Naturally, what could make Carmen so urgent could only be bad news.

At an upper-class dance in Bilbao, she inquired about a shocking revelation.

Jose of France signed an alliance agreement with the Kalmar Chamber of Commerce, the Jodel Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlands, and the Herrera Chamber of Commerce in Spain, and they planned to set up hunting grounds in the Cantabrian Sea, targeting British merchants and completely expelling the enemies of the kingdom from the Franco-Spanish coast.

The stakes were so high that Carmen did not inform Lorraine as soon as possible, but spent more than a month to confirm the authenticity of the information, and the results were ...... There is no room for optimism.

The intelligence is true.

These four chambers of commerce are all old offshore privateer chambers, each with more than twenty merchant ships, and each of them is a behemoth for the current Drake Chamber of Commerce.

They had formed an alliance and had many secret meetings in France.

The Drake Chamber of Commerce is a place where people live and where people live, and Carmen tries her best, but she still doesn't know the key information about when the hunt started, how long it lasts, and the size of the fleet involved.

The enemy is dark, I am bright, the enemy is strong, I am weak, the enemy is numerous, I am outnumbered......

Looking at such an urgent letter, Lorraine couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

He asked himself, could Spain give up?

No.

Spain is the only country in Europe with a vast and mature overseas colony, but at the same time, due to economic depression, it does not have an adequate domestic market.

She is the core of the chamber of commerce's access to cheap New World and Asian and African goods, and the profits associated with it account for seventy percent of the chamber's total profits, and Lorraine has no reason to give up if she does not want to be reduced to mediocrity.

So can the Cantabrian route be abandoned?

Answer...... It still doesn't seem to work.

Without the Cantabrian route, the only land margin sea route from Britain to Spain, Lorraine would have had only the Celtic Sea.

Although the Celtic Sea is adjacent to the Cantabrian Sea, the hydrological environment of the two is very different.

It is already part of the Atlantic Ocean.

The water is deep and the waves are high, reaching Cape Barres in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

If Lorraine chooses this deep-water route, it will mean that every time you go to Bilbao, you will have to make a huge circle, which will greatly affect the logistics efficiency of the chamber.

What's more, that's not the only price the Chamber of Commerce has to pay.

The wide-bottomed Kirk type is not adapted to deep water conditions, where the vessel is at risk of capsizing at any time.

Only the Kirk type was abandoned.

But the Kirk type can be abandoned all of a sudden, and the Chamber of Commerce will not be able to muster enough capacity to maintain the demand for profit growth.

The Clover must not leave the Second Fleet.

The calm of the North Sea is due to the deterrence of the Clover, and she was hastily transferred out, and Lorraine may not be able to hold the Spanish route steadily, but will only lose the stable but low-yield Northern Sea route.

What to do?

He took the exam all night, and it was not until the sun rose the next day that he finally wrote back.

Carmen. Miss Xavier:

The letter has been received, and I hope to continue to investigate.

I'm going to be at sea, and I'm going to see what happens.

Your friend, Lorraine. Arnason. Drake

……

The Chamber of Commerce declared a state of war.

Lorraine immediately canceled the rotation of all seafarers and sailors.

He went to Plymouth and bought eight nine-pounder cannons for £2,800 and replaced them with the six-pounder cannons on the Clover to arm the Artis Beauty and the Beverly Merchant.

At the same time, the number of sailors of the Butterfly Flower was increased from 20 to 120 to ensure that its powerful firepower could be fully utilized.

The First Fleet assumed a posture of rushing to transport.

The Spanish branch went to great lengths to collect merchandise, and three ships made frequent trips to Cantabrian at an average frequency of one week, which led to a sharp increase in profits in August, far exceeding previous expectations.

It was just a bonus, after all.

In the third week, when the First Fleet sailed from Gijón to the open sea one hundred and twenty kilometers west of the French island of Belle, Pierce finally discovered the smoke of the battle.

"Brother! A naval battle took place in the direction of two o'clock, ten kilometers away! ”

Lorraine jumped up from the deck: "Transfer the flagship cargo to the subordinate ship, the Butterfly Flower, lightly equipped, and rush forward!" ”

Ten kilometers equals about 5.5 nautical miles, and without a complete headwind, the Butterfly Blossom left two fully loaded Kirk types, and only after a little more than an hour, quietly approached the battlefield from the downwind.

The smoke wafting from the sea gave Lorraine the greatest cover.

Neither side of the battle spotted the Butterfly, and Lorraine stood on the foremast, holding up a telescope to observe the battlefield.

The battle was about two kilometers away from them, so close that even if it was a headwind, the Butterfly Flower was sure to be in attack position within fifteen minutes.

A total of nine ships were observed in Lorraine.

The attacked side flew the British Chamber of Commerce flag, which was a unicorn.

They had four ships, two Kirks were sinking slowly in the flames, and two Mixed Sail Skuna were trying to escape south, but Lorraine saw no chance of success.

Because the attacking side is much stronger than them.

Their flagship was a Brigentine gunboat of the same class as the Butterflyflower, with its guns wide open and its flanks in pursuit.

Of the four mixed sails under his command, only one was temporarily anchored due to a fire, and the other three arced on the sea, ready to cross the British ship and form a trap.

Lorraine jumped down the cable, and the seafarers gathered around.

"Pierce, I need you to return to the port position and inform the location of the enemy flagship at any time."

"Henna, go around the upwind from the west, cut through the bow of the enemy ship, and seize the T-head. They're in the middle of the game and don't have lookouts, so you just need to keep the distance to two kilometers now. ”

"Ramos, get your gunners ready, we're going to fire on both sides."

"Clen, full sail, top speed."

"Noah...... Let the sailors know that fate has chosen us. ”

He walked to the bow, looked at the seamen, and with a removed the tarpaulin from the harpoon.

"I see a huge opportunity...... "the Chamber of Commerce flag is flying high!" he said. Butterfly Flower, join the war! ”

Following Lorraine's orders, the Butterfly raised its huge sails.

The bow skew, the sail, the mainsail bulge to the maximum at the same time, the slender hull draws a huge arc in the calm sea, crosswinds, from the crosswind retrograde, into the downwind position.

The deck was busy.

A six-pounder gun was pushed out of the bow compartment and placed at a consistent distance to both sides, with the gun doors on either side of the gun deck wide open.

Ammunition was loaded, firing compacted, and the barrel with a black hole protruded from the porthole.

At the back of the hull, five sailors were attached to each gun, and everyone was engrossed in gearing up.

Pierce informed him of the location of the enemy flagship for the last time, and Lorraine asked him to secure himself, then took a deep breath and sat down in the harpoon firing position.

Lorraine shouted: "Left rudder 15 degrees!" Full sails! Grab the wind! ”

"Left rudder 15 degrees! Full sails! Grab the wind! ”

"Full sails! Grab the wind! ”

"Grab the wind!"