The other fourteen main warships of the Sun Moon Empire could not compare with the Tianyang in overall performance or specifications, but they carried all the same types of weapons and equipment. They simply had fewer guns, and their quality was lower.
For instance, the Mingyang and Moyang each had only four 355-millimeter main guns, along with just twenty-eight secondary guns of various types!
Their other specifications were also inferior. The remaining twelve warships each had only 255-millimeter main guns, capable of firing nothing more powerful than Level Seven Spirit Guidance Shells. Their maximum destructive force was equivalent to that produced when a Level 90 Soul Master frantically absorbed Soul Power from the outside, compressed it to the limit inside their body, and then detonated themselves with all their might. Their blast radius extended only a little over a hundred meters, and each ship carried fewer than twenty secondary guns. In every other respect, they were far inferior to the three flagship warships.
The remaining forty-three vessels were auxiliary craft of various kinds, including torpedo boats, gunboats, submarine chasers, and transports. Though small, they were indispensable parts of this invincible fleet!
The Yan Yang Fleet was not only exceptionally well equipped; the overall quality of its personnel was among the finest in the Sun Moon Empire's military. Its current commander, Yang Bingming, was a veteran naval officer in his seventies and one of only two Level 92, Rank Nine Soul Engineers in the entire Sun Moon Empire's navy!
As things stood, apart from Cang Ming, a special case who had undergone Soul Beast Transformation, there were only twelve or thirteen Rank Nine powerhouses in the entire Sun Moon Empire. Yang Bingming was one of them!
What's more, among the fleet's more than ten thousand personnel were over three thousand Marine Corps troops! One in five of them was a Soul Master, and quite a few were Rank Seven or Rank Eight powerhouses! Among those three thousand-plus Marines were also more than three hundred specially trained soldiers. This unit was called the Sea Demon Special Forces, meaning "demons of the sea"!
Their equipment was even more advanced and cutting-edge than that of the already well-equipped Marines. They were a super-elite force created by the Sun Moon Empire's Royal Navy according to Xu Mochen's military reform plan! Yang Bingming had even promised Xu Mochen that these three thousand Marines alone could easily handle a Spirit Master Legion numbering over ten thousand, led by a Titled Douluo!
As Yang Bingming spoke, Xu Mochen considered the strength currently at their disposal. At the same time, he began using his Smart Brain to recall the original story in detail. According to it, Douluo Continent should currently be in an era when the two great empires and Spirit Hall stood side by side, and Tang San should be only six years old!
Spirit Hall should be the dominant power across Douluo Continent, with the two empires tentatively united against it! But Xu Mochen knew that the original story could serve only as a reference. He couldn't dismiss it, but neither could he take it entirely at face value!
After all, if he treated every detail of the original story as reality in this world, he would surely make a grave mistake! Never mind anything else: the countless downright idiotic decisions in the story, along with its many inconsistencies and power-scaling breakdowns, would never happen in the real world without good reason!
Xu Mochen's initial assessment was that, with a few exceptions, most people in this world were probably less intelligent on average than those on Blue Star. But that didn't mean they were fools he could toy with at will.
Xu Mochen had already made plans for this. In fact, with his guidance, the Sun Moon Empire's leadership had settled on a simple approach to Douluo Continent, summed up in sixteen characters: "Balance from offshore, aid the weak against the strong, infiltrate in secret, seize the moment to plunder!" To put it bluntly, they would be the unseen "black hand" lurking far from Douluo Continent.
Of course, this approach was also a reluctant necessity for the Sun Moon Empire. To Douluo Continent, they were a mysterious foreign country far across the ocean, with a people, culture, system, ideology, and development path vastly different from its own.
That was precisely why the Sun Moon Empire's arrival would inevitably put the forces of Douluo Continent on their guard. If those forces united against an outside threat, the Sun Moon Empire would have very little room to maneuver. Even attempting to intimidate them with military force when necessary would become exceedingly difficult!
After all, the Sun Moon Empire's leaders didn't believe that they alone subscribed to the idea that "those who are not of our race will surely have different hearts." Acting recklessly and earning the united enmity of Douluo Continent's powers would be disastrous for the empire!
And brute force alone would never be enough to infiltrate and plunder successfully. They would have to rely on cunning. The way to do that was not to openly display aggression, but to generously present themselves as "peace-loving," "averse to invasion," and "interested only in making money"—the image of harmless, streetwise merchants. That would make the powers of Douluo Continent lower their guard, at least to some extent.
Then the Sun Moon Empire would simply have to keep stoking internal conflicts across Douluo Continent, fueling mutual hatred and even war! From across the sea, the Sun Moon Empire could take the opportunity to infiltrate, supporting the weaker side in various ways to help it resist the stronger one. When the stronger side showed signs of decline, they would switch around and support the other side.
By moving among the various powers and playing them off against one another, they could drive up the price on both sides and reap enormous profits! Once all the factions had fought until they were drenched in blood and utterly exhausted, their hatred and conflicts beyond reconciliation, the empire would enter the fray openly and claim the spoils at the very end—becoming the sole winner behind the scenes of a chaotic age!
But while all that sounded easy, putting it into practice would be anything but. Xu Mochen first needed to gain a general understanding of the real Douluo Continent before he could devise an appropriate plan.
So, over the next few days, Xu Mochen either focused on his cultivation or closely monitored the fleet's progress. From time to time, he also spoke with the Sun Moon Empire's naval personnel, the Shadow Guard, and the diplomats, making sure they were as thoroughly prepared as possible.
In the blink of an eye, ten days passed. Xu Mochen's fleet encountered no major trouble along the way. In fact, they faced no severe natural disasters or large-scale attacks from Sea Soul Beasts. A few foolhardy Sea Soul Beasts occasionally came closer to investigate, but the fleet quickly scared them off with cannon fire.
And so, with the voyage proceeding smoothly, everyone aboard finally spotted the outline of a continent on the horizon through their telescopes! "Look! A new continent! We've found it!" Someone shouted, and the naval personnel aboard ship after ship erupted in excitement!
They poured onto the decks, scrambling to seize the telescopes for a closer look. Fortunately, senior naval officers arrived in time to restore order and get the men back in line. Even so, no one could contain their excitement!
Xu Mochen and the others seemed much calmer, but their hearts still surged. At last, Heaven had rewarded their efforts. The ten-day voyage into the unknown had not been in vain! The discovery of Douluo Continent had made every hardship worthwhile! As the fleet drew closer to the shore, numerous wooden sailing ships came into view, drifting on the distant water.
These wooden sailing ships didn't look very large. Even the biggest seemed about the same size as the smallest ships in their own fleet. Of course, that was only a difference in size. The gap between them in actual performance was countless times greater!
The sailors and fishermen aboard those wooden ships had clearly noticed the fleet, so vast that it lay beyond anything they could imagine or comprehend! Watching the unknown armada thunder toward them, black smoke pouring from the ships and a terrifying presence surrounding them, they stared wide-eyed, shaking their heads and rubbing their eyes, desperately trying to confirm they weren't dreaming.
Had they been at sea too long and started seeing things? Sailors and fishermen alike gaped so widely their jaws nearly hit the deck! Their mouths were wide enough to fit goose eggs! Those with weaker nerves, or who were more superstitious, immediately fell to their knees on deck, frantically praying for the gods' mercy. Even those who didn't kneel were already trembling all over, hunching down like ostriches in the hope that the fleet wouldn't notice them!
The Sun Moon Empire's fleet naturally noticed them. Yet rather than focusing on the people themselves, its personnel were more interested in the sailors' and fishermen's clothing and the construction of their ships.
In the end, the Sun Moon Empire's leadership reached a conclusion: it was probably just as Xu Mochen had said. This country's technological development likely hadn't even reached the level of the Sun Moon Empire six years ago, let alone that of the empire today! Against their invincible fleet, ships propelled by nothing but sails and oars, with not a trace of Spirit Guidance Technology, would be no sturdier than paper boats.
Observing the local customs was one thing, but for now their most important task was finding a nearby dock where they could moor. Well, judging by what they'd seen, the largest seagoing ships in Douluo Continent could probably carry no more than seven or eight hundred tons at most, so their ports were likely not very large either.
Finding a harbor on Douluo Continent's coast that could accommodate all fifteen steam-powered ironclads was a pipe dream. The fleet had to settle for a somewhat larger port where their forty-three smaller vessels could dock without running aground. As for the crews aboard the larger ships, they could simply transfer to the smaller boats and use those to reach the shore.
Finding a nearby port wasn't difficult. With so many ships near the coast, including a few large ones, there had to be a suitable harbor not far away. After a brief search, the Sun Moon Empire's fleet soon found one.
Of course, the ships near the port had either fled in panic or had their crews jump overboard to escape. The people on the docks had also been terrified by the approaching fleet, and were now screaming and fleeing in every direction!
The people of the Sun Moon Empire could only laugh helplessly at the sight. Were they really so frightening? Everyone was running for cover as though they'd seen a flood of ferocious beasts. How were they supposed to conduct diplomacy at this rate? They might be branded demons before they even had a chance to learn about one another!
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