Fierce naval battles once again broke out in the place where great battles had broken out, when the opponent's small ships began to approach to a distance of about 100 paces, the strong archers and even gunners on the ships also launched a battle to meet the enemy, and the hit rate of many rifled guns at this distance began to become stronger and stronger.

The more than 100 rifled guns on the 12 ships, as well as about 600 strong archers and more than 200 gunners, accounted for only a small part of the total firepower, but in a close range of fire, at least 200 shells that accurately hit the enemy ships and even thousands of arrows were fired in just one minute, causing casualties to more than 200 officers and men on the enemy ships, and at the same time causing damage to the eyes of more than 10 ships.

This resistance also had to slow down the approach of the enemy ships, but not only about 10 percent of the ships were damaged, but even about 3 or 4 percent of the casualties did not shake the determination of these small ships to approach.

The captain of the Qianfeng, who was in charge of commanding the ships left behind, did not hesitate to give the order to launch a counterattack with all his strength when he saw that as his fleet was further shrinking, and in order to concentrate his forces to the maximum and exert firepower, the enemy ships were also approaching more intensively and boldly to a large extent. Because if those ships were to be approached to a distance of about seventy or eighty paces, no one could say what kind of risks they would encounter under the siege of the continuous blasting fireships.

In this way, sixty heavy mortar guns on twelve ships, including the original heavy mortars, once again launched a fierce bombardment. At the beginning, when a lot of white smoke suddenly came out of the opponent's ships one after another, many officers and soldiers on the nearby coalition ships cheered, thinking that the previous continuous attacks had caused the gunpowder on the opponent's ship, but someone soon noticed it. In just a few seconds or so, heavy explosive shells of around 500 catties flew over a distance of about 150 to 200 meters, and huge water columns continued to explode on the water surface in all directions. Although more energy was spread underwater, it still allowed many flying water columns to engulf many of the not small enemy ship hulls.

Because the sturdiness of these ships is much inferior to that of the big ships, even at a distance of about 15 meters from the bombing point, there are still many small boats whose sides cannot withstand the violent shaking and are damaged, and almost at the same time, most of the enemy crew on board also fell into a brief coma, and when someone reacts, the entire hull of the ship that quickly enters the water is often unable to be saved at this time.

In the case of relative stationary rather than motion, the hit rate is almost much higher, and the effective hit rate of about six or seven percent can often be achieved by launching a blasting attack against an enemy ship with only two heavy mortars, and the first round of firing salvos with sixty mortars has already assigned targets and preparations to gradually sink nineteen small and medium-sized enemy ships into the water, and the remaining eleven ships have also begun to receive some blows of one kind or another. Under such circumstances, there were not many enemy ships that were unaware of the danger they might face on the battlefield, and they all tried their best to flee into the distance.

At this time, all the gunners and strong archers of the twelve ships that were still capable of fighting began to step on the longitudinal propellers as fast as possible, so that the helmsmen could get as close as possible to the opponent.

However, due to the damage caused by the previous series of encounters, and because small and medium-sized boats are more conducive to the speed of escape, the distance between the two sides has been shortened by hundreds of meters in only about a minute.

The heavy mortar salvo was once again launched, and although the larger proportion of the charge was finally able to gain a longer range and effectively cover the opponent's area, the hit rate had dropped significantly, leaving only eight enemy ships threatened by the blasting shells.

As the heavy mortar gunners prepared for the third round of fire, they estimated that the enemy ship would most likely escape to the limit of about 200 paces and the heavy mortar would have been able to take a lot of risk and double the charge, but the vast majority of the guns still did so.

Of course, this also brought serious consequences, although the barrel explosion in the deck of a ship, although under the ingenious design and arrangement, did not bring too many casualties in the first place, nor did it bring the explosion of ammunition, but it still made the deck and even a lot of stored food quickly burned, so that the officers and men on the ship spent a lot of effort to finally extinguish the flames.

The violent explosions continued to explode in the farther outer ring, but only three enemy ships were destroyed by the huge shock wave of the explosive bombs that were about to explode, and the speed of the ship began to drop significantly.

In this way, the all-out counterattack launched by the twelve ships under extreme conditions finally left only thirty enemy ships, and the remaining enemy ships finally sank under heavy fire. However, at this point in the battle, the main convoy of about 120 small boats was still out of the danger range, and all those who fled could not help but rejoice.

Subsequently, the 120 small sailing boats and the 6,000 or 7,000 officers and men on the sailing boats had to gradually concentrate again and flee with all their strength in order to cope with the possible risks, and fled with all their strength in the direction of the west side of the strait, that is, the mouth of the strait.

However, this happiness did not seem to last long, and soon it was discovered on the mast that it seemed that not far in front of the sea level, for some reason, the main warships of the enemy army were approaching again from three directions, and there were about fourteen armored ships in each direction. After the previous battle, these people already knew very well that even if there were more than a dozen enemy ships, they could not deal with the remaining one hundred and twenty small and medium-sized ships, and the only hope at this time was to be able to use the speed advantage to break through as soon as possible.

Under such circumstances, a lot of supplies began to be thrown off the ship as a burden, making the speed of the ship seem to be a little faster. However, the flotilla soon encountered a westward interceptor fleet.

The continuous sound of heavy mortar artillery once again sounded in a short distance of more than half a mile, and the pass of the remaining enemy ships was also opened at the right time.

Just to break through the pursuit of the enemy convoy in the direction of interception, twenty more ships were silent in the fierce explosions and the sound of heavy mortar guns, and then the enemy ships in all directions also began to pursue one after another, and when the sky was approaching dusk, forty-two small and medium-sized ships that had been locked on to the target were finally sunk in the pursuit. So far, only sixty small and medium-sized ships have escaped from the huge fleet of 90 main sea ships, 200 small boats, and 25,000 troops.

(End of chapter)