1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 911 Flying Thunder Cannon

By noon, the Haihan militia had destroyed five fortresses on the way forward, killed 71 bandits, captured more than [-] people, and seized various weapons.Although the results were good, from morning to noon, the Haihan army only advanced seven or eight miles inland from the camp at the landing point, and the speed was not ideal.

Just as Shibazhi planned, the many fortresses they built on the island did effectively slow down the advancement of the Haihan militia.In this era, there are no such powerful weapons as tanks. When encountering fortresses, they can only stop to set up positions and use artillery tactics. A company often has to stop after two or three miles to carry out operations, and during the period, it has to be prepared for sudden attacks from other nearby strongholds. The uninvited guest who came out.

For the Haihan militia, the difficulty of attacking these strongholds is not too difficult, but they must not be careless at all.When a company was attacking a certain stronghold in the morning, they were almost taken back by bandits who were ambushing in the nearby forest.Although the officer commanding the company adjusted the formation in time after discovering the abnormal situation, and the reinforcements arrived in time, they successfully repelled hundreds of bandits who came from the rear, but there were still four deaths and eleven injuries on their side. This is the most serious and concentrated loss of personnel since the war on Miyako Island.

Yu Tiezhu's luck was quite good. He also commanded a battle outside the fort this morning.This three-entry courtyard was rebuilt to be extremely strong. It took the artillery more than half an hour to clear a frontal passage. After the Haihan army attacked, they found that there were still people resisting in the second two-entry courtyard. , showing no sign of intending to surrender.So Yu Tiezhu commanded the artillery to clamp the artillery outside the gate of this courtyard, and continued to bombard the second courtyard inside.

It was already noon when the soldiers entered the yard after advancing layer by layer. After counting the prisoners, they discovered that Hong Xu, one of the leaders of the Eighteen Zhi, was commanding the battle at this stronghold.This person is from Tong'an, Fujian. In the original history, he was regarded as a fierce general under Zheng Zhilong. After Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he served under Zheng Chenggong. died of illness.

However, in this time and space, Hong Xu has no chance to become an important minister in the Ming Zheng period, and it is hard to say whether he can even leave Miyako Island alive.In the battle just now, he was hit by a stray bullet under his right shoulder. Judging from the location, it may have injured his lungs. His mouth was covered in blood and he was unable to speak.Given the current medical conditions on the island, it may not be possible to save his life.

"Send it to the camp with a flatbed truck as soon as possible!" After Yu Tiezhu confirmed Hong Xu's identity from the prisoner, he immediately ordered him to be sent to the camp for treatment.Regardless of whether Hong Xu's life could be saved in the end, this battle achievement was actually recorded on Yu Tie Zhu's head.Among the surviving leaders of Shibazhi, there were only a few who followed Zheng Zhilong to Miyako Island. As long as one of them is captured, he will have military merits, and Yu Tiezhu will naturally not let go of such an opportunity.He only hoped that Hong Xu could survive until he was sent to the camp to verify his identity. If he died on the way, it would be another trouble to re-verify his identity.

However, at this time, the frontline command was not very satisfied with the current advance speed. It only took half a day to advance a few miles. If the fight continued like this, it would only take half a month to clear the entire Miyako Island.Although the ammunition and supplies prepared by the military are sufficient this time, the planned operation time is not intended to be delayed for so long.It only took two or three days to fight Penghu at the beginning. The Military Commission and the General Staff were full of plans. At most, they could leave Miyakojima with a week of combat time. Battle exploits will also be discounted because of this.

After thinking together with the navy, Wang Tom decided to send some naval soldiers to participate in the land battle, in order to clear up these scattered fortresses on the island as soon as possible.As for the artillery unit in charge of attacking fortresses, it needs to be split in more detail so that the units attacking fortresses can bloom more.In addition, Wang Tom decided to use the secret weapon in advance, that is, the flying thunder cannon that uses the principle of projectile to launch explosive packets.

This kind of flying thunder cannon is a soil mortar invented in the war of liberation in time and space before time travel. It uses a gasoline barrel as a catapult, puts a disc-shaped explosive package into it, and uses gunpowder to project it to a distance of 200 meters. It was detonated in the place where it was detonated. At that time, there was a famous name called "heartless gun".This kind of gun is actually very similar to the mortars that have appeared in this era, except that the shells of the mortars will not explode.

The reason why the Haihan Army began to build this kind of weapon was that, on the one hand, the advances in forging technology had enabled the mass production of iron barrels of various types, and the output of gunpowder had been able to meet the needs of the army in combat. They also found various inconveniences in transportation, deployment, and use of traditional artillery. There is an urgent need for a simple artillery that does not require professional artillery operations and can be used immediately by ordinary soldiers after a short period of training.

Although this kind of gun has a limited range and its accuracy cannot be compared with regular artillery, it is superior in that it is convenient to deploy, easy to operate, and its power is not small.The situation of fortress strongholds everywhere on Miyako Island is very suitable for the use of flying thunder cannons to carry out tough battles.Among the equipment transported to Miyakojima with the army this time were [-] newly built flying thunder cannons. Tom Wang decisively ordered that these cannons be distributed to each company immediately and put into use in battle as soon as possible.

In the afternoon, the two Flying Thunder Cannons were loaded on a flatbed truck and sent to Yu Tiezhu's company.The gun body of this kind of gun is ten times lighter than the traditional iron gun, and the shell is a disc-shaped gunpowder and explosive package, which is more convenient and faster to load and transport than the traditional iron gun.

Yu Tiezhu had also received relevant training when he was in Sanya, and he was no stranger to using the Feilei cannon. He immediately ordered people to dig a hole [-] meters away from the next target and set up the Feilei cannon.This kind of weapon only needs to bury the bottom of the iron barrel in the pit according to the target distance and adjust the launch angle.

Yu Tiezhu personally verified the placement and angles of the two flying thunder cannons before ordering someone to load the gunpowder packs.There is a layer of wood between the gunpowder package and the explosive package, so that the explosive package above the wooden board can be thrown out with a huge thrust when launching, and the detonation time will be adjusted according to the approximate flight distance. Detonates when approaching the ground.Iron nails and iron sheets are also added to this explosive package in order to increase the lethality when it explodes. If it explodes in the air two to ten meters above the ground, its lethal range can reach a radius of 30 to [-] meters.

Compared with traditional artillery, this flying mine cannon is more suitable for the current combat environment.It took at least several rounds for the artillery to blast the outer wall of the fortress, and the armed personnel inside would not necessarily be injured after the wall was smashed.The Flying Thunder Cannon throws explosives into the fort by throwing them, directly killing and injuring the personnel inside. In this way, when the artillery outside bombs down the wall bunker, when the infantry comes forward to attack, the resistance they will suffer will be much smaller. This reduces the time it takes to attack a fort.

"Fire!" After Yu Tie Zhu confirmed that the arrangement of the Feilei Cannon was correct, he immediately issued an attack order.

Following two bangs, one in front and one in the back, two ten-jin explosive packs drew an arc in the air, flew in over the fortifications outside the stronghold, and then heard two explosions inside.

"Charge the powder, and fire another round!" Yu Tiezhu was not in a hurry to get the infantry to launch an offensive, and he had no relevant experience with the power of this new type of weapon, so he could only grope for a few rounds to see the effect, and then Adjust the tactics according to the actual situation.

After the Feilei Cannon fired three rounds, the artillery had blasted open the gate of this stronghold.Under the command of Yu Tie Zhu, a platoon of army soldiers rushed towards the opening of the gate, and quickly rushed in.The area of ​​this stronghold is small, and Yu Tiezhu estimated that there could be at most 50 people inside. After three rounds of baptism by the flying thunder cannon, many people should have been injured.

Soon, it was convenient to give a signal, and the situation was under control, so Yu Tiezhu led the team to inspect the results.It has to be said that the power of the Feilei Cannon far exceeded Yu Tiezhu's expectations. According to the platoon leader who led the team to attack, the inside was already a mess when they entered, and most of them had fallen to the ground. up.Most of them were killed by fragments after the explosion of the explosive package thrown in, and some were stunned by the blast wave.When the soldiers entered the field, they hadn't encountered any decent resistance, and they basically only took on the task of cleaning the battlefield.

Yu Tiezhu looked through several corpses on the ground to confirm that the injuries on these corpses were caused by the explosion of the explosive package just now, and then ordered people to use the center of the explosion as the center to check the power spread in all directions, and carried out measurement and analysis. Record.These actual combat data will be fed back to Sanya, and then the military equipment department will communicate with ordnance units to gradually improve this new weapon.However, judging from the current actual combat effects, the lethality of this weapon in a small area is quite good, and it is extremely convenient to use. It is more suitable for such small-scale fortresses than traditional artillery.

After the twenty thunder cannons were put into the battlefield, the speed at which the various companies cleared these fort strongholds also increased suddenly.By evening, more than a dozen strongholds had been destroyed, and the Haihan control area had advanced several miles to the south of the island.But judging from the trend of the entire battle situation, it is unlikely that the Haihan militia will end the war within a day or two.

However, the Eighteen Zhiyu Party, who were looking forward to the turning point, did not see any hope after the end of the day's battle. The result of fighting hard for a day was nothing more than the loss of hundreds of people.The Haihan army advanced instead of retreating, but the space for their own activities was compressed even smaller.Zheng Zhilong still did not make a clear statement on this, and still asked his subordinates to continue to resist and wait for a turning point.

This is the only tactic Zheng Zhilong can think of to delay time. If he gathers all the people on the island together to fight head-on with the Haihan people, he may not be able to survive for half a day and will be completely defeated.He originally planned to surrender decisively if the Haihan people captured these fortresses with such force, but this day the fortress tactics seemed to have achieved good results, which made Zheng Zhilong hesitate again about his original decision.Even if he knew that most of the Haihan people came to Miyako Island this time because they did not achieve their goals and would not give up, he still refused to give up that fluke mentality, or if they lasted for a day, the Haihan people would choose because of too many casualties or lack of supplies. Withdrew.

But the ideal is full, and the reality is skinny. Although Zheng Zhilong is full of expectations for the variables of the battle situation, the strength gap between the two sides is difficult to change because of this targeted deployment.Even if the number of Shibazhi on Miyako Island is doubled, it is still impossible to be the opponent of the Haihan militia. The complete failure of Shibazhi is only a matter of time, and there will be no suspense or unexpected ending occur.

The next day, the fighting continued.The Haihan militia, equipped with flying thunder cannons, obviously accelerated their advance, and Shibazhi, whose morale became more and more dispirited, began to flee without fighting, and even the personnel stationed in the stronghold surrendered collectively.Although Zheng Zhilong and other leaders have not yet been captured, Shibazhi's fighting will has declined significantly.The number of strongholds conquered by the Haihan army on this day was more than double that of the previous day.In the evening, the headquarters ordered Mingjin to retreat, and the Haihan army had advanced to a position less than three miles away from Shibazhi's base camp on the island. Not surprisingly, the next day would push Shibazhi into a desperate situation.

And Zheng Zhilong also seemed to realize that his previous thoughts were too wishful thinking. The Haihan people had no plans to retreat in spite of difficulties. It was impossible to withdraw their troops without completely destroying Shibazhi.Although Zheng Zhilong had thought about ending his life when he was desperate, it was still difficult to suppress his inner desire to survive. Under the current situation, fleeing abroad is impossible, and the only way to survive is to surrender.

Although this choice will make Zheng Zhilong very unwilling, but today, there is no other option for him to choose.Either die in battle or surrender, there are only two roads before Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong finally decided to choose the latter. On the morning of September [-], he sent Gan Hui, one of the leaders of the Eighteen Zhi, as a representative to discuss surrender with the Haihan people.But Shibazhi, who has been in a desperate situation, really doesn't have any capital to bargain with his opponent, so the conditions given by Haihan are also very ruthless, requiring all Shibazhi personnel on the island to surrender unconditionally, otherwise they will be regarded as In order to resist in the corner, they will be killed at that time.

(End of this chapter)