1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 392
When discussing the joint action plan in Victory Port last year, the two sides jointly decided to launch attacks by sea and land respectively, and set Hue City as the meeting point.The Haihan Militia, which attacked from the sea, was the main offensive force in the early stage, responsible for containing and attracting the main forces of South Vietnam. The North Vietnam Army, which attacked from the north by land, acted as a support, and launched an offensive after the South Vietnamese troops began to mobilize to Hue.Judging from the progress of the war so far, it can be said that both sides have successfully completed their combat missions.

If you have to pick a bone in the egg, it means that the progress of the militia attacking Hue City was delayed for three or four days due to the unexpected heavy rain. The position is almost cleared.Now that the two sides have met outside the city of Hue, the next question to consider is how to wipe out the vital forces of South Vietnam here.

"General Zheng, please see that the east and south of Hue City are facing the river. Now the river has been controlled by our warships. The rebels do not have enough water surface capacity to maintain contact with the area south of the Xiangjiang River. The north is our army's position. , the only loophole is the west side.” Yan Chujie put forward a combat suggestion to Zheng Bai based on the topographic map hung up: “We hope that your army can move south from the current garrison position and cut off the access to Hue City. Passage to the Western Mountains."

Ten miles to the west of Hue City is the Changshan Mountains running from northwest to southeast. This main mountain range in the Indochina Peninsula parallel to the coast is more than [-] miles long. It is also the natural border of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.There are many dangerous passes in this mountain range. The famous Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War led to the south-central region of Vietnam along the Changshan Mountains.

What the Military Commission is fighting here is to wipe out all the elites of South Vietnam in Hue. Naturally, they don't want to leave such a back door for them to have the possibility of escaping.However, the Haihan militia has limited strength, and it is unlikely that it will divide its troops to encircle the west of Hue City.Now that the North Vietnamese army has arrived here, and there are as many as 3 troops, it is perfect for them to do this kind of low-tech rough work.

Zheng Bai usually had contact with Feng Annan and Mu Xiabo who were sent by Haihan to the northern front. He was not unfamiliar with this Haihan-style military map, and he could understand the terrain shown on the map. After listening to Yan Chujie's After the narration, he replied with a frown: "I heard that the rebels built a large area of ​​fortifications outside the city of Hue, and there are also forts on the city walls. Our army's artillery fire is not as strong as your army's. I'm afraid it's not enough to attack it alone."

Yan Chujie shook his head and said, "General Zheng doesn't have to worry about this problem. First of all, the defenders of Hue City did not build fortifications on the west side. The enemy positions outside the city are all concentrated in the north, which is the main attack direction of our army. There is no need for your army to worry. In addition, your army does not need to take the initiative to launch an attack, and it does not matter if it is stationed a little farther from Hue City, as long as it can intercept the rebels who broke out westward when the city is broken."

"So your army intends to undertake the siege on its own?" Zheng Bo asked.

Yan Chujie didn't answer his question right away, but asked instead: "What's General Zheng's opinion?"

Zheng Bai hesitated for a moment before responding: "If I remember correctly, according to the military cooperation agreement signed before, we can send an observation team to your army during wartime. Is there such a thing?"

Yan Chujie nodded and said, "If General Zheng has this plan, then he can send people over later. However, considering the capacity of our frontline camp, it is best not to have more than 20 people in the observation team."

Zheng Bai brought the topic in this direction, but it was not entirely for the purpose of sending a military observation team to the Haihan Army.If possible, he hoped to send an army to the Haihan people's position to participate in the siege operations of the Haihan militia.In this way, when the city is broken, the North Vietnamese side can also enter the city immediately and control some key departments, so as not to let the Haihan people take the lead.

However, doing so also has great risks. If the troops sent are not strong, it will be difficult to take charge of the siege battle alone, let alone the tasks to be undertaken after breaking the city.But if he sent out the elite troops in the formation, Zheng Bo would worry that when the defenders in the city broke through to the west, the remaining tens of thousands of second-class troops and peasant soldiers would not be able to withstand the opponent who jumped over the wall.Moreover, if the elite troops are sent to Haihan, they must accept the command of the Haihan people. If the Haihan people send their elite troops as cannon fodder to attack the city, then the loss will be huge. Tun, don't you even have a reason to blame the other party - you applied for sending troops to participate in the siege battle yourself.

After weighing again and again, Zheng Bo still did not dare to ask to send troops to the Haihan position. Finally, he made a compromise and sent an observation team composed of military officers. The strength and scope of such surveillance may be extremely limited, but it is better than doing nothing.

Yan Chujie actually knew the small thoughts of the North Vietnamese generals. If the North Vietnamese didn't take the initiative to make similar demands, Yan Chujie would suspect that they were playing tricks.Although the two sides have the same position in this battle, it does not mean that the interest demands represented by the two armies are also the same. Both of them have their own little calculations.

The Haihan militia is naturally eager to dismantle Hue City and move all people and goods back to Sanya. If possible, it would be better to directly occupy Hue City as a colony.The North Vietnamese side has already anticipated some actions that the Haihan side may take after the city is broken. It is probably impossible to completely prevent the Haihan people from looting. After all, it is not because they send troops across the sea to fight. Who will work for you if there is no profit to be made?However, in order to minimize the extent of the territory being plundered by the Haihan people in the future, the North Vietnamese military still had to take some necessary measures—at least let the Haihan military understand that I have been staring at you, and you should not go too far .

Considering that the current battle has reached a critical moment, the two sides tacitly did not bring these private calculations to the table to bargain, but chose to compromise by taking a step back.After a day's rest, the North Vietnamese army cut south to an area four miles west of Hue City and began to camp.

North Vietnam's camp setting is related to its tasks. From the northwest corner of Hue City to the bank of the Xiangjiang River, the entire camp will stretch for nearly five miles after construction is completed, completely blocking the escape routes west of Hue City.

The defenders naturally observed the appearance of the North Vietnamese army on the city wall, which made the atmosphere in the city even more tense.After all, the defensive pressure was only concentrated on the Haihan position in the north before this. In case it really cannot be defeated, the imperial court still has the opportunity to retreat into the Changshan Mountains from the west, and then go to the south through the passage in the mountains to continue to organize resistance forces.However, the appearance of the North Vietnamese army has completely sealed off this retreat route. If you want to break through, you can only break through the defense line of the North Vietnamese army first.

The main energy of the North Vietnamese army was obviously put on building this line of defense instead of attacking Hue City. From the very beginning, they kept digging trenches outside the built camp, and it was carried out in sections at the same time, with thousands of people in each squad. Taking turns to fight, it seems that it will not take too long for the North Vietnamese Army to open another moat on the plain west of Hue City.

Of course, the defenders in the city quickly understood the intentions of the North Vietnamese Army and sent troops out of the city to harass them, but they did not achieve good results.There are at least a few thousand new troops using firearms in the North Vietnamese Army. In terms of strength alone, it even exceeds the number of combat troops of the Haihan Militia. Relying on the position to deal with the South Vietnamese troops with cold weapons does not have much pressure.The South Vietnamese Army still had a few musketeers remaining, but the generals of the military did not dare to push out all these treasures. Therefore, the battle outside the city was basically one-sided. The South Vietnamese Army using primitive weapons could not even fight The North Vietnamese army made direct contact, and as soon as they entered the range of the muskets, they were quickly defeated by lead bullets.

On March [-], the long snake array built by the North Vietnamese Army outside the city was finally basically formed. The Haihan representatives stationed in the North Vietnamese Army immediately notified the militia by radio that they could start a formal attack on Hue City.During the truce period of the past few days, the militia also seized the time to adjust the battle plan, revised the original plan to attack the city after sweeping the enemy positions outside the city, and prepared to concentrate their firepower to directly open the breakthrough from the northeast corner.

In order to achieve complete suppression of firepower, Yan Chujie ordered all the army artillery to be mobilized to the position near the northeast corner, and the navy ships were also concentrated on this section of the river to provide assistance for the next siege battle.

The moat outside the city of Hue is divided into inner and outer moats, of which the outer river connects with the Xiangjiang River on the northeast corner, which provides convenient conditions for the attacking troops to cross the 40-meter-wide moat.The military planned to let the navy introduce small boats from the Xiangjiang River to build a pontoon bridge under the cover of artillery fire, so that the siege troops could pass the first moat smoothly.

At eleven o'clock in the morning, Yan Chujie gave the order to attack.Dozens of artillery shells on the Haihan position suddenly let out a thunderous roar, and in an instant, a pile of shells fell on the city wall in the northeast corner like rain, adding a lot of damage to the city wall that was already riddled with holes. scars.

While the army covered this section of the city wall with artillery fire, the navy's small boats also seized the opportunity to sail into the first moat and began to build a pontoon bridge.Under the cover of high-intensity artillery fire, the speed of building the pontoon bridge broke the record. In less than 10 minutes, the vanguard of the militia infantry quickly passed the river and entered the narrow area between the two moats. .

The area between the two moats outside the city of Hue is basically slums. However, after the war, the residents in these areas have been cleaned up by the defenders. They should either enter the city as civilian husbands to help defend the city, or leave Hue. escaped.At this time, the defenders on the top of the city didn't even have a chance to probe, let alone counterattack. Therefore, the militiamen who arrived in this area can clean up an area from the abandoned houses with relative peace of mind, and prepare to let the follow-up large troops stationed.

There were almost no obstacles when conquering the first moat. The artillery on the city wall had long been cleared by concentrated fire, and the defenders had no better long-range weapons that could cover the area occupied by the militia army. A few scattered The arrows shot down from the top of the city, except for adding a little tension to the militiamen, the actual killing effect was simply negligible.On the contrary, a few archers who leaned out of the crenels of the city wall to aim were called by the hunters who had been waiting for a long time outside the city with [-]-type sniper rifles. After seven or eight archers were killed, no one in the defenders dared to stop Appeared near the crenel.

It is much more difficult to pass the second moat, because the connection between this moat and the Xiangjiang River is not in this direction, and the nearest city gate is also 1000 meters away, and there is no suspension bridge or other facilities to capture , the only way is still only to build floating bridges.

The attacking troops had already been prepared for this, and each squad carried a tied wooden raft to the second moat, ready to throw it into the river.Although this kind of wooden pontoon bridge is not as strong as the one outside with small boats as piers, it is no problem to carry infantry.

However, before entering the city, the attacking troops had to open a gap in the city wall here, otherwise the soldiers would have to climb up the two-foot-high city wall from the river, which would be extremely difficult.

At this time, Qian Tiandun, Qiao Zhiya, Wang Tom and others all came to the front line to command in person, preparing to overcome the last problem before breaking the city.Although the defenders at the top of the city did not dare to stand up under the suppression of firepower, the defenders could still use some simple methods such as throwing stones to kill the attacking troops under the city wall, and the range of contact between the attacking troops and the city wall was only the width of the raft. It is almost inevitable, so the operational risk in this link is very high.

"The explosives are ready, but how to install them is a big problem." Qiao Zhiya looked at the bare city wall with a telescope, and said distressedly: "If we want to achieve a good blasting effect, we must dig out holes on the city wall. A hole is enough to fill it with explosives, but the question is how to make such a hole now?"

"It seems that you are really stupid in the laboratory, such a simple question..." Tom Wang shook his head sympathetically, disapproving of Qiao Zhiya's statement.

Qiao Zhiya looked at Wang Tom, then at Qian Tiandun, seeing their calm faces, he couldn't help asking: "Then you have already figured out a solution?"

"To put it bluntly, it's worthless. Wait a minute, it'll be ready soon." Qian Tiandun smiled, but didn't answer his question directly.

After a while, Qiao Zhiya saw several small 6-pound cannons being pushed to the bank of the river and aimed at the city wall on the other side of the moat.He suddenly realized: "You are planning to blast a hole out with a cannon!"

Wang Tom nodded and said, "The city wall is too thick. It's impossible to blow it down directly, but it shouldn't be too difficult to blow out a hole to fill the explosives."

After several small cannons were aimed at the same place, they fired at the city wall.The inner moat is slightly narrower than the outer moat, and the landing point error of the shelling at such a short distance is basically negligible. All the shells accurately hit a small piece of the city wall within a diameter of about one meter, and the area was quickly wiped out. The bricks of the city wall were scattered and splashed, and the defenders on the tower had almost nothing to do with the close-range bombardment outside the city.

After multiple rounds of shelling, a large pit with a diameter of about one meter appeared on the city wall. The wall bricks had been smashed into slag, exposing the adobe inside.Although it still doesn't look deep enough to pack explosives, digging adobe is much easier than drilling holes in wall bricks.

Two temporary pontoon bridges built by rafts soon appeared on this section of the river. More than a dozen engineers supported a wooden raft as a cover, and rushed forward regardless of the sporadic stones and wooden piles smashed down from the city wall. The pickaxe desperately widened and deepened the pit on the city wall.However, this process was not smooth sailing. The defenders on the city wall paid the price of three lives and pushed a huge stone the size of a tabletop from the top of the crenel, hitting the engineers below.The wooden rafts carried by the engineers did not provide much protection under such blows, and were immediately overturned, and several engineers fell directly into the river without responding.

"Go ahead!" Qian Tiandun responded the fastest and gave the order without hesitation.

The second batch of engineers rushed up immediately, some of them carried the survivors off the line of fire, while the others continued with the unfinished task of digging holes.And the defenders at the top of the city continued to desperately throw all kinds of heavy objects down the city, trying to prevent the attacker from making a fuss on the city wall.After paying the price of more than [-] casualties, the engineers finally buried a whole barrel of explosives weighing more than [-] catties into the city wall.

"Special warfare battalion, prepare to attack!" Qian Tiandun issued an order to his subordinates.

The Black Earth Port Special Operations Battalion is the vanguard of this siege mission. This is a mission that Qian Tiandun won with great difficulty. As long as this battle is well fought, the Special Operations Battalion can almost earn the title of ace troop. up.

"Sir, please rest assured, we will not let you down!" Takahashi Nanchao Qian Tiandun gave a military salute, and said firmly.

"You guys have trained very well!" Qiao Zhiya looked at this group of soldiers full of fighting spirit, and praised enviously.

With a loud bang, tens of thousands of catties of earth and stone flew into the sky together with nearly a hundred defenders on the city wall.Although the attacking troops had retreated a distance of nearly [-] meters in advance, the power of the explosion still made many people's faces change.

What they didn't know was that the earthquake and mountain shaking caused by the explosion caused chaos in the city, and the people who had been nervous for many days fell into a state of mental breakdown almost instantly.Many people yelled "the city is broken" and began to run around aimlessly, and this panic quickly spread among the unsuspecting people, and even directly affected the army defending the city.

(End of this chapter)