This losing streak continued for Madam Zheng's second husband for a short while after that. It seemed like whatever he did, he was always behind a few steps of what his enemies were planning on doing. He had never had this kind of loss after loss before, as such, it was more enraging than anything else. Finally, Madam Zheng had finally had enough and sent in her first husband to get the job done. This turned out to be the correct choice as the first husband was able to deal with this unknown strategist far better than the second husband. With the two of them joining hands, they were able to quickly establish a foothold in the area and were able to push back Vesper's forces a fair bit before deciding to wait for further orders.
This area that they had taken over was not one that the Vesper's could let slip into enemy hands, and the Forever Pirates knew that. The place that they had taken away from the Vesper's was a giant island that came along with a large number of benefits. Thus, they devoted much more resources than they previously had to other areas and immediately began to fortify the area based on their insights and add to any existing infrastructure that the Vesper's might have built. It did not matter that there would be a huge battle to determine if they were able to keep this island, what mattered was that they could fend off the forces before reinforcements arrived.
The Forever Pirates were unsure of how important this island was to the Vesper's. Therefore, they couldn't be certain of how much the Vesper would be willing to go to take it back. It could range from an offensive that would involve the majority of their forces, or it could be as small as a few elders trying. Who's to say that they would forgo any thought of taking it back altogether and aim for something that would totally confuse the Forever Pirates. This was a challenge, to say the least, of where to dedicate your forces so that they would be able to cover as much ground as possible while still being able to defend strategic locations.
There was one rule that the Forever Pirates had to follow at all times, if you couldn't beat your enemies, drag it out for as long as possible and don't expect reinforcements. Though this was nothing more than a scare tactic for the lower-ranked strategists, it was effective in making many of those under Madam Zheng fight for her to their deaths and beyond.
Almost no one was exempt from this rule, mainly because it would take massive coordination from multiple fleets to pull off and the returns often did not cover the costs to get the rescue mission done in the first place. Even the two husbands of Madam Zheng had to follow this rule, that's just how important this rule was for keeping the lower class in check.
In the end, the two husbands did not get any reinforcements but that was almost expected of them. Two of the most powerful naval warfare geniuses within the Chinese community should be able to ward off most threats that came their way. With them, they had Zheng Jing and 5 other elders. All of their fleets were not in the best condition, but most were still battle-ready.
If an attack was to be launched on this relatively big island, they would be able to hold out for a while, but there would be no chance if the enemy brought along Zheng He or the new mysterious strategist along with a huge fleet. Between all of them, they had 40,000 men and 12,000 ships. A couple of hundred scouting ships, a couple thousand that could take a beating, a couple of thousand of cruisers, a couple of thousand destroyers, and a couple of hundred submarines. The latter 3 of which, was under the control of the two husbands.
The two of them began working immediately after they got word that they would be defending and not advancing forward. They set up many intel-gathering facilities, radar towers, sea mines by the hundreds, etc. They pulled out all the stops just in case an all-out offensive from the enemy was what was coming.
Expecting the worst in every situation was a habit that all of them had developed when they were all still pirates that were on earth, and even more so now that they had experience with how crafty some of those within Vesper could get. If they were caught off guard once, it would signal that they were bound to lose a significant amount of their troops.
Within a few days of preparing for a battle, they received word from Madam Zheng that an unknown amount of ships were sailing to their location and that they had only a day at most until the two sides would clash with each other. The two husbands rushed whatever was left to do and began to organize their troops before the enemy got on top of them. By the dawn of the next day, they were able to see the ships that they had to fight off on the edge of the horizon, it would not be long now until they would meet in battle.
However, the first husband of Madam Zheng was quite confident that they would be able to pull off a victory as long as they were careful of everything that their foes were doing. As the ships got closer, the scouting ships that were among the fastest ships in all of the Forever Pirates were sent to get any intel they could on the fleet in front of them and report back as fast as they could. The news that they brought back was not pleasant. According to them, there was 1 aircraft carrier among them. This could only mean one thing, Zheng He had taken to the field to fight them.