What can make Carmen so urgent is naturally bad news.

At a high-level dance in Bilbao, she learned a stunning intelligence.

Jose in France and Kalma Chamber of Commerce, Jodel Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlands, and Herrera Chamber of Commerce in Spain officially signed an alliance agreement. They planned to set up hunting grounds in the Cantabrian waters, aiming at British merchants, and completely expel the kingdom's enemies from the Faspis coast.

It was of great importance. Carmen did not inform Lorraine at the first time, but spent more than a month confirming the authenticity of the information, and the result was not optimistic.

The information is true.

These four chambers of commerce are old offshore privateers, each with more than twenty merchant ships, each of which is a behemoth for the current Drake Chamber of Commerce.

They had formed an alliance and had secret meetings many times in France.

The Drake Chamber of Commerce was there for two lives, and Carmen tried every means and still knew nothing about the key information of the start time, duration and the size of the fleet involved.

The enemy is dark, I am bright, the enemy is strong, I am weak, the enemy is numerous, I am few...

Seeing such an urgent letter, Lorraine couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

He asked himself, can Spain give up?

cannot.

Spain is the only country in Europe that has a vast and mature overseas colony, and at the same time, due to the economic depression, there is no sufficient domestic demand market.

She is the core place for the Chamber of Commerce to obtain cheap New World and Asian and African goods. The profits related to it account for 70% of the Chamber of Commerce's total profit. If she does not want to become mediocre, Lorraine has no reason to give up.

So can the Cantabulian route be given up?

The answer...it seems to be impossible.

The Cantabrian route is the only land-margin sea route from Britain to Spain. Without it, Lorraine can choose only the Celtic Sea.

Although the Celtic Sea is adjacent to the Cantabrian Sea, the hydrological environments of the two are completely different.

It is already part of the Atlantic Ocean.

The water is deep and the waves are high, and it reaches Cape Barrez in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

If Lorraine chooses this deep-water route, it means that every time she goes to Bilbao, it will take a huge circle, which will greatly affect the logistics efficiency of the Chamber of Commerce.

What's more, this is not the only price the Chamber of Commerce needs to pay.

The wide-bottom Kirk type is not suitable for deep water environments, and under those hydrological conditions, the ships are at risk of capsizing at any time.

Only give up on Kirk type.

But the Kirk-type was abandoned at once, and the Chamber of Commerce could not collect enough transportation capacity to maintain profit growth demand.

The Lucky Grass must never leave the Second Fleet.

The calmness of the Beihai was due to the deterrence of the Lucky Grass. The rush to transfer her out, Lorraine might not be able to keep the Spanish route firmly, but would only lose the stable but low-yield North Sea route.

what to do?

He took the exam all night, and it was not until the sun rose the next day that he finally wrote a reply.

Miss Carmen Xavier:

The letter has been received, I hope to continue inquiring.

I will be on the sea, watching the changes.

Your friend, Lorraine Yarnson Drake

...

The Chamber of Commerce declared its wartime state.

Lorraine canceled the resumptions of all seafarers and sailors as soon as possible.

He went to Plymouth, and at the same time he spent 2,800 pounds to buy 8 nine-pound long cannons, replaced the six-pound medium cannons on the Lucky Grass to arm the Yatis Beauty and the Befuli Merchant.

On the other hand, the number of sailors of Butterfly Flower was increased from 20 people at the bottom to 120 people to ensure that their strong firepower could be fully utilized.

The First Fleet took the stance of transportation.

The Spanish branch tried its best to collect goods, while the three ships frequently traveled on the Cantabrian route at an average weekly frequency, which actually made August's profits rise sharply, far exceeding previous expectations.

After all, that was just an unexpected surprise.

In the third week, when the First Fleet left the port from Gijon and sailed to the sea 120 kilometers west of Baylor Island in France, Pierce finally discovered the smoke of the battle.

"Brother! A naval battle occurred at two o'clock, with a distance of ten kilometers!"

Lorraine suddenly jumped from the deck: "Transfer the flagship cargo to the ship, the Butterfly Flower, lightly packed, and quickly enter!"

Ten kilometers were about 5.5 nautical miles. In the absence of complete headwind, the Butterfly dropped two fully loaded Kirk-type ships and quietly approached the battlefield from the downwind after only more than an hour.

The thick smoke floating on the sea gave Lorraine the greatest cover.

Neither side of the battle found the Butterfly Flower. Lorraine stood on the secondary watchtower on the foremast and held up her telescope to observe the battlefield.

The battle was about two kilometers away from them, very close. Even when it was against the wind, the Butterfly Flower was sure to enter the attack position within fifteen minutes.

Lorraine observed a total of nine ships.

The attacked party hung the British Chamber of Commerce flag, which was a unicorn.

They had four ships, two Kirks were slowly sinking in the flames, and two Mixed Sarkona were trying to escape south, but Lorraine could not see the possibility of success.

Because the attacker is much stronger than them.

Their flagship is a Brigentinian gunboat of the same class as the Butterfly Flower. The gun doors are fully opened and the flanks are chasing.

There were four mixed sailskuna under his command, only one of which temporarily broke down due to fire, and the other three drew arcs on the sea surface, preparing to cross the British ship to form double-teams.

Lorraine jumped down the cable, and the seafarers gathered up.

"Pearce, I need you to return to the port and inform the enemy's flagship at any time."

"Hena, go around the upper air outlet from the west, cut into the bow of the enemy ship, and seize the T-head. They are in full swing, and there is no lookout hand, so you only need to control the distance to the current two kilometers."

"Ramos, get your gunners ready, we're going to fire on both sides."

"Kron, sail, top speed."

"Noya... let the sailors know that fate has chosen us."

He walked to the bow of the ship, looked at the seamen, and shouted and removed the tarpaulin that covered the harpoon.

"I saw a huge opportunity..." he said, "The Chamber of Commerce flag is high! Butterfly Flower, join the war!"

Following Lorraine's order, the Butterfly Flower raised a huge sail.

The bow is inclined sail, the sail catches the sail, and the mainmast sail is at the same time. The slender hull draws a huge arc on the calm sea, crosses the wind belt, goes against the crosswind, and enters the tailwind position.

The deck is busy.

A six-pound cannon was pushed out of the bow compartment and placed on both sides of the gun deck at the same distance. The gun doors on both sides of the gun deck were fully opened.

Ammunition is loaded, fire is compacted, and the black hole gun barrel extends out of the porthole.

Behind the hull, there were five sailors next to each gun, and each of them was fully focused and ready to go.

Pierce informed the position of the enemy flagship for the last time. Lorraine asked him to fix himself, then took a deep breath and sat in the launch position of the harpoon.

Lorraine shouted: "Left rudder 15 degrees! Full sail! Steal the wind!"

"Left rudder 15 degrees! Full sail! Snatch the wind!"

"Full sails! Snatch the wind!"

"Steal the wind!"
Chapter completed!