The World of Yellow Sky

Moreover, it is actually too late to retreat now, and there is still a certain probability of being overtaken by the enemy when turning.

Of course, it is impossible for the Liaozhou to be caught up. After all, there are so many warships guarding it, but other warships are not necessarily.

It is difficult for a big ship to turn around, and the distance is not close at present, so the time to turn around must be won by the escorting ships.

"With Huang Tian's protection, we will definitely win this battle, so there is no need to be afraid."

Xu An knocked on the railing in front of him and said in a deep voice.

"I'm right here, waiting for your good news."

"promise!"

Gongsun Kang raised his hand to salute, and regained his calmness as the admiral of the fleet.

The reason why he was able to become the admiral of the fleet is not all because he is the son of Gongsun Du, he does not lack experience in naval warfare, let alone a big picture.

It's just that after Xu An boarded the ship, he disrupted his deployment and made him unable to calm down.

However, facing the enemy right now, many things must be put down.

Gongsun Kang left the poop and began to issue orders.

With the issuance of the military order, the command flag on the watchtower was continuously waved, and the ships guarding the Liaozhou also began to change their formation.

The formation ordered by Gongsun Kang is the most conventional assault formation, and it is generally the formation used by the vanguard on the river to break through the opponent's ship formation.

Naval battles in this era are different from modern naval battles with guns. There are no artillery and no firearms, so the formation of warships is relatively dense, and there is no need to occupy important positions.

The morale of the Ming army fleet is like a rainbow, the army formation is strict, and all ministries are ready for battle.

However, there was obvious commotion on the warships of the Han Navy Navy, and they also noticed strange changes on the battlefield.

But because of the distance, I don't know what happened. I just saw the Ming army fleet rushing towards them.

Their purpose was to pinch the fleet of the Ming army, how could they escape.

It's just that the closer they got, the more wrong they realized the situation was.

"Peng!"

Dong Xi suddenly hit the ship's rail with a hammer, and he finally saw the situation clearly at this moment.

He saw the retreat signal from the fast-approaching clipper not far away.

"The enemy has reached this point, now I will retreat with my life?!"

Dong Xi's face was gloomy, and he had no way to withdraw in the current situation.

He was a wolf before a tiger, so he couldn't allow him to think too much.

Dong Xi quickly boarded the poop, pulling the rope to stabilize his figure.

In the distance, the vanguard fleet led by Sun Ce has already engaged in battle with the Ming army's rushing aid ships, and the main warship led by Zhou Yu is also rushing towards them. After the fleet led by Zhou Yu, there are actually five more ships flying the yellow flag Ming warships.

Dong Xi frowned slightly. He knew that it was probably because of the five warships that Zhou Yu wanted to retreat and sent him a signal to retreat.

Just don't know why, Zhou Yu went back and forth, chose to return to the battlefield.

"Order the ships to disperse the formation. If the enemy wants to break through, then let them break through and entangle them. Don't confront them head-on."

Dong Xi didn't think much, and immediately issued a scattered military order.

The warships of the Ming army were tall and there were many armored soldiers. Although a fleet was dispatched to intercept Sun Ce, there were still more than forty warships. The flagship Xu An was on was like a mobile fortress on the sea.

The Ming army is invincible, the best choice now is to temporarily entangle Xu An, and wait until Sun Ce and Zhou Yu lead the fleet to arrive and besiege together.

Dong Xi scattered many warships to the two wings, but there were still many warships left in the center.

The formation of the Ming army is simple and easy to understand. They want to break through their formation and join the Ming army navy that is rushing to the north.

Naturally, Dong Xi didn't want the other party to get what he wanted. After all, what the enemy wants to do, then absolutely don't let him do it.

"Winter!" "Winter!" "Winter!"

Among the ships of the Han army, the rumbling drums were also sounded.

At this time, the distance between the two sides was less than [-] paces, Xu An was sitting on the poop, and without binoculars, he could already see the warship of the Han army clearly.

"The ballista is ready."

Gongsun Kang stared at the Han army navy that was approaching rapidly ahead, and raised his right hand.

"Ballista ready!"

"The stone bomb is being loaded."

"The stone bomb is loaded!"

"Calibrating the angle."

"The angle calibration is complete!"

"Bow number one, ready!"

"No. [-] on the port side, ready!"

"Second position on the port side, ready!"

"Number one on the starboard side, ready!"

On the Liaozhou, one after another crossbows were loaded one after another.

The so-called ballista is actually an improved version of the torsion trebuchet at sea.

Using the torsion generated by two tensioned horsehairs, leather ropes or animal tendons as a power projection device, the crossbow arm is driven to drive the bowstring to projectiles.

It is fired by torsion spring, and the source of force is the two twisted horsehairs or animal tendons. As for the crossbow arm and bow string, they only play the role of support, load bearing and fixation.

"Two crossbows at the bow, let them go!

"

The command flag was waved down, and the two ballistas placed at the bow of the ship suddenly let out their own roars.

Under the action of the torsion spring, the heavy stone bullets flew out of the slideway.

Not only the Liaozhou ship, but most of the warships of the Ming army were also equipped with ballistas.

For a while, bullets rained down, attacking the warships of the Han army who were close at hand.

In contrast, on the warships of the Han army, a large number of bed crossbows were activated at the same time, and they also violently attacked the warships of the Ming army.

The battleships of the two armies were in chaos, the warships in the front row of the Han army were severely damaged in an instant, and the situation of the Ming army fleet was not very good.

The stone bullets fired by the ballista can break through the deck and break the ship board, but the bed crossbow also has the same effect, but the power is slightly less powerful.

"The left side of the ship's plank is broken, the artisan team please go to repair it immediately!"

"Assemble the armored soldiers, assemble the armored soldiers!"

"The hook is ready, ready to be connected!"

"Bowmen free fire, rapid fire!"

"The impact is coming, hold on tight and wait for the impact!"

In the fleets of the Han and Ming Dynasties, officers at all levels screamed desperately, commanding the soldiers under their command to prepare for battle.

In the first long-range confrontation between the two sides, although the Ming army had the upper hand, the bed crossbows of the Han army also caused a lot of casualties and losses to the Ming army.

It's just that the Ming army with watertight compartments was even better. The bed crossbow shot by the Han army penetrated the ship's plank, but there was no way to overturn it.

However, the warships of the Han army without watertight compartments are miserable. An unlucky Han army warship has even begun to sink now.

The sailors on board were struggling in the icy sea water.

But now that the battle situation is chaotic, no one has time to rescue them.

"Bump them away!"

"All other ships can be let go, as long as the enemy's flagship is left behind!"

Dong Xi roared and commanded the soldiers, and sent a signal to the surrounding escort warships.

Right next to his ship, several Han warships equipped with rams passed Dong Xi, and rushed straight towards the Ming army vanguard warships coming ahead.

"Peng!"

The loud sound, separated by dozens of steps, is still deafening.

A warship of the Han army relied on its flexible steering, found the right angle, and slammed into a warship of the Ming army.

The huge impact force directly destroyed the bow of the Ming army warship that could not dodge, and the huge movement attracted everyone's attention.

However, the warship of the Han army did not continue to be able to run amok. Several stone bullets roared and hit the deck fiercely. On the warship of the Han army, a group of armored soldiers who had just assembled were shot The stone bombs happened to be concentrated, causing a large number of casualties in an instant.

The soldiers of the Ming army who were hit by the Ming army warship had already come to their senses at this time. First, the rain of arrows like locusts attacked, and then under the action of the ship hook, the sides of the two warships When they started to stick together, a dozen or so armored soldiers poured into the warship of the Han army along the bounded enemy.

The armored soldiers on the warships of the Han army also rallied and recovered from being attacked by stone bullets.

"kill!"

The two sides fought hand to hand without mercy.

The dripping blood immediately stained the deck above the warship.

And this fierce battle is just a microcosm of this great battle.

Just in the initial confrontation, four warships lost control and began to sink into the sea.

They have all suffered damage to varying degrees, and there is no way to recover them.

On the surface of the sea, the fleet led by Xu An was already engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the northern navy of the Han army led by Dong Xi.

8Chapter 16 Charge

The sound of war drums echoed and washed over the sea.

The warships of the Han and Ming Dynasties were already engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and the melee became a group, and many warships even ignited flames.

At this time, the advantage of the Liaozhou was revealed. A Han army warship blocking the way was directly smashed by its sharp ram before the fast-moving Liaozhou.

"Savo to port!"

On the Liaozhou, the azure blue command flag on the left was suddenly waved down, and the eight ballistas suddenly roared.

The stone bullets whizzed across the sky, towards a Han warship not far away that was using a boat hook to try to drag the enemy.

"Peng!" "Peng!" "Dong!"

Five stone bombs fell into the water one after another, causing quite a splash of water and making a "winter" sound.

But the other three stone bombs happened to hit the warship of the Han army that was heaving and shaking on the sea.

One of the stone bombs even hit the lower side of the ship's side plate, causing a huge gap to appear.

A large amount of seawater then poured into the warship of the Han army along the gap.

In just a blink of an eye, the warship of the Han army had already tilted.

All the Han troops on the warships panicked. They wanted to hook the nearby Ming warships with hooks, but the Ming warships responded with bows and crossbows. Not only did someone cut off the hooks , Some people carried special boats to resist, keeping a distance from the Han army warships.

Without watertight compartments, facing the gaps caused by stone bombs in important places, the soldiers on the Han warships had no way to repair them in time.

From the very beginning, the battle has already entered a fever pitch.

The Ming army has the advantage of warships, while the Han army has the advantage of soldiers.

Most of the sailors of the Han army were sailors from Xuzhou and Yangzhou, and they lived on the river since childhood.

Especially the sailors from Yangzhou mostly escaped on rivers.

The naval officers and soldiers of the Ming army were inexperienced, but these sailors from Yangzhou were not inexperienced. They followed Sun Ce all the way to the north and south, and fought in the rivers and lakes.

They used to drive warships to wipe out bandits on the rivers and rivers, and they also fought in formations, defeating the navy under Yan Baihu's command on the rivers and lakes.

Ten years of the army, a hundred years of the navy.

There are actually some truths in applying this sentence to this era.

Not only because warships are difficult to build, but also because good sailors are difficult to train.

Fighting at sea and fighting on land are completely different things.

After sea battles are on board, they often rely on short soldiers, and they also have to fight on the bumpy deck, and the complex terrain will limit their performance.