Chapter 1362 The Last Fight
Takahashi Nan knew that there must be a large number of cavalry in the city. What he wanted to do was to try to force these cavalry out and then use long-range firepower to deal with them. Therefore, he was not in a hurry to launch a general attack on the fortress, but slowly applied pressure, hoping to disrupt the position of the defenders in the city. Judging from the opponent's response to sending cavalry out of the city to attack, such oppressive tactics have indeed achieved certain results. The Hou Jin Army was obviously incapable of dealing with powerful infantry like the Haihan Special War Camp, and they were unwilling to give up this fortress, so they naturally fell into a dilemma.
"Battal Commander, since the Hou Jin Army cannot hold out, will they seal the city gate with stones from the city?" The staff officer standing behind Gao Qiaonan raised a possibility. If the Hou Jin army sealed the city gate, it would be difficult for Haihan's artillery attack from the front to be effective. Even if these small-caliber artillery bombarded for several days and nights, it would be difficult to completely collapse the city wall.
Gao Qiaonan shook his head and said: "They probably didn't work so hard. Blocking the city gate means cutting off a way out. This city only has two gates, north and south. If the south side is blocked, then if the north side is also blocked, the city's The cavalry can only wait to die."
Takahashi Minami still had a subtext that he didn't say. If the other party's commander was really that stupid, then the next thing would be easier to handle. The only thing Haihan was afraid of was the mobility of the Houjin Cavalry. If the opponent stuck to the castle and gave up attacking, it would be tantamount to self-inflicted harm. Using foot to foot, even if the opponent has a castle to defend, it will be much easier for the Haihan army to deal with than the cavalry.
Although the special operations battalion had won two battles in a row with the Houjin Cavalry, Takahashi Nan still did not dare to take it lightly. While occupying the south side of Zhongzuo Suo City, he asked the cavalry troops to spread out to check whether the nearby area was safe. There was also an ambush from Houjin, and they were also on guard against the Houjin cavalry in the city who would circle around from the north gate to launch an attack.
After preparing a complete response, the artillery continued to launch shelling at the south gate of Zhongzuo City at a stable frequency. Although the cannonballs still cannot penetrate the city gate, the damage caused to the city gate by each shelling is increasing at a speed visible to the naked eye. The cracks on the door gradually expanded with the shelling, and it seemed that it was only a matter of time before it was shattered.
Before the war, Takahashi Minami didn't quite understand why the higher-ups didn't arrange heavy siege artillery for this part of the battle. It was obvious that they didn't have to work so hard to blast open the city gate. At first, he thought it might be because of the inconvenience of transportation and supplies, but only on the battlefield did he realize that this was actually closely related to Haihan's combat purpose. If heavy siege artillery is used and the city gate is destroyed with one shot, then the Houjin army in the city will inevitably lose their fighting spirit and disperse. This will not be able to complete Haihan's wish to kill as many local Houjin garrison as possible. Planned. Although using small-caliber artillery requires more effort, it has the effect of boiling a frog in warm water. It makes the opponent fear that the city gate will be breached, but is reluctant to give up resistance. In this difficult-to-decision situation, the last chance to escape is lost. Good timing.
The Houjin army in the city is currently in this situation. If at the beginning of the war, Muteb chose to let all the elites in the city join together to attack the advancing Haihan army formation, it might not be possible. The power of a battle. Or, after realizing the disparity in strength between the two sides, decisively sealing the south gate, leaving only a small number of infantry to hold on in the city, and letting the cavalry go out of the city to provide support, this would also be a defensive plan. However, due to the heavy losses in the previous confrontation, Muteb became fearful and chose to let all the remaining infantry and cavalry troops stay in the city to hold on, which took advantage of his opponent's wishes.
Although Muteb's hesitation was not too long, it actually allowed the Haihan Army outside the city to make arrangements calmly, and it was already too late to respond now. The order he received was to defend this place, so he did not dare to give up the city in Zhongzuo, and the response measures he chose in the end had already fallen into the Haihan Army's predictions.
This time, Muteb handed over the important task of city defense to his deputy Doro, who led 500 people to stay in the city to defend it. He himself led most of the remaining cavalry out of the city from the north gate, and then went around to In the south of the city, there was another fight with the Haihan army. This is basically a desperate move. If the cavalry is defeated again, it will be basically impossible for the 500 infantrymen and other Houjin civilians who have no combat effectiveness to escape from the Zhongzuosuo City.
Of course, if he is defeated in the end, even if he can escape here, it will be difficult to explain to his superiors after returning to the Golden State Guard City in the north. He will probably be charged with "poor command". It may even affect Muteb's tribe, so he must fight to the death on the battlefield and strive to repel Haihan's offensive.
"Doro, if I die in battle, you can try to take this dagger back for me and give it to my family." Muteb took off a dagger from his waist and handed it to his deputy. He said solemnly: "In my home The property shall be divided equally between the eldest son and the younger son.”
Muteb's dagger was nothing special, it was just a horn-tipped knife. It was neither inlaid with gems nor decorated with gold or silver. It was just a portable weapon that had been with him for many years. But by making such an entrustment, he showed that he was extremely unfavorable about the current war situation, and at the same time, he also showed his determination to fight to the death to his deputy. Another purpose is to let Doro bring back the story of his heroic death in case of death in battle, so that he can at least change his family and tribe's life and avoid being implicated.
Doro did not dissuade Muteb, but took the dagger from him with a cautious look. Slowly insert it into your belt. As his deputy, he understood very well what Muteb's entrustment meant. For him, this was actually a gold medal to avoid death. If Muteb died outside the city, then in order to fulfill this mission, he must leave Lushunkou alive, so that he would not have to defend the city of Zhongzuo. But this is equivalent to Muteb entrusting his family and tribe to him. This burden is not much easier than fighting to the death on the battlefield.
After the two completed the handover, they did not dare to waste any more time. Doro led his men to temporarily reinforce the crumbling city gate, while Muteb quickly led the remaining hundreds of cavalry in the city out of the north gate.
However, at this time, the reconnaissance scope of the Haihan Cavalry had also included the north gate of Zhongzuo City. As soon as Muteb led the team out of the city gate, they were discovered by the nearby Haihan Scout Cavalry. A flare shot into the air. The flare flew more than ten feet into the air before suddenly exploding. The orange-red fireworks could be seen clearly from miles away.
"Sure enough, he slipped out from the north!" Gao Qiaonan quickly got the news and immediately made corresponding adjustments to the deployment. When the fireworks flare exploded in the air, Muteb, who had just left the city, naturally saw it. Although he could only see sparse Haihan Cavalry wandering in the distance, he knew that this meant that his whereabouts and intentions had been exposed. Haihan Cavalry used fireworks signals to send the news back to the position in the south of the city. He wanted to fight The raid battle was completely hopeless.
"I didn't expect that this battle would be fought so passively!" Muteb also felt helpless about the current battle situation. He believed that there was nothing wrong with his response from the beginning of the battle, but his opponent was obviously more prepared. That terrible The infantry musket array tactics were specially designed to massacre the rear Golden Cavalry.
After thinking about it in the city for so long, Muteb still couldn't figure out why the Haihan musket could fire continuously without reloading, but he at least figured out one thing. Haihan had never used anything like this in the previous battles in the past year. tactics and techniques, and this sudden change of tactics was probably just to lure the cavalry out of the city and kill them all. If hundreds of cavalry had not been added recently, the consumption of the first two battles alone would have indeed wiped out all the cavalry units deployed in Zhongzuo City.
Haihan changed his past combat strategy, preferring to fight head-on to defeat the rear Golden Cavalry. In Muteb's opinion, there is only one reason for this performance, and that is that the Haihan people are no longer satisfied with the small fights for more than a year. , but is preparing to officially launch an offensive in the Lushunkou area of Liaodong Peninsula, intending to stop and take root here.
This is not good news for Hou Jin. After Haihan took root in Shandong, it has caused a lot of trouble for Hou Jin. If this armed force is allowed to settle in Lushunkou, coupled with its strong maritime transportation capabilities , I'm afraid it won't take too long for the ownership of Lushunkou to change hands.
Muteb originally thought that even if the Haihan people wanted to take action against Lushunkou, they would probably wait until spring before taking action. He still had a few months to slowly make some arrangements here, but he did not expect that Haihan would rush there. At this time before the onset of winter, a wave of decisive offensive was launched. It is definitely too late to ask for help from Jinzhou Guard now. It is hundreds of miles away from Jinzhou Guard, and it is difficult for a fast horse to make the round trip in one day. Looking at the non-stop offensive of the Haihan Army, it was obvious that they no longer intended to let the battle continue until nightfall.
Muteb knew that there was no way the city in Zhongzuo could hold out until reinforcements arrived, so he simply did not hold out any hope. He led his army out of the city to meet the Haihan army, and he just planned to use the dead horse as a living horse doctor and concentrate on what he had. Use your maneuverability to make a last-ditch effort. It's just that the enemy's whereabouts were already known as soon as they left the city, and the chances of winning this battle would probably be reduced by several percent.
But even so, Muteb had no choice but to bite the bullet and take on the responsibility of guarding the territory. He ignored the Haihan cavalry slowly gathering in the distance, and instead led his team around the city to the south. He knew very well that there was nothing he could do against those Haihan cavalry at the moment, and the other party had no intention of using the cavalry as the main force in the battle. It was obviously only used for peripheral security and battlefield clearing. Basically, there was no need to expect to be able to fight the other party's cavalry head-on. A wave. But if his troops were in trouble, he knew that these Haihan cavalry would pounce on them like hungry wolves, just like they had hunted down the scattered survivors of the Houjin cavalry before, completing the killing quickly and ruthlessly.
Soon Muteb saw the Haihan position in the south of the city. Several artillery pieces were in the center of the position, firing at the city gate one after another. On the periphery of the artillery position was a gun formation formed by the Haihan infantry with live ammunition. This formation is much denser than the previous formation used to lure the enemy when the Haihan Army marched towards the center of Zuofu City. It has basically returned to the linear array that the Haihan Army was accustomed to before. Muteb thought of the density of firepower output that the opponent had shown in the previous battle, and he really had no confidence in the charge he was about to launch.
But he had no choice. If the Haihan army invaded Zhongzuosuo City, it would also mean Houjin's failure in this area. It was better to fight hard and try to kill more enemies.
Muteb drew his saber and raised it high above his head. Hundreds of horsemen behind him also immediately raised their weapons to show their momentum. Muteb swung his saber forward in a chopping motion. Upon seeing this, his cavalry immediately urged their horses forward and began to accelerate towards Haihan's position.
These hundreds of cavalry gathered together to launch a charge, and their power was indeed quite spectacular. The tremors from the ground could be felt from a long distance away. However, Takahashi Minami only issued a very simple order, asking a company originally on the right wing to immediately join the defense of the left wing to strengthen the ability to carry out firepower against the Houjin Cavalry attacking from this direction.
The defecation commanded by Sun Zhen happened to be on the front line. They formed four horizontal rows in squad units. Their seven-shot rifles could make their firepower output several times stronger than before. The previous battles have fully proved it. The huge lethality of this firepower advantage. Therefore, even though the golden cavalry came fiercely after this wave, and it was clear that they were rushing over to fight for their lives, the soldiers' emotions were still relatively stable, and they maintained their shooting postures and waited for the enemy to enter the shooting range.
As the commander, Sun Zhen stood next to the formation and was responsible for giving the order to fire. On his left side, there was a temporary shooting position made of earthen bags. Two snipers lay prone on this shooting position, one person. He set up a gun, and another person held a telescope to assist. Sun Zhen was only the platoon leader and did not have enough authority to command these snipers, so he only made one request, that is, let the snipers not shoot the opponent's leader prematurely, at least until they enter the special area. Within the rifle range of the war camp, fire only when you are sure that you will not turn around and run away.
Sun Zhen's request was quite reasonable, so the two snipers did not object. So Muteb, who was originally at the front of the Houjin Cavalry queue, was lucky not to be killed by a sniper at the first opportunity, and he did not know that the Haihan Army intended to let them charge so that they could attack at a relatively close distance. Use intensive firepower to quickly eliminate his troops. The Houjin Cavalry was like a wave of waves, slamming towards Haihan's position without mercy.
(End of chapter)