"Is that why you insisted that I recruit ten French-speaking people on the island?"
"Yes, we're going to keep thirty people on the deck, pretending to be sailors on a merchant ship, um, try to choose those with less aggressive faces and thinner bodies, and the rest of them stay in the secret mezzanine below the deck, oh yes Oh, and the artillery, the number of artillery on the ship is a bit too much, let's throw half of it away."
"Are you serious? Only a dozen guns are left to deal with the most powerful British warship in the Caribbean?"
"Believe me, there is no difference between sixteen cannons and thirty-two cannons when facing the Scarborough." Orff shrugged and looked around, "Is there any problem?"
"Even if we did what you said and were lucky enough to fool the people on the Scarborough into believing that we were a French merchant ship and successfully took over, we were still at an absolute disadvantage in terms of manpower." The silent Zhang Heng also spoke.
"Good question. We all know that there are 700 people on the Scarborough, but this number is actually watery. Captain Elmer came from an aristocratic family, and his own lifestyle is very luxurious. This is true even on the Scarborough. He spent money to hire musicians, a separate cook, and attendants... There are a lot of miscellaneous people who accompany him to entertain him. These people have no combat effectiveness. Coupled with the original logistics on board, they can really fight There should be only 600 people."
"To paraphrase your previous sentence, I don't see any difference between 600 people and 700 people?" Owen said.
"I haven't finished talking yet. The situation in Marbella is tense. At the beginning of this year, the Admiralty recruited a group of experienced veteran sailors from the New World. Now about two-thirds of the Scarborough are sailors. They are recruits. Most of them are fishermen and farmers in the colony. They have only experienced a short training period of one or two months. Their combat level is very average. As long as we can beat them in the first round of attacks, they will probably collapse completely afterwards, so we The real enemy is only those 200 veterans, and now there are real men on this boat, one-on-one, I don’t believe you will lose to anyone.”
Orff's last sentence successfully inspired the blood in many people's bones, but there were still very few people who responded.
The point is that the Scarborough has a great reputation and has always been a nightmare for pirates near the Caribbean Sea. The thought of challenging such a behemoth, the morale that was so hard to boost will drop again.
Orff clapped his hands, "Gentlemen, I know what you are worried about. I have said from the beginning that this is not an easy journey. The treasure will not take the initiative to find us. There is no doubt that we will go through some troubles on the way." Grinding, challenging, but as long as everyone pulls together…”
Owen couldn't help interrupting him, "Challenging the Scarborough is not a grind, the risk of this matter is too high, even if every link in the middle is correct, whether we can win it is still unknown , You said that the treasure map should be kept secret. We have been following your command unconditionally for so long, but I'm afraid it won't work this time. If you want us to agree to this matter, at least tell us why you want to do it. "
Owen's words resonated with the pirates, and Orff could only nod his head seeing the general trend, "Well, anyway, we are very close to the goal, and I can almost tell you, I got the exact news The treasure map is in the hands of Count Bellomont."
"Count Belomonte? The Count Belomonte of the Governor of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire?"
At the beginning, some pirates didn’t know what the name meant, and they couldn’t help but gasp after hearing this sentence. If you were to make a list of the most powerful people in the New World, Belo Monte must be One of the few people in the forefront, the treasure map is in the hands of such a big man, and there is almost no possibility of it being taken back.
"Yes, he was also the one who sent Kidd to the gallows with his own hands. A large part of Kidd's relics fell into his hands after his death, not only the fifth treasure map, but also the ones related to the sixth treasure map. Clues, in other words, as long as we catch him, we will almost be able to find the treasure." Orff then threw another chip, "And his own value is no less than a treasure, if we can successfully catch He conservatively estimated that he could demand a ransom of £400,000."
This number made everyone breathe harder. After all, Kidd's treasure was still a little far away, but the ransom was just around the corner.
However, it was Orff's last sentence that really played a decisive role, "Belomonte will leave his territory in one and a half months and go to Charleston to attend the wedding of his youngest daughter. That is our best chance. The Scarborough we can blockade Charleston's port and go ashore to arrest people."
...
"I must have been crazy to vote for it." Marvin's hand was shaking as he held the potato peeler, "We are doomed, right? The cannons on the Scarborough will tear us all to pieces." Shards, or those sailors coming up and chopping us up, God, I should have listened to your no vote."
"It's useless. Even if you count your vote, it's still far away from vetoing this action." Zhang Heng said with a spoon in his hand, but he was still calm. If he could decide the direction of the matter, he definitely didn't want to go to this point. However, today's Sea Lion is in charge of Orff, who himself is wary of him. Zhang Heng has been keeping a low profile during the time on board. Although he voted against, he did not mention it to Marvin. Not dissuading anyone.
It's pointless to complain at this point, the only way to survive is to take down the Scarborough together.
Zhang Heng and Marvin were selected into the group of disguised merchant ship personnel because they didn't look so ferocious, and they are now the cooks on this "French merchant ship".
Zhang Heng took off his black clothes and handed them over to the ambushes in the mezzanine for safekeeping together with the weapons on his body. However, just to be on the safe side, he still kept a dagger for self-defense. The dagger was hidden in the pot of potatoes at Marvin's feet. subcutaneous.
After a while, there were footsteps outside the door, and Griffin, the bookkeeper, ran all the way down from the deck, "The Scarborough has been hooked and is heading this way. Mr. Orff asked me to inform you to get ready. , don’t show your horse’s feet.”
He obviously hadn't experienced this kind of thing before, and he seemed very nervous, and even stuttered a little, but considering the roles they were playing now, it was a normal reaction to encounter a British warship.