September 20, 14th year of Jianxing.

Xu Shiyang's fleet set off.

As before, if you are worried about the battle, Xu Shiyang will definitely come forward to command the battle himself.

The same is true this time.

He was in charge of the "Dengyingzhou" and personally commanded a combat fleet composed of 20 artillery ships.

In addition, a gunless fleet composed of 32 gunless sea ships commanded by Luo Haitao (who is Luo Haigou, who changed his name as a senior naval figure) is ready for support near the artillery fleet.

If 20 gunboats cannot quickly eat Li Feibao's fleet, these gunless ships will have to come on the field to participate in the battle.

The fleet set out directly from Dengzhou and entered Chenghuang Island at the northern end of the Changshan Islands, where it was hidden and standby.

There is only one old Tieshan Riverway from Lushun, and it is not enough to be used for a day when you travel back and forth.

Even if Li Feibao's operation route can avoid Xu Shiyang's combat radius, he will always go to Lushun Port.

As long as the time information does not go wrong, it will be the same if you stop him outside Hong Kong.

What's more, the information provided by Li Feihu is quite accurate.

Two days after the fleet entered the waterway near Chenghuang Island, the peripheral reconnaissance ship reported that Li Feibao appeared.

September 22, 14th year of Jianxing.

The 103 large and small ships led by Li Feibao personally arrived less than 30 nautical miles outside Lushun Port and entered the Laotieshan River Road.

In fact, Li Feibao was preventing the provincial fleet.

He knew that Xu Shiyang could install cannons on his ship and suppress his fleet from a long distance. In order to avoid losses in the cargo transported, he arranged fifty ships transporting annual coins and various types of material ships sold by Jiangnan gentry to Liaodong on the inside, and 50 combat ships loaded with pirates on the outside.

Li Feibao's plan is: If he is really intercepted, the combat ship will directly narrow the distance by relying on the advantage of quantity, bear a certain amount of losses before entering the boarding battle.

As long as the transport ship enters the port, Xu Shiyang's interception operation will be like a failure.

Of course, it would be better if you could catch a ship from Xu Shiyang.

Although Li Feibao only got some vague news about the cannon, he agreed with all the big cabinets that this is a very, very suitable, or the most suitable weapon for sea ships.

Li Feibao even believed that in the future naval battle, if the number of ships was not too different, the side with cannons would almost certainly defeat the side without cannons.

Therefore, he was very eager to obtain several cannons as samples and try to cast cannons on his territory.

If Xu Shiyang knew Li Feibao’s thoughts, he would definitely praise the other party’s vicious eyes.

However, Xu Shiyang didn't know that he just wanted to kill Li Feibao, a bastard who transported the Tartars urgently needed supplies.

At the end of Chenshi (around 9 o'clock), a pirate walked down from the mast, ran quickly to Li Feibao, and knelt down and shouted:

"Shopkeeper, you're going to enter the Tieshan River Road in front! It's almost time to Lushun!"

"Get together, don't be dispersed by the undercurrent." Li Feibao ordered lightly.

"Abide by the order!"

Laotieshan is covered with undercurrents, and it is easy to encounter shipwrecks. In another time and space, there is even the reputation of Bermuda in the East.

However, if you are careful when sailing, it is not that mysterious here. After all, it is a busy waterway connecting Qi, Liao, Bo and Huang.

The formation of the Li family fleet began to shrink so that undercurrents could be avoided as much as possible under the guidance of the pilot ship.

However, at this moment, a new signal came from the mast.

The Qi Provincial Fleet appeared.

The leader was the "Cengyingzhou" that Li Feibao had seen before. The arrogant red flag was hung on the high main mast - which meant that Xu Shiyang was dispatched in person.

"He really doesn't care about his previous friendship."

Li Feibao said to himself:

"After all, I gave him more than 200,000 yuan before, and I just turned against him..."

The visitor must be unkind, so there is no need to ask questions, just start calling.

The escort fleet began to leave the fleet queue, and the transport fleet put down all rows and prepared to accelerate the departure.

The two sides began to get closer and prepare for a naval battle.

...

Xu Shiyang divided his fleet into three ships, with ten medium-sized lucky ships as the main force to deal with Li Feibao's frigate.

Ten small ships assisted from the side, and the gunless fleet was ready to attack and intercept the transport fleet after the gunship attracted the attention of the enemy's guards.

Li Feibao relied on his numerical advantage to set up a plum blossom formation that was popular in naval battles at this time.

In other words, the Li Group's frigate is divided into five small fleets, front, back, left and right, each with ten large lucky ships. These ten ships cooperate in pairs and form a plum blossom formation in front, back, left and right.

Once such a formation enters battle, the enemy ship will encounter a landing assault from all directions and it is difficult to escape.

Therefore, the pirates of the Li family have always used this formation as a trump card for naval battles - no one else is as many as theirs.

Xu Shiyang, opposite Li Feibao, as a half-scout military fan, naturally set up a horizontal formation that facilitates the use of his own firepower.

Starting with "Dengyingzhou", the nine medium-sized lucky ships lined up in a row, facing the enemy on the side of the side. Each ship had five cannons (two general cannons and three magic cannons) on each side of the ship.

"Xu Shiyang has put on a long snake formation in one word?"

Li Feibao habitually said to himself.

If someone else sets this formation in front of him, he will definitely make his stomach hurt.

This formation is too thin, and you can penetrate it with one stab, then you will be besieged, chased, and failed...

But the person on the other side was Xu Shiyang. Although no one had heard of whether he had the ability to command the large fleet to fight, he was a man who had defeated the Tartars on land and successfully intercepted Zhou boats at sea.

Besides, he has a weapon he doesn't have - maybe this is the formation used with cannons?

Therefore, Li Feibao did not dare to be careless at all. The sound of war drums behind him became rapid. Large lucky ships were put down their rows one after another. The sailors at the bottom tried hard to row, and Li Jun's fleet began to accelerate.

"Don't worry!"

Xu Shiyang ordered loudly:

"Waiting for the enemy to approach!"

Immediately, a signal soldier used flag language to pass his orders one by one to other warships in the fleet.

This is also a disadvantage of the vertical array: without radio, due to the cover of sails, any command of the flagship can only be passed to the next warship close to it, and then it will be passed to the friendly ship behind it.

If there is any mistake in this way of communication, it may cause chaos in the subsequent ships.

Therefore, the naval battle at this time also emphasized discipline, and it can even be said that it paid more attention to discipline than the army phalanx.

In modern navy, without the order of flagships, no warships on the battle line must leave their posts and move privately, and must follow the ships ahead.

In another time and space, Captain Jiyuan, who also fled the battlefield in the Beiyang Fleet in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, was executed, but Captain Guangjia was dismissed from his post because of this - Jiyuan is Guangjia's flagship team. Jiyuan took the initiative to flee the battlefield, and Guangjia would also subconsciously follow him.

This is naturally the case with Xu Shiyang, the small fleet.
Chapter completed!