1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 340 Capture Dangan Island

In the early morning of May 28, the second, fourth, and fifth companies of the Haihan Militia boarded three "exploration-class" warships in full armor at the Wanshan Port Wharf.Watched by hundreds of temporary residents on the island, the fleet sailed slowly out of the harbor, circled the cape in the south, turned east, and headed for the Dangan Islands more than 30 nautical miles away.

This battle is different in nature from the previous battles that the Haihan Militia has participated in. The previous battles were all due to direct or indirect conflicts of interest between the opponent and the crossing group. The situation forced the executive committee and the military to Had to make the choice of a forceful solution.As for the pirate gangs on the Dangan Islands, in fact, they have not posed a substantial threat to the Transmigration Group so far. It is not even certain whether they have such an attempt. The military and the executive committee decided to take the initiative to send troops Eliminate this "potential" threat.

This combat operation can be said to mean that the cross-travel group's foreign military expansion policy has begun to change from a cautious passive reaction to a proactive attitude, and the scope of attack targets has also expanded from "direct threats" to "potential threats."Of course, only a few military officers who have experienced hundreds of years of experience can realize this change. It is not yet possible to understand what this change in attitude means.For them, every battle means the accumulation of military merits and opportunities for promotion. Therefore, although they have just retired from the battlefield in Panyu County and have not rested for a few days, the grassroots personnel are still full of desire to fight.

Three and a half hours later, the fleet arrived in the waters of the Dangan Islands, and small fishing boats were also observed near the shore.However, after the people on these boats discovered this strange fleet coming from the west, they immediately chose to row and flee to the shore.However, Wang Tom is not afraid of exposing his whereabouts in advance. This plan sets the combat time in the daytime, and he has no intention of hiding his tracks for a sneak attack. nest.Even if these pirates discovered the attack of the Haihan militia a longer time in advance, at most, they would have a little more chance of escaping, and it would not affect the overall situation.

According to the information obtained after interrogating the prisoners, the bandit den on Dangan Island is located in a small bay at Dangantou at the east end of the island.When the fleet approached here along the island shore, they found that the so-called bay was actually just a concave V-shaped island shore, and its harbor conditions were not even comparable to Wanshan Port.

At this time, there was chaos on the harbor pier, and many people could be seen running non-stop.Quite a few people were hurriedly unrigging and hoisting the sails on the deck, apparently planning to launch the ship out to fight a naval battle with the incoming uninvited guests.However, it is too difficult to realize this idea. The three Haihan warships sailed into the harbor one by one, pointing the sides of the ships at the several sea-going ships docked by the pier.When the people on the shore were still at a loss for this move, they saw the gun windows on the side of the ship open one by one, revealing the dark gun muzzle.

"Aim at the outermost Guangzhou ship, fire, and fire three times!" Tom Wang gave an order to fire simultaneously to the artillerymen on the three warships through the walkie-talkie.

Although the No. 6 ship and No. [-] ship had only two broadside guns, the momentum of the nine guns fired one by one by the three ships together was still astonishing.Although these side guns are only small [-]-pound guns, their power should not be underestimated.The warship was less than [-] meters away from the target, and the shell almost smashed through the hull of the ship that had just left the jetty trestle at the maximum speed. In an instant, many holes appeared in the hull of the ship.

For the Chinese-style sailboats that have begun to use watertight cabins in this era, although the penetration effect of the solid shells looks dazzling, it does not have that great impact on the overall performance of the ship, and the hull will not be damaged immediately after the sawdust is flying. Disintegrate or sink into water.However, this group of pirates obviously had not experienced this kind of combat-intensity bombardment. Just after the first round of the naval guns, some sailors on the deck of the ship began to dive to escape.

After the second salvo of the naval guns, the corrected trajectory of the shells dropped, and five or six large holes were made in succession above and below the waterline of the hull. The impact was more obvious now, and the hull began to tilt to the left. Lose momentum.And as soon as the ship stopped, it blocked the exit route of several ships behind, so there was chaos on the pier. Some people wanted to board the ship and flee, and some crew members wanted to abandon the ship and flee to the camp on the island to hide, but It's just that no one organized a counterattack against these large ships that were still floating on the sea—of course, this is also very likely because they simply couldn't come up with any effective countermeasures.

After the third round of volleys, the ship that was targeted had begun to capsize due to too much water in its cabin, and the sailors on board finally gave up struggling and jumped into the sea to swim to the shore.As for the following ships that had not left the dock, they all gave up their desperate intentions, and the sailors abandoned their ships and landed, trying to rely on the fort on the shore to resist.

"Slowly go around to the shore, pay attention to fire cover!" Wang Tom is very satisfied with the results of the first phase of the battle. The pirate ship that capsized in the center of the harbor happened to block the main navigation route in and out of the dock. Now the pirates want to Escaping by boat was probably hopeless.The Haihan Militia, which has the advantage of mobility, can slowly use its firepower advantage to carry out long-range strikes against the pirates who are still struggling on the shore.

The pirates' camp was built near the shore, with a radius of only a dozen acres of land. The surrounding area was a wall made of granite from the island. However, perhaps due to the limited labor force on the island, this wall The highest point is only five or six feet, and it can only cover people behind the wall.If the pirates counted on this wall to block the attack of the Haihan militia, they would be very wrong.

The warship sailed into the port slowly, and did not bombard the other ships docked by the trestle bridge. Although these ships were a bit worn out, they were towed back and repaired, and they could be used as fishing boats or short-distance offshore transportation tools. Not a big problem.

At this time, the pirates who recovered from the shore finally began to organize sporadic counterattacks, trying to use bows and arrows to fight against the militia at long distances.Wang Tom wasn't worried about the lethality of the bamboo arrows used by these pirates, but after seeing some pirates shooting arrows with ignited arrows, Wang Tom finally changed his face and directed the musketeers to aim at the few people on the shore. Archer began to roll the roll.

No matter in terms of range, accuracy or firepower density, the militia is far stronger than the opponent, so the few archers who dared to stand on the pier for sporadic resistance soon became living targets, and after a few rounds of guns, there was no one left. I can stand up.The officers did not put too much enthusiasm into this lackluster battle process, because the next battle after landing was the highlight of this battle.

Regarding the tactical arrangement of amphibious operations, if the Haihan Militia is called the second, then it may be difficult to find another army that can be called the first in the world during this period.As a military that regards sea control as the main means of expanding its territory in the future, it has always attached great importance to the drill of amphibious operations. Landing and anti-landing tactics are almost compulsory courses for every militia soldier after enlisting in the army. Long-range fire protection and beachhead construction , its tactics are all trained in strict accordance with the standards of later generations.The results of this kind of training have been verified during the Annan Battle. At that time, there were nearly 3000 people in the armed forces and logistics personnel, and the current battles of such company-level units are obviously pediatrics.

After the three warships approached the trestle bridge, they directly used the 12-pound long-barreled naval guns on the second deck of the bow to bombard the pirate fortress on the shore.Although the number of guns was reduced to three, they were more powerful than the previous 6-pounders.The ten-jin cast iron cannon flew through the air after being ejected from the chamber, and hit the stone wall of the village heavily. The first shot almost knocked down a section of the wall.

Under this terrifying power, no one dared to lean out from behind the wall to fight back. The infantry quickly landed on the dock trestle through the movable gangway on the side of the ship, and then surrounded the pirate fortress on the shore in platoons. past.

"Try to catch the living, don't kill innocent people indiscriminately!" Tom Wang issued a concise order to the interns of the military academy, and at the same time distributed a batch of special firearms prepared to them one by one.

This new gun is a modified model designed by the military industry department on the basis of the existing flintlock gun according to Qian Tiandun's previous opinions.The main feature of this gun is that the length of the barrel and gun body is shortened, the caliber is increased, and a new type of paper shell fixed ammunition is used.To put it simply, this is a weapon similar to the short-barreled shotgun of later generations. This gun is deliberately made short and suitable for use in places such as jungles or street fighting where it is inconvenient to use the 50-style flintlock.Because of this, the shooting range has been shortened a lot, and the effective killing distance is less than [-] meters. In order to make up for this shortcoming, the design unit increased the lethality within the effective range by increasing the caliber. A small shot instead of a single buckshot for a flintlock.

At a distance of ten meters to 30 meters, this kind of gun has a huge killing area, and basically it can hit the opponent without particularly precise aiming.If the opponent's formation happens to be very dense, then the fun will be great. Dozens of irons will become a barrage of bullets as soon as they are released from the chamber. Such a single shot is enough to kill a group of people at close range. .A gunman skilled in tactical actions can even complete five firings within 1 minute using fixed paper shells. The shooting frequency has proved the usability of this gun in actual combat.

The purpose of developing this "40-type shotgun" by the military industry department is to provide special weapons for the Heitugang Mountain Special Operations Force led by Qian Tiandun, but before that, it is of course a good thing to be able to use it on the battlefield kind of arrangement.Wang Tom brought out more than [-] trial products this time, but they were of no use in Lijiazhuang.But today, when he came to attack the pirate's lair on Dangan Island, Wang Tom felt that it was a good opportunity to try this kind of gun.The trainees have already learned how to use this new rifle in Port Victory, so it is an appropriate choice for them to try it on the actual battlefield.

Although Gao Qiaonan didn't quite understand Wang Tom's order, he curled his lips and said nothing in the end. He saluted Wang Tom and disembarked with a musket.Of course, besides the gun, he didn't forget to carry his precious samurai sword on his back.

Zheng Ting was not to be outdone, and hurried to follow. If he still lost to this Dongying dwarf today, then the position of the Annan soldiers in the Shengli Port Military Academy would be greatly reduced in the future.Nowadays, there are more and more trainees at the Shengli Port Military Academy. Not only are there students from Annan, but the trainees from the mainland are no longer the only ones from the Li family. It is said that their identities belong to the Ming military.

Zheng Ting didn't know how the Haihan people got involved with the Ming military again, and he didn't dare to inquire. After all, it is too sensitive to inquire about this fact from his perspective.But after the number of foreign advanced students in the military academy increased, Zheng Ting also faintly felt the pressure of competition. In this place, he not only represented himself, but also symbolized his country in a sense.

After the fifth round of bow artillery bombardment, a section of the wall finally collapsed, revealing a gap about two feet wide.Wang Tom, who was observing the battle situation on the ship, immediately ordered to stop the shelling. The defense line had been torn apart by the artillery fire, and the rest of the work would be handed over to the infantry.

Gao Qiaonan took the lead and rushed to the gap in the wall, and fired a shot at the crowd who were trying to repair the wall.His shot was no more than three to five meters away from the target, and it immediately overturned a crowd of people.Zheng Ting also came up and fired a shot, and then a group of pirates around the gap immediately turned around and scattered, no one looked at the pile of wounds lying on the ground.The two fired two shots just like that, and it seemed that they actually took down the gap.

The ensuing battle was somewhat orderly. The infantry team swarmed in from the gap, and after calmly reorganizing the team, they launched a very smooth three-stage attack on the last group of pirates who tried to resist stubbornly.After bringing down this group of people, the entire battle situation has basically stabilized.Seeing that the resistance was fruitless, some of the pirates knelt down and chose to surrender.The infantry entered the fort in an orderly manner and began to count the prisoners and supplies.

"This is too fast!" The only person who was dissatisfied with this result was probably Minami Takahashi who was determined to make some achievements.Since Wang Tom had explicitly prohibited killing indiscriminately before that, the battle was over before Takahashi Nan's sword was even stained with blood.If it hadn't been for firing a shot and knocking down a few pirates when they captured the gap, today would have been nothing.

Zheng Ting breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. He would not be afraid if he really wanted to engage in hand-to-hand combat, but he knew that his ability to fight alone was not as good as Gao Qiaonan. The dwarf stole the limelight.

The soldiers of the militia only suffered five minor injuries during the attack, which finally calmed down the officers who were still a little uneasy beforehand.If there are many casualties when dealing with opponents of this level, I am afraid that it will be difficult to explain to the Executive Committee and the Military Commission after returning. After all, when formulating the battle plan, they jointly promised to "take the battle with zero deaths." Dangan Island".

However, the process of counting the pirates took a long time - because some of the missing persons did not know whether they took advantage of the chaos and fled to other places on the island, or they sank into the harbor with the unlucky ship in the first round of attack .Another part of the pirates who were killed during the battle also needs to be checked again.

Speaking of which, this group of pirates was unlucky. In the volley battle two days ago, the first and second leaders of this group of pirates were killed by the muskets of the Haihan militia, and there was only one person on the island who didn't care about it. The third master of the matter.The night before, San Dang's family got very drunk, and it wasn't until the Haihan militia began to land that he was awakened from his sleep by the sound of gunfire from the sea.However, the pirate gang, which lacked command, barely made any decent resistance, and the fort was breached by the powerful Haihan militia, and the third master became a prisoner of the Haihan people.By this time, he hadn't even figured out what was going on.

Wang Tom ordered the nearly 14 captives to be called together, and then shouted to them with a metal microphone: "We are the Haihan militia from Shengli Port, Qiongzhou Island. From now on, all of you who are over [-] years old You have all become prisoners under the name of the Haihan Executive Committee, if you want to regain your freedom, you must first complete at least one year of hard labor!"

Wang Tom looked around at the trembling captives kneeling on the ground, and continued: "Any resistance in words or actions will be regarded as rebellion and dealt with! If you want to live well until the day you regain your freedom, then Be careful with your words and deeds from now on and don't make any mistakes! Don't get caught by your superiors who oversee you! If anyone doubts this, then I welcome him to try what I just said works! "

Compared to Xu Xinsu, a rich and powerful pirate leader like Zheng Yiguan, the family of these pirates on Dangan Island is pitiful, with more than 5000 catties of grain, more than 3000 taels of silver of various colors, and a pile of rusty knives and guns. There are also more than a dozen pieces of jewelry with a slightly rough craftsmanship, which are basically all the harvest after the militiamen ransacked the house.According to the account of the unlucky third master, the assets on the island were originally more than this, but a few days ago the first master and the second master went to Guangzhou to buy goods, and took away thousands of taels of silver-of course, the goods that the silver was exchanged for, As well as the ships that transported the goods, they have become the spoils of war of the Haihan people.

However, a piece of information that the third master inadvertently revealed caught Tom Wang's attention.

(End of this chapter)