Above the sea, a fleet flying the original flag was plowing through the waves.
There are about 500 ships in this fleet, of which 44 are the largest ships, and the rest are small and medium-sized ships.
The length of the big ship is 48 meters and the width is 12 meters, which is the ratio of length to width of one to four. This is the most reasonable length-to-width ratio obtained by the Yuan Dynasty after repeated experiments.
In fact, the one-to-four shipbuilding ratio remained popular until the eighteenth century after Europa was studied.
There are many small and medium-sized ships, and their proportions are not strictly particular. One to five is the largest, and more are about one to three, so that they look a bit round under the curvature. They are also from the original country.
Design of ships used for sea navigation, products from different periods.
The large ship of the original country has a tonnage of about 1,600 in terms of modern tonnage. The cabin of the ship does not include the cabin at the bottom of the ship. There are two floors below the deck. It can carry up to 800 people, but it does not usually carry the maximum capacity.
Just members.
The remaining medium-sized ships carry from 300 to 400 people, and the small ships can carry up to 90 people.
As for the boats used to travel between ships or for landing, they are usually either on the deck or hung on the left and right sides of the ship, and are not used on the sea.
This fleet set out to sea from a position near the lower tributary of the river and sailed for nearly a month before approaching the coast of "Langya".
During their voyage, they passed through a strait with a large number of islands and encountered Chen Guo's fishing fleet.
The only reason why they are not called fleet is that they have not experienced actual combat yet.
In fact, it is the same. Regardless of the type of ship or how sophisticated the equipment is, even if you have never participated in a small battle, do you have the nerve to say that you are a fleet?
"Contact the shore at 'Chengshan' and inform us that our army is fighting fiercely with the enemy at 'Langya'?" Fan Li did not hold a specific official position in this fleet and followed him as an advisor.
Zhiwu responded with a serious face: "Exactly."
That "Chengshan" is a corner of the Donglai Peninsula on the seaside. Sailing through this point is equivalent to entering the Yellow Sea from the Bo Sea.
Fan Li narrowed his eyes and said, "In this case, we will encounter the Yue Navy at any time."
As for the Vietnamese navy using the sea to deliver reinforcements to "Langya", they are not aware of the situation yet because they cannot maintain contact with the land at sea.
Zhiwu still looked serious, nodded and said: "I have been waiting for this, I have been prepared in my heart, and I am also looking forward to the battle."
If it were a battle with the Wu navy at sea, Zhiwu would honestly feel terrified.
After all, the State of Wu was the first country to use sea routes. It had won several battles with Qi's navy at sea, and it had relatively rich experience in maritime combat.
The State of Yue annexed the State of Wu, obtained a large number of ships, probably also obtained a lot of navigation information, and accepted many sailors from the State of Wu, but there were no generals from the State of Wu who were willing to serve King Gou Jian of Yue.
Vietnam often engages in water warfare in inland rivers, and indeed has a very mature navy. The problem is that there are two completely different situations in inland rivers and at sea. Being able to engage in water warfare in inland rivers does not mean that you can play well at sea.
Fan Li couldn't help but look at the bed crossbows fixed on the deck.
There are six bed crossbows on the big ship, one at the bow and one at the stern that can rotate 180 degrees, and two in the middle four to deal with each side.
Precisely because there are six bed crossbows, the ship has only one mast in the design. These bed crossbows have bases. In order to design these bases, many craftsmen of the Gongshu family had to pull their hair out, and many of them directly
Bald.
Now that the bed crossbow with a base has been put into use, it means that their hair has not turned gray. The bed crossbow in the test is very powerful. As long as it can hit the horizontal position of the enemy ship, a "city-breaking cone" can sink the enemy ship.
Already.
Fan Li could probably guess the styles of the warships of the Yue Navy.
The navy of the Yue Kingdom learned from the Wu Kingdom. The largest warship was called "Big Wing". Its length was twelve feet long (about 27.6 meters) and its width was one foot six feet (about 3.68 meters). It could carry soldiers.
Ninety-one people, including fifty oarsmen.
This kind of "big wing" is divided into two layers. The bottom layer is for the oarsmen. The upper layer has no sails at all. Whether on the inland river or on the sea, it relies purely on paddling.
As a latecomer to Yuan Guo, although Zhiyao is not a professional designer, he can at least give correct suggestions on some designs of ships.
Therefore, the warships of the former Navy basically had masts with sails, and even "fixed forts (crossbows)" were arranged.
And because the original warships had masts, sailors could stand higher and have a farther field of view.
No, the lookout on the mast of the leading warship discovered something and reported loudly.
The captain informed the flagship of the information in a semaphore, and soon Zhiwu also knew it.
"Encountering a large number of ships, they must be the Yue Navy!" Zhiwu said excitedly, but he was a little uneasy in his heart.
Regardless of the navy of the original country or the navy of Vietnam, they will only operate along the coast for the time being. As long as the two countries have fleets operating, it is only a matter of time before they encounter each other along the coast of "Langya".
Fan Li glanced at his own fleet and sighed silently in his heart: "Although the navy of the Yuan Kingdom has no actual combat experience, the warships are too excellent. If we don't make fatal mistakes, the battle will only be a matter of how much we lose. It is impossible to lose to the Yue Kingdom."
From the Navy."
Let's put it this way, not to mention the difference in ship size. The deck height of the forty-four large warships of the Yuan Kingdom is about four meters from the sea surface, while the height of the upper deck of the Yue Kingdom's "Big Wing" is less than three meters. During the naval battle,
Whoever has the higher deck must have more advantage.
After the war drums were beaten, a large number of crossbowmen from the original army were on the deck, and a platform crossbow began to prepare for war. The number of crossbowmen alone far exceeded the number of "big wings" carried.
Before the emergence of flying combat tools, no matter whether it was the era of cold weapons or hot weapons, whoever's warships could deliver farther and more long-range damage would have an advantage. Fan Li really couldn't figure out how the "Big Wing" could compete with the original navy.
of large warships.
Zhiwu was already issuing instructions one after another, using drum beats and semaphores to convey them.
Whether it is the sound of drums or the flags of different colors hoisted on the ship's mast, they are actually issuing fixed orders. And these orders are what every officer must learn.
In fact, it is not difficult to learn drum sounds and flag language. What is really difficult is designing drum horns and flag language.
At the command, some windows on the first floor were opened, the sails on the ship's mast were lowered, and then oars protruded from the opened windows.
Yes, the warships of the original country were also designed with oars, mainly to increase maneuverability.
Lowering the sails during a war? The main reason is that currently there are no fireproof sails. Once the enemy fires a rocket, it will easily set the sails on fire. It would be really stupid not to lower the sails during a war.
The sound of drums was also heard in the distance, and it was obvious that the Yue Navy had also discovered the Yuan Navy.
Fan Li said: "The Yueshui Army must have the 'small wing' in front, the 'big wing' following closely behind, and the 'middle wing' deployed on both sides."
In the formation adjustment just now, Zhiwu had ordered the medium-sized ships to overtake the large ships, which meant that he arranged some medium-sized ships to block in front of the large ships.
The remaining medium-sized ships and small ships were deployed on the left and right wings, and the entire fleet formed an "M" formation and advanced through the waves.
Why not a triangle formation or a long snake formation? The main reason is that the Yue Navy is basically a group. The triangular formation used to break the formation can easily allow the Yue Navy ships to escape, while the long snake formation will cause the Yue Navy to escape.
Our formation is too weak.
Zhiwu asked: "Who is the general of the Yue navy?"
Fan Li couldn't answer this point.
It has been five or six years since Fan Li left the country of Yue. Recently, King Gou Jian of Yue has killed many ministers. Especially after successfully wiping out the country of Wu, he killed a lot of them ruthlessly. The grass on the graves of many of Fan Li's old acquaintances is already two meters high.
As for how many new rich people appeared in Yue? Since Fan Li didn't know those people well, it was difficult to guess what position he would get.
"Literature comes from the 'Ju' region, and the country's middle schools are hosted by the same person. I guess they are not two people." Fan Li thought for a while and said it would be bad not to say anything, so he could only give this answer.
Zhiwu felt that he had asked the wrong question, so he asked instead: "Maybe it's Wu who surrendered?"
This time, Fan Li quickly replied: "Absolutely impossible."
In this version of history, the original country rose strongly and established its status as the most powerful country in less than five years.
However, as in the original history, King Gou Jian of Yue massacred the heroes after destroying the state of Wu. If he had not noticed that King Gou Jian of Yue had shown signs of killing the heroes, Fan Li would not have left the country of Yue.
As for why the Yue King Gou Jian wanted to kill the heroes when the Yuan Kingdom was clearly rising strongly? In the original history, the Jin State was not weak, and we didn’t see the Yue King Gou Jian having any scruples. The difference was that in the original history, the Yue King Gou Jian killed the heroes more ruthlessly.
The fleets of the enemy and ours were slowly approaching, and when the distance was about two hundred meters, both sides were still in a state of not firing an arrow.
The ultimate attack distance of the Yuan navy was over 300 meters. The Yue navy did not enter the attack range. The fundamental reason was that the accuracy was too poor and they did not want to expose the existence of the crossbow prematurely.
When the distance between the two sides reached 150 meters, the crossbowmen of the former navy took the lead in shooting arrows. In an instant, the sound of bowstrings was heard on the warships.
The Yue State had the same weaknesses as the Chu and Wu States. The bows and arrows they used were shorter in range than the Central Plains countries, and their lethality was also weaker than the Central Plains countries.
While all the warships of the original country were already shooting arrows, some archers of the Yue Navy, which had not yet entered the shooting range, were shooting arrows, but the arrows they shot fell far away from the warships of the original navy.
to the sea.
Fan Li shook his head secretly when he saw this scene.
Shooting arrows without entering the shooting range can only be said to be the panic of the Yue archers.
This kind of thing would not happen in the navy of the state of Wu. It can only be said that the quality of the navy of the state of Yue is good or bad.
The Yue warship continued to move forward through the waves in the face of the rain of arrows. The Yue warship was hit by too many arrows. Not only did it suffer heavy casualties, but the ship was also filled with arrows, making it look like a hedgehog.
Why didn't the crossbowmen of the original country use rockets? This involves the difficulty of making rockets, plus the too bumpy sea surface, and the danger of placing a brazier on wooden ships.
Therefore, when there is no time, whether it is an inland water battle or a sea battle, it is really not possible to use rockets at each other as soon as the fight begins.
The Vietnamese navy marched forward despite huge casualties, hoping to get within 70 meters of the original navy and then fight back. However, as the distance got closer and closer, more and more Vietnamese soldiers looked more frightened.
They couldn't see how big the Yuan Kingdom's warships were from far away, but they could definitely see it more clearly when they were closer. The thing they could see most carefully was the Yuan Kingdom's medium-sized warships in front. The size of any one of them was huge.
They are about the same size as "Big Wings", some are even larger than "Big Wings", and have a higher deck height.
Some sharp-eyed soldiers of the Yue Kingdom also identified a larger warship owned by the original country, which was twice the size of the "Big Wing"!
As they continued to move forward, some "wing boats" were suddenly damaged by thick and long crossbow arrows. They either hit the hull and brought up sawdust after penetrating, or they strung the soldiers into a string and fell into the sea.
inside.
The Yue soldiers who happened to see that scene were stunned into silence.
Lu Ying was the crown prince of the Yue Kingdom and the commander-in-chief of this fleet.
Just now, a crossbow arrow fired by a bed crossbow passed by Lu Ying's side in a thrilling manner, hitting several Vietnamese soldiers. The Vietnamese soldiers who were hit did not even grunt, and were directly carried away by inertia.
Take off, fall into the sea, choke up a wave and disappear.
This Vietnamese naval force had previously transported more than 5,000 Vietnamese troops to the "Langya" coast. Next, they were going to a bay in the east (Jiaozhou Bay) to receive a batch of goods, return to the mainland coast of Vietnam, and continue
Transport local reinforcements to support the "Langya" battlefield.
"Have you never heard that the original country has a navy? Not only do they have a navy, but the ships are so huge and the scale is so big!?" Lu Ying was not only afraid, but also knew how bad the situation was.
To be honest, Lu Ying thought he had encountered Chen Guo's fleet before, but when he got closer, he recognized that it was the navy of the Yuan Dynasty from the flags hanging.
Lu Ying has more than a thousand warships of various types under his command, which exceeds the number of the Yuan Kingdom's navy, and he knows that it doesn't matter if he doesn't encounter it. Once he encounters it, he must try to eliminate the Yuan Kingdom's navy, otherwise the "Langya" coast will be destroyed by the Yuan Kingdom's navy.
Control means that the Vietnamese army of "Langya" will be trapped to death, so they choose to start the war immediately.
What they didn't expect was that the Japanese navy's warships were far superior to their own, and they also had a deadly weapon like the bed crossbow. The firing range of the bed crossbow was particularly short.
"Order all ships to speed up and collide with each other!" Lu Ying ordered loudly.
On the other side, Zhiwu was also giving orders to small and medium-sized warships: "Big ship, medium ship, avoid it, small ship, hit it!"
That's right, whether it is the East or the West, early water battles did not rely on long-range weapons or gang-hopping tactics to determine the outcome, but rather the use of impact tactics.
Therefore, as long as it is a warship, it must have a collision angle, and it must still be at the sea level!