She Song

Chapter 265 Annihilation of the Goryeo Fleet
The situation in Goryeo at this time was very delicate. King Injong of Goryeo was just a puppet for his grandfather Li Ziqian to control Goryeo.

Although Wang Kai succeeded to the throne for nearly two years, Li Ziqian insisted on assisting the government on the grounds that Renzong was under 16 years old. At the same time, he married his two daughters to Renzong, and was named the Duke of Korea, with a status second only to Renzong.

As the Li family's power grew, Li Ziqian's ambitions expanded. When the influence of foreign relatives seriously threatened the royal power, not only Wang Kai's close ministers were at odds with the Li family, but even the Korean Buddhist and Confucian forces began to secretly support Wang Kai.

At a time of tense tensions, the alarm bells ringing at the Kaijing Port immediately attracted the attention of both parties.

"The North King of Yandi Town in the Great Song Dynasty sent a business delegation, hoping that Koryo will open its ports for free trade?"

As a sinister old fox, Li Ziqian really didn't want Wang Kai to have contact with the outside world, but he heard the voiceover of King Zhenbei.

What the other party said was "hope" instead of "request", which was definitely not the gentle and elegant tone of the Song Dynasty court in the past.

“Did they say what would happen if we were not allowed to open?”

The official of the Foreign Affairs Department wiped his sweat and said: "The commander of the Sihai Fleet claimed that without permission before sunset, he would go to the palace to visit Renzong in person...and, and..."

Seeing that the other party was stammering, Li Ziqian asked impatiently: "What?"

"He is Gao Bingwu!"

Li Ziqian thought for a long time and suddenly remembered that such a name did exist in his mind.

"He's not dead yet?" Li Ziqian shook his head and asked, "How many warships did they come with?"

"Thirty merchant ships and four warships!"

Li Ziqian frowned, just these few broken warships, dare to go to Kaijing to show off their might?
However, he can use this incident to once again beat his grandson and son-in-law, Renzong Wang Kai.

"Your Majesty, how do you think our government should deal with the Yandi fleet now?" After the officials from the Foreign Affairs Department finished speaking, Li Ziqian took the opportunity to ask Wang Kai for his opinion.

The unparalleled civilization of the Song Dynasty has conquered all surrounding countries, but so far, the only legal foreign trade terminal approved by the Song Dynasty court with Goryeo is Mingzhou (today's Ningbo), and even a Goryeo embassy, ​​referred to as Goryeo, was built.

However, within Goryeo, the highly profitable Mingzhou Sea Trade was controlled by Tuo Junjing, who used the identity of Li Ziqian's relatives to make money crazily.

Wang Kai also had the support of officials and merchants behind him, so he naturally focused on the fat sea trade. The arrival of King Zhenbei's caravan was really a good opportunity to break the Li family's blockade.

"Since this is the Kingdom of Heaven, there is no harm in opening the port for trade."

Li Ziqian stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Your Majesty may not know something. Han Xiaoyao, the king of Zhenbei, has proclaimed himself king, and his relationship with Tokyo is extremely tense. If our country has good relations with him, Tokyo will send envoys to hold him accountable. How to deal with it? Therefore, don't lose the big because of the small!"

Therefore, Li Ziqian no longer interfered with specific affairs.

Tuo Junjing received the authorization and quickly assembled twelve [-]-material warships to surround the Yandi fleet. Although a single warship was slightly smaller than [-]-material warships, they could not hold up the large number.

"Hand over Gao Bingwu before sunset, and all members of the sailor merchant group must also go ashore for inspection..."

Before he could finish speaking, Gao Bingwu cut off one ear of the courier and asked him to go back to deliver the message.

"Let Li Ziqian prepare the coffin!"

Afterwards, the warships of both sides beat the war drums one after another, and off the coast of Kaijing Port, a naval battle with a huge disparity in strength began.

Accompanied by Li Ziqian and Tuo Junjing, Wang Kai witnessed the jaw-dropping battle situation at the top of Kaijing City.

The warships of the Goryeo Navy surrounded the four six-wheeled warships of the Four Seas Fleet with a layout of eight in the east and four in the west.Gao Bingwu raised his eyebrows, and then ordered the No. [-] and No. [-] battleships to deal with the enemy ships in the rear. His flagship led another one to charge against the eight Goryeo warships.

As the lookout post announced that the opponent was within range, the Qinglong flagship's bow gun fired first, and the first shot grazed the mast of the opponent's flagship and fell into the sea.

Since the speed of the cannonballs had exceeded the limit of human eyes, the Korean naval forces found nothing except a huge splash behind the ship.

However, the firing after the first cannonball was calibrated left an indelible impression on the Goryeo fleet and the dignitaries at the head of Kaijing City.

After three or four consecutive rounds of firing, the Koryo flagship was finally blown off its mast by shells and lost its ability to move autonomously.

When they discovered that the Sihai Fleet was attacking them with artillery, the Korean navy was a little panicked, but they quickly made a decision. Since there were cannons on the bow, they would outflank them.

Then a bigger nightmare was revealed. When the Koryo navy was preparing to engage in a hand-to-hand battle with the Sihai fleet, a bulkhead of the Sihai battleship opened twelve portholes, revealing twelve black muzzles.

"Aim and fire!"

"bang bang bang~"

After five rounds of salvos, the Goryeo warships in front of Gao Bingwu either sank to the bottom of the sea or turned into ruins. When the only two warships saw that the situation was not right, they immediately turned around and prepared to escape into the port.

"Chase!"

As the six large waterwheels rolled, the Qinglong battleship drew a beautiful arc on the sea and sank the Goryeo warship before it entered the harbor.

So far, the Sihai Fleet has wiped out all twelve warships of the Koryo Fleet stationed in Kaijing with zero damage.

Li Ziqian couldn't believe his eyes
Building twelve warships not only costs millions of taels of silver, but also requires four to five years of work. Most small countries simply cannot afford it.

Less than an hour and a half after the war started, the Goryeo garrison disappeared. The huge power of the warships from all over the world made the Goryeo dignitaries very frightened.

Tuo Junjing and Li Ziqian negotiated urgently, and decided to summon the minzhuang and infantry to rely on the city wall and various buildings to resist.

"Their warships can't rush onto the land and enter the city, right?" Tuo Junjing gave Li Ziqian some relief while giving him some ideas.

However, Gao Bingwu, who was very familiar with Goryeo's military power and deployment, sent 400 marines with artillery batteries and ballistae and hot-air balloons to march towards the palace after four warships entered the port and took control of the dock.

The city gates, city walls, and various houses and buildings were vulnerable to the Marines' artillery fire. Even if Li Ziqian ordered a large number of soldiers and civilians to attack the Marines with only 400 people, the range of damage caused by the company's crossbow vehicles and the precise shooting of the individual company's crossbows were almost impossible. Cleared half of the defenders.

When Gao Bingwu raised the hot air balloon, Li Ziqian finally collapsed and wanted to coerce Renzong and escape from Kaijing.

But under the cover of nearly a hundred monks, Wang Kai finally escaped from control and met Gao Bingwu accompanied by Zheng Zhichang.

"Thanks to Gao Tongzhi for his efforts to put down chaos for the country!"

Gao Bingwu just bowed and said in an emotionless tone: "Please also ask the King of Koryo to sign an agreement to open the trade port. In addition, because the Koryo navy was the first to provoke, the Four Seas Fleet must be compensated for its losses in this battle!"

Looking at Zheng Zhichang, Wang Kai smiled again and said: "Please rest assured, Gao Tongzhi, your request will be met! Please help us quell the chaos and completely eliminate Li Ziqian!?"

Gao Bingwu's eyes suddenly lit up.

"The price of the Four Seas Fleet is not cheap!"

(End of this chapter)