Chapter 222: Stratagem

Great Port, Royal Palace.

On the golden throne, Shi Li Mohe Luosha's flesh quivered with anger, and he stared intently at the kneeling Adiyawaman at his feet. The minister of military affairs, who had just fled in disgrace from the Maliujia Haixia, had his once‑shining golden armor dulled and stained with blood and the marks of gunpowder.

The hundred warships he once boasted of have dwindled to fewer than thirty rickety rafts, like a pack of wild dogs chased by a tiger, tail‑between‑legs, fleeing back to the port.

"One hundred ships, five thousand warriors," the king's voice dripped with murderous intent. "Is this the result you bring me?"

Adiyawaman kept his head buried deep in the carpet, daring not to lift it. The air behind him reeked of failure and the suppressed breathing of the ministers. The scene of that battle replayed in his mind repeatedly. Iron balls rained down, tearing sails, shattering decks, hurling his elite soldiers into the sea like crushed ants.

"Your Majesty, their weapons... are terrifying," Adiyawaman's voice was hoarse. "Our ships cannot get close at all. The projectiles from their iron tubes kill our warriors in volleys from a hundred paces away; no mortal force can stand against them."

"Useless!" The king kicked the golden fruit tray before him, scattering ripe mangoes and lychees across the floor. "If we can't win, can't you think of another way? Shall we let those foreigners ride on Sanfoqi's neck and defecate?"

The hall was so silent one could hear a needle fall. Everyone knew the Maliujia Haixia was Sanfoqi's lifeblood. This golden waterway brought more wealth each year than the combined output of all the kingdom's lands. Now that golden‑egg‑laying hen has had its throat locked shut with an iron chain.

Chief minister Su Baluomo, the elder with a speckled white beard, stepped forward. His complexion was no better than the king's, yet his gaze retained a hint of composure.

"Your Majesty, calm your anger. General Adiyawaman's words are likely not false; their ships are sturdy and their cannons powerful, and in a head‑on clash we indeed cannot gain the advantage. Yet they have a weakness."

The king's gaze turned to him, like a drowning man clutching a plank. "Speak."

"They are few in number," Su Baluomo said slowly. "According to reports from our eyes placed aboard merchant ships, the Wang Family holding the strait number no more than a thousand. They can guard the two forts and those few iron vessels, but they cannot control the entire Maliujia sea region."

The king's eyes lit up.

"You mean..."

"They can block the main channel, but they cannot police the remote reefs and channels," Su Baluomo's mouth curled into a cold smile. "We can dispatch small elite detachments, piloting shallow‑draft boats to operate in those unseen corners. Since they intend to collect tolls, we will ensure those merchants earn not a single coin."

Adiyawaman snapped his head up, a flash of realization in his eyes. "Right, if we can't beat you, I'll disgust you. I'll turn your channel into a ghost road that no one dares to travel, and see whose toll you still try to collect!"

"Your Majesty, this plan is brilliant!" Adiyawaman immediately agreed. "We can disguise ourselves as pirates, targeting merchant ships that have paid the Wang Family. Seize their cargo, burn their vessels, slay their crews! After one or two raids, those merchants will naturally avoid the Maliujia. Without merchant ships, what use is the Wang Family guarding that empty strait?"

A faint smile finally crept onto the king's fat face. The smile was grim and cruel.

"Fine, so be it!" He slapped the throne's armrest. "Adiyawaman, this is yours. I will not see a single toll‑paid ship leave the Maliujia intact!"

"At your command!"

Half a month later.

A merchant ship from Tianzhu had just paid a toll of one hundred taels of silver, receiving a wooden pass stamped with the character "Wang". Its owner, Hu Shangman, winced in pain yet felt helpless. He directed his crew, steering cautiously past the two forts.

Only when the two forts vanished completely over the horizon did the atmosphere aboard the ship begin to relax.

"Damn Wang Family, how black‑hearted!" the first mate spat into the sea. "One hundred taels of silver could buy a whole cargo of spices in Great Port."

"Silence!" Hu Shang warned, glancing around cautiously. "At least they keep the rules; pay the fee and you pass safely. If it were the old days, who knows what would have happened."

The words barely left his mouth when the lookout let out a terrified shriek.

"Ship... captain! A ship ahead to the right!"

Hu Shang's heart lurched; he snatched up his spyglass. Three sleek fast boats burst out from behind a reef, charging straight at his cargo ship. The men aboard were dark‑skinned, their heads wrapped in red scarves, brandishing curved blades and emitting eerie cries.

"Pirates!" Hu Shang's face went pale in an instant.

How could this be? Hadn't the Wang Family already eradicated the Bolni Guo pirates?

He had no time to think further as the enemy vessels drew alongside. Grappling hooks whistled onto the deck, and a dozen masked pirates scrambled up with the agility of apes.

"Hand over all valuables!" a leading pirate shouted in the Hu language.

Hu Shang trembled, about to beg for mercy, when he saw the pirate's gaze fix on the wooden pass he clutched tightly.

The pirate snatched the pass, glanced at the "Wang" character, and a feral grin spread across his face.

"Oh? The Wang Family's dog?" He hurled the pass to the deck, crushing it underfoot. "Brothers, kill them! Leave none alive!"

A harrowing scream rang out over the calm sea.

The next day, the Wang Family's patrol boat found only the empty hull floating on the sea, its deck stained crimson with blood, its cargo hold stripped clean, and not a single crew corpse to be found.

Such incidents occurred seven or eight times over the following month.

Every ship attacked, without exception, had just paid the Wang Family's toll. Those pirates appeared and vanished like ghosts, never engaging the Wang Family's patrol ships directly; after looting they vanished into the tangled islands and reef clusters, disappearing without a trace.

In an instant, the entire South Sea trade network was thrown into panic.