"This is Cape Romani, which is also the end of the Titanic Mountains. Our transport fleet can no longer sail along the coastline, because in front of us is the only reef area on the golden coastline of the Sunshine Sea. Therefore, our transport fleet has to return to the sea. As long as we pass through Cape Romani, we will reach the edge of the Christopher Hills. After sailing for another three days, we will reach Port Erniba, and returning to Cangjin Bay will only take another two or three days.
But the problem now is that the Norton Family has gathered a large fleet, and they are ready to fight us to the death on the sea route of Cape Romani. It is clear that their goal is to intercept our transport fleet and prevent us from transporting supplies, fodder, and reinforcements to Cangjin Bay. After our fleet was attacked by the Norton Family's artillery warships for the fourth time, the brave Captain Pruden took the risk to follow these retreating artillery warships and brought us this information.
According to his reconnaissance, the Norton Family has arranged 16 huge warships on the sea route, which are twice the size of large ocean-going armed merchant ships, but not as big as our Sepnip warship. In addition, there are nearly 100 large armed warships. There are also more than 40 medium-sized armed warships cruising in the reef area near Cape Romani. As for the dozen or so artillery warships that have retreated, they are cruising on the outside of the sea route. "
Viscount Penélope pointed at the sea map on the wall with a thin wooden stick. He was the commander of the Commerce Alliance's Invincible Fleet, as well as the commander of the First B Squadron. At the same time, he was also a level-2 great swordsman. Sitting in the conference room were the high-level commanders of the Invincible Fleet, the captains of large armed warships, and the captains of various divisions.
The atmosphere in the conference room was very depressing. Viscount Penélope secretly sighed in his heart. When had the commanders of the Invincible Fleet been beaten by a dozen or so enemy warships to such a dejected and soulless state? Back in the day, as long as they heard the whereabouts of the enemy fleet, which one of them did not fight to be the first to volunteer to fight, for fear that they would not have the chance to go to the battlefield …
However, it was no wonder that things would turn out this way. After being attacked by the enemy four times, the Invincible Fleet had suffered heavy casualties. The two B Squadrons and the armed fleet of the Chikerde Merchant Association had lost more than two hundred warships. Although most of them were small rapid-impact warships and medium-sized armed warships, the enemy only had a dozen or so warships with cannons. Furthermore, they had come unscathed after being attacked four times. The Invincible Fleet had been in a situation where they could not retaliate and could not catch up to them even if they wanted to. One couldn't blame the commanders of the fleet for being helpless and sighing.
He thought back to when the two B Squadrons had just met. Everyone was talking loudly and wantonly mocking the Third B Squadron's misfortune and the Fourth B Squadron's incompetence. The Third B Squadron had been careless, and as a result, they were ambushed at Erniba Harbor. A single torch turned every member of the squadron into foot soldiers. Although the Fourth B Squadron claimed to be victorious, the loss ratio of seventy to eighty to six was really embarrassing. When had the Invincible Fleet ever achieved such a victory? Moreover, the remaining warships could only hole up in Hidden Gold Bay after the victory and not dare to show themselves …
Although they were all members of the Invincible Fleet, the four B Squadrons were still in conflict and competition with each other. The First B Squadron's backer was the Twin Dragon Merchant Association, the Second and Third B Squadrons belonged to the Chikerde Merchant Association, and the Fourth B Squadron was a hodgepodge that anyone could throw sand into.
Basically, the first three B Squadrons looked down on the Fourth B Squadron's combat strength and thought that it was the Invincible Fleet's greatest weakness. But now that the Third B Squadron had fallen into great misfortune, everyone could only mock the Fourth B Squadron's accomplishments. If the Fourth B Squadron could sink six warships of the Norton Family's fleet, then wouldn't it be a piece of cake for the First and Second B Squadrons to deal with the Norton Family's fleet that only had a dozen or so warships?
Although they had some impression of the Norton Family's fleet's great long-range attack power and excellent performance from the Fourth B Squadron's battle report, the upper echelons of the First and Second B Squadrons still did not pay much attention to it. No matter how great their long-range attack power was, no matter how excellent their warships' performance was, they only had a dozen or so warships after all. They could overwhelm the Norton Family's fleet with their advantage in numbers alone …
That was why when everyone gathered together, they did not discuss how to eliminate the Norton Family's fleet, but how to attack and occupy Syrovas Island. The upper echelons of the fleet who were used to basking in the warm and beautiful sunlight of the southern sea were not willing to go to the northern sea where the winds were high and the waves were high. Everyone was guessing which unlucky bastard would be appointed as the commander of the garrison fleet after they attacked and occupied Syrovas Island.
But on the ninth of May, the night before the fleet was scheduled to depart, the harbor where almost a thousand merchant ships were gathered was attacked by the Norton Family's fleet. Fortunately, the harbor in the Chikder Merchant Association's territory was a little small, and more medium-sized cargo ships were arranged outside the harbor to block the Norton Family's warships that fired their cannons. Furthermore, the small, rapid-impact warships that were responsible for patrolling reacted in time and launched a counterattack against the ambushers immediately, forcing the enemy's fleet to leave the harbor and avoiding another tragedy like the one that burned Port Ainiba.
Although the Norton Family's night attack did not succeed, the heavy losses they caused to the Invincible Fleet and the transport fleet finally woke the upper echelons of the fleet from their stupor. For the first time, they saw the power of the long-range cannons described in the report submitted by the Fourth B Squadron. In order to clean up the mess, they had no choice but to delay the departure of the transport fleet for seven days. At the same time, they also changed their original formation and route to sail along the coastline to prevent the transport fleet from being attacked again and again.
But the three subsequent attacks by the Norton Family's fleet finally made the North Sea Fleet realize the difference in the performance of warships. Whether it was in terms of operating performance, or the agile and fast cannons, the Invincible Fleet was almost at their wit's end. All the traps they had set were ignored by the enemy. The enemy's fleet commander was obviously a cunning and cautious fellow. He did not make a move against the transport fleet, and only focused on the armed warships that were defending the perimeter and bombarded them.
Originally, those small rapid-impact battleships were still a threat to the enemy. It should be known that those small rapid-impact battleships had 24 Iron-rank oarsmen on board. In the calm waters of the Sunshine Sea, these 24 oarsmen and sails could increase the speed of the battleship in a short period of time, so that the battleship could hit the enemy ship faster.
However, the Norton Family's cannons had already found the weakness of the small rapid-impact warships. These small rapid-impact warships were not equipped with any long-range weapons, and their only tactic was to use the sharp ram at the front of the warship to pierce through the enemy's walls and slow down the enemy's ships until reinforcements could arrive. That was why the Norton Family's cannons allowed the Invincible Fleet's small rapid-impact warships to get within a hundred meters of them. Then, they would lower their cannons and load the canister shells. Boom! Basically, one shot per ship …
On the night of the night attack on the port, the cannons were still using iron bullets to deal with the small rapid-impact warships. If they could hit three or four out of ten cannons, they would be considered a godly cannoneer. However, during the second attack, the cannons started using canister shells to deal with the nimble rapid-impact warships. It was the same during the third attack, and during the fourth attack, all the small rapid-impact warships of the Invincible Fleet refused to fight. That was because it was not called a battle, but rather a target practice. Almost none of the more than 30 people on a ship could survive a single shot. Even if they were courting death, they would not do so.
It must be known that the crew and sailors of the small rapid-impact warships were the bravest sailors in the fleet. Even they did not have the will to fight, so one could imagine how low the morale of the entire Invincible Fleet was. The warships sent to the outermost defense circle were equivalent to waiting to be bombarded. The crew was not prepared to fight, but to find a life-saving item for themselves in case the warship was sunk …
Viscount Penélope waited for a long time, but no one stood up to express their views. Looking at the fleet officials in the conference room with their heads lowered, he could not help but be furious. He fiercely slammed the table in front of him and roared angrily, "Are you all dead? Are you all scared out of your wits by the enemy's cannons? Aren't all of you usually very powerful? Why are you all mute now? The enemy has already set up a formation in front of us, ready to fight to the death with us, but you are all shrinking back like quails! Shouldn't you just raise the white flag and surrender to the enemy? Anyway, you don't look like the brave warriors of the Invincible Fleet! "
Viscount Penélope's anger finally aroused the pride and shame of the fleet officials. One by one, the fleet officials stood up and expressed their determination. "Sir, since the Norton Family wants to fight, then we will give them a decisive battle. The Invincible Fleet will definitely win!"
"Sir, please allow me to be the vanguard warship, I want to rush to the front …"
"Sir, even if I die in battle, I will take the enemy down with me …"
"Sir, please believe us, we will not let the reputation of the Invincible Fleet be shamed. We can defeat the enemy, and we will definitely defeat the enemy!"
Clap, clap, clap. A crisp applause sounded. "I believe in your courage, and I also believe that the Invincible Fleet will not fail. In fact, I don't think the Norton Family's cannons are that terrifying, and they are not invincible. "
The fleet commanders in the conference room turned their heads to see who was boasting so shamelessly. After all, no one could come up with a way to deal with those slippery cannons.
They saw an elegant, calm, and smiling young man walk to Viscount Penélope's side. The fleet commanders all knew this young man. He was the young master of the Chikede Chamber of Commerce, Serliham, the commander of the Chikede Chamber of Commerce's armed fleet.
"Young Master Serliham, do you have any basis for what you said?" A fleet commander asked loudly.
Young Master Serliham smiled warmly and nodded. "Of course there is. Everyone will know soon. If we don't count the night attack on the port, the Norton Family's cannon fleet has attacked us three times in total, and our fleet has lost a total of 243 warships, 129 of which were small rapid-impact warships, 86 medium-sized armed warships, 13 medium-sized cargo ships, and 15 large armed warships.
There is a key point here, and that is, the losses of large armed warships are far less than those of small and medium-sized warships. On the one hand, the fleet arranged for small and medium-sized warships to drive away the enemy, resulting in heavy losses, but on the other hand, it shows that large armed warships have a great advantage in resisting the enemy's cannons. I found that a large armed warship can still sail as usual after being bombarded by the enemy several times, but a small and medium-sized warship will be sunk and destroyed.
I don't know if you have noticed, but during the first attack, we lost seven large armed warships, but two of them were destroyed by fire, and only five were sunk. During the second attack, we dispatched more large armed warships, but only five were sunk. They basically took several rounds of concentrated fire from the enemy before they were sunk. During the third attack, we only managed to sink three large battleships.
Gentlemen, do you remember the Flying Wing of our chamber of commerce's armed fleet? During the third attack, it was a large armed warship that served as the outermost defense. It suffered more than ten rounds of enemy cannons, but it was still floating on the sea, and almost one of the walls of the ship was destroyed. Didn't you call it an unsinkable miracle after the war?
There is actually a secret to this. After the second attack, when we were inspecting the warships that were hit by the cannons, we discovered something. Because our warships are also responsible for transporting rations, when we were repairing a hole in the ship, we found that an iron pellet fired by the cannons had penetrated the ship's wall and sunk into a pile of flour bags. Other than roasting the surrounding flour, the iron pellet only made a hole in the ship's wall and did not play any other role.
So we made an experiment. We stacked large sacks of flour along all the bulkheads of the warship Soaring Wing, and tried to hold them in place, to see if the sacks of flour would cushion the iron balls fired by the cannons. As you can see, the Flying Wing was not sunk. After the war, we collected nearly 40 iron pellets in the ship's hold … "
The entire conference room burst into cheers. If Young Master Serliham was not lying, then at least they did not have to panic in the face of the Norton Family's cannons. If the Norton Family's cannons wanted to sink their own warships, they would have to get closer. That would give the Invincible Fleet an opportunity to retaliate with their ballistae and catapults. The Norton Family's fleet had had enough of being beaten up without being able to retaliate.
Seeing that the atmosphere in the conference room had become lively, Viscount Penélope smiled with relief. He first thanked Young Master Serliham, and then asked everyone to quiet down.
"I think the Norton Family definitely did not expect us to find a way to deal with the cannons. Of course, we have to thank Young Master Serliham for this …" Viscount Penélope took the lead and applauded.
Young Master Serliham bowed to everyone, indicating that he had only done his duty and that he was undeserving of everyone's love.
"Now that the Norton Family has put up a decisive battle in front of us, what should we do?" Viscount Penélope asked loudly.
"Kill them! Victory to the Invincible Fleet! "The atmosphere in the conference room was like a rainbow.
Viscount Penélope nodded with satisfaction, and used the thin wooden stick in his hand to hit the map hanging on the cabin wall. "They have put up a decisive battle formation at the Cape Romani. Perhaps they think that they can intercept our transport fleet with the long-range attacks of their cannons, and even think of destroying our Invincible Fleet. This is actually just a pipe dream!
Our two fleets still have four Septorium warships, more than 100 large armed warships, and more than 100 small and medium-sized warships. In total, we have more than 300 warships, and more than 100 armed warships of the Chikde Chamber of Commerce. Just the warships and troops alone exceed the Norton Family's fleet by several times. Do they think that they can defeat us with just a cannon?
We will show them what delusion is, and we will crush them like weeds in front of a wheel. Young Master Serliham has already provided us with a way to resist the cannons. We will use it to arrange our warships. Then, we will brave the enemy's cannons and keep moving forward. We will charge into the midst of the enemy's fleet and wait for our assault team to board their warships. I believe that victory will soon fall into our hands like ripe fruit! "
… …
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