The First, Second, Zheng Jing and the other elders that had participated in this battle managed to take in many prisoners that would prove to be a massive blow to the Vesper forces that were now on the brink of being pushed back to where their original land lay. The two sides were now battling it out on the daily in small scale attacks which neither of the leaders decided to participate against.
These regional skirmishes were mostly just a few nobodies from either faction trying to prove something to their superiors and were mostly insignificant in terms of having any real large impact on the battlefield as a whole. Not much changed for the next little while and it seemed that both sides were just content with building up their forces and waiting for the next big opportunity to deal any massive blows to each other.
The land disputes would reach an equilibrium of sorts where one side would have a bit more than the other, and then a little while later, it would be vice versa. Slowly, another 4 months passed with the situation staying as it was, not changing too much. However, the Vesper faction was now done preparing and they were not afraid to bring in every last drop of manpower, firepower, and brains that they had at their disposal.
All of their defenses were absorbed into their main fleet, as was all of the soldiers in training, and even going so far as to recall every ship to their cause, even the ones who stood no chance of doing anything in a war of this size. In total, their fleet numbered 130,000 strong, with many more millions of men manning these ships.
Seeing the actions of their enemies' the Forever Pirates also gathered up many of their fleets and combined them into three large forces. This way, they would be able to respond to 3 different threats, assuming that they weren't too overburdened on one battlefield. Naturally, the leaders of these three massive fleets were Madam Zheng, her first husband, and her second husband.
Organizing their fleet into such few baskets was one of their trademark tactics to use in endgame battles. One would focus on attack power, usually the First. One would focus on maneuverability and speed, usually the Second. And the last would focus on defense/offense, depending on what was needed. Madam Zheng would usually be in this position, as well as ordering the other two fleets to do as she saw fit. Their combined total was 110,000 ships, also manned by millions of sailors. Keep in mind though, they still had a bunch of other ships that were still defending their islands, unlike the Vespers who gathered up everyone and everything.
The time for the final showdown was fast approaching and everyone still in the tournament could feel it in their bones. Gathering so many fleets at once to do battle was the only indicator that the end was near. Though not much progress had been had in the past few months, one of the favorite tactics to decide the winner was to have a battle that would pit the best and brightest of each side to do battle with each with everything in their arsenal.
Admittedly, most of the strategists knew that doing this was not always the best way to go about war, but the people want what they want. Besides, an all-out attack wasn't necessarily a bad idea for the battle this time around. This time around, it seemed as if the Forever Pirates would become the side that defended from the onslaught of enemies.
Zheng He prepared his army and the "special gift" that the mysterious lady had given him two of. With this, he would be able to come pretty close to winning the tournament, if not win it outright after he revealed it and used it on his unsuspecting enemies. He took his time to gather his weapons, soldiers, vehicles, and all the others while having spent the last few months devising a few plans that they think would have a chance of granting them victory. These plans that they devised would be utterly pointless and a waste of time if the gift that was given to them worked as the mysterious lady had promised them it would. Only time would be able to tell is she was the real deal or not.
The past few of these types of tournaments that had been held not just by the great Sun Alliance had mostly been won by the hands of Madam Zheng and her two husbands. This time though, it would become quite close as she was not aware of the future that awaited her forces. To be fair, neither did Zheng he. For the final clash of this tournament, Zheng He used all of his remaining forces to pierce deeply into the pirates' territory. There was no need for him to have this gigantic force to follow a plan, just having them conquer land left and right was progress enough for him.
Initially, Madam Zheng's various forces were able to keep the Vesper forces at bay. However, the ferocity that they showed was something that they have not shown before. Usually, it was the pirates that were attacking in such a barbaric way. Madam Zheng and her fleets were slowly being pushed back once again.
All the progress that she and her elders had done to restore the status quo was now being shifted back into the advantage of Zheng He. This consistent loss of land slowly was beginning to take its toll on Madam Zheng's army. For starters, they were not as united as the Vesper factions were, not to mention that there were rumors of some elders switching sides. This lead to many of them not trusting each other and not allowing any help. Second, it would appear that the basic strategy of letting their elders run loose turned out to be a very effective strategy as they were able to witness the Forever Pirates do it so many times.