The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 247 Why is it ending just as it begins?
War is sometimes so dramatic. Mo Zibu, who was originally supposed to attack Nguyen Van Yuet's stronghold, was finally forced to attack Nguyen Van Yuet's stronghold.

In fact, it was not that Mo Zibu and his elite staff officers could not see through Ruan Wenyue's tricks, but that this kind of thing could only be believed to be true and not to be false.

Fortunately, although we lost a little advantage in initiative, this could not make up for the huge gap between the two armies.

The Xishan Army was a peasant uprising army, and they were still at a stage where even their program was frequently changing.

Although there were 40,000 men, there were only about 10,000 combat soldiers, and all kinds of muskets added up to only 3,000 to 4,000, and the number of cannons was even pitifully small.

Mo Zibu's Xing Tang Army was a quasi-modern army.

And from the moment the army was established, its goal was very clear, which was to capture the city of Tokyo and support Mo Zi Bu to replace the Later Le Dynasty.

In terms of equipment, although Mo Zibu had only about 10,000 soldiers, he had a full 10,000 new flintlock rifles and more than 200 artillery pieces.

In terms of military forces, there are cavalry, grenadiers, artillery, and even about two companies (two hundred people) of chasseurs, that is, light infantry.

It can almost be said that there is a generation gap between the two sides, which cannot be made up simply by gaining the initiative.

On July 15th, at five o'clock in the afternoon, the sun began to set and the temperature began to gradually drop. It was time for battle.

Mo Zibu ordered Chen Guangyao, the general of Jiading Town, to lead the Longmen and Baima regiments to march westward.

Reinstein, the general of Tangshan Town, led the two battalions of the Hakka First Regiment and the Taixi Yicong Regiment to advance eastward.

Mo Zibu himself led the main force of 8,000 people to attack Anren City.

The reason for this arrangement was that the Tây Sơn army was stationed in this way, and Nguyen Van Yue led the army in Anren City as the central army.

On the west side is a small town called Renhai, guarded by Ruan Zhuang.

On the east side, the Tây Sơn Army connected to Qui Nhon City at Shita Temple, which was commanded by Nguyen Van Yue's confidant Phan Van Thuy.

Nguyen Van Yue was at the top of Qui Nhon City, watching the bursts of gunfire in the distance. It was the Xing Tang Army clearing out the Tây Sơn Army's stronghold outside Qui Nhon City.

His escort, General Fan Yan, was looking around with a telescope, "General, there are at least three to four thousand soldiers in red robes and helmets on the front. The main force of the southern bandits must be on our side."

Nguyen Van Yue nodded and was about to speak when the scouts who were out of the city to observe suddenly came to report that there were also one or two thousand soldiers in red clothes and red helmets in the army attacking Nguyen Zhuang of Ren Hai to the west.

Soon, Pan Wensui of Shita Temple in the east also sent someone to report that two thousand Western Fan Gaomao soldiers had arrived outside Shita Temple and were preparing to set up artillery for an attack.

Upon hearing this, Ruan Wenyue was confused for a while.

Because according to the Xishan Army's understanding of the Xingtang Army, the elite of the Xingtang Army are first the red-clothed and red-helmeted soldiers, then the Western Fan high-hat soldiers, and the rest cannot be considered elite soldiers.

But looking at it now, there are three to four thousand on the front line, two to three thousand have gone to Renhai Town, and there are more than a thousand left in Shita Temple. Does the Xingtang Army have so many elite soldiers?

However, Ruan Wenyue had no good solution. The situation on the battlefield changed rapidly, and there were all kinds of conspiracies and tricks involved. He could only tell the truth from the false after the battle began.

If he rashly decides which side to support now, what if the other side is just pretending to be elite and is waiting to ambush the reinforcements you send? Then all will be lost.

Therefore, we must make a comprehensive judgment and cannot take the initiative.

The whistling shells were densely bombarded towards the Tây Sơn Army's stronghold outside Anren City. From the plains of Qui Nhon to Anren City, the terrain was slightly rising.

Therefore, the Xishan Army built some fortifications and camps in these higher places, layered on top of each other to protect Anren City.

If we follow the general matching mechanism of the Annan army, the Tây Sơn army was built on the hills, with hundreds of people in each camp and trenches dug to avoid artillery fire. The attackers could not break in without paying a huge price.

Most of the time, they would surround the military camp, cut off their food, water and external aid, and then force the enemy to break out and escape.

But when they reached the Xing Tang Army, even the largest military camp could not last more than an hour, because the Xing Tang Army had a large number of mortars.

Lei Ahu shouted and led the soldiers around him to push a mortar with a muzzle as thick as a bowl to the front line.

When the Xishan soldiers in the military camp saw them coming, they immediately became nervous and opened fire indiscriminately to intimidate them, without caring that they were out of range of their muskets.

Lei Ahu chuckled and ignored them completely. Two Austrian artillerymen recruited from France began to observe and aim, while Huang Silang kicked and beat the civilian laborers to quickly transport the shells up and place them in place.

When the shells were in place, the cannon was firmly fixed in the pit. With a loud bang, the stone shells in the large-caliber mortar shot out.

This stone bullet was polished to be extremely round. It continued to rotate in the air and smashed into the Xishan Army’s camp in an extremely perfect parabola.

The Xishan Army did have trenches to protect themselves from artillery fire, but these trenches, dug according to old experience, could only protect against direct-fire cannons, not indirect-fire mortars.

Screams mingled with the sound of a collapsing wooden house. Dust flew through the military camp. An unfortunate Xishan soldier collapsed to the ground, veins throbbing in pain. His thigh, from the knee down, had been struck by a log from the collapsed wooden house.

Several comrades hurried over to help him. They moved the log with great effort. A military doctor took a bag of unknown herbs, chewed them a few times, and prepared to apply them to his wound to stop the bleeding.

As a result, just as the log was broken open, more intense whistling sounds were heard. It turned out that the previous shot was just a calibration, and now it was time for a volley.

This time, at least five mortars were fired at the same time.

For a moment, stones and bullets flew everywhere in the military camp, hitting people and collapsing houses.

The doctor held the herbs in his hand and watched a round iron lump fall from the sky and hit him hard.

Just when he was feeling lucky that he was not hit, the iron lump exploded with a bang. It turned out that it was not a stone bullet, but a blooming explosive bomb.

Immediately, the doctor's legs were blown off, and his entire lower body was a bloody mess. Whistling iron pieces scattered in all directions, and the soldiers who were moving logs also suffered heavy casualties.

They howled and ran around, the logs in their hands fell to the ground with a bang, and then hit the chests of the soldiers on the ground hard.

The sound of broken ribs was heard, and blood foam seemed to wriggle out from the corner of the mouth as if it had life. The soldier groaned a few times and slowly lost all consciousness.

After three rounds, the gate of the Xishan Army's camp suddenly opened, and two or three hundred soldiers rushed out howling under the leadership of officers.

But the Xingtang Army was already prepared. The artillerymen aimed an eight-pound field gun at the charging Xishan Army soldiers. With a bang, a cannonball hit the crowd directly in the dust.

Then the artillerymen switched to shotgun shells, and with another shot, the entire fan was almost cleared.

After being hit by two artillery shells, the Xishan Army lost more than 30 people, and even the leader of the village was killed by artillery fire. The rest of the people retreated crying and shouting. They did not even hold out until the Xingtang Army infantry opened fire.

This kind of battle, jokingly called "cracking walnuts" by the soldiers of the Xing Tang Army, was taking place everywhere.

Ruan Wenyue worked hard to build a military camp outside Anren City, but more than half of it was destroyed in three hours.

He gritted his teeth and sent three reinforcements from Anren City, but they were all beaten back by the high-spirited Xingtang Army soldiers' guns and cannons.

The battle was not declared over until the sky and the earth were completely dark.

By this time, less than 20% of the Xishan military strongholds outside the city remained.

. . . .

It was dark at night, and the Tây Sơn army surrounded Nguyễn Văn Nguyễn. They could never have imagined that after fighting for less than half a day, everyone had seen the end of their own side.

If we continue to fight like this, the Xing Tang Army will be able to eliminate all their military camps and fortresses outside the city tomorrow morning, and will be able to bombard Anren City with artillery before sunset in the afternoon.
At that time, they will only have two choices: to go out of the city and fight in the field or abandon the city.

No, there is actually only one way to go.

"General, the southern bandits have a lot of artillery, almost all of them are equipped with muskets. If they fight in formation in the open field, there is no way we can defeat them."

Nguyen Van Hue showed up again. His confinement had long ended. Although his direct subordinates were almost wiped out, everyone was still clear about his level of command in combat.

Besides, he and Ruan Wenyue are brothers after all. The conflict they have is only because Ruan Wenyue feels that his younger brother is too arrogant, often does not give him face, and does not listen to his orders. He just needs to teach him a lesson and there is no need to hold a grudge.

Hearing his brother say this, Nguyen Van Yue frowned. He said that his side would be defeated before the battle even started. If it were someone else, they would be beaten by Nguyen Van Yue again, but since it was Nguyen Van Huy's words, Nguyen Van Yue endured it.

"Then in your opinion, what should we do?"

"Night attack!" Nguyen Van Hue said firmly: "The southern bandits are only good at guns and cannons, and they are no match for the warriors of our Xishan stronghold in sword and spear fighting.

In that case, why don't we select our best troops, sneak up on the Southern Bandits while they're fast asleep in the early morning, and eliminate them in hand-to-hand combat!"

Ruan Wenyue paced back and forth several times, but still couldn't make up his mind.

"We know that fighting the Southern Bandits requires close combat, and how could they not know that? I suspect the Southern Bandits will be on guard tonight, so doing this is truly too risky."

Ruan Wenhui stood up anxiously and walked forward, shouting, "Brother, I know this truth!
"But the southern bandits' guns and artillery are truly formidable. If we don't attack them today, by dawn tomorrow they will have taken down all the fortresses and strongholds outside the city, and then the situation will be hopeless."

This is the truth, the Xishan Army had no choice.

　Chapter 2 will be posted soon

　　
　
(End of this chapter)