Chapter 858
The Destruction of the Blue Jade Fleet
On the shores of the East China Sea, before dawn.
Lead-gray clouds hung low over the sea, like a heavy iron lid, threatening to crush the vast waves into the abyss.
The sea breeze, carrying a strong salty and rusty smell, howled past the forecastles of every warship.
On this gloomy sea, an unprecedentedly large fleet in human history is quietly awaiting an ultimate showdown destined to be recorded in history.
In the east, there was the Great De Dynasty, which had conquered Japan.
The founding emperor, Lan Yu, was clad in a suit of crimson gold and dragon-scale armor, and wore a towering phoenix-winged helmet. He sat atop a giant ship, the "Emperor's Ship," which was a hundred feet long.
This ship represents the pinnacle of shipbuilding technology of its time. With five decks and a height of thirty-six zhang (approximately 133 meters), its hull is covered with three-inch-thick wrought iron plates, resembling a mobile sea fortress. A ferocious dragon head is carved on the prow, gleaming with a chilling light in the dim glow.
These were the warships built by Zhu Chongba's old crew, the ones he took with him. They were the ones who helped build the warships for the battle between Zhu Chongba and Chen Jiu Si on Poyang Lake.
These craftsmen, along with Lan Yu, went to Japan and built this new type of warship.
At this moment, Lan Yu stood on the warship, and behind him was a full 150,000 Great De Iron Army soldiers, aboard 3,400 warships of various types, covering the entire eastern sea frontier.
Left Wing General Cao Zhen commanded five hundred light and swift "Sea Falcon" ships, like a pack of wolves lying in wait.
General Zhang Yi of the Right Wing commanded eight hundred heavily armored "Mengchong Fighting Ships," arrayed like a rock formation.
With two thousand troop transport ships and supply ships as backup, banners blotted out the sun, spears and halberds stood like a forest, and the breaths of 150,000 men converged into a chilling aura that could shake heaven and earth.
In the west was the Vermilion Bird Army, the expeditionary force of the Han Dynasty.
This is the old foundation of the Han Dynasty. Back when Huangzhou Prefecture only had three armies, the Vermilion Bird Army was one of them. It absorbed so many good men from Huangzhou Prefecture. Moreover, in recent years, military reforms have added many strong local troops to it, such as the army that conquered Sichuan and the army that went on a long expedition to the desert with Zhang Dingbian.
It can be said that the entire army is full of talented people, which has completely made up for the shortcomings at the beginning.
At this moment, the veteran Fu Youde changed into a set of plain silver fish-scale armor, with a faded black battle robe over it.
He stood on the stern of the flagship "Dingyuan", his body straight as a pine tree. This famous general, who had fought on the battlefield for twenty years, had deep wrinkles on his face, each wrinkle hiding the smoke of past wars.
Although his 100,000 Han troops were outnumbered, their formations were more orderly and their discipline was superior. Vice-Generals Tang Shengzong and Lu Zhongheng stood on the left and right, each leading 50,000 elite troops. Although their warships were few, they exuded a refined and ruthless aura.
The two armies stood facing each other, ten miles apart.
The sea was eerily quiet, with only the sound of waves crashing against the ship's side.
This deathly silence was more suffocating than any shout. Every soldier could hear their own heart pounding and feel the invisible pressure from the enemy fleet emanating from the deck beneath their feet.
Lan Yu raised the "Azure Dragon's Roar" sword in his hand, its tip pointing towards the gray expanse to the west. His voice, though not loud, carried clearly throughout the entire Great De fleet through flag signals, gongs, and horns:
"The mighty Han navy is unstoppable! Today, we will make the Han navy disappear from this world!"
His response was a deafening roar from 150,000 people. The roar was so powerful that it rippled across the calm sea.
The scene was quite grand, and the noise even reached Fu Youde's side. Tang Shengzong frowned, and Lu Zhongheng was seething with anger. "How arrogant Lan Yu is! You'll see today!"
Fu Youde did not answer. He simply raised his right hand slowly and pressed it down gently. It was a silent command, yet it instantly put the 100,000 Han soldiers into a state of absolute combat readiness.
Bows and crossbows were nocked, swords were drawn, and muskets were loaded with gunpowder. The entire Han fleet, like a beast poised to pounce, lay silently in the darkness, waiting for its prey to step into its trap.
At the hour of Chen (7-9 AM), a sudden east wind arose.
Without further hesitation, Lan Yu swung her sword down fiercely: "Vanguard strike! Tear through their defenses!"
"Kill them all, and you'll be promoted and richer. All the beauties are right there; go get them if you dare! Kill them all..."
Cao Zhen, worthy of being Lan Yu's number one general, roared and took the lead, leading five hundred sea hawk ships like arrows released from a bow, charging towards the front of the Han army.
These warships have long, narrow hulls, shallow drafts, and extremely high speeds, designed to harass the enemy and disrupt their formations through maneuverability.
At the same time, the right-wing Mengchong ships under Zhang Yi's command also began to accelerate, forming a pincer attack in an attempt to encircle the Han army.
As Fu Youde watched the approaching enemy ships, a glint of light flashed in his eyes. He said in a deep voice, "Tang Shengzong, lead the light boats to meet the enemy, feigning weakness to lure them in. Lu Zhongheng, lead the ironclad warships to hold the central position and do not make any rash moves."
Emperor Shengzong of Tang received the order and led three hundred small warships, which seemingly went in disarray to meet the enemy. The vanguards of the two armies clashed instantly. Arrows flew back and forth like locusts, the whistling of crossbow bolts piercing the air, the screams of soldiers being hit by arrows, and the crackling of flying wood chips instantly shattered the deathly silence of the sea.
The German frigates, taking advantage of their speed, circled around the Han army's small boats and fired, attempting to ram the Han army's flanks with fire ships.
However, the Han army's small boats were extremely agile, always managing to avoid collisions at the last minute, and using long hooks and grappling hooks to hook enemy ships, sending suicide squads to board them.
The sea was soon littered with broken planks and floating corpses. Blood stained large areas of the sea dark red, and seagulls circled low overhead, emitting mournful cries.
"Your Majesty, the Han army's formation has weakened!" Cao Zhen sent a messenger with a battle report, his tone filled with excitement.
Lan Yu stood on high ground, observing coldly. What he saw was a different scene altogether: although the Han army was suffering repeated defeats in local battles and losing many small boats, their overall formation was not broken. On the contrary, it seemed that they were systematically retreating, gradually luring the vanguard of the Da De army into the deep sea.
“Something’s not right.” Lan Yu frowned. “That old fox Fu Youde couldn’t possibly be so easily defeated.”
Zhang Yi also sensed something amiss: "Your Majesty, the main force of the Han army's ironclad warships has not yet moved; they seem to be hiding something."
"Hide?" Lan Yu sneered. "No matter what they're hiding, they'll be crushed in the face of our overwhelming numerical superiority! Order Zhang Yi to send the entire army forward! Stop engaging them and ram them directly into their central flagship!"
"Destroy them!"
"Yes!"
The soldiers immediately responded by signaling with flags.
With Lan Yu's order to launch a general offensive, the main fleet of the German army began to advance in full force. More than two thousand warships of various sizes formed three massive attack waves, surging towards the Han army in an overwhelming manner.
This is the most breathtaking scene of naval warfare in the era of cold weapons: thousands of warships rowing simultaneously, thousands of war drums beating at the same time, black shadows of ships obscuring the sea, and waves rising several meters high.
The sky trembled, and the sea roared.
Fu Youde remained standing still, quietly watching the destructive wave approach until the enemy warships' menacing rams were clearly visible, until he could see the ferocious expressions on the faces of the enemy soldiers.
“Give the order,” Fu Youde’s voice was eerily calm, “all men turn around and face the enemy from the side. Prepare… ‘Thor’s Hammer’.”
This order was instantly transmitted throughout the entire Han fleet via a complex and sophisticated flag signaling system.
The Han warships, which had initially appeared to be on the defensive, suddenly began to rotate sideways in unison, as if by magic. The bows and sterns that had been facing the enemy were now all turned to the side.
The German soldiers were surprised to find that rows of dark, square windows had appeared on the sides of the Han Chinese warships.
"What the hell are those things?" a German soldier asked in horror, pointing at the windows.
The answer is revealed in the next second: the shipborne cannon specially developed by the Great Han Technology Academy is codenamed Thor's Hammer!
"put!"
At Fu Youde's command, the two thousand sleeping behemoths roared with earth-shattering power.
At that moment, the world seemed to be torn apart.
It wasn't the hum of a bowstring, nor the click of a crossbow mechanism, but rather two thousand simultaneous explosions, a deafening roar like thunder from the heavens.
boom--!!!
Countless enormous orange-red flames erupted from the sides of the Han army warships, accompanied by thick white smoke.
This is no ordinary musket or catapult, but the ultimate weapon secretly developed over five years by the Artillery Bureau of the Great Han Dynasty's Academy of Science and Technology—Thor's Hammer, a shipborne heavy cannon.
Two thousand massive steel cannons, each requiring five gunners to operate, and each shell weighing thirty pounds. The immense recoil at the moment of ignition caused even the towering warship to tremble.
The vanguard fleet of the German army was the first to be hit.
A solid iron ball whistled through the air, easily piercing the thin hull of a sea gyrfalcon, tearing the ship in half like paper. Then came the second, the third… a dense hail of bullets blanketed the entire sea.
This is no longer a battle between people, but a contest between steel and flesh.
German warships exploded and disintegrated one after another under the gunfire.
Thick wooden planks could not stop the high-speed flying iron ball, and the sturdy keel was like rotten wood in the face of enormous kinetic energy.
The shell pierced the hull, sweeping everything in its path within the confined cabin, hurling severed limbs and debris, mixed with wood chips and seawater, into the air.
"This is impossible! What kind of sorcery is this!" Cao Zhen's eyes widened in fury as his flagship was struck in the powder magazine with a deafening roar. The entire ship was torn to shreds in the earth-shattering explosion, and Cao Zhen himself was reduced to ashes in the flames.
Zhang Yi's situation was slightly better; his Mengchong ship had thick armor, but it could only withstand one or two shells.
Soon, his fleet was also decimated. Soldiers fled frantically on the deck, only to be hit by the second and third volleys of fire and fall in droves.
No intact warships could be seen on the sea; everywhere were burning wreckage and struggling survivors.
The seawater was no longer blue or red, but a murky blackish-red, with oil, wood chips, and human tissue floating on it. Screams, cries for help, and wails intertwined to create a symphony of hell.
Lan Yu stood on the Emperor Ship, his face pale and filled with shock. What the hell was this? There were no such powerful cannons at the Poyang Lake water station six years ago!
At this moment, his proud 150,000-strong army was as vulnerable as a group of eggs rushing towards the city walls in front of two thousand cannons. He watched helplessly as his imperial fleet, once an invincible force, was reduced to a pile of floating scrap metal in just half an hour.
"Your Majesty! Retreat quickly!" The guards dragged Lan Yu along, crying and pleading with him.
Lan Yu stared at the two thousand giant cannons still spewing fire, his eyes filled with resentment, fear, and despair. He knew that all was lost.
"Send the order: flagship, break out! The rest of the ships, flee for your lives!" Lan Yu's voice was hoarse, filled with endless exhaustion and desolation.
The collapse of the Great German Fleet was comprehensive. Without command, the warships were either destroyed by artillery fire, turned erratically, or even collided with each other. Surviving soldiers jumped into the sea, trying to swim back to shore, but many more sank with the sinking ships, forever sinking to the cold seabed.
Fu Youde did not order a pursuit. He looked at the German soldiers struggling in the sea and simply ordered, "Cease the shelling, retrieve the prisoners, and treat the wounded."
Fu Youde knew that Chen Jie's strategic goal was to occupy, not to eliminate, so the population was still very important. He should do his best to help His Majesty preserve some people, as these would be wealth in the future.
The naval battle between the two armies lasted from sunrise to sunset.
As the last rays of sunlight disappeared below the horizon, the East China Sea returned to calm.
But this calm was a deathly silence. Countless corpses and wreckage floated on the sea for miles around. Two thousand cannons lay silently in the side compartments of Han warships, their muzzles still warm, announcing the arrival of a new era in an almost cruel way.
Lan Yu, with a few thousand remaining soldiers, fled back to the coast of eastern Zhejiang in a sorry state. Standing on the desolate beach, he looked back at the dark sea that had swallowed his 150,000-strong army, and only one thought remained in his mind: The Han Dynasty is invincible, it's terrifying. In just a few years, Chen Jiu Si has developed the military of the Han Dynasty into what it is now. What about in another five years?
Meanwhile, at sea, Fu Youde climbed onto the deck and, gazing at the ravaged sea, slowly removed his helmet. The sea breeze ruffled his slightly gray hair. Looking at his men who were retrieving corpses, he sighed softly, "In times of prosperity, the people suffer; in times of ruin, the people suffer. In this battle, I wonder how many more mothers will lose their sons, and how many wives will lose their husbands."
He won, won completely, won without a doubt. But he felt no joy in victory, only a deep, lingering sorrow.
Because he knew that from this day forward, the nature of warfare had been completely transformed. The chivalry and bravery of the age of cold weapons appeared so pale and powerless before those two thousand roaring cannons.
At the same time, he also had a feeling that with the current strength of the Han Dynasty, unifying the world was only a matter of time.
While Fu Youde was lost in thought, Emperor Shengzong of Tang came to report. After listening to the report, Fu Youde said, "Don't stop at Jeju Island, seize Fusangma Island directly!"
"Yes, sir!" (End of Chapter)