The Li Mu was then hit one after another, and the guards at the helm were also hit by broken stones, and seeing that the two helmsmen in front of him were killed one after another, another old sailor volunteered to take the helm.

At this time, Hu Lian, who had been carried off the bridge and had been relieved, knew that if he continued to fight like this, the whole army would be annihilated, and he no longer had the momentary courage when he first started the war, so he immediately ordered the main force to disperse - evacuate.

And he led a dozen wounded battleships to turn their bows to cover the main fleet and buy time for the main fleet.

At this time, Li Mu really couldn't hold on, and then turned the rudder to meet the enemy ship group, Zhennan immediately chased up, the distance between the two sides continued to close, and two boulders hit Li Mu again, hitting the port side of Li Mu that was turning, Qi Wei saw that Li Mu had been seriously damaged, and there was no need to let Zhennan take risks, so he used the flag to call other warships to besiege Li Mu, and his Zhennan continued to pursue other Great Xia warships.

This small mistake in the turning of the Zhennan finally gave Li Mu a fleeting opportunity, and since the distance between the two ships was less than fifty meters, Hu Lian quickly ordered the trebuchet on the ship to shoot a large clay pot filled with fire oil at the enemy ship.

The clay pot crossed a beautiful arc and accurately hit the second deck of the bow of the Zhennan The clay pot shattered on the deck, and then dozens of rockets shot towards the Zhennan, one of which hit the place where the oil was broken.

When the Zhennan landed a fire, dozens of water warriors on the Zhennan quickly moved the sand prepared in advance from the warehouse, and wanted to extinguish the fire in the last period, and there was a rush on the deck.

However, at this time, an ironwood cannon was hitting the deck, and more than a dozen firefighters were hit, several of whom fell in the fire and turned into burning men, and the fire spread in all directions, and a quarter of an hour later, the entire Zhennan with more than 3,000 stones burned up, lighting up the entire sky.

Hu Lian took advantage of the opportunity of severely damaging the enemy's forward command ship, and decisively ordered the evacuation when the fleet was in chaos, and after the main force withdrew, the situation of the detachment was very bad, although it had withdrawn westward at full speed, but these dozen warships were all wounded, and the speed of the Yan warships could only be maintained at about ten knots at this time, and the speed of the Yan warships was more than five knots higher than that of Jiyuan.

"My lord, the enemy's speed is faster than ours, and we can't retreat!" Seeing that most of the enemy ships were chasing the main force at full speed, and dozens of enemy ships were chasing him, it was time for Hu Lian to think about how he could get out.

However, at this time he was already at full speed, and the enemy ships that were in hot pursuit were not only not thrown away, but were getting closer and closer. However, at this time, the main force of seventy warships led by Chai Ang and Hu Ye went and returned.

Hu Lian, who knew that he could not resist the Yan army's strong ships and artillery, continued to evacuate westward, and at the same time informed Chai Angshuai's main force to withdraw quickly, but the more than 500 warships of the Yan State had formed a huge encirclement, where could they withdraw?

At this time, he also saw the escaped Xia State warships under the pressure of the warships on the left and right flanks, and turned their heads to meet with the dozen enemy ships that were surrounded, so Fan Sui ordered that the surrounding warships be scattered and intercepted, so he personally led more than 100 warships to the middle, divided and surrounded the Yan warships, and gradually annihilated, and this decision changed history.

However, seeing that the Yan ships were chasing after each other, getting closer and closer, and a large number of enemy warships were found in front to intercept them, Chai Ang quickly made the decision to turn around and join the detachment led by the flagship Li Mu.

At this time, the Li Mu had already suffered heavy casualties, and the gunners of the tail battery continued to return fire with their tail guns, although they hit the enemy ship and caused great damage to the enemy ship's personnel, but still did not cause any damage to the enemy ship's hull.

Seeing that it was useless to continue to escape, Hu Lian, who was cornered, puffed up Yu Yong and ordered Li Mu to fight reflexively, and finally Li Mu was hit by more than 100 stone bullets and then sank.

Before the sinking of the Li Mu, Hu Lian boarded the deputy ship and continued to command the operation.

In addition to the main general Hu Lian, more than 500 officers and soldiers on the Li Mu were killed on the spot.

And Li Mu's decisive counterattack also used catapults to sink two enemy 500-stone warships.

On the other hand, Fan Sui made a wrong decision at this time that he regretted for the rest of his life, after knowing that there were a large number of artillery pieces on the ships of the Fujian Navy Division, although he knew that this new type of weapon did not play a big role in naval warfare, but if it was used in the battle of the land corps, it would play a decisive role.

After learning that Hu Lian's flagship had been sunk, he ordered the herald to raise the flag and persuade the other side to surrender.

After receiving the enemy's intention to persuade him to surrender, although he was seriously injured, Hu Lian decisively ordered Chai Ang to pretend to surrender and deal with the other party.

After an hour of fruitless negotiations on the confrontation, Fan hoisted the signal flag and signaled his fleet to attack.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, as Li Yu's main force arrived at the battlefield, the twelve-pounder general's main cannon on the Prince of Xiangyang let out the first deafening roar, and a national battle that decided the fate of the Yanxia Navy broke out in the waters north of Shuangqi Island in Penghu Bay.

The commander of the Great Xia Combined Fleet, the Yangtze River Naval Division, commanded Li Yu, and the deputy general Zhang Gui sat on the flagship 'Prince Xiangyang', leading a hundred warships equipped with copper cannons to form this fleet.

Cao Dan, the commander of the Yangtze River Naval Division, took command of the 3,000-stone main battleship Lian Po, and led 50 catapults to form the first guerrilla fleet to attack the flank of the enemy fleet.

The 50 warships led by the 3,000-stone main battleship Wang Jian were commanded by Shi Gui as the special team, and the overseer Guo Zhang sat on the Baiqi to supervise the battle with the special team.

Fan Sui sat in the flagship Zhendong, and reacted quickly when it was attacked at the first time, and immediately ordered the fleet to form a defensive formation, which was located in the center of the horizontal formation together with more than 200 warships in the center of the main force, and was escorted by more than 100 warships on the left and right.

When the two sides were 3,000 paces apart, Li Yu took advantage of the range advantage of the artillery to open fire first, and the shelling at this distance was inaccurate, and the 12-pound round iron ball shell landed 50 paces away from the starboard side of a 2,000-stone battleship of Fan Sui's main fleet, striking a huge column of water.

After observing this situation with a monocular telescope, Fan Sui knew that it was his destiny to engage at a long distance, and immediately ordered small warships under 1,000 stone to take advantage of the speed advantage to quickly approach the opponent.

After sinking more than 30 warships one after another, they began to return fire with catapults, and after half an hour of fierce fighting between the two sides, the large warships of the main force of the Yan State finally reached 500 steps behind the enemy ships.

Yan Guo Zhendong used a large catapult to shoot the first stone egg at the Prince of Xiangyang, but this shot of Zhendong was also in vain.

Not only that, but the deviation of the course of the two ships almost clicked on the left rotation of the Prince of Xiangyang, which almost disrupted the column of the team, and the two ships hurriedly adjusted their course.

The First Guerrilla Fleet led by Cao Dan had not yet entered the war, and their catapults were smaller than those of Zhendong, so they could not play an advantage at this distance, and all they had to do now was to get themselves close to the best distance they could attack.

The Lian Po, which was at the beginning, adjusted its course slightly and began to accelerate, and the distance between them and the team gradually widened, and then led the entire fleet to turn right, narrowing the distance between them and the Yan fleet.

And the Yan fleet organized by Fan Sui was discharged in a goose charge formation that took the initiative to defend. The distance between the two sides was rapidly shortened, and when the main fleet of Yan and the main force of Great Xia were five hundred paces apart, the first guerrilla fleet had already narrowed to three hundred paces, and at this time, the guerrilla fleet led by Cao Dan finally opened fire.

The persimmon has to be pinched softly, Cao Dan aimed at the dozens of medium-sized buildings on the far right side of the Yan fleet at the beginning, these were originally part of the Yangtze River Navy Guard Fleet led by Cao Dan, which was very familiar to him, and Cao Dan recognized it at a long distance.

Although the tonnage of these buildings is not small, the firepower, speed, and age of the ships are not good, and they are the most easily defeated battleships on the right flank of the Yan fleet, so the First Guerrilla Fleet aimed all its firepower at these two weak ships.

The stone eggs fired at the catapults on more than 20 warships quickly enveloped these ships, and these ships on the right flank of the Yan State Naval Division, due to their slow turning, could only devote one-third of the opponent's strength to compete with the opponent, and the ships were slow, so the counterattack against Cao Dan's ships was weak and ineffective.

And two percent of the stone eggs fired by the catapults of the guerrilla fleet hit each other, and in the bumpy sea, such a hit rate is unimaginable.

In just a quarter of an hour of the battle, most of the more than forty ships on the right side of the Yan fleet were hit by stone eggs, of which more than a dozen were sunk, and two were hit by fire oil canisters and caught fire. The more than 20 ships that sank were also wounded and began to fall behind, breaking away from the formation of the main fleet.

Due to the huge size of the Prince of Xiangyang, it is the most threatening ship in the eyes of the Yan State Naval Division, so the Zhendong and the ships on the left and right flanks are concentrating on attacking the main team of the Great Xia Fleet, so the first guerrilla fleet successfully sailed from the front of the Yan State Naval Division, Cao Dan boldly ordered the left full rudder, and the fleet outflanked the Yan State Naval Division to the right, and after defeating more than 40 building ships, using the gap left by the building ships, rushed in, and continued to attack the Yan fleet on both sides.

The few buildings that fell behind faced the Great Xia guerrilla fleet that pounced again, but in the end they could not escape their doom. After less than a quarter of an hour, they sank one after another.

The Combined Fleet made the first success, sinking more than forty ships. Satisfied, Cao Dan ordered the fleet to turn sharply to the left, forming a 180-degree U-turn, in an attempt to once again cross directly in front of the Yan State Naval Division.

Just as the 1st Guerrilla Fleet was showing its skills at the speed of its ships, the Combined Fleet itself was in trouble.

At this time, after the First Guerrilla Fleet penetrated from the enemy and us, the formation of the Bactria Fleet was disrupted, and Li Yugang gave an order to prepare to turn to the left, in an attempt to form a trap with the guerrilla fleet and outflank the rear of the Yan Naval Division, so that it could attack the Yan Naval Division with the First Guerrilla Fleet in front and rear.

However, the more than 20 old warships with the slowest speed fell behind, and the fallen warships were immediately seized by Fan Sui, and more than 40 warships on the left flank quickly stared at them.

At this time, Liu Cang, the general of the Yan State on the left wing, made a surprising decision, since the marshal Fan Sui ordered each ship to do its own thing. And it is only required to accompany the flagship action as much as possible, so this gives itself room to play.

He ordered more than 70 main ships on the left flank to move forward at full speed, although the speed of the fleet at this time could only reach 10 knots, but it still moved forward quickly, and when it sailed past the flank of more than a dozen ships in the rear of the left flank, he sent a flag signal, asking them to follow behind him and cut off the connection between the Prince of Xiangyang and his own team.

After getting the signal of the flag, the left wing general adjusted the course and began to follow the main force of the left wing, and there was a gap between the fleets because of the horizontal formation, but the rear team began to fine-tune the course and narrow the spacing, forming a vertical formation that was not a straight line, and it was directly in front of the 'Prince of Xiangyang', and a non-standard T-shaped formation was formed at this moment.