Chapter 2006
Compared with Ji Yuanqing, who was born as a soldier, Gong Qiqi did not have much experience in positional warfare. Most of the time, the field operations team under his command performs special tasks such as security, surveillance, tracking, kidnapping, and assassination. There are not many situations where they actually need to form a formation to fight. Moreover, field personnel rarely use rifle-level weapons when performing tasks. Therefore, although the security agents involved in this operation have received corresponding shooting training, Gong Qiqi is still very self-aware. He handed over the wartime command of the team to Ji Yuanqing, who had more combat experience, to ensure that he could steadily defeat his opponent in this battle.
"To be able to clear such a large area beside the canal outside Yangzhou City, it seems that the local salt merchants are quite capable." Facing the empty dock, Gong Shiqi couldn't help but sigh: "To create such a It’s a big battle, I hope the ones who show up will no longer be the little gangsters they were yesterday.”
"This should be the person we are looking for! They cleared the place in advance, of course, to prevent the outside world from knowing who is coming to attack later." Ji Yuanqing saw this very clearly, and became more and more certain that he would see that person next. A mysterious musketeer team.
This private armed force hidden among the people not only poses a threat to Ningbo salt merchants, but is also a taboo existence for the government. Therefore, its whereabouts must be kept secret, otherwise even if the Haihan people do not come to the door, the government will not sit back and watch. There are armed men of this level doing whatever they want right under their noses. Therefore, even if the Yangzhou salt merchants have such a powerful force, they cannot call it anytime and anywhere, and they must be extra careful when acting in front of their own homes to avoid embarrassing the government.
Clearing the pier beside the canal in advance, and then asking the government offices and garrison in the city to remain silent for a whole night about what happens outside the city, is basically the ultimate measure they can take at present.
Of course, in the view of Gong Qiqi and Ji Yuanqing, this measure is also beneficial to their own sides, so they no longer need to worry about alerting the local garrison if they use rifles in battle. It will probably be after dawn tomorrow when the garrison in the city realizes what happened.
The people on the dock waited for a long time in this strange tranquility, and finally the goal they expected came.
In the silent night, there was a sound of horse hooves coming from the east, and the sound became denser as it got closer. When the horses could be seen in the distance, Gong Qiqi found that the other party had at least fifty horses, which seemed to be more than his own before. There is more data available. In the attacks in several other state capitals, it was said that the number of personnel dispatched by the other party was kept at around 30 people, which was obviously different from what was seen before.
Of course, it is also possible that the opponent did not dispatch all their men in previous operations and deliberately concealed their true strength, or that they were bluffing in today's operation. Not all they saw were musketeers, and the latter seemed more likely. Bigger.
These riders did not rush over directly. Instead, they stopped thirty or forty feet away from the river bank. Then a rider ran out of the formation and headed towards the dock.
The horse stopped voluntarily when it was still five or six feet away from the tent defense line, as if it knew it was forbidden to trespass in front. The man on horseback said loudly: "People on the boat, listen, this is your last chance to leave Yangzhou safely! If you don't obey, your death will be closed tonight!"
After a moment of silence, a voice echoed from the tent camp and responded: "I will definitely not leave if I leave. If you have any other powerful tricks, just come over here!"
The man on the horse didn't waste any more words. After hearing this, he turned his horse's head and went back. Apparently he had expected the attitude here and was just going through the motions before the fight.
The harsh words made by both sides before the war were simple and neat, without any delay, and it took only a very short time to express their respective attitudes. Choosing to use force to resolve the current conflict, both sides coincided with this, and each was prepared to take action in advance. It can be said that the arrow was ready and had to be fired.
After the horse returned to the opponent's formation, only a few moments passed before Gong Shiqi could vaguely see the riders dismounting from their horses through the telescope. He would not mistakenly think that this was a sign that the other party did not want to fight. On the contrary, he knew that this was a sign that the other party was preparing for war.
Even if these militiamen undergo certain training, it is difficult for them to have the ability to use muskets on horseback, not to mention this is at night when visibility is limited. Even for well-trained cavalry, charging toward the river bank at night was a very dangerous move. One of the most basic combat requirements for musketeers in this era is to shoot in formation to ensure the intensity of the output firepower. The Haihan Army can gradually improve this basic tactic by virtue of its weapon advantages, but other armed forces using old-style muskets cannot do this. They can only form formations before fighting.
However, although this fighting method seems inefficient, due to the obvious advantages in weapon performance, it will still take a great advantage when dealing with traditional armed forces that use cold weapons. Especially when the opponent lacks long-range offensive weapons, dozens of muskets can occupy an overwhelming advantage in small-scale armed conflicts, which is more than enough to deal with ordinary civilian armed organizations.
The Musketeers easily defeated their opponents in the previous missions. This also gave many people, including Lu Kangtai, a relatively inflated understanding of the actual combat capabilities of the Musketeers. They believed that as long as this team was dispatched, at least It is already difficult to meet any opponents in the private sector. Both He Huan and Lu Kangtai regarded this team as a secret weapon to launch a counterattack against Huizhou salt merchants. However, the impact of Ningbo refined salt on Jianghuai Salt Industry made them decide to deal with foreign troubles first, and then deal with competition from the same city. opponent.
Because Lu Kangtai was obese, it was impossible for him to ride on horseback with these musketeers. His location was still some way away from the dock, so he could only hand over command to the leader of the team. Although the previous operations outside Yangzhou Prefecture had gone very smoothly, and today's opponents were just a group of foreign salt merchants, Lu Kangtai was still a little worried that something would go wrong during the operation.
The other party still insisted on refusing to give in at the last moment, which made Lu Kangtai feel a little guilty. He couldn't figure out what the other party relied on to confidently reject the last chance for them to leave safely. But now that the matter was over, he didn't want to think about it anymore. Later, when his troops broke through the defense line and captured the arrogant Ningbo salt merchant, he would naturally have time to interrogate him slowly.
"You can actually advance horizontally. It seems that you have really received formal military training." Ji Yuanqing could roughly see the opponent's formation on foot through the telescope, and this spread-out formation was the standard battle of the musketeers. In formation, each horizontal row represents a wave of firepower output. The more people in a horizontal row, the larger the area covered by its firepower.
Being able to learn such a formation and propulsion method basically proves that professionals from the military participated in the training of this armed force. Of course, it is temporarily unknown which country's soldiers they are.
Seeing that the opponent had entered the shooting range, Ji Yuanqing did not order to fire, but was still patiently observing the opponent's movements. The result he wants is not only to annihilate this armed force, but also to extract from him the mastermind behind helping the salt merchants form the musketeers - that is the real goal of this investigation in Yangzhou. Therefore, in the next confrontation, not only must we collect evidence, but we must also find a way to capture a few survivors. In order to achieve this goal, Ji Yuanqing's solution is to put the opponent as close as possible and then carry out a sudden attack. Although the routine is not new, because the opponent does not know that one is prepared and has already deployed a defense line, coupled with the advantage of weapon performance, it is enough to defeat the opponent in a short time.
The other party obviously didn't realize what kind of danger lurked on the dark river bank. Their battle plan was very simple and crude. They were to form a formation and push all the way to the end. If anyone tried to use force to confront them, they would stop. Come down and fire, knock down the target, and then repeat the previous steps until the opponent is completely defeated.
In the previous attacks carried out in other places, they all adopted similar tactics, and basically only one round of fire was needed to defeat the opponent. There was no confrontational intensity at all. In the eyes of these newly promoted Musketeers, the opponents they can encounter are basically of average strength, and using the most basic tactics is enough to crush their opponents. And the fleet we have to deal with tonight seems to be no better than the previous opponents. They have already advanced to within ten feet, and the opponent has not taken any countermeasures. This is because the commander was He was so frightened that he didn't give the order. He was still just being stubborn and had no intention of resisting.
Victory came too easily. After these musketeers advanced a few feet with confidence, they finally saw the opponent's reaction.
The tents set up on the river bank, blocking their way to the two cargo ships, were suddenly pulled down at a certain moment, revealing the fortifications behind them made of sacks of salt.
These salt bags were actually piled on the pier during the day, but no one would have thought that they were used to build several low arched walls, and Haihan's musketeers were hidden behind them, with only a small part of them exposed. The head is used to aim at targets on the opposite side that are completely exposed to the muzzle of one's own gun.
On the two cargo ships not far behind this fortification line, a row of gun muzzles protruded from the side of the ship. However, they were so well concealed in the night that the people on the dock below could not notice them at all. There was also a fire net a few feet above his line of sight.
"The people on the other side listen, immediately put down their weapons, raise their hands and kneel down and surrender, otherwise they will be killed without mercy!"
A shout suddenly rang out from behind the salt bag fortification, which shocked the salt merchants' musketeers who were at a loss. But as surprised as they were, they didn't have much fear, because at this time they didn't even notice how many guns were pointed at them at the salt bags and the side of the ship. In their opinion, the other party was just bluffing, trying to distract them.
The leader who commanded this musketeer team also had the same idea. Since the opponent still chose to continue to resist at this time, of course he no longer needed to hold back. The order he received was to decide whether to fire based on the situation on the scene, and ensuring his own safety first was still the top priority.
However, in the current situation, the way he chose to protect himself when he was threatened could not be to actively retreat and leave the battlefield. The only possibility was to order firing.
Just when he shouted the word "fire", he felt that he seemed to be hearing hallucinations, because gunshots not only sounded around him, but also seemed to sound from the opposite side not far away at the same time.
Then he immediately realized that this was not an auditory hallucination, because he had already seen the flash of fire behind the salt bags and behind the side of the ship. He was familiar with that kind of fire, which came from the sparks when shooting. His heart sank suddenly, and he knew something was wrong. Since the other party had so many musketeers ambushing the dock, it was clearly a trap specially designed for his arrival!
Not to mention how many manpower the opponent has and what kind of muskets they use, just the fact that the opponent has a bunker is enough to cause a big loss for the completely exposed side. In this case, if you use a gun to shoot at each other, the chance of your own side being shot is much greater than that of your opponent hiding behind a bunker.
However, the presence of bunkers was only the beginning of this nightmare. As the firefight began, the Salt Merchant Musketeers immediately felt the difference in firepower output between the two sides. They didn't know how many people were hidden behind that small bunker. They only felt that the opponent's shooting seemed to never stop at all. After the front row personnel completed shooting, their own side had to give up their position to the rear row personnel in order to complete the continuous shooting. , this rotation only took one breath, and then the opponent didn't even have any time for this rotation, and the gunshots continued like firecrackers.
But the other side was not setting off firecrackers, but actually shooting at them with muskets. The men and horses of the salt merchants' musketry team were constantly shot and fell in rows like cut down rice. It only took a moment for them to go from charging forward with confidence to collapsing after encountering intensive firepower. But when they really wanted to turn around and escape from this killing field, it was already difficult to escape.
In the end, only a few people in the back row managed to rush into the night by throwing down their guns, crawling and crawling, and finally escaped, while most of the people who came with them had already fallen to the ground in this one-sided gun battle. Got up.
"Cease fire! Reload!"
There was another sound behind the salt bag fortifications, and then the gunfire stopped. This short battle should end faster than both sides expected. The gunmen on Haihan's side have not even finished shooting the seven rounds of bullets in their hands, but there is no one left standing on the other side. .
(End of chapter)