Then, the old whistleman, mustering his courage, lay on the deck and looked into the distance through binoculars, and saw a scene that he would never forget!
That Japanese warship... damn it!
It stopped! Then, all the Japanese officers and soldiers on the ship lined up nervously. One by one, they put down their weapons and lowered lifeboats and inflatable rubber boats. Sailors sat on them one by one, and lifeboats of all sizes were lowered onto the sea like dumplings being dropped into boiling water.
The entire Japanese crew... actually abandoned ship?!
This scene really feels like a dream!
From the beginning until now, Old Whistle has not been able to see Chen Xiao—Chen Xiao landed at the stern of the cruiser. And Old Whistle's binoculars have not captured Chen Xiao's image.
For this smuggler, all he saw was this: these Japanese, like madmen, fired a barrage of cannons into the air before abandoning their ship en masse!
Moreover, after watching through binoculars for a full half hour, all the Japanese officers and soldiers finally left the large ship and entered the small lifeboats. There seemed to be an old man wearing a high-ranking officer's uniform who was forcibly tied up and taken off the ship by his subordinates—Lieutenant General Hojo Yokomei, who originally intended to commit suicide, was forcibly stopped by his own personal guards.
For a full half hour, I watched as the Japanese officers and soldiers quickly left in small lifeboats, finally disappearing into the distance...
On the sea, the enormous cruiser seemed to have stopped completely, without moving an inch!
"Boss, what... what do we do now?"
A subordinate's timid voice startled the old whistle from his dream.
He jumped up immediately, his will to survive returning: "What are we waiting for! Set sail! Escape!!!"
Thank God! I actually made it back alive this time!! Those Japanese must be insane!! No matter what, now that I'm back alive, I'll never go back to sea again in my life!!
The old whistle cursed inwardly as he swore an oath.
But soon, a report from one of his subordinates made his heart sink to the bottom again.
"Oh no! Boss, we're out of gas!! The tank's leaking dry!!"
broken?!
Old Whistle immediately jumped up, then his facial muscles twitched! Damn it! I should have spent money on maintenance for the aircraft before we came out this time!!
But his heart was filled with despair!
If the motive is broken, your ship will be unable to move! And without the motive, relying on the sails... there's no wind now!
Should we wait?
Waiting for the wind to pick up? Who knows how long that would take! The old whistle knew very well that the Japanese soldiers abandoning ship on that cruiser wasn't the end of the story! The Japanese wouldn't just abandon a ship at sea so easily! Perhaps in less than an hour, other Japanese warships would arrive here!!
If I wait here any longer, I'll most likely not make it back alive!
"Repair it! Repair it now!!" The old whistleman was furious, but when he looked at the cruiser in the distance that seemed to be dead and silent, a glimmer of hope suddenly appeared in his heart!
There must be oil on board!!
The old whistle swallowed hard and squeezed the gun in his hand.
There don't seem to be any Japanese soldiers left on that ship, right?
Never mind! Let's give it our all!
Without gasoline, waiting here will only lead to death!
They approached the cruiser in a small raft without encountering any resistance. The old whistleman breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at his men beside him. They were all pale and ashen-faced, clutching their guns in vain—a ridiculous act, because if there were still Japanese soldiers on board, their guns would be useless.
When the Japanese soldiers retreated, the lowered ladders were still hanging there. None of the old whistlemen dared to climb up first. The old whistlemen cursed inwardly, but he was the first to climb up. He was very disdainful. "Humph," he thought, "if there are still Japanese soldiers on the ship, whether you climb up first or last, the result is the same: death! What difference does it make!"
When several smugglers boarded the Japanese warship, everyone was completely stunned!
The deck was completely empty! Not a soul in sight! Not even a ghost!
The gun emplacements and watchtowers were completely deserted!
What excited the smugglers even more was the pile of firearms on the deck! They were all standard issue firearms of the Japanese Navy soldiers!!
Several smugglers' eyes lit up! Before the old whistle could even speak, some of them rushed over and quickly picked up a few guns. Watching his men clutching the guns left behind by the Japanese with obvious delight, the old whistle felt a mix of surprise, joy, and fear.
The guns are real... and they're all intact, not even the ammunition has been destroyed!
And... it seems... there really isn't a single Japanese soldier left on this ship!
Old Whistle scratched his head in frustration. What were these Japanese doing? If the ship was damaged and they needed to evacuate, they would at least leave some people to guard it! Old Whistle wasn't an idiot; how much was a warship like that worth?!
Suddenly, an absurd idea popped into his head!
If I could sail this boat back...
Snap!
He slapped himself hard across the face.
Holy crap! A few smugglers captured a Japanese Kongo-class cruiser and took it back with them?! This is outrageous!
Damn, this ship is so big, even if it's sold as scrap metal, it'd be worth a fortune!
The old whistle suddenly turned bloodshot: "Search! See if there's anything valuable we can take with us!!"
What else could be valuable about a warship?
Old Whistle didn't understand that the most valuable thing on this ship was the Aegis radar system! For a smuggler like him, the most valuable thing he could see was only one thing: weapons!
Missiles? Firearms?