Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 327, The Landing Battle

The Huaiyin army captured the Siamese garrison soldiers who had taken advantage of the chaos to loot.

Xia Baoshu ordered his men to interrogate these people.

As a result, they confessed without much torture.

According to these men, the initial resistance involved the vast majority of the garrison. Several rounds of artillery bombardment resulted in the loss of a third of their forces, and the remaining soldiers fled in terror.

They had originally intended to escape, but on the way they discovered that many people were only concerned with escaping and had not collected their belongings. So they took advantage of the chaos to rob their fellow countrymen, but were caught red-handed by the Huaiyin army who came ashore to investigate.

"..."

"Is it a trap?"

Uncle Xia Bao pondered for a moment, then ordered his men to continue torturing the Siamese soldiers.

He has no intention of going ashore.

Because Zhang Yuan's orders to him were to keep the enemy occupied at sea, and regardless of success or failure, he was not required to go ashore.

Time passed, but the enemy did not appear.

The shelling became less frequent and eventually stopped.

Because if we keep fighting like this pointlessly, we'll run out of ammunition soon.

Uncle Xia must reserve some ammunition for potential enemies later on.

The capital city, inside the palace.

The musicians played a specially composed piece to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new, heralding the arrival of the new year.

After bidding farewell to his ministers and taking a quick bath, Fang Yong went to Daiyu's room.

Daiyu had clearly been waiting for a long time.

I'm already a little tired.

Fang Yong smiled and stepped forward, taking Lin Daiyu's soft hand in his.

"Is my sister alright?"

Daiyu chuckled and replied:
"Is my brother alright?"

Seeing this, Fang Yong couldn't help but give Daiyu a light kiss on the cheek, then picked her up and carried her to the soft couch, saying, "Qiaoyan, blow out the lamp!"

"call!"

The lights went out.

The two rolled around in the blankets, their bodies pressed together, their breaths audible.

Fang Yong skillfully removed Daiyu's upper body clothing under the covers, leaving her only in a soft bodice.

They've been married for a long time, and their movements are already quite skilled.

Daiyu cooperated, gently lifting her slender waist, waiting for Fang Yong to help her take off her skirt.

However, this time was different from the past.

"Tear!"

Instead of removing the clothes, they directly tore open the underwear underneath.

Daiyu immediately felt very uncomfortable, and her face turned red with embarrassment.

"Brother, you...you're so mean!"

Fang Yong remained silent, only kissing Daiyu repeatedly, from her fair neck to her collarbone, and then to her delicate, jelly-like skin...

It's time!

On the turbulent ocean, Zhang Yuan gave the order, and the vast fleet headed straight for the port of Bangkok, Siam!
"Patrol vessel spotted!"

"fire!"

"Yes!"

"boom!"

With the roar of cannons and the scattering of sawdust, the patrolling ships were instantly shattered by the artillery fire and buried at sea.

The majestic fleet approached the port like a giant, man-eating sea monster. The port's defenders stared wide-eyed, their teeth chattering.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The Nemesis's 117mm, 32-pound main guns opened fire in the darkness, shells landing precisely on the ridiculous coastal defenses of Bangkok harbor, shattering everything in their path. "Run! Run!"

Before they could even utter the word "run," the defending Siamese soldiers were torn to pieces by the heavy artillery barrage.

Zhang Yuan looked at the firelight on the shore and gave the order with an icy expression.

"Keep firing to breach the enemy's defenses. Prepare for landing operations in 15 minutes!"

It didn't even take fifteen minutes; just three minutes after the battle began, the soldiers stationed at the port completely lost their will to resist.

Because it was nighttime, they didn't even know who the enemy was or how many there were. All they knew was that the enemy's warships filled the harbor, and the saturation bombardment was devouring everything alive.

That powerful firepower undoubtedly belongs to the main force of the British Royal Navy!

Run! Run!
From nobles and high-ranking generals to ordinary soldiers, not a single person chose to stay and resist.

Because resistance is futile.

With such overwhelming power, they had no hope of winning.

Fifteen minutes later, Zhang Yuan led his troops ashore.

This expedition brought a total of 28,000 soldiers.

Excluding the guard ships and Xia Baoshu's troops, the total number of Huaiyin soldiers who landed was 21,500.

Among them were three thousand new-style musketeer troops.

Fang Yong directly purchased flintlock muskets from the British Empire.

Fang Yong's troops had long had training courses on flintlock muskets, but due to factors such as the inability to mass-produce them, high costs, and difficulties in repair, they had never been mass-produced and armed.

Now that we're equipped with firearms from the British Empire, using them isn't particularly difficult.

I believe that as Fang Yong's industrial system gradually develops, China will soon be able to manufacture its own firearms.

In addition, there were more than a hundred instructors from the British Empire in the army. These people were hired by Fang Yong and were specifically responsible for teaching the Huaiyin Army soldiers how to use firearms.

After all, these are new firearms. Even though they are all flintlock guns, there are differences in the details, and it takes a certain amount of time to get used to them before you can fully master them.

The basic training was already completed while sailing at sea; what's lacking now is real combat experience.

It's a good time to target Siam.

The Great Xi Empire, the 20th year of the Longqing reign, the first day of the month, at the third quarter of the hour of Chou (1-3 AM).

Twenty-one thousand five hundred Huaiyin soldiers landed at the port of Bangkok.

With Zhang Yuan's order, the Huaiyin Army quickly headed towards the Chao Phraya River in the heart of Bangkok.

Actually, taking the river from the port would get you to the Grand Palace in Bangkok much faster.

However, the river channel is too narrow, with an average depth of only about two meters.

The Nemesis has a draft of 1.8 meters, which theoretically allows it to enter the water, but there's a risk of encountering a shallow section of the river...

For this reason, Zhang Yuan chose to conduct a landing operation.

Several medium-sized ships were providing cover along the river, but their numbers were small.

It was only then that the Luca garrison along the route received an urgent report that Beilan Port had been attacked by the enemy, whose identity was unknown, whose firepower was extremely fierce, and who had nearly a hundred warships. They requested support.

The Siamese general stationed there was very surprised when he heard the news. He sent people to assemble his troops while ordering others to go back and investigate the identity of the attackers.

However, he wasn't particularly flustered.

The soldiers of this country have always liked to exaggerate the facts. They reported that there were nearly a hundred warships, but in reality, there were probably only about a third of that, around twenty or thirty warships.

This is a considerable force, but it's nothing to him.

Thus, the Siamese general, who was slowly assembling his troops, had no idea that Zhang Yuan was leading his troops at breakneck speed toward him.

The port is about 60 or 70 kilometers away from the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

For an elite force like the Huaiyin Army, such a distance would be enough to cover in about half a day, even with a relatively low-intensity march.

The Siamese general's garrison was located somewhere in between, closer to the port area.

According to Zhang Yuan's estimate, one hour and two quarters after the gunfire at Beilan Port would be more than enough time to transmit the message to the garrison base. If the plan went smoothly, the Siamese general would be lured away.

However, when Zhang Yuan set foot here, he happened to run into the Siamese general who was assembling his army.

"Has the scheme been exposed... Indeed, one should not underestimate the heroes of this world!"

(End of this chapter)