The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 445 The Great Jin Navy

Just as Yue Fei conquered the six prefectures of Jingzhou and Xiangyang, and was confronting Yue Wenxuan across the Tongbai Mountains.

In Dengzhou, a large fleet of ships is preparing to depart for Lushun, Dalian.

The main force of this fleet was Li Bao, the admiral of the Northern Song Dynasty's navy, while surrendered generals Yang Tian, ​​Yang Xiao, and Xu Wen each led a squadron to support him.

The fleet consisted of about a hundred ships of various sizes, with a total strength of over ten thousand men.

In addition to the regular army, the Northern Song Dynasty also mobilized a large number of private merchant ships from the Jiaodong and Jiangwei regions, totaling more than one hundred ships and employing more than five thousand private sailors, specifically to transport provisions and weapons for the regular army.

Ultimately, a massive fleet of over two hundred ships and more than sixteen thousand people was formed.

The flagship where Li Bao was stationed was a large Ming Dynasty Fujian ship painted entirely red, named "Shandong".

Xu Wen used a black Spanish galleon as his flagship, named "Black Pearl".

Yang Tian and Yang Xiao's flagship was a large Dutch sailing ship painted orange, named "Flying Hunanese".

These ships are all tall, imposing, and incredibly cool.

This made the notorious pirate Ko Chun a little envious...

Gao Jin was in charge of leading all the civilian ships to provide logistical support to the main force. He glanced at the impressive ships of the generals, then at his own pitiful merchant ship, and shamelessly approached Li Bao, saying, "General Li, you see... I am, after all, a general in the logistics force. My poor merchant ship is an insult to the prestige of our great nation. If our logistics team is attacked by the Jin navy, we can't function without warships to support us, can we? Don't you have any extra, imposing warships? Please assign me one temporarily..."

Upon careful consideration, Li Bao realized that this made sense. Although the Jin navy was weak, it still had some strength. If the Jin navy were to overrun his logistics forces while he was conducting landing operations at the front, that would be disastrous. He needed to provide Gao Jin with some fighting capability.

"Alright, it just so happens that Young Master Yue gave me two boats to play with, so I'll give them to you."

Li Bao waved his hand, and his men brought out two oddly shaped boats and placed them in front of Gao Jin.

One was a Japanese ironclad warship from the Warring States period, and the other was a Korean turtle ship.

Gao Jin glanced at the two ships, immediately ignoring the ugly turtle ship, and fixed his gaze on the "Ironclad Ship." This ship was tall and square, with two towers built on it. The hull was completely encased in thick iron plates, with firing ports cut into the plates for the musketeers to fire.

Gao Jin took one look at the thick iron plate and immediately liked it: "Wow, this ship is great, I want to use this as my flagship."

Li Bao chuckled sarcastically, "Young Master Yue said that although this ship looks imposing, in reality, it's all talk and no action. These thin iron plates can only block arrows and muskets, not naval cannons. If it were to fight a real warship, one shot could overturn many of its armor plates, and it could be stripped bare in no time. Moreover, it has too many iron plates, making it top-heavy and only suitable for coastal waters. It can't go far out to sea; a gust of wind could capsize it."

Gao Jin chuckled and said, "It's alright, it's alright. Only we have naval cannons, the Jin Kingdom doesn't. That's why I'm using this big iron ship, the Jin Kingdom won't even understand it. As for the issue of near-sea and far-sea, that's not a problem either. We're just crossing the strait to fight the Jin Kingdom, we're not going very far."

After thinking about it carefully, Li Bao realized that it made sense.

Gao Jin's men quickly took over the ironclad ships and turtle ships. The pirates had spent their lives at sea and knew how to operate any ship they got their hands on, so it was no problem for them to operate the ironclad ships and turtle ships.

With over two hundred ships ready, Li Bao waved his hand and said, "Set sail, cross the strait, destination: Dalian and Lushun!"

The massive fleet set sail... The Jiaodong Peninsula and the Liaodong Peninsula are only a little over 100 kilometers apart at their closest point, so the fleet doesn't need to go at full speed; a speed of 10 knots will suffice.

In just half a day, the fleet was able to see the coastline of the Liaodong Peninsula.
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At that time, Lushun was not actually called Lushun, but "Shizikou".

Li Bao and others have started referring to it as Lushun, entirely because they were led astray by Yue Wenxuan.

Here lies a natural bay, resembling the open mouth of a lion, with two landmasses shaped like the upper and lower jaws of a lion protecting the bay, forming a natural harbor.

The Jin Dynasty wasn't stupid; of course they would station their navy here.

The person in charge of commanding this navy stationed at Lion's Mouth was originally named "Wu Dudu". After the Jin Dynasty entered the Central Plains, he was unwilling to use such a strange name anymore, so he changed his name to Wanyan Heshou.

Wanyan Heshou was still very young at this time, only eighteen years old, a truly heroic young man.

He stood before the Jin Dynasty's naval fleet, surveying his "large" fleet with a satisfied expression.

The fleet consisted of twenty-three ships, the largest of which was over twenty meters long and the smallest was over ten meters long. The ships were filled with brave Jurchen and Bohai soldiers...

Of course, these soldiers are not professional naval personnel!
The distinction between the Jin Dynasty's navy and army was not very clear. When the army boarded a ship, they became the navy, and when the navy landed, they became the army. This was similar to how Li Bao learned naval warfare at the beginning.

Wanyan Heshou's gaze swept over the brave soldiers, and he was very satisfied: "Very good, very spirited! Our Great Jin Kingdom will conquer the Song Kingdom and seize the world sooner or later, so our navy must begin to be built! His Majesty has already set out a great naval development plan, preparing to build 600 warships and expand the navy's strength to 70,000 men in the next thirty years!"

(PS: In 1134, the Jin Dynasty only had about twenty ships. But by 1161, the Jin navy had more than six hundred ships and seventy thousand soldiers.)
Jin soldiers: "Roar! Roar! Roar!"

Wanyan Heshou: "You are the starting point of our Jin Kingdom. The Jin Kingdom's dominance of the seas begins with us!"

Jin soldiers: "Roar! Roar! Roar!"

Just when everyone was filled with righteous indignation, brimming with ambition and hope for the future...

The lookout on the watchtower cried out in alarm, “Ships! Ships are coming! So many ships, so many, so many, ahhhhh!”

The lookout was terrified; his roar was filled with despair and collapse, a fear and confusion that saw no future.

Wanyan Heshou wasn't standing very high, so he had no idea what was happening. He looked up and angrily shouted at the lookout, "What are you yelling about? Are you sick? How many enemies have come and scared you like this? What kind of proud Jurchen warrior do you think you are?"

The lookout cried out in a desperate voice, "Two hundred...two hundred ships...Northern Song...more than two hundred ships..."

Wanyan Heshou: "?"

"Aaaaaaah!" In the next instant, Wanyan Heshou also screamed in agony.

(End of this chapter)