Mei Lingxue cautiously poked her head out of the deck to see if the Hong family's dog-legged pursuers had been thrown off.

To be precise, the pursuers were not thrown off, but eliminated.

For a long time after tonight--- in fact--- she will never forget the first sight of the steam ship spewing black smoke. A large ship of at least 300 quintals, which could walk on the water without sails or oars, black smoke billowing into the sky, the huge wheels on both sides of the ship turned rapidly, and the strange high speed made all the ships on the river seem to have dropped anchor compared to it.

The most terrifying thing was the two black tubes in the bow and stern of the ship. Although the boat she and her father-in-law were riding in was speeding away from this land of right and wrong, this one-sided and slaughtering water battle was still in her eyes in the twilight. Looking from a distance, I saw the firelight burst out from the ends of the two pipes, and the river in front of the strange boat seemed to be boiling all at once, and the fast dragon boat of the Hong family was torn into countless pieces before it had time to react.

Next, although the distance was getting farther and farther and the light was getting darker and darker, Mei Lingxue could still distinguish the trajectory of the strange ship--- after all, the black smoke coming from the ship was conspicuous even in the twilight. I saw that it was like walking in its own back garden, leisurely circling around the remaining fast dragon boat, and the two huge pipes still made a thunderous roar from time to time. In a few moments, there was nothing left of the river in the distance, except for the strange boat itself and a few fragments of the ship's planks still floating on the water.

"Xue, the people of the Hong family haven't caught up, right...... What about the strange ship? Father-in-law Li's sincere and weak voice came from the bilge.

"Dad, the dragon boat of the Hong family in Jiangnan didn't catch up, they ...... They were all sunk by that strange ship! When this sentence was spoken, Mei Lingxue herself had a feeling of unreality, as if what came out of her mouth was some kind of myth and legend used to coax children: she still didn't believe her eyes!

Where in the world is there a boat that can drive away on its own without sails or oars, and with wheels spinning? You don't need to be on the side of the board in a fierce battle on the water, and you don't even need to get close to the other party, and you can wipe out the enemy ship in the air at a distance of dozens of steps?!

How is this possible?

"Hit ...... Sunk?! Show me! Even though he was seriously injured and still recuperating on the couch, Li Zhencheng instinctively took out the clairvoyant mirror that never left him, desperately wanted to sit up, and hurry up to take a look at the strange ship before the last ray of light disappeared, and see how she singled out the seven boats of the Hong family with one boat.

"Daddy! Don't get up, lie down! Your wound can't move right now! ”

Mei Lingxue screamed, jumped back into the bilge from the low porthole in three steps and two steps, supported her father-in-law's upper body, and pressed him back to the couch.

Li Zhencheng is also a veteran who has been on the battlefield for a long time, and no one can persuade him to lose his temper, let alone his daughter-in-law? The father-in-law and daughter-in-law competed for a long time, and Li Zhencheng had to be defeated because of the pain of the wound, and obediently lay back on the bed.

"Cher, tell your father, what is the captain like? Why can you ride the wind and waves without wind and oars? How did you destroy the Hong family's fleet in an instant? The veteran's eyes flashed with a thirst for knowledge that was grossly disproportionate to his age. Mei Lingxue knew that if her father-in-law was interested in something, then he would have to break the casserole and ask to the end, and use all kinds of methods to investigate and study at all costs until the problem was clarified.

The eldest daughter-in-law of the Li family knows very well: if her father-in-law's ribs and right arm were not injured, he would have bounced up from the bed by now and looked away with the clairvoyant mirror given by the old handsome! Other relatively older generals in the army more or less have some hobbies of their own, drinking tea, playing chess, playing swords or something, but my father-in-law is studying all kinds of maps except for fiddling with the baby bump-like telescope, and when he is not in charge of the army, he is tired of it from morning to night every day!

In order to prevent him from continuing to dig into the bottom of the matter and then affect his rest, Mei Lingxue had no choice but to continue to appease him and give him a general description of the shape and style of the "strange ship":

“...... There are two wooden wheels on the side of the hull, which seem to be pushed by a great force, constantly turning and stirring the water; The black smoke came from a flushed iron pipe in front of the cabin in the middle of the wooden ship......"

"So, the iron pipe facing the sky is...... Chimney? Could it be that there is a stove on this ship? Li Zhencheng frowned and stroked his beard, thinking hard.

"There are also two iron pipes in the bow and stern of the ship, but they are facing the side, and as soon as the mouth of the pipe erupts with fire, the dragon boat of the Hong family will be reduced to pieces in response! According to the child's opinion, most of the iron pipes were shot out of hard objects such as iron and gravel, which could suddenly beat Hong's ships into honeycombs! “

"Well, Cher is right...... Could it be ......"

Li Zhencheng's eyes suddenly lit up, "Could it be that this is the kind of powerful and incomparable --- artillery that Lao Shuai once occasionally mentioned with me and other robes?!" “

"No, no, Ze Shuai once mentioned it, saying that it was ......"

The discussion and thinking of the father-in-law and daughter-in-law were suddenly interrupted by a sharp whistle.

Mei Lingxue suddenly raised her head, poked her head out from the side of the boat again, and found that the strange ship had caught up, and it was about three hundred steps behind her big oared boat at this time.

......

Originally, our Captain Huang was going to go home directly, but in line with the principle of helping people to the end and sending the Buddha to the west, he changed his mind again and planned to turn around and look for the big wooden boat that had escaped.

"Captain! It's dark, it's not very safe to sail at night, the ship is harmless, let's go back! The first mate Niu Xing made a staff suggestion.

"No! If it's dangerous for us to fly at night, isn't it dangerous for them to fly at night? We have headlights on our ship, but they don't necessarily have! The proposal was immediately rejected.

In fact, the deeper reason why Huang Huan issued this order cannot be explicitly stated--- principle of confidentiality. Paddle steamers have only just been launched and have not yet been officially put into real combat, so secrecy is very important. Only by keeping it secret can you give the opponent the maximum surprise blow when the weapon is unveiled.

But obviously, Captain Huang couldn't explain this truth to his crew for a while.

"Our ship has ended the battle, and the whole ship is on secondary alert! Get ready for a night flight! ”

Huang Huan shouted into the microphone.

"Host forward three! The course remains the same, sail due northeast, and navigate with the south gate of Yangguan Town as the benchmark! Keep an eye out for the big ship as you get closer to the shore! “

"First mate! Turn on the searchlight! ”