The overseer of the water fleet southward is a descendant of the ancient bus royal family, as a country dominated by merchants on the ancient Silk Road, he is naturally resistant to war, he is not dressed like a general who is about to enter a battle, his whole body is covered with jewelry, and he is also an outlier among the nobles of the Yan Kingdom, hearing Bai Yang's complaint about the weather, he smiled and said: "It seems that Allah intends to let us take a long vacation here, maybe the war will end if we take a vacation!" ”

Fan Sui looked at himself, the overseer sent by the Great Khan of Yan State, and calculated that they had known each other for several months, as far as his position in the Yan Navy was concerned, he was actually above him, and the only thing that was gratified was that this Ah San was more interested in money in the choice between power and money, and never pointed fingers in the army.

All the people of Yutai Chu were able to come here to take up important positions, it was completely because of the fear of the sea of the nobles of the Yan Kingdom, which made this clown among the nobles of the Yan Kingdom take advantage of it, and he was not dissatisfied with his current status, and most of the offerings of a large number of sea smuggling merchants fell into the personal belt of this straw bag. Moreover, he served as the supervisor of such an army of 50,000 men.

Turning over the record book of history, the bus family has never appeared in Yan Guo to serve as such a high-ranking real power official.

Bai Yang took over and said: "Our Western Expeditionary Army is continuously transporting strategic materials back from the West, and when we have enough grain and grass in reserve, and millions of troops will come to the Yangtze River again, maybe the people of Daxia will regret fighting with us!" After all, which god of war in Great Xia has already gone to meet with Allah, as long as the army arrives, I think Xia Kingdom will not last for two months at all! ”

Li Ao, the commander of this handsome ship, looked equally optimistic: "Maybe in another month or two they will sit down with the Ottomans to negotiate surrender!" ”

Fan Sui slowly put away his smile, he took a sip of fragrant tea, and said unhurriedly: "The Xia people compromising now is equivalent to giving up their thousands of years of rule over this rich and beautiful land, and they have lost the right to speak. This means that there is no way back for the Xia Kingdom - compromise means losing their most precious and dependent right! Considering the natural sense of honor of the Han people and the tough character of some scholars, unless they are really at the end of their rope, I think they will not admit defeat easily! ”

Listen to this analysis. Bai Yang and Li Ao, who were very happy just now, suddenly froze, and only Tantai Chu drank red wine calmly. Maybe it was in his heart that he didn't care about the outcome of the war at all, as long as he had the opportunity to earn a lot of wealth and enjoy a wonderful life.

He didn't care who the victorious side belonged to, when the Great Xia was strong, for the Gaoche people, they also lived a rich life through trade, but it was just a little harder, not as easy as it is now by robbery.

Seeing that it was a little cold, and he didn't want to give his deputy a bad mood when attacking, Fan Sui turned to say in a slightly more relaxed tone: "Of course, that's just some of my personal opinions, maybe the compromise faction of Xia Guo will come tomorrow to ask for peace, but not necessarily!" Our task is to add some pressure to the Xia people from the sea and defeat the sailors that the Xia Kingdom is proud of, which is likely to be the last straw that breaks the camel's back! ”

Bai Yang also smiled and said: "We can just send the Xia State warships to the bottom of the sea, and when the army attacks Jiangnan, the Xia State Imperial Court can only stare dryly, isn't it?" ”

Fan Sui nodded vigorously and said: "Of course, although the people of the Xia Kingdom have recently strengthened their naval army construction, it is impossible to surpass us in a short period of time!" ”

Fan Sui was still more cautious and said: "The strength of the Xia Navy at this stage is not terrible, what I am worried about is the persistence of the southerners in the navy, as long as they are given infrequent time, in terms of their shipbuilding ability, it will make us fall into passivity!" ”

Li Ao said confidently: "If we can defeat the main force of the Xia State Navy in the East China Sea, our country's main navy will change from a short board to a long version, and the defense of the Yangtze River in the south of the Great Xia River will become weak, and maybe it will repeat the Tang Dynasty after the destruction of Great Xia hundreds of years ago!" ”

Due to the naval strength, ship preparation, logistical factors and other aspects are not conducive to the implementation of cross-river operations, the top level of Yan has already determined in advance the decision to first lure the Xia navy out of the territory and defeat the Xia State in the East China Sea, and the Xia Navy is not stupid enough to abandon the mainland and pursue and kill the Yan warship, so this battle of Shuangqi Island is an opportunity that the top level of the Yan State must seize.

Now the main energy of the Xia side is obviously spent on the Yangtze River coast and obstructing the Yan State from assembling landing ships in the southeast sea, and the air is full of information carrying this aspect, and since the Yan fleet has entered the Lianyungang waters. Not even a single Xia country reconnaissance ship appeared in the nearby waters. Nevertheless. The Yan Navy still sent small sea ships to carry out vigilant patrols in the waters north of Lianyungang every day, adding an insurance for the smooth travel of the Yan State fleet.

In winter, Beihai is like a baby face, and it changes when it is said. On the evening of the second day of the Lunar New Year, the sky began to turn gray, the fog began to spread over the sea, and visibility dropped rapidly.

Qin Tianjian also came to the news at this time, speculating that there would be light to moderate snow in the southeast of the East China Sea in the next few days, and the weather surveyors on the ship made a similar prediction. The time has come to break through the observation point on the east coast of the Yangtze River of the Xia Army. Fan then ordered the fleet to set sail again.

Under the cover of light snow and nightfall, more than five hundred warships began to leave the harbor, and the waves stirred up by the ships began to splash down on the deck. The white tail marks left behind him spread far to the sides. But there was no reconnaissance force of the Xia people on the open sea.

By midnight on the fifth day, the Yan fleet, which was traveling at a high speed of 10 knots, had reached a position less than 100 nautical miles northwest of Taiwan.

Great Xia, Fujian Road Ryukyu Province (Taiwan).

Although the war has not patronized this land far from land in Great Xia for hundreds of years, as the largest port on the Pacific coast of Great Xia and the deepest ice-free port in the world, Keelung Port has been busier than usual since the outbreak of the Xiayan War.

Since Gantang developed Indonesia and the Philippines, there are no less than 100 ships carrying goods from here every week, and in order to resist the ravages of piracy, Xia began to implement a strict escort system on its own shipping lines, and ships from the South Seas to Daxia usually first go to Keelung Port to assemble, and then cross the Taiwan Strait in large formations under the escort of Daxia armed warships.

By midnight, the residents of Ryukyu Prefecture had just begun their dinner, but the workers were still working in shifts on the bright docks, where there were so many goods to be loaded onto ships.

In the past, the ships that came out of here were loaded with all kinds of trade materials, but with the southern invasion of the Yan fleet, more than 200 Great Xia sailors docked here, and 2,000 naval officers and soldiers led by Deng Yu boarded their assigned ships.

This time, the Great Xia Navy was jointly commanded by Li Yu and Deng Yu, and the Indonesian local government of Great Xia also tried to get together more superrunners to go to Ryukyu to help them resist the possible attack of the Yan Navy.

Amid the long sound of conchs, another large three-story ship slowly sailed into the harbor, judging from its waterline, it was not an empty ship - it had apparently arrived from other ports to join the fleet, and the new weapons from Indonesia were being shipped to the ships for installation, and due to the shortage of gunners, only two guns could be installed on each warship.

On one side of the harbor, the warships were also assembled and ready to sail, and among the warships of various sizes, one of the large ones painted in blue and white camouflage was particularly eye-catching. The battle flag of the King of Xiangyang of Great Xia fluttering high, the tower-like bridge, the huge turret, the thick copper barrel and the elegant silhouette all made the crew who was about to set sail with the fleet feel reassured - this was the 'Prince of Xiangyang' with a displacement of 4,000 stone and equipped with a 12-inch general's bronze cannon. ’

In the conference room on the floor of the Prince of Xiangyang. The Great Xia staff officer, wearing a dark blue uniform, handed over a piece of paper with many forms printed on it to the commander of the fleet, who was now fifty-two years old and was in charge of the local navy. Li Yu, who is over fifty years old, looks to have changed from a weak scholar to a sturdy old seaman, and his years at sea have left bark-like furrows on his face. A pair of eyes seemed to be as tired as his age, but inadvertently revealed a sharpness that was younger than that of a young man.

Li Yu unhurriedly scanned the contents of the Chinese document in his hand.

On the docks, workers are still removing piles of cargo from the Prince, and then carrying the goods onto the ships in designated positions.

"Be careful, these are dangerous goods!"

A middle-aged man who looked like an officer stood next to a pile of goods and reminded the workers loudly, and it was obvious that these people were very tired and their movements were not so sharp, but fortunately no one made a big mistake. On these rectangular wooden boxes, one can clearly see the words "munitions. Danger".

"The last twenty boxes!"

The workers were startled by the sound, and then a foreman-like man shouted, "Come on, guys!" Let's start the meal after this batch! ”

Spurred on by the food, the last cargo was shipped surprisingly quickly, and after the last box of cargo was loaded onto the freighter, the sailors began to close the lid on the cabin, and the workers left the dock in twos and threes. In a short time, the sound of conch shells sounded in the harbor, and one after another the ships unmoored and lifted anchor, and sailed out of the port in a very orderly manner under the leadership of the flagship Prince. After several hours of regrouping and formation, a large flotilla of ten columns of four or five ships each was formed and began to advance on the distant island of Shuangqi with a voyage of 8 knots.

On the ten-nautical-mile sea surface of Shuangqi Island, there is a large fleet of Yan Kingdom.

In the gray night sky, countless lanterns turned into the Milky Way, and a fleet of nearly 500 ships was slowly and orderly sailing on the sea.

It was late at night, there was not a trace of wind, and the light snow was falling silently, but at the lookout posts and combat posts of those ships, the officers on duty who were mainly in black military uniforms were still very vigilant and concerned about the situation on the sea.

As time passed, they got closer to their destination, but they knew that it also meant that they were getting closer to danger. As a result of entering the sea area where enemy activity is frequent, small reconnaissance ships patrol around the fleet within five nautical miles of the vicinity, which greatly increases the crew's sense of security.

Suddenly, a violent explosion came from the back of the fleet, and the fireball that shot into the sky made the silvery-white world appear strangely bright in people's sight, and the entire fleet was agitated by the sudden blow.