The first husband of Madam Zheng, along with Zheng Jing and two other elders, would be guarding the northern part of the island. Similarly, the second husband along with 3 elders would be guarding the southern part of the island. It was quite fortunate that the entire west side of the island wasn’t accessible by ship so that meant that they needed to concentrate a lesser amount of their forces there. This place wasn’t accessible due to the fact that there was an entire bed of sharp rocks so clustered together that traveling through them was just more effort than it was worth, not to mention the rapids.

Though it was still best to keep an eye on this place just in case the Vesper tried anything, it was better to be cautious after all. With both of them positioned like this, both sides would be able to provide assistance to the east side of the island should the enemy launch an offensive there.

This had the possibility of becoming a double-edged sword if reinforcements did come from the orders of Madam Zheng, the fleet would need to take a longer amount of time to reach them. The sea mines had one more trick up their sleeve, but if the two husbands used it, rescue for them might not be possible.

As of now, that was a thought for when the time comes. Now, they had to focus on repelling this fleet that was most likely headed by Zheng He, the leader of the Vesper faction and their greatest adversary. Both sides stood at the ready, both sides waiting for the other to make a move. Neither side moved from their position and just had a staredown for an hour.

Finally, the Vesper’s make the first move and set up a temporary smokescreen so that the Forever Pirates would not know their ships’ exact locations and numbers that were sent in to attack. This tactic had the chance to work against them, but with Zheng He leading them, there would be no way this would happen.

This smokescreen covered from about the end of the sea mine-field to halfway to the fleets of the Forever Pirates. Once the first ships emerged fog, the battle was on. Carnage and destruction reigned supreme as both sides hurled cannonballs after cannonballs at each other. Missile after missile. Explosions were frequent and ear-shattering.

The first wave sent by Zheng He consisted of some of their worst ships to see how the Forever Pirates would react to a fanned out assault that would spread out ships and go in for the attack. Of course, the two husbands were well aware of what kind of attack this was and were able to deal with them without breaking a sweat.

However, one flaw of their positioning that they discovered was that the area right in between them was weakest, which they already knew, would have to have at least one consistent strategist to lead them. Just sending more ships there would not be enough it seemed. They decided to send in Zheng Jing and 3 other elders in hopes that they would be able to fend off the oncoming hordes of Vesper ships. Zheng Jing was named the commanding general of that fleet and the 3 other elders would be under his command as well.

Those 4 got there just in time as the moment they did, another wave of Vesper’s came out of the fog and began to shoot at them. These 4 scrambled to respond to such an attack, especially given that they deduced that Zheng He had sent in more forces towards this area as compared to the other two. Perhaps he already knew that this was where the least amount of resistance lay and that sending in more ships here would quicken his pace to take out the left and right arms of Madam Zheng.

Zheng Jing and the others were not so weak that they could be bullied with this level of ships coming towards him, but nevertheless, they went into the battle with caution as their main priority. This second wave was still just a test round as this was nowhere near the amount of firepower that the Vesper’s had brought along with them today.

They got through this wave with a little bit more difficult than the previous one, but nothing they couldn’t handle. All of them realized now that from this point on would be where the real fight began. Their instincts proved to be right as the next wave that came out of the fog included one of the two remaining aircraft carriers, and although this was from the WW2 era, that didn’t diminish its usefulness in naval battles.

The fighter aircraft aboard the carriers began to roll out one after another, there was a definite advantage if you had air support and your enemies did not. Ships that were in front were the same kind as the previous two waves, but the ones behind them packed quite a serious punch, not to mention that the aircraft would be able to rampage through the skies virtually unimpeded.

Once again, the most concentrated fire just so happened to be focused on Zheng Jing’s position. Good thing that out of all 3 positions, they had the most firepower. For now, the two husbands were in no immediate threat of being overwhelmed, but that was a different story for Zheng Jing who had to deal with the carrier on top of all the other fleets that were coming towards him. He ordered his personal elite guards to take to the front lines and set up a perimeter no less than 1 kilometer from the island.

Just as the first of the ships were beginning to clash with one another, one more piece of bad news came into Zheng Jing’s view, the other carrier that Zheng He had brought along with him was now also targeting his location. Things just took a turn for the worse as Zheng Jing kept on thinking of what to do in a situation as dire as this.