But the greater shock brought by the artillery to both sides came from the psychological, the Jin army's naval army had been repeatedly defeated in front of the Song army, this time it was after changing the weapon, only to build a little confidence, that knew that the Song army's weapons were also upgraded, but before the Jin army could use it first, it was shelled by the Song army and destroyed. When the Song army saw it, their morale increased greatly, and they were more confident in defeating the Jin army.

And at this moment, the distance between the two sides finally narrowed to within three hundred steps.

The Jin army immediately started together, and the bed crossbows, slingshots, and fire dragon water cylinders all started together, desperately firing towards the Song army. However, the distance of about 300 steps is only the range of the bed crossbow and the fire dragon water outlet, and the attack distance of firearms such as thunderbolts, thunderbolts, and oil bombs fired with slingshots is only 200 steps, but the Jin army is obviously in chaos at this time, regardless of 3721, they are all launched together. As you can imagine, all the ejected firearms fell into the sea. It also caused Song Jun to laugh for a while.

Although the ship of the beggar tower retreated to the second line, he stood on the ship's tower, and saw the battle situation very clearly, and when he saw the reckless attack of the Jin soldiers, he couldn't help but stomp on his feet and shout in anger, but unfortunately his scolding on the sea could only be heard on his own ship. It was only when the main generals of the ships realized that something was wrong that they stopped the Jin army's indiscriminate firing, but at this time, the Jin army fired hundreds of catapult firearms in vain.

In fact, now it has also entered the range of the Song army. Therefore, the Song army was also unceremonious, and the bed crossbow was launched, like a crossbow gun with a thick arm, and it flew towards the enemy ship.

The wind howled on the sea, and the crossbow guns flew wildly in the air, some falling into the water, some shooting at the enemy ships, and some soldiers on each side were killed by the crossbow guns. But in general, the number of crossbow guns fired by both sides was limited, and the damage to the enemy was even more minimal, mainly as a deterrent. And because of the addition of artillery in this naval battle, this intimidation has also become insignificant.

The Song army was the first to shoot an ironclad ship, although it was also shot by a crossbow gun, and the ironclad "ping-pong" sounded, and sparks flew out, but none of them were able to penetrate the nearly half-inch thick ironclad, and all of them were shot into the water without exception. And the artillery on the ironclad ship still continued to exert its might, constantly emitting angry holes, spewing tongues of fire, and fiercely bombarding the opponent's ship.

Since the distance is now closer, the hit rate of the shelling has been further improved, and three out of ten artillery hits the target. After all, nearly twenty warships of the Jin army were hit. At least ten warships were largely incapacitated.

It was not until the distance between the two sides was reduced to within 200 paces that the two sides really attacked each other with catapult firearms and began to launch a substantial blow to the enemy army.

And the warships led by both sides bore the brunt of the blows and received most of the blows from the other side. Many of the firearms fired hit their targets, and many of the warships of the Song and Jin armies were hit by firearms ejected by the enemy, and while the number of casualties was further increased, some warships also caught fire.

However, the damage of firearms to ironclad ships was also extremely limited, on the contrary, after the distance was shortened, the artillery of the Song army became more and more accurate. Generally speaking, artillery is a weapon that can be far but not close, if it is on land, the range of artillery attack is between 400 and 600 steps, and if it enters within 200 steps, it is basically a dead angle of artillery strike, and the shells fired will generally fly over the head of the soldier.

However, this problem does not exist at sea, because the range of warships is extremely large, and two or three hundred warships can be stretched to a range of several miles, and no matter how the artillery hits, there will be warships within the range of the shells. Moreover, the high masts and wide sails of the warships also provided a large number of targets for the artillery, and due to the shortening of the distance and the increase in the density of the warships, the hit rate of the guns reached almost every two guns, and one shot would hit the target.

And the Song army also changed the previous aimless indiscriminate shooting, but each ship insisted on an enemy ship, focusing on attacking, until it was completely crippled. As the saying goes, it is better to break one finger than to hurt ten fingers.

In fact, it was not only the warships equipped with artillery, but the other warships of the Song army also used the same tactics, with five or six warships automatically aiming at an enemy ship, what crossbow guns, thunderbolts, thunderbolts, oil bombs, thistle fireballs, smoke balls, etc., and slammed at the opponent until the enemy ships were on fire and could not be extinguished.

Although there is not much difference between the Jin army and the Song army in terms of the performance of the warships, weapons, and even the control ability of individual warships, there is still a considerable difference between the Jin army's navy and the Song army in terms of the command of the whole army, the overall tactical quality, and the group cooperation between local warships. However, this difference cannot be made up for by making efforts to improve technology, and it can only be gradually improved through the constant tempering of actual combat on the battlefield and the accumulation of experience. In this regard, it is clear that the Jin Army's naval army is much lacking.

At this time, the battle between the two sides lasted for nearly two hours, and at least forty ships of the Jin army were heavily damaged, half of which were heavily damaged by artillery, while the Song army only had more than ten ships.

And on the battlefield, it has also entered the time of hand-to-hand combat. However, although it is said that it is a short encounter, there is actually a distance of about sixty or seventy paces between the two sides, and this is the characteristic of naval warfare. At the same time, the archers on both sides also played a role, and the vast majority of the arrows shot were naturally rockets, and they were basically projectiles, on the one hand, increasing the range of the arrows, on the other hand, they also let the arrows fall on the deck as much as possible, the lethality was not great, and it didn't matter if the shot hit the person, as long as the fire spread on the enemy's ship.

The flaming arrows rained down on both sides, and many warships in the Song army and Jin army were on fire, and the ship's side, deck, shipbuilding, and sails would all burn. The soldiers of the warship continued to attack the water to extinguish the flames on their ships. As the fire gradually increased, a large amount of smoke also gathered on the surface of the sea, which was full of choking smell.

But the speed of the Song army's advance did not slow down, as the vanguard of the two wings of the ironclad ship rushed into the Jin army's ship formation, three armored ships equipped with artillery took the lead, lined up in a zigzag, like an arrow, nailed into the Jin army's fleet, and the same large Shenzhou equipped with artillery followed, Yongyu Shenzhou was a lot higher than the ironclad ship, so although it followed behind, it did not affect the artillery bombardment. On both sides of the large Shenzhou, there are five ironclad ships each, protecting the two wings of the large Shenzhou, followed by the small Shenzhou and other warships, maintaining a perfect assault formation and slaughtering into the Jin Army's ship formation.

This time, the front, left, and right sides are all the warships of the Jin Kingdom, and the closest distance between the two ships is less than thirty steps, so there is no need to aim at all, just desperately fire the cannon. Almost no cannon fired, every shell was bound to receive a response, and after being hit by a gun, the flying debris fragments could be ejected into the hull of the iron ship.

The Jin army's ship array was immediately disturbed by the Song army, some of the warships hid, some fled, some let in, some retreated, and the front and back were lost, and many warships collided with each other and were huddled together. And no one listened to the orders given by the beggar tower.

Moreover, the Song army not only shelled, but also the long-range weapons and crossbowmen on the other warships were also riveted, aiming at the warships of the Jin army, firing desperately. As much as possible, there were also the warships of the Jin army to fight back, but most of them fought separately, their forces were scattered, and they could not form an effective strike force against the Song army at all, so the warships of the Jin army were hit one by one, burning, and were beaten by the Song army without fighting back.

The flanks of the Song army were like a huge two-strand fishing fork, which was forcibly inserted into the Jin army's formation, and it was about to be divided into three parts. And the middle part, Yijing was surrounded by the Song army on three sides.

As soon as the beggar saw that the situation was not good, he immediately ordered a retreat. Then he first ordered his boat to turn the bow and flee towards the water village. When the other warships saw this, they also turned their bows and prepared to flee. It's just that at the beginning, Mo Ran made the beggar tower see that the Song army's artillery was powerful, so he hid behind, so he never engaged the Song army's warships, and he could calmly turn the rudder, pull the sails, and escape. Other warships did not have the same good luck as the beggar tower, because they suffered those warships that were still fighting and entangled with the Song army, and turned at this time, but there was almost no difference in suicide.

So the warships of the Jin army were gradually divided into two parts, one part turned its head and retreated in the direction of Shuizhai, while the other part was bitten by the Song army, so it could only be hard and struggled to support.

As soon as Li Gongzuo saw the overall situation, most of the Jin army's warships fled, and there were only a few dozen warships left in support of the Song army, so he immediately ordered Xu Hai to stay on the battlefield and prepare to board the ships to fight and capture the Jin army's warships. And he led Zhang Yuan with the fleet to pursue the deserters.

In the process of pursuit, the Song army attacked more than 30 warships and captured more than a dozen ships, until the Jin army fled into the water village, and then stopped the pursuit. At this time, it was getting late, and Li Gongzuo ordered to retreat thirty miles, and found a temporary stop on the shore along the coast of Haizhou. And Xu Hai cleared the battlefield and also came over to join Li Gongzuo's fleet.

As a result of this battle, 67 ships were sunk and 27 ships were damaged, and 5 ships were sunk and 2 were seriously damaged. 4,750 soldiers were killed and 2,428 wounded.

Thirty-nine ships were sunk, and another nineteen ships were damaged and needed to be repaired before they could regain their combat effectiveness, with 2,109 killed and 847 wounded. In addition, 37 warships of the Jin army were captured, of which 26 could be put into battle at once, and 1,737 Jin troops were captured. and seized a number of utensils and materials. Overall, the Song army only lost 26 warships, about 10% of the total number of warships, and only two small Shenzhou were damaged, and the other major warships basically did not suffer much loss. Combat effectiveness didn't have much of an impact either.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Jin naval army has been greatly improved, the battle still ended in a crushing defeat, and this result is not as good as the southern expedition nine years ago. It was entirely because the Song army was equipped with a new weapon of water warfare - artillery.

Li Gongzuo first sent people to report the victory to Cao Xun at once, and then ordered the soldiers to rest quickly, and the ships immediately reassembled from the relief ships, and transferred the wounded and prisoners to the relief ships that were vacated.

Early the next morning, Li Gongzuo ordered the wounded warships and the wounded and prisoners to return to the Shuizhai in Chuzhou together, and sent five warships with 1,000 materials to escort them along the road. The other warships regrouped and slaughtered the Jin army's East China Sea fortress.

At this time, Mo Ran made the beggar tower still dare to fight with the Song army, but he ordered the gate to be closed tightly and refused to leave the enemy. At the same time, he ordered people to strictly guard the waterproof village to prevent the Song army from attacking.

As soon as Li Gongzuo saw that the Jin army did not dare to fight, he immediately ordered a strong attack on Shuizhai.

The so-called water village is actually a floating wall on the water formed by erecting a thick wooden fence wall on a warship, and then connecting it with an iron lock. Similarly, there are also protective fortifications such as repelling wood to the outside world. But the walls of this wooden grid structure could withstand artillery bombardment. The Song army was led by nine warships equipped with artillery, aimed at the wall of the water village, and launched a round of fierce bombardment.

Each cannon was fired ten times in a row, and a total of more than 200 cannons were fired, and the wooden fence was immediately blasted open with a large opening more than ten zhang wide. The Song army's 28 ironclad ships started first, led by six ironclad ships equipped with artillery, and rushed into the water village through the gap. Then there was another burst of shelling in the water village.

At this time, the water village was densely packed with the warships of the Jin Kingdom, and it didn't matter if the Song army opened fire with their eyes closed. And even if you can't hit the warship, you can fall into the camp on the shore, and you can fight anyway. The other ships that were not equipped with firearms also opened fire, firing all the weapons they could use.

The water village immediately became a pot of porridge, the Jin army boarded the warship, set sail, ready to fight, and many people used the bed slingshot to desperately attack the Song army that entered the water village.

In fact, there were not many warships of the Song army that entered the water village, only twenty-eight ironclad ships, most of which were warships of the Jin Kingdom. And how big can there be in the water village, which is enough for so many warships to open the formation, gallop vertically and horizontally, and many of the crossbow guns and firearms fired hit their own warships. Moreover, the Jin army only cared about driving ships to meet the battle, but as a result, the warships collided with each other and were crowded, but they were tied up and could not be manipulated. Some of the ships caught fire, and the fire soon spread to other ships in the vicinity.

Fortunately, there is not only one gate in the East China Sea Village, and many soldiers saw that the situation was not good, so they opened other gates and escaped from the water village. And Li Gongzuo also ordered that the other warships should sail into the water village, while capturing the remaining war ships, and on the other hand, fully occupying the water village.