Chapter 618 Battle of Nanri Island (5)
The pirates on the island are not fools. They have long expected that the huge "Signal" will not directly dock at the risk of running aground, so they also organized some archers and musketeers to use the limited few people on the dock. He used a building as a cover and tried to conduct a sniper attack on the coalition boats approaching the shore to check the water conditions.
Even if this tactic cannot prevent the coalition forces from landing, it at least has the chance to cause some casualties to the coalition forces, and it can still have some effect on boosting the morale of the Shibazhi side. However, these pirates were non-professionals after all, and they obviously lacked experience in fighting this kind of ambush. When the combined fleet sailed into the harbor, Shi Diwen had already spotted the sneaky figures on the pier through the telescope. It was obvious that these people were not Without any relevant training, I didn't know that Haihan had such a weapon that could conduct reconnaissance at long distances. Before the two sides came into contact, they had already exposed their combat intentions, leaving too much time for their opponents to react.
Shi Diwen put down the telescope and asked Xu Yuzhuo next to him: "Did you encounter resistance when you landed on Nanri Island several times before?"
Today, Xu Xinsu personally supervised the battle and led the Ming navy to deploy outside Nanri Island and be responsible for maritime security. Therefore, he sent Xu Yuzhuo to act with the Haihan Militia. While observing, he could also coordinate the cooperation between the two armies nearby. Xu Yuzhuo responded: "The pirates will set up a defense line near the dock to hinder the landing. Our army usually uses shields as cover and shoots at them with bows, arrows and firecrackers."
Shi Diwen nodded and said: "But you are on a boat and they are on land, so your accuracy is a bit disadvantageous."
"Casualties are indeed unavoidable." Xu Yuzhuo readily admitted Shi Diwen's statement. Even if the military quality of the individual soldiers of the Ming army is slightly better, it is difficult to maintain accuracy when using long-range weapons on the ship. In this battle, the Ming army will suffer a small loss every time.
The Ming army suffered such a loss because they did not have strong fire cover, but the Haihan Militia was different. It carried out fire strikes from sea to land and covered the landing of troops. This is one of the required courses for naval gunners. Shi Diwen gave an order, and two smaller "exploration-class" warships slowly came across the harbor and aimed their sides at the dock. Then the gun window opened, and the black gun barrel reached the window and aimed at the few bunker buildings on the pier.
Lieutenant Xie Li of the Navy served as the commander of the advance landing force. He had already served as the first mate on the "exploration-class" warship when it was first put into use. Two months before this mission to Fujian, he had just been promoted to the chief mate. The captain of the fifth "exploration-class" warship "Red April" can be regarded as one of the higher-ranking officers among the naturalized civilian officers.
However, Xie Li is not particularly satisfied with his current position, because he joined the Haihan Militia later than him, and Wu Sen, an officer of Annan origin who is not so pure, had made military exploits when he followed the fleet to the South China Sea to attack the Ambuna Islands. , has now been transferred to the "Dignity", the first ship of the "Dignity" class, as a senior officer. Although the two have the same military rank and Xie Li still has the title of captain, according to the development speed and pattern of the Haihan Navy, if the number of "Dignity-class" warships will increase in two or three years, there will definitely be naturalized officers as captains. And Wu Sen will obviously have an advantage in experience over a secondary warship captain like Xie Li.
If he wants to catch up with Wu Sen's promotion speed, Xie Li must seize the current opportunity and make more military exploits. In yesterday's naval battle, the "Red April" under his command hit a total of twenty enemy ships, which was a very good result. In Xie Li's opinion, the attack on Nanri Island was another good opportunity to make meritorious deeds. Before setting off, he had already asked the gunners on the ship to prepare for artillery strikes on the mainland, and he wanted to impress his superiors with his outstanding performance on the battlefield.
The battle plan drawn up by the Haihan Militia before the war was very detailed, so from the time Shi Diwen issued the order to the firing of the first artillery shell, the time in between was less than two minutes, so fast that even the pirates ambushing on the pier were unaware of it. Realizing what had happened, it was too late to move.
More than a dozen shells from the first round of shelling flew towards the buildings on the pier with a whistling sound, piercing through the wooden walls like a layer of tissue paper. The screams of people could be faintly heard amidst the splashing debris. . These wooden houses are just temporary warehouses for the pirates on the island to store supplies brought in. They are somewhat useful in blocking arrows and lead bullets, but they are completely ineffective against cannonballs.
After three rounds of shelling, Shi Diwen signaled a ceasefire to observe the results of the battle. Several wooden houses were riddled with holes and were crumbling, making it difficult to call them bunkers. The two "exploration-class" warships lowered their boats, and the soldiers rowed the boats to the shore and lowered long ropes tied with lead pendants to measure the water depth in various parts of the dock. This is to find a suitable berth so that the largest "power signal" can dock.
During this period, the pirates who were ambushing on the dock were unable to launch a sneak attack as expected, because most of them had been killed or injured in the shelling just now, and the few lucky ones who were unscathed were also He just lay on the ground shivering, unable to muster the courage to show up again.
Several soldiers on the small boat have climbed onto the trestle with rifles on their backs. Their mission is to check if there are any other troubles on the trestle and pier as soon as possible, so as to clear the way for the next landing on the shore. When this group of people reached the end of the trestle, they encountered the first pirate who jumped out of his hiding place to fight. However, this unfortunate ghost only held an ordinary waist knife in his hand, so he didn't wait for him to get close and started. The four soldiers raised their rifles and fired at him from a distance of ten meters, two of which directly hit the torso.
This man was quite tenacious. He was shot twice but didn't fall down immediately. He still tried to attack. The soldiers followed their daily training and did not reload at this time. Instead, they rushed forward with their rifles and stabbed the pirate to the ground with their bayonets.
The dozen or so soldiers who were the first to board the dock quickly cleaned up the shore and killed four or five pirates who resisted. Only one of them was injured by the arrows fired by the pirates, but there was no danger of his life.
On the "Wei Signal", Xu Yuzhuo observed the whole process of the Haihan Militia's operation to clean up the dock through binoculars and the walkie-talkie at Shi Diwen's hand. This kind of operation method of artillery washing the ground and infantry advancing later, he used to work at the Shengli Port Military Academy. When I was studying abroad, I heard the instructor explain it, but I didn't witness the actual combat example with my own eyes. Today was a small eye-opener.
Xu Yuzhuo couldn't help but ask: "If the defense on the shore has strong fortifications such as forts, how should we attack it?"
Shi Diwen explained: "If it is a fort, then the power of the artillery on the 'exploration-class' warship is slightly less powerful, but our ship does have large-caliber cannons specifically designed to deal with the fort. In fact, the core idea of artillery operations is one ——Fire suppression, it is not too difficult for us to do this. You will feel this more intuitively when we attack Nanri Village.”
After the infantry completed clearing the dock area, "Wei Signal" slowly approached the dock, unhurriedly unloaded soldiers and heavy weapons from the ship, and began to prepare for the attack on Nanri Village. From the high mast of "Wei Signal", the lookout can clearly see the situation of Nanri Village three miles away. Therefore, the Haihan Militia almost does not need to rush to deploy beachhead positions and defensive forces at the landing site, because the opponent simply He had no intention of leaving the stronghold to fight.
"You see, they have already given up before the fight started." Shi Diwen rudely belittled his opponent: "But it is a wiser decision for them to do this. If they want to pull us out and confront us head-on, they will only lose. Faster." From the landing dock to Nanri Village in the south, the terrain is very flat, and there are no scattered residential buildings on the island, so there are almost no bunkers for Shibazhi's people to set up a defense line. If Shibazhi dared to gather troops to fight head-on on this battlefield, Shi Diwen would use Haihan weapons to tell him what military technology was.
After seizing the dock, it took the Haihan warship just over an hour to complete the landing of the baggage. But this is already very fast. After all, these warships are not specifically used for landing, and there are no special cranes on board to lift heavy objects. The artillery weighing hundreds of kilograms and tons of artillery shells are unloaded to the dock. It is almost entirely carried on the shoulders by human hands.
Fortunately, there is a dirt road from the dock to Nanri Village. Although it is only four feet wide, it is better than nothing. This will make it much easier to transport the heavy artillery outside Nanri Village.
Xu Xinsu thoughtfully prepared more than forty mules and horses for this attack on the island, and specially used two boats to transport them from Dongqiao Bay to haul weapons and ammunition supplies used by the Haihan Militia. After the troops who landed on the island completed their assembly, they began to move south along the dirt road.
Nanrizhai is located at the northern foot of a gently sloping hill. It is built according to the terrain and is divided into four layers of defense lines from bottom to top. The walls are all made of solid rock, and there is even a small arrow tower on the gate of the outermost wall. In terms of the military level of this era, this kind of fort is indeed a very strong island stronghold.
Of course, in Shi Diwen's view, the strength of Nanri Village only looked stronger. This time they brought two of the latest 48-pound siege cannons to deal with all kinds of dissatisfaction. This kind of gun has only been used for routine target shooting in Victory Port, and it is the first time it has been used on the battlefield. The military also hopes to take this opportunity to accumulate some experience in the use of this new weapon.
About five hundred meters away from Nanri Village, the Haihan Militia stopped and began to set up their forward positions. Although he knew that his opponent was weak, he still prepared strictly according to the combat regulations. The infantry was responsible for perimeter security, and the snipers were assigned to the left and right wings of the position. They used several wooden ladders to build a simple high platform and began to look for opportunities to kill the pirates on the top of the city. Artillery firepower is arranged from heavy to light firepower, separated from the center of the position to both sides.
"Morgan, do you want to go and have fun?" Before the position was completely set up, Shi Diwen made a suggestion to Morgan who was gearing up.
Morgan responded with a smile: "You still understand me! Then I won't be polite. Maybe with luck, I can kill the bandit leader with one shot, and this battle will not need to be fought."
"Then I wish you good luck!" Shi Diwen patted him on the shoulder and blessed him.
Morgan carried his gun bag and walked to a simple platform that had just been built, and motioned to the soldiers here to give up their position to him. Although this platform is only about three meters high, the additional three meters of height can greatly increase the sniper's shooting field of view. Morgan slowly climbed onto the platform, knelt down, opened the gun bag, and pulled out his precious CheyTac M-200.
The original intention of this sniper rifle is to kill soft targets at long distances while being as light as possible. The .408 ammunition it uses can maintain supersonic speed after flying 2,000 meters out of the barrel. Its huge kinetic energy guarantees It still has great lethality at long range. Although the magazine capacity is only 7 rounds, in the low-intensity war conditions of the 17th century, users did not need to worry about the capacity being too small and requiring frequent reloading. In fact, because the ammunition was limited and could not be replenished, Morgan used This gun has very little time. The last time I used this treasure to kill an enemy was back during the Annan Civil War.
Morgan opened the frame and set up the rifle, slowly lay down on the platform, and then began to adjust the sighting device on the gun. He only brought ten rounds of ammunition with him this time, so he had to use them sparingly. However, Morgan still has full confidence in himself when shooting at this distance.
This was the first time Xu Yuzhuo saw this scene. Although he had gone to the shooting range to fire live ammunition during his training in Victory Port, they were all models of Haihan mass-produced rifles. He had also seen the special rifles equipped by Haihan snipers. . The big gun in Morgan's hand obviously has many differences in appearance, and it looks very powerful.
"Mr. Shi, the gun used by Mr. Morgan is..." Xu Yuzhuo couldn't help but ask Shi Diwen.
Shi Diwen responded: "This gun is a unique high-level weapon. We brought it from our distant homeland. Its performance is very good and it can blow the target's head off with one shot from four miles away!"
"Four miles away!" Xu Yuzhuo was so frightened that his jaw almost dropped. In his opinion, Haihan's sniper rifle, which has a range of more than one mile, is already a very scary weapon. He did not expect that there are weapons in the world that are several times stronger than it.
Of course, Shi Diwen would not tell him that what he said was only theoretical data. The probability of hitting the target on the head four miles away was actually very low. It was so low that Morgan would never waste his limited time pursuing such a shooting record. bullet.
(End of chapter)