Cao Xun naturally knew that the task of attacking Haizhou this time was also very arduous, not only in seizing the value of Haizhou itself, but also in whether the plan to encircle the sea and save Hao could be successful.

For the Jin Kingdom, the location of Haizhou may not be too important, but for the Great Song Dynasty, it is different. This is because the naval strength of the Great Song Dynasty is much stronger than that of the Jin State, so Haizhou is a coastal city of great strategic value in the eyes of the Great Song Dynasty. If the East China Sea Island in the northeast of Haizhou can be occupied as the base of the Great Song Dynasty's naval army, then the combat distance of the Great Song Dynasty naval army will be greatly increased, and it will really be able to cover the entire Shandong Peninsula.

Therefore, in that respect, the capture of Haizhou was extremely beneficial to the Great Song Dynasty.

The approved personnel of the Chuzhou Imperial Garrison Department is 20,000, and there are more than 30,000 sailors and more than 300 large and small warships. Cao Xun left 10,000 horses to guard Chuzhou, and gathered 15,000 men and horses transferred from the Xuyi army to march to Haizhou. At the same time, he ordered Li Gongzuo to lead the fleet, set off from the sea, advance by land and water, and go to Haizhou.

And this time, the Song army was the first to attack from the sea, and Li Gongzuo attacked.

The East China Sea is a large island in the northeast of Haizhou, separated from Haizhou by a strait that is not very wide, so they can watch each other. It was also the port where the Jin Army's Shandong Navy was stationed. There were more than 380 warships and 35,000 sailors. The main naval generals are Jiagu Su, Wulitanda, Lu Zhongxiong, Bi Rui, Murong Yanda, Zou Huan, Tang Zhun and others, basically all of whom participated in the southern expedition eight years ago.

Although the number of warships stationed in the East China Sea only accounted for more than 40% of the Jin State's naval forces. But in terms of quality, it concentrated at least about seventy percent of the main warships of the Jin Kingdom. There are only 24 ships in the Jin Kingdom, and there are 20 in the East China Sea, and there are only 105 warships in the Jin Kingdom, 66 of which are anchored in the East China Sea Village, and 223 warships of 1,000 materials. It can be said that this is the elite of the Jin State Water Army.

And the Chuzhou Imperial Garrison Division is also the essence of the Great Song Dynasty Naval Army, Li Gongzuo dispatched 288 warships this time, together with his wife Meng Lanjun, the main generals of the naval army Zhang Yuan, Xu Hai, Xu Jiang, Zheng Sihai, Feng Rong, Long Haishan, Liang Bin, Chen Wan and others all went to battle, it can be said that they were almost dispatched. Among them, there are three large Shenzhou, 15 small Shenzhou, 48 warships of more than 2,000 materials, 124 warships of more than 1,000 materials, 28 ironclad ships, and more than 30 ships of heavy grain and grass. At the same time, the Song army's naval army was also equipped with the latest long-range weapon of the Great Song Dynasty - artillery.

After the Western Xia War, Yang Yan realized the powerful power of artillery, so he strongly advocated investing a lot of manpower and material resources to step up the development and production of artillery. After more than a year of refinement by the craftsmen, the weight of the new batch of guns was reduced a little, and the range and power were greatly increased, and a total of fifty light guns were produced.

At the same time, Yang Yan also knew that in the naval army, which mainly engaged in long-range combat, artillery was more useful, because twenty guns were transferred to Li Gongzuo for use. And after Li Gongzuo tried the power of artillery, he was also very happy, the naval army of the Great Song Dynasty was already stronger than the Jin army, and with the help of artillery, it was even more powerful. At present, it is equipped with four doors on its own ship, two on each of the other two large Shenzhou, and the remaining twelve on six ironclad ships. Therefore, I am also full of confidence in this battle.

Seeing that the Song army's navy was attacking, the navy of the East China Sea was under control of the beggar tower and immediately gathered his generals to discuss countermeasures.

At the beginning of the year, when the Great Song Dynasty launched an attack, the Great Song Dynasty's naval army also attacked north from the sea, defeated the Jin State's naval army, and attacked in turn along the coastline of Shandong. Therefore, before launching the southern expedition, Wanyan Changzhi also considered that the Song army would also send a naval army to attack, and it was necessary to strengthen the strength of the naval army, not only mobilized the main warships of the Jin State to the East China Sea, but also assembled a large number of firearms, bed crossbows and other weapons made by the Jin State into the naval army. Therefore, the generals of the navy also felt that they had some confidence, and they all advocated going out of the village to fight with the Song army.

Mo Ran made the beggar tower also feel that the navy army was equipped with so many powerful weapons, and it was challenged by the enemy blocking the door, if he still hid in the water village and did not dare to fight, it would be too cowardly. Therefore, it was also ordered that only the supply ships should be left in the village, and the remaining more than 320 warships were all out of the village to meet the enemy.

The naval armies of the Song and Jin sides launched a new round of water contest on the sea in the southeast of the East China Sea.

As soon as the battle began, the Song army put up the main attack frame, led by two teams of ironclad ships, each with more than 50 warships, from two wings, rushing towards the Jin army's fleet array. And Li Gongzuo commanded the Chinese army, and also followed the back of the left and right flanks, approaching the Jin army.

Now under Li Gongzuo, in addition to Zhang Yuan, the deputy commander of the capital, the pirates who surrendered to the Song army have basically become the backbone generals of the Song army, and Meng Lanjun has already married Li Gongzuo as his wife. Xu Hai, like Zhang Yuan, became Li Gongzuo's right and left hand, each setting up a large Shenzhou as a ship, commanding more than 50 warships, and could fight independently. This attack was carried out by Xu Hai and Zhang Yuan to command the left and right wings, while Zheng Sihai and Xu Jiang served as the commanders of the ironclad ships, each commanding fourteen ironclad ships as the vanguard.

Seeing that the warships of the Song army took the initiative to attack, Mo Ran ordered the beggar tower to immediately order to meet the battle, and Yongwulitanda and Lu Zhongxiong each brought more than 80 warships, with five large warships as the core, to meet the attack of the Song army.

The distance between the two sides was getting closer, and the crossbows on the Jin army's warships and the slingshots of firearms were all opened, and they immediately launched an attack on the Song army after the Song army's warships entered the firing range.

Seven hundred steps, six hundred steps, five hundred steps......

There were several loud noises of "boom, boom, boom," and just when the two sides were still more than 500 steps apart, several warships at the head of the Song army suddenly let out an angry roar. The artillery of the Song army began the attack with the first hand.

In addition to the quality of the warship, the range of long-range weapons is also an important factor, before there was no artillery, the combat range of the Song army on the water was at least about 100 steps ahead of the Jin army. Therefore, it is often possible to have a preemptive advantage in water warfare.

But now that the Jin Army's ranged weapons have been greatly improved and captured, they can basically reach this distance. It's a pity that at this time, the Song army had artillery to join, and the combat range was almost doubled, and the unfortunate Jin army became the first Jin army to see this new type of weapon.

Although the Song army only had eight artillery pieces on each flank, and among the sixteen shells fired in the first round, only a pitiful one hit the target, blasting a large hole in the deck of a large warship of the Jin army, killing dozens of Jin soldiers on the deck, and the other fifteen rounds only stirred up a column of water on the sea, but both the range and power were enough to deter the entire Jin army.

The soldiers of the Jin army barely even saw where the blow came from, but they didn't need to look for it for long, because the second blow was coming soon.

Although the frequency of firing of artillery is slow, it is also enough in naval operations. After the distance between the two sides was reduced by sixty or seventy paces, the Song army began the second round of shelling.

The distance was closer, the roar was clearer, and the Song army's hit rate was greatly improved, with four of the sixteen shells in this round hitting the target. In the first round of shelling, the Jin warship, which was unfortunately the first to be hit by the gun, was even more unfortunate this time, and actually received two more shots, one hit the port side of the bow, and the other hit the ship's building, and the mainmast was broken.

Although the power of the artillery had little effect on the stone and earth walls at this time, the wooden warship had almost no resistance to the blow of the artillery. Although it has not yet sunk, it has basically lost its combat effectiveness.

Mo Ran made the beggar Ta Yijing open his mouth wide in shock, and he couldn't fit for a long time, what kind of weapon did the Song army use, not only could it fight so far, but also had such great power. Although the two sides have not yet engaged in battle at this time, it has cast a rich shadow on the Beggar Ta Sutra in the era, will the Jin army be able to win this time?

But now it's too late to retreat, because the turning of the warships is very slow, and if more than 300 warships turn at the same time, there is no need for the Song army to fight at all, and they will be in chaos first. At the same time, after two rounds of artillery bombardment, Mo Ran made the beggar tower also see clearly that the Song army did not have many such weapons, and only three or four warships on each flank had them. Therefore, the only way for the Jin army now is to advance at full speed, strive to enter the attack distance of the Jin army, and take advantage of the large number of ships to fight with the Song army.

So he ordered the beggar to speed up their march and get within attack range as soon as possible. However, after giving the order, the beggar ordered the sailors of his flagship to slow down the ship so that the other ships could rush to the front.

In fact, it was not only Mo Ran who shocked the beggar tower, but also Li Gongzuo, the main general of the Song army, and his wife Meng Lanjun, who were watching the battle on the boat. Although they had all seen the power of artillery beforehand, they did not expect that the first time they used it on the battlefield, it would produce such a great shock.

It should be said that Mo Ran's judgment of the beggar tower was not wrong, although before the Jin army entered its own range, the Song army also carried out two or three rounds of artillery bombardment, but the Song army only had a total of 16 artillery pieces to participate in the battle, and the hit rate was not high, and it was all right to hit two or three out of ten rounds, and some artillery did not hit the target with one shot. As a result, only a dozen ships of the Jin army were shelled.