At about fifteen o'clock, the two fleets traveling opposite each other finally came within firing distance.

According to the pre-war plan, the Nine Ghosts Jialong fleet lined up in a horizontal formation with six large and large houses to form a sheltering array, and the rest of the large and small ships swarmed up, preparing to fight in close combat with numerical superiority.

On the Chinese side, Li Feihuang's forward fleet made a sudden turn five hundred paces away and sailed to the left of the Nine Ghost Water Division, while the six battleships of Luo Haitao's main fleet behind her directly attacked the Fusang array in columns, and then Li Feihu's fleet and transport fleet directly followed the battlefleet to charge.

Luo Haitao commanded a modern sail artillery fleet, but the tactics used still looked old.

Li Feihuang's detachment first exchanged fire with the Nine Ghost Naval Army, and since the main force of the Nine Ghost Naval Division had no sails and relied entirely on two rows of oars to sail, its maneuverability was far worse than that of the dexterous Chinese cruisers.

Li Feihuang directly cut the left flank of the Nine Ghost Army successfully, and then used the side to the side, and bombarded the flank Fusang fleet with all the naval guns on the side at a distance of 300 steps.

The distance of 450 meters is very suitable for the Chinese naval guns, not to mention that the formation of the Nine Ghost Water Division is very dense, and it is a good target for the platoon artillery.

Nearly 200 iron balls flew by, more than a dozen Fuso ships were shot, several small morning boats the size of sampans immediately began to sink, and two other ships and one house were paralyzed by bullets.

The leftmost Da'an house of the Fuso Army became the target of the Chinese army's fire because of its conspicuous size, but his superstructure (in fact, it was the guard plate) was covered with iron plates, and the six-pound light shells failed to penetrate, and the two ten-pound and one twenty-pound shells did break through, which also caused some casualties, but the Da'an Mansion was still moving forward and was obviously not fatally injured.

"I have a little ability, no wonder I dare to go to sea to fight."

Li Feihuang looked at the Fusang army array with a telescope, they didn't pay attention to the forward fleet of the Chinese army, but hedged against the main force of the Chinese army, and the injured Da'an Mansion was naturally among them.

As the former pirate cabinet of the Li family, Li Feihuang has been adrift at sea for more than 20 years, during which she has fought traditional naval battles on the side of the board, and after the split of the Li family, she has also fought naval battles between gunboats against traditional fleets and gunboats against gunboats.

The biggest impact of these naval battles on her is a hard truth: after the appearance of gunboats, naval battles are more artillery than less artillery, big artillery over small artillery, and fast artillery over slow artillery.

In short, everything depends on the naval guns, there is a gap in the strength of the naval guns, and no matter how heroic the naval sailors are, it is useless.

Therefore, Li Huamei admires the performance of the Nine Ghost Fleet now, and she thinks that if it was the former Li family pirates, it would probably be very tricky to encounter the Nine Ghost Fleet in the coastal waters.

But now, ...... can only be said to be a stumbling block at best, just kick it away.

"Maximum rate of fire! Keep shooting! Leave those sampans alone and focus on the sampans and the sampans! ”

As the main forces of the two sides continued to approach, Li Feihuang's forward fleet was given the opportunity to shoot calmly for three rounds, and after firing one round, she immediately turned and fired with the guns on the other side, and then turned again, trying to stay parallel to the enemy fleet to maximize firepower.

In the whole process, Li Feihuang destroyed at least twenty ships and houses, and as for how many Xiaozao had, no one counted them at all.

The number of the Nine Ghost Sailors' houses and ships is also very small, and the vast majority of his six hundred ships are still early, so before the main forces of the two sides come into contact, Li Feihuang almost smashed the entire left wing of the Nine Ghost Sailors, so that the ironclad mansion began to sink slowly with more than a dozen large holes that had been hit out by cannonballs.

Countless Fuso people shouted and jumped into the water and swam towards the east shore of the Seto Inland Sea, Li Feihuang did not have the slightest mercy, and ordered the fleet to run over the heads of the Fuso people who fell into the water, like a persevering wolf, and continued to chase and bite the huge Fuso fleet.

……

Nine Ghost Jialong was covered in cold sweat, staring at the main force of the Chinese army that was getting closer and closer with wide eyes.

He was not completely indifferent to the heavy losses on the left flank, after all, more than twenty large ships, including a large house, were destroyed without causing any damage to the enemy.

But he couldn't make any response to the call for help from the left flank - there were only 11 enemy ships over there, but they were too flexible, and if their fleet, which relied entirely on oars to maneuver, turned around and hit the Chinese advance first, there would be fewer in the past and no more opponents would directly leave the battle, and the formation on their side would be completely chaotic.

Therefore, instead of worrying about the left flank, it is better to fight for losses and directly fight the main force of the enemy's fleet!

So he stared at the main force of the oncoming Chinese army without dodging or dodging, quietly waiting for the moment of decisiveness.

The moment soon came, and the six battleships of the Chinese army and the sixty armed transport ships that followed them silently plunged headlong into the Fuso army array.

Luo Haitao's flagship "Qi", which was the first to start, passed by an ironclad mansion, and the distance between the two ships was so close that the port side was on the starboard side, and the hulls of the two ships were directly scraped together, making a piercing clicking sound.

The sailors on the deck of the Da'an Mansion seized the opportunity to throw their grappling hooks at the taller Qi Horn, some had long ladders and planks ready to take the broadside, and others fired their iron cannons (arquebuses) at the Alignment in an attempt to suppress the deck fire.

Qi fired a salvo at the zero distance at this Da'an house, almost all of them hit, and the 30-pound naval guns installed in the bottom gun compartment exerted amazing power, and the hull of the Da'an house was directly poked out of more than a dozen huge and transparent holes, and the turbulent sea water immediately poured into the body of the Da'an house because of the iron plate installed on the superstructure.

The seemingly formidable battleship capsized at breakneck speed, leaving behind a devouring whirlpool and Fuso people struggling to call for help on the water.

A few Fusang men with flying claws clung to the ropes and hung them on the side of the Qi ship like air-dried meat, and the Chinese sailors cut the ropes with their hand axes, leaving the poor worms to accompany their comrades.

The 600-ton hull of the 56-gun battleship is an unshakable giant on the sea in this era, and the six battleships are directly split like the Nine Ghost Naval Army Array, whether it is the Da'an Mansion or any other ship, there is no one in the Fuso Army at all.

The battleship fired its guns on both sides at close range, turning the houses and ships into powder, and those smaller ones were even directly crushed by the battleships, and dozens of Fuso sailors on a ship could only dye the thick hulls of the Chinese battleships a touch of blood red.

The sea lapped against the battleship, and the only trace was gone.

Luo Haitao's battlefleet almost cut the Nine Ghost Sailor Division in half, followed by Li Feihu's fleet and armed transport ships into the Nine Ghost Sailor Division's array, guns and cannons firing in unison.

The chaotic battle that Nine Ghost Jialong was looking forward to began, but he had no power to fight back at all, because although the number of Chinese troops was small, the smallest transport ship was also a medium-sized Fu ship about the size of an ordinary house, and there were at least six five-pound deck guns on it.

This is equivalent to the fact that most Fuso people must feint to attack a city with artillery!