1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Most of these forts outside Shanhaiguan are in a group of three, with one large and two small ones arranged in a font. Yong'an Fort is the slightly larger fort in this group.

It has to be said that the army did put a lot of thought into strengthening the border defense at the beginning, and the resources invested in building these fortresses were probably no less than building a large city.

The enemies these fortresses were supposed to deal with were the Qing army, which was dominated by cavalry and was not good at attacking fortifications.If the cavalry rush in regardless, this position will become a flesh and blood mill, which can effectively delay the Qing army's offensive in Shanhaiguan.

And the Qing army at that time did not have a good way to take this kind of fortress group, so they took a detour to avoid this tough bone.

However, compared with the Qing army back then, the Haihan army's offensive methods were much richer.And from the beginning of formulating the battle plan, Sun Zhen had no intention of bypassing this place.

The Ming army wanted to use this line of defense to resist the Haihan army going south, but Sun Zhen planned to use this battlefield to contain Ming's elite frontier army.

Although he was confident of victory, Sun Zhen did not lead his troops to advance rashly. Instead, he followed the standard combat procedure and stopped his troops at a place nearly two miles away from Yong'an Fort.

At this distance, the range of the small artillery of Yong'an Fort should not be able to reach the position of the Haihan army. If the defenders open the door and come out to charge, they will send it to the muzzle of the gun by themselves. Sun Zhen can arrange the next tactics more calmly.

Sun Zhen wouldn't expect the other party to voluntarily abandon their weapons and surrender, and he still had to go through the process that should be followed first.

Several supply carriages stopped in front of the formation, and the engineers hurriedly unloaded a pile of scaffolding from the carts, and then began to assemble them.

Not long after, two simple observation towers more than three feet high appeared in front of the Haihan army.There are also several steel cables at the top that are pulled to the ground and fixed to ensure that it will not shake.

This kind of watchtower is very simple to build and dismantle, and is most suitable for use in marching operations, and its height can be adjusted according to needs.If necessary, even a super-high form with a height of more than eight feet can be built, but the construction time will be longer.

A combat staff officer nimbly climbed up, and then used binoculars to observe the defensive deployment on the top of Yong'an Fort's wall.

The information he observed was quickly passed on to the artillery unit entering the firing position, and the artillery began to calculate the shooting elements and calibrate the artillery position.

At this time, two people also went up to another watchtower, but their tasks were somewhat different from those of the combat staff, not only to observe the defensive situation of Yong'an Fort, but also to directly participate in the battle.

They unloaded their backpacks and carefully took out their weapons—special rifles with barrel scopes on the guns.

That's right, these two are snipers, one of the most mysterious arms in the Haihan Army.

From the beginning of the selection of this army, the standards are extremely strict. They must be selected from among the soldiers who have been in the army for more than one year, are physically strong, have outstanding military qualities, and have clean net worth.Often out of hundreds of people in a battalion, only five or six people can be selected in the primary election.

After entering the training stage, these soldiers will go through multiple screenings and eliminations, and those who can finally get the status of sniper are often out of ten, and they can definitely be regarded as the elite of the elite.

But the end of training is only the beginning of a sniper's career.In order to maintain a good shooting feel and combat state, snipers practice almost all year round.

These snipers destroy thousands of rounds of ammunition every year in daily training alone, and the live ammunition fired by most soldiers during their service is only one-tenth of this number or even lower.

Moreover, in order to adapt to various geographical environments, the training locations of snipers are often changed, and they are even specially sent to train in unfamiliar environments outside the northern region, which is not a small expense.

Therefore, not only is the training of snipers extremely difficult, they are all elites selected from thousands of miles, and the funds required to maintain this branch are far more than ordinary troops.

In the Sixth Division under Sun Zhen's jurisdiction, there were only two squads of snipers with less than 20 people, and half of them had been taken away by Chen Pingliao.There are only a few people who can devote themselves to the battlefield in front of them.

Sun Zhen deployed the snipers on the high platform in order to make full use of their advantages and choose the opportunity to kill the commander of the Ming army in Yong'an Fort.

However, this kind of tactic is not unfamiliar to the Ming army. Haihan snipers have long been famous for their beheading tactics on the battlefield.Once a high-ranking officer is noticed by a Haihan sniper on the battlefield, he often dies.

Relying on traditional defense methods such as shields and armor cannot effectively deal with powerful snipers. In the past, there were many unlucky ghosts who were pierced with shields and armor on the battlefield.

The most effective way to deal with it is to never appear in the sniper's field of vision, but this will blind the commander who needs to understand the situation on the battlefield.

However, some people soon thought of a countermeasure, which was to conceal their identities through camouflage.Since snipers only target high-value targets, they only need to take off the armor that shows their identity and put on the equipment of ordinary soldiers, and the risk of being selected as a target by snipers will be greatly reduced.

Such a conspicuous high platform had already been erected in front of the Haihan army's position. If nothing else happened, the commander of the Ming army in Yong'an Fort should have been vigilant about it.

Whether they can find the other party's important person depends on the impromptu performance of the two snipers on the high platform.

After everything was ready, Sun Zhen gave the order to go to war.

Artillery has always been the first to attack the Haihan army, and today is no exception.Several cannons fired one after another before the formation, and then saw the walls and gates of Yong'an Fort being blasted out of smoke and dust.

Although the defenders in Yong'an Fort also fought back with artillery tenaciously, at this engagement distance, their fire was obviously futile, and the shells they fired fell to the ground seventy to eighty feet away from Haihan's position.

The firepower thus exposed immediately attracted more intensive attacks, and several small cannons together with the gunners were quickly sent to the sky.

The next round of bombardment shattered the gate of Yong'an Fort, and a section of the fort wall collapsed in the smoke and dust.

The snipers on the high platform have yet to find a chance, their vision is mostly blocked by smoke and dust, and they have not yet found the expected target.

The firepower advantage of the Haihan army was fully revealed in this situation, and it soon turned into a unilateral artillery attack.The walls of Yong'an Fort had become ruins at this time, and I don't know how many Ming soldiers were buried under the ruins in the continuous bombardment.

However, when the infantry began to slowly advance towards Yong'an Fort, a rain of arrows flew out of the ruins of Yong'an Fort. Obviously, the defenders inside had not given up their resistance.

"The infantry stop advancing, let the artillery battalion bombard again!" Sun Zhen gave the order expressionlessly.