The closer the pirate ship got to the merchant ship in front, the higher the hit rate of the giant crossbow. Although the pirate's giant crossbow had a range of more than 500 meters, the hit rate was very low at such a long distance. It required a large number of giant crossbow bolts to achieve the desired effect. Therefore, in order to conserve the crossbow bolts, the Black Panther was not in a hurry to attack immediately. He wanted to wait for the two sides to get closer to 300 meters before attacking. The sail area of the merchant ship was very large and it was a relatively large target. The hit rate from 300 meters away was still acceptable. At this time, the eyes of all the pirates were filled with fanaticism. The merchant ship they had captured before had given them too much stimulation. When they thought of the large number of valuable goods on the merchant ship in front of them, they were very excited and their eyes were full of greed.
The merchant ship was fleeing with all its might, and the pirate ship was chasing after it with all its might. After about an hour, the pirate ship finally caught up with the two fleeing merchant ships again. The distance between them was less than 300 meters.
"We can attack now. As long as we burn their sails, they won't be able to escape."
The Black Panther gave the order to attack.
The crossbow bolts that were already prepared began to attack the sails of the merchant ship. After a few rounds of shooting, a few crossbow bolts hit the sails and soon burned large holes in them. Moreover, the sails continued to burn. Soon, the entire sails would be burned. With the damage to the sails, the merchant ship that was escaping with the wind immediately slowed down. The distance between them and the pirate ship was also rapidly closing. The merchant ship could no longer escape and was about to be captured.
When the Black Panther captured the remaining two merchant ships, he immediately obtained a huge amount of goods like the previous one. This made him very happy. The harvest this time was surprisingly large and could last them for several years. In other words, with this hard work, they would not have to go out and rob for several years.
In order to vent his anger, the Black Panther threw all the merchants who were escorting the ship into the sea. The crew on the ship were treated as coolies and continued to drive the merchant ship in the direction of the Black Panther Archipelago.
Although the pirates had dispatched eight ships this time, the large amount of goods piled up on the three merchant ships was obviously not enough for the pirates' eight ships. If they abandoned the three merchant ships and only took the goods on the ships, they would have to abandon at least 60% of the goods. These goods were very valuable, so the Black Panther was naturally unwilling. It would not be a problem to empty one merchant ship, but the speed of the three merchant ships was the same. Since he could take two merchant ships back, there was no difference in taking three merchant ships back. Moreover, transporting these goods would take a lot of time. The Black Panther was in a hurry to go back, so naturally, there was no need for him to do something superfluous.
In this robbery, the Black Panther obtained so much wealth, so he was naturally very satisfied and in an extremely good mood. On the way back, because the merchant ships had priority, their speed was much slower. The original crew members were still in charge of the oars on the original ships. However, in order to prevent them from escaping, more than twenty pirates were arranged to guard each ship and let them sail obediently. After arriving at the Black Panther Island, the pirates would let these crew members go and let them sail away. However, these crew members were still very afraid. Once they went to the pirates' lair, they would know the way. If the pirates were kind enough to let them go, they would not be afraid that they would be surrounded by soldiers. They were worried that after going to the pirates' lair, they would be killed by the pirates to ensure the safety of the pirates' lair and not expose its location.
However, even if they were worried that the pirates would kill them to silence them, they had no choice but to continue rowing the ships for the pirates. This was because if they did not obey, they would be killed immediately. If they listened to the pirates, even if the final outcome was the same, they would at least be able to live for a while.
In fact, the Black Panther did not intend to kill so many crew members. After they returned to the lair, he would send people to send them away. These crew members only needed to stay in the hold of the ship and the pirates would control the direction. In this way, after reaching a certain distance, the pirates would leave on the ship and the crew members would be able to leave after regaining control of the ship. If they stayed in the hold of the ship, they would not be able to figure out the direction and accurately find the location of the pirates' lair.
"Your Majesty, we found a lot of gold pancakes. It seems that taking the merchant ship directly is the right choice. If we continue to search for a while, we might be able to find more hidden treasures."
A confidant reported the good news to the Black Panther.
If they were to directly move the treasures on the merchant ship, they would definitely miss some of the hidden treasures. This was only after discovering these treasures did they realize that the location of these gold pancakes was so hidden. If they did not look carefully, it would be impossible to find them and it would be easy to miss these treasures.
"These guys are even more sneaky than us. They actually put the gold pancakes at the bottom of the water tank. If it wasn't for one of our brothers accidentally breaking the water tank, it would be impossible to find the gold pancakes at the bottom of the water tank. This is too hidden. Who would care about a tank of clear water?"
The Black Panther said with a satisfied smile.
"Your Majesty, I have already asked our brothers to continue searching all the places where things might be hidden. All the water tanks and places where food is hidden must be searched. With so much rice and beans, it's hard to guarantee that there won't be treasures hidden in them."
A confidant said.
The Black Panther said with a smile, "There's no need to search the food. We have to keep the food. Even if there are treasures hidden in it, it will be ours sooner or later."
"Your Majesty is right. Look at my brain. Why don't we just keep the merchant ship and burn it as firewood?"
The confidant said greedily.
The Black Panther shook his head and said, "No, we don't lack firewood. These merchant ships are too slow. They don't seem to be of much use to us. Let's just return them to these guys! We thieves can't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. If this precedent is set, many merchant ships will be even more afraid. I'm afraid that they won't dare to trade on this trade route in the future. Then whose goods will we rob? Besides, robbing property is different from robbing a ship. Robbing a ship is more serious and will easily attract the attention of the soldiers. With our strength, we are no match for the soldiers. It's better to just rob some property! Don't even think about robbing a ship. Even the Black Dragon has never robbed a ship. "
Although pirates were relatively arrogant, made a living by robbing and often killed people, they were also afraid of being encircled and suppressed by the soldiers, especially the warships deployed by the Tang dynasty along the Silk Road. Therefore, they would follow some principles when doing things. They would not go too far, so as not to cause too much panic, which would lead to the encirclement and suppression of the soldiers. In their view, although the Tang dynasty's warships were quite powerful, there were not many of them. They only existed in a few fixed areas. It was impossible for these limited warships to patrol all areas. The area where they were located was far from the port where the Tang dynasty's warships were located. Therefore, the probability of them encountering the Tang dynasty's warships was very small. But if they went too far when robbing, they might attract too much hatred and thus attract the attention of the soldiers.
In order not to attract the attention of the soldiers, not only did they choose their lair hundreds of miles away from the sea trade route, but they also did not go too far when robbing. Under normal circumstances, they would try not to kill people if they could. After robbing, they would only take the valuable goods and not the merchant ships. The merchant ships were too big, so they did not seem to be of much use to the pirates who made a living by robbing. Moreover, leaving the merchant ships behind would prevent them from draining the pond to catch all the fish. If all the merchant ships were robbed, there would be fewer ships on the trade route in the future. For pirates, the more ships on the trade route, the better.
Because the location of the robbery was hundreds of miles away from the Black Panther Islands, the speed of the merchant ships was not fast, and they were sailing against the wind on the way back, so it would take at least two or three days for them to successfully reach the Black Panther Islands. They would never have thought that Ang Lee and his six armed clippers would already be rushing over. They were only a day's journey away from them at most. If there were no accidents, they would meet them in a day's time and intercept them.
Once these pirates were discovered, none of them would be able to escape. In order to save manpower, the six medium-sized fishing boats had already been tied together. Such a thick iron chain could not be untied in a short time. The pirates had to divert manpower to control the merchant ships, so naturally, some people from the six medium-sized fishing boats would also have to be diverted. This was not enough to maintain the movement of these ships. Tying them together could save manpower, so it did not matter if they were slower. The merchant ships were even slower. After the six medium-sized fishing boats were tied together, their speed was almost the same as the three merchant ships. In this way, the pirates' ships were divided into six large groups. In the front, there were two armed clippers leading the way, while behind them were three merchant ships and six medium-sized fishing boats tied together. Just like the fleet led by Ang Lee, as long as there was a battle, they would be able to quickly take down the pirates' ships. After taking care of the Black Panther, it would be the last and most powerful Black Dragon.
"Assistant Minister Li, the sea is so vast, and we only have six ships. We won't miss the Black Panther, right?"
Chen Long opened his mouth and said.
During the day, they already knew the approximate direction the Black Panther left in. As long as they used binoculars to observe, there was a high probability that they would be able to find traces of the pirates. But once night fell, the situation would be different. The distance they could observe was very limited. It was very likely that they would miss the Black Panther's pirate ship.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "You're right. It's indeed like this. We may not necessarily encounter the Black Panther's pirate ship. If we really miss it at night, then it's just our bad luck. No one can blame us. At worst, we can attack the Black Panther Island. It's not a big deal if we suffer some losses."
Indeed, they could only rely on luck. If they were lucky, they might encounter the Black Panther's pirate ship during the day. If they were unlucky and missed it at night, then this trip would be in vain. If they wanted to attack the Black Panther, they could only think of other ways.
However, Ang Lee had always believed in his luck. His luck seemed to have never disappointed him. This time, he also had a hunch that he would definitely encounter the Black Panther on the way back. This was a pure intuition. It was a wonderful feeling that Ang Lee himself could not explain.
After night fell, the six armed clippers under Ang Lee's command began to move closer step by step. After all, the light at night was very dim. If they were too far away, it would be easy to lose contact. Only when they were close enough could they see each other and not lose contact with each other.
The wind at sea at night was a little cold, but it was still quite comfortable. After all, this was the tropics. Even if the temperature was a little low, it would not be too low. The lowest temperature here was definitely not lower than 20 degrees. Otherwise, it would not be called the tropics.
There was a very bright full moon in the night sky. The surrounding stars seemed a little dim against the bright moon. Because of the bright moon, the light on the sea was not bad. This was a great help for Ang Lee and his team to find the pirates.
"I have a hunch that we will encounter the pirates tomorrow morning. Now, let the soldiers take turns to rest! Get ready for the battle tomorrow morning. "
Ang Lee said.
"Hunch? It's impossible to predict that we will encounter the pirates tomorrow morning with just a hunch! Anyway, I don't believe it. "
Chen Long shook his head and said.
Li An smiled and said, "I'm not sure about my hunch, but my hunches have always been very accurate. There are very few times when I'm wrong. If you don't believe me, you'll know the result tomorrow morning."
Ang Lee had always been full of confidence in his hunches. Ang Lee had a hunch that they would encounter the pirate fleet tomorrow morning. There would be no big accident. Whether this was a superpower or not, Ang Lee did not know. Moreover, as Ang Lee grew older, this ability seemed to become more and more powerful. Ang Lee's hunch ability had always been in the process of growth.
"Well, we will know the result tomorrow morning. Let's wait and see!"
Chen Long was also looking forward to what would happen tomorrow morning.
Just like that, the night passed. The next day, just as dawn broke, the six armed clippers under Ang Lee's command began to disperse. The distance between each other was increased by a lot. This way, the search area could be maximized. It would be easier to find the pirate fleet and take them down.
Although he did not particularly believe in Ang Lee's hunch, Chen Long still ordered the soldiers under his command to prepare for battle as soon as possible.
The soldiers began to make all kinds of preparations before the battle. The soldiers put on their armor and placed all kinds of weapons in suitable positions. There were also a few soldiers on duty next to each giant crossbow on the ship. At this time, as long as they found the pirate fleet, they could immediately take action and catch the discovered pirates in one fell swoop.
"Ships, there are ships in front. There are three types of ships. It must be the pirate fleet. It must be the Black Panther's fleet."
A captain found the fleet in front of them and reported in surprise.
Chen Long was shocked when he heard this. He quickly picked up the binoculars and observed. He was even more certain that there were three types of ships in the opposite fleet. There were merchant ships, armed clippers, and medium-sized fishing boats. This was obviously the Black Panther's fleet. The merchant ship was robbed.
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