According to the known situation, the number of Double-Deck Warship and Cruiser of the Eastern Roman Empire is slightly more than that of Venice.
However, the enemy has more than thirty Galleass battleships. Counting this force, the number of main battleships is much greater than that of the Eastern Roman Empire.
"In winter operations, it is a good idea to limit the performance of Galley."
Vitus discussed with the ministers for a long time and agreed to Fabius's plan.
October On the eighth day, the sky was gloomy, and the biting north wind blew the flags of the fleet. Twenty warships were moored at the Golden Horn dock, attracting a large number of people to come and watch.
In the morning, the emperor arrived at the port in a carriage. The moment he stepped out of the carriage, civilians not far away shouted through the guards:
"Your Majesty, it has been a year since the war started. When will our fleet be dispatched?"
The emperor followed the sound and looked over. He saw that the man was wearing a burlap shirt, with gray hair, his hands were rough and chapped, and there were traces of Tar embedded in his fingers that could not be washed away. He should be an ordinary worker in the shipyard.
He calmly replied, "This fleet is about to sail to Volos port. When the time is right, the admiral will lead the fleet to sea for a decisive battle."
Not surprisingly, these words caused a sensation throughout the port.
Vitus paid no attention to these cheering people and walked straight to the edge of the pier. Twenty warships were lined up in a row, with towering masts like a forest. In front of each warship's berth stood its crew, a total of more than 4,000 people. Among them, half of the warships had been commissioned in the past few months, and the crew experience was still inexperienced.
The remaining ten are the only main battleships left by Black Sea Fleet. As the war is approaching, Vitus sends them all to Volos to form a temporary decisive battle fleet with Aegean Fleet.
The decisive battle fleet gathered most of the battleships of the Eastern Roman Empire, with Fabius as the supreme commander and Cohen Lostoria (Black Sea Fleet Admiral) as deputy. The fleet has only one mission - to defeat the enemy and regain the sea power of Eastern Mediterranean.
Vitus inspected the warships from west to east, and finally stopped in front of a Heavy Double-Deck Warship.
"Nesos?"
He walked onto the deck and visited the latest model Battleship.
Nesos has forty-eight broadside guns, two bow guns, and four stern guns. The number of guns is the same as that of Smyrna, which was the first to enter service.
The flaw of Smyrna is speed, with the maximum speed being only six knots. After receiving feedback from the Navy, the shipyard optimized the sail layout and slightly reduced the weight of the hull, allowing the new ship to increase its maximum speed to eight knots without being too sluggish.
In comparison, the maximum speed of Cruiser is more than twelve knots, and the maximum speed of conventional Double-Deck Warship is close to ten knots.
Different ship types have different priorities. The role of Nesos is limited to decisive battles. Admiralty is not expected to undertake tasks such as cruise, communication, and anti-smuggling.
After the review, Vitus found Cohen and asked him to bring an edict to the frontline navy, "At this stage, the value of the fleet is above all else. Don't care about which villages and towns the enemy has plundered, or the resentment of the people. Let Fabius choose the time for the decisive battle on his own. It doesn't matter if it is postponed until next summer."
"Understood." Cohen replied solemnly.
Soon, the horn sounded and the crew boarded the warship. The easternmost flagship raised the signal flag, and the small colored squares swung back and forth in the leaden sky. The second warship raised the same signal flag, followed by the third and fourth ships...
"Drive away the Venice people!"
"Take back our oceans!"
The onlookers cheered thunderously. The crew untied the sails and raised the anchor. The warships gradually left the dock and sailed away from Golden Horn in a column.
A group of children ran along the embankment, jumping over bitts and fishermen's nets, chasing these slow-moving giant figures until the ship sailed into Sea of Marmara and disappeared from everyone's sight.
Three days later, the fleet entered Aegean Sea.
There are many Venice Cruiser in this sea area. One Cruiser noticed this huge fleet, adjusted its sails and cables as quickly as possible, and tried to escape to the south Crete.
Cohen stood on the bow deck of the flagship and asked the crew to send out a semaphore, "Inform the entire fleet to leave this broken ship alone and move forward."
October On the 14th, the fleet arrived at Volos port, and Cohen read the emperor's edict to everyone. "Finally the day we have waited for." Fabius breathed a sigh of relief. Although the emperor did not urge it, he felt that it was time to go to war.
Later, Fabius visited these new warships, carefully understood their parameters, and talked with twenty captains to get familiar with their personalities.
"Felix? I didn't expect you to stay in the Black Sea for so long. How does it feel to control the new battleship?"
Felix responded with a smile, "It performs quite well in bad weather. Maybe I should take it to Atlantic Ocean for a walk."
"Atlantic Ocean? Your character is still so restless." Fabius smiled and shook his head, walking towards the next captain with an unfamiliar face.
Before the decisive battle, Fabius plans to conduct a concentrated exercise.
This bay (Pagasetic Gulf) is about 30 kilometers long from east to west and 25 kilometers wide from north to south. There is enough space for training.
The newly arrived warships have undergone at least two months of training and have basic combat capabilities. Fabius has no time to train on sail control, gunnery, damage control, amphibious landing and other subjects, but focuses on large-scale coordinated operations.
The first stage is formation navigation and semaphore communication.
During the training, dozens of warships lined up in single columns, double columns, horizontal formations or wedge formations, maintaining precise spacing during navigation.
Fabius chose Nesos as the new flagship. Every once in a while, Nesos changed different semaphores and ordered the entire fleet to complete steering, U-turn, acceleration or deceleration at the same time. Not only that, the fleet also trained to sail at night, using signal lights and lanterns to convey information.
The second stage is tactical confrontation simulation.
Fabius divides the battleship into two parts, each playing the role of Rome/Venetian Fleet, to conduct a mobile confrontation without live ammunition.
In order to simulate the actual situation as much as possible, he also found thirty-five small Galley warships to serve as Galleass battleships for Venice.
The first is the conventional single-column tactics to maximize the firepower advantage.
The second is the tactic of "cutting the enemy's formation": acting as an attacking unit, practicing seizing the upper hand, and looking for opportunities to break through the enemy's battle line.
There is also a pincer attack: concentrating superior forces to surround the enemy's rear guard.
The last step is temporary support, which covers one's own damaged warships as they withdraw from the battle line, and the rear warships step forward to take over.
The entire exercise lasted for more than twenty days, far exceeding Fabius's expectations.
He originally thought he could get it done in half a month, but he didn't expect that the fleet would always cause some unexpected troubles, seriously delaying the progress.
The Eastern Roman Empire fleet waited until November 15th before finally leaving this heavily defended bay and sailing toward the southern waters of the Aegean Sea.