Fire rode the wind!
He stopped short, his eyes blazing.
All this time, I overlooked the oldest and most effective way for a weaker force to defeat a stronger one at sea.
Across the vast sweep of history in his previous life, the naval miracles immortalized through the ages had wielded fire as a blade to burn mighty enemies to ashes.
"Rollo," Liu Qian said, excitement ringing in his voice as realization dawned. "What if we waited for a favorable wind, completely emptied those heavily laden merchant ships to lighten them, left only the crew needed to steer, and packed their holds with combustible tinder? Dry grass, oil-soaked rags... even things like the tung oil we bought in Spearhaft.
"Then we could send these 'fireships' downwind, straight into Sallador's tightly packed fleet. Once they rammed into his formation, we would set them ablaze... the wind would feed the flames and drive them onward. What do you think that would look like?"
Rollo's and Hal's eyes lit up at once, as though they could already see that infernal spectacle.
Hal licked his somewhat chapped lips, his voice carrying a pirate's characteristic viciousness. "Burn them all to ashes. Those big Lysene ships-their sails, their rigging, their tar-coated hulls-are all excellent firewood. Once they start burning, no one can save them. But..."
His tone shifted as practical seafaring experience took over. "To get the most out of the fireships, we have to lure them into a channel or bay where they can't easily spread out and have trouble turning. Keep them packed together, crashing into one another, with no way to escape."
Liu Qian wore his most confident smile since the fighting began, his gaze sweeping over Rollo and Hal. "Isn't that precisely the specialty of 'old sailors' like you, who've roamed the