The Swordfish was badly damaged in this round of shelling, but taking advantage of this opportunity, the Jackdaw on the other side finally completed its turn and got rid of the dilemma of being beaten unilaterally.

The gun ports on the side of the ship had all been opened before, and the gunners had already taken their places, and with Zhang Heng's order, the Jackdaw finally began to return fire.

After the first two successful expeditions to the sea, coupled with the killing of more than 200 people in Wilton overnight after returning to port, the Jackdaw was in the limelight in Nassau for a while, which also brought great convenience to subsequent recruitment.

As long as Zhang Heng is willing, he can directly expand the crew of the Jackdaw to the limit of two hundred people in half a day, but there is no point in doing so, with the increase in personnel, the income shared by each person who goes to sea to rob will be reduced, compared to the simple increase in the number of people, Zhang Heng is more concerned about the quality of the sailors recruited.

Therefore, the recruitment threshold of the Jackdaw will be increased considerably every time it returns to the island, and now the level of gunners on the ship is completely different from that of the first voyage, plus the Jackdaw itself is a battleship, and the firepower configuration is also quite excellent, once the cannon is fired, it immediately attracts the attention of the three Spanish sailing ships on the opposite side.

However, at this time, the commander of the Spaniards still focused on the Swordfish, which was badly damaged to the hull, and it was the best time to take the opponent in one go, and it would be a pity to give up and let the opponent run away at this time, let alone change the target, and readjust the launch angle and distance.

Therefore, the three Spanish galleons temporarily ignored the Jackdaw on the other side, and prepared to concentrate their fire on the Swordfish first.

At this time, Brooke obviously sensed the opponent's tactical intentions, and decisively abandoned the original plan, although the Swordfish had already aimed its side at the Spanish treasure ship, but did not fire, but continued to fill the rudder on the left, preparing to turn around and escape.

The Swordfish was in disarray during the last round of fire, the hull was badly damaged, and it lost some of its power, but fortunately, the mainmast was still there, and Brooke's strain was timely enough to complete the U-turn under the fire and start retreating before the next round of fire.

His skill at the helm was also on full display at this time, and the three Spanish galleons carried out two more rounds of shelling, but this time the Swordfish avoided most of the shells with a coquettish trajectory, but the Spaniard's commander reacted quickly, realizing the cunning of his opponent, and immediately changed his strategy and used a covering strike.

This time, no matter how good Brooke's steering skills were, it was useless, and the stern took four shells in a row, but the Swordfish still did not sink, and at the cost of it, quickly distanced itself from the three Spanish sailing ships.

On the other side, the artillery fire of the Jackdaw became more and more intense, Zhang Heng chose a frigate as the target of attack, this time he did not retain his strength, the gunners on the ship had been bombarded for so long before and had accumulated a belly of fire, and immediately threw themselves into the battle after receiving the order to open the cannon

The main gunner aimed, lit the fire rope, and as the shell slipped out, the secondary gunner immediately carried out the next ammunition filling, and the gunpowder smoke from the muzzle filled the sea, and after two rounds of shelling, the deck of the frigate was also a mess, and the hull was bombarded by the 24-pounder cannon several large holes, but fortunately, they were all above the water line, and there was no danger of sinking for the time being.

But the latter could not last long if it went on like this, and the captain of the ship had already begun to send a signal for help to the commander on the main ship.

The commander of the Spaniards looked at the swaying Swordfish in the distance, and a flash of unwillingness flashed in his eyes, the other party was obviously at the end of the crossbow, as long as there were two more rounds of attacks to take down this cunning opponent, and then turn around to deal with another pirate ship, this group of hateful robbers could be wiped out.

There was nothing wrong with the plan itself, but he didn't expect the Jackdaw's firepower to be so strong, and even if he could kill the two pirate ships, he might have to pay a frigate.

Such a price he did not want to bear, so he used the flag to inform the other two ships to change their objectives, and prepared to abandon the Swordfish in favor of the Jackdaw.

But at this time, Zhang Heng had also completed his strategic goal, turned the rudder, and manipulated the Jackdaw to break away from the battle, but he temporarily changed the direction of retreat and did not lead the target to Parrot Island according to the original plan.

"Captain?" Billy's face was puzzled.

"This time the commander of the other side is very powerful, we only have two ships but dare to attack them, if we all flee to Parrot Island, it will definitely make him suspicious."

"But what if they come after us?"

"The probability of this kind of thing happening is very small, the damage to the Swordfish is much worse than ours, and the loss of two masts, the speed is badly damaged, if you were them, which ship would you choose to chase?"

As if to confirm Zhang Heng's words, the three Spanish sailing ships also quickly made a choice, reversed direction, and sure enough, gave up the Jackdaw, which was retreating in another direction, and instead chased the Swordfish.

The commander of the Spaniards was very angry, he had been in charge of this line for more than ten years, and in these ten years, no pirate had dared to take the initiative to provoke them, and it would be too cheap for the other party to let this group get away without any price.

The Swordfish had been the fastest three-masted schooner in the seas, but in its current hull state, it was less than half the speed it usually was, and the place where they were fighting was still quite a distance away from Parrot Island, a distance that Brooke hadn't taken to heart before, but now he just felt that every minute was extraordinarily long.

Seeing that the three Spanish galleons and his ship were getting closer and closer, Brooke couldn't shake off each other, sweat gradually deepened on his forehead, and the bow of one of the warships was about to stick to the stern of the Swordfish, but at this time, the Jackdaw, which had fled to the other side, turned back, and the ship's chief gunner controlled the bow gun, harassing the warship at the front, and gaining a respite for the Swordfish.

Brooke directed the crew to throw almost all the unwanted heavy loads on board into the water, finally increasing the speed of the Swordfish by half a knot.

And it was this half-section of speed that saved the life of the Swordfish at a critical time, and the commander of the Spaniards was also angry at this time, Zhang Heng's previous escape in the other direction paralyzed him to a large extent, and he would subconsciously be vigilant when he encountered terrain such as islands and other terrains where his line of sight was blocked, but at this time, he had already killed the red eye, and he didn't have time to think about it when he saw that he was about to be able to sink the Swordfish.

Derpy said

Hmm, sorry, that's all for today.