"Wanyan Xuanzong, do you know what you're doing? This is the flagship of the Great Jin navy. At a time like this, you're only turning the flagship to flee into the deep sea. What about the rest of the warships?"
Looking at Wanyan Xuanzong and the dozens of Jurchen soldiers carrying steel sabers by his side, Yelü Zhenghuan wished he could chop this guy into pieces and feed him to the sharks.
Fighting alongside the flagship at sea was a fundamental rule of naval warfare.
If they chose to flee now, the remaining warships would have no choice but to follow suit.
And their fleet was incapable of entering the deep sea. If they forced the smaller boats to follow them into the deep sea now, wouldn't that be a death sentence?
"I can't worry about that much. If you want to die, go die yourself! Issue the order, full speed ahead, and shake off these Song people!"
Seeing the broken corpses floating in the sea, Wanyan Xuanzong, without a second thought, pointed his steel saber directly at Yelü Zhenghuan.
"Damn it, my brothers are fighting for their lives here, and you're trying to desert!"
"Take him down!"
Even though Yelü Zhenghuan was furious, the Jurchen soldiers around Wanyan Xuanzong didn't show him any respect.
These were Wanyan Xuanzong's trusted men, and naturally, they didn't want to watch him be buried with these lowly Liao people!
Seeing that these men were already drawing their swords, Yelü Zhenghuan's confidants also drew their steel sabers, and the atmosphere on the ship suddenly became tense.
Before the enemy arrived, they were already falling apart...
"Ah—"
"Ah—"
Just as both sides were on the verge of a bloody conflict, the Jin soldiers on the first few small boats that had approached the Song warships suddenly let out heart-wrenching screams.
When Yelü Zhenghuan turned to look, he saw that the Song people on the larger ships had produced several long copper tubes from somewhere.
These copper tubes were currently spewing flames nearly twenty feet long!
Any Jin soldier who dared to approach them was instantly turned into a burning inferno!
"This, this is a powerful fire oil device! They've managed to bring this thing onto a ship..."
Upon seeing this, Yelü Zhenghuan almost collapsed onto the deck.
The Liao army had also captured several of these powerful fire oil devices and had even attempted to replicate them. However, due to technical limitations,
the sealing was always inadequate, and the devices were too large. Combined with the complex craftsmanship, making such a device small enough required pure copper casting.
This might not be an issue for the Song people, but for the Liao people, the cost was so high that they couldn't afford it!
Although these devices were indeed expensive, Yelü Zhenghuan had to admit that they were true naval weapons.
With them, any ship that dared to approach would eventually be reduced to a pile of charred remains!
He had initially hoped to capture a few large ships by boarding them, but seeing these devices now, he knew they had no chance.
"Arrest them all, let's go!"
Although Wanyan Xuanzong had also seen the Song army's powerful fire oil devices, he had never encountered such a thing before and naturally didn't know its power. While Yelü Zhenghuan and his men were stunned, he immediately ordered his soldiers to control them all.
After controlling all the officers, Wanyan Xuanzong quickly took command of the entire fleet.
The fleet, which had been charging towards the Song army, saw their flagship turn and flee, and had no choice but to turn around and follow him into the deep sea.
Seeing this, even Li Bao was taken aback.
"What's going on? They're just running away, isn't that seeking death?"
"Why bother with them? Isn't this better? We just need to follow behind and drive them into the deep sea!"
Looking at the towering ships in the Jin army formation, Yue Fei sneered disdainfully.
The Song army's ships already had an advantage in speed, and with the added advantage of weapons, if the Jin forces were only focused on escaping, they had no chance of winning!
The sea was cruel, but it was also fair. The sea winds and waves would not shift according to anyone's will.
Ordinary tower ships could barely navigate near the coast, but the situation was completely different in the deep sea.
Most seafaring vessels were pointed-bottomed, with a draft that often accounted for forty to sixty percent of their total height.
However, the situation with tower ships was entirely different. Even with the ballast stones added to their limit, the draft of a tower ship was less than one-fifth of its total height.
In such a situation, once they entered the deep sea, if the wind and waves became even slightly strong, the Song army wouldn't even need to attack them; a wave could send them all to the bottom of the sea!
Li Bao understood this principle, and Yelü Zhenghuan also understood it, but Wanyan Xuanzong, who was desperately trying to escape, did not.
Under the cooperation of Wanyan Xuanzong and the Song navy, the formidable Jin navy silently sailed into the deep-sea zone.
"Whoosh—"
Not long after entering the deep-sea zone, a hurricane caused Wanyan Xuanzong's flagship to sway violently.
After he finally regained his balance and looked behind him, he was shocked to find that of the nearly 500 ships that had followed him, less than thirty percent remained...
"General, we can't go any further! If we continue like this, our ships will capsize in the waves!"
Seeing that the wind and waves were getting stronger, the sailors on the ship could no longer stand it.
They would rather die fighting than silently perish at sea.
"General, the Song army's ships are catching up! Let's fight them! Let's fight them!"
"You're talking nonsense! Keep moving forward, keep moving forward!"
Even though it was difficult to stand steady now, Wanyan Xuanzong, looking at the nearly a hundred warships of the Song army, unhesitatingly issued the order to continue forward.
"Boom—"
"Boom—"
"Boom—"
As if to echo his decision, dozens of rapid explosions were heard from behind.
And along with the explosions, more than a dozen Jin naval warships left at the rear of the formation disappeared.
"Crack— Snap—"
"Oh no, the mast is broken!"