1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 514 Attack on Danzhou
On October 1630, 10, Baimajing Wharf in Danzhou Bay.

More than a dozen sailboats crowded the pier here to the brim. If Haihan hadn't organized the pier expansion project here two months in advance, the number of ships that could berth might be only half of what it is now.In the huge fleet, there are still many ships that cannot directly dock, so they can only park in waters a little farther away, and then use small boats to ferry the people on board to the shore.

The armed men on the ship landed one by one, quickly assembled the whole team on the shore, and then set off eastward one by one. The whole process was busy but not chaotic, and no one yelled and left the team.The residents of the fishing village who witnessed the whole process were silent. Although they had little knowledge, they could tell that this group of people was definitely not a mob. Is a unified system, that they are pirates?As long as they are not blind, it can be seen that these people must have received long military training.

As the saying goes, bandits are like a comb, and soldiers are like a grate, but this group of pirates who are more like a regular army than a regular army did not loot the local residents after they landed. Apart from blocking the access to the village, they basically did nothing else. Disturbing behavior.

It doesn't seem to be particularly accurate to say this, because the only small restaurant at the entrance of the village was directly ransacked by this group of unknown pirates.Neither the shopkeeper nor the shop assistants ran away. They were all arrested, tied behind their backs with thick ropes, and chained into a long chain with shackles. They knelt on the side of the road at the entrance of the village.

This is not an act of scaring chickens and monkeys, but because this small restaurant is a secret post of the Danzhou Guard Army. When the fleet sailed into Danzhou Bay, the action team that was lurking here in the early stage took the lead to take down the disguise. Outpost, to prevent them from sending warning signals in the direction of Danzhou City in advance.There are still three early-warning posts like this between Baimajing and Danzhou, but at this time they must have been taken down by the advance team who started at the same time.

Outside the Rouyuan Gate of Danzhou City, an officer of the Ming Army stood at the gate of the city with a gloomy face, looking at the far end of the official road.From early in the morning till now, except for a few farmers who came to the city to sell vegetables, the people who entered the city did not even have a business store. It was already noon, and they only collected more than a dozen copper coins. Can this job still work? Are you done?
This job of guarding the city gate is a fat job in the city defense army, and in Danzhou City, guarding the Rouyuan Gate is the most lucrative, because the official road outside the city gate is the main road leading to Baimajing Wharf, and all roads from the sea All the merchants from other places come by this road.This officer also struggled to get this job, and it was his turn to lead this team to guard the city gate every five days. If he didn't receive a few dollars today, it would be almost a waste of a round of opportunities.

"It's strange! Usually, Fumaochang, Haifeng, and Zhan's Ships ship their goods into the city at this time of the month. Why didn't any of them show up today!" The officer looked at the empty official road and couldn't bear it. Can't help complaining.Although the people from these commercial firms are not as wealthy as Haihan, it is definitely no problem for the caravan to go to the city to get a few taels of silver.

"Here we come, a caravan is coming!" Just as the officer was hesitating, the soldiers on the tower yelled to inform the people at the city gate below.

Sure enough, not long after, a carriage team appeared in the field of vision of the Ming army guarding the gate, but the style of these carriages looked a little strange, as if they were a little different from the usual carriages.

But before these Ming soldiers saw the clues, this huge convoy of twenty or so carriages had already arrived at the gate of the city, and the officers finally discovered something was wrong—this convoy did not erect any business names. flags, and he found no familiar faces among the drivers.

"Stop, stop!" The officer yelled loudly and stepped forward to stop the car, and signaled the soldiers behind him to move Juma and Luzhai from the side of the road to the middle of the road.

However, the leading carriage did not intend to stop. The driver at the front of the carriage threw his right hand, and seven or eight shiny ingots of silver flew to the side of the road.The driver shouted loudly: "Everyone, give way, there is something urgent to rush into the city!"

The few soldiers who were preparing to move the roadblock saw the silver flying out, so they dropped their work and rushed to pick up the silver on the ground.Seeing this, the officer stopped moving forward to stop him, and just stared at the horse convoy rushing towards the city gate and spat: "Damn it, it's great to be rich!"

After the carriage entered the city, it did not continue forward, but turned to the left and right respectively, and stopped along the base of the city wall.As soon as the tarpaulins on the carriages were lifted, seven or eight men with short-barreled muskets got out of each carriage.Regardless of the surprised eyes of the people in the surrounding streets, these people lined up and rushed up and down the city gate.

The content of this army's training on Catba Island for a full three months is to repeatedly rehearse the battle of seizing the city on several specially replicated city gates in a ratio of one to one. Their task is to release the city gate in the shortest possible time. The defenders are armed to suppress all resistance measures, and guard the city gates to open the way for subsequent reinforcements to enter the city.

The Ming army below the gate tower was still gathering together to count the total amount of silver taels they had just picked up, when there was a crisp bang from the gate tower, the leading officer looked up at the gate tower, then lowered his head and began to count the amount of money each person could share. How much money do you get.But soon there were several similar noises from the top of the city tower. The officer finally came to his senses and threw the money on the ground: "No! Something happened inside the city gate! Go back!"

However, when he rushed to the city gate with this group of people, he found two rows of people standing in the gate, one in front and one behind, all holding firecrackers in their hands, silently aiming at them.

"It's a pirate..." Someone finally remembered the recent rumors. It was said that the pirates who had recently been rampaging along the northern coast of Qiongzhou Island would send troops to attack the island's cities.Most people think that this is just an unrealistic rumor, and no one is worried that there will be such a thing as pirates attacking the city.

However, something beyond imagination seems to have appeared.During this moment of silence, the leading Ming army officer felt the slight tremor of the ground on the soles of his feet.When he turned his head slowly, he found a larger carriage coming from the official road.

Since the distance from Baimajing to Danzhou City was nearly [-] miles, in consideration of saving the physical strength of the siege troops, the relevant departments not only transported the personnel to Danzhou Bay by boat, but also transported a large number of horse-drawn carts at the same time.However, these dozens of carriages can carry only a few hundred people, which is only about one-tenth of the total force used in this operation. Except for a few elite personnel who rushed to Danzhou City in carriages, most of the combatants were still You have to walk to the battle location.

Hundreds of soldiers from the Rouyuan Gate of Danzhou City who arrived earlier seized control of the city gate as quickly as possible, and using the horse-drawn carriages, they quickly erected a barricade inside the city gate, and also erected four portable three-pound Army artillery, the muzzle was aimed at the avenue in the city leading directly to the northern urban area.

I have to say that although the defenders in Danzhou have poor combat effectiveness, their reaction speed is still very fast. Only ten minutes after the accident in Rouyuanmen, a team of about 200 people hurried over from the road reinforce.However, this ill-prepared reinforcement was about 50 meters away from the barricade set up by the attacker, and it was beaten by dense bullets and collapsed on the spot.

While the officer in command of the force tried to reorganize an attack, four small guns fired from their emplacements in the middle of the street.At this distance, the gunner didn't even have to aim specially. Every shell tore out a long blood groove in the Ming army on the opposite side.After dropping about forty corpses, this wave of Ming troops who rushed to the rescue fled the battlefield at the same speed.

Almost at the same time as the gunfire sounded, the residents in the city immediately closed their doors, lest the war would affect them.The defenders in the city were panicked and didn't know how to deal with it, because Lord Qianhu in this city had unfortunately died on the spot in the first wave of battle just now.Some people think that the pirates should take advantage of the unstable foothold and immediately organize a counterattack to retake the city gate in order to have hope of holding on.However, some people think that the pirates' artillery fire is fierce and irresistible. The most urgent thing to do is to send envoys to the nearby counties and cities for help.

The army that captured the city gate was not in a hurry to expand the area of ​​control, nor did they pursue the fleeing Ming army. Their task was to control the city gate first, and no other troops would hand over the defense here until the large army entered the city.

This tactical arrangement is naturally not perfect in the eyes of the military high-level, and it can be said that it will delay the fighter in another time and space.But judging from the capture of Danzhou City, arranging such a tactic is also a helpless move.

In order to minimize the loss and consumption during the battle to seize the city, the military arranged a surprise attack. However, because the landing site of the large troops was too far away from Danzhou City, and the military lacked sufficient mobile transportation tools, Therefore, large troops can only rush to Danzhou City on foot from the seaside. This time difference is a flaw that cannot be made up for even the best battle plan.

However, the Annan Militia Army has also practiced a lot of armed cross-country, so for them, the 10-kilometer cross-country is not a particularly difficult thing, not to mention that in order to reduce the burden, their luggage has been reduced to the level of maintaining basic combat effectiveness , far less than the usual training load.

The special service company of the Annan Militia Army led by Qian Tiandun himself rushed from the landing site to Rouyuanmen, Danzhou in only 70 minutes, and more than 200 people in the establishment did not fall behind.This special service company can be regarded as the elite among the elite. Everyone is personally selected and trained by Qian Tiandun. In his words, those who can enter this company must learn at least [-] to [-]% of their own abilities. To be considered qualified.When they arrived, it was only ten minutes before the first counterattack of the vanguard repelling the Ming army.

The second wave arrived at Danzhou City were the other troops of the militia. This three-battalion-sized troop was much larger. Immediately after entering the city, some troops took over the defense of the city gate, and some troops began to defend the city. Clean up the Ming army that is still participating in the city defense along the city wall, and the troops of two companies go directly around the city and continue to advance. The vanguard set up a defense line to block the route for the defeated Danzhou soldiers to flee to Fucheng.

The quality of the three thousand Annan soldiers borrowed was far inferior to those under Qian Tiandun.After marching for seven or eight miles, Annan's army began to gradually lose touch. Some people had to stop to rest halfway because of lack of energy. As a result, the entire team quickly became disorganized.

The Annan officer in charge of commanding this army was Zheng Ting, who was directly named by Qian Tiandun. When he saw the militia army leaving in a hurry, but his own army marched so slowly, he also felt a deep sense of powerlessness in his heart. feel.

For a long period of time, Annan generally believed that the main reason for the difference in combat effectiveness between his own army and the Haihan Militia was the power of weapons. The combat power can be quickly shortened, and there is even no distinction between superiors and inferiors.This is also one of the reasons why Annan has been spared no expense in purchasing Haihan-style weapons in large quantities in recent years.

But the new generation of military officers like Zheng Ting, who have received formal military training from Haihan and have several times of cooperative combat experience, are very clear that the gap between the two is far more than weapons and equipment. There is a big gap between the two sides in terms of military, logistical supplies, and even the most fundamental ideological construction of the army.Moreover, many of Haihan's practices cannot be simply imitated or copied.

For example, Haihan recently established a new organization, the Youth League, in the militia army this year. All combat units above the company level must be equipped with an officer who is qualified for the Youth League as the commander's deputy, who is responsible for the ideology of soldiers and grassroots officers. Work.This configuration made many people unable to understand its function, but Zheng Ting quickly realized that his function was much more than it seemed.

Although Annan's soldiers guarding the Communist Party usually indoctrinate the thoughts of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, when they really fight, most of them rely on their blood.As for the soldiers of the Haihan Militia, it was really for the executive committee to risk their lives. This kind of brainwashing ability has always been envied by Zheng Ting, but now the Haihan people seem to think it is not enough, and specially set up a special officer It is conceivable that Haihan's senior management attaches great importance to the military's ideology.

Annan's army also has arrangements for armed cross-country training, but the training effect is far worse than others. When they compete on the battlefield, they can compete with each other immediately.Where exactly is the gap?Zheng Ting could only interpret this as the thought level of the soldiers on both sides was not at the same level at all. He even wondered whether he should write a letter to the Ministry of War after returning this time to learn Haihan's operating method.

(End of this chapter)