The Swordfish was seriously damaged in this round of shelling, but taking advantage of this opportunity, the Jackdaw on the other side finally completed its turn and got rid of the dilemma of being beaten unilaterally.
The gun ports on the side of the ship had been fully opened long ago, and the gunners were already in their positions. Following Zhang Heng's order, the Jackdaw finally began to fight back.
After the first two successful raids at sea, and the more than 200 people who killed Wilton in one night after returning to Hong Kong, the Jackdaw was in the limelight in Nassau for a while, which also brought new opportunities for subsequent recruitment. Great convenience.
As long as Zhang Heng is willing, he can directly expand the crew of the Jackdaw to the limit of 200 people in half a day, but it is meaningless to do so. With the increase of the number of people, every time everyone goes to sea to rob everyone, the income will be reduced. Compared with the simple increase in the number of people, Zhang Heng is more concerned about the quality of the recruited sailors.
Therefore, the recruitment threshold for the Jackdaw every time he returns to the island will be considerably higher than the last time. Quite brilliant, once the gun was fired, it immediately attracted the attention of the three Spanish sailing ships opposite.
However, at this time, the Spaniard's commander still focused his attention on the Swordfish. The latter's hull was severely damaged, and it was the best time to take down the opponent in one go. It's a pity, not to mention changing the target, and readjusting the launch angle and distance.
Therefore, the three Spanish sailing ships temporarily ignored the Jackdaw on the other side, and prepared to concentrate their firepower to take down the Swordfish first.
At this time, Brook obviously sensed the other party's tactical intentions, and decisively abandoned the original plan. Although the swordfish had aimed its side at the Spanish treasure ship, it did not fire, but continued to turn full rudder to prepare for the attack. Turn around and run away.
The Swordfish was in a mess in the last round of concentrated fire. The hull was severely damaged and lost part of its power. Fortunately, the mainmast was still there, and Brook's response was timely enough to complete the U-turn against the gunfire and catch up with the next round of gunfire. Start retreating before arrival.
His excellent steering skills were also fully revealed at this time, and the three Spanish sailing ships conducted another two rounds of shelling, but this time, the Swordfish avoided most of the shells with a coquettish sailing trajectory, but the Spaniard's command The officer reacted quickly, realizing the opponent's cunning, and immediately changed his strategy to use cover strikes.
No matter how good Brook's steering skills were this time, it was useless. The stern of the ship took four shells in a row, but the Swordfish still did not sink, and at the cost of this, it quickly distanced itself from the three Spanish sailing ships.
On the other side, the artillery fire from the Jackdaw became more and more fierce. Zhang Heng chose a frigate as the target of attack. This time he did not retain his strength. The anger in the stomach, immediately put into battle after receiving the command to fire
The main gunner took aim, ignited the matchlock, and as the smoothbore of the shell came out, the assistant gunner immediately filled the ammunition for the next time. The smoke from the gun muzzle filled the sea. It was also bombarded with a 24-pound gun and made several big openings. Fortunately, they were all above the water level, and there was no danger of sinking for the time being.
But the latter can't last long if this continues, the captain of the ship has already started to send a signal for help to the commander of the main ship.
The commander of the Spaniards looked at the rickety Swordfish in the distance, and a look of reluctance flashed in his eyes. The opponent was clearly at the end of his battle. As long as there were two more rounds of attacks, this cunning opponent could be taken down. Going too far against another pirate ship can wipe out this nasty gang of robbers and wipe them out.
There was nothing wrong with the plan itself, but he didn't expect the firepower of the Jackdaw to be so strong. Even if he could kill the two pirate ships, he might have to pay for a frigate.
He didn't want to bear such a price, so he used semaphore to inform the other two ships to change their targets, intending to abandon the Swordfish and attack the Jackdaw instead.
But at this time, Zhang Heng had also completed his own strategic goal, turned the rudder, and steered the Jackdaw to leave the battle. However, he temporarily changed the direction of retreat, and did not lead the target to Parrot Island as originally planned.
"Captain?" Billy's face showed doubts.
"This time the opponent's commander is very powerful. We only have two ships but dare to attack them. If we all flee to Parrot Island, it will definitely make him suspicious."
"But what if they come after us?"
"The probability of this kind of thing happening is very small. The damage to the Swordfish is much more serious than ours, and it lost two masts, and its speed is seriously damaged. If you were them, which ship would you choose to chase?"
As if to confirm what Zhang Heng said, the three Spanish sailing ships also quickly made a choice, turned around, and gave up on the Jackdaw, which was retreating in another direction, and chased the Swordfish instead.
The Spanish commander was very angry. He has been in charge of this route for more than ten years. In the past ten years, no pirates have dared to provoke them. That would be too cheap for the other party.
The Swordfish used to be the fastest three-masted sailing ship in this sea area, but with the current hull condition, it only had less than half of its normal speed, and the place where they fought was still quite a distance away from Parrot Island. In the past, Brook would not Take this distance to heart, but now he just feels that every minute is extraordinarily long.
Seeing that the three Spanish sailing ships were getting closer to his ship, Brook couldn't get rid of each other, and his forehead was gradually covered with sweat. The bow of one of the warships was already close to the stern of the Swordfish , but at this moment the Jackdaw, which fled to the other side, turned back again. The chief gunner on the ship manipulated the bow gun, harassing the warship at the front, and won a little respite for the Swordfish.
Brook directed the crew to throw almost all unnecessary heavy objects on board into the water, which finally increased the speed of Swordfish by another half knot.
And it was this half-knot speed that saved Swordfish's life at a critical moment, and the Spaniard's commander also became angry at this time. Zhang Heng's previous escape in another direction paralyzed him to a large extent. He would subconsciously be vigilant when he went to islands and other terrains where his sight was blocked, but at this time his eyes were already red, and he had no time to think about sinking the Swordfish.