"Woo······"

Under the gloomy sky, accompanied by a cold wind, the melodious sound of horns spread across the sea within a radius of dozens of miles.

On the sea more than 30 miles southeast of Weihai County, a huge fleet of more than 300 warships was slowly moving south, which was a part of the first fleet of the Xia State that was ordered to meet the Sui army's naval division.

On the top of the tall masts on the front few warships, the lookouts who have been consuming cod liver oil for a long time are holding the latest high-powered telescopes produced by the Xia Kingdom and staring into the distance, they are responsible for finding the specific location of the Sui army's naval division in time, so as to give the Xia army a head start in the next battle.

The work of the lookouts was very hard, the cold at the top of the mast was very strong, and the careful search was very exhausting, and the whole morning did not find anything to make them tired.

By this time, the smell of lunch preparation in the galley had begun to waft from the cabin, and some soldiers had begun to speculate about what lunch would be served at noon.

Sun Yan, the lookout on the mast of the ship at the front, rubbed his tired eyes, then raised his telescope and continued to look into the distance, and suddenly found that there were large seabirds gathering in the distant sky in the southwest.

At this time, there are still a large number of fish in the offshore waters, and the fish often knock out when the sea is sailing fast, and the food scraps discarded by the people on board will also attract many seabirds, and it is clear that the large flock of seabirds can attract so many seabirds.

Although he was still uncertain, Sun Yan quickly passed on the situation, and then he continued to keep an eye on the sea in the distance in order to determine in time whether there was a large fleet of ships, which was related to the next combat arrangements of the entire fleet.

"The whole fleet seizes the upper hand and puts on a battle formation!"

Although the lookouts had not yet found any trace of the Sui army, Zhong Likai, the commander-in-chief of the fleet, was still preparing for battle according to this situation.

While preparing for battle, the kitchen in charge of logistics did not have time to open the meal, so it distributed various foods such as canned food and meat floss from the ship's reserves to each soldier, so as to ensure that he could maintain sufficient physical strength in the following battle.

"Anyway, this cannon tube installed on the ship doesn't work?"

After Liu Kun, who was dressed in leather armor, helped several sailors lift the coats of shipboard weapons, he saw that there was actually a small bronze cannon in front of him.

As Liu Xin's eldest grandson, of course, he once followed his grandfather to the test site to see the experimental scene of this weapon, and the test effect he saw at that time was only a one-mile shot, far less than the range of the Zheng rocket equipped in the army.

And because of technical limitations, the artillery made by Xia Guo can only shoot solid bullets at present, but this comparison is not as good as the effect of the bed crossbow, Liu Kun really can't believe that this thing has been equipped on the battleship.

"Rest assured, the firing range of this kind of artillery is already about one and a half miles, although the range is not as far as that of rockets, but it is still more reliable than rockets in terms of accuracy!"

The reply was that Yang Tongsuo, the captain in charge of artillery on the ship, was a child of an ordinary family, but he participated in the lion cub camp and the white wolf camp since he was a child and performed well, so he soon became a naval captain of the First Fleet after completing the military academy and joining the army.

Although Yang Tongsuo didn't know Liu Kun's specific identity, he could also see that Liu Kun's identity was inevitably not small in the past few years, although he didn't stammer, he also paid more attention to handling the relationship.

Seeing that Liu Kun was more interested in artillery, he introduced: "Our warships are still old ships that have been built for more than ten years, so they can't carry too many guns, otherwise the ships will fall apart if they fire too much, and we will have at most twelve guns on these ships!"

However, now the Zhenhai Shipyard, as well as the Changxing Island Shipyard in Liaodong and the shipyard in Qinjin in the East China Sea are all being ordered to rebuild the latest artillery warships, and it is said that the largest battleship can install more than 200 guns! ”

"I'm a weird dropper! If all this were cast in bronze, it would be all money! ”

Liu Kun was immediately stunned by this news, this is the era when copper coins circulate all over the world, copper is even more valuable than money, and the copper used to cast a cannon must be tens of thousands of yuan, if there are as many as 200 guns on a ship, it is simply piled up with money.

In fact, Liu Kun didn't know that at this time, due to the rapid development of maritime trade, the financial system led by the five major banks of Xia had taken shape rapidly, and the paper money issued by them had not only been accepted by the vast majority of the people of Xia State, but had even circulated to dozens of vassal states in the West.

Even Western countries such as the Romans and Persians began to accept these banknotes in small quantities, especially the small banknotes had the largest circulation, after all, the value of copper coins in maritime trade was too low, and it was inconvenient to carry a large number of copper coins.

Therefore, at this time, the economic and trade system with Xia as the core has formed a small currency, most of which use Xia paper money, and large currency is still in circulation at the same time as paper money and gold and silver coins, which brings great convenience to the large-scale casting of bronze artillery in Xia State.

"Thirty miles ahead, it's definitely the Sui fleet!" Sun Yan at the top of the mast shouted a warning, "I'm a good girl, it's overwhelming!" Visual inspection alone of at least six hundred warships or more! ”

Hearing Sun Yan's warning, all the Xia soldiers on the ship couldn't help but speed up, according to the previous intelligence, the Sui Empire had thousands of large and small ships in the north this time, even if many of them were small ships of less than five hundred stones, but the threat to the Xia army fleet still existed.

The vision of the people on the sea was very far away, so at this time, the Xia army discovered the fleet of the Sui army, but because of the distance of dozens of miles, the Sui army had not yet had time to discover the Xia army, which provided the Xia army with more time to prepare.

"Sail forward to meet the enemy!"

With Zhong Likai's order, hundreds of warships puffed up their sails and sailed towards the Sui fleet.

"Knock Knock Knock"

When the Xia army was still more than twenty miles away from the Sui army, the Sui army finally discovered the traces of the Xia army's fleet, and then they began to hurriedly prepare for battle.

"I didn't expect Xia Jun to be ready so quickly!" Yuan Jingshan, who was on the flagship of the Sui army, turned pale, obviously very jealous of the strong combat effectiveness of the Xia State fleet.

Zheng Xiaoru didn't look anxious at all, he smiled and said: "According to those maritime merchants, Weihai County is a mooring point for the First Fleet of the Xia Kingdom, and it is normal for them to find us so quickly, and now the clairfront mirror in your hands is made by the Xia people!" ”

The spread of technology cannot be stopped, and now it has been more than 30 years since Xia officially made telescopes on a large scale, and as early as ten years ago, Xia Guo's telescopes began to gradually flow into the hands of the Sui Empire.

However, for more than ten years now, because the Xia State has extremely strict control of telescopes, the Sui Empire does not have too many telescopes, and this Sui army has Zheng Xiaoru and Yuan Jingshan, as well as several naval generals.

While the two were talking, the soldiers of the Sui Army's naval division erected a door bed crossbow under the command of the generals, and there were even more than a dozen huge Sui ships erecting huge slap rods.

There were also some warships that erected trebuchets for water warfare, apparently bringing all the guys who had fought in the Yangtze River in the past, and thousands of sturdy Sui soldiers on these ships wore only short clothes, carrying short blades and preparing for broadside battles with the Xia fleet.

When the two sides were still three or four miles apart, hundreds of Zheng rockets suddenly flew out of the Xia army's warship and flew towards the Sui army fleet with a scream.

Although the accuracy of this Zheng rocket is still not enough, thousands of Sui warships are densely placed on the sea, and dozens of rockets still hit the target, and the violent explosion brought a lot of casualties to the Sui army on each ship.

There were even some Sui warships that caused fires due to violent explosions, but fortunately, the Sui army had already taken corresponding countermeasures and quickly extinguished the fire with prepared wet sand.

Seeing that the Sui army sailors were in a panic, the soldiers of the Xia army laughed, in the case that the Xia country was ahead of the warships of various countries for decades, they had seen a lot of such scenes, and the fleets of many countries in the Western Ocean were sent to the bottom of the sea step by step by them.

But at this moment, a black shadow suddenly rushed out from the fleet of the Sui army on the opposite side, and it was actually a thick bamboo pipe behind the smoke spraying, clinging to the sea towards the approaching Xia army fleet.

"What's that?"

"It's not good, that's the gunpowder weapon of the Sui army!"

"Isn't it gunpowder developed by the Sui Army? How can it be so powerful! ”

The dozens of Xia ships at the forefront were suddenly in a panic, and the soldiers were a little flustered when the gunpowder weapon advantage they had in their hands was suddenly overtaken by the other party, and they hurriedly controlled the ships to dodge these attacking weapons.

However, Xia Jun's fleet was also relatively dense, and no matter how much they dodged, many ships were still shot.

"Boom" "Boom" "Boom"

The front ends of those thick bamboo pipes were all cones made of sharp steel, and they pierced into the planks of the Xia warship under the thrust of gunpowder, and then dozens of catties of black powder filled with the front warhead quickly launched a violent explosion.

Although the planks used by the Xia warships were all hardwood nearly a foot thick, under such a violent explosion, the planks that were clinging to the waterline were suddenly blown out of a huge gap, and a large amount of icy seawater quickly poured into the bottom of the cabin from the gap.

"Release the lifeboat!"

Fortunately, there were some lifeboats on the Xia army warships, and there were dozens of lifebuoys made of rubber, which also provided an opportunity for the Xia soldiers on board to escape.

When the more than 200 soldiers on board had just escaped 100 meters away, the warship that had been shot fell to the bottom of the East China Sea as soon as it overturned, and several Xia soldiers who had fled slowly were suddenly carried into the deep seabed by the sea, and there was no hope of escape.

"What's that?"

"What the hell is going on?"

The Xia army on the other warships was suddenly taken aback, they never expected that the Sui army would have such a sharp weapon.

"Fortunately, the accuracy of this weapon used by the Sui army is not high! Otherwise, we would have sunk more than five ships! ”

Zhong Likai's face was extremely gloomy at this moment, in the past, the Xia army relied on his advanced warships and powerful weapons to bully the sailors of other countries, but this time the Xia army only gave the Sui army a slight lesson, but he was dealt with and sank five warships.

"Pay attention to maintaining a two-mile combat distance from the Sui army, and give me a ruthless Zheng's rocket, and a fire oil bomb to hit it hard!"

At this moment, Li Kai was also angry!