1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 618 Battle of Nanri Island ([-])
The pirates on the island were not fools. They had long expected that the huge "Prestige Signal" would not run ashore directly at the risk of running aground, so they also organized some archers and musketeers to use the limited number of people on the pier. They used a building as a cover, trying to snipe a wave of coalition boats approaching the shore to check the water situation.

Even if this tactic can't prevent the coalition forces from landing, at least it has the chance to cause some casualties to the coalition forces, and it can still play a role in boosting the morale of Shibazhi's side.However, these pirates are non-professionals after all, and they obviously lack experience in this kind of ambush. When the United Fleet sailed into the harbor, Shi Diwen had already spotted sneaky figures on the pier through the binoculars. Obviously, these people were not He didn't have relevant training, so he didn't know that Haihan had such a sharp weapon that could carry out reconnaissance at a long distance.Before the two sides contacted, they had already exposed their combat intentions, leaving too much time for the opponent to react.

Shi Diwen put down the binoculars and asked Xu Yuzhuo next to him, "Did you encounter any resistance when you attacked Nanri Island a few times ago?"

Today Xu Xinsu personally supervised the battle and led the Ming army navy to deploy around Nanri Island to be in charge of maritime security. Therefore, he sent Xu Yuzhuo to act with the Haihan militia, so that he could coordinate the two armies nearby to cooperate.Xu Yuzhuo replied: "The pirates will set up a defensive line near the pier to hinder their landing. Our army usually uses shields as cover and shoots at them with bows and arrows."

Shi Diwen nodded and said: "But you are on the boat, and they are on land, so it's a bit of a disadvantage."

"Casualties are indeed unavoidable." Xu Yuzhuo readily admitted Shi Diwen's statement.Even if the military quality of the Ming army's individual soldiers is slightly better, it is still difficult to maintain accuracy when using long-range weapons on board. In this engagement link, the Ming army will suffer a little loss every time.

The reason why the Ming army suffered such a disadvantage was that they did not have strong firepower cover, but the Haihan militia was different. It was one of the compulsory courses for naval gunners to carry out firepower strikes from sea to land to cover the landing of troops.With Shi Diwen's order, two smaller "expedition-class" warships slowly turned across in the harbor, pointing their sides at the pier.Then the gun window opened, and the black gun barrel penetrated the window, aiming at the few bunker buildings on the pier.

Navy Lieutenant Xie Li served as the commander of the vanguard of the landing force. He had already served as the first officer on board the "Explorer" warship when it was first put into use, and two months before this mission to Fujian, he had just been promoted to The captain of the "Red April", the fifth ship of the "Expedition-class" warship, can be regarded as one of the higher-ranking officers among the naturalized civilian officers.

However, Xie Li is not particularly satisfied with his current position, because Wu Sen, an Annan officer who joined the Haihan militia later than him, and his background is not so pure, because he followed the fleet to the South China Sea to attack the Ambuna Islands last time. , has now been transferred to the first ship of the "Majestic Class" "Majestic" as a senior officer.Although the two are at the same rank and Xie Li still has the position of captain, according to the development speed and rules of the Haihan Navy, after two or three years, the number of "majestic-class" warships will increase, and there will definitely be a naturalized officer as the captain. And Wu Sen obviously has more advantages in terms of experience than the captain of a secondary warship like Xie Li.

If he wanted to catch up with Wu Sen's promotion speed, Xie Li had to seize the present opportunity and make a lot of achievements in battle.In yesterday's naval battle, the "Red April" under his command hit [-] enemy ships in total, and the results were still very good.As for attacking Nanri Island, in Xie Li's view, it was another good opportunity to make meritorious deeds.Before he set off, he had already prepared the gunners on the ship for artillery strikes against Lu, and he wanted to impress his superiors with his excellent performance on the battlefield.

The battle plan formulated by the Haihan Militia before the war was very detailed, so the time between Shi Diwen's order and the firing of the first shell was less than 2 minutes, so fast that even the pirates ambushing on the pier did not Before realizing what happened, it was too late to transfer.

A dozen or so shells from the first round of shelling flew towards the building on the pier with a whistling sound, piercing through the wooden wall like a thin layer of paper, and the screams of people could be faintly heard in the debris. .These wooden houses are just warehouses for the pirates on the island to temporarily store the supplies brought in. They are somewhat useful for blocking arrows and lead bullets, but they are completely ineffective against shells.

After three rounds of shelling, Shi Diwen signaled a ceasefire to observe the results of the battle.Several wooden houses were so battered and crumbling that it was hard to call them bunkers anymore.The two "expedition-class" warships lowered the small boats, and the soldiers rowed the small boats to the shore, and lowered the long ropes tied with lead pendants to measure the water depth at various places on the pier.This is to be able to find a suitable berth so that the largest "Prestige Signal" can dock.

During this period, the pirates ambushing on the pier failed to launch a sneak attack as expected, because most of them had already been killed or injured in the shelling just now, and the few lucky ones who were unscathed were also killed at this time. He just lay on the ground and shivered, unable to muster up the courage to stand up again.

Several soldiers on the boat had already climbed onto the trestle with their rifles on their backs. Their task was to check the trestle and the pier as soon as possible to clear the way for the next landing.When the group reached the end of the trestle bridge, they encountered the first pirate who jumped out of his hiding place to fight, but this unlucky ghost had only an ordinary waist knife in his hand, so he didn't wait for him to get close, and headed The four soldiers raised their rifles and fired at him from a distance of ten meters, two of which hit the torso directly.

This man was considered tenacious, he was shot twice and did not fall down immediately, but was still trying to attack.According to daily training, the soldiers did not reload at this time, but rushed forward with their rifles in hand, and knocked the pirate to the ground with bayonets.

The dozen or so soldiers who first boarded the pier quickly cleaned up the shore and killed four or five stubborn pirates. Only one of them was injured by the arrows shot by the pirates, but his life was not in danger.

Xu Yuzhuo observed the whole battle process of the Haihan militia cleaning up the pier through the binoculars and Shi Diwen's walkie-talkie on the "Wei Signal". This kind of combat method of artillery washing the ground and infantry advancing afterwards, he used to be in the Shengli Port Military Academy When I was studying abroad, I also listened to the instructor's explanation, but I didn't witness the actual battle example with my own eyes. Today can be regarded as a small eye-opener.

Xu Yuzhuo couldn't help asking: "If the defense on the shore has strong fortifications such as forts, how should we attack?"

Shi Diwen explained: "If it is a turret, the artillery power on the 'expedition-class' warship is a little bit weaker, but our ship has a large-caliber gun specially designed to deal with the turret. In fact, the core idea of ​​artillery combat is one ——Suppression of firepower, for us, it is not too difficult to achieve this. Regarding this point, you will feel it more intuitively when we attack Nanri Village later.”

After the infantry finished clearing the pier area, the "Wei Signal" slowly approached the pier, unloaded soldiers and heavy weapons from the boat in a hurry, and began to prepare for the attack on Nanri Village.From the high mast of the "Wei Signal", the lookouts can clearly see the situation in Nanri Village three miles away, so the Haihan Militia hardly needs to rush to deploy beachheads and defensive forces at the landing site, because the opponent has no There was no plan to go out to fight.

"You see, they've already been persuaded before the fight begins." Shi Diwen belittled his opponent unceremoniously: "However, it is a wise decision for them to do so. If they want to pull out and confront us head-on, they will only lose faster."

From the landing pier to Nanri Village in the south, the terrain in the middle is very flat, and there are not many scattered dwellings on this island, so there are almost no bunkers for Shibazhi's people to set up a line of defense.If Shibazhi dared to assemble troops to fight head-on on this battlefield, then Shi Diwen would use Haihan weapons to tell him what military technology crushing is.

After capturing the pier, it took the Haihan warship a little over an hour to complete the landing of the luggage.However, this is considered very fast. After all, these warships are not specially used for landing, and there is no special boom for lifting heavy objects on board. Unload the artillery and tons of shells weighing several hundred kilograms to the dock On the road, almost all of them are carried by human hands.

Fortunately, there is a dirt road between the pier and Nanri Village. Although it is only about four feet wide, it is better than nothing.In this way, it will be much easier to transport the heavy artillery to the outside of Nanri Village.

Xu Xinsu thoughtfully prepared more than 40 mules and horses for this attack on the island, and specially used two boats to transport them from Dongqiao Bay to haul the weapons and ammunition supplies used by the Haihan Militia.After the island landing troops assembled, they began to march south along the dirt road.

Nanri Village is located at the northern foot of a gentle slope hill. It was built according to the terrain and divided into four layers of defense lines from bottom to top.The walls of the village are all made of solid rocks, and there is even a small archery tower on the gate of the outermost wall.In terms of the military level of this era, this kind of fort is indeed a fairly strong island stronghold.

Of course, from Shi Diwen's point of view, the strength of Nanri Village only looks stronger. This time they brought two latest 48-pound siege guns to deal with all kinds of dissatisfaction.At present, this kind of gun has only been used for routine target shooting in Victory Port, and it is the first time it has been used on the battlefield. The military also hopes to take this opportunity to accumulate some experience in the use of this new type of weapon.

About 500 meters away from Nanri Village, the Haihan militia stopped and began to set up forward positions.Although he knew that the opponent's strength was weak, he was still preparing for the battle strictly in accordance with the combat regulations.The infantry was in charge of guarding the perimeter, and the snipers were assigned to the left and right wings of the position. They built a simple high platform with several wooden ladders, and began to look for opportunities to kill the pirates on the top of the city.The artillery is from heavy to light firepower, and is arranged separately from the middle of the position to the two sides.

"Morgan, are you going to have fun?" Shi Diwen made a proposal to Morgan, who was eager to fight, before the position was fully set up.

Morgan replied with a smile: "You still understand me! Then I will not be polite. Maybe I am lucky and I will kill the bandit leader with one shot, and this battle will not have to be fought."

"Then I wish you good luck!" Shi Diwen patted him on the shoulder and blessed him.

Morgan carried his gun bag and walked to a simple platform that had just been built, and signaled the soldiers here to give him the position.Although this platform is only about three meters high, the extra three meters can greatly increase the sniper's shooting field of view.Morgan slowly climbed onto the platform, crouched down to open the gun pouch, and pulled out his precious CheyTac M-200.

The original intention of this sniper rifle is to kill soft targets at a long distance on the premise of being as light as possible. The .408 ammunition it uses can maintain supersonic speed after flying out of the barrel for 2000 meters. Its huge kinetic energy ensures Even though it still has great lethality at a long distance.Although the capacity of the magazine is only 7 rounds, in the low-intensity war situation in the 17th century, the user does not need to worry about the trouble of frequent reloading due to the small capacity-in fact, because the ammunition is limited and cannot be replenished, Morgan uses This gun has very little time. The last time I used this baby to kill an enemy dates back to the Annan Civil War.

Morgan opened the gun rack and put the rifle in place, slowly lay down on the platform, and then began to adjust the sighting device on the gun.He only brought ten rounds of ammunition with him this time, so he had to save a little.However, when shooting at this distance, Morgan still has a lot of confidence in himself.

It was the first time for Xu Yuzhuo to see this scene. Although he went to the shooting range to shoot live ammunition during his training in Shengli Port, they were all models of Haihan mass-produced rifles. He had also seen the special rifles equipped by Haihan snipers. .And the big gun in Morgan's hand obviously has many differences in appearance, and it looks very powerful.

"Mr. Shi, this gun used by Mr. Morgan is..." Xu Yuzhuo couldn't help asking Shi Diwen.

Shi Diwen responded: "This gun is a unique advanced weapon, which we brought from a distant homeland. Its performance is very good, and it can blow the target's head off with one shot from four miles away!"

"Four miles away!" Xu Yuzhuo's jaw almost dropped in fright.In his cognition, Haihan's sniper rifle, which is not sold for delivery, can shoot a range of more than one mile, which is already a very scary weapon. He did not expect that there are weapons that are several times stronger than it in this world.

Of course, Shi Diwen would not tell him that what he said was only theoretical data. The probability of hitting the target's head four miles away is actually very low, so low that Morgan would never waste his limited time in pursuit of such a shooting record. bullet.

(End of this chapter)