1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 516
After taking Danzhou, there are only two small counties left between here and Qiongzhou Fucheng, Lingao and Chengmai. According to the situation of early reconnaissance, these two counties have limited troops and weak city defenses, which are not suitable for the coalition forces. There is no great threat.Gao Qiaonan even issued a military order, and it only takes an hour to take down this small county with weak defenses.

The biggest difficulty facing the coalition forces is of course not the guards in Lingao County, which are limited in number and combat effectiveness, but the distance of sixty miles from Danzhou City to Lingao County—this journey is almost It is three times the distance from Danzhou Bay Baimajing Wharf to Danzhou City.

It is indeed a bit unrealistic to fight a blitzkrieg with the equipment level of the seventeenth century, which requires very high mobility under the primitive traffic conditions of this time and space.Even if the team led by Qian Tiandun has gone through a long period of rigorous training, it still cannot change the fact that the mobility is insufficient.If you have to rely on the foot strength of the soldiers to carry out continuous long-distance raids, it will inevitably greatly affect the combat effectiveness.

As the commander, Qian Tiandun naturally couldn't fail to think of the stakes, but he already had a solution. After entering the city, he immediately sent people to collect the cattle and horses in the city, and gathered them as a means of transportation for the next move.Of course, it is impossible to turn the militia soldiers who have only received infantry training into cavalry immediately. Even if there are enough horses, they can only ride slowly.

The commercial department also made corresponding preparations for this. Just ten days before the start of the prairie fire operation, the Danzhou Office and several Ming business firms jointly transported a batch of pack horses from the mainland to Danzhou, saying that they planned to renovate the road from Danzhou. The official road leading to Fucheng from Lingao and Chengmai counties.For this reason, a large-scale horse farm was built outside the west gate, and these hundreds of draft horses were kept in captivity.Of course, the renovation of the official road was not the real purpose of transporting these pack horses to Danzhou. After the troops under Qian Tiandun arrived, they immediately took over the pack horses.

Coupled with the cattle and horses collected from all over the city, the mobility of the militia army was finally guaranteed to a certain extent, and the short-distance delivery ability was several times higher than before.At least for the next part of the journey to the east, the main force will not have to run and break their legs.

The combat plan formulated by the General Staff of the Military Commission is to start from Danzhou, push from west to east along Lingao and Chengmai, and finally pull out Fucheng, the largest stronghold, to complete the actual control of the northern coast.The biggest difficulty in this battle plan is not how to siege the city and defeat the Ming army, but how to enable the Annan coalition forces that carry out combat missions to achieve rapid mobility between various battlefields, and ensure that the logistical supply of these thousands of people can keep up with It has to match the advancing speed of the first-line troops.The only means of transportation that can be used right now are livestock.

The militia army that entered the city temporarily requisitioned all the restaurants and restaurants in the city to make lunch for the thousands of troops.Of course, due to the current pirate status, these meals and drinks will definitely not be paid.But apart from that, Qian Tiandun still strictly ordered all the ministries not to break into people's homes at will, let alone looting or harming innocent people, except for the clear targets of arrest.

Of course, during the war, there will always be some guys who fish in troubled waters, and Danzhou City is no exception. When the coalition forces entered the city to control various urban areas, they caught many guys who stole or robbed indiscriminately. You can "split accounts" with the coalition forces.For this kind of guy who wants money but not life, the officer who caught them is also a little bit dumbfounded.After asking Qian Tiandun for instructions, all the guys who were caught trying to make money from the war were bundled into long strings and escorted to the seaside. What awaited them was a long career as a miner in the Heitugang Coal Mine.

During the meals of the soldiers, Qian Tiandun asked some unofficial dignitaries in the city to gather together, including local businessmen, great Confucian scholars from the academy, and some big gentry families.In order to ensure that the large forces can continue to maintain effective control after they evacuate here, Qian Tiandun believes that it is necessary to stabilize the emotions of these upper-level figures and let them help maintain social order and the turnover of living supplies during this period.Of course, the most important thing is to sound the alarm to these people face to face, so that they can dispel some unsafe thoughts.

As Qian Tiandun, he was definitely not suitable to come forward to do this, so Zheng Ting was temporarily arrested as a young man and asked him to vaccinate these locals.Zheng Ting didn't make any excuses, and readily accepted the task.Zheng Ting was also one of the generals who led the troops when the guards took over Annannan the year before, and he did a lot of things like this at that time.

On the afternoon of October 10, just over two hours after the capture of Danzhou City, the east gate of Danzhou City was opened, and hundreds of horse-drawn carts and ox carts filed out of the city, heading northeast along the official road.That night, the vanguard troops on horseback had marched to only about ten miles away from Lingao County, and the main force had already entered the range of Lingao County.

Although Lingao County was not a difficult target, considering the efficiency of the battle, Qian Tiandun did not ask the exhausted team to attack overnight, but arranged for the troops to camp in the wild for a night.

The next morning, after a night's rest, the coalition forces seized control of the gate of Lingao County in almost the same way as the day before, and then a large force swarmed up and occupied the small county.Compared with this "huge" army, the city's population size of only about 2000 people obviously can't afford to make waves.During the siege battle, no one was killed on the coalition side, and only two of the Daming Guards who defended the city were killed.Lin Gaozhi County did not stick to it like the magistrate of Danzhou, but slipped directly through the gate on the other side when the city was broken.

But this is not the time when you can escape if you want to. The county magistrate escaped only seven or eight miles before he was intercepted by the action team performing the blockade mission on the periphery.

After capturing Lingao County, the coalition forces began to divide into two groups, marching all the way to the southeast, and attacked Chengmai County.The other way is to follow the Wenlan River outside Lingao County to the seaside, where they will take a fleet of boats that circled from Danzhou Bay, and go directly to Fucheng along the coastline to land.

In charge of attacking Chengmai County was [-] Annan guards led by Zheng Ting plus two companies of the Annan militia. The only battle in which Annan's army was determined to be the main force.Therefore, Zheng Ting attaches great importance to this, and almost all the veterans selected are veterans who performed well in the southern campaign last year.

On October 10, the force led by Zheng Ting arrived outside Chengmai County.

At this time, the news that pirates landed near Danzhou on a large scale and captured Danzhou had already reached Chengmai, and the tactics of sneak attacking and grabbing the city gate would not work.Zheng Ting could only let his troops spread out and prepare for a siege battle.

There are not many guards stationed in Chengmai County, only 300 people, and there are still many shortages.Zheng Ting didn't bother to do anything like persuade them to surrender. Anyway, this time he came here for military training. If he didn't fight, where would the effect of this military training come from?Besides, Qian Tiandun also gave him full autonomy, as long as he doesn't kill innocent people in Chengmai.The militias of those two companies actually played the role of supervising the battle.

Zheng Ting had received formal military training in Sanya, so he knew how to fight this kind of siege warfare. Therefore, seeing that the gates of Chengmai County were closed, he immediately had the artillery dragged out.Although there are only a few small three-pound and six-pound cannons, it is more than enough to attack the gates of such a small county.

After a few cannon shots, the city gate, which was more than four inches thick, was beaten crookedly. Although it hadn't fallen down yet, it was already crumbling.Zheng Ting was not in a hurry to direct his men to charge up, anyway, all the ammunition consumption this time was provided by Haihan, and he didn't have to care about the amount of ammunition consumed.

Several small cannons fired three more rounds, and after the city gate was completely knocked down, Zheng Ting calmly drew out his command saber, waved forward and gave the order to attack.Although at this time there were still sporadic Ming soldiers poking their heads out from the city wall, trying to resist the attack with bows and arrows and old-fashioned matchlock guns, these recalcitrants were quickly shot down with rifles by several militia snipers standing more than 200 meters away. It's called.

Zheng Ting also knew before that Qian Tiandun had a group of sharpshooters who used a special kind of musket that could maintain extremely high accuracy at a distance of hundreds of feet, but this was the first time he saw these people shoot with his own eyes on the battlefield. Ask the Haihan officer next to him: "What is the range of this rifle?"

The officer replied proudly: "If the rifle is properly adjusted and operated by skilled hands, it can hit a target with a diameter of two feet from two miles away."

Zheng Ting couldn't help but gasped when he heard the words. The shooting distance of this kind of shooting is almost farther than that of artillery, and the accuracy of hitting is even more difficult for artillery. After the range exceeds one mile, the control of the landing point of artillery can only be controlled by luck. up.With such a powerful weapon, if the two armies are facing each other, if the enemy army is not on guard and directly shoots and kills the generals in the formation, wouldn't it be an unsolvable method of warfare?

Zheng Ting thought for a while and then said: "If the weather is cloudy and it is inconvenient to see things, or it is rainy, will it be affected?"

"There must be some influence." The officer nodded, and did not intend to cover up this defect, but before Zheng Ting could recover, he continued: "So in order to make up for this shortcoming, Chief Qian came up with One tactic is the Phalanx."

"What is Phalanx?" Zheng Ting asked in puzzlement.

"The so-called phalanx..." The officer pointed to the several snipers who were pointing their guns at the top of the city and said, "General Zheng, please see, the general tactics are three or five snipers aiming at the target on the periphery. Shooting, this tactic is very useful when the weather is good, and the hit rate is quite high. But if the weather is bad and it is not easy to aim and shoot, then we will use another tactic, that is, concentrate more than ten snipers , under the unified command of a commander, after the target is determined, concentrated strikes are carried out. The error of one gun can be made up by ten or more guns. Even if the error is not two feet but two feet, there is a huge difference. chance to hit the target. We call this tactic Phalanx."

After hearing this, Zheng Ting was even more shocked. This tactic is not only useful when the weather is bad. In fact, it can be used as long as it is hitting some important targets to ensure the hit rate.It's hard to imagine what it would be like to be aimed at by more than ten such rifles from a distance. From such a long distance, I'm afraid you can't even feel the murderous intent of your opponent?Not to mention making any predictions in advance.

During the speech, the recalcitrants on the top of the city had been cleared away, and Zheng Ting's troops rushed into the city like wolves and tigers.However, street fighting is obviously not the strength of this army. It took almost an hour before an officer reported to Zheng Ting that he had fully controlled Chengmai County.

Zheng Ting frowned, even if the part of robbing the city gate is not counted, the speed of this battle is far inferior to the performance of the Haihan militia in Lingao County.Zheng Ting asked in a deep voice, "How are the casualties?"

The officer clasped his fists and bowed his head and responded, "We killed seven people, wounded more than thirty, killed more than seventy enemies, and captured more than two hundred."

"How could there be so many casualties!" Zheng Ting couldn't help scolding.When the Haihan militia attacked Lingao County, they took down the city without a single soldier dying. When it was their turn to attack Chengmai, the combat effect was so different.There is also Haihan's supervising team watching, Zheng Ting really feels a little embarrassed.

"Don't be angry, general. This matter was purely accidental." The officer quickly argued, "When we attacked the county government just now, we never thought that the other side would pour kerosene and other fire igniters on the county government, and wait for our army to enter It was ignited later, and as a result, several soldiers failed to escape in time, so there were casualties. The arsonist has captured all except those who died on the spot."

"What? Set fire!" Zheng Ting couldn't sit still: "Has the fire been extinguished?"

"The fire is very big. There is only one deep well in the county government office, and there is no time to raise water, so..." The officer also sensed Zheng Ting's anger, and the more he spoke, the lower his voice became, and finally he couldn't continue.

"It's just a bunch of trash!" Zheng Ting's mood was completely ruined.Qian Tiandun also specially greeted him, telling him to keep all kinds of cultural and historical materials in the county government, and not let the rebels destroy these things.At that time, Zheng Ting also patted his chest and gave Qian Tiandun a guarantee, saying that he would definitely hand over Chengmai County to Haihan in its entirety.However, it has only been two days since the incident, and it has already been slapped in the face.The county government has been burned down, and when I see Qian Tiandun again, how should Zheng Ting ask him for a job?
"You didn't lose my face, Zheng Ting, but An Nan's face, you know!" Zheng Ting was furious, and scolded the officer who came to report the letter.

(End of this chapter)