Three Kingdoms Eschatology

Three months later, when the Mediterranean summer came, Crete had become Mallor's new home.The farms here are more than enough to feed all his and Anthony's troops. Not counting the income from sea routes, the taxes collected from workshops and piers are offset by the "passage" he originally levied on sea ships in Sardinia. Tax".This made him and his brother Anthony feel high-spirited and complacent every day, and it seemed that the unification of Rome was not beyond their reach.At the same time, their original home, Sardinia, has naturally become dispensable.Mallor then transferred most of the few warships and remaining infantry in Sardinia to the Eastern Mediterranean, leaving only fifty or sixty ships in Muravila in Sardinia, a symbolic occupation Sardinia with a radius of five hundred miles.

Sicily, too, had not responded to his fanfare in the Eastern Mediterranean for months.This made Mallor even more convinced that Sicily's fleet had lost most of its main force, and it was impossible to compete with him for the right to rule the Mediterranean Sea.He began to formulate a plan to attack Cyprus.

But Mallor, who had a smooth journey, didn't know that Feng Yu had been following his actions for the past few months.On the surface of Murahela and his stronghold on the sea near Malta, semi-submersible ships from Sicily will appear from time to time.

When Feng Yu learned that Mallor had transferred almost all the ships to the Eastern Mediterranean, he was having a meeting with the generals in the lobby of the Governor's Mansion.Gan Ning stood up and said to Feng Yu: "My lord, it's time for us to close our doors and fight dogs. Today, we can dispatch the second fleet to take down Malta and Mullawela in one go. Cut off the escape of Malor to the Western Mediterranean in the future." possible."

Feng Yu laughed and said: "How can we use a sledgehammer to kill a chicken. Our new fleet - the Second Fleet should be used in the decisive battle, so as to exert its greatest power. Otherwise, if the enemy knows its edge early, it will try to delay it. A decisive battle with me at sea will waste us a lot of time. Mulaweila, they only retain a symbolic force, we don't have to confront them at sea, we just need to requisition some merchant ships and fishing boats to load a few brigades of infantry, Then use a few warships to escort them to the coast of Sardinia far away from Mulawela and land on the coast of Sardinia, and rely on infantry to attack the barracks of Muravera to take them."

After talking about Mulawela, Feng Yu began to talk about his plan for the Malta campaign: "As for Malta, because the island is too small, it is impossible to take it in this way. But with the remaining [-] warships of our old fleet After dispelling the ships guarding the island, there is no problem in forcing a landing. Then..."

……

In Sardinia, there are only sparks in the camp of Muravila under the night.Because most of the troops were transferred away, the huge barracks seemed empty.The towns outside the camp have also been deserted. There used to be thousands of people there, and now they were all brought to Crete by Mallor.

At this time, there was a sudden salsa sound from the weed-covered stone road in the gap outside the town, which was also mixed with the hooves of a few horses.It was the sound of two thousand ostriches running on the stone road.In order to prevent being discovered by the patrol boats of Mulaweila, Zhao Yun led the four brigades, a total of 2000 people sailed around seven or eight hundred miles, landed from the northern coast three hundred miles away, and then quietly rode the ostrich He came rushing towards Mulaweila.

When Zhao Yun saw the overlapping silhouettes of houses by the moonlight, he reined in the reins and made a gesture.The whole brigade came to an abrupt stop. "Get off the mount and touch it quietly. Before sneaking into the barracks, don't startle the snake."

Although according to the detailed information obtained before, Zhao Yun knew that this was an easy task, but he was still sweating.After all, they went deep alone and did not arrange a retreat.So if they can't complete their goals as planned, they can only be trapped to death on this huge desert island.

Fortunately, everything went as planned.In the deserted town of Mullawela, there is indeed no one except for dilapidated houses.When they touched the tall wall of the barracks and used their claws to climb up, there was still no movement from the enemy army.This barracks, which once accommodated nearly [-] people, now only has dozens of sentry guards, so there are naturally loopholes everywhere.

When the guard's sentinel realized that the situation was wrong, he exclaimed, and fired a round of crossbow guns at them with the individual ballista in his hand.At this time, two to three hundred people from Zhao Yun's army had entered the camp. Seeing that their actions had been exposed, they simply shouted in unison and rushed to the gate of the camp.

After a while, the gate of the camp was opened, and Zhao Yun pointed his silver spear into the air and said, "Kill!" After saying that, he took the lead and charged towards the camp with his gun raised.When he rushed towards a barracks, he heard the sound of arrows piercing the air, and two crossbow guns passed by him one after another.

Zhao Yun hurriedly danced the silver spears into a ball, twisting and flying the crossbow spears that were firing randomly from behind.There was a whistling and neighing, and he rolled off the horse.Only then did he realize that his war horse had been pierced through the chest by a crossbow spear, and he was already dead.The soldiers behind Zhao Yun had already caught up and stood in front of Zhao Yun, shooting at the enemy in the barracks in front of him less than ten battles away.Zhao Yun had a complicated expression at this time. First, he was shocked that the infantry on the other side were generally equipped with individual ballistas. Second, he felt that the era of the general leading the way and charging into battle may have passed.

The camp was full of people shouting and the muffled sound of crossbow guns passing through the air.In order to deal with the enemy soldiers hiding in the barracks and resisting, Zhao Yun's soldiers and horses began to use portable ballistas to throw incendiary bombs to ignite everywhere.One barrack after another was engulfed in flames.Only a few ten minutes later, only three to four hundred enemy troops began to surrender one after another. Zhao Yun immediately dispatched a brigade of more than 10 people to the port of Shuizhai, and captured dozens of unoccupied ships.

When it was dawn, except for the warships and warships that were patrolling outside that night, they found something was wrong and fled away.Mallor's remaining troops in Sardinia were wiped out and captured.At this time, the island of Malta, thousands of miles away, was also attacked by the old Sicilian fleet, that is, the First Fleet.

Chapter 1142 Siege of Malta

Located between Sicily and the coast of North Africa, Malta occupies a key strategic position.But Feng Yu only set up an observation post and a supply station for patrol ships here before, and did not build a fortress in Malta and garrison it with heavy troops.This is because the island has no fresh water. To guard a large number of soldiers and horses, fresh water is regularly sent from the mainland of Sicily to the island.This requires considerable manpower and material resources. Feng Yu believes that relying on Sicily is enough to hold the throat of the central Mediterranean Sea. There is no need to spend such a cost to set up a fortress on the island of Malta.

Malta is a very small island, but it is not an island.To the north of the main island with a radius of [-] to [-] miles, there is a secondary island with a radius of only more than ten miles, which is as big as booger.After Mallor occupied Malta, he built a strong fortress on the east side of the main island that could accommodate thousands of soldiers and horses, and built a port terminal in the adjacent bay.

On this day, the morning sun had just dyed a layer of red clouds on the sea surface, and layers of warships appeared on the sea surface in the northwest.These battleships are lined up, and their layers of sails almost cover one-third of the entire horizon that can be seen.The observation post on the vice island of Malta first discovered these warships, and immediately yelled in horror.The warning red flag was raised on the high flagpole, and the beacon fire was also ignited. At the same time, the sound of conch horns sounded one after another on the main island and the auxiliary island.

Seventy or eighty galleys moored in the port of the main island of Malta sailed out of the bay one after another, posing on the sea to meet the enemy.The Sicilian First Fleet, led by Gan Ning, turned the ship sideways and aimed its dense side ballistas at the enemy fleet.

However, Mallore's people had obviously heard about the Cyprus sea battle, and knew that the opponent's battleship was loaded with dense ballistas.He didn't rush forward recklessly.Instead, he carefully kept his distance from the other party.A small number of ships even tried to detour from the two wings to attack the head and tail of the Gan Ning fleet. These two places should have received the least ballista bombardment.

Gan Ning saw that the other party was smart, so he had to order all the ships to anchor again, turn around, and slowly approach the sea area between the main island of Malta and the auxiliary island.This is actually a strategy to force the fleet to enter relatively narrow waters, so that he can take advantage of the number of ballistas equipped by his fleet.

Malta's [-] or [-] warships had no choice but to accept the call. They spread out as much as possible in the strait between the two islands, and slowly approached the Gan Ning fleet in a bow-to-bow state.When the distance between the two sides was about seventy or eighty battles, the ballistas on their respective ships began to shoot out a series of stone bullets.Then the fireball incendiary bomb also drew parabolic traces in the sky.

For each warship of the Sicilian fleet, the large bow is generally equipped with two ship-borne ballistas, and the smallest forty-oar warship will even be equipped with one ship-borne ballista at the bow position.Moreover, Gan Ning's ships are obviously much more than Malta's warships, so even if they are facing a frontal bombardment, the projectile density of the Sicilian fleet is much denser than that of the counterattack.

A quarter of an hour later, the battleships of the two sides finally fought together.The entire battlefield at sea was like a turmoil, the sky was full of flying stone bombs and fireballs, burning ships could be seen everywhere on the sea, and the sound of cracking wood was everywhere.The infantry carried by some Sicilian warships took the opportunity to land on the palm-sized islands between the two islands, and set up ballistas of various sizes on them.Fiercely bombarded the enemy ships that were fighting with one's own side in the sea.

The number of warships, equipment and even combat skills of Malta are at a disadvantage.After less than half an hour of fierce fighting, they began to evacuate.After a while, only a burning and sinking abandoned ship remained on the sea.Three of these belonged to the Sicilian fleet.

This made Gan Ning feel unexpectedly smooth.In fact, Mallor had given orders to the admirals stationed in Malta—if a large number of enemy warships attacked and the warships could not prevent the landing on the island, they should withdraw immediately instead of increasing losses.So when the general realized that the opponent was coming so fiercely that it was impossible to resist, he ordered to flee, leaving the infantry in the fortress on the island to stand alone.

Gan Ning faced the fleeing Malor ship, and according to Feng Yu's instructions, he did not pursue it, but immediately sent more than 2000 soldiers to the island of Malta.Soon, except for the fortress in the east of the island, the rest of the area, including Vice Island, was filled with the flags of the Sicilian Army.

This newly built fortress was also besieged by the Sicilian army.The atmosphere in the camp was very tense, but there was no panic.Commanding the two thousand infantry was Simmons, and his second-in-command, John Lawrence.

Seeing that Simmons was only besieging but not attacking, John asked Simmons puzzledly: "This camp looks extremely strong, but it was built in a hurry. So most of the materials used are local wood. So, We can easily break through this camp with fire, so why wait here?"

Simmons shrugged and said, "It's not my intention, but the Governor's intention. He didn't say the reason, but I guess, he wanted to avoid our casualties as much as possible. There is no fresh water on this island. Even if the enemy army Water storage, how long can it be stored? They will surrender when they run out of fresh water. We will be able to take this island without bloodshed."

Simmons was right.But this is only one of the reasons why Feng Yu only besieged Malta, and he had another more important reason.

……

In the newly built "Governor's Palace" in the city of Mysina, Crete, Mallor, the self-proclaimed Governor of Crete, was listening to the report of the soldiers.When the commanding officer told Mallor the news that Malta was besieged, Anthony, who was sitting beside him, said in surprise, "What? Malta is besieged!?" He immediately said to Mallor, "Brother, Malta is a strategically important place, and if we lose him, we will lose our way back to the western Mediterranean. We must go to the siege immediately."

Mallor did not directly respond to his words, but said calmly: "Sure enough, as I expected, the Sicilian navy is still dead, and it still has a hundred warships today. However, this should be All their warships have been concentrated in Malta. In this case, we will take Cyprus and the Suez Canal when they use all their strength on Malta."

Anthony asked back: "Then Malta doesn't want it?"

"Don't worry, Malta can still defend for a month or two. I have told them to prepare for a long-term siege. They should have stored enough fresh water and food, and their defenses have been strengthened enough. Besides, even if they lose It’s nothing. Although this is an important point, if we plan not to return to the Western Mediterranean for a while, this point will be meaningless to us.”

Chapter 1143 The Underrated Mallor

Governor's Palace of Cyprus.A soldier rushed into the gate in a panic.Due to his haste, he didn't have time to show his badge to the guard at the gate according to the procedure.Fortunately, the commander was Hatulel's personal messenger, and the guards knew him well, so they didn't treat him as an assassin.

"Report! Our patrol ship Flying Pigeon passed the news. They found a large number of unknown ships fifty miles west of Cyprus. The number is between [-] and [-]. They are heading towards Cyprus!" When the soldier was eager After reporting the military situation, Hatulel, who was having lunch, put the silver knife and fork in his hand heavily on the plate, making a clanging sound.

He said to Little Hatulel opposite him: "This can only be the Malor Fleet that newly occupied Crete. Now he is the only one in the entire Mediterranean that can take out so many warships in one go."

Little Hatulel stood up from the dining chair, walked to the balcony of the restaurant overlooking the blue sea of ​​the Mediterranean Sea and said: "A few months ago, when Mallor entered the Eastern Mediterranean and occupied Crete, we knew He will definitely come to invade Cyprus. At that time, Feng Hu sent a letter from Sicily, asking us not to worry, saying that he has a way to deal with Mallor. But he needs to prepare for a while. Now, Mallor has come to the door I haven't seen him move yet. Father, isn't he just playing tricks on us?"

Old Hatulel shook his head and said, "Don't speculate about him. In addition to our alliance relationship, we also have an in-law relationship. After all, he is your brother-in-law. What we can do now is to send a letter to Feige in Sicily and the canal area for help." .”

As soon as he finished speaking, another soldier came in and reported: "The dovecote has the latest letter from Sicily. Please check it, Your Excellency Governor." While speaking, he handed over a letter rolled into a paper tube...

……

In the besieged Fortress of Malta, a defender poked his head out from the half-collapsed watchtower to look around.The scene in the distance made him exclaim: "No, those enemy ships have come back again, and reinforcements are coming! It seems that they will continue to increase troops on the island and launch a general attack on us!" His As soon as the words fell, a man who looked like a commander poked his head out.He glanced at the huge fleet in the distance and said: "They didn't come to attack us. They were heading east, and they should have gone to attack the mainland of Crete. We must report this situation to the higher authorities immediately." !"

After that, he asked a soldier beside him, "How many pigeons are there in the cage?"

"There's only one left."

"Then quickly use this pigeon to report to the city of Mysina in Crete that a large number of enemy ships seem to be heading for Crete!"

This is a fleet of three or four hundred ships from the port of Pozzallo, Sicily.More than half of them are civilian ships, fully loaded with nearly ten thousand pacers.

The new fleet, the Second Sicilian Fleet, is also among them. This fleet has only sixty or seventy warships, but half of them are multi-masted ocean-going galleons with three to four decks, and the other half are flexible galley warships and Semi-submersible boat.But these ships also carried a certain number of wrought iron and copper core smoothbore artillery.

The commanders of the Second Fleet are almost all the first graduates of the Sicilian Naval Academy. Their tactics and tactics were drafted by Feng Yu based on some text, audio and video materials in the original world.Then, it was continuously summed up by instructors and students with traditional naval combat experience in actual exercises.It's just that none of these have been tested in actual combat. This is their first opportunity to participate in actual combat.

This huge fleet departed from Pozzallo to Crete without crossing the edge of the island of Malta, but Feng Yu deliberately made a circle and passed the edge of the island of Malta.At this time, he himself was watching around on the flagship deck of this huge fleet.

A few days ago, Feng Yu was quite surprised to learn that Mallore did not send troops to relieve the siege of Malta as he expected, but went straight to Cyprus through the news from the semi-submersible reconnaissance ship.He realized immediately that he had underestimated Mallor.

The original plan can no longer be carried out smoothly, and the current priority has changed from luring Mallor to a decisive battle with himself to helping Cyprus.However, it was too late to send troops from Sicily to Cyprus, or to mobilize more than a hundred ships of Liang Guo's Red Sea Fleet from the canal area.

In the end Feng Yu adopted the strategy of besieging Wei and saving Zhao.He first sent a letter to the Harturel family and the commander of the canal area, asking the former to persist in Cyprus for ten days and a half months, and he promised that the Malor army would land in Cyprus in ten days and a half months. Retreat on your own.Ask the latter to take all navigable ships to aid Cyprus immediately after receiving the letter.Then, he ordered the assembly of warships and warships, and he was going to land on Crete, forcing Mallor to withdraw the Marine Corps attacking Cyprus.

……

island of cyprus.Anthony rode his horse and led the army forward, and the outline of another town appeared on the horizon.But when Anthony broke into the town, his mood dropped like a deflated ball.This is another empty town, not only empty, but also all the soft objects in the house, let alone food, food and other useful things.

His nearly [-]-strong army landed on land without hindrance on the beach near the port of Pila in southern Cyprus.The defenders huddled in the fortified castle behind Pila Port and could not hold out.

After his battleship rushed into the port of Pila, he found that there was not even a shadow of a ship in the port. After launching a tentative attack on the city of Pila, Anthony found that the city defense was too strong and the defenders were too strong, so he felt that a strong attack would not be worthwhile.He ordered the port of Pila to be surrounded first, and then he personally took the remaining troops to sweep deep into Cyprus.But his legion passed by almost no people, the towns were empty, and the farmlands that had just passed the harvest season were harvested bare.In the end, the city of Konya, the capital of Cyprus, was another garrisoned city they found.

In fact, according to Feng Yu's method, the Hatulel family transferred and evacuated the entire island's military and civilian supplies to Pila Port, the two cities of Konya, and the mountains in the middle of the island with high efficiency in a short period of time. .

Anthony reluctantly returns to Port Pila.Now he can only continue to stay in Cyprus by storming the port of Pila in a short period of time and obtaining food and supplies in the city.Because it is almost impossible to provide sufficient food supplies for this nearly ten thousand army through thousands of miles of waterways, and the food brought with the fleet is almost exhausted.

At the same time, Mallor received a letter from Malta's garrison pigeons.His lieutenants and staff all suggested that he quickly transfer Anthony back, otherwise the Sicilian army would occupy the entire island once it landed on Crete, because there is currently no regular infantry defense on the island.

Unexpectedly, after pondering for a long time, Mallor resolutely refused: "No! Anthony will continue to stay in Cyprus until he completes his mission to occupy the entire island. As for Crete, we can defend it with our navy alone. Half of the battleships we left behind correspond to Compared with them, they still have an absolute advantage in military strength. I believe that most of their ships are civilian ships that transport troops!"

Chapter 1144 The Unintentional Decisive Battle

On the sea more than [-] miles southwest of Crete, two galley warships were chasing each other, and from time to time, stone bombs from ballistas flew across the sky.From time to time, you can hear the loud cracking sound of wood breaking as the hull is hit by ballista stone bullets, or hit by underwater bronze rams.

The battle was quickly decided. A galley warship with a damaged side left two friendly ships that were slowly sinking and burning, and fled eastward as if flying.On the surface of the water, there are still many people who fell into the water.

This was another encounter between scouting ships from both sides.In the distance, Feng Yu's huge fleet continued to march towards Crete, as if he was not surprised by such a battle.Since the first time in the morning that the opponent's patrol ship started, Feng Yu asked Gan Ning to transfer the ship and go to the front of the fleet to open the way for reconnaissance.There have been three or four such sea battles since then.

Obviously, Mallor on Crete has discovered the traces of this huge ship.Just don't know how he will respond.At this time, Feng Yu lowered his eyelids slightly, sitting in the cabin of the flagship, and kept deducing several possible coping options for Mallor in his mind.The generals sitting on both sides of the long table at the lower head also said nothing.

There is a sea chart on the wide wooden long table, and several wooden ship models are placed on the sea chart, representing the position of the fleet, the position of the forward patrol ship squadron, and several secret sentry scouts. The location of the semi-submersible vessel.Every two hours or so, Feng Yu's attendants came up to rearrange the models based on the estimated new positions.

When these attendants updated the positions of these marks again, some soldiers entered the cabin and reported: "My lord, the semi-submersible ship is secretly sent out ahead, and the patrol boat relays the semaphore. The general idea is that a large number of people appeared more than forty miles ahead. Enemy ships. Covering the sky and blocking out the sun, there are at least [-] of them! They are coming head-on!"

After hearing this, all the generals were shocked.Feng Yu's eyes were also swished and widened, but the expression on his face was not surprised but happy.The attendant also immediately took out a galley warship model with a black flag on it and placed it on the chart, representing the enemy fleet.Judging from the chart, it is less than three inches away from the model mark representing the main force of the Sicilian ships.It means that as long as the two sides do not change their course, the two sides will meet together in at most one hour.

Feng Yu clapped his hands and laughed loudly at this time: "Good thing, really good thing! I have imagined various possible responses to Mallor, but what I want most is for him to pull out the fleet and fight me directly. I do everything possible to destroy his fleet. The main force was lured to the decisive battle in Malta, but he was not fooled. I didn’t expect that Liu Chengyin would become a willow now. If he let me land on Crete, and then take advantage of the number of ships to cut off the sea road and grain road behind me. Then we will be very It is difficult to force him to transfer back to the army that attacked Cyprus in a short time. Moreover, the advantages of our new fleet cannot be brought into play, and they have learned the characteristics of our new fleet early on.”

Gan Ning clasped his fists and said, "My lord, I understand what you mean. But there are many disadvantages in this decisive battle. The capacity of the galley is limited, and the paddlers can only sit in a narrow place to rest, and they need to work in shifts day and night. Paddle to maintain a certain speed. So their limit continuous voyage is three days and three nights. Our fleet has been sailing for two days and two nights plus several hours, and the crew on board are extremely tired. This state is different from occupying The enemy ships with an absolute numerical advantage are obviously at a disadvantage. In addition, we also have the most important disadvantage, that is, we still have a large number of civilian ships that carry troops. During fierce battles at sea, warships and warships have to be distracted to protect them. ..."

He was interrupted by Feng Yu before he finished speaking: "I believe that the equipment of our warships and the courage of our soldiers can completely overcome these difficulties. A decisive battle with the enemy at sea is the best for us. Choice. Those troop carriers will not be a burden, but will serve a special purpose in this battle."

Then, he issued an order to prepare for battle: "Order all the ships of the various ministries to switch to the combat state. In one hour, we will have a decisive battle with the enemy."

After finishing speaking, Feng Yu walked out of the cabin again, came to the deck, and looked at the skyline to the west.The commanding soldiers on several ships in the distance were still communicating with each other using semaphore to the ships farther away where only the masts could be seen.The soldiers often returned, constantly reporting the position of the enemy fleet.

Suddenly, in Feng Yu's sight, several masts emerged from the sea level one after another, and then more and more, as if a small forest grew on the sea level.More than half an hour later, the surface of the sea was covered with two densely packed battleships from both sides, less than a few hundred battles apart.

At this time, Mallor was also standing on the deck of his flagship, looking towards this side.In his eyes, Sicily's ships are also overwhelming and boundless.But he has found that, as he expected, civilian ships account for the majority of these ships.Those warships are forming a line in front of these civilian ships.The warships in these arrays belonged to the First Fleet of Sicily. In their cabins, priests wearing crosses were praying for the sailors and soldiers.

Mallor looked at the fleet that lined up the opponent in a long snake formation and was moored on the sea, knowing that as soon as his own ship approached, the opponent would cross the sound of the ship and use the unique side ballista to attack fiercely. beat yourself up.He couldn't help sneering secretly: "I know that your ballistas are densely packed so that you won't be fooled by you. Orders were sent to order all warships to spread out as far as possible, outflank them from the left and right, and then attack from all directions. Before the ships are in place, who will You are also not allowed to launch an attack in advance alone!"

Feng Yu saw that the enemy ships began to disperse in a large area, and knowing the opponent's intentions, he immediately ordered: "Order Gan Ning's first fleet to move forward and approach the enemy's dispersing fleet at the fastest speed. When the ballista is within range, the bombardment will start. The Second Fleet is mixed among the troop carriers, and no one is allowed to fire without an order!"

On the surface of the sea, more than a hundred ships of Gan Ning's Sicilian First Fleet began to brave the wind and waves, advancing side by side, cutting white wakes.A quarter of an hour later, the ballista at the bow of the ship also began to fire a round of stone bullets, projecting them in a fan shape towards the scattered enemy ships.Mallor's battleship also launched a counterattack.In a short while, the air was full of flying stone bombs, and white water jets rose from time to time on the sea.

The Gan Ning fleet didn't care how Mallor's [-] warships spread out and turned around to both sides, they just rushed forward in unison, heading straight for Mallor's flagship.Mallor hastily ordered his flagship to retreat, and ordered the warships in the middle to go up and kill the opponent at close range...

Chapter 1145

There was a loud bang, and Mallorton felt the deck under his feet shake violently.Only five battles away from him, the wooden deck had been smashed into a big hole, and a stone bomb the size of a small pumpkin was embedded in the big hole.Sawdust was scattered all around.In the distance, a ballista ball from the enemy fell on the deck of his flagship.

Mallor himself tried to remain calm, with a calm expression on his face.But his cronies shouted anxiously: "Quickly retreat the flagship another fifty battles away." In fact, the current flagship is already outside the effective range of the ballista of most Sicilian ships.The stone bomb was only ejected by a Sicilian ship that broke into the forefront, and accidentally fell on the deck of Mallore's flagship.

In the waters a hundred battles ahead of the flagship, more than [-] ships from both sides had engaged in melee, of which more than [-] belonged to the Sicilian First Fleet, and the remaining nearly [-] ships belonged to Mallor.

Most of the ships of the two sides were separated by more than ten battles, and they were not completely mixed together, but a small number of ships had rushed into the opposing fleet.The galley warship that accidentally hit Mallor's flagship was one of them.

At this moment, the battleships of the Mallor Fleet around it turned their ballistas and aimed at this battleship.At least twenty stone bullets hit it from all directions.How could it be avoided at such a close distance, only a crackling sound was heard, and a big hole or gap had been pierced through its deck and side.At the same time, a small galley on each side of the left and right wings stabbed obliquely towards it, intending to disembowel it with underwater bronze rams.

The side catapults of the Sicilian fleet were installed on the edge of the open deck, but a semi-closed roof was added above to protect the arrows and javelins of enemy ships.A stone ball passed through this roof and hit a ballista player in the head, killing him instantly.

The ballista commander yelled "Let it go!"The ballistas of the ten ballistas on both sides pulled the hanging knives in unison, and the tense strings fired a stone ball, and the fireballs poured out.They almost hit the two fast ships rushing forward and obliquely in a straight line.With the muffled sound of wood snapping and clay pots shattering.

The two Mallor's galleys had several rips and holes pierced through their sides.Some breaches were below the waterline, and sea water poured into the cabin immediately.Piles of raging flames also ignited on the deck.The speed of the two fast ships was only slightly weakened, and they continued to rush forward. With two loud bangs, the underwater bronze ram broke deeply into the hull of the Sicilian battleship, almost cutting it into three pieces...

There were also warships on Mallor's side that rushed into the enemy fleet first, but their situation was even worse.There were five warships around one of the warships. When it rammed straight into the oncoming warship, the side ballistas of the four Sicilian warships on the left and right sides of it fired at the same time, and almost all of the ejected guns were filled with Greek guns. Clay pot for oil.

Forty stone bomb fireballs all hit its hull at close range, and one of the fireballs also penetrated into the cabin through the oarhole porthole.The deck and cabin of this warship were covered in flames, and screams could be heard endlessly.The entire ship continued to hit the Sicilian ship ahead like a big fireball.However, it was already making its final sprint entirely by inertia, and the Sicilian warship deviated from an angle in a calm manner, passing by within less than five battles of its side, and at the same time shot a shot from close range. stone bomb...

The warships of the two sides finally fought together unevenly.In addition to ballista blasting and ramming, the soldiers on the battleship also took their positions on the deck.Constantly throwing javelins and arrows at close-range enemy ships.The warriors in Mallor's fleet were more fire starters than javelins and arrows, such as torches, rockets, and clay pots filled with Greek kerosene.

Mallor thought that the ballistas on the Sicilian warships were so dense and used to use fireballs.Then they must have piled up a lot of fire bombs on the deck.As long as there is a way to ignite these fire bombs, a ship will be plunged into the flames in an instant.So he ordered before the battle that if the enemy and our warships get too close, they should throw a lot of firelighters.

However, Mallor miscalculated.Feng Yu and his admirals can naturally think of these things that he can think of.Those kerosene bombs have been properly preserved. They were buried in wooden boxes filled with sand, and the outer layer of the wooden boxes was wrapped with fire cloth or asbestos.Such protective measures are unlikely to let them die with these small means.

But a Sicilian warship that was being besieged by several Mallor warships burst into flames.To be exact, it spewed raging flames.This is a battleship obtained from Cyprus more than half a year ago, and it is equipped with a large Greek fire-breathing tank.Five fire dragons that lasted more than ten battles erupted from the bow and sides of the ship, and twenty burly men in the cabin were pushing something like a bellows.It was they who poured tons of Greek fire oil on to the surrounding enemy ships.

On one of Malor's ships, the soldiers on the deck were about to throw a new round of javelin arrows, but they were instantly engulfed in flames.The extreme high temperature gave them no chance to scream and howl, and they fell straight into the sea of ​​fire like charred stakes.

There is another enemy ship that is rushing and trying to collide with the underwater ram. After the fire dragon sweeps through an oar porthole, all the oars seem to be magically stopped, and the ship loses power instantly and slides forward under inertia. .The oarsmen in the cabin were all dead and injured. Most of them were not burned to death, but because of the intense combustion of the injected Greek fire oil, the oxygen in the semi-closed cabin was exhausted, and they were suffocated in the extremely high temperature and lack of oxygen. and die.

When this round of fire dragon spraying was over, the five Mallor's battleships around this battleship had become five flaming fireballs.This scene not only stunned Mallor who was watching the battle from a distance, but also the commanders of some ships who were fighting fiercely were also terrified after seeing this scene.

They had seen the flamethrowers equipped on ships, which also used Greek fire.But those powers are far less powerful than this one. The flames spewed out are only two or three battles away, and they can only exert their effect when stepping on them when the warships are almost close to each other.

Mallor's captains hastily ordered the warships under their command to give way.However, this is not the only battleship in the Sicilian fleet equipped with giant flame-breathing tanks. The other dozen or so warships have rushed into the enemy fleet and launched an attack at the same time.More and more Mallor warships were burned into huge fireballs by the flames.

Mallor's face on the distant flagship became more and more difficult to look...

Chapter 1146 The Artillery Era of Naval Warfare

The sea is full of burning ships and ships that can only drift with the waves after losing power, and of course there are ships that are leaking in the bilge and are gradually sinking.More than [-]% of them were Mallor's warships, and Feng Yu's side only damaged more than [-] ships.The number of ships on both sides has changed from the previous two to one to a situation where Feng Yufang has a little more.Although the number is about the same now, according to the battle loss ratio, the warships on Mallor's side will soon be wiped out.

A trusted general of Mallore saw that the balance of victory in the current battle was tilted towards the enemy, and suggested to him tactfully: "General, the enemy ships are equipped with powerful flamethrowers. This makes the battle situation unfavorable to us. We Now that we have lost a lot, should we consider choosing another time to fight again?"

Mallor still pretended to be calm and said: "Why panic? We still have more than [-] warships scattered around the two wings. Wait until they destroy all the hundreds of enemy troop carriers parked in the rear. At that time , even if the enemy ships in front of us win, there will not be many left. At that time, our three hundred warships will turn around and attack from behind them, and they will all be destroyed."

At this time, Mallor's three hundred warships had already made a big circle, stretching the wings of Feng Yu's hundreds of troop carriers moored in a group.Then headed straight for these troop carriers in different directions.However, because their paddlers exhausted a lot of physical strength during the long-distance and high-speed detours, they all seemed a little powerless at this time, and their speed slowed down a lot.When they got a little closer and were about two hundred battles away from each other, they found that among the pile of civilian ships on the other side were mixed with multi-masted galleons with several decks.

However, although the captains of these Mallor ships already knew that the cabins of this bulky galleon were loaded with dense ballistas, they didn't care.Because they found that there were only [-] or [-] warships, distributed among hundreds of civilian ships in such a large area, Gu Dong couldn't care less about the west.As long as you are careful not to get close to them, you can specifically attack those troop carriers.

And at the moment, on the deck of one of the flagship galleons, Feng Yu watched closely the movements of the enemy ships.The enemy ships attacking from all directions were getting closer and closer, and the soldiers were all waiting for Feng Yu's order, but he looked at the approaching enemy ships with a tense face, but he did not speak for a long time.Finally Dian Qing couldn't help but said: "My lord, the enemy ships are already very close. No matter how close they are, they will be within the range of their ballista. Our artillery can fight two hundred battles. There is no need..."

Before he finished speaking, Feng Yu stopped him and said, "Shut up! I can only fight if I say it!" As soon as he finished speaking, several small black spots flew from the enemy ship fifty or sixty battles away.Mallor's warship finally started firing its ballista.With the loud clatter of heavy objects falling into the water, several water columns several feet high rose into the air above the sea.

At this moment, Feng Yu raised his arm high and gave the order to the soldiers to fire.The commanders on each mast immediately raised the semaphore signal, and the general's order was issued to each warship.Immediately there was a booming sound like thunder on the sea.A round of solid shells made of lead and iron flew towards each enemy ship target almost in a straight line.There is also a chain bomb in which two lead-iron bullets are connected together by an iron chain.