"The column was changed to a horizontal formation, with an interval of 30 paces, advancing at full speed, and the ballistas were scattered."

Although Yuan Yao was surprised by the performance of the Jingzhou naval army, he immediately gave the correct order.

When the flagship ordered the standard-bearer to raise the command flag of the "horizontal formation", the 21 battleships that were still maneuvering in a serpentine shape directly gave up the tactical command to follow the front ship, and all of them moved forward at full speed on their own, striving to match the fastest speed with the first ship.

The speed of the battleship is not as fast as that of the red horse, and sooner or later it will be overtaken, so it is necessary to rely on the 50 paces of the previous lead, and set up a horizontal battle line before being caught up, and support each other at a distance of 30 steps between each battleship, so that the friendly troops around you are caught up by the red horse, and you can use scattered bullets to help attack the enemy.

Scattered bullets are gravel shells, which do not cause much damage to the hull, so you can safely attack the enemy near friendly warships, even if you hit your own warship, it doesn't matter, but if you don't have any protection, Akama will be hit miserably.

The horizontal battle line is designed to prevent the enemy from attacking, but the premise is that the battle line must be laid out before the enemy is attacked, otherwise they can only fight separately and cannot support each other.

The ballista has a dead angle for attack, and it cannot be hit under its own hull, and it can only be supported by nearby friendly forces, so if it is caught up by the red horse of Jingzhou, but does not enter the battle line, it can only be slaughtered by others.

Both sides are scrambling for time, than speed. Let's see whether the Red Horse assault tactics come first, or the battleship's horizontal battle line comes first. If the red horse attack succeeds first, then it will be difficult for the battleship to get rid of it again; If the battle line is achieved first, it is only the ability to counterattack, and the victory or defeat is still unknown, because the sailors of the battleship have not trained in close combat until now, and now melee combat is unavoidable, so Yuan Yao has no certainty about the battle under him.

Yuan Yao was so confident in the speed of the battleship and the long-range strike ability that he always thought that he could completely avoid close combat like the naval battles of later generations, but now he was slapped in the face by the Jingzhou naval army.

In fact, in the period of sail battleships, broadside warfare was still an important part of naval warfare, but Yuan Yao thought that he could avoid this kind of low-level battle by relying on technical crushing, and yesterday's victory was too easy, so that he had an arrogant mentality, and he began to have some eyes on the tactical choice, and wanted to suppress all the Jingzhou naval forces with 21 battleships, so it caused the current passive situation.

"The proud army will be defeated. The ancients did not deceive me! ”

Yuan Yao already had remorse in his heart, realized that he had made a mistake, and pride made him choose to make a mistake; If he had seen so many red horse clippers behind him, he would have run away, but now is not the time to admit his mistakes, he has to think of getting out of trouble, otherwise not only will the entire battleship formation be wiped out, but he himself may have to pay the price, and this price may even be his life!

On the water, he has no way back......

The oarsmen on both sides were paddling desperately, and the front end had already begun to form a horizontal line, but the assault formation of more than 200 red horses in Jingzhou was getting closer and closer, and the fastest had already chased to a distance of 40 steps.

Yuan Yao began to worry about the battleships at the rear end, they had been at the back of the battle line, and now they were the most vulnerable targets......

When the seven battleships successfully formed a horizontal line, the Jingzhou Red Horse Formation had already chased 30 paces......

When the 10 battleships formed a horizontal line, the Red Horse Formation was 20 paces closer......

By the time the 12 lines were formed, the last battleship had been chased to about 10 paces and was about to be pulled into close combat......

"Why didn't I prepare a bow and crossbow on the ship!" Seeing that the battle situation was becoming more and more unfavorable to his side, Yuan Yao began to fall into a state of self-criticism.

Yuan Yao required the battleship sailors to be professionalized, so he did not let the gunners or oarsmen train the bows and arrows again, so that the battleships did not have any long-range weapons except ballistas, and could only stare at the enemy in front of them, but there was no way to attack.

The two sides are too close to get closer, but there is still a small number of battleships that cannot successfully enter the line, if they are all entangled and eliminated by the Jingzhou naval army, then there are only 12 battleships left in the horizontal line, and the combat power will be greatly weakened, and the battle situation will probably make people even more desperate!

If there was a walkie-talkie, Yuan Yao could also command the fleet to reorganize the horizontal line and include the battleships that did not keep up with the team; or command them to form another front on their own; It is even possible to abandon the already clearly defeated front and freely strike at the enemy in a coordinated manner......

But it's a pity that he doesn't have a walkie-talkie, and there is no way to carry out such a complex micro-operation with the command flag and horn, and if he doesn't get it, he will destroy the battle line that has been formed, causing the whole army to fall into a melee......

Just when Yuan Yao was in despair, among the 9 battleships that fell behind, the one that was originally relatively high suddenly began to slow down, and after a while, it fell behind all the friendly forces, and he was caught up by a red horse clipper in Jingzhou, but he still had no intention of accelerating!

Just when Yuan Yao thought that something had happened to this battleship, a large number of scattered bullets suddenly shot out from the two sides of the ship, hitting Jingzhou Chima, who had already caught up, and the entire assault formation was stunned......

"This ......" Yuan Yao suddenly knew what this battleship was doing, he didn't slow down due to some accident, but without any order, he voluntarily reduced his speed and left the rear.

The position of this battleship is the most suitable for breaking off, because his rear is the arrow of the Jingzhou assault formation, as long as he reduces the speed and does not need any turning, he can include this arrow into the attack range of the ballista, as long as the arrow can be knocked out, then the enemy's entire formation will be implicated, not only the overall speed will decrease, but even the formation will be chaotic, whether it can be reorganized, it depends on the ability of the Jingzhou naval army.

More than 200 red horses gathered together and advanced at high speed, if there was no formation, it would definitely be chaotic, the captain of this self-broken battleship had a very keen insight, just hit the enemy's vital point, but the result after the break is also conceivable......

Jingzhou Chima, who was in the dead end of the attack, had already surrounded the battleship after the break, and the sailors also began to board the ship, and the oars were surrendered, and the speed of the battleship was quickly slowed down, but the battleship did not sit still, but set the bow and stern on fire with oil bombs, so that the Jingzhou navy had no place to stay, and they couldn't board the ship at all, unless they climbed to the top of the room, but there was no exit there, and if they wanted to fight in close combat, they had to break through the top of the room, and then climb into the room, but it would take time.

The gunners in the battleship successfully used fire oil to keep the Jingzhou sailors out, but they also blocked themselves inside, and in the face of the raging fire outside, the two sides of the battleship were still shooting scattered bullets outward, hitting the Jingzhou red horse that wanted to cross him as much as possible, and for a while the Jingzhou sailors who surrounded him were helpless, and finally they could only choose to bypass him far away, waiting for him to burn himself to death......

In this way, the assault formation composed of more than 200 red horses was completely disrupted by a battleship, and it was soon distanced by the battleship formation.

The Red Horse Clipper is loaded with few people, and the oarsmen are not replaced, although the speed is fast, but the staying power is poor, and now it has been pulled away, and it may be difficult to catch up.

"Tell me who he is? Who was the captain of this battleship? Who are the 120 trolls? Yuan Yao looked at the farther and farther firelight, and asked Yuan Hong beside him with tears in his eyes.

"Yu, Yu lord ......" Yuan Hong wiped his eyes, and said in a choked voice, "The captain's name is Deng Dang, and he is the tun commander who replaced his subordinates and became the lord's personal guard......"

"Is that him?" Yuan Yao suddenly remembered that on the day the first battleship was launched, he commanded the battleship for the first time to start training, and the commander who commanded the oarsmen was scolded by him, and then Yuan Hongmao recommended himself to take his place. Yuan Yao saw that he was pitiful and a little self-motivated, so he included him in the guard camp, so that he could have the opportunity to learn, he never thought that he would do such a feat of sacrificing himself today, and it can even be said that he saved Yuan Yao's life.

"When the lord asked his subordinates to select people to form a battleship navy in the personal guard, his subordinates were grateful to Deng Dang, so they kept him by his side for special guidance, and later became a close friend of his subordinates, but I didn't expect to ...... today," Yuan Yao explained to Yuan Yao with tears.

Yuan Yao recalled: "I remember that at that time, I told them that if I wanted me to know the name, I would show my true skills, but I never thought that this Deng Dang was the name I knew in this way, I felt ashamed......"

Saying that, Yuan Yao came back to his senses and turned his head to Yuan Hong and asked, "Does Deng Dang have any relatives?" ”

Yuan Hong hurriedly replied: "My lord, he also has a wife and brother who are also training in the army, because he has just turned sixteen, he was not allowed to board the ship this time, and fortunately, otherwise I am afraid that his life will not be guaranteed." ”

"Arrange for him to come to my guard camp!" Yuan Yao decided to try to save this person for Deng Dang, after all, his personal guard battalion was still the safest enemy.

"What's the name of this son?"

Yuan Hong arched his hand and said: "This son is a disciple of the Hanmen of Runan, surnamed Lu, named Meng, and the word Ziming." His family fled to Jiangdong because of the yellow scarf, and was rescued by Deng Dang in distress on the way, so he married his daughter to Deng Dang......"