Although the main force that started this operation to recover Haojing and was specifically responsible for driving away the Franc machine man was the army, the navy was naturally unwilling to sit on the sidelines and watch the show.

Although Rear Admiral Bao Yifen told Li Xuan that the strength of the Datang Navy was weak and it did not have the ability to fight the fleet of the Francophiles, this was under the premise that a large-scale war broke out between the two sides and that the Francophiles had transferred a large number of fleets in Malacca and other Southeast Asian regions to the north.

And this kind of thing, at least in the short term, will not be encountered, for the time being, there are only a few hundred soldiers and civilians in the Haojing area, and there are only a dozen ships, and they are all armed merchant ships.

It's just that in the face of the Franc robot fleet in Haojing, even if the Datang Navy is weak, it can barely fight if it really wants to fight.

To this end, the Datang Navy, with the First Fleet, an offshore fleet, as the main force, and the Pearl River Fleet, an inland fleet, as the auxiliary, dispatched six armed merchant ships converted from Chinese-style hard sailing ships, the largest of which was the Chaozhou of more than 240 tons, and the remaining five were armed merchant ships of more than 100 tons.

The above six armed merchant ships, like other armed merchant ships of the Datang Navy, are equipped with as many artillery as possible, but due to the relatively small hull, and more importantly, they cannot independently produce more than nine catties of artillery, so the equipped artillery is mainly self-produced seven-catty and five-catty artillery!

Therefore, the detachment sent by the First Fleet is equipped with a total of two nine-pound guns, well, it is worth noting that these two nine-pound guns were purchased from the Franco.

In addition, there are eighteen seven-pound guns, this long-barreled gun with a caliber of 100 mm and a caliber of 20.5 times the caliber of the cannon, and its performance can be regarded as a first-class level even in the contemporary West.

At the same time, because this is the most mature artillery that can be mass-produced in the Tang Dynasty, and because of the huge production volume, the cost has been greatly reduced, it is one of the main artillery models that the various arsenals under the Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty are currently fully guaranteed to produce.

And it is common to the army and navy with gun barrels, but the gun carriages of the two are different!

The artillery carriage used by the navy is thick and heavy, in order to be stable when shooting at the sea, while the artillery carriage used by the army is also attached to the wheels, which is relatively light and relatively low in weight.

The navy, on the other hand, is the biggest proponent of this artillery, and basically most of the output is snatched away by the navy.

In addition to the seven-pound artillery, there is also a five-pound artillery, the output of this artillery is larger, and the army and navy are equipped with a large number of them, but on the navy side, this artillery is only used as an auxiliary ship artillery, and the army side is used as the main artillery.

These six armed merchant ships are equipped with a total of 22 five-pound guns, which is not a small number, but in fact it is not much, because in order to strengthen the firepower of the navy, if it can be equipped with seven-pound guns, it will not be equipped with five-pound guns.

Two nine-pound guns, eighteen seven-pound guns, and twenty-two five-pound guns constituted the main firepower of the sub-fleet composed of these six armed merchant ships.

Of course, the fleet will also be equipped with a large number of three-pound or two-pound iron shotguns, but these guns have a short range and are used to carry out soft kills against the enemy fleet, that is, auxiliary artillery mainly for anti-personnel personnel.

When counting naval guns, there is actually not much need to count these small-caliber auxiliary artillery, well, later generations of naval researchers are also too lazy to count these large numbers of small-caliber auxiliary artillery.

In terms of the total number of artillery, the artillery of this detachment is quite a lot, but it is worth noting that compared with contemporary Western navies, the caliber and power of the artillery of the Datang Navy are too small.

This is also why when the Datang Navy goes to war, it will bring dozens of river boats of the Xijiang Fleet, a sub-fleet of the Pearl River Fleet!

When dozens of ships appeared in the sea off the coast of Haojing, those Franc Robot people immediately discovered them, but these Franc Robot people were probably because they suffered a big defeat on land and held their breath, or they really looked down on those Datang Navy ships that were obviously smaller than them, and they didn't dodge after leaving the port, and more than a dozen armed merchant ships went directly to the Datang Navy in the open sea!

This scene made Dai Liliang on the shore a little worried about whether the group of turtles in the navy would suffer a big loss!

When the soldiers went to the dock to clean up the battlefield and count the loot, Dai Liliang also continued to observe the battle on the sea!

Compared with the fast and fierce battle on land, the battle on the sea was carried out very slowly, and even Dai Liliang watched it for a long time with a single-pass telescope, and the distance between the two fleets was not much closer!

There is no way, the speed of ships in these years is generally only three or four knots, and according to the current distance between the two sides, I am afraid that it will take more than an hour before they can officially engage in battle!

However, although it was slow, Dai Liliang continued to watch with great interest, and even in order to better watch the battle on the sea, he also ran to the roof of a three-story small building built by a Francophone man on the dock, and asked the soldiers to bring him a chair, and by the way, he also brought a teapot, and watched the naval battle in the distance while drinking tea.

Not only him, but a group of his subordinates were busy with affairs, and they also ran to the roof to watch the battle, although the distance from the outbreak of the naval battle was a little far, but at this time there was not much wind and waves on the sea, and the sun was shining, and the vision was quite good, even if they didn't use binoculars, they could see the two fleets on the sea.

At this time, Wang Mingjiang, a twenty-five or sixteen-year-old young captain and deputy commander of the third battalion, said: "This navy is fighting too slowly, and what the hell is Zhou Zhifeng of the navy, how did this turn, don't you see how scared the Franc machine ship is and want to turn around and run!" ”

Zhou Zhifeng in his mouth is the commander of the Tang Navy fleet on the sea, the commander of the second squadron under the first fleet, and when it comes to military rank, he is higher than all the army officers present, but Zhou Zhifeng is a naval colonel.

"It's possible, those turtles in the navy, all of them are timid and afraid of death, some time ago I talked to a few turtles in the navy, and when it comes to the Franc machine people, they are all afraid to die, as if letting them go to war with the Franc machine people is like letting them go to death!" The captain of the first team of the third battalion, Captain Fang Kai'an, also showed disdain.

These people spoke, and the other lieutenants and ensigns were also buried in the navy one by one:

"That's it, I also watched the ceremony they did to go to sea, isn't it just a Franc machine man, it's the same as the battle of national fortunes, and it feels child's play when you look at it!"

"Yes, I also saw it, that scene, I felt embarrassed when I saw it, this hasn't fought yet, I just said that I was going to sacrifice my life for Your Majesty one by one, and I was stupid to play what kind of drinking and breaking bowls, numb, our army has fought so many hard battles, and we have never done such a thing a few times!"

Several army officers, while drinking tea and munching melon seeds, counted the group of turtles in the navy!

Even Dai Liliang, the top boss, is occasionally born to meet one or two sentences, of course, he has to maintain his dignity in front of his subordinates, so he still speaks more tactfully, taking care of the emotions of the navy!

Here's what he said: "Navy, that's it, don't make a fuss!" ”

"It's not easy for their navy, you still bury them like this, if this spreads out and destroys the relationship between the two armies, the upper authorities will inevitably punish you and others!"

"Although this navy is a little timid and afraid, it is His Majesty's navy after all, and the courage to fight this war is still used!"

However, his subordinates obviously heard his words, so they still didn't give face to the navy when they said it:

"The navy still dares to fight, but it's hard to say whether it can be fought or not, this time I'm afraid that they will be like the last Qiongzhou naval battle, and they will lose again, if this is the case, they will compete with us for the share of artillery in the future!"

"That is, it is all hot, artillery is such a precious thing, a seven-pound artillery can cost hundreds of taels of silver, our army has worked hard to maintain artillery, in the past few years, in addition to the explosion and accidental loss of some artillery, most of them are still there, even if it was the artillery built in Huangzhu Mountain back then, it is still good now, their navy is good, the war will sink the ship, the sinking ship will lose a large number of artillery, and the artillery will immediately grab the share of the artillery with us!"

"I've heard that the last time they were in the Battle of Qiongzhou, the artillery they lost was enough for our army to equip three artillery battalions, hemp eggs, a bunch of losers!"

"If I were Bao Yifen, I would have killed these losers a long time ago, but the Second Fleet lost the battle, lost so many artillery, and killed and injured hundreds of people, Bao Yifen even promoted those turtles who lost the battle!"

"Isn't it, Ouyang Gui, who sank so many ships and artillery, is now recovering from his injuries, but he has returned directly to Zhaoqing as the chief of staff of the Navy Staff, if our army suffers such heavy losses, let alone being promoted and making a fortune, it will be his luck if he does not go to a military court!"

A group of people continued to mock the navy while munching melon seeds, and not long after, Captain Wang Mingjiang, deputy commander of the third battalion, said:

"Hey, you see, those guys in the navy have turned again, and the distance is farther than before, don't these navy really want to escape!"

At this time, Dai Liliang said: "It is impossible to run, it is estimated that they are seizing the upper hand, they have brought so many small boats, and the small boats are more flexible, and the big movements of the Franc machine are relatively slow, which grabs the upper hand, it is estimated that they are going to set fire to the boat!"

"Really? It seems that these naval turtles are not completely stupid yet! ”

"Sure enough, you see, those turtles in the navy set fire to the ship, but I don't know if I can burn the battleship of the Francophiles!"