Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 290: End of the Naval Battle
The Frankish coalition had a total of only 25 combat ships, while the Saracen fleet had 35. Both sides used galleys for combat, and the specifications of the ships were basically the same. There were both huge ships of forty or fifty meters and flexible boats of twenty meters in length.

Although the Venetians and Jerusalem had an advantage in the first move, if you raise your perspective and look down at the ocean, you will find that it seems that the Saracens set up a pocket formation and let many ships rush in.

The Venetians and Watt were actually aware of this scene, but they also understood that without sufficient firepower on the sea, what use would a pocket formation be?

The consequence of this situation was that the galleys in the middle of the opposite side fell into confusion and hesitation when facing the bombardment and seeing the Venetians' attack, while the galleys on the other two sides tried to outflank the two wings of the coalition forces just like fighting on land.

Naval battles these days lack effective means of communication, and in the end each ship still fights on its own. The captains of each ship have almost absolute authority in wartime, and their understanding of naval warfare will be implemented in the practice of naval warfare.

Zakaria, who knew a little about naval warfare, had no way of passing on his experience to other captains in the war. All he could do was order the flagship he commanded to speed up and charge. He needed to escape from such a chaotic situation and launch an attack on the enemy.

If possible, he would also use the several cannons on his bow to attack the people on the Crusader galleys.

At this moment when Zakaria took the initiative to attack, the Venetians had already found their respective targets and began to cooperate tacitly in pairs.

Cannons could change the form of naval warfare, but they cannot do so at the moment. The total number of cannons on the fleet of the Kingdom of Jerusalem is only 18, while on the Venetian ships, each ship has only one cannon.

Before the number is sufficient to cause a qualitative change, it would be more effective to fight in the same way as before.

Compared to the Saracen fleets that attempted to outflank the enemy at sea, Venice was more proficient in galley warfare.

At this point in the 12th century, boarding warfare could be said to be the undisputed main method of combat for galleys. When two ships collided, whichever ship had the best people chopping and fighting could capture the opposing ship.

When they cooperate in pairs, they can achieve an absolute numerical crush after the boarding battle begins and defeat the resistance on the enemy ship as quickly as possible.

Compared to the Saracens' attempt to form an overall siege, the Venetians were much more realistic. They knew that the Saracens were actually dreaming.

The so-called encirclement is meaningless on such a vast sea. In a situation where the galley is used as a combat platform, only by creating a local numerical crush and seizing enemy ships can the enemy's manpower be effectively attacked.

When some Saracens tried to avoid fighting in order to maintain the siege, they actually abandoned the ships besieged by the Venetians.

If you don't quickly provide support when a fight breaks out, you will be eaten bite by bite.

Perhaps someone among the Saracens was aware of this situation, but he was unable to change the situation or inform his friendly forces who were roaming around without fighting.

And when the Venetian ship happened to be besieged by two Saracen ships, they showed a resilience completely different from that of the Saracens. The free rowers on the Venetian ship drew the weapons under their benches and resolutely joined the melee.

For those free rowers, they knew that if they lost the war, they would be sold into slavery.

They were either Venetians themselves or people recruited from various colonies in Venice. Although they were rowers, at least they could get paid. But if they were sold as slaves, they would not have many years to live.

At this point, the Venetians could be quite proud to say that from the very beginning of their establishment, their rowers were paid free men rather than slaves.

At this moment, the significance of the free rowers easily affected the balance of victory or defeat. When the Venetian galleys attacked, they cooperated in pairs, and when they boarded the ship, they directly fought two against one.

When the Venetians were boarded, the rowers also drew their weapons and joined the battle, directly fighting two combatants, and killing the enemy one by one, or fighting two by one until friendly forces came to support them, and then completing the counterattack.

In the battle between galleys, there were no so-called formations or wonderful strategies. Instead, it was a simple and straightforward gamble with human lives as the stakes.

Every boarding battle between galleys was a small gamble, and each time the Venetians were able to put out nearly twice as many chips as the other side, winning one round after another, and finally accumulating an overall advantage.

At the same time, Water and his men had completed six rounds of artillery fire and were now fighting on their own.

Unlike the Venetian galleys that were actively attacking, Water and his men were quite steady. It could even be said that they were beginning to try to leave the battlefield, retreating at a constant speed.

"Keep a distance of about 70 steps from those Saracen ships. It's unnecessary to be too far, and there are risks if you are too close." Watt said to the naval captain beside him.

The captain nodded. Although they were not afraid of boarding the Saracens, since they had superior firepower, there was no need to win by exchanging lives on the deck.

The artillery used in naval battles is different from that used in land battles. At least they no longer have to worry about the transportation inconvenience caused by the weight of the artillery.

However, the problem is that for medium and large paddle sailing ships with multiple layers of hull planks, even a "heavy artillery" with a 120mm caliber and a 22-pound lead bullet can only smash through the hull and make a hole, but cannot cause any structural damage.

Moreover, considering the resistance caused by entering the water, even if solid bullets are used, it is rare to penetrate below the waterline.

In the era of sailing warships, as long as the damage control was strong enough, the ship might not sink even if all the gunners died.

This actually meant that the fleet of the Kingdom of Jerusalem acted as archers in this naval battle, delivering long-range attacks and weakening the manpower on the Saracen galleys. However, it was still the Venetians, who were skilled in naval warfare, who truly determined the outcome.

"So, we won?" Gailis looked at the battle report and was a little confused. Just this morning, the Tukobos who were exploring the front of the army came back to report that a naval battle had broken out between the Crusaders' fleet and the Saracens' fleet.

Just before 12 noon, a small boat brought a battle report to report the situation to Garys and his men.

To sum it up, the Crusader fleet won a great victory, with only 25 galleys facing 35 enemy galleys, and they captured 15 enemy ships and sank 2.

The Jerusalem fleet's Acre was hit by two shells from the enemy ship. The solid shells and the splashing wood chips caused a bloody storm on the lower deck, and twelve people were killed.

However, apart from this, Gailis did not see any other casualty figures. As for the situation on the Venetians, it was not mentioned in the report. Obviously, the Venetians did not know how many of their own people had died in the battle. If they wanted to count, they had to return to the shore.

Garys had little knowledge of naval battles of that time, so it was naturally difficult for him to imagine from this report what kind of bloody battles Walter and his men had experienced. When he handed the report to Eden, Eden was also a little confused.

"We won anyway, so let's leave it at that. Let Walter and the others write a detailed report and record it in the war history. We will then see how to commend them, including how to provide pensions and publicity for the sailors who died."

"Ah."

The staff officers present nodded, this was their responsibility.

The army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem now does not take the benefits from above and take the blame from below. Instead, collective merit and individual merit are divided very carefully. Different behaviors bring completely different merits, and there are clear regulations on what kind of merits can lead to promotion of military rank and title.

Moreover, commending such things is an excellent publicity opportunity, which can improve the public's perception of the army and make many commanders and fighters fight more actively.

On the other hand, later on, Saladin also received news about the defeat of his fleet.

But how can I explain this? Why does it feel so unpredictable?

35 ships fought against 25 ships of others, and they lost. Logically, I should show some shock.

But the sad thing is that he has become accustomed to it...

The Muslims were used to being beaten by the Franks on the sea time and time again, and were used to losing again and again after fighting with that group of people.

It has to be said that even though Saladin almost unified the Middle East as a Kurd, he failed to instill enough martial virtues in the Muslims of that era, and he remained as lame as ever.

In the Mediterranean at that time, the Saracens had poor martial ethics, but the Franks and Germanic barbarians had good martial ethics. In the East, there were Crusades again and again, in the West, there were rounds of reconquests, and in the North, there were colonizations and developments towards Eastern Europe. The entire Catholic world in Europe was in a direction of active outward expansion.

These actions of external exploration and expansion persisted for hundreds of years. It can be said that the discovery of the New World was an inevitable accident for Europe. The only difference was whether it happened earlier or later and whether it was successful.

When the defeat of the naval battle became a foregone conclusion, the initiative of the war fell to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Saladin once heard a saying: "Criticism can make a man, but praise can destroy him."

The higher the Caliph praises him, the harder he will fall when he loses the war. To put it bluntly, this is flattery, a conspiracy but also an open one.

But did Saladin still have a way out? No, there was no way out. There was a single-plank bridge in front of him, and a bottomless abyss behind him. If he fought the Crusaders, he might still be able to survive, but if he retreated even a little bit, the ambitious people in his dynasty would probably turn against him.

"Adil," Saladin called.

"exist."

"This is our last battle."

Hearing Saladin say this, Adil felt a little at a loss. When he heard the news of the navy's defeat, all he could feel was absurdity.

It was obvious that he had invested a huge amount of effort in that navy, but when it came to real contact, it was as fragile as an egg hitting a stone.

"If we lose, you will immediately rush to Egypt and organize the defense there. I will find a way to go to Damascus."

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Damascus and Egypt are far apart from each other. Even if something happens in one place, the other can survive.

At this time, family continuation is more important than personal gains and losses.

Faced with his brother's caution, Adil nodded. Things had come to this point. There was no way to plan for victory, so the first thing to do was to prepare for defeat.

As long as you are alive, you will make a comeback sooner or later.

(End of this chapter)