1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1042

For this army that is about to go north, this crushing short battle is not too difficult, but the army that has been stationed here for more than half a month is quite excited, and it can be regarded as a serious blow to the backlog. A long time of bad breath.In the previous period, in order to protect the safety of the Houlongxi waterway, the local garrison could only defend passively, and they had long wanted to get this opportunity to give the natives a lot of trouble.Most of the soldiers killed today in the Maoli Club belong to the troops stationed in Miaoli.

After Maolishe was resolved, I hope that the dozens of miles of waterway between the oil field and the coastal camp finally saw the dawn of stability.The civil affairs department will then move immigrants to the banks of Houlongxi and reclaim the valley plains. After a year or two there are some Han villages in this area, the security situation will naturally stabilize.The Dajia Society, which is located in the upper reaches of Houlongxi and only a few miles away from the Hope Oil Field, is the last target of this campaign.

Because Dajia Society is adjacent to the Hope Oilfield, the frequency of sporadic conflicts between the two sides is even higher. However, because the Hope Oilfield has built a fully enclosed peripheral defense line, and built a number of sentry towers that are more than ten meters high, The condescending firepower coverage is far better than that of the natives outside the camp.After suffering a few times, the natives seldom approached the camp within 50 meters of their own initiative.Therefore, compared with the frequent armed conflicts in the Houlongxi Waterway, Haihan's material consumption and casualties caused by the war here are lower.

However, because Hope Oilfield is located in a mountain valley, the range of activities of the natives is on a higher hillside, so it is still easy to control the movement in the oilfield camp. The army with thousands of people stationed in this area basically has no hidden tracks. possibility.Ever since Haihan entered this area, the natives have been monitoring the periphery, waiting for an opportunity to cause trouble. As long as the natives are not blind, they will definitely notice the arrival of this army at the first time.When Haihan launches an attack, it is unlikely that Dajia Society will be as unprepared as Maoli Society, which will also add some variables to the ensuing battle.

After completing the elimination of the Maoli Society, the commanders also had a clearer understanding of the fighting methods of the natives, so the preparations for the Dajia Society were not so troublesome.That night, the operation headquarters held a pre-war preparation meeting in the oil field camp, and Morgan introduced the situation around Dajia Society to everyone.

During the period before the arrival of the reinforcements, Morgan had conducted multiple reconnaissances on the surrounding areas of Dajiashe from the mountains between the two places. However, considering safety issues, he did not conduct close-up reconnaissance like the special operations battalion did. Sufficient intelligence has been collected for operations in the region.

"Considering the relatively open terrain and the confluence of three streams, it may be difficult for us to launch an offensive from multiple directions at the same time, but our purpose is to destroy this tribe, so this should not be a big problem." Wang said. After listening to Morgan's briefing, Tom concluded: "The open terrain gives us a greater advantage in combat. During the attack, try to use long-range firepower to kill the vital forces of the natives first, so as not to cause casualties after entering the village like today. Case."

It is not too difficult for the Haihan army to wipe out the Dajia Society. What Tom Wang hopes now is that his side will not suffer too many casualties in this kind of battle with a disparity in power, otherwise even if it asks the Ministry of Defense for credit after the war, it will be too difficult. A little dull.

Because the battle at Maolishe ended quickly, the troops only stayed in the oil field camp for one night, and continued to move along Houlongxi to the eastern mountainous area the next day, preparing to launch an offensive against Dajiashe.

Although the marching route had to bypass a mountain ridge between the oil field and Dajiashe, the distance was less than ten miles. In just two hours, the vanguard had already seen the smoke rising from the village of Dajiashe.Haihan didn't have any intention of hiding his whereabouts. After finishing the assembly in the river valley plain, he pushed towards the location of the Dajia Society.

The natives of Dajia Society are better prepared than the Maoli Society who hastily fought. They actually built several three-foot-high earthen walls outside the village, and tried to use this as a cover to resist Haihan offensive.If another indigenous tribe came here to fight, maybe this simple and crude fortification would indeed play a certain role, but unfortunately their opponent is the Haihan Army, a group of black-tech weapons, almost armed to the teeth professional soldier.

This kind of parapet-style fortification can indeed block the bullets fired by rifles, but the Haihan Army still has artillery, a weapon beyond the imagination of the natives.After a few field guns were set up, the bombardment disintegrated the fortifications carefully prepared by the natives.

The artillery opened the way and the infantry advanced. This tactic was the most skillfully practiced by the Haihan Army. It was naturally very easy to deal with these native armed forces with primitive equipment and lack of organization.Occasional sporadic counterattacks during the period would only immediately attract a volley of guns, but they could not stop Haihan's offensive at all.

Crowds of native warriors launched a desperate human charge, hoping that their bamboo shields would stop the bullets fired by their opponents' rifles.But this is just an extravagant hope after all. After being upgraded to a rifled gun, the rifle bullets not only have a stable trajectory at a distance of [-] meters, but also have enough kinetic energy to penetrate the bamboo in the hands of the native soldiers who are only covered with a layer of animal skin or cowhide. shield.A volley of guns was fired, and the body hidden behind the shield was still bloody from the bullets, which did not play the protective role the natives expected.

About 10 minutes after the two sides started fighting, the natives had lost the ability to confront directly, abandoned the defense line outside the village, and retreated into the village to rely on buildings to resist.However, the Haihan army had learned the lesson of yesterday's battle with Maolishe, and instead of rushing into the village to clean up, they began to use inflammable materials to ignite the native huts one by one.Although the fire spread slowly due to the weather, the area of ​​activities of the natives was inevitably compressed bit by bit. Those who did not want to be burned to death in the village could only choose to rush out and die, or give up resistance Back to the mountains to escape two roads.

Perhaps because the Dajia Society has a greater strategic depth, most of the natives chose to abandon their villages and flee instead of fighting to the end like the natives of the Maoli Society yesterday.And Wang Tom consciously wanted to control the number of casualties of the troops, so he did not arrange to enter the mountain for pursuit operations.

Counting the results after the war, the natives paid nearly [-] lives in this battle, which greatly exceeded the results of the previous day. A considerable part of the natives were burned to death in the fire that burned the village.However, the number of captives was much smaller than the previous day, less than a hundred in total. According to what Hai Han had learned before, at least four to five hundred natives fled into the mountains after the war.Although these natives are still a hidden danger in the long run, after their villages here are completely destroyed, it is unlikely that they will come back here for reconstruction.And the Hope Oilfield is close at hand, at least in the short term, there is no need to worry that the natives will make a comeback, and they can settle the immigrants and start production with peace of mind.

However, indigenous tribes like the Maoli Society and the Dajia Society can only capture very limited supplies, which are far less than what the Haihan Army obtained when they fought elsewhere.The most valuable supplies in the native villages were food, cloth, pig iron, and furs, but the quantities were quite limited. Most of them had been burned in a fire, and what was left was hardly enough to offset the ammunition consumption in the battle.

Of course, under the premise of ensuring the safe production of the Hope Oilfield, this amount of consumption is actually nothing. Even if there are ten or eight similar indigenous tribes here, the military will have to clear them all at a loss. .Fortunately, there are only two such large tribes in the Miaoli area. According to the investigation, there should be no other indigenous tribes in the mountainous area with a radius of more than 20 miles around the oil field.

"I finally breathed a sigh of relief!" Morgan looked at the ruins of the Dajia Society that were still emitting green smoke, and said with a sigh: "Now I can finally sleep peacefully at night!"

"After the Miaoli area has been cleaned up, do you still plan to stay here?" Tom Wang asked meaningfully.

Morgan shrugged and said, "Then what should I do? The executive committee asked me to be a military officer in Miaoli. It's only been a month since I took office. Could it be that I should throw away my business?"

Wang Tom said: "There won't be any more wars in this place in the short term. The Ministry of National Defense can arrange someone to take over! From my personal point of view, it's not a problem for Mr. Bai to also serve as the military chief. Anyway, there are still people below. Several company commanders don’t need him to personally command. If there is any serious matter, Yu Yao is in Penghu, and it only takes a day to rush over to deal with it.”

Morgan was a little moved when he heard it, and couldn't help hesitating: "Then why not... make an application to the higher-ups?"

Wang Tom nodded slightly and said: "I think it is necessary to try it out. Scarce resources should be used rationally. Putting you in this ravine for a long time is also a disguised waste of resources."

Wang Tom's meaning is very clear, that is, he hopes to let Morgan leave Miaoli and go north with him.Haihan's control over Miaoli has stabilized. Keeping a senior general like Morgan here is not much different from providing for the elderly, and the living conditions here are far worse than Sanya. It is better to make a report here. He was transferred back to Sanya, where he worked as an instructor in the medical school, and took the students to the shooting range on weekends, and he must have had a happy life that day.

Of course, as a good friend, Tom Wang also knew that Morgan was not satisfied with the living conditions in Sanya, so he applied for a mission in Miaoli and left Sanya.However, he thinks that there is no challenge for Morgan to stay in Miaoli as a military officer. It is better to go to the north with the large army, which will be the focus of Haihan's development in the next few years.Moreover, with Morgan's ability, he can not only manage the medical department, but also lead the troops to perform special operations missions. Such a generalist is rare in the Haihan Army, and he will definitely have a place to use in the north.

Morgan pondered for a moment before speaking again: "The battle here in Miaoli has just ended, I'm afraid I won't be let out right away."

Wang Tom said: "Time is not a problem. We will rest for a period of time after arriving in Zhoushan, and we will continue to go north after we are ready. If you apply to the above as soon as possible, I think you should be able to catch up with us in Zhejiang. .”

The troops led by Wang Tom only stayed in the Miaoli area for two days. After confirming that the natives had no spare power to launch a counterattack, they began to evacuate to the coastal camp.The reason why they withdrew so quickly was that, firstly, this army had other missions, and secondly, there was such an extra army out of thin air, and the supplies that needed to be transported from the coastal camps to the mountainous areas also doubled, which was very important for the troops at the end of the rainy season. , It is also a big burden for the mountainous road sections that have stopped navigating.

Tom Wang's suggestion to Morgan is from the heart, but as a friend, he can only help for this sake.For a general of Morgan's level, Tom Wang has no authority to decide on his job transfer, and in order to avoid suspicion, he can't even directly act as a lobbyist for Morgan. The others are already considered high-ranking figures, and many of them are in charge of military power in the army.Wang Tom also knows that many people in Haihan lack trust in the group of Chinese and white people who live overseas all the year round in North America, so they have always been cautious in their words and deeds to avoid being attacked by others.

On the contrary, it is more comfortable to fight with troops outside, and there is no need to face doubts or distrust from others. At least within the Haihan military, the relationship between senior generals is relatively harmonious.Even the competition between the army and the navy is only limited to fighting for military expenses and rewards, and it is still a very benign competitive atmosphere.

After Tom Wang led the team back to the coastal camp, Yu Yao had already arranged a large number of ships to take the team back to Penghu first.After another two days of rest in Penghu, Wang Tom assembled the fleet and set off from Penghu to continue northward.

From Penghu to Zhoushan, the voyage is still about [-] nautical miles. Because of the large scale of the mixed fleet led by Wang Tom, the speed is relatively slow, and the daily distance is only about [-] nautical miles.When passing through Wenzhou, the fleet stayed in Dongtou Island off the coast of Wenzhou for two days to avoid the wind and waves, and purchased some supplies in Wenzhou by the way.The arrival of this huge fleet also caused a small panic in Wenzhou City. The locals thought it was the resurgence of the Yueqing Ship Gang, which had been destroyed before, and residents outside the city fled into the city to escape.Later, I heard that this was the Haihan fleet going north to Ningbo to "do business", and the chaos in the city was slightly subsided.

On the contrary, some bold businessmen, after hearing about the history of the fleet, organized various supplies on their own, went to Dongtou Island to trade with the Haihan people, and actually made some money from the generous Haihan people. .

(End of this chapter)