1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 845 Attack on Shipu
For the coalition fleet that is fully prepared for combat, a small stronghold with only a few hundred people stationed is just one of the many combat missions this time. There will be no fundamental difference in terms of defense, the only thing that is special is the identity of the defender.Of course, in the eyes of senior Haihan generals like Qian Tiandun who once commanded the Battle of Qiongbei, the Ming army is actually not special at all. The recalcitrant Ming army has never been polite, and they can fight as they like—for the Haihan militia, the enemy is the enemy, and only dead enemies can make people feel at ease.

The United Fleet doesn't care about the feelings of the Ming army, but it still needs to save some money on its own military expenditure.Even if these 3000 troops are not in combat, the daily cost is around 3000 to [-] taels of silver, and during the combat period, this amount will be doubled or tripled due to ammunition consumption and casualties.During the operation, one and a half days of unnecessary waiting time can be reduced, and the cost saved is not a small amount.

Of course, the main reason is that Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen agreed that a small Shipu port does not need to spend too much time preparing for battle. Just drop this small stronghold.Launching an amphibious landing operation from sea to land, attacking the enemy's coastal strongholds, this is a set of tactics that Haihan has practiced the most and is the most proficient in the past year.From the attack on Penghu to the capture of the two strongholds of the Spaniards in Taipei, there are specific examples of the use of this tactic.The lack of training and backward equipment of the Ming army's border guards wanted to resist Haihan's attack, not to mention the chances of winning, and even the chance of securing peace was unlikely.

However, although they despise their opponents strategically, they will not let go of anything that should be prepared tactically.The commanders of each combat unit received their own tasks on this day, and each mobilized their troops before the battle.After all, compared to the pirates they had fought against a few days ago, the Ming army at Shipu Station was the first professional army the coalition fleet had encountered since it entered Zhejiang, and the coalition officers still attached great importance to it.

In the early morning of April 20, the joint fleet left the Yushan Islands in batches and headed northwest to Shipu Port.The voyage from the temporary camp on Beiyushan Island to Shipu Port is only more than [-] nautical miles. With the speed of the Haihan warship, it will take three to four hours.However, with the size of this fleet, it is probably impossible to enter Shipu Port quietly without being discovered.

Among the Haihan militia troops that went north this time, the special warfare battalion participated in the battle as an amphibious force, and the part of the landing operation was naturally their area of ​​responsibility.During the Battle of Taipei from the end of February to the beginning of March, the Special Operations Battalion, as the main combat force, also summed up a lot of experience in siege warfare from the battles against two Spanish strongholds. They were not good at artillery siege in the past. have a better understanding and application of combat methods.For this operation against Shipu Suo City, Qian Tiandun still handed over the frontline command to Gao Qiaonan.

After the previous Taipei operation, although the individual combat merit verification and subsequent rewards have not yet been issued, the special warfare battalion has received a collective third-class merit award jointly issued by the Military Commission and the Executive Committee because of its outstanding performance in the battle.Since the troops were already on their way to Zhejiang when the award was issued, the commendation order was only communicated to the fleet through the radio, and it is said that the military already intends to upgrade the establishment of the special operations force from the battalion level to the regiment level.As for the benefits brought about by this upgrade, in addition to the expansion of the staffing of the entire special operations force, the rank and rank of officers in corresponding positions will also be upgraded accordingly.

Gao Qiaonan is currently the battalion commander of the special warfare battalion. If the establishment of the special warfare battalion is upgraded, then his position as battalion commander will naturally go up, and because he has won the trust of Qian Tiandun, the army will not There was a second contender for the position, so his colleagues congratulated him on his promotion in advance, even though the official notice hadn't come down yet.

According to the blockade plan formulated by Shi Diwen, the coalition fleet was divided into two fleets, east and west, to act separately.The west road cuts between Nantian Island and Gaotang Island, and enters Shipu Harbor through the waterway of Linmen, Limen, and Wuyan. It is located in the middle of the long and narrow harbor. There is no need to send another ship to block the several access and exit channels on the west side of the harbour.However, because the waterway was too narrow and curved, Shi Diwen was worried that it would be inconvenient for large ships to enter and move, so this team was composed of relatively small "exploration-class" warships.The place where they entered Shipu Port was still about [-] miles away from the preset battle area, and it was unlikely that they would fight the Ming army first. The main task was to intercept all local ships trying to pass through the blockade on the periphery.

As the main force of the attack, the fleet on the East Road will have a more complicated route. They will enter the east end of Shipu Harbor from the three waterways of Tongwamen, Huangnibang and Xiawanmen respectively, and then attack Shipusuo City on the coast together. Form an encirclement.Fortunately, the three waterways are not far apart, so it is not particularly difficult to realize simultaneous actions on the battlefield.

When the Donglu fleet approached Shipu Port, some fishing boats outside the harbor also spotted the unknown fleet and fled to the harbor.It's not how vigilant these fishermen are, but the shape of the Haihan battleship is too unique, and the fleet is too large, so the fishermen will inevitably be vigilant when they see it.However, the coalition forces are not afraid that these fishing boats will go back and report to the troops stationed in Shipu. Even if the troops who have been out of battle for a long time know that there is an enemy attack, it is difficult to organize a decent resistance in a short period of time.

At [-] o'clock in the morning, all the fleets had arrived at the predetermined location, and the attack point on the West Road was far away from Shipu, so they took the lead.More than a dozen warships rushed into the nearly ten-mile-long zigzag waterway, and several small sampans that were slowly moving on the water rushed to the shore desperately to give way to the fleet that descended from the sky.The fishermen watched in amazement as these strange-looking sailing boats quickly passed the water and headed for Shipu Port.

At the same time, Huangnibang Waterway on the east side of Shipu Port.The main force of the fleet led by Shi Diwen has arrived here, completely blocking the narrow entrance and exit of nearly two hundred meters at the junction of the waterway and the East China Sea.The other two fleets have also arrived at the waterway mouths that are several miles apart from the north and the south. Qian Tiandun and Xu Yuzhuo are the commanders of the other two routes respectively.

"Fire the cannon, start to act!" Shi Diwen gave the order with a serious face.

The two 24-pound guns on the bow of the "Enterprise" fired one after another, and then blew the ship's whistle, and took the lead to sail to the waterway on the west side, followed by more than [-] warships.As the main battleship of the coalition fleet, the "Enterprise" entered Shipu Port at the closest location to Shipu Island. It can be seen after turning a corner after entering Shipu Port. The voyage is less than three nautical miles. For ships equipped with steam propulsion devices For the "Join Group Number" of the company, it really arrives in a blink of an eye.

The two detachments from the north and the south heard the sound of cannons coming from far away from the sea, and they also ordered to enter Shipu Port.The route to the south has a voyage of about five or six nautical miles, while the route to the north from the Tongwamen waterway has a similar voyage to the middle route, but it takes a U-shaped bend to reach Shipu.Each of the three fleets also left two boats to guard the entrance and exit of the waterway to prevent any fish that slipped through the net from breaking out from here.

It was not too late for the Ming army in the harbor to get the news. Before the coalition fleet fired its guns, some fishermen had already reported the abnormal situation outside the harbor to Shipu Institute.Ma Mingling, a thousand household in Shipu Institute, is also an old fritter who has served in Changguowei for many years. His first reaction after hearing this was to think that a certain hero from Zhoushan had come south to do business.However, the Ningbo government and the pirates in Zhoushan have always had a tacit understanding. The pirates will never approach the guard post stationed by the Ming army. In some bad situations, it is necessary to enter the port to avoid the limelight.But looking at the weather today, it really doesn't look like a day when there will be strong winds and waves, so why are these ships blocked at the waterway entering and leaving Shipu Port?
Before Ma Ling could figure out the reason behind this, someone came in and said that a moment ago, he heard two cannon shots from outside the Huangnibang waterway, which seemed to be some kind of signal from the fleet outside the port—for example, entering Shipu port.Until this time, Ma Ling still could not fully believe that Shipu Port would be attacked from outside, because in his opinion, the pirates did not have a good reason to attack Shipu Port.

Most of the residents in Shipu Port are fishermen, and there is not much money to speak of. To rob this place, it is better to rob Xiangshan County, fifty miles to the north, at least there are some gentry and rich men who can squeeze out some money.What's more, there is the Shipu garrison here. Those pirates who robbed with harpoons could not do anything better than the Shipu garrison with guns and cannons.Even if Shipu has one-third of the empty establishment, the professional army is by no means such an easy target to bully.

Regardless of the reason why these guys broke into Shipu Port openly, Ma Ling felt that it was necessary to give them a note of Ma Wei, otherwise Shipu Port would be out of order and it would be difficult to manage in the future.Immediately, Ma Ling ordered the two armies, the navy and the army, to gather their troops and prepare to face the "pirate" fleet that broke into the harbor without authorization.

The naval forces of Shipu Institute are relatively small, with only two Fuchuan and a few sentinel ships.However, these two Fuzhou boats are equipped with the Folang machine guns purchased by the Zhejiang Navy in the early years. It is more than enough to deal with the ordinary pirate ships that can only shoot gravel nails and have a range of less than ten feet.Although I heard that there seem to be a lot of ships that are about to move outside the port, Ma Qianhu still hasn't attracted enough attention. He thinks that as long as these self-sufficient and inconsiderate guys hit a snag, let them know how many catties they have. After a few weights, it will naturally be withdrawn.

This mistake was quickly proved. When the huge figure of the "Enterprise" appeared in Shipu Port, the sailors of the Ming army who were about to give the invaders a little color were immediately paled in fright. The strange ship is definitely not something that the pirates in the East China Sea can build. Such a huge sea monster is only found in the ancient records about the Sanbao eunuch. How could there be such a large ship in the world.

Immediately afterwards, behind the "Enterprise" ship, a large sail shadow spread out, and a menacing fleet finally revealed its true colors.The commander of the Ming army ship knew that his side was invincible, and immediately ordered to turn the bow of the ship—not to return to Shipusuo Wharf, but to sail west to the other side of Shipu Port, hoping to get rid of the evil spirits behind him by virtue of the complicated waterways. star.

Naturally, Ma Ling also saw this scene on the top of Shipusuo City. While cursing the hundred households who took the lead in escaping, he ordered all the personnel to return to the city to prepare to resist the pirates.Until this time, Ma Qianhu still believed that the group of intruders who descended from the sky were pirates from somewhere in the East China Sea, and never thought that they actually had another identity.

The coalition fleet did not separate ships to pursue the two fleeing Ming warships. The fleet that cut into Shipu Port from the west should have blocked the opponent's escape route at this time. There is no escape from this blocked harbor.

Dozens of warships gathered on the coast near Shipusuo from north and south. Ma Ling had been a Qianhu in Shipusuo for five or six years, and this was the first time he encountered such a situation.Looking at the dense fleet of sailing ships on the sea, Ma Ling slowly began to come to his senses. Among the largest pirate gangs near Ningbo Mansion, none of them had such a large formation, especially the big ship in the middle. Which pirate can make this kind of thing, I'm afraid it has already unified the Zhoushan Islands.

Since he is not from Zhoushan, Ma Ling has to rethink the other party's origin.The shape of these sailboats is obviously different from the Fuchuan and Guangzhou boats that are common in the south of the Ming Dynasty, and it is also very different from the Japanese pirate Hachiman boats. The densely packed gun ports on the sides are somewhat similar to the armed sailboats of the Western Frangji people, but The sails and masts are completely different.Looking around, Ma Ling couldn't figure out where this is.

Seeing that a siege had been formed on Shipu Suo City, Shi Diwen did not rush to launch an offensive. Instead, he asked his officers to dock in small boats and projected a letter into the city with a powerful slingshot.The general idea is that the Haihan fleet is passing by here and needs to stop for supplies and rest for a whole day, hoping that the local garrison can cooperate.Both sides can get what they need, don't hurt the harmony.At the end of the letter, he also asked Shipu Suocheng to send envoys to contact Haihan outside the city in order to resolve the misunderstanding as soon as possible.

"Haihan people?" Ma Ling was taken aback after reading the letter, and then cursed: "These Nanmans can't live in Fuguang and enjoy their blessings. Why come to Zhejiang to be a monster!"

(End of this chapter)