Chapter 277 Capturing Prisoners
In this war-torn place, there would never be civilian fishing boats on the river, so the targets Xie Chun found were definitely not ordinary people. If the South Vietnamese army discovers its own reconnaissance operation, it will inevitably affect the subsequent combat plan. Qian Tiandun did not hesitate for even half a second and immediately issued an order: "Intercept these two ships!"
Qian Tiandun's order definitely could not be executed by the "Exploration". With more than 200 people and a large amount of supplies on board, it would be difficult for the "Exploration" to have enough speed advantage to successfully complete the pursuit and interception at a short distance. Stopped tasks.
The "Speed" easily overtook the "Exploration" from the side and headed towards the target ahead. With the "Speed"'s average speed of ten knots, it was not difficult to catch up with the target boat ahead.
The two small boats on the river in front had obviously discovered the "Speed" speeding upstream, and immediately turned their bows to escape downstream. Although the "Speed" is only a small boat, it is still more than 20 meters long and has a displacement of 70 to 80 tons. It is already larger than the two small boats of about 10 meters long. In addition, there was a "giant ship" with a displacement of more than 300 tons following behind, so it was indeed a wise move for the other party to flee.
But between the chase and the escape, the difference in speed between the two sides was immediately apparent. It only took the "Speed" five minutes to shorten the distance between the two to half of its original size.
At this distance, Roger, who was standing on the bow of the Speedy and looking ahead through a telescope, could clearly see his opponent. Several thin, dark men were hurriedly taking out their paddles and standing beside the ship. Paddling hard, trying to speed up his boat.
"What a futile struggle!" Roger sighed with disdain.
Judging from the speed difference between the two sides, the "Speed" was very confident that it could catch up with the two small boats before they sailed out of the mouth of the Zhenghe River. Even if the other party rows with all his strength, there is no way to change the current situation.
But there was no such relaxed atmosphere on board the "Discovery" behind. Except for Qian Tiandun, most of the people were scratching their heads in anxiety, wishing they could grow wings and fly directly in front to intercept the opponent. Xie Chun was so anxious that he grabbed the walkie-talkie in Qian Tiandun's hand: "Hurry up and let them shoot. Isn't old Morgan a sniper? Tell him that the time has come to perform meritorious service!"
Qian Tiandun blocked Xie Chun's outstretched hand and scolded with a smile: "Are you stupid? This boat is up and down, and you are sniping? You might as well just use a machine gun to splash water and try your luck!"
"Okay, okay, let them use machine guns quickly!" Xie Chun looked worried about the world being in chaos.
"Watch the show carefully and don't come up with random ideas. How to act is the military's business!" Qian Tiandun shook his head and ignored Xie Chun's nonsense.
At this time, the situation ahead has undergone new changes. The two small boats escaping in front may have noticed that the pursuers from behind are approaching, and in panic, they also came up with a new strategy-the two boats left and right. After a minute, they sailed to both sides of the Zhengjiang River. It seemed that they planned to abandon the ship and go ashore and escape by land.
"These monkey soldiers are not stupid!" After Wang Tom discovered this change, he immediately made adjustments: "Notify the Discovery that they are in charge of the one on the left, and we will chase the one on the right."
A faster South Vietnamese boat approached the south bank of Zhengjiang River only two or three miles away from the entrance of Zhengjiang River. At this time, the "Speed" that was chasing after it was only a hundred meters away from the ship. . The other ship was traveling at a slightly slower speed. The "Exploration" judged the other ship's sailing route from the rear in advance and took a straight line towards the river bank where the other ship was planning to dock. This also greatly shortened the gap between the two ships. By the time the ship docked, the distance between the two sides had shortened to less than one mile.
"Attach silencers to all the guns and fight as quickly as possible. If you can't capture them all alive, just keep one alive." Tom Wang handed over the task of driving the boat to Morgan and issued the combat order before docking. : "Old rules, Morgan stays behind, others go ashore to pursue."
Several other people quickly took out the M4-2000 quick-release silencer and installed it on the muzzle of the HK416. They were about to jump directly into the river bank and wade ashore, but Wang Tom raised his hand to stop the action: "It looks like we don't need to chase so hard. ! ”
In order to save time, this small South Vietnamese boat ran aground directly on the beach. However, what they didn't expect was that the near shore was completely covered with knee-deep mudflats. After several people jumped off the boat, they immediately fell into the mud and struggled. After a few minutes, the fastest person only escaped a distance of more than ten meters.
"Tell them to stop, or they will die." Wang Tom ordered the two guides accompanying the boat.
For this operation, the Executive Committee specially found a group of immigrants who were familiar with the geographical environment of the war zone to serve as guides. After arriving at Yong'an Port, the North Vietnamese had also prepared some guides for them who were familiar with the situation in the south in accordance with the requirements of the advance team. . There are many military secrets involved on the "Speed". For confidentiality reasons, the guides assigned are all reliable naturalized citizens brought from Victory Port. As for the "Discovery", there is no such trouble. The soldiers of the special operations company on board are almost all North Vietnamese immigrants, and many of them are refugees from warring areas. There is no need to deploy separate guides at all.
The two guides shouted loudly to the people in the quagmire in Annan dialect, but the other party obviously did not regard the shouting as a warning, and instead sped up their escape.
"Looks like I can't be a good person anymore." Wang Tom raised his gun and aimed at the person who had escaped farthest. After a muffled pop, the first shot missed slightly, about three inches away from the torso. It attracted deliberately suppressed boos from the friends.
"It's the boat rocking!" Wang Tom defended himself solemnly, then held his breath and fired the second shot calmly. This time he did not disappoint his friend again, and nailed the man to death on the river beach with one shot.
After killing the four fastest escaping guys, the remaining four finally stopped their useless struggle and chose to surrender. Under the command of the guide, several survivors tried their best to drag the bodies of their companions from the river beach back to the boat, and then raised their hands to surrender to the "Speed".
Roger and Shi Diwen jumped on the boat, used strapping straps to control several prisoners who were covered in mud and could not recognize their true identities, and then fixed the cables on the boat to the stern of the "Speed". Seeing that the overall situation here was decided, Wang Tom picked up the walkie-talkie and called the Discovery on the other side of the river to report the situation and ask for instructions on the next step.
The pursuit on the "Exploration" side was not as smooth as that on the "Speed". The South Vietnamese boat could directly hit the beach and run aground, but the "Exploration"'s draft was far beyond that of the small boat, so it did not dare to make such a difficult move, otherwise Once it gets stranded, it will be in big trouble. This stop and stop will be much slower than the other party.
However, before docking, Qian Tiandun had already deployed the pursuit troops. The three platoons on the port side were the pursuit group, the second platoon was the support group, and the first platoon was the cover group. At the same time, he ordered not to use muskets as much as possible to avoid alarm. The South Vietnamese defenders on the north bank of the Zhengjiang River. Gao Qiaonan directly stood up and asked Qian Tiandun to fight, asking him to put down his muskets and other equipment, and carry only a saber for a light pursuit. Qian Tiandun thought for a while and agreed to his request, but it was limited to the organization of three platoons and one squad he led. Other pursuers still needed to carry muskets.
The company led by Qian Tiandun has a very distinctive training subject, which is field armed march training. During the training on Cat Ba Island, it was carried out almost every two or three days, and the frequency was high enough to put the militia in the base camp to shame. Each session is at least 3,000 meters, and the maximum is 10,000 meters, and the qualifying time is stipulated. This kind of training has very high physical requirements. For people of this era, it is simply torture. The people who are eliminated by training are more likely to be left behind in the end. There are at least two or three times more people. If fighting positional warfare or defensive warfare, Qian Tiandun's company will definitely not be able to compare with the base camp militia that spends a lot of energy on array combat training. However, if it is more mobile than field combat, the soldiers of this company are enough to defeat the military and police departments. colleagues are left far behind.
Before Gao Qiaonan disembarked, Qian Tiandun added another order to him: "You can't let a person go, life or death!"
"Yes! Promise to complete the mission!" Gao Qiaonan raised his hand and saluted Qian Tiandun, then led his men to climb down the rope net from the side of the ship, then jumped into the knee-deep river and walked ashore.
Takahashi Nan led a dozen men and began to pursue them directly with sabers, and at the same time consciously controlled the opponent's escape route to the west inland - the South Vietnamese defenders stationed on the supply line were all located in the inland area a few miles to the west, and The adjacent coast is no man's land, as long as these people cannot escape to the west. As for escaping north along the coastline, Takahashi Nan was not afraid of this. He wanted to see if these South Vietnamese monkey soldiers could escape for dozens of miles in one breath.
"Can Little Japan catch up?" Sun Changmi was still a little uneasy about the pursuit strategy adopted by Qian Tiandun. Just a few people ran away and chased north. There were also seven or eight people on the other side, and our own large army was hanging behind. If there was a fight in front, we might still suffer casualties.
"Sergeant Gao Qiaonan's combat effectiveness is not bad, and he usually trains very hard. I believe in his ability." Qian Tiandun responded calmly. Since Gao Qiaonan was temporarily appointed as the squad leader of the third platoon and the first squad, Qian Tiandun temporarily awarded Gao Qiaonan the rank of sergeant. Of course, the process of awarding the title was not completed, and he still had to wait for the executive committee to reissue it at the appropriate time. A notification of award is considered legal. However, Qian Tiandun believed that this was not a problem. During the war, there were many promotions in the firing line. As long as the war situation required it, it was possible to promote them to a higher position.
Although Takahashi Minami is short in stature and has short legs, he runs with a very fast cadence, which makes him look like the briquette king of later generations. One mile away from the river bank, he caught up with his first opponent and knocked the man to the ground with a knife from behind. However, Takahashi Minami did not stop to check the opponent's injury. Instead, he directly stepped over the opponent's body and chased another target ahead. As for cleaning up the battlefield, other people who follow up will be responsible for it.
The few people fleeing in front looked back and saw what was happening behind them. Three of them stopped and tried to resist with the weapons in their hands. Takahashi Nan kept chasing after him, blocking the stabbing bamboo spear with his knife, and then a fierce tiger pounced into the arms of another person. The person was caught off guard and was already attacked by Takahashi before he could make a move. Nan was shocked. Takahashi Minami's subordinates had already arrived, and a dozen of them surrounded the two men and killed them. In less than ten seconds, they had knocked the two stubborn guys to the ground.
After chasing five miles away, there were only two guys left in front who were still trying to escape. However, under Takahashi Minami's almost mad pursuit, these two guys still ran slower and slower in the end, and ran another two miles. After the ground, he finally lost his strength and fell to the ground one after another. Takahashi Minami didn't carry any equipment like plastic straps, but he had a more direct way to control the prisoner, cutting off the tendon above his opponent's heel with one smooth motion.
A few minutes later, follow-up reinforcements arrived, and then dragged the prisoners back to the mouth of Zhengjiang River like a dead dog. There were also eight people who abandoned the ship and fled from the north bank of Zhengjiang River. Five of them were hacked to death by the pursuing militiamen while escaping. Two had their Achilles tendons severed and were seriously injured. Only one person knelt down in time when he saw an opportunity during the escape. He surrendered and was lucky enough to save himself. However, in order to pursue these people, the entire reconnaissance fleet had to dock here for a full hour.
Qian Tiandun ordered two South Vietnamese boats to be scuttled at the estuary. As for the bodies of several unlucky ghosts, they were naturally sunk into the sea as well. The other seven survivors will be taken aboard the "Discovery" for further interrogation.
After finishing all this work, the sky gradually darkened. The fleet found a secluded coast nearby to stop and anchor, and at the same time dispatched a platoon of personnel to station on the shore to serve as an early warning.
This reconnaissance mission was originally arranged to capture the "tongue", but no one expected that there would be such an unexpected situation. Fortunately, everything went smoothly. There were no casualties on our side, and no one in the target escaped. It was considered a very smooth operation.
The combat effectiveness shown by Takahashi Minami and others in this pursuit also silenced some people who had previously doubted him. This kind of real pursuit and killing requires very high physical strength and fighting skills. It's definitely not the bragging-style martial arts level of "two kitchen knives slashing from Nantianmen to Penglai East Road". Even if these time-travelers with better physical fitness were replaced, it would be difficult to say that they could maintain their fighting ability while running six or seven miles. There were no casualties on our side during this process, and it also proved from the side that Qian Tiandun's training requirements and training level for this company were not comparable to those of the previous Haihan Militia.
Qian Tiandun was also very satisfied with the performance of his men, and even granted Takahashi Nan the right to observe during the interrogation of prisoners - in fact, he played the role of a thug when the interrogation was not going smoothly.
Perhaps shocked by the cruel reality, the entire interrogation process actually did not take much effort. Even Takahashi Minami was put to use. The remaining prisoners told them everything they knew. All accounted for. The Time Travelers were divided into four groups and conducted cross-examinations on these prisoners, and the conclusions they obtained were relatively credible.
These two ships are indeed "naval forces" affiliated with the Nguyen regime of South Vietnam. These people are also eight hundred serious South Vietnamese "officers and soldiers". However, there is not even an officer among the captured survivors - the captains of the two ships are all there. During the escape, he was killed directly by his pursuers. For this reason, the information the prisoners can provide is actually relatively limited.
According to the prisoners' accounts, the two ships set off from Donghai, about sixty miles away in the south, and were preparing to change defenses upstream of the Zhengjiang River. But their luck was really bad. Not long after they entered Zhengjiang, they encountered a turning reconnaissance fleet. At this time, there are more than a dozen similar small boats like this in the upper reaches of Zhengjiang River, responsible for patrolling the river to ensure the safety of the supply line pass of Zhengjiang - of course, in the eyes of the traveling public, even if there are several times more small boats like this, There is no guarantee at all. A ship of the tonnage of the "Discovery" does not even need to fire cannons. It can directly crush its opponents with its specially reinforced bow and hull.
On the other hand, in Donghai in the south, there is a small navy stationed, with about 500 people, but only a dozen ships, and the largest ship is only about the same tonnage as the "Speed". , not enough to pose a threat to the fleet passing through the group.
"Worse than Yazhou Water Village" is Wang Tom's evaluation of the South Vietnamese navy.
However, the prisoners said that there was another slightly larger naval force in Hoi An in the south. This aroused everyone's interest, but after further questioning, there was no further information - these prisoners were the most powerful. The soldiers at the bottom know too little about the situation.
As for the news about the South Vietnamese Army, there is very little that can be extracted from the mouths of these prisoners, because their garrison area only reaches the front line of Zhengjiang, and now the main garrison of the South Vietnamese Army has been moved to 40 kilometers north of Zhengjiang. In the combat zone, these South Vietnamese sailors had never been to the front line, and they did not even know the battle situation on the front line. They also had no idea about the South Vietnamese firearms unit that the people were most concerned about. They did not know the size of the firearms unit, nor could they tell the source of these weapons.
Among the information they provided, the most valuable was probably the transportation of supplies to the front through Zhengjiang. At present, South Vietnam needs to deliver about 30,000 to 35,000 jins of food supplies to the front combat zone through this supply line every day. In addition, the number of South Vietnamese reinforcements who cross the Zhengjiang River by boat every day is about two to three thousand. At its peak, there were even more than 5,000 people a day. Judging from these circumstances, South Vietnam's war mobilization capability has surpassed that of North Vietnam. If the Crossing Group does not intervene in this war, then North Vietnam's defeat is really only a matter of time.
(End of chapter)