1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2119
Only six or seven miles south of Hirado City, the terrain narrows a lot due to the ancient river bay that is recessed inland, and the narrowest part of the island is only four or five miles wide from east to west.If the inaccessible mountainous areas are excluded, the only route that can really allow the brigade to quickly reach the south of the island is the official road on the east coast.

When the coalition command formulated the battle plan before the war, it made this area a blockade to cut off the north-south passage of Hirado Island. The generals believed that as long as the official roads were cut off, it would be difficult for the enemies near the city of Hirado to escape smoothly by land. Hiding in the mountains in the south of the island.In this way, the coalition forces can trap the armed forces of the Hirado domain in a relatively small area in the north of the island for encirclement and suppression, so as to shorten the combat time here.

For this expedition that does not seem to be too lucrative, the generals of the coalition forces have already reached a consensus on a quick battle. After all, every day this war lasts, the coalition forces will consume a lot of materials and military expenses, and these expenses are very difficult. Get enough compensation from the direct income after the war, and you can earn less if you spend less.This is also why the Special Forces did not rush to directly attack Hirado city after landing from Boxiang Bay, but rushed south first, preparing to deploy a blockade line in the south before launching a general attack.

Gao Hongfu is quite familiar with the local situation. Seeing that the Haihan Army did not go straight to Hirado City as expected, he quickly saw through the Haihan Army's true intentions, and quickly sent someone to investigate the Haihan Army's activities. direction of action.Sure enough, what he got in return was that part of the Haihan army had already moved south, and there seemed to be no sign of attacking the city immediately.

Gao Hongfu knew something was wrong, and while dividing his troops to the south, he sent people to report back and ask for reinforcements.He knew that once the enemy army cut off the road in the south, the Hirado clan would have no way out, and could only fight head-on with the enemy in the north of the island, and this kind of frontal combat is what the Haihan army is good at. But if you can't avoid it, the situation will be very dangerous.

In fact, Tian Chuansuke also considered this possibility before and sent people to the south to investigate, but he did not expect that the offensive launched by the coalition forces on the west coast would be the main direction of attack, and the manpower he sent would not be able to stop the Special Operations Group's actions in the south. .

After several sporadic armed conflicts on and off, the special operations group under the command of Takahashi Minami managed to occupy the only official road from Hirado City to the south of the island relatively smoothly, and the Hirado Army who rushed over paid for it. There were nearly 50 casualties, but it did not have much effect on delaying time.By the time Tian Chuansuke led the main force of the feudal army from Hirado City, the Special Forces had already started construction and construction of temporary fortifications in a place called Ono Village on the east coast.

Ono Village is built on the hillside, and many houses are built on the hillside.The narrow area between the bottom of the slope and the coast, in addition to being used for reclaimed farmland, is also the official road more than ten feet wide.Although this is just a dirt road that is not in good condition, it is also the "main artery" that runs through the land traffic from north to south of Hirado Island. The target of the Haihan army's outflanking to the south is this inconspicuous road.

The Haihan army is very good at using civil engineering in combat operations, especially in building temporary fortifications, which is unique in the world.In order to effectively block this official road and prevent the Hirado Clan from organizing armed forces to break through from this direction, the Special Operations Group marked out a construction area on the official road next to Ono Village, and forcibly recruited more than 100 civilians from Ono Village, plus A company of infantry dug trenches on the official road, and used the excavated soil to pile up earth barriers in front of the trenches to deploy the infantry defense line.

Another group of people immediately cut bamboo and wood beside the official road, sharpened one end, and tied long rows of horses with ropes to act as roadblocks.If it weren't for the poor traffic conditions from Boxiang Fishing Port to this place, there are actually many concertina wire fences that can be deployed quickly on the troop carrier of the Haihan Army, but the amount that can be transported by manpower in a hurry is too small, and it is better to use it on the spot. Barricades made of bamboo and wood come quickly.

The fortifications of the temporary trenches and bamboo and wooden roadblocks cannot be said to be very strong, and there are actually many ways to crack them, such as using powerful units such as heavy cavalry, or throwing artillery on the battlefield, and there is no way to bypass this place.

However, these solutions are difficult for the Hirado clan. There is no heavy cavalry in the fan army, and the artillery that can be used is almost deployed on the coastal defense batteries of Hirado Port, so there is no way to invest these special arms at the moment. battlefield.

As for the detour around this place, it is not advisable. After this place is blocked by the Haihan army, the horses and horses can no longer go south through the official road, and the brigade of Hirado city has no way to transfer to the southern mountainous area by detour.

In order not to be trapped in the north of the island and unable to escape, the Hirado clan must try to get through this road, but this is exactly the situation that the Haihan army wants to facilitate.The narrower the battle zone, the better it is for the Haihan Army to take advantage of its weapon performance. Just digging a few sections of trenches here is enough to completely block the flat area near the sea, and deploying a company on the defense line is more than enough.

However, the process of building the fortifications was not smooth. It took a lot of time to recruit the peasants of Ono Village, and many villagers took advantage of the loophole and slipped into the forest, resulting in far fewer recruited peasants than expected. Commander Sun Zhen had to order an infantry company under his command to temporarily put down their rifles, pick up engineering shovels, and join in the work of digging trenches.

During this period, a small group of enemy troops continued to harass the construction site. Although it was not enough to regain the lost ground, it still caused the Haihan Army to stop their work from time to time and organize defenses to repel them.This kind of harassment war also greatly delayed the progress of building fortifications, which made Sun Zhen very dissatisfied.

The opponent was obviously also constantly adapting to the Haihan army's combat methods during the battle, and no longer launched a sudden assault, but launched a tentative attack from the mountains and forests beside the official road.If the Haihan army does not give enough response, they will slowly increase their offensive strength, and once the Haihan army launches a counterattack, these armed men hidden in the mountains and forests will immediately retreat, obviously just to delay the attack. The construction speed of the Haihan army is waiting for the main force to arrive.

Sun Zhen had no choice but to deploy a company on the hillside, using firepower to block the opponent's stragglers from attacking the construction site, and finally calmed down a little.

When Tian Chuansuke led the main force to join Gao Hongfu nearby, the fortifications of Ono Village had begun to take shape, and four intersecting trenches in a W shape had cut off the official road and the surrounding area.Although the average depth of these trenches was only two to three feet due to the rush of construction time, the difference in height was enough for the Haihan soldiers hiding in the trenches. A bunker you can rely on.Not only are the several trenches interconnected, but the angle formed will also turn into a terrible crossfire in the battle.

Sun Zhen deployed a platoon of troops in each trench, while the company that had previously participated in the construction of the trenches retreated to the rear to rest and act as a combat reserve.The long row of repelling horses made of bamboo and wood was deployed to the north of the trench to further limit the opponent's advancing speed and movement space.According to his estimation, as long as the opponent does not use artillery in battle, he will definitely pay a great price in death and injury if he wants to break through this line of defense from the front.

At this time, the East China Sea Fleet, which was notified, had already sent a supply ship to arrive, and would try to stop on the nearby coast to transport the small-caliber field artillery and ammunition needed for the special operations group to ashore.As long as a few more artillery pieces are added to this line of defense to make up for the shortcomings, Sun Zhen is sure to be able to prevent the opponent's counterattack here.

At this time, the sky had slowly begun to darken. Although Tian Chuanjie confirmed from a distance that the Haihan army had cut off the road and built fortifications, he still insisted on asking Gao Hongfu to launch a wave of offensives to see if there was a chance to be able to fight back in the dark. before regaining control of the road.If some of the feudal army can successfully go to the south, then the Haihan army will have to keep in mind the possibility of being attacked by the enemy while attacking the city of Hirado.Can greatly reduce the defensive pressure.

In fact, Gao Hongfu knew that it was too late to take action at this time, it would be better to wait for the sneak attack after dark to have hope of success.But Tian Chuansuke insisted on calling the Haihan people the weight of the people, so he could only obey orders, ordered [-] peasant soldiers and [-] vassal troops, and launched an offensive against the temporary defense line built by the Haihan army.

Sun Zhen, who personally commanded the battle on the defense line, immediately discovered the enemy's movement. After confirming the scale of the enemy's deployment with a telescope, he quickly issued a combat order: "Since you are looking for death, then let them go! Fire again soon and let them know who they're fighting!"

To deal with enemies who mainly use cold weapons, the special combat regiment has quite a lot of combat experience. It doesn't even need more specific combat orders from the commander. The soldiers know exactly what to do.

The Haihan army waited patiently for the enemy to advance within [-] meters, and then opened fire suddenly when they saw that the archers in the opponent's formation had already begun to bend their bows and set arrows to launch a long-range attack.Dense bullets flew from behind the bunker to the almost unprotected local farmers and soldiers on the opposite side, and dozens of people fell under the bullet rain in an instant.

Such killing efficiency has had a great impact on the peasants and soldiers with little combat experience. Most of these locals who mainly do farming and fishing have no experience on the battlefield. It was difficult to overcome the panic in their hearts, and some weak-willed people immediately turned and fled back, showing their backs to the Haihan army.

What followed was the process from small chaos to big chaos. The limited military literacy of the peasants and soldiers made it impossible to persist in fighting in this adversity with distinct strengths and weaknesses. The large number of casualties of the front row personnel quickly turned into a rout.Although the Fan Army Supervisor team cut down several people one after another and asked the peasants and soldiers who acted as the vanguard not to retreat without authorization, but at this time, the peasants and soldiers who had turned into fleeing instead of retreating couldn't care so much. Since they couldn't pass The supervising team prevented them from going back the same way, so many people had no choice but to flee to the forest next to the official road.Some panicked farmers and soldiers even fled directly to the coast, apparently planning to swim back to the north from the sea.

Although the vassal army holding the formation did not lose their position because of this, the peasants and soldiers who opened the way were defeated so quickly, which still dealt a blow to their confidence.Under Gao Hongfu's personal supervision, the three hundred vassal troops began to march forward slowly.

With the lesson of Kojiro Tagawa's failure, Gao Hongfu also knew that if he opened his battle and exchanged fire with the Haihan Army, it would be tantamount to applying for suicide. Hiding in the bunker, he did not insist on letting the Fan army advance to within the effective range before firing, but decisively ordered to shoot at a longer distance.

The threat that such a combat distance can pose to the Haihan army is naturally very limited. Seeing that the opponent seems to have no intention of continuing to advance, Sun Zhen also ordered to fire back.However, the distance of the firefight is far away, and the hit rate of the special operations group will also drop significantly, so this kind of counterattack is more just to show their attitude, and it does not have full firepower like a close combat.

After the two sides exchanged fire tacitly, neither of them achieved any results, but Gao Hongfu was able to hand over to Tian Chuansuke.After all, the peasants and soldiers on the first wave suffered heavy casualties. Even Tian Chuansuke did not dare to engage in such a war of attrition with the vassal army with limited strength. up.

Seeing that the opponent fired in a pretentious manner and then took the initiative to retreat, Sun Zhen did not order to pursue him out of caution.His task is to build and defend the land blockade on the east coast, and he cannot act rashly until the command headquarters gives an order to advance northward.

Tian Chuansuke did not try to launch an offensive again, but followed Gao Hongfu's suggestion to withdraw his troops and wait for the night before looking for an opportunity to attack.Immediately, Tian Chuansuke made statistics on the troops participating in the war. In the battle that started in the afternoon today, there were more than 300 casualties and missing persons. big.

The number of casualties in Haihan was much smaller, even far lower than the pre-war estimate.However, when Qian Tiandun saw the casualties of his own side later, his first reaction was not how well his troops fought, but that the main force of the enemy army had not really participated in the battle, so for the time being, he could not understand the low casualties on the first day. rate of overly optimistic judgments.

The loss of the navy seems to be greater. In today's artillery battle, in order to exert sufficient pressure on Hirado Port, seven Haihan warships were damaged to varying degrees in the exchange of fire, and they were also accompanied by double-digit damage. casualties.As for the attack on the coastal defense fort, it is still difficult to confirm the effect of the attack.

In fact, the navy seldom adopts such rigid tactics. The artillery battle this day was purely to attract firepower for the West Route Army.Shi Diwen was calm, and was not dissatisfied with taking on the feint mission.He knew that the navy of the Hirado clan must be hiding somewhere nearby, and when that navy showed up, the East China Sea Fleet would really play a role.

(End of this chapter)