"Bang Bang...... Boom ...... Before Hong Tao could give the order to the fleet to slow down and rest, the alarm bell on the mast rang again rapidly, and from the sound, it should have been an unknown ship.......

"30 degrees on the port side, 3 sailboats, about 10 nautical miles away......" Soon, the lookout shouted out the details.

"Tell the back, the left rudder is full, and we'll go up from downwind." Although Hong Tao believed in the combat capabilities of his four ships, he was very cautious about any unknown ship on the sea. This is not the doorstep, once someone sneaks attack, there will be a lot of losses, and I can't afford to lose it at present.

"5 sailboats, 10 nautical miles, 40 course!" Before the sailboat could complete the steering maneuver, the lookout issued a second wave of warnings, this time with two more boats.

"Continue to observe......" Hong Tao couldn't figure out who the other party's ship was and how large it was, so he could only wait for further reports from the lookout.

"7 Arab galleys, 6 nautical miles away, heading 50, their slurry is launched and is turning towards us!" The two fleets sailed opposite each other for half an hour, and the lookout finally saw the size and shape of the other's ships. The role of the telescope is evident at this time, it allows the captain to detect the opponent dozens of minutes in advance, and can also know the opponent's movements in advance.

"Send a battle alert, use a dense formation, and let the rear accelerate to keep up with the flagship!" As soon as he heard that it was an Arab galleys, Hong Tao knew that it was likely to fight. They have entered the sphere of influence of the Arab ships, and although this is not yet the Arabian Sea, they have always regarded this as their territory. And this Arab fleet has clearly moved its mind. Otherwise, you won't be able to return the oars with the wind. It will not adjust the course. Wouldn't it be nice for everyone to stagger a few nautical miles apart? Why the fleet that rushes downwind against the wind is already obvious.

After another quarter of an hour, the two fleets were almost head to head, less than a nautical mile apart, but neither side turned to avoid. The Arab galleys had already begun to paddle, using the wind to speed up a little more.

"Tell the Zhenzhou in the back, let him keep an eye on the other party's ships, and chase whoever escapes. You must not let go of a ship, you can ram it if necessary, and he doesn't have to worry about the battle here. Hong Tao didn't pay much attention to the fleet, he kept scanning the sea in the distance with a telescope, and when he was sure that there were no other ships behind him, he gave a new order. Now, no matter what the other party's intentions are, Hong Tao is ready to send these seven galleys to the bottom of the sea, and not a single boat or person is allowed to escape.

The two fleets were moving towards each other on the sea, getting closer and closer. Hong Tao had already understood what the other party meant, and their bow had metal ramming angles. Not only can it break through the planks of the other party's boat, but it can also hook it. So that the Arabs on the galleys would be able to engage in broadside battles. There are a lot of them! That's why their ships can't sail away without supplies. There were more than 30 people on the boat of more than 10 meters, and if they did not walk along the shore one by one supply station, they would all die of thirst and starvation within three to five days.

Their wolf-like method of fighting at sea was still very effective in this era, and none of them had long-range attack weapons, and even if they had bows and crossbows, they were not very useful on the sea. Whoever has more people and who has fast ships will take advantage, and at present, it seems that it is these Arabs who have more ships and more people and have the upper hand.

It's a pity that they chose the wrong target, Hong Tao's four ships look tall, short and thick, and the sails account for most of them, more like cargo ships with large loads, but they are actually the overlords of the sea. It's like a killer whale and a shark, the former is round and cute, and the latter has a fierce face and looks extremely vicious. But if the two come together, the shark will have to be a snack for the killer whale if it runs slower, and in some cases, quantity cannot make up for the quality gap.

"Left rudder 30, starboard ready for launch! Wait until they are close enough to fight and save ammo! When the two sides were still about half a kilometer apart, Hong Tao gave a new order, and as the helmsman began to turn the steering wheel to the left, and the sailmen on the mast began to get busy, the Hong Salamander suddenly turned on the sea, exposing the side of the hull to the oars rushing straight by.

The Arabs rejoiced, shouting loudly on deck, raising their scimitars and anchor hooks alof, as if they had caught their prey. They did have a reason to be happy, if the opposite ship did not turn, the galleys would not dare to go straight up, and they would eventually turn a little too much, otherwise the smashing was guaranteed to be a galleys of smaller tonnage. The reason why they did this was to intimidate the opponent's fleet, as long as the opponent's captain was not psychologically up to par, as soon as he made a turn, the fleet was likely to be disrupted, and the galleys behind would have the opportunity to encircle and annihilate one of them. These Arabs were not as greedy as Hong Tao, and they didn't think about killing all four galleons, and it would be good to be able to catch one or two of them. According to the tonnage of these four sailing ships, the cargo on one ship is enough to feed everyone, and let the rest of the ships escape, there are Arab brothers waiting for them in front.

And the reality was indeed as the Arabs wished, and the first galleon at the head was afraid, and it turned, and the timing of the turn was too late, and this position was not just right for the ramming angle to hit its belly. Then you're welcome, you don't have to wait to disrupt the other party's fleet, it's the first one, who made its captain a waste!

"Allah Allah! …… Allah Allah ...... Rumble...... Ahh......h But as soon as he shouted twice, he suddenly found that several black spots in the sky had fallen, bigger and bigger, a few had fallen into the sea, a few had fallen on the deck, and one had suddenly exploded in the air.

"Boom...... Rumble...... ......Before everyone could figure out what was going on, there was a series of explosions on the deck and on the sea, and the galleys were instantly covered in black smoke, flames, pieces of iron and blood flying everywhere, and the oarsmen who were sitting on the side of the ship were blown down, not only lost the power of the oars, but the oars inserted into the water also became rudders, forcing the ship to slow down, and made a sharp turn to the right, and also became sideways facing the sailboat.

"Right hand rudder 10...... Starboard ready for launch! Hong Tao didn't care about the other party's first ship at all, he pushed the helmsman directly away, and went into battle himself, turning the rudder to the right while shouting a new order. That's for the rest of the crew, it's such a fun thing, he can't wait to direct the helmsman anymore, so let's do it himself!

If you look closely, the four galleons sailing from north to south with the wind stroke stroke an S-shaped track to the left before the confrontation, while the seven galleys that charge downwind from south to north have already crossed the line because the first one was hit into a fireball, and can only dodge in both directions. Those that flashed to the west side were better, but those that flashed to the east side were immediately fired by grenades that split their heads and covered their faces.

This time it's not those fluttering crossbow arrows, after the 150 mm diameter hollow iron ball explodes, within a radius of five or six meters, there will be no good place, whether it is the human body, the hull, or the sail will be hit by the broken cast iron pieces inside. Some grenades exploded with no pieces of iron coming out, and were replaced by a black, slimy thing that caught fire wherever it stuck to it. And don't even plan to put out the fire, because a wave of blows has just passed, and before you can see the situation, the next ship is coming, and the iron ball thrown is more accurate, who made you lose power.

"Cut off the fuse a little more, it's better to let the grenade explode in the air......" Hong Tao took the helm, not forgetting to take a look at the explosion effect. At this point, he felt like he was playing one of the old arcade flying games, surrounded by enemy ships, and his own ship had to pass through them and attack them. The gunners on the deck are their own weapons, and not only do they have to operate the sailboats to avoid the slurry boats, but they also have to find the most suitable angle for the gunners to drop their bombs, and they have to change the type of ammunition when they have time.

Soon, the Flood Salamander went through the formation of the slurry boats from beginning to end, attacking a total of three ships, and the remaining four were a little far away and did not care. But it doesn't matter, now the Hong Salamander is taking the lead in turning the rudder against the wind to the right, as long as the bow is turned over, hehehe, the sailboat will be downwind, and the oarsmen on the four rowing boats will not be able to outrun the downwind sail battleship even if they are tired and break their trouser belts, and they will not even have a chance to escape at that time.

"Send the flag, from left to right, one person and one in order, and chase your own!" While taking the lead in turning, Hong Tao was not idle, and first assigned the remaining four targets, so as not to chase after him for a while.

The disadvantage of charging from the upper wind is undoubtedly revealed at this time, don't think about turning around and attacking, you can only escape, because as soon as you turn around, you are a headwind, and you haven't turned around, people have already rushed with the wind, how to turn how awkward. The four galleys didn't want to turn around and continue to fight at all, they were not warships, just merchant ships, they were used to taking advantage of them, and suddenly encountered an opponent who was even more ruthless than them, there was only one word, escape!

It is a pity that in the downwind situation, even the pulp sailing ship cannot outrun the full sail warship, and the speed of ten knots can be maintained by the slurry dischargers for ten or twenty minutes, and it is impossible to maintain it for one hour. In fact, it didn't take that long, and half of their physical strength was used for the sprint just now, and they were caught up by the galleon in less than two quarters of an hour. This time, Hong Tao didn't even use a grenade, so he directly used the bow of the boat to push the butt of the pulp boat, pushed it sideways, and then ran over directly. The remaining three sailboats looked at the flagship's movements, and immediately understood what Hong Tao meant, this is not a waste of ammunition, yes, let's also top, see who is accurate, who can push the other party to run a little longer and then run over them is the ability! (To be continued.) )