Chapter 350: Looting Hoi An
After the attacker wins, this kind of siege can easily turn into a chaotic robbery if the subordinates are not strictly restrained. Although the military regulations of the Haihan Militia are strict, no one can guarantee that the soldiers can withstand the temptation of wealth. In this war-torn environment, as long as a few people take the lead in causing trouble, it is easy to form a group effect.
Although the essence of this military operation is to rob Hoi An, the Military Commission will not be happy to see the militia soldiers turn into a group of unorganized and undisciplined bandits - even if it is robbery, there are professionals and amateurs. It is also a professional army and cannot lose its basic restraints. In addition to repeatedly emphasizing military discipline before the war, officers also made detailed arrangements for the situation after the city was broken.
In the operational plan, Hoi An City is roughly divided into east and west cities according to the central axis. The east city is responsible for the troops from the base camp, and the west city is responsible for the Black Earth Port Militia. The two urban areas are divided into several areas, and the control of these areas will be subdivided to the company level. In this way, if a situation occurs in any area, it can be quickly traced to the commander.
As for the attitude that Chinese businessmen all over Hoi An City should adopt, the Military Commission also gave a bottom line - it depends on whether the other party takes the initiative to become hostile to the militia army. If someone cannot clearly see the situation and wants to jump out to seek death, then the militia can simply use force to suppress them without worrying too much. However, in principle, Chinese businessmen who are willing to cooperate must be given certain protection, because these businessmen are very likely to transfer their base to Sanya, which is on the rise after Hoi An City is destroyed.
As for businessmen of Annan origin and other nationalities, they can only hope for good luck, because they will be the main targets of this military operation. According to the predictions of Zhan Gui and Qian Tiandun, after capturing Hoi An, they will be able to plunder at least hundreds of thousands of taels of wealth here, and the Executive Committee has already made a decision, and half of the loot obtained in Hoi An will be The discount is returned to the military as an additional military subsidy for this year. The officers had already received the news before setting off, and had already made preparations to make Hoi An City sky high.
After Takahashi Nan handed over control of the south city wall to the follow-up troops, he led his assault platoon straight to the government office in the north of the city. The defenders in the city had hardly organized any decent resistance from the moment the city wall collapsed, and the sporadic resistance was simply a loss of life in front of the heavily armed Haihan militia. The fate of individual die-hards was to be shot at from close range. Take away with one volley.
Although Gao Qiaonan was already moving very quickly, the officials in Hoi An City were obviously good at escaping. When Gao Qiaonan led his troops, all the people in the government office had already fled. An empty courtyard was left.
However, Gao Qiaonan was not originally very interested in arresting South Vietnamese officials. His task was very simple, which was to capture the government office and ensure that the items in the government office were intact. There may not be much property in this official office, but the written information that records the local people's sentiments is something that the Executive Committee values very much. It specially ordered the military to bring it back to Victory Port in order to have a better understanding of the situation in Central South Africa during this period. Western forces on the peninsula can have a more intuitive and profound understanding.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the militia had basically controlled the city of Hoi'an, and had put several main city gates under control. The remaining South Vietnamese soldiers in the city were also captured and killed, and no formal garrison was found in the city. In the city. However, judging from the current results, most of the garrison in the city chose to flee Hoi An after the city was broken. Only a few die-hards and the unlucky ones who had not had time to escape from the city were killed and captured.
Although a section of the city wall was destroyed by heavy artillery, the buildings in the city were not greatly affected. The whole process happened so fast that the city fell before most residents even figured out what was going on. However, in this way, the trembling people hiding in their homes were easily controlled, and the entire Hoi An City did not fall into chaos due to the war, which greatly facilitated the militia army to take over the city.
After taking control of various chokepoints in the city, the only thing left to do was to conduct house-to-house inspections, arrest those who needed to be arrested, and search the homes of those who needed to be searched. Of course, targets outside the city have not been ignored. For example, the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce located two miles west of Hoi An City has been surrounded by a company led by Wang Tom himself.
According to the reconnaissance results of Qian Tiandun's last visit to Hoi An, there are at least four to five hundred Portuguese people stationed in the local area. Most of these people are merchants and sailors. Although they are not as powerful as Chinese merchants, their level of armed force is much higher. The Chinese not only owned a large number of muskets, but also built a fortress-like building outside the city in the name of the Chamber of Commerce. Since the South Vietnamese court relied on the Portuguese for military purposes, it always turned a blind eye to these suspected violations and would not actively interfere.
But the Haihan militia army will not be as easy to deal with as the South Vietnamese. A large part of the reason for sending troops to Hoi'an this time is to attack the Portuguese power in South Vietnam. Even if the Portuguese are not exterminated, at least they must be withdrawn from the Indochina Peninsula to pave the way for the Executive Committee's strategic planning. Qian Tiandun had people take tin trumpets and began to shout to the Portuguese Guild Hall to persuade them to surrender.
But the Portuguese obviously had no intention of surrendering immediately. In fact, their desire to fight seemed to be stronger than that of the South Vietnamese. Several Portuguese armed with muskets fired at the peripheral militia positions from the second floor of the guild hall. Although with the accuracy of a matchlock gun, sporadic shooting is unlikely to accurately hit an individual target a hundred meters away, this act of seeking death still successfully aroused Wang Tom's anger. He ordered the end of the persuasion to surrender, pushed four 6-pound army cannons to the front of the formation, and aimed them at the gate of the guild hall.
With two roars, the wooden door of the guild hall was suddenly broken into a pile of fragments, and the exclamations from the guild hall could even be faintly heard. Wang Tom did not immediately order an end to the bombardment, but instead aimed the artillery at the gate and continued to fire shells into the clubhouse. After ten minutes of continuous bombardment, the Portuguese finally waved a white flag among the ruins and chose to surrender. This was not because they were afraid of fighting, but because they saw from the guild hall that the attackers outside had already used the siege weapons. The 48-pound mortar was pushed onto the position. No one would be naive enough to think that the building of the guild hall was stronger than the city wall of Hoi An. If they did not surrender, they might be buried in the rubble.
In the end, Eduardo, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, could not escape the disaster. He asked his servant Bento to prepare the escape horses and money an hour in advance. However, when he finally got rid of everyone and prepared to escape, he discovered that The usually stupid servant sneaked out of the back door of the club with his silver box and horse!
And this was not the end of Eduardo's nightmare. After surrendering to the attacking forces on behalf of the local Portuguese, he learned that the army attacking Hoi An City was the Hai Han people, his old enemy. Wang Tom, who accepted the surrender on behalf of the Haihan Militia Army, also announced that all Portuguese who surrendered would receive personal safety guarantees, but at the same time, as the price of their armed resistance, the Haihan Militia Army would seize their local properties.
This move made Eduardo and other Portuguese businessmen feel like they were bereft. As veteran colonists who had looted all over the world, they certainly understood that the Haihan people did not want to seize their property because of the resistance of the Chamber of Commerce, but they had already made up their minds to rob them. A handful - the victorious party can always find many reasons to loot the defeated party. But they have chosen the road of surrender, and the vast majority of them do not have the courage to carry out any form of resistance. What's more, Wang Tom also announced that any form of resistance will be regarded as a riot, and the only consequence of the riot is to be punished immediately. Hanging.
But people's suicidal spirit is really innate. Even if the situation faced by the Portuguese has been so passive, there are still daring people trying to stir up some trouble. Five Portuguese men hiding in a warehouse next to the guild hall tried to launch a sneak attack on the militia soldiers. Unfortunately, their bodies were exposed a little early, and they were quickly pinned to the ground by the militia soldiers.
So Wang Tom's warning was immediately fulfilled, and the five Portuguese were immediately hanged on charges of riot. Due to the haste of the incident, the militia soldiers did not even build a gallows and completed the execution directly through a big tree on the roadside.
Seeing the five corpses hanging in the air, Eduardo protested tremblingly: "You will be punished for your barbaric behavior!"
Of course, although Eduardo also spoke a little Chinese for business reasons, he still tactfully expressed his anger in his native language to avoid irritating the Haihan people and causing them unnecessary suffering. However, his plan was not successfully completed. As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the dark-skinned Haihan officer respond in Portuguese: "If you don't want to get the same fate, you'd better shut up right now!" Wang Tom had participated in several round-the-world sailing races, and had traveled to countless places. He was proficient in several of the most widely used languages in the world, and his language skills in the group were basically second only to those of international con men. Schneider. Eduardo was startled and quickly lowered his head and shut up, secretly thinking about how to save his life from the Haihan people.
The post-war liquidation in Hoi An was no easier than outside the city. When the local businessmen discovered that the enemies occupying Hoi An were preparing to carry out large-scale looting, many people still had the last courage to choose to resist. However, this kind of The action of using the mantis' arm as a vehicle has limited effect. Apart from delaying the progress of the militia's house raids, it only adds a few hanging corpses to the streets.
Occasionally, there would be families who relied on their deep residences and wanted to put up a desperate fight. The militia could quickly bring in lightweight 6-pound cannons to bombard the gates. In the face of a well-trained army, this kind of amateurish resistance is nothing more than a farce.
The local Chinese businessmen soon realized that this Chinese-speaking army seemed to be deliberately letting them go, and most of the house raids were targeting Annan merchants. At this time, anyone with a sound mind would naturally choose to be a quiet bystander and not take the initiative to provoke the Haihan Civilian Army. Of course, there are also a few smart people among them who have thought that after this army leaves, the Chinese businessmen and the locals may have great conflicts because of this difference in treatment, and this conflict will most likely affect their future. Life and business here.
As of the evening of that day, the militia army had confiscated more than 40 tons of grain in and outside Hoi An City. The converted value of gold, silver and precious metals exceeded 300,000 currency notes. There were also various goods piled up in the mountain. Because the quantity was too large, it was temporarily impossible to count the details. number. In addition, all the boats on the Thu Bon River pier have been temporarily requisitioned by the militia, preparing to transport various materials confiscated from the city. During this siege, more than 700 local people died at the hands of the Haihan people, and about one-third of them died in the clearing stage after the city was broken. The casualties on Hai Han's side were much less. They only paid a very small price of three people killed in battle and more than 20 people injured, and they captured Hoi An City.
After nightfall, the militia army escorted all the Portuguese captured outside the city to the city for detention. Qian Tiandun also carefully sent out sentries in the south, west, and north directions. Although it was unlikely that the South Vietnamese army would be able to attack the enemy in such a short period of time, Reinforcements were rushed to Hoi An within a few days, but it is always good to be prepared.
The suppression operation continued on the next day. The militia army temporarily recruited 1,400 civilians in Hoi An City and carried the loot piled into the mountains onto ships. There are various handicrafts and weapons brought by Western merchants, as well as locally produced spices, rare woods, jewelry and ivory, as well as silk, porcelain, cane sugar, etc. trafficked from the Ming Dynasty. Even people like Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom who don't attach much importance to money can't help but sigh at the rich harvest of this trip.
"South Vietnam is much richer than North Vietnam!" Qian Tiandun shook his head repeatedly: "If South Vietnam had approached us first, they might have hired us to fight to Thang Long Palace!"
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"That's impossible. After all, we were eyeing the coal in Heitu Port from the beginning. South Vietnam doesn't have the coal we urgently need." Wang Tom shook his head and denied Qian Tiandun's conjecture: "South Vietnam also has a certain amount of money. Due to geographical advantages, Western merchants who wanted to trade in Daming had to pass through the Indochina Peninsula almost all the way back and forth. Hoi An City was a must-stop place, and it naturally prospered. There were no popular shipping routes or natural harbors in North Vietnam. It was purely farming. The economy certainly cannot compete with South Vietnam’s maritime trade in making money.”
"Demolishing the city of Hoi An is basically demolishing the cornucopia of South Vietnam!" Qian Tiandun also agreed with Wang Tom's view of Hoi An, nodded in agreement and said: "I heard Zhan Gui say before that Hoi An alone is , there are probably millions of silver coins flowing every year. Without the economic backbone of maritime trade, South Vietnam may not be able to sustain the civil war. ”
"We looted Hoi An this time. This place will not be able to recover for at least two or three years." Wang Tom smiled and said: "But now the military expenditure is much sufficient. Some of the plans that were shelved before are now Finally there are conditions for implementation. ”
The military's development plan can actually be summed up in two words - military expansion. Although the current establishment of the Haihan Militia has expanded five times compared to the same period a year ago, with more than 2,000 trainees still in training, in the eyes of the officers, the existing establishment is far from sufficient. Not enough. Especially for special arms such as artillery, there is a huge demand gap. According to the military's plan, an independent battalion will be maintained in Black Earth Port and Victory Port within the year. At the same time, the Navy will complete the formation of the first fleet, and the replacement of various armaments and weapons must also be carried out promptly.
In the coming time, the Haihan Militia will gradually expand its control area through sea routes to the Fujian and Jiangsu and Zhejiang coasts in the northeast and the Indochina Peninsula in the south. These actions require a large number of combat troops to achieve. And every military expansion means sky-high military investment and endless haggling on the executive committee. This time, being able to obtain additional military expenses for the military through combat operations is even more meaningful to the officers than receiving military merit awards.
The officers will not be complacent because of the little achievements they have achieved in the Indochina Peninsula and the Pearl River Estuary, because they all know that they have not yet fought against a truly powerful opponent, and the expansion of the power of the Crossing Group will inevitably lead to The day comes when you face a powerful enemy. All they can do now is to make as many preparations as possible before that day comes.
Every time a ship on the dock is filled, it will be escorted by warships and sail to Cham Island. After docking the ship in the island's harbor, the crew will take the warship back to Hoi An. The distance between the two places is less than twenty nautical miles, which is not too troublesome. Since there are so many ships "recruited" in Hoi An this time, the sailors and crew brought by the militia army are completely insufficient. In addition to temporarily hiring people locally, an urgent call was sent to the base camp yesterday to ask them to rush over there. A group of sailors came to sail the ship. It is said that two catamaran sailing ships have set off from Victory Port early this morning, carrying more than a hundred sailors to come to the rescue. If everything goes well, they will be able to arrive in Hoi An in about two days.
It was not until August 8 that the militia army finally loaded all the spoils of war onto the ship. Before leaving, they did not forget to plant gunpowder in many places on the Hoi An city wall, and brutally blew up several walls. If South Vietnam does not want to give up the port of Hoi An and continues to engage in maritime trade here, then they will either build a higher and thicker city wall, or they will risk having their homes raided at any time and continue to do so in this windy city. Buy and sell.
"This is really a tragedy!" Eduardo, who did not regain his freedom until the Haihan people retreated, looked at the ruins of Hoi An City, and his heart was filled with gloom.
(End of chapter)