The line formation naval gunnery tactic was indeed far ahead of its time. Perhaps, a little too far. Although the ballistae had a considerable range, they were, after all, cold weapons, and loading them with powerful flaming oil bombs didn't change that. In terms of ship size, power systems, command systems, and ammunition capacity, they simply didn't have the conditions to completely control the situation and achieve victory with this tactic. However, the Seven Seas Trading Company pushed this immature, yet indeed advanced, tactic to its limit.

In this great naval battle, from the start of engagement in the morning until noon, the Seven Seas Trading Company, at the slight cost of seventeen warships of various sizes, had caused the coalition fleet controlled by Alexander to lose over one hundred ships, either sunk or incapacitated. That was already a third of the coalition fleet. By noon, the balance of power was gradually shifting towards the Seven Seas Trading Company. This shift was mainly in terms of numerical comparison and morale. When Ye Tao's fleet, due to the intense consumption of ammunition, began preparing for close combat, the coalition fleet was already showing signs of loosening. Ships from some countries or families were clearly putting in minimal effort, trying to stay away from the range of Ye Tao's fleet, waving flags and shouting but refusing to get close, closely following their own formation. But in naval warfare, especially in this sea area with hundreds of ships in chaotic battle, it seemed impossible to stay out of it. However, those who had lost their will to fight could only slack off on the battlefield, daring not to withdraw from the battle. Although the coalition wasn't very united, if they were to be the first to withdraw from the battle in such a crucial campaign, and were caught, no one could be sure whether those countries and families would retaliate later.

During this battle, the crew of the Ningxuan were extremely excited. Orders were issued from the Ningxuan, even during the most dangerous moments when the Ningxuan was besieged by three enemy fast ships, without interruption. The relay communication airship, which remained suspended in the center of the battlefield, watched with trepidation but had to admit that the Ningxuan's performance was truly outstanding, seemingly never flustered from beginning to end. When besieged, the Ningxuan never called for reinforcements from other sub-fleets, skillfully sinking one enemy ship, damaging another, and having the last one directly blasted into a floating fireball after the escorting warships that had been entangled by the enemy freed themselves.

And in combat, Ye Tao's gunnery was amazing. After a period of operation, each fleet, each warship, each order leader, and even each gunner, would develop some of their own style and characteristics. But never had a firing order leader combined precise design with using firepower to control the enemy so perfectly. Ye Tao didn't actually pursue absolute hit rate, but the firing of all gun positions on the ship still reached an astonishing hit rate of twenty-four percent. The Greek fire didn't spew unless it was going to take out an enemy ship, and each of the four spews did just that, without exception. And Ye Tao's gunnery, combined with Old Man Qi's pirate tactics, made the battle even more bizarre, cruel, and ruthless. Twice, Ye Tao deliberately used high-trajectory parabolic shells that the enemy could force away to force them to make very unnatural turns. On the sea, the consequence of this turning often led to a momentary loss of speed due to the inability to adjust the sails in time, and the warships under Old Man Qi's command seized this moment to carry out a fierce ramming. Once, three warships attacked the enemy ship perpendicularly from two directions, ramming a relatively narrow pure sailing warship in half. The morale of their side was greatly boosted, while the coalition forces felt a chill in their hearts.

Unexpectedly, the flagship and its escort fleet performed so fiercely that the entire Ye Tao fleet went wild. Caterina, who liked to use warships to ram and engage in close combat, naturally followed suit. Even Qi Zhu, who was always steady, switched to a combination of close-quarters ramming and shooting after consuming more than half of his ammunition. Although they had been cooperating with the Samir family in the South Seas and the Middle East for quite some time, this was the first time the Tiger Tooth ship had shown such a good bite.

The increasingly chilling naval battle lasted until nearly dusk. Ye Tao's fleet was already faster than the enemy's, and they didn't even prepare to leave the coalition fleet any chance to escape, closely tracking behind them. This made Alexander's orders to withdraw completely from the battle several times, starting in the afternoon, unsuccessful, and they could only turn back to continue fighting. At this time, the coalition fleet had successively had more than one hundred and thirty warships sunk or ordered to be taken out of the main fleet, and there were also eighty or ninety heavily damaged ships that were barely sailing. Of the original three hundred warships, the coalition fleet, which had been proud and confident, had fewer than one hundred warships still retaining combat effectiveness to varying degrees. Behind them, chasing them, was Ye Tao's fleet, which already outnumbered them.

Ye Tao's fleet also suffered considerable damage. After the flaming oil bombs, Greek fire, and other sharp weapons were consumed by more than half, each ship had to start controlling their use, and the rate of damage to Ye Tao's fleet increased. By dusk, nearly eighty warships had withdrawn from the battle, of which thirty-nine were sunk. Since Ye Tao's fleet's ships were generally larger, it was naturally no problem to accommodate their own crew members who had fallen into the water. Those ships that were damaged and slowly followed the main fleet on the sea began salvage operations on the battlefield, under the escort of the six Tiger Tooth ships that remained to protect them. Allied sailors, officers, accompanying civil officials, and ministers who were salvaged from the water filled the cabins of the ships. In the Middle East, this had become the norm. Prisoners could be redeemed by the other side for a lot of money, and if the other side wasn't interested in redeeming them, they could be sold to any place to be slaves. In fact, the best sellers were those military officers with strong military skills. Further west, the gladiatorial business was booming, and simulated naval gladiatorial combat was very popular right now. Because this time a lot of the prisoners who were picked up had brilliant family backgrounds and high status, even if the other side was unwilling to pay to redeem them, selling them to the Samir family to show off the prisoners and humiliate the enemy would definitely make a good profit. As for the gladiator trade, the Seven Seas Trading Company couldn't get involved. They still hadn't cleared this path, and not many people in the company were really too interested in making this kind of money. Selling people to work was already considered not very good by many people, and selling them to die was very contrary to the increasingly civilized and moral principles of the Seven Seas Trading Company's merchants.

At about nine o'clock in the evening, Alexander finally couldn't hold on. He finally ordered the coalition fleet to disband and break out on their own. Only a small number of fleets escaped, but Alexander himself couldn't escape and fell into the hands of Rao Zidan's sub-fleet. Since naval engagements seemed to always have a tradition of treating prisoners well, Alexander surrendered his sword. This was also the highest-ranking officer captured on the battlefield since the Samir family's war of independence.

The fact that they could achieve this kind of result at night was mostly due to the airship squadron. After the size of the combat fleet decreased, two relay communication airships in the air were enough. The other airships were all put into reconnaissance. They looked down on the entire sparkling sea, carefully observed the shadows on the sea, and once they found an enemy, they would turn on the searchlight and shine a pillar of light on them, following the enemy until their own warships surrounded them and beat them up. As soon as their own fleet took over, they immediately turned off the lights, accelerated forward, and continued searching for the next target. When navigating at night, the speed of the ships couldn't be fast, and this tactic made the captains of the coalition fleet want to cry but have no tears.

In fact, Alexander had despaired a little too early. If he had insisted on the fleet escaping for a while longer, he might have escaped. The searchlights equipped by the airship squadron were undoubtedly divine weapons in this space-time, but the high-power searchlights actually didn't last long. The batteries that the airships could carry were only that much, and the failure rate of these initial searchlights was a bit too high.

The news that Ye Tao personally led his fleet to fight more with less, almost annihilating the coalition fleet, capturing Alexander, the commander-in-chief of the coalition fleet, as well as many important generals, ministers, and great family leaders from various countries, reached Dubai the next morning, causing bursts of cheers. But the elders of the Samir family were both happy and worried. Now, the final threat to their founding had been eliminated. As long as the Samir family worked diligently and developed faster and stronger than the other side, the Samir Kingdom would soon become a force that could influence the entire Middle East situation. But how to repay the favor owed to Ye Tao and the Seven Seas Trading Company this time? They had absolutely no ambitions for the South Seas now, and they were very satisfied and looking forward to their cooperation with the Seven Seas Trading Company and Dongping. Having truly seen Dongping's powerful combat power, even if they had ambitions, they wouldn't dare to do anything. The Samir family had been rolling in the business world and conspiracy circles for hundreds of years to get to where they were today, and they were very clear about the trade-offs involved.

After achieving victory, Ye Tao led his fleet to anchor and resupply in the port of Talan, north of the Sea of Azov. The Samir family's fleet quickly went to greet them, and Assad was also in the fleet. Since Ye Tao was able to personally lead the fleet to come, the possibility of inviting him to participate in the founding ceremony this time was extremely high. And Assad was also shouldering another mission: to assist the Seven Seas Trading Company in disposing of those prisoners. The Samir family was very clear about the value of these prisoners, and they were afraid that the benevolent Ye Tao would deal with them rashly and lose a lot of money. In this regard, they were still considering Ye Tao and the Seven Seas Trading Company. The Samir family couldn't compensate the Seven Seas Trading Company for much of the military expenditure, but they could still contribute to this kind of thing. What they didn't expect was that the "benevolent" Ye Tao, after learning of Assad's intentions, generously sold all the prisoners of war to the Samir family in a package deal, priced at twelve million standard gold coins. Assad was overjoyed. He naturally understood that this kind of wrangling negotiation took too much time, and Ye Tao and the Seven Seas Trading Company didn't have the mind to be involved in this area. But the Samir family could use time and various means to fully exploit the potential. According to Assad's estimate, just gold coins alone could bring in fifteen or sixteen million without any problems. And among these people, there were also those who could be fully utilized in other aspects.