1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 633 Fighting ([-])

How to deal with the current unfavorable situation, the "Otter" and Browar at least have a choice, but the "Victor" and Spikes, whose main mast was interrupted, have no other way to go—— Under the current battle situation, it is almost impossible to escape here under the firepower of the coastal defense artillery.

However, Spikes is also an officer who has served in the East India Company for many years. After so many years of travel, he has seen many storms and waves. Although the current situation is critical, he has not lost his mind because of it.He had participated in the battle with the Ming army in Penghu seven years ago. Compared with the siege he suffered at that time, the scene in front of him was actually not that terrible.At that time, they were besieged by the Ming army ten times larger than themselves. The Dutch stationed at Magong Port in Penghu once thought that they had no chance to escape.Although the current battle situation is passive, Spikes noticed that the opponent's offensive is only limited to more than a dozen forts on the shore, but there is no matching outflank at sea.And besides the firepower of the turret, there was no other movement of the opponent at all.

Spikes believes that there are two possibilities. One is that the opponent thinks that the fleet can be defeated only by relying on the advantage of artillery fire, and disdains to use other means to fight. However, this possibility should be very low, as long as the opponent's commander If you don't have a convulsion in your brain, you shouldn't use such a stupid move.Another possibility is that the opponent's strength is limited, and there is no further means of attack other than the firepower of the turret. After the opponent's artillery fire interrupted the main mast of the "Victor", it immediately turned to focus on the "Otter". "It seems to be able to see a little clue.

"Launch the boat and let the soldiers land!" Spikes made a very bold decision at this juncture: "Signal the 'Otter' and let them land forcibly!" He did not choose to retreat, but ordered to abandon When the ship lands, it advances instead of retreating.

Brower on the other ship quickly saw the semaphore displayed by his companion ship, and he immediately understood the intention of the other party, and loudly issued an order to the crew: "Don't stop, keep moving forward! Infantry, get ready to land !Signal to Van Longen behind to draw his ship to the side to attract fire!"

Van Longen's armed merchant ships fell slightly backward, and the gunfire fired from the port fortress did not aim at his ships. After the battle, his ships fired a few symbolic shots, and they were still in a state of soy sauce. .But at this moment, the troop carrier sent him an order to move forward, which really made Van Longen feel as if ten thousand grass and mud horses galloped past—brother, I am a merchant ship, not a war ship!

Resentment is resentment, and Van Longen dare not just order his own ship to escape first. If he does that, he will be court-martialed after returning to Batavia, and it is likely to affect his family in the Far East. Even Fan Longen couldn't bear the big pot of interests.Therefore, he could only follow Browar's instructions and order the fleet to cut across the north side of the two troop carriers, so that an obstacle could be formed between the coastal firepower and the troop carriers—to put it bluntly, it was for the two troop carriers. Shield, so that they can have the opportunity to achieve shore landing.

The consequences of doing so are not difficult to foresee. When an armed merchant ship with less firepower and plank thickness than a warship faces this fierce coastal defense artillery fire, the damage to the ship and personnel will be more serious, but the military order is like a mountain. When the battlefield needs these ships to become cannon fodder, the sailors can only go forward desperately.

Before the "Otter" was crippled by coastal defense artillery fire, the merchant fleet was finally inserted in the middle in time, providing a mobile protective wall for the warship.Van Longen looked at the boat at the front with a sharp heart, which was hit by shells and sawdust flying across the sky. That boat was an old partner he brought with him when he came to the Far East from the Netherlands more than ten years ago, and it was always very well maintained. However, Van Longen believed that at least it could run at sea for more than ten years, but after this battle, the ship would have to undergo a complete overhaul even if it was not directly scrapped.

Fan Longen was in a hurry, but Mu Xiabo, the commander of the Haihan militia on the shore, was even more anxious than him.I have to say that the Dutch's response was slightly beyond his expectations. He originally thought that under such heavy artillery fire, the Dutch fleet, which was obviously at a disadvantage in firepower, would choose to retreat to preserve their strength. The Dutch are still a mystery. They should be more cautious before finding out who their opponent is and how strong they are.But I never expected that the Dutch were very brave. Instead of being frustrated by the artillery fire, they flocked to the shore.

This kind of reaction greatly disrupted Mu Xiabo's tactical arrangements. He could faintly feel that he had made a mistake in the previous preparations for the battle. Perhaps it was true that the port area should not be cleared in advance, but that the Dutch fleet should rely on it first. Stop the ship on the shore, and then launch an attack when it is unprepared. At that time, the fleet that has lowered its sails and anchored will not be so easy to organize an effective resistance.

But things have come to this point, and Mu Xiabo didn't expect to have any regrets. Right now, the Dutch have made it clear that they are going to try to land and fight, and what the Haihan Militia Army, which is not superior in strength, can do is to do as much as possible. The ground will cause more damage to the opponent in the landing link.

"Order! Fort No. 12, aim at the small boats. Fort No. [-], attack the nearest one!" Mu Xiabo made a decisive decision and immediately began to change the tactics of the coastal defense fort.

But at this time, the boats struggling to get close to the shore have turned into several small boats. With the accuracy and firing speed of the defender's existing artillery, it is mainly luck to hit such a small moving target.But this time luck didn't seem to continue to be on Haihan's side, and all the shells fell into the water.

The distance from the paralyzed "Victor" to the shore is only more than 200 meters. The Dutch completed this thrilling voyage through the gunfire in a short time. The first small boat carried [-] Dutch soldiers to the shore. On the other side, they hurriedly climbed up the trestle bridge, and then carrying matchlock guns and long knives, they rushed to the nearest fort with shouts.

Of course, Mu Xiabo was not stupid enough to deploy only artillery and no infantry for cover in each fort. In fact, he had arranged three platoons of troops in advance, and distributed them to the positions of each fort as guards. On average, each fort There is a squad of troops everywhere.

There is nothing wrong with such a deployment of troops, because in Mu Xiabo's plan, the opponent probably will not have a good chance of landing, and even if there are, they will only be sporadic personnel, and it is unlikely that they will be able to take advantage of the squad-level militia firepower. Cheap.But the Dutchman's combat method really made him feel suffocated as soon as he came up. Not only did the opponent not retreat in front of the artillery fire, but someone successfully landed ashore soon.

The place where the Dutch landed was less than 50 meters away from the nearest fort. Since there were only a dozen or so Haihan infantry guards here, there was no round-robin line-up shooting formation available, leaving them with only one round of shooting opportunities. .Fortunately, the squad leader who led the troops did not panic. He just asked his subordinates to line up in advance according to the usual training, raise their guns and aim, and let the Dutch who rushed to enter the 30-meter area before ordering to shoot.

With a row of bullets fired, four or five people fell in the Dutch team, and the rest did not stop. These soldiers are not rookies. They have served in the East India Company for many years, and many of them have participated Similar to the Battle of Penghu, the Battle of Batavia, and many armed conflicts with the Portuguese in the struggle for colonies in Southeast Asia, the combat experience is very rich.Apart from weapons, their individual combat strength is actually not much worse than that of the Haihan militia.

Although they were surprised that the pirate-like opponents could have so many muskets, these people also knew that if they hesitated in the charge, they would leave the opponent with a chance to reload, and they would be unlucky at that time. People will be themselves instead.And after directly charging over, the musket is actually similar to a fire stick in a face-to-face confrontation, and the chance of killing the opponent is much greater.

After finishing the shooting, the Haihan officer immediately ordered everyone to mount their bayonets and maintain their formation to fight.And the six gunners on this fort also suspended their shooting at the sea, and turned around to assist the infantry to deal with this wave of enemies rushing ashore.

The individual weapons used by the gunners are wooden iron spears with a length of one foot and two feet. This kind of cold weapon is also a standard weapon, which is specially used for close-range defense after the artillery firepower is broken through.The reason why the artillerymen were not allotted muskets was that, firstly, considering that the corresponding tactical training for the artillerymen required more resources, and the cost would be a figure that could not be ignored, and secondly, the staff believed that the enemy troops who could break through the artillery fire were very It may be a cavalry unit. At close range, spears are far more convenient for dealing with enemies on horseback than rifles with bayonets.Although the trend of the battle on Abunna Island was not in the staff's imagination, the melee combination of rifle bayonet and spear was indeed quite effective.

The Dutch fired a matchlock gun at a distance of 20 meters, but only hit three Haihan soldiers. Although the result was not ideal, they could only bite the bullet and continue to charge forward.At this time, the Haihan soldiers told them with the facts, what it means to be one inch long and one inch strong.The Dutchman's sword was at a disadvantage in front of Haihan's bayonet and spear, and he had no chance to rush to the opponent to fight.Moreover, the infantrymen of the Haihan Militia have all undergone systematic training in bayonet fighting. In this kind of chaotic battle, the cooperation of two or three people is obviously more effective than fighting alone. Absolute advantage, but still can't stop this group of enemies with an average height of just over 1.6 meters from stabbing their bodies with the weapons in their hands.

Just as the first batch of Dutch soldiers who landed were fighting with Haihan soldiers, the following small boats that were lowered from the "Victor" also carried more Dutch to the coast.Seeing this, Mu Xiabo had no choice but to dispatch the reserve company lurking behind the first line of fire.

But at this time, the Dutch who rushed ashore had already formed a superior force on the fort that was first besieged. The fort defenders with only a dozen or so people could only retreat to the fort first, using the height of the terrain to resist the force. Besieged by his own enemy troops.And when the gap in strength widened to a certain extent, the Haihan militia's advantages in weapons and tactics had been evened out, and soldiers continued to be injured and fell to the ground under the strong attack of the Dutch.

At this time, another Dutch troop carrier "Otter" also stumbled to the shore under the cover of several merchant ships.Near the waterline on the starboard side of the ship, two washbasin-sized holes were punched by shells. Sea water kept pouring in, and the ship's hull had already tilted significantly.Brower drew out his saber, loudly commanded his subordinates to jump directly from the ship's side into the waist-deep sea water, and then wade ashore to fight.

The fort where Mu Xiabo was located was the farthest from the Dutch landing point, and it happened to be able to have a panoramic view of the entire battlefield, so he set up his headquarters here.Watching the Dutch keep coming to the shore, Mu Xiabo knew that the tactics he had arranged had failed, and the only choice now was to abandon the shore fortifications and retreat to the second line of defense.

Although the two adjacent forts on the left and right had turned their muzzles and tried to provide fire support to the besieged fort, they soon found that more and more Dutchmen appeared on the shore and had already used the adjacent artillery positions as the next attack target.

At the beginning, for the consideration of firepower coverage and shooting angle, the twelve forts were arranged along the coastline of the harbor, with a distance of about one kilometer from north to south. Defense across the board can only disperse troops.The consequences of doing so are undoubtedly a failure in today's battle situation. As long as the enemy lands and breaks through one of the forts, it is almost equivalent to breaking through the entire defense line.

This kind of serious mistake in tactical arrangement is not the responsibility of Mu Xiabo alone, because the initial defensive arrangement was not his own idea, but was decided by the staff after considering the local geographical environment and conducting tactical deduction. In the end, the design plan and tactical arrangement of the fort were all arranged before the attack here, and Mu Xiabo was only acting in accordance with the military order.But this was undoubtedly a major mistake by the military. The scattered forts, which cost lives and money, not only failed to prevent the enemy from landing, but instead made the already thin defense force even thinner.

"Send the signal, retreat across the board, move to the second line of defense, the second company is in charge of the rear!" Mu Xiabo paused, and continued: "Dispose of weapons and ammunition when the artillery retreats!"

The artillery weighing hundreds of catties obviously cannot be withdrawn smoothly with the troops, and these things must not fall into the hands of the Dutch, otherwise they will immediately become the opponent's weapons, so Mu Xiabo ordered the artillery Dispose of the equipment first and then retreat.

(End of this chapter)