Although the desire to make meritorious contributions to the war is very eager, Liang Cheng is also a general, and the marching formation is still very orderly. After arriving in the Lushun Sea, he was not in a hurry to enter the army, but ordered the fleet to be stationed temporarily, on the one hand, to repair and let the sailors take a breath, and on the other hand, to collect intelligence and judge the situation.

"Lushun seems to be about to attack, there are more than 100 flywheel warships lined up outside the harbor......" has arrived at the ground, and the task of the outpost has been completed, so Shi Tian personally returned to the formation to report the military situation.

"That's all?" Liang Cheng frowned, the number of feedback was a little wrong, in the fleet under his command, the number of such clippers was more than a hundred, and the number of shipwrights on the other side may not be as large as Jiangnan, but how to say that it was also original, how could the scale grow so slowly?

"And an ambush, perhaps?" Shi Tian said a little uncertainly: "If you don't get closer, you will definitely not be able to find out, but according to what your subordinates have seen, maybe it is because they divided their troops to Wadao Island, or even Tianjin, which is difficult to take into account." ”

"It makes sense, but you can't be careless." Liang Cheng groaned slightly, there are not only Jiangnan people in the coalition army, it can be said that this is the coalition army of the three southern coastal provinces, and there is absolutely no room for mistakes, even if he is not repeatedly told by Xie Qian and others, he will not make the mistake of underestimating the enemy.

"Chen Sheng, you know the most about Lushun, what do you think now?" Liang Cheng suddenly turned his head and asked.

"What is the identity of the villain, how dare he show off in front of all the adults." A man dressed as a family member stood up and said respectfully.

"If you say it, you can say that no one here has ever been to Lushun except you, what is there to show off?" Liang Cheng waved his hand impatiently, and the eyes of others were also focused on Chen Sheng.

"Lord Admiral, my lords, the younger one went to Golden State once in his early years, and he has some impressions of it, so I would like to ask you to refer to it now......"

This Chen Sheng is the scholar and housekeeper of Chen Shiliang in Liaodong, when he said that he returned to his hometown with the coffin, and conveyed Chen Shiliang's words, the Chen family was already frightened, and they were even more disheartened when they heard it. However, they couldn't ignore Xie Qian's summons, so they politely refused the summons on the grounds that they were mourning at home and had no time to separate themselves, and sent Chen Sheng, which was a guide.

The dishes that are pulled into the bowl are the dishes, and the coalition forces are already suffering from lack of intelligence, although Chen Sheng has only been to Jinzhou twice, but it is better than others who have never been there at all and can only judge the situation from the map.

And the strength of the Chen family, no one cared about it, so the two sides reached such a tacit understanding. As far as Chen Sheng himself is concerned, he also has the heart to avenge the young master, and the coalition attack on Lushun is also the best opportunity.

“…… The green mud depression is a natural bay, as a dock, it is the most suitable place, in the villain's shallow opinion, if there is an ambush in Lushun, it must be here. He pointed to the map and detailed the advantages of the green mud puddle.

"What do you think?" Liang Cheng didn't look at the map, but just scanned back and forth with a sharp gaze, he had heard this analysis many times, and this time it was specially proposed to unify opinions.

"According to the previous discussion, we will crush the past with a dignified formation, maybe when the ambush appears, the victory or defeat on this side will already be clear." The families are headed by the Wang Xie family, and the Xie family suffered a lot of losses in Wudao last year, but after all, the family is big and the business is big, but it is not passive at all, and it is the Xie family who speaks on behalf of the maritime merchants at this time.

"Yes, although the enemy's ship is good, but there is no way to do it, the formation is quite simple, we just need to press forward in formation." It was Xu Chenjiang who spoke, pirates have always believed in fists, the Xu family brothers are the strongest, and the thieves are faintly led by them.

"Since everyone has no objections, then it's decided." Liang Cheng nodded, and said in a deep voice: "Master Xu, all the clippers are handed over to you to command, as a front formation, you must defeat the enemy in front of you and force out the enemy's ambush." ”

"Yes." Xu Chenjiang clenched his fists and promised.

"Xie shopkeeper, you command the right wing, and the king's shopkeeper goes to the left wing...... Ben will personally guard the formation, line up the plum blossom array, and the whole army will attack! ”

"Yes!"

...... "General, the enemy is on the move!" The lookout warned.

"See." Lu Xiaosi held the binoculars and shouted: "Wave the flag, give the order, and be ready to reverse." ”

"Whoa."

Even if you don't use a clairvoyant mirror, you can clearly see the black oppressive shadow in the distance, as if a black cloud is pressing down on the city, and the scale of the enemy is beyond doubt. However, no one in the Royal Navy flinched because of this, just like Deng Pei dared to go deep into the enemy formation with a reconnaissance ship, everyone's confidence and morale were transformed from victory and admiration for Hou Ye, of course, it would not be shaken like this.

Hearing Lu Xiaosi's order, the herald and the standard-bearer have no second word, and the order and prohibition are the most basic rules in the army, but the others are a little puzzled, and those who are familiar with the Lu family brothers asked: "Fourth general, aren't we out to fight?" Why are you ready to withdraw before you fight? ”

"Hey, don't mention it, today's protagonist is not us, let's just make an appearance, so as not to scare the enemy away, and when they rush over, we will flash." Lu Xiaosi sighed and explained.

"Huh?" This answer greatly surprised everyone's expectations, and after the exclamation, some people wondered: "Let's withdraw, then there are only those ships in the dock, the ships are big enough, but the number is too small, right?" Can they do it alone? ”

"Anyway, that's what Master Hou ordered," Lu Xiaosi raised his hand weakly, pointed at the enemy who was lining up on the opposite side and said, "Have you seen what is covered on that deck?" Hou Ye said, those eighty percent are bed crossbows, if you really want to fight, our thunderbolt cannon is not an opponent......"

"Bed crossbow?" Most of the officers and men of the Royal Navy were halfway monks, but they were just a group of fishermen, and they were not familiar with military affairs, so they were all very unfamiliar with this term.

"It's a large strong crossbow with a bow arm placed on the bed frame and a winch on the line......" The judgment of the coalition forces was correct, Xie Hong was in the green mud pool, but he was not setting up an ambush, but was directing the sailors, coating the felt carpets with silt, and then hanging them on both sides of the ship, while answering Dai Ziyu's questions.

"Sizzle! Is there such a sharp weapon? Listening to Xie Hong's detailed explanation, Staff Officer Dai gasped, this thing is really a bit exaggerated.

First of all, the arrows, the arrows used in bed crossbows are generally very large, the longest is six or seven feet, and the short ones are two or three feet, not so much arrows as javelins. Not to mention people, even if it is a ship, I am afraid that it may not be able to withstand a few arrows, especially a light ship like a flywheel battleship, no wonder Hou Ye ordered General Lu Si not to engage in battle.

The power of the bed crossbow lies not only in the strength of the arrows, but also in its range, the smallest bed crossbow also has a range of more than 300 steps, which is nearly twice as far as the thunderbolt. If you don't consider broadside warfare, the most important thing in naval warfare is long-range weapons, and among the long-range weapons, range is the most critical.

Staff Officer Dai is quite proficient in naval warfare, and after the flywheel battleships of the two sides fight, what kind of scene will it be, he knows when he thinks about it, the gap is indeed a bit big.

"Master Hou, do you already know about the fact that Jiangnan people will use bed crossbows?" Compared with the power of the bed crossbow, Xie Hong's prophetic foresight also amazed Dai Ziyu.

"Oh, Mr. Dai, don't you know there's such a thing?" Xie Hong was stunned and asked.

"Huh?" Staff Officer Dai was at a loss, how could he know about such a sharp weapon?

"Well, I thought everyone knew about it." Xie Hong shook his head and sighed.

The earliest record of the bed crossbow is in the Spring and Autumn Period, in the Han Dynasty, the application of the bed crossbow reached its peak, in the Tang and Song dynasties, the figure of the bed crossbow can also be seen from time to time, in the Ming Dynasty, it seems that there are few relevant records.

However, Xie Hong himself is not proficient in history, so he doesn't care, he just thinks he is lonely. But who would have thought that even a person like Dai Ziyu, who was both a craftsman and a proficient in naval warfare, had never seen it, then it can only be said that the application of this thing in the Ming Dynasty was indeed very rare.

Perhaps because of the use of firearms, they were eliminated; Or after the disaster of Meng Yuan, the technology was lost; It is also very likely that the army cannot afford to build and maintain this thing. The manufacture and maintenance of bows and arrows itself is very time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the consumption of bed crossbows is far higher than that of bows and arrows, so it is too expensive to use, which has become a very suitable reason for the special surname of the times.

Xie Hong's opinion was inclined to the last one, so he concluded that what the Jiangnan people equipped the flywheel battleship and even the Fu ship with was this thing.

"Master Hou, since you know, why didn't you ...... it in the first place?"

"Mr. Dai doesn't know that although the bed crossbow is powerful, it doesn't meet Benhou's requirements." Xie Hong waved his hand and said: "Although the range of that thing is long, it is not easy to get accurate, even if it is fixed on the ground, let alone at sea?" No matter how calm the wind and waves are, it will also have an impact, after all, flywheel battleships are small boats. ”

"In addition, the frequency of that thing is also slow, and the Thunderbolt can fire an average of two times a minute, and the limit can even reach three. If you change to a bed crossbow, it's a question of whether you can fire it once every two minutes, hehe," Xie Hong smiled a little shyly and said, "You also know what my flywheel battleship is for, and such a standard doesn't meet my expectations." ”

Dai Ziyu nodded silently, the flywheel battleship is used as a pirate ship, and it is often overnumbered, and the bed crossbow is certainly not very easy to use.

"Of course, if you fight in formation, the bed crossbow is better."

As he spoke, the enemy had already finished forming and began to advance, and the front row was lined up with more than 100 imitation warships lined up in a long snake formation. Through the telescope, Xie Hong could see clearly, the canvas on the deck had been lifted, and countless braziers had been lit on the side of the ship.

"It doesn't matter if you can't hit it accurately, as long as you shoot intensively, you can make up for it, the ancestors of Huaxia, there are really a lot of good things left, but it's a pity that no one uses it until the critical moment." Xie Hong let out another long sigh.

(To be continued)