my wonderful zoo

Chapter 88 The Battle of Wanshan
On April [-]th, at [-] o'clock, the waters of Wanshan Islands outside Guangzhou Bay.

I don't know who was the highest commander of the officers and soldiers who actually commanded the siege of Chenjiazhuang. He was quite patient and waited until the first army's border troops on Guangnan West Road were in place before the officers and soldiers of the third route began to dispatch.

Chen Xun has been waiting since the end of March until now. After waiting for 20 days, the war finally came.

My mood went from anxiety at the beginning, to doubt later, and now to peace.

Chen Xun felt that after this incident, his heart seemed to have grown bigger.

"Lang Jun, I saw them." Ke Lei handed a pair of monocular binoculars to Chen Xun.

After Chen Xun took it, he looked northwest.

A large number of mast tips are emerging from the sea and heading towards Guangzhou Bay along the sea road twenty or thirty miles away from the coast.

Looking carefully at the flag on the mast, it is indeed the Guangzhou Navy.

Last time at the Dongbao River, this naval force basically escaped unscathed because they did not engage in battle. They certainly did not expect that they would encounter them here again this time.

Looking at the size of the masts in sight, the size of the navy this time was much larger than last time.

Last time there were [-] large and small warships. This time, with the Naval Warships of Nan'en State, and some transport ships for transporting troops and food, from a distance, the sea is full of masts. More than three hundred ships.

According to previous intelligence, half of these ships are warships.

However, Chenjiazhuang Haiwei is not inferior this time. All the support from the north and south branches is in place. The number of medium-sized warships alone has reached [-], all of which are enhanced warships that have been modified and added long-range weapons.

Despite the huge difference in numbers, Chen Xun believed that his own fleet was definitely more powerful than the navy.

Because at sea, it is difficult to form a siege. As long as the movement is open, the 150 warships of the officers and soldiers are definitely no match with the attack power of our own warships.

"You take command." Chen Xun said.

"Okay." Ke Lei took the telescope handed back by Chen Xun and began to direct the battle.

Chen Xun specializes in the arts, and he spends most of his time in the zoo. The rest of the time is either in the school or in various workshops. He often inspects training at the school grounds of the South Academy, along with the infantry guards.

As for naval battles, when we went to sea frequently, we spent a lot of time together, but then we spent less and less time together.

Therefore, in terms of professionalism in naval warfare, there is a big gap between Chen Xun and a full-time officer like Ke Lei.

"Array, go north, go forward!"

Following Curley's order, the big drum on the flagship was beaten, and the flagman on the observation rail at the top of the mast also began to play semaphores.

Voices and semaphores simultaneously convey commands, ensuring they are accurately received by other ships.

The last time he fought against pirates on Penghu Island, Chen Xun felt the disadvantage of not having semaphores. After the war, he immediately arranged for people to study it. Now he has summarized a set of simple semaphores that can convey more than 100 kinds of commands.

Compared with the semaphore of later generations that can accurately convey words, Chenjiazhuang's semaphore is still very rudimentary and is a semaphore with a fixed meaning. That is, a set of actions represents a command, which is similar to tactical gestures.

As the order was passed in place, Chenjiazhuang's fleet formed a line and slowly pressed towards the officers and soldiers in the north.

Suddenly a large fleet approached, and the officers and soldiers of the navy quickly discovered it.

Such a large-scale ship was approaching in a neat formation. It seemed at first glance that it was coming with bad intentions, and the officers, soldiers and navy also began to form formations.

First, more than 100 transport ships left the formation and moved closer to the coastline to avoid being affected by subsequent naval battles.

Chen Xun felt a pity in his heart when he saw the enemy's change of formation.

There are too few ships in Chenjiazhuang, otherwise we can divide the troops. These transport ships are either infantry or grain and grass. If we directly send troops to sink them into the sea, the South Route Army can be said to be useless.

"Rocket ready!"

"The trebuchet is ready!"

The bed crossbows and catapults on the ship began to be wound up, and rockets and incendiary bombs fueled with petroleum products were loaded into the bed crossbows and catapults.The two fleets were getting closer and closer, and the officers and sailors actually began to change from the original circular formation like the Yanxiang formation, trying to wrap up the Chenjiazhuang fleet.

"Arrogant!" Ke Lei sneered at the enemy's change of formation and did not make any corresponding changes. He still approached the naval formation horizontally in a single formation.

"shooting!"

When the ship formations on both sides approached a hundred steps, Ke Lei's order was shouted out.

This time there was no need to pass on orders. The flagship's crossbows and trebuchets fired first. The other ships saw the flagship starting to attack and immediately followed suit.

What follows is continuous shooting.

The bedzi crossbow uses a mechanical structure to wind the string and is very fast.The trebuchet has a pulley block and is not slow.

Basically, after five or six breaths (one breath is a breathing process, which is approximately six seconds), a wave of "ammunition" will pour out.

The oncoming navy warships were directly blinded by the fierce firepower.

Some officers and soldiers who participated in the last naval battle were wondering: they were not so powerful in the Dongbao River last time. How could they suddenly become so strong just now?

In fact, this is the masterpiece of various workshops in Chenjiazhuang in recent times.

A medium-sized warship has at least ten crossbows, ten trebuchets, four sets of front and rear shooting poles, and other small weapons. It can be said that this wooden ship is armed to the teeth.

The incendiary bombs made of petroleum have very good adhesion. Any official ship hit by a rocket or incendiary bomb will be in a state of panic.

Although the officers and soldiers had experience this time and prepared sand and soil on the ship, some of the flames were quickly extinguished.However, the firepower of Chenjiazhuang's warship was too intensive, and it was impossible to hold too much sand and gravel on the official ship. Soon, the fire could not be stopped.

First the first ship, then the second ship.

One after another, the official ships were burned to the point of being unable to move, and the officers and soldiers on board jumped into the sea crying.

"Watch out for collision!" A sailmaster yelled loudly.

Chenjiazhuang's ships began to approach the warships of the officers and soldiers.

Following the orders of the rigging master, the rigging hand began to retract the crossbar of the sail to avoid the transverse mast extending out of the ship's beam from getting entangled with the enemy ship's mast.

After the transverse mast came along, the sails began to lower.

"Extend the oars!!" the boatswain ordered loudly!

The windows of the cabin below the deck were opened, and the oars extended from inside, replacing the sails to provide power to the ship.

"Approaching from the left! Ten steps warning!!" the boatswain yelled again.

Chen Xun saw that there was an official ship on the left side in front of the flagship and it was about to rub against the hull of the flagship.

On the orders of the boatswain, all the oars on the left side of the ship were retracted, and the oars on the right side were also stopped to avoid changing the direction of the ship.

Ten steps were quickly passed, and the hulls of the two ships scraped together. The sound of wood rubbing against each other was heard, rattling, and was very harsh.

"Stretch out the oars!" The oars on the left side were stretched out, pushing the official ship's hull away from the flagship.

A dozen officers and soldiers who were about to jump over fell directly into the water. Only five or six were lucky enough to jump over, but they were greeted by Miao knives and spears.

The entire ship formation quickly passed through the formation of officers and soldiers. Chen Xun looked around and found that basically all of his ships were there, and none of them were trapped in the formation of officers and men's ships.

The previous rounds of fire attacks had caused all the oncoming official ships to lose their combat effectiveness. They were unable to throw hook locks or engage in gang fighting.

"It's really good, it's like cavalry charging into battle, so refreshing!" Chen Xun praised.

"There's something even more refreshing!" Ke Lei chuckled and continued to direct the battle.

(End of this chapter)