48 Hours a Day

The Swordfish was severely damaged in this round of shelling, but on this occasion the Cold Raven on the other side finally made its turn and escaped the predicament of being struck unilaterally.

The guns on the side of the boat had all been opened a long time ago, and the gunmen were in position. With Zhang Hengyi's order, the Cold Raven finally started fighting back.

Following the two previous successful marinade raids, coupled with the killing of more than 200 people in Wilton the night after returning to port, the Cold Raven was unprecedented in Nassau, which also greatly facilitated subsequent recruitment.

As long as Zhang Heng is willing to expand the crew of the Cold Raven directly to the limit of 200 people in half a day, but there is no point in doing so. As the number of people increases, the profits allocated to each robbery will decrease. Compared with the simple increase in the number of people, Zhang Heng is more concerned about the quality of the sailors recruited.

As a result, the recruitment threshold for the Cold Raven returns to the island will be raised considerably from the last time, and now the level of gunners on board is completely different from when the ship first sailed, coupled with the fact that the Cold Raven itself is a battleship, and the firepower configuration is quite excellent, attracting the attention of the three Spanish sailboats across the street as soon as the gun is fired.

At this point, however, the Spaniard commander focused his main attention on the Swordfish, whose hull was badly damaged and which was the perfect time to take the opponent's breath down. It would be unfortunate if at this time he gave up letting the opponent escape, let alone changing the target, and realigning the angle and distance of the launch.

Therefore, three Spanish sailboats temporarily ignored the Cold Raven on the other side and were prepared to concentrate their fire to take down the Swordfish.

At that time, Brooke also apparently sensed the tactical intentions of the other party, decisively abandoning the original plan. Though the Swordfish had pointed its flanks at the Spanish treasure ship, it had not fired, but continued to fill the rudder to the left and was ready to flee.

The Swordfish was very wretched in the last round of fire, the hull was badly damaged and lost some of its power, good enough that the mast was still there, and Brooke's response was timely enough to turn around with the cannon and start retreating before the next round of fire arrived.

His excellent steering technique was also demonstrated at this time, when the three Spanish sailboats carried out two more rounds of shelling, but this time avoided most of the shells by the swordfish's windy sailing trajectory, but the Spanish commander also reacted quickly, realizing the cunning of his opponents, immediately changed his strategy and used a covered strike.

This time Brooke's steering technique was useless, with four artillery shells eaten at the stern, but the Swordfish still hadn't sunk, and at the cost of doing so, he quickly pulled away from three Spanish sailboats.

On the other side, the gunfire of the Raven became more and more fierce. Zhang Heng chose a frigate as his target. This time, he no longer retained his strength. The gunmen on the ship had been bombarded for such a long time and built up a stomach fire. When he received the order to fire, he immediately put them into battle.

The main gunner aimed and lit the fire rope. As the shell slid out, the deputy gunner immediately filled the next round of ammunition. The nitrous smoke from the gun mouth spread over the sea. After the two rounds of shelling, the frigate deck was also a mess. The hull was also bombarded with a few large mouths by 24-pound guns. Good thing they were above the water level line, there was no risk of sinking for the time being.

But the latter will not last long, and the captain of the ship has begun to send a distress signal to the commander on board.

The Spaniard commander looked at the distant Swordfish and saw a glimmer in his eyes. The other party was clearly at the end of a strong crossbow. With just two more rounds of attack, he could take down this sly opponent and then turn his head against another pirate ship, and he could wipe out this horrible group of bandits and wipe them all out.

The plan itself was fine, except that he didn't expect the Cold Raven to be so powerful that even if he could take out the two pirate ships, he might have to pay a frigate.

That price he did not want to bear, so he notified the other two ships in flag language to change their targets, to abandon the Swordfish and to target the Cold Raven instead.

At this time, however, Zhang Heng had also fulfilled his strategic goal of turning the rudder and manipulating the Cold Raven out of battle. However, he temporarily changed the direction of his retreat and did not lead the target to Nautilus Island as originally planned.

“Captain?” Billy's face was puzzled.

“This time the other commander was very powerful, and we only had two ships to attack them, and if we all fled to Parrot Island, he would certainly be suspicious. ”

“But what if they come after us? ”

“The odds of this happening are small, the Swordfish is much more damaged than we are, and we lost two masts, and the speed is severely damaged. If you were them, which boat would you choose to chase? ”

As if to prove Zhang Hengcheng, the three Spanish sailboats also made a quick choice, turning the direction, and did abandon the Cold Raven, which had retreated in the other direction, to chase the Swordfish.

The Spanish commander was angry, he had been in charge of the route for more than a decade, and no pirate had dared to provoke them in those decades, and it would be too cheap to let them back off at any cost.

The Swordfish used to be the fastest sailboat in the area, but with less than half the speed left in the current hull state, they were still a long way from Nautilus Island, and Brooke would never have taken that distance to heart, but now he just feels that every minute is extra long.

With those three Spanish sailboats and his boat getting closer, Brooke couldn't get rid of each other. He was getting sweaty deep on his forehead. The bow of one of the warships was about to be affixed to the stern of the Swordfish, but at this point the Cold Raven fleeing to the other side turned back. The ship's chief gunner was manipulating the bow gun, harassing the warship in the forefront and obtaining a breathing opportunity for the Swordfish.

Brooke commanded the crew to throw almost all unwanted objects into the water, finally increasing the speed of the Swordfish by another half-hour.

And it was this half speed that saved the Swordfish's life at a critical time. At that time, the Spaniard's commander also fired. Zhang Heng's previous flight in the other direction largely paralyzed him. In the past, when he encountered the island and other sight-blocking terrain, he would have unconsciously raised his guard, but at that time, he had killed the red eye, and he couldn't even think about sinking the Swordfish.