Four Hundred and Seventy Sixth Self-Deception

"Shock!"

Boom boom boom!

Valkyrie slowly cut out from the bow of the Romance at a very close distance, like the unlucky guy who met a pirate for the first time when he went to sea, panicked and threw himself into the trap.

Similar scenes have happened four times today. Except for the first time when Lorraine succeeded in cheating, the Romance waited safely in place for the next three times, and gave Valkyrie the warmest reception with a rare stillness.

Lorraine is really self-aware.

Now he has no artillery protection, no speed boost, and even a large-angle change of direction can be avoided. If he wants to repeatedly increase the distance from the enemy ship under such conditions, all he can do is to kill the robbed enemy ship. The ship is used as a headland, artificially creating obstacles on the endless sea.

In other words, a round of beatings was exchanged for a moment of peace.

Judging from the previous two experiences, this period of peace usually lasts about five minutes, and the Queen Anne's Revenge, which is the slowest to reload, only takes four minutes to reload.

This means that Blackbeard has chosen a relatively loose and orderly group strategy while he has the overall initiative.

His conservatism greatly exceeded Lorraine's expectations, so that Lorraine couldn't judge whether Valkyrie's performance at the beginning left him too deep and made him hesitate, or he thought the victory was sealed , this meeting has already begun to consider the control of victory costs early.

However, ┐(′-｀)┌

Regardless of whether Blackbeard is self-deprecating or self-respecting, at least before Valkyrie really shows his defeat, Lorraine does not need to think too much about being forcibly taken over by others, this is the biggest and most fundamental good news.

There is still plenty of time, and Valkyrie doesn't have much preparation to do under the current situation. Lorraine thought for a while, and prepared to go to see the repair situation of the gun bay in person.

There are four ways to enter the cannon cabin.

First, the floor layout of the forecastle and stern building is staggered and independent from the main cabin, and only the hatch leading to the bottom cabin is left on the lowest floor. Through these two doors, sailors can enter the bilge, and then go all the way up to the gun bay through the bilge passage.

Second, there is a loading and unloading hatch with manual transmission in front of the mainmast, which connects from top to bottom to the closed upper deck, gun compartment, cargo compartment, and directly to the bottom cabin. The mechanism for opening the transmission is also in the bottom cabin.

Third, right in front of the steering wheel, the hatch between the enclosed upper deck and the mizzenmast is the only open hatch to the gun cabin, and it is very convenient to enter and exit, but it is not convenient for Lorraine to go from the front deck to the rear deck.

The fourth hatch is located on the inner side of the foremast, and is hidden not far from the entrance and exit door of the closed upper deck. It is not only convenient to enter and exit, but also not far from Lorraine's current location.

Lorraine naturally chose the nearest one.

He entered through the cabin door, and saw that the mess on the upper deck had been tidied up, and the original twenty-four-pound cannons were gone, leaving only the empty and packed gun carriages and the half-dried bloodstains on the ground.

Stepping on the bloodstains, he went down to the gun bay, and saw more than thirty gun barrels of different lengths tied tightly to the ground by cables like pan flutes. They were scattered and uneven, and they looked strangely beautiful.

Karen was arranging work at the rear of the cabin farthest from Lorraine, and when he saw Lorraine getting off the cabin, he hurried up with Yacharin to meet him.

"Captain, I'm going to find you."

Lorraine's eyes lit up: "Are you adjusted?"

"Unreliable interim measures." Keren said regretfully, "But we also don't have the ability to restore the upper and lower compartments to their original state.

For the time being, this is the only effective measure we can do. "

"Think about it..." Lorraine patted Karen's arm and said comfortingly, "At least, if we keep matching with the regular navy, we may never be aware of this hidden danger."

"After being comforted by you, my mood is even worse."

The environment of the gun bay was very bad, and Karen could barely save the space for a limited number of guns. There were three usable guns on the port side and five on the starboard side. The twenty-four pounds on the closed deck were all made into accessories. Heavy, not a single door was left behind.

What's more troublesome is that this is only the space for the cannon, and ammunition and gunpowder are needed to fire the cannon. It is not practical to carry a group from the corner of the cabin, and it is not practical to pull it in advance to occupy the space for advancing and retreating the barrel.

Karen is going to ask Yacharin to sort out a few empty boxes to remediate the ammunition in advance, and temporarily place them on the barrel according to the needs. Yacharin was very resistant, but apart from fixing the box with a rope, he couldn't offer any more practical suggestions for a while.

Lorraine can only continue to play the role of comforter.

He told Yacharin that from the perspective of production safety, reducing the number of shots fired and improving shooting accuracy can effectively reduce the incidence of accidents, so Yacharin only needs to do one shot, and the battle can be ended within five shells .

Yacharin wondered if he had auditory hallucinations...

"Captain, what did you just say? One shot, one shot, five shots to sink all enemy ships, including the Queen Anne's Revenge?"

Lorraine opened his eyes with a guilty conscience: "It's okay, aren't you the Yacharin who hits every shot..."

"This is a big problem!"

"Ah! Karen!" Yacharin's voice was louder, and Lorraine's voice was louder than his. "So my Valkyrie has recovered her fighting ability?"

"The anti-wave is about 90%, the balance is 70%, and the speed is 80%." Karen looked at the budget data, "Right now only the actual results are verified. Valkyrie needs to pull the speed to eight knots, and then quickly reduce it to three knots. The steering is not greater than 10 degrees, as long as the hull can be stabilized, we can operate normally before these counterweights fall apart."

Lorraine narrowed his eyes: "For verification, is it better to add shelling?"

"Join the shelling?" Karen and Yacharin looked at each other, "Are you planning to..."

...

For the first time, Valkyrie stopped moving. She stopped at sea, her sails were furled, and only the bowsail and the half-opened sternsail remained, and she started to turn in place awkwardly.

Even in an intact state, it is not Valkyrie's specialty to perform such maneuvers, because her aspect ratio is too large, and the slender hull is far less stable than the mainstream ships in the current world.

Blackbeard held up the binoculars without saying a word.

After a while, Samrath and Zani came together.

Blackbeard put down the telescope: "Samras, what do you think Bai Qi is going to do?"

"Death struggle." Samrath sneered, "His tortoise shell is so hard that even Queen Anne's thirty-two pounds cannot penetrate it. But a shell is a shell, and his claws are injured, and the shell can't be preserved no matter how hard it is." His life is safe."

"According to this, he should run away. Why did he turn around, and still turn around?"

"Because he couldn't escape." Samlas replied confidently, "In the past half an hour, Baiqi's flagship only fired a total of six shots, five shots on the starboard side, one shot on the bow, and no shots on the port and stern. "

"Bai Qi doesn't like to use the stern gun, because he is an offensive fighter, and the ship is rarely pursued. But the port side is the focus of our attack. There is only one reason for not firing a single shot, and that is the port side is paralyzed. "

"I have another data here. Half an hour ago, Valkyrie was shot 28 times, with an average speed of 4 knots, 5 major bends above 10 degrees, and 0 full rudder bends."

"It can be seen that the scope of Baiqi's paralysis is far beyond the port side. It should be that there is a big problem with the stability of the hull, which has caused problems in shelling, steering, and acceleration."

"He can't escape. Not only can't escape, he can't even do basic evasion. He can only float on the sea, waiting for us to weaken it with a single shot, until it is penetrated and sunk."

"So he has to save himself." Samrath drew a circle in the air, "The wind direction is southerly today. After completing the U-turn, he can better cut into the tailwind and try to increase his speed when he breaks through. If my calculation is correct, this The improvement is about 2 to 3 knots, which means that Baiqi's ironclad ship is likely to reach a speed of 7 knots, barely equal to our speed."

"But is it possible for him to complete a U-turn in a combat state? It's hard!"

"The distance needed to turn around in a small arc is too long. It is almost certain that we will interrupt the intention. In order to make the dream come true in his heart, Bai Qi can only choose to take risks and turn around on the spot!"

Samrath used three affirmative sentences in a row, and then burst out laughing.

"Captain, Bai Banner's position has been messed up! This stupid action is more ridiculous than self-deception. As long as we block his way out, we can easily end this war and become a unique hero in the pirate world!"

"Captain, we have won!"

Excited shouts, suppressed excitement, Blackbeard can feel the pride and joy of Samlas, after all, he was the first to discover the abnormality of Valkyrie, and Lorraine was forced to the point where he is now in a hurry. Great credit.

But Black Beard still had a strange intuition in his heart, always felt that something was inconsistent, but he couldn't express it accurately.

He turned his head to Zaniin.

The short shadow warrior stood on tiptoe and hugged the railing, frowning.

"Captain, I can't refute Samlas's words. His previous judgments have always been accurate. It was his resourcefulness that allowed us to turn defeat into victory and gain an overall advantage..."

"But the opposite is the white flag...it's that Lorraine Drake...I just think it's best not to get too close to Valkyrie when the Queen Anne's Revenge is blocking the net."

"Lorraine Drake has never been really panicked. Even in San Carlos, we didn't get any benefits from him."

"Leave yourself some leeway... In case everything before is a trap deliberately planned by him, at least we still have a choice, so we won't be defeated completely."

"Captain, this is my only suggestion."

After speaking, Zaniyin shut his mouth.

As the two people Blackbeard relied most on in terms of intelligence, he and Samlas had already fully expressed their opinions. Although their positions were completely different, there was no reason to continue arguing.

Blackbeard will have his own judgment, and every cadre of the pirate group knows that their king has always been a dictator.

Blackbeard raised the looking glass again, looked at Valkyrie's embarrassment in the distance, watched quietly, without saying a word.

He waited until the turn was completed and the sails were hoisted, and he finally gave the order.

"The ships carried out double-team tactics, and after the shelling, they forcibly boarded the Valkyrie."

"Samlas, you can do the formation part, remember to put the Queen Anne's Revenge on the outside line on the port side..."

"……yes!"

Recommend the new book of urban master Lao Shi: