Chapter 504: Captain Frederes' Worries

Thunder rumbled in the distance, supposedly the sound of the Norton family's North Sea Fleet firing artillery. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Captain Frederes pricked up his ears to listen to the shouts of the ships around him, and suppressed his panic and anxiety until he found that there was nothing unusual about the ships around him, and that he was still in good order and sailing in procession.

As the captain of a large armed merchant ship loaded with 100,000 catties, the only pride of Verderes is the merchant ship called the Mermaid Song under his feet. From his grandfather, to his father, to himself, three generations of hard work and sacrifice at sea finally allowed his family to have a large armed merchant ship of their own. To Captain Freres, on the sea, in the song of the merfolk, he is the only king and lord.

It's just that as the owner of the Mermaid Song, Captain Fredere does not dare to disobey and resist the orders of the Chicke De Chamber of Commerce. When he received an order to join a large fleet formed by the Chikde Chamber of Commerce to transport a batch of supplies for the business alliance to reach the Tibetan Golden Bay, he did not dare to express any objections at all, knowing that the Chikde Chamber of Commerce was the overlord of the southern seas, and if he offended them, the mermaid song might not be able to move an inch at sea.

As a voyager who has lived on the seas for three generations, Captain Verderes naturally has his connections and sources of information. He soon learned in the tavern why the Chikrid Chamber of Commerce had organized such a large convoy. It is said that the Armada of the Commercial Alliance and the North Sea Fleet of the Norton family in the North Land went to war, and the Arma seemed to have suffered a great loss, and even the port of Erniba was burned to ashes by the North Sea Fleet.

It is said that most of the ships that were commissioned to transport supplies to the Golden Bay during the winter fell into the hands of the Norton fleet, such as the Emma, the Dragonfly, and the Molin-Maud, which were large armed merchant ships like the Song of the Flying Fish. Moreover, the Norton family's North Sea Fleet also has a bronze cannon that is more powerful than the legendary dwarven artillery, which is invincible in the world for long-range attacks......

The reason why the Chikde Chamber of Commerce organized such a large convoy was to avoid the loss of supplies, everyone knew that the Business Alliance and the Kingdom of Andinac were engaged in a brutal and bloody battle on the Falhill Plain, and these sailors and sailors, who were well-informed at sea, watched with pity as the soldiers who had been drafted in the south were transported by sea to the Zangjin Bay, and then filled into the bottomless pit of flesh and blood in the Falcan Hill Plain.

For the Commercial Alliance, the sea route is now the lifeline of the battle on the front line, so it is a matter of course to assemble a large transport fleet and have two armada detachments escort it, which can remove the threat of interception at sea by the Norton Family's North Sea Fleet, and also show those who are skeptical that although the Arma has suffered some losses in the confrontation with the North Sea Fleet, the Armada is still the master of the southern seas.

Captain Verderes was one such doubter, who had always suspected that the voyage was not a leisurely one, as the officers of the Armada had claimed, but rather full of danger. Quite simply, the night before the fleet set off, the Norton family's North Sea Fleet suddenly appeared outside the harbor and launched another night attack.

Captain Verderes was glad that his Mermaid's Song, as a large armed merchant ship of the ocean, was placed at the innermost part of the harbor because of its large cargo capacity, rather than at the outermost end of the hapless medium-sized cargo ships. That night the fire was blazing and the cannon was rumbling. If it weren't for the quick reaction of the small and rapid ramming battleships of the Armada, who rushed to the rescue as soon as possible, perhaps the Armada would have suffered a fire in the port of Erniba that night.

Captain Freres remembers that noisy night vividly. The Armada had to postpone its departure for seven days because of the night attack. Although the fleet brass issued a gag order forbidding the crews and sailors of the fleet to discuss the night attack, Captain Frederes, the old fritters at sea, learned from the drunken crew and sailors in the tavern that the night attack had cost both the Alliance and the Invincible Armada. The Merchant Alliance lost more than fifty medium-sized transport ships laden with supplies lined up on the periphery, and the Invincible Armada lost more than twenty large and medium-sized armed warships and more than thirty small rapid-ramming battleships, while the enemy flew away unscathed.

Perhaps it was the unexpected night raid of the Norton fleet that finally woke up the commanders of the invincible armada, and before setting off seven days later, Captain Frederes was given the marshalling arrangements and voyage plan, and was surprised to find that the convoy was not sailing on the traditional sea route, but along the coastline to the Hidden Golden Bay.

Sailing along the coastline is not impossible, but it lengthens the entire voyage. If you sail by sea, you will be able to reach Zangjin Bay in 21 days. If you can sail along the coastline, it will take at least a month or more than 40 days to arrive. After all, there is a large section of the coastline in the middle of the Titanini Mountains, and there are no ports along the coast, only a few landing sites for temporary shore water.

The large fleet of more than 1,000 large, medium and small merchant ships and warships is unprecedented in the history of the Gelinthia continent, and it is not known whether there will be anyone who will come later. Almost all of them thought that the fleet would sail along the sea route, with white sails covering the sky and making a majestic sound, a parade to proclaim the majesty of the Armada. Unexpectedly, the Invincible Armada actually adopted the plan of sailing along the coastline, which is really shocking.

However, Captain Frederes, the old fritters of the sea, thought that the commanders of the Armada were wise, and the greatest advantage of sailing along the coastline was to avoid being attacked on both sides, and the Armada only needed to protect the perimeter. It is impossible for the enemy to penetrate into the middle of the coastline and the convoy to attack, in which case there is no need for the warships of the Armada to be dispatched, and a few merchant ships will either run aground or be trapped in the enemy's warships, because it has no room to turn around.

The traditional sea route can indeed speed up the voyage and save time, but it is also faced with attacks that can be launched by attackers from all sides, and it is indeed very difficult for the defending Armada to protect the convoy for more than ten nautical miles. A night raid finally made the commanders of the Armada understand how powerful the enemy's North Sea Fleet was, and although there were only a dozen warships, the threat to the transport fleet was not much less than that of a detachment......

Now the two detachments of the Armada are not thinking about how to defeat the Norton family's North Sea Fleet, but how to escort the convoy to the Hidden Gold Bay. Because the more than 800 transport ships were loaded with basically all the military supplies and grain and grass looted in the seven southern provinces, as well as 100,000 forcibly conscripted recruits. For the commercial alliance, these supplies, grass, and recruits are the key to ensuring that the commercial alliance can defeat the Kingdom of Antinac, and the most important guarantee for whether this bloody battle can be won.

Sailing along the coastline, there was no need for the two detachments of the Armada and the armed fleet of the Chikde Chamber of Commerce to be grouped together with the convoy. The transport fleet is inside, and the escort fleet is on the periphery, so if the Norton family's North Sea Fleet attacks again, it must first open a hole in the defensive circle of the escort fleet on the periphery before attacking the convoy inside. At the same time, the biggest advantage is that if the convoy is attacked and loses something, then the convoys that can't hold out can rush to the beach and keep the supplies and reinforcements they are transporting, instead of just watching the sea go down......

"This is the third time we've been attacked...... Captain Fredere thought worriedly, listening to the rumbling of cannon in the distance.

It's safer to sail along the coastline, but it's too slow. On the traditional sea route, there is an undercurrent underwater, and there is a tailwind on the sea, but it is difficult to have such convenient navigation conditions on the coast. The slow-moving snails of the transport fleet, which could not be seen as far as the eye could see, did not even cross half of the coastline of the Titanini Mountains for twenty-one days, but instead ushered in the third attack of the Norton family's North Sea Fleet.

On the fourteenth day of sailing, the fleet was again attacked by the enemy's fleet, and it was still fourteen ships capable of firing artillery, and they engaged in a fierce battle for two days and three nights with the escorting Invincible Fleet and the armed fleet of the Chikde Chamber of Commerce. In the end, it should have run out of ammunition and sailed away again, and the escorting Armada and the armed fleet of the Chikde Chamber of Commerce lost a total of nearly seventy small rapid ramming battleships and medium armed warships, as well as seven large armed warships......

Captain Frederes' Mermaid Song was assigned more than a dozen Armada crews and sailors, nominally to strengthen the escort of the transport ships, but in fact these crews and sailors were saved from the ships that had been sunk and destroyed by the Norton family fleet, and were assigned to the transport ships because the ships were gone.

It only took two days for Captain Verderes to mingle with the crews and sailors of the Armada. After a delicious and delicious reception, from their mouths, Captain Fredere quickly received detailed battlefield intelligence.

"The commander of the North Sea Fleet is very cunning, although he has only a dozen warships under his command, he never fights us in close combat, he always fires at us from three hundred meters away, and when we get close, they will sail away and get away. We couldn't chase too closely, because we couldn't break away from the group, or they would lead us out and sink our ships with concentrated artillery fire.

Our commander set several traps, and even used the convoy to deliberately expose a hole in the defensive circle, hoping to lure the enemy fleet to attack the convoys, and then surround and close the enemy in melee combat to destroy the enemy. However, the commander of the enemy's fleet was not fooled, and seemed to ignore the convoy in front of him, and only cared about troubleshooting our escort fleet.

Moreover, the enemy's artillery fire was very powerful, the firing range was very long, and the iron projectiles fired at a distance of more than 300 meters were the size of a bowl. The enemy's four battleships fired their guns at us, and a red-hot iron projectile penetrated the wall of the ship more than ten centimeters thick and smashed directly into the cable coiled on the deck, and then it burned, and the fire burned down the cable to the sails, and soon our battleship burned like a torch, and it could not be saved......"

The boatswain, named Sheila, was a little drunk, and as she recounted what had happened to her ship, she proclaimed the strength of the enemy. Thankfully, he's on the mermaid's mermaid's merchant ship, and if he's still on the side of the Armada, he'd be tied to the mast and whipped.

But Fredere knew he was telling the truth, and the cables that raised and lowered the sails on the deck were buttered to keep them from corroding from the sea. This thing is most afraid of fire, and it is usually guarded by someone when it encounters fire in naval battles, so as to extinguish the fire in the first place. The cuttlefish is so far away from the enemy, it is likely that this was not thought of at all, so it was a tragedy.

"Couldn't we destroy these dozen Norton ships with so many ships in our armada? Even if they have ultra-long-range artillery, we have so many warships that we can't beat them if we rush up......," Captain Fredere asked.

Boatswain Sheila burped: "You, you don't know, the enemy's battleships are just too slippery, their battleships have a lot of advantages over all our warships in terms of operational performance and the use of sails, and even faster than us." If we pursue, they will lure us out of the sunny sea and into the deep sea, where they will destroy our warships. The last time more than twenty battleships pursued, three came back.

Originally, our small rapid ramming battleships could pose a great threat to them, and the last night attack was also a small rapid ramming battleship to drive them away. But now their methods of dealing with small, rapid ramming battleships are also too brutal. I told you that the iron projectiles fired by their artillery were the size of a bowl, but they also had a smaller, finger-sized projectile of many finger-sized iron balls, and a dozen of them were nearly a hundred.

In the past, they used to use iron projectiles the size of a bowl to hit small and rapid ramming battleships, and six or seven times out of ten they missed. But now they've switched to that kind of iron ball, and they're letting small, quick-ramming battleships approach them. When they reached a distance of fifty or sixty meters, they hit the small rapid ramming battleship with one shot, almost a piece of flesh and blood flew sideways, either dead or wounded, there were few survivors at all, it was simply a nightmare scene. ”

From that day on, Captain Fredere was worried about the outcome of this voyage, not to mention that the armed fleet of the Invincible Fleet and the Chikde Chamber of Commerce still had four or five hundred warships, but if the Norton family's North Sea Fleet kept harassing them, I don't know how many more warships would finally reach the Hidden Gold Bay. In the unlikely event that the Armada were to be wiped out, what would happen to the merchant ships loaded with supplies?

From the bottom of his heart, Captain Fredere was still inclined to turn around and flee back, what did the war between the commercial alliance and the Kingdom of Antinac matter to him, and the most important thing was to keep his family's only merchant ship. However, the Business Alliance now occupies seven important ports on the Golden Coastline, and even the Kingdom of Chigeda is its ally......

Twenty-one days elapsed between the first night attack and the second attack, but now that only seven days had elapsed between the third and second attacks, an old captain with extensive experience in sailing at sea could easily have estimated that the enemy must have a supply base in front of him, or that he had prepared a strong fleet ready to intercept the convoy. Perhaps a massive naval battle awaits the Armada, who will fight the Norton fleet to determine who is the true supremacy of the seas.

It didn't matter who the overlord of the sea was, Captain Frederes was just an independent merchant captain anyway, as long as he honestly paid the victor and obtained permission from the seafaring merchants. Listening to the rumbling sound of shelling in the distance, Captain Verderes melancholy touched the white linen he was carrying in his arms, if the Armada was defeated, then he was ready to hang this white cloth on the mast as soon as possible, he would rather surrender than let his merchant ship be sunk by artillery fire......

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