1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 271 Landing Exercise
Early the next morning, Mu and Feng found Zheng Bai and asked him for a group of civilian men to go to the rear to build a pier and camp.Zheng Bo readily agreed to this, and immediately assigned 1000 civilian husbands to their command.However, when discussing the distribution of combat missions, the two sides have different opinions.

Zheng Bai hoped that the Haihan army could assist the North Vietnamese army in defensive operations on the mountain defense line, but Mu and Feng thought that they should go directly to the rear of the South Vietnamese army from the sea and harass and attack the rear.

Feng Annan said: "General Zheng also said yesterday that a stalemate in the war is not good news for you, but to repel the attack of the southern rebels, it is not enough to just hold this line of defense, we still have to find a way to take the initiative Just do it."

Zheng Bai shook his head and said: "It is indeed a good idea to take the initiative, but whether it is feasible depends on the strength of the two sides. The reinforcements you sent are no more than a thousand people. Even if you are brave and good at fighting, how can you deal with dozens of times the enemy? Detour In the enemy's rear, if the battle goes wrong, it will be difficult to withdraw at that time! Even if Ruan Ni has the upper hand in the battle now, he would not dare to bypass this line of defense from the sea to attack my rear, you two should think about it again."

"It's not just a thousand people, your group of people in the Tushan training camp will also act with us." Mu Xiabo took over the conversation and said: "Our battle plan is not isolated and helpless. The ships are armed to a certain extent, and if necessary, the ships can provide artillery cover near the shore so that the troops on the shore can withdraw smoothly."

Mu Xiabo's words are not bragging. The Executive Committee and the Ministry of Shipping have been constantly modifying the ships in their hands. One of the key points is to install gun positions on the ships.After the mass production of the mechanical retreating gun mounts, the [-] sea-going ships collected in the early stage have been refitted one after another, and a standard reinforced base is installed on the deck. In wartime, only the gun mounts need to be fixed. Add gunners on board, and you can instantly transform into an armed merchant ship.Of course, limited by the displacement and the original hull structure and deck layout, it is impossible to become a professional gunboat like the "Explorer". Generally, two guns are installed on each side at most.The combat capability of this kind of ship is not high, but if it forms a fleet of a certain size, the firepower output should not be underestimated.

However, the tactics of infantry coordination have only been practiced a few times in the training camp in Victory Port so far. What effect will it have when it is actually used on the battlefield? Not sure.As for the more advanced amphibious cooperation operations, warships covering the landing of the army, etc., let alone in this era, it will be a very difficult combat subject even a few hundred years later. If the operation is not good, the troops will be chaotic during the battle The possibility is also very high.

However, the battle zones between North and South Vietnam are close to the coast, and apart from weapons, another obvious advantage of the Haihan Militia is the ability to maneuver at sea. The combat method is almost the only choice.

In order to avoid such tragedies, the military and police departments are also conducting very targeted combat training.However, in order not to panic the residents of Victory Port, the location of the training exercise was arranged on the Luhuitou Peninsula located southwest of Victory Port.

After several sea-going ships approached the beach on the east coast of the Luhuitou Peninsula, more than a dozen small boats slid by manpower quickly ran to the front and near the shore and stopped one after another. The engineers on board quickly laid wooden piles at the bow and stern.These wooden stakes are inserted into the shore through holes deliberately left in the ship plank to fix the boat.At the same time, the small boats have also been connected with wooden boards. It only took about 10 minutes to complete the construction of several simple floating trestles.

The militia soldiers with guns and live ammunition immediately climbed down from the rope net on the side of the ship and landed in a group.The soldiers who landed first quickly formed a formation on the shore, and under the command of the commander, the engineers immediately began to build fortifications, and the musketeers formed an formation to shoot at the imaginary enemy on the opposite side.At the same time, the army guns and ammunition that were dismantled into several parts such as the gun body, gun mount, and hub were also hoisted onto the floating trestle. They will be transported to the shore by a small flat two-wheeled trolley. After simple assembly You can start attacking immediately.

It is worth mentioning that this two-wheeled vehicle is a multi-purpose tool specially developed by the woodworking workshop in accordance with the requirements of the Military and Police Department.In addition to being able to serve as a means of transportation for military supplies on the battlefield, it can also be transformed into a stretcher to undertake the task of quickly transporting the wounded. Only a strong civilian man can quickly transport at least two wounded who have lost the ability to move. .In addition, in an environment similar to beach-grabbing operations, the landing troops lack the protection of frontal shelters in the early stage, and it is not easy to build temporary positions.The two-wheeled vehicle solves this problem very well - as long as the car is erected, the special support pole at the bottom of the vehicle is opened from the back and pushed to the ground, the two-wheeled vehicle immediately becomes a one-meter-wide and 1.5-meter-high Floor-mounted shield wall.And the musketeers can hide behind the shield wall, and use their firepower advantage to shoot at the enemy with confidence and boldness.

If the opponent wants to destroy this kind of shield wall at a long distance, they can only use heavy weapons such as artillery or trebuchets. No matter what kind of weapon the opponent chooses, its range and accuracy are definitely far inferior to those equipped by the militia. Artillery, if they shoot at each other, the party that suffers will definitely not be the militia.

The carpentry workshop also used a lot of ingenuity when designing this two-wheeled vehicle. For example, the distance between the two wheels is slightly lower than the width of the vehicle body, so that when it is transformed into a shield wall mode, it can achieve seamless connection. Effect.The bottom plate of the car body is made of sandalwood, which is densely wooded. Although the weight of the car body is increased to a certain extent, the thick wood board is enough to resist the bow and crossbow shooting from the front, and it also has a fairly good protection against the bullets of the arquebus at a distance of [-] meters. ability.The wooden wheels are deliberately widened to prevent the body from sinking rapidly on soft ground like the beach.

If one had to pick a fault, it would probably be that the lack of a shock-absorbing system would greatly shorten the service life of this truck.But this is not because the executive committee is stingy, but because the delivery date required by the military and police department is too urgent, and there is no time to install a special shock absorber for the production of this small car.However, this is harmless. Anyway, this batch of cars is only experimental. After the actual application on the Annan battlefield, the relevant departments will definitely make further improvements to the design.

The Military and Police Department placed an order for [-] small cars in one go, but judging from the current production progress, it is still unknown whether the woodworking workshop can complete the delivery before the troops are dispatched.It's not that the woodworking workshop didn't do its best. The director of the workshop, Cai Hongzhan, hasn't been out of the workshop for four or five days in a row, and his workers work in three shifts, rushing to make orders non-stop.The order that the woodworking workshop needs to complete this time is not just [-] multi-purpose vehicles. They also need to complete [-] spear shafts, a large number of spare parts for ships, and the production of [-]-type flintlocks for the musket assembly workshop. The production tasks are extremely heavy, such as firing gun stocks, cooperating with the shipyard of the Ministry of Shipping to modify existing ships, etc.

When the landing exercise went on for 35 minutes, the first batch of six artillery pieces that landed had already been loaded and fired their first shells.At the same time, the two 50-meter-wide fortifications on the left and right constructed by multi-purpose vehicles have also been completed. Two companies of Musketeers are stationed behind the two fortifications. The intensity of firepower can completely repel thousands of cold weapons. Infantry shock.Artillery was placed in the middle and flanks of the two lines of defense, which further enhanced the firepower output.At this time, the fortifications built by the multi-functional car showed another benefit—it could easily move with the trend of the battle situation, and fully cover the advancement or retreat of one's own troops.

Tao Donglai, who was standing on the bow of the "Explorer", put down the binoculars, and said to Yan Chujie beside him, "The process went smoothly, but I think the speed of action needs to be further improved, do you understand what I mean?"

Yan Chujie nodded and said: "There is no external pressure in the current exercise. If the real landing is harassed by the enemy, the landing speed will definitely be much slower than now."

Tao Donglai said: "Our troops don't have any mobility advantage on land, so the landing site we choose can't be too far away from the enemy. In this way, the possibility of being discovered by the enemy is very high when we land, so All kinds of extreme situations have to be considered in advance.”

After the basic defense line was built, the engineers and civilians in the rear quickly transferred various materials from the ship to the shore.Under the command of the commander, the engineers quickly arranged two intermittent barbed wire defense lines along the outer edge of the shield wall, blocking those areas that were easier to break through by infantry and the blind spots for firearms troops.This concertina-shaped barbed wire completely borrowed from the shape of later generations, and it is very convenient to arrange and fold. As a tool for blocking roads, the effect is no worse than traditional tools such as Jumaluzhai.The only regret is that limited to the production process and cost, it is not yet possible to mass-produce that kind of barbed wire with steel blades.Fortunately, there is still a batch of knife-barbed nets in the inventory of cross-travel materials. They were only used for a period of time in the early days of landing before the construction of No. [-] base, and they were all allocated to the military and police department for this big operation.

After the two lines of defense were built, the engineers in the rear began to build the wall and set up tents with great fanfare.The more village walls used by the landing troops also borrowed from the design of the multi-functional trolley, and adopted a prefabricated structure. After digging shallow trenches on the ground, the walls were buried in rows, and the rear was supported by poles and soil bags. , It is naturally connected with the positions of muskets and artillery.

In just two hours, the landing force has completed the basic construction of the defense line and the construction of the camp.This result is not the best among the contemporary army, but in terms of quality, the reliability of this beachhead is no less than that of the contemporary army that took ten times the time to build.

The leaders of the military and police departments who visited the exercise also applauded, fully affirming the outstanding performance of the militia soldiers.Wang Tom praised sincerely: "Lieutenant Gu is really good at leading troops! Compared with the landing battle hundreds of years later, it can be said that the only thing we lack is a dedicated landing craft."

"There is still one at Shengli Port, do you want to drive it across the sea to scare those monkey soldiers?" Tao Donglai joked.

Tom Wang shrugged and said, "If the executive committee can grant me all the diesel in stock, then I will be happy to complete this task."

On January 1628, 1, the Executive Committee passed a resolution, in the name of "defense mobilization of overseas garrisons and maritime military exercises", to announce the recent large-scale military operations to the local people.

This decision was made after careful consideration by the executive committee. Recently, all the units have been working overtime to produce military supplies, and militia soldiers have stepped up their drills. All this must not be hidden from the eyes of those who are interested. If the executive committee keeps silent about this, instead It will make the local people feel suspicious.And if we directly announce the use of foreign troops, it seems that there is no grandiose reason-we can't say that our purpose of fighting this battle is to control Annan, right?

And there is another disadvantage that the executive committee has to guard against. After the large-scale mobilization of local armed forces, there will inevitably be a certain gap.Although Luo Shengdong, a bodyguard with a formal national license, was invited over, the combat effectiveness of Luo Shengdong and his gang was also worrying, and they could only be used as a facade.Therefore, when the executive committee announced the news internally, it did not specify the scope of the mobilization of the militia and the location of the maritime exercise training. Even among the militia, ordinary militiamen did not know the real purpose of the so-called mobilization of the military exercise.

As for when the truth will be announced to the local people in the future, the Executive Committee believes that it depends on the progress of the action.In the executive committee's plan, this military operation is not only to interfere with Annan's domestic political situation, but also to use military victories to boost the morale of the people in the controlled area and increase the resistance of the naturalized people to the regime that has passed through. sense of identity.

On January 1, Schneider and Li Nai returned to Guangzhou together.Li Nai really wanted to stay in Victory Port, because he had already seen that the Haihan people were not joking this time, and they probably really wanted to fight a certain force outside.Of course, the target of this battle will definitely not be Daming, because almost all the sailors in the Yazhou water village were moved here by Luo Shengdong, and it was obvious that they were going to take on the task of looking after the house while the Haihan militia was out.Li Nai really wanted to get further news as soon as possible, but his father Li Jifeng had his 10th birthday soon, and as the youngest son, he must go back to show his filial piety, so he could only leave Victory Port disgruntled.As for "Fu Ruifeng"'s business in Shengli Port is managed by his own staff, and Wei Ping, a "partner", takes care of it, Li Nai is very relieved.

And Schneider's trip also undertakes another new task, which is to open a bank in Guangzhou based on the Guangzhou Office, which can be used for both deposits and withdrawals in Guangzhou and Shengli Port, so as to facilitate the sea trade between the two places. ——Of course, the real purpose is to gradually promote the advanced financial system of the Traveling Group to the outside world, and gradually influence Daming's attitude towards Haihan by means of an economic platform.

This universal deposit and withdrawal plan was originally arranged in the middle or even the second half of 1628, because a large amount of silver and money transactions must have a large amount of precious metals in the hands of the crossing group that can be transferred at any time.Since October, the Ministry of Finance has started the experimental operation of the universal deposit and withdrawal business in Yazhou relying on the office in Yazhou.Because all aspects of the relationship in Yazhou have been properly handled before this, and several fixed trade customers are also very familiar, so the operation is relatively smooth, and there has been no trouble so far.

In recent months, the progress of the arms trade has greatly exceeded previous expectations, and the scale of various industrial product trades has also continued to expand. Several 10 taels of cash have poured into the pockets of the Crossing Group. In addition, after this battle, the North Vietnamese side had to pay at least 10 taels of "labor fees" to the Crossing Group. The financial management headed by Schneider believed that the time was ripe to set up a universal deposit and withdrawal institution in Guangzhou, which could be paid in advance. put into action.

This time, the cargo ship that went north with Schneider loaded a full 15 taels of silver and 2000 taels of gold. Ship escort.However, in order to avoid attracting the attention of interested people, the executive committee only sent Ning Qi as a representative to see him off at the pier.

Yu Dashan also asked for leave early that day and went to the pier to see his son off.At this time, Schneider returned to Shengli Port to report on his work, and Yu Xiaobao was also fortunate to come back with him to enjoy the first family leave in his life.The blue cloth gown he wore when he left Shengli Harbor last time has been replaced with a new satin dress this time—Yu Dashan finally spent "a lot of money" to buy high-quality fabrics under Wang Cai's persuasion. Made a new outfit for my son.

Seeing that his son had grown a lot in three months after going to Guangzhou, Yu Dashan felt relieved and reluctant, and stuffed the package into Yu Xiaobao's hands: "This is your favorite dried squid and mango , there are three toffees in it, but they are rare items, your father has the audacity to ask the chief to come, so save some to eat!"

"Father, dried squid can be bought in Guangzhou, so there's no need to prepare it. Also, don't beg for things from the chief in private, it won't affect you well!" Yu Xiaobao said angrily.

Yu Dashan lowered his voice and said: "There is also a 20-yuan circulation coupon for you in the package. When you arrive in Guangzhou, ask Mr. Shi to exchange it for silver for you. See if there is a suitable girl, and order a kiss early. You also Knowing that there are few girls in Shengli Port, and even the chiefs have not been found yet, when it is our turn, people like us will have to wait until when."

"Daddy, you..." Yu Xiaobao didn't know whether to be angry or laugh.

(End of this chapter)