"Commander-in-chief, the Flying Jiao has been bitten by a fireship!" Suddenly, one of his men shouted.

Li Yan turned his head to look and saw that the side of the three-masted ship "Feijiao" dozens of feet away had been hit by a fireboat, and the swift flames were heading from the fireship to the tall Feijiao. However, compared to the tall Feijiao, the size of the fire ship is too far away, and it seems that it will take some time to ignite the Feijiao.

"Order, order the Feijiao to extinguish the fire by itself, and the other sea ships continue to attack!" Li Yan said in a deep voice.

The stakes in this battle are too great, and Li Yanzhi has already decided to defeat the anti-thief sailor in one battle, regardless of the losses of his sea ships!

Under his orders, all the sea-going ships except the Feijiao rushed towards the enemy convoy, and did not pay any attention to the oncoming fireships.

The three-masted ships were all as tall as a building, and all the fireships that collided with the seagoing ships head-on were all plowed into the bottom of the river, and most of the fireships were almost impossible to hit the belly of the seagoing ships because there were no anti-thief sailors at the helm.

Only a few fireships managed to avoid the side of the ship crashing into the belly of the ship, and after rushing through the fireship array, twenty seagoing ships, in addition to the Feijiao, and one Galen ship happened to be hit by the fireship, and had to stop and extinguish the fire first.

Eighteen sea ships rushed through the fireboat formation, and also crossed the warships of the Caojiang Naval Division that were blocking the fireboats, and the three-way column rushed towards the follow-up fleet of anti-thieves! At the same time, the guns in the bow of the ship continued to roar, shooting shells into the anti-thief ship formation in the distance, of course, most of the Hongyi cannons were installed on both sides of the ship, and each sea ship could only be equipped with one gun in the bow, and the density of the shells was a little sparse, but the deterrent was not weak at all.

Seeing that their own fireship array did not achieve much effect, and then watching those tall castle-like sea ships rushing towards their side, in the anti-thief fleet, many soldiers were already frightened, the sea ships rushing on the opposite side were too big, their own ships were almost like bathtubs compared to others, just looking at the size, it was already desperate, not to mention that there were so many powerful guns on the other side's ship!

In the back formation, Fang Guoan looked at the river in the distance through the clairvoyant mirror, and his heart couldn't help but spasm. Before the war, he was still somewhat sure of defeating the imperial sailors, after all, the number of ships and soldiers under his command was seven or eight times that of the imperial navy. Although the imperial navy had more than 20 high-sea ships equipped with many Hongyi cannons, in view of their stupid weaknesses, Yuan Chonghuan formulated a strategy for the attack of the fireships in advance and remodeled the fireships. Fang Guoan also agrees with the strategy of fire attack, believing that he can restrain the opponent's sea ships.

However, he never expected that the hard-planned fire attack strategy would have no effect, and it was not as good as the first river war, at least the first river battle relied on the fireboat to scare the other party away!

What Fang Guoan didn't know was that the same army, the same tactics, and different commanders could not achieve the same effect. Under the command of Yuan Chonghuan, the morale of the anti-thief sailors was high, and they relied on generous rewards to recruit thousands of soldiers who dared to fight to the death.

When Yuan Chonghuan appointed Fang Guoan as the commander of the water division, he also left him a large amount of silver for reward, which was used to recruit dead soldiers, but Fang Guoan put most of the silver in his pocket and only took out a small amount of silver for reward. The money given was not enough, so naturally he couldn't find enough dead soldiers, so Fang Guoan directly dispatched thousands of soldiers to be responsible for operating the fireboat, and these soldiers didn't want to die, so they started to set fire when they were still far away from the imperial court sailors, and then they got on the river boats tied to the back, and let the unmanned fireboats rush towards the imperial sailors by themselves. No one is driving, how is it possible to hit those sea ships? It is conceivable that there will not be enough results.

Of course, at this time, Fang Guoan didn't have time to think so much, he was using the flag to command his warships. After the fireship fleet, Fang Guoan sent another three hundred warships, and now these warships are about to meet those sea ships.

The cannon roared, most of the shells fell on the river, and the anti-thief sailor fleet had already collided with eighteen sea ships.

Like a mammoth rushing into a pack of wolves, the anti-thief warship that was hit head-on was either crushed to the bottom of the river or torn apart.

Then the flotillas of both sides were completely mixed up.

As for the anti-thief warships, none of the eighteen sea ships were so tall, and the side of the ship was at least one or two feet higher than the side of the anti-thief warship, and looking up was really like looking at the city wall.

"Bang Bang Bang" The Janissaries on the ship opened fire condescendingly, and from time to time the anti-thief sailors screamed and fell into the river.

The "bombardment" was close at hand, and it was just when the 10,000-strong enemy was exerting his might, when a 10,000-strong enemy threw himself onto the deck of an anti-thief warship and exploded, shrapnel flew indiscriminately, and the anti-thieves within a kilometer of the deck were swept away, most of the anti-thieves were killed on the spot, and a small number of seriously injured and not dead anti-thieves let out a miserable cry.

"Kill!" Among the thieves, there were also brave men, who were not afraid to face the tall ships of the sea, and bravely fought back with the weapons in their hands.

In the face of the tall sea ship, most of the weapons in the hands of the anti-thieves could not be used at all, and the only thing that could attack the sea ship was a small stone thrower mounted on the deck in advance, and a dozen anti-thief soldiers operated the stone thrower, throwing the lit rattan ball towards the sea ship, and when it landed on the deck, a flame was ignited.

In a quarter of an hour, several sea-going ships caught fire on their decks, and the Praetorian Guards on the decks hurriedly extinguished the fire with the sand they had prepared in advance.

However, compared with artillery, the weapon of the trebuchet has long been outdated, not to mention that the accuracy is not as good as the artillery, and the operation is not as convenient as the artillery. In addition to the number of Hongyi cannons on each sea ship, each sea ship is also equipped with small cannons such as Franc machine and bowl mouth gun, in close combat, these small cannons are loaded with loose bombs, and when they are blasted out, they are a large number of lead shots, and the stone throwers of anti-thief warships often only shoot once, and they will be bombarded by artillery at close range, and a large number of scattered bullets are shot at the head and face, and the anti-thief soldiers who operate the stone throwing machine are shot out.

There are Hongyi cannons in long-distance battles, firecrackers in close combat, small cannons such as Franc machine and bowl mouth gun, and the firepower of the Fujian Navy Division is not weaker than the armed merchant ships in the hands of the Dutch, let alone these anti-thief warships that have never seen the world.

In terms of the difference in firepower, there are only two ways to threaten the ships of the Fujian Navy Division, one is to carry out a gang jumping battle, and the other is to carry out a fire attack. As for the broadside battle, because the anti-thief ships were too small to carry out, the fire attack was declared a failure, and the battle was now almost doomed. However, if the anti-thief sailor is braver, it can still cause some losses to Li Yanzhi's sea vessels.

However, Fang Guoan's command made the morale of the anti-thieves not raised. Seeing that the soldiers on their ships had suffered heavy casualties, and many anti-thief ships in the rear had been shaken, the speed of the sailors' oars involuntarily slowed down.

"Don't stop, continue to rush forward and go straight to the opponent's Chinese army!" Commanding the ship, Li Yan pointed directly at the anti-thief ship formation on the river in the distance, and ordered with high spirits. As for the enemy ships that were thrown to the rear, they were left to the river commander.

Under the command of Li Yanzhi, more than a dozen sea ships rushed forward rapidly. It is said to be rapid, but in fact, the speed is not fast in the case of countercurrent, but if the two sides are hedged, the relative speed is extremely fast. However, many of the Praetorian Guard soldiers on board found that the speed of the sea ships moving under them was slow, and if they looked closely, they could see that it was not their own ships that were slowing, but that many enemy ships were not leaving and were making a hurried U-turn.

"Beat the drums, all ships are not allowed to retreat!" Fang Guoan shouted.

In his opinion, the number of his own ships is still several times that of the imperial court sailors, and it may not be impossible to win the battle. As long as he wins the imperial court, he will make the first contribution to this battle, and after capturing Nanjing Zhu Yousong ascended the throne, he will definitely be able to be knighted with this merit!

However, only a few ships were willing to obey his orders, and most of them were hurriedly turning around and retreating. Not close to the battlefield, I don't know the horror of those sea ships, and the feeling of not being able to fight back just by being beaten is really uncomfortable, and no anti-thief soldier is willing to fight such an enemy ship.

"General, the brothers can't hold on, let's retreat!" A warship approached, and an officer on board shouted at Fang Guoan.

"Withdraw!" Fang Guoan didn't hesitate at all, and immediately ordered, so he sat down and immediately turned the rudder of the warship. The direction in which those sea ships rushed was clearly towards his command ship, and Fang Guoan did not dare to delay any longer. Although meritorious service is important, it must also be lifed.

As soon as Shuai Qi retreated, hundreds of anti-thief warships on the river no longer resisted, and they all rushed to retreat.

"Boom boom" artillery roared, and one shell after another fired at the fleeing anti-thief warship.

"Kill!" The shouts drifted with the river breeze, and more than 100 warships of the Jiangjiang Naval Division pounced, overtook the Fujian Naval Division's sea boats, and launched a fierce attack on the fleeing anti-thief ships.

"Don't go back to the water village, continue to retreat upstream!" On the warship, Fang Guoan ordered urgently. He knew in his heart that even if he escaped into the water village, he couldn't escape the attack of the imperial court sailors, and he could only be beaten and couldn't fight back, and the other party's Hongyi cannon was too many and too fierce. The only way to avoid the other party's attack is to flee upstream, far away, as for the water village, Fang Guoan can't care about it.

"Order, Caojiang Sailor will continue to pursue and kill the enemy ships, and all the sea ships will attack the enemy's water village!" Li Yanzhi still kept calm, he knew that on the Yangtze River, the speed of the sea ships was not as good as the enemy's river boats, and there was no point in catching up, so it was better to take the anti-thief water village first.

Eighteen seagoing ships lined up, the sides of the ship are facing the anti-thief water village, the Hongyi cannon mounted on the side of the ship fires one after another, after the Hongyi cannon on one side fires, the sea ship will turn the bow of the ship, the other side of the ship facing the anti-thief water village, and then continue to fire, the Hongyi cannon that has fired before takes the opportunity to load gunpowder.

"Boom, boom, boom ....." artillery roared, and one after another shells were fired into the anti-thief water village, fell in the river water, and landed on the warships of the water village, and the whole water village was in chaos.

ps: There is one more update, which is being written.