Feng Chou was not too surprised by this scene. Their two merchant ships were clearly larger than the two fleeing merchant ships. Furthermore, the number of cannon windows on the ships were clearly fewer. Such a large merchant ship actually only had one layer of cannon windows. Furthermore, there were only twenty cannon windows on this layer. It was truly pitifully few.
In this era, due to the technical problems of cannons, the caliber of cannons was small, and their accuracy was very low. With low accuracy and short range, they could only rely on more cannons to solve the problem of effective firepower. Therefore, for a warship, the number of cannons was almost equal to the firepower of the warship.
Feng Chou, who was regarded as a pushover, could only sigh.
At this time, if the Pioneer Knight and Warrior did not take countermeasures, they would be attacked by the four pirate ships in an I-shape formation in a few minutes.
Feng Chou immediately ordered the right full rudder to make a 90-degree turn, and finally formed a zigzag formation with the enemy ships. The Pioneer Knight and Warrior were in the middle of the enemy ships, and then used the Pioneer Knight and Warrior's advantage in firepower and armor to fight head-on with the enemy ships.
Feng Chou's order was partly because he had absolute confidence in the armor and cannons of the Pioneer Knight and Warrior, especially the cannons. On the other hand, he also had no choice.
After the Pioneer Knight's weapon system was activated, in terms of speed, it had no advantage over the four pirate ships. Without a speed advantage and being outnumbered, it was difficult for Feng Chou's fleet to seize the advantage.
The four pirate ships were divided into two teams, and the left full rudder surrounded Feng Chou's fleet from the front and back. Feng Chou's fleet also moved to the right full rudder, forming a situation where the three fleets were parallel to each other.
Logically speaking, this situation was disadvantageous for Feng Chou's fleet. After all, he was surrounded from two sides, but the disadvantage was limited. With such a formation, although Feng Chou's fleet was attacked from two sides, it also allowed the cannons on both sides to attack the enemy. Although the enemy ships surrounded Feng Chou's fleet, their ships could attack Feng Chou's fleet from one side.
Therefore, in this situation, other than the psychological advantage, it was more of a contest of firepower. Whoever had more firepower would win.
This was also the reason why the old captain did not object to Feng Chou's order before.
After Feng Chou's fleet opened fire, the pirates who were full of confidence lost all their confidence within a few minutes.
The four pirate ships were large magic steam-powered hybrid ships. Each ship was equipped with hundreds of cannons. Their firepower was not weaker than the former Patrick. Otherwise, they would not have dared to target the two behemoths, the Pioneer Knight and the Warrior.
There were more than 200 cannons on each side of the four ships. These 200 cannons were firing at the Warrior from a distance of 300 to 400 meters.
Although most of the shells hit the sea, in the first round of bombardment, there were still 20 to 30 shells that hit the Warrior.
However, what left the pirates dumbfounded was the fact that when their cannonballs hit the side deck of the Warrior, they were actually deflected away. Only dents were left on the iron deck of the Warrior!
Some of the acid spells attached to the magic cannonballs were actually useless!
But in the next moment, the pirates did not have time to be surprised because the Warrior and the Pioneer Knight opened fire at the same time.
Feng Chou's two ships only had 80 cannons in total. These 80 cannons were spread across the four pirate ships on both sides, and each ship only had 20 rounds. If the accuracy of cannons in this era was based on the accuracy of cannons, each ship would be thankful if one or two shots hit the target. Moreover, the Pioneer Knight in front was still outside the effective range of 500 meters.
But the result was shocking. In the deafening sound of the cannons, almost all of the 80 cannonballs fired by the two ships hit the target. What was even more shocking was that most of the cannonballs hit the hull below the tall chimney in the middle of the pirate ship. That was where the steam boiler was located.
What was even more frightening was that almost every cannonball had completely penetrated the hull of the pirate ship. One of the pirate ships seemed to have been hit by the gunpowder magazine, and the explosion tore the hull of the ship in half. The other pirate ship seemed to have its magic circuit destroyed. Both the steam engine and the magic propulsion ring stopped working, and the entire ship was completely paralyzed. The remaining two pirate ships were lucky to have retained some magic power.
The two pirate ships were like frightened rabbits, desperately struggling to turn around and escape in the direction away from Feng Chou's fleet.
Unfortunately, after losing their steam power, the speed of the two ships had dropped significantly. How could they outrun the Pioneer Knight and the Warrior?
The Pioneer Knight and the Warrior respectively caught up with the two pirate ships and approached them. Under the leadership of the boatswain, the sailors of the two ships pounced on the two pirate ships like tigers let out of a cage.
After Feng Chou teleported to the space above the two pirate ships and threw ten Bone Golems at the pirates who were putting up a desperate struggle, the pirates completely collapsed.
After getting rid of the two pirate ships that still had power, the Pioneer Knight and the Warrior approached the pirate ship that had completely lost power from both sides under the desperate eyes of the pirates.
In the end, before the sailors of the Pioneer Knight and the Warrior could jump ship, the pirates on the ship raised the white flag.
Next, Feng Chou was faced with another problem.
The ship was easy to deal with, but what about the pirates?
Kill them all?
Including the pirates who had jumped into the water to escape after the ship sank, there were more than two thousand people!
Release them all?
These were pirates whose hands were stained with blood!
Besides, how was he going to release them?
Was he going to give them a ship?
This was a magic steam hybrid ship worth tens of millions of kronor!
In the end, the old captain gave the usual method of dealing with pirates — exile.
That was to exile the pirates to a nearby deserted island.
They had not left the archipelago, and there were many deserted islands not far away.
In the end, Feng Chou let his sailors take over the two pirate ships that still had power. They carried the two thousand pirates who had been stripped of their weapons and tied up. He also let the Pioneer Knight drag the pirate ship that had lost power. He turned the ship around and steered it toward the nearest deserted island.
Before leaving, Feng Chou secretly left Qiankun Pagoda behind. Qiankun Pagoda's mission was to secretly store the pirate ship that had sunk into Qiankun Pagoda.
In Feng Chou's eyes, this silent pirate ship could be dismantled and cleaned up for a lot of gold coins.
As for the two armed merchant ships that Feng Chou's fleet had unintentionally saved, they had long disappeared without a trace.
At sea, armed merchant ships and good pirates could be equated.
In the chaotic sea route of the Southern Continent, eighty percent of the armed merchant ships had plundered other merchant ships. The remaining twenty percent either did not have the opportunity or did not have the strength.
Although this statement was a little exaggerated, it was a true portrayal of the sea route of the Southern Continent and even the entire sea.
Although pirates were extremely vicious, they didn't have to kill every single one of the merchant ship's crew. If there was a need, they would recruit some sailors to join them. If there was a deserted island nearby, they sometimes didn't mind throwing the remaining survivors onto the deserted island.
If they were robbed by pirates, they might have a chance to survive if they were lucky.
However, if they were robbed of other armed merchant ships, in order to prevent the pirates from returning alive and exposing the crimes of the pirates, the entire merchant ship would often be silenced.
Therefore, for weak merchant ships at sea, encountering other armed merchant ships was just as important as encountering pirates.
After Feng Chou's fleet sailed south for more than an hour, a rather large deserted island appeared in everyone's sight.
After hearing the report, Feng Chou walked out of his luxurious cabin. Not long ago, Qiankun Pagoda had teleported back from the sunken ship.
The reason for such a long delay was mainly because the pirate ship, which was mainly made of magic wood, sank very slowly. Qiankun Pagoda had opened a spatial door under the sunken ship and waited for a long time before it fell in.
Feng Chou stood on the bridge and looked at the deserted island in the distance. It was not a small island. According to Qiankun Pagoda's estimation, it was about a hundred square kilometers. There was fresh water on the island. There was a small river flowing into the sea in his field of vision. Because this sea area was in the middle of the ocean current, the coastal waters were rich in aquatic products. Even if two thousand people were exiled to the island, they would not starve to death.
He nodded in satisfaction, indicating that the pirates could be released.
Of course, the sailors would not give away their precious lifeboats to the pirates. Moreover, even if all the lifeboats on the five ships were released, it would not be enough to accommodate all the pirates.
Therefore, the pirates had only one choice if they wanted to get to the island, and that was to swim over.
The pirates were untied in batches, and under the urging of swords and knives, they jumped off the ship and swam towards the beach of more than one kilometer.
Leaving all the pirates behind, Feng Chou's fleet turned around and sailed away from the deserted island.
As for how to deal with these captured pirate ships, the old captain suggested that he return to Rozburg Port and dispose of these pirate ships cheaply in Rozburg. After all, they could not drag these three burdens along the next 10,000 kilometers of sea route.
Of course, Feng Chou did not want to sell these good pirate ships cheaply, but he agreed with the old captain's suggestion.
The fleet adjusted its course and sailed towards Rozburg Port.
When the fleet sailed into the empty and lonely sea, it suddenly disappeared without a trace, leaving only Feng Chou floating on the sea.
Feng Chou identified the direction and used advanced teleportation to teleport to another part of the sea. After the teleportation was completed, he also disappeared without a trace, leaving only Qiankun Pagoda floating on the empty sea. A moment later, two merchant ships suddenly appeared on the sea again.
These two ships were naturally the Pioneer Knight and the Warrior. Feng Chou stood on the bridge of the Pioneer Knight and looked up at Qiankun Pagoda floating in the air. There was nothing there. Qiankun Pagoda had already cast invisibility on himself. The next moment, Qiankun Pagoda appeared on Feng Chou's chest and turned back into a birthmark.
In such a short time, the three pirate ships disappeared. Naturally, they had been left in the Qiankun Tower. The crew did not feel surprised because the Qiankun Tower gave them a unified memory. They had been to Rozburg Port and sold the three pirate ships to the port merchants cheaply.
Next, Feng Chou gave out bonuses as usual.
According to maritime practice, after legally captured enemy ships were sold, half of the proceeds belonged to the ship owner. The other half, one-third belonged to the captain, one-third belonged to the senior officers on board, and one-third belonged to low-level officers and ordinary sailors.
Of the one-third belonging to the crew, half belonged to low-level officers and the other half belonged to ordinary sailors.
As usual, Feng Chou directly used saul gold coins to reward everyone.
The yellow gold coins stimulated the sailors to party all night.
The party of the off-duty sailors did not affect the voyage of the fleet. They had a smooth journey for the rest of the voyage.
More than ten days later, they finally approached the new supply point, Angola Island.