"Minister Qiyu, the latest military information has been sent by the Forward to the Sea, our fleet is still fifteen miles away from the mouth of the Tamsui River, and the forward is already less than five miles away, and the Qian Biao fleet has not yet been engaged." At noon on the first day of the fourth month of the fourth year of the Apocalypse, the latest news came from the Going to Sea through the signal flag.

Guo Chongtao nodded when he heard this, and after asking the staff officer to mark the chart in the command room, he walked to the front and picked up the Qianli Realm and carefully observed it through the glass for a while, and then said: "Inform the Izumo to raise the command flag and order all ships to act immediately according to the original plan." Inform Chen Shuai that the Marine Corps is ready to go out, please be ready. Due to the limited amount of news transmitted by the signal flag, and the speed of sending a clipper to notify was too slow, Guo Chongtao pondered for a moment after observing the specific battle situation ahead, which was not much different from his original plan, and immediately issued an order to act according to the previous plan. After the glass was "invented" by Li Xuanqing, it has actually affected all aspects of the empire, and the command room of the navy warships has been equipped with high-strength glass since the Izumo class, which gives the captains of each warship a better field of vision, so that they can adjust their deployment at the first time and make decisions that are more suitable for the battlefield situation.

Guo Chongtao's order was quickly passed on to the other warships around him, and the sky-blue Tengyun naval flag was raised for the first time, alongside the Tuanlong flag of the Tang Empire. Along with the horn hands that constantly sounded one after another "woo", the ships that received the signal also continued to use the horn sound to restore the flagship's command. The Izumi took the Izumo-class six search warships to the front of the fleet, and then separated left and right, and began to pull up huge white waves on the sea surface, scattering forward.

At this time, the landing ship was accelerating forward with the Taishan as the flagship of Chen Yu, and the six Fuxing-class warships around it also began to accompany the Taishan landing ship at this time, and the Fuxing itself also took two ships forward to prepare for fire reconnaissance.

"Inform Captain Wu, speed up and slow down when you reach a distance of nearly five miles, I want to see how many results Qian Biao has prepared for us this time." After the divisions set off in turn, Guo Chongtao waved his hand and sent someone to inform the captain Wu Jianzhong, who was on standby in the wheelhouse, and ordered the Izumo to immediately speed up and catch up. Therefore, Guo Chongtao did not have much interest in the upcoming naval battle, but followed the landing ship in front and prepared to observe the landing operation at close range.

Almost shortly after Guo Chongtao's Eastern Expeditionary Fleet arrived in Penghu, Qian Biao's former outpost spies arranged on Penghu Island also quickly brought the news back, and this time, in order to quickly deliver the news, in addition to sending people to row fast boats, Qian Biao also activated carrier pigeons, which were very dangerous to transmit news at sea. There are a lot of birds of prey at sea, so under normal circumstances, no one is willing to use carrier pigeons to convey the news, but this time the situation is urgent, and Qian Biaojun's sentinels released ten carrier pigeons before and after, and finally passed the news in time. Therefore, when Guo Chongtao and others arrived in the waters near Tamsui, Qian Biao's detachment in the north of Liuqiu had actually arrived at the same time, and the two sides arrived at the same time, thanks to the southeast monsoon that had begun to spread at this time, driving Qian Biao's sailing fleet to more than double the speed.

Therefore, soon after the patrol fleet led by the Going to Sea, he met Qian Biao's fleet, so Luo Dahai, the captain of the Going to Sea, quickly sent a signal, while reporting the appearance of the enemy, he summoned the rest of the Izumo-class battleships to come to the aid quickly, and took the lead in firing guns, and the three main guns of the bow of the Going to Sea spit out three flames in an instant, and the entire capital of the ship began to sink slightly, and then the sea area three or four miles ahead, that is, the front of Qian Biao's fleet, suddenly burst out three huge splashes, and the earth-shattering sound also followed.

"Order the gunners to immediately calculate the distance and fire three shots." After Luo Dahai ordered the firing, he saw the impact point and immediately ordered the gunners to take a staff officer to calculate the distance, and then pass it to the gunner through the copper pipe connected to the gun position to adjust the firing distance. Because Li Xuanqing couldn't directly pirate the phone, but after the advent of the ironclad ship, the transmission of information became a big problem that plagued the whole ship, so he had to bring the "brass intercom system", but the effect was not very good, so the gunners and staff officers could only pass on an approximate distance and direction, and the important thing was the gunner in the running position and the two deputy gunners who acted as observers. Fortunately, the Izumo-class, like the Fuxing-class, is equipped with only one caliber of main guns, and there are only four main guns in the whole ship, and this primitive method can still be tried. However, on the third-generation main battleships, Li Xuanqing has already planned to change this method, because the third-generation battleships have begun to be equipped with 75 and 105 caliber main guns, and have begun to arrange semi-enclosed gun emplacements, so that it is difficult to rely on copper pipes to transmit information alone, especially in large-scale shelling, copper pipes to transmit sound is actually not very useful. This is also the reason why the final shape of the third-generation warship has not been completed since it was designed.

The fire of the Izumo also quickly made others understand that the enemy had appeared, so the other five ships of the Izumo class who were tasked with the task of blocking almost rushed up directly without seeing the flag of the Hai, and then began to form a rapid formation in the process, a huge goose-shaped array quickly appeared, and the rumbling artillery fire also began to be sent out from the ships one by one, countless splashes broke the calm of the sea, and the sea surface that was originally small because of the weather was blown out of countless whirlpools, and the six search for the cloud level quickly approached, On the one hand, he used the speed and tonnage advantage of his ironclad ship to crush the opponent, and on the other hand, he did his best to aim and bombard. It should be said that before the emergence of an effective way to deal with the shelling, in fact, the people of this era did not understand how to effectively avoid the shelling, so it was only in less than a moment that the ship quickly aimed at a leading Qian Biao warship in front, and a cannonball accurately hit the bow of the battleship, and after the violent explosion, the bow of the entire battleship was all blown up, and the boiling sea water quickly poured into the cabin, but in less than twenty breaths, the pilot wooden sailing ship, the four-masted sailing ship of the Qian Biao army sank quickly, Only a piece of wood remains, swirling in the whirlpool.

The cannon of the Going to Sea directly frightened Qian Biao's fleet, which was about to rush forward with his head bored just now, and many sailing ships even began to reduce their speed directly on the spot, and taking advantage of this opportunity, Luo Dahai began to quickly adjust the formation, changing the original goose-shaped formation to a longitudinal one-line shape, and the bow of the ship was facing west in front of the entire Qian Biao fleet. In this way, the battle line of the most primitive ironclad battleships was laid out by Luo Dahai, and then almost all the main guns were swinging horizontally, and nearly twenty 105-mm main guns of the six warships began to fire at full speed.

The successful interception of Qian Bi's sailing fleet and the victory in the first battle and the defeat of one of the opponent's ships also gave great encouragement to the landing fleet, which is not equipped with weapons except for the Fuxing class, but the six search Fuxing class needs to bear the responsibility of land attack and cover the landing at this time. If one of the other side rushes in, then the consequences are really unimaginable, and a single fire attack is enough for oneself. Therefore, as soon as Chen Yu heard the sound of artillery over there, he immediately ordered to launch a landing operation with all his might. I saw that in an instant, the first batch of Liushou landing ships, including the Taishan under their feet, rushed directly towards the mouth of the Tamsui River, and at the same time, the Fuxing, which accompanied the operation of the Taishan, immediately began to fire forward and bombarded the Qian Biao army, which had already concentrated some of its men on the tidal flats of the estuary.

Although Qian Biao's side had received the news in advance, but for the Tiance Army, which already had the prototype of a modern landing operation, their reaction was still of little use, and the Fuxing quickly defeated the Qian Biao Army who were standing on the beach to intercept after the approaching artillery bombardment, and after the successive firing, the defensive equipment that was originally arranged on the beach was also quickly blown to the ground, and under the rumbling artillery fire, the marines began to rush to the beach quickly, and the small boats began to be quickly lowered into the water. Countless marines began to jump into these small boats and quickly rushed towards the shore not far away. Behind the Taishan, there were more than 30 search landing ships and transport ships, which also began to slow down and then lowered the boats one after another, and a large number of marines and various supplies began to be quickly moved to the boats by pulley cranes, and then began to come towards the shore.

"Inform the three Fuxing-class ships on the left flank to immediately rush to the vicinity of the Going to Sea, follow the order of the Going to Sea, and join the blocking queue." Guo Chongtao nodded when he saw that the first batch of marines even jumped directly from the boat and rushed ashore for the last dozen zhang distance, but then frowned at the increasingly strong artillery sound in the distance, and began to issue orders to transfer the three Fuxing-class warships that were cruising on the left flank to the direction of naval battle.

However, at this time, after unloading all the soldiers and two guns, Chen Yu's Taishan began to quickly circle and return to the rear, giving up its position to the subsequent landing ship. Thirty-nine transport ships carried a total of 9,000 marines this time, and the second group of transport fleets had already departed this morning after the departure of the Crusade fleet, so the marines who came ashore this time needed to hold out for at least a day.

Chen Yu, who went ashore with the marines, immediately ordered the troops to disperse and began to occupy the fishing village near Tamsui, and began to sweep away the soldiers of the Qian Biao army who were scattered by the Fuxing, and began to stabilize the position, and gathered all the materials and three artillery pieces that had been transported ashore before to arrange the defensive line to prevent the follow-up attack of the Qian Biao army. Because the number of people landing was too small compared to the total number of Qian Biao's troops, the position established by Chen Yu was within the range of the guns of the Fuxing-class battleships throughout the whole process. This method of forming a formation along the sea is also a new method that the navy has studied in the past two years.

After almost all the marines landed, except for the three transport ships that stayed behind to prepare to refuel the warships, the remaining three ships of the Fuxing began to leave immediately with the huge convoy of transport ships, returning to Shantou to transport the third batch of troops and supplies, and to provide escort for the second fleet.

After Chen Yu's side successfully landed on the shore, Guo Chongtao no longer continued to pay attention, and more than 9,000 people landed even if the whole army of Qian Biao's army arrived for a while and a half, so the Izumo began to accelerate towards the vicinity of the Izumi. Naval battles were going on over there, and they were starting to get more and more intense. Qian Biao's fleet also reacted after experiencing the initial blow, obviously Qian Biao has also studied a way to deal with ironclad warships in recent years, that is, to use the impetus of the southeast monsoon to disperse the entire fleet, and then use his numerical advantage to start to get close to the ironclad ships, using the crossbow arrows and other weapons loaded on his wooden ships to shoot at the ironclad ships, and even use rockets to increase the effect. Suddenly, the gunners of several Izumo-class battleships were shot, and if it weren't for the presence of a spare artillery squad, I am afraid that it would really work. Moreover, after the battle lasted for more than half an hour, that is, after Chen Yu's side was basically landed, some people in Qian Di's army continued to set fire to their warships, and then rushed straight towards the warships of the Tiance Army, obviously this is the rhythm of preparing to die with the Tiance Army. Although even a fire attack may not have an effect on the ironclad battleship, this method of ending up together still allows several Izumo-class and Fuxing-class warships to continue to dodge, which gives Qian Biao's army the opportunity to pierce the Luo Dahai interception line.

"Immediately blow the horn and order the ships to leave those fireships alone, they are useless to us, and all Izumo-class battleships will be rammed into me." When the Izumo arrived in the warring area, Luo Dahai was caught off guard by Qian Biaojun's method, and sailboats continued to pass through, although they were blocked by the follow-up Fuxing-class battleships, but the entire formation began to stagger.

Guo Chongtao didn't say anything about Luo Dahai's mistake, the navy still had too short a time in the end, and the entire force had no experience to learn from from top to bottom. Therefore, he directly ordered the Izumo to blow the horn to directly command, and at the same time adjusted the deployment, and ordered all the Izumo-class battleships to directly rely on the huge hull to crash directly into the nearest sailing ship, and for those ships that rushed through the blockade line scattered, all of them were handed over to the three Fuxing-class ships to deal with. And the Izumo under his feet also began to launch an artillery bombardment under the command of the captain Wu Jianzhong.

Guo Chongtao's series of adjustments quickly ended the chaos of the entire fleet, and under the constant orders, the warships quickly adjusted, no longer pursuing a unified artillery effect, but began to give full play to the advantages of their battleship's iron armor and large tonnage, and directly collided, and the sailboats of the Qian Biao army, which did not react for a while, were quickly knocked over several ships, although the soldiers on the Izumo class were knocked into a single meat, but seeing the big guy under his feet brutally knocked the other party into the sea and then pressed it directly, Immediately laughed out loud.

"The ships quickly tackled the target in front of them, and then the Izumo moved with the flagship, and the Funado stayed behind to protect the Marines." Guo Chongtao saw that the formation in front of him had begun to reverse this chaotic situation, and immediately began to issue the latest orders. And at this moment, white sails suddenly appeared on the sea in the distance, and the main force of Qian Bi's fleet began to arrive, making Guo Chongtao's face quietly begin to change.