Chapter 1801 is insurmountable
The sky was getting dark, and the positions of the two armies confronting each other in the air finally returned to calm. Sun Bing led people to light several bonfires in the outer area about a hundred meters away from the dock, and deployed sentries on the roofs of several warehouses to prevent enemy troops from sneaking into camp after dark. Although the Qing army has so far shown no sign of going out of the city to confront the Haihan army, Sun Bing still does not dare to be careless at all. After all, the Qing army has been operating here for a long time and is far more familiar with the environment than the Haihan army who has just arrived. It is impossible for the army to use unconventional tactics such as night attacks to try to open up the situation.
According to the normal combat deployment, if the requirements are safe, the troops on the dock should retreat to Waihua Island at night to ensure safety. However, Wang Tom believed that garrisoning the dock would give the Qing army in Jiulian City a greater sense of oppression, so the Qing army did not attack. Just refuse to withdraw. However, considering the limited strength of the Marines stationed at the dock, Wang Tom still provided defense support as much as possible and sent the two Marine reserve companies remaining on the warship to the shore.
In addition, barbed wire unloaded from the warship was quickly deployed around the dock. Regardless of whether the enemy is infantry or cavalry, the blocking effect of high and low crisscrossing barbed wire on the battlefield has never disappointed. During the offensive and defensive standoff in Jinzhou, Haihan used dense barbed wire with a depth of tens of meters and horse resistance to successfully block several cavalry attacks by the Jin army.
Although the Qing army is unlikely to use a large number of cavalry in a night attack, the Haihan army still prepared for the worst in advance. Even if the opponent launches a cavalry charge at night, they must ensure that the dock position can defend this unconventional offensive - —At the very least, we must hold on until the fleet's long-range firepower can be output.
At around two o'clock in the middle of the night, Wang Tom was woken up from his sleep by his guards, saying that the sentries had discovered enemy activity in the direction of Jiulian City. Tom Wang's sleepiness faded away immediately, and he immediately got up, dressed and left the cabin. Before leaving, he did not forget to ask the guard to take his personal telescope. There are several personal telescopes that Tom Wang brought to this time and space, including a special model with low-light night vision function.
The telescopes used by the sentries responsible for the lookout were all ordinary models installed in the army. Of course, they did not have such special functions. However, through the moonlight that filtered through the gaps between the clouds, I could see that the edges of the mountains and forests on both sides of Jiulian City were full of human figures. Looking forward, it seems that the Qing army is gathering, but there is no movement near the gate of Jiulian City. The sentry did not dare to be careless. After discovering the situation, he immediately notified the officers on the deck, and then went to wake up Tom Wang who was resting.
After Tom Wang arrived on the deck, he listened to reports from his subordinates and used a telescope to confirm the situation in the distance. Sure enough, as the sentry discovered, there were indeed many figures moving in the distant mountains and forests, but there was no sign of an attack yet. On a night with poor visibility like this, it is not easy for the troops to complete the assembly quietly and in the dark in the wild mountains and forests. Wang Tom estimated that with the military quality of the Qing army, the time required to complete this link will definitely not be short.
This is naturally good news for the Haihan Army. Wang Tom immediately ordered that all marines enter the first level of alert, and the artillery on each warship must also be in position quickly to prepare for battle.
However, the Qing army's operational efficiency was even worse than Wang Tom expected. After waiting for almost an hour, Wang Tom began to wonder if his opponent was playing tricks when he finally saw the Qing army's leading troops slowly emerging from the forest. come out.
Perhaps in order to control the noise as much as possible, the Qing army did not use cavalry. The people who slowly appeared in the telescope lens were infantry armed with swords and bows. If their whereabouts had not been discovered before, it would have been difficult to distinguish with the naked eye the Qing troops advancing slowly in the distance using various bushes as cover.
Wang Tom suddenly discovered the reason why the Qing army delayed so long before launching the attack: "It turns out they were waiting for these bonfires to go out!"
Several bonfires lit outside the dock position after nightfall have been basically burned out by this time, and the Haihan Army currently does not have much combustibles to replenish unless the dock is dismantled overnight. The Qing army was probably waiting for the visibility outside the dock position to decrease, and then took advantage of the situation to come over and carry out a sneak attack. It's just that they didn't expect that their whereabouts had been exposed early. If they were to touch them at this time, the effect of the night attack would be greatly reduced.
The Marines at the dock position were already in position behind the bunker, leaning their loaded rifles against the bunker, waiting for the commander's orders. For the Marine Corps, night combat is actually part of their training content, but they rarely encounter actual combat, and the combat experience is not rich.
Sun Bing almost never put down the telescope in his hand. Although the temperature had dropped to a bit cooler after nightfall, the hair on his forehead was already soaked with sweat. It was actually his first time to serve as a commander in a night battle like this, so he couldn't help but feel a little nervous. This illusion of knowing that there was a large group of enemies slowly approaching his position not far away, but seeing nothing in his field of vision, kept his nerves tense, fearing that he would miss the opportunity to order fire to kill the enemy.
If the battle takes place during the day, the Haihan Army can naturally rely on the range advantage of its weapons and equipment to keep the enemy at bay for a hundred meters. Even if the enemy forces attack with several times their own strength, it will only cost the Marines garrisoned at the dock more money. Just some ammunition. But in fact, with the visibility tonight, it is difficult to see people or objects thirty meters away with the naked eye. It is not so easy to use the advantage of weapons to increase the combat distance like fighting in the daytime.
Based on the visual distance of the current environment, when the enemy can be clearly seen, the opponent has almost entered the edge of the dock position's defense line. Although several layers of barbed wire fences were deployed around the perimeter, Sun Bing knew that the Qing army had actually been trying to use some means to overcome the usual defenses of Haihan, such as directly laying wooden boards or quilts on the barbed wire fence and quickly passing through, or The soldiers attacking the enemy were asked to carry long-armed iron scissors on their backs to cut through the iron fence.
It is easier for infantry to pass through barbed wire obstacles than it is for cavalry who have to charge. If the enemy is fully prepared, the barbed wire fortifications deployed in advance can only last a few minutes at most. If the Marines stationed at the dock fail to inflict heavy enough casualties on the enemy during this period, once the opponent breaks through the barbed wire fence, it will basically be a face-to-face bloody battle.
About two more incense sticks passed in this unsettling silence, and suddenly some strange noises came from the dark night outside the position, which sounded like the sound of some metal objects gently colliding with each other. Sun Bing saw the flashing reflections through the telescope. Soon these reflections became closer and closer, and became clearer, outlining human figures one by one.
Suddenly, more than a dozen enemy soldiers wearing heavy armor appeared in the defender's field of vision. They ran quickly, holding long-handled axes or large machetes in their hands, and the armor on their bodies followed them as they ran. There was a rustling noise, and it turned out that this was the noise heard earlier. These silent enemy soldiers rushed to a place about twenty meters in front of the dock position, raised their weapons, and slashed at the barbed wire blocking the way. In the darkness behind them, countless Qing soldiers were rushing out and rushing towards the dock position. It seems that the Qing army's night attack tactics rely on these Bajala warriors, who are as strong as cattle and wearing heavy armor, to break through the outer defenses, and then swarm in to seek opportunities for close combat with the Haihan army.
I have to say that the tactics of the Qing army were indeed targeted to a certain extent, and they knew very well how to exploit their strengths and avoid their weaknesses when the Hai and Han armies were fighting. They tried to use the cover of night to shorten the fighting distance as quickly as possible to seek a chance of victory. Once the two sides fall into a close-quarters melee, the effectiveness of the Haihan Army's advanced weapons will be greatly reduced, and the Qing Army's strength advantage will be immediately highlighted. This is their only chance to cause significant damage to the Haihan Army.
However, the Marines guarding the dock position certainly would not sit idly by and ignore the Qing army's offensive. Following Sun Bing's order, gunfire broke out, and all the heavily armored Bajala at the front were wounded. Several shots. Even though the armor they wore was very thick, it was difficult for them to completely withstand the firing of the Haihan rifle at the current fighting distance, and they fell to the ground one after another.
But at this time, the outer layer of several barbed wire fences had been broken through by the heavy weapons of the Bagala soldiers. The Qing troops who came up quickly rushed towards these gaps, and some Qing troops who rushed in front even screamed. He jumped directly towards the barbed wire fence and pressed it down with his body. In the darkness in the distance, there were sounds of bowstrings. It seemed that the Qing army's archers were shooting towards the dock.
The defenders also had a combat plan to deal with the current situation. Several grenades flew out from behind the defense line and landed in the gaps where the enemy troops were most concentrated. After several rumbling explosions, there was a sudden cry of misery. In the chaos, it was unknown how many Qing troops were injured by grenades.
The six field guns deployed on the defense line had long been replaced with grape bullets according to Sun Bing's instructions. At this time, they had already aimed at the enemy troops who were breaking through the barbed wire defense line, and then opened fire and bombarded them. The power of this close-range bombardment was much greater than that of grenades, and several people on the spot were beaten to death by this wave of grapeshot bombardment.
After the concentrated firepower of the guns and artillery, several places that were already in danger of being breached were suddenly blocked by wounded soldiers and corpses of the Qing army. However, these casualties did not stop the Qing army's offensive. Qing troops continued to rush out of the darkness and rush towards the dock position, hoping to quickly break through the final distance of less than ten feet and enter the dock position.
At this time, many warships parked at Jiangan Pier finally fired their cannons. Because of the shooting angle problem, the targets of these naval guns were not the Qing troops that were breaking into the Haihan defense line, but the troops that had not yet appeared in the darkness behind them.
In the dark night, these warships parked on the riverside instantly turned into fixed forts. Dozens of artillery fired one after another. No matter how desperate the Qing army was, they were shocked to see such a scene. As for how many Qing troops were hit by artillery shells in the darkness, the two warring parties were completely unable to confirm at the moment, but the number of Qing troops who subsequently rushed into the battlefield was obviously much reduced.
Sun Bing had calmed down at this time. After the fighting started, he seemed to be back in a familiar environment. The sound of gunfire, the smell of gunpowder smoke, and the shouts of killing made his mind become clearer. Sun Bing issued several orders in succession, asking the Marines to concentrate their firepower on the Qing army's key attack areas on the left and right sides of the dock, and at the same time put reserve troops in place, ready to reinforce weak areas at any time.
The Marine Corps' positions were built in a hurry. Naturally, there were no facilities such as bastions, tunnels, or three-dimensional fire nets. They basically used various building materials that were dismantled on the spot to build parapets and bunkers, and then moved the various buildings on the docks. They all drilled holes in the wall to serve as shooting holes. As for the firepower points originally set up on the roofs of various buildings, they were quickly withdrawn to reduce casualties after being targeted by the Qing army's targeted bows and arrows.
When Sun Bing realized that the situation was under control, he made adjustments again, consciously reducing the intensity of the firepower output, giving the Qing army a chance to advance the line of fire some distance further. After the opponent's troops poured into the vicinity reached a certain scale, Sun Bing ordered full firepower to kill and injure the enemy. After repeating this two or three times, the Qing commander probably realized that this line of defense was already an insurmountable chasm for them, and any further attack would only increase casualties, so he finally chose to withdraw his troops.
Due to poor visibility, Sun Bing did not order to pursue the enemy troops who were retreating like a tide. He only ordered the soldiers to immediately check the status of their ordnance and ammunition to prepare for the next wave of battle. He could not confirm now whether the Qing army's offensive ended here, or whether there was another round of offensive ready to go in the darkness in the distance, so he could only prepare to continue fighting.
However, the Qing army seemed to have given up its plan to continue attacking in the dark, and soon news came that the Qing army had retreated along the same route. Wang Tom sent an order to Sun Bing, asking him to arrange for the companies on the front line to rotate and rest, to take stock of their own battle damage, and to wait until dawn to discuss other matters.
In this wave of dark attacks, eleven Marines were killed and more than thirty others were injured. Of the several teams of sentries deployed outside the position last night, only one team successfully withdrew. The other teams failed to retreat in time, resulting in heavy casualties. The bows and arrows fired by the Qing army during the attack also caused a certain number of casualties to the Marines. However, at the actual confrontation points with the Qing army, there were no casualties.
These battle losses also reflect that there are still certain loopholes in the Marine Corps' troop formation. However, this responsibility is not caused by Sun Bing alone. Wang Tom insisted on deploying the Marine Corps on the dock overnight, in fact, he was using it to lure the enemy. The abacus is that risks are inevitable in battles. Fortunately, compared with the enemy's battle losses, the situation on Haihan's side was pretty fair.
(End of chapter)