Before sailing, the sailors in the royal oak trees could no longer stand upright, and their hands were covered with blisters, because they had to constantly push the cannons out. The horn of the ship was still urging the sailors to climb the mid-mast sails, and then the crews were about to enter the battle position.

"Is the sea still so smooth?" Harding asked Belenga.

"The wind will come, are our people ready?" Mercia's bastard replied nonchalantly.

"They've all experienced the feeling of a cannon being discharged, though they still can't teach the Hastings idiots to aim their guns."

"I'll go check the rigging, you tell the 'fishermen' to put away that unfortunate net at once, those are the barges on the royal warships, not their own fishing boats!"

"Sailors won't like it." Harding felt that Berenga was too serious, this Mercian knight and his brother Norsman were completely different people, although Berenga and Northman were both illegitimate sons of Count Moka, but this status brought Northman double pride, and Berenga belonged to the kind of illegitimate child who thought he had to do his best at all times.

The next day, a strong and steep wind blew from the otherwise quiet sea, and it hissed from the front of the fleet across the vast whale road, and the drainage holes of the ship were almost filled with foam.

An orange lightning light appeared on the surface of the distant sea, where the white line of the storm had not yet reached.

"Hell, they've found the Danish ship!" The lookout shouted, and below was a group of vibrant young men, all stunned as they watched the approaching clipper jetting flames.

No one thought to inform the bridge inside, because the commander-in-chief of the fleet had already given the order.

"Get ready for battle." Captain Edward saw the white horse flag hoisting from the mast of the command ship of the Earl of Lincoln and the Warden of Ansgar, and announced in the most pleasant tone possible.

Battling bad weather was not a big deal, but the test often made the complex sailors more cohesive, and since the Danish king wanted to use the Vikings' ability to control the wind and waves to crush the English fleet, Edward was determined to show the Danish wolf warriors a true taste of navigation.

According to the rules of training, the entire English fleet firmly controlled the direction of the wind, and the ships led by the purple battleship "Royal Oak" swept towards the huge Danish fleet in the sky.

On the warship, mixed with the smell of fresh asphalt, the English sailors struggled to push their fluttering bodies on the frantically swaying deck, and everything seemed tense and orderly.

King Olaf, observing the royal fleet from the bow of his longship, was amazed at the audacity of these enemies, and could not help but say to Skgaam Heved: "Are they crazy? What exactly does this formation mean? ”

From ancient times to the present, naval battles have imitated the arrangement of troops on land, but the English fleet in front of them is like two long arrows, stabbing straight at it thinly, this thin formation crashes into the Danish fleet with great depth, it is no different from suicide!

Skam was as confused as the king, and at last he suggested to the king: "Let the Flemish man try." ”

He was referring to the newly recruited Flemish pirate Ginemer, a cunning sea wolf who had plundered the Danish king's family, and it was the Count of Flanders who settled the matter for the king, and who took the opportunity to join the Danish king, and if the Danes won this time, he would no longer have to fear the clippers of the royal fleet.

"No, today's glory and spoils are Danish, otherwise Robert would have said that we would only rely on the Flemish to fight." The king was obviously still resentful of the Flemish Count, and he was planning to use the power of this victory to intimidate Robert into handing over his nephew, how could a Flemish pirate steal the reputation of defeating the English.

"Give the signal, raise the spinnaker, and increase the speed by another half a knot." "Royal Oak," Harding ordered.

At this time, the rudder tail already needed four people to control it to maintain stability, the wind and waves affected part of the vision, and in the eyes of everyone on the flagship, the flickering lights at the rear of the fleet were as blurry as the spray of whales in the distance.

Belenga was constantly on the patrol, inspecting the equipment, including the artillery sights and the iron bar, and the ordnance officer had just had another barrel of gunpowder removed, when a sailor stumbled and fell from the lift, causing a commotion above, but the gun compartment did not know what was happening, and Belenga shouted loudly, controlling the various gun crews and keeping them from moving.

At the rear of the fleet, Captain Edward on the "Grey Swan" was battling the wind, and he had to control the ship's inclination, otherwise the heavy cannons could loosen at any moment and smash through the entire side of the ship next to the oars deck.

"Lord Elfwin, how are you feeling?" Edward yelled as hard as he could, the environment making him feel very nervous and exciting, and he needed to talk loudly in the middle of the waves and foam swirls to keep his mind clear.

"Have you forgotten? I have the blood of Elendil in me and a natural love of the sea. The priest's voice trembled, and the knotted appearance of his teeth made Edward laugh.

The sound of the rigging was getting lower and lower, the bow waves had risen to the height of the stern, the midmast sail was fully folded, the oarsmen were rowing hard, the spinnaker had been opened, and the speed of the ship was still picking up, and Edward felt that he had life again, as if he were chasing a black whale in the open sea—at that time, everyone on the whaling ship had no pay, only profits to share, so it was tempting to assassinate these big guys full of whale wax.

"Ask what's going on with the voice in front of you! Is the asphalt canvas loose? ”

At this moment a sharp, thrilling whistling sound pierced through all the cables, and the most dangerous moment came.

"Watch the spinnaker!" Edward roared like an angry lion!

The arrows of the fleet had already begun to make contact with the Danish fleet, and contrary to the Danish king's imagination, the English flagship did not speed up its assault before approaching, but swept at an astonishing angle in the face of the strong wind, aiming the side of the ship at its own side.

"What is this?"

The first round of broadside guns finally rang out, and the close-range firing created an overwhelming advantage, and the bright light of fire burst out like a long tongue, and then a frightening, pungent smell emanated from the air.

The front row of the Royal Fleet were filled with highly skilled, disciplined, and courageous officers and men, and the powerful sideways shots gradually became more and more straight and deadly, although the distance was very close, but the difference in the height of the side of the ship still blocked the Danes' extravagant hope of launching a counterattack, and there was no hope of receiving the ship, not to mention that the enemy's ships were protected from end to end by powerful gun columns.

"What happened?" King Olaf looked left and right, but saw a strong fear in the eyes of his guards.

Except for the legendary "War Tooth" king, who wouldn't be afraid to go against the power of ghosts and gods?

On the right flank of the Danish fleet, the Flemish pirates watched in amazement at the slaughter of the Dragon-Chief's ship, a harvest of fire and lightning, irrational and merciless.

"The Danes are finished." Guinemel muttered to himself, and then, he came to life completely, "Put the oars!" Let's go grab those boats! ”

In the eyes of the Flemish people, since the big guy of the English is not easy to mess with, it is tempting to avoid it, take advantage of the sails to eat the wind, and row hard to the middle of the clipper in the back row. His crew was very elite and adept at dealing with wind and waves, and the newcomers to England must have staggered by this time. On weekdays, they would not be able to catch up with these guys' clippers, but today they have to move in the direction of the wind, and they still have to follow that large linear formation, and it is entirely possible that they will be captured by themselves one or two, and these new ships built by the Portsmouth shipyard are rare treasures at sea.

When Captain Edward spotted a new enemy on his left flank, the ship had just risen from the sea, and the dazzling sky seemed to be close at hand. Edward had only one Ingleberg by his side, and he said to the Dane, "Let the navigator leave the two big ones alone, and find four of the best men at the helm, and we will have full sails." ”

"My lord, you can't open your sails, if you go on like this, the mast will break!" Ingleberg yelled.

"Captain Sail!" Captain Edward didn't answer his first mate, "Tie a rope to the top of the mast." ”

A bald Kent smiled and replied, "Yes, sir." ”

He was Edward's former crew member, who had not joined Edward's last disastrous voyage, and he trusted the old captain's skills, especially in navigation.

"What about the big rope, give me three more three-strand ropes." The Kent gave the order with great please, and the Dane Ingleberg watched with trepidation as he climbed up himself, and tied the top of the mast with a savage long rope, and the sail was completely filled by the daredevils under the seemingly fragile restraint of the three strands of the left twist!

"Now, east-northeast, east-east angle halved, I want full sail at full speed!" Edward shouted loudly, and behind them, countless England Clippers were a little overwhelmed for a moment in the face of the suddenly detached "Gray Swan". The Exocet, a brig that followed, did not turn, but the captains behind it, apparently seeing the Flemish threat, began to turn their bows and chase after them, including Andreas's Count of Gramorgan.

Guinemel was unusually calm in the face of the sudden turn of this new detachment, only the leader on the opposite side was fast enough, and the other ships were obviously disjointed, and the first one was obviously not big.

"Get your hatchet and javelin ready, and speed up!"

The Flemish were enthusiastic, their old ships were not superior in performance, but they were reliable enough, and the wind was still in their favor, and the opportunity was obviously more close than the disaster of rescuing the Danes, and they might even swallow dozens of enemy guard ships in one go.

The new course of the "Gray Swan" has made the gale come from the right rear, and the mid-mast sail is full and immediately eats the wind forward, and there is no longer a need to rush into the wind as it did.

Edward's sense felt the pull of the rear support cable with one hand, and the other hand was on the side of the ship, the slight vibration of the hull was transmitted to the fingertips, and when the inclined hull seemed to be about to let the waves pour into the oars, the battleship that was about to collapse finally regained its stability, and a sailor standing on the gangplank guided the ship, and the helmsmen worked together to control, and the new thrust made the movement of the "gray swan" extremely easy, with elegant vitality.

"Hooray!" The cries rang out across the deck.

The light of weapons was already reflected on the Flemish flagship, but Edward was no longer afraid, his ship's side facing the enemy.

"Starboard salvo!"

Bursts of fire erupted through the gun windows, and eight-pound cast-iron cannonballs flew into the bow of the Flemish pirate ship, and the small-caliber cannons swept the deck of the enemy ship with double the rate of fire.

The dense crowd was shot through, but the oarsmen, unaware of what was ahead, continued to row forward, and by this time Captain Edward had the Danes and the deckmen shoot the barbed whaling javelin bushes forward, directly through the chests of several Flemish enemies.

The gunwales were still roaring, and the English clippers in the rear of the fleet began to join the fray, and the tall, sturdy Saxons, like their ancestors, screamed to join the broadside, fierce sailors armed with harpoons and boar spears in dense formations, disemboweling the pirates on deck, sometimes knocking their opponents on their backs with their burly figures, and a Welsh mercenary knocking some poor worms off the gang with an oar's peg. The gunners were out of position after the first 100 yards of fire, as the artillery was no longer useful in close combat.

The tips of the English spears collided with the short knives and axes of the Flemish people, and some of them were grabbed by both sides, and then the two sides began to roll on the deck, and the battle became more and more fierce on different ships, and the English ships that arrived later tried to bypass the center and continue to kill and wound the pirates with artillery fire.

The deck was covered in slippery blood, and people could barely walk, and Captain Edward was wrestling with the crew of Guinemel, his battleship was the least manned and had not had the upper hand, but the shock of the heavy artillery and the ensuing assault still caused as many as 40 casualties to the enemy.

At this moment, a black sail rose in the distance.

"The King of Denmark is dead!" Elfwin, who was following Edward, shouted, and he shouted a few more times in the Flemish language.

The air was filled with the terrible smell of blood and choking gunsmoke, and Guinemel finally realized the urgency of the situation, and he gave up regrouping his men with gestures and shouts, threw away his weapons, ran to the bulwark, leaped and disappeared from the deck. His men began to follow suit, and some of them were swept away by the waves before they could swim back to their ships, and in the end only a dozen or so men managed to climb onto the ship, and most of those who remained on deck were seriously wounded and stabbed to death by the English with daggers one by one.