The Knight Commander had spent plenty of time at sea himself. He knew the enemy’s tactic was meant to cut off the main fleet’s other routes and keep it from joining up with the second fleet.

Under the circumstances, launching a fierce attack to keep the enemy ships tangled up with his own fleet was arguably the wiser choice.

With the Kingdom’s fleet caught in a pincer, it had two ways to respond.

The first was to use its speed advantage to destroy one enemy fleet, then turn around and deal with the other.

That wasn’t possible under the current circumstances. The gap in the number of ships on each side was simply too great.

Even if every ship in the Kingdom’s fleet sank an enemy ship in a short time, they’d have dealt with only a quarter of the enemy.

That left only the second option.

The Knight Commander thought he’d figured out what it was.

“We’ve blocked the enemy on their lower right and upper left. Their fleet is moving along a diagonal now. They’re definitely trying to lure our two fleets into colliding with each other.”

Once he saw through their plan, the Knight Commander signaled the friendly ships in both directions, ordering them to change course.

From upper left and upper right to straight ahead and due right.

That way, the Kingdom’s ships moving along the diagonal could no longer guide the two Imperial fleets into each other.

As long as he kept his ships from moving too fast, the Knight Commander planned to cut off every escape route and slowly wear down the enemy’s will to fight.

Of course, if the opportunity arose, he’d use his numerical advantage to settle things once and for all in a boarding action.

Judging by the situation, the Kingdom’s intentions had been completely exposed. It looked like they had no moves left.

The Knight Commander believed victory was certain.

If he managed to wipe out the enemy’s main navy, that achievement might even earn him a promotion after the war—making him the Empire’s fifth marshal.

Overall, the Empire was in an excellent position.

Before long, dozens of small and medium-sized warships moved in front of the Kingdom fleet’s leading ships, just in time to complete the encirclement.

But then…

“Enemy ships are blocking the way ahead! Quickly, give this ship the order to…”

One of the three rulers cried out to Anliexi.

The gray-robed man gave a cold laugh, cutting him off before telling Anliexi:

“The time has come. Carry out the plan as agreed!”

Then the rulers heard Anliexi bark an order:

“Change course!”

The helmsman acknowledged the order, and in an astonishingly short time the Kingdom fleet swung around, changing course from upper left to upper right.

The gray-robed man hadn’t told Anliexi to give the order so the Kingdom’s ships could avoid the enemy vessels blocking their way. He wanted them to pass through the gap between the two enemy fleets.

It was extraordinarily difficult. The entire fleet had to turn in an instant; without sailors experienced in naval warfare at the helm, the maneuver would have been impossible.

Twenty paces. Ten. Five…

The Imperial soldiers saw their ships about to collide with the warships carrying their own comrades. There was nothing they could do. They could only stare, dumbstruck, as the massive vessels rushed toward them.

Only a few reacted quickly enough to jump overboard. The rest could think of only one thing:

No way. They’re really going to ram us?

Yes. They really were going to ram them head-on!

Amid one deep, thunderous crash after another, the poor medium-sized warships collided with vessels from their own side.

Soon, the bows of all those ships were damaged.

Many Imperial soldiers who hadn’t managed to get clear tumbled into the sea through cracks in the hulls after the collisions.

More than four hundred ships collided. The Imperial fleet’s losses didn’t grow even worse only because the helmsmen at the rear handled their ships skillfully.

Seizing the chance to strike while the enemy formation was in disarray, the gray-robed man told Anliexi to order their large ships to ram the enemy, making the Imperial soldiers relive their earlier terror.

Using your own large ships to ram smaller and medium-sized enemy vessels was a common tactic throughout naval history.

Many nations had even developed warships with sharp rams a century earlier. A single impact could punch a huge hole in an enemy hull…

Even so, during this period, a warship’s ram was still mainly used like a “nail.”

That is, after ramming another ship, it would hold the two vessels fast together.

This disrupted the enemy ship’s ability to maneuver.

It also let the crews fight hand to hand across the joined ships’ rails.

At sea, actually ramming another ship until it sank wasn’t easy.

Ships making a ramming attack generally couldn’t reach the speed or generate the impact needed to smash through an enemy vessel and sink it. At most, they could capsize it.

That was one thing if the target was about the same size as your ship, or smaller.

But if it was larger than your own vessel…

In that case, you had to wait for water pouring through the hole to slowly drag the ship down, then strike at just the right moment.

There was another condition for making that work.

The warship’s “nail” had to come free of the enemy hull, and your own ship had to be able to reverse.

That was extremely difficult for ships powered by both sails and oars.

So in this era, ramming was mainly a way to close in for combat. Sinking the enemy came second.

The warships on both sides weren’t all that different in overall performance.

However, the Knight Commander had limited experience commanding naval battles, and Inran had never been much of a naval power.

Anliexi, on the other hand, had ruled the seas across one region after another since he was young. Even when his fleet was at its smallest, he still had more than a hundred warships.

At the time, another enemy force had fought the Kingdom with a full five hundred warships.

If his sailors hadn’t been so skilled, and his own command so capable, how could the Kingdom have crushed that enormous enemy fleet in a single battle despite being outnumbered?

By then, the Imperial fleet had finally managed to turn around and was preparing to block part of the Kingdom’s fleet.

But every ship sent to intercept them was shoved aside by the enemy’s giant vessels.

That frightened the crews so badly that they no longer dared try to block the Kingdom fleet’s advance.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom fleet had cut off the enemy’s retreat. Every ship was turning, once again bringing its broadside to bear on the Imperial fleet.

Stone shot and crossbow bolts came flying again in a crackling barrage.

This time, the Kingdom had seized the windward position. The wind boosted the power and range of their stone shot and crossbow bolts.

Meanwhile, it was now even harder for the enemy ships to approach the Kingdom fleet against the wind.

The Knight Commander immediately ordered the entire fleet to turn together. Using the favorable wind, he temporarily moved out of range of the Kingdom fleet’s weapons.

Then he swung around, avoiding the enemy fleet’s main guns on its starboard side, and tried to circle back to the windward position.

As for launching a direct assault on the Kingdom fleet, surrounding it, or trying some other maneuver, he’d stopped considering those options.

After the last exchange, the Knight Commander understood something.

The enemy fleet had suffered heavy losses in the earlier attack.

But the warships that remained were exceptionally well-built, and their crews outclassed his in every way.

If he still relied on the naval tactics he knew and tried to fight the enemy fleet head-on, it would end badly for him.

Take turning the entire fleet around and launching a direct assault in these circumstances, for example.

In that case, the Knight Commander would first have to consider the Kingdom fleet’s impressive maneuverability and its weapons advantage.

If he went through with it, his fleet might suffer enormous losses just to get close to the enemy—only for them to slip away by then.

The Imperial fleet would have attacked and surrounded nothing, and achieved nothing at all.

Or take the idea of circling wide around the Kingdom fleet and attacking from behind…

It came down to the same thing: the Knight Commander knew his ships couldn’t catch the enemy fleet.

Even if he got behind the enemy and his fleet ended up with a following crosswind after turning…

Once the Imperial fleet charged forward, its ships could easily lose control of their momentum. The enemy might well draw them a long way off course, and they could even end up tangled with the other friendly fleet.

Don’t think that was a joke. With the sailing ships and oar-powered vessels of this era, making an emergency stop was no easy feat.

And if that happened, the two groups of warships—hundreds of vessels in all—would fall into complete disarray.

Reforming the fleet would be difficult and, more importantly, time-consuming. It would give the enemy a chance to launch a large-scale ranged attack.

There was another possibility.

The Kingdom’s warships might refuse to move under the pressure of the two Imperial fleets, instead holding their ground between them with all their might and severing the connection between the two forces.

It was a risky strategy. It looked as though it would favor the Empire, but the Knight Commander knew better.

His opponent wouldn’t take a risk that could endanger the entire army without having something to rely on.

And whether the naval battle turned into a hasty showdown or a retreat, the Knight Commander believed his side would come off worse.

Because at this point, the Imperial fleet’s losses were already almost equal to the Kingdom’s.

If they chose to retreat now, they’d be handing victory to the enemy before the winner had even been decided.