Strong as a bear, Coppersea stood on the deck with his sledgehammer over his shoulder and his head held high.
The oncoming sea breeze grazed the slits of the copper armour, emitting a thin whimper.
The man’s eyes stared ahead. The silhouette of his homeland was getting closer and closer, the long, wide coastline becoming clearer and clearer, with a large, dense forest behind it, and beyond that, the area of light green salt ponds.
Coppersea looked behind him.
He had brought a total of three ships and two hundred and seventy-five warriors.
Some of those travelling with him were, like himself, ordinary citizens persecuted by the slave traders; some were slaves willing to fight after being freed; and some were farmers, artisans, and adventurers who wanted to overthrow the slave traders.
Now all stood together to launch the final charge.
“Brothers.”
Coppersea’s voice was thick, “As you all know, I have a grudge against the slave traders. My wife, Maihaya, a hard-working and honest woman of the island, was captured by the slave traders in my coppersmith’s shop and forcibly marked by them as a slave.”
“I returned from the sea and found the damned merchant. He told me that Maihaya had been sold to someone else, somewhere.”
“He gave me a sum of money and said, let me choose any female slave as a wife, saying it was just a misunderstanding.”
Copper Sea said coldly, “This is the slave traders, in their eyes, every person has a price. Every person is a slave and livestock.”
“As long as this group of humanoid-looking monsters are still in the city, still controlling it, then there will still be new Maihaya suffering misfortune!”
“Brothers, listen to me.”
The tall coppersmith roared into the wind, “There may come a day when we will lose our valour and strength, when we will not be able to lift our hammers and swords to launch a return attack against our enemies. They are so outnumbered, thousands of slaves are gathering, and more are being taken by them to stand in our way.”
“But I don’t think it’s today!”
“Today, we fight in blood! For all men, all slaves, all husbands and wives, all fathers and children, for all courage and freedom!”
“Let the gods punish me if they think this is wrong! I am willing to bear all the wrath that the Lord Gods send down upon me! I will be the first to die before you.”
“Now! Brothers, I beg you, come with me, together we will crush slavery! Slaughter those bast*rds!”
“Slaughter them!”
Everyone shouted with their arms raised.
Three paddleboats broke into the still-unbuilt dock.
The slaves, who were carrying wood and stone, saw the pirates coming, and each one of them drew up their legs in fear and reported.
The slave traders in the back cursed, “Assholes, what are you running for! All of you pick up your weapons and go quickly, you bunch of brainless pigs.”
“If anyone can cut off the head of that pirate head in front, I’ll give anyone their freedom!”
A portion of the slaves stopped and scrambled to the back to grab their spears and shields.
Copper Sea, clad in copper armour and with a sledgehammer dragging on the ground in his hand, took the lead.
He swung his hammer and smashed a charging slave, yelling to the slaves in front, “You don’t have to fight!”
“We came only to free the slaves!”
“We are the Northern Templars!”
“You are free!”
“Leave! This is a battlefield, value your lives!”
The slaves cringed with the naked eye.
They still brandished their weapons and looked like they were fighting, but they were all crushed at the touch of a blow, seizing the opportunity to scatter and flee. Only a small number of slaves and the elite guards hired by the merchants were left to fight those led by Copper Sea.
Facing the raging Northern Divine Temple Army, the merchants who were fighting individually didn’t really want to fight to the death. Seeing that the situation was not favourable, they also mounted their horses one by one and retreated at speed.
The cowardice and timidity of the enemy angered the Copper Sea even more.
It was such a group of people that could actually do wrong in the Salt City!
“Brothers, follow me, enter Salt City and kill the slave traders!”
Tong Hai shouted at the top of his voice.
A few slaves ran boldly to him. They led the camels and horses and handed over the reins.
The slaves stammered and gestured.
“Ride …… ride ……”
“Fast ……”
Copper Sea straddled a big strong horse and raised the hammer in his hand, “Brothers, take your weapons and follow me!”
“Follow the leader and charge!”
“Charge!”
“Charge into the city!”
“Kill the slave traders!”
The Northern Divine Templars were victorious in their first battle, and each of them had high morale.
They ran all the way and soon arrived outside Salt City.
The city walls were neither strong nor tall, most of them were built dozens or even hundreds of years ago, and now they had become dilapidated with age. There were quite a few spear-wielding slaves guarding under the city walls, about a hundred of them.
As soon as the Temple Army arrived, the slaves immediately came together nervously. They raised their shields and branched their spears outwards, forming a simple hedgehog defence formation, without the slightest intention of coming out to meet the battle.
Tong Hai laughed, ”Blow the horn. Get the brothers in the city to move as well!”
One by one, the Temple Army warriors in the back fumbled for their bullhorns, and the low, desolate sound of horns rose and fell.
The city also resounded with answering horns.
Then a fire was lit inside the city gates, which quickly became enormous, spreading all the way up the walls.
The slave soldiers blocking the doorway were so scared that they scattered in all directions, their formation instantly collapsed, and quickly turned into an uncontrollable rout under the bows and arrows and spears of the Temple Army.
Copper Sea galloped his horse and rushed into the city with a sledgehammer in hand, smashing a fleeing slave merchant’s head to pieces head-on.
The Templars behind them charged with it.
The Salt City became chaotic, with shouts of murder. Rebel slaves, artisans, and farmers began lighting fires everywhere, giving the slave traders the feeling that the enemy was everywhere.
By the time Copper Sea arrived at the Council Hall, it had long since emptied.
The emptiness and weakness of the city was hard for him to believe.
In the face of several sea attacks by the Temple Army, the Citizens’ Council of Salt City was actually so slow to react. They had neither fortified the city walls nor trained and reorganised their soldiers, only piling up the number of slaves, thinking that would be useful.
Copper Sea remembered the words of the old mayor, Shang Li.
“This battle will end with our unconditional victory.”
“Salt City seems to be heavily manned, but the slave traders are not of one mind.”
“For slave traders, keeping as many slaves and property as possible is the most important thing. For things with high profits, merchants are very united, and sometimes lives can be spared.”
“They’ve been plotting for years to take over the city and make the slave trade legal, and getting rid of me as mayor was just one part of it.”
“They will not defend the city and pay for their property, it will not profit them, but will weaken them and turn them into prey for other merchants.”
“For merchants, other merchants are the most terrible natural enemies. So they will save their strength and property and leave quickly ……”
For this day, Shang Li has been setting up for more than ten years.
Creating threats at sea, collecting slaves with fighting spirit and desire to fight. Blockade the coast, try to destroy the harbours and docks, seek foreign aid, create all sorts of conflicts within the city, find and cultivate insiders ……
Each step was methodical, like the repeated forging of an embryo of iron over and over again until it finally became a sharp and supple iron sword.
Shang Li was like a patient hunter, forcing his prey step by step into his expected dead end, and then pulling the rope to make them fall into the trap in their escape.
“I can’t die.”
As he was leaving, the old man looked into the distance, “I want to see the city that once made a lighthouse, get back on track.”
“Go, Copper Sea, to the other side of the sea.”
“You are the hero of the age and the liberator of the slaves, you will leave behind legends and history of your own, it is what you deserve and the honour that belongs to you.”
Copper Sea didn’t have any joy.
He just said, “I’m not a hero, I’m just a husband with a hammer.”
Copperhead has had many of the same dreams.
In his dreams, he wielded a hammer in a coppersmith’s shop, smashing copper embryos and copper skins into various shapes, making copper pots and pans, and creating copper helmets and copper armour.
It was sunny outside, shining white on the stones on the ground.
Coppersea sweats and pounds, panting.
Maihaya took a towel to wipe his sweat and handed him sweet, cool water.
She would sing him the folk songs of the island, telling him how the colourful birds danced on the island and how the fish jumped out of the water.
Then she said, “I’m going to give you a child, a brave and clever child.
He’ll be smarter than you, prettier than me, and he’ll walk around every island with the blessing of the gods. Then he’ll come home and tell us stories along the way ……
The Copper Sea wakes up laughing every time he gets here, and then stares off into the darkness.
……
Now the Copper Sea stood in the centre of the council.
The surroundings were empty.
He had freed all the slaves in the city, but had not found his own Maihaya.
A tall blue figure approached.
Coppersea knew him.
Commander Salt Gale of Salt City. He was an unfathomable transcendent warrior with unimaginable power that had lived for hundreds of years.
“Are you here to kill me?” Copper Sea gripped the hammer in his hand.
Saltgale shook his head.
The other was silent for a moment and handed him a clay pot.
“I just thought that maybe you needed some wine. Warrior, you look sad.”
Coppersea took the flask and drank it down.
