As soon as the Great Food Fleet moved, Wang Yuanzheng, who was standing on the tall mast, immediately noticed something was wrong and did not dare to neglect it. He roared quickly.
"Um?"
When Lin Hu heard this, his body couldn't help but swayed slightly. He hurriedly took the monocular telescope stuck around his waist in his hand, held it in front of him, and carefully looked at the military formation of the Dashi Fleet. Seeing the tension of its fleet, his face suddenly became a little gloomy.
Fighting? It may not be impossible to fight. Although the Big Food Fleet has many ships, most of them can only take small boats with dozens of people, and their weapons and equipment are also very poor. Except for more than 20 medium-sized warships, which are equipped with large crossbows and few catapults, the other small boats are all cargoes for boarding battles, which are completely different from the Tang army warships. The six warships of the Tang army are not ordinary goods. Each ship is divided into three layers. Except for the bottom layer under the water that is loaded with fresh water, food and other debris, the other two layers have ten shooting holes each, and behind each shooting hole is a medium-sized crossbow.
As for the front and rear decks, there is a large crossbow carriage each with an effective range of 350 steps. If one arrow passes, it will definitely tear the small battleships of the Big Food Fleet into pieces. If several giant arrows hit it, it will be enough to destroy the medium-sized battleships of the Big Food Fleet. With these six battleships alone, the Tang Fleet will not be able to protect itself, not to mention that all the warriors on each ship are good at water warfare, and they are not afraid of the big cannibal's boarding tactics at all. The problem is that when the war is in the meantime, the business will probably not be able to continue, and this is obviously not the result Lin Hu wants to face.
"Transfer the order, all ships are on the spot to be alert, and no orders are allowed to start the war!"
Lin Hu was running his brain quickly. After pondering for a moment, he gave an order without looking back. However, the telescope in his hand never put down. He was silently estimating the distance between the two sides. Once the Big Food Fleet really overwhelmed the center line between the two sides, Lin Hu didn't plan to be very polite to him. He would definitely fight and talk about the rest!
"Stop, stop quickly!"
Mua Via Aben, the chief manager of the Port Department of Alexandria. His sister is one of the many concubines of Egypt, the eldest son of the current caliph Mua Via Ibn Abi Sofuyang, the governor of Egypt, Ye Chidd Ibn Abbe, and one of the most favored ones. With this relationship, Mua Via Aben has been so fat that he does not want to die in the war. Seeing that his fleet had moved forward, the small boat he was riding on had not yet passed the middle line between the two armies, and was afraid that the war would be affected by the war, he immediately became anxious. Regardless of whether the other end of the fleet could hear his shouts, he danced his arms vigorously and roared wildly.
On the front deck of the flagship "Rose", a bearded general was standing on the bow of the ship surrounded by a large group of attendants. This person was Tari Ibn Abby, the distant cousin of the current Caliphate, and the founder of the Great Food Fleet. When he fought against the Byzantine Empire with the current Caliphate, he used the Byzantine shipyard to establish the first navy of the Great Food Empire. Fang Yizheng defeated the attack of a large Byzantine navy. Later, he defeated the Byzantine fleet many times and was a famous naval general on the Red Sea.
"Telection: Stop moving forward and pick up the fat pig!"
Tari Ibn Abby is famous for his belligerent nature. This time, he was alarmed by the great momentum of the Tang Fleet and hurriedly led the entire army to intercept it. He couldn't help but feel annoyed. He saw the Tang Fleet adjusting its formation and mistakenly thought that the Tang Fleet was about to start a war. He didn't dare to neglect it, so he commanded the entire fleet to press forward together. After a while, he saw that the Tang army had never raised the half-descending sails, and his doubts in his heart were reduced by half, so he stopped pressing forward. He planned to make a decision after he had found out the reason.
Since Tari Ibn Abby had issued an order, the lower-headed men and others dared not refuse to obey. The entire fleet soon stopped less than 500 steps from the Tang Fleet. At this time, it was only a few dozen steps away from the center line defined by Lin Hu. In view of this, Lin Hu's already raised hand slowly fell back to his waist, temporarily pressing down the order to start the war that was already the exit.
"The commander of the Great Commander is the Tang Dynasty. This is the fleet from the Tang Dynasty! He is here to do business. God is on it. With so many ships, how much gold coins can it be worth. This is a big business, a big business..."
Mua Via Aben was obviously very excited. He was just taken to the front deck of the Rose and started yelling around. It was not a big deal. You know, any ship from the Tang Dynasty must be full of valuable things such as silk and porcelain. Mua Via Aben worked in the general manager of the Port Department for three years and had received ships from the Tang Dynasty several times. However, those were medium-sized cargo ships, and they were all arrived alone. I have never seen so many giant ships coming together. Not to mention the generous spirit of the Tang Dynasty merchants, Mua Via Aben could make a fortune by the boss just by the benefit fee, let alone once he got some private goods and reselled them, the profit would be gone. Just thinking about it would be enough to make Mua Via Aben drool.
"Enough!"
Tari Ibn Abbi has always looked down on Mua Via Aben, a guy who climbed to a high position by nepotism. Otherwise, he would not have forced him to go to the Tang Fleet to explore the truth. At this time, he heard Mua Via Aben talk nonsense as soon as he got on the ship. The disgusting feeling in his heart became even stronger. He waved his hand without hesitation, shouted and interrupted Mua Via Aben's nonsense.
"Ah, commander, subordinate, subordinate..."
After Tari Ibn Abby's yummy, Mua Via Abby's face became ugly. When he thought of the previous incident that he forced himself to inquire about the news, his anger became even more intense, but he didn't have the courage to get angry in front of Tari Ibn Abby, and could only stutter in disappointment.
"Speak from the beginning and talk in detail!"
Tari Ibn Abby obviously hated Mua Via Aben's cowardly appearance, so he glanced impatiently and squeezed out a sentence from his teeth.
"Ah, yes, the leader of the country, this is what happened..."
Although Mua Via Aben was annoyed by Tari Ibn Abby's rudeness, he did not have the courage to fight against this murderous guy. He could only smile and explain the situation of negotiating with the Tang Fleet one by one.
"What? Don't get tested? You're so brave!"
When Tari Ibn Abby heard that the Tang fleet refused to accept the inspection of its own fleet, Tari Ibn Abby's eyes immediately widened and he roared angrily.
"Ah, no, commander, they were not unwilling to accept the inspection, but they just said that the soldiers could not get on the ship, but the officials of my Port Department could..."
Mua Via Aben was so excited that he was suddenly startled by Tari Ibn Abby's roar and quickly explained.
"Far! No matter how great the Tang Dynasty is, when he arrives at Alexandria, he must obey the command of my empire. This is the will of Allah. How can these pagans be so rampant? People come and raise the battle flag, and the Tang people will beat him until he hears!"
Tari Ibn Abby has always been arbitrary on the Red Sea, so how could he accept the conditions proposed by the Tang Fleet, let alone listen to Mua Via Aben's explanation, and roared and issued a combat order.
"Grand Commander, you cannot do this. Without the orders of the Governor, you cannot start a war without authorization, give up the rank of the officials..."
Mua Via Aben had already planned to get enough benefits from the Tang fleet, but he did not want to see the war happen. It was not for the safety of the Tang fleet, but because once the Tang fleet was destroyed, all the benefits would be all over Tari Ibn Aben. It was impossible for him to have Mua Via Aben. Besides, he is still on the ship now. If there is a mistake in the naval battle, wouldn't it be over? In view of this, Mua Via Aben did not care about Tari Ibn Aben's fear and spoke out against it.
"Come here, send this supervisor off the boat!"
Although Tari Ibn Abi is the distant cousin of the Egyptian Governor Yezid Ibn Abu and the current favorite caliph, he is not from the same faction with Yezid Ibn Abu, and his relationship with each other is very ordinary. At this time, when he heard that the Governor Mua Via Abu was suppressing him, his anger came up in a flash and did not give Mua Via Abu a chance to finish his words. He ordered his servants to drag him down without hesitation.
"Tarry, you are a second dog, you are a bastard who forgets your righteousness. You can't die well. Wait. This general manager will go to the Governor to come and preside over justice. You wait..."
Mua Via Aben didn't expect Tari Ibn Abby to turn against him, and immediately he was so angry that he looked like stars, but he didn't dare to mess with Tari Ibn Abby until he was taken to the small boat back to the port. Then he beat his chest and stamped his feet and cursed, and while cursing, he ordered his subordinates to quickly row towards the port...
"Uncle Hu, the big food fleet is rushing!"
More than a hundred warships from the Great Food Fleet rushed up one after another, and Wang Yuanzheng on the lookout immediately shouted and issued an alarm.
"The order: the frigates set sail immediately, look at our ship, meet them, kill the thieves, and gather to protect themselves!"
Lin Hu was always paying attention to the every move of the Dashi Fleet. There was no need for Wang Yuanzheng to shout. He had seen that the situation was wrong and did not dare to be negligent. He waved his hand and issued an order to prepare for war. In an instant, the Tang Dynasty ships that were originally parked quietly immediately responded to their orders. Six frigates headed by the "Magic" quickly raised their sails and quickly adjusted their formation, forming a long snake formation, facing the rushing Dashi Fleet on the side. As for the flagship "Shunyuan", the merchant fleet, under the command of Wang Haibin, formed a dense formation to defend themselves. A sea battle was on the verge of breaking out...