1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2115
Xu Yuzhuo held up the binoculars with both hands, and carefully observed the sea situation ahead through the eyepiece.Not far away is the Ikitsuki Strait formed between Hirado Island and Ikutsuki Island in the northwest. After the navy fleet passes through this strait less than two miles wide, they should be able to see the destination of the operation. Thin The two bays, Xiangwan and Gujiangwan, are the common entrance and exit.

The fleet found a small fishing port at the southern end of Shengyue Island. Although there were no warships docked here, for the sake of caution, Xu Yuzhuo ordered two warships to deal with the small boats docked in the fishing port.This kind of small fishing boat will indeed not pose any actual threat to the fleet, but in theory it can complete the transportation of personnel and materials between Hirado Island and Ikitsuki Island, and the coalition command has determined that Ping Therefore, Xu Yuzhuo will not let go of these seemingly harmless civilian ships.

After the leading troops successfully passed through the Shengyue Strait, they raised a flag to inform Xu Yuzhuo's flagship that there were no suspicious targets in the open sea ahead.Xu Yuzhuo was slightly relieved by this news, but he was inevitably a little disappointed.

It is of course a great achievement to be able to successfully escort the Haihante battle group to land in the target area, but it would be even better if the main force of the enemy's armed fleet can be found in this sea area. After all, that is the Fujian navy that came here to fight. main target.

Back then, the Ming army under Xu Xinsu's command was able to defeat Shibazhi, which was in full swing, mostly because of Haihan's help. Even in the final stages of several decisive battles, the Haihan army was the main force on the battlefield.In recent years, the strength of the Fujian Navy has grown significantly, and Xu Yuzhuo is unwilling to continue playing the role of helping the Haihan people on the battlefield. What's more, the opponent this time happens to be an old enemy many years ago, and he hopes to eliminate it with his own hands. The remnant party of Shibazhi gave the Haihan people a clearer understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Ming army in Fujian.

Of course, Xu Yuzhuo's urgency for the battle actually has another reason that is not humane, that is, Fujian's ability to bear the financial and material resources consumed by the battle is far less than that of Haihan, and the expeditionary force needs to fight as quickly as possible to save war expenses.

Although Xu Xinsu controls the foreign trade industry in a province and earns a lot of money every year, his power is based on a strong private armed force. Just to maintain the daily operation of these troops, the annual expenditure is a huge number.In order to maintain a close relationship with Haihan as a military ally, Fujian will also actively send troops to participate in Haihan's various overseas military operations, and the cost required is even more astonishing.

Some of these actions can slowly recover the cost of the action through the long-term benefits obtained afterwards. For example, after sending troops to North Korea to participate in the war last year, Fujian has obtained the franchise right to do business with North Korea, and can benefit from future cross-border trade. income.

However, there are some actions that cannot take economic benefits as a priority factor. For example, the attack on the Hirado Domain falls into this category. Send troops to Japan to solve this serious problem.As for whether it can benefit from the local area after the war, it is no longer considered.

But for things like war, there is no upper limit to spending money. As long as the troops are deployed, the money spent every day will be like running water.What's more, Fujian has dispatched thousands of troops to fight overseas this time, and the daily military expenditure is at least tens of thousands of taels of silver. It is impossible for Xu Xinsu to follow the Haihan people's own currency issuance. We can only try to shorten the combat cycle to save money.

Although Xu Xinsu didn't give Xu Yuzhuo a death order to complete the mission within how many days, but he also explained the situation to him and asked him to finish this combat mission as soon as possible within his ability.It’s just that it seems a bit difficult to achieve this goal at present. The combat efficiency of the infantry on Fukue Island is very low, and the navy has not yet found traces of the opponent’s main fleet. Once the battle is dragged into a stalemate, the Fujian Ming army will lose It will be more uncomfortable to go down.

"I hope these bastards can come out and die soon..." Regarding the current situation, Xu Yuzhuo couldn't come up with any effective solution, he could only secretly pray that his opponent would show up on his own initiative.

The naval fleet arrived at the entrance of the bay quietly in the afternoon, and at the same time, in the Hirado Port area on the east side of the island only ten miles away, the artillery battle between the two sides has reached the third round, but the frequency of the shelling is not high. Much slower than in the morning.

At this time, as many as five warships of the East China Sea Fleet were injured and retreated from the line of fire. Fortunately, the damage to the hull was not too serious, and there were no serious injuries such as broken masts or flooded rolls that could not be repaired at sea. , so Shi Diwen can still maintain a calm attitude and continue to watch the game.

The losses on Hirado's side seem to be even smaller. Except for one fort that was unlucky and was directly hit by the fort of the Haihan warship, there have been no major casualties in other places because of this artillery battle.In addition, after fighting for half a day, Haihan didn't even step into Hirado Port, such a record is already excellent.

But Tian Chuansuke also did not dare to be careless. Although the Han leaders under him knew the style of the Haihan Army very well, almost all of them had been defeated by the Haihan Army and had never won a victory.The current Hirado Domain is commanded by such a group of people. Before the opponent retreats, anything can happen.

Tian Chuansuke is now counting on the coastal fortifications in charge of Lu Yuanlong to delay the time for the Haihan army to land in Hirado Port as much as possible, but he also knows that this method alone cannot repel the Haihan army, and after the opponent's long-term attack is fruitless, It will probably be transferred to other places on the island to implement the landing. At that time, there will be no coastal fortifications like Hirado Port to stop the opponent.

Therefore, Tagawasuke's mentality at this time is somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, he hopes that the Haihan army will retreat after several artillery battles, and quickly give up the idea of ​​​​invading Hirado; If the troops retreat so quickly, it is very likely that they just change the attack location. Once the battle location is transferred to land, their own side may not be able to draw with the Haihan army again.

At this time, the vanguard of the Fujian Navy has slowly entered the coast of the northwest coast of Hirado Island. The Gujiang Bay, which is recessed to the south, and the Boxiang Bay, which is recessed to the east, share the same entrance and exit. The southeast inland where the bay forms an angle is the most prosperous urban area of ​​Hirado Port.

The area of ​​these two bays is dozens of times larger than that of Hirado Port, so in addition to the waterway at the mouth of the bay, there is no need to worry too much about the large number of coastal fortifications built in the bay to resist landing.The only thing that makes the coalition forces more concerned is whether the Hirado Domain has deployed its armed fleet in these two bays.

According to Amakusa Shiro's last reconnaissance in Hirado, at least there is a shipyard for building warships in Boxiang Bay, and the existence of casting artillery called Kagami River is also in a ravine not far from the shipyard.It would not surprise anyone if there was an armed fleet in the bay waiting for the arrival of the Fujian Navy.

However, after the navy's scouting sailboats entered the two bays and quickly turned around, they did not find the expected armed fleet. Obviously, the enemy did not use this place as a fleet station.

"Isn't it too courageous to just leave the back door wide open?" Xu Yuzhuo was also a little surprised when he received the report. He had studied the map repeatedly before and confirmed that the geographical location of the two bays is very important. Once occupied, Hirado City is equivalent to opening the door.

Xu Yuzhuo originally thought that even if the East China Sea Fleet made a feint attack in the direction of Hirado Port to attract the attention of the enemy, the Hirado Clan would not completely give up the defense on the western front. Build coastal defense batteries on both sides of key waterways.

But now it seems that either the Hirado clan did not have time to deploy defensive measures on the west coast of the island, and deliberately played an empty city plan; or the strategic awareness was too poor, and they did not realize that the Haihan Army might launch a surprise attack from this direction.

Of course, there is also a theoretical possibility, that is to intentionally leave this place empty and wait for the coalition forces to attack. After the coalition fleet sails into the harbor, they will take a back route from the sea to block the entrance of the harbor and give the coalition forces a chance.

However, in the end, the possibility of this situation was denied by the generals at yesterday's combat preparation meeting. Several generals believed that it was impossible for Hirado to deploy such targeted tactics in advance.And once its main fleet is exposed, the West Route Army can also immediately contact the East Route Army via telegram to bypass the northern end of Hirado Island for reinforcements, and whoever catches it may have to switch over.

Therefore, when the Fujian navy discovered that the bay here was empty, Xu Yuzhuo judged that the Hirado domain did not have enough troops to deploy to the west coast, and could only focus on defending against the attack from the direction of the Hirado Strait.In addition, today the East China Sea Fleet will launch a feint attack at Hirado Port a few hours earlier. It is possible that the Hirado Domain has transferred all available troops to the east coast to prevent the Haihan Army from launching a landing battle on the east coast.

"According to the original plan, occupy the target area and cover the landing of the Special Forces." Xu Yuzhuo didn't want to think about why the Hirado Clan left such a big loophole at the moment, as long as the original combat plan was implemented.Even if the other party still has some conspiracy, the coalition forces can use all their strength to defeat the other party head-on.

Surrounded by more than forty naval warships, more than ten landing troop carriers carrying the Haihan Independence Regiment slowly sailed into Boxiang Bay, and docked next to the shipyard under the stunned gaze of the locals. fishing port pier.It wasn't until the Haihan soldiers on the boat jumped ashore with double-colored flags that the local people finally realized the purpose of these big ships and fled inland in fear.

Takahashi Minami set foot on the land of Hirado Island, but he didn't have any excitement about returning to his hometown. He just looked at the dock not far away with a little regret, and there was only one ship that was about halfway in the construction process. Shelf, it seems that this place was indeed one of the places where the Hirado Clan built warships, but now there are no completed warships here, and they were obviously transferred out of this place in advance.

However, this has reduced the trouble for the special operations group's landing operations. It is rare in the history of the special operations group to swagger and land behind the enemy without firing a single shot.

But even so, the special operations group was not careless at all, and still followed the standard landing procedures. After landing, they first sent a reconnaissance team to the periphery to serve as guards. Transfer ashore.

Although the combat effectiveness of the special operations group is strong, its dependence on logistics supplies is also very obvious.In addition to rifles, the soldiers who landed on the island also need to carry a lot of individual supplies, including rifle ammunition, secondary weapons bayonet daggers, daily rations for individual soldiers, drinking water, trauma medicines, bandages, and equipment Backpacks and so on, these pieces of equipment and supplies add up to nearly twenty catties.

This does not include sleeping bags and tents, cooking utensils, medical tools, ammunition supplies, spare weapons, fresh food, etc. that are transported uniformly by logistics.In addition, squads, platoons, companies and battalions at all levels will also carry a variety of lethal heavy weapons, ranging from grenades to field guns.All these materials need to be unloaded to the shore first, and then continuously transported to the front troops as the front advances.

If the frontline troops advance too fast and the logistics cannot keep up with it in time, there may be a situation where they are fighting with the wind but are unable to follow up due to insufficient combat supplies. This is definitely a taboo among the taboos when fighting in unfamiliar areas .Therefore, even though there was no resistance from the defenders during the landing process, Takahashi Minami still followed the standard combat steps step by step, and did not rush into the inland.

After successfully landing at Boxiang Fishing Port, the Special Forces did not rush to the east of the urban area, but first raided Jingchuan, which is not far from the fishing port.

According to the information provided by Amakusa Shiro, this place is where Hirado Clan's military workshops for steel smelting and artillery casting are located, and that must be one of the targets to be captured in this operation.Destroying the local facilities is secondary, and the more important thing is to take down all the relevant technical personnel to prevent the spread of these ordnance technologies in Japan.

When entering Jingchuan, the Special Operations Group finally encountered the first wave of resistance after landing. About thirty or forty armed personnel hid in the houses, trying to shoot and kill the Haihan soldiers who attacked here with muskets and bows.But obviously these armed personnel are not well-trained professional soldiers. Perhaps because they were too nervous, the Haihan Army launched it rashly when it was still outside its range, and exposed its whereabouts by itself.

Then their hiding place was hit by concentrated fire. These shacks made of bamboo and wood could not stop the shooting of rifle bullets at all, and the resisters hiding in them were shot one after another soon.

(End of this chapter)