Chapter 1244: Blocking the front and copying later
Without destroying these barbed wire fences and roadblocks, the coalition forces would not be able to advance into the nearby villages. Although the distance was close enough that they could clearly see the muzzles of guns protruding from the holes in the houses, they still wanted to advance even further. Every foot is extremely difficult. The iron net split with machetes and axes was less than one-tenth of the entire roadblock, and the narrow gap could not accommodate too many people to break through. Everyone became the target of the Haihan Army's guns. A living target.
The person who was squeezed at the front didn't even have room to retreat, so he simply spread the shield in his hand on the barbed wire fence as a stepping stone. At that moment, someone nearby also imitated this and spread the shields piece by piece, trying to use this method. Cut a path through the barbed wire fence. However, when someone tried to step on it and push forward, they immediately became the focus of the crowd's fire. Even with a shield in hand, they could not block the fire from three directions at the same time. In an instant, they were beaten into a hornet's nest. Falling down in the middle of the barbed wire became the new stepping stone.
Although the coalition forces were advancing slowly at a speed visible to the naked eye, the casualties they paid for this were extremely staggering. Someone was shot and fell almost every second. The thick smell of blood mixed with the smell of gunpowder smoke made it more difficult for soldiers on both sides to breathe. However, seeing that the target was getting closer and closer, the red-eyed coalition forces did not want to fall short, and were still advancing slowly but firmly step by step.
The reason was that Haihan deployed too few troops on the front, resulting in insufficient firepower output, making it difficult to completely block the enemy's direct attack with several times the strength. However, Roger did not panic when faced with this situation. The worst plan he had made before the war was to be attacked by the enemy in the middle. But now it was far from giving up this position. As long as he gave the order, the two doors would be destroyed. The artillery can immediately beat the group of enemy troops outside into a pile of minced meat.
But Roger doesn't want to expose this last firepower point yet. He wants to leave a little hope for the enemy and stimulate them to continue to attack here tomorrow. Seeing that the enemy troops were breaking down the barricades outside little by little, Roger couldn't sit still anymore. He took his rifle and went up to the roof. He crawled on the eaves and set up the gun, slowly aiming at the officers in the enemy formation. .
Although Roger has not used the HK416 rifle for shooting training for some time due to limited ammunition stock, the gun still feels good in his hand, and he fired several bursts without missing a beat. Of course, with the crowded and chaotic situation on the other side, it was impossible for him to shoot from a high position and completely miss the target. He could definitely hit someone with a rough aim. Soon he spotted a senior officer under the enemy's rear army. His position could only be observed from a relatively high place. Looking at the way he kept giving orders, Roger judged that that person should be the enemy. The front-line commander slowly adjusted the muzzle of his gun and locked it in his crosshairs.
Roger pulled the trigger, and fired several bursts in succession among the chaotic gunfire, which did not attract anyone's attention, but the bullets accurately hit the target, knocking the senior officer off his horse. Regardless of life or death, Roger was basically certain that he would never be able to continue commanding on the battlefield.
This crucial kill soon had its effect. After a commotion in the enemy's rear, a signal came to withdraw the troops. The attack receded like a tide, leaving hundreds of corpses in the fields. Roger looked at the defensive roadblocks outside. About one-third of them had been destroyed by the enemy. If he had not taken action personally and allowed the battle to continue, the remaining defenses could have lasted for more than ten or twenty minutes at most. , the situation can be said to be quite dangerous.
"You have to prepare some grenades for emergency use tomorrow!" Roger muttered silently in his heart.
Grenades are nothing new in this era. Hand grenades loaded with black powder appeared on European battlefields in the 15th century. Starting from the 17th century, grenadiers specially trained to use grenades appeared in the armies of some European countries. In the 18th century In the early days of the First French Empire, the Grenadier Guards became an elite unit of Napoleon's Cavalry Regiment, responsible for protecting Napoleon's personal safety, and became the predecessor of the famous Grenadier Guards in the future.
Grenades have been installed in the Haihan Army for a long time. However, due to cost and production capacity, this highly lethal melee weapon has not been equipped on a large scale in the hands of every soldier. Instead, it has been equipped in small quantities at the squad and platoon level. . There is no grenadiers as a branch in the army, but officers usually select some strong soldiers for relevant grenade training. When the battle is fierce, this weapon can also be used to make up for the lack of firepower output.
Roger's originally prepared backup plan was to use the grenades in stock if a cold shot failed to produce results. Anyway, the artillery couldn't be unveiled until the last moment, so as not to alert the enemy and completely destroy the enemy's fighting spirit. .
Roger returned to the yard along the ladder, handed the gun to his orderly, and ordered: "Hurry up and organize the civilian workers to repair the damaged fortifications outside. Also, check if there are any living people outside, and bring back those who are not dead. , interrogate to see if anything can be gained.”
Roger turned around and called his adjutant to his side again, and asked with concern: "What are the casualties on our side?"
The adjutant lowered his voice and responded: "Reporting to the commander, our army currently has seven killed and twenty-nine wounded. Two of them are seriously injured and may not survive the night. The others have superficial injuries and are not seriously injured at the moment. ”
Although the Haihan Army had the advantage of the terrain and had houses used as bunkers to conduct ambush battles, after all, the strength of the troops was several times different. If they approached each other at close range and shot at each other, even with bunkers, casualties would inevitably occur. However, after half a day of continuous fighting, less than ten of our own troops were killed, and compared to the opponent's casualties, they were less than one-tenth. This result was considered very ideal, and the casualty rate was within an acceptable range.
At present, the injured personnel have basically left their positions and moved to the rear for bandaging and treatment. The bodies of the fallen personnel have also been collected, and funeral arrangements will be made after the war is over. As for the civilians responsible for transporting materials and personnel, there have been no casualties so far. The mood of the people in the rear is therefore relatively stable and has not been greatly affected by the crossfire from the front.
Roger was not very worried about this. After all, Tan Juren was still in charge at the rear. Although Tan Juren could not help at all with the marching and fighting, he was still fully capable of handling people's affairs, appeasing people's emotions during the war, and organizing logistics work. With him handling these complicated affairs at the rear, Roger didn't have to worry about everything and could concentrate as much as possible on the command of the war.
At this time, the sky was getting dark, and Roger figured that after his opponent withdrew his troops, it would be too late to regroup and launch the next wave of offensive, so he immediately sent an order to the rear to quickly bring up the prepared hot food. As he promised before, the food during the battle was full of oil and water, and many chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep had been slaughtered early in the morning for the enjoyment of the hard-working soldiers.
After the battle, the troops lying in ambush in the wild withdrew under the cover of night. Although they did not directly participate in the battle, they had to stay in the field for a whole day and had to be careful not to expose their whereabouts. This job was really hard. Moreover, we have to set off again before dawn tomorrow to set up an ambush at the predetermined location early, and the time we can withdraw to rest is only a few hours. After dinner, Tan Juren finished arranging the logistics affairs and went to the headquarters to see Roger in person to learn about today's actual battle situation from him: "I heard that the fight was very stalemate today, and the enemy almost broke through the defense line!"
"Don't worry, the enemy has already used eight points of force today. We have calculated at most five points of force here. The troops arranged to ambush in the wild and the fleet taking the retreat have not been used yet. They can attack There is a reason for us to release the water nearby. "Roger said very firmly: "I didn't go all out today. I just wanted to wait for their baggage to arrive and pack it all up tomorrow."
Tan Juren did not doubt Roger's ability, but he still warned carefully: "Then don't let it slip!"
"It's not us who are fooling around, it's the enemy." Roger shook his head and said: "They wanted to capture this place in one fell swoop through sneak attacks, but they hit a wall when they tried to implement it. The course of the battle must be very different from what they expected. . I deliberately concealed my strength because I didn’t want to scare them away too early. They must be hesitant now whether to continue the attack or to retreat as soon as possible. But even if they figured out how to withdraw, they would not have time to retreat to Johor tomorrow. ”
As Roger expected, the two coalition generals, Papen and Hogg, were very depressed about today's results. Especially Bapong, the last offensive was about to break through the enemy's defense line, but the deputy general he sent to supervise the battle was hit by a stray bullet, which directly caused the entire army to retreat. When they brought the man back, he was already vomiting blood, and he was breathing out more than he was breathing in. He died before the military doctor had time to dig out the bullet from his chest.
If the Haihan people's defense line could be broken, it would be worthwhile for this general to die. But unfortunately, his death only resulted in the retreat of the frontline troops. The three waves of offensive launched today can only be said to have achieved results in the end. Close to zero. The coalition troops had just withdrawn from the battlefield, and hundreds of civilians had already poured out of Haihan Village to collect the bodies and weapons of the coalition soldiers on the battlefield outside, and at the same time repair the severely damaged middle defenses.
The coalition forces no longer have the energy to launch the fourth wave of offensive in the dark night, and they can only watch Haihan's civilian workers constructing in the distance. After a night of repairs, the gap that was finally torn today will probably disappear.
Hogg, who was ashen-faced, said: "We have lost one-tenth of all our troops today, but we haven't even touched the wall of Haihan Village. We can't withdraw our troops like this, otherwise we will definitely be stepped on by the Haihan people in the future." Come on! General Papong, have our artillery arrived at the camp?”
"We're here." After hearing what the translator said, Ba Pong remained expressionless, probably because he had not yet recovered from the shock of his deputy general's death.
"Then let's use artillery to fight the Haihan people tomorrow!" Hogg said bitterly: "There seems to be no artillery deployed on the Haihan people's position. This is good news for us. We must let them do it tomorrow. Try it! It’s awesome!”
Ba Peng felt a little worried in his heart. It was said that Haihan's weapons had excellent performance, especially the naval warships' cannon fire was very sharp. They have thousands of troops stationed here, so how come they don't even have a single artillery piece? But if they are equipped with artillery, why do they still insist on not using large-scale weapons in today's passive battle situation, but only using rifles to resist? Isn't this asking for trouble?
Babon could not give a reasonable explanation for this contradiction, but he also agreed with Hogg's idea. After working so hard to transport the artillery to the battlefield, could it be that the artillery was withdrawn without firing? There's no way to explain it to your superiors when you go back. Don't talk about military achievements then, you might even be accused of poor command. So no matter what, Ba Peng also had a desperate mentality to see how the Haihan people could cope with the artillery offensive. Although the walls of the houses in the village can block musket bullets, they will never be able to block the powerful and heavy artillery shells. When the time comes to use cannons to destroy the houses outside the village, those who are hiding in the dark and firing guns will naturally be unable to attack. Broken.
However, the artillery was transported over long distances, and due to transportation conditions, the amount of ammunition that could be used was relatively limited. Therefore, this strategy of bombarding Haihan had to be used as sparingly as possible. If you still can't get in after firing the shells, you really need to consider giving up this operation.
Although they were still a little uneasy, neither Hogg nor Bapen could think of a better tactic at the moment, and could only pin their hopes on the big killer weapon of artillery. After the two had a simple dinner, they each led a team to inspect the camp and set up outer sentries. This place is currently under the control of Haihan. Although the coalition forces have the advantage, the battlefield is full of mud, and they dare not engage in any actions such as stealing camps in the dark. Instead, they need to be careful of the Haihan army and dig out at night. Counterattack.
After the two of them went back to their tents and lay down, they were thinking about how to arrange the offensive tomorrow morning. However, they did not know that the first battle to start the next morning was not the main battlefield in front of them.
In the early morning of the next day, when the sky was just a little bright, an armed fleet with red and blue flags appeared on the water in the Strait of Johor. The reinforcements led by Mu Xiabai spent the night resting on a coast more than ten miles away last night, and early this morning they headed straight for the crossing point of the Johor Army. Mu Xiabai knew that the sooner he dealt with the Johor Army here, the sooner he could end the war. He personally steered the ship all the way, and it turned out to be much faster than the local navy who came over from the west at the appointed time.
The night sentry of the Johor Army did not even detect the fleet in time. It was not until it broke through the morning fog and appeared on the water less than a hundred feet offshore that the sentry finally realized what had happened and hurriedly sounded the alarm gong.
(End of chapter)