The time has now come for the prelude to the final between the two most powerful naval powers within the Chinese community. This prelude was really just nothing more than members or elders of each faction going out to do battle as they please, as long as their actions are within what their superiors have set up their guidelines to be. It wasn't that either party wouldn't just plan for some grand scheme that would be able to completely crush their enemies with, rather, no one would be able to think that far ahead. So the next best thing for both sides to do was to allow their lesser members to do battle with each other, hoping that someone, anyone would be able to make a breakthrough through some sort of luck, or skill.
If something like this was achieved deep enough into enemy lands, then there might be some actions from the leaders regarding whether or not to mobilize all forces to capitalize on this advantage. More often than not though, it would take several months to even years for this to bear any kind of fruit. In a way, it was just sort of a war of attrition on the open waters. Each side just waiting for the other to be weak enough that a well-coordinated all-out offensive would be able to wipe them off the map for good and securing the win.
This was how Madam Zheng had fought with Zheng He before and vice versa. What's important to note is that both the leaders of each side would rarely utilize their own personal fleet if they could help it since their personal fleets were the best that they had to offer and damaging even one would be a massive loss. This uncoordinated style of warfare plus the leaders of each side only glaring at each other without using much of their own fleets lasted for about a month before Madam Zheng finally decided to make a move. She started to coordinate her subordinates' attacks in very strategic locations that she found desirable, but not so much so that she would arouse suspicion from Zheng He.
Though she was careful, it seemed as if Zheng He knew her plans and acted accordingly. He sent out a few of his most trusted admirals to retake a few of the strategic locations. There were only a handful of strategists out there that had the brains and brawn to alter the plans of Madam Zheng. Zheng He was one, some of his most trusted consisted of a few more. She would have to use her husbands' or her own fleet if she would want to retake back these points or prepare to use a majority of her elders' fleet to achieve the same result. Therefore, Madam Zheng decided it was best to abandon this initiative and wait for another chance for her to strike deep into Vesper territory.
The individual ships that consisted of her fleet were not cheap to produce, she would lose significant resources if she were to lose a single one, and although she had thousands of these ships, they were meant for when she would inevitably have to face off against Zheng He with his almost equally powerful fleet. Another 3 months would pass before another interesting development was to occur. In the southern regions of the borders, a bunch of Vesper elders was getting prepared to launch an all-out attack at one of the points that they deemed were weak enough to deal a significant amount of damage to the Forever Pirates.
Madam Zheng's second husband caught a whiff of this before their initial onslaught and brought half of his personal fleet along with a few other elders to hold them off. His fleet was nowhere near as powerful as his wife's but they were still much more powerful than regular elders should be. He held his ground for a fair while, but after a week he started to grow suspicious. The Vesper elders that were attacking them now should have known by now that he was fighting them. So why did they not run away?
The second husband of Madam Zheng might not be as powerful as Madam Zheng or her first husband, but everyone who dabbles in naval warfare should know by now that not just anyone would be capable of defeating a strategist like himself. Could it be that this group had an advantage that they believed would lead them to beat him? Or was it something else entirely?
For the first time in a while, the second husband of Madam Zheng was confused. Should he rush the enemy to win this battle as quickly as possible so as to not give the enemy any advantage? Should he continue to do battle as he was doing now, slow and every move thought out? Should he ask for reinforcements just in case? In the end, he decided it was best to continue as he was, after all, it was better to be cautious of nothing than run into trouble with open arms. He persisted with this fight for another month all the while completely crushing the opposition swiftly as a fox.
Then suddenly, he was losing battle after battle. What was going on? He was doing perfectly fine before. There was still careful thought and consideration put into place with every decision he made, so how was it possible that he would have not just one loss, but a string of embarrassing losses. Perhaps it was that he had gotten cocky with his maneuvers, but even so, it shouldn't be exploitable with people of the caliber that he had been facing for the last month.
Who could it be he thought. Was it possible that it was the strategist from before who was able to control the elders of the Forever Pirates so perfectly? Or could it be Zheng He himself? He had not fought with Zheng He directly, but he had heard the stories that had been told to him by Madam Zheng.