It's already the middle of June, and in a little more than a month, I still have to embark on a voyage to Europe, which will take at least ten months. The stall is getting bigger and bigger, and I can't take care of the feeling of the butt if I really have a little stock, mainly because there are too few people who can use it. In the past few years, all the talents I have cultivated are naval talents, and there are no managerial talents at all, and I will not train them myself, so I can only pull generals from the grass. This time, he threw away a big mess in Jinhe Bay, and hurriedly went to Mingzhou to see Wen Nan, just to ask Wen Nan if he wanted to really become an official of the Golden River Empire. It would be nice if he could come over to help him, relying on his connections, he could flicker a lot of managerial talents from the Great Song Dynasty, these people can't be in power, but they can do specific work.

But how to fool a person like Wen Nan who has been cultivated by imperial power to the bones, and give up his emperor to help himself as an emperor, Hong Tao really has no score in his heart, let alone Wen Nan, he doesn't even dare to convince Luo Youde to pack the ticket. It's easier for that Xu Liangzhi, this person doesn't have any national concept, and he is a very thorough milk and mother. has no ideals, no thoughts, and is dedicated to running his family, the emperor of heaven and earth is big, not as big as his family.

On the Shandong Peninsula, Hong Tao hadn't been here for several years, and nothing unusual had been found along the way, but when the fleet rounded the tip of the peninsula and headed west along the 38th parallel, the lookout of the Jinhe sounded the alarm. More than a dozen enemy ships were spotted ahead, which, according to the lookout, resembled salmon-class shapes, except with lower masts and triangular sails.

"Heading 11? Could it be the fleet going to the Golden State...... Folded sails and pole sails, follow them, and pay attention to their speed all the way! "Due to the low mast of the opposing side. Haven't found their own fleet yet. Hong Tao decided not to bother them for now. It's ten hours until sunset. It's a good time to take a good look at what the Mongolian version of the salmon class is.

Five hours later, the speed and seaworthiness characteristics of the Mongolian version of the Salmon class were largely seen through by lookouts. This model is basically a copy of the salmon class, and even the stabilizer plate may be equipped, the stability of sailing in the waves is good, and the hull can also be tilted to a certain angle when encountering crosswinds, and the overall appearance is well imitated. However, there are still many things that are not satisfactory, such as the mast is too low, only more than ten meters high. It is not a composite sail hanging on it, but a spinnaker of water, so the power is not very much. Even if the Mongolian shipwrights had lengthened and thinned the ship a little, the speed was still very poor, and it was only 5 or 6 knots when the sail was full of crosswinds, and it seemed that it could not have rowed, and no more details could be seen from a distance.

"It's really hard for them, to be able to imitate so much in such a short period of time, it's really not to be underestimated. Those sails and elongated ship types must be the masterpieces of the A-La Bo people, maybe those who bought our ships in the Great Song Dynasty maritime merchants. There are also those that have been used by the Mongols, and they have already been bought. Old holes. Let our ships pass, remember, just fire the cannons, don't hit them, and be sure to be safe. To be honest, Hong Tao admires the Mongolian Empire's ability to learn and quickly turn it into his own, the Mongolian version of the salmon-class is really good in appearance, regardless of whether there are those drawings betrayed by Cixi, it has exceeded his expectations. However, just looking at their appearance is not enough to understand their full performance, but also to see their real combat effectiveness, which has to be close to the tricks.

Originally, Hong Tao wanted to use a salmon-class cargo ship as bait, but after discussing it together, it was found that this plan was flawed. I'm afraid that a ship is not enough to attract enough attention from the other party, if it can't launch an attack, it will be difficult for the other party to deal with it with all its strength, and if the other party will try to catch it alive, it will become a chase battle, which is meaningless. Hong Tao felt that everyone was right, since they wanted to test, then make it as real as possible, and don't look for cargo ships to be bait, just let the whole fleet go together, just like if you really want to fight a naval battle. Only in this way can the other party tense every nerve and use all the strength to eat milk to deal with it.

When the Jinhe raised the full sail with seven Jiaosha-class warships, it only took more than an hour to chase it to a place less than seven nautical miles away from the Mongolian naval fleet, and from this distance you could already see the lookout on the opponent's mast with a telescope. The other party apparently also noticed the sudden appearance of the fleet behind them, and the way they passed the news to each other was very interesting, first a firework was fired high from the mast of the last ship, and then each ship began to launch this kind of big sky monkey, and the sea instantly became lively.

"Left rudder 5, let's lean up from the downwind." Hong Tao saw in the telescope that there were two ships in the Mongolian sailors' fleet that were abnormal, and the other ships were lined up on the decks to meet them, but there were no people on the decks of these two ships. It's not that there are no people, but they are all concentrated in the bow and stern of the ship, and they can't see what they are fiddling with.

After another two hours, the Jinhe had already caught up from the port side of the Mongolian naval division, and was slowly correcting its course to the right, and little by little it was approaching the Mongolian fleet. Although the two sides were now less than 500 meters apart, and the faces of the sailors on the deck could be seen in the telescope, Hong Tao still did not understand what the mechanism was on the two ships. The thing was pretended to be lower than the side of the ship, and it was impossible to see it at eye level, and the lookout on the mast could see it, but he couldn't tell Hong Tao what was on the deck. Because the thing was covered by a wooden plank, and there were people standing next to it, the lookout only confirmed Hong Tao's suspicions, and there was indeed something strange on these two ships.

"Right rudder 3, close to two hundred meters!" Hong Tao's careful liver, scratching is itchy, what is it? For a person with a lot of curiosity, the more he is not allowed to see something, the more he wants to see it, even at the cost of taking a little risk. Two hundred meters is already a dangerous distance in the era of naval artillery, and once the opponent really has a cannon, the first round of fire may be able to hit. However, Hong Tao did not think that the Mongolian sailors had naval guns, because he did not see the gun doors on the wall of the ship, nor did he see the gun carriage on the side of the ship. The weight of the naval gun, if it is not placed in advance, it is not there. In fact, the Salmon class built by the Zhenzhou Shipyard has simplified a lot of places, basically losing the ability to load naval guns, the structural strength is not enough, and it may be okay to play with 80 guns, but 135 guns are not playing.

"Your Majesty, let's let the boat behind you come up, you can watch from a distance and become a ......" Kong Pei stopped Hong Tao's risky behavior in time, what he didn't know was the most dangerous, this was what Hong Tao often talked about to educate others, and now it was the turn of others to educate him.

"Okay, let them be careful with the last two ships, the other ships are all crossbows, only the two of them don't know what they are." Hong Tao didn't be stubborn this time, and he didn't pretend to play any lead. Although it is said that all people are equal, but the value does vary from high to low, if other captains die in battle, it will not have a big impact on Jinhewan, and if they die, Jinhewan may be in big trouble.

"Knock...... Boom...... Boom...... Boom! "The two Jiao Shark-class warships that were separated from the fleet had just approached about two hundred meters away from the Mongolian fleet, when suddenly four loud noises stunned Hong Tao!

"They've got a cannon! The caliber is not small! "The two ships at the back of the Mongol fleet were the ones that fired the cannons, and although they couldn't see the shape of the cannons, the smoke rising from their decks showed that they were ****** loaded. Looking at the splash of the shells at the landing point, Hong Tao first determined a parameter of the opponent's cannon, the caliber is larger than his own 155 cannon, much larger!

"It seems that there are only four doors, which are mounted in the bow and stern, why should they be installed on the deck?" Kong Pei was also startled by the sound of the cannon, and he wanted to stuff the binoculars into his eyes and stare at the two ships vigorously, but unfortunately he couldn't see anything except a few clouds of smoke.

"I don't know much either, tell our lookouts, keep an eye on the guns on their deck, and get closer if you can't see clearly!" Hong Tao knew as much as Kong Pei, and he couldn't figure out why the Mongolian sailors mounted the cannon on the deck and gave the bow and stern of the ship, which was not the middle line layout of later generations. It's a pity that playing the midline layout on a sailboat is doomed to be hopeless, the caliber of the artillery at this time cannot be too large, and the accuracy of shooting is also very bad, which can only be compensated for by the density of fire.

"So fast, five shots in a quarter of an hour! Their artillery is about the same as ours! A few minutes later, a second round of shelling returned. Kong Pei had been staring at the hourglass on the helm platform, and quickly calculated the frequency of the opponent's shots, and then he was a little unsettled. The veteran gunners in the Imperial fleet who have served for several years can only reach this level at present, but the Mongolian gunners are actually at this level as soon as they come up, which is very scary!

"It's not that their gunners are well trained, it's that their guns are easier to load...... Let the No. 4 ship launch a round in the air to set off the atmosphere. "Hong Tao knows more about artillery than Kong Pei, and he seems to have gained something from the second round of artillery bombardment, but he is not sure yet, and he has to continue to watch a few more rounds. It is certainly not appropriate to just let the opponent open fire, and it is definitely not appropriate to fight back by yourself, and a few empty cannons can not only test the training quality of the opponent's sailors and gunners, but also make this kind of temptation appear more real.

After receiving the order to shoot, the No. 4 ship opened the gun door on the starboard side, and fired a round of ping-pong, and the scene was very lively, but not a single shell was fired, because there were no shells in the barrel at all, only ****** cakes and wooden stoppers. But the other party didn't know that it was an air shot, and when they heard the sound of cannons, the people on the deck immediately squatted down and hid behind the side of the ship, which was very well trained. And the shelling didn't affect their reloading speed too much, and soon a third round of shelling came, and unlike the previous two, this one won a lot of cheers.

(To be continued.) )