Chapter 1197: Vanguard Battle

Most of the No. 4 warships in Mude's fleet were built in a hurry to smoothly send the soldiers of the Michael Knights to the Blue Water Port of the Holy Hilan Empire during the "Northern Great Turn" operation three years ago.

After the "Northern Great Turn" operation ended, these No. 4 warships that were built temporarily were piled up in the navy base.

No one thought that these transport ships that were built temporarily three years ago would be of such great use.

Such a large number of transport ships are more than enough to carry all the soldiers of the Michael Knights responsible for going south.

If such a large number of transport ships had not been built temporarily three years ago, Su Cheng would not have been able to use the power of the ships so smoothly to send his troops to the south and the east.

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A full 20 warships as huge as hills sailed out of the Royal Fleet of the Frank Empire and headed straight for the vanguard of the Britannia Army.

The vanguard of the Britannia Army is 35 No. 2 warships specially used for boarding battles.

The commander of these 35 warships was the deputy commander of the navy, Blaise Short.

Su Cheng gave Blaise the important task of being the vanguard in the first battle with the enemy.

The warship Blaise was riding on rushed to the front of all the ships.

He himself stood at the bow, leaning his knight's sword on the ground, looking expressionlessly at the Frankish vanguard that was getting closer and closer to them.

The reason why he let the warship he was riding rush to the front and stood at the bow of the warship in person was to boost morale and let the vanguard soldiers who followed him to fight the enemy clearly see his figure.

See his figure charging at the front.

And Blaise's well-intentioned move was not in vain.

The vanguard soldiers who followed Blaise saw that their commander was so brave, and their morale soared.

The boat driver used all his strength to drive the boat forward at a faster speed.

The soldiers who were responsible for using the various equipment on the ship were eager to fight the Franks.

The vanguard of Su Cheng's army had 35 ships.

The vanguard of Otto's army had only 20 ships.

In terms of quantity, the vanguard of Su Cheng's army had a huge advantage.

Of course, it was only in terms of quantity.

If you were to visit the scene and see the size difference between the warships of the two armies, you would blurt out: Otto's army had an absolute advantage!

Because the ships of Otto's vanguard were all their main battleships as huge as a hill.

Even the largest battleship No. 1 among the four types of ships in the Britannia Empire Navy was far smaller than the main battleship of the Royal Fleet.

Even the largest battleship No. 1 was not as good as the main battleship of the Royal Fleet, let alone the battleship No. 2, which was a circle smaller than the battleship No. 1.

From the perspective of Blaise and others, the vanguard troops of the Otto Army, which were pressing towards them step by step, were like a series of mountains pressing towards them.

When the distance between the two armies was still relatively far, the gap between them was not very obvious.

But after the distance between the two armies was shortened, the gap was instantly widened.

Looking at the "mountains" one after another, the fighting spirit of the generals and soldiers of the Su Cheng Army's vanguard troops, who were still in high spirits just now, withered.

Facing these "mountains" pressing towards them, the fear and oppression they felt were no different from facing the enemy's heavy cavalry charge on land.

Even Blaise couldn't help swallowing his saliva involuntarily because of nervousness and fear when he saw these "mountains" pressing towards them.

——Looking closer, it's really oppressive...

Blaise said in his heart.

——I have never heard that the Frank Empire is researching new warships, nor have I ever heard that the Frank Empire is building such a large-scale fleet.

——The research and development of new warships and the formation of fleets were all carried out in secret...

——It must have taken a lot of time to study warships with such terrifying pressure and build such a large fleet...

——In order to defeat our Britannia Empire, the Franks also spent a lot of effort.

Blaise is the deputy commander of the navy, and his knowledge of ships and naval warfare is naturally much more professional than others.

Blaise knows how time-consuming and labor-intensive it is to study new warships and build fleets.

According to Blaise's estimation, it should have taken at least 10 years to build the Royal Fleet of the Frankish Empire.

——Well, how long did it take for the Frankish Empire to successfully build this fleet? This matter has nothing to do with me.

——I'd better focus on what I should do.

After shaking his head vigorously to get rid of the messy thoughts in his mind, Blaze picked up the knight's sword that had been leaning on the deck from a while ago, drew the sword out of the sheath with a "swoosh", and pointed the tip of the sword at the vanguard of the Otto Army in front.

"Stone cannon, giant crossbow ready!"

Stone cannon and giant crossbow - one of the standard equipment of the navy.

The so-called stone cannon, in simple terms, is an improved catapult.

The sophisticated catapult is moved onto the warship, and its operating principle is not much different from the catapult, so people usually call it "stone cannon".

Giant crossbows - that is, improved siege crossbows.

Stone cannons and giant crossbows are the only two long-range weapons of the navy - this is the case for all armies.

Blaise has actually been silently calculating the distance between the two armies.

After the vanguard of the Otto army had entered their attack range, Blaise immediately asked his soldiers to prepare for long-range attacks.

In less than a minute, Blaise received that all ships had completed the preparations for the use of stone cannons and giant crossbows.

All the stone cannons and giant crossbows in Blaise's army were aimed at the warships of the Frankish vanguard in front.

Blaise raised the knight's sword in his hand high, and then swung it down heavily.

"Fire!"

As Blaise's attack order was issued, huge stones and huge arrows smashed towards the Frankish vanguard with amazing momentum and power.

Boom!

Swish!

The rumbling sound of the huge stones hitting the wood and the crisp muffled sound of the huge arrows penetrating the wooden boards came one after another.

Due to the accuracy and the distance between the two armies, the number of boulders and crossbow arrows that successfully hit the Frankish ships was actually very small.

Out of 10 stones, only 1 or 2 could hit the target.

However, because the Britannian army fired a large number of boulders and crossbow arrows at once, the base number was large enough, so the number of boulders and crossbow arrows that successfully hit the target was quite large.

Many Frankish warships were hit by boulders or crossbow arrows.