Life was indeed becoming difficult, and now the pirates were full of regret. They were a large group of pirates from far away, and because the captain was a former navy commander, he knew naval tactics well.
This had allowed them to reap many rich spoils from plundering, and they were rarely cornered by military warships. Over time, they had accumulated a large amount of gold coins.
In theory, this retired navy commander was somewhat visionary; instead of squandering all his money, he saved a portion and bought a retired armed merchant ship that was no longer wanted by another country about a year ago.
He also used his old connections to keep two of the original cannons that the armed merchant ship had been equipped with.
As a result, his pirate ship became one of the few in the nearby seas that had cannons, which greatly increased the efficiency of their pillaging, and because it was a new ship, it was fast as well.
After some modifications, this ship had water tanks installed in the place originally meant for cargo, allowing them to carry an abundance of food, thus high endurance for long-distance raiding.
What they never expected was that the arrogant crew met a tough opponent near Brunas. Or rather, it wasn't just a tough opponent—it was a reaper coming for their lives!
Their adversary's cannon fire was extraordinary, even surpassing the knowledge of this pirate captain. A navy that could achieve hits with just a few rounds of cannon fire was indeed rare in this world.
Moreover, he had already turned tail to flee and had fired a shot in retreat, by usual logic, the other party shouldn't have pressed them too hard.
After all, the opponent was regular military, and commanders had to take responsibility. It was his fear of bearing responsibility and the constant anxiety that led him to leave the Navy in the end.
Typically, navy commanders, to avoid warship damage and personnel losses, wouldn't recklessly pursue pirates.
Therefore, when navy warship commanders realized that the other side also had cannons, they usually wouldn't pursue but just intimidate the pirates and force them to retreat.
But today's navy commander, seeing that they had fired a cannon and showed weakness by turning around, still crazily cut into the battlefield and pursued them relentlessly.
To his despair, just moments ago, a salvo from the enemy had once again hit his beloved warship, leaving damage that was difficult to repair.
For these pirates, this was all money! These were irrecoverable losses!
He widened his eyes in fury, drew his command sword as if ready to play a desperate game with the enemy, but what he shouted was, "Quick! Speed up! Shake them off! Shake them off!"
There was no help for it; his men were a bunch of pirates who bullied the weak and feared the strong... Asking them to plunder merchant ships, they were like ravenous wolves, but to make them fight against soldiers, they were timid mice.
Besides, he did not wish to gamble his life here against a warship; his ship was an armed merchant vessel with much-reduced firepower, only two cannons, and no match for a warship.
And from the perspective of cannonry, the opponent was clearly the elite of the elite—absolute main forces in any country—and utterly unbeatable!
How could such a killing god appear in the seas near Brunas? He was full of questions, but there was nowhere left to ask them.
While he was lost in these confused thoughts, his subordinates brought him two pieces of news that plunged him into complete despair.
"Cap'n, Cap'n! Our mast, the mast is broken, we gotta slow down!" one of his subordinates shouted at the captain, pointing to a mast up ahead.
Another downcast subordinate reported even more disheartening news, "Captain, our water tank has been breached!"
Suddenly, the old captain, who had become a pirate, felt dizzy. When he was in the navy, he restrained himself from attacking pirates for fear of bearing responsibility, and now, as a pirate, he actually encountered a group of naval freaks who went mad against pirates! Was life playing a joke on him?
The damaged mast meant structural integrity was compromised, signaling he had to lower some sails to preserve the mast which could no longer withstand the force.
Without the sails, he couldn't maintain speed, and thus, it was impossible to outpace the warship that might even be faster.
And with the water tank breached, that was indeed a cause for despair. Drifting in the vast ocean, even if they escaped the soldiers' pursuit, people aboard must drink fresh water at some point.
Without fresh water, drifting at sea was akin to wandering in the desert; both situations meant dying of thirst.
Therefore, the recent damage had already plunged this group of pirates into complete hopelessness.
"Damn bastards!" Turning to look at the warship closing in again, the old pirate captain's eyes finally showed fierce resolve.
He knew that it was time to be ruthless; if they could fend off these officers and soldiers, then he and his men might survive a little longer. But if they couldn't destroy that cursed warship, they were all doomed right now!
"Are the cannons loaded yet? Fire at will! Fire at will!" He clutched his command saber, pointing toward the distant target, and shouted frantically.
Accompanying his cries, the distant warship fired again!
This time, the enemy's cannons were even more accurate—eight cannonballs directly hit four targets, scattering wood splinters all over the pirate ship that was turning around.
The flying splinters injured many pirates, and two cannonballs crashed directly into the stern watchtower of the pirate ship that was maneuvering.
The shattered glass and wood splinters flew all over the captain's cabin and the chart room, a cannonball directly breaking the stairs. The flying debris caused several pirates hiding in the chart room to fall to the ground, screaming in agony.
Although in this era solid shot was not so easily capable of sinking a ship, any cannonball that penetrated the hull would, to some extent, damage the ship's structural integrity.
This volley, while not further expanding their achievements and not causing any substantial fatal damage to the pirate ship itself, completely demoralized the pirates who had just mustered their courage.
The pirates, who had just gathered the courage for a decisive battle to the death, once again scurried for cover, crying out for their parents and wailing.
"Help! Someone save me! I'm injured! I'm injured!" One pirate, lying on the ground, seeing a sharp piece of wood embedded in his own leg, cried out loudly.
Unfortunately, this was originally a pirate ship, with no doctors on board, and naturally, no one would bother with this unlucky soul.
In fact, even if someone wanted to help, they couldn't anymore. The only pirate on board who knew a bit about bandaging, who was usually treasured and hidden inside the watchtower without participating in combat, had just been killed by a cannonball.
As the pirate captain looked out and saw nothing but a sea of chaos, not knowing what to do himself, the distant warship had already closed the gap to about 300 meters.
"Fire... fire the cannons!" The desperate pirate captain, wielding his command saber, screamed hysterically. And at this time, the pirates who had barely managed to load the cannons fired the best shot of the battle toward the distant warship.
The shot... still missed.
Because the distance was quite close and the pirates had taken a long time to aim, they finally had a bit of accuracy.
The cannonball they fired flew over a distance of more than 300 meters and landed in the sea about 15 meters from the stern of the warship commanded by Bernard.
From the start of the engagement until this moment, the pirates had finally fired a threatening shot, and with it, defended their dignity as well.
And then... they again had to exert themselves to clear the cannon, reload, and aim once more.
Regrettably, Bernard was not going to give them another chance. After having reloaded, Bernard once more gave the order and fired a third volley.
It's not that Bernard was wasteful; in fact, the Great Tang Navy's resources were simply too ample. The amount of gunpowder and cannonballs for this naval force was staggeringly immense.
There was no other way around it; Tang Mo had mass-produced steel, melting down over half the Navy's cannons into railroad tracks, so much so that this Elf Race's main warship, which was originally equipped with more than 30 cannons, had now been turned into a patrol ship with only 8 cannons on one side.
The armed merchant ships that John had left behind were even more awkward, originally equipped with about 8 cannons, now only 4 remained to maintain appearances.
So, the surplus of gunpowder and cannonballs became quite noticeable—after all, Tang Mo was now mass-producing smokeless powder, and these surplus naval munitions, mainly black gunpowder and solid shot, could only be reserved for naval training use.
Because of this, Bernard's naval training was incredibly lavish, with plenty of opportunities for live-firing exercises, let alone actual combat against pirates.
It was just bad luck for these pirates to encounter Bernard's group of freaks—they weren't stingy with their ammunition and were deliberately training in artillery, with the intention of fostering talents suitable for future naval warfare.
As for boarding combat? Bernard had not even considered it. Following Tang Mo's orders, he had almost completely abandoned this tactic, especially after taking the Navy's officers and men on a tour of the Great Tang's shipyard to see the ironclad warships...
Good heavens, if the future held such ironclad warships equipped with dense and precise cannons, who would foolishly engage in pointless boarding battles?
"Let's finish this training quickly! It seems that the other side no longer has any ability to fight back." Bernard, somewhat bored, said this before firing the third volley.