The navy of the Tang Dynasty actually had a lot of tricks. Although it was a navy that could only rely on the coastline to drift in the near sea, it still needed certain tactics and different ships.
Among them, there are warships such as louchuan, which are several feet tall and are equipped with offensive weapons such as catapults, winch crossbows, and racket poles, as well as defensive weapons such as parapets. They are the largest among warships.
Although they are afraid of strong winds and waves, their combat effectiveness is off the charts, and they are still very powerful when fighting in the Yellow River.
But building ships were not the main force in naval battles. The main force in naval battles were fighting ships with a displacement of about 300 to 700 tons in later generations.
Fighting ships have a duplex structure, which allows sailors to arrange themselves in a ladder-like formation on the ship, which is very advantageous whether it is to deal with the opponent's jumping gang battles or to use crossbows to shoot at the opponent.
Moreover, the sailors of the fighting ship are hidden in the lower cabin and row through the hole, thus ensuring the safety of the sailors and the maneuverability of the fighting ship.
In addition, there are also stern ships with fully enclosed cabins, covered with cowhide armor outside the cabin, rowing through the hole, and equipped with hidden windows to facilitate counterattacks with crossbows or spears.
It is mainly used for raids and reconnaissance, and occasionally used to deliver messages.
As for professional command ships at sea, they are yachts. They have many paddle beds, are extremely fast, and can be maneuvered flexibly.
Generally, about fifty warships are equipped with a yacht, and a naval officer, Yuhou, is responsible for dispatching and commanding, observing the wind direction, and judging the enemy's situation.
Finally, there is a kind of warship called Zouge. This kind of warship is equipped with many sailors to ensure extremely fast speed. As for the navy soldiers, a small number of brave and powerful elites are selected.
It is specially used to raid, impact, and even raid the enemy's flagship, taking advantage of the chaos to carry out beheading operations.
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Kang Chengxun was not from a wealthy family, but was a domestic slave of the Wang family. His father had grown up with Wang Jian, the great ancestor of Goryeo, and they had a very close relationship.
It was also because of this relationship that Kang Chengxun was able to control this navy, which was extremely important to the Wang family in Korea.
However, the shipbuilding industry in Goryeo was actually not very good. Although they were surrounded by water on three sides and had mountains and forests, in fact, since the Sui Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty had intentionally controlled the migration of shipbuilders to the peninsula.
When the Tang Dynasty abandoned the Xiongjin Dudu Mansion, it directly destroyed the port and shipyard, and took away all the shipwrights and sailors.
Although there are many forests in the mountainous Korean Peninsula, there are few towering trees, so the ships cannot be built large. There is also a lack of good hardwood, so the hulls are not very strong.
As a result, Goryeo's navy had small ships with poor rigidity. It was said that there were hundreds of warships, but each ship could only carry forty or fifty people on average, which was similar to the size of the Japanese navy during the Battle of Baijiangkou in the past.
It's scary to hear that the numbers are overwhelming, but when we start fighting, they're all bastards.
Kang Chengxun stood on the bow of the ship. This was a Falcon-style warship with a wide deck, capable of carrying hundreds of soldiers, and a load of two thousand materials.
There are wooden boards on both sides of the ship to help balance and increase buoyancy. When encountering strong waves, you can lower the wooden boards into the sea water to increase buoyancy, thus greatly improving stability.
However, this kind of ship has a slightly slower speed and although it carries many people, it relies heavily on the protection of various small boats. Otherwise, it will be easily destroyed by the enemy's winch crossbows and trebuchets.
Moreover, Goryeo only had one or two large sea falcon ships, which did not play a big role at all. Just like if the later Republic had only one Liaoning ship, it would be difficult to form a deterrent.
But at this time, Kang Chengxun was still confident. He listened to Wang Zhao's order and believed that the Northern invaders did not have many warships.
And even if there were, could it be worth the 200 warships and 8,000 elite naval forces under his command?
Moreover, because Wang Zhao assigned him the main task of supporting land warfare, Kang Chengxun could only sail northward entirely by the coastline in order to maintain contact with the army on land, and was basically unable to conduct reconnaissance.
Here, Zhao Kuangyin and Chen Jie received the order from Murong Nobunaga and immediately loaded more than 10,000 infantrymen under Zhe Deyuan onto the ship, and the army also moved south along the coastline.
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Southwest of Pyongyang, Haeryong Island is the focus of coastal defense on the entire peninsula.
Wang's Goryeo set up the Navy Hailing Town here, with 600 navy troops and 30 warships stationed there. It was regarded as the important coastal defense town of Goryeo at this time.
Kang Chengxun led the warships all the way north quickly. At this time, the slightest breeze came from the southeast, which facilitated the fleet's movement from south to north.
Seeing that Hailing Island was right in front of him, Kang Chengxun immediately ordered someone to raise the flag, and asked another large battleship in front to raise the cage and send the lookout hand to the mast for observation.
The lookout saw the white-backed red bird flag of Hailing Town on Hailing Island flying high in the distance, and there were more than ten small boats in the distance also approaching the fleet with white flags, so they immediately issued a safety signal.
Kang Chengxun ordered people to observe so cautiously, not because he had received any news, but just to confirm safety as a routine.
Therefore, when they saw the fighting ships in the distance flying a white flag symbolizing safety, they immediately ordered all ships, large and small, to lower their sails and prepare to enter the military port of Hailing Town for repairs.
At this time, the trade wind began to blow, and it would be difficult to enter the naval port without lowering the sail a little.
Especially for large ships, you must lower the sails in advance, otherwise a sudden strong wind may blow the ship to the beach.
Zhao Kuangyin personally stood on the main flagship Danghai, while dozens of stern ships passed messages back and forth between the flagship and other large ships.
As for Hailing Town, it had been raided by the Zhou fleet a long time ago. For the sake of 100% safety, the one who came ashore to control Hailing Town was Zhe Deyuan who personally led his troops to attack.
"Pass my military order to disrupt the formation of the bandits with stern ships first, and then use fighting ships to charge forward. The elite soldiers will hide behind the fighting ships. Wait until the enemy is in chaos, stick to their big ships, and wait until the ships have circled around before attacking with force. Clean out the thieves and fight here!"
Just as Kang Chengxun ordered the large and small ships to lower their sails, he heard the faint sound of golden drums singing in the distance.
He turned around and looked around, but the land of Hailing Island blocked his sight, so he found nothing.
Suddenly, as if a ray of sunlight shone through the dark clouds, in the direction blocked by Hailing Island, large ships with at least a thousand materials appeared in front of Kang Chengxun from behind the distant island.
The sound of the golden drums seemed to suddenly become louder at this moment. These warships that appeared strangely did not use sails, but their speed was surprisingly fast. They all rushed towards Kang Chengxun's fleet.
I've been fooled, the Beikou has a fleet, and there are quite a lot of them!
Kang Chengxun was horrified, and he quickly shouted: "Send a signal to keep those stern ships away."
At this moment, Kang Chengxun suddenly remembered that before he saw the Beikou fleet, there were many stern ships from "Hailing Town" approaching, and he was afraid that there might be some fraud among them.
But it was too late. These five stern ships were a sharp knife that broke into the Korean fleet. Now that they were in a position where they could fight, it was no longer up to the Koreans to get close.
Rushing into a stern ship at the front, Hai Dayu glanced at his younger brothers Hai Er Crab and Hai San Xia. The three brothers roared at the same time, and the dark muscles on their bodies burst out with huge energy. They were swiping the wood pulp out of the hole with their hands so hard that it seemed like they were almost leaving an afterimage.
The three brothers of the Hai family were not Han Chinese, but Baishui Lang from eastern Zhejiang and Fujian, who were also known as Dan people in later generations.
These ethnic groups formed by a mixture of Baiyue and Han criminals have not yet fully integrated into the Han people in this era, and they are the targets of exploitation everywhere.
But they now have a channel that, although not wide, can indeed ascend, that is, they can help Emperor Zhang conquer Goryeo and Japan and even continue to sail eastward in the future.
Therefore, nearly 30% of the sailors belonging to Henghai Town this time were Bai Shuilang. They dreamed of being successful in this battle and gaining the status of normal fishermen, so they worked particularly hard.
The Dan family's war song resounded loudly in the stern ship. The three Hai Da Yu brothers and a dozen Bai Shui Lang in the boat rowed the stern ship very fast.
At the same time, warriors squatting in the closed cabin on the second floor, holding wooden crossbows and naval spears, constantly fired out through the crossbow holes. If the ship was fast, they would use crossbow arrows, and if the ship was slow, they would use spears.
And the bows of these stern ships are all equipped with weapons that are not very sharp, but are very destructive.
The large collision angle can also be regarded as a sharp water warfare weapon.
For a time, one or two hundred Korean warships were crowded into the bay about to enter the harbor. Those who were hit by the warships were overturned. Many sailors were shot or stabbed to death on the ships before they understood what was going on.
These dozens of tons of stern ships are naturally considered small among Zhang Zhou's navy, but in the Koryo navy, it is different, because most of the Koryo warships are gadgets with dozens of tons.
Compared with them, the stern ship is not small in size and faster. It is still a closed ship and is covered with thick cowhide armor mixed with porcelain powder.
This is completely equivalent to a heavily armored soldier crashing into an unarmored militia formation.
The Koreans howled and shot arrows or hit them with hammers, but it had no effect at all. They wanted to use rackets and kerosene to deal with them, but the stern ships were too fast to dodge these injuries.
In the naval battle in the Central Plains, there are many ways to deal with stern ships, the main one is to have big ships.
Such as large ships and fighting ships, these large ships can completely destroy or burn the stern ships from a high position and use prejudgment. They can also use a winch crossbow to fire a large crossbow to penetrate the hull.
At the same time, the sides of these large ships are very high, and the stern ships cannot harm the people on board at all.
However, the Koreans had a small number of ships and no winches and crossbows, so they were completely helpless against the stern ships!
At the first contact, Kang Chengxun was confused. He wanted to hedge. Goryeo did not have warships like stern ships at all.
The navy was a big money burner in later generations, and it was the same in ancient times.
For example, such a stern ship has a closed cabin and is wrapped in cowhide armor. It cannot be used for other purposes except for combat.
This is not a battleship! This is a gold-eating beast running on water. Those who don’t have a big business cannot afford it.
Goryeo's warships were usually used for transportation and other functions. Many of them were even fishing boats that were modified and used as warships. Naturally, there was no such expensive and single-purpose warship.
However, it was not completely impossible to deal with it. After a brief panic, Kang Chengxun ordered all the small boats to approach the big ship, or simply move to the shore, and use big ships and small boats to form a formation to deal with these scurrying ships.
But what was waiting was his decision.
Seeing that the Goryeo warships voluntarily gave up their maneuverability in order to defend against the attack of the stern ships, Zhao Kuangyin waved his flag, and the sound of the golden drums turned into a pure and high-spirited war drum.
More than ten battleships with a displacement ranging from 300 to 700 tons were all dispatched. The sailors rowed the warships with all their strength, and the skilled crewmen took advantage of the ups and downs of the waves to steer the big ships forward.
Despite the undulating waves on the sea, the soldiers wearing simple leather armor and forming a triple formation lined up tightly together. Although the hull of the ship was still shaking from side to side, they were almost motionless.
"More than fifteen fighting ships, all of which are made of thousands of materials!" The deputy general next to Kang Chengxun screamed.
At this time, it is expected that this unit has become popular throughout East Asia because it can better reflect the performance of sea ships than stone.
According to the conversion at this time, one thousand materials is equivalent to about 330 to 350 tons. Compared with a group of small loaches of thirty or forty tons, a fighting ship of more than three hundred tons is indeed very huge.
Amidst Lieutenant General Kang Chengxun's screams, the battleships were getting closer and closer. The soldiers in Henghai Town on the Dazhou side let out loud battle howls, while the Koreans let out cries.
Chen Hui had already taken over the command at this time. After all, he was a famous navy general and was much more professional than a halfway monk like Zhao Kuangyin.
Seeing that the opponent had lost its mobility and most of the small boats were crowded around the big ship, Chen Hui directly ordered one of the 1,700-material battleships, the main force Hengbo, to rush forward and approach the Goryeo Falcon to attack, and the rest The fighting ships attack the remaining large and small ships.
Kang Chengxun also saw Chen Hui's intention, but he still had a chance to choose.
Due to power reasons in the naval battle at this time, Chinese hard sails were not like Western soft sails that could be mounted on a jib and sailed against the wind. Therefore, despite Chen Hui's arrangements, whether the ship can reach the predetermined combat position still requires a certain amount of luck.
"Commander, Anlang
A flag will be raised to let us retreat southward! Before Kang Chengxun could make up his mind, General Anlang on the other battleship had already made his choice for him.
"Commander, leave quickly. We can't let anything go wrong in Ganghwa Bay. If we all stay here, it will be dangerous to open the capital."
[In view of the general environment,
Although the battle had just entered a fever pitch, the lieutenants around Kang Chengxun knew that there was no suspense in this battle.
Not to mention the dozens of fighting ships on the opposite side, it was very difficult for them to deal with the stern ships on the opposite side alone.
"Commander, haven't you seen it yet? This fleet is definitely not something that the Northern invaders can possess. This is coming from the Central Plains court! We must inform the king quickly to protect Kaijing."
The deputy general's roar was like a thunderclap, which immediately made Kang Chengxun aware of the seriousness of the problem. He suddenly shook his head and shook off the sweat in his hands.
"Yes, we must inform the king to lower all the sails, fold the falcon wings and let's go south."
"The mantis' arm is like a chariot!" Chen Hui snorted coldly. He snorted at the Korean battleship that suddenly appeared on the opposite side and waved his hand.
In an instant, the war drums on the Hengbo were beating, a dozen sailors turned the sails, and the battleship began to slowly move sideways.
The starboard side of the Hengbo is equipped with four winch crossbows, and then... there are also three... bronze cannons with black holes in the muzzles!
This was the polarization that quickly emerged after Zhang Gao invented artillery, under the advice of Luantai of Zhongshu Province and the Privy Council, as well as the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry.
Now in Zhang Zhou's army, artillery has begun to develop in the direction of Tiger Crouching Cannon and Nine-section Cannon.
In the navy, they began to build heavy artillery to replace winch crossbows and catapults.
General Anlang ordered the soldiers to intercept with the determination to die. He was actually the real core of the Goryeo navy.
So he immediately thought of the consequences if they were defeated and Jianghua Bay could not be defended. He wanted to use his feat to provide an opportunity for Kang Chengxun to escape.
Therefore, when the Hengbo began to turn the hull sideways, General Anlang also ordered the sailors to take the initiative to move the warship closer to the Hengbo.
A winch crossbow takes dozens of breaths to fire, and one shot is no more than a spear crossbow. Although it is very lethal, it is definitely not as harmful as the damage of thousands of arrows after getting close.
But soon, he discovered something was wrong, because in addition to a few winch crossbows on the opposite starboard side, there was also a somewhat oversized, round hollow long tube.
"Fire!" Chen Hui shouted. The artillery commander blew out the fire stick and quickly lit the fuse before the sea water splashed up.
There was a loud bang, orange flames spurted out from the muzzle, and stone bullets as big as a baby's head flew out, passing over the deck of the Korean warship at extremely fast speeds, causing countless noises. screams and spurts of blood.
These unlucky Goryeo archers were gathering together. Before they could fire their arrows, the shells plowed a bloody path through the crowd.
Of course, compared to more than ten people being suddenly smashed into pulp, what frightened them the most was the pressure from this unknown weapon.
General Anlang was also startled, but he immediately realized that this must be a weapon similar to the winch crossbow, only more powerful.
"Spread out, spread out, archers spread out and shoot!"
General Anlang took the safest approach. Being so close, it was definitely impossible to dodge, but he could still spread out to reduce casualties.
However, he failed again this time because Chen Hui laughed three times and said, "Change the hail bombs! Let them have a taste of the power."
Hail means hail, which is the term used by Zhang Zhou to refer to shotgun or grapeshot, which means hail falling from the sky.
As soon as the Goryeo navy dispersed, hail bombs hit them. Among the projectiles were polished stone balls, iron balls, hard wood thorns, and even iron pears boiled in gold juice.
If the Koreans were concentrated as before, in this era of insufficient artillery kinetic energy, the lethality might not be too great, but now they are spread out and become the perfect target.
Countless hail bullets whizzed past, as if a gust of autumn wind blew through a courtyard full of fallen leaves. Almost all of the hundreds of archers who were standing sparsely fell to the ground.
Some were hit. Even if you take one of the hail bullets fired at high speed, your bones and tendons will be broken immediately, your intestines will be pierced and your stomach will be rotten. The misery is difficult to describe in words.
Those who were lucky enough not to be hit were naturally frightened and fell to the ground, so there was such an exaggerated scene, as if the shot directly killed hundreds of people.
Not to mention the Koreans, even the artillery commander who fired the cannon was stunned. He couldn't even hold back and looked inside the muzzle, a little suspicious that he was not firing the cannon just now, but using magic.
Only two rounds of six shots were fired, and the battle situation was already like this. Why not just line up and shoot! Chen Qiling waved his flag, and the soldiers who were already ready to join the gang roared to the side of the ship and stood up.
With a clang, the two ships collided violently.
With this force, the soldiers threw countless grappling hooks to connect the two ship displays. Then, amid the undulating waves, they set up a plank that looked unsafe, and then rushed towards the opposite battleship without hesitation.
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On the other side, Kang Chengxun, who was running away hastily south, also screamed at the bow of the Falcon boat.
Because Guo Yanzhen, the son of Yuhou, the capital of the navy of the Great Zhou Dynasty and the former founding hero of the Wuyue Kingdom, Guo Shicong, had led two large ships headed by the Danghai and more than 40 other barges to block him by taking advantage of the trade wind.
It turned out that as soon as the battle began, Zhao Kuangyin ordered Guo Yanzhen to lead the ship to the south in a detour, and then after finding a downwind position, he went north and directly attacked the Korean navy from both front and rear.
Although the Korean harpoon boat is large, it is still not impressive compared with the Da Zhoulou ship. The side of the lou ship is already higher than the sailor standing on the sea falcon boat.
Moreover, the large ships such as the Danghai came with the wind and could adjust their directions flexibly, and their speed was guaranteed. They ran into the Korean fleet like a wild bull.
The Koreans on the Sea Falcon tried their best to push the Danghai away with their long poles, but to no avail.
Even the waves caused by the Danghai ship directly sank countless Korean boats following the Haiyun ship.
As soon as the two sides came into contact, the racket pole on the building boat was condescending and hammered the hull of the Sea Falcon ship hard using the principle of leverage. After a while, five or six holes were hammered out of the Sea Falcon ship.
A large number of elite archers were also shooting from high altitudes, and the Sea Falcons were even more unable to parry, and a large number of sailors and naval forces were shot to death.
The only counterattack they can use is to throw out their grappling hooks in desperation, hoping to climb onto the building and start a gang fight.
But this is completely a delusion. They often only get halfway up when they are knocked into the sea by Da Hao in despair.
At the same time, countless kerosene jars were also thrown from the building boats, not to burn the falcon boat, but to burn the nearby Korean boats.
These small boats are like babies in front of the building ships. As long as they are hit, they will immediately ignite a ball of fire.
As for the racket pole, it is even more convenient. Once it is lowered, it can be driven directly into the water by a person or a boat, which is a complete crushing.
Half an hour later, the Korean navy almost completely lost its ability to resist. At this time, the barge boats behind quickly moved forward.
A large number of elite Zhou Dynasty sailors broke into large and small ships in the sea, and a brutal hunt and killing began.
The fate of the Goryeo navy was just like that of the falcon ship that was riddled with holes. The only option left was to die.
