"Your Highness, what do you want?" Li Jiqian asked in disbelief.
"Of course I will stay and watch you command the fleet to defeat the Tianfang cultists!" Wen Di shouted loudly.
"Your Highness, this is absolutely..." Before Li Jiqian could finish his words, Wen Di interrupted him: "Are you trying to say, 'Your Highness has a body of thousands of gold, and you must never go into danger'? Do you think I am willing to do so?"
Staying in a dangerous place? But if I don’t do this, according to what you said, the battle will probably be lost. The chance of winning is greater if the Success is left behind. I don’t want to stay in a dangerous place, but I don’t want to lose the battle even more.”
"If I lose the battle, how can I have the nerve to go to Egypt? I can't go to Egypt. It's better to stay here and fight. Anyway, I won't stay on the deck for a while, unless the ship is sunk or destroyed.
He is a prisoner, otherwise his life is not in danger."
"And I've thought about it. The worst I can do is escape by boat when I see that the whole army is about to be annihilated. Isn't it that the Success is one of the strongest warships in the Ming Navy? I should be able to escape if I want to, but it won't be that bad.
It is easy to be sunk. I will not give my life away in vain, even if I live in the capital for the rest of my life, it is better than giving up my life." Wen Di finally said.
Everyone present was shocked by Wen Di's words, especially the few messengers sent by the Land Division to take charge of liaison (the flags of the Land Division and the Navy were different). Of course, they were not because Wen Di was willing to stay, but because Wen Di was willing to stay.
It's because of his last words. These messengers have all experienced the Luxie Rebellion, the Battle of Annan, the Battle of Yiwu and the Battle of India, and have very rich combat experience (they have rich experience in hiding in safe places to deliver orders)
, I also heard the words of several other princes when they faced danger. Those princes may have thought so in their hearts, but they would never say it out loud. But His Highness the Seventh Prince actually violated this rule and spoke out his true thoughts.
.
However, they do not despise His Highness the Seventh Prince in their hearts. They are all people who have fought in many battles and witnessed countless bloody scenes. They are no longer young people, and they will not think about dying in the battlefield. The Seventh Prince
His Highness's ability to say this made them feel that he was a good leader.
"Your Highness, it's true!" Li Jiqian couldn't laugh or cry. Even if everyone thinks so, you will be different from others when you say it, and you will be looked down upon by other lords in the future. But now that you have said it, you can't take it back, Li Jiqian
Without saying anything else, he stood up straight again, straightened his clothes and saluted Wen Di: "Your Highness, don't worry, I will definitely lead the soldiers of the Indian fleet to defeat the Tianfang cultists and win this naval battle!"
"Okay, then I'll leave full authority to Vice General Li." Wen Di nodded.
Li Jiqian immediately ordered the messenger to deliver the order to each ship. After seeing the flag message, each ship thought it was a joke: How could it be possible to put His Highness in danger? But Li Jiqian repeatedly sent the order, and Wen Di personally stood by the bridge and imitated the messenger.
Wen Di waved the flag in a stern manner, and the messenger explained the reason for doing so. Wen Di also said harshly that if the ship did not obey the order, he would definitely deal with it severely in the future, so all the ships accepted the order. The warship slowly slowed down.
The transport ship accelerated and fled north. On a transport ship, Cao Xing, the deputy general of the Army Division, looked at the fleet getting farther and farther away, stared at the flagship "Success", and murmured to himself. "Your Highness,
Li Jiqian, we must win this battle!"
After the transport ship was completely separated from the fleet, Li Jiqian ordered the fleet to turn to the northeast, and at the same time began to load the artillery on the right side of the hull, officially preparing to start a battle with the Tianfang Sect's fleet.
"Quickly, order the first team and the sixth team to speed up and attack the enemy's line. Remember not to go in a zigzag line, but to go in a straight line and rush towards the Ming army fleet; the second team and the third team will cover from the left, and the fourth team and the fifth team will come from the right.
Outflank, other teams slow down." Abdul Bari, who was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the fleet, ordered loudly. He had noticed the flag message when Li Jiqian had just given the order, and held the flag smuggled from India tightly in his hands.
Clairvoyant stared at it and discerned the meaning of the Ming army's flags. However, because Lu Division's flags were being transmitted at the same time, and he could not understand Lu Division's flags, he did not dare to make a conclusion and could only continue to pay attention to the movements of the Ming army.
At this time, he saw that the transport ship was about to leave the fleet, and he was completely convinced of the Ming army's tactics and issued the order without hesitation.
"Is the Ming army going to war with our army? What kind of naval battle formation are they moving now?" Bayezid, who also raised his clairvoyance with both hands, asked Abdul Bari. He also got on the boat, but he was not responsible.
command.
"We can't tell yet," Abdul Bari said. "And because of the use of artillery, many traditional tactics may not be applicable. It's hard to guess what tactics the Ming army will use."
Regarding artillery, Tianfang believers still don't have a unanimous opinion on how to use these artillery reasonably. After all, most pirate ships do not have artillery. The Ming army may have discovered suitable tactics, but they don't know either.
"But no matter what tactics they use, the only tactic we can use is to use their bows to attack the Ming Dynasty's warships. The ships of the first team and the sixth team are equipped with ramming angles, and their bows are very strong, and they can definitely ram them.
Break the opponent's hull. As long as you can hit it, you can win this naval battle." Abdul Bari said again.
After hearing this, Bayezid stopped asking and stared at the battlefield with his clairvoyance.
"Haha, I guessed that they were going to ram the ship with the bow. Fortunately, they didn't ask the soldiers to load solid shells. Pass my order. After the Success opened fire, all the warships must shoot out all the shells as quickly as possible!"
Li Jiqian sneered and ordered loudly.
Soon, the fifty-four warships present returned the "received" message, and at this time all the ships had completed the turn and faced the Tianfang Cult fleet on the right side. After that, with the sound of a cannon on the Success
, more than a thousand cannons opened fire one after another.
"The scene of so many artillery firing at the same time is so spectacular!" Bayezid exclaimed: "The empire also accepted generals who came from the Timur Khanate and participated in the Battle of Yiwu. According to their descriptions of the Ming army,
The artillery fire does not seem to be so terrifying. It seems that sea and land are different after all."
"The earth is really shaking, the sky is falling, and the earth is falling!" Abdul Bari also exclaimed. At this time, he turned to look at the Ming fleet again, and saw that the fifty-four warships had also been shrouded in smoke and could not be seen at all.
their location.
He turned his attention to the advancing group of his own warships. After just one glance, his face suddenly became gloomy, and he did not care to marvel at the spectacular sight of thousands of cannons firing in unison.
"By God! They are actually raising the sails!" Abdul Bari exclaimed. The sails of at least twenty charging ships were broken, and two ships each had a mast broken! The tall
The mast fell down and lay across the deck, and the white sails covered a large area of the deck like a huge blanket. The charging ships all used oars and sails, and at least half of the power came from the sails. The sails were broken and even the masts were broken.
It was also broken, and the speed must be greatly reduced. If you want to hit the Ming army's warship, you can only rely on luck. How on earth did they break the sail and even break the mast? The mast is just a small wooden pole, and the artillery has no accuracy.
, How could you break two masts so accurately? Because of luck?' He had doubts in his heart again.
"Send another signal and have a group of six ships move forward at full speed. Even if the slave oarsmen are exhausted, they must rush to the Ming warship as soon as possible." However, he could not ignore the doubts at this time, his thoughts flashed by, and he bit
He gritted his teeth and ordered: "Give the seventh team another order and have them prepare to charge!"
While giving the instructions, he also had a vague feeling in his heart. This battle may not be won as he estimated, at least not easily.
"Rumble..."
Another loud, thunderous sound came through the humid air on the sea, and then countless cannonballs flew from the sky towards the Tianfang cultist's ship. This time Abdul Bari held his clairvoyance tightly with both hands, and his eyes flashed.
He was staring at the cannonball. So he saw with his own eyes what looked like a rapidly rotating stick appeared in front of him. It quickly flew across the sea and landed on a ship. It swept over the bodies of several people and cut them in two.
Half.
"What's going on? Ming Dynasty artillery can also fire flat wooden sticks?" Abdul Bari exclaimed. But he immediately discovered the answer. The stick-like thing fell on the deck and quickly turned into a wooden stick.
It was bent, and it slid on the deck for a while and stopped. It turned out that this 'wooden stick' was made of an iron chain with large iron balls hung on both ends.
But even after discovering the truth, Abdul Bari still didn't figure out what it was? Moreover, there were two iron balls tied to an iron chain. How were they thrown here? Was it shot with a cannon?
Abdul Bari was puzzled when Zahir, standing next to Bayezid, suddenly exclaimed: "I know, this is a chain bomb!"
"This is a chain bomb!" Abdul Bari also shouted. He had heard of this kind of artillery shell specially used for maritime operations, but the Ming army had never used this kind of artillery shell in the past. Of course, it was possible that it had used it but destroyed all enemies.
The ships were all sunk and no prisoners were left. No matter what, Abdul Bari tried his best to find out about this kind of cannonball, but he still knew nothing except a name. At this time, he heard Zahir mention it, and he immediately reacted.
"This should be a chain bullet. The word 'chain' in Chinese means iron chain."
"How far has the Ming army's navy reached? How many advanced weapons like chain bombs are there that are only heard of in name but not actually seen?" Abdul Bari asked again.
Facts have proved that the Ming army used many weapons that amazed Abdul Bari and changed the mode of naval warfare, but they were not like chain bombs, whose names were only heard but not seen.
The first two charging teams had one ship together and were quickly annihilated by artillery shells. Even if some ships were not sunk, the masts were broken and the canvas was broken, making it impossible for them to catch up with the Ming army's warships.
The battleships evaded these ships in a single change of formation, and used cannonballs at close range to baptize them. Except for one extremely lucky ship, all other ships were sunk.
Of course, another group of fifty ships rushed up afterwards, and were surrounded by a hundred ships on each flank. The Ming fleet once again faced a situation of being surrounded on three sides.
Li Jiqian ordered the fleet to turn again, with the bow of the ship facing the main fleet of the Tianfang Cult in the south, and then led by three battleships including the Success, forming a single column and sailing at full speed.
Abdul Bari looked surprised again. Shouldn't they take advantage of their firepower and try not to get close to the enemy ships and bombard them with cannons? Could it be that they ran out of artillery shells so quickly? Impossible, right?
Before he could figure out the reason, the Ming fleet had already broken into their line. At this time, Abdul Bari discovered that his fleet was unprepared for the Ming army's move, and the ships were not as tall as the Ming army's formation.
It's a bit chaotic. Are they going to collide? But this is still not good for the Ming army's fleet. Our people can take advantage of the collision to throw out the ropes with iron hooks to firmly hook the Ming army's warships, and pull the two ships together.
Tie them together and rush forward to fight hand to hand.' Abdul Bari thought again.
But at this moment, the artillery on the left and right sides of the Ming warship suddenly opened fire at the same time! Thousands of shells flew towards the Tianfang Sect warships on both sides in an instant. When the cannon was fired, the Ming warship did not slow down at all.
It seems that he doesn't care about aiming or accuracy at all, he just wants to shoot the shells.
But this tactic worked unexpectedly well! The lack of accuracy made up for in numbers, not to mention that it was not easy to miss completely with enemy ships on both sides. The decks or side baffles of countless ships were penetrated.
Sea water began to pour into the boat.
"Damn it!" Abdul Bari yelled angrily. The battleship Truth he was on was also hit by a shot, but it only shattered a few trebuchets on the deck and killed two people. The damage was not big. But the whole
The losses of the fleet were too great. Of the six fleets left in the south, one-third of the nearly 300 ships were sunk, and dozens more had their masts broken or their canvases broken. They could no longer pursue the Ming fleet.
.
And up to now, the Tianfang Sect's fleet has been sunk by 200 ships, and dozens more have lost half of their power. This has been a strain on the fleet of more than 600 ships, with losses of more than 300 ships.
One-third, while the Ming warships were almost undamaged.
Faced with the situation that they could not even damage the enemy warships, the morale of the Tianfang Sect fleet suddenly dropped to the extreme. Most of them were not regular soldiers in the first place, but just pirates active in the Indian Ocean, because the Ming army's entry into the Great Sea would harm them.
Only then did they gather their interests to fight the Ming army; but in the face of a situation where they could not even hurt their opponents, and they were beaten unilaterally, no one wanted to continue the fight. Many ships raised their flags and were about to escape.
Even Abdul Bari had no intention of stopping them and began to think about which way to escape. But at this time, the Ming army fleet that had already passed through the Tianfang Sect fleet line suddenly turned around and rushed towards them again.
"What on earth is going on?" Abdul Bari exclaimed in surprise, but then he reacted: "I understand, they are worried about the transport ship escaping to the north, and are worried that our army will go after the transport ship just like that.
Boat."
"Quickly, raise the flag and tell everyone that this is our last chance to win! Form a tight formation to block them and prevent their single-column bombardment tactics from working. Then use ropes with iron hooks to hook the Ming warships.
Charge forward and fight hand to hand!" Abdul Bari ordered loudly again.
Seeing this, the ships that were preparing to escape also stopped and rearranged themselves to block the Ming army.
This time Abdul Bari's tactics can be said to be successful. The Ming army formed two columns and wanted to rush into the Tianfangjiao fleet, but was firmly blocked by several large ships. Once the Ming army's warships slowed down, they soon
Many Tianfang sect boats surrounded them and threw out ropes to hook them. The pirates climbed up the battleship along the ropes. The Ming army soldiers kept cutting the ropes, but every time they cut a rope, there were two or even three iron hooks.
Throw it up. Although many people fell into the sea and drowned, finally a big cannibal rushed onto the battleship and started fighting hand to hand with the Ming soldiers.
"Allah is great! Kafir will go to hell!" A shirtless pirate, brandishing a machete, was the first to jump onto the deck of a medium-sized warship. He was very agile and immediately jumped on the deck.
He rolled upside down, rolled again, and arrived in front of a panicked sailor. Then he jumped up suddenly and slashed at the man's head with his machete. The sailor had never fought hand-to-hand combat on a ship before, and he was very panicked. He only had time to pause for a moment.
He dodged, dodging his head but not his shoulders. The scimitar quickly cut into his body, and the sailor died with a scream.
"These kafirs are easy to deal with!" the big-eating pirate shouted happily. He waved his scimitar and rushed forward. At this time, five or six more people jumped on the deck beside him and rushed after him.
past.
But at this moment, more than twenty Ming army soldiers suddenly appeared in front of them. None of these people had armor on their bodies, and they had no swords and guns in their hands. They only had a long and thin thing. They were wondering what it was when they saw it in front of them.
The Ming army general Shi Ping raised the object in his hand, and then he heard a loud noise and lost consciousness.
"The Ming army actually equipped its navy with firecrackers!" Abdul Bari shouted again. The Ming Dynasty had so much money that they had nowhere to spend it! They even prepared firecrackers on their battleships that might not be used even once every few years.'
Damn it, if I were so rich, I would have filled my ship with cannons!' he thought angrily.
But no matter what the reason was, the firecrackers on the Ming warships played a great role. They pushed the pirates back for a while and regained the upper hand.
But Abdul Bari knew that this could not last long. The firecrackers would get tired, and the gunpowder and projectiles would be used up. When the firecrackers were tired, they would be able to gain the upper hand again, and even defeat the Ming army and seize these
Tall battleship.
But at this moment, something happened on the battlefield, which completely tipped the balance of victory.
