Struggle in the Steam Age

At 4:10 in the morning, Lawrence and the others finally came to the back of an island through various terrains along the coast. And a little more than a nautical mile in front of this island is the anchorage of the group of pirates. It may be because of the other party's laziness and chaotic management, or because they didn't expect that someone would raid them, so these pirates actually did not set up any observation posts in other places except the observation posts on the mast.

Even this small island that can observe all the conditions in the open sea and the island does not have any guards. Only a simple observation magic that is controlled by Nora at the first time provides the most basic peripheral alert.

"Okay, let's report the situation of the investigation just now." In the cabin of the Enterprise, Lawrence took out a map of the harbor that had just been drawn by Shumei and pointed it with the light from the lantern on the top of the cabin. On the table in front of him, besides Knight Joseph, there were several people sent by his father and the Agricultural Church.

After learning the specific identity of the opponent, Lawrence was a little worried that even with Nora, he might not be the opponent of the silver-level black priest with some powerful magic items. So before setting off, he made a special trip to two churches to move rescuers.

His father, Mr. Lambert, followed him as Lawrence had expected before, but what he didn't expect was the agricultural druid who had just broken through to become the silver rank of the agricultural church team and the former captain who was not good at fighting. The priests of the Silver Grade Agricultural Church joined the assault team.

In other words, there are now four silver-level casters on the ship, and even a small level difference should be able to suppress the opponent's most troublesome black priest.

And now these transcendents, the gunner on the ship, and the chief mate all listened carefully to the little doll Nara standing on the table and explained in detail the results of the nearby reconnaissance.

"--Although the other party did not send a few people to investigate, the various scouts they set up around can be said to be very densely arranged. At least it is impossible for our ship to quietly narrow the distance between the two sides until our artillery is effective. Within the shooting distance. In other words, as long as we attack, we will definitely trigger those magic alarms arranged by the opponent."

"This is not a big problem." The first officer said, "After all, our ship is so big, and there is not much fog on the sea today. Being able to touch this place without being discovered by the other party is already the limit. According to what I did According to the judgment of an old seaman, if there is no accident, our ship will be discovered by the other side as long as it leaves the hidden range of this island."

"That's right." Lawrence nodded. After all, his own ship is not a small boat, but a steam sail gunship of several hundred tons. At this distance, the possibility of the other party turning a blind eye is basically zero.

Therefore, the final battle plan was quickly worked out. That is to let the steam engine on the Enterprising begin to pressurize now, and when the pressure is full, charge towards the opponent's flagship at full speed, and try to kill the leader of this group of pirates as soon as possible.

"Let's go." Ten minutes later, when the pressure reached the limit, Lawrence issued an order through the communication copper pipe in the cab. After receiving the order, the crew in the engine room immediately moved the handle on the side of the steam engine.

In an instant, the high-temperature and high-pressure steam started to push the piston of the steam engine to start running, and then drove the ship’s bearings and propellers to spin and stir the sea water. At the tail of the ship, a large number of white bubbles caused by the propellers agitating and draining water immediately appeared, which looked like water. It's the same after boiling.

At the same time, the sails of the Enterprise were quickly lowered with the help of the steam winch. Under the combined action of the adjusted sails and propellers, the entire sailboat rushed out of the hiding place near the open sea on the island like an off-string arrow, and then rushed straight to the anchorage of the three pirate ships.

The other party obviously spotted the Enterprising rushing towards them at the first moment. Even if Lawrence was standing in the Captain's room where the Enterprising returned, they could hear the bell ringing echoing on the sea.

But for the pirates, it is too late to find Lawrence and the others to defend. A distance of more than one nautical mile can be crossed by a ship like Enterprise in just seven or eight minutes. However, the boilers of these pirate ships were cold because they had been at anchor before, and there was no time to start the ships.

"Boom--" The pirate ship facing the battlefield fired a cannonball at Lawrence and the others, but because this ship was an old-fashioned retired warship that the pirates didn't know where they bought, the ball was shot in a hurry. There is no way to hit the fast-moving Enterprise. Only a few water splashes were created tens of meters away from the Enterprise.

At this time, Lawrence summoned several ghosts of aquatic monsters through the white Zetu in his soul. Then let them dive into the water with a big guy from the other side of the boat.

"Squeak--the problem is not big, there is no need to adjust the course." The scavenger watcher standing on the observation platform at the top of the mast shouted loudly after observing the falling point of the enemy shells. "Now you just need to move forward at full speed."

"Bang--" Just as the Enterprising rushed to a place less than 500 meters away from the opponent, the flagship of the black priest finally raised half of the sails to adjust the direction of his ship so that the artillery gained valuable shooting range. The Enterprising fired a shell that had just been loaded into the barrel.

The guns on the two new pirate ships are the latest rifled guns, so the hit rate is much higher than before. Although the first batch of shells failed to hit Lawrence's ship due to the rush of shooting and the unsatisfactory range of shooting, the shells that fell close to the ship still made everyone on board feel nervous.

The waves splashed after these shells fell into the water even wet the deck, and the howling sound of the shells flying through the air and the dull explosion in the water after the explosion. Don’t let everyone on the ship feel this firsthand. The power of the cannonballs, let alone the power of the gunpowder carried inside these cannonballs after exploding, the kinetic energy carried on its body can easily shred everything blocking his flight path.

Even if Lawrence is an extraordinary person, he can only stare at the direction in which the artillery is aimed and avoid the shells through predictive methods. At least for an extraordinary person of his level, he can hardly carry large-caliber bullets or certain small-caliber single-shot shells. It is already the limit. Such a heavy artillery over 100mm cannot be carried.

Fortunately, although the pirates have obtained enough shooting circles~www.ltnovel.com~, the distance between the two sides can be said to be very close. So when the Enterprise struggled to avoid the artillery fired in the second round, the distance between her and the pirate ships had been reduced to less than 20 meters.

"Stay, hold steady, hold steady--" On the various gun positions on the deck, the commanding gunner stared at the pirate ship that was getting bigger and bigger in his field of vision with a serious face. At this time, they had bypassed the old sailing boat that had been stopped at the outermost position and quickly approached the two steam sailing boats. The scavengers who helped by the gun station could even see the horror on the faces of sailors on the pirate ship who were loading the artillery and adjusting the direction of the artillery through their dark vision.

"Launch!" When the Enterprise came to the gap between the two steam sailing ships, the gunner finally gave the order to launch. The eight artillery on the ship immediately spewed cannonballs at the two pirate ships on both sides of the ship.

At a distance of less than 20 meters apart, none of the shells missed the target. And these heavy artillery loaded with new explosives easily created huge breaches on the two pirate ships and caused serious fires at the same time.

"Prepare to jump to help." Just as the Enterprise quickly approached the Corsair flagship. Joseph Knight, who was in charge of the jumping gang, drew his sword and shouted to the commando, but before he started jumping gang, a gray ray suddenly appeared on the pirate flagship and flew straight towards him.