Chapter 392 Breaking the City
When discussing the joint action plan in Port Victory last year, the two sides jointly decided to launch attacks by sea and land respectively, and designated Hue City as the meeting point. The Hai Han Militia, which launched the attack from the sea, served as the main force in the early offensive, responsible for containing and attracting the main forces of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese army, which attacked by land from the north, served as auxiliary, waiting for the South Vietnamese forces to start mobilizing to Hue before launching the offensive. Judging from the progress of the war so far, it can be said that both sides have successfully completed their combat missions.
If we have to pick a bone, it would be that the progress of the militia's attack on Hue City was delayed for three or four days due to the unexpected heavy rain. Otherwise, according to the planned front advance speed, the South Vietnamese outside the city should have been pushed back by this time. The position is almost cleared. Now that the two sides have met outside Hue City, the next question to consider is how to annihilate South Vietnam's effective forces here.
"General Zheng, please see, Hue City is bounded by the river to the east and south. Now the river is controlled by our warships. The rebels do not have enough water transportation capacity to maintain contact with the area south of the Xiangjiang River. To the north is our military position. , the only loophole left is the west." Yan Chujie put forward operational suggestions to Zheng Bai based on the terrain map that was hung up: "We hope that your army can move south from the current garrison position and cut off the access to Hue City. Passage to the Western Mountains ”
Ten miles west of Hue City is the Truong Son Mountains, which runs from northwest to southeast. This main mountain range of the Indochina Peninsula parallel to the coast is more than 2,000 miles long. It is also the natural border of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in later generations. There are many dangerous passes in this mountain range. The famous Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War led to central and southern Vietnam along the Truong Son Mountains.
The Military Commission's goal is to wipe out all the South Vietnamese elites in Hue, and naturally they don't want to leave such a back door for them to escape. However, the Hai Han militia has limited troops and is unlikely to divide its troops to the west of Hue City to implement the siege. Now that the North Vietnamese army has arrived here, and there are as many as 30,000 troops, it is only appropriate to leave this low-skilled menial work to them.
Zheng Bai usually has contact with Feng Annan and Mu Xiabo who are stationed on the northern front of Haihan. He is not unfamiliar with this kind of Haihan-style military map, and he can understand the terrain shown on the map. After listening to Yan Chujie's After telling the story, he frowned and responded: "I heard that the rebels built a large area of fortifications outside Hue City, and there are also forts on the city walls. Our army's artillery fire is not as powerful as your army's, so I'm afraid we won't be able to attack one side of it alone."
Yan Chujie shook his head and said: "General Zheng, don't worry about this problem. First of all, the defenders of Hue City did not build fortifications in the west. The enemy positions outside the city are concentrated in the north, which is the main direction of our army's attack. There is no need for your army to worry. In addition, your army does not need to take the initiative to attack. It does not matter if it is stationed a little further away from Hue City, as long as it can intercept the rebels who break out to the west when the city is broken."
"So your army plans to independently undertake the siege?" Zheng Bai asked.
Yan Chujie did not answer his question immediately, but asked: "What is General Zheng's opinion?"
Zheng Bai hesitated for a moment before responding: "If I remember correctly, according to the military cooperation agreement signed before, we can send an observation team to your army during the war. Is this possible?"
Yan Chujie nodded and said: "If General Zheng has this plan, then he can just send people over later. However, considering the reception capacity of our frontline camp, it is best that the number of the observation group should not exceed twenty people."
Zheng Bai brought the topic in this direction not entirely because he wanted to send a military observation team to the Haihan Army. If possible, he hoped to send an army to the Haihan people's position to participate in the Haihan militia's siege operations. In this way, when the city is broken, the North Vietnamese can enter the city as soon as possible and control some key departments to prevent the Haihan people from taking the advantage.
However, there are also great risks in doing so. If the troops sent are not strong, it will be difficult for them to stand alone in the siege, let alone the tasks they will undertake after breaking the city. But if the elite troops in the formation were sent out, Zheng Bai would be worried that when the city's defenders broke through to the west, the remaining tens of thousands of second-class troops and peasant soldiers would not be able to withstand the desperate opponent. Moreover, when elite troops are sent to the Haihan side, they must accept the command of the Haihan people. If the Haihan people send their own elite troops as cannon fodder for the siege, the losses will be huge, and North Vietnam will have no choice but to knock their teeth out. Damn, there's no reason to blame the other party - you applied for sending troops to participate in the siege.
After weighing it again and again, Zheng Bai still did not dare to propose sending troops to the Haihan position. In the end, he compromised and sent an observation group composed of officers to act as a liaison envoy and to monitor the Haihan people. Although this The intensity and scope of such surveillance may be extremely limited, but it is better than doing nothing at all.
As for the North Vietnamese generals' petty thoughts, Yan Chujie actually knew something about it. If the North Vietnamese did not take the initiative to make similar requests, Yan Chujie would doubt whether they were up to some tricks. Although the two sides have the same position in this battle, it does not mean that the interests and demands behind the two armies are also the same. Both families have their own little calculations.
The Haihan Militia are naturally eager to dismantle Hue City and move all the people and goods back to Sanya. If possible, it would be better to directly occupy Hue City as a colony. The North Vietnamese have already anticipated some actions that the Hai Han side may take after the city is broken. It is probably impossible to completely prevent the Hai Han people from plundering. After all, they send troops across the sea to fight not because of idleness. If Who will sacrifice their life for you if there is nothing to gain? But in order to minimize the extent of future territorial plunder by the Haihan people, the North Vietnamese military still had to take some necessary measures - at least let the Haihan military understand that I have been watching you, don't go too far. .
Considering that the current war has reached a critical moment, the two sides have a tacit understanding that they have not brought these private calculations to the table for bargaining, but have chosen to compromise by taking a step back. After a day's rest, the North Vietnamese army cut southward and set up camp in an area four miles west of Hue City.
The setup of the North Vietnamese camp is related to the tasks it undertakes. From the northwest corner of Hue City to the bank of the Xiong River, the entire camp will stretch for nearly five miles after completion of construction, completely blocking the escape routes to the west of Hue City.
The defenders naturally observed the appearance of the North Vietnamese troops on the city wall, which made the atmosphere in the city even more tense. After all, the defensive pressure before this was only concentrated on the Haihan position in the north. If it couldn't be defeated, the imperial court still had the opportunity to withdraw into the Changshan Mountains from the west, and then go to the south through the mountain passages to continue organizing resistance forces. However, the appearance of the North Vietnamese Army has completely blocked this retreat. If you want to break out, you can only break through the North Vietnamese Army's defense line first.
The main focus of the North Vietnamese Army was obviously on building this line of defense rather than attacking Hue City. From the beginning, they kept digging trenches outside the built camp, and they did it in sections at the same time, with thousands of people in each shift. Taking turns to fight, it seems that it won't take long for the North Vietnamese Army to open another moat on the plain west of Hue City.
Of course, the defenders in the city quickly understood the North Vietnamese Army's intentions and sent troops out of the city to harass them, but they did not achieve good results. There are at least several thousand new troops in the North Vietnamese Army who use firearms. In terms of military strength alone, it even exceeds the number of combat troops of the Haihan Militia. There is not much pressure to rely on the position to deal with South Vietnam's cold weapon troops. The South Vietnamese Army did have a few remaining musketeers, but the military generals did not dare to squeeze out all these treasures. Therefore, the battle outside the city was basically one-sided. The South Vietnamese Army using primitive weapons could not even fight with them. The North Vietnamese troops came into direct contact and were quickly defeated by lead bullets as soon as they entered the range of the muskets.
On March 18, the Long Snake Formation built by the North Vietnamese Army outside the city finally took shape. Representative Hai Han in the North Vietnamese Army immediately used the radio to notify the militia that they could start a formal attack on Hue City. During the truce period of the past few days, the militiamen also took the time to adjust their combat plan. They revised the original plan of sweeping the enemy positions outside the city before starting to attack the city, and prepared to concentrate their firepower to open a breakthrough directly from the northeast corner.
In order to achieve complete fire suppression, Yan Chujie ordered all army artillery to be mobilized to the position near the northeast corner, and navy ships were also concentrated on this section of the river to provide support for the subsequent siege.
The moat outside Hue City is divided into two parts, the inner and outer. The outer river is connected to the Xiangjiang River at the northeast corner, which provides convenient conditions for the attacking troops to cross the 40-meter-wide moat. The military planned to have the navy bring in small boats from the Xiang River to build a pontoon bridge under the cover of artillery fire, so that the siege troops could successfully pass through the first moat.
At 11 o'clock in the morning, Yan Chujie issued the order to attack. Dozens of artillery fire on the Haihan position suddenly let out a thunderous roar. In an instant, a pile of artillery shells rained down on the city wall in the northeast corner, adding many more holes to the city wall that was already riddled with holes. scars.
While the army covered this section of the city wall with artillery fire, the navy's boats had also seized the opportunity to sail into the first moat and began to build a pontoon bridge. Under the cover of high-intensity artillery fire, the speed of building the pontoon bridge this time set a new record. In less than twenty minutes, the leading troops of the militia infantry had already passed quickly across the river and entered the narrow area between the two moats. . The area between the two moats outside Hue City is basically slums. However, after the war started, the residents in these areas were cleared out by the defenders. They either went to the city to work as civilians to help defend the city, or left Hue. Fleeing. At this time, the defenders on the city didn't even have a chance to probe, let alone fight back. Therefore, the militiamen who arrived in this area could safely clear an area from abandoned houses and prepare for the follow-up large forces. stationed.
There were almost no obstacles when conquering the first moat. The artillery on the city wall had long been cleared by concentrated fire. The defenders had no better long-range weapons that could cover the area occupied by the militia army. A few sparse The arrows shot down from the top of the city, apart from adding a bit of war tension to the militiamen, the actual killing effect was simply negligible. On the contrary, the few archers who leaned out of the crenellations of the city wall to take aim were called out by the hunters outside the city who had been waiting for a long time with 28-type sniper rifles. After seven or eight archers were killed, no one in the defenders dared to attack them. Appeared near the crenel.
It is much more difficult to pass the second moat, because the connection between this moat and the Xiangjiang River is not in this direction, and the nearest city gate is one thousand meters away, and there are no facilities such as suspension bridges. To capture it, the only way is still to build a pontoon bridge.
The attacking troops had already been prepared for this. Each squad carried a tied wooden raft to the second moat and prepared to throw it into the river. Although this kind of wooden pontoon bridge is not as strong as the boat bridge outside that uses small boats as piers, it can carry infantry without any problem.
However, before entering the city, the attacking troops must first create a gap in the city wall here. Otherwise, the soldiers would have to climb the two-foot-high city wall from the river, which is really a very difficult task.
At this time, Qian Tiandun, Qiao Zhiya, Wang Tom and others were all on the front line to command, preparing to overcome the last problem before breaking the city. Although the defenders at the top of the city did not dare to take the lead under the suppression of fire, the defenders were still able to use simple means such as throwing stones to kill the attacking troops under the city wall, and the range of contact between the attacking troops and the city wall was only the width of the wooden platoon. It is almost inevitable, so the combat risk in this link is very high.
"The explosives are ready, but how to place them is a big problem." Qiao Zhiya looked at the smooth city wall with a telescope and said distressedly: "If you want to achieve a good blasting effect, you definitely need to cut holes in the city wall. A hole needs to be filled with explosives, but the question is how to make such a hole now?”
"It seems that you are really stupid in the laboratory, such a simple question..." Wang Tom shook his head with sympathy, and was very disapproving of Qiao Zhiya's statement.
Qiao Zhiya looked at Tom Wang and then at Qian Tiandun. Seeing that they both had calm faces, he couldn't help but ask: "Then you have already figured out a way?"
"To put it bluntly, it's not worth anything anymore. Just wait, it'll be fine soon." Qian Tiandun smiled and did not answer his question directly.
A moment later, Qiao Zhiya saw several 6-pound cannons being pushed to the river bank and aimed at the wall on the other side of the moat. He suddenly realized: "You are planning to use cannons to blast a hole out!"
Tom Wang nodded and said: "The city wall is too thick. It is impossible to blow it down directly, but it shouldn't be too difficult to make a hole to fill with explosives."
After several small cannons were aimed at the same place, they opened fire to bombard the city wall. The inner moat is slightly narrower than the outer moat. The impact point error of artillery strikes at such a short distance is basically negligible. All artillery shells accurately hit a small area of the city wall within a diameter of about one meter, and this area was quickly destroyed. The bricks of the city wall were scattered in all directions, and the defenders on the city tower had almost no idea what to do about this close-range shelling outside the city.
After multiple rounds of shelling, a large hole about one meter in diameter appeared on the city wall. The wall bricks had been broken into pieces, exposing the adobe inside. Although it still doesn't seem deep enough to fill with explosives, digging out the adobe is much easier than drilling holes in the wall bricks.
Two temporary pontoons built from rafts soon appeared on this section of the river. A dozen engineers carried a wooden raft as cover and rushed forward, ignoring the stones and wooden piles smashed from the city wall. The pickaxe worked hard to widen and deepen the hole in the wall. However, this process was not smooth sailing. The defenders on the city wall paid the price of three lives and pushed a huge boulder the size of a tabletop from above the crenellation, hitting the engineers below. The wooden rafts carried on the heads of the engineers basically did not have much protective effect under this kind of blow. They were immediately smashed over and several engineers fell directly into the river and became unresponsive.
"Go ahead!" Qian Tiandun reacted the fastest and gave the order without hesitation.
The second group of engineers immediately rushed forward. Some carried the survivors off the line of fire, while others continued the unfinished task of digging holes. The defenders at the top of the city continued to throw various heavy objects down the city, trying to prevent the attackers from making a fuss on the city wall. After paying the price of more than 20 casualties, the engineers finally buried a barrel of more than 300 kilograms of explosives into the city wall.
"Special operations camp, prepare to attack!" Qian Tiandun gave the order to his subordinates.
The Black Tu Port Special Operations Battalion is the vanguard of this siege mission. This is a mission that Qian Tiandun finally won. As long as this battle is won, the Special Operations Battalion will almost be able to claim the title of ace unit. .
"Sir, please rest assured, we will not let you down!" Gao Qiaonan saluted Qian Tiandun and said firmly.
"You guys are very well trained!" Qiao Zhiya looked at this group of soldiers who were full of fighting spirit and praised with envy.
With a loud bang, tens of thousands of kilograms of earth and rocks flew into the sky together with nearly a hundred defenders on the city wall. Although the attacking troops had withdrawn from a distance of nearly 100 meters in advance, the power of the explosion still made many people change their faces.
What they didn't know was that the earthquake caused by the explosion caused chaos in the city, and the people who had been nervous for many days fell into a state of mental collapse almost instantly. Many people shouted "the city is broken" and began to flee aimlessly. This panic quickly spread among the unsuspecting people and even directly affected the troops defending the city.
(End of chapter)