Only the victor can exchange war for peace.

- Gaius Salestius Crispus (famous Roman historian)

Needless to say, the setting of this trumpet connection must have been used by the Roman home fleet against the naval fleet of the House of Augustus; If this operation had not been deliberately arranged by Nams, then Roberts and Kidd would have chosen to retreat as soon as the patrol warships of the Scipio family blew their horns.

However, Roberts and Kidd had come this time prepared, and their purpose was also to draw the Scipio fleet away from the coast; Therefore, even when the patrol fleet of the Scipio family sounded the trumpet to summon friendly troops, Roberts and Kidd launched a fierce attack on it without hesitation.

This time, it was Kidd, who had always been taciturn, who took on the task of taking the initiative to attack; He sat on the flagship, and led the two triremittal warships and eight twins behind him, surround the three twinships of the Scipio family with unusual speed. The officers and men of the three twin ships patrolled by the Scipio family were not afraid, but fearlessly drove their ships towards Kidd's flagship.

In fact, since the last time Oscar reorganized the Augustan army in Sardinia, the configuration of the Augustus navy warships has been significantly different from that of other forces. According to the custom of this era, each double battleship had a hundred sailors and a hundred fighters for battle, and a three-column battleship had one hundred and fifty sailors and two hundred fighters.

Among them, these officers and men who are responsible for fighting on warships are basically composed of simple infantry, and they are all infantry with extremely rudimentary weapons and equipment; Even archers are rarely configured. This is not to say that people of this era do not understand the role of archers in naval warfare, but the bumpy environment on the battleship is not suitable for archers to fight, which leads to the limited role of archers at sea.

This is not the case at all on the naval warships of the Augustus family, in order to enhance the combat effectiveness of the Augustus family's navy; In addition to adding warships to the naval fleet, Oscar also set about reforming the number of warships in the Augustus navy. In Oscar's opinion, naval battleships are all wooden, and archers can definitely play a huge role in this!

For this reason, Oscar personally ordered that the warships belonging to the Augustus family must be equipped with at least about half of the total number of archers; The remaining half of the army must also be made up of capable men who will also use better weaponry to strengthen the Augustusian navy.

Although Oscar considered himself a genius leader, he could not be arrogant enough to think that his family's archers could overcome the turbulence of a battleship and shoot arrows as accurately as on land. Therefore, Oscar's approach was to prepare special arrows for the archers on the battleship to deal with the enemy's wooden battleships.

These so-called special arrows are naturally arrows smeared with oil; Oscar resolutely resisted a murderous weapon like the Fire of Rome. However, it is also possible to use oil resources in other ways; This is where Oscar's confidence lies in the extensive use of archers on his family's naval warships.

However, it is not so easy to get oil; In this era, there was no oil extraction technology, and the occasional open-pit oil was extremely scarce. Based on this premise, Oscar had to let his family's naval archers use ordinary arrows to fight first; But this time Nams went on a different line.

Before the Nams expedition, the Augustus family finally obtained a considerable amount of oil through Prince Adheba in North Africa; After obtaining this batch of oil, Oscar immediately ordered his family's craftsmen to rush to make 100,000 special arrows, and this time Naams's fleet also coincided with the meeting to carry 50,000 arrows.

In fact, Nams did not know the power of these special arrows; But he still distributed some to every battleship under his command, and basically every archer in the four fleets could distribute about fifteen rockets, and Kidd's fleet was no exception. Therefore, after the three warships of the Scipio family rushed quickly, Kidd immediately ordered a bow strike on these three warships!

One hundred archers aboard Kidd's flagship, the Quedav Merchant, and the archers on the other two triremes that followed, simultaneously ignited the special arrows that had been distributed earlier, and then shot them at the three ships that were approaching quickly. The turbulence on the battleship caused a considerable part of the 300 rockets fired in this salvo to go into the sea, and most of them still hit the enemy ship!

The commander of the patrol fleet of the Scipio family did not panic when he found that his warship was planted with dense rockets, but calmly ordered the soldiers on his warship to carry water to extinguish the fire. Ships sailing on the sea are very scarce for fresh water resources; But for the water to extinguish the fire, it will be as much as it wants.

Looking at the enemy ships that were still speeding towards him, Kidd ordered the archers to continue firing while ordering the sailors to turn around and retreat immediately! As Kidd's flagship prepared to retreat, the two trilinear battleships and the twin battleships on both wings were also preparing to turn around and retreat; At the same time, the archers on the other eight twin battleships began to approach the enemy ships and use rockets to attack the enemy ships.

After some scramble to make the rescue, the admirals of the Scipio family really realized that the enemy's attack had another mystery; Because these rockets that come over them seem to be ordinary but are extremely difficult to extinguish. Although the soldiers on the battleship tried their best to fight the streets, they only extinguished some small fires that were easy to extinguish; The rest of the battleship was too late to hit the streets and burned!

At this time, the officers and men of the three twin battleships of the Scipio family also had no intention of continuing to entangle the enemy, but all devoted themselves to the urgent task of extinguishing the fire and saving the ship. Unfortunately, how can manpower save the burning of crude oil? Looking at the enemy ships that had burned like fireships in the distance, Kidd accelerated to lead his fleet away; Because the main fleet of the Scipio family has finally arrived!

In addition to the three double-lined warships, which had been turned into fireships, the remaining four triremes and fifteen double-lined warships of the Scipio family had all been dispatched; Moreover, not far from the left flank of their fleet, there was also the fleet of the Brutus family, such strength was no longer something that Kidd and Roberts could resist, and they could only choose to flee immediately.

In terms of the location of the ships, the Brutus fleet was closer to the burning Scipio patrol ships, while the Scipio main fleet was closer to Kidd and Roberts' fleets. In order to wipe out the Augustus fleet in one fell swoop, the fleet commander of the Scipio family used the flag to ask the Brutus family to send warships to rescue their patrol warships, while he pursued the enemy with all his might!

The commander of the fleet of the House of Brutus did not refuse the flag of the Commander of the fleet of the House of Scipio, and he immediately sent three double ships to the vicinity of the burning ships of the House of Scipio to save the officers of the House of Scipio who had escaped by jumping; Then, he also led his fleet to continue to maintain the same speed as the fleet of the Scipio family, and began to pursue the fleet of the Augustan family.

At this time, the sea breeze blowing in the Mediterranean Sea is due northerly; In this way, the two fleets that you are chasing after me are all sailing with the wind, and the speed of the ship naturally exceeds the original normal speed. As the voyage progressed, Kidd and Roberts' fleet had even begun to distance themselves further from the Scipio fleet.

In less than half an hour of chase, Kidd and Roberts saw the Gatsiy fleet in full swing; At this moment, Kidd and Roberts knew that if they didn't find a way to attract the Scipio fleet behind, they would soon give up the pursuit, after all, the sea was already quite far from Rome proper.

After a tense thought to no avail, Kidd suddenly ordered the fleet to stop advancing, and immediately turned around to meet the fleets of the Scipio family that were following closely! Roberts is also an old friend who has known Kidd for many years, and he naturally understands what Kidd is doing this; But Kidd's fleet alone could not have reached the combined attack of the fleets of Scipio and Brutus.

Therefore, Roberts also had no choice but to order his fleet to turn around and cooperate with the Kidd fleet to meet the Scipio family fleet; Gatesi watched both Kidd and Roberts on his flagship, and he knew why they had suddenly turned back to meet the Scipio fleet. However, Gatsi strongly disagrees with this.

You know, this place is still half an hour's flight away from the ambush area that Nams finally selected; In the event of a fierce battle with the fleet of the Scipio family here, not only will they not be able to obtain the support of the Namus fleet, but they will also face the blow of the fleet of the Brutus family, and it is undoubtedly extremely risky to get out of such a situation.

However, Kidd and Roberts had already rushed up with their respective fleets, and Gatsea could not retreat on his own; Therefore, after ordering a double warship under his command to immediately return to the ambush area to report the situation to Nams, Ghatsi also resolutely led his fleet to charge towards the fleet of the Scipio family in the distance.

Kidd and Roberts have been friends for many years, and the two have teamed up several times to fight against the regular navy that encircles and suppresses them when they were pirates, and they are still very familiar with some basic cooperation; Therefore, after clarifying the purpose of the battle, the two of them each led their own fleets and charged towards the two wings of the Scipio family fleet.

Scipio's fleet consisted of only four triways and fifteen twins, while Kidd and Roberts' fleets each had three triways and eight twins, adding up to six triems and sixteen twins, which were slightly superior to Scipio's fleet, but the presence of the Brutus family changed this balance of power. (To be continued.) )