Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 26 Jump Gang

  Captain Gold, holding the scimitar at his waist, was looking at the three-masted clipper in the distance from the bow.

The fat captain of the    Skua said that on the inland sea, "a merchant ship is a pirate if it thinks badly, and a pirate who runs a ship honestly is a merchant ship", but this time he was wrong. Because robbery wasn't a hobby for Captain Gold, "Lucky" Gold was a full-time pirate on the Inner Seas, specializing in the promising profession of sea robbery.

   "Good Luck" Gold got this nickname because Lady Luck always smiles at him

  Many pirate ships are always missed and captured by the Alliance Navy, but he can escape every time. When encountering hard-bone prey, all pirates who survived a **** battle were injured, but he was the only one who was unscathed every time.

   Sailors say: Bullets go around Lucky Gold. There are also rumors spreading quietly in the cabin: Good luck Gold made a deal with the devil, and evil black magic protects him.

   But anyway, Gold has always had such good luck that he even named his ship "Good Luck".

  Like this time, if it wasn't for the wind, there would have been no way for a galley like the Good Luck to catch up with the three-masted clipper in front. But the wind just stopped, so no matter how many sails the ship has, it can only let the good luck fish.

  Gold saw that after he raised the black and red flag, the boat in front had lowered the naval flag and raised the white flag.

   The cannon on the bow of the Good Luck was a big part of being able to scare the opponent into surrender so easily. This large-caliber stone-shooting gun was Captain Gold's treasure, and it was a coincidence and a lot of money to get this gun.

  No one on the Good Luck will use this gun at all, but fortunately, this gun is not used in actual combat at all. As long as it is loaded with gunpowder, loaded with stone bullets and fired, and the sound of the cannon is heard, the toughest prey will surrender obediently.

   A large-caliber stone-shooting cannon can dispel any merchant ship's fantasy of a ship-to-ship battle.

   The merchant ship on the opposite side raised the Veneta naval flag, didn't the knees go soft at the start of the artillery? As for the navy flag, Gold didn't care.

   He knew the details of the navies of the alliance countries, and there were many merchant ships in the navy. The weaker and weaker the merchant ships, the more incapable of protecting themselves, the more they like to file with the navies of various countries, pay some protection fees, and change a naval flag.

   A navy flag might scare off ill-willed armed merchant ships, but not Lucky Gold.

   Above the inland sea, ships come and go, how can I not dare to grab a Veneta flag if you hang it? Besides, in this vast sea, if Lao Tzu robbed you, will the Veneta Navy know? Even if the Veneta Navy knows, what can I do?

   Besides, this time, Good Luck Gold came for the navy flag. Three masts, light ships, Veneta Navy name, this time appeared here, all kinds of information confirmed. That's right, this is the ship!

   Seeing that the other party had raised the white flag and surrendered, Captain Gold's mouth was almost split to the root of his ear, and he was overwhelmed: "Send! This time!".

Gold couldn't wait to get on the ship in front of him. The speed of the Fortune was like a turtle crawling to him. The wealth and wealth so close at hand made him scratch his heart. He called his first mate: "Do the paddlers want to die? Not trying? Row so slow? Go and make them row hard!"

  The first mate heard Gold's words, picked up his whip and went down the open deck, and began to whip the hard-working paddlers on the lower deck.

   Like the Skua, the Luck has two decks, but both decks of the Luck are above the waterline.

   In fact, instead of saying that a tub boat like the Good Luck has two decks, it is better to say that the Good Luck is based on a single-deck flat-bottomed boat, with a building that runs through the front and rear as an open deck.

  The oarsmen of the Good Luck are arranged on the second deck. One of their feet is fixed by an iron chain beside the oar, and there is no room to turn around, so they can only paddle.

  The oarsman is not a pirate on the Luck, and no free man would be willing to be a oarsman. The paddlers were the sailors on the merchant ships robbed by the lucky gold.

  The cargo is taken away, the boat is sold, the sailor sells some of it, and the rest is left to paddle on the Good Luck.

  The oarsmen were fixed by iron tools, and they all ate, drank, and slept by the oars. Even if the pirates go ashore to rest, the paddlers will not be let go.

  I don’t eat well, sleep well, and work stress. In this kind of environment, a strong man can't survive for long.

   Fortunately, there are always new victims coming in. The paddlers are the replaceable parts on the Good Luck that need to be replaced every once in a while.

   For paddlers, there are only two options: die by the paddle, or find a way to become a pirate.

   There are ten rows of oars on board the Good Luck, each with two oarsmen, for a total of forty oarsmen. Forty oarsmen, plus more than fifty pirates, made up the entire crew of the Good Luck.

  The crew of the Small 100 is obviously too bloated for a small ship like the Good Luck. Therefore, the self-sustaining power of the Good Luck is very poor, and every time it goes out to sea for a day or two, it has to re-shore for replenishment and rest.

   Ordinary galley, with the sailor serving as the rower. But on the Good Luck, there are human-shaped animals that don't need money, and the pirates are naturally reluctant to serve as paddlers. They should save their strength on possible hand-to-hand combat.

   The Good Luck was only a few hulls away from the Skua, and Captain Gold commanded the Good Luck to circle the Skua in a demonstration.

   is not only a deterrent to the enemy, but also Captain Gold cautiously want to take a closer look at the boat first:

   The fattest guy must be the captain. Sailors can't have so much meat, and he wears the best clothes. This guy was standing at the bow of the boat at a loss, wiping away sweat.

  Captain Gold laughed, this fat man can't be sold, he must stay on the Good Luck and row to death.

  The remaining seven or eight people on the deck are typical sailors, dressed in shabby clothes, and their bare skin is dark and chapped by the sun. Two years ago, Lucky Gold was such a hard-working sailor, but now he's a hunter.

   There should be more than a few sailors on this ship. There must be sailors hiding in the dark corners of the ship and praying that they can escape. Don't worry, you can find them all slowly. In the vast sea, no one can escape.

  The Good Luck put away the oars on the side of the Skua, and the pirates threw the iron hook with the rope at the Skua, while wanton screaming to intimidate the sailors on the Skua.

The    iron hook gnawed at the side of the Skua, and the distance between the two ships was pulled in little by little. Four gangplanks with iron hooks reached out to the Skua and were firmly attached to the hull.

  It's done! This springboard has iron hooks on both sides. Once hooked, it is extremely difficult to release. The Skua is now firmly connected to the Good Luck by this gangway, and now even the fat captain can't escape with regret.

   A dozen or so impatient pirates rushed to the deck of the Skua without waiting for Gold's orders, much to the chagrin of Good Luck Gold.

  The system of pirates in the inland sea is very democratic to a certain extent, and the captain has no privileges except for a small single room.

The rule of    robbery is that all captures must be divided equally, but the pirates who rush to the prey ship first will definitely grab more scattered silver coins.

   So every time as long as the springboard hits, the pirates will rush up in a hurry, and Gold can't restrain it. If he had used harsh means, he would have been "thrown off the ship" by the pirates who had his throat slit that night.

   "People are too scattered, and the team is not easy to lead." Gold shook his head and sighed, and walked towards the Skua.

   The Skull greeted Good Luck Gold with a piercing whistle. The Skua tore off the sheepskin camouflage, and the fat sheep in the eyes of the pirates showed sharp teeth and claws, and a large group of young men in military uniforms with sharp weapons rushed out from the fore, poop, and cabin of the Skua.

---Dividing line---

   Major General Layton slammed his whistle, fulfilling his promise of "the first jumping gang".

Major General    roared angrily: "Follow me!" Then he jumped directly from the stern and smashed onto the open deck of the Good Luck. When the strong man landed, he even shook the entire Good Luck.

   Warrant officers mostly use one-handed weapons with a small shield made of temporary wooden boards, but the major general has his own saber in his left hand and a sailor’s machete in his right.

After landing, he slashed directly on the neck of the pirate in front of him with a heavy slash. This brutal slash cut off half of the neck at an angle, and the curved front end of the scimitar caused two slashes when it was pulled back. secondary damage.

   The major general who had withdrawn his machete no longer cared about the poor man whose neck had been cut in half. He continued to slash and kill the remaining pirates who had not recovered from his blood stains.

  Andre and several warrant officers were infected by the major general's fierce momentum, and they also shouted and followed the major general to jump on the deck of the Good Luck.

Major   Moritz sighed helplessly, and jumped from the forecastle with his saber in hand.

The original plan formulated by Major    was to first ambush the pirates who boarded the ship, then use the rotary cannon and musket to weaken the pirates who remained on the enemy ship, and finally jump in to destroy the remaining enemies.

   But the big leader jumped directly to the gang, and he could only follow the gang.

---Dividing line---

   On the top floor of the poop, Winters and two artillery lieutenants worked together to mount the revolving gun on the side of the ship. The three of them had been lying on the board of the boat before, hiding their figures with wooden barrels and sack pieces.

  The reason why the rotary gun is called a rotary gun is because it is mounted on a bracket and can rotate the shooting angle up and down, left and right.

   Below the iron frame is an iron rod. There is a hole on the side of the ship that was drilled when the ship was built. Insert the iron rod into the hole to mount the revolving gun on the side of the ship.

  Skua has a lower freeboard than Lucky, which is a disadvantage. But don't forget, the Skua also has a boathouse.

   On the water, whoever has the higher building has the advantage. Like the top of the **** of the Skua, you can look down on the open deck of the Good Luck and have a sweeping view.

   As the saying goes, "hit high, low, and stupid X", the position of the Skua's long-range firepower is high, and it can shoot at the Fortune in a leisurely manner.

The iron cannon was erected, and an artillery warrant officer held the breech of the cannon to control the cannon to aim at the enemy, while the other artillery warrant officer swiftly grabbed a sub-gun and stuffed it into the rear compartment of the revolving gun, and hit another piece of wood. Wedge the gun tightly. Then gunpowder was poured into the ignition port.

  When the two artillery warrant officers were busy, Winters was only responsible for one thing: making sure the match was not extinguished.

  There is no match rope soaked in salt on the boat, so the hemp rope can only be broken up with a hammer and used as a match rope. The problem is that things like hemp rope will burn quickly when you stand upside down, and it will burn yourself up when you are standing upright.

   Winters is now like Prometheus the fire thief, blowing and adjusting the angle, taking care of the small flame in his hand.

   "Alright! Fire it up!" the loader warrant officer urged.

  There is no ignition rod, so Winters just uses his hand to hold the match to the ignition powder. He didn't know when to take his hands off. The gas pushed the lead and the gunpowder splattered out of the ignition port. There were a few more burns on his hand, but Winters gritted his teeth and said nothing.

   "Boom!" Along with the irritating smoke and a loud noise, six or seven lead bullets shot out from the revolving muzzle and slammed into the pirates on the Good Luck. The battle was so chaotic that it was hard to see how many pirates were shot, but some people were crying.

   The two artillery warrant officers seemed to be very dissatisfied with the effect of the shelling.

  The artillery of this era did not have such a thing as a depression angle, because the diameter of the shell is smaller than the diameter of the gun, and as soon as the gun lowered its head, the shell rolled out directly.

   Couldn't find the matching shells in a hurry, the warrant officers used the shells as shells. Wrap it in a sack to prevent the lead from falling out when the muzzle is down.

   But the problem is that the lead is smaller than the cannonball after all, and the air retention is very poor, and the gunpowder gas will be ejected from the gap between the lead. Because of this, the artillery must add wooden supports when using shotguns.

   But where to find Muto in a hurry? It was too late to cut wood on the spot, so I could only bite the bullet, the power of the rotary gun was naturally greatly reduced, and there was no effect of blowing out a cannon and sweeping it down.

   "Go on! Don't stop." The gunner warrant officer called off the ongoing damage assessment. Something is better than nothing, even if it can only be heard, it is a great deterrent to the enemy.

  After cleaning the barrel of the gun, a new sub-gun was replaced, and Winters lit it again, and the sparks burned into the sub-gun, but only a puff of smoke came out.

   The rotating gun didn't roar, it sounded like a sullen fart.

   dumb?

   The Warrant Officer, the loader, was unmoved, and immediately knocked off the wooden wedge and replaced it with a new sub-gun.

   Lighting again, still no response.

Expletive)! This old captain must have left the gunpowder for too long and it's useless!" The Warrant Officer, the loader, greeted the fat captain's family cordially, but his hands kept moving, and he replaced a sub-gun. .

   Light up again, this time it rang.

   Twelve guns were fired very quickly, only five were fired, and the remaining seven were all squibs.

   The loader warrant officer was so angry that he was scolded by this amazing squib rate, but the gunner warrant officer didn't say anything, he picked up the arquebus on the side and handed it to Winters and the loader warrant officer.

  Winters stood on the heights and knew the situation at a glance. The screams of killing have stopped, and now there are only dull slaps into the flesh and screams. The pirates who jumped on the deck of the Skua have all been dealt with, and the dirty hair of the pirates can no longer be seen on the deck of the Skua, which is crowded with people, but only the clean heads of the warrant officers.

  The combined land and sea armed forces on the Skua were attacking the deck of the Good Luck, and even three of the four passengers who had a negative attitude beforehand were fighting the pirates on the front line with weapons. But the space is small, only a few people in the front row are working **** both sides, and the rest can only push and shove in the back.

   And at the hatch of the fore, pirates are pouring out continuously, and the first ambush battle on the deck has turned into a **** tug of war.

  Winters watched Andre follow the fierce Major General into the cabin at the stern hatch of the Good Luck.

   His heart tightened. According to this posture, there were obviously a large number of pirates in the cabin. The two of the Major General and Andre must have been out of luck.

   Winters and Andre were originally just unfamiliar fellow countrymen, but these days he was injured on the boat, and Andre took care of him a lot. No matter what Andre thinks, at least Winters has made the loud guy a friend.

   Seeing that Andre entered the dangerous area, Winters really had no way to stay in a safe place and use arquebus to support him.

He threw the gun, followed by the cry of the artillery warrant officer "Hey? What are you doing?", jumped down and hit the stern deck of the Good Luck, gritted his teeth and followed Andre's route and rushed into the Good Luck. cabin.

   (end of this chapter)