Tibet.

Chapter 1321 Encounter at Sea
At the end of February, the northern rivers of the Tang Dynasty had completely thawed. The 50,000 troops stationed in Luoyang, led by Nan Jiyun, escorted 2,000 grain and material ships and marched to Pingzhou in a mighty manner. The fleet would enter the Bohai Sea from the Zhangshui River and head along the coastline to the mouth of the Rushui River.

At the same time, the Tang army fleet led by Li Chengshi had arrived at the sea outside Nanhai Prefecture, the southernmost part of the Bohai Kingdom, and was only about five days' sailing away from Longyuan Prefecture.

That morning, Li Chengshi suddenly received news from the lookout that an unidentified fleet of about thirty or forty ships was spotted ahead, sailing towards them.

Li Chengshi immediately walked to the bow, took out a high-power telescope and looked into the distance. Sure enough, he found countless small black dots on the sea surface dozens of miles ahead. Based on his experience, he judged that there were about thirty or forty ships.

Gao Hongyuan immediately said anxiously: "General, this is a Japanese ship!"

“Could it be a Silla ship?”

"Impossible. Silla has no seaport in the east. Their ships are all in the west or south. Bohai has been destroyed. There will be no other ships except Japanese ships!"

Li Chengshi nodded and ordered, "Order the entire army to form a bag-like formation and prepare for battle!"

The bag-shaped layout is a 'U'-shaped layout, which is ready to encircle the enemy fleet, but the Tang army's range is relatively wide, and the enemy only suddenly discovered the Tang army warships after entering the encirclement.

The other fleet had a total of forty-three ships, all of which were about three thousand stones in capacity. Gao Hongyuan recognized at a glance that these were all cargo ships from the former Bohai Kingdom.

Cargo ships and troop transport ships are not the same thing. Troop transport ships have to consider the comfort of the soldiers, so they usually have a tower built above the deck. If the soldiers want to live below the deck, they have to open windows on the wall to prevent them from feeling suffocated. The characteristic of a cargo ship is that the tower is very small, the cargo is stored in the cabin below the deck, and there are no windows.

At present, neither the Bohai Sea nor the Japanese ships have the ability to cross the Whale Sea. They must first follow the coastline and then cross the Tsushima Strait.

Therefore, when the Japanese ships returned to their country, they could only go south along the coast. Unexpectedly, they encountered the Tang army warships.

In fact, this Japanese ship also saw the fleet, and they thought it was reinforcements sent by Japan. They did not take it seriously at first, until they suddenly saw the Tang Dynasty's yellow dragon battle flag. Then they finally realized that the other side was the Tang Dynasty army. At this time, they had been surrounded by the Tang army.

The other side also had Japanese soldiers guarding the ships. There were about twenty escort soldiers on a cargo ship, plus three escort ships full of soldiers. The escort force of the entire fleet was about 1,500 people.

For cargo ships, there are usually only two to three soldiers escorting each ship, but now there are more than 20 people, and there are three special escort warships. This kind of troop configuration is definitely the highest level.

This also shows that the cargo carried by the fleet is of great value.

Li Chengshi was experienced. From the number of soldiers escorting the ship, he realized that the opposite ship must be loaded with valuable supplies.

Li Chengshi decided not to use explosive arrows against the cargo ship as that would explode the enemy ship.

He gave the order: "Use crossbows to shoot all the enemy soldiers on the cargo ship, and sink the three escort warships at the same time!"

The first thing to do was to deal with the three escort warships of the Japanese fleet, each of which had nearly two hundred soldiers.

Here I will briefly talk about the situation of the Japanese army.

Japan did not have long weapons before the Song Dynasty. Their army was mainly composed of cavalry, samurai, cavalry attendants and foot soldiers. Their weapons were mainly heavy rattan bows, maruki bows and katana. Their combat method was first cavalry charge to kill the enemy with mounted archery, followed by a large-scale samurai group attack.

Cavalry attendants are the servants of the cavalry. Their role is to arm the cavalry and help them mount their horses. They are basically the cavalry's own farmers.

The Ashigaru are barefoot and unarmored lower-level infantry. Although they also carry swords, their real role is to carry out auxiliary tasks such as carrying, cooking, setting up camp, and keeping watch. They are equivalent to logistics soldiers, but if the situation is critical, they will also join the battle.

The offensive means that Japanese soldiers are best at are sneak attacks and ambushes, which are determined by their organizational characteristics and weapons. Samurai do not have long weapons and cannot form formations to coordinate, so they can only fight alone. Only surprise attacks and sneak attacks can form a close combat state and give full play to the characteristics of their samurai combat.

The influence of this kind of samurai's single-handed tactics was extremely far-reaching and deeply rooted in the Japanese army, cultivating the Japanese army's habit of always giving priority to sneak attacks, surprise attacks and other means.

This time, Japan destroyed the Bohai Kingdom using an extremely despicable sneak attack tactic. It pretended to help Shangjing City defend its city walls, and then took advantage of the night to sneak attack the Bohai army camp, killing 20,000 Bohai soldiers. It then broke into the palace and killed 3,000 guards, completely eliminating the armed forces of Shangjing.

This was the beginning of the wanton humiliation and massacre of the royal family and civilians in Shangjing. The killing lasted for seven days and seven nights, and almost all of the more than 100,000 men, women, and children in Shangjing were killed. The three Japanese warships were surrounded by the two 10,000-stone warships of the Tang army. The Japanese soldiers shouted and shot arrows at the Tang army ships like raindrops.

There were shooting holes on the side of the Tang army's warships. The soldiers squatted under the side of the ship and shot more than 20 explosive arrows at the hull of the enemy warship. The arrows exploded immediately after impact, blowing large holes in the hull. The sea water immediately rushed in, and the warship tilted rapidly. The soldiers in the fleet fell into the water one after another, shouting for help, but what greeted them was only the ruthless shooting of the Tang army.

After several rounds of explosive arrows, the first Japanese warship quickly sank.

The battle between the other two Japanese warships was equally fierce, and one of them was trying its best to get close to the Tang army warship.

Li Chengshi stared at the enemy warship and ordered: "Let the enemy warship come closer!"

He wanted to understand the characteristics and tactics of Japanese naval warfare through this encounter.

Without the Tang army firing explosive arrows, the last Japanese warship finally approached the Tang army warship. The Japanese soldiers shouted excitedly, and countless flying claws hooked onto the Tang army warship. The Japanese soldiers climbed frantically onto the Tang army ship with their swords on their backs.

The Tang army soldiers cut more than sixty ropes in a row, and more than sixty Japanese soldiers fell into the sea screaming. However, more than fifty people climbed onto the big ship and jumped onto the Tang army ship like a group of monkeys.

Dozens of Tang soldiers roared, rushed forward with spears, and a fierce battle broke out between the two sides.

Although the Japanese warriors were very agile in their steps, they were far inferior to the Tang army in terms of height, strength, and weapons. The Japanese soldiers were basically less than 1.5 meters tall and were thin, like nine-year-old children.

The Tang soldiers were all around 1.80 meters tall, sturdy and strong, their swords were sturdy and sharp, and the shields in their hands made up for their lack of flexibility.

A single blow from a sword could knock a Japanese samurai back more than ten feet, not to mention a stab from a spear. The opponent had no strength to reach the target and was stabbed to death on the spot and thrown into the sea.

After only a quarter of an hour of fighting, all the fifty or so warriors who jumped onto the boat were killed by the Tang army soldiers. Only three of the Tang army were slightly injured. These were also the three people injured by the Tang army in the entire encounter.

After destroying three escort ships, the next was forty cargo ships. The Tang army did not use explosive arrows, but instead used crossbows to shoot them.

The Tang army's large ships of 10,000 shi were in a dominant position, suppressing the enemy's 3,000 shi cargo ships. The Tang army had superb tactics. Basically, two ships sandwiched an enemy ship and shot arrows downwards at the same time. The Japanese soldiers on the ship had nowhere to hide. The cabin below was locked with iron locks. Most of the Japanese soldiers were shot dead, and the rest could only escape to the narrow cabin above. However, the cabin on the deck could not withstand the heavy arrows of the Tang army and was shot into sieves. They were all shot dead in the cabin. Even the boatman could not escape death.

The Tang army sailors pulled the ropes and jumped onto the enemy's ship. There was no one on the ship anymore. Even some Japanese soldiers who were shot by arrows but not killed could not escape death in the end. All their bodies were thrown into the sea.

One cargo ship after another was controlled and taken over by the Tang army. In less than an hour, the Tang army, relying on its powerful weapons and equipment and a force ten times that of the enemy, easily wiped out more than 1,500 Japanese soldiers and boatmen who were guarding the ships.

After seizing a total of forty ships fully loaded with cargo, the Tang army soldiers opened the locked deck cover and entered the cabin under the deck to check the cargo. They unexpectedly discovered that the cabin was filled with various treasures looted from the Bohai Kingdom.

A sea vessel had about 150 large wooden boxes, and 40 cargo ships had a total of 6,000 large boxes, which were mainly gold and silver. The Bohai Kingdom was rich in gold and silver, which had been accumulated for nearly 50 years and was plundered by the Japanese army.

Of course, this only belongs to Japan, accounting for 70% of the wealth plundered by the Japanese army. Another part is the wealth looted by Japanese soldiers personally, accounting for about 30%, and is still in the hands of the soldiers.

This huge fortune was finally transported out of Shangjing by ship after the river thawed, transferred to a ship from Shanghai, and then shipped to Japan by sea. Unexpectedly, it encountered the Tang army warship fleet that arrived at the exact moment.

Li Chengshi then allocated ten large ships and hundreds of soldiers to escort forty cargo ships to Jerumo Island, and then transported them from Jerumo Island to the Tang Dynasty.

Although this was just an encounter, it was a good example of how the Tang army already knew the equipment and tactics of the Japanese navy.

They were basically traditional bows and arrows and jumping boats. This pirate-style attack was nothing compared to the powerful long-range firearms of the Tang army.

Even without firearms, in single combat, the Tang army soldiers had absolute advantages in height, strength and weapons, and could easily defeat the short Japanese soldiers.

The Tang army had great confidence, and the warships once again marched towards the north in a mighty force.

(End of this chapter)