Chapter 180.1: part 1
The 180th chapter "The potential threat from the Southeastern Sea" (part 1)
"Speak." Du Wei narrowed his eyes: "You better hurry and tell the truth. Don't expect me to be fooled! Otherwise, that little Lufei wouldn't be able to withstand anymore lashes!"
Old Ben Carson regretfully sighed before looking at Du Wei: "Who exactly are you and why are you so familiar with the southeast!"
Du Wei faintly smiles: "You still don't know my identity? My name is Du Wei! Oh, of course, you may not know my name, but you surely must know of my father's name...... His name is Raymond! Earl Raymond was once upon a time the commander of the southeastern fleet!"
Raymond?
When this name was revealed, Old Ben Carson's face immediately revealed horror and despair!!
The reason is because this name is just too famous among the natives!
A bandit! Butcher! Executioner! ...... His hand is stained with the blood and lives of those living in the southeastern sea. As the most infamous person among the invaders, the name Earl Raymond can make even a child cry like they had seen the devil.
How can this little young noble teenager be the son of that devilish murderer?!
Old Ben Carson didn't have any more time to think this over because Lufei's existence is something the people of the Southeastern Sea cannot lose! No one knows this better than him and no one understands how profoundly important Lufei is to their survival!
"I'll say it! I can tell you everything! The only thing I ask of you is to make your people stop first!" Ben Caron's body trembled slightly as if he had aged all of a sudden.
"Alright." Du Wei made eye contact with Rolynn to have her leave the room. Very soon, the screaming and crying from the room next to them stopped.
Only after hearing this did he finally breath out a sigh of relief. Nonetheless, his muscles were still constantly shaking.
"I did not lie; my real name is called Ben Carson. In the Southeastern Sea, this name is very common among my people. Aside from this, my real identity is not a prophet of the Sun tribe...... I ........." Gritting his teeth reluctantly: "My true identity is the grand prophet of the United Kingdom!"
The United Kingdom?
Du Wei's face did not show much emotion, but his heart was secretly sighing at the answer.
Sure enough, there will be resistance when oppression is made.
The truth is back when Du Wei's father led the empire's fleet against those indigenous tribes; there had already been some forms of retaliations from those savages. Unwilling to accept their fate of genocide from the invaders, some of the larger tribes along the closer islands gathered together and orchestrated a massive battle. If not for the massive difference in their weaponry and equipment, the losses wouldn't have been so low for the imperial fleet.
But due to the excessive pillage of resources on the Southeast, those already conceding tribes living on those islands had their survival instinct knocked awake. In merely a few decades, their level of progress in the art of war was bordering on the line of absurdity. Even for Du Wei's father, a trace of worry had sprouted.
And this so-called United Kingdom is something Du Wei came across before.
Back in the early days of Earl Raymond's naval days, some of the bigger and more civilized tribes in the farthest end of the Southeastern Sea had already united together to create the so called "United Kingdom". Comprised of hundreds of islands, it is said that the mass of some of the bigger islands is on the same level of a province inside the empire! Of course, since the imperial fleet still couldn't travel that far out in sea, all of this is just rumor gathered from word of mouth.
Ever since the rumor of the "United Kingdom" was known, the pressure on the imperial fleet naturally increased as well. When it first started, the pressure was still miniscule due to the vast difference in weaponry. However, as time and years went by, the efforts made by this so called United Kingdom is starting to show some results.
Using their familiarity with the natural terrain and the crude warships they created by stealing the technique from god knows where, these savages managed to inflict a certain level of damage on the imperial fleet by utilizing guerrilla tactics.
And the biggest change was three years ago. In that clash, the battle sent a very clear danger signal to the empire.
The reason is because the imperial fleet's glorious record of having zero injury was broken at this point!
Over the years, the imperial forces had always won without any losses.
No matter how many clashes they had prior to this, the warships of the empire have never been sunk!
The vast gap in technology and weaponry between the two forces meant the indigenous tribes posed no threat. In fact, rather than worrying about those simplistic barbarians, it would be better to put their focus on avoiding hurricanes and water vortexes out at sea. Some General even proudly proclaimed once: When we go to the Southeast, we are not fighting people, we are fighting the weather. As long as the weather permits, there is no obstacle the fleet cannot cross!"
But three years ago, the bloody battle that day finally destroyed the glorious record of the fleet!
Under the leadership and influence of this rumored "United Kingdom", these people from the native tribes constructed a fleet of an enormous scale. Although in the imperial standard, these warships can only be considered a regular ship in size, but the numbers were truly terrifying!
On that day, the imperial fleet may have won the battle in the end, but their losses weren't low: losing two Sea Cloud class warships, the fleet also had one of their Sea King class warships heavily damaged.
This change should have without a doubt raised the alarm for the military. Despite this, the higher ups seem to show no interest at their setback. This is to be expected because after all, their past record is simply too glorious that their sense of urgency became blindsided.
Even an elephant would occasionally be bitten if they were facing a thousand ants at one time.
But Du Wei managed to learn the truth through some other "channel".
Just a few days ago, after Earl Raymond left the Imperial capital, Du Wei looked up some of the documents left behind by his father in the closet...... These documents should have been confiscated when Raymond left, but Du Wei guessed the military thought it wasn't important enough to destroy.
Indeed, the southeast is still a sheep that could be freely harvested in the eyes of the military.
But when Du Wei read up on the data regarding the event three years ago, he found that many of the information from the official known version is different from the one he had in hand!
Firstly, the "United Kingdom" seems to have mastered some basic form of military tactics. Although it is still simple, but it has already stepped into the boundary of being called 'tactics'.
The other party lured the imperial fleet into favorable waters and held a decisive battle between two islands. With the fleet facing land on both sides, all of the ships were stuck in a narrow channel that made their size an unfavorable asset. Like this, the fighters from the native tribes bombarded the fleet with rocks from land.
Those makeshift slings may have extremely low range and accuracy, but the target isn't moving and stuck in a narrow channel. Therefore, the lack of range meant nothing when the target can't move! As for the lack of accuracy, it wasn't a problem either. Those fighting in this battle were already putting their lives on the line, so some friendly casualties are bearable losses.
And on the data, the other party utilized a basic form of "outflanking" the enemy in their combat!
With this, these people are no longer those that will only use homemade canoe and spears to fend off enemies! After nearly a century of oppression, these desperate people have created their own distinguished culture and military nature!