them by ropes.