After everyone on board was awake, the problem of shortage of manpower on the Jackdaw no longer existed, and the artillery on the ship finally had a place to use. However, given the current situation of the Jackdaw, although the cracks and loopholes on the ship are basically blocked and no longer affect the navigation, it will take a lot of time to completely repair it. The most important thing is the lack of sufficient materials. Follow-up Repair work can only be carried out after returning to Nassau.
Therefore, it is very dangerous to continue fighting with the Jackdaw in its current state.
In this pre-war meeting, Dufresne, Billy, Annie, and Harry were all present, especially the latter. When he was dealing with the treasure ship, he could only listen to it in the kitchen with the cook Ramsay. It became the most frustrating thing for him. He never thought that he would be able to personally participate in this kind of pre-war meeting that only high-level people can participate in. He couldn't help but look excited. Excitement was overflowing on his face.
In contrast, Billy looked very guilty. He drank too much alcohol last night, but he was useless at the most critical time. He failed his responsibilities. After waking up, he wanted to take the blame and resign as the helmsman. , but was persuaded to stay by Zhang Heng and others.
No one on this ship is more suitable than Billy to be the helmsman. Dufresne still prefers to be a quartermaster. There are also punishments, and Billy's booty will be halved for the next three trips to sea, but he himself has an additional bonus, which is about the same as that of ordinary sailors.
Now that he had returned to his work as a helmsman, he said, "Are you sure they'll come after us again?"
"It will." Zhang Heng is sure, "Before they sent two ships to chase us, obviously they wanted to catch us all, but because of the sudden storm, we escaped, but after last night, they must All the pirate ships on the island have been sunk. In this case, only one or two ships need to be left to stare at the people on the island. The rest of the ships can continue to hunt us down. Less than half a day has passed, if they start now, it is entirely possible to catch up with us halfway."
"But if they choose a few ships to act together, wouldn't we just throw ourselves into the net?" Dufresne asked.
"This possibility is very small. Judging from the previous fights, the opponent's commander is a very powerful guy. He should be aware that even if we want to return to Nassau, we may choose to take a detour to get rid of the pursuers behind us, so their best To choose is to spread out and search.
"Our hull is seriously damaged. If we fight head-on, we won't last long. Even if they separate, they can deal with us. In this case, I believe their commander is willing to take a little risk to kill us."
Zhang Heng paused, and then said, "Coral Island is 200 nautical miles east of Parrot Island, just in the same direction as Nassau, but it's a bit further north than Nassau, we'll wait here for a day, if we The guess is wrong, the people of the navy acted together, they should have chased directly in the direction of Nassau, so that they would pass us by, and we would not encounter any danger. On the contrary, if my deduction is correct, they will expand If we get out of the search range, there will be ships meeting us here, and we will be able to solve the problem of fresh water and food in one fell swoop if we take it down."
"How to do it? My ship's hull is indeed seriously damaged. I doubt whether we can still experience a high-intensity battle." Billy worried.
"That's why we need a small island." Zhang Hengdao, "Actually, this is similar to the strategy we used to deal with the Spanish treasure ship. We first removed the cannons on the ship and moved them to the island, and then used jackdaws to Bring the ship into the attack range of the artillery, and launch an attack directly from the island, so as to avoid the damage to the hull caused by the battle."
All of Zhang Hengzhi's certainty is because of the system notification that came from his ear before, that his sailing skills have been upgraded from lv2 to lv3, but he was too engrossed at that time, so he ignored the news and waited for the storm It was only later that he noticed the change in skills from the character panel.
Before he was driving the Jackdaw in the port to forcefully break through the naval blockade, the huge pressure also forced out his potential, and his steering skills made a qualitative leap. After successfully upgrading to lv3, he now controls the Jackdaw for a period of time. A feeling like an arm command, sure to lure the target to the coral island without being attacked too much.
However, the key to the success of this plan is that the Jackdaw must be able to lure the target into the attack range of the artillery. It is also important for the gunner manipulating the artillery to successfully kill the opponent before the target realizes that he has been tricked and escapes. After all, once the opponent runs out of the artillery It is impossible to leave time for the Jackdaw to go back to the island to reload the artillery before pursuing it.
"Let's take a look at the terrain first, there should be a way to solve this problem." Zhang Heng said.
The accuracy of nautical charts in the early 18th century is not a little bit worse than that of later generations. There is no satellite positioning, and the shapes of islands are also drawn very rough. In fact, except for a name and an approximate distance, there is basically no other useful information. information.
Fortunately, the Jackdaw was already very close, and after about half a day, everyone arrived in front of the small island.
Zhang Heng took Annie and others to row a boat around the island first, and the red-haired girl said, "I finally know why this place is called Coral Island."
"Speaking of which, there are indeed many more corals in this place than in other places." Billy also said that everyone had seen a lot of corals in various colors along the way, but what attracted Zhang Heng more was the corals hidden in the water. the coral reefs below.
"Maybe we have a way to keep that ship within the attack range of the artillery," Zhang Heng said.
"You want to use the hidden reefs here to ground that ship? This is a way, but we will also face such dangers. We probably don't have time to explore all the hidden reefs now."
"It depends on the waterlines of both of us. Our ships are about the same size, but our ships will become lighter after removing the artillery, and those gunners will further reduce our weight by removing them. Everything else that weighs on the boat, including food and fresh water, is moved to the island so we can get through that reef area safely."