“City Lord, wipe your hands.”
Qi Honglang pulled out two rough paper towels and handed them to Jiang Zhixu.
He could tell the other man was somewhat disgusted by the grease on his hands.
Jiang Zhixu didn’t refuse. He took the paper towels and wiped his hands. “How are the helmsmen assigned?”
Qi Honglang replied, “We put our own man as the chief helmsman. The original chief helmsman is now the deputy.”
The helmsman of a Mobile City was of paramount importance.
Movement, direction, attack, evasion… a whole series of operations all required the helmsman to execute.
An excellent helmsman could even make a Mobile City dance gracefully through a hail of artillery fire, untouched!
Of course, helmsmen of that caliber weren’t something a Level 1 or 2 city could possess.
And beyond that, cities became too large; even the best helmsman couldn’t perform such maneuvers. So, it was more of a legend.
The person Jiang Zhixu’s faction had appointed was only an apprentice helmsman, who had previously served as a deputy helmsman on another city.
There was no other choice. The “Deep Blue” was only this big. Talented individuals had long been filtered out by the previous City Lord. Finding someone both trustworthy and skilled wasn’t something that could be done overnight!
…
Jiang Zhixu’s final stop was the cockpit.
Just as he reached the door, he heard intense arguing inside.
He frowned and pushed the door open.
Before he could speak, Qi Honglang spoke up for him, loudly reprimanding the two helmsmen. “What’s going on here?! With the enemy at our doorstep, you’re still arguing?!”
Both the chief and deputy helmsmen were young men.
The chief helmsman, Wei Ran, was Qi Honglang’s man. Sun Cheng was the original chief helmsman.
Seeing the City Lord arrive in person, Wei Ran, as the trusted man, naturally spoke up first to explain:
“Brother Jiang, I said we should turn to engage, actively shortening the distance between us and the raider city, but Sun Cheng disagreed. That’s why we were arguing!”
Sun Cheng immediately spoke up upon hearing this: “Preposterous! If we maintain our current heading and slightly reduce speed, we can shorten the distance. There’s absolutely no need to take such a risk! On the contrary, actively charging at them would make them suspicious!”
If two cities charged directly at each other, even though neither had forward-facing cannons, if the opposing helmsman was experienced and quickly performed a broadside turn to fire, the “Deep Blue,” charging straight ahead, would have a hard time reacting!
Jiang Zhixu understood now.
The cockpit and the gunners were connected by intercom, so they already knew they were going to engage.
But *how* to engage was where the chief and deputy helmsmen disagreed.
Jiang Zhixu looked at Wei Ran, who immediately said, “Brother Jiang, Sun Cheng is actually right.”
This sudden agreement made Sun Cheng’s eyes widen.
But Wei Ran continued, “However, he’s overlooking two things.
“First, in nature, the weaker party puts on a bluff to scare off a predator. But in the eyes of raiders, *they* are the predators, and we are the prey. They wouldn’t choose to avoid us just because they feel suspicious!
“Second, we can’t be sure only one raider city received that old bastard’s broadcast, or whether they have allies rushing to intercept us.
“If we’re going to fight, it must be a quick, decisive victory. Otherwise, if a second raider city appears, no matter how many shells we have, our chances are slim!”
A Level 1 city almost never stood a chance against two enemies at once, let alone two raider cities.
Having many shells was useless if you couldn’t fire them in time. Once caught in a pincer attack, the “Deep Blue” would definitely be breached within five minutes.
This was Wei Ran’s concern.
Jiang Zhixu quickly glanced at Sun Cheng. Seeing his hesitant expression, seemingly unable to offer further rebuttal, Jiang Zhixu nodded. “You handle it. I trust you.”
Sun Cheng’s face fell. These words meant he had completely lost the new City Lord’s trust. His heart filled with bitterness.
*As expected, a new ruler brings new ministers*, he thought.
Although the new City Lord hadn’t disposed of him, an old retainer, he probably wouldn’t be entrusted with important tasks again.
He sighed inwardly and was about to tactfully withdraw from the cockpit when Wei Ran spoke up:
“Brother Sun, you’re an experienced helmsman. We’ll still need your help steering. Let’s cooperate and take down this raider city as quickly as possible!”
Sun Cheng was stunned. He instinctively looked at Jiang Zhixu. Seeing the latter give a slight nod, he immediately brightened up and said enthusiastically,
“Absolutely! Absolutely! Let’s cooperate well!”
His tone already acknowledged Wei Ran as the lead.
Jiang Zhixu walked to the viewport, a slight smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
The close associates he had personally recruited each had their own abilities.
Although none possessed highly specialized skills for now, it was precisely because of this that they hadn’t been valued by the previous City Lord, allowing him to pick them up now.
Thinking it over carefully, his luck really wasn’t bad.
Suddenly, a flash of firelight appeared in the distance.
Wei Ran reacted instantly. “They’re firing!”
With that, he immediately turned the helm for tactical evasion!
Five seconds later, a “boom” arrived belatedly, followed by a violent explosion.
The enemy had missed.
The shell landed over forty meters away from the “Deep Blue.”
This was normal. After all, the two sides were currently over a kilometer apart, and Wei Ran had evaded in time. Hitting them was almost impossible for the enemy.
This single shell was merely the enemy announcing their arrival and—
The hunt had begun!
At the same moment, the “Deep Blue” turned its helm, charging straight towards the raider city!
The distance between them rapidly shrank!
…
“Have they gone mad?”
In the cockpit of the raider city, a bare-chested burly man holding binoculars was somewhat astonished.
The helmsman beside him, a middle-aged man, replied indifferently,
“Just a bluff.”
The burly man shook his head. “I’m not so sure.”
He paused, then said, “They might have realized we’re herding them. This new City Lord has some guts. I’ll send a broadcast to Old Wu later, tell them not to rush over here. We can handle this prey ourselves.”
Given the previous City Lord of the “Deep Blue”‘s broadcast, they naturally knew the other side only had two shells left, a spent force.
Therefore, they never imagined the other side would engage them head-on in a fight.
The burly man chuckled. “Just watch. When they get within a kilometer of us, they’ll turn and run in another direction… Tell the gunners to predict the turn and hit them with a Thunderclap Shell!”
The helmsman glanced sideways. “Are you sure? We only have three Thunderclap Shells.”
The burly man said confidently, “I’m not wrong!”
…
In the blink of an eye, the distance between them shortened to one kilometer.
*Boom!*
*Boom!*
Two flashes of firelight.
However, one trailed only an ordinary path, while the other had a lightning-like afterimage!
“What are they shooting at?”
This was Jiang Zhixu’s puzzled voice.
Because while their own ship was traveling almost straight, the enemy performed a broadside turn, causing that shell to miss by over a hundred meters!
“Truly a Level 1 cannon. The power is something else,” Qi Honglang remarked, watching the dozens-of-meters-wide lightning net and crater with trepidation.
“They not only didn’t turn, but they dare to return fire?!”
This was the burly man’s furious voice in the raider city.
A precious Level 1 shell, wasted!
He roared, “Fine, fine! Coming to deliver themselves to death, are they? Tell the gunners to prepare to return fire with regular shells!”
But compared to returning fire, the helmsman beside him looked grave, sharply turning the helm to the left.
Because enemy shells were incoming!
*Boom!*
The “Deep Blue”‘s shell narrowly grazed the city, exploding ten meters away.
The intense blast wave ultimately affected the raider city, causing its speed to drop for an instant.
*Bang!*
*Bang!*
Two more reports.
Again, the “Deep Blue”‘s cannons.
“Return fire!” the burly man bellowed. “Don’t wait to close the distance! Return fire! Return fire now!”
He was furious.
But suddenly, he froze.
“Wait, they fired two more?”
What was 1+2?
Weren’t they supposed to have only two shells left?
But there was no need to calculate anymore, because everyone saw two more shells leave the “Deep Blue”‘s barrels after those two.
The burly man’s expression began to change.
Because these four shells completely sealed off their possible evasion paths.
Having just finished a broadside firing maneuver and performed an emergency turn to evade, they simply didn’t have time to turn again and accelerate!