Chapter 874 Attacking Zhoushan
Haihan's operations in Zhejiang had clear operational objectives, but because there were too many uncontrollable variables in off-site operations, neither the Executive Committee nor the Military Commission set a strict time limit for this. With an obvious advantage, Qian Tiandun was unwilling to let his troops launch an attack overnight, which would only bring more casualties to the Haihan militia. Therefore, after completing the clearing work of the artillery shooting field, the militia's front retreated for a while and set up camp on the seaside about two miles southeast of the fort.
Even though they were in the field, the living conditions of senior officers were as comfortable as possible. In addition to separate living tents, there was also a special cooking class to set up small stoves for them to ensure that they could eat the freshest food every day. According to the officers Food cooked to our personal taste.
Shi Diwen took his time and used his knife and fork to cut a piece of black pepper steak on the plate, then put the tender beef into his mouth and chewed it slowly. The tableware and seasonings used here are all brought from the Sanya base camp, and the steaks are cattle bought locally by the Sanlin Gang. The best parts are cut separately as a special gift to the chief, and the remaining parts are for the soldiers. As a comfort food, this combination of beef and potatoes is a dish that will be loved by soldiers no matter in which era and country.
In addition to not being able to drink alcohol due to the special environment, the food quality here is actually no worse than that of Sanya or other military bases. This kind of logistical support capability makes Xu Yuzhuo, who enjoys the benefits while riding on the bus, envious. Although the equipment and treatment of the Ming army under his command were better than those of the Ming army in other provinces, it was impossible for him, including himself, to enjoy such good conditions during the war. Fortunately, the Haihan Militia has always been very generous to friendly commanders, so this errand was a rare gourmet trip for Xu Yuzhuo. He could also have a portion of the food ordered by the Haihan people, and he had tasted it for more than half a month. Less good stuff.
"My chef studied in Penghu for a month, and I bought all the seasonings from you. Why can't he make such a good taste?" Xu Yuzhuo sighed as he ate. His belly was bigger than before he left Fujian, which was one of the gains from this business trip.
"Is this good?" Qian Tiandun smiled and replied: "To be honest, compared with Chef Fan from Fort Victory, there is still a gap in skills. And the chefs we brought this time are probably Chef Fan's disciples and grandchildren. Yes, the food they cook may not be as high as those in restaurants in Sanya. After all, most of the master chefs there are Chef Fan’s apprentices.”
The Chef Fan mentioned by Qian Tiandun is Fan Wei, the only one among the time-travelers with a chef level certificate. The senior technician professional qualification certificate he brought to this time and space was even framed and framed. Every time he accepted an apprentice He would hang it out for the disciples to look at. In the five or six years since time travel, Fan Wei has taught more than a hundred disciples, and even more disciples and grandchildren. However, the gap in cooking skills is not because Fan Wei is hiding something or his apprentices lack talent, but because the various cooking techniques and seasonings used by Fan Wei are very novel to the cooks of this era and cannot be understood in a short time. You can only memorize the cooking methods taught by Fan Wei, and the food you produce will inevitably be inferior.
Xu Yuzhuo sighed: "It's no wonder that many people don't want to leave after visiting Sanya. It's worth staying there just for the enjoyment of eating and drinking."
"With the capture of Zhoushan Island, the situation will no longer cause major disturbances. Then we will go to Sanya to rest for a while and see the newly built resort there. I think you will like it very much." Qian Tiandun said with a smile.
For the Ming army that followed the Haihan fleet on this expedition, there were actually no too dangerous combat missions. The main tasks were to escort supplies and garrison the occupied areas. The people on the front line during the battle are the Haihan militia, and there is no need to worry that Haihan will use them as cannon fodder. In addition to having to bear part of the military expenses and spending a lot of money, this errand was actually relatively easy for them.
However, to capture Zhoushan Island, even with the Fujian Ming army temporarily under the unified command of Haihan, it would be difficult to completely control such a large area. It is obviously unrealistic to continue to draw the Ming army from Fujian to set up defenses. After all, the Ming army coming this time is essentially Xu's private army, and it is almost in full strength. Even if Xu Xinsu was brave, he would not dare to easily mobilize ordinary Ming troops across provinces to Zhejiang. Doing so would be tantamount to rebellion.
The strength of the Haihan militia was not much better. Although the Haihan military had been recruiting new soldiers in the first half of 1633 before the war, the scale of the militia still could not keep up with the expansion of Haihan territory. Just for the Taiwan Island area that was just captured in the first half of the year, the Military Commission believed that it was necessary to deploy one battalion in the south and one in the north. Although the Zhoushan Islands are not as large as Taiwan Island, considering that the bridgehead needs to be pushed thousands of miles north, if more troops are not deployed in this enclave, let alone the Military Commission, even the Executive Committee believes that Safety cannot be ensured.
If it is temporarily unable to deploy enough troops to ensure regional security in the Zhoushan Islands area, the best solution the military can think of is to eliminate the local armed forces as much as possible and eliminate potential dangers in advance. This is why Haihan does not want to One of the reasons for negotiating peace with local forces while having the upper hand. At present, all the people from the three camps of officials, civilians, and bandits of the local leading party have been recruited. The command headquarters believes that there is no need to recruit new leading parties into its own camp. This is likely to cause problems in the current unstable situation. Conflicts are created in one's own camp. After all, after these leading parties join their own camp, they will definitely exclude other competitors with similar attributes to themselves in order to ensure their own status.
Of course, it is impossible for Haihan to wipe out all the tens of thousands of people in the Zhoushan Islands. However, after the war, the local residents must be identified and relocated. For those whose identities are potentially at risk, those who should be sent to labor camps must be sent, and the rest can be scattered and sent to various colonies in Southeast Asia, and then some new immigrants from Hainan Island and Guangdong and Guangxi will be moved to fill this area. In addition, some of the immigrants transported back from the north in the future will also be left in Zhoushan to enrich the population.
This complicated population allocation plan will undoubtedly consume a lot of maritime transport capacity, and the resettlement costs will also be huge. However, in order to ensure Haihan's stable rule in these newly occupied areas as much as possible, complex immigration methods are also necessary. measures.
At midnight that night, unwilling to admit defeat, the Zhoushan boat gang also attempted a night attack, but the effect was not satisfactory. The Haihan militia set up many bonfires about fifty meters away from the camp, making it difficult for the attackers to hide. . After detecting human activity, the sniper on duty can then use the firelight to aim at the target and shoot. After trying several times but being discovered early, he could only leave a dozen corpses behind and retreat into the darkness.
After daybreak, the Haihan Militia moved out of the camp. Two companies of infantry protected the artillery and artillery vehicles in the middle, and slowly marched north. Today, in addition to the army, Haihan's troops went into battle, and even some combat personnel from the navy landed to participate in the battle. Of course, this part of the navy is not the sailors responsible for driving warships or the gunners operating naval guns, but the marine team affiliated with the navy.
But even including the combatants on land, the number of combatants in the Haihan battle was still just over a thousand. Logically speaking, it was not enough to attack this county, but considering that the opponent's combatants also had A considerable part is deployed at sea, and the command headquarters believes that such a force is enough to deal with the enemy's power on land. After a whole day of demolition yesterday, the outside of the castle has turned into a large piece of rubble. In order to prevent the opponent from setting up an ambush in the ruins, Takahashi Nan had to let the elite soldiers of the reconnaissance platoon inspect the area before allowing artillery and heavy equipment to enter.
Perhaps it was the night attack last night that caused the Zhoushan Boat Gang to lose the confidence to go out to fight in the city. When Haihan deployed the artillery position, the opponent only carried out symbolic harassment. After standing in the distance and shooting a few arrows, Haihan was quickly attacked. The musket array was forced back.
At the same time, the last maritime force of the Zhoushan Ship Gang encountered Haihan's main fleet near Dinghai Bay. Although they had an absolute advantage in the number of ships, and the number of ships participating in the battle was at least three times that of Haihan, the combat power of both sides was It's just the opposite. As soon as the two sides engaged in battle, the Haihan fleet opened fire and rained bullets, making the Zhoushan gang's sailboats howl like ghosts and wolves.
The "Enterprise" also fully demonstrated its advantages in tonnage and hull strength at this time. It did not avoid the small boat that came to intercept it and directly rammed it. Relying on the huge kinetic energy, the huge metal collision angle of the ship's bow easily tore apart the opponent's hull, and then squeezed it into a pile of fragments.
For the Zhoushan Ship Gang, who seriously lacked long-range heavy weapons, this battle was definitely an unforgettable nightmare for the sailors. Facing the shells continuously fired by the Haihan warship, they had almost no effective counterattack means. It can rely on weapons such as cannons, cannons, and bows with extremely limited range and accuracy to attack opponents. However, under the wind and waves of the sea, it is difficult for these weapons that cannot maintain the density of fire to hit the Haihan warship nearly 100 meters away. Even if a few hits hit the target, the thick planks of the Haihan warship are enough to withstand the attacks of these primitive weapons.
Especially ships equipped with earth cannons, once they open fire, they will immediately attract a concentrated fire attack from the Haihan warships, destroying the ship and killing people almost instantly. After discovering the disadvantage of attracting firepower, the ships originally equipped with earth cannons immediately gave up using this weapon that would bring bad luck to them.
In less than a stick of incense after the two sides came into contact, the situation had already entered a state where Haihan was beating his opponent. After capsizing more than ten ships, the Zhoushan Ship Gang began to have ships adjust their direction and sail to the outside of the battlefield. This was obviously not preparing to outflank Haihan's retreat, but planning to run away.
Once someone has the idea of escape, it will spread quickly on the battlefield like an infectious disease. Seeing someone taking the lead in turning the ship around and escaping, those still on the battlefield inevitably had an escape mentality. From the sporadic U-turn of two or three ships to the widespread rout, the time interval in between was very short. Even before the Haihan fleet had time to react, the pirate ships fled in all directions.
"Is this... an escape?" Shi Diwen was still a little unbelievable when he observed this situation on the flagship. He originally thought that since the Zhoushan Ship Gang still had the courage to assemble men and horses for the final decisive battle, they should still have a strong will to fight. , but now the opponent's ship has only lost 23/10, and they have already chosen to give up, which is a bit beyond his expectation.
What Shi Diwen didn't know was that most of the Zhoushan Boat Gang's maritime elite had been lost in the naval battle near Zhujiajian Island a few days ago. More than half of the ships that were killed and sunk in that battle were Wang Jialin's private property. At the same time, they are also a group of warships with the best conditions in the gang. Many of the ships out in Dinghai Bay today were borrowed by Wang Jialin from various pirates in the East China Sea, including people and ships. Naturally, they are not as easy to use as his own.
At the same time, Haihan's actions on the shore also kicked off. It was still the standard Haihan style siege method. He first bombarded the city wall with heavy artillery and swept away the fortifications and weapons on the city wall. Although the Zhoushan Ship Gang also has several treasures deployed on the city wall, both the performance of the artillery and the quality of the gunners are far from being comparable to Haihan's artillery unit. After ten rounds of bombardment by more than a dozen artillery pieces, the southern wall of the fortress had become incomplete. Several gun emplacements had received special attention, and even the crenellations on the wall had been leveled. As for the several artillery pieces of the Zhoushan Ship Gang, they had been blown away together with the gunners.
Wang Jialin, who was supervising the battle in the city, knew that the situation was over. Without waiting for Haihan to send troops into the city, he led his people to escape hastily from the north gate and went directly to the mountains. The Haihan Militia had limited troops, and in order to prevent the opponent from setting up an ambush in the mountains, they did not pursue the enemy immediately, but entered the city first to occupy the fortress.
However, the preliminary post-war inventory disappointed the commanders. The Zhoushan Boat Gang obviously transferred important property in the city in advance, so they were unable to find any valuable seizures in the city like they did in Shipusuo City.
After hearing the news, Qian Tiandun not only shook his head and said: "This Wang Jialin is simply seeking death!"
Xu Yuzhuo, who was watching the battle with the army, asked in confusion: "Why did General Qian say this?"
"If he didn't take away all his belongings, we would have paid almost the same amount, so we wouldn't be in a hurry to arrest him." Qian Tiandun explained: "But what he did was force us to do nothing but Catch him as soon as possible.”
(End of chapter)