Taihu King Linghu Xuan stood on the bow of the ship with his hands behind his back, watching countless ships rushing towards the Bohai Navy.
He knew this was his only chance.
Once this opportunity is missed and the Bohai Navy gains experience, it will be harder than climbing to the sky to destroy the Bohai people's fleet.
He was recuperating his strength in Taihu Lake. Over the years, he has been increasing the power of the navy, both covertly and covertly.
The Taihu navy does not have the strength to build main warships such as tower ships, fighting ships or even stern ships, but it does have a group of sailors who are extremely brave and brave.
These people spend more time in the water than anyone else.
Naturally, Linghu Xuan and Qin Xiao have always been in contact.
When Qin Xiao learned that Wang Xingchao had colluded with the Bohai Navy, he knew that the only one with a chance to compete with the Bohai People was the Taihu Army.
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Flying pigeons conveyed the news of the Bohai Navy's intention to send troops to Taihu Lake as quickly as possible.
Of course, Taihu King Linghu Xuan knew that if the Bohai Sea Navy sent troops and controlled the Northeast Sea, it would not only pose a threat to Long Rui's army, but also pose a great threat to the Tang Dynasty.
Of course, Linghu Xuan has always been concerned about the strength of the Bohai Navy.
He knew very well that given the strength of the Taihu Army, there was almost no chance of victory in a head-on decisive battle.
The Bohai people have invested a lot of manpower and financial resources in the navy. Looking around the world, there are almost no maritime forces that can fight a decisive battle with this navy.
So from the beginning, he never thought about the two armies setting up a battle array for a decisive battle.
The enemy's warships are too powerful. If it were a head-on confrontation, the Taihu Army's warships would be destroyed if they could not even get close to the enemy.
Linghu Xuan knew that the only way to have a chance of defeating the Bohai Navy was to mix the two fleets together without distinguishing each other and engage in hand-to-hand combat.
He believed in the strength of the Taihu sailors, and as long as they could fight hand-to-hand, there was hope of victory.
Although such a fight would definitely cause extremely heavy casualties on both sides, with the enemy suffering 10,000 casualties and himself losing 8,000, there was no other way.
In order for your fleet to get close to the enemy warships and engage them hand-to-hand, two problems must be solved.
The first problem is speed. Our warships must seize the opportunity and rush into the enemy's formation as quickly as possible, causing both sides to fall into a melee, making it impossible for the enemy's warships to exert their long-range combat capabilities and cannot carry out long-range operations.
Battle between warships.
This problem is not difficult for the Taihu Army.
The speed of a warship depends on three things. One is the agility and lightness of the ship, the other is the experience of the sailor operating the oar, and the last is the direction of the wind.
The Taihu Army can easily solve the first two points, but the issue of wind direction has been a difficult problem from the beginning.
Winter operations must be in the north. If the Taihu Army wants to launch a surprise attack, it cannot deploy in the port and can only attack the enemy's rear.
Therefore, once a war begins, ships and sailors can only make up for the lack of wind direction.
The second problem to be solved is naturally the obstacle.
The purpose of rushing into the enemy's fleet is to completely expose the long-range attack capabilities of the enemy warships.
The Bohai people are not fools. If the whole army attacks, the Bohai people will certainly not just watch the enemy ships approaching. They will definitely attack the enemy ships with long-range weapons such as trebuchets and rockets. Before our troops get close, they will attack the enemy ships.
It will cause heavy casualties and losses.
The most terrible thing is that the enemy also has clippers.
Once the barges and sterns attack to block it, the plan for a close-quarters battle will be completely in vain. Moreover, the Taihu Army will also suffer a very sophisticated attack from the Bohai Sea Navy. It will be defeated without doubt, and there is even the possibility of the entire army being annihilated.
Therefore, solving the enemy's clipper attack has become a problem that must be solved.
Linghu Xuan grew up on the water and was familiar with the art of war. To mobilize the deployment of the opponent's warships was a difficult task for others, but Linghu Xuan thought carefully and came up with a strategy.
To Linghu Xuan, although Yuan Gaijia held great power and had commanded the Bohai Sea Navy for many years, in the eyes of the Taihu King, he was just a young man without any experience in maritime combat.
Yuan Gaijia's moves were almost all within Linghu Xuan's expectations.
In his plan, the only worry was that Yuan Gaijia would immediately launch an attack on Ninghua Port after arriving outside Ninghua Port during the day. Once this happened, his planned plan would indeed have huge problems.
But he had to gamble once.
He only needs one night.
As long as Yuan Gaijia has scruples and does not dare to attack at night, but rests outside the port for a night, that will be the most important link in determining the success or failure of Linghu Xuan's plan.
And Yuan Gaijia did not disappoint the King of Taihu.
Ninghua Port has been well prepared these days, building and stocking a large number of canoes. The canoes are filled with straw, firewood, and sprinkled with tung oil. In order to prevent the news from leaking, the entire Ninghua Port is under lockdown.
No one is allowed in or out.
Various ships were moored in a deliberately messy manner in the port, making the Bohai Navy mistakenly believe that the Liaoxi Navy was in an atmosphere of panic and fear.
When the time came tonight, the port cut off the ropes tied to the canoes according to the plan, allowing dozens of canoes to drift south with the wind. Behind these canoes, rocket crews were arranged, and rockets were fired out, setting the canoes on fire.
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Dozens of fire ships rushed towards the Bohai fleet, which of course made the people on the Bohai Sea mistakenly think that the Liaoxi navy wanted to make a last ditch effort with a fire attack.
Linghu Xuan knew very well that in the face of such a fire ship formation, the Bohai fleet would of course spread out its fleet formation to avoid being collided by the fire ships, and would also definitely send out clippers to intercept the fire ships to fight for the main warships to disperse.
time.
This was all part of the plan. The Bohai Navy, including Yuan Gaijia, lacked actual combat experience, and their response must have been within Linghu Xuan's expectations.
The purpose of the fire ship formation was not really to attack enemy ships, but to induce Bohai County to send out clippers to intercept.
Just as the flames of the fireship array illuminated the sky, the Taihu Army, which was ambushing behind the Bohai fleet, finally took the opportunity to attack.
Linghu Xuan knew that this battle was too important, not only related to the survival of Long Rui's army, but also the fate of the Tang Dynasty. Once defeated, the consequences would be disastrous, so almost all the Taihu Army's strength was invested in this battle.
Countless ships went out to sea from Taihu Lake via Hangzhou Bay. Except for women and children and a small number of troops left behind, almost all other combatable troops in Taihu Lake were dispatched.
The decisive battle between the Taihu Army and the Bohai Navy was originally a naval battle in which the weak prevailed over the strong. Linghu Xuan knew that at this time, he could no longer think of retaining his strength. If the existence of the Taihu Army was just for a big battle, then there is no doubt that
This is the current battle.
The ships of the Taihu Army are not as large as those of the Bohai Navy, and they do not have any powerful equipment, but their biggest advantage is the large number of people, ships, and indomitable fighting spirit.
Hundreds of ships rushed towards the enemy like a pack of wolves.
The boat that Linghu Xuan was traveling on was also among the hundreds of boats.
He held a sword in his hand, his eyes were like a sword, and his expression was resolute.
He knew that his brothers would not let him down.
Before the war, he had told everyone that many people would definitely die in this war, and even the final result might not be a win, but the glory of the Tang Dynasty would shine through the Taihu Army.
This battle will leave its name in history.
This battle will go down in history forever.
Even a hundred years later, future generations will still tell the story of this bloody battle in which the weak fought against the strong.
The Bohai Navy never expected that the main force of the Taihu Army would come from behind.
At this moment, Yuan Gaijian wanted to chop off Li En's head with a knife.
The Taihu Army could attack at this time. Of course, it was impossible to appear in time. It could only be like a hunter who had been lying in wait for a long time, waiting for the best time to pounce on its prey.
Li Enyan was absolutely sure that there were no other enemy ships in this area. Either he was telling lies or he did not expand the scope of investigation and did not discover the ambush of the Taihu navy.
Intelligence errors have resulted in the Liaodong Navy being in an extremely dangerous situation.
Most of the fireships have sunk, and the sea of fire on the sea has dimmed, but now it is a fool's errand to hope that the boats and boats can turn around and pass through the fleet to meet the enemy.
Although the officers and soldiers of the Bohai Navy were frightened, they were not completely disorganized.
A large number of sailors quickly rushed to the stern of the ship, bent their bows and arrows, and fired directly at the enemy.
Some archers directly fired rockets in an attempt to set enemy ships on fire.
It's just that although the Taihu Army does not have heavy maritime equipment, shields are still equipment. The sailors on the ship raised their shields to block the Bohai Navy's arrows, and covered the sailors' oars to rush towards the enemy formation. Although some Taihu sailors were occasionally shot and killed,
The Taihu Army had too many people. The sea was densely packed with boats, and the boats were densely packed with people.
Originally, the ships of the Taihu Navy were densely packed, and the Bohai Navy could use the trebuchets on the warships to attack, and the trebuchets would definitely cause devastating damage to the dense fleet.
However, Yuan Gaijia wanted to attack Ninghua Port by fire and deployed all the trebuchets to the bow of the ship. He originally planned to launch a full-scale offensive on Ninghua Port at dawn.
Therefore, there is no catapult available at the stern of the ship. If you want to turn the huge warship around at this time, time does not allow it, and you can only block the enemy ship's offensive by missing arrows.
Seeing that many ships had rushed into the fleet, Yuan Gaijia was horrified and stood on the roof of the cabin and shouted loudly.
He knew that once the enemy approached, they would definitely climb onto the ship, so he shouted an order, instructing the sailors on the ship to quickly guard the sides of the ship to prevent the enemy from climbing up from both sides.
In fact, this is indeed the case.
The Taihu navy ran out of the prepared iron rope and hooked the side of the enemy warship. Then they climbed up regardless of missing arrows, intending to board the ship and fight without fear of death.
The Bohai Navy either used bows and arrows or spears to attack the climbing Taihu sailors, and some swordsmen tried their best to cut off the enemy's hooks to prevent the enemy from boarding the ship.
Many Taihu navy soldiers fell into the water, and the water was dyed red with blood. For a while, the soldiers on both sides killed each other like thunder, and the screams were continuous.
More and more Taihu ships rushed into the gaps between the Bohai Navy warships, like ants, surrounding the Bohai Navy warships, throwing hooks one after another, and attacking from all sides of the warships.