Chapter 389: Collapse in one blow
Wu Sen walked out of the Navy Yamen, looked down at the soldier talisman in his hand, and shook his head helplessly. Although he persuaded his superiors last night and got the right to deploy troops, Wu Sen was not happy at all. He spent a lot of time before finally getting his boss to agree to send ten more ships to him today to go downstream to see if there would be a chance to attack the Haihan fleet. However, Wu Sen himself knew very well that such a large force would It is difficult for the mobilization to pose a substantial threat to the huge fleet at the Xiangjiang Estuary.
It is difficult for Wu Sen to resent his boss's stinginess. This is not because his boss is not aware of the seriousness of the situation, but because at this time there is still a large amount of materials that need to be transported from the south bank of the Xiangjiang River to the city of Hue on the north bank. Being able to transport several thousand more kilograms of grain into the city at this time may mean that Hue City can defend the city for one more day. In comparison, sending the limited ships on hand to carry out uncertain or even futile attacks is indeed less cost-effective.
But Wu Sen still refused to give up his plan to attack. He knew that the navy's only chance of victory was to catch the opponent off guard when the opponent's footing was not stable. If he waited until the Haihan people completed the preparations, they could advance steadily to the upper reaches of the Xiangjiang River step by step. , and if the fight starts again at that time, there may not even be a chance to fight back. When the Haihan warships cut off the Xiangjiang River, it will be equivalent to cutting off the connection between Hue City and the vast area south of the Xiangjiang River. Hue will completely become an isolated city and will be completely trapped in a passive situation. Therefore, even if there was only a slim chance of success in taking the initiative to attack, Wu Sen was determined to give it a try.
However, the time to assemble the troops took much longer than expected, so Wu Sen's plan to set off before dawn could only be scrapped. The final personnel assembled also made Wu Sen feel a little sad - the full number of personnel should be 280, but in fact only about 200 people gathered at the dock.
Wu Sen no longer needs to ask what happened. Ever since the news of the failure of the peace talks came out at the end of last year, desertions in the military have not stopped. Quite a few people were pessimistic about the court giving up on peace talks and planning to fight to the end with the Haihan people. Those in the army who were unwilling to continue fighting for the precarious Nguyen dynasty became deserters one after another, and the navy was no exception.
Wu Sen believed that after he left the Navy Yamen last night, the transfer order had already spread among the Navy. Fighting against the Haihan people on the water was basically a one-way battle for the current situation of the South Vietnamese Navy. Naturally, there were many deserters during the mission. Finally, being able to gather two-thirds of the manpower here is already a very good result.
Wu Sen did not give any more encouraging speeches. Instead, he had people carry the silver box up and handed out two taels of silver to everyone present - this was almost all the possessions he could handle. In his opinion, those who are willing to stay and join the war at this time do not need any further ideological mobilization. Instead, giving them some money can stimulate their desire to fight.
After distributing the money, Wu Sen announced his departure. More than two hundred people took eighteen boats and sailed away from the dock on the south bank of Hue City and sailed downstream downstream.
Wu Sen stood on the deck and let the soldiers around him put on his armor. This armor weighs more than thirty kilograms. Wu Sen would not wear it during normal patrols, but in the next battle, he may have to face the sharp artillery fire of the Haihan people. Wearing the armor can provide some protection - even if Just the psychological protection is better than wearing no protective gear at all.
When the fleet led by Wu Sen left the dock of Hue City, Takahashi Nan defeated the South Vietnamese patrol downstream. Therefore, Wu Sen did not know that his opponent was no longer the Haihan warship at the estuary of the Xiang River, but The Haihan Militia Army is trying to build a fort to block the river.
"Don't think that the people of Black Tu Port took credit for this battle in the morning. Let me tell you, our army is the main force in the battle against Hue this time. There are many battles to fight in the future. The battle in the morning was just an appetizer. ! Cheer up and keep an eye on the river! If anyone lets go of a boat, don’t let Yu Tiezhu cause trouble!" Yu Tiezhu was cheering for his men this morning. The limelight was stolen by Takahashi Minami in the First World War, and his men were somewhat dissatisfied. After all, the First Battalion of the Militia was also a direct descendant of the ace directly under the Military Commission. How could the gang of savages in Black Earth Port gain the upper hand?
"Company Commander, don't brag. We sent troops to Annan twice last year. Which time was it not the Navy that played the main role? Those people in the Navy only look at people with their nostrils. How can we, the Army, have a chance to shine!" Someone was there at that moment. He complained aloud, sounding like a veteran with some experience.
Yu Tiezhu responded: "This time is different from last year. Hue City is not close to the sea. Even if the big ship comes along the Xiangjiang River, it can only be used as a movable fort on the river. The task of siegeing the city will eventually have to be Our army will finish it! We are the main force in the battle against Hue, and the navy is only for us!”
Yu Tiezhu's merciless complaints aroused applause from his subordinates. For these army soldiers, the various treatments received by the Navy after its establishment did make them jealous. The military budget allocated by the Executive Committee to the Navy is obviously larger than that of the Army. You must know that the cost of building an "Exploration-class" warship is already more than the military expenditure of a reorganized company for one year, while the Navy builds more than a dozen ships at a time. The "exploration class" with larger tonnage is also building new ships day and night. There are currently four ships in service, but a huge keel has been erected on the slipway of the Victory Port Shipyard, and there is no sign of stopping. . In order to seize the time to build more warships, the Victory Port Shipyard even reduced the number of slipways for building cargo ships from the original four to two, and prioritized the freed slipways for the construction of naval ships.
Looking back at the Army, although it was heard in May last year that the "Hai Han Ordnance Industry" had produced a new rifle whose performance was much better than the Type 28 flintlock equipped by the militia, it was not until August that troops were dispatched to Hoi An. At that time, the militia began to install new guns on a small scale, and the entire army's replacement speed was even slower. It was basically replacing new weapons at the rate of one company per month. It was not accelerated until the end of the year when it was decided to send troops to Annan. The speed of changeover. As for artillery, except for the introduction of large siege mortars with an astonishing caliber, basically no new products were released throughout last year. Of course, naturalized civilian officers like Yu Tiezhu don't know the R&D and production process of the military industry department. What they see is that the naval guns used by the navy are constantly being modified and improved. Every warship launched is equipped with one, and even Even the gunners were assigned to the navy first.
In fact, it had only been a year since the militia separated the navy. Many of the officers from the two armies were familiar with each other. There was not much resentment between the two sides, but there was definitely a feeling of dissatisfaction with each other. Army officers like Yu Tiezhu have long been holding back their efforts to enhance the reputation of the Haihan Army with actual achievements.
According to the command's combat plan, the Army will not continue to march southward today, but will conduct reconnaissance and complete the blockade of the river as its main combat tasks. On the position where Yu Tiezhu was located, in addition to the first battalion and second company of the militia group he led, a full artillery company with a total of twelve artillery pieces was deployed.
Ten of the twelve artillery pieces are used to block the river surface, and the other two are set up on both sides of the pontoon bridge on the tributary creek to block the pontoon bridge channel. If necessary, target the pontoon bridge with two rounds to isolate the enemy from the river. to the south. Under normal circumstances, this lineup is enough to withstand a thousand enemy troops attacking simultaneously from both land and water. What Yu Tiezhu can be sure of is that the South Vietnamese navy will not easily give up the opportunity to conduct reconnaissance or even launch an attack from the Xiangjiang River. The order he received is to use artillery fire to intercept all ships coming from the upstream - simple, crude, But it is the Army’s favorite way of fighting.
At ten o'clock in the morning, a loud arrow suddenly flew from the river bank about two miles south of the Haihan Militia's outpost position, which immediately attracted the attention of the sentry. This sounding arrow came from the Black Earth Port Special Operations Force that was performing a reconnaissance mission. According to the pre-agreed signal, a sounding arrow meant that a ship was coming down from the upstream. Yu Tiezhu immediately ordered all personnel to enter combat positions and the artillery to load ammunition in advance.
Wu Sen, who was still on the river upstream, naturally noticed the loud arrows flying out of the trees on the bank. He couldn't help but tense up and ordered the ships to pay attention to the enemy troops that might appear on the river bank. However, he could only be more vigilant. These ships are rarely equipped with long-range weapons and cannot effectively attack enemies on the river banks.
However, the opponent was far more arrogant than Wu Sen expected. After traveling a few miles downstream, the ship leading the way sent a signal indicating that there were traces of the enemy on the river bank and began to slow down the ship. Soon Wu Sen also noticed the enemy troops on the river bank in front. It was obvious that the enemy had no intention of covering up their tracks. Hundreds of sand and soil bags were built on the bank to form a barrier about ten feet long and more than three feet high. There were several crenels in the middle of the low wall. Although he could not see clearly what was behind the low wall, Wu Sen could already estimate what his opponent would place behind the crenels.
"Charge over!" Wu Sen gave the order without hesitating for too long. If they are blocked by the Haihan militia in this place where they can't go up or down, and they just return without success, then the last breath of the South Vietnamese Navy's energy will probably be exhausted. No matter what, Wu Sen had to give it a try. Maybe the Haihan people were just trying to scare people by setting up this temporary fort on the river bank. There was nothing behind the fortifications made of sand bags that he was worried about. However, the reality was far crueler than expected. When they were still about thirty or forty feet away from the Haihan position on the shore, black barrels protruded from the crenels, pointing towards the river.
"Disperse the formation!" This was the last solution Wu Sen could think of. Apart from hoping to use dispersed formations to reduce the opponent's artillery strike density, he really had no other options available.
Yu Tiezhu, who witnessed the changes in the formation of the South Vietnamese Navy on the shore, just sneered and ordered the artillerymen at each gun position to start aiming at their respective targets and prepare to fire.
When the artillery on the shore began to fire, Wu Sen desperately found that any tactics were in vain in the face of absolute fire suppression. The boat closest to the river bank was strafed by raging shotguns at a distance of about ten feet. The hull and crew were directly torn into pieces, and disappeared on the river almost instantly. The ships that were a little further away also failed to escape from this storm-like attack. The entire river was covered within the range of the artillery, and there was no shelter at all to provide cover and shielding. This way The target presents no operational difficulty for shore artillery.
The South Vietnamese navy on the river had no other option but to desperately move toward the other side of the river. However, this kind of struggle has no practical effect. The shotguns used by the Haihan militia do not require very precise aiming. They only need to aim at a general direction and then fire. A shotshell with a huge killing area is enough to cover a considerable area at a distance of two hundred meters. Therefore, although the rate of fire of the artillery on the shore is not high, it is still enough to kill the ships on the river one by one.
The most terrible thing is that these ships are also equipped with a large number of ignition materials. As long as they are hit by cannonballs, even if they are swept aside, they will be ignited immediately. The crew members who were lucky enough to survive had no other option but to jump into the water to escape. Soon there was a pile of burning wreckage on the river.
Wu Sen, who was holding the battle at the rear of the fleet, almost had his blood vessels burst after witnessing this process. Although he knew that his pitiful lineup was probably no match for the Haihan militia, he did not expect that the strength gap between the two sides was so large. . With only a dozen or twenty cannonballs, the fleet he had worked so hard to organize was beaten to pieces.
Just when Wu Sen was about to give the order to continue rushing forward, the soldiers behind him had already rushed up to hold him down and peel off his armor. Wu Sen shouted angrily: "What are you doing!"
"Sir, the war is not going well, so why risk your life! If you take off this armor, you can still escape!" The soldier said as he continued to untie Wu Sen's armor.
"How can we survive in the face of a national crisis?" Wu Sen yelled sadly. He was really unwilling to be defeated without the ability to resist. With so many ships and so many lives, he couldn't even cause any trouble to his opponent. The only damage caused to his opponent was probably a few dozen rounds. Just ammunition.
Seeing that most of the ships rushing ahead had been cleared away by the Haihan people's artillery shells, the most conspicuous thing on the river was Wusen's ship. The artillerymen consciously began to adjust their muzzles without any orders, aiming at this conspicuous ship. Target. After a salvo, Wu Sen's ship also turned into a ball of fire, burning brightly on the river.
"Write down how many ships you just hit, and report back to the headquarters later!" Yu Tiezhu ordered the officer accompanying the army with a happy face.
For the two companies stationed here, this is undoubtedly a very easy battle. The record of using artillery fire to destroy the South Vietnamese navy on land was enough to exclude the navy from the battle plan to attack Hue City. The only regret is probably that it is impossible to count the number of enemy troops killed and wounded in this battle, and there are no prisoners left alive. The South Vietnamese soldiers who were able to escape the shelling just now probably swam to the other side of the river to escape.
This battle, which lasted less than ten minutes, destroyed nearly one-third of the ships and troops of the remaining South Vietnamese Navy. When the news reached Hue City, no more ships would dare to go down the river. And I came down to find out the truth. Large cargo ships staying at the estuary can now enter the Xiangjiang River with confidence and boldness, and deliver various combat materials directly to the frontline areas through water transport.
The two small boats sent to clean up the battlefield finally captured the South Vietnamese Navy Commander Wu Sen, who had a chance to escape, in the swamp near the other side of the river. Although he was stripped of his armor by his own soldiers and pushed off the boat, he got stuck in the swamp and was unable to escape. As a result, he eventually became a prisoner of the Haihan people. And this was also the highest-ranking person captured by the Haihan Militia on the first day of the official war.
Yu Tiezhu originally planned to pry out some information from Wu Sen, but he only received military training and was not good at intelligence work. After two hours of interrogation, except for confirming Wu Sen's identity, no valuable information was obtained. Considering that the prisoner was also a medium-sized officer, Yu Tiezhu did not resort to violence to extract a confession. Instead, he sent someone to escort him to a camp by the sea, where a group of trial experts would handle related matters.
In the next two days, Haihan's position did not continue to advance southward, but remained at its current location. On the contrary, the reconnaissance team in the southern zone of Gaoqiao was active outside Hue City and basically figured out the general scope of the large fortification system outside Hue City. Although Gao Qiaonan also learned a lot of knowledge about building defensive positions during his training, the area outside Hue City was still an eye-opener for him, because among the various defensive methods he learned, there was no There has never been an area that was so comprehensive. Takahashi Nan spent two days but could not find any obvious loopholes in this area. He could only draw a sketch and bring it back for reference by senior officials in the headquarters.
“These monkeys are very playful!”
After seeing the sketch of the fortifications outside Hue City sent back by Gao Qiaonan, even Yan Chujie couldn't help but complain. Although he has not seen the scene of that position with his own eyes, based on the sketch and Gao Qiaonan's description, Yan Chujie can roughly guess the local situation. He really did not expect that the South Vietnamese court would quietly build such a large area of fortifications outside Hue City. It seemed that the battle plan to attack Hue City would not go as smoothly as previously expected.
Qian Tiandun said with a smile: "No matter how good they are at playing, monkeys are still just monkeys. It can be seen that they have indeed spent a lot of thought on this. They probably hope that this position can hold us back, and then slowly It will consume our supplies and troops, and finally force us to retreat automatically.”
(End of chapter)