Today, a total of more than 500 ships were transferred to the coast of Nishisanuki to cooperate with the operation, and when the army landed, it was the Kuki Yoshitaka who commanded the naval forces at sea. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

As a naval army general who has made the sea his home for many years, he naturally will not ignore the safety issues during the landing process. However, the direction of attention is mainly to the east, which is likely to be attacked by the Miyoshi family, because the west side is the territory of the Murakami Suigun, which is subordinate to the Mori family, and the Maori family is currently an ally of the Oda family for the time being.

Now, however, he saw with his own eyes countless warships coming towards him from the west, clearly friend or foe.

Neither Hiteshu nor Sasa Narumasa could recognize the flags on each other's ships at the first time, but the nine ghosts Yoshitaka who was an "insider" could see at a glance that the flag fluttering on the large Ataku ship at the front represented the old island Jili of Murakami's naval army.

And the squad sent over to guard was completely nowhere to be seen, and no news was ever sent back, probably at the first time, it had been encircled and eliminated.

On the side of the Pingshou Army, it was the time of the "half-crossing", and the large and small ships were used as means of transport, and they were messily crowded together not far from the shore, and there were still hundreds of people who did not have time to go ashore, and those who accidentally fell into the water had to be rescued immediately.

There was a mist that could not be blown away by the wind, and the visibility was not very good, and the radius of the naked eye could not exceed ten kilometers anyway. Although the Nine Ghosts Jialong was very sensitive to changes in the sea level and detected the military situation earlier than the people on the shore, the other party was menacing, and he still had little time to react.

Without time to think about why the Murakami naval army, which belonged to Maori, launched an attack, the Nine Demons made a decision at the first time, ordering all the ships that were still capable of fighting to take the initiative to meet and hinder the enemy's advance.

He did it very wisely, if the fleet was surrounded on the shore and could not be used, it would be equivalent to a fixed target, and the enemy could only occupy the smooth water, and could no longer stop the counterattack. And once defeated, there is no way to escape.

It is necessary to form a formation, and theoretically, the ships on the shore should immediately break away from the opposite direction first, retreat to a wide enough spot and turn back to join the battle. Or just move in.

However, this also means that some of the infantry who fall into the water in the chaos will be abandoned and left to fend for themselves.

Therefore, the Nine Ghosts Jialong hesitated for a moment, and did not immediately give such an instruction, but only urged the sailors to speed up and quickly complete the remaining landing and rescue work. At the same time, someone was immediately sent to inform the draw and ask the Lord to make a decision in the future.

This majestic warrior in the water has always been so cautious politically. As a general, he was on the largest ship, and he had a good chance of escaping anyway, so he was more worried about offending people than if he was defeated.

In other words, the only way he could deal with it was to personally bring a few ships that were still ready to fight to delay the time, and leave everything else to the tie to judge.

Kuki Yoshitaka commanded a coalition army, less than half of which were his own Shima Naval Army, and the rest were people from Izumi Province and Awaji who had just changed their courts. In order to stabilize the morale of the military in such a situation, it is indispensable to take the lead.

Therefore, his ship did not hesitate to paddle at full speed and rush to the first, assuming a posture that would not hesitate to hit to stop the enemy. Only in this way can those people have no excuse to avoid war.

Of course, the posture is the posture, everyone knows in their hearts that as long as the other side is not a fool, the impact will not really happen, both sides are large Anzhai ships, and the result of desperate efforts is likely to be a fish dead and the net is broken. Separated by a hundred meters from each other, attacking each other with baked jade, iron cannons, bows and arrows is the norm of water warfare in this era. Rapid advance is only a psychological deterrent, because the sooner the ship slows down and retreats, it will have a variety of disadvantages in engagement.

So the Nine Ghosts Jialong gritted his teeth and made a calm and fearless appearance, and ordered to row hard, getting closer and closer to the enemy ship.

From a distance of a few miles, it didn't take long to shorten to about 1,000 steps, then 900 steps, then 800 steps...... Neither side pushed, and it was only at about 500 paces that they slowed down at the same time and turned slightly.

At the same time, the archers, iron gunners, and roasters on both sides of the ship were also ready to fire.

It was a tie, but the next occasion was for commanders to compete for their experience in water warfare. In the absence of means of observation, the actual distance needs to be constantly compared with the expected range. Both sides are slowing down but still getting closer, and the timing of the first salvo is very important, if it is too fast, the distance is too large to make it a threat, and if it is too slow, you will have to withstand an enemy attack first. Therefore, the side that can have a little range advantage has great initiative.

The Nine Ghosts Jialong was engrossed in his gaze, and when he estimated that he was two hundred and sixty steps apart, he decisively waved his hand and ordered, shouting in the loudest voice: "Shoot!" ”

The pirates, who had been prepared for a long time, immediately raised their weapons and poured fire in the direction of the enemy.

The attacking Murakami Navy presents a tight formation on the outside and loose on the inside, a bit like a hollow phalanx, I don't know if it is the famous "butterfly tactic", if you shoot at the first row of enemies, you don't need to aim, just aim in the general direction.

Two hundred and sixty paces is a bit far, but when the order is given, it takes a little time to actually raise the weapon, and with the help of the force of the ship's forward rush, it should be just the right firing distance.

Nine Ghost Jialong is still very confident in his own water battle strength. Although it is the initiative to attack more with less, if the command is effective and the training degree is superior, it is not impossible to fight.

I had carefully considered it before the attack, and now both sides are facing the wind and waves, and there is no advantage, and it is purely by real ability to decide the fate.

But just as he was thinking about this, he suddenly found that when his own warriors were bending their bows and arrows, the opponent's roasted jade and fire arrows had already appeared in the sky!

He suddenly felt a sudden tightening in his chest, and he had a sense of foreboding.

"Ahhh

Sure enough, the serial screams around him proved that the opposing commander was not a mistake in judgment.

That means that the enemy's shooters are more combat-ready and can guarantee a hit rate at a longer range.

Although it may only be a difference of about ten steps, after this kind of thing reaches a bottleneck, every little bit of progress is behind countless personnel selection and repeated training, and this gap is enough to become the last straw that crushes the camel.

In other words...... Nine Ghost Jialong couldn't help but have a thought in his heart that he didn't want to admit it: Maybe the good battle of the Murakami Water Army is far above the Nine Ghost Water Army?

As a rule, once the order to shoot is given, it will not stop, and the two sides will keep a certain distance and make long-range attacks on each other, until one side can no longer withstand the pressure and waver, and the side that has the upper hand will not consider attacking.

Under this steady rhythm of regular combat, the side with the overall superiority in terms of troops, training, command, wind direction, etc., can always win tepidly, and it is extremely difficult for the inferior side to win back.

A charge regardless of sacrifice can certainly disrupt the situation, but the average pirate does not have the morale to carry out this task.

It is also difficult to outflank and detour, there are no barriers such as hills and woods at sea, and to perform tactical maneuvers, the speed of the ship and the speed of turning are much higher than that of the opponent, and speed and combat effectiveness are often incompatible......

The two columns faced each other, thousands of arrows, projectiles, and clay pots streaked through the air, and the fire filled the sky with brilliant colors. However, in the eyes of the warriors at sea, these are all talismans that do not know when they will fall on their heads. Once the fire bolts and roasted jade land on the deck, they can cause explosions and fires, producing thick black smoke, combined with hoarse roars and terrifying screams, to form an eerie picture.

The shooting was far less bloody than hand-to-hand combat, and the casualties, whether they fell into the water or fell on the boat, did not cause too gruesome images. But the actual casualty figures are not bad at all.

The Nine Ghosts Jialong couldn't sit still anymore, he dismissed the soldiers who wanted to come over to defend with hats and bamboo bundles, and let everyone all go into shooting, and even he planned to take the long-lost iron cannon, but was desperately stopped by his retainers before giving up.

But the gap with the enemy has not been bridged.

The layman may not be able to see it, but the Nine Ghosts Jialong clearly feels that at the same distance, the other party's hit rate is higher, and the approximate casualty ratio is estimated to be about three to two.

And even more serious is the scene behind you. Looking back, less than half of the chaotic fleet of their own ships were able to retreat to the wide sea in time and go into battle after regrouping, and most of them had not yet sorted out their heads.

On the other hand, the follow-up troops of Murakami's water army were obviously prepared and began to gradually spread out their posture.

The tie finally had a second fleet come forward. It was Antaku Nobuyasu's subordinates who had just finished the preparation, and he immediately stepped up without hesitation and made a posture of defending the flanks, but he had to face three or four times as many enemies. Then Suga Dacho, who is known as "the strongest in the Awaji water war", also followed behind and joined in.

But the situation remains critical, and there are no signs of optimism.

In the same army, they know each other to some extent. Using his own house as a reference, the Nine Ghosts Jialong felt that Kan Dacho's army was still relatively reliable, but he had just lost two hundred elites, and now was the weakest time; And Antaka Nobuyasu's men are obviously much weaker, and it is estimated that they can only withstand ten rounds of fire; As for Hequan, the sailors who don't even have a house boat are completely made up.

Maybe...... It's time to prepare for improvement. It can't be too obvious and not cause any displeasure on the shore, but his name must be kept anyway...... Luckily, I wasn't completely inexperienced in this kind of thing before.

The Nine Ghosts Jialong began to have the idea of "taking precautions".

His own ship was undoubtedly the most powerful of the Shima navy, and the maintenance and personnel training were meticulous, and although he rushed to the front, the losses were not large, and he could slip away at any time.

Just when he was secretly estimating when it was best to turn, he suddenly caught another glimpse of a suspected friendly ship coming from a distance on the right, flying the family crest and flag of the Hirate family.

There are only a few boats, but they are all small, and they are very unique, with huge sails.

Isn't it the so-called "Southern Barbarian Warship" that the Pingshou family bought with a lot of money?

Do you want to use useless "toys" to save the emergency?

When we discussed this before, everyone was skeptical on the surface, but in fact they thought that Lord Heishou had been deceived by the cunning Nanban.

The ship of the southern barbarians is large, but the shape is strange, too long and too narrow, there are few shooting holes that can stand people, and they are all repaired on both sides, and at first glance it is impossible to adapt to the national conditions of my Fuso.

But now the Nine Ghosts Jialong sincerely hopes that his guess is completely wrong.

Maybe those Nanban warships have some special tactics.

Although it is okay to escape back to save your life, there will be a lot of loss after all. As long as there is a chance to win the battle, who is willing to lose?