Yuan Ye, the third year of Zhengxing in the Dachang Dynasty.
Beiguan, war breaks out.
In Beijing, there was a turmoil because of the father and son of the Chu family.
In the East China Sea, Luo Yundao heard a thunderous explosion, which made everyone put down their wine glasses and tensed their nerves. All the laughter and laughter disappeared with this explosion.
"On the southeast side, the night is dark, where King Qi is."
Wang Tongtong stood on the flagpole, holding a clairvoyant. He could not see anything except the flash of fire, but he could still distinguish the general direction.
The melodious sound of horns resounded across the sea, and warships spread their sails.
The cuttlefish was twisting the rudder of the boat vigorously, shouting and screaming.
Many of the friends didn't have time to get on the boat, so they jumped in and swam to the nearest warship.
Chu Qing had previously arranged three lines of defense. The first line was the cordon line, with clippers cruising around the outermost perimeter, serving as a warning. The second line was combat warships, on standby at any time, with at least generals above the rank of deputy general in charge of each camp. , the third lane, close to the beach, is a reserve team, ready to support at any time.
The outermost clippers do not need to fight, but only need to warn by setting off gunpowder crossbows.
No one expected that the Japanese thieves' ships would appear on Yuan Ye!
The non-combatants had already disembarked. Bihua grabbed one in each hand, hugged Qingyang and Tao Ruolin and jumped out of the boat. He landed right on the boat and almost didn't get sunk by the boat.
The explosions of gunpowder crossbows were heard one after another, and with each sound, Chu Qing's heart sank a little on the bow.
During the Chinese New Year period, Qin Qi was responsible for the outermost line of defense, vigilance, and Chen Yan was responsible for the second line of defense, preparing for war.
According to the rules, the gunpowder crossbow fired into the air and exploded. The first blast signaled the discovery of the enemy, and then there were two consecutive blasts. The first blast was in the four locations of southeast, northwest, and the second blast was the specifications and number of warships. Using dense or individual sounds to notify whether a ship is a warship, a privateer, or a fleet is the best way Chu Qing can think of now, so that he can immediately notify the invading enemy forces from behind.
The sound of explosions finally stopped, and Fu San listened carefully: "Master, there are nine ships in total, five warships, three sea-going ships, and one privateer ship!"
"How can it be?!"
The cloak behind Chu Qing rustled, and his face was as gloomy as water.
If it is a privateer, then it must be a Japanese pirate. It is not a big surprise to come here to cause trouble during the Chinese New Year.
But there are still three sea ships, sea ships that basically have no combat capabilities, which is a bit intriguing, unless they are just transporting troops.
The most surprising thing is the warship. You must know that the warship is essentially the official naval warship of Yingdao. The official warship comes here, obviously to start a war with Dachang, but since the war has started, why are there only five warships?
Chu Qing was not the only one who was suspicious. The same was true for Brother Dajun, Wang Tianyu, Wen Ya, Chen Dinglan, Qiu Baoyu and others on the other warships.
But no matter what, if there is a warning in the outer sea area, they must rush there immediately to prepare for combat.
A bed crossbow was fixed to the right side of the ship. A total of six warships, plus the four warships in the second line of defense, were all equipped with more or less bed crossbows and gunpowder crossbows and quickly rushed to the southeast side. .
Thousand Mile Eyes has no effect in the dark night, unless there is fire, the warships gradually widened the distance, and the Mohist Revenge took the lead.
The full sail is just to set sail faster. Once an enemy ship is seen, the sail must be pulled. The agile scout horses all climbed onto the flagpole.
Chu Qing and his third brother stood side by side on the bow of the boat, staring at the endless darkness.
There was another roar, and then it started getting out of control.
"Chen Yan has already fought with the Japanese bandits!" Chu Qing turned around and shouted: "Get ready to fight, load the crossbow, hurry!"
The veterans of the frontier army stood in pairs beside the crossbows, while the guards led by Tong Gui raised their divine arm crossbows.
The fire finally appeared, getting bigger and bigger, and there was not just one ball of fire, but three.
It wasn't because it fired a rocket, it must have been a gunpowder crossbow.
Chu Qing breathed a sigh of relief: "The bed crossbow has a fast firing rate and a high range. Chen Yan and the others should have an advantage."
As soon as he finished speaking, fire appeared in the air, extremely dense.
The third brother's expression changed slightly: "There are also enemy ships, one, two, three...nine ships, all nine are warships!"
"The Japanese thieves are indeed at war with me, Dachang."
Chu Qing's teeth were chattering. He originally planned to sneak attack on Yingdao in a while, but he didn't expect that the Ying thief would attack him first, and it was the New Year. The Ying thief was as hateful as ever.
This was Chu Qing's first naval battle in a substantial sense, but there was no trace of nervousness on his face. He just hoped to reach the battlefield quickly and then kill the Japanese thieves. He even dreamed of this!
There was fire again, but it was very weak. It was not caused by the gunpowder crossbow, but by the rocket.
Chu Qing's heart sank. It was his own warship that was hit.
"Young master, don't worry. If the war goes badly, our brothers will put down their boats and escape. If we don't make it during the day, we will escape with our lives as long as we don't light the torches at night."
Chu Qing nodded.
Night naval battles are actually detrimental to both sides. Just like the law of the dark forest, whoever strikes first will reveal their position. Generally, during night naval battles, warships will extinguish all torches, unless the enemy is discovered first and then uses full firepower to attack the enemy. The opponent's ship has been targeted, otherwise it can rely on its relatively large tonnage and wind speed to directly hit it and then join forces to fight.
If the battle is fought at night in offshore areas, the battle losses will not be too high.
As Fukuzo said, there were small boats hanging on both sides of the warship. The crew members on the ship could jump onto the small boats and escape. Without lighting torches, if they could escape fast enough and out of the enemy's sight, their lives would be saved.
On the coast, Chang Xian, Nangong Ping, and Tao Weiran had already begun to issue orders. They built a defense line on the coast, extinguished all the torches, and took out the divine arm crossbows. The remaining Hucheng veterans led the boat master. The troops were in formation ready to meet the enemy at any time.
They also heard warning blasts. No one knew how many enemy ships there were. Once the naval battle went unfavorable, a land battle would begin. This was the last thing anyone wanted to see. Too many people were nearby.
The only thing that comforted the people left behind was that the people of Luo Yundao, regardless of gender or age, did not panic as expected. Instead, under the command of Tao Ruolin, Luzhu and others, they quickly went to the rear without any trouble.
Tao Ruolin, who was riding on a horse and commanding the people to leave, frowned.
She knew the meaning of the explosion of the gunpowder crossbow, but she couldn't figure out how the Ying thieves dared to attack Chang in a large scale?
If we want to attack Chang, there must be more enemy ships. In addition to real sea warships, plus supply ships and some small sea ships, there must be at least hundreds of ships.
Even if there are less than a hundred ships, only fifty ships, it will definitely not attack at night. The more ships there are, the less conducive to the command during sea landing operations.
In an instant, Tao Ruolin thought of a possibility, her pretty face was filled with frost.
