Kai Fu Han

Chapter 607 Battle of Thousand Ships
The Yellow River can be said to be the most powerful land-building machine in the world. It creates more than 3 acres of land every year. This land-building will not stop until the amount of sand flowing into the Yellow River into the sea is reduced to a certain extent.

The sea area where the Xinghan Alliance fleet and the Nanzhao fleet met was all land in later generations.

Even Yuzhou Island, the current outpost of the Xinghan Alliance fleet, was also part of Lianyungang City in later generations and was absolutely inland.

On leap April [-]th, when the Xinghan League attacked Lianshui City, the Xinghan League's fleet arrived at the estuary of the Huai River. This was the place where the Xinghan League encountered pirates for the first time - Yanwei Town.

Yanwei Town has developed much better than before due to the back and forth trade, transit, and supply of the Xinghan League over the years. The size of the town has expanded by three or four times, and the port has expanded by more than ten times.

The Fourth Fleet was in front, the First Fleet was in the middle, and the Third Fleet was behind. The Xinghanmeng Fleet reached the waters outside Yanwei Town one step ahead of the Nanzhao Fleet.

The frigates that went out to explore the information have been sending the whereabouts of the Nan Zhao fleet to the fleet command. Together with the information from the second fleet, the traces of the ships heading north from Nan Zhao have been clearly grasped.

"Aren't you going back to your flagship? We are about to come into contact with Nan Zhao's ship." Ruan Xiaoqi's tone was a little helpless.

Since the Fourth Fleet arrived in Jiaozhou Bay, Zhao Liang and Li Cang came to the Bohai. Even when the fleet went south, they did not return to the flagship, but conducted remote control.

This is also the reason why the Fourth Fleet was elected as the vanguard, because the three fleet captains were all on the Bohai.

"It doesn't matter, I won't be too late to return when the watchman of this ship can see the Nan Zhao ship." Zhao Liang replied.

Li Cang followed suit and nodded, it seems that he also meant the same thing.

"You have touched this ship several times in the past few days, isn't it enough? I have promised that you will never mention a word to the leader of the next Bohai-class warship until you are equipped with it." Ruan Xiaoqi said.

"We're bored in the back, so we came here to chat with you. You really don't know a good person's heart." Zhao Liang joked.

Ruan Xiaoqi did not continue to argue with the two on this topic, because the Nan Zhao fleet was already very close to itself. As long as they saw the Nan Zhao fleet, the two would naturally go back to their own fleet to command the fleet to fight.

Time passed quickly. On leap April [-], after the three of them had seen the beautiful sunrise on the sea level, they received an alert from the lookout: "The Nan Zhao warship has been discovered!"

During this period of time, except for the ships of the Xinghan League and the ships of Nanzhao, all the other ships on the sea hid and did not dare to enter the sea for fear of being harmed.

Zhao Liang and Li Cang quickly disembarked and took a frigate back to their fleet, while Ruan Xiaoqi began to command the battle.

From the time the local ships are seen to the time when they are close to combat range, there is at least an hour, which is enough for both sides to prepare.

All combatants were awakened and began to inspect the weapons and equipment on the ship. The ammunition was also moved out of the warehouse and the waterproof and moisture-proof oil paper wrapped outside was removed.

At midnight, the sun had already risen in the sky, illuminating the sea with sparkling waves.

Today's weather is very suitable for naval battles. The sea breeze is not strong and the wind direction is southeast.The waves are so small that they will not cause waves without wind, nor will they affect warship operations.

God probably wants to see a decisive battle between the Xinghan League and Southern Zhao.

As the fleets from both sides approached, Ruan Xiaoqi, who was standing on the bow deck, could already see the Nan Zhao fleet.

Ships emerged from the sea level one after another, with more and more masts. All the ships in sight were ships, Nan Zhao's ships.

"General Ruan, the enemy is surrounding us." The lookout warned.

Ruan Xiaoqi took out the telescope and looked at it, and immediately discovered that Nan Zhao's fleet was not marching in a straight line, but was arranged in a huge crescent formation. Moreover, it was the crescent moon at the beginning of the month, and the amplitude was very large. The concave side of the crescent moon north.When our side can see the enemy ships to the south with naked eyes, the enemy ships on the east and west sides are almost parallel to our own ships.

"Quick! Order the fleet to turn around and face north! Withdraw from the enemy ship encirclement." Ruan Xiaoqi did not hesitate and immediately gave the order to evacuate.

There are only eleven warships on our side. Counting the two fleets at the back, there are less than sixty warships. If they are surrounded by more than 1000 ships from Nan Zhao, the result can be imagined.

The Bohai's U-turn is very simple. It just draws a small arc on the sea and completes the U-turn. It is difficult for other warships. The necessary sail adjustments and operations are very troublesome.

It took a quarter of an hour for the whole team to turn around. The enemy ships were already very close to our own, and the enemy ships on the east and west sides began to encircle the center.

"Evacuate as quickly as possible!" Ruan Xiaoqi ordered again.

The Bohai, Shanyue-class battleships and frigates of the Fourth Fleet are all steam-powered. Only the three Zhou-class Fu ships are purely sail-powered, and their speed is no advantage over Nan Zhao's ships.

"Bohai and Shanyue-class battleships, one responsible for each state-class blessing ship, pull forward!" Seeing that the evacuation speed of the entire fleet was being dragged down by the three state-class blessing ships, Ruan Xiaoqi ordered decisively.

At this time, the First and Third Fleets to the north could already be seen in the lookout's telescope, and they were also turning around to evacuate.

Who would have thought that the naval battle between the Xinghan League and Nan Zhao would end with the hasty retreat of the warships of the Xinghan League without any contact.

"What to do next?" The three blessing ships have been towed aboard, and the speed of the entire fleet has greatly accelerated. Only then did the captain of the Bohai have time to breathe, and came over to ask Ruan Xiaoqi for instructions.

"No way, wait until dark." Ruan Xiaoqi replied.

When faced with the intelligence from the Military Intelligence Department before, I felt that [-] ships were just a series of numbers, and I could not understand the threat.When I really saw it, I realized that the overwhelming sea of ​​ships was really suffocating.

No wonder Ye Chuan of the Second Fleet didn't dare to act rashly and just sat back and watched Nan Zhao gather all the ships.

The day passed slowly as you chased me away.

The three fleets have gathered together, and Zhao Liang and Li Cang took the barge to the Bohai.

"How to fight this battle?" Li Cang asked.

"I thought it was simple before. It seems that ships without steam power cannot participate in this battle." Zhao Liang said.

"Yes, General Zhao thinks the same as me, we must make use of our strengths and avoid our weaknesses." Ruan Xiaoqi replied.

In this way, the battle plan was adjusted.

All purely sail-powered ships, Fuzhou-class and county-class warships continue northward and return to Yuzhou Island, ready to deliver supplies to the steam-powered ships in combat.

All the steam-powered ships gathered together to fight together, taking advantage of the soldiers' good night vision ability at night, and set the combat time at night to carry out strikes beyond the enemy's visual range.

"In this way, we have three obvious advantages in vision, speed and firepower, and Nan Zhao's advantage of having a large number of people will not be used." Zhao Liang concluded.

(End of this chapter)