Lü Meng's fleet controlled both ends of the strait, and in particular, successfully cleared the coastal batteries on the other side of the strait, clearing the last obstacle for the army to cross the strait.

Lü Bu planned to make a tentative landing, and the Persian Empire actively cooperated, and they collected many ships from the Mediterranean coast and the Black Sea coast, large and small, as long as they could carry people, they would not dislike it.

The 1st Division of the Imperial Army, the 1st Division of the Haotian Army, and 20,000 hoplites from the Persian Empire were selected to serve as pioneers, and they boarded 2,000 large and small ships, including transport ships, fishing boats, and cargo ships.

Fifty thousand people logged in at a time, which is not a small scale, but the Han Empire still has a wealth of experience, so everything is in order and not in a hurry.

Lümont's fleet was mainly guarding against the Mediterranean direction, and there were no enemy ships in the Black Sea direction.

Lü Meng had received a message from Lu Su, that Lu Su's Grand Fleet had all passed through the Suez Canal and entered the Mediterranean, and was heading for Nicaea day and night.

At the same time, the Ministry of Intelligence also alerted them, saying that the main fleet of the Roman Imperial Navy in Taranto had set sail, and although its movements were unknown, it was speculated that it was very likely to come to Nicaea.

Lü Meng was not very worried, the number of capital ships of the Roman fleet was not much more than that of his own fleet, and the Romans were all newly formed navies, who had just learned to use artillery, and their combat effectiveness was not the same.

However, despite this, Lümont still sent reconnaissance ships from afar to prevent a sneak attack by the Romans.

When the Han army began to board the ships, the main fleet of the Roman Imperial Navy led by Publius and the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet had just completed their division.

They assembled in the middle of the Aegean Sea, also to prevent detection by the Han army and the Persian Empire.

Publius also received information that the Han army and the Persian army had begun to cross the strait, and he did not care about the fatigue of coming from afar, so he immediately set anchor and set out all of them to attack the strait.

The Han reconnaissance ship spotted the Roman Imperial naval fleet fifty miles away and alerted Lü Meng in time.

Lü Meng decided to take the initiative to meet the attack, keeping the battlefield away from the landing field, so as not to cause casualties to the army.

The Han army formed a horizontal formation with the Imperial as the core, and unified to meet the enemy on the port side.

The Taishan-class warships were next to the Empire, while the Chang'an-class battleships occupied the left and right wings.

The Roman Empire's naval fleet also spotted the Empire, after all, the Empire was too large and appeared on the horizon earlier than others.

Publius immediately ordered his fleet to be transformed into a horizontal formation, ready to bombard the enemy with naval guns.

His five-hundred-ton battleships were twice as numerous as those of the Han army, so he arranged the five-hundred-ton battleships in two rows.

The war was imminent, and the sailors on both sides began to get busy, and the Roman Imperial Navy relied on its own outnumbered men to row with all their might, rushing towards the Han army.

The Han army relied on sail power, and the sailors of the navy also cooperated with the gunners, delivering a large number of shells to the gun emplacement.

The cover doors of the guns on the side of the board were opened, and the black guns poked out.

The fleets of the two sides approached rapidly, and finally when they were still three hundred feet away, the Empire's ten-inch guns were the first to fire the first shell.

This was the second time that the Roman navy had engaged in an artillery naval battle, the last time being a tentative battle with Lusu's small fleet off the coast of Alexandria.

They didn't know that because of the low hit rate of the artillery, they should shoot at close range, and when they saw the Han army firing, they immediately counterattacked, they only knew that their six-inch guns and eight-inch guns had enough range.

The distance of 300 zhang was sufficient, but the hit rate was extremely low, and the Romans lacked training and had not yet mastered the technique of shooting on the bumpy sea, which was not something that could be done in a day or two.

Although the Han army was well-trained, there was no guarantee that the first shot would hit, but when the salvo was fired five or six rounds, a ten-inch shell hit a Caesar-class battleship.

Immediately a raging fire broke out, and the part that had been hit exploded into a large hole, just near the waterline, and the sea water rushed in.

The Han army circled the Roman fleet in a counterclockwise direction, maintaining a strict formation, while the Romans had a large number of warships, and once the fight started, they were a little careless.

The Roman warships were basically fighting on their own, and Publius ordered the triremes to charge and lean up to engage the Han army.

Lu Meng saw at a glance those three-oared warships that rushed out of his own queue, how rich Lu Meng's experience was, when he looked at those three-oared warships, the oars were rowing fast, but there was no artillery on them, no need to ask, either by hand-to-hand combat, or by fire.

Lü Meng ordered that the six-inch guns of all warships concentrate their fire on these three-oared warships, and the Han Navy has formed a complete set of optical and flag signaling systems, so his orders can be effectively conveyed to each warship.

Especially those reconnaissance ships, at this time they need to step up and use their six-inch guns and rifles to attack those three-oared ships.

The closer the distance, the higher the hit rate, especially the rate of fire of the six-inch gun, and the solid bullet hitting those three-oared warships was a big hole, directly smashed into the oarsman, and flesh and blood flew sideways.

However, as the distance between the two fleets decreased, the Romans were gradually able to hit their opponents.

Publius was also a cunning figure, commanding the fleet to turn counterclockwise with the Han army.

However, when the Han army gave way to the north channel and turned to the south of the Romans, Publius ordered the whole fleet to quickly go north and attack the Han landing fleet, leaving these Han warships alone.

The Romans also had trumpets and banners, but they were clearly not as advanced as the Han army, and Publius could only lead by example, and his flagship Caesar was the first to turn and gallop northward, and all the oarsmen paddled to their heart's content.

Lu Meng was calculating the angle and distance of the shot, and suddenly noticed that the Romans began to turn, and then realized that the target of the Romans had always been the landing fleet at the landing site.

Those transports and fishing boats encountered these Roman warships, and they were not sheep in the mouth?

Lu Meng hurriedly ordered the whole fleet to return to the landing site, and he couldn't care about the formation, so he returned at full speed, fortunately, the oarsmen of the Chang'an-class battleships in his fleet had not been revoked, and there were no oarsmen in the Taishan-class and the Imperial-class.

The ten Chang'an-class battleships began to accelerate, paddling desperately to chase the Romans, and the two sides were a bit like a dragon boat race.

Ten reconnaissance ships of smaller tonnage rushed ahead of the Grand Fleet and intercepted in front of the Roman navy, using their small bodies of 300 tons, desperately intercepting, firing constantly with several six-inch guns in the bow and stern.

Lü Meng ordered his men to fire three red flares, which indicated that the situation was urgent.

Lü Bu was on the beach in Nicaa and personally supervised the landing operation, and the first ships had already landed on the beach on the opposite shore and were landing.

He had already heard the rumbling of cannons coming from the southern sea, and the cannons were very intense, indicating that Lümen's fleet had encountered an opponent of comparable strength, and it was probably the main force of the Roman Imperial Navy.