When the Roman Empire was at its strongest, the entire Mediterranean Sea was their inland sea, although the Mediterranean Sea was vast, it was much narrower than the real ocean, and it may be precisely for this reason that the Romans' sea ships never got rid of the oars, at least the Roman navy that Li Ke saw was like this.

There were two main types of Roman ships, three-oared and five-oared ships, and of course there were also ships with higher oars, but the number was relatively rare. Generally speaking, the larger the boat, the more people need to operate the oars. However, although there are more people operating the oars, the speed of the boat has not increased, and even because it has to accommodate more oarsmen, the hull of the ship has to be widened, which will only make the resistance of the boat greater, and the speed will not increase but decrease.

It is for this reason that the Roman warships were generally not very large, for example, the length of the three-oared warship was generally between thirty-five and forty paces, while the five-oared warship was between fifty and sixty paces. The oarsmen were divided into three tiers and rowed together to advance the boat, and the number of oarsmen in the three-oared warship reached more than 170 people, not to mention the five-oared or even more oared ships.

Accompanied by Constans II, Li Ke saw the Roman navy using three- or five-oared ships, of which the five-oared ships were the main ships and the three-oared ships were auxiliary.

At the command of the consul Forris, the ten Roman warships on the sea immediately began to speed forward, all of them were the main ships of the five-oared block, and in front of the warships, the same number of ships were advancing, all of which were about to be scrapped. So it was taken out as a target ship for drills, and in order to be realistic. There were slave operations on these target ships.

The target ships that were close to being scrapped were slow and had no oarsmen. It was all powered by a large sail on the ship, but the attacking Roman navy turned the ship's masts down, and all the oarsmen shouted their trumpets and rowed the huge long oars as fast as possible, and the speed of the ship continued to increase, and when the speed increased to the maximum attack speed, the two fleets finally collided fiercely.

"Boom!" The Roman warships, which had already adjusted their angles, slammed into the target ships, and as a result, four target ships were hit because they couldn't dodge, and they retreated dozens of meters backwards. At the same time, a large hole was broken under the hull, and the sea water continued to rush inside, and the slaves on the ship were also in chaos.

The position of the ramming angle in front of the Roman warship with oars is very strange, and the traditional warships of the Tang Dynasty also have ramming angles, but they are generally placed on the upper part of the bow, mainly because the warships in the Datang are generally very tall, and the role of the ramming angle is not only to attack the enemy, generally most of the time, the warships of the Datang Dynasty are to crush the opponent's ships with huge hulls. So the ramming angle only needs to break through the hull of the other party.

However, the ramming angle of the Roman warship was close to the lower part of the water, because the Romans' warship was too small to be crushed like the warships of the Tang Dynasty, and such a ramming angle was when it hit the enemy's ship. The wound is below the waterline, which can make the other party sink in the shortest possible time, just like Li Ke and the others see now.

Although four target ships were hit. But the other six ships dodged by a fraction of a margin, only to collide with the sides of the ships. And then they were separated again, and it didn't work at all. But it was also at this time. The ballistas of the Roman warships were suddenly fired, and long special hooks were fired, which had long poles and ropes behind them, and looked like special crossbow arrows.

When the long hook was shot at the target ship, it was immediately pulled tight by the soldiers of the Roman warship, and as a result, it immediately hooked the side of the target ship, and the slaves on the target ship immediately rushed forward to tear the hooks off. Behind this hook is a long pole, and it is also wrapped with copper skin, which will be cut at all for a while and a half, so it is better to tear it off.

However, the soldiers on the Roman ships were well trained, and while the soldiers on the ships were desperately pulling the ropes, there were archers and spearmen attacking the target ships, and as a result, many slaves were shot or shot, and for a time the screams were continuous.

For this kind of unilateral slaughter, Li Ke, who was holding a telescope in the distance, frowned, although he knew that there were many slaves in various parts of the Central Plains, but it was rare to treat slaves as consumables for military drills like Rome, and such wanton killing was too hurtful.

It's just that Li Ke soon found that most of the Roman nobles around him were very calm about this situation, and even many people showed excited looks, it is estimated that in their opinion, this kind of flesh-and-blood fight is no different from the performance of the gladiatorial arena. Only Irina seemed to be disgusted by this kind of killing, clasping her hands to her chest and whispering something.

There is basically no suspense next, as the Roman warship and the target ship approached, the Roman soldiers jumped on the target ship with weapons in hand, and then began to slaughter those slaves, the scene was bloody and cruel, and the real battlefield was not much different, but Constans II and the nobles behind him watched with relish, especially the telescope they gave them with Li Ke in their hands, so that they could see more clearly, and at the same time more exciting, so they all seemed a little excited.

Speaking of telescopes, the technical content is not high, and the Romans have a very high technology in firing glass, so with the arrival of Han merchant ships, the Romans also learned to manufacture telescopes, but because of technical and other reasons, the telescopes they made are far inferior to the Han people, not to mention that Li Ke sent them are all high-quality products.

"Your Highness, the so-called naval battle of the Romans is still not out of the scope of land warfare, although the battle will use ballistas to attack the opponent's warships, but the final victory is still determined by the broadside battle, this method of warfare for our warships, will not work at all!" After watching the performance of the Roman Navy, Cen Changqian leaned in Li Ke's ear and whispered.

Li Ke nodded after hearing this, all he brought was the main battleship in Li Su's hands, and he had long abandoned the backward combat method of broadside warfare, whether it was the artillery or the giant crossbow on the ship, he would not let the opponent's warship approach.

"Hey, there's a change!" Cen Changqian suddenly cried out in surprise, and Li Ke turned his head to look, only to find that the two target ships were actually leaning together, and then the slaves on one of the ships ran to the other ship, which made the number of slaves on this ship increase significantly.

"Interestingly, these slaves were smart, knowing that their weapons and training were inferior to the Roman navy, and they even combined two ships of men into one ship, and made up for the lack of combat power with the advantage of numbers." Li Ke said with a smile. The ship, which had doubled the number of slaves, relied on the numerical superiority to kill the Roman soldiers who boarded the ship and retreated, and all the Roman soldiers were about to be cleared out.

However, for this kind of accident, Foris next to Constans II seemed very calm, and the other nobles were not alarmed, but showed a look of excitement. Seeing this situation, the Roman warship besieging the target ship immediately reacted and ordered all the soldiers who attacked the target ship to be withdrawn.

There were not many Roman soldiers on the target ship, so the retreat went smoothly, and when the last Roman soldier returned to his ship, the slaves on the target ship immediately cheered. Because according to the previous agreement, as long as they can hold on to the end, then they will be free.

However, it was evident that the slaves were too happy too soon, and as soon as the Roman soldiers withdrew, the ship immediately adjusted its direction and aimed its bow at the target ship where the slaves were, and then saw that the bow of the warship suddenly erupted a monstrous fire, covering the entire bow of the target ship.

"Ah~" With a burst of screams, the slaves on the target ship were covered with fire one by one, struggling and rolling on the bow of the ship, and after a while, there was no sound. Most of the slaves were only slightly sprayed by the flames, and as a result, the slaves howled to extinguish the flames on their bodies, but the flames grew stronger and stronger, and instead ignited other parts of the ship.

But this was only the beginning, the bow of the warship spewed flames several times, and as a result, the entire target ship was set on fire from beginning to end, and the slaves on board could not escape. And what's even more terrifying is that even if the slave on fire jumps into the water, the fire on his body still can't be extinguished, and there are even signs of burning more and more.

"What a terrible fire, even more powerful than the fierce fire oil in the Central Plains!" Li Ke was also very surprised, the fierce fire oil is not afraid of water, but it needs to be ignited with an open flame, but this kind of fire on the Roman warship starts to burn directly after it is sprayed out, which alone is much more convenient than the fierce fire oil.

Hearing Li Ke's exclamation, Constans II and Foris and others next to him all showed satisfied looks, this weapon is their Rome's secret weapon, Greek fire, and it has been equipped in the navy, I believe that no matter how powerful the warship is, as long as it is sprayed by Greek fire, it will quickly turn into ashes.

As soon as the Greek fire broke out, the target ships that were sprayed were quickly burned into a blaze of fire, which also made the slaves on the other target ships lose the confidence to resist, and one after another the target ships were captured and controlled by the Roman soldiers.

However, Cen Changqian found one point, that is, the Roman Navy only used one Greek fire attack, and the other target ships were all captured by soldiers, although this drill, but it also shows a problem, that is, Greek fire must be very precious, otherwise in front of a distinguished guest like Li Ke, it will definitely be used several more times.

"Your Royal Highness King Wu, what do you think of the power of our Roman Greek fire?" Constans II asked Li Ke very complacently.

And Li Ke also admired a little after hearing this: "It turns out that this weapon is called Greek fire, the power is indeed extraordinary, and the range is not short, under the medium and short-range attack, it is estimated that no warship can escape!" ”

Hearing Li Ke's personal praise, Constans II and the other nobles also seemed very happy, but at this time, Forris spoke again: "The power of Greek fire is naturally extraordinary, but I don't know how powerful the battleships of the Tang Dynasty are, can they resist the power of Greek fire?" (To be continued......)