Chapter 514 Attacking Danzhou
October 3, 1630, Baimajing Wharf, Danzhou Bay.
More than a dozen sailboats crowded the pier here. If Haihan had not organized the pier expansion project here two months in advance, the number of ships that could dock might only be half of the current number. There are still many ships in the huge fleet that cannot dock directly. They can only park in slightly distant waters, and then use small boats to ferry the people on board to the shore.
The armed personnel on the ship landed one after another, quickly assembled the entire team on the shore, and then set off eastward one by one. The whole process was busy and not chaotic, and no one yelled to leave the team. The residents of the fishing village who witnessed the whole process were silent. Although they had no knowledge, they could see that this group of people was definitely not a mob. The rules were much stricter than those of the guard army in Danzhou City, and they were equipped with almost all the weapons. Is it a unified standard? Do you think they are pirates? Anyone who is not blind can tell that these people must have received long-term military training.
As the saying goes, bandits are like combs and soldiers are like grates. However, this group of pirates, who looked more like regular troops than regular troops, did not loot the local residents after landing. Apart from blocking access to the villages, they basically did nothing else. Disturbing behavior.
This doesn't seem to be particularly accurate, because the only small restaurant at the entrance of the village was ransacked by this group of pirates of unknown origin. Not one of the shopkeepers nor the clerks in the shop escaped. They were all captured and tied behind their backs with thick ropes. They were also shackled in a long line and knelt on the roadside at the entrance of the village.
This is not an act to scare the monkeys, but because this small restaurant is a secret sentinel of the Danzhou Guards. When the fleet sailed into Danzhou Bay, the action team lurking here in the early stage took the lead in taking away this disguised outpost to prevent them from sending warning signals to Danzhou City in advance. There are three other early warning posts like this between Baimajing and Danzhou, but by this time they must have been captured by the advance team who took action at the same time.
Outside the Rouyuan Gate of Danzhou City, a Ming Army officer stood at the city gate with a gloomy face, looking at the far end of the official road. From early in the morning to now, except for a few farmers who came to the city to sell vegetables, there was not even a single business. It was already noon, and they actually collected more than a dozen copper coins. Can this job still be done? Continue to do it?
The job of guarding the city gate is the most popular one in the city defense army, and in Danzhou City, the guarding of Rouyuan Gate has the most jobs, because the official road outside the city gate is the main road to Baimajing Pier, and all sea routes are All the foreign merchants who came here came this way. This officer had a hard time winning this job, and every five days it would be his turn to lead this team to guard the city gate. If he didn't receive a few dollars today, it would almost be a wasted opportunity.
"It's strange! Normally, the goods from Fu Maochang, Haifeng, and Zhan's Shipping Company all come to the city at this time of the month. Why are none of them showing up today!" The officer looked at the empty official road and couldn't help but sigh. He kept complaining. Although the people from these trading houses are not as generous as Haihan, it is definitely no problem for the caravan to go to the city and get a few taels of silver.
"Coming, coming, a caravan is coming!" Just as the officer hesitated, the soldiers on the tower shouted loudly to inform the people at the city gate below.
Sure enough, a convoy of horse-drawn carriages appeared in the field of vision of the Ming army guarding the gate not long after, but the style of these horse-drawn carriages looked a little strange, as if they were a little different from the usual horse-drawn carriages.
But before these Ming troops could see the clues, a huge convoy consisting of about twenty carriages had arrived at the city gate. The officer finally discovered something was wrong - this convoy did not have any business name erected. flag, and he didn't find a single familiar face among the drivers.
"Stop, stop!" the officer yelled, stepping forward to stop the car and signaling the soldiers behind him to move Juma and Luzhai from the side of the road to the middle of the road.
However, the leading carriage had no intention of stopping. The driver at the front threw his right hand, and seven or eight shiny silver coins flew towards the roadside. The driver shouted loudly: "Everyone, give way. If there is something urgent, hurry into the city!"
When the soldiers who were about to move the roadblock saw the money flying out, they had already abandoned their work and rushed over to pick up the money on the ground. When the officer saw this, he stopped stepping forward to stop him. He just stared at the carriage team rushing towards the city gate and spat: "Damn, it's amazing to be rich!"
After the carriage entered the city, it did not continue forward. Instead, it turned to the left and right sides and stopped along the base of the city wall. As soon as the tarpaulin on the carriage was lifted, seven or eight men armed with short-barreled muskets got out of each carriage. These people ignored the surprised looks of the people on the streets around them and lined up directly towards the city gate.
This unit trained for three months on Cat Ba Island, which consisted of repeatedly practicing city capture battles on several specially replicated city gates in one-to-one size. Their mission was to dismantle the city gates in the shortest possible time. The defenders' armed forces suppressed all resistance measures and guarded the city gates, opening the way for subsequent reinforcements to enter the city.
When the Ming army at the bottom of the city was still gathering in a pile to count the total number of silver coins they had just picked up, there was a loud bang from the city gate tower. The leading officer looked up at the city tower, then lowered his head and began to calculate how much money each person could share. How much money do you get? But soon there were several more similar noises from the city tower. The officer finally came to his senses and threw the money on the ground: "No! Something happened at the city gate! Go back quickly!"
However, when he led the group of people to rush to the city gate, he found two rows of people standing in the gate, one in front and one behind, holding firecrackers in their hands and silently aiming at them.
"It's pirates..." Someone finally remembered the recent rumors. It is said that the pirates who have been raging on the northern coast of Qiongzhou Island recently will send troops to attack the city on the island. Most people thought this was just an unrealistic rumor, and no one was worried that there would really be a pirate siege.
However, something beyond imagination seems to have happened. During this moment of silence, the leading Ming army officer felt the slight trembling of the ground under his feet. When he slowly turned around, he found a larger fleet of horse-drawn carriages approaching from the official road.
Since it was nearly twenty miles from Baima Well to Danzhou City, in order to save the physical strength of the siege troops, the relevant departments not only transported personnel to Danzhou Bay by ship, but also transported a large number of horse-drawn carriages. However, these dozens of carriages can only carry a few hundred people, which is only about one-tenth of the total force used in this operation. Except for a few elite personnel who rushed to Danzhou City in carriages, most of the combatants were still You have to walk to the battle site. Hundreds of soldiers from the Rouyuan Gate of Danzhou City who arrived early seized control of the city gate as quickly as possible, and using their carriages, they quickly erected a barricade inside the city gate, as well as four portable three-pounders. The army artillery was aimed at the main road in the city leading to the northern part of the city.
It has to be said that although the fighting power of Danzhou's defenders was poor, their reaction speed was still very fast. Only ten minutes after the incident at Rouyuan Gate, a team of about two hundred people hurried over from the avenue. reinforce. However, this poorly prepared reinforcement was defeated by a dense barrage of bullets about fifty meters away from the barricade set up by the attackers.
When the officer commanding this force tried to reorganize an offensive, four small guns fired from their emplacements in the middle of the street. At this distance, the gunner didn't even need to specifically aim. Each shell tore out a long blood groove in the Ming army on the opposite side. After leaving behind about forty corpses, this wave of Ming troops who rushed to rescue fled the battlefield at the same speed.
Almost as soon as the cannon sounded, the residents in the city immediately closed their doors, fearing that the war would spread to them. The defenders in the city were in panic and didn't know how to respond, because Lord Qianhu of this city had unfortunately been killed on the spot in the first wave of fighting. Some people think that they should take advantage of the pirates' unstable foothold to organize a counterattack immediately and retake the city gate, so that they can have hope of holding on. Some people believe that the pirate fire is fierce and irresistible, and the top priority is to send envoys to nearby states, counties and cities for help.
The troops that captured the city gate were not in a hurry to expand their control area, nor did they pursue the fleeing Ming army. Their mission was to control the city gate first, and other troops would not take over the defense here until the large forces entered the city.
This kind of tactical arrangement is naturally not perfect in the eyes of the military's top brass. If placed in another time and space, it can be said to be a delay in fighter aircraft. But looking at the battle to capture Danzhou City, arranging such tactics was a helpless move.
In order to minimize the losses and consumption during the battle to seize the city, the military arranged a surprise attack. However, because the landing site of the large troops was too far away from Danzhou City, and the military lacked sufficient mobile transportation, Therefore, the large troops could only rush to Danzhou City on foot from the seaside. This time difference was a flaw that no matter how good the battle plan was, it was difficult to make up for it.
However, the Annan Militia Army has practiced a lot in the armed cross-country project, so for them, this 10-kilometer cross-country is not particularly difficult. Moreover, in order to reduce the burden, their luggage has been reduced to the level of maintaining basic combat effectiveness. , far less than the usual training load.
The special service company of the Annan Militia Army, led by Qian Tiandun personally, rushed from the landing site to Rouyuan Gate in Danzhou in only 70 minutes, and more than 200 people in the establishment did not fall behind. This special service company can be regarded as the elite among the elite. Everyone is personally selected and trained by Qian Tiandun. In his words, those who can join this company must learn at least 60 to 70% of their own skills. Then Only then can one be considered qualified. When they arrived, it was only about ten minutes before the vanguard troops repelled the first counterattack of the Ming army.
The second wave of troops who rushed to Danzhou City were the other troops of the militia. This force, which was three battalions in size, had a much larger formation. Immediately after entering the city, troops took over the defense of the city gate, and some troops began to Along the city wall, the Ming troops who were still participating in the city defense were cleared, and two companies of troops went directly around the city and continued to advance. Their destination was several traffic arteries to the west of Danzhou, where they would cooperate with the troops who had already lurked in place in the early stage. The vanguard troops set up a defensive line to block the route of Danzhou's defeated troops fleeing to Fucheng.
The quality of the three thousand Annan soldiers borrowed was far inferior to those of Qian Tiandun's men. After marching for seven or eight miles, the Annan Army's team began to gradually become disjointed. Some people had to stop and rest midway due to lack of physical strength. As a result, the entire team quickly became in disarray.
The Annan officer in charge of commanding this unit was Zheng Ting, who was directly named by Qian Tiandun. When he saw the militia troops leaving without a trace, but his own troops marching so slowly, he felt a strong sense of powerlessness in his heart. feel.
For a long time, Annan's domestic community generally believed that the main reason for the gap in combat effectiveness between its own army and the Haihan militia was the power of weapons. Many Annan officers believed that as long as they could use the weapons of the Haihan militia, the two sides would be better off. The combat effectiveness can be quickly shortened, even to the point of no distinction between superior and inferior. This is one of the reasons why Annan has been sparing no expense in recent years to purchase large quantities of Haihan-style weapons.
However, the new generation of officers like Zheng Ting, who have received formal military training from Haihan and have had several collaborative operations experience, know very well that the gap between the two goes far beyond weapons and equipment. It also includes strategies, tactics, and maneuverability. , logistics supplies, and even the most fundamental ideological construction of the army, there is a big gap between the two sides. Moreover, many of Haihan’s practices cannot be simply imitated or copied.
For example, Haihan recently established a new organization, the Youth League, in the militia army this year. All combat units above the company level must be equipped with an officer qualified for the Youth League as the commander's deputy, who is responsible for the ideological development of soldiers and grassroots officers. Work. This configuration made many people confused about its function, but Zheng Ting quickly realized that its function was much more than what it seemed.
Although Annan's soldiers who protect the country usually instill the idea of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, when it comes to fighting, most of them still rely on their blood. As for the soldiers of the Haihan Militia, they really risked their lives for the Executive Committee. This kind of brainwashing ability has always been envied by Zheng Ting, but now the Haihan people seem to think that the level is not enough, and they have specially set up an officer. It is conceivable that Haihan’s senior officials attach great importance to military thinking.
The Annan Army also has arrangements for armed cross-country training. However, the training effect is far inferior to others. When they compete on the battlefield, they will immediately show their superiority. Where exactly is the difference? Zheng Ting could only understand that this meant that the ideological level of the soldiers on both sides was completely different. He even wondered whether he should write to the Ministry of War after returning this time and learn Haihan's method of operation.
(End of chapter)