Chapter 468

Boom!

A lead bullet pierced through the crack of the shield and hit the chest of an axe pirate. The pirate screamed and fell out. Before he landed, he was caught by the people behind him. He replaced the axe in his hand, bah, bah, and swung the axe.

Yes!

The sharp axe face cut heavily into the deck of the lower cabin. The pirate twisted his wrist a few times, lifted the axe again, swung it high and cut it down!

Several times in a row, the thick hatch was finally split into a small crack. Something fell on the inner side. The echo came, and the pirates showed happy expressions one after another.

"Commander, it's broken." the pirate with an axe shouted in the shield wall.

Bonette glanced up at the deck of the chaos, nodded and said, "lower cabin."

Before his voice fell to the ground, Julius squatted down and opened the hatch. First, four pirates with shields drilled the cabin, then the attackers with axes and knives, and then Julius. When he entered, Bonet drilled into the hatch under the protection of four other pirates with shields.

This is the lower hatch near the forecastle, located between the foremast and the main mast, and the center line of hull 13.

The hatch is connected with the lower gun cabin, and the hatch plate is completely embedded in the deck. The length and width are about two meters, and the stairs up and down are almost only this width.

The width of two meters is certainly not a spacious place, but at least it is much better than the labyrinth like tortuous and narrow corridors in the forecastle and stern building, and it is directly connected and convenient to go up and down.

On weekdays, sailors prefer to enter and exit the gun cabin from this hatch and the rear hatch at the corresponding position, and then enter and exit the bottom hatch from the gun cabin. In wartime, pirates also like it.

The invading pirates were blocked near the stairs by the waiting Drake gunners.

Lorraine was rich. After entering the firearm era from the flagship of the smuggling era, he was committed to promoting the whole direct fleet into the firearm era.

Long and short gun shooting is a compulsory subject for each sailor of the fleet directly under the command. The general standard is 60 rings of 15m target, 75 rings of 15m target are required for the assault team, and 80 rings of 30m target are required for the fire gun team.

Therefore, the sailors who can gain a firm foothold in the direct fleet generally have a good shooting level, especially in the gun cabin with extremely high population density. The hundred people pierced a human wall in front of the hatch of the bottom cabin, which is thick and dense. Under the command of the chief of the Division of artillery, they were divided into five groups to take turns. It's like building a man eating wall out of thin air.

As soon as the pirates came down to the gun cabin, four fell face to face. The rest hid behind the small shield wall and couldn't advance or retreat. The shooting sound was like a rainstorm.

Julius's face turned red. He squatted on the stairs, carrying two short muskets, and could only poke out the muzzle of the gun to fight back between almost imperceptible shots.

But his hit rate is frighteningly high.

After all, the gun cabin is only a little big, with a top and a bottom. There are ammunition boxes on the left and right and guns fixed on the gun truck. The Gunners in a dense line have no room to hide.

Even if the normal effective range of a short musket is only 8 meters, the bullets flying out can hit the human body anyway as long as they don't fly higher than people.

Stalemate, stalemate.

Two shields were shot out, and six pirates were knocked down. The shield hands that originally protected Bonet couldn't squeeze up. They had to pass their shields up by passing flowers, which made up for the lack of the shield wall.

Bonette waited impatiently at the top of the stairs. While letting the equally powerless pirates transfer their hands to the main deck, he listened to the gunshot like a bean, and actually heard the chewing sound of capital eating people.

Who knows how much Lorraine spent arming these sailors!

All he knew was that a new gun made in Britain for maritime commuting cost ￡ 80 to ￡ 100 on the black market, and a Dublin short musket sold for ￡ 30 to ￡ 40 on the black market.

Compared with these two prices, his pirate regiment, as the most powerful pirate force in Xiangfeng islands, received less than 33 pounds of dividends last year. Even veteran cadres such as Julius and sdeglin earned only more than 150 pounds.

One year's income of veteran cadres = Drake's arms on ordinary sailors

And looking at their well-trained appearance, these guns are not regarded as treasures at all. Every sailor has received sufficient shooting training.

In other words, Lorraine has to scrap a large number of guns every year just for training.

"Evil capitalists! Damn privateers!"

The second batch has been supplemented, with only a dozen people. Bonette didn't want to transfer more people, but this small staircase couldn't hold more people at all.

The only thing that made bonette happy was that five of the newcomers had guns, plus the original four of Julius, minus the two killed when the shield wall collapsed, seven could fight back, and the intensity of firepower increased accordingly.

Regroup and continue shooting.

Ten minutes later, the pirate's shield broke on the seventh side, and the supporting people came to the fourth wave. The suppression on the opposite side finally appeared a fault due to the overheating of a large area of the gun barrel.

Julius seized the opportunity to order the pirates with heavy casualties to launch an assault. The distraught Vikings howled and rushed up, plunged into a thick fog of gunsmoke that could not see their opponents.

But... The opposite is empty.

In addition to the blood on the ground and seven or eight still warm bodies, there was nothing opposite. There was no one and no gun. The hatch leading to the bottom cabin was tightly closed. Julius tried to pull it, squeaking... It was not bolted.

He stood outside the cabin and hesitated.

Bonette came over with a frown, looked at the blood and limited bodies, and looked at the dark and open hatch.

"They gave up here on their own initiative..."

Julius put down the deck: "it may also be because the gun chamber is overheated and afraid to fight with us..."

"Hundreds of people are afraid of fighting with more than 40 of us? You look down upon Lorraine Jonathan's men." bonette shook his head. "Is there an ambush below?"

"A hundred people on the deck, a hundred people in the gun cabin, and at least 50 people in the garrison poop. According to the standard of class V ship, they should have no sailors." eurius guessed.

"It's possible that a temporary addendum has been made to the connecting board. It's not uncommon that Lorraine has done this in Cantabrian."

"The newly added sailors are not so obedient." Julius recalled the mountain of pirate bodies at the stairway and the young but brave resistance on the deck, "Captain, why don't I take someone down to explore?"

"Be careful," said bonette in a deep voice, "if you find something wrong, withdraw back. Lorraine's boat is very good, but our old brothers are running out..."

Julius grinned: "I know."

After discussion, Julius chose eight people to go downstairs with him, four with swords and shields, and four with short guns.

This made Julius really appreciate Odin's glory.

In this era, the primitive sword and shield costume is almost the unique symbol of the only remaining Viking pirates.

If their pirate regiment had not had strong Viking blood, it would be impossible for any pirate regiment to find so many loyal and brave pirate soldiers who are good at using shields.

Without these sword and shield pirates, the lead bomb storm would have torn them apart, and flesh and blood could not survive in that state anyway.

Julius couldn't help but get lucky.

Maybe there is no trap at all

Drake's sailors may have really escaped, and the Vikings may be the natural nemesis of Drake's chamber of Commerce. Only because there was no clear knife and gun, the two sides had not been aware of this fact

If so... That's good.

The first sword shield pirate stepped down the stairs with his shield, then the second, the third

Four people form a small shield wall, behind which is Julius, and then behind which are four other Musketeers.

The bilge is dark.

The narrow aisle is in the middle, with rows of watertight cargo tanks on both sides. It seems that there are people in the middle of the aisle, but there is no expected gunfire.

Julius squinted through the gap in the shield wall.

The opposite crowd, the leader, stood up, and his burly figure stepped towards the pirate's shield wall step by step.

Ho la la la la la

The sharp blade rubbed the copper ring on the edge of the shark skin scabbard, and a fluffy spark flowed to the ground.

The man had a sword in one hand and a large round shield several times larger than normal. He looked as light as nothing.

He moved forward slowly and steadily, and his body shape and face became clearer and clearer as the distance was closer.

Julius' pupil contracted: "big... Big commander?"

"Long time no see, Julius..." Leff dropped his sword and said faintly, "is it you who bonite chose to die?"