On the blue sea, more than a dozen ships spread their sails, and with a sound of trumpets, they scattered like birds, and only one ship remained in place.

Half an hour later, when all the ships looked back, the ship that had stayed there had become a small black dot in the sky, and if you didn't look closely, you couldn't see it at all.

The little black dot was a three-masted warship with four hundred men on board, and at this time all the sails on board were lowered, and two hundred sergeants in strict military uniforms and armor stood on the deck, motionless, like clay sculptures.

Yang Congyi walked from the bow to the stern and from the stern to the bow, and was very satisfied with these strictly disciplined sergeants.

In mid-August, he set out from Quanzhou with a fleet of ships, sailed for nine days and more than 2,000 miles, day and night, and arrived in Changguo County more than 20 days ago.

When he returned to Changguo County, he found that after three months of intensive training, the Xuanwei Army had completed all the training tasks of the Marine Army and the bow and archery.

At the request of Yang Congyi, the whole army of Xuanwei Army prepared for three days, and then began training, acceptance and assessment.

In this assessment of marching and bow shooting, the qualification standard for marching is fully armed for an hour march of 40 miles, 5 hours of march for 150 miles, and the qualification standard for bow shooting is to march three arrows within 100 steps without missing the target. Originally, Yang Congyi was still a little worried, but the final acceptance assessment results were unexpected, the more than 4,500 people of the Xuanwei Army were all qualified, and the bow shooting was slightly worse, but only one percent was unqualified, and the training results were already very good.

After the acceptance and assessment were completed, preparations were made for another three days, and more than 4,500 people of the whole army began to take turns to board the ship to conduct naval combat training.

The training subjects include rapid disembarkation and disembarkation, sea turbulence adaptation training, sail lifting and turning drills, pulp drills, rudder mastery, and flag language training. Among them, the first two full participation, sail lifting and turning each team selected five people to learn, pulp drill each team of ten people to learn, tail rudder each team to choose two people to learn, flag language each team to choose two people to learn, each team of 50 people, a small half to learn the skills of the ship, other personnel on the ship standby.

At the beginning of the training and study stage, there should not be too many people on board, each ship only brought two teams of 100 people to the sea each time, and Yang Congyi brought back a total of only 15 warships and sea ships, one rotation training can also train 1,500 people, three rounds can be completed, a group of Xuanwei troops go to sea, and other Xuanwei troops who do not go to sea continue to practice bow archery and military formation.

The fleet leaves early and returns late, and trains in one round every day. All kinds of skills of Xuanwei Army on the ship, except for the flag language, were taught by the helmsmen and sailors brought by Yang Congyi, and all kinds of skills were easy to learn, but they must be mastered and skillfully used in various positions, but it is not ten days or eight days.

For example, to make the boat turn to the left during the voyage, you have to cooperate with the rudder and the paddler, the left oar is lightly paddled and the right oar is re-rowed, and the tail rudder is to the left, so that the boat turns right, the left oar must be re-rowed and the right oar is lightly rowed, and the tail rudder is to the right. But almost no one can see each other in the three groups, which requires someone to coordinate in the center and give orders in a unified manner, which is also part of the training at sea.

After half a month of training at sea, the whole army has basically learned how to operate the ship, turning left, right, turning around, raising and lowering the sails, turning the sails, and turning the sails. It was difficult to communicate at sea, so he immediately began to join the flag language training.

The flag was formulated by Yang Congyi convened Shen Jin, Zhao An, the teaching group and experienced sailors and helmsmen who went to sea together, first Zhao An and the teaching group listed the marching, patrol and combat instructions and orders, and the sailors and helmsmen listed the rules of the ship's navigation at sea, possible problems and solutions, and then the two sides sat together to discuss how the instructions and orders of the warship at sea should be given, and finally determined the 138 instructions, orders and laws.

After studying, all the 138 commands, orders, and laws were divided into three main categories, namely, patrol navigation, combat, and call for help. One hundred and thirty-eight articles have been issued, and as for how to achieve effective contact one mile, two miles, or even five miles away, Shen Jin is solely responsible for studying.

Although in ancient times, various different colors of order flags were used when marching and fighting, but the orders were relatively simple, nothing more than attacking, retreating, and stopping the advance, and there were also blue, red, white, black, yellow and other flags to indicate different situations, but now there are more than 130 orders in three categories, but it is difficult to distinguish them by hanging different colors of order flags.

Later, Shen Jin received a revelation from Yang Congyi, first of all, the three types of orders were indicated by three different colors of command flags, that is, the yellow flag indicated the cruise command, the red flag indicated the combat command, and the green flag indicated the command for help, and then the three types of commands were numbered separately and counted upwards from the beginning. Each instruction has a clear number, so in order to achieve the transmission of the instruction, as long as the other party can see the corresponding instruction number within the line of sight.

How do I use the order flag to indicate the number? This is to be created, and it is necessary to formulate certain rules and follow some laws.

After Shen Jin discussed with Yang Congyi, he felt that he would take a flag in his left and right hands, and the two flags would come out together, according to the different positions of the flag on his side, it would be safer to indicate a single number, and the instructions for the number one to nine would be issued once, and the instructions would be completed if the number of the nine was two, and if there were more instructions in the future, more than ninety-nine numbers, the flag could be issued three times. In order to ensure that the instructions are correct, each instruction should be conveyed three times, and each time the flag should be continuously issued, and after completion, the interval of five breaths should be followed before continuing to send out the flag to convey the instruction.

After determining the rules of indicating one to nine and nine numbers in the fixed position of the order flag on the side, Yang Congyi and Shen Jin immediately began to verify the instruction manual. The rules were formulated by the two of them, and they naturally found it simple to verify them according to the manual, and the verification results were correct. However, there are also some problems, if you are too far away, the command flag in your hand is not large, it is easy to blur, you can't see clearly the type of indication and the instruction number of the indication, and there is no telescope, this problem is now impossible to solve, and it is no longer forced.

Now it was possible to convey hundreds of commands from a distance of one or two miles without verbal shouting, and the people were shocked and satisfied when they heard about it, which was so useful for ships at sea that could not get close to each other. Zhao An and the teaching group have already been out to sea, the ship is bumpy with the wind and waves on the sea, the two ships will definitely collide when they are close, the wind and waves are slightly larger, the ship will definitely be destroyed, and it is safer to be a little farther away, but it is difficult to hear each other's shouting, and the order cannot be conveyed at all, with the flag command, all this is not a problem, and the command can be conveyed and contacted from a safe distance.

After Shen Jin explained and explained the principles and methods of using this set of flags to Zhao An and the teaching group, everyone immediately decided to implement it in the whole army. Of course, we can't force everyone to be able to waive the flag, but officers at all levels must be able to understand and learn it. In addition, 200 people with flexible minds were selected from all over the army to learn how to play the flag and memorize three types of commands.

After the decision was made, Yang Congyi sent people to Mingzhou the next day to make 200 flags of red, yellow, and green. Those who need to practice flag language will use the time after returning to the camp in the evening to practice flag language and not delay the daytime training time.

The rules for the flag to indicate the number are very clear and clear, as long as the mind is not a mess, it is easy to learn, type the desired command number, but the difficulty is that the flag bearer has to convert the flag into instructions. For example, accelerating forward, slowing down, passing on the right, passing on the left, walking on the right, walking on the left, following behind, opening the road ahead, etc., the flag bearer receives instructions from other ships, and it is impossible for him to directly report a number to the chief officer, and the chief officer can contact other ships, and it is impossible to report the command number, and what he says must be an order.

It is not an easy task to keep in mind all the instructions represented by numbers, and there are 138 articles in three categories, and it is not excluded that instructions will be added later. Those who can write it down can become standard-bearers, and the standard-bearer's salary will increase by 500 wen per month.

Those who had taught them literacy in the early days when Shen joined the army and didn't have the heart to do so, at this time they regretted it too much, they couldn't read and understand the flag language manual, so they could only watch others wave the flag a few times, get an extra 500 wen a month, and then want to study, but Shen joined the army but didn't have time to teach them again.

After another half an hour, the black dots that had been scattered gradually returned to the sea, and when they came into view, they could already see the outlines of warships and sea ships.

When a dozen ships get closer, you can find that those ships are different in front and back, with different speeds, no arrangement, and no formation.

When the first ship entered within three miles, Yang Congyi immediately ordered the standard-bearer: "Pass on the left, open the road ahead!" ”

This is a cruise command, no need to remind, the flag bearer immediately picked up two yellow flags, hit the "left pass" command number, interval two breaths, and then hit the "open ahead" command number, after the interval of five breaths, the two command numbers again, and then the interval of five breaths again.

After the flag was played three times, the flag bearer replied: "The car and ship replied three times, received the order, and followed the order." ”

In a short time, the chariot and ship turned and passed on the left, a mile away, straight ahead.

Another ship entered the three-mile range, and Yang Congyi ordered the standard-bearer again: "Pass on the right side, open the road ahead." ”

This is still a cruise command, the flag bearer immediately picked up two yellow flags, hit the "right pass" command number, and then hit the "open ahead" command number at an interval of two breaths, and after an interval of five breaths, the two command numbers were played again, and then again at an interval of five breaths.

After the flag was sounded three times, the flag bearer replied: "As soon as the car and ship replied, I received the order and followed the order." ”

After a short time, the chariot and ship swerved, passed on the right, and was a mile away, and went forward.

After the third ship entered the three-mile range, Yang Congyi ordered the standard-bearer: "Drive the enemy to escort on the right side." ”

Driving the enemy, this battle order, the standard-bearer immediately picked up two red flags, hit the "alert enemy attack" command number, and then hit the "right side" command number at an interval of two breaths, and after an interval of five breaths, the two command numbers were played again, and then again at an interval of five breaths.

After the flag was played three times, the flag bearer replied: "The second car and boat replied, received an order, and followed the order." ”

After a short time, the car and ship turned to the right, traveled five miles away, and then turned to walk side by side with the main ship.

"Escort the enemy on the left."

"There's a reef ahead, slow down on the right."

"Enemy ships are spotted ahead, and the left side goes around to meet the enemy."

"People are injured and need to be rescued."

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