Chapter 86, The Earth Under the Mushroom Cloud (Part 1)
Northern Vietnam, outskirts of Hanoi, Red River Delta
With the sudden collapse of the Japanese Empire and the hasty withdrawal of Japanese troops, in the past year, the entire Vietnam has been in extreme chaos - the Vietnam Independence League (Vietnam League for short) led by Ho Chi Minh, and more established resistance organizations The Vietnamese Nationalist Party and the Vietnamese Revolutionary League, in Vietnam Township The powerful Caotai Sect (a very funny Vietnamese cult that can be imagined as the Boxer Rebellion in China) and the Catholic Church, various bandits and chieftains transformed into warlords, as well as former prisoners of war who were released from prison camps The French colonial troops and officials were taking advantage of the chaos to grab the barrels of their guns and seize territory. Even Nguyen Phuc Vinh Thuy, the "Bao Dai Emperor" of the Nguyen Dynasty, who was purely a puppet, took the opportunity to make moves (after France conquered Vietnam, it did not directly abolish the Nguyen Dynasty royal family, but retained it as a puppet, roughly similar to Puyi of Manchukuo) Emperor), dreaming of some kind of "restoration of royal government".
Suddenly, all kinds of "Jihadi Army", "Jiahadi Army", "Volunteer Army", "Freedom Alliance", and "Royalists" all appeared on this narrow land in Vietnam... In the midst of these heroes competing for victory, Among the forces and organizations, the Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh was obviously the most powerful.
——With the support of the Chinese and Soviet Red Army, long before the Japanese troops withdrew, Comrade Ho Chi Minh, who was good at dancing and dancing, had successfully occupied a solid base in the border area of northern Vietnam and mobilized more than 10,000 people. Rebel Army. When the Japanese army retreated, the Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh immediately succeeded in gaining the upper hand. Before other forces could react, they quickly rushed into Hanoi and received a large amount of arms and supplies left by the Japanese and French colonial forces, making the Viet Minh's forces With further expansion, the entire northern Vietnam is invincible.
Next, Ho Chi Minh announced the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi, appointed himself the supreme leader, and publicly expressed his determination to unify the country.
When the calendar turned to the spring of 1946, the Viet Minh army had successfully suppressed the rebellion of Catholics and Cao Dai believers in the northern region, and then went south to conquer Hue, the old royal capital, and brought together "Emperor Bao Dai" Nguyen Phuc Vinh Thuy and His close aristocrats drove out of the palace and took refuge in Singapore. They also sent elite troops further south to cooperate with the Viet Minh guerrillas in the south to launch the Battle of Da Nang, which almost sounded the clarion call for victory in unifying the country.
However, at this moment, the British came to disrupt the situation - and the situation in the Vietnam Civil War suddenly reversed...
——In order to implement Churchill's crazy plan to "recover the East", the Royal Eastern Fleet bombarded the Hainan Island base of the Chinese Red Army and rescued the American and British prisoners of war left behind by the Japanese in the Sanya prison camp, and then turned to the intervention war in Vietnam. .
It has to be said that as the saying goes, a broken ship still has three pounds of nails, and a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. As a world hegemon that once dominated the world and ruled the seven seas, even though the British Empire was already struggling at this time, the remaining power accumulated in the past was enough to stir up a storm in those colonial countries - the British Fleet As soon as they arrived in Vietnam with a group of members of de Gaulle's "Free France" organization, defeated generals from all walks of life who were beaten by Ho Chi Minh and were running around came to join him one after another. De Gaulle, who had just been driven out of France by the Soviet Red Army again and had nowhere to stay for a while, was overjoyed after hearing the news. He actually flew to Hong Kong with a large group of people, and then transferred to a British destroyer to Vietnam. The city of Saigon presided over the reconstruction of the "French Indochina Federation" government. Churchill also ordered the Royal Eastern Fleet and a small number of U.S. troops stationed in China to go north to bombard Haiphong Port and start a war with the Viet Minh who were in the ascendant.
After a brief beachhead defensive battle, the Viet Minh army, which was seriously short of navy and air force, had to abandon Haiphong Port and gradually retreat inland. The British, French and American coalition forces and various Vietnamese "puppet troops" immediately followed up, moved up the Red River, and continued to march towards Hanoi, the capital of the Viet Minh.
Then, they were held back for four months in the mud, beaches and tropical forests of the Red River Delta.
At this time, in the tropical rainforest outside Hanoi, the capital of the Viet Minh, a long and arduous tug-of-war was still going on.
The so-called tropical rainforest is not just a forest where it often rains. For a stranger who steps into it rashly, it is simply a green hell that can give people nightmares - the complex root systems of mangroves and banyan trees, and A large number of aerial roots hang down from above and become entangled. The trees are dotted with swamps that can sink you knee-deep if you step on them, and depressions where streams of smelly water emerge. All kinds of colorful snakes and insects gathered on the decaying tree trunks and vines. The webs of poisonous spiders were entangled between the dry branches and leaves, blocking the flowing air. The dense layers of leaves made it difficult for light to penetrate, and the bright sun seemed to be shining brightly in the sky. Fire, but the depths of the rainforest are still in darkness.
Most of the land in Vietnam is a geographical environment of tropical rainforest mixed with rice fields. Even in the dry season, the air in the rainforest is always so hot and humid, making people wet with sweat whenever they move, making it almost suffocating. In addition, there is a rotten, sour smell that can make people cover their noses and run around. Once the long and dreary rainy season arrives, the endless heavy rain is enough to dampen the fighting spirit of any warrior.
Unfortunately, when the British, French and American coalition forces that landed at Haiphong Port began to send troops to attack the Red River Delta, it happened to coincide with the rainy season in Vietnam... As a result, the humid tropical rainforest turned into a muddy swamp, leaving the coastline. After that, all the British The Chinese, French and American soldiers had to crawl and roll in the mud under heavy rain, and fight with the elusive Viet Minh guerrillas in the leech-strewn streams - the local Vietnamese who have lived here for generations have already adapted and got used to it. Such an environment. But white soldiers from Europe and the United States could not bear such hardships. What's more, even if people can barely hold on, what about those heavy equipment such as tanks, artillery, and trucks?
The land route from Hai Phong Port to Hanoi turns into a giant quagmire during the rainy season, which is prohibitive. The water route from Hai Phong Port to Hanoi is also difficult to walk. The Red River Delta area has been densely covered with water networks since ancient times. Some waterways are as wide as rivers, while others are just small streams that can be crossed in one step. There are also many artificially dug canals between the natural rivers, most of which are only accessible to small sampans, but some are wide enough to accommodate larger motorized boats. If an outsider who doesn't know the details breaks in by boat, it will be like running into a maze of confusion. And in the rainy season when floods occur, as the water level rises suddenly, all the waterways in the Red River Delta will undergo drastic changes again. Even if there is a map, it is not very useful. As for the relatively safe and stable main channel of the Red River, it has been overrun again. The League deployed mines and obstacles, and there were artillery batteries on both sides of the river for fire blockade.
In the Vietnam War in another world, it took the Americans several years to gradually develop a set of effective tactics in the Mekong Delta battlefield in a similar environment, and built a special shallow-water inland river gunboat for this purpose. The SEALs flew them and struck fear into the Viet Cong.
However, in this time and space, the British, French and American coalition forces that intervened in the Vietnam Civil War did not have so much time to think and study, nor did they have specially designed river ships and professional equipment. Even the number of troops invested was pitifully small - only about 6,000 Soldiers, three destroyers and a light cruiser were dispatched to the North Vietnam battlefield, plus an escort aircraft carrier (converted from a passenger ship) to provide air cover, and less than forty military aircraft...
There is no way. At this time, when the war of the world war is in the ascendant, the Japanese Navy's combined fleet is sweeping across the Pacific, and the Soviet Red Army's armored torrent is sweeping across the European continent, the United States and Britain really can't squeeze out much power to intervene in the situation in the Far East. At present, a coalition is intervening in Vietnam. One-third of the soldiers of the expeditionary force had just been released from Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, and the guys in their hands were also captured Japanese 38 caps!
Moreover, even on the Far East front, the importance of the Vietnam battlefield to the United States and Britain is far less than that of the Chinese battlefield and the Philippine battlefield. Whether it is the millions of Chinese Red Army or the Philippine "Hook" guerrillas who have been fighting the Japanese for several years, their combat effectiveness cannot be compared with that of the half-baked Red Army hastily formed by the Viet Minh. What kind of SEAL team is there to deal with such a weakling? Go ahead and dream!
As for de Gaulle's "Free France" organization? This guy has basically turned into a government-in-exile trying to make ends meet, and can only be used as a cover.
Um? And the local Catholic Church in Vietnam and a series of anti-communist allies? Come on, if they, a bunch of scum with less than five combat abilities, can defeat Ho Chi Minh with their own strength, do they still need to bother all the noble white gentlemen to go out in person?
Although the Red Army of the Viet Cong is almost the weakest among the current "socialist family", its officers generally lack professionalism and will fall apart when fighting on a slightly larger scale. The rabble is better. But Ho Chi Minh's opponents at home... well, that's not even a ragtag group. Because they only started to form teams after the Japanese retreated, they were even poorer than Ho Chi Minh. Many forces couldn't even get the most basic rifles and grenades, so they had to rely on spears and sickles to fight the Viet Minh soldiers!
However, today's European and American Allied Forces are also very tight. They have to use captured Japanese weapons. Naturally, they have no extra weapons to distribute to their allies.
Due to the above reasons, the European and American intervention forces and their allies reached a stalemate on the battlefield in the Red River Delta and were unable to invade Hanoi.
But by late September, as Vietnam's rainy season draws to a close, the shots will start ringing out again and the blood will continue to flow.
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
In the morning mist, three small paddle steamers painted black were heading westward on the Red River. The huge paddle wheels rolled up turbid water on both sides of the ship. The Union Jack flag of Britain and the tricolor flag of France were seen. Flying majestically on the mast. Coal burned roaringly in the furnace of the bottom cabin, causing the antique steam engine that was at least forty years old to spit out streams of eye-catching black smoke and make bursts of ear-piercing noise.
On the decks of these three antique paddle-wheel steamships, sailors from the British and French intervention forces were manipulating the temporarily installed heavy machine guns and small-caliber machine guns, nervously pointing the black muzzles at the target. Dense vegetation covers both sides of the river.
To be honest, such a fleet might have seemed a bit showy at the end of the 19th century, but in the 1940s, even in Vietnam, which was far away from the "civilized world" of Europe and the United States, it was already a joke. It's an antique. But the intervention forces were helpless. The water depth in the Red River tributaries was not enough, and the ships of the ocean-going navy simply did not dare to risk going deep, otherwise they would risk running aground. And they don't have any shallow-water gunboats suitable for going deep into inland rivers - ten years ago, the British had a large-scale inland river gunboat on China's Yangtze River and Pearl River. Unfortunately, by now, they have already been involved in the Sino-Japanese War. Burned to ashes in the flames of war. In order to suppress the resistance of the Vietnamese before the war, the French colonial authorities in Indochina also had some armed boats with shallow drafts and powerful firepower. But now they were first confiscated by the Japanese, and then all were transferred to the hands of the Viet Minh...
As a result, this poor intervention force, which was scraping together to pick up rubbish, had to temporarily modify a batch of captured civilian river boats and weld on all kinds of messy machine guns and heavy machine guns to make do. Compared with the army that took over the ships left behind by the Japanese army, On the contrary, the Viet Minh and the Intervention Army seemed even more depressed.
Obviously, such a shabby and miscellaneous water force would definitely not be able to defeat the Viet Minh. Several water battles in the Red River Basin during the rainy season ended in a one-sided defeat for the intervention forces. The British sailors, who were cornered, even drove a destroyer in without hesitation, and then encountered a large array of floating mines deployed by hundreds of Viet Minh sampans on the Red River. Due to the narrow river channel, there was nowhere to move. In the end, it was blown up and sunk in the river bed and scrapped...
As a result, Admiral Bruce Fraser, commander of the Eastern Fleet of the Royal Navy, who had few ships left in his hands, was extremely distressed about this and strictly ordered the fleet not to enter the inland river again. As for the intervention forces on the front line of the Red River Delta, they had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue to make do with armed civilian ships. For such an irresponsible and dangerous act of death, the American soldiers who were friendly aid said they would never participate, which could only make the British and French suffer. Take the lead.
After a while, the intervention fleet, consisting of three paddle steamers, finally arrived at its destination, an abandoned small village, where it was ready to join the Vietnamese Catholic militia coming overland. However, the piers on the shore pier have been washed away by floods during the rainy season, leaving only a few incomplete piers. The helpless British and French sailors could only lower the boats and let the infantry carried on the steam ships ashore in the boats - unfortunately, it turned out that this seemed to be a bad idea. The floods in the rainy season that just ended have left both sides of the river filled with sticky river mud. The shallow mud can even submerge the knees, and the deep mud can even reach the hips. As soon as the soldiers jumped out of the boat, they found themselves stuck in a silt beach dozens of meters wide. The slurry-like silt was as sticky as glue and could trap people firmly in it. When you try to pull your feet out of the mud, you will noticeably feel a force pulling you back. The entangled mangrove roots in the mud caused even greater trouble for the soldiers who landed.
Next, something even more terrifying happened - just as the soldiers of the British and French armies were still flopping in the mud and struggling to cross this damn muddy land, a red signal flare suddenly "whooshed" up on the river bank in front. Then hundreds of Viet Minh soldiers wearing grass-green camouflage uniforms jumped out of the trees and rushed over from the shore: Although the ground on the shore was not much drier than the silt beach, it at least allowed people to stand and walk. .
Next, a heavy rain of bullets swept across the face, blooming flowers of blood on the bodies of the British and French soldiers...
"... Damn it! There's an ambush! We've been trapped!"
"...Counterattack! Counterattack! Shoot quickly!"
"...Idiots on the ship! Fire! We need covering fire!"
The interventionist soldiers who were stuck in the mud and unable to move quickly were suddenly in chaos. Some people screamed in despair, some asked for help from the fleet behind them, and some tried to fight back on the spot, but found that the weapons in their hands were all covered in gunk. The mud turned into a fire stick before it was wiped clean...
Fortunately, the sailors on the armed steamer did not watch them die, but fired back as quickly as possible. Although they are just some 25mm small-caliber machine guns, for those who are in the scene, the scene of the bombardment can still be described as gorgeous and spectacular - wherever the raindrop-like shells fall, it turns into a sea of fire. The Viet Minh soldiers who rushed forward were hit head-on and were quickly forced back.
Seeing the enemy disappear from sight, the British and French soldiers struggling in the muddy tidal flats could not help but breathe a sigh of relief and began to figure out how to retreat. But at the next moment, both they who were in the mudflat and the sailors on the armed steamboat once again let out desperate wails.
——Six small armored gunboats left behind by the Japanese army, with bright sickle and hammer red flags hanging on their masts, quietly appeared from both ends of this section of the river, rotating their turrets in a grand manner, completely blocking the entire path of the intervening fleet... Obviously, with these armored gunboats belonging to the Viet Minh blocking both sides, the three armed steamships of the British and French intervention forces would definitely be unable to fight or escape...
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
After another half hour, the ambush battle that took place on the Red River waterway finally ended with a complete victory for the Viet Minh army. Among the three armed steamships of the British and French intervention forces, one became a burning steel garbage stranded on the water, while the other two flew white flags.
As for the infantry trapped in the mudflat, facing the muzzles and barrels of guns from all directions, they had no choice but to raise their hands along with the flow.
——Looking at the groups of dejected prisoners covered in mud with their hands raised in the air, being searched and escorted away by the arrogant Viet Minh soldiers, Vo Nguyen Giap, Chairman of the Vietnam Military Commission, who happened to come to the front line to inspect and supervise the war, couldn't help but show a bit of emotion on his face. Smug smile: It seems that the consultants sent by the Soviet Union and China are indeed right. The current European and American Western colonists are obviously no longer as good as chickens!
With such a small number of troops, such shabby weapons, and such weak fighting spirit, there is really no sign of the mighty style of the imperialist powers!
Moreover, Chairman Vo Nguyen Giap also keenly noticed that among the so-called "British and French coalition" prisoners in front of him, there were not many serious white faces. Instead, blacks and Indians made up the majority. Even those white people don't seem to look like Europeans, but more like Arabs... Could it be that, as some gossip says, the blood of white Europeans has really been shed in this world war? Have you done it?
Well, this is really good news for Asians...
Vo Nguyen Giap was thinking this and was about to interrogate the commander of the invading enemy force when he suddenly heard the guards' screams.
"...Chairman! Look! There is a plane in the sky! It's an enemy air strike!"
Air raid? Vo Nguyen Giap looked up at the eastern sky, and sure enough he found a string of small black dots. However, neither he nor the Viet Minh fighters present were particularly afraid of this, given the rainy season of the past few months. Whenever the weather improves slightly, the interventionist forces occupying Haiphong Port will send planes to bomb. But first of all, there were not many enemy aircraft sorties, and there were never more than ten air raids per time. Even if a few bombs were dropped, they would not be able to ignite a fire in the humid environment of the rainy season, and the actual damage caused to the Viet Minh would be minimal. On the contrary, it would fully exercise the air defense response capabilities of these rookies.
After the air raid warning spread, everyone began to evacuate and hide in an orderly manner. The armored gunboat formation on the water also quickly left the center of the river and hid under the shade of the trees on the shore. Others set up anti-aircraft machine guns, preparing to fight back when enemy planes dived to strafe and drop bombs.
However, this group of enemy planes did not lower their altitude or drop bombs. Instead, they maintained an altitude of tens of thousands of meters, flew directly over their heads, and continued to move west... Could it be that they wanted to bomb the city of Hanoi? After the air raid alert was lifted, Giap got out of the air raid shelter and listened to the lookout's report. He was about to make a call to Hanoi to ask about the situation, but the next moment he witnessed a horrific scene with his own eyes.
——In the distant sky in the direction of Hanoi, a blinding flash of light suddenly flashed without warning, and then, after an unknown amount of time, a roar that could shake the earth swept across the face, like ten million blockbuster bombs. They exploded in one place at the same time, making the air seem to tremble!
At the same time, a dazzling huge fireball, like another sun, slowly rose from the distance beyond the horizon, forming a bright and dazzling huge mushroom cloud. While rolling with fire and smoke, it continued to spread and climb higher. Finally, it reaches the sky...
The prisoners and Viet Minh soldiers present were all stunned at the spectacle in the distant sky, too surprised to say a word.
Only the well-informed Vo Nguyen Giap, after a brief moment of shock and daze, came to his senses and understood what all this meant!
"...This, this...how could Americans do such a thing? Drop an atomic bomb on Hanoi?!!!" At this moment, he finally felt his own weakness and powerlessness again, as well as the power of the imperialist colonists. Brutal...