1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 819 Suppression
"Let the guy in the blacksmith shop move more quickly. It's a time of war, don't tell me that you can't do it!" Alcarazo roared angrily, "I'll arrest anyone who doesn't obey the order!"

The city of El Salvador has insufficient ammunition in stock, which will make the current advantage of the defenders on the defense line unsustainable for too long. Alcarazo was impatient, so he ordered the concentration of iron and cast shells in the city.With this order, the city is naturally a chaotic scene.Some wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to fish in troubled waters to make money in the country, and some were unwilling to sacrifice their personal interests and hand over the ironware at home.And the only blacksmith shop in the city currently has only apprentices and no masters, and it is even more hectic and slow when encountering such emergencies.

Alcarazo didn't dare to think about how effective this kind of impromptu move would be. Now, if the Haihan people show no signs of retreating after the shells are fired, then everyone may have to think about other things. solution.However, while trying to find ways to raise more ammunition, Alcarazor did not forget to order the troops outside the city to slow down the frequency of shelling, and even consider putting the Haihan people ashore before fighting.

"What are you kidding!" The frontline commander sneered at the suggestion sent by Alcarazor. The artillery battle just now made the defenders fully realize the advantages of the Haihan Army in terms of long-range weapon performance. The coastal defense artillery is still powerful, but it suffers from being unable to maintain a stable aim when the waves are undulating at sea.If the Haihan army is allowed to go ashore, then their artillery positions will probably be named one by one by the opponent's artillery soon.

Of course, the commander also realized that the ammunition stock was running out, and the frequency of shelling had to be slowed down.But this means that Haihan's warships can fire more recklessly from the sea and attack the limited number of shore artillery on the coast.

Half an hour later, the Haihan Fleet, which had circled around the sea, returned to the coast of Sheliao Island again, and launched a second round of shelling against the Spanish defense line.But this time the Spaniard's counterattack was obviously much sparser than that at the beginning of the war, and the trouble caused to Hai Han was also much smaller.

"What are the Spaniards doing?" Gao Qiaonan naturally noticed this situation, but he didn't think of the real reason for the other party's change for a while.

Although there are no very clear statistics on the results of the battle, Takahashi Minami concluded that at least two-thirds of the artillery on the opponent's defense line is still able to fight normally, and the current counterattack with one shot without a single shot is really a bit abnormal.With the current frequency and density of bombardment, the special warfare battalion can directly carry out the landing, but Gao Qiaonan is still a little worried about the opponent's tricks, maybe he hopes that the Haihan army will launch a landing and then attack halfway.He couldn't think of it, but not long after the war started, the Spaniards had to carefully plan the use of limited ammunition.

In the past, Takahashinan might have taken this risk to launch an offensive, but before this expedition, Qian Tiandun specifically told him that this independent command of the battle against the Taipei area must be safe first, and if there is any uncertainty Where there is, break it directly with force, without risking your life.Thinking of this, Gao Qiaonan ordered to continue to implement the current tactics, intending to use artillery fire to destroy the defense line on the shore as much as possible before landing.Of course, he still ordered the expedition-class warships with stronger hulls to advance closer to the shore to shorten the shooting distance and increase the pressure on the coastal defenders.

After the fleet got closer to the coastline, the hit rate also increased slightly. In the second round of shelling, multiple shells directly hit the Spanish defense line and caused a certain degree of lethality.For the Spanish infantry who were passively beaten, the current passive situation is something they have never encountered in the past few years. Needless to say, the local indigenous tribes, even when there was an armed conflict with the Dutch, there was no such unilateral beaten.

However, due to the shortage of ammunition, the Spanish army could no longer use the original anti-bombing tactics. They could only grit their teeth and endure the continuous bombardment of Haihan naval guns.At present, they can only count on the Haihan Army's ammunition reserves to be equally limited, and they will evacuate here on their own after the fight.

Of course, this is just a delusion of the Spaniards. Not only did the Haihan Army not worry about the consumption of ammunition, Gao Qiaonan simply ordered the expedition-level warships to stay on the shore after discovering that the coastal firepower was unable to counterattack. While carrying out shelling, the troop carrier slowly approached the coast, preparing for the official landing.

At one o'clock at noon, two troop carriers approached the dock on the shore under the cover of four expedition-class warships and began to land.At this time, the Spanish defense line has completely lost its initiative. Half of the ten artillery positions have been misfired, and nearly one-third of the infantry deployed on the defense line have lost their combat effectiveness. when.However, the Spaniards' will to fight has not disintegrated, there is no order to retreat in the city, and they will continue to stick to this only line of defense outside the city.

Sun Zhen was fortunate to be the first batch of Haihan soldiers to set foot on Sheliao Island, but facing the stray bullets fired from the enemy's defense line a hundred meters away, he couldn't care less about being excited about this honor.Under the loud shout of the platoon leader, the infantrymen who landed and disembarked dispersed and moved forward in a cat-hunted posture.This combat method is completely different from the formation rotation shooting tactics adopted by other Haihan army units. It is a tactic specially designed by Qian Tiandun for the special warfare battalion.Although some soldiers thought such a gesture was too insignificant and not imposing enough, the actual combat results told them that the chief's decision was still as wise as ever.This seemingly insignificant and chaotic way of marching on the battlefield can effectively reduce the hit rate of the enemy's muskets.

The pressure on the Spanish defense line was already very high. They originally thought that as long as there were simple fortifications, they could prevent the enemy infantry from landing, but at this time they discovered that the opponent had no intention of regrouping after landing and forming a regular musketeer Formation to attack again.In this way, the defender's original plan to use volleys of guns to attack when the enemy army was assembled was basically in vain, and most of the ammunition was wasted when firing at the sparse stragglers at a distance of [-] meters.

The few remaining artillery pieces were no longer sufficient to deter the Haihan army. The Haihan fleet even anchored at the port recklessly, so that the naval guns could fire in a more stable state, thereby increasing the hit rate.At present, the gap in the number of artillery pieces still in combat between the two sides has widened to nearly ten to one. Under such circumstances, let alone exerting their combat effectiveness, the countdown to the few remaining artillery pieces being fired one by one has entered the countdown.

While the first infantry company was landing, the focused fire from the naval guns hit a gunpowder barrel next to a gun position on the defense line of the defenders. The violent explosion sent the six gunners on the gun position flying out together with the artillery. This finally led to the psychological collapse of the defensive line defenders.Some soldiers ignored the officer's angry reprimand and began to turn around and retreat into the city.The rout of some defense lines soon triggered a chain reaction. More and more soldiers found that their defense lines were no longer able to withstand the enemy's artillery fire. If they did not evacuate from this dangerous area, they would wait for the few remaining artillery positions to be cleared. After that, the infantry was completely exposed to enemy artillery fire.

"The Spaniards are scared!" Gao Qiaonan breathed a sigh of relief after confirming this scene through the binoculars.Of course, he would not doubt the ability of his troops to take down this line of defense, but if the loss and consumption in the process were too large, it would definitely affect the subsequent siege battle.But so far, whether it is ammunition consumption or casualties, it is still far below Takahashi Minami's expectations, because he was originally planning to deal with an opponent who had received the news and was fully prepared for the battle.Although the offensive was delayed for two days due to the weather, the Spaniards, who were also affected by the weather, failed to take advantage of these two days, and the line of defense they set up was broken after only a little more than half a day.

At the same time, the Spanish commander Alcarazor, who was watching the battle at the top of the city, was furious: "This gang of shameful deserters! Traitors! I will send these cowards to the gallows in the name of the governor of El Salvador!"

Of course, Alcarazor's anger can only stay in words. El Salvador's troops are limited. Punishment of deserters at this critical point in the war is very likely to accelerate the collapse of the armed forces in the city's will to resist.If he really wanted to hang these soldiers who had escaped from the defense line outside the city, it would undoubtedly be forcing them to betray themselves.

"Where are Fernandez and his men? The Haihan people have landed, why hasn't he led his troops to attack? What is he waiting for!" Alcarazo, who was almost in despair, was a little panicked, and even gave up his hope of saving the city of El Salvador. On three armed sailing ships at sea.

Of course, Fernandez also noticed that the Haihan Army launched a landing operation, but he did not dare to act rashly under the surveillance of the other party.He knew that as long as his three ships dared to approach Sheliao Island, the three Haihan warships monitoring him on the distant sea would immediately outflank his rear.After watching the battle at sea for a long time, he already had a relatively clear understanding of the firepower output of the Haihan warships, and he also knew that the three ships he commanded were definitely not the opponents of the Haihan fleet.If he enters the battlefield rashly and is attacked by the opponent back and forth, he will lose his skin even if he does not die.

Seeing that the Haihan army relied on its powerful ship-borne firepower to destroy the coastal defense line that it thought could last at least three to five days, Fernandez was even more afraid to command his subordinates to enter the battlefield.If the shipboard firepower of the Haihan Army was concentrated on attacking the coastal defense line just now, now they have enough energy to turn their attention back to the sea.At this time, if you bite the bullet and move up, you are basically looking for death.

Although Fernandez is not a person who is greedy for life and fears death, he is by no means a reckless man who cannot see clearly the situation on the battlefield.Although the war lasted only half a day, he already felt the overwhelming advantage of the Haihan Army.Only at this time did Fernandez understand why the Portuguese and the Dutch were silent after suffering losses under Hai Han, and they must have suffered such an overwhelming blow.It's too embarrassing to announce it, but keeping it secret may use Haihan's power to trap other unaware forces—such as the Spaniards at this moment.

Fernandez really couldn't understand why an armed force like Haihan suddenly appeared in the Far East, and its combat effectiveness was so tyrannical.Of course, if the main force of the Spanish Royal Fleet is here, it is not a big problem to defeat the Haihan fleet head-on, but right now there are only three ships on our side. It's hard to even harass.If he knew that Alcarazor was eagerly looking forward to his armed fleet being able to rescue the city of El Salvador, then he would probably really say "overthinking" to Alcarazor.

After breaking down the defenders' coastal defenses, the Haihan army slowed down the pace of attack and began to build beachheads near the shore, unloading heavy weapons and ammunition to the shore one by one.The city of Salvador is about one kilometer west of the pier. As long as the waterway is cut off, attacking this castle is like catching a turtle in a jar.Gao Qiaonan's mission at this time does not have a clear time limit. Qian Tiandun's request for him is to be steady, even if it is slow, and he must not make mistakes when he is independently commanding a campaign-level mission for the first time.

Since it is stable, Takahashinan naturally has to follow the army's regular siege warfare steps to implement it step by step.Although the combat environment that the special warfare battalion is good at does not include head-on siege warfare on the frontal battlefield, this does not mean that the special warfare battalion will not fight siege warfare. Give it to the Special Operations Battalion, an ace unit that specializes in mountain and jungle field warfare.This attack on the Taipei area actually required the completion of the attack on two armed strongholds, which was quite a challenge for the special warfare battalion.

It didn't take much effort to take the city of Santo Domingo at the mouth of the Tamsui River. The special warfare battalion perfectly executed tasks such as setting up an ambush on the periphery to round up the defender's messenger and sniping the defender's general to induce surrender.The city defense of Salvador City is more complete and solid than that of Santo Domingo City, and the difficulty of attacking the city is obviously much greater-of course, this is a conclusion that does not take into account the shortage of ammunition for the defenders, otherwise Gao Qiaonan is likely to Change the strategy and speed up the attack on Salvador City.

While the defenders waited and watched in fear, the Haihan militia did not launch an offensive against El Salvador for the rest of the day, and had been silently transporting various combat materials to the shore.In the evening of the same day, observers on the top of the city noticed the giant siege cannon that Gesman claimed appeared on the pier, which was undoubtedly another bad news for the defenders.

(End of this chapter)