In a short time, I saw that the exploding warship had capsized to one side, and more than a dozen warships in the vicinity rushed towards the accident site with full horsepower, and an armed warship quickly approached to meet the sailors on the ship.

Ten minutes later, a muffled thunder began to sound on the sea, and just as the warships of the Broken Rear Fleet were busy searching for a sneak attack at the stern of the fleet, an explosion similar to the previous one came from the front of the fleet at no time, and the explosion that resounded across the sea made the experienced soldiers and sailors in the fleet feel uneasy, because it meant that at least two enemy fleets were attacking their own fleet.

The loud bang was not over, the explosion apparently drew other flammable items on the battleship, and the black steamer burst into a blinding glow in the night like a matchhead, and the explosions on it were like fireworks played by children. Faced with this situation. One can't help but be worried about the dozens of crew members on board. At the same time, we have to worry about our own fate.

As the most senior naval general of the former Xia Kingdom, Fan Sui did not let this fleet fall into unbearable chaos on its own, and the command ship 'Tian Khan' immediately issued a light signal to maintain the formation.

It didn't take long. In order to prevent enemy ships from blending into the convoy to hunt and kill ships, one light after another spread from the command ship in all directions, and ignited rockets were fired into the air, and for a time the sea was as bright as day. Their efforts paid off in the end—no more enemy ships broke through or even killed in a short period of time.

Hours later. Dawn had not yet arrived, but the noisy sea was finally showing signs of quieting down, and yet it was at this time. A dark shadow quietly approached the fleet from the northeast.

The crew who first discovered the situation thought it was their own ship. Since it was impossible for the enemy to swagger towards them, they cheerfully signaled their lights to each other, but it was not until they responded with heavy artillery fire that the poor creatures woke up from their dreams.

But they hastily organized a counterattack, and for a time more than a dozen crossbows were fired from different warships, and they quickly collapsed in the face of the opponent's powerful firepower.

With the ultra-long range of artillery, the battleships of the Fujian Navy in Great Xia are like a lion entering the sheepfold, recklessly biting their prey, and those warships that have been waiting on the periphery also take this opportunity to use the guns on the deck to attack the chaotic enemy ships, and the darkness before dawn has become an indelible pain for this Yan fleet.

It was supposed to be three strokes in the sun, but the sea was still gray. Visibility is still limited to a few hundred meters. After a night of high sailing, the main fleet of Great Xia under the command of Li Yu had successfully passed through the wide waters between the shrimp ball and the Penghu Islands and the ocean west of the Penghu Islands, under the cover of cloudy days and nights, and they were not discovered by the patrolling Yan patrol ships along the way.

"General, this is the information that the reconnaissance ship just sent!"

"What is it?" Li Yu received information from his communications officer, and the contents were written in slightly scribbled handwriting, which showed that the Fujian Navy Division of Daxia had engaged the enemy fleet last night, and that five warships of the Fujian Navy Fleet had been sunk, but due to light snow and weather, the enemy's warship losses were unknown, and the place of engagement was in the ocean north of Shuangqi Island, a hundred nautical miles from his own fleet.

The adjutant added: "Are we rushing to the fighting waters with all our might, the strength of the Fujian Navy Division is only 20% of the opponent's." ”

Because Fan Sui took away a large number of experienced naval officers from Beitou, in the past two years, Daxia has promoted a large number of middle- and low-level naval officers from the low-level officers and the Jiankang Forbidden Army.

This ordinary lieutenant, who had previously served in the Guoyong Battalion of the Forbidden Army, was obviously not familiar with Li Yu's command habits - before the enemy's whereabouts were discovered, if he swaggered towards the battlefield, it was very likely that he would take the initiative to reveal his position, which was something Li Yu tried his best to avoid.

If you recklessly rush forward to participate in the battle, the strength of the two sides is still at a disadvantage.

"No, continue to remain hidden, I hope the veteran Hu Lian will not be impulsive, and beat the pie in his own hands at once, as long as he entangles the other party.!"

Li Yu said as usual, the target he expected was not those small fish and shrimp, this voyage, he was full of expectations and was ready to solve the main force of the Yan State Navy at one time, even if both sides ended up together, it was worth it.

Before the war between the two sides was ready, the shipbuilding capacity of Great Xia and the ships of all coastal routes could cope with the Yangtze River defense line.

"How far is it from Shuangqi Island?" After the adjutant stepped down, Zhang Hainuo turned his head and asked his adjutant Zhang Gui.

Zhang Fu and Zhang Gui, two brothers, since following Gan Feng in the battle of Xiangfan for the rest of their lives, after several years of hard work, won the appreciation of Taiwei Yu Jie, in the case of this large-scale adjustment of naval officials, the two brothers took two different paths, Zhang Fu succeeded Li Yu as the commander of the Jiujiang section of the Yangtze River, and Zhang Gui was transferred to the Yangtze River Naval Division Marshal's Mansion and became Li Yu's deputy general.

Zhang Gui calculated for a moment on the special nautical chart, "Less than a hundred nautical miles, at the current speed, we can reach the scheduled battlefield in the afternoon!" ”

Li Yu thought about it, considering the need for covert navigation and raiding the opponent's fleet, the speed of the voyage could not be increased too fast, and he ordered: "From now on, the fleet will be changed to a speed of twelve knots!" ”

The order was quickly communicated, and the change from ten to twelve knots did not seem to be a big change, but in the eyes of professionals, there was still a noticeable change in the splash and navigation state of their fleet.

At the beginning, the Fujian Navy Division took advantage of the darkness and light snow, and in the case of extremely low visibility, one hundred and ten warships roamed around the enemy fleet, and whenever the Yan fleet made a move, three or four search warships used the darkness to infiltrate the opponent's fleet to strategically harass them.

The wooden cannons of Daxia are still very shocking in this era, the artillery made of iron and wood fires fine iron sand, and it is not possible to sink it against wooden ships, but now most of them are sailors and soldiers on the battleship, most of them operate on the deck, there are not many protective measures, and the lethality to the enemy is still very strong.

Especially in the thick of the night, the huge sound of artillery had a huge impact on the hearts of the Yan State Navy.

Until after being attacked by a surprise attack, Fan Sui reacted in a timely manner, ordering the fleet to move closer to the middle and wait for dawn, which although it curbed Hu Lian's tactics of using the weather to sneak attack, it also limited the activity area of the Yan navy, so as to achieve the strategic goal of dragging the main fleet of Yan State.

In the absence of a clear understanding of the enemy's situation, Fan Sui adopted the tactics of delay, waiting for the dawn, the two sides were in a stalemate for several hours, until eight o'clock in the morning, the visibility was less than 50 meters, although I did not know the specific number of Yan State naval forces, but Fan Sui still judged that the enemy warships were less than 100 according to a series of actions of the other party, which also made Fan Sui completely let go of his heart all night.

Fan Sui ignored the fire harassment of several warships in other directions, ordered the left and right roads to spread out on both sides, neutralized the two hundred main warships, and directly advanced towards the more than 50 warships of the Fujian Naval Division of Great Xia located in the west direction.

Hu Lian stood on the command ship Li Mu, saw the formation of the enemy's battleship clearly, and ordered his own battleship to fight and retreat to the west through the flag.

A total of three iron-wood naval guns on the side of Li Mu fought back at the enemy ship at the head, and all the gunners used all their strength to beat the iron sand out as quickly as possible, even when they were training, they were not so fast, and they believed that they would definitely be able to teach the despicable and shameless rebel an extremely painful lesson. However, they soon discovered that the Yan people's attacks were faster and fiercer!

The Yan warships lined up by the swallows first discovered the huge body of the Fujian Navy Li Mu, and the five battleships' bow crossbow beds were set on fire first, and a total of fifteen large crossbow beds in the bow attacked with a storm, four-foot-long arm-thick crossbow arrows, and five catapults beat Li Mu around the Li Mu like a cage composed of water columns.

Such a dense attack quickly paid off, and the Li Mu shook, and a cobblestone the size of a millstone burst up in the stern of the ship, "We have been shot!" ”

"Shut up! Check for damage! As long as the naval guns are still working, keep fighting for me! Seeing that the stern of the ship was shot, the gun captain immediately commanded Shui Yong to check the injury.

The officers and men on the Li Mu finally paid off, and a shell hit the deck of the enemy ship in the middle, and a fireball rose with the sound of explosions.

"Hit!" Li Mu was jubilant in the last article, but as the smoke cleared, the enemy ship was shot, killing and wounding more than 20 sailors on the bow deck of the large 2,000-stone ship Yan Guo.

But no effective damage was done to the ships, and the joy turned to shock, and the fact that his own guns could not inflict damage on the enemy soon turned to fear.

On the other side, the reaction of the enemy ship pioneer general Qi Wei was just the opposite, at the moment when the Zhennan was hit, Qi Weixin raised his throat, you must know that this battleship is the second largest warship in Yan in terms of displacement after the flagship Zhendong, and there are only three warships like this in the Yan navy, each of which is precious, if there are three long and two short, he can't afford this responsibility.

However, the news that the herald came back was that Li Mu's shells did not cause damage to the battleship under his feet, and the fact that the hull of the Zheng Nan was unscathed made Qi Wei ecstatic: "I can't imagine that the new weapons of the Xia people can only shoot the soldiers on the battleship, and it can't cause great damage to the battleship itself."

After being scared all night, it turned out that Daxia's new weapons could not cause damage to the hull, but would only kill and injure the sailors on the deck, so why be afraid? "Left rudder! Close the distance to the enemy! ”

Li Mu can't penetrate his own hull, and if he doesn't take advantage of such a big advantage, it won't be me Qi Wei, and as the distance gets closer, the crossbow arrows and trebuchets of the Yan people are more accurate.

In an instant, Li Mu was hit hard again, the bridge was shot, and the veteran Hu Lian was thrown up by a huge shock, and then fell heavily to the ground, the huge pain and dizziness of the shock made him speechless for a while.

But this is not bad, the captain Shen Shou, who is at the helm, is not so lucky. A crossbow bolt struck him in the head, and the massive arrow landed and shoveled off half of his head, and in an instant blood splattered with a liquid of blood and brains all over the deck of the bridge.

Seeing that the bridge was hit, the guards immediately rushed over: "General Hu! General Hu! ”

At this time, Hu Lian couldn't speak, so he could only stretch out his hand and point to the rudder.

The guards understood and immediately rushed over, seeing that half of Shen Shou's head had been cut off and he had lost his breath, the guards could only hold back their grief and re-stabilize the rudder.

At this time, the situation of the other dozen or so broken warships was also very bad, although Yan had five warships besieging Li Mu, and other warships joined the battle, approaching Li Muhao, trying to relieve Li Muhao, but they were soon surrounded by dozens of warships, three of which were about 1,000 stones, and were immediately hit hard.

Although the visibility on the sea surface was not high at this time, and due to the frequent involvement of the Great Xia ironwood artillery, the visibility was extremely poor, but the hulls of these three warships were also skewed due to water ingress.