All you can see are towering masts and huge sails, as well as three huge ships as large as a hill. Even though the Song army failed to capture the coastal positions several times, the huge formation of the Song army still made the Manichaean army feel great pressure, so Zhong Ziang Yijing concentrated all the strength of the remaining Manichaean army and stationed it on the northern coast of Hainan.

Fortunately, for five consecutive days, although the Song army's attack was very fierce and firearms were used, they could not break through the coastline by a single step, which made Zhong Ziang very happy, hoping that after the Song army could not attack for a long time, it would automatically retreat. In this way, he can stick to Hainan, regather his strength, and then try to achieve great things. However, Zhong Ziang also knew that it was too early for the Song army to retreat, so he was not careless at all, so he inspected all parts of the coast every day and urged the whole army to be more vigilant.

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Yang Yan looked at the warships that had returned to the formation one after another, and said to Li Gongzuo: "Commander Li, I think this is the end of the day today, you can collect the troops." ”

Li Gongzuo nodded and immediately ordered the troops to be withdrawn. The flag bearer passed the flag of "Collect the troops" to the other ships, and the ships received the flag and retreated in turn. In fact, in addition to the ships on the left and right, the Song army only has nearly a hundred warships left, but the three big Shenzhou are all here, all the warships are lined up, and the momentum is also terrifying, and in the back row is Yang Yan requisitioned more than 150 large and small fishing boats from the fishermen along the coast, each with two high masts on each boat, anyway, it is just moored behind the warships of the Song army, and there is no need to participate in the war, but from a distance, it seems that there are hundreds of warships.

However, in order to be more realistic, in the past five days, the Song army also launched several attacks, and also killed nearly 800 people, lost seven ships, two of the seven ships lost were hit by the rocks sent by the catapult when they were close to the cliff, causing the ship's side to split, enter the water and sink. However, in order to attract the attention of the Manichaean army, these arrows were inevitable.

At this time, Yang Yan, Zhao Qianru, Li Gongzuo, Wei Chang, Ling Xiang, Huang Mingxia, Tie Chenglin, Gu Xueping, Yue Ke, Yue Ying and others were all on Li Gongzuo's flag boat, most of them were experiencing water battles for the first time, so they were very fresh, but everyone else was fine, only Gu Xueping was very curious, and took two tigers to go up and down the big boat, inside and out. Fortunately, everyone knows that she is Yang Yuma's sister, and they see that she is lively and clever, very endearing, and very lenient to her. Yue Ying is the same age as her, but her behavior is much more stable than her, and she is more beautiful to a lady.

Yang Yan stood on the side of the ship, looking at the several ships in his companion repairing the smashed places, and suddenly his heart moved, and he asked Wei Changdao beside him: "Wei Jian Cheng, if the warships are covered with iron armor, just like the iron float, will the warship be much stronger." I don't know if this is feasible. ”

Wei Chang was stunned for a moment, and was confused by Yang Yan's whimsy, but after thinking for a while, he leaned on the side of the ship and looked at it before saying: "It is feasible to cover the ship with iron armor, and the warship covered with iron armor will definitely be much stronger than the pure wooden one, but after adding the iron armor, the warship will become heavier, even if it can still eat water, but the speed will be much slower." If you can't keep up with the speed, no matter how strong you are, it's useless. ”

Yang Yan said: "You can say it, but is there no other way?" As he was talking, he suddenly saw Li Gongzuo walking towards them, and Yang Yan hurriedly called Li Gongzuo: "Li Tong, come here." ”

Li Gongzuo walked over and said, "Yang Shuai, is there anything wrong with looking for the last general?" ”

Yang Yan talked about the discussion between himself and Wei Chang just now and the current problems, and then said: "You are much more familiar with warships than us, I don't know if there is any solution?" ”

Li Gongzuo's eyes lit up, he was a person who had been in naval battles for a long time, and as soon as he heard Yang Yan say it, he immediately understood what was going on, if Yang Yan really said, building an ironclad ship is not only stronger than a wooden ship, but also what bow and arrow, crossbow arrow, or even rocket are not a big threat to the warship, which can undoubtedly greatly strengthen the combat effectiveness of the naval army. He thought for a moment and said, "The problem of speed is also easy to solve, I can reduce the personnel and items on the ironclad ship to a minimum, and only keep the necessary crew and sailors to teach weapons, so that the weight added after covering the ironclad can be reduced." In addition, oars and waterwheels can be added to increase the speed of the warship. ”

After a pause, he said: "In my opinion, there is no need to replace all the ships with ironclad ships, Shenzhou does not need to be attacked, only the Flying Tiger Boat or the Sea Falcon ship is changed to an ironclad ship, if I have twenty such ironclad ships in this fleet, even if there are only ten, in the battle, you can use the ironclad ships with crossbow arrows and firearms to assault the enemy's formation, which can improve the current combat effectiveness one step further." ”

Yang Yan nodded, he also understood what Li Gongzuo meant, that is, to use the ironclad ship as an armored cavalry army to impact the enemy's position in a naval battle. Said: "Commander Li, have you thought about it, use the ironclad ship to surprise the enemy's formation, but it is easy to be entangled by the enemy, carry out boarding operations, and the personnel on the ironclad ship are reduced to a minimum, once the enemy kicks the boat, what should I do?" ”

Listening to Yang Yan's words, Li Gongzuo was also stunned, this is a problem, if the number of soldiers is increased, it will increase the weight of the ship and affect the speed.

Suddenly, Wei Chang patted the side of the ship and said: "Yes, we can cover all the warships with iron armor, and let the soldiers hide in the cabin to fight, as long as the hatch is closed, even if the enemy kicks on the warship, they will not be afraid." ”

Li Gongzuo nodded and said: "Yes, this seems to be feasible, I think you can build one to give it a try, Yang Shuai, what do you think?" ”

Yang Yan also said: "Yes, Li will arrange it for you, and you can start tomorrow." ”

At this moment, there was a clear eagle cry in the sky, and a large white eagle circled down from the sky and landed on Wei Chang's outstretched arm. Wei Chang's two eagles were given to Cao Xun Gao Zhen one by one to pass on the news, and now one has come back with the scriptures, indicating that at least one has been brought back by the scriptures.

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