Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1486 Strategic Encirclement ([-])

Reynold gently stroked the captain's rank on his shoulder, and sighed silently.He knows that there is a glass ceiling for his promotion, no matter how hard-working he is, no matter how much credit he makes, he is unlikely to be promoted very high.This has nothing to do with anything else, it is only related to some messy things he did when he was young, and of course it has something to do with the fact that there are too few "pit positions" in the current army.

Now, his requirements are not high, as long as he advances to a higher level before retiring, and goes home with the rank of major, he will be satisfied.And this is actually a hint given to him by some bigwigs in the Ministry of the Army who feel that they owe him a lot, but this still requires him to have some outstanding achievements before retiring—for example, what achievements he made in South Africa—for those who are willing to help him Some people who can be put on the table, so that his wish can finally come true.

Therefore, this eastward advance plan planned by the Ministry of War, assisted by the Hezhong region, and implemented by the South African garrison is his last chance. After all, he is not young and has not had many years to fight for the country.

There was a sound of passwords not far away. It was the soldiers of the Hezhong County Security Regiment stationed here (the Tianxiong County Security Regiment has not yet been completed, and it mainly focuses on local defense, similar to Jingyuan and Bailang counties) and the South African cavalry escorting supplies. Some officers and soldiers of the battalion are being handed over, and with the arrival of this batch of escorted cavalry, except for half of the people who were taken away by Captain Yang Liangyang, the remaining half of the South African cavalry battalion, including the battalion headquarters, has been moved over, and launched an attack on the Karma Kingdom. A new round of large-scale offense is ready, just like the East Coasters have been doing for the past year or two.

Oh, by the way, this is Yuancheng Township, a barren settlement that was established only a year and a half ago. Currently, there are more than 500 Tupi Indians, more than 200 retired officers and soldiers of the former Baoguo Army, and [-] people from the Huai'an Mansion of the Ming Dynasty. Immigrants here cultivate wasteland and graze. Grain, vegetables, fruits and so on can only be said to be close to complete self-sufficiency, but there is still a certain gap.However, if you count the large amount of cattle and sheep robbed from the East Xhosa blacks, as well as the camels, ostriches and other livestock that you raised, you will be almost completely self-sufficient, and you will have a little bit of room to supply half of the South African cavalry stationed here. Battalion officers and soldiers.

However, if you want to fight for a long time, with the thousands of bitter farmers and herdsmen in Yuancheng and rural areas, you will never even think about supplying horse chews for several companies of cavalry in your life.What they should do now is to produce well, tidy up the villages and towns, pastures and farmlands left by the Xhosa people, and dig water storage ponds and irrigation canals (this is especially important on the Little Karoo Plateau, especially in Yuancheng and rural areas. There are some moderately large and small rivers nearby), so that it can accommodate more people in the future and produce more food, fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy products and wine, so that it is possible to supply a Army campaign.

"Commander, the firearms, ammunition, food, draft animals, military supplies, and medicines are all in place, and we are ready to go. In this operation, our army will serve as soldiers and break through the Shawei Fortress in one fell swoop. To commemorate the general Shawei who made great achievements in the war with the Zulus in the east, but because of the shortage of building materials, the city is a rammed earth building, and the scale is small), completely controlling the most essence of the Little Karoo Plateau In the hands of the East Coast Republic of China." After leading the team to personally check the inventory, the captain of the army and the acting commander of the South African Cavalry Battalion (acting for many years...) Reynide told Xie Hansan, who had been promoted to lieutenant colonel, After saluting, he said sonorously.

"Commander Lai, there is no need to rush the war against the Karma Kingdom. It is not of any obvious benefit to our country to quickly wipe out their forces that are still capable of fighting in a short period of time. On the contrary, through a long period of time and certain Intense wars, driving them eastward as a whole, allowing them to fight and annex each other with other black tribes on the eastern coast, reducing their population and economic strength, is really beneficial to our country. After all, South Africa is in the executive committee In the eyes of the public, it is managed as a local, and the blacks must be eliminated quickly. Therefore, it is the right way to let the Karma Kingdom go all the way to the east and be the king's pioneer. You have to understand and understand this point carefully. Do you understand?" Lieutenant Colonel Xie Hansan, who was already full of hair, stared into Reynide's eyes and said in a solemn tone: "This war is not urgent for us, don't increase unnecessary casualties, you just need to cooperate with the South Road Captain Yang Liang’s men, if they attack Shawei City together and defend it, they will be able to achieve full success. In this way, some things about you will be easy to operate..."

Xie Hansan mentioned Captain Yang Liang in his words just now. In fact, in the battle to attack the Kama Kingdom, the people from the east bank advanced in two ways.One is the so-called traditional route, that is, Captain Reined led a South African Cavalry Battalion with more than 2000 cavalry, and recruited more than [-] officers and soldiers from the Hezhong Security Regiment, and more than [-] Black Eight Banners New Army. Looks like less than [-] people.In addition, the two counties of Hezhong and Tianxiong also enlisted some soldiers to use the camel caravan provided by the South African Garrison to help transport supplies. This is the entire lineup of the "West Route Army".

In addition to the "West Route Army", there is also a "South Route Army" in the combat plan of the people on the East Bank, which is composed of more than [-] cavalry troops from Captain Yang Liang, and more than [-] members of the National Defense Army. More than [-] republican officers and soldiers formed a battle group (part of the National Defense Army stayed in British South Africa to monitor the movement in the Netherlands), went north from the newly occupied former British South African colony in the south, and passed through some narrow mountains Valley, entered the Little Karoo Plateau, and attacked the territory of the Karma Kingdom from the flank.

Although the size of this army is not as large as that of the West Route Army, the elite level of personnel is not bad. What is lacking is probably equipment and logistical support.Because their transportation line has to cross the South Hengshan Mountains, the road is tortuous and difficult to navigate, and the British South Africa as the source of supplies is not a rich place, and the years of fighting with the Dutch have exhausted their past savings, so even There have been supplies from the three east coast transports, but what they can provide is still quite limited.Therefore, Captain Yang Liang's team will definitely have a reduced combat effectiveness if they really want to fight. At that time, it will depend on whether they can borrow some supplies from the West Route Army, or whether they can make some gains when sweeping up the outer black tribes. This battle is the role of playing soy sauce, and this is obviously unacceptable to the high-spirited Captain Yang Liang.

"Understood, Commander Xie, I know how to fight this battle. Since our army has formed a large strategic encirclement circle against the Karma Kingdom, the enemy's disadvantage is already doomed, and their fate is beyond question. Our army will naturally It is based on oneself, this battle is limited to the capture of Shawei City, as for the others, we will gradually figure it out in the future." Reined said seriously.

"It's good if you understand, then the troops will be handed over to you. This is a small 2000 people who are used to fighting. There must be no mistakes, let's go!" Xie Hansan finally ordered: "I am located in Yuancheng Township, and I will help you. Back to the Minister of Logistics."

On August 1667, 8, after a few days of marching, the troops led by Reynide successfully arrived at the city of Shawi, and immediately organized a siege of this important military town of the Karma Kingdom. The battle reached a climax from the very beginning.

In fact, in the past few years, people from the east bank have arrived at the outskirts of this city more than once.However, most of them are mainly cavalry, and the purpose is to plunder slaves, destroy production, and kill personnel. Anyway, it is to continuously weaken the enemy's strength in order to lay a solid foundation for future large-scale attacks.

Although the Kama Kingdom has a low level of civilization, it doesn't mean that they are all fools and don't know the purpose of the people on the east coast.Therefore, they have also tried their best to renovate the city defense facilities of Shawei Fortress in the past two years, so as to better resist the attacks of the people on the east coast.Reluctantly, due to the harassing and attacking force of the cavalry on the east coast, the local Xhosa blacks were devastated, and they were also short of supplies and other things, so the city road was built in a hurry, and the scale was not large. It's just a re-strengthening of the inner city core, and the surroundings are still those messy buildings and walls.

Now that the war broke out again, the messy shacks and earthen walls outside the Shawei Fortress were almost wiped out under the artillery fire from the east bank.The black soldiers who originally planned to hide were either buried in it or slipped out in a hurry. As a result, they became living targets for officers and soldiers on the east coast, and died terribly.

What's more, for those houses and shacks that are more troublesome to clean up, the people on the east bank are relentless, and they go straight up to light the fire and burn it. For a while, thick smoke billowed outside the Shawi Fortress, and a large group of Xhosa black soldiers rushed out like ghosts and wolves. When they came out, except for a few people who fought bravely with the people on the east bank under the leadership of the leader, most of them fled to the four fields. The cavalry slashed.

On August 8, the Southern Route Army led by Captain Yang Liang hurried to the city of Shawei Fortress and joined Reined's troops.At this point, the size of the troops of the East Coast people has suddenly grown to nearly 17 people, and the logistical pressure has also increased greatly.In order to reduce the pressure on this kind of material transfer, Reynold discussed with Yang Liang, and decided that Captain Lai would be in command to end the battle as soon as possible. , the one with the highest rank will be the commander-in-chief; if the ranks are the same, for example, both of them are captains at this moment, the one who has been promoted to the rank of captain and has more seniority will be the commander-in-chief.

Beginning on August 8, thousands of troops on the east coast no longer dawdled, and directly launched wave after wave of attacks on Shawei Fortress.The artillerymen were ordered by the Shangguan to no longer save ammunition at this time, and directly fired all kinds of solid bullets, hollow bullets, explosive bombs, and hot bullets that they brought to this place, and the city wall built with rammed earth was completely scarred. Hundred holes, and in the evening of the 18th, a not-short gap in the city wall was made.

Now that the city wall has a gap, the battle will be much easier.The Black Eight Banners infantry and the British republican soldiers who surrendered were eager to perform, and were directly thrown into the first wave of raids by Reynold, and after a bloody battle, they completely controlled the damaged city wall, and then responded to protect the country* Officers and soldiers of the Army and the Hezhong County Security Regiment entered the city to expand the results of the battle.As for the equally large number of cavalry units, they are slowly cruising around the periphery, monitoring the entire battlefield while also guarding the safety of the artillery and everyone in the headquarters.Moreover, once the enemy collapses and breaks out of the city, Reined will resolutely join the reserve team at hand to chase the enemy to the north. This guy is from cavalry, and he is very knowledgeable about how to use this kind of clutch soldier Got it.

In the early morning of August 8th, after a not-so-intense battle in the middle of the night, the east bank army that broke into the city finally took control of the situation in the city, and wiped out or captured the sporadic and stubborn native native troops one by one. .Of course, the battle went so smoothly—many people originally thought that the Xhosa who were holding on to the fortress would fight bloody battles to the death, but it turned out that they were overthinking—maybe it was also related to the enemy’s eagerness to escape at night, and these eggless bastards had nothing to do with Dong The people on the shore made a few gestures, and after causing only six or seventy casualties, most of them fled.

However, it is not an exaggeration to say that these fleeing people are idiots.Because on the vast steppe of Mapingchuan, where can they escape?Due to the influence of the natural environment, their escape routes are basically fixed, that is, they can only escape along rivers and other places with water sources, unless they want to die of thirst on the way.

Therefore, as long as the sky outside is bright, Reynide, who got the news, will disperse all the cavalry, and then search and advance along the river.Basically, except for a few lucky ones who can escape into the mountain, most of them can be captured at once. It depends on whether the people on the east coast are really determined to catch them.

After this battle broke through the Shawei Fortress, the most important town on the Little Karoo Plateau, it basically meant the ownership of the entire Little Karoo Plateau and the southern part of the adjacent Great Karoo Plateau.The expansion of the East Coast people in South Africa has greatly extended to the east, and it has been connected with the newly occupied British and French South African colonies, and their power has greatly increased.

The loot seized was also roughly counted in the morning, including more than [-] heads of cattle and sheep, thousands of bags of sorghum and other grains, more than [-] pieces of leather, and more than [-] bags of wool (I don’t know if they are going to sell to Who...), in addition, there are a certain amount of dog head gold, ivory and other things. Of course, for the people on the east coast, the spoils of war can never be counted less!Yes, this time they also captured more than [-] black men and women. This is undoubtedly a great supplement to the people on the East Coast who are about to start large-scale construction in the newly occupied areas.

"After this battle, the land on both sides of the South and North Hengshan Mountains has become one piece. Our general situation in South Africa has been established, and no country can shake it. The next step is to deepen the foundation and digest the newly acquired land that has been occupied. Now, as for the remaining work of destroying the Karma Kingdom, driving away the Dutch, and taking all of South Africa, it depends on young and cutting-edge officers like you, Captain Yang." Captain Reynold, who commanded the entire battle and stayed up all night, lightly Caressing the sword that has been with him for 30 years, he said in a somewhat lonely tone: "After all, there is no banquet in the world. Beautiful things will eventually come to an end. The era that belongs to us will eventually pass..."

(End of this chapter)