The ships of the Song Army's naval division were divided into large, medium and small ones.

There are two kinds of large ships called Shenzhou, the big one is thirty-one feet long and five feet long, twelve feet and five feet wide, and the deck is five feet and five feet high, divided into seven layers: two layers on the deck and five layers below; Nine masts and 12 sails, 24 waterwheels. There is wind to make the sail, and there is no wind to drive it with a waterwheel. It is equipped with 10 bed crossbows and 12 slingshots. Each ship was equipped with three hundred sailors, seven hundred soldiers. The load can reach nearly 30,000 stones, and it can hold up to three or four thousand people, but the disadvantage is that it is large, not very smart, and the speed is slow. There are three such large ships. This naval army is based on these three large ships, and the main weight and supplies of the fleet are loaded by these three large ships, and the remaining men and horses of the expeditionary force are also loaded by these three large ships.

The smaller one is 20 zhang long, 8 zhang wide, and the deck is four zhang high, and it is divided into five layers: two layers on the deck, three layers below, seven masts and ten sails, and sixteen waterwheels. It is equipped with six life-threatening weapons and eight slingshots. Each ship was equipped with one hundred and fifty sailors and three hundred and fifty soldiers. The weight can be cut up to 15,000 stones. It can hold up to fifteen hundred people. There are twelve of them. The load capacity and backup weapons are not as good as those of the large Shenzhou, but the speed is faster and the operation is more flexible, which can be used as an auxiliary to the large Shenzhou.

There are three kinds of medium-sized ones, which are called flying tigers, sea falcons, and sea loaches.

The Flying Tiger is 12 zhang long, 3 zhang wide, 2 zhang and 5 feet high, with two masts and four sails, divided into three layers, and four waterwheels. Two bed crossbows and four slingshots were equipped. Each ship was equipped with eighty sailors and one hundred and twenty soldiers. There were 36 of them, and they were mainly used for close combat with the enemy.

The sea falcon ship is ten zhang long, one zhang eight feet wide, two zhang high, two masts and four sails, divided into two layers, four waterwheels, and ten oars. One bed crossbow and two slingshots. Each ship had sixty sailors and ninety soldiers. There are thirty-eight of them in total, which are flexible in operation and extremely fast, and can be interspersed with enemy ship formations.

The loach boat is eight feet five feet long, two feet wide, one foot five feet high, two masts and four sails, with forty-two oars, one bed crossbow, and two slingshots. Each ship had forty sailors and sixty soldiers. There are 25 in total, which can be applied to rivers, lakes and seas.

The small boat was six feet long, one and five feet wide, and one foot high, with twenty-two oars. The bow is small and the tail is broad and the bottom is pointed. Each boat can carry 50 people. There are thirty of them. As a link between large ships, it fights with medium-sized ships.

The combined army had a total of 144 large and small ships and more than 20,000 non-commissioned officers and sailors. However, on the way here, due to the wind and waves, one sea falcon boat, three sea loach boats and seven small boats were lost, and more than 100 people were killed.

On the deck of the ship, the sailors and soldiers are busy coming and going, the soldiers' armor is mainly leather armor, only the vital parts are embedded in the iron armor, and the sailors do not wear armor at all, but on the sea ships are undulating, if you wear heavy iron armor and the original is not stable, let alone fighting.

Yang Yan looked at the sea, only to see that between the blue sky and the blue sea, famous big ships and small boats were sown among them. The white sails compete for brilliant colors in the clear sky and highly transparent sea, and the huge fleet stretches for dozens of miles. And seeing that he would be able to return to the land of the Great Song Dynasty in a few days, if it weren't for the heavy losses in the first battle by the sea, even Yu Gongliang would have died tragically. At this time, everyone talked freely on the boat, what a reverie thing.

At this time, Li Gongzuo walked to Yang Yan's side and arched his hand and said, "Yang Tongzhi, your injuries are okay, right?" ”

Yang Yan said with a smile: "There is General Lao Li, I thought I would be fine, but this ship is so big, I have never seen such a big ship." ”

Li Gongzuo said: "The sea is stormy, so the ship should be bigger." In terms of shipbuilding technology and the ability of water warfare, our Great Song Dynasty can be said to be unparalleled in the world, and these more than 100 warships are enough to run rampant on the sea. ”

Yang Yan was also a long-time battle-hardened person at this time, but he had never been in contact with water warfare, so he asked Li Gongzuo for some common sense of water warfare. Although Li Gongzuo is not very old, he is very proficient in water warfare, as early as the 31st year of Shaoxing (1161) in the Battle of Chenjiadao and the Battle of Haizhou to rescue Haizhou, he went out with Li Bao, and at this time he thought he was Li Bao's most powerful assistant.

Li Gongzuo said: "Since ancient times, water warfare has used bows, crossbows, knives and guns for broadside warfare. Warships were often equipped with war sheds or women's walls, or covered with cowhide on wooden boards, or nailed bamboo pieces as protective devices. Ships without female walls hang poppy nets on the port side during battle to prevent the enemy from jumping. The hook is used to hook the enemy ship; The hook sickle is used to hook the boat and cut the rope. The soldiers then boarded the enemy ships and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, no different from land battles. Later, it began to set up a slap rod, which was used to hammer enemy ships in close combat. But it is mainly based on boarding battles. Attacking with fire, burning ships with ships, or burning the sails of the enemy with rockets, so that the enemy ships could not move. ”

Yang Yan said: "Why don't I see that these ships of ours are equipped with levers? ”

Li Gongzuo said: "This is because now that the firearms of my Great Song Dynasty have developed, our ships are equipped with bed crossbows and slingshots, which can fire rockets, artillery, thunderbolts, thunderbolts and other firearms, which can attack the enemy from a long distance, and can solve the battle without the need for two ships to fight closely." In the 31st year of Shaoxing (1161) in the naval battle of Chenjiadao, my father led 120 warships to meet more than 600 warships of the Jin State Navy. Since then, there have been no poles and other things on board. ”

The two walked while talking, and stepped up to the second floor to the meeting hall. At this time, most of the generals who participated in the expedition, Xin Qiji, Cao Xun, Gao Zhen, Zhang Shiyan, Wei Chang, Liu Fuwu, etc., were there, but there was no Zhao Yueru and Zhao Qianru. After a night's rest, everyone's physical strength has recovered, but their mood is not too high. Even Cao Xun was much quieter than usual.

When Xin Qiji saw Yang Yan and Li Gongzuo coming in, he immediately greeted him and told Yang Yan the number of casualties counted.

When the expedition from Yanzhou was 7,000 soldiers, the number of people who stepped on the warship on the coast of Dengzhou, plus all the generals and female soldiers, was only 2,869 in total, and some seriously wounded soldiers continued to die on the ship, so the number of people who finally returned to the Great Song Dynasty was probably even reduced. In addition, even if the soldiers who survive, I am afraid that many will be left with lifelong disabilities. But there were three thousand three hundred and forty-one horses on board. Because there were few horses in the Great Song Dynasty, the surplus war horses were all caught up on the ships by the Song army and scattered to twelve small Shenzhou for loading.

Among the generals who went on the expedition: Chen Yichao was sent back first, life and death are unknown, Yu Gongliang, Wang Shilong, Zhang Rong, Dong Cheng, and Zhu Zhen were killed in battle. Among the eight female soldiers, Chen Ying and Lin Yaxian, Mu Ronghong died in battle, and among the four palace maids, Dark Xiang and Mei Ying also died in the enemy army. Almost all of these people died in the last battle, and the expeditionary force on the seashore could be regarded as a heavy loss.

After reading it, Yang Yan sighed and said to Xin Qiji: "Mr. Xin, I bother you to write down the list of brothers who died in the war, and you must be compassionate to their families when you return to the Great Song Dynasty." In addition, the wounded should be treated well, and the one who can save a brother is one. ”

Xin Qiji also sighed, patted Yang Yan's shoulder gently, and said, "Yang Yan, don't be too sad, these things are inevitable. In any case, the goal of this expedition was accomplished. ”

Suddenly, Yang Yan asked, "Are the bodies of Yu Gongliang and the other generals well preserved?" "There were not many corpses on the ship, so only the bodies of the five generals who died in the battle were left, and the soldiers who died of serious injuries on the ship were thrown into the sea for burial according to the rules on the ship. However, it was the third day of June at this time, and the body was not easy to preserve.

Xin Qi said: "You can rest assured about this, they have all been treated with medicine, and there is an ice room on this ship, with more than a dozen large ice cubes." Five pieces were placed in the morgue, so it would never be fine. It turned out that Li Gongzuo knew that there were two princesses in the expeditionary army, and Yang Yan and Yu Gongliang were future concubines, so they naturally had to be well received on the ship. Thinking of the hot weather, this ice room was specially prepared. But it can be used to preserve the body.

At this time, Li Gongzuo ordered to hold a banquet on the boat to shock everyone, and invited several generals of the navy to accompany him. Only Zhao Yueru and Zhao Qianru did not attend, so Li Gongzuo had to order someone to send a table of wine and food to their room.

The banquet is very rich, and the delicacies of the mountains and seas brought on the ship are readily available, especially the seafood, which is rare to see. It's just that Yang Yan and the others are not in a high mood. When Li Gong asked about the course of this expedition during the banquet, the atmosphere at the banquet was a little warmer. Cao Xun and Gao Zhen recounted the expedition during the banquet.

This expedition was already thrilling, and the two of them sang and drank it even more thrilling. Speaking of the three crossings of the Yellow River and the final fierce battle on the seaside, Li Gongzuo and the generals of the navy were even more amazed.

The fleet headed eastward and arrived at Haidonkey Island in Ninghai Prefecture three days later. The flotilla bypassed Ninghai Prefecture and turned to the southwest. At this time, the fleet was sailing against the wind, and the sails were lowered, and the ships were driven forward by manpower. Fortunately, the weather was fine in the past few days, and there were occasional light winds and rains, and only three small boats were lost. If you drive like this, it will take about ten days to reach Haizhou.

A few days later, the fleet had reached a distance of thirty miles outside Fushan Island in Laizhou. The water army of the Jin State finally appeared.

When the soldiers reported into the meeting hall, Yang Yan, Li Gongzuo, Xin Qiji and others were discussing together. Hearing that the sailors of the Jin Kingdom appeared, everyone immediately walked out of the conference hall and stood on the platform on the second floor to look ahead, but there was still a line between the sea and the sky in front of them, and there were no ships in sight.

Cao Xun said: "Huh? Why can't you see the ship of the Kingdom of Jin? ”

Li Gongzuo said: "It was the ship of the outpost that discovered the enemy, and now it should be about twenty miles away, and our current position is invisible." Just now, the soldiers came to report that it was the ship in front of them that came back through the flag. ”

Only then did Yang Yan see that on another large Shenzhou more than two miles ahead, there was a big bucket on the largest mast, and there was a soldier holding a flag in both hands, and he was waving the same action towards the Shenzhou they were seated on. And there was the same big bucket on his own ship, and there was also a soldier who was also waving his flag, presumably answering the ship opposite.

Li Gongzuo nodded and said loudly: "Pass the order, and the ships are ready to fight." ”

When Yang Yan looked back, he saw that the flagbearer of his ship had changed a pair of flags and began to wave. However, after a while, the flag bearer on the ship in front also changed his flag and did the same action, apparently passing on Li Gongzuo's order.

At this time, the sergeants and sailors on the ship, under the command of their respective generals, began to get busy. The bed crossbows and slingshots of the large Shenzhou are all on the lower deck, and they are usually stored in the cabin, and they are all busy pushing them out at this time, some soldiers are fixing the bed crossbows, some are winding, and some are carrying crossbow guns, artillery and other things. On deck, the crossbowmen took their own bows and arrows and stood by the strings. Yang Yan saw that some of them were carefully holding a large bamboo slip more than four feet long, and he didn't know what it was. There are also quite a few on the side of the strings.

There were also many soldiers with buckets rushing to hit the seawater, or preparing sand, gravel, mud and other materials, and standing on the deck, apparently to prevent enemy rockets from burning on the ship, ready to extinguish the fire. At this time, Li Gongzuo kept giving orders, which were passed from the flag bearer to other ships.

"Hurry up, hurry up. Don't rub around. The Jin army is coming. ”

"Be careful, be careful. Put it lightly. Do you want to blow us up first? ”

"Water, be careful with water, firearms can't see water."

Such sounds permeated the whole process, and every boat was so busy preparing for battle. And the ships are constantly adjusting their positions and arranging formations. Soldiers came and went, shuttling on the boat. But everything is going on precariously.

And at this time, at the intersection of the sea and the sky in the distance, countless sails finally appeared. Gradually approaching the fleet of the Song army.