Chapter 2113
The artillery casting technology currently mastered by the Hirado Domain comes from Western countries. In the early years, when the Shibashiba gained power in the Fujian Strait, they hired military advisors and weapons craftsmen from the Netherlands, Portugal and other countries to try to produce advanced weapons by themselves. and use Western military tactics to enhance the strength of his armed organizations.
However, to build a new type of organized army, investment of financial resources and time are indispensable. Shibazhi had just begun such an attempt, and it happened that Haihan, a powerful enemy, emerged in the South China Sea. What happened next is already known to the world. The Shibazhi failed to wait for the huge investment in the early stage to bear fruit, and was defeated by the Haihan Army. It was even considered to have been completely destroyed by the outside world.
Although the result of that war was a complete defeat, many members of Shiba Shiba still fled to hide overseas, with the largest concentration in Hirado, Japan. Among the people hiding in Hirado, there are also some new army leaders who have received training from foreign military consultants. Not only can they use new muskets and artillery, but they have also mastered the corresponding basic offensive and defensive tactics. These people have been in recent years. The new army secretly trained over the years is what gives Tagawa the confidence to give Haihan a try.
Lu Yuanlong was one of the people who escaped from Miyako Island, and his specialty was that he had systematically learned knowledge about firearms combat and command under the guidance of several foreign military consultants. After arriving in Hirado, Lu Yuanlong quickly gained the trust of Tagawa Suke based on his qualifications, and was appointed as a trainer, responsible for training the new army loyal to the Tagawa clan.
Lu Yuanlong was born as an orphan. In fact, there is no real blood feud with Hai Han. However, he has been instilled in him the concept of loyalty to Zheng Zhilong for many years, so the idea of defeating Hai Han and avenging Zheng Zhilong has always been buried in his heart. . Even when he was hiding in Hirado, Lu Yuanlong never let this idea go away and kept waiting for a suitable opportunity. But now that the Haihan people came to the door again, he thought that the opportunity to avenge Zheng Zhilong had finally arrived.
Lu Yuanlong actually knew how powerful the Haihan Army was. He also knew that the armed personnel he trained were unlikely to defeat the Haihan Army on a frontal battlefield. However, if the combat goal was only to repel the Haihan Army, Lu Yuanlong believed that As long as our side is well prepared, we will be able to fight.
Lu Yuanlong's confidence mainly comes from the training effect in the past few years. The combat skills mastered by this new army are not only shooting and cannon shooting, but also more new tactics and tactics that can come in handy during the battle. No matter how powerful the Haihan Army is, Hirado is its home field after all. Making full use of various local conditions to prepare for war can effectively narrow the strength gap between the two armies.
Lu Yuanlong believed that the primary target of the Haihan Army's cross-sea attack would definitely be Hirado Port, the core area of the Hirado Domain. Kaihan's warships are indeed fierce in firepower, but if a sufficient number of coastal defense batteries are erected, it may be possible to prevent Kaihan's army from landing at Hirado Port. Even if it is not good enough, it can delay the opponent's invasion of Hirado Port.
For the Hirado clan, the longer the battle is delayed, the greater the possibility of repelling the opponent, even if it can delay it for an extra day or two. The contrast between the strengths and weaknesses of this war is huge. The Hirado clan does not have much strategic depth to realize space for time, and it cannot allow the fleet to confront the enemy head-on unless it is absolutely necessary. Therefore, the defensive measures on the coastline are particularly important. It's important.
This happens to be the field that Lu Yuanlong is good at. He once studied with the Dutch and learned the construction techniques and related tactics of bastions and trenches. He also learned artillery tactics from the Portuguese, which can be used in the current situation. .
Tagawasuke also had great trust in his abilities and gave him full responsibility for the construction of Hirado Port's shore defenses. Starting ten days ago, Lu Yuanlong mobilized hundreds of civilians to work day and night, built more than 30 forts on the coast of Hirado Port, and deployed nearly 50 artillery pieces. If it weren't for the limited number of gunners available to him, the number of artillery deployed in the port area would be even greater.
Moreover, these fort fortifications are not just about digging a hole or piling up earth bags. Lu Yuanlong calculated the position of the artillery and the shooting angle of each fort based on what he had learned in the past to ensure that the firepower output of these forts could cover as much area as possible. area, and at the same time, it can form cross fire, making it difficult for enemy warships from the sea to approach the coast and attack the fort.
Although the rush to prepare for the war did not allow Lu Yuanlong to organize the construction of the strongest stone forts, he still managed to strengthen the protective forts. Based on the experience he had learned from Westerners, Lu Yuanlong asked the civilians to put loose sand into sacks and then build a two-foot-thick arc-shaped protective wall around the fort. Although this kind of fortification cannot guarantee 100% resistance to artillery shells flying from the sea, according to previous tests, it can withstand the bombardment of small-caliber artillery from a hundred feet away.
On the periphery of some forts, Lu Yuanlong also used various means to camouflage them, hiding the forts behind various shelters. As long as they did not actively fire, it would be difficult to observe the existence of these forts from a distance at sea.
In addition, Lu Yuanlong also asked Tagawa Suke to issue an order to have all the places where iron can be made in the Hirado Domain work overtime to cast cannonballs, and the processing tasks of making gunpowder raw materials were also assigned to ordinary people's families, so as to prepare as much as possible ammunition. He knew very well that it was still difficult to ensure victory over the opponent with the number of artillery currently deployed, but if the ammunition reserves were sufficient, then at least at the beginning of the war, intensive bombardment could be used to persuade enemy warships trying to invade Hirado Port to dissuade them.
Lu Yuanlong even wanted to persuade Tagawa Suke to give up the plan of using the navy fleet as a reserve combat force, and transfer all the gunners in the navy to land to participate in the defensive battle. However, this suggestion was strongly opposed by the naval commander Wei Zhi. Wei Zhi believed that cutting off the enemy's supply lines from the sea was the real way to force the opponent to retreat. All new warships built in the past two years used artillery as a weapon. The most important weapon, if all the gunners on the ship are transferred to the shore to fight, the combat effectiveness of the navy will be greatly reduced, and the threat to the enemy's supply line will also be greatly reduced.
If the navy does not have enough ability to cause trouble to its opponents, then the huge investment in the construction of the navy before will be equivalent to wasting. Even if Lu Yuanlong can defend Hirado Port, if there is no naval cover, the enemy fleet can still bypass Hirado Port to complete the landing.
After weighing it up, Tagawasuke also felt that both sea and land battlefields must not be abandoned in order to have any hope of winning the final victory of this war. Therefore, the final battle plan was for Lu Yuanlong to organize a defense at the port with artillery as the main means of attack. Wei Zhi led the navy to hide somewhere and wait for the right opportunity to attack.
When the Haihan fleet flying the red and blue flag appeared in the Hirado Strait, it meant to Lu Yuanlong that the war had begun. As for whether the Haihan people would be polite before fighting and go through the process of declaring war on the Hirado clan, Lu Yuanlong no longer had any hope.
Yesterday, news came back from Fujiang Island via flying pigeons. The enemy troops had landed there, and it seemed that those who came ashore to fight were not the Haihan Army. Judging from their military uniforms and flags, they should be the Xu Jiajun from Fujian.
Shibazhi and the Fujian Xu family were sworn enemies from the beginning, and this time the Xu family army participated in the operation. For the Hirado clan, of course, there was no possibility of negotiating terms and peace before the war started. There is no need to go through the motions of declaring war. It is a pity that the amount of information that flying pigeons can carry is very limited. What is the battle situation on Fujiang Island, how many men, horses and ships the enemy has left in the area, etc., are not mentioned in detail in the messages sent back. However, when the Haihan warship arrived at Hirado Port, Lu Yuanlong still ordered two shots to be fired first. This was not entirely to warn the Haihan warship not to approach any further, but to send a signal to the entire Hirado Port, informing everyone that the war had begun and that all illusions must be abandoned now and all efforts should be made to fight the invading enemy.
Although the two Haihan warships approaching the port had observed the enemy forts firing on the coast, they did not notice that there were actually many well-camouflaged forts on the coast that had not yet been launched.
When the two ships tried to rely on their firepower advantage to continue approaching the port and launch attacks on the two forts that had just opened fire, the rumble of cannons rang out from several different locations on the coast, and several shells flew towards the unidentified At least one of the two warships on guard hit the hull directly.
Shi Diwen, who was watching the battle on the deck of a distant battleship, couldn't help but frowned when he saw this. He thought that these officers under his command were still a little impetuous. They knew that there were artillery deployed on the coast and planned to forcefully attack without conducting sufficient reconnaissance. Eat, but don't think about it. Since people can deploy two cannons, can't they deploy ten, twenty, or even more?
The reconnaissance report that Shi Diwen received before did not mention that there were forts and other shore defenses built on the coast of Hirado Port. It seemed that Shiro Amakusa, who was responsible for going ashore to reconnoiter the enemy's situation at that time, was a fool and didn't notice it at all. The opponent's defensive deployment, or these forts did not exist when Amakusa Shiro was operating in Hirado, and they were only temporarily built recently when preparations for war began.
Considering Shiro Amakusa's military experience and his knowledge of the local area, Shi Diwen believed that the latter situation was obviously more likely. Judging from the time point, the opponent obviously does not have much time to prepare for war. Building some forts in Hirado Port to resist the landing is probably the ultimate method they can take.
Under such circumstances, rashly initiating a login is definitely a very irrational behavior. If the Haihan Army wants to land at Hirado Port, these coastal defense forts must be dealt with first, and an artillery battle between land and sea will inevitably break out. When it comes to using ship-based firepower against coastal defense batteries, there is no doubt that the latter has the advantage.
The navy's naval guns were not originally designed for land attacks. They can occasionally provide near-shore fire cover for infantry during landing or evacuation, but they are not good at bombarding coastal defense batteries. And regardless of the performance of the artillery, the defensive capabilities of wooden ships cannot be compared with the forts on the shore. A slightly stronger fort will not be easily destroyed by solid shells, and it is difficult for a warship to be completely destroyed no matter how strong it is. Blocks projectiles flying within effective range.
Shi Diwen quickly understood the opponent's combat intention, which was to keep the enemy out of the port and prevent the coalition forces from entering Hirado Port for landing. He also had to admit that this kind of combat idea was indeed very targeted. Assuming that the coalition's offensive forces were limited and could only concentrate here to attack Hirado Port, then this kind of shore defense firepower would indeed be a headache.
However, the East China Sea Fleet's offensive against Hirado Port led by Shi Diwen was originally a feint attack to lure the enemy. On the one hand, it was to test the defense methods and strength of Hirado Port, and on the other hand, it was to see whether it could defeat Hirado Port. Tominato exerted pressure to draw out the Hirado Domain naval fleet hiding in the dark. The greater the noise the East China Sea Fleet makes in Hirado Port, the easier it will be for the Fujian Navy and the special operations group to succeed in landing operations on the west coast of Hirado Island.
Of course, if the Hirado clan can accurately detect the strength of the coalition forces, they may also prepare for the coalition forces to land on Hirado Island from other places. However, Shi Diwen believed that the Hirado clan did not have such capabilities. When passing by the Goto Islands yesterday, the main force of the fleet did not appear near the islands. Instead, it took a special detour from the sea in order to avoid being attacked by the islands. Hostile forces observed the true size of the fleet.
However, the Hirado clan, which lacked accurate information, learned that the coalition forces had separated some troops to stay on Fukue Island to fight. Such information could easily lead to misjudgment of the force to attack Hirado Island, thinking that the coalition forces might concentrate their forces to attack Hirado Island. Port.
"Make the formation bigger so that all the firepower points on the shore are exposed." Shi Diwen noticed the Hirado clan's combat intention, but he did not intend to stop there, but wanted to take this opportunity to act more realistically, so that The other party believed that Hirado Port was the target of attack.
However, he thought of the opponent's deployment, so he added: "Be careful to keep the fighting distance and don't rush in!"
The harbor of Hirado Port is extremely small. With the tonnage of warships like the East China Sea Fleet, if a few more ships rush in, it will be difficult to turn around. If they are beaten by the opponent's shore defense firepower in the harbor, it is no joke. Therefore, he gave one more instruction to prevent the front-line commanders from underestimating the enemy and making mistakes.
So an artillery battle between sea and land began in Hirado Port. The warships of the East China Sea Fleet formed a long snake formation in the north-south direction outside Hirado Port and bombarded the harbor.
If you are a little calmer, it is not difficult to find that the position of these warships is almost at the edge of the effective range of naval guns. Few of the shells fired can hit the shore forts. However, the gunners of Hirado Domain obviously have too little combat experience, and Unaware of this insidious method, Dang even opened fire with all his strength, trying to inflict some suffering on the enemy.
(End of chapter)