1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 863 Chasing the Remnant Bandits
On the morning of April 23, Liuheng Island in the East China Sea.

Although both the coalition headquarters and the Sanlin Gang issued a truce order after nightfall last night, the two gangs on the island who had killed red-eyed people still had several small-scale fights in the night, during which both sides suffered casualties.In the past, these two groups had had several armed conflicts due to territorial disputes, but because they were afraid that other forces would take advantage of it, the troops invested by both sides were very limited, and the casualties were not serious.But yesterday, the two gangs were in a situation where there was no retreat, and they fought without leaving any room. By the time of Tianming's statistics, the casualties on both sides had reached three digits. Even if you look at the entire East China Sea, it is rare in recent years. Conflicted.

The coalition fleet sent a few military doctors with medicines on board early in the morning, and Lin Si took them to the west of the Sanlin Gang to help treat the wounded.The staff also went to a few people to learn about last night's fighting situation from the Sanlin Gang and the current situation of the Haisha Gang.Takahashi Nan led two companies of the army, took two expedition-class warships, and then headed to the local area, preparing to meet the Sanlin Gang, which was said to have suffered heavy casualties.

Lin De, who was commanding the battle here, saw his second brother, and he didn't show any joy after the victory - yesterday was a big victory for the coalition fleet, but for the Sanlin Gang, it was an extremely tragic battle.Even Linde himself failed in yesterday's battle.

"I was hit by the firecrackers of the Haisha gang. Fortunately, I didn't hurt my vitals!" Linde pointed to the place on his arm wrapped in gauze and said, "That ghost's firecrackers are really powerful. , I asked my brothers to charge three times, but they failed to break through their lines, and many people were injured in my own family. Now I can only hold this pass and prevent them from continuing to flee westward."

The pass mentioned by Linde is located near the eastern end of Liuheng Island. In this area, Liuheng Island is cut off by a hill called Shuangtang Ridge. There is only a flat pass with a width of more than [-] meters on the northern coastline.In the past, the area to the east of this pass was completely controlled by the Haisha Gang. Now it is being squeezed by the coalition forces bit by bit. Trying to escape westward and enter the territory of the Sanlin Gang.

Although Shuangtang Ridge is not high, it is not too difficult for scattered people to climb over it, but it is not easy to transport the baggage there.When the Haisha Gang withdrew from the port area, they also took away a large amount of gold, silver, money and valuable goods. They were reluctant to leave all of them behind to make their opponents cheaper, so they are still confronting the Sanlin Gang here, hoping to seize this pass, and then take it away. The luggage was quickly transported to the west - the only escape route left for them now was to rush to the ground of the Sanlin Gang to grab the boat and leave. Before that, the defense line of the Sanlin Gang had to be defeated.

Lin Si sighed: "That ghost's firecracker team is one of the most powerful in the entire East China Sea. It is not easy to be able to defend this night. The Haihan army will arrive soon, and the Haisha gang will end here today. gone."

Lin De didn't see the scene where the coalition fleet smashed through the port of the Haisha Gang yesterday, so he asked half-believingly: "The Haihan people are really so powerful?"

Lin Si nodded heavily and replied: "Yesterday I saw the Haihan fleet enter the port of the Haisha Gang with my own eyes. I don't know how many times they are so powerful, but after you see them, you will know why Big Brother insisted on relying on them."

At the same time, in the Haisha Gang camp on the east side of the pass, the atmosphere is even more desolate.More than one-third of the Haisha Gang members were lost in the first round of naval battle yesterday. By the time the three leaders decided to give up their territory and retreat to the inland area of ​​the island, Haisha Gang had consumed almost half of their warships. force.The only good thing is that Gomez's Musketeers have retained most of their strength. Otherwise, when they were blocked by the Sanlin Gang on the way to retreat, they might not even have a chance to stabilize their position and organize a counterattack.

The Sanlin Gang didn't have many long-range attack weapons, but even so, Gomez's Musketeers still failed to break through the defense line set up by the opponent in the front pass, which made him very dissatisfied.The opponent trapped the Haisha gang here by virtue of the geographical advantage, obviously waiting for the Haihan people to form a siege after they finished cooking the south, and there was not much time left for the Haisha gang to escape.

At present, there are about five or six hundred soldiers in the Haisha Gang, about one-third of which are Musketeers under Gomez. If they can't break through the defense line of the Sanlin Gang this morning, then Gomez really It is time to consider giving up unnecessary resistance and surrendering to the Haihan people.

But Li Luotou and Mogi Ren's resentment towards the Sanlin Gang is deeper, and the difference in strength from the Haihan people is too much to beat. The Sanlin Gang secretly colluded with the Haihan people at some point in order to take advantage of the fire.Motegi Shinobu has already summoned a group of desperadoes from Japan under his command, planning to kill the Lin Brothers' lair directly after breaking through the blockade, and attack him by surprise.Although Gomez felt that the feasibility of this plan was extremely low, he did not intend to dissuade the two from taking risks-if they could attract the attention of the enemy with this action, then they would have a little more chance of escaping.

Before the action, Li Luotou ordered someone to open several silver boxes, and distributed ten taels of silver to each of the personnel who were about to go into battle to boost morale.As expected, this action was idiomatic, and many people became excited as if they had been beaten with chicken blood, completely forgetting the tragic battle with the Sanlin Gang yesterday.But the three leaders knew that at this time these people were already in a state of being strong from the outside, and they fled too quickly yesterday, and the supplies they carried were extremely limited. The wild has greatly affected their physical condition.If they haven't been able to break through this line of defense today, even if the opponents don't step up their encirclement, this group of people will soon be unable to hold on.

The two companies led by Takahashi Nan arrived at the coast behind the Sanlin Gang's defense line at [-]:[-] a.m. The beach here was too shallow to land directly, and the participating troops had to transfer to shallow-draft boats to land.However, the local snake of the Sanlin Gang did have many ways. Under the orders of the Lin brothers, they quickly mobilized more than a dozen small fishing boats to the shore, and then built a simple trestle bridge with springboards.

Linde finally saw the legendary Haihan army. Most of these soldiers from the southern region were dark-skinned and short in stature, but they were quite strong. They wore uniform gray cotton combat uniforms with lace-up straps Mid-cut canvas combat boots and a gray sun visor hat.Each of them carried a musket about four feet long and a bulging canvas backpack on their backs, and some officers who looked like officers had a short gun about a foot long stuck in their belts.After landing, these Haihan soldiers lined up in an extremely orderly manner. No one spoke out except for the officers. There was a murderous look in the silent atmosphere that made people feel chills.

Lin Si stepped forward to introduce his brother Lin De to Gao Qiaonan, and Gao Qiaonan cut to the point after a few words of greeting: "I heard that the brothers of the Sanlin Gang suffered a lot of casualties before, so we will take over the position here first. Please ask Lin San to lead his subordinates to the back to rest and take care of him."

"Thank you!" Linde had been looking forward to withdrawing his family for a long time, and quickly ordered them to make way for Gao Qiaonan's people to enter.

In order to defend against the Western-style musketeers of the Haisha Gang, the Sanlin Gang built a parapet here yesterday as a temporary shelter.In addition to the Juma and Luzhai made of bamboo and wood, the bunker also has gravel, door panels, large tree branches, and even a few tattered small sampans in the middle.Although the shape is not very organized, it did successfully cover the Sanlin Gang to survive yesterday's attack, and the effect is quite good.

Takahashi Minami ordered people to clear out several gun emplacements from the middle, and deployed the several artillery pieces they brought, while the others rested on the spot, waiting for the opponent to appear.Lin De was very curious about the battle of the Haihan people, and he also deliberately got close to watch Gao Qiaonan's formation of troops.

Gao Qiaonan and his men didn't have to wait too long, and the sentinel found through the binoculars that groups of armed men were approaching in the distance.With the sound of a short and powerful copper whistle, the Haihan soldiers who had been sitting on the ground in squads behind the line of defense immediately grabbed their weapons and got up, and entered the fighting position under the command of the officers.This process is still busy but not chaotic, which reflects the extremely high military quality and combat experience of the Haihan Army.

In order to achieve better results after the start of the war, the Haihan militia was not in a hurry to display its own flag on the position today, but just set up the position and quietly waited for the opponent to take the bait.

Sure enough, the Haisha Gang did not expect that the opponents after the fortification had changed. It was still the same as yesterday. Gomez’s Musketeers were in the center, and the Ming pirates under Li Luotou and the Japanese Japanese pirates under Mogi Shinobu were separated on the left and right. On both sides, press towards the defense line bit by bit.

"A row of about 20 musketeers, about 200 people, there are more than a hundred scattered armed personnel on the left and right. The weapons are mainly cold weapons, and no heavy weapons have been found."

Before the other party entered the infantry musket range, Gao Qiaonan had already listened to the military reconnaissance report.For the Haihan militia, who were armed with live ammunition and several cannons, there was no essential difference between being armed to this degree and being bare-handed.Before the war started, it was destined to be a one-sided massacre.

Gomez walked in front of the team at the beginning, but the more he walked, the more he felt guilty because he didn't see the banner behind the defense line of the Sanlin Gang in front.He clearly remembered that when he attacked this place yesterday, there were at least three or four flags with the word "Lin" on the defense line-it was one of the few Chinese characters he knew.Similar to this kind of battlefield that requires desperate efforts, flags are very effective in boosting morale and stabilizing the morale of the army. If they cannot see their own flags, the soldiers are likely to feel loose psychologically and fear war. It is impossible not to understand this truth when the banner is released.

Li Luotou happened to pass by Gomez at this time, and Gomez quickly stopped him and told him what he felt was wrong.Li Luotou blinked his eyes and replied: "Could it be that the surname Lin knew he was invincible and withdrew overnight?"

"But there are still figures moving behind the line of defense." Gomez reminded.

"Remove the main force, leave some scattered soldiers to scare us, and take the opportunity to delay the time. This Lin surname is good at calculating!" Li Luotou was thinking in the direction he had speculated, and he didn't understand Ge. What Max wanted to express.

But Gomez himself was not sure about his opponent's reality. Seeing that Li Luotou insisted on attacking, he didn't dare to object again. Besides, if he was still afraid of fighting at this time, the desire to fight that these people under him had finally stimulated with money It completely collapsed.Thinking that there is still a million-dollar worth of baggage that needs to be transported through this pass, Gomez no longer insisted, but quietly changed his position to the back of the Musketeers.

After entering a distance of a hundred paces, Gomez saw that there was still no movement in the opponent's position, so he was relieved and ordered the musketeers to stop and began to line up to load ammunition.The stragglers next to them had to wait for the Musketeers to disrupt the opponent's position before launching a charge together.

However, just as the musketeers had just finished queuing up, they heard a sharp whistle from the opposite position, and a row of people stood out behind the parapet, and the weapons displayed were no longer the swords, guns and harpoons of the Sanlin Gang. , but neat muskets.Then the opponent moved away from several places on the defense line that were covered by branches, and all the artillery appeared behind them were desperate.

"The Haisha Gang is about to end!" As soon as Gomez had this thought in his mind, the artillery on the opposite side rang.

A shell the size of an adult's fist escaped, pierced the air with a roar, and smashed into the dense crowd of the Haisha Gang musketeers.Flesh and blood couldn't stop the huge kinetic energy of the shells, so the musketeers screamed in agony.Before the pirates figured out what was going on, they got another row of lead flying over them.At this distance, the bullets fired by the Shanghai Han rifle are enough to penetrate ordinary iron leather armor. Therefore, although the people at the front of the team had certain protective measures, the iron leather armor and vine shields did not play any role, and they were shot down one after another. land.

"It's an ambush! It's an ambush set by the Haihan people!" Seeing this situation, Gomez finally understood what happened, and shouted loudly, but his camp was already in chaos at this time, and the survivors of the musketeers began to retreat. The front team turned around and fled back, while Li Luotou and Mogi Shinobu's team was even more chaotic, some wanted to charge desperately, while others wanted to run back.Gomez saw Li Luotou and Mogi Shinobi yelling in the chaos, but it was difficult to achieve the command effect.

The Haihan infantry's shooting did not slow down due to the chaos of the Haisha gang. The order they received was to fire ten rounds of rapid fire first, and each soldier completed loading with steady movements under the command of the officer's whistle. A series of tactical actions such as raising the gun, aiming, shooting, and giving way form a killing machine with extremely high operating efficiency.

(End of this chapter)