A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 545 Beiding's pre-made battle map, Wang's special envoy's Bohai Sea battle

April 15th

The morning light showed slightly, and the surface of the Bohai Sea was covered with gold, like a golden brush, whitewashing the coming war.

A terrifying giant ship with full sails was pushing away the waves and heading towards the rising sun, as if chasing the sun. Behind it were hundreds of warships.

This giant ship, which is one hundred feet long and as high as three or four stories, was built by Xia State in imitation of the original Soochow giants such as the "Feiyun" and "Gaihai".

In addition to inheriting the "oar", "sail" and other technologies of the building ship, it also used the latest Jin technology "secret warehouse" and "keel".

This makes such a huge warship able to walk on the sea as if it were flat.

This giant ship, which took Xia Kingdom a total of five years to build, was put into the water last year. It became the flagship of Xia Houbo, the naval commander of Xia Kingdom, and was also the most advanced warship in the entire Xia Kingdom. It was named "Beiding".

The Beiding can accommodate up to more than 2,000 sailors. It is equipped with eight "marine giant bed crossbows" newly developed by Qiyang Craftsmanship Institute, four "marine small trebuchets" and 12 "racquet poles".

There were 800 crossbowmen, 200 shield bearers, 300 spearmen, 300 sword and ax bearers, and 400 oarsmen.

When the entire warship is running at full speed, relying on wind power and manpower, its speed can be compared to that of a small warship.

"Commander, the clipper ship is here to report that an enemy ship was found ten nautical miles ahead. It should be a Yan Kingdom warship."

Haili is a distance unit specially set up by the navy of Xia Dynasty to distinguish land miles according to the "six cartographic entities" proposed in the preface to "Yugong Regional Map" written by the late Sikong Peixiu, a master of Confucianism during the Yan-Han Dynasty. .

Because on land, one mile is not a straight mile. It is affected by factors such as orientation, twists and turns, and ups and downs. It may be only half a mile or even one-third of a mile in a straight line.

But it's different on the sea, one mile will be a real straight mile.

Xiahoubo stood in the swaying cabin, looked at the map of the Bohai Sea on the table, and began to analyze the situation between the enemy and ourselves.

There are more than 500 Xia Kingdom warships, but because they need to travel between Jinzhou and Haiming all the time, there are more than 300 warships on standby in Jinzhou, and the remaining 200 are in Haiming, Pingzhou, North Korea. Hong Kong on standby.

"Order the fleet to slow down, seize the lead, and be ready for battle at any time."

As he said this, Xiahoubo threw out the naval battle formation chart and asked his subordinates such as the "staff officers" such as the army officers, counselors, and Sima to convey his orders and arrange the formation according to the naval battle chart.

The flags on the Beiding continued to wave according to Xiahoubo's orders, and the messenger ships traveling between the warships also began to take action to convey the orders of the flagship.

Naval battles are not as good as land battles, and the transmission of orders is obviously more time-consuming. It took a quarter of an hour for the entire Xia Kingdom fleet to start moving slowly.

The small boats traveling between the warships kept moving, commanding and guiding the warships to reach their predetermined positions.

Twenty nautical miles away, the Yan fleet, also under the guidance of the naval generals sent by the Jin state, slowed down and formed a battle formation.

Time passed by, and it was not until three o'clock in the morning that the two sides completed the initial deployment of hundreds of warships.

But after all, Xia Jun had traveled a few years and had combat experience with pirates. It took half the time than Yan to complete the layout of the established battle type.

"Pass this general's order to attack with the entire army. The target is the Yan Kingdom's fleet ten nautical miles away!"

"Dong dong dong!" The war drums on the Beiding began to sound, and then large and small warships and small boats scattered throughout the sea began to slowly sail towards the Yan Kingdom's warship.

While more than 300 warships were setting sail, more than a thousand speedboats and small boats among them were also busy shuttling back and forth between these behemoths. They were the blood and nerves of the entire fleet. Without them, it would be impossible to organize it. A battle involving hundreds of warships.

"What's going on with that ship over there? Who's in charge of that position? Did you know that he went to the wrong position? He should have walked a thousand steps north. That's not his position.

Where is the ship in the battle position?

what?
In the south? How did you direct it? Forget it, let him be in the south, and change the battle position to Ding Wei..."

The person commanding the Yan Kingdom's fleet was not the Crown Prince of Yan, Murong Jun, but Wang Ming, the naval envoy who secretly came to the Yan Kingdom from the Jin Kingdom.

Wang Ming was a naval military commander sent by Murong Huang at the request of the imperial court, because he knew that if he only relied on his own generals who could only ride horses to command the warships, the only way out would be to annihilate the entire army.

Wang Ming's position in the Jin Kingdom was just that of a commander, and he had less than a hundred warships. He originally thought that it would be difficult to be sent to the north by the imperial court to assist the Yan army in commanding warships.

Unexpectedly, it was quite difficult to do. The entire fleet of Yan State had no experience in naval warfare at all and was worse than pirates on the sea.

No matter how hard he tried, only less than half of the warships that finally succeeded in reaching the fighting position were just over a hundred. How could he pull them out to fight the Xia army?

"Your Majesty, please calm down and don't be so arrogant. It's the first time for our country, Yan, to form a navy. It's normal for us to not understand. It's the same for Xia Kingdom. It's not necessary."

Murong Jun was still drinking at this time, looking at Wang Ming who was busy and angry on the flagship, and advised him with relief.

Wang Ming turned his head and looked at Murong Jun who was so leisurely and the generals of the Yan army who should be busy in the cabin. He suddenly felt that he was an idiot.

"Envoy, what should we do next?"

Wang Ming suddenly became furious:
"What should I do? How do I know what to do? Just ask me, is your head a chamber pot? Get out of here, I don't care."

It's not Wang Ming's fault. Compared with the army, navy officers like them go to sea all year round and have no place to vent. On weekdays, they talk loudly with their comrades on the ship to vent, and their tempers are definitely more grumpy.

Murong Jun felt like something bad had happened to him. He originally saw that the envoy was tired, so he kindly comforted him, but now the envoy simply gave up his job.

No, this battle depends entirely on him.

Just when Murong Jun was about to step forward to say good things, a messenger ran in:

"No, the Xia army's warship is here. It's only four or five nautical miles away from us."

"What, why is Xia Jun so fast?"

Wang Ming was a little panicked. He must know that he, Murong Jun and others are now in the same boat. If the Yan army is defeated, he will not be much better.

Murong Jun came out again to show his presence:
"Don't worry, sir. I estimate that the Xia army set off after only trimming one-third of the warships in order to attack first. There is no need to be alarmed."

Wang Ming was a little skeptical, but looking at Murong Jun's confident eyes, he still chose to believe it. It’s no wonder that Murong Jun was confident. In fact, in the eyes of someone like him who had never seen a thousand sails race, Yan’s three hundred warships were already the largest fleet in the world.

He really couldn't imagine what a fleet larger than that of the Yan State would look like. He always thought that Wang Ming's statement about the Jin State's thousands of warships and tens of thousands of ships traveling densely along the Jin State's coastline was a drunken bragging act. .

Under the leadership of Wang Ming and Murong Jun, the generals of the Yan Kingdom went to the roof of the flagship and directed the more than a hundred Yan Kingdom warships that had entered the fighting position to move forward.

After half an hour, the two parties, who were pressing their speed, finally met.

Wang Ming was dumbfounded when he saw hundreds of Xia Kingdom's warships approaching in formation.

"These are the dozens of warships you mentioned. The number of flags alone is no less than two hundred."

Wang Ming no longer cared about his identity and shouted loudly to Murong Jun.

He felt like he couldn't get out of this sea area today.

Murong Jun also stayed where he was, not knowing what to say. On the one hand, he was speechless, and on the other hand, he was shocked by the neat force on the other side.

Especially the Beiding in the center of Xia's army was more than twice as tall as the surrounding warships, like a giant on the battlefield.

Although Wang Ming doesn't want to command this battle from the bottom of his heart, is there any other way now? We can only hope that the commander on the opposite side is Zhao Kuo who only knows how to form formations but not how to fight.

Under Wang Ming's command, the Yan army's warships changed into a defensive formation in chaos, hoping to rely on flying arrows to block the Xia army's warships.

Xiahou Bo looked at the Yan army warships, whose number was more than half less than his own, and showed a relaxed smile.

"This general orders the Chinese army to charge directly into the enemy's battle formation, insert themselves into the enemy's formation, and engage the enemy in close combat.

The left army and the right army circled and attacked from the flank. "

The Xia army's fleet began to be divided into three parts. The middle part was dominated by the northern number, with more than a hundred ships, speeding towards the Yan army.

The left and right armies on both sides marched towards the outside of the battlefield, keeping a distance from the Yan army and bypassing the Yan army's flanks.

The intention was to rely on the numerical advantage of the warships to use a U-shape to contain the Yan army.

"Archers prepare, release!"

On the Yan warship, archers transferred from the army shot intensively at the Xia warship not far away.

Unlike the Xia State, which was rich and wealthy and used crossbows as long-range weapons for naval soldiers, the Yan State had insufficient technology and a shortage of military craftsmen, so it could only recruit soldiers who were good at archery, or even soldiers who were originally mounted archers, to board the ship as a long-range attack force.

Under the influence of the sea breeze, the arrows shot by manpower were soft, and many fell into the sea. Only a small number of sea ships equipped with crossbows did some damage to the Xia army.

However, they were all blocked by the shield bearers on Xia Zhan's ship.

As for the Xia warships, every ordinary warship has at least one bed crossbow and several racket poles. The larger warships even have two bed crossbows and several racket poles.

Bows and crossbows are a must.

As the distance got closer, the Xia army also began to fight back. The rapid and dense crossbow bolts made the soldiers on the Yan warship dare not raise their heads.

The battle gradually became fierce.

The Xia warships slaughtered the Yan warships in a one-sided manner.

First, shoot from a long distance, use a bed crossbow to bring a rope, insert it into the enemy ship, and then use a winch to use the rope to gradually bring the two ships closer.

When you are at a certain distance, use the bat stick and slap the huge spiked wooden board on the deck of the enemy ship, which will take away a piece of Yan army soldiers.

Since the Yan army's equipment was all on cavalry, Murong Huang only focused on the size of the ship and did not have enough weapons.

In Murong Huang's view, sea battles are similar to land battles. Two ships are connected and the two sides fight on the ship. It is just a type of foot battle.

It has to be said that Yan State wants both a huge army and a huge navy. As far as Yan State's national strength is concerned, both sides are insufficient.

Murong Jun looked at the Beiding ship getting closer and closer to him. The huge fear coming directly from him made him unable to breathe. He subconsciously wanted to seek help from Wang Ming, but he couldn't catch him.

He grabbed a general who was passing by and wanted to jump off the ship to escape: "Where is Wang Ming?"

The general thought for a moment and pointed to a small boat not far away.

I saw Wang Ming's blurred back rocking the oar vigorously.

The small boat he was driving was shuttled between the large ships and small boats on the battlefield at extremely fast speeds, desperately racing away from the sea. It was obvious that his desire to survive had reached its peak.

The sun was setting in the west, and the setting sun was like blood. I couldn't tell whether it was red light or the red color of blood.

The entire sea area was in a mess, with stranded warships, half-sunken ships everywhere, and the floating corpses of the Yan and Xia armies, most of which were in uniforms of the Yan army.

At the same time, Xia's large ships and small boats continued to cruise on the sea, salvaging the flapping Xia Yan soldiers.

And the Beiding was parked quietly in the center of the battlefield.

Xiahoubo stood on the top of the ship, leaning against the wall of the ship, looking at the afterglow of the setting sun. His subordinates were reporting today's results:
In this battle, 250 enemy warships were captured, and more than 30 warships took advantage of the chaos to escape back to Liaodong.

They beheaded more than two thousand people and captured 20 senior generals, 50 ordinary generals and 4,000 ordinary soldiers under the enemy general Murong Jun.

In addition, ten Yan generals in the Yan army fell into the water and drowned, and more than 3,000 ordinary soldiers drowned.

After joining the army and reporting the results, he quietly waited for Xiahou Bo's instructions. However, Xiahou Bo did not give a specific answer. Instead, he looked at the setting sun on the horizon and said inexplicably:
"It's sunset."

(End of this chapter)