Chapter 260 To intervene or not to intervene
The North Vietnamese Zheng family did not unrealistically expect Haihan to send armed forces to help them fight. Instead, they hoped to end the training of the current batch of soldiers in advance and send them to the front line to withstand this wave of offensive from the South Vietnamese Nguyen family.
Zheng believes that these soldiers have received military skills training in the training camp for almost two months. The weapons used are the most "advanced" Haihan firearms at the moment. Their combat effectiveness is at least many times stronger than that of temporarily recruited peasant soldiers. Even if the enemy's main force cannot be defeated, it can at least delay the opponent's offensive, allowing one's side time to organize a defense line and counterattack forces in the rear.
Zheng's idea of taking it for granted was naturally not approved by Haihan's military adviser. Feng Annan pointed out to the special envoy sent by Zheng that the training level of this unit was far from meeting the combat requirements of the firearms force, and the actual combat power it could exert on the battlefield might not meet Zheng's expectations. Moreover, the tactics designed by Haihan also require joint training with spearmen, but currently the soldiers being trained in the training camp are mainly firearms troops, and joint training with spearmen has not started at all. Will greatly reduce the defensive capabilities of this force. Even if the matchlocks purchased by North Vietnam are equipped with bayonets and have certain self-defense capabilities, using expensive musketeers to engage in hand-to-hand combat with opponents is a very disadvantageous option for North Vietnam.
There is also a very serious problem, and that is the mobility of this unit. According to the information provided by Zheng, the current main fighting area is around Vinh An Port in Ha Tinh Province. The North Vietnamese army relied on the difficult terrain to hold on to the defense line. However, under the current unfavorable conditions, it is unclear how long it can hold on. That’s easy to say. Annan's internal rivers are densely covered, and the battle zone in the central region is crisscrossed by countless mountains and rivers. The land transportation conditions are very poor. The firearms troops that rely heavily on logistical supplies have to fight in this environment. It is even more difficult than the Yuan army and the Ming Dynasty that originally went south to conquer. The army is still large - at least those two armies still have a lot of horses for baggage. The North Vietnamese army did not have that many horses, so it would be good to have some ox carts at most.
The military advisers made a simple calculation and found that the land distance from the Tushan Peninsula to the current war zone is 400 kilometers. Considering the geographical conditions during the march, it would probably take about ten days to measure this road with both feet. That's enough. If you want to bring artillery, you will have to increase the march time by at least one-third. When this exhausted division reaches the battle zone after a long march, it is difficult to predict what kind of situation will change there. This long-distance march is simply an irresponsible risk.
But the Zheng family clearly regarded this unit as a life-saving straw. Although the military adviser listed various shortcomings, the other party still insisted on letting this unit end training and go to the battlefield in advance. As a last resort, Qian Tiandun also rushed from Heitu Port to Tushan Peninsula to participate in the talks. Under his repeated cross-examination, the Zheng family's envoy finally revealed an important fact - an important reason for this military defeat was that a unit using firearms also appeared among the Ruan family's troops in South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese troops fighting with it could not withstand the one-sided killing, so they had no choice but to retreat. The North Vietnamese army could not stop their retreat. They retreated nearly 300 miles north from Guangzhi before they regained their footing and reorganized their defense lines.
The information disclosed by Qian Tiandun caused a cry of exclamation from the audience. Although the Executive Committee has mentioned more than once that Western forces will gradually penetrate into Annan in the near future, it seems that the time and progress of their entry into Indochina are faster than the Executive Committee expected, and they will directly provide support to the South Vietnamese regime. Military support. Since firearms troops have appeared in South Vietnam and have gained a certain advantage in the battle, it is no wonder that Zheng is eager to bring this new army that has not yet formed combat effectiveness onto the battlefield.
At present, under Qian Tiandun's insistence, North Vietnam has not yet issued a transfer order to this new army. However, if the war situation continues to go against North Vietnam, it will only be a matter of time before this new army is transferred to the south to compete head-on with South Vietnam's firearms forces. question. In the last part of the report, Qian Tiandun reminded the Executive Committee to pay attention to the changes in the war situation and political trends in Annan. The defeat of the Zheng family in North Vietnam and the intervention of Western forces will greatly affect the strategic layout of the Cross-Travel Group in the Indochina Peninsula. . As for whether to provide further military assistance to North Vietnam, Qian Tiandun also asked the Executive Committee to convene a special discussion to make a decision as soon as possible.
After this shocking news broke, some people had no intention of listening to the work reports of other departments - yes, this group of people who were uneasy were basically members of the Military and Police Department.
After finally waiting for the afternoon meeting to end, a group of members of the Military and Police Department immediately blocked several executive committee members and demanded that a discussion meeting be held as soon as possible to discuss strategies to deal with the changes in the Annan war situation. Except for Gu Kai, a pacifist, everyone else in the executive committee also agreed to respond to this as soon as possible. Even Mr. Yuan rarely made peace this time, and expressed his attitude: "If North Vietnam loses, the foreign devils' forces will occupy Annan, then won't all our previous efforts be in vain?"
So that night the Executive Committee held an emergency discussion on the Annan war situation to discuss what response measures should be taken at the moment. In addition to all the executive members of the Executive Committee and some senior officers of the Military and Police Department, the participants also included heads of the Maritime Transport Department and some military industrial units.
A map of Indochina was hung in front of the venue, and Qian Tiandun first explained the civil war situation in Annan. This explanation was much more detailed than the work report in the afternoon. It not only pointed out the location of the battle, but also provided general information on the military strength of both sides.
At present, the main battlefield of the Civil War in Annam is located at the junction of the later provinces of Ha Tinh and Nan Quang Binh. The mountains stretching for more than a hundred miles from northwest to southeast almost completely block the land route. The South Vietnamese army has to attack here because of The geographical environment slowed down the offensive.
If the South Vietnamese army wants to continue marching north, one route is along the mountains, from the mountain valleys to the northwest for hundreds of miles and directly bypassing this area. However, the march route is almost all in the virgin forest, and the march of large troops It will be difficult. The other way is to go directly north along the coastline. You only need to climb a few hills to enter the coastal plains of North Vietnam. From then on, there are no large mountain obstacles to the north, but the North Vietnamese army currently holds these few. Being at a dangerous pass, the South Vietnamese troops were temporarily blocked here.
Of course, there is also a third march route option, which is to bypass this area by boat from the sea and directly attack the coastal plains of North Vietnam. However, doing so also faces two problems. First, the northern military forces invested will face supply problems and dare not venture deep into the interior to fight. Second, South Vietnam's maritime transportation capacity is far from sufficient for large-scale long-range force projection.
The North Vietnamese army deployed nearly 50,000 troops on this defensive position - of course, a considerable number of them were farmers and soldiers with poor combat capabilities and civilians responsible for logistics and equipment, and the number of regular troops was less than half. The South Vietnamese troops are said to number 300,000, but according to North Vietnamese estimates, the number of North Vietnamese troops gathered on this front will probably not exceed 80,000, and the composition of its army is not much better than that of North Vietnam.
North Vietnam is currently mobilizing troops from all over the north to move south, trying to stabilize this line of defense first and wait for opportunities to counterattack. The South Vietnamese regarded this as a key battle to defeat the North Vietnamese regime, and even used their specialized firearms troops.
According to what is currently known, the number of firearms troops owned by South Vietnam is between 1,000 and 1,200. The main weapons are matchlocks and spearmen, which is basically the combat mode of the Spanish phalanx. , in addition, there are a small number of Franco machine guns as fire support to cooperate in the operation. No matter how you look at it, this force will not be an opponent of the North Vietnamese firearms force after it has been trained. However, time waits for no one. South Vietnam has already revealed its weapons, but North Vietnam does not have a force of comparable strength that can confront it head-on. .
After Qian Tiandun introduced the details of the war, he also briefly expressed his views: "I think based on the current situation, we can be sure of three things. First, Western forces have reached a certain degree of cooperation with the South Vietnamese regime. Second, they have only been involved for a short period of time and have not yet carried out large-scale weapons replacement. From what we know, the training conditions of the South Vietnamese firearms unit are not ideal, and they only rely on the strength of weapons. It's just power. Third, the North Vietnamese army may be defeated. We must consider how to protect our interests in the North Vietnam region if this happens."
Tao Donglai took over the conversation and said: "Leaving aside the foreign involvement in South Vietnam, as far as our own situation is concerned, the current largest source of immigrants, energy, and food is in North Vietnam, and we have also paid for it. With a large amount of manpower, material and financial resources, no matter from any perspective, the interests of the Crossing Group in North Vietnam cannot be lost.”
Tao Donglai's words basically established the tone of the Chuanchuan Group's approach to the changes in the Annan War. In order to prevent its own local interests from being harmed, it could not sit back and watch North Vietnam be beaten unilaterally until a military defeat occurred. Of course, expelling Western forces from the Indochina Peninsula is the long-term policy that the Executive Committee must have determined long ago. It is also an important part of the entire South China Sea strategy.
Yan Chujie said: "What Lao Tao said is right, but I think we still need to dig deeper into it - which force is currently providing weapons to South Vietnam?"
After Yan Chujie raised this question, most of the attendees' attention focused on Ning Qi. Among the group of people here, only Ning Qi knows the history of Vietnam relatively well. Although he is just an amateur, his level is at least much higher than that of the dabblers here. Ning Qi cleared his throat and explained: "From a geographical point of view, the one closest to the war zone is the Dutch East India Company. They now control the Strait of Malacca, the Strait of Sunda, the Java Sea and the Maluku Islands. , and is bent on expanding its territory to the north. If a stronghold or port can be established on the Indochina Peninsula, it can effectively connect the South China Sea area with the stronghold they occupy in Taiwan, forming a safer sea lane."
Ning Qi paused and continued: "But judging from what Lieutenant Qian introduced, the weapons used by the South Vietnamese firearms troops are more likely to be provided by the Portuguese or Spanish, and the Spanish stronghold in Southeast Asia is Manila. They cross It is not very likely that the entire South China Sea will go to Indochina to cause trouble. On the contrary, the Portuguese are more suspected. After all, they are famous arms dealers. They have even sold cannons from sunken British ships to the Ming Dynasty. , we cannot overestimate their integrity.”
"That's just not sure!" Tao Donglai nodded and asked, "Does South Vietnam have any external trade ports?"
"Yes!" Ning Qi responded: "It's Hoi An, south of Da Nang."
Hoi An has become an important seaport of the Champa Kingdom as early as the 5th century AD. Starting from the 15th century, merchant ships from Western countries have also successively arrived at this largest foreign commercial port in Annan Kingdom. However, it is Chinese merchants who play the leading role here. There are so many Chinese here that Hoi An City is even divided into multiple residential areas such as Fujian, Guangdong, Chaozhou, Hainan, and Hakka. Later generations of Hoi An still retain a large number of Chinese-style buildings, and various guild halls, temples, and residences have left a deep imprint of Chinese culture. If necessary, the Time Travel Group can use rhetoric such as "since ancient times" to claim this place as its own in the future.
However, in the eyes of the Crossing Group, Hoi An's port conditions are far from meeting the requirements. That place is just the mouth of the Hoi An River. There is neither a natural harbor nor dangerous terrain to defend. Therefore, it has never even been discussed in the past. The port has not been included in future development plans.
"So, it's not too difficult for us to find out the specific situation in Hoi An?" Yan Chujie asked.
"There are many Chinese businessmen who go to Hoi An to do business. It should be easy for us to find one or two." Ning Qi thought for a while and said: "Shopkeeper Zhan, who has been running around for many years, has probably been to Hoi An Port. You can go back to him to find out the situation. You can also ask the Guangdong Office, there should be more information channels in Guangzhou."
"Okay, let's put aside Hoi An and get back to the topic." Tao Donglai reorganized the topic: "No matter which country is providing military support to the South Vietnamese regime, we should not be directly hostile to it at the moment. After all, our Our maritime power is still quite limited, so we should not rush to create opponents for ourselves.”
All participants agreed with this. Whether it is Portugal, Spain or the Netherlands, their maritime strength in East Asia is much stronger than that of the current crossing group. Once a head-on confrontation is likely to directly affect the safety of the group's shipping routes, it will also It will have a negative impact on normal diplomatic relations and trade with Western countries in the future. To expel Western forces on the Indochina Peninsula, we must mainly rely on supporting interest agents.
"We can't fight the foreign devils directly, so we can only rely on the North Vietnamese army? I'm not optimistic about what results this army that has not even completed military training can achieve on the battlefield. Maybe they can't defeat the South Vietnamese army that has already formed an army. Firearms Troops." Yan Chujie is not optimistic about the situation in Annan.
"We'd better pray that that doesn't happen. The North Vietnamese regime may not have the patience to give us enough time to train the second unit." Schneider also expressed his own opinion: "They are a major arms purchase customer, and we must We have to try to maintain their military advantage. Only after they win a few more battles will they be interested in buying more weapons from us.”
"How to win? Are we going to send our militiamen to join the war? Don't forget that our militiamen have no combat effectiveness at all. The longest serving in the army is only half a year, and in half a year they are just fishermen and farmers!" Gu Kai heard that the limelight was wrong and immediately objected.
"The number of militiamen we can mobilize is only a few hundred at best. Even with advanced weapons, how effective can such a small number of people be in a battle of tens of thousands?" Menghe also questioned this.
"The terrorists in Iraq only need 800 people to beat the crap out of 30,000 regular troops, and that's when the weapons and equipment are at a disadvantage... The battle on the battlefield is not a competition of the number of soldiers, but the equipment level, fighting will, tactical application, In on-the-spot command, there are many factors that can affect the outcome of the battle. If the results can be predicted by looking at the paper data, then we don't need to develop and just go to the Ming court to surrender." Yan Chujie immediately attacked the two opponents. Fight back.
"Iraq is Iraq, and we are in the 17th century now! We have trained hundreds of soldiers in half a year. If we send them out to fight them all, can we guarantee that nothing will happen in the next window period?" Meng He retorted unconvinced. road.
"If the army does not go to the battlefield, it will never have actual combat effectiveness. If it does not go out to fight, how will it go out to expand territory in the future? Keyboard strategists will always only talk. Which real strategist has not been baptized by war to stand out? ?" Yan Chujie also refused to give in.
"The battlefield is so far away from the base camp, how can we ensure combat supplies and troop mobility?"
"It's only a few hundred kilometers across a bay? What about conquering the mainland in the future? Does the executive committee need to follow the troops to the front line to supervise the battle?"
Seeing that the discussion was beginning to become chaotic, Tao Donglai quickly stood up to calm the situation: "Okay, okay, it seems we have to hold a vote first. Everyone should think carefully. If the situation in the Annan Civil War does not improve in the near future, Then do we need to directly intervene on this matter before we can continue to discuss the next response measures?”
After Tao Dong said this, everyone calmed down and began to think again about the impact of the Annan War on the Crossing Group and the feasibility of military intervention in the Annan War.
(End of chapter)