"Raise the handsome flag and beckon all ships to listen to my orders!" Han Shizhong ordered.

"Raise the Tooth Flag—" the flag officer shouted in a long voice.

A bright yellow flag rises rapidly along the mast, with a big "order" on it, fluttering with the wind, it is the yellow-toothed handsome flag. The flag in the army, the green flag is the east, the red flag is the south, the white flag is the west, the black flag is the north, and the yellow flag sits in the center. Every year, the Dragon Boat Festival School parades the water division, the dragon boat race, and the armies don't look at anything else, just look at the location of the Yellow Tooth Shuai Flag, and you will know where the commander of the army is. In modern times, Ma Bujun generals often use the surname of the banner as the handsome flag, but the Yellow Tooth Banner is still respected in the southern naval division. The founding of the Great Song Dynasty was in the north, and the founding of the country was to control the south in the north, although there was a lack of horses, but the heaviest cavalry. The southern naval division has few troops, and the generals have never served as the envoys of the festival, so they do not need to embroider the flag with their surnames.

"Look, Shuai Qi!"

"Yellow Fang!" A cry of surprise sounded on the Song warships on the river.

There are few sailors, so the status of the sailors is not high. After the death of Zhang Qingzhan, the position of the commander of the water division was vacant, just a few days ago, the new commander of the water division "Han Shangzhong" took office, the new official three fires, the first day of the gathering of generals when the sword of the Son of Heaven was invited, agreed to advance and retreat, if the generals do not serve his banner when fighting, when the advance is not advanced, when the retreat is not retreated, all will be killed. It is said that this "Han Shangzhong" is a person valued by His Majesty and Cao Xianggong, and the generals of the Navy Division dare not disobey him.

"Strange ship, strange man!" Liao Huai scolded, "Your grandmother's." But he didn't dare to slack off, and ordered, "Raise the banner of the general." ”

The sailors below couldn't help but laugh and hoisted the triangle flag. There are more than 70 people on Liao Huai's warship, and his official position can only be a team general, which is not as good as the head of the infantry army on the shore.

The yellow tooth handsome flag is raised, which is equal to the commander's point. For a time, the large and small warships of the Song army on the river raised their flags one after another. The various flags represent the size of the ships and the size of the troops. Great warships generally have three or five hundred sailors, one or two hundred medium-sized ships, and dozens of small boats. The officers of the naval division were also mostly awarded official positions with reference to the number of sailors under their command.

After these flags were raised, Han Shizhong swept them with a clairvoyant mirror, and the positions of the generals under his command were clear at a glance.

"It's okay to listen to the greeting," he nodded slightly, and ordered, "The iron barrel gunboats keep the geese in formation, cover the other warships, and slowly retreat towards Ezhou and Hanyang while firing at the enemy ships in front." He was worried that the generals would make trouble, but now it seems that he is too worried.

Han Shizhong's formation was the opposite of the way the large and small warships of the Song Liao Naval Division had protected the iron barrel gunboats for several days, and he placed the iron barrel gunboats in the front and the other ships in the back, so as to get the protection of the artillery in the artillery battle. Just because the generals of the sailors had no status in the southeast camp, and no ruthless people dared to argue with the "red man" in front of Cao Xianggong, they all obeyed the order. This was originally a bad custom in the Song army, no matter how ridiculous the general's military order was, even if it was clear that the army was defeated, before the collapse of the army, no one wanted to be a bird, and they all obeyed the military order.

The blue flag under the Yellow Tooth Shuai waved, and the generals in command of the gunboats obeyed the order to turn their guns in the direction of the enemy ships, but the sails and the rocking oars were in the opposite direction, and retreated downstream with the water. Most of the warships of the horizontal navy were sand boats with square heads and square tails, while the warships of the Southeast Naval Division were pointed bottom river boats, and the gunboats loaded heavy barrel guns on the bow and stern, and when attacking or retreating, nearly half of the heavy guns were aimed at the enemy ships. On both sides of the ship, there are still wooden walls of old warships, and there are small barrel cannons and arrow battlements.

The Liao warships were still two or three miles away, and the Song warships began to retreat slowly, the iron barrel gunboats retreated quite slowly, and the other large and small warships retreated faster, and many of them had already retreated past Ezhou and were still sailing downstream. If the Song army wants to attack the Liao army's water village, it must go against the water, and the slow speed of the ship is fatally wounded under the bombardment of the iron barrel gunboats.

Zhao Xingde held the clairvoyant mirror to watch the battle, frowning, if he hadn't known Han Shizhong's plan, he would almost have thought that the sailor had retreated. A rare brigade of Liao troops appeared on the side of the river in the eastern city of Hanyang, building barracks outside the range of iron barrel cannons and preparing siege equipment. When the Liao army attacked Xicheng, it also had the meaning of containing the iron barrel cannon at the head of the city and preventing the artillery of the Hanyang city from bombarding the warships of the Liao army. The reason why Hanyang was able to hold it was because the water division controlled the river, and although the Liao army pressed the border, it could never turn Hanyang into an isolated city. Now that the sailors have retreated, the defenders of Hanyang have not even fled. These days, the Liao people have suffered not 10,000 but thousands of casualties under the city, and they have long threatened to take Zhao Xingde's head, and Hanyang City will not accept prisoners, and the chickens and dogs in the slaughter city will not be left.

"Don't be afraid." Zhao Xingde said to a pale soldier, "Let's hold it!" ”

After the soldier found out who was talking to him, "Dashuai," his face turned from white to red, and he said, "No, villain, it's not that I'm afraid." ”

"Good." Zhao Xingde smiled and patted him on the shoulder, didn't say anything, and turned his gaze to Jiangshang.

The Han gunboats were moored not far downstream of Ezhou and Hanyang, the sailors lowered their half-sails, the river was against the east wind, and whirlpools of different depths appeared and disappeared around the hull, and the three boats were all in the middle of the river, and the guns on the side of the ship were aimed at the upstream direction. When the Han gunboats fought, they faced the enemy ships horizontally, which was incompatible with the traditional style of water warfare. Therefore, both the Liao army and the Song army and the naval division, although they recognized the sharpness of artillery in water warfare, easily did not dare to put so many heavy artillery on the side of the hull.

"Wait." Tong Yunjie sneered, "Prepare to fire at full speed." ”

Although his words were relaxed, his eyes staring at Jiang Mian revealed nervous emotions. Zhao Xingde came over, in addition to letting the Han gunboats cooperate with the Song army's naval division to meet the Liao army, he also deliberately conveyed a few words of Han Shizhong's explanation of the formation to him, Tong Yunjie immediately realized that this Song general's vision was extraordinary. Although the number of barrel cannons on a single warship of the Song army was far less than that of the Han army, the Song general's mastery of water artillery warfare was higher than everyone else.

"Ready—" The artillery commander and gun commander shouted one after another.

"Prepare-" The official positions on the Han army's ships were generally one level higher than Ma Bujun's, and their voices were much louder.

Under the cabin of the ship, the gunners were shirtless in front of the gun window, and in the hot and humid weather in the south of the Yangtze River, everyone was sweating, shining like a bronze man. The sound of "clang" and "clang" sounded, the gunboats on the bottom were also opened, the sky light penetrated, the river breeze and small droplets came in at the same time, and the gunners close to the cannon window all showed expressions of enjoyment without exception, their bodies were cool, and every pore was more comfortable than eating ginseng fruit. This short moment before the war is about to be fought is the Pure Land of Bliss in the Western Heavens. In the front and back times, the bilge of the ship is not a place for people to stay, it is a hell of hot poison.

"Come on! Treat yourself to eggs! The cannon commander shouted, holding the rough bronze cannon body with one hand, and shouted, "Push hard!" ”

Several gunners worked together to push the gun carriage in front of the gunboat, as if a tiger was showing its fangs, and the muzzle of a copper cannon filled with ammunition sticked out of the gun window, shining with a metallic luster in the midsummer sun.

About four or five paces away from the artillery, the fire of the furnace rose, and in the midst of the flames, a pile of shells was roasting, gradually turning red. "Eat a cold dish first, and then serve a hot dish." Someone joked. The red hot bomb was found to be easy to use in Nanshan City, and after the Han Army's naval division gunboat was established, the gunners from Nanshan City immediately brought the red hot bomb to the naval division's artillery team.

The Liao Army's naval division, which was downstream from the upper reaches of the Great River, also discovered the abnormality of the Song Army's naval division. On the Wuya warship, Wanyan Zongbi watched the Song warships retreat downstream quite inexplicably, and the iron barrel gunboats that should have been heavily protected fell behind, and the gunboats lined up in a line on the river, and one of them also raised the Yellow Tooth Shuai Flag. The Southeast Naval Division fought several fierce battles with the Liao army on the river, except for the initial time when Zhang Qing was killed in battle, the naval division had not yet engaged, and it was the first time that large and small warships rushed to retreat.

"Could it be that the coach will save his strength after he breaks off?" Wanyan Zongbi stared at the handsome flag, "The people of the Southern Dynasty are weak, and the Ma Bujun has fled all the way, and I don't know how much, I can't imagine that the commander of the water division is not afraid of death." However, it is not easy to explain that they escaped and pursued them. His face sank, and he shouted, "Nanban wants to escape, catch up!" ”

Almost when he gave the order, the Liao warships in front had already increased their speed, at this time it was the east wind, the warships could not borrow the wind power, the big ships did not go as fast as the small boats, and the warships rushed to chase the enemy first, so they naturally divided the order, and the light boats and fire attack ships such as the boats were in the front. The Liao warships went down the river, and the distance of three or four miles passed quickly, and the city of Hanyang was busy dealing with the attack of the Liao soldiers on land, and the cannon roared non-stop for a moment, but there were not a few shells flying to the river. The cannon on the city of Ezhou rumbled, however, in the first few water battles, the Liao army also probably figured out the range of most of the barrel guns on the city of Ezhou, at this moment the warship was far away from the Ezhou side, close to the water surface of the center of the river to the side of Hanyang, most of the shells fired from the head of the city of Ezhou fell in the river, in vain stirred up a large area of waves.

"Quick, quick!" The boat was brisk, the Song gunboats were getting closer and closer, and the Jurchen officers were urging the sailors loudly.

In the previous water battles, the iron bucket gunboats were heavily protected by large and small gunboats in the core, and now they are lone behind like lambs, countless boats pounced on them like hungry eagles, medium-sized warships followed, and heavy ships such as iron barrel gunboats and five-tooth warships were pressed at the end.

When the Liao warships of the brigade entered the firing range of about one mile, Han Shizhong's handsome ship raised the banner of opening fire.

"Fire—"

"Fire—"

The gunboats shouted and gave orders. This is extremely close to the gunboats. In the past few days, the gunboats of the Song army were accustomed to firing at the enemy from a distance, and when they were broken into so close by the Liao warships, everyone from the officers of the ship to the sailors was very nervous. The Song army's iron bucket gunboats maintained a horizontal line of geese on the wide river, and while firing their guns desperately, they accelerated their speed and retreated downstream along the river.