Chapter 603: The Arrival of the Heavy Ship

The Liaosha Islands are the closest group of islands in the South China Sea of ​​Yan State. It is an island chain composed of several large and small islands of different sizes. It is located directly south of the military port. In the past, this group of islands served as a supply station for sailing southwards. Now there are also Yan people living on the island.

The fleet led by Qin Ze was lurking here. They were anchored on the inner side of the island chain. When the fleets of various countries sailed from the sea to the naval port, they did not focus on this island. After all, the goal of various countries has always been the naval port and the vast land of Yan Country. These islands are just embellishments of that land. Naturally, it is not worth wasting time to come to the Liaosha Islands at this time.

Their arrogance and contempt allowed the Yan Kingdom fleet to cut off their retreat from the rear. At this moment, more than 1,500 warships of the Yan Kingdom were sailing towards the military port in a mighty manner.

This is an astonishing number, and what is different from other countries is that this fleet is composed entirely of large warships, which does not include baggage ships and transport ships. After all, Qin Ze had been planning a large-scale naval battle from the very beginning.

The arrival of night reduced the fleet's power a little. If it were daytime, anyone who saw this huge fleet on the sea would tremble in fear. But even so, now when these warships are sailing on the sea without reservation, the flames on the ships are still shocking.

The sea and the sky are one, and the moonlight does not seem bright, but when the lights lit on the thousands of warships are connected together, the sea surface also becomes red. From a distance, it looks like stars falling into the sea, and from a close distance, it looks like flames swaying on the sea surface.

At the rear of the fleet, on the main ship [Yanhuang], Qin Ze, who was standing on the forecastle, was holding a telescope in his hand, with his lips slightly pursed, looking at the sea in the east.

It was night, so vision was naturally limited, but the light also seemed clearer.

What appeared in sight were dim spots of light in the distance. There were not many of them, and at a glance there were only about a hundred spots of light. They were the Rose Fleet that had evacuated early.

"Hehe, which country's fleet is this? They are so aware of the current situation." Qin Ze shook his head and chuckled.

"What a bunch of bastards, they run so fast!" Dian Wei, who was standing by, put his hands on his hips and yelled.

"It's a fish that slipped through the net." Xu Zhu added in a muffled voice.

"Same meaning!" Dian Wei rolled his eyes in dissatisfaction.

Qin Ze put down the binoculars and turned to look to the south, which was the location of the naval port. Although he was here at the moment, he could still hear the rumbling sound of artillery fire.

"Can we catch up, my lord?" Dian Wei pointed to the eastern sea and asked Qin Ze.

"That depends on where they want to escape." Qin Ze shook his head and continued, "The commander of this fleet is not stupid. He knows that we can't go back to the previous sea area, nor can we continue to go south. He guessed that we would set sail from here."

"But if we continue to go east, um... we will still encounter our warships. Nowadays, there are warships in every port, but we have the most here."

After saying this, Dian Wei asked anxiously, "What if they change direction again?"

"Then it will be difficult to chase." Qin Ze said nonchalantly.

"Then...then don't we just let them go?" Dian Wei looked at the sea area with anger on his face.

"The monk may escape, but the temple cannot. This is just a small fish. It may not be a bad thing for them to escape. When this war is over, they will bring the reputation of our Yan country back to their continent."

"This will help to frighten them. At least, without being fully prepared, they will not dare to launch an attack again."

"We can use this time to prepare for the voyage." Qin Ze grinned and said loudly, "They are coming here aggressively this time. It's not enough to just leave these people behind."

"We have to kill them too."

"But when we get there, the warships won't be the same as they are now, haha."

After these words came out, Dian Wei's eyes were burning, and he couldn't help licking the corner of his mouth: "I don't know what their country is like, and how many times they can fight with us..."

"Don't worry, we'll know when we go to their country."

"For now, let's deal with these fish that have fallen into the net first."

"You come to our territory to plunder. Are you ready to die?" Qin Ze's eyes were gleaming with coldness.

The fleet pulled up its sails and headed towards the naval port at full speed. Countless lights made the fleet appear dazzling, just like fireworks burning on the sea surface, and now, this bright flame was spreading rapidly.

-

The fighting in the naval port continues with unabated intensity.

Faced with countless shells fired from the port, the Lieyang Fleet completed the turn with difficulty in the face of incalculable losses. They have begun to evacuate, while those warships that have been damaged and lost power due to too many bullets can only stay where they are, waiting to be completely sunk.

Therefore, some crew members had no choice but to jump into the sea to survive. They swam hard towards the intact warships and tried to grab the ropes thrown from the ship in the water.

But there were too many people jumping off the ship, and the shelling continued without stopping, so naturally not everyone could get on board the warship. Besides, the main purpose of the warship now was to evacuate as quickly as possible, and they couldn't wait to rescue the people on the sea.

In such a situation, in the chaos, the sea was filled with a large number of soldiers who struggled to survive in the sea water, but in the end most of them exhausted their strength and gradually sank to the bottom of the sea and became food for fish.

The Sea Lion Fleet suffered the most serious damage. The main ship, the Wayne Pearl, had completely lost power, and its watertight compartments were damaged and filled with seawater. The sailors in the bottom cabins fled in panic. They had no time to take anything with them and jumped off the ship one after another. The same happened to Augustus, the commander-in-chief.

He jumped into the sea holding an empty wooden barrel, then paddled hard with a wooden oar. Finally, he luckily grabbed a rope thrown down by a warship that was still in a relatively good condition of damage and transferred to this ship.

But even after getting on the ship, Augustus did not feel relieved.

At this moment, the Sea Lion Fleet's casualties had reached 60%. This was a terrible loss. In addition to the warships, even many transport ships and baggage ships were sunk. In this case, even if they escaped from this sea area, the remaining supplies would not be enough for them to return to Hungary.

For this reason, the first order Augustus gave after boarding the ship was to follow the Fiery Sun Fleet closely. Only with their help could they return safely.

At this moment, in the forecastle, Augustus wiped the sea water off his face breathlessly, and looked back in the direction of the naval port.

"These Qian people are so fierce!"

"I was almost fed to the fish..."

He patted his chest with lingering fear. They were currently evacuating and were already some distance away from the military port. Although there were still shells being fired, their power had been greatly weakened at this range.

But it was at this moment that he belatedly saw the little light in the sky. It was the sky lantern that had floated high in the sky and was gradually burning out its fuel and beginning to collapse.

Augustus was completely confused. During the bombardment, the "Pearl of Wayne" was gradually sinking, and everyone on the ship was in a panic. He had no time to notice the lights in the night sky.

And now, looking at the lights gradually going out and falling, he was still confused.

"What are you doing?"