In the unfolding of the Qiongzhou Campaign, the first action could not be the Second Mixed Regiment of the Army, which was preparing for the landing operation, but the navy!

On 14 August, the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, a large number of ships began to dispatch from the small coastal ports in Xuwen County, the southernmost part of Leizhou Prefecture, and more than 40 ships were finally gathered.

Although most of the ships are small, the noise is quite intimidating.

Among the many ships, more than a dozen ships are on the outermost periphery, and they are much larger than the ships in the rear, and some of the guns can be seen on board.

These more than 10 ships are the detachments deployed by the Datang Navy in the areas of Leizhou Mansion and Lianzhou Mansion, and the number is the Second Fleet, of which the largest tonnage is the Lianzhou, an armed merchant ship converted from a Guangzhou ship of more than 280 tons, and the other more than 10 ships are also mostly armed merchant ships converted from Guangzhou ships, Fu ships, sand ships and other ship types, and the tonnage is mostly about 100 tons.

However, although the tonnage of these ships is not small, the armament is relatively low-level, because these ships were originally just ordinary civilian ships, and the Datang Navy simply deployed a small number of artillery on these ships.

Due to the limited size of the ships, the Datang Navy simply could not deploy too many and too heavy guns on these ships.

Taking the Lianzhou as an example, the main gun is a nine-pound cannon, a seven-pound gun, four five-pound cannons, and four three-pound shotguns.

Even so, the Lianzhou is currently the most powerful armed merchant ship in the Tang Navy, and the initial refit was only completed a month ago, and the nine-pound guns on it were purchased from foreigners.

The five-kilogram cannon is a cannon of the same level as the army's five-kilogram field gun, and the three-kilogram shotgun is a shotgun specially produced for the navy, with a gun weighing about 300 kilograms, and is specially designed to fire shotshots. The gun is much more powerful than the 150-pound two-pound shotgun used by the army, but because of its heavier weight, it is not very suitable for use as infantry support artillery.

At present, the naval guns used by the Datang Navy are mainly used for firepower against ships with cannons of the three levels of nine, seven, and five catties, and the three-catty shotguns and two-catty shotguns are used as auxiliary firepower. Because of the size of the tonnage and the different types of ships, each ship deploys different classes and different numbers of artillery.

Strictly speaking, the second squadron is actually the first ocean-going fleet of the Tang Navy, purely in terms of strength, it is stronger than the Pearl River Fleet and the first squadron.

Because although the Pearl River Fleet has more ships, the Pearl River Fleet is an inland river fleet, and most of the ships it has are small river ships, with a large number, but the tonnage is small, the firepower is weak, and it cannot go to sea to fight.

The first squadron was previously transferred from the Xijiang Fleet some large ships, basically more than 100 tons, ships with navigation ability were all transferred, and some ships converted from civilian ships will be equipped in the future, but the first squadron has not been established for a long time, and the number of ships currently owned is only a few ships of more than 100 tons, but many ships are not equipped with complete naval guns.

The reason is very simple, because the current artillery production in the Tang Dynasty is limited, and these guns are distributed by the army and navy, and the number of artillery that the navy can get is not much, and a considerable part of these guns are allocated to the second squadron and the Pearl River fleet, so that many ships in the first squadron are lonely with only one hull and a few shotguns, and there are not many long-barreled naval guns at all.

In addition, although the first squadron is called the ocean-going fleet, it was actually blocked in the Pearl River valley by the Ming army's naval divisions, and the weak Tang Navy did not leave the protection of the battery at all, and then came out to engage the Ming army's naval divisions, so it has always been positioned to defend.

Therefore, although the Tang Dynasty had three detachments, in fact, the main development of the Tang Navy was the second fleet, which was based on Lianzhou Mansion and Leizhou Mansion, and the primary strategic goal was to cover the army crossing the sea and capture Qiongzhou Mansion.

The entire fleet consisted of sixteen armed merchant ships, two of which were of more than 200 tons, twelve of which were of more than 100 tons, and two smaller ships of less than 100 tons.

The entire fleet was equipped with four nine-pound guns, eight seven-pound guns, sixteen five-pound guns, and more three-pound and two-pound shotguns, more than thirty.

This firepower is naturally extremely powerful for the Datang Navy, but if you compare it horizontally, it can't even compare with the firepower of a contemporary regular warship.

This is not talking about warships of more than 1,000 tons, but about those warships of 5 or 600 tons!

One of the most important is that the caliber of naval guns owned by the Tang Navy is too small, although small-caliber guns and shotguns are not good, but there are not many 12-pounder and more guns.

However, the warships of the Western countries of the same era, the professional warships were equipped with large-caliber naval guns such as 64-pound, 32-pound, 24-pound, and 18-pound, and the 12-pounder naval guns and 6-pounder naval guns were only auxiliary firepower.

If you are not equipped with dozens of large-caliber long-barreled naval guns, you are embarrassed to say that this is a battleship!

Led by Lianzhou, the second squadron left the port and successfully formed in the open sea, and the small ships in many small ports began to be dispatched, but the small ships behind were not transport ships, but all warships of the navy.

Therefore, these ships did not carry too many sailors, these ships were basically loaded with fire oil and even gunpowder and other ignition materials, and their role was very simple, that is, to carry out fire attack tactics.

The Datang Navy on the other side of the strait made a big move, and the width of the entire strait was only more than 20 kilometers, so this situation was reported to the sailors of the Ming army who were patrolling the strait, and they quickly reported to the sailors in the port.

And in the follow-up, the ships of the Ming Army sailors who stayed in Qiongzhou naturally poured out!

Just as the main fleet of the Second Squadron was leading about thirty small boats out to sea, on the other side, the flotilla of more than twenty ships carrying the entire Second Mixed Regiment also began to leave the ports.

In addition to carrying 1,800 officers and men of the Second Mixed Regiment, these ships were also loaded with all kinds of materials that were enough for the Second Mixed Regiment to use for a month, and all kinds of weapons and ammunition were enough for the Second Mixed Regiment to carry out three large-scale battles.

These two fleets one after the other, forming a super-large sea-crossing fleet!

And today, God is also very face-saving, the wind is calm, the sun is shining, this is a very suitable for crossing the sea to fight, but also more suitable for sea warfare.

However, only two hours later, in front of the main fleet of the second detachment of the Datang Navy, there were several ships that dared to roam the Qiongzhou Strait at this time, and they were still equipped with artillery.

At the same time, on the Lianzhou, a rear admiral stood at the bow of the ship, and then looked at several ships of the Ming Army Navy in front of him with a single-pass telescope in his hand, and then put down the binoculars and said: "They are coming very quickly, give orders, the whole fleet is ready for war!" ”

The rear admiral who conveyed the order was Rear Admiral Ouyang Lin, commander of the Second Fleet of the Tang Navy, who was about twenty-eight or nine years old, a little thin and dark-skinned, but even if he was not good-looking, the whole person exuded a scholarly and elegant atmosphere.

In fact, this is not only Ouyang Lin, but most of the officers of the Tang Dynasty Division, most of them have the temperament of Confucianism.

Because the officers of the Tang Dynasty, regardless of whether they are in the army or navy, most of their officers are born as scholars, and almost all of these officers are from the martial arts academy, and a very small number of them have also attended the imperial academy.

And the source of the students of these two schools, most of them are literate students, although most of them have no fame before, but they are also scholars, which is idle, and they can also recite poems and lyrics.

Today's Tang Dynasty is also a force, the martial arts school is gradually formalized, and the school system of the martial arts hall is getting longer and longer, there used to be only one month, then three months, and now it has become half a year, even if it is a crash course specially opened for soldiers to be promoted to officers, it has become three months.

This has led to the fact that when recruiting students in the Martial Arts Academy, the requirements are higher than in the past, and in the past, anyone who knew the words could apply for the Martial Arts Academy.

But now, if you want to apply for the martial arts hall first, you need to pass the county exam or the third grade of junior cadets first, and then you can take the entrance exam of the martial arts hall, and only after passing can you officially become a student of the martial arts hall.

As for the soldiers who were originally promoted to officers after meritorious service, they also need to take the entrance examination, but this kind of entrance examination is relatively simple, and basically they can study, and if there are soldiers who have made meritorious contributions, but their literary level is not up to par, it does not matter, the army itself has literacy classes, and it is also possible to master the basic common words if you go there to learn for a few months.

Of course, the quality of officers who come out of the crash course is difficult to compare with that of officers in the regular class in all aspects, so the way to promotion will be more difficult, and it is even more difficult to cross the threshold to become a school officer.