The octopus grabs the mast majestically, like a nimble monkey, and climbs to the top in three or two clicks:

"Pick up your arms and prepare for battle, all of them excite me, boys, someone has come to die without his means, we have to entertain these guests from afar!"

Following his order, the sailors raised their shields on both sides of the ship, and the ballistaemen and archers were also in place, as if they were reflexive cells, quickly filling the body of the battleship with energy, and the execution was definitely no worse than that of a well-trained knight.

"And 1200 yards!"

Three hundred yards was nothing for a fast-moving battleship, almost fleeting, and a distance that would have taken a few breaths at the earliest, even if the rider had traveled lightly.

"It's okay, we're in the upper hand, and their oarsmen will die of exhaustion sooner or later."

The octopus muttered nonchalantly: "Lads, lower the foresail, pull up the spinnaker on the port side, and stop paddling on the port side!" Let's rush to the other side of the island! ”

The wind-blown sail was immediately retracted, the oars on the port side were lifted like wings, and the water kept dripping, and the helmsman calmly manipulated the rudder stick, and the battleship made a sharp turn in the sea, and the snow-white waves rushed straight towards the island like an arrow off the string.

"Haha, a bunch of fools, how can your broken ship catch up with the best warships of the Imperial Navy!"

The octopus's taunt drew a chorus of sailors, who frantically struck their shields with a deafening roar:

"Long live Rome!"

"Long live Rome!"

Amidst the cheers, the hoarse cries of the lookouts were heard again: "Ahead! Two more enemy ships appeared ahead, and they blocked our way! ”

"What!"

The octopus jumped to the side of the boat in a hurry: "I didn't expect that there were two ambushes here, it turned out that I underestimated these miscellaneous pieces, which is a bit interesting." ”

He stretched out his thumb to measure the distance between the two sides, calculating the range of the ballista: "Raise the headsail." Ballista ready! ”

"What do you want to do?"

I finally caught the commander of the battleship jumping up and down, and just now I lowered the sail to avoid it, why did I change it to full speed again?

"My lord, why are you still here?"

He was quite surprised by my appearance: "You two send the adults into the cabin, there are no useless people left on my deck!" "Then two sailors with big shoulders and round waists were about to come up and pull me on the shoulders, and I struggled to get out of them.

"I'm going to stay here! I'm not useless! ”

"Damn, whatever, no one will have the heart to take care of you when the time comes, tell me knight, will you hold your breath?" He raised an eyebrow at me suspiciously.

I frothed at the mouth and stubbornly retorted, "You just have to tell me why you want to raise the sails." ”

The octopus snorted angrily: "No one can question my orders on this battleship, knight, this is the sea, not the land, and the title and force are useless!" ”

Estimating that the ballista had been prepared, he hurried up to the portside of the ship, and a sentence floated from afar: "For your first sake, knight, come, I will show you how to fight at sea!" I'm going to take advantage of the wind to pass between two enemy ships and beat one of them into a sieve! And then...... Hehe, none of them had time to turn around, they could only watch me walk away! ”

The calm sea was so dangerous that even the seagulls avoided their nests, and no longer dared to fly and hover freely, and I shivered incessantly against the side of the ship, yes, shivering in the sun, and my soaked clothes clinging to my body, bringing a chill from the bottom of my heart.

"Five hundred yards!"

"Archer!"

The octopus ran to the mast again at some point: "Aim at the enemy ship on the starboard side, and suppress me fiercely!" ”

More than a dozen archers gathered on the starboard side, bent their bows and arrows under the unified command of the captain, and the whole set of actions was completed in one go.

"Put!"

The sound of the bowstring clattering was the last thing I liked to hear, because it was always accompanied by not-so-good memories, and I covered my ears as I watched the rain of arrows fly towards the pirate ship with the green flag flying.

"Put it again! Put it again! Don't stop! ”

The octopus shook his arm, as if he was very dissatisfied with the effect of the fire suppression: "Half of it fell into the water, stupid, don't you have eyes!" ”

The archers who were scolded so much that they were not affected, it is estimated that they have long been accustomed to the commander's violent temper and continue to fire in an orderly manner.

"Enemy ships appear in the rear!"

The lookout always didn't let my little heart that I had just put down feel comfortable for long: "It's that Dromon, it's coming!" ”

"It's not bad......"

Like an acrobat performing a trapeze act, the octopus jumped directly from the foremast to the backmast, and his mouth was full of admiration, and he couldn't tell whether he had not shaken off the anger of the enemy or the relief of knowing that the opponent was not so watery, he slid and slid to the deck with the mast in his arms, and stomped his feet and cursed:

"The group of bitches who paddled are itchy? How dare you be lazy! Let them give me a milking stroke! ”

The commander's order worked, the speed of the battleship increased significantly, and I could even see the grinning expression of the pirate on the opposite side of the enemy ship.

"Boys, wait until I give the order before launching!"

Confirming that the starboard pirate ship on the starboard side would not pose a threat to itself, the octopus yelled at the ballistamen who were already ready: "There is only one chance, aim at their paddle bay above the waterline and shoot to the death!" ”

The three towers in the bow, middle and stern of the Dromont were armed with four ballistas, each with three operating ballistae, and had a range of four hundred yards, but they were not very powerful, especially in the rough seas, and it was not easy to get a single hit.

"Launch!"

The two ships were about to stagger, and fist-sized stone projectiles tore through the air with torsion, and all of them poured down on the side of the enemy ship close to our side!

Do you hear the sound of hard plastic burning and popping in a fire?

Yes, the stone projectiles that hit the side of the wooden ship made such a roar that although a few fell directly into the water, two of them still accurately burrowed into the paddling compartment, and countless sawdust flew into the sky with the screams of the paddlers.

"Well done!"

The octopus applauded excitedly: "Pull off the backside spinnaker, turn the rudder and hit it, quick!" ”

He couldn't wait for the helmsman's slow movements, pushed the opponent away and rolled up his sleeves, his cheeks flushed, and he changed course by himself, and the sharp collision angle broke several oars of the enemy ship, and slammed into the aft compartment below the waterline, as if using a steel needle through the soft silk.

"Put the sails away, and row back! Don't let the other ship get by! ”

The commander of the battleship kept a clear head when the sailors were eager to take the opportunity to jump over and kill the whole thing, even if he was in an advantageous position.

"Get all back, you bloodthirsty jackals, do you have a head on your neck for? The ballistas reloaded, and the others went to clean up the Greek fire and burn the next unlucky guy to their deaths! ”

The sailors staggered back, took arm-thick brass pipes from the cabin, and hurriedly poured some kind of foul-smelling black paste fluid into them.

"Is that the legendary Greek fire?" I had just taken a step to get closer and take a closer look, when someone blocked my view.

"Franks, no!"

The two muscular sailors glared at me viciously, and kept shouting in the only Frankish language: "Go away, no!" ”

"There is also a sense of intellectual property protection......

I was relieved to remember that the Eastern Romans had kept the secret of Greek fire for hundreds of years.

"Actually, I just want to see what the difference between the Greek fire, which is spread like a god, and the enemy-breaking weapon fire oil in Nijmegen, stingy!"

The leaky enemy ship slowly tilted, and the pirates on board had no way out to jump into the sea to escape, and with the efforts of the oarsmen, our battleship pulled out the broken ramming angle little by little, and finally regained its freedom, but the two pirate ships behind had been outflanked at full speed on the left and right, and the distance was getting closer and closer!

"Report the distance!"

The octopus leaned on the bow of the ship to check the damage to the ram angle, but fortunately it was only broken and did not cause water seepage in the cabin.

"Four hundred yards, that's the effective range of a ballista!" The lookout's voice was full of murderous excitement.

The Syrians poured cold water on their heads: "Raise the full sails, let's get out of here!" Rush out before the enemy blocks the retreat! ”

He climbed on one of the tentacles of the bow of the octopus and reached out and beckoned, "Give me an axe!" ”

After speaking, his legs deftly hooked the side of the boat and hung upside down, and he started to chop the damaged corners.

Only half of the ramming angles were cut off by three strokes and five divisions, and the battleship froze suddenly, as if a running man had stumbled on a stone, and immediately regained his speed, and seemed to be faster than before.

The octopus wiped his face with relief, and leisurely instructed the sailor: "Put two stone bullets and say goodbye to the friends who escorted you all the way......

The octopus did a good job, not only jumping out of the sea ballet cleanly, but also wandering freely in the army of thousands of people.

After the incident, I hid my merit and fame, and I really felt the majesty of the Roman Navy galloping in the Mediterranean.

"Raise the sails and work harder!"

The octopus regained the calm and composure that the commander of the battleship should have, and the excitement of jumping up and down in the battle just now was like the two of them.

Relaxed, I clutched my stomach, and the nerves controlled by the tension finally played its supposed role, feeding back all kinds of discomfort in the body, and in just a few moments, my waist was sore, my legs were weak, and my head was dizzy, and it was estimated that it was not far from a full-scale strike of function.

"Can we get rid of the pirates?"

I asked weakly as I leaned on the side of the boat and walked slowly like an old lady in my seventies and eighties.

The octopus, who had been holding his hands against the wind, heard that something was wrong with my voice, turned around and looked, his eyes were full of playful schadenfreude: "It turns out that knights also have times when they can't stand up?" ”

He deliberately laughed loudly, causing the sailors to look sideways, and then teasing him even more: "Your Excellency asks me if I can get rid of the pirates? No, I think you asked the wrong person, it should be the pirates who dare to chase after them, that group of rabble, in front of the Imperial Navy, is not even as good as Saracen fishermen, not to mention seven or eight ships, even if there are more than a dozen ships! ”

Forget it, this person can't communicate......

I stuck out my tongue and snorted dryly in acknowledging his answer, and prepared to go back to the cabin to rest, presumably in the same state as I am.

Otherwise, in the course of the whole naval battle, why didn't even one of them come out to see the situation.

"I'll go back and see the Bishop." Thinking of this, with the appreciation of my courage from the bottom of my heart, I couldn't help but straighten my back slightly.

Remember what I said before? God is a vulgar joker, he will not give up until he plays me to death, and just as I feel a little confident and move to the cabin, the hysterical roar of the lookout hand seems to come from hell, and once again shatters my psychological defenses.

"Enemy ships have appeared ahead! Three! Carthaginian Front! ”

The lookout with a red scarf on his head was a fat man with a meaty face, and he shouted with a lot of anger, and I wondered how he had climbed such a high mast, and his mind was full of the immediacy of a sow climbing a tree.

"The enemy ships in the rear have also caught up!"

"Damn it!"

The octopus spat viciously into the sea and hurried to the bow of the boat: "They can't catch up so quickly, unless it's a trap that has been arranged, and the enemy deliberately lures us inside, this is the real decisive battle, and I'm stupid for a long time......"

He slammed the side of the ship in frustration, and a five-finger-shaped depression was faintly visible on the hard wood.

I don't know where I got the strength, maybe it was the human instinct to survive that made me full of blood in an instant.

"What do you say? Is this a trap? What is the Carthaginian Front? ”

The octopus took a deep breath and turned slowly, his expression returning to that empty gaze.

"Three warships lined up in front of the two behind to capture enemy ships in the narrow strait, and the Carthaginians in Messina relied on this trick to kill countless Roman merchant ships."

He measured the general appearance with his hands, almost every word squeezed out between his teeth, not to mention how fierce his tone was.

"Just as a few hungry wolves use the terrain to round up a lone bull, leaving the bull with sharp horns at every turn and unable to fight back, the Greeks prefer to call this tactic a pack of wolves at sea, which hides in packs, swarms, and drags their opponents to death."

Wolves! I couldn't help but shudder, the name was all too familiar.

The unlimited submarine warfare of the Germans on the high seas made this name a haunting nightmare all over the world, and it was unexpectedly born in this era, as early as the time when Rome and Carthage were competing for supremacy.

"So what do we do?"

The octopus rarely twisted his eyebrows seriously, it seems that the situation is quite serious, everyone understands the truth that two fists are invincible to four hands, not to mention that the number of enemy ships is more than ten times that of ours!

"What should I do?"

He showed his clenched steel teeth: "If you can't beat it, of course you have to run!" ”

Sometimes it's not easy to escape, especially when you have to navigate the undulating seas with such a huge ship.

The sailors stopped laughing, and their expressions froze, and the octopus climbed the mast to carefully observe the position of friend and foe and the direction of the wind, and all eyes were focused on him, and only at this moment did I notice that the legendary leadership charm shone in him.

(End of chapter)