Chapter 647 Return to Nanri Island
Watching the sailboat slowly leaving the port, Qian Tiandun waved to Luo Wudan on the deck for the last time. When he turned his head, there was no smile on his face: "Pass my order, from now on, all personnel will stop. Rotation arrangement. Navy patrols maintain a radius of ten nautical miles. If suspicious ships are found, they will be driven away immediately. The captain has the right to fire and transport all the supplies on the dock to Nanri Village as soon as possible, and notify the Ming army to send people to help, so as to avoid these lazy people. Take time to get sick!”
According to Qian Tiandun's request, Fujian officials must send supplies to the island garrison for at least one month before the war begins. The monthly consumption of these two thousand people is really not a small amount, and all kinds of materials are piled up like a mountain on the dock. The island defenders intentionally did not build fortifications near the dock. Now that the war was about to begin, they naturally had to transport all these materials into the warehouse of Nanri Village and store them as soon as possible. Of course, Qian Tiandun does not really think that Shibazhi is capable of confronting him on Nanri Island for a month - even if their combat effectiveness is enough to compete with Haihan, it will be difficult to organize an effective maritime supply line to maintain their participation in the war. personnel needed for combat operations. If Shibazhi really wanted to give it a try, Qian Tiandun would not hesitate to let his eight warships teach the pirates what real maritime guerrilla warfare was.
The day after the order was issued, a navy patrol ship had a brief exchange of fire with Shiba Zhi's ship at sea. However, when the opponent discovered that the native cannon on his ship could not even reach one-fifth of the opponent's range, he decisively turned the ship's bow and ran eastward. The patrol boats had no intention of pursuing them. The order they received was to drive away to prevent these pirate ships from easily approaching Nanri Island for reconnaissance.
Five days later, the Haihan warship cruising in the outer sea discovered that the pirate ships belonging to Shibazhi began to gather near Meizhou Island in the south, seemingly intending to cut off the sea channel between Nanri Island and Quanzhou. Qian Tiandun believed that this was a signal that Shibazhi was about to launch an attack, so he ordered the naval combat ships to withdraw all their activities to within five nautical miles of Nanri Island, while other logistics ships retreated north to more than ten nautical miles away. The front line of Pingtan Island is temporarily hiding.
On August 3, more than fifty sailing ships gathered in the waters near Meizhou Island. However, the opponent did not seem to have the intention to go north immediately for war, but continued to stay on Meizhou Island.
"With fifty ships, there should be thousands of people, but this small number of troops is definitely not enough for us." Qian Tiandun lay on the table and studied the charts while complaining: "They want to attack Nanri Island, at least they can We have to gather more than double the force.”
"My subordinates think that they haven't launched yet not only because they don't have enough troops, but also because they may be waiting for the Dutch." Takahashi Minami interjected from the side.
Qian Tiandun looked up at him, nodded and said, "What you said makes sense. If the Dutch really appear in this sea area, it's probably time for them to take action."
Takahashi Minami was eager to try and said: "I have always heard that these Dutch people are fierce and good at fighting. This time I finally have a chance to fight with them!"
Three days later, the Dutch's unique-looking sailboat finally appeared in the waters of Meizhou Island. According to the reconnaissance, the Dutch sent six sailing ships this time. Judging from the tonnage and the number of gun windows on the sides, their firepower level should be close to that of the Haihan Navy's "Exploration-class" warships, and slightly inferior to "Adventure Grade". This also reassured Qian Tiandun and others stationed on the island. Such a few ships were probably barely enough to deal with the Fujian Navy, but if they wanted to compete with the Haihan Navy, they were probably far behind.
But Qian Tiandun was not in a hurry to put the navy's warships on the frontal battlefield. After confirming the enemy's situation, except for leaving two "exploration-class" warships to continue to scout the enemy's situation on the periphery, all other ships also Withdrew to Pingtan Island and vacated the landing area on Nanri Island.
Qian Tiandun's battle plan was very simple, which was to let the enemy onto the island, and then use the flesh-and-blood mill of Nanri Village to consume the enemy's troops bit by bit. When they find that there is no hope of victory, the Haihan Navy will block their evacuation route from the sea and give them a second blow. However, the appearance of the Dutch may become a variable in this battle plan. After all, the six armed sailing ships are already a force that cannot be ignored. Haihan only has eight ships. He wants to intercept ten ships while fighting them. All of Bazhi's ships, except those of the Haihan Navy, have learned the clone technique.
On August 8, the fleet that had been stationed near Meizhou Island for many days finally moved and set off towards the north. At this time, nearly three months had passed since the Haihan Militia captured Nanri Island.
Although the two places were only about twenty nautical miles apart, due to the large scale of the fleet, it was already in the afternoon when the attacker's large force arrived outside the northern harbor of Nanri Island. Zheng Zhilong himself did not personally direct the battle. The leader was Zheng Zhihu, who wanted to take this opportunity to make amends for his past humiliation. The fleet sent by the Dutch East India Company to assist was led by an officer named van der Wegen. Take command.
In addition to his military position, Van der Wegen also has the identity of being the distant nephew of Chief Hans, and he had experience fighting on the European battlefield before coming to the Far East. Hans gave him this mission with the mentality of taking care of his own people. If Van der Wegen can achieve some results in this battle, then he can recommend this young and promising man to the company headquarters later. officer. Of course, Hans also considered the risk of fighting with the Haihan people, but serving as a soldier and eating food was originally a matter of wealth and wealth. Without risk, where would the credit come from? Van der Wegen is also very active on this matter. He also wants to see how capable this mysterious force that has been hiding behind Xu Xinsu is in military terms.
However, as agreed with Shibazhi, the Dutch will not undertake the task of landing on the island, but will only be responsible for vigilance at sea. If the Haihans attempted a naval battle, the Dutch fleet would be the main force in the engagement. In the field of naval warfare, the Dutch will not be afraid of anyone, even a rising star like Heihan.
Van der Wegen still felt a little regretful about this arrangement, because what he heard was that the Haihan army relied on fierce artillery fire to capture the stronghold on the island. Van der Wegen didn't quite believe the violent artillery fire described by Shiba Zhi. How could these bumpkin pirates who had never seen the market know what real violent artillery fire looked like! Of course, from their descriptions, Van der Wegen can confirm that the number of artillery equipped by the Haihan army is indeed quite large, and it is reasonable for Shibazhi to suffer a loss against them.
This time, Shibazhi spent a lot of money to temporarily buy 20 artillery pieces from Taiyuan Port to participate in the war. Because of its own shortage of gunners, Shibazhi also hired about 30 people from Taiyuan Port who could operate the artillery. Van der Wegen believes that these weapons should be enough to give Shibazhi a firepower advantage in the battle. If they still can't defeat the Haihan people, then they should really disband and go home to work as farmers.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, after confirming that there were no ships docked at the port, Shibazhi's fleet finally poured into the harbor on the north side of Nanri Island and occupied the only pier on the island without firing a shot. This easy victory greatly increased the confidence of the pirates, and some even wondered whether the garrison on the island had already withdrawn due to too much pressure. "They don't even have defenses at the dock, and the Haihan people are nothing more than that!" Although Van der Wegen's ship did not enter the port, the news quickly reached him through the flag, which lowered his expectations for this battle. A lot.
Zheng Zhihu was beaten to a pulp by the Haihan militia last time. This time he went to Nanri Island with extra caution. He first sent a small group of troops to the island and made sure that there was no ambush near the dock before letting the fleet dock. Tan Ma, who was responsible for the reconnaissance, went out to the vicinity of Nanri Village to observe the movements of the defenders.
Shibazhi dispatched a total of more than 80 large and small sailing ships this time, and more than 2,000 people participated in the battle. Although the scale did not seem to be comparable to the several large-scale battles that attacked Zhongzuo Suo in the past, the personnel and ships dispatched this time were all experienced After a certain screening process, the ships were all short-lived and fast, and the people were all old sea dogs who had been fighting in Fujian waters for many years. They could be regarded as the elite of the Eighteen Ships.
Of course, it's not that Zheng Zhilong doesn't understand that the more troops you have, the greater your control will be. It is said that Shibazhi still has tens of thousands of members, but even if so many people stay in Penghu, their daily consumption is an extremely staggering amount, let alone fighting. In the past two or three years, Shibazhi has suffered repeated defeats. Instead of benefiting from the war, it has incurred huge expenses and cannot make ends meet. If it weren't for the support of several smuggling routes in Northeast Asia, Shibazhi might have gone bankrupt and disbanded long ago.
The same is true for the attack on Nanri Island this time. Although there are many people, Shibazhi is unable to provide sufficient combat supplies. The number of troops dispatched is inversely proportional to the duration of the battle. The more troops are dispatched, the shorter the time they can fight on the battlefield. If the Eighteen Zhi are all out, they will probably have to go to Nanri Island. Take a day trip and then have to go home quickly. After weighing all aspects, it was finally decided to send troops - at least the logistics and supplies could support them in fighting on Nanri Island for more than ten days.
After all, the Shibazhi were just a group of pirates, and restrictions such as combat discipline were very lax. Just the landing and gathering of these people took more than an hour. By the time this stall was finished, the sky was slowly getting dark. Although Zheng Zhihu was also extremely dissatisfied with this situation, the only thing he was thankful for was that his opponent did not seize this opportunity to attack from Nanri Village. Otherwise, with such a messy situation on the dock, it would be basically impossible to organize an effective attack quickly. Fight back.
Seeing that the sky was getting dark, Zheng Zhilong also knew that he could no longer organize an offensive today, so he could only order to station on the spot. At the same time, he did not forget to send some hidden sentries to garrison on the outside.
But all this did not escape the surveillance of Nanri Village. When Shi Diwen was still stationed here, he personally designed and supervised the construction of a wooden lookout. This lookout was located in Nanri Village, with a height of seventeen meters. In addition to the height of Nanri Village itself, As long as you use a better telescope, you can basically have an unobstructed view of the northern part of Nanri Island, including the harbor.
Qian Tiandun had been watching the situation at the port from the observation deck since the afternoon. The chaos during the Shibazhi landing naturally did not escape his eyes. Seeing that his opponent gave up his plan to launch an offensive today because the time was too late, Qian Tiandun was actually a little disappointed.
After coming down from the observation deck, Qian Tiandun handed the binoculars to Gao Qiaonan: "Go and prepare. We will go out to the village for a walk in the evening."
"Night attack?" Takahashi Minami immediately became excited. This subject was practiced a lot when he was stationed in Annan, but it was almost never used in actual combat. Takahashi Minami had been looking forward to such an opportunity to test the results of his training on the battlefield.
Qian Tiandun nodded and said: "You go and notify the special operations company directly under the battalion headquarters to gather at midnight."
"Will my subordinates lead this operation?" Takahashi Minami asked tentatively with an expectant look on his face.
"You can lead the team in ordinary operations, but I will lead the team personally in this night attack." Qian Tiandun patted Gao Qiaonan on the shoulder and said: "Don't be disappointed. When you are capable enough, you will naturally hand over the task to You.”
There are some reasons why Qian Tiandun is so confident in night attack tactics. First of all, it is naturally because all the candidates for this special operations company were selected by him from the soldiers of the entire Annan Military Region. The quality of individual soldiers is generally good, and no one suffers from night blindness. Secondly, these people had received relatively systematic night attack combat training in Annan, and were also issued several domestic night vision devices - of course, they could only be used during combat, after all, the supporting battery life was limited. Although these are not high-end products, they are black technologies that are completely enough to defeat the opponent on the battlefield of this era.
When Shi Diwen left a few days ago, he specially left a set of American night vision equipment for Qian Tiandun. The ANVIS-9 was the most commonly used equipment by US Air Force pilots in the time before the time travel. You get what you pay for in military products, and imported products, which are ten times more expensive than domestic products, do have an advantage in imaging quality. After Qian Tiandun tried it, he was already thinking about finding an opportunity to wear this thing to the battlefield for actual combat.
Qian Tiandun specifically notified his subordinates several hours in advance so that they could have sufficient rest time to recharge before going out. Half an hour before the operation, Qian Tiandun gathered all the officers above the squad leader of the special operations company together, explained to them the general combat plan and combat intentions, and distributed some special equipment that needed to be used to them.
(End of chapter)