Fierce flames erupted on the sea, and the forty-odd Venice warships, half of which were heavy battleships, that Giovanni had encircled, were now a sea of fire, rapidly spreading across the ocean.
Some Venice warships that had already been ignited, under the command of loyal and fearless Admiral of the Navy, were driven by slave oarsmen and soldiers who were either defiant in the face of death or had been deceived, recklessly ramming, overturning, and igniting enemy and friendly warships along the way, burning their last bit of life and their warships for the Venice Republic.
Inevitably, some of the Papal States warships at the front were affected, but unlike the Venice soldiers trapped in the encirclement, even if a Papal States soldier's ship was unfortunately burned, he could be rescued by surrounding friendly warships after jumping into the sea and quickly return to the battlefield.
The roar of cannons, the crackling of burning wood and bones, sounded from time to time, almost drowning out the continuous wails and sounds of falling into the water, and choking thick smoke, carried by the scorching south wind, swept towards the Venice fleet, impacting the Venice Navy's already collapsing psychological defense line.
The Venice Navy's center, which had been desperately blocked by the Papal States Navy from behind, could not break through the Papal States' defense line in a short time, watching helplessly as more than a dozen of Venice's proud heavy battleships, including the flagship, were engulfed in flames. Their rear flank was attacked by nearly a hundred warships detached by Karl, and they also lost unified command, immediately falling into disarray, with friendly warships colliding with each other, and Venice soldiers whose psychological defenses had collapsed frantically attacking their allies.
The battle situation changed so quickly that the soldiers on the Papal States warships, who were at the front holding the line, were momentarily stunned and at a loss when faced with the sudden confusion of the enemy.
Giovanni seized the opportunity and pressed the attack, immediately ordering a shift from defense to offense, abandoning the Venice central vanguard that had already fallen into a sea of fire, and quickly gathering all his forces to try and encircle the remaining enemy forces behind them again. At the same time, he dispatched the remaining few fireships, heading straight towards the opposite side.
With half of the enemy forces suddenly gone from his front, Pisani on the left flank felt his breakthrough pressure significantly reduced, but he did not entertain any unrealistic fantasies because of it. Instead, he steadfastly fled this living hell.
Lavallette on the right flank and the Tuscany Navy were already evenly matched. Winning might be very difficult, but if it was just about escaping, it could be said to be effortless.
Soon, while the central army was in dire straits, both the left and right flanks, without prior agreement, broke through the encirclement and departed in full view of everyone, leaving the central army in the encirclement dumbfounded.
"Commander, the Venice's left and right flanks want to escape. If they are allowed to escape and gain a foothold, there will be endless trouble. Should we send a squadron of warships to pursue them?" A young officer beside Giovanni respectfully asked.
At this moment, Giovanni was beaming with pride, his face radiating a triumphant smile. After this battle, his reputation would surely spread throughout Europe!
But when he heard this question, Giovanni's smile faltered slightly. He watched the enemy ships escape, and after a long time, he sighed and said, "No, let them go for now.
Our warships do not have an absolute advantage in speed compared to theirs, and they will certainly return to Venice's islands in the Aegean Sea to maneuver against us. If they hold the islands to the death, we don't know how many troops we'd have to commit to capture them; or if they surrender to other powers in the Mediterranean, the situation will become even more complex, and the warships we send will be in vain.
Our top priority is to invade Venice and then occupy all of Venice's territories in the Italian region. If we dispatch warships to pursue them, it will inevitably greatly weaken our offensive. If the attack is frustrated, it will affect His Holiness the Pope's overall strategy and squander this excellent situation."
At this point, all three Commanders on the Venice side had left the battlefield. All high-ranking leadership were either dead, fled, or captured. The abandoned Venice soldiers finally fell into complete chaos. Some wanted to surrender, some wanted to escape, some wanted to fight to the death, and some wanted to retreat...
There were disagreements among the various captains, and constant conflicts among the crew members of each ship. Soon, verbal clashes escalated into drawing swords against each other. The remaining nearly ten thousand Venice soldiers were caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to fight or surrender. They fought each other, bleeding profusely, and even the bizarre sight of them dismantling their own ship's cannons to bombard their own captain's cabins and masts occurred.
Venice's rigidly hierarchical naval system was shattered by immense external force. Slaves beat soldiers to death with oars, soldiers shot officers with arrows, and officers shot captains dead with a single gun.
An officer had just killed the captain and declared himself the new captain, but before he could give an order, he was hit in the head by a stray bullet from who knows where, splattering his brains. The killing continued in waves, and in just a few minutes, some ships had changed captains more than a dozen times.
The three Papal States fleets had now assembled, surrounding all remaining Venice warships on the battlefield from the front and both sides.
Giovanni did not dare to press too hard, still ordering continuous bombardment with cannons to wear down the enemy, rather than ordering close-quarters boarding. The few Venice warships that rushed forward like moths to a flame were quickly annihilated by cannon fire.
Giovanni did not order to stop the small number of Venice warships that fled, allowing them to be the first to bring news of defeat and fear back to Venice. At this moment, the remaining forces within Venice were far from sufficient to stop the Papal States' army by even half a step.
After nearly another half an hour, the vast majority of Venice soldiers finally exhausted their last strength. The warships and soldiers who had the will and ability to continue fighting the Papal States were either annihilated by the Papal States' cannons or died by their own hands.
The Papal States' soldiers collectively shouted slogans of surrender, stirring and impactful. Amidst the shouts, the encircled Venice warships despairingly lowered their Venice battle flags one after another.
Soon, on the surface of Venice Bay, there was no longer a single Golden Lion flag flying. This grand and tragic naval battle finally ended with the complete defeat of the Venice side.
On the Venice side, out of nearly two hundred warships, only a total of less than thirty led by Pisani and Lavallette escaped, forty-odd surrendered, and over thirty thousand men were killed.
Although the Papal States side achieved a great victory, their casualties were also astonishing. Including fireships, they lost over a hundred warships, and the death toll exceeded ten thousand.
The most severe casualties were suffered by the Tuscany reinforcements brought by Riccardo. Due to their limited number of warships and the fierce assault by Lavallette, less than a third of their warships remained intact, and their casualties far exceeded half. Even Riccardo himself was struck by several arrows and was in danger multiple times.
After the newly surrendered Venice warships were formed into a fleet, Pisani, full of ambition, raised his arm and shouted, "Full speed ahead, target Venice!"
Venice's centuries-old naval foundation was destroyed in just a few hours. Wyatt, who was the first to surrender, looked at the sea of fire behind him, his heart filled with mixed emotions.