Not to mention this in advance, Hong Tao did not have the eye of heaven, it was impossible to see what was happening elsewhere, and he did not know what was happening in Guangzhou, at this time he was leading his fleet to form a huge horizontal formation more than fifty nautical miles long from east to west, searching and advancing north from the Lisi Islands. He didn't know exactly where the Mongolian sailors were, and he didn't know whether they could effectively consume the number of the opponent's ships, so everything had to be found first.

Five hours later, the signal came from the 2nd Assault Fleet to the east, spotting the Mongol sailors, who were now sailing south on the sea less than sixty kilometers north of the mouth of the Yangtze River. There are still hundreds of ships forming a large array, and I can't tell whether it is square or round, it is too big, stretching for more than ten kilometers, and there are scattered ships behind it, I don't know why the ship is slow. But the Mongolian sailors who took the lead still did not slow down, and they didn't even care about their own people, as long as they rushed through the sea of dozens of kilometers, they would be considered victorious.

"Three columns, attacking laterally from the front of the opponent, forcing them to turn! Tell the captain of each ship, long live the Empire, long live the Royal Navy! Raise the bunting! "Hong Tao faced the fleet of the Mongolian sailors regardless of the losses, and there was no trick to break a thousand catties by chance. There is a prerequisite for any trick, and now time and distance are not good for themselves, if this Mongolian sailor wants to go to Fuzhou, Hong Tao can still harass it little by little, gnawing it to death like ants gnawing bones. But now it can't be done, half a day's journey to the south, it is the most prosperous coastal city in the Southern Song Dynasty, and any delaying tactics are useless, so they can only fight hard.

Seeing that the flagship directly raised the decisive battle flag, other warships also raised the color flag. The sailman put on leather armor. And use a safety rope to fix yourself on the transverse ray. Even if you die in battle, you have to die at your own post. The gunners also brought barrels of seawater to the artillery deck. Once the fight starts, you need to use them to cool the barrels, although cooling with seawater will seriously corrode these cannons and reduce their service life, but who cares about it when you are desperate, let's talk about it alive first.

The worst of them were the undercover team and the ship's craftsmen, who had to nest below deck and even in the bilge, ready to make wooden wedges and whale skins of all sizes. Be ready to pounce on the leaked hull at any time, and plug the holes with wooden wedges, skins, and bodies. Once the hull is too damaged, more than half of them will not be able to escape, and will sink to the cold bottom with the ship, no matter how good the water is.

"You'd better go back to the cabin, or get out of the mercy ship, I'll be an eyesore to see you!" As the flagship of the entire fleet, the Golden River is large and will definitely become the main target of the opponent's attack in a fight. Hong Tao is not very worried about Weng Ya's safety, it doesn't matter if she is not pregnant. Officers, it's the life of those who die on the battlefield. But she's now one man, two lives. It is more appropriate to take care of it.

"I'm the captain! This position is mine! Weng Ya didn't accept Hong Tao's love, and she also knew that she couldn't let the boat go at this time to drive her away, so she squeezed Hong Tao aside without fear to maintain her captain's honor.

"I don't know what to do! Five on the left rudder, get closer to within 300 meters and then open fire! Hong Tao was indeed not in a rut, he was now looking at the dense ship of the Mongolian sailors, and his legs were straight and weak. Fighting with Weng Ya can effectively relieve your nervousness, once you really fight, you will be fine, and the most scared time is the period before the war.

"Boom, boom...... Bang, bang, bang, bang...... "It was not the Royal Navy that fired first, but the Mongolian sailors. They tasted the sweetness of the last time and learned to fire with a dense range of shells. Although this is not enough to reach the range and has no hit rate to speak of, it can increase the confidence of your own people and can also put psychological pressure on the enemy. Once the enemy's captain is scared and makes some undeserved dodge moves, it will inevitably affect the psychology of other captains. Fear is also contagious, and it's very fast.

"Steady! No cannon fire without an order! "The first mate, as the commander who conveyed the order to open fire, kept transmitting the command to the gun deck through the copper pipe before Hong Tao gave the order, so that on the one hand, it was to prevent the gun commanders from making mistakes due to excessive tension, and on the other hand, it was also to embolden the sailors and officers on the deck. The performance of the Mongols' artillery has been basically figured out through the battles of the past few days, and the main place where those shells attack is the deck, and those who stand on the deck are the most dangerous.

"Uncle...... It's three hundred meters......" Weng Ya looked at Hong Tao and reminded in a low voice. She was also reluctant to rush forward with the big stone balls and iron balls in the sky, and she was not so scared if she could fight back a few times, but Hong Tao didn't squeak.

"Two hundred and fifty meters...... Weng Ya's two hands were about to get out of the water, and a few shells grazed the side of the boat, almost hitting, but Hong Tao still didn't give the order. It can't be stupid, this time she stabbed Hong Tao's arm with her hand.

"Ready...... Right hand drive five! Fire! "Hong Tao is not scared stupid, he is two hundred and five energetic again. When there were no shells just now, his legs were straight and weak, but now that the sky is full of shells, he is not very afraid, and he still has the time to take a look at the scene of the shells falling into the water and smashing the waves. It was not until about 200 meters that he gave the order to turn the rudder to the right, and then gave the order to open fire.

Again, close distance equals high accuracy, which is the only criterion for firing from front-loading smoothbore guns. At a distance of less than 200 meters, the 135 cannon on the port side of the Golden River took out a ship on the opposite side with a single round of fire. Its bow cracked, like a whale with its mouth wide open, and slowed down like a sudden brake, forcing the ships behind it to turn to avoid it, causing a small confusion in the Mongol fleet.

When the 155 naval guns on the lower artillery deck opened fire again, another ship was hit under the waterline, and tons of seawater poured in instantly, making the ship tilt more and more, and it didn't even have time to close the sails, so it lay on its side on the sea. At this time, Hong Tao noticed that the decks of many Mongolian sailors were full of soldiers, who obviously did not come up to watch the excitement, but there was really no place to stay in the cabin, and these soldiers were transferred from the sunken interception fleet. Although he sank more than a hundred of their ships a few days ago, the real damage is only now beginning. The Mongol sailors did not come to fight a naval battle with them, and they did not care about the loss of many ships, these soldiers were their dependence.

Just as the first round ......of firing of the Golden River was over, and it was about to turn to the right, the first enemy shell also hit it, smashing a hole between the foremast and the midmast. However, the deck of the Jinhe is also thirty centimeters thick, and it is still a hardwood plank, and this smoking iron ball was stuck by the wooden plank, and it didn't fall.

"It's over, hang the flowers, your uncle and I should also get a new ship, and when I go back, I will let the Wen family build me another one." Girl, what's your name? Hong Tao grinned, if this thing smashed his head, it would probably pass through again.

"Call the big mouse, hehehe......" Weng Ya stabbed Hongtao's back, covered her mouth and laughed. This girl is also a heartless thing, but she can still laugh, and the first mate next to her has involuntarily reached out to cover her head.

"Left Rudder Ten...... Right hand drive fifteen! During the more than two minutes of loading the shells, Hong Tao commanded the Jinhe to constantly draw curves in front of the Mongolian naval division.

In fact, this evasion action is not very useful, for the Mongolian mortar that is already a random fight, aiming or not is almost the same, so whether you walk in a straight line or a curve will not have much effect on the hit rate. But this kind of action can make the crew on the ship a little more reassured, people are like this, sometimes do a lot of unnecessary things, in order to comfort their own feelings.

As Hong Tao had guessed in advance, the Jinhe became the target of the Mongol naval division, and most of the shells were directed at it. The armed merchant ships behind them are worry-free, as long as they follow the flagship to maintain a good course, they should open their guns, they should reload, and even the curve evasion action is saved. But it was not on the Golden River, and there were more or less holes in the sails of the midmast and the aftermast, which was an indication of being pierced by a cannonball. There were already three holes in the deck, and the closest shot to Hong Tao was only three meters away, and the smashed sawdust cut the first mate's face, and several were hit on the side of the ship, but they were all bounced off.

"Hey, hey, hey...... This time, you are also a little bit like an emperor, when do you have such two things on your face, you are not far from becoming an emperor! Regarding what happened to the first mate, Hong Tao still gave a joke as usual.

The Mongolian sailors were really stopped by the Royal Navy this time, their formation was too dense, once the ships in front were damaged and could not sail normally, the ships behind had to lower their sails and speed down to dodge, so there were many collisions. The whole formation was gradually broken into four arrows, and then each arrow was cut and shortened again, then into a straight line, and then several gaps were dug out, and so on. The southward speed of the Mongolian sailors was dragged to the slowest speed, and the constant turning and collision kept their sailors busy without touching the ground.

Compared with the Mongolian sailors, the sailors of the Royal Navy are not idle at all, and if they want to give full play to the advantages of their ship's agility and speed, the sailors have to constantly increase or subtract the number of sails, and there is hardly a moment of idleness. Fortunately, these sailors are all veterans who have experienced several ocean voyages, and have exercised a body of steel and iron in the wind and waves, and have also honed a spirit of calmness in the face of death.

(To be continued.) )