Between the sea breeze, the slow-paced drum beating never stopped. The sound of the drum is like a heartbeat in the body, and people can feel it everywhere, as if it is everywhere. That was the effect of the Ming army's many warships beating the drums together.

General Zhenla has discovered the arrogance of the Ming army. The Ming army broke through into the large array of the coalition army with two columns connected from end to end; Such a slender column was extremely vulnerable to the boarding and siege of several warships of the coalition forces. But the Ming army didn't seem to care about it.

The sound of cannons in the distance came and went, mixed with the sound of the waves, forming a continuous and loud noise.

The Admiral's ship had turned southwest, and he stood on the deck, coldly watching the gradual change of situation. He didn't have much to do at this time, the pace of naval battles was relatively slow, but the tactical arrangements and preparations were even slower, and there was really not much he could do now.

Both columns of the Ming army were turning. They first relied on the tailwind and came in a south-west direction; After entering the coalition formation, the Ming army turned at this time and was sailing diagonally south.

"The starboard enemy ship is approaching!" Suddenly, someone shouted.

The general had already seen the direction of the enemy's long column, and such a report was not sudden. He walked quickly to the side of the ship, and immediately saw a huge warship slowly approaching this way.

Such a huge warship, of course, is the warship of the Ming people. The general's gaze moved upward, and he glanced at the gray-white behemoth hard sail of the Ming people, and his gaze stayed on a banner with a yellow picture on a blue background for a long time.

He watched for a while before turning his head and saying, "Order, starboard ready to fight!" ”

The generals around him immediately shouted loudly, repeatedly shouting the general's military orders.

People watched on the deck for a long time, and the giant ship of the Ming army was getting closer and closer. Neither side launched an attack, and the artillery of the Ming army seemed to want to fire closer, while the Zhenla army mainly relied on bows and crossbows at long range, and now the enemy ships were still out of range.

The enemy ship approached from the starboard side of the Chenla and headed due south. The general glanced up at the wind vane, and the wind at this time was still northeasterly.

The warships of the Ming army were roughly upwind.

There was a short trumpet sound. After another moment, the distance between the two sides was only a little more than a hundred paces. The general heard the rapid tapping of the small drum from the opposite side, and the sound of "dong dong dong" was not loud, but the rhythm was very fine.

The boat of the Zhenla people was also noisy, and the leather drums played a generous and light rhythm. Someone was shouting "archers light fuel cloth", someone was shouting to boost morale.

The General's ship was a soft-sailed ship, and the soldiers were also the king's most elite troops, and their morale was well maintained and showed no signs of retreating.

"Boom, boom, boom, ......boom" The huge dense cannon sound finally sounded, and a row of fires flickered under the side of the Ming army. The Admiral felt the jolt of the deck and heard the cracking of the iron ball through the plank.

This was followed by a crying and screaming of the father, and the damage on the deck was not great, but there was a ghost crying wolf howl from the cabin below.

Today's sea breeze is light and the waves are small. The heavy ships of the enemy army in such a climate, the bumps are not much; Relying on the fact that the Zhenla army had no artillery, the enemy opened fire very closely, so most of the shells hit the target. The calm battlefield is of great benefit to the people of the Ming Kingdom.

After a while, a military general reported: "The iron ball pierced the starboard side and collapsed back and forth in the cabin, and our army suffered heavy casualties!" ”

The general replied with a grim face, and said, "Repair the damage to prevent the seawater from backing up." He said this, still looking in the direction of the starboard side.

After the Ming army's multiple artillery pieces fired in unison, the roar stopped, but the thick white smoke filled from the upwind position, and the general could not see anything for a while.

The Chenla people returned fire from the deck, throwing arrows from oilcloths into the depths of the smoke. The sound of the deck strings "thunderclapping" sounded.

At that moment, there were many small fires in the smoke, like fireflies, and there was a tooth-aching screech in the air. Countless rockets and flames of gunpowder flew like locusts.

Between the dense rockets, there were also some crow-like wooden birds, which also flew through the air in the smoke of gunpowder burning. The sea was filled with brilliant light, like many fireworks.

Several of the wooden crows burst into flames in the air, and some of them landed on the deck and burned. Two more flew right onto the canvas and burst, and the sails burst into flames. There was a shout on the deck, and people were clamoring to climb up to put out the fire.

A military general stepped forward and whispered: "The sails are broken, we can't get away for a while, the general should go first." ”

The general did not say anything, but he agreed with the general's statement, and the ship had become a living target that was difficult to move and control for the time being.

The smoke of gunpowder soon began to drift away in the wind, and the enemy ship just now left from the front right, but a long column of many huge ships behind it was heading towards this side one after another along that course.

The general, who had always been calm in the critical time, finally muttered at this time: "It's a shame, I'd rather not fight this battle." ”

Because the sails were burned, the real ship slowed down. The second enemy ship easily approached the starboard side.

The enemy repeated his old tricks, and only began to fire with heavy artillery at more than 100 paces. But this round is different from just now, the iron ball shot by the Ming army is burned red!

The red-hot iron ball failed to penetrate the Zhenla man's hull (in order to prevent the hot iron ball from accidentally igniting gunpowder, it was padded with a layer of dirt, and for the same reason, the iron ball was slightly smaller than the gun barrel and was less airtight), but when the iron ball hit the deck, the hot dark red iron quickly ignited the plank.

Smoke billowed from the deck, and the fire grew. People panicked and carried barrels everywhere to put out fires, choking soot and steam filled the deck, and the ship was in chaos.

By this time the envoy had called his retinue and lowered a boat from the port side into the sea. The messenger was crawling down, ready to escape.

Several small warships of the Zhenla Army nearby finally completed their turn, and came to reinforce this side, surrounding a huge Ming army ship from several sides.

A small boat sailed in front of the enemy ship, and the two ships were about to collide. Many of them were leaning on the railings, staring at the suffocation on the starboard side. Sure enough, a short time later, there was a loud crash in the wind, and the "click" of wood breaking.

The boat of the Jinla Army was knocked out of direction, and the hull seemed to be leaking. The enemy ships were not affected in the slightest, not even changing course.

A huge roar of cannons rang out from the starboard side of the enemy ship, and the dense sound of fried beans was endless, attacking the small warship of Zhenla on that side. The smoke was thick, and General Zhenla couldn't see clearly what happened to the ship in the distance, but he had already guessed that there was a lot of luck and bad luck when he heard the battle.

Several small boats of the Zhenla army besieged the enemy ship, like a mouse climbing on an elephant, and did not resist the advance of the enemy ship. The Chenla tried to fight from the enemy's side and boarded the ships, but they couldn't, and they were half-sunk by the muskets and artillery as soon as they approached.

At this time, if the siege and jumping ship were continued, it was possible to succeed, because the artillery of the Ming army was very slow to reload. But the general had long lost control of the fleet and could not organize specific tactics in time...... Because they hadn't prepared this beforehand. Originally, he rushed to attack a surprise attack, how could he negotiate such a tactic?

"Boom, boom, boom......" The huge enemy ship approached the starboard side of the general's side and immediately fired a salvo of heavy artillery. The deck of the real ship was once again shrouded in gunpowder smoke from the upper wind.

Even worse was inside the cabin below deck. Some of the solid iron balls were impacted at the right angle to break through the cracked hardwood. The force of the shells was mostly gone, but it did not stop, flying into the cramped cabin, bounceing back and forth on the planks on all sides. One of the soldiers fell to the ground, his skull shattered, and red and white flowed on the board.

The crowd was like seeing a ghost, and everyone cried heartbreakingly.

The soldiers ran around, as if instinctively trying to escape the iron balls that bounced off repeatedly; Some people were running on the wet blood stains all over the ground, slipping and falling, and they were all struggling and screaming in pools of blood.

The air was filled with a strong fishy smell and stench, and it was a mess like hell.

"Fix the broken ......" Suddenly, a person above stuck out his head and shouted, but his expression immediately changed, and he was stunned before he finished shouting.

The right side of the hull is damaged in many places, but in most places there is no problem, and only when the hull is bumped from side to side will seawater pour into the hole. But there was a hole that seemed to be very close to the waterline, and the sea water was constantly pouring into the cabin.

The man above finally spotted the hole, pointed over there again and shouted, "Plug it with a plank!" ”

But no one listened to him, and the carpenters and soldiers fled to the deck. The caller rushed into the cabin, searched everywhere, found a plank, and pressed his hands on the hole. But there was no hammer or nails, and he continued to scream.

At this time, a swarthy man covered in blood crawled over and said, "General, quickly order the ballast to be thrown out!" The more water there is, the heavier the boat becomes, and the more unstoppable the leakage becomes. ”

"You come and press!" That military general said. Then he crawled out of here.

However, nothing could save the flagship of the commander of the Zhenla Army. Because the sails were burned and the fire could not be stopped in time, the mast was also scorched by the fire crows, and the huge hull had already slowed down, repeatedly suffering from heavy artillery volleys fired by the Ming column. The flagship had begun to roll over, and there was more and more water in the cabin below.

The soldiers climbed up from the cabin one after another, and the entire ship was completely out of control.

Others persuaded the general to leave the ship and flee. He let out a long sigh and said, "Order the whole army to abandon the ship." ”