Fleet Artillery Exchange

"Hey!! Hup! Hey!! Hup!"

The rough, powerful chant echoed through the oar deck in the lower level of the Northern Wind. More than a hundred bare-chested sailors, their muscles taut, pushed hard against the long oars in rhythm with the chant.

Sweat streamed down their bronze backs, glinting beneath the dim oil lamps.

The sailors came from all walks of life. Some were old fishermen who made their living along the Northern Territory coast, some were merchant sailors who had spent years running river transport routes, and some were southern pirates like Elmont who had been "recruited into service."

They might not have been professional warship sailors who had undergone strict formation training, but their years of battling wind and waves gave them the ability to execute the most basic sailing orders flawlessly—especially at moments when life and death hung in the balance.

The Carnford Navy was still in its infancy and desperately lacked formally trained naval officers.

Thus, Lord Karl had established a principle at the very beginning of Operation Hannibal: let professionals handle professional matters.

In highly specialized fields such as navigation and combat, command at every level was temporarily entrusted to the experienced senior captains and navigators of the Grimm Merchant Guild.

Brendan knew full well that the navy was a technical branch. If one did not know how, then one simply did not know how, and an amateur commanding experts was a path to death. He had no objections whatsoever and strictly followed the lord's instructions, handing complete command of the naval battle to Captain Jackson and the others. He was responsible only for setting the strategic direction and making the final decisions.

Under Captain Jackson's succession of clear, precise orders, the enormous Northern Wind displayed agility completely at odds with its size.

Under the control