After leaving the battlefield, the Eye of Arcane ran for four hours at six knots, and only stopped in the middle of the sea when the sun was about to set. At this moment, they were more than twenty nautical miles away from the scene of the incident. Normally, this should be considered a safe distance. Moreover, André had no idea that two huge fleets were closing in on him, so he quickly gave the order to stop the ship.
The sailors quickly retracted the sails and threw the heavy anchor into the water. The kitchen also began to prepare dinner. They had to prepare food for seven to eight hundred people before dark. Otherwise, it would be easy for accidents to happen in the dark.
Especially the oil lamp, if accidentally knocked over, it was likely to cause a large-scale fire. For a wooden sailboat, nothing could be more fatal than this.
Standing on the deck and looking at the busy figures of the crew, André frowned slightly and began to think about the current situation. Should he return to the island to lie low and have a good rest?
Recently, whether it was the ships of Lincoln City or the fleet of Bakarov City, the battle between them had reached a white-hot level. Moreover, the tonnage of the warships sent out was increasing, and the quality of the weapons and crew was also increasing. Many times, as soon as a battle ended, another battle would immediately follow.
The continuous battle of more than half a month had made the crew a little nervous. Although they could get a large bounty from it, if they lost their lives, they would not be able to enjoy the rest of their lives.
It could be said that as the intensity of the battle increased, and the money bags in the hands of the crew slowly swelled, they were no longer as enthusiastic as they were at the beginning. Their morale had also dropped slightly. A small number of them even began to consider how to use this as capital to start a small business when they returned home, or buy a piece of land, working from dawn to dusk, and living out the rest of their lives in an ordinary way.
Humans were always full of contradictions. When they were so poor that they only had one life left, they did not mind using it as capital to fight. Even death would not make them take a step back. As long as they could see a glimmer of hope, they would never give up.
On the contrary, when a person had a lot of gold coins, a mansion, and beautiful women, and enjoyed the life of an emperor, they would rarely be willing to risk their lives. Even if there was a mountain of gold in front of them, as long as there was something that could threaten their lives, they would not be willing to take a step forward.
As the saying goes, the more money one has, the more courage one has.
Even though the sailors hadn't degenerated to the point where they were afraid of battle, they definitely wouldn't fight as hard as they did half a month ago. Perhaps the only ones who still had a strong fighting spirit were the relatively simple barbarian warriors.
The training and brainwashing of the slave merchants only changed their loyalty to the tribe into loyalty to their masters. It did not change their nature of thirst for battle and glory. Therefore, no matter how much gold coins they received, they would still eat, drink, and chop people when they needed to. They did not care at all what a large amount of gold coins meant.
The only drawback was that these fellows were too stupid. They couldn't use guns or cannons, which required complicated operations. They could only do manual labor or fight hand-to-hand with weapons.
Don't think that operating a sailboat is easy. It's far more complicated than the boats of the steam or electric era. Just the sails alone are very particular. How many sails to hang, how many sails to hang, how many sails to hang, how many sails to use, how many sails to hang, and whether to reduce the number of sails to prevent the boat from capsizing when the wind is particularly strong.
All in all, without a few years of sailing experience, it was completely impossible to understand these things. Generally speaking, the sailors who just boarded the ship could only do some chores, such as cleaning the deck, moving items, catching mice, and so on.
Fortunately, when Lady Anastasia left, not only did she leave behind a group of loyal and experienced sailors for André, but she also gave him an experienced vice-captain. Otherwise, he might not even be able to operate the ship.
Just as he lowered his head and pondered, Chloe ran over with two plates full of food. She handed one of the plates to him and asked with a smile, "Dear, it's time for dinner. What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing. I'm thinking about whether I should go back to replenish my supplies after so many days at sea, and relax for a few days."
André answered as he took the plate and glanced at the food inside.
There was a piece of freshly baked bread, two grilled sausages, a small bowl of stir-fried kelp with bean sprouts, a large piece of sunfish meat, two fried eggs, a salted egg, and lastly, a cup of coconut juice.
Although it was not as luxurious as the food in the city, it was still something that only the privileged could eat on the sea. On the entire ship, only he, Chloe, Eunice, the elven druid Nina, the vice-captain Bartholomew, and now the mercenary leader Uruz had the right to eat.
The second class meal did not have fried eggs and coconut juice, but there were two large cups of ale without water. Similarly, only the boatswain and a few assault captains could eat it.
The second class meal did not even have fresh bread and sausages, but dry bread and salted meat. The ale was also heavily watered, and every meal had a salted egg. Almost all the experienced sailors and barbarian warriors ate this.
As for the lowest level of the crew, they could only eat bread that had been gnawed by rats, a palm-sized piece of salted meat, a small bowl of stir-fried kelp with bean sprouts, and a cup of clear water created by the druids' divine spells.
In the age of sailing powered by sails, in order to ensure the safety of navigation, every ship had a strict hierarchy. Coupled with the influence of feudalism on people for a long time, privileges were almost everywhere.
The Eye of Mystical was a giant gunship with a displacement of more than two thousand tons. It was built according to the structure of the most glorious sailing ships on Earth, and its center of gravity was very stable. It did not have a tall stern like other ships in this world, nor was the hull designed to be wide and round. Therefore, it was slightly inferior in terms of carrying capacity, and could not build too many places to raise livestock.
It should be known that some nobles' ships would even carry a large number of poultry and livestock on board, so that they could eat fresh meat anytime and anywhere. In the several merchant ships and warships they captured, the spoils of war included chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cows, and sheep. In the end, André ordered all of them to be slaughtered to reward his men who worked hard in battle.
However, because the interval between the two consecutive battles today was too short, there was no time to stop and slaughter the livestock. They could only eat some ordinary sea food first.
Crunching on crunchy bean sprouts, Chloe and Haas asked curiously, "Why do we have to go back?
We have an invincible warship, and it just so happens that we are in the period of a trade war. Most importantly, I haven't had enough fun yet. "