The Norman soldiers hurriedly took out their torches, lit the cloth heads, and then placed the crossbow arrows into the grooves of the scorpion's crossbow to aim.

"Launch!"

In an instant, in the front row of the diamond-shaped array of the Norman fleet, a total of twenty-eight improved ballista battleships, together with a heavy ballista battleship, a total of more than thirty dangerous, burning giant crossbow arrows roared towards the opposite battleship.

This attack startled the Eastern Roman army, which was closely preparing bows and arrows and Greek fire.

Whoever has the longest range of weapons in a war will have an advantage, and this advantage is even more prominent in naval battles.

Norman ballista battleships rampant in the northern seas, south to the Mediterranean Sea rarely encountered opponents, it is for this reason that Norman warships can fire powerful long-range giant crossbow arrows, such rumors are also known to the Eastern Romans, but I have heard of it, this is the first time I have seen it.

Although the range of the first ballista attack was just reached, the actual effect was much better than expected due to the wind direction.

On the opposite side, four Eastern Roman warships were hit, and their sharp crossbow bolts tore directly through the wooden hull and hit the deck or cabin, spreading flames on the enemy ships.

"There was a fire! Hurry up and put out the fire......"

The Eastern Roman soldiers shouted in panic that the ship was set on fire by fire as they sailed on the sea, and the soldiers hurriedly put buckets into the sea to lift the sea water up and extinguish the fire.

But here the Eastern Roman soldiers made a mistake, the oil fire could not be extinguished with water, and the Eastern Roman army made this mistake when the city of Naples was broken before, so these Eastern Roman soldiers were tragic.

Seeing that the ship was burning little by little, the soldiers began to change their firefighting strategy.

Holding the barrel of a gun, a paddle slapper, or taking off his clothes and slapping the flames, but the effect was equally insignificant, so the Eastern Roman galleys were quickly surrounded by fire and consumed, followed by a second attack.

The Norman warships had come to a steady halt and lined up to shoot at the Eastern Roman fleet.

"Damn it, charge! Rush over and you can teach these grandsons a lesson with Greek fire. ”

The Greek general, seeing that this was not the way to go on, decided to take the initiative.

More than 600 Eastern Roman warships, tens of thousands of Eastern Roman navy shouted to rush towards the Normans, but because of the direction of the wind, the sails of these ships have been put away, relying only on the oars of the slaves, and the speed is not fast enough.

"Quick! We rush too! Break through their encirclement! ”

The Norman commander, Field Marshal Carter, gave an order, and one hundred and twenty-three Norman battleships were full of sails, and the sails painted black and the Norman characters on the sails were extremely deterrent.

At this moment, even the Eastern Roman soldiers, who looked down on the so-called barbarians, began to get serious and gathered all their strength to deal with these difficult opponents.

In the process of charging each other, the Norman fleet fired two more volleys, and the Eastern Roman warships were constantly ignited on the sea, some of them staggered and sank a little, and some of them succeeded in extinguishing the flames after slowing down, and then pounced fiercely.

Seeing that the fleets of the two sides were getting closer and closer, the soldiers of both sides also let out an earth-shattering roar at the same time, the archers on the side of the ship stretched their bows and arrows, and the pirates and sailors brandished their weapons and shouted loudly, and a great battle was about to begin.

It's close!

Getting closer!

The Norman ballista battleship was blown by the huge sea breeze, and the sails were blown up to a large bag, as if to be torn off the mast, in the crazy roar of the Vikings, the slaves also stepped on the oars for their lives, and the Norman battleship moved at full speed, faster than the galloping horse.

On the other side, the Eastern Roman soldiers saw the Norman fleet coming at full speed, and were frightened and yelled, ship collision is also a standard tactic in naval warfare, the bow of the Norman ballista battleship has been specially reinforced, and the crow's beak is wrapped in a layer of dark iron on the corner, which looks eerie and terrifying, coupled with the weight and speed of the Norman battleship itself, this collision will definitely open a big hole in the hull of the Eastern Roman battleship, which is a matter of human life.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way! ”

Seeing the Norman battleship roaring in, the captains of the Eastern Roman warships in the front row of the first bear the brunt shouted that the battleship evaded, but the galley battleship was not comparable to the future steam engine warship, in terms of flexibility, even the Norman battleship could not be compared, and it was easy for the captain to give the order to dodge, but the sailors and slaves followed the order, and it was very troublesome to execute.

Eventually, with the crackling of wood chips, the creaking of the ship's deformation, and the rattling of the sea, the Eastern Roman warships were scrapped.

However, although the Eastern Roman battleship was sinking, it would take some time to sink completely, and at this time, the Eastern Roman soldiers scrambled to take out their hooks and throw them over like another Norman battleship, and tried to drag the Norman battleship in their direction.

"Damn it! Hurry up and cut these ropes! The Norman captains shouted.

When a battleship sinks to the bottom of the sea, it will bring up a whirlpool, which will pull people who have not had time to escape into the sea for burial, and although Captain Norman does not know how attractive this whirlpool is to his own warship, he definitely does not want to try it.

Even if the captain didn't say anything, the Vikings instinctively sensed the danger, and rushed forward to cut the rope to cut the rope, and the arrow was released, and for a time many Eastern Roman sailors who were trying to pull the rope lost their balance and fell on the deck because the rope was cut, and many Eastern Roman sailors were shot by bows and crossbows, turned over and fell into the sea, or fell on the deck.

The Norman ship escaped in this way, and then readjusted itself and rammed into another Eastern Roman warship.

In this era when gunpowder has not yet become popular, although both sides have Greek fire, scorpion crossbows, and other naval weapons, it is still a broadside battle that can really kill and injure the enemy quickly and in large quantities.

The soldiers on the two ships hooked each other's sides with their hooks, pulled each other, narrowed the distance between the two warships, and shot each other with bows and arrows.

Norman sailors, armed with compound bows and crossbows, stood on the firing table to shoot aid shots, while Vikings wielded tomahawks and fought at the front.

The Eastern Roman army was similarly loaded, with Greek crossbows and oriental-style compound bows, and Arabic-style scimitars and Roman swords used in melee combat.

The two sides entered a fierce hand-to-hand combat, the Vikings were brave and tenacious, and they had more experience in naval warfare than the Eastern Roman sailors, and soon gained the upper hand, especially those transports, which were not visible from the outside, but the number of soldiers loaded in the transport ships was quite large, and they could even fight against two or three Eastern Roman warships at the same time without losing the upper hand.

The Eastern Roman sailors on the Eastern Roman battleship that were about to sink after being hit by the collision horn also quickly adjusted their state, some took out their bows or crossbows to return fire, and some soldiers with strong bouncing power took off their leather armor and clothing, rolled up their trouser legs and ran to the bow of the ship, biting their long swords and scimitars, and crawling along the side of the Norman battleship.

"Ship backwards, backwards, get out of the way!"

The captain of another Norman warship, who also did not want to be affected by the whirlpool of the other party's shipwreck, ordered, at this time, several Eastern Roman sailors had already touched it, and without saying a word, they slashed directly at the surprised Viking pirates, screaming and rushing towards the other Vikings.

"Damn it!"

The Viking pirates cursed secretly, drew their battle axes and stepped forward to fight with the Eastern Roman sailors, but the Eastern Roman sailors were all desperate for their lives because the battleship was about to sink, although the equipment on their bodies was not as good as the Vikings, but in fact, because they needed to fight on the sea, the Vikings' armor was just a layer of leather armor to protect the torso, and the limbs and heads were unprotected, which was no better than the Eastern Roman sailors.

In addition, the Eastern Roman sailors were desperate because their own warship had sunk and there was no way out, and they suppressed the Vikings for a while.

"Bow and arrow! Shoot these eight kings! ”

The Vikings on the firing table of the battleship, seeing that their men and horses were falling into the downwind, immediately opened their bows and fired fiercely at the enemy, and those Eastern Roman sailors were naked one by one, without any defense, and if they were shot, they would die.

Once again, the Vikings have the upper hand!

Seeing this, the last Eastern Roman sailor to climb up cursed, turned and jumped back to the sinking ship, found oil torches and other items on the deck, threw away the scimitar and bit these things and climbed back again.

"Lao Tzu wants you to be buried together!"

The Eastern Roman sailors laughed maniacally, distributed the torches and oil to the others, and then set fire to the Norman warships.

"Damn it, go stop him!" The Vikings shouted, rushed forward and began to fight as well.

"The strength of the Eastern Roman Navy is also very good!"

At this moment, on the bridge of his flagship, Marshal Carter, who was scanning the battlefield with a monocular, couldn't help but sigh like this, and then gave up his intention to defeat the opponent and changed his order:

"Breakout!"

With a barrage of flags giving orders, the Norman fleet shifted tactics and prepared to break out of the encirclement.

But this is not easy to say, at this moment the two fleets have been entangled, the sailors of both sides jumped on the enemy warships and slashed each other, the Eastern Roman warships equipped with Greek fire set fire everywhere, and a large area of the sea floated with broken wooden planks, ship wreckage and strange-shaped corpses, which indirectly became something that could be burned, above the sea, the flames soared into the sky, and the battle was carried out at this time, the Eastern Roman navy made a fatal mistake.

When using Greek fire on a large scale, a killing weapon that can float on the surface of the sea, you should observe the wind direction in advance, even if it is not Zhuge Liang or TV station, you can't predict the climate trend for a period of time in the future, but let's take a look at the current weather, right?

Now the wind direction is westerly, which is beneficial to the Norman navy and extremely unfavorable to the eastern Roman navy, in such a wind, the flames flickered towards the eastern Roman navy, and the eastern Roman navy hurriedly manipulated the ships to dodge, and at the same time gave up a lot of gaps, and the Norman navy broke through along these gaps.

"Stop them!"

Seeing the prey in their hands fleeing like this, the Eastern Roman admirals felt that their faces were gloomy, and tried their best to intercept them, but the Eastern Roman Navy did not have such a convenient thing as flag and lantern language, and it was still in the era when command was basically based on shouting, basically except for their own ship that could be commanded, several ships around could vaguely hear each other shouting something, and the others did not know at all.

Coupled with the fact that the sea was now in flames, the Eastern Roman warships were too busy to take care of themselves, and no one was willing to catch up with the enemy to engage the enemy, so the Norman warships flew away, leaving only a few slower transports, which were gradually surrounded by the Eastern Roman navy, and were burned to ashes by the Greek fire of the Eastern Roman fleet after the persuasion failed.

Looking at the Vikings who were screaming in the flames and jumping into the sea, but no one took the initiative to call for help, the Eastern Roman navy was speechless for a long time, and the priests came out of the cabin one after another and began to celebrate mass for the dying sailors.

On April 24, 1103 A.D., the Norman Offshore Fleet and the Eastern Roman Mediterranean Fleet, the Adriatic Fleet, and the Aegean Fleet met, and the Adriatic Sea Battle broke out, with more than 800 warships and nearly 50,000 navies on both sides, and the battle was fought from early morning to about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the Norman Offshore Fleet lost 27 warships and more than 3,000 sailors, and the three major fleets of the Eastern Rome lost a total of 82 warships and more than 5,700 sailors, and both sides claimed to have won the victory.

The reasoning of the Eastern Romes was that in the end the Norman fleet fled in disarray.

The reason for the Norman fleet: it managed to break through and lost far fewer ships and soldiers than the Eastern Romans.

At this point, the Adriatic Sea Battle is over!

The three major Roman navies returned to the Greek peninsula, the port of Athens was corrected, and then the Aegean Fleet returned to its station, the Adriatic Fleet went to take over Ragusa, and the Mediterranean Fleet left the port to aid Narciss, who was in a bitter battle.

By the time the Mediterranean fleet arrived at Naples, it was no longer Naples, but a scorched earth.

When the allied soldiers slaughtered the city with joy......

When the Norman Offshore Fleet advanced towards the island of Malta......

Northern!

Around Venice, the city of the North Italian East, a war between the two Romans was about to begin.

Emperor Frederick of the Holy Roman Empire, and Emperor Basil of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Of course, this is the name of other countries, or other Catholic countries.

The Eastern Roman Empire, as the Roman Empire, would not recognize the Holy Roman Empire in any case, such a majestic and hilarious title, and it can even be said that at least half of the Eastern Roman Empire's hatred for the entire Catholic world is directed towards the Holy Roman Empire.

One Europe could not accommodate two Romans, two emperors, and two peoples.

Germain and Roma, two fateful rivals, are about to meet again.

Of course, whether it is Frederick or Basil, they are very confident, thinking that they will be able to win the final victory, because the army under their command is the strongest, and they are the strongest kings, and the other party is just a scumbag, and it is very easy to capture.

But after the two sides really clashed, they found that it was not going on at all.

(End of chapter)