48 Hours a Day

As Lanny was speaking, Marvin’s forehead began to sweat, and by the time Lanny finished his explanation, the farmer’s son was as white as a sheet.

 He never expected that to be a problem. No matter how he looked at it, the chances of the people on the tiny boat surviving were marginal—it was because of that that he chose to join the pirates, and became a cook on the Sea Lion in exchange for a chance to survive.

 Who would have thought that they would miraculously be rescued? Had he known, he would have stayed on the boat, and would probably be basking in the sun on his farmer’s farm.

 Worse still, the survival of those people brought on a whole series of trouble. The account of the four joining the pirates was circulated, and thus, destroyed all possibility of the four of them ever returning to the civilized world. Unless they were pardoned by the queen, they would forever be identified as pirates.

 Of course, these were all things they had to worry about in the future. Right now, there was a more urgent, more terrible thing awaiting him.

 Once Lanny was done speaking, the sailors guarding the ‘merchants’ sobered up. They raised their weapons and the whole atmosphere quickly turned hostile.

 Someone pulled the trigger—no one knew who. At the loud bang of the gunshot, Marvin’s heart contracted and his mind went blank. He thought that he was going to be dead for sure this time, but when he opened his eyes, there was no wound on his body.

 Rather, it was Lanny, the sailor who exposed him who gawked at the bloodstain on his chest with a look of disbelief.

 The beast had awakened from its sleep.

 No one knew when, but the man with the black beard opened his eyes fierce as a lion, his entire person exuding a formidable force. He withdrew the still smoking gun and said in an unusually low voice, “The war has begun. Let’s go hunt together!”

 The guards on the deck could hardly believe what had just happened. They had taken control of the entire boat and confiscated all of the weapons found on the crew. Where did this bullet come from?

 It was not until two seconds later that someone realized what was happening. But it was too late. The deck under their feet suddenly opened up and a few sailors standing on it fell down into the hole. Before they even hit the ground, their throats were slit. Then a cluster after another of pirates, armed to the teeth, appeared from under the deck. The heads of the rest of the sailors were chopped off before they could even pivot their gun’s muzzle.

 Because of the unexpected Marvin accident, the battle started half a minute earlier.

 Most of the unarmed sailors who were transferring the porcelain crockery were already on board the Sea Lion. Only about ten of them were still standing on the deck. Upon realizing that something went wrong, they immediately fled back to the Scarborough.

 The others, however, were not as lucky. The twenty over armed British officers were the first to be killed. All of them were either injured or terminated during that one confrontation.

 After Owen took down a British sailor, he returned Zhang Heng’s clothes and weapon to Zhang Heng. The other pirates had ignited the hand grenades; the ones used in the 17th and 18th century was very different from the one in the modern-day. They were shaped like pomegranates, which was also where its name was derived from. During that time, the grenades were basically an iron shell filled with gunpowder-filled lead pellets or metal pieces, and could cause serious damage when thrown into a crowd. The sailors on Scarborough wanted to crossover to help, but were severely wounded by the explosion.

 1Some of the new recruits who were fleeing panicked, and in a split moment of terror, pushed and shoved each other as they were crossing the gangplank so that the unlucky ones fell into the water.

 The gunner on Scarborough asked the chief officer, “Sir, should we fire? We can sink the entire ship in a matter of minutes.”

 However, the latter appeared to be somewhat hesitant. For the most part, he was thinking about the china on the other ship. But before he could open his mouth to speak, Burnett who was next to him beat him to it. “No! Our men have not returned! How can we shoot now?! If we do that, how can you expect these people to fight for us in the future?”

 His argument was not unreasonable. Already, they had a big problem with the rock-bottom morale of the sailors because the Admiralty owed them their wages. Scarborough was no exception to this matter. If they had fired at the ‘merchant ship’, while only a small portion of their men were sacrificed, the real damage would be the breach of trust with the remaining crew.

 More importantly, there were over six hundred men on the Scarborough. They were at an advantage in terms of numbers, and although the pirates had launched a wave of sneak attack, the damage they suffered was not really that severe. Should a battle really take place, there was no way Scarborough would lose.

 However, as a result of his hesitation, the pirates had breached their ship.

 Today, Elmer the captain, also experienced embarrassment like never before. Despite the fact that he was unharmed, he was so startled by the sound of the explosion that he spilled the red wine all over his uniform. By the time he came around, he was blind with rage. As he reached down to pull out his saber, he spat, “What the hell are you still doing standing there? Go and get rid of those lawless pirates and bring back all our porcelain!”

 Since the captain had spoken, no one protested. The chief officer immediately dispatched a gunner to counter the enemy’s attack. But the pirates were more cunning than they expected. And even instead of killing the sailors who boarded the ship, they were mixed among them rushed together. Instead of slaughtering all of the sailors on the ship, they stood among the sailors, using them as shields.

 The gunner spent an awfully long time aiming without even an opportunity to open fire. Not after, their enemy and his own men were right before him—and that was when the difference between a rookie and an old timer was significantly evident.

 Under tremendous pressure, a rookie would panic and randomly fire so that the bullets were everywhere; most of it would end up nowhere while a small portion would hit his own men, and the pirates would be barely harmed.

 The man with the black beard took the lead, beheading a sailor in front of him, then using the body as a shield as he made his way to the musketeers. With incredible speed, he pulled out the saber at his waist and plunged it into the chest of his enemy. The tip of the knife protruded from the back of the poor musketeer. He twisted the blade twice and blood came spewing out of the sailor’s mouth onto his clothes. Now he really looked like the king of hell.

 Those nearby who witnessed the whole scene were so terror-stricken that they ran for their lives.

 This time, it was a battle of life and death. Zhang Heng did not hold back as he swung his saber at the incoming enemies; his movements, unlike the bearded the man’s, were much nimbler and more graceful. His previous attempt to integrate karate into his sword fights and was finally seeing some success. He focused on sidestepping his enemy’s attack, and when the right opportunity presented itself, disarm the enemy. But just as the tip of his saber was about to slit his target’s throat, someone drew a knife at him.

 “Your opponent is me,” Burnett said, his voice thick with confidence. He was very sure of his sword skills—back in London, through his family’s connections, he had studied under numerous prestigious mentors, and was convinced that no one would be able to beat him.

 Zhang Heng took one look at the sailor from the corner of his eyes, pulled out the pistol at his waist and pulled the trigger, unhesitating.