Chapter 819 Suppression
"Let the guys in the blacksmith shop move more quickly. It's during the war. Don't tell me that you can't do it!" Alcarazo yelled angrily: "I'll arrest anyone who doesn't obey orders!"
The city of Salvador has insufficient ammunition reserves, which will cause the current advantage gained by the defenders on the defense line not to last for long. Alcarazo was anxious and could only order the concentration of iron tools in the city to cast cannonballs. After this order, the city naturally became a chaotic scene. Some want to take advantage of this opportunity to fish in troubled waters to make money for the country, while others are unwilling to sacrifice their personal interests and hand over the ironware at home. The only blacksmith shop in the city currently only has apprentices and no masters. When encountering such an unexpected situation, it is even more confused and the progress is slow.
Alcarazo didn't dare to think about how effective this temporary measure could be. Now it was a moment. If the Haihan people showed no signs of retreating after the shells were fired, then everyone might have to think about something else. solution. However, while thinking of ways to raise more ammunition, Alcarazo did not forget to give orders to the troops outside the city, asking them to slow down the frequency of shelling, and even consider putting the Haihan people ashore before attacking.
"Are you kidding!" The frontline commander sneered at the suggestion from Alcala's life-seeker. The artillery battle just now had made the defenders fully aware of the advantages of the Haihan Army in the performance of long-range weapons. Their naval guns were better than their own. The coastal defense artillery is still powerful, but it suffers from being unable to maintain stable aiming due to the undulating waves on the sea. If the Haihan Army is allowed to go ashore, then their own artillery positions may soon be named by the opponent's artillery.
Of course, the commander also realized that there was not much ammunition left, and the frequency of shelling had to be slowed down. But this means that Haihan's warships can fire more unscrupulously from the sea and attack the limited number of shore defense artillery on the coast.
Half an hour later, the Haihan fleet, which had circled the sea, returned to the coast of Sheliao Island and launched a second round of bombardment against the Spanish defense line. This time the Spanish counterattack was obviously much sparser than when the war first started, and it caused much less trouble to Haihan.
"What are the Spaniards doing?" Takahashi Minami naturally noticed this situation, but he did not think of the real reason for this change for a while.
Although there are no very clear statistics on the results of the battle, Takahashi Minami concluded that at least two-thirds of the artillery on the opponent's defense line can currently operate normally, and the current counterattack with no guns is indeed a bit abnormal. With the current frequency and density of shelling, the special operations battalion can directly implement the landing, but Takahashi Nan is still a little worried that the opponent has some dirty tricks. Maybe he hopes that the Haihan Army will launch a landing and then attack halfway. He couldn't have imagined that not long after the war started, the Spaniards had to carefully plan the use of limited ammunition.
In the past, Gao Qiaonan might have taken this risk to launch an offensive, but before this expedition, Qian Tiandun specifically told him that in this independent command of the battle to attack the Taipei area, he must be safe first. If there is any uncertainty, Where there is, just use force to destroy it without risking your life. Thinking of this, Takahashi Minami ordered to continue to implement the current tactics, intending to use artillery fire to destroy the defense lines on the shore as much as possible before launching a landing. Of course, he still ordered the expedition-class warships with stronger hulls to advance closer to the shore to shorten the shooting distance and increase the pressure on the coastal defenders.
After the fleet further approached the coastline, the hit rate indeed improved slightly. In the second round of bombardment, many shells directly hit the Spanish defense line, causing a certain degree of damage. For the Spanish infantry who have been passively beaten, the current passive situation is something they have never encountered in the past few years. Needless to say the local indigenous tribes, even the original armed conflict with the Dutch was not so unilateral. The ground was beaten.
However, due to the shortage of ammunition, the Spanish army could no longer use the original bombardment tactics. They could only grit their teeth and endure the continuous bombardment of Haihan naval guns. At present, they can only hope that the Haihan Army's ammunition reserves are also limited, and they will evacuate here after the battle.
Of course, this was just a delusion of the Spaniards out of helplessness. Not only did the Haihan Army not worry about the consumption of ammunition, after Takahashi Minami discovered that the shore defense firepower was unable to counterattack, he simply ordered the expedition-class warships to stay on the shore. While carrying out the bombardment, the troop transport slowly moved closer to the coast in preparation for the official landing.
At one o'clock at noon, two troop transport ships, under the cover of four expedition-class warships, approached the dock on the shore and began to land. At this time, the Spanish defense line had completely lost the initiative. Half of the ten artillery positions had been silenced. Nearly one-third of the infantry deployed on the defense line had lost their combat effectiveness. The counterattacks they could carry out were far less powerful than those at the beginning of the war. when. However, the Spaniards' will to fight has not collapsed. There is no order to retreat within the city, and they will continue to stick to this only line of defense outside the city.
Sun Zhen was fortunate enough to be among the first Haihan soldiers to set foot on Sheliao Island, but facing the stray bullets fired from the enemy's defense line a hundred meters away, he couldn't care less about being excited about this honor. Under the loud shouts of the platoon leader, the infantrymen who landed ashore dispersed and marched forward in a roundabout posture. This combat method is completely different from the formation rotation shooting tactics used by other Haihan Army units. It is a tactic specially designed by Qian Tiandun for the special operations battalion. Although some soldiers thought that such a gesture was too insignificant and not impressive enough, the actual combat results told them that the leader's decision was still as wise as ever. This seemingly cumbersome and chaotic way of marching on the battlefield can effectively reduce the hit rate of enemy artillery.
The pressure on the Spanish defense line was already very high. They originally thought that simple fortifications could prevent the enemy infantry from landing, but then they discovered that the enemy had no intention of regrouping after landing and forming regular musketeers. The formation launches another attack. As a result, the defender's original tactic of using volleys of guns to attack when the enemy troops gathered was basically in vain. When they fired at sparse skirmishers at a distance of 100 meters, most of the ammunition was wasted.
The few remaining artillery pieces were no longer able to form a sufficient deterrent to the Haihan Army. The Haihan Fleet even unscrupulously anchored at the port so that the naval guns could fire in a more stable state, thereby increasing the hit rate. At present, the gap in the number of artillery pieces still in operation between the two sides has widened to nearly ten to one. Under such circumstances, let alone exerting their combat effectiveness, the countdown has begun for the few remaining artillery pieces to be called out one by one. At the same time that the first infantry company completed the landing, the concentrated fire of the naval gun hit a gunpowder barrel next to a gun emplacement on the defenders' defense line. The violent explosion knocked out the six gunners on the emplacement together with the artillery. This finally led to a psychological breakdown among the defenders. Ignoring the angrily scolding of the officer, some soldiers began to turn around and retreat into the city. The collapse of some defense lines quickly triggered a chain reaction. More and more soldiers discovered that their own defense lines were no longer able to withstand the enemy's artillery attacks. If they did not evacuate this dangerous area, they would wait until the few remaining gun positions were cleared. After that, the infantry was completely exposed to enemy artillery fire.
"The Spaniards are scared!" Takahashi Minami also breathed a sigh of relief after confirming this scene through the telescope. Of course he would not doubt the ability of his troops to take down this line of defense, but if the losses and consumption in this process were too large, it would inevitably affect the subsequent siege battles. But so far, both ammunition consumption and casualties are far lower than Takahashi Minami expected, because he was originally prepared to deal with opponents who had received the news and were fully prepared for war. Although the offensive was delayed for two days due to weather, the Spaniards, who were also affected by the weather, were not able to take advantage of these two days. The defense line they deployed only lasted for more than half a day before it was broken.
At the same time, Spanish commander Alcarazo, who was watching the battle at the top of the city, was furious: "These shameful deserters! Traitors! I will send these cowards to the gallows in the name of the governor of El Salvador!"
Of course, Alcarazo's anger could only remain verbal. Salvador's military strength was already limited. Punishing a large number of deserters at this unfavorable juncture of the war would most likely accelerate the collapse of the will of the armed forces in the city to resist. If he really wanted to send these soldiers who had escaped from the defensive line outside the city to the gallows, he would undoubtedly be forcing them to rebel before the battle.
"Where are Fernandez and his men? The Haihan people have landed, why hasn't he led his troops to attack? What on earth is he waiting for!" Alcarazo, who was almost falling into despair, was already panicking and even gave up the hope of saving the city of El Salvador. On three armed sailing ships at sea.
Of course, Fernandez also noticed that the Haihan Army launched a landing operation, but he did not dare to act rashly under the surveillance of the other party. He knew that as long as his three ships dared to approach Sheliao Island, the three Haihan warships monitoring him on the distant sea would immediately outflank his retreat. He watched the battle at sea for a long time and had a relatively clear understanding of the firepower output of the Haihan warships. He also knew that the three ships under his command were by no means a match for the Haihan fleet. If you enter the battlefield rashly and are attacked from both sides by the opponent, you will have to shed your skin even if you don't die.
Seeing that the Haihan Army relied on the powerful ship-based firepower output to destroy its own coastal defense line that was originally thought to be able to sustain at least three to five days, Fernandez did not dare to command his subordinates to enter the battlefield. If the Haihan Army's ship-based firepower was focused on attacking the coastal defense line just now, now they have enough energy to return their attention to the sea. If you try to push forward at this time, you are basically courting death.
Although Fernandez is not a man who is greedy for life and afraid of death, he is definitely not a reckless man who cannot see clearly the situation on the battlefield. Although the war had only lasted half a day, he had already felt the overwhelming superiority of the Haihan Army. At this time, Fernandez understood why the Portuguese and Dutch were silent after suffering losses at the hands of Haihan. They must have suffered an overwhelming blow like this. It would be too embarrassing to announce it, but keeping it secret may use Haihan's power to trick other unsuspecting forces - such as the Spaniards at this moment.
Fernandez really couldn't understand why an armed force like Haihan suddenly appeared in the Far East, and its combat effectiveness was so powerful. Of course, if the main force of the Spanish Royal Fleet is here, it will not be a big problem to defeat the Haihan fleet head-on. But now we only have three ships, let alone sniping the enemy's landing operation, even if we want to get close Harassment is difficult to achieve. If he knew that Alcarazor was eagerly looking forward to his armed fleet being able to rescue the city of El Salvador, then he would probably really say "thinking too much" to Alcarazor.
After defeating the defenders' coastal defenses, the Haihan Army slowed down its offensive pace and began to build beachheads near the coast, unloading heavy weapons and ammunition onto the shore one by one. The city of Salvador is about one kilometer west of the pier. As long as the waterway is cut off, attacking this castle is like catching a turtle in a jar. Gao Qiaonan's mission at this time did not have a clear time limit. Qian Tiandun's requirement for him was to be steady, even if it was slow, and never go wrong when he independently commanded a campaign-level mission for the first time.
Since stability is the priority, Gao Qiaonan naturally has to implement it step by step according to the army's regular siege warfare procedures. Although the combat environment that the special operations battalion is good at does not include head-on siege warfare on the frontal battlefield, this does not mean that the special operations battalion will not engage in siege warfare. It is just that in the past, senior military officials were less likely to hand over such tasks. Give it to the special operations battalion, an ace unit that specializes in mountain and jungle field operations. This attack on the Taipei area actually required completing the attack on two armed strongholds, which was also a big challenge for the special operations battalion.
It did not take much effort to capture the city of Santo Domingo at the mouth of the Tamsui River. The special operations battalion perfectly performed tasks such as setting up peripheral ambushes to round up the defenders' messengers and sniping the defenders' generals to promote surrender. The city defense of Salvador City is more complete and stronger than that of Santo Domingo City, and the difficulty of attacking the city is also significantly greater. Of course, this is a conclusion that does not take into account the tight ammunition situation of the defenders. Otherwise, Takahashi Nan is likely to Change your strategy and speed up your attack on Salvador City.
As the defenders watched in fear, the Haihan Militia did not launch another offensive towards the city of Salvador for the rest of the day, and had been silently transporting various combat supplies to the shore. In the evening of the same day, observers on the city noticed that the giant siege gun claimed by Gersmann appeared on the pier, which was undoubtedly another bad news for the defenders.
(End of chapter)