Yu Tongyuan hurriedly put the telescope in his eyes, looked in the direction pointed by the lookout, and sure enough, he saw that there was a sail shadow in the northeast and northwest sides!

He knew that they were two sizable fleets.

"Drumming!" Nan Anhou immediately gave the order to prepare for battle, whether it is friend or foe, prepare first!

The sound of war drums resounded across the sea. On each ship, the sailors who were still farting wantonly heard the sound of all the people, and quickly put on their helmets and leather armor, wound the bows and arrows and ballistas on the ship, brought out the powder kegs from the cabins, and loaded the bow with cannonballs.

At the same time, put down the thistle terrestris net to prevent climbing, and prepare sandbags and hemp for fireproof......

Everything is methodical, well-trained, and there is no trace of panic in sight. They are invincible Chaohu water masters!

By the time the soldiers were ready to meet the enemy, the enemy ships were already approaching a mile away.

"There are twelve large ships of 2,000 materials and thirty-six fast boats, all of which are Cantonese ships." Liao Dingguo was neatly draped and appeared beside Nan Anhou. Listening to the latter's solemn tone, he said: "Kun Wei has twelve big ships of two thousand materials, and forty fast boats, all of which are lucky ships. ”

"That's a big formation." Liao Dingguo gasped. These ten of them are all thousands of sea ships, not only are the boats smaller than others, but they are also very few. "How many men are they?"

"When all kinds of heroes join forces, let us know that we know that it is powerful." Yu Tongyuan said in a deep voice: "And I see that when they are traveling, the distance between the ships has been maintained perfectly, obviously they are not a rabble." ”

"Well, just look at it." Liao Dingguo nodded and said: "These two sides should have been formally trained sailors, but I don't know if it's Fang Guozhen or Chen Youding's old subordinates." ”

"Judging by this scale, it's all here if you can't figure it out." Yu Tongyuan said astringently: "A bitter battle is inevitable. ”

"Come on, then, we haven't seen anything before." Liao Dingguo was still full of confidence at this time.

~~

As both sides came within range of the artillery, the bow cannons began to roar.

The pirate ships were not only equipped with artillery. The twelve Hiroshi ships were even equipped with a return cannon, a small trebuchet.

The return cannon projected egg-sized shotguns, twenty or thirty rounds at a time, wrapped in brown paper. Launched into mid-air, the paper breaks through the rocks, and it can attack a large area. Once it falls on the ship, it will cause a lot of damage to the sails and people.

This made it impossible for the city fleet to keep its distance and take advantage of its artillery, as it had done before. I had to bite the bullet and get close to the enemy ship - although the side of the enemy ship was much higher than our own, but at least this would protect you from the return gun.

But Yu Tongyuan and Liao Dingguo didn't expect that this was in the hands of the thief army.

I saw that on the high thief ship, the thieves opened their bows and arrows one after another, and shot rockets burning with arrows towards them!

"They're going to burn our sails!" Liao Dingguo saw those rockets and concentrated on his own sails, and couldn't help but say anxiously: "Fuck, hurry up and get up!" ”

"How can they jump on the side of the ship so high?" Yu Tongyuan stopped him.

"I'm afraid of a ball, just throw the hook and climb up, it's not that I haven't climbed!" Liao Dingguo roared with red eyes.

"Hard to climb up, the loss is too heavy......" Yu Tongyuan disagreed.

"We can't lose, we haven't lost yet!" Liao Dingguo roared.

"No, our ship is too small to hit a stone with an egg!" Yu Tongyuan has experienced countless naval battles with his father and brother since he was a child, and he knows too well how much advantage a big ship has in fighting a small boat.

"Mingjin!" Then he made a quick decision and gave the order to retreat.

Yes, he didn't plan to fight hard in the first place. But coming up and fleeing will give the enemy ships in the distance enough time and space to adjust their direction to intercept.

Now the two sides are no more than a hundred paces apart, the bow of the ship is facing the bow of the ship, and the city fleet is on the upwind!

From the rhythm of the gong, the ships heard the commander's order, and immediately raised their full sails and let the ships rush up against the enemy ships!

Amid the pirate's exclamation and scolding, the helmsman carefully steered the ship of the city ship and the enemy ship staggered by......

When the two sides are staggered, they can see each other's faces clearly.

Naturally, they didn't care about appreciating the other party's dignity, and they all desperately greeted each other with bows and crossbows.

The difference is that the sailors of the city fleet, the target of the shot is the pirate itself. The pirates' target is still the sails of the city's fleet.

The sailboat was so cumbersome to maneuver that it was impossible to control the track precisely, and as a result, several of the city ships were too close to the pirate ship......

Seeing that the two sides were so close, the pirates simply pulled out the half-burned firewood from the brazier and threw it directly at the sails of the ships.

The sails of the ship, which were already on fire and smoking, were completely ablaze

By the time the two sides disengaged, the masts on the ships had been burned into torches.

The sailors desperately cut the cables and the burning mast to avoid burning the entire ship.

On those ships with sails not on fire, the sailors also drove at full speed, and did not hesitate to discard all cargo, artillery, and spare sail cables...... Throw everything you can into the sea to get as fast as possible!

When the sailors had finished throwing away what they could, they could look back and see that the four ships with their masts had been cut off had fallen behind.

And the enemy ships are desperately turning around.

Those Clippers who are good to turn around are almost ready to turn.

"Leave them alone, or none of them will leave!" Yu Tongyuan once again vetoed Liao Dingguo's proposal to turn around and go back to pick up people, and resolutely issued the order to move forward at full speed.

They are all the old team of Chaohu sailors, and naturally the order is forbidden, and the soldiers can only look at the four boats with tears, getting farther and farther away from themselves, getting closer and closer to the enemy ships, and finally being surrounded by groups......

~~

"Those pirates didn't let us go, they chased after us until the mouth of the Yangtze River...... and then stopped" At this time, Yu Tongyuan couldn't cry, knelt down and pleaded: "Causing such a big loss is the fault of his subordinates, please Your Highness severely punish you!" ”

As he spoke, he drew the sword at his waist and raised his hands above his head. "My subordinates wish to die to thank the brothers on the four boats, as well as Mr. Wang and Tongjiang ......"

Zhu Zhen looked at the hilt of the sword that had been pulped, but still reached out to take the sword and put it on Yu Tongyuan's shoulder.

His eyes went over him, looked at the sailors standing on the bow of the ship, and asked in a loud voice: "Nan Anhou wants to apologize for his sins with death, do you agree?!" ”

"Disagree!" The sailors shouted: "Your Highness doesn't know, the enemy ship is too big, our ship can't do it, and if you fight hard, you will only be wiped out!" ”

"Yes, Your Highness, at that time, the four ships were already without masts and could not leave. If we want to save people, we have to turn around and go back against the wind, isn't that death? The soldiers shouted.

"Then you, are you still willing to accept his command?" Zhu Zhen asked in a deep voice.

"Yes!" The soldiers replied in unison.

Only then did Zhu Zhen look down at Yu Tongyuan and said, "Did you hear that?" You've already failed a bunch of brothers, are you ready to let down another? ”

(End of chapter)