1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2006
Compared with Ji Yuanqing, who was a soldier, Gong Shiqi didn't have much experience in positional warfare.Most of the time, the field operations team he commanded performed special missions such as security, surveillance, tracking, kidnapping, and assassination. In fact, there were not many situations where it was really necessary to form a battle.Moreover, field personnel rarely use weapons of the rifle level when performing missions, so even though the security agents who participated in this operation have received corresponding shooting training, Gong Shiqi is still very self-aware He carefully handed over the team's wartime command to Ji Yuanqing, who has more combat experience, so as to ensure that this match can steadily win the opponent.

"It seems that the local salt merchants still have some strength to clear such a large area by the canal outside Yangzhou City." Facing the empty wharf, Gong Shiqi couldn't help expressing emotion: "To make such a It's a big battle, I hope that the ones who will appear later will not be the little gangsters like yesterday."

"It should be the person we are looking for! They cleared the venue in advance, of course, to prevent the outside world from knowing who is going to do it later." Ji Yuanqing sees this very clearly, and he is more and more sure that he will see him next time. A mysterious Musketeer team.

This private armed force hidden among the people not only poses a threat to Ningbo salt merchants, but also a taboo existence for the government, so its whereabouts must be kept secret, otherwise, even if the Haihan people do not come to the door, the government will not sit idly by With this level of armed forces under their noses, they can do whatever they want.Therefore, even if the Yangzhou salt merchants had such powerful armaments, they could not call them anytime and anywhere, and they had to be extra careful when they acted at their own door, so as not to embarrass the government.

Empty the wharf by the canal in advance, and then let the government and garrison in the city keep silent for a whole night when it happened outside the city, which is basically the ultimate measure they can do so far.

Of course, in the eyes of Gong Shiqi and Ji Yuanqing, this kind of measure is also beneficial to their own hands and feet, and they don't need to worry about alarming the local garrison when they use rifles in battle.When the garrison in the city realizes what happened, it will probably be after dawn tomorrow.

The people on the pier waited for a long time in this eerie tranquility, and finally their long-awaited target arrived.

In the silent night, there was a sound of horseshoes from the east, and the closer they got, the denser they became. When he could see the horses nearby, Gong Shiqi found that the opponent had at least fifty riders, which seemed to be more than his side before. More data is available.In the attacks that occurred in several other state capitals, it is said that the manpower dispatched by the other party was kept at about 30 people, which was obviously different from what we saw.

Of course, it is also possible that the other party did not deploy all their men in the previous operation, and deliberately concealed their true strength, or they were bluffing in today's operation, and not all they saw were musketeers, and the possibility of the latter seemed more likely. bigger.

These riders didn't rush forward directly, but stopped thirty or forty feet away from the river bank, and then rushed out of the formation, heading towards the pier.

The ride stopped five or six feet away from the tent defense line, and seemed to know that trespassing was not allowed.The man on the horse said loudly: "Listen up, people on the boat, this is your last chance to leave Yangzhou safely! If you don't follow suit, your hell will be closed tonight!"

After a moment of silence, a voice echoed from the tent position: "If you go, you will definitely not go. What powerful tricks do you have? Just let the horse come over!"

The man on the horse didn't waste his saliva any more, he poked his horse's head and went back after listening. Obviously, he had already expected the attitude here, and it was just a formality before the fight.

The link between the two sides' harsh words before the battle was simple and neat, without sloppiness, and it took only a very short time to express their attitudes to each other.Choosing to use force to resolve the current conflict, the two sides coincided with each other, and they were both prepared to do it in advance.

After that rider returned to the opponent's formation, only a moment later, Gong Shiqi could vaguely see through the binoculars that the riders got off their horses one after another.He wouldn't make the mistake of thinking that the opponent didn't want to fight anymore, on the contrary, he knew it was a sign that the opponent was ready to fight.

Even if these militia armed forces have undergone certain training, it is difficult for them to have the ability to fight with muskets on horseback, let alone at night when visibility is limited.Even for well-trained cavalry, it is very dangerous to charge the river bank at night.One of the most basic combat requirements for Musketeers in this era is to shoot in arrays to ensure the intensity of the output firepower.The Haihan army can gradually improve this basic tactic by virtue of its weapon advantages, but other armed forces using old-style muskets cannot do this. When fighting, they can only form an array first and then start fighting.

However, although this fighting method seems very inefficient, because of the obvious advantages in weapon performance, it will still take a lot of advantage when dealing with traditional armed forces that use cold weapons.Especially when the opponent lacks long-range offensive weapons, dozens of muskets can occupy an overwhelming advantage in small-scale armed conflicts, and it is more than enough to deal with ordinary civilian armed groups.

The Musketeers easily defeated their opponents in the previous missions, which also gave the people, including Lu Kangtai, a relatively inflated understanding of the Musketeers' actual combat capabilities, thinking that as long as this team is dispatched, at least It has been difficult to meet any opponents in the civil range.Both He Huan and Lu Kangtai regarded this team as a secret weapon to launch a counterattack against Huizhou salt merchants, but the impact of Ningbo Refined Salt on Jianghuai Salt Industry made them decide to solve the foreign troubles first, and then deal with the competition in the same city opponent.

Because Lu Kangtai was obese, it was impossible for him to ride with these musketeers. His position was still some distance from the pier, so he could only hand over the command to the leader of the team.Although the previous operations outside Yangzhou Mansion went very smoothly, and today's opponents are just a group of foreign salt merchants, Lu Kangtai is still a little worried that something will go wrong during the operation.

The opponent still insisted on not giving an inch at the last moment, which made Lu Kangtai feel a little bit guilty. He couldn't figure out what kind of support the opponent had in his hands, so confidently rejected the last chance to let them leave safely.But the matter was at this point, and he didn't want to think about it anymore. Later, when his men broke through the defense line and took down the arrogant Ningbo salt merchant, he would naturally have time to interrogate him slowly.

"It's still advancing horizontally. It seems that he has received formal military training." Ji Yuanqing can roughly see the formation that the opponent is advancing on foot from the binoculars, and this kind of formation is the standard battle of musketeers. Formation, each row represents a wave of firepower output, the more people in a row, the larger the area covered by its firepower.

Being able to learn such a formation and propulsion method can basically prove that professionals from the military have participated in the training of this armed force.Of course, it is temporarily unknown which country's soldiers it is.

Seeing that the opponent had already entered the range, Ji Yuanqing did not give the order to fire, and was still patiently observing the opponent's movements.The result he wants is not only to annihilate this armed force, but also to find out from it the mastermind who helped the salt merchants form the musket team-that is the real goal of this investigation in Yangzhou.Therefore, in the next confrontation, not only must the evidence be collected, but also find a way to win a few survivors.

In order to achieve this goal, Ji Yuanqing's solution is to put the opponent as close as possible, and then launch a sudden attack.Although the routine is not new, but because the opponent does not know that he is prepared and has already deployed the defense line, coupled with the advantage of weapon performance, it is enough to defeat the opponent in a very short time.

And the other party obviously didn't realize what kind of danger was lurking on the dark river bank. Their battle plan was very simple and rough, that is, to line up and push all the way to the end. If someone tried to fight with force, then they would stop. Come down and shoot, and then continue to repeat the previous steps after knocking down the target until the opponent is completely defeated.

They have adopted similar tactics in the previous raids in other places, and they basically only need one round of fire to cause the opponent to collapse, and there is no confrontation strength to speak of.In the eyes of these newly promoted musketeers, the opponents they can encounter are basically mediocre, and using the most basic tactics is enough to crush them.It seems that the fleet to be dealt with tonight will not be any stronger than the previous opponent. It has already advanced to within ten feet, and the opponent has not taken any countermeasures. I was so scared that I didn't give an order. It was purely blunt before, and I had no intention of resisting at all.

Victory came too easily, and when the musketeers advanced a few feet with confidence, they finally saw the opponent's reaction.

The tents set up on the river bank, blocking their way to the two cargo ships, were suddenly pulled down at a certain moment, revealing the fortifications behind them made of sacks of salt.

These salt bags were actually piled up on the pier during the day, but no one would have thought that they were used to build several low arched walls, and Haihan's musketeers were hidden behind them, only half of them were exposed. The head is used to aim at the targets on the opposite side who are completely exposed to their guns.

And on the two cargo ships not far behind this fortification line, a row of muzzles protruded from the side of the ship, but they were so well concealed in the night that the people on the pier below couldn't notice what happened. There is also a firepower net a few feet above his line of sight.

"Listen to the people on the other side, immediately put down the weapon in your hand, raise your hands and kneel down and surrender, otherwise you will be shot and killed!"

Shouts suddenly sounded from behind the salt bag fortification, which shocked the Salt Merchant Musketeers who were a little at a loss at this time.But they were astonished as they were, but they didn't have much fear, because they hadn't noticed how many guns were aimed at them from the salt bags and the ship's side.In their view, the other party is just bluffing and trying to distract their attention.

And the leader who commanded the Musketeers also had the same idea. Since the opponent still chose to continue to resist at this time, of course he didn't need to hold back.The order he received was to decide whether to fire on his own depending on the situation at the scene, and ensuring his own safety was still the top priority.

However, in the current situation, the self-protection method he chose when he was threatened could not be to actively withdraw from the battlefield, but the only possibility was to order to fire.

Just when he shouted the word "fire", he felt that he seemed to have an auditory hallucination, because the gunshots sounded not only around him, but also from the opposite side not far away at the same time.

Then he immediately realized that this was not an auditory hallucination, because he had already seen the flash of fire behind the salt bag and the side of the ship. That kind of fire was familiar to him, and it came from the spark when the gun was fired.His heart sank suddenly, knowing that something was wrong. Since there were so many musketeers ambushing at the pier, it was clearly a trap specially designed for his arrival!

Not to mention how many people the opponent has and what kind of muskets they use, just the fact that the opponent has a bunker is enough to make the completely exposed side suffer a great loss.In this situation, when you raise your guns and shoot at each other, the chance of your own side being shot is much higher than that of the opponent hiding behind the bunker.

However, the presence or absence of bunkers was only the beginning of this nightmare. As the exchange of fire began, the Salt Merchant Musketeers immediately felt the difference in firepower output between the two sides.They don't know how many people are hiding behind the small bunker. They only feel that the opponent's shooting doesn't seem to stop at all, and after the front row personnel finish shooting, they have to give up their positions to the rear row personnel to complete continuous shooting , The time spent in this rotation is just one breath, and then the opponent doesn't even have a gap for this rotation, and the gunshots rang continuously like firecrackers.

But the opposite side was not setting off firecrackers, but was actually using muskets to shoot at them. The men and horses of the Salt Merchant Musketeers were constantly being shot, and fell down in rows like cut rice.It only took a moment for them to rush forward with confidence to collapse after encountering intensive firepower.But when they really wanted to turn around and escape from this killing field, it was already very difficult to escape.

In the end, only a few people in the back row successfully rushed into the night by throwing down their guns and crawling, and finally escaped, while most of the people who came with them had already fallen to the ground in this one-sided gun battle. get up.

"Cease fire! Reload!"

There was another sound from behind the salt sacks, and then the gunfire stopped.This short battle should have ended sooner than both sides expected. The gunmen on Haihan's side hadn't even finished the seven rounds of ammunition in their hands, but there was no one standing on the other side. up.

(End of this chapter)