Chapter 619 Battle of Nanri Island (6)
Of course, Shi Diwen had full confidence in taking over Nanri Village, but he also knew that taking over this stronghold was not something that could be done just by talking. Although the pirates' combat power is relatively low, as long as they can't hold on, Haihan can only use a large number of artillery attacks to break through the outer wall defenses. If possible, Shi Diwen still hopes to save a little resources and time in the battle, such as letting snipers shoot the pirate leaders who appear in the field of vision from a long distance, and using the "decapitation" tactic to disintegrate the opponent's chain of command.
Of course, this is just a chance. No one knows whether the pirate leader will personally go to the wall to supervise the battle, and Shi Diwen and others will not really place their hopes on this tactic. After the artillery positions are deployed, the militia army will begin to attack.
At this time, an officer came over to ask for instructions on which side's military flag should be used on the position. Shi Diwen glanced at Xu Yuzhuo, who looked slightly embarrassed, and responded with a smile: "Just use the flag of the Ming army!"
Xu Yuzhuo said: "In the opinion of students, let's use the military flag of your army, right?"
"It's okay, we won't steal credit from the Fujian Ming Army." Shi Diwen waved his hand and said, "Of course you'd better say something nice for us in the memorial you write to the court afterwards."
"This is a proper courtesy. Even if Mr. Shi doesn't say it, we will do it." Xu Yuzhuo responded quickly.
The Haihan military did not want the Ming court to pay too much attention to Haihan's military strength and development momentum. Therefore, in the various anti-bandit operations on the mainland, the final official credit was given to governments at all levels. However, this military reward is optional, but a good reputation is more important to Haihan. The government will praise Haihan and create an image of a loyal and patriotic group. In the future, when he goes north to open up new strongholds, he will communicate with the local people. Dealing with the government will also be easier.
At the same time, the atmosphere in Nanri Village was not as peaceful as in the Haihan position. The opponent set up an artillery position one mile away. Many people with good eyesight in the slightly higher Nanri Village could see it. However, the pirates seemed to be unable to come up with any effective response to such an attack method. Come.
The cannon with the longest range in Nanri Village can shoot a mile if it is filled with gunpowder. However, this cannon is already an old thing from the Wanli period. No one can guarantee whether too much gunpowder will explode the barrel directly. Several old gunners inside didn't dare to play like this. As for the other cannons, they cannot threaten the enemy at this distance at all.
Some people think that the Haihan militia has many artillery, and one should immediately fire artillery to deter the opponent so that he does not dare to attack easily. However, some people believe that firing first is more likely to cause a targeted attack from the opponent. It is better to wait and see what happens and wait for the Haihan people to launch an attack before choosing a response measure. Some people even think that they should take advantage of the Haihan people's unsteady foothold and charge out of the stronghold first to kill them. The opponent's strength is less than half of their own, so why are they still afraid of them?
"Stop arguing!" Finally one of the leaders couldn't stand it anymore and stopped the quarrel: "Who the hell wants to use flesh and blood to rush into the Haihan Musket Formation and die? Go out of the stronghold and try it yourself! The boss asked you to guard We are here in Nanri Village just to prevent you from dying too quickly.”
"Duan San, if you are scared, don't talk loudly. If you are afraid of death, just say it clearly!" Some people who were not convinced immediately retorted.
The leader known as Duan San immediately stood up and responded: "I'm afraid of death? If the master hadn't allowed brothers to go out to fight together, I would have gone with my brother to ambush the Haihan people on the dock early this morning!"
As soon as Duan San said these words, the person who just attacked him stopped talking. Dozens of brothers who went out to the village to ambush Haihan on the pier in the morning, only two escaped in the end, and there was no Duan San's biological brother among them. As for what happened on the dock, the pirates in Nanri Village had already guessed it from the intensive sound of gunfire that came from the two lucky people who escaped.
Duan San said with red eyes: "Even if I risk my life, I will fight the Haihan people to the end! If everyone rushes out like this, wouldn't it be like sending meat to the chopping block? The boss also said that as long as we can keep it safe In five or six days, the reinforcements sent by the family will arrive at Nanri Island, and then they will trap these Haihan people on the island, and then slowly kill them!"
Duan San's words had a slight effect on stabilizing the morale of the army, but the pirates seemed to have forgotten one thing. Even if they chose to hold on, they still could not avoid the Haihan Militia's bombardment of Nanri Village. How to fight this battle is not something they can actively choose.
"Report, the artillery positions have been deployed, please give instructions from the commander!"
Shi Diwen raised his hand and looked at his watch. It was five minutes to ten in the morning, and the preparations were completed 35 minutes earlier than the expected time of the general attack. It seemed that it was going relatively smoothly. Shi Diwen ordered: "The target is the gate of Nanri Village. Let's conduct two rounds of calibration fire first. Pay attention to the opponent's behavior of firing back, and use their fire points as the key points of attack!"
Soon the rumbling roar of artillery fire resounded through the Haihan position, and more than ten artillery shells of various sizes were fired in the direction of the gate of Nanri Village in a gentle parabola.
The pirates in the village had blocked the entrance with stones in advance last night, so the entrance to the village was not the target of the school shooting, but the archery tower above the entrance. However, in the first round of test firing, no shells directly hit the archery tower, and the accuracy was somewhat off.
A 48-pound siege gun shell hit the wall, causing gravel to fly and a basin-sized dent on the wall, but it was not enough to affect the strength of the wall. Another smaller shell went directly over the wall of the village and hit the stable in the village. The horses were not directly injured, but they hit a pillar supporting the stable, causing a quarter of the roof to collapse, causing a wave of people in the village to flip over. Other artillery shells failed to achieve any substantial results and basically hit empty spaces. But in the second round of test firing two minutes later, the calibrated artillery position quickly focused fire successfully. Two artillery shells directly hit the watch tower and went out through the building, sending sawdust flying everywhere. Although no one of the pirate archers originally deployed in the arrow tower was injured, they were so frightened that they fled and did not dare to stay in the tower any longer.
"It looks like the effect is good." Shi Diwen confirmed the results from the telescope, and then asked the artillery to fire three more rounds at the same target. After constant corrections, in the last round of shelling, more than 50% of the shells hit the archery tower. Although this arrow tower has not collapsed yet, it has been riddled with holes and is on the verge of collapse. I definitely don't dare to deploy more manpower inside.
During this period, not a single artillery piece on the Shibazhi side was fired. This is also the order given by Zheng Zhihu. He knows to some extent that his own weapons are disadvantaged in terms of range and accuracy. If they want to fight against the Haihan people at the current combat distance, they really won't get the slightest advantage, and it is very likely that This will also expose the location of one's own firepower points.
The pirates had already seen the level of Haihan artillery fire from the shelling of the archery tower just now. The pirate gunners had no doubts about Zheng Zhihu's order. Now the chance of hitting the opponent is very small, but it may lead to a concentrated fire, and the gunners are not willing to take such unnecessary risks.
Seeing that his opponent continued to remain silent, Shi Diwen did not immediately launch a counterattack, which was also a slight exception. During the battle at sea the day before, these pirates had fired the cannons and cannons they had installed on the ship early. It seemed that this method could deter the Haihan militia. But today, the pirates' fighting style suddenly changed, and they were no longer eager to use the long-range weapons they had on hand.
Shi Diwen thought for a while and issued the next order to move the entire position forward fifty meters and conduct three rounds of artillery bombardment. If the pirates still cannot fight back, then continue to advance until the pirates can no longer hold back.
Although this is a bit cumbersome, Shi Diwen firmly believes that the few long-range weapons in Nanri Village are the biggest threat to the Haihan Militia, and the number of troops put into combat this time is very limited. Shi Diwen must ensure that the infantry is deployed before Before the first line, clear out the firepower points on the opponent's wall. And after advancing step by step, the competition is who can keep calm.
Shibazhi had a military advantage but was unable to take advantage of it. They could only wait patiently for the Haihan Militia's position to come within range of their side. However, things were not as simple as they imagined. Starting from a distance of 400 meters, the Haihan artillery no longer bombarded the city gate, but freely bombarded the front wall of about 150 meters long. At this distance, even a 12-pounder with a smaller caliber cannon, the flying debris produced by hitting the wall is powerful enough to injure people. After ten rounds of shelling, there were already more than 20 injured people in Nanri Village, all of them were gunners on standby on the wall. Three or four artillery emplacements on the wall had also been destroyed. This had not yet happened. After the official exchange of fire, Nanri Village's combat power had already suffered a huge blow.
Although Zheng Zhihu did not directly climb the wall to command and watch the battle, he knew the passive nature of the current situation through the feedback information. If the Haihan militia were allowed to move over inch by inch, the wall would have been directly destroyed by intensive artillery fire before they reached the gate of Nanri Village. When the opponent actually enters our own firing range, it's hard to say how many cannons on the wall can be fired.
"Order to fire!" Although he knew that the hit rate of firing at this time would be very low, Zheng Zhihu also knew that if he waited any longer, he would be waiting for death, so he could only issue this inappropriate order against his will.
"Finally we took action!" Shi Diwen sighed secretly in his heart. He immediately received information feedback from the lookout soldiers standing on the high platform. The flags on the wall of Nanri Village changed, and the gunners pushed the hidden artillery to the crenel. It seemed that they were really planning to fight. .
However, this idea is just the intention of the pirates. The Haihan Militia will not let their opponents get the opportunity to fire so easily. After the snipers on each high platform reported the observed artillery positions, they began to use the sniper rifles in their hands to shoot at the pirate gunners who appeared on the wall. At the distance where the snipers were, the pirates had no means of fighting back. It was a one-sided killing. In order to ensure the hit rate, more than a dozen snipers under Morgan's unified command concentrated fire on the same two targets each time.
When the pirate gunners were knocked down one by one by bullets flying from hundreds of meters away, the people around them even thought they were hit by the rubble splashed by the shells at first, but they soon realized that something was wrong. Because their location did not seem to be under bombardment at this time. By the time they discovered that the wounded had been shot by rifles, the snipers had already killed six or seven targets. The remaining gunners also panicked because of this, and did not dare to expose their heads or torsos outside the cover of the village wall, because they had discovered that the high platforms built by the Haihan people behind the distant positions were the ones that could shoot at super long distances. Distance from the location of the evil stars who attacked.
"Fire! Why haven't you fired yet?" Zheng Zhihu found that after his order was given, only two cannons on the wall fired, and they soon misfired again. This made him very dissatisfied and immediately went to the wall. Ask about the status.
Only after a dozen gunners who had been shot were carried down from the wall of the stronghold, Zheng Zhihu understood what kind of situation he had encountered. Obviously, Haihan's long-range weapons are not just those incredibly powerful artillery, but also some kind of ultra-long-range musket, which is enough to kill one's own gunners at the same distance as the artillery range.
This completely disrupted Zheng Zhihu's plan. He originally thought that even if his artillery was not as powerful as his opponent, at least after entering his own range, he could still fight to the death with the opponent. By then the artillery is finished, and with our own strength, we should be able to defend Nanri Village for a few days without much problem. But I never thought that my own artillery was not as good as the opponent's. It seemed difficult to even get a chance to fight. If the fight continued like this, the gunner would have to die before our own artillery could exert its power.
"Send two hundred men out of the stronghold from the left and right to harass the opponent from the outside. The remaining gunners return to the gun positions and continue to fire!" Zheng Zhihu really can't think of any useful method now. Since sitting down and being beaten won't work, then he can only I can no longer choose to take the initiative. Of course, he also knew that it was almost impossible to defeat the Haihan militia with sharp weapons on the frontal battlefield with just the few people at hand, so the order he issued was only to harass, not to fight against the opponent.
"Shibazhi is so anxious!" Shi Diwen saw some figures appearing on the left and right of Nanri Village through the telescope, and already guessed his opponent's plan. However, he was already prepared for this and ordered two infantry platoons to line up on the left and right sides of the position to meet the opponent.
(End of chapter)