"Ma's staff."

"Scatter coins!"

Zheng Sen froze in place, the fury in his heart uncontrollable.

The banner of the Nanban Nguyen clan fluttered high above the city of Hue, and flags were also planted on the forts outside the city.

The canisters of fire were thrown down like hailstones, and the fire on the river kept burning, breaking the planks, the masts, the canvas, and the terrible oil of the ship.

Black oil, known as fire and water, filled the river, and one of the most advanced gunboats was ignited, fireworks rose and smoke filled the air, and soldiers screamed.

The sudden change put the fleet in a state of extreme panic.

Those fires and water that can burn on water are a very powerful thing that ignites fire. As early as the Song Dynasty, there were records of the use of oil in the Central Plains, and these black oils used from the ground could not only be burned for heating and cooking, but also used as medicine. In the archipelago of Southeast Asia, there are many natural crude oils, bitumen, etc.

No one expected that the Ruan clan would actually hide such a ferocious killing move.

They used hundreds of boats to lure the warships of the Han Royal Navy to bombard, and the navy, who had just been proud, found that the intact Ruan family warships were not terrible, but the really terrible ones were the broken ships that had been reduced to pieces and blocked the entire river.

On the battleship Zhou Yafu, Liu Jian stood on the stern deck, his face pale, and his hands were tightly pinched.

Captain Scar was also sweating profusely at this time, and the terrifying sight of the sky-rushing fire and the entire river burning made him tremble.

The entire fleet was already very close because it was trying to bombard those Ruan family ships with all its strength just now.

The fire is flowing downstream.

Scar no longer thinks about how to blast away Hue with a salvo of naval guns, all he thinks about is how to evacuate the burning river as quickly as possible.

"Retreat, get out of the way in the back, let the main battleship withdraw first!"

Li Ling and Ma Yuan were also hurriedly turning around.

Now the whole fleet is within range of those terrible water and fire canisters, but fortunately, the farther back, the less attacks there are, and there are not so many broken ship fragments behind.

Six cruisers were also rapidly retreating.

The larger the ship, the less likely it is to move at this time. The more anxious you retreat, the more chaotic it becomes.

The surface of the Xianghe River is forty or fifty zhang wide, which is naturally quite wide in normal times, but at this time, dozens of boats gather here, hurriedly turning around, but it seems extremely narrow.

"Captain Wang." Liu Jian came to Scar, "Our attack has failed, Nanban is too insidious, we must evacuate here immediately now." ”

Scar had already taken off his pretending sunglasses. Holding the telescope in his hand, he couldn't help but complain a little about Liu Jian at this time, if it weren't for his repeated requests for any ships to come to the city, there would not be such a terrible situation now.

"Lord Fuxian, the last general is directing the fleet to retreat."

"It's too slow, so we can't retreat at all, and now the wind is not in our favor, and the fire on the river is getting bigger and bigger. At this time, you can only abandon the pawn to protect the car. Let the gunboats and patrol boats stand behind the fire and wrecked ships drifting down, and make way for the main battleships and cruisers to withdraw first. If necessary, those frigates can also be reared. Liu Jian shouted loudly.

Cannon roared.

Wang Scar was stunned, and the scar on his face turned red and purple.

"Don't hesitate, do you want the entire detachment to be wiped out here?"

Wang Scar couldn't afford that outcome. Liu Jian couldn't afford that kind of result. There were three battleships, six cruisers, and ten frigates. In addition, there are more than 20 gunboats and patrol boats, as well as more than 10 transport ships, more than 450 ships of all sizes, and more than 1,000 artillery pieces.

This detachment is equivalent to one-third of the strength of the Royal Navy's Sixth Fleet, and if it is all submerged on the Xiang River, no one can afford the consequences.

The artillery on the turret also began to wield its power, adding a sequence of beating the water dogs. But the warships of the Han army turned around in a panic, avoiding the broken ships and debris that were burning downstream.

There is a strong force in the air, but at this time, he is in a hurry, and he can only be beaten and unable to fight back.

Scar had also expected that the Nguyen army would attack with fire and set fire to attack the ship downstream, but they underestimated their opponent. Hundreds of wooden boats were sent to the Han army to be smashed, not to mention that there was a more powerful fire and water, this thing could burn directly on the surface of the river, and it was much more powerful than ordinary fire attack ships.

Cannonballs and canisters rained down on the river fleet.

The Jurchen soldiers of the Jianzhou Legion stood on the shore in a daze, not knowing whether to attack or retreat at this time.

But according to the plan, they would wait until the battleships destroyed the fort batteries outside the city, and then reached the city, and the artillery fire suppressed the fire on the city, and then they attacked under the cover of artillery. At that time, it will have to be supported by the fire of the field artillery battalion, but now the battleship is difficult to protect itself in the river, and the field artillery battalion of the Marine Corps cannot be in place.

Faced with the walls of the city that were more than two feet high, and the small fortress batteries that stood like nails outside the city, they rushed forward with their muskets and iron armor?

The Jurchens are not stupid, no one would hit the fortress with flesh and blood like this.

"Retreat, cover the retreat of the fleet!"

Without too long of hesitation, in the end, the Jurchen generals gave the order to retreat.

What finally gave some comfort to the navy officers who were in dire straits in the river was that the Jurchens did not abandon them and ran away. They maintained their formation, slowly retreated, and kept protecting both sides of the river, covering the fleet.

Zheng Sen's marines also gave the order to retreat, and it was pointless to talk about attacking at this time. They had to be careful to guard against the Nguyen people taking the opportunity to kill them out of the city, and Hue City had elephant troops, horse troops, and musket infantry.

The soldiers on the gunboats, patrol boats and even frigates all showed the excellent qualities of the Imperial Royal Navy, although countless broken ships and broken sails on fire were coming downstream, but when the flagship gave the order to put them in charge of the rear of the palace, most of the soldiers only cursed a few times, and then turned around to bombard the broken ships, and even hit the batteries on the shore to give the main battleship a chance to turn around and retreat.

The southern barbarians on Hue City saw that the Han army was retreating in embarrassment, and finally made a commotion of pride.

With the sound of the horn, the gate of Hue opened, and the southern barbarians came out.

At the front were the elephant army, a huge army of thousands of elephants, followed by the horse army, and then the infantry.

Zheng Sen saw through the binoculars that among the Nanban infantry who followed behind the elephant army and horse army, there were many red-haired and yellow-haired Xiyi, and there were quite a few of them, estimated to be two or three thousand.

The military strength displayed by Hue City far exceeded the expectations of the Han army.

Although they had long been informed of the intelligence about the size of the tens of thousands of troops in Quang Nam Nguyen, they did not really take the so-called tens of thousands of troops into account at all. In their eyes, the Guangnan Army is also the Southern Barbarians, some natives, even if they buy guns and cannons from Xiyi, it is estimated that at most it is the combat effectiveness of the Ming officers in the early years.

The muddy road had no effect on the elephants, and huge elephant hooves trampled over the muddy pavement and splashed water. The cavalry followed, shouting wildly, as if they had treated the Han army as a reservoir dog, ready to beat it hard.

For the arrogance of the Nanban, the Jianzhou Jurchen generals and the officers of the Marine Corps all ordered to continue to retreat.

"It's still a hanging, fight with them!"

A right-hand sergeant held a rifle and looked angrily at the rushing Southern Barbarians.

Zheng Sen continued to retreat without hesitation, and said, "Of course we have to fight, but not now, we are too close to the cities and fortresses of the Southern Barbarians now, and it will be very disadvantageous for us to fight." Let's retreat a few miles to the east, and when they catch up, we'll do it with them again, and then don't hesitate when you kid does. ”

"Lao Tzu still thinks of military exploits? Reward pressing? As long as they dare to chase after him, Lao Tzu will definitely shoot him ten or eight of them. ”

Zheng Sen, like everyone, was very suffocated. Especially Zheng Sen, who had been vigorously opposing Liu Jian's battle plan, and now that something had finally happened, he didn't have any schadenfreude in his heart, just anger.

The Han army, which has strong force, suffered such a big loss under the hands of the Southern Barbarians, which is simply a great shame, and it will be on his head for the rest of his life.

The nine main battleships were still slowly turning around, and four or five of the ships in front of the palace were either hit by artillery or ignited by fire flowing downstream.

The fire of black oil is difficult to extinguish, but it is very easy to spread, and a little bit of it can burn quickly. Even if the gunboat smashed the broken ship, the scattered broken ship board still carried burning water and fire.

Fire and water are like black water, but they can burn on water.

In order to protect the nine capital warships, four of the ten frigates took the initiative to stay behind and join the team of the queen of the palace.

War elephants look bulky, but they are actually very fast.

Thousands of war elephants galloped in, like soldiers, horses, soldiers, and infantry, and at least 30,000 barbarians were killed.

"We can't withdraw anymore, quick, withdraw to that dirt slope, build an artillery position, let's fight with the fuck." A general of the Marine Corps watched the ferocious offensive of the brute soldiers, and immediately shouted for him to go and give orders to the Jurchen generals and ask them to cooperate and turn around to meet the enemy.

The fleet has not yet withdrawn from the danger area, they now leave the fleet to retreat alone, the river bank will fall into the hands of the barbarians, and then there will be water and fire flowing down the river, and there will be rockets and other attacks from the southern barbarian army on the bank, and the fleet will become more and more dangerous.

And it's not a matter for them to blindly retreat, the pursuit of the barbarian army is too fast.

Neither the Marines nor the Jianzhou Army had heavy artillery in their hands, and their heavy artillery was on the transport ships following the fleet, and at this time, in their hands, they only had some light mountain grenades, and these guns were only light support firepower of the Han army. But now they can't take care of this, the marines and the Jianzhou army both withdrew to the low hill on the shore, and the mountain grenades in the hands of the two armies were gathered, which were originally used as a platoon of firepower, all gathered together, and quickly built an artillery position.

Fortunately, these mountain grenades are not heavy, they are all directly loaded on horses, there is no need to tow a gun cart, and they are quickly disassembled and assembled.

"Company commander, another frigate is on fire!"

A Marine company soldier stood on a hillside, pointing to the frigate on the river not far away, with its entire mast and sails burning.

Zheng Sen only glanced at it, then withdrew his gaze, and another battleship was gone.

The fire was fast, crawling over the rigging and onto the canvas, and the frigate was like a sun glowing with a scorching dazzling light. (To be continued.) )