Chapter 279 The landing begins
The North Vietnamese training troops have received high-intensity training at Do Son training camp for more than two months, but the instructors still believe that the training effect has not reached the ideal level and there is still a gap compared with the Hai Han Militia. Of course, in addition to weapons, the objective reasons for this gap include differences in the treatment received by soldiers, the ways in which officers do political work, and so on. According to the original plan of the Military and Police Department, the trained troops had to train with the spearmen for at least one to two months before they could be put on the battlefield to accept the test of actual combat. However, they did not expect that the Annan War situation would be overturned by South Vietnam in a short period of time, and the Zheng regime had to drag this unformed force to the battlefield to be used as a surprise force.
The mixed phalanx tactics of muskets and spears designed by the Military and Police Department for the North Vietnamese training troops have high requirements for the march and operation of the array. The spearmen do not exist as the main force in the fight. Their role is mainly to protect the safety of the musketeers. Especially when the attack is frustrated and the musketeers need to retreat to a safe area to reorganize the square formation, the spearmen must stand in front to block the enemy's offensive - facing the South Vietnamese army using the same tactics, they need to block extremely It could be bullets fired from enemy muskets.
No one dared to have high expectations for the spearmen who were temporarily pulled out. The people at the headquarters just hoped that the North Vietnamese spearmen would not mess up their positions on the battlefield. But in addition to this hidden danger, how to put these spearmen on the predetermined battlefield is also a problem.
"Our transportation capacity is not enough." After dawn, Sun Changmi came to the headquarters tent with porridge. After hearing about the military and police department's combat plan, he immediately pointed out the problem to Yan Chujie: "We now have fifteen ships on hand. In Yong'an Port, the 'Speed Speed' is small and has to be responsible for guarding the peripheral waters. It cannot transport troops, so there are only 14 ships left. We have more than 800 combat personnel and 1,000 North Vietnamese trained troops. There are already more than 2,000 sailors plus the crew, and they have to bring hundreds of civilians who are responsible for logistics and baggage. It is impossible to put more than a thousand spearmen on board. If we rely on those small boats of North Vietnam... then we might as well let them. The boat makes two trips.”
"In other words, we can't complete the troop projection at once?" Yan Chujie asked.
"It's far from it. At least five or six big ships worth 400 materials are needed to make it successful." Sun Changmi shook his head repeatedly and said: "Even if we collect all the remaining ships in the base camp, it will probably be enough. .”
Yan Chujie closed his eyes and thought for a moment before speaking again: "The arrow is on the string and we have to shoot it. We have to wait for the ship from the base camp to come over. The day lily is cold! If it cannot be delivered in one time, then it will be delivered twice!"
"Boss Yan, although Yong'an Port is only a dozen nautical miles away from location No. 2, but including the time to get off and off the ship, the time interval between the two deliveries will be about six hours at the fastest!" Sun Changmi didn't even bother to eat breakfast. He put down the bowl and began to calculate the possible problems: "Those new recruits in North Vietnam, if a battle breaks out without the cover of spearmen, it's a question of whether they can last for six hours. ! ”
Yan Chujie responded with a calm expression: "It doesn't take that long, about an hour is enough. We will complete the second troop projection within an hour of launching the landing!"
"How is this possible?" Sun Changmi said in astonishment.
"Take a closer look at the map." Yan Chujie pointed to the satellite map of the fighting area hanging in the conference room: "There are two small islands near the coast of Site 2. You probably ignored their role."
There are indeed two small uninhabited islands on the coast of Site 2. They are marked on the map as Hunguo Island and Hanluo Island. They are only 1,200 meters and 2,000 meters away from the coast of Site 2 respectively. Their area is very small, the two islands together are less than one square kilometer, and they are a small island on the same level as Henyu Island in the eastern sea. Because these two islands are too close to the coast and have no development potential, no one has considered these two islands to have strategic value before. Even the reconnaissance fleet did not specifically conduct reconnaissance on these two islands, but only from a distance. I took a quick look and made sure that both islands were uninhabited.
However, the Ministry of Shipping was short of transportation capacity and could not complete the task of delivering troops at once, but the two islands suddenly became valuable. Sun Changmi is not a fool. Since Yan Chujie said what he said, he naturally understood the other party's thoughts: "Boss Yan, you mean to use these two islands as transit stations to shorten the secondary delivery." What’s the transportation distance? ”
If these two uninhabited islands are well utilized, the 30-mile round-trip voyage between the landing point and Yong'an Port can be shortened to one or two nautical miles, and the problem of capacity shortage can also be well solved, let alone Delivering it twice, or even four times, probably won't be a problem. Of course, before this, the command headquarters must plan a relatively complete landing procedure. When to send some personnel to the offshore island first, and when to launch the landing, this all needs to be carefully studied.
Two days later, the frontline headquarters sent the latest combat plan back to the base camp and received approval from the Executive Committee. The landing operation began to enter the final preparation period. Under the arrangements of the frontline headquarters, the North Vietnamese spearmen and musketeers who were transferred to Yongan Port conducted three days of joint training. Although the time is very short, it is better to practice than not to practice. The battle situation has no time for this side to practice slowly, and the command center can only treat the dead horse as a living horse doctor.
On January 28, the landing plan that had been prepared for many days finally entered the implementation stage. Although some good people have suggested that this operation should be named "D-day" so that future historical materials from across the regime can have a more elegant record of this combat operation that created many firsts, the Military and Police Department is still very The program code name of "Operation Full Moon" was willfully adopted - a rustic with a combat effectiveness of 5. If you don't find a way to be more rustic, is it still a revolutionary army?
Zheng Bai, who got the news on the mountain defense line, finally breathed a sigh of relief. If the Haihan people did not send troops, he felt that he could defend it for three to five days at most. In the end, most of them would die here - King Zheng Jie of Qingdu had already A death order was issued and the troops here were not allowed to retreat again.
After the Haihan people arrived here, Zheng Bai tried every means to meet their needs. From civilians to spearmen, from reconnaissance to combat, Zheng Bai almost never refused any request made by the Haihan people. On the one hand, the orders from Shenglong Mansion played a role. On the other hand, Zheng Bai really hoped that the Haihan people, who were so boasted, could share the pressure on him, although it was impossible for the Haihan army of only more than a thousand people to do so. All the South Vietnamese troops should be wiped out here, but it would also be a good thing if they could launch some harassing attacks on South Vietnam from the sea to distract South Vietnam's attention.
But when Haihan really announced the start of the operation, Zheng Bai couldn't help but feel a little worried. After all, his second son Zheng Ting was among the attacking troops who were going to land behind enemy lines. Thinking of the sharp lethality shown by the South Vietnamese musketeers in the previous battles, Zheng Bai couldn't help but worry about his son's safety. According to the Hai Han people's plan, the North Vietnamese trained troops and spearmen will participate in the battle behind enemy lines, which means that Zheng Ting is likely to bear the brunt of the South Vietnamese army's attack - the Hai Han people will definitely not use their own troops to block the front. As cannon fodder, this job could only be done by North Vietnamese troops.
As for the next battle plan of the Haihan people, Zheng Bai did not know the details. The Haihan people only left Feng Annan as the liaison officer in the mountain position. From the beginning of the landing, all forward news could only be obtained through the channel of Haihan Liaison Officer. The only thing Zheng Bai could do was to follow the Haihan people's suggestions as much as possible and mobilize troops to cooperate in counterattack operations.
However, Zheng Bai's idea that his troops would become cannon fodder was just a guess. When it was getting dark that evening, the first batch of troops to board the ship at Yong'an Port were not just the North Vietnamese-trained troops led by Zheng Ting. The Haihan Militia They also broke camp and boarded the ship together, including combat personnel from the frontline headquarters. Also setting off at the same time were hundreds of civilians brought from the base camp. They will be responsible for assisting the engineers in building fortifications after landing. After the fleet set off, there were only a few people left in Yong'an Port to maintain the dock and take care of the baggage. The bustling coastal beach a few days ago returned to an almost primitive deserted state in an instant.
After setting off, the fleet made a large circle on the sea. When it got dark, it slowly returned to the two small islands in the sea outside the planned landing point. The day before, the "Speed" had taken advantage of the darkness to send dozens of engineers to the island, and spent a day building simple trestles on the east coast of the two islands. When the fleet returned from the open sea, it happened to be able to see the navigation lights turned on by the engineers on the island. However, this trick was completely undetectable on the mainland to the west of the island.
The fleet was divided into two teams and docked on the two coasts. The ones closer to the coast were the Haihan militia and baggage troops, while the North Vietnamese training troops were placed on Han Luo Island, which was further away. It took nearly three hours for the two thousand troops to land on the island in the dark. During this period, several North Vietnamese soldiers who landed on Han Luo Island fell into the sea due to mild night blindness. Fortunately, the rescue was timely and no lives were lost. . The Haihan militia that landed on Henguo Island were luckier. There was a section on the east side of the island where the terrain was relatively flat, so landing was not difficult.
After completing the landing, the fleet sailed away from the island and headed towards the northern night. In the next day, these two troops will lurk on the island, waiting for the opportunity to land. The frontline headquarters has also been moved to Hunguo Island, and the personnel of the headquarters will also land with the large troops one day later. However, there will be troops staying on Hunguo Island. The medical team led by Morgan will set up a simple field hospital here to house some of the seriously injured people transferred from the front line. After the injuries are treated on the island, they will be treated again. Its severity is transferred from ship to rear.
Before dawn, two sea ships towed more than 20 small wooden boats back to Hunguo Island. These small boats were basically all the ships that the North Vietnamese Army could find nearby, and they would be used as piers to build floating trestles at the beginning of the landing operation.
During this day, the South Vietnamese Army was not idle, and still arranged an offensive against the mountain defense line as always. After more than a month of fierce fighting, North Vietnam's mountain defense lines have actually become riddled with holes and are much more fragile than when Feng Annan and Mu Xiabai first arrived here. Since the South Vietnamese army's offensive almost never stopped for a day, North Vietnam's repairs to the fortifications could only be superficial. Under the continuous attacks, the walls in many areas had collapsed in pieces, and the defenders could only rely on shields. and the body to build a line of defense, the entire defensive ability is already in a precarious state.
Zheng Bai had to invest the last two reserves in this day's defensive battle, and it took him a whole day to repel three offensives by the South Vietnamese Army. When he saw the South Vietnamese troops at the bottom of the mountain receding like a tide, the exhausted Zheng Bai suddenly collapsed to the ground and had no strength to even stand up.
"General Zheng, you have done a great job and have fulfilled your duty. Please believe me, starting from tomorrow, the battle situation will take a different direction!" Feng Annan reached out to help Zheng Bai up and said to him with confidence. He said: "The good days of the rebels have come to an end, and it is time to use a counterattack to wake them up!"
"I hope it can be as General Feng said!" Zheng Bai responded with a wry smile. He still had reservations about Feng Annan's optimism. Although the Haihan people looked very powerful, it was hard to say how much effect they could have with such a small force. Moreover, there are also firearms troops in South Vietnam. Who will be more powerful in a fight? Zheng Bai is not completely sure that he will bet on the Haihan people. Of course, if he had seen the artillery shipped by the Haihan fleet beforehand, maybe this kind of Thoughts will change.
This time, in addition to some of the artillery purchased by North Vietnam in the early stage and the naval guns mounted on ships, the artillery battery of the militia was also equipped with more than ten artillery pieces of different calibers. If it weren't for the limited number of artillery, the military and police department would even think of using intensive artillery fire to practice a seventeenth-century fire coverage tactic. The command headquarters was full of confidence in using more than 20 artillery pieces to block a 200-meter-wide front line, not to mention the nearly 2,000 musketeers who would cooperate with the artillery operations.
Regardless of whether it is public or private, the headquarters will use a large number of artillery attacks in this landing battle - the ammunition fired will be counted on the North Vietnamese regime based on the export price. If you don't fight, you won't fight! According to calculations by the Military and Police Department, each time the 6-pound cannon is fired, the Crossing Group will earn almost one tael of silver, and the consumption level of the 12-pound cannon is half higher than that of the 6-pound cannon. If there is an opportunity to use the naval guns mounted on the ship, the command headquarters will not hesitate to issue a firing order. The war between North and South Vietnam was about consumption, but the participation of the Haihan militia in the war was purely about making money.
During this day, in order to conceal their whereabouts, the lurking troops on the two islands were not allowed to use open fires to cook. Everyone could only eat dry food and drink cold water during the day. Only a very small number of military officers across the military are eligible to enjoy the "high-tech" self-heating boxed military rations. Although the chemical principle of this kind of heating pack is very simple and can be produced in the chemical workshop of Victory Port, the batch size is limited and it is not possible to supply it to the militia in large quantities in the near future.
It wasn't until after dark that a sea ship brought hot food to the troops on the island - it was made nearby behind the mountain defense line, and it was still hot when it was delivered to the island. Such hot food will be provided once before the attack in the early morning tomorrow to ensure that everyone can participate in the battle with a full stomach. This pre-war meal was much better than usual. The logistics team killed more than a dozen pigs transported from Black Tu Port in one go. Even the North Vietnamese soldiers were lucky enough to get some of the oil.
A little later, the fleet arrived at the two small islands again, this time transporting more than a thousand spearmen and some logistics personnel responsible for communications, cooking and other matters. Their boarding location was not at Yong'an Port, but on the coast behind the mountain defense line only two or three nautical miles away. This greatly reduced the fatigue of these people during the transportation process. After a day of rest and recuperation, the physical condition and fighting desire of the troops who had been lurking on the island the day before had basically been adjusted to a fighting state.
At three o'clock in the morning, the "Speed" arrived at the coast of the landing site again and repeated the previous landing method. The vanguard force that landed this time was larger than the last team. In addition to a few fixed roles from the North American gang, Qian Tiandun also brought a platoon of special operations company soldiers with him. However, there was only one rubber boat on the "Speed", so two small wooden boats had to be towed at the stern of the ship. After approaching the shore, the militiamen took the small wooden boats and rowed to the shore to land.
The landing process went very smoothly, and South Vietnam did not take precautions against the eastern coastline as always. After the team arrived at the pass, several members of the North American Gang divided into two teams and climbed to the commanding heights of the hills on the north and south sides. In addition to reconnaissance and early warning, their mission is also to observe enemy movements at high points and provide real-time information to the command headquarters for reference in order to make timely adjustments to changes in the battlefield.
Qian Tiandun and his men were lurking at the foot of the mountain and simultaneously sent a message to the headquarters through the radio. At 3:50 in the morning, Yan Chujie gave the order to start the operation. Several 400-ton ships towing a large number of small boats slowly turned out from the east of Wanyue Island and sailed towards the predetermined coast. The first batch of people to land were not pure combatants, but mainly engineers and civilians. Their mission is to build a floating trestle for subsequent landing troops to land and unload their baggage in the shortest possible time.
Whether the floating trestle is constructed smoothly or not will directly affect the progress of subsequent landing operations. Therefore, in addition to several drills at the base camp, these personnel also underwent very arduous training after arriving at the Annan battlefield. Now they It's time for them to show off their skills.
(End of chapter)