1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 636 Fighting (V)

"Mr. Van Longen, what's your opinion on the current situation?"

Although Van Longen did not want to take the initiative to participate in the decision-making of the battle, his two companions would not let him stay out of it like this, and such "importance" made Van Longen helpless.

"My opinion... Gentlemen, can't we send envoys to talk to each other first? We don't even know who they are!" Van Longen tried to find another way to try to resolve the current deadlock in a peaceful way.

But the answers he got were very consistent, Spikes and Brower shook their heads at the same time and vetoed: "Of course not!"

"The other party is obviously hostile to us. Look at the three ships on the pier! They have already attacked our merchant ship before that, and they probably killed our crew! The East India Company will never forgive this behavior!" Spikes exclaimed.

Brower also continued: "As soon as we came here, they took the initiative to attack, which is enough to prove their attitude. Now the opponent is passive in the battle situation. I don't think it is necessary to start peace talks immediately! Mr. Van Longen, you Just tell us, do you favor a quick pursuit, or hold the port until reinforcements arrive?"

"This..." Van Longen hesitated before saying: "Gentlemen, I think we should at least settle down in the port first, there are still two or three hours before dark, are you sure you can end the battle within this time? You must know that our people have been floating on the sea for several days before this, and they haven’t even had lunch today, what we should do now is to fill their stomachs with hot meals and hot dishes!”

Spikes and Brower looked at each other, and it took a long time for Spikes to respond: "You are right, our soldiers do need time to rest and reorganize, and today is not suitable for continuing to fight. But I still insist on my opinion, We can't wait for reinforcements, we must maintain enough pressure on the enemy."

Spikes's concessions, although extremely limited, at least eased the current standoff.Brower also cautiously agreed with his statement, ordering his men to start camping on the port and setting up perimeter security.Although this island has been the territory of the Dutch East India Company in the past few years, they usually stop here for a day and a half to resupply at most. They don't know the geographical environment here. In combat, the combat power they can exert is likely to be inferior to the opponents who have been here for a while.

The news that the opponent stopped to rest was quickly fed back to Mu Xiabo by the scouts, which made him a little relieved, which meant that the Dutch probably would not take the initiative to launch an offensive again today.However, since the other party started camping at the port, it also meant that they did not intend to leave here, but would fight Hai Han after they had rested.

That night, both sides were very vigilant, guarding against the other party's sneak attack at night, but the commanders of both sides were worried that the active night attack would cause losses to their own small forces, so they reached a wonderful tacit understanding and spent a peaceful time. night.

On June 1631, 6, after a night of rest, the Dutch finally pulled out their troops from the port and began to march inland.But in fact, the distance between the port and the Haihan defense line is not far. Turning over a small slope from the port, you can see the town in the distance and the conspicuous defensive wall outside the town.

"Look, these people are obviously not willing to just retreat like this, they plan to have a good confrontation with us!" Spikes said with a gloomy face after putting down the binoculars in his hand.Van Longen took the binoculars from him, and began to look at the enemy positions in the distance.

The brass-cased monocular telescope used by Spikes is a high-end product produced by the Liberhue family in the Netherlands, and the refracting telescope was made in 1608 by Liberhue, a glasses craftsman in Middelburg, the Netherlands, using a crystal lens. It can be said to be the most authentic source, and only a few senior officers of the East India Company have this kind of equipment.In 1609, Galileo also made a telescope model that could observe the starry sky based on this telescope and his own knowledge of optics.

However, this high-end product is not unique to Europeans. The Portuguese missionary Jan Mano who entered China in 1610 had already introduced this advanced technological product to Daming, and in the book "Tian Wen Lue" that he and Li Zubai jointly translated mentioned this.In 1622, Tang Ruowang, a German missionary, brought the first object to Daming. His 1626 book "Talk of the Telescope" was a book dedicated to introducing telescopes to Daming.

In the second year of Chongzhen, Xu Guangqi, an academician, asked to assemble three telescopes for observing the sky. Later, after the telescope supervised by Tang Ruowang was completed, Emperor Chongzhen also went to see it in person. However, the Ming army did not widely use this tool at this time. applied to the battlefield.

Of course, the performance of the monoculars made by the Europeans still has a certain gap with the models equipped by the Haihan militia. As for the black-tech binoculars brought by Haihan senior officers from another time and space, it is even more incomparable. up.For example, the telescope used by Mu Xiabo is a German-made Steiner (Steiner) military telescope specially purchased from foreign arms markets before crossing.From the binoculars, he could clearly see the progress of the opponent's team, so he naturally noticed Van Longen and the others who were looking at this side with the binoculars.

"It's really home delivery!" Mu Xiabo sighed, put down the binoculars and gave an order: "Let the sniper enter the shooting position. The target is the three officers of the opposing army. After entering the range, you can open fire freely!"

As one of the first units to start training professional snipers, the Annan Militia has always retained the special branch of snipers in its combat organization.And the battalion that followed Mu Xiabo to the south and was stationed on Ambuna Island was also equipped with a squad of snipers.Of course, the weapons they used couldn't be high-end products like the old Morgan. They were just Type [-] sniper rifles produced by the Sanya Armory Factory. However, this rifle that has undergone two modifications can be said to be the most accurate among the rifles produced in this era. , and has a range far exceeding that of its contemporary competitors.

In the previous battles that the Haihan Militia participated in, the sniper arm played a more or less role.Although the cost of training snipers is relatively high and the training period required is extremely long, the senior military commission still believes that the deterrence and role of this special arm on the battlefield are worth investing in resources, so they still insist on retaining the establishment of this arm.

According to the statistics of actual combat training, militia snipers can maintain a relatively high percentage of first-shot hits within a distance of 300 meters.An excellent sniper can hit a two-foot-diameter chest target at a distance of 200 meters, and can even maintain a hit rate of more than 300%. Basically, it can only rely on the concentrated fire of a few snipers to improve the hit rate.However, when conditions permit, the commander will also let the snipers shoot at a longer distance, such as four to 300 meters. Although the hit rate at this distance is low, it is still within the range of the fire. Shots still have a certain chance of hitting the target.

Of course, shooting fixed targets in training and shooting moving targets on the battlefield are two completely different concepts. No matter how much live ammunition training is, it also requires a real combat environment to further temper snipers.Therefore, every time there is an actual combat mission, commanders generally use this elite unit without hesitation.

Of course, Mu Xiabo could do this by himself. Among the personal equipment he brought to Anbuna was a Type 85 sniper rifle.This individual weapon imitating the former Soviet Lagonov SVD is very powerful at medium and long distances, and there are cases where the sniper distance exceeds 1500 meters.However, Mu Xiabo himself did not study sniper tactics professionally and systematically like old Morgan, and he is not professional in the use of sniper rifles. In addition, he is the only senior commander in the local area, so he needs to be in charge of the entire army. Therefore, this combat mission can only be handed over to snipers who specialize in it.

Of course, Mu Xiabo did not expect the snipers to kill several high-ranking Dutch officers in one fell swoop. If they want to hit their souls with a single shot at a distance of 500 meters, the probability is the same as that of a naval gun fired at a distance of 300 meters in a naval battle. The chances of breaking the enemy's mast are about the same.But if it can play a certain deterrent effect on the enemy commanders and interfere with their command, it can be regarded as achieving a part of the combat effect.

The Dutch team stopped 300 meters away, and then began to line up and set up artillery positions.Mu Xiabo was not in a hurry to let the soldiers behind the line of defense open fire, but first went to each artillery position to help them calibrate their targets.The opponent's artillery was almost all naval guns temporarily unloaded from the ship, with a large caliber but a short range. As for the accuracy, there was nothing to say-the original intention of these guns was to be able to hit large targets within a hundred meters.Although their range is not more than [-] meters, but after exceeding this distance several times, the point of impact is really only known by God.

Compared with the opponent's primitive naval guns, Mu Xiabo believed more in the weapons equipped by his troops.Although these 3-pound and 6-pound army guns are not very powerful, their accuracy within a distance of 500 meters is very impressive. If the two sides start an artillery battle next, then Mu Xiabo has full confidence to defeat his opponent.

The Dutch followed the European style of warfare step by step. After the troops were assembled and the artillery positions were placed, the orderly blew the bugle and beat the drums, preparing for the first round of offensive by the artillery, and then the muskets formed by the infantry. The team pressed on foot.

However, Mu Xiabo didn't intend to let the opponent take the lead. Following his order, whistles rang out from the back of the Haihan defense line, and then the artillery on the eight artillery positions fired one by one, and several shells whizzed across the air. Smashed into the Dutch position.

The effect of the first round of shelling was better than Mu Xiabo expected. Two of the eight shells hit the intended target, and directly knocked out one of the Dutchman's cannons. gunner.However, two of the shells that did not hit the gun positions flew into the Dutch infantry formation, and five or six people were killed when the opponent was caught off guard.

"These bastards! Fire, fire me hard!" Spikes, who was in a panic, gave the order to fire at this moment.

However, just as Mu Xiabo expected, the opponent's artillery fire seemed fierce, but due to the limited performance of their weapons, it was almost impossible to speak of accuracy.While the Dutch were loading shells, Haihan's second round of shelling began again, and this time the accuracy of the shelling after calibration was significantly improved. Four of the eight shells hit the Dutch artillery positions. And destroyed two artillery pieces that hadn't had time to fire.

For the Dutch, the loss of artillery is a trivial matter. After all, the entire fleet is equipped with dozens of artillery pieces, and only half of them are unloaded and pushed to the front line to fight.However, the opponent's two consecutive rounds of shelling directly hit their own artillery positions. This precise hit rate greatly shook the confidence of the Dutch gunners to continue fighting.Brower had to personally lead the law enforcement team to supervise the battle behind the artillery positions, and immediately executed the two gunners who were afraid of fighting.

Under such means, the Dutch finally had a shell concentrated on the defensive wall on Haihan's side in the fifth round of shelling, and the splashed gravel injured several Haihan soldiers. The record is off to a good start.But here they have lost four artillery pieces and more than twenty gunners. In comparison, the losses of the Dutch are obviously much more serious.

After ten rounds of shelling, the Dutch artillery positions were silent. This was not because their gunners were afraid of fighting or ran out of ammunition, but because the temperature of the artillery was too high. They had to stop and wait for the barrel to cool down before continuing. Fill it with gunpowder.On Haihan's side, it took five rounds of bombardment before stopping the bombardment, and the gap in weapon performance between the two sides was once again reflected.

"How long have we been fighting, and we have lost seven guns!" After listening to the report of the battle damage with a dark face, Brower couldn't help complaining: "If we continue to fight like this, we can last until tomorrow at most. The artillery is completely lost!"

"The opponent's artillery is too powerful, so we can't send infantry forward to fight!" Spikes frowned, and had no better solution to the situation in front of him: "These guys are probably really Portuguese. The Annan troops who were trained, otherwise there is no reason why they have so many artillery!"

Judging from the current combat situation, the opponents the Dutch encountered were obviously much more ferocious than the pirates they had seen in the past. Not only did they have a large number of firearms in their hands, but their combat methods were also very methodical. With full experience, he calmly used concentrated fire to clear the artillery positions on the Dutch side one by one.

(End of this chapter)