Zhao Bing was also a little angry. He thought it was quite a simple battle. He didn't expect that he would encounter such a thing at the beginning of the fight. However, what made Zhao Bing feel a little relieved was that one of the hit dragon ships extinguished the fire in time, and the warship was damaged but did not sink; the other was not so lucky. They wanted to rescue the warships, but the fire was too big, and they wanted to crash into the enemy fleet and die together, but under the strict order of His Majesty, they had to abandon the ship.

But it was too late at this time, and the crew didn't even have time to put down their lifeboats. They just ignited the flowering bullets and threw them into the ammunition compartment and then dived to survive. Although several of them were injured, they were rescued in time, and they became the first witnesses of the sunken dragon boat. What satisfied Zhao Bing was that these crew members did not forget to destroy the ship in time, so that the secrets of the crossbows and flowering bullets could be hidden for a longer time.

The Sheji was equipped with a large number of crossbows. After it joined the shelling, the firepower was immediately strengthened. Several vehicles and ships of the enemy's vanguard fleet were hit by fierce bombardment. However, in order to prevent the ignition of the oil tanks above, the enemy's superstructure was smashed in a mess, with heavy casualties but not sunk, and still advanced forward.

Seeing this, Zhao Bing knew that the power facilities of the enemy ship had not been destroyed, so he ordered the gunship to attack the enemy ship's paddle wheels. However, the frontal target of the paddle wheel was small and it was covered by the splashes. It was not so easy to hit it, so it was still difficult to damage it. However, this also blocked the enemy's offensive momentum and won time for the warships behind to re-arrange the array.

"Your Majesty, Han Commander lets our ship retreat into the central army!" Zheng Yong replied at this time.

"It's not possible to continue fighting like this. Not only can we not be able to surround the enemy, but we are in danger of being surrounded by the enemy!" Zhao Bing did not answer or not, but instead murmured. The situation in front of him is that there are many enemies and we are few, both in terms of the number of ships and the strength of the enemy. Now we only have the advantage in firepower, but we are in a state of countercurrent. If it is not a problem on weekdays, we are bound by the enemy's "golden juice cannon", which is inevitable that we will be trapped in a cocoon.

"Your Majesty, the lake is vast, which makes it easier for us to move. When the tide level is stable, our firearms will be powerful!" Zheng Yong saw that His Majesty's face was gloomy, and his brows frowned and hurriedly comforted.

"The enemy's vehicles and ships are fast, and the maneuverability is stronger than most of our warships. I'm afraid I won't be able to wait that time." Zhao Bing waved his hand.

"Your Majesty, why don't your subordinates lead their troops to block the enemy and hold the enemy to the death!" Zheng Yong thought about it and said, "and said again."

"No, it's not as hard as you're trying hard!" Zhao Bing shook his head. He has always been reluctant to do the business of killing one thousand enemies, but he held a telescope and tried hard to find the enemy's flaws.

"Your Majesty, retreat!" The enemy's vehicles and ships opened the front line. The small vehicles and ships used their flexible advantages to use evacuation formations to avoid shelling and circumvent the Sheji. They also saw that the big ship was extraordinary. At this time, the ship was facing the enemy with its sideways, which was inconvenient to turn, so Zheng Yong urged again.

"You command the imperial ship to evacuate, meet with Dong Tongzheng, arrange defense lines to block the enemy, I will go to the Warriors!" Zhao Bing put down his telescope, and without waiting for Zheng Yong to say more, he waved to Chen Dun and walked towards the gangway. He knew that the Warriors were leaning on the starboard side of the Sheji, in case of accidents transfer and evacuation.

"Shoot!" The Warrior drove rapidly and quickly entered the range of the crossbow. Zhao Bing issued a shooting order.

‘Bang!’ Half of the stern wheel of the enemy ship was hidden underwater, and it was not easy to hit. The stone bullets fired by the bow cannon hit a big hole in the stern wheel, and the huge impact force broke the central shaft; the other shot penetrated the cabin plate of the enemy ship's stern, and the space inside was small. The husband who was pedaling the wheel in the cabin had no way to avoid it. He was knocked down and shouted a lot.

"The speed remains unabated, continue shooting!" The enemy's stern wheel was destroyed, and the husband suffered heavy casualties, and the ship's speed suddenly slowed down. However, Zhao Bing was in power and ordered the pursuit to continue.

"Put down the guardrail, drop down the watchtower, and raise the periscope!" The enemy was hit by a series of blows, and no matter how stupid they were, they knew they wanted to fight back, but those rod-slapped and stone-throwing machines were blocked by the stern tower and were difficult to use, so they used crossbows to shoot in an attempt to block the dragon boat. Wang Meng saw the arrow coming like a locust, and immediately ordered the porthole guardrail in front of the podium to lower the watchtower to avoid casualties.

"Report to Your Majesty, you are one hundred steps away from the enemy ship!" Guan Tongshou reported back through the periscope.

"Fill incendiary bombs!" Zhao Bing received the report and ordered.

"Fill incendiary bombs!" The second floor immediately had a sergeant repeating the command. They opened a cover at the bow of the ship, and exposed four iron pipes about three feet long and four inches in diameter and narrowed the mouth. Then, four closed copper rounds were filled into it, and the cover was re-tightened, leaving only the fuse outside.

"Filling is complete!" the sergeant reported.

"Seventy steps away!" Guan Tongshou reported again.

"Reduce the speed of the oar and report it in ten steps!" Zhao Bing said in a deep voice. At this time, not only could the falling arrows hit the cabin, but also a few loud impacts. He frowned.

"Fifty steps away from the enemy ship!"

"Forty steps away from the enemy ship!"

"Ignite and launch!" Zhao Bing ordered.

"Ignite!" The sergeant at the bow of the second floor immediately issued a launch command. Some soldiers lit the fuse and immediately retreated to the side. After a few breaths, they only heard a muffled sound from it.

"Twenty steps away from the enemy ship, hit the stern of the enemy ship, and caught fire!" The lookout hand reported with excitement in his voice.

"Five points on the left rudder, half open the porthole!" Zhao Bing received the report and issued two orders one after another.

"Your Majesty, the enemy ship is burning, and now we have avenged the revenge we had just made." The porthole guardrail was lifted up, and Wang Meng looked out, and saw that the enemy command ship had already shot into the sky, and the entire tail had fallen into a sea of ​​fire. The enemy soldiers on the ship dived to survive and were in chaos.

"Right rudder three-pointer, advance at full speed, and fire the bow cannon!" Zhao Bing ordered again, and he had only had time to secretly look at the enemy ship covered by fireworks. He felt relieved in his heart. It seemed that the flame launcher he had fiddled out was quite useful.

The use of fire in war is probably born with war, and the history of flamethrowers is far earlier than muskets and artillery. As early as the seventh century AD, the Byzantines used a liquid burning agent called "Greek Fire" in their naval battles with the Arabs. This burning agent is usually enclosed in a wooden barrel and is sprayed from a throat through a pipe when used.
Chapter completed!