Chapter 356 Tug of War
If the combat effectiveness of a team is simply measured by the level of amphibious landing warfare, then the Haihan Militia, which was fully trained according to the mature tactics of later generations, can be regarded as the best in the world in this era. The new North Vietnamese Army, whose officers all studied under Hai Han, naturally learned and inherited this glorious tradition, and its combat capabilities in this field are much stronger than its opponents. When the second batch of artillery pieces were unloaded at the beach and pushed into the gun positions by the soldiers, it already indicated that the balance of victory in this battle began to tilt towards the North Vietnamese side.
Although the North Vietnamese court shouldered a heavy debt burden in order to arm the New Army, the performance of the New Army on the battlefield proved that the previous efforts were worth it. After all, you get what you pay for. The new army, equipped with a large number of Haihan weapons and receiving Haihan-style military training, is significantly better than its opponents in terms of combat effectiveness. It can withstand the beachhead with less than a thousand people. The South Vietnamese army attacked on a scale of nearly 10,000 people.
Although there are some troops in the South Vietnamese army equipped with muskets and artillery, and they have also received training from Western-style armies, their weapons and equipment are indeed inferior to their counterparts in the north. After all, their backup, the Portuguese, are very advanced in the field of military technology. There is still a big gap with Haihan Group, which has opened a golden finger. . Regardless of the number of weapons held or the performance of the weapons themselves, the North Vietnamese army showed an overwhelming advantage, so much so that the officers of the South Vietnamese Army had to urge the infantry armed with cold weapons to launch a desperate charge to the beachhead, trying to use their strength advantages to make up for the disadvantages of weapons.
But this attempt was obviously difficult to work. In the face of the new artillery shells that the North Vietnamese Army had spent a lot of money to buy, the infantry charge did not achieve any actual results except sacrificing lives to refresh the opponent's record. Compared with the soldiers of the South Vietnamese army who fell in pieces during the charge, the proportion of North Vietnamese soldiers who were hit by sporadic shells and lead was much smaller, and the casualties were less than one-tenth of their opponents.
After an hour of high-intensity offensive, the South Vietnamese commander finally angrily issued an order to suspend the attack. At this time, there were about seven or eight hundred South Vietnamese troops killed in front of the formation by North Vietnamese gunfire. Many wounded soldiers who were too injured to return to the camp on their own lay in the wilderness and groaned and screamed, making both warring parties truly feel the cruelty of the war.
In contrast, the wounded soldiers in North Vietnam were much luckier. At least they fell on their own positions and could receive relatively timely treatment. Most of the wounded soldiers who lost the ability to move were put on boats returning to the north bank of the Zhengjiang River. This was not entirely due to the officers' compassion or concern that the groans of the wounded soldiers would affect the combat effectiveness of the troops. A large part of the reason was due to the size of the beachhead. It is limited and cannot accommodate a large wounded soldier treatment facility. If the wounded soldiers are not transported away, there will not even be enough space for the newly landed troops to assemble the entire team.
The North Vietnamese Army prepared nearly a hundred ships for this crossing of the river and landed. One round trip could transport two thousand soldiers to the south bank. Although the efficiency was still not very high, fortunately, the estuary where the Zhengjiang River entered the sea was not wide. Counting It took less than half an hour for the soldiers to get on and off the boat and the boat to go back and forth on the river. When the South Vietnamese army suspended their offensive, nearly 3,000 North Vietnamese troops had landed on the south bank via shipping, including 2,000 new troops using Haihan matchlocks, and 16 6-pounders responsible for fire support. gun.
However, Zheng Ting, who was commanding the landing operations on the front line, was not relieved to have repelled the South Vietnamese Army's offensive. The South Vietnamese Army's resilience in the battle exceeded his expectations. Although there were heavy casualties, there have been no casualties so far. Give up the intention of fighting for the river defense line, and instead seize the time to mobilize more troops in the rear to plan the next offensive.
Zheng Ting was not very distressed about the dead and injured soldiers. He just spent more time recruiting and training them again. However, after inspecting the artillery positions, Zheng Ting still inevitably had a headache. The two hundred new artillery shells he purchased were Two-thirds of them had already been defeated in the first round of fighting, and it was difficult for them to survive another intense battle.
There was no Haihan military adviser on the beachhead, so Zheng Ting could only solve this embarrassing situation by himself. He does regret it now. He should have listened to Qian Tiandun's advice and spent money to buy more cannonballs. Of course, it is not that combat is impossible without new artillery shells. The old solid artillery shells are still sufficient, but the killing efficiency at close range is far less than that of the new artillery shells. Moreover, there are more than ten 12-pound guns mounted on the north bank of the river. Their range can completely cover the front of the beachhead, and they can also provide certain fire support across the Zhengjiang River when necessary.
But in this way, the efficiency of killing enemies will be greatly reduced. At close range, the effect that can be achieved by one round of new artillery shells may take ten rounds with old-fashioned solid artillery shells. It seems that some savings are made in the procurement process, but in actual combat But it requires more ammunition to be consumed. Zheng Ting was also a little confused, wondering which type of ammunition would be more cost-effective to use in future battles.
In fact, when Zheng Ting went to Yong'an Port to purchase new ammunition, Qian Tiandun had already discovered a misunderstanding in Zheng Ting's understanding, but from his perspective, he did not point it out to Zheng Ting. This misunderstanding is that Zheng Ting overestimates the combat effectiveness of the rogue bandits who besieged Lijiazhuang, directly equating them to the South Vietnamese army. But in fact, there is still a certain gap in the combat effectiveness between the two. After all, one is a regular army and the other is a bandit. Their endurance in the face of battle casualties is not at the same level.
The rogue bandits who besieged Lijiazhuang were quickly defeated when faced with intensive artillery fire. This was directly related to their loose organization and combat experience. After all, the South Vietnamese army had undergone formal training and participated in combat all year round. In addition, the troops deployed on the Zhengjiang defense line were not weak. Naturally, they would not lose their fighting courage as easily as Zheng Ting expected.
At noon that day, the South Vietnamese army organized another attack. Zheng Ting did not hesitate to order all the new artillery shells on hand to be fired. After an hour of fighting, the South Vietnamese army was still unable to break through the fire defense line of the beachhead, and retreated again after paying the lives of nearly a thousand soldiers. The North Vietnamese Army inevitably suffered certain losses. Even two North Vietnamese officers who had gone to Victory Port for training with Zheng Ting were unfortunately hit by stray bullets fired by the South Vietnamese Army and died of their injuries on the spot.
That afternoon, the "South Vietnamese Navy" who rushed from upstream after receiving the news also participated in this chaotic battle. In the battle half a year ago, the surface troops deployed by the South Vietnamese court on the front line suffered a devastating blow from the Haihan warship. After that, the South Vietnamese navy was in a state of decline. So far, it only has six or seven ships. Facing the With nearly a hundred North Vietnamese troop transports plying the river, the South Vietnamese navy was somewhat weak in what it could do.
Regarding the possibility that the troops crossing the river would be attacked by the South Vietnamese Navy on the river, the North Vietnamese officers had already had a response plan when formulating the battle plan before the war. After the river-crossing operation began, several artillery pieces were deployed on the north bank of the Zhengjiang River, about one mile upstream of the North Vietnamese crossing point. The purpose of these guns was very clear, which was to prevent South Vietnamese ships from coming down from the upper reaches to join the battle. The center of the river here is less than a hundred feet away from the river bank, and is completely covered by artillery fire, which is enough to cause a fatal blow to the ships on the river. In order to ensure nothing went wrong, after the artillery was arranged in place, two rounds of calibration firing were even carried out to ensure the location of the impact point.
Sure enough, after the South Vietnamese Navy appeared on this section of the river, they were greeted by artillery fire from the north bank. Under the concentrated fire, the two South Vietnamese warships at the front were punctured through the belly of the ship and began to take in water. Some of the ships following behind were blocked by it, and some tried to approach the south bank to avoid the artillery fire from the north bank. , there was chaos on the river.
In the chaos, two more ships were hit by cannonballs continuously and turned crookedly towards the south bank. It became clear that they could no longer continue the battle. In the end, only one warship was able to pass through this fire blockade unscathed. However, the North Vietnamese Army had received early warning and was prepared. Seven or eight ships quickly approached and engaged in a boarding battle. With the enemy ship surrounded, there was basically no possibility of its escape.
After eliminating the threat on the water, it would be difficult for the South Vietnamese Army to have any practical way to prevent its opponents from expanding their positions on the south bank of the Jiang River. By nightfall, the North Vietnamese Army had transported nearly 5,000 combat troops across the river and basically completed the planned combat plan.
"The army after our training is still different!" In the Beiyue camp on the north bank of the Zhengjiang River, Mu Xiabai and Feng Anan were exchanging their experiences of watching the battle today. Since the two of them had dealt with the North Vietnamese military the most, it was logical that they acted as military advisers this time and went to the front line to observe the cross-river battle initiated by North Vietnam.
Feng Annan said: "As long as the North Vietnamese army learns our tactics and is equipped with our weapons, it will be almost sixty-seven points as strong as the militia. It should be enough to fight the South Vietnamese peasant army."
"Don't underestimate the peasant army in South Vietnam. They have been fighting hard for a whole day. At least we can't fight with this kind of casualty rate now." Mu Xiabai sighed. Although they did not go to the beachhead on the south bank, they watched the battle through telescopes on the north bank, and they knew to some extent the course of today's battles. The South Vietnamese army was able to withstand casualties without retreating, which was slightly beyond their expectations.
"Qian Tiandun was right. He said that South Vietnam would have to fight at Zhengjiang for at least two to three days before the South Vietnamese troops would retreat." Feng Anan recalled Qian Tiandun's prediction before they went south and sighed: "But if South Vietnam is here If they retreat, it will be difficult for them to organize a defensive line. Maybe North Vietnam will have a chance to attack Hue Prefecture in one go!"
"Difficult!" Mu Xiabai shook his head disapprovingly and said: "Winning a war is not just about the victory or defeat of this battle. I would say it to be extreme. Even if South Vietnam adopts a non-resistance policy from now on, you let the North Vietnamese army go south directly. Try it? It’s nearly four hundred miles from Zhengjiang to Hue, and the combat supply problem for tens of thousands of people is not easy to solve.”
"Didn't they borrow so many small boats from us? They could have used the boats to transport grain, grass and baggage from the sea and follow the army southward!" Feng Annan refuted Mu Xiabai's statement.
"It's not that easy!" Mu Xiabai shook his head and said: "If they can master land and sea amphibious warfare so smoothly, then they don't need to ask us to teach them how to fight. The crossing point on the river is only more than 300 meters wide. , some amateur sailors can also be qualified for the task of rowing across the river, but if you want to go by sea and keep the fleet formation from being too dispersed, it is not a task that amateurs can complete. The most likely change in the war situation is that the South Vietnamese army will gradually retreat, but it will be difficult for the North Vietnamese to take advantage of the victory. "
As soon as it got dark the next day, the fighting between the two sides resumed. Perhaps aware of North Vietnam's superiority in artillery fire, the South Vietnamese army did not launch another mindless human charge today. Instead, they changed their combat methods. They set up artillery at a distance of about one mile and began to play long-range games with the North Vietnamese army. To Boom. I don’t know what means the South Vietnamese army used, but they actually mobilized more than a dozen artillery pieces overnight, and the gap in long-range firepower with their opponents was also reduced a lot.
In artillery training at this distance, the new artillery shells purchased by North Vietnam basically had no room for use - in fact, they had already fired the two hundred rounds on hand in the previous day's battle, and now they had no use at all. The artillery exported to North Vietnam by the Crossing Group does not have a particular advantage in range compared to the artillery in the South Vietnamese Army. Based on the current distance between the two sides, it can be said that the artillery of both sides is within the range of the other side.
In this way, it is a matter of hard work. It depends on who can remove the opponent's artillery position faster. Both sides unanimously adopted the method of concentrated fire, focusing on a certain artillery position on the opponent's position. Therefore, the artillerymen can almost see the opponent's artillery shells flying from the sky from their own artillery positions. The only thing they can do is to pray that the artillery shells fired by their own side can knock over the opponent as soon as possible.
At this time, the advantage of the Haihan artillery in shooting accuracy is revealed. The North Vietnamese side focuses on the opponent's artillery position. It only takes an average of two to three rounds of shooting to hit it, while the other side needs to focus on the North Vietnamese artillery. position, it requires at least five rounds of shooting. It was not until the fifth artillery piece of South Vietnam was destroyed that a gun emplacement on the North Vietnamese position was finally hit by three artillery shells at the same time, causing six gunners and the artillery to be scrapped.
The commander of the South Vietnamese Army obviously realized that such a confrontation could not defeat the enemy, so he could only order the artillery positions to retreat further. Naturally, the North Vietnamese Army, which had taken advantage of the victory, would not wait for the opportunity to slip by. They immediately asked engineers to dig and arrange new artillery positions in front of the defense line, so that the artillery positions could continue to advance southward.
In the next few days, this step-by-step advance operation was very difficult. North Vietnam spent a lot of manpower and material resources, and finally built a large camp on the south bank of the Zhengjiang estuary and deployed 8,000 troops. However, a few miles south of the main camp is the military camp built by the South Vietnamese Army based on the mountains of Hengshan. According to the reconnaissance situation, the number of troops is at least three times that of the North Vietnamese camp. It seems that the South Vietnamese army is still not strong. Plan to give up this line of defense easily. Although the North Vietnamese Army had the advantage, corresponding troubles began to appear. The pain of transshipping grain and grass supplies across the river half a year ago was now the North Vietnamese's turn.
Due to the lack of decisive external assistance like the Haihan Militia, the North Vietnamese Army's southern expedition went relatively smoothly at the beginning. However, after the battle for the Yangtze River, it stagnated due to the army's lack of mobility. situation. To fight further, we have to enter the Hengshan Mountains area, which runs east-west and spans seven or eight miles from north to south. If the army wants to enter the mountainous area to fight, supply is an extremely troublesome problem. With the existing supply capabilities of the North Vietnamese Army, it is obvious that this shortcoming cannot be satisfactorily resolved.
As the top commander of the frontline troops, Zheng Bai has also realized this situation, but now that he has taken action, he can only continue to fight even if the battle situation is not going well, because the North Vietnamese army cannot abandon their current position and retreat to the north bank of the Zhengjiang River. , and it is impossible to maintain a very expensive outpost position on the south bank of the Zhengjiang River for a long time. The minimum goal for this battle is to drive the South Vietnamese Army to the south of Hengshan Mountain, and only then can the North Vietnamese Army control key passes in the Hengshan Mountains before stopping the fighting for rest and recuperation.
On September 8, the North Vietnamese Army took the initiative to launch its first offensive southward after crossing the river. It used artillery fire to open the way, supplemented by infantry phalanxes advancing slowly, and attacked the South Vietnamese Army barracks from the front. After paying nearly a thousand casualties, the North Vietnamese Army finally broke through the South Vietnamese camp and captured the largest South Vietnamese Army stronghold in this area.
However, the battle did not end. Nearly 20,000 South Vietnamese troops fled into the mountains south of the camp. Although most of these South Vietnamese troops lost their structures and became insurgents, they still caused great trouble to the enemies who pursued them. It is difficult for infantrymen using muskets to form an effective fire output formation in mountainous areas, and their combat effectiveness is affected by the environment and cannot be fully exerted. Therefore, the suppression of rebels in mountainous areas is progressing very slowly. It was not until mid-September that fewer and fewer South Vietnamese troops appeared in groups in Hengshan, and resistance gradually became sporadic. The North Vietnamese Army's camp also moved from the north bank of Zhengjiang River to the foot of Hengshan Mountain, and controlled most of the key passes in the Hengshan area.
Since there was no danger to defend, the South Vietnamese Army's large forces were reluctant to withdraw southward at this time. Their assembly point would be Donghai Port, forty miles south of Hengshan. And now that North Vietnam has been fighting, they basically have no energy left to continue fighting south. During the battle that lasted for more than ten days, although the North Vietnamese Army successfully pushed the front line more than ten miles south and broke through the defensive chasm of Hengshan Zhengjiang, it also paid more than 2,000 casualties for this. The most critical thing is that the frontline troops are almost running out of food and military expenses, and they have to stop for rest.
(End of chapter)