When the first rays of morning light fell, the roar of artillery shattered the calm of the sea.

The first to fire was the spice ship Happiness in the distance, and the last glimmer of hope in their hearts was dashed after they saw the black flag raised on the opposite Jackdaw.

In order to ensure the safety of the cargo as much as possible, the Happiness chose a relatively unpopular route, and the confidentiality of the route was also done very well.

After dawn, they were finally able to see the appearance of the Jackdaw on the other side, and although they had been mentally prepared, when they confirmed that the ship they had been dealing with for the night was indeed a warship, everyone's face still involuntarily showed a look of despair.

The tragedy of Charleston two months ago had already spread among the colonies, with the tragic death of two governors and a senior admiral on the same night, and the heavy shelling of the city of Charleston, which was probably the worst loss of the empire in the New World in recent years, and rumors that the navy had lost a frigate that night, but not much attention was paid to what had happened earlier.

Now when they saw the Jackdaw in front of them, everyone on the Happiness couldn't help but think of this rumor.

Worse than meeting a group of pirates is encountering a group of pirates with a battleship.

However, the men who can beg for food in this sea area are not cowards, knowing that they are absolutely inferior in firepower, but it is unwilling for everyone to bow down and admit defeat in this way.

What's more, the value of the cargo on the ship was enough for them to fight for it once, so the twelve guns on the Happiness did not hesitate to attack the rushing Jackdaw.

As a result, most of the shells in the first round of attacks missed, and only one shot flew past the side of the ship, and a rookie gunner next to him suddenly became nervous and asked the black-clothed figure not far away, "Captain, are we going to fight back?" ”

"Wait." Zhang Heng looked at the happiness in the distance and shook his head.

Now that the Jackdaw has just sailed into the range of the opponent, although it can theoretically fire back, the hit rate will definitely not be too high, and the power of the shells will be insufficient if it is too far away.

However, this will require you to withstand several waves of attacks from the other side first, but with the strength of the Jackdaw, this is not too much trouble.

Soon, the second wave of attacks on the Happiness arrived, with the previous test firing, this time the landing point of the cannonballs was obviously much more accurate, it can be seen that the gunners on the opposite side should also be very experienced, three of the shells hit the side of the ship, and one hit the sail, so there was no major problem, which made the pirates breathe a sigh of relief.

But the third wave of attacks was not so pleasant, at this time the Jackdaw and the Happiness were not far away, and even the figure on the opposite side could be seen, the cannonballs falling from the sky smashed a few holes in the deck, and another one fell on the hull without the protection of iron sheets, and the sea water immediately poured into the lowest cabin, and the carpenter on the ship also picked up the tools as soon as he saw this, and rushed down to repair it.

At this time, the sound of the ship requesting to open fire gradually increased, and even Billy couldn't help but look at Zhang Heng, but the latter still didn't say a word.

Although Zhang Heng had already participated in many battles on the Sea Lion, this was the first time he had personally led a naval battle. It was not the same as before, at that time, he basically only needed to protect himself, wait for the opportunity to deal with the nearby threat, and if he had spare strength, he would save some companions in distress by the way, even if he exceeded the task.

Except for the fact that he had to pay attention to the situation on the field when he captured the Scarborough, most of the time his vision was limited to the short distance around him, which was similar to his mode of action in the Soviet-Finnish war, but now he was commanding an entire ship, and the thing to think about became how to win a battle with the least cost.

The firepower on the Jackdaw is undoubtedly far superior to that of the Happiness on the other side, but the level of the gunner is just the opposite, which will be more obvious when firing at a long distance, but as the distance closes, the gap in accuracy between the two sides will also narrow, after all, as long as it is close enough, even a novice will be difficult to miss.

Therefore, Zhang Heng chose to brave the cannon fire and rushed to the front of the Happiness, but when the fourth wave of attacks fell on the deck, people began to be injured one after another, Zhang Heng himself was also injured by a flying piece of wood, but his face still had no expression, and he continued to hold the telescope to observe the movement on the Happiness, until he saw the gunner on the opposite side quickly fill the cannonball into the barrel, preparing for the next round of salvo, Zhang Heng finally issued a new order.

"Lower the sail and slow down, and the right full rudder."

The pirates waited too long for this sentence, and immediately put away the sails on the ship as fast as they could, and the Jackdaw avoided a new attack by suddenly slowing down, and at the same time the hull of the ship also swung, and finally became parallel to the happiness.

Although some sailing ships in this era will also be loaded with bow and stern guns, they are more only used in emergencies, and the firepower output mainly depends on the side guns, so it is necessary to flank the ship to the target before launching an attack, which is why Zhang Heng must let the Jackdaw sail close enough to return fire.

Once you're in a state of engagement, it's very difficult to adjust the distance.

The pirates had been unilaterally bombarded by the guns on the Happiness for a long time, and when Zhang Heng gave an order, the gunners immediately gave the most fierce return fire on the opposite side, and the guns on the ship fired together, although nearly half of the shells fell into the water, but the rest caused a lot of damage to the Happiness.

One of the 24-pounder shells was lucky enough to hit the Lucky's submast, which broke off and smashed directly on the deck to crush two sailors, and the sails on it covered the three guns.

After seeing the power of the cannons on the Jackdaw, the sailors on the Happiness had fallen into a panic at this time, although there were still people trying to fight back, but they were soon overwhelmed by the overwhelming shells, if it wasn't for Zhang Heng's special advice to the gunners on the ship to adjust the angle, I am afraid that the Happiness would have suffered heavy damage after the second round of salvo.

The battle was almost as expected, and after two rounds of artillery fire, the opposite side obviously realized that continuing to fight would only increase casualties, although it was still unwilling, but it could only choose to surrender at the first time.

Zhang Heng was not as excited as the others on the ship, because he knew that the next was the most dangerous moment, according to Karina's intelligence, there were thirty sailors on the Happiness, and what was even more troublesome was that there was a group of naval cadets who were hitchhiking, the number was about twenty, and they were all strong young people.

Combined, these men have outnumbered the pirates on the Jackdaw.