Chapter 27: The Anchor Chain Snaps

On the deck of the galleon.

Jose shouted loudly: "Are you mad? Raising anchor while under sail — the anchor chain will tear the ship apart!"

Lin Qian ignored him, merely watching the crew install the winch.

Besides the main rudder's anchor chain, the winch was also connected to an arm-thick cable, guided through several sets of pulleys, running all the way to the officers' mess in the sterncastle.

At that moment, Bailangzai emerged from the cargo hold with five or six crewmen, each carrying a heavy oak barrel.

"Sixth Brother, the whale fat and olive oil you wanted are brought up." Bailangzai and the crew set the barrels down on the deck.

Lin Qian ordered: "Melt these fats down, put them in small buckets, and send them to the steering room."

"Helmsman, we found a woman in the cabins." A crewman dragged over a fair-skinned Spanish woman, clad only in a bedsheet, with most of her body exposed.

The woman was quite frightened at first, but upon catching sight of Jose, she immediately burst into furious curses.

From the content of her abuse, one could tell this woman was a "merry maiden."

Jose had tricked her onto the ship, and after enjoying her "merry" services, refused to pay, threatening that if she made a fuss, the guards on deck would find out and send her to the gallows.

The woman could only swallow her humiliation, and was forced to provide "merry" services once more in exchange for a chance to leave the ship.

Unexpectedly, at the critical moment of her service, the sound of battle cries came from the deck. Jose immediately abandoned her and fled, leaving her to hide in the cabin — which was how Lin Qian's crewmen found her.

Hearing the woman's accusation, Lin Qian cast a look of contempt at Jose.

Jose tried to explain: "I had just stepped onto the deck to check the situation when I was captured — I didn't mean to abandon you..."

"Damn liar! Vile bastard!" The woman cursed without pause. As she waved her arms in agitation, more and more scenery that the bedsheet couldn't cover came into view. Had the situation not been so tense, quite a few of the crewmen would likely have stepped forward to offer comfort.

Lin Qian walked up to her: "Can you swim?"

The woman was taken aback: "Yes, why? Ah—"

With a scream, the woman was pushed over the ship's side by Lin Qian.

The woman choked on a few mouthfuls of seawater in the sea, swam desperately to shore, covered her vital parts with both arms, and shouted curses up at the ship.

Jose put on a fawning smile: "I can swim too — no need for you to go to the trouble, sir. I'll jump myself."

Lin Qian sneered: "You stay right where you are." Then he had his men lock Jose in a cabin.

By then, Bailangzai had already melted the fats in the small buckets with a torch, and per Lin Qian's instructions mixed the whale fat and olive oil in equal proportions, sending them to the officers' mess.

Following Lin Qian's directions, two crewmen were in the steering room swinging sledgehammers against a section of copper pipe, the pipe pressed against the rudder lock, transmitting vibration.

Their blows were not heavy, but the frequency was rapid — this was the method of removing rust through vibration.

After several hours of hammering, a layer of rust had fallen to the floor.

It was high summer, and the steering room was airtight and stifling. The two crewmen had long since stripped off their shirts, drenched in sweat.

Before descending into the steering room, Lin Qian also removed his shirt, took the hot oil Bailangzai handed over, carried it to the bottom of the steering room, and had the two crewmen use brushes to apply the hot oil to the nuts on both sides of the rudder lock.

After the prolonged hammering to remove rust, tiny gaps had formed between the nuts and the cast-iron rod, just enough for the oil to seep in through capillary action and serve as lubrication.

Seeing the hot oil applied, Lin Qian called out toward the hatch: "Uncle Huang, is the wrench ready?"

A moment later, Mute Huang appeared at the steering room hatch, lowering a wrench down by rope.

The wrench was made of ironwood, crudely fashioned in haste, its shape precisely matching the seven-sided nut on the right side of the rudder lock.

Lin Qian took the wrench, fitted it onto the oiled nut, and pressed down with all his strength — the nut did not budge in the slightest.

At that moment, Chen Jiao's voice came from the hatch: "Helmsman, the right anchor has been hauled in, but the left anchor is stuck and won't move. We must furl sails and stop the ship, and send someone down to the seabed to check."

Lin Qian paused, checked the thread direction to confirm the turning direction was correct, and said to the two crewmen: "Both of you press down on the wrench together."

Then he said to Chen Jiao: "Maintain current speed."

Chen Jiao was briefly stunned, then nodded: "Understood."

Though he knew full well that maintaining speed could at best capsize the galleon, and at worst flood and sink her, Chen Jiao had not dared to question Lin Qian's orders since the time Lin Qian sailed through the storm.

Even if a reef field lay dead ahead and Lin Qian ordered full speed into it, Chen Jiao would not hesitate.

As they spoke, the two crewmen pressed down on the wrench with all the strength they had, the ironwood handle emitting faint sounds of wood splintering.

Yet the bolt remained utterly unmoved.

Suddenly, the hull came to a jarring stop as if striking a reef, and the three men in the steering room were thrown every which way.

From the bow came the teeth-grinding creak of timber, and the hull began to list to the left, the angle shifting gradually from 5 degrees to 15 degrees, then to 20 degrees.

The three men in the steering room slid toward the left, hot oil spilling all over the floor. Fortunately, the temperature had dropped by then — it merely left their skin scalded red.

Just as the hull's list approached 30 degrees, there came a sudden muffled thunderclap of a sound — Boom!

The hull instantly righted itself, then swayed a few times before holding level.

The anchor chain had snapped.

On deck, the crewmen erupted in cheers.

In the steering room, the two crewmen staggered to their feet. One look at the nut, and they exclaimed in delight: "It turned!"

Then the two of them cranked the wrench down frantically, and after tremendous effort, finally removed the right-side nut.

The wrench snapped in two in the process, no longer usable.

But there was nothing to regret, for the left and right nuts had different shapes — this wrench had been designed for the right nut from the start.

Moreover, due to the rudder lock's special design, forcibly removing one side's nut would cause the other side's nut to be pressed and embedded into the wood, locking it completely. Even with the original wrench at hand, the left nut could no longer be removed.

At that moment, Chen Jiao's voice came again from the hatch: "Helmsman, there's a shoal ahead — any further and we'll run aground. We must turn immediately."

At the harbor pier.

Alonso's eyes were wide with fury — he had just witnessed the anchor chain snap with his own eyes.

The anchor chain was a thick chain of cast iron; snapping it forcibly during sailing would cause incalculable damage to the hull.

He had never imagined Lin Qian would be so audacious as to go this far.

Because he hadn't seen the galleon raising anchor, Alonso had remained confident that Lin Qian couldn't get the galleon moving, and had therefore kept to gentle measures, unwilling to damage the galleon's hull.

He never expected Lin Qian to act with such utter recklessness — raising sails and anchor simultaneously, gambling on shipwreck and death alike, just to leave port quickly.

Alonso could no longer maintain his composure. He set down his wine glass, rose to his feet, and paced anxiously.

Hanging this band of pirates was now a trivial matter—protecting the Manila galleon was the paramount concern.

After all, the galleon's departure month was fast approaching, and its holds were already nearly half-filled with precious cargo—raw silk, silk fabrics, porcelain, cloves, cinnamon, lacquerware, pearls, and other valuables—worth nearly 500,000 pesos.

That was equivalent to the entire output of the Manila colony over nearly half a year.

If these goods were lost, never mind how the Crown would react—even the noble shareholders behind the Manila galleon would never forgive him.

And don't forget, the Manila galleon itself had cost a fortune to build.

If these pirates, desperate and cornered, actually scuttled the galleon...

Then the figure of the loss would balloon into an astronomical sum.

Even selling off all the lands, castles, and treasures of their Fajardo family would not be enough to repay it.

Alonso thought to himself—if the San Felipe or the Fury were in port, he could board and grapple the enemy at once, and the situation would not be so dire.

Suddenly, he froze.

A question surfaced in his mind: kidnapping Catherine, feigning an attack on Lingayen Bay, recruiting pirates, allying with the Dutch—could all of these things have been done merely to draw away Manila's navy?

Lin Qian... could he have begun planning the ship seizure the moment he first set foot in Manila harbor?

Had he... foreseen all along that things would come to this?

Yahei

Fenyuan

Pen