Chapter 2131
Compared with the several large-scale urban street battles that the special operations group has experienced, the battle that took place in Hirado was actually not too difficult. Whether it was the Battle of Hue in Annan Kingdom in 1629 or the combat operation to Luzon Island to attack Manila City early last year, the intensity of resistance the special battle group encountered at that time was actually far superior to that of the Hirado domain army now. .
In addition, the Hirado Domain has another disadvantage that must be mentioned. Most Japanese houses are made of bamboo and wood structures, and the same is true in Hirado City. There are not many masonry structures, which makes it difficult for the defenders to rely on solid bunkers to fight against The Haihan army made a deal.
Although the vassal army tried to delay the Haihan Army's offensive by relying on private houses or barricades, the final effect was not ideal. Only a few areas where small groups of vassal soldiers and horses risked their lives to fight without retreating could be slightly resisted. However, these However, the soldiers will lose the opportunity to evacuate and will soon be surrounded and killed by the rapidly reinforcing Haihan Army.
The vanguard troops requisitioned a house belonging to a wealthy local businessman not far from the city's southern defense line and set it up as a frontline headquarters, with Gao Qiaonan commanding the operations from here.
Now that Takahashi Minami is a senior general commanding a special battle group, he will basically not roll up his sleeves and go into battle in person to participate in the fight. Compared with killing the enemy with his own hands, a more important task for him is to ensure that the troops can complete the combat objectives.
The messengers kept coming in and out, delivering the latest battle reports from the front line, and then taking orders from the headquarters to the firing line. Several staff officers sorted out these battle reports separately, immediately marked the current battle location on the big map, and reported all aspects of battlefield information to Takahashi Nan.
Takahashi Nan must master real-time information as much as possible about the enemy's approximate troop strength, resistance, and casualty status on the battlefield, as well as our army's offensive direction, advancement speed, and ammunition consumption, and make corresponding adjustments based on the battle situation.
Of course, the battle plan for attacking Hirado City was actually formulated long before the war. Although the current advancement speed has slowed down, because the battle situation is basically going smoothly, all that is needed is to make some adjustments based on changes in the battlefield. Make small adjustments to the detailed arrangements to slowly squeeze the opponent's space for movement.
If we follow Minami Takahashi's early combat style, when it is confirmed that the opponent is weaker than himself, he will definitely advance with great success and defeat the opponent in one go. However, as his position became higher and higher, and he commanded more and more troops, Takahashi Minami's command style gradually became more stable.
Part of the reason for this is that after many refresher trainings over the years, he has a deeper understanding of war. He no longer easily chooses more radical combat methods, and is more willing to use sound tactics to win the battle; in addition, there is another The reason that is not common to outsiders is that the unit he commanded has already become the ace unit that Haihan Kingdom is proud of. It is an undefeated division with a good reputation. It is his job to maintain the stability of this glorious record. One of the responsibilities of a commander.
Takahashi Minami listened carefully to the reports of the staff. Although the current advancement speed is not very ideal, judging from the battle reports, the enemy's resistance has gradually weakened, and the number of troops participating in the battle seems to be far smaller than previously expected.
"According to the battle report, the enemy's operations obviously lacked unified dispatch, and most of the small groups fought independently. I think this is because the enemy did not have sufficient preparation for the step of the war into urban street fighting, so there was no Due to the corresponding combat plan. Of course, even if their commander has thought of this level, he must not be able to conduct drills in advance, otherwise Hirado will be in chaos before we can fight. "
After listening to Takahashi Minami, he began to analyze the battle reports. The staff also gathered around him and listened attentively to his interpretation of the information in these battle reports.
Most of these staff officers are young officers selected from grassroots officers and have a certain cultural foundation and practical experience. They have all received professional command training at the Army Academy in Sanya, and have the opportunity to hear Takahashi in actual combat. It is a very rare experience for them to have an experienced general like Nan analyze the battle situation.
Hirado is one of Japan's most important trading ports. Whether the situation here is peaceful or not will have a direct impact on Japan's maritime trade as a whole. The Hirado clan has always insisted on making great efforts to build naval forces, and one of its purposes is to ensure the peace of this place. But no matter how the Hirado clan troops train, they are obviously unlikely to practice street fighting in their own city. In addition to disturbing the local trade environment, this is more likely to cause panic among the people.
Takahashi Minami judged this point, so he believed that the reason why the opponent's resistance operations lacked command and dispatch was due to the inability to prepare for this special combat environment in advance. Although this is an unfamiliar environment for the special operations group, the troops can rely on their past accumulated experience in urban street fighting to deal with these mobs scattered throughout the city.
"How to deal with this small group of enemies in an urban combat environment? I think you have all learned the corresponding tactics during your training, including insertion, cutting, encirclement, and annihilation... go and issue combat orders to the troops you are responsible for. We We must try our best to complete the control of the city before dark... At least, we must first cooperate with the navy to occupy the port area, so that we can obtain supplies nearby." Takahashi Minami once again emphasized the next main attack direction to the combat staff.
In this battle to attack the city, each staff officer was responsible for the actions of a company, collecting and sorting out relevant battle reports, and at the same time conveying to them the latest battle instructions from the headquarters. These orders are not all issued by Takahashi Minami personally. He only needs to determine the overall strategy and direction now, and the specific instructions are formulated and distributed by these staff officers, and then the front-line troops are responsible for execution.
This kind of combat method allows the information exchange between the headquarters and the front line to remain efficient. At the same time, the commander can also focus more on the direction of the entire battle situation, rather than spending a lot of energy on micro-control of each squad, platoon, and company. Take command.
In addition to improving the operational efficiency of the command headquarters, the staff department is also cultivating a group of senior officers with collaborative command capabilities. After accumulating a certain amount of experience, most of these officers will return to combat units and serve as commanders at the company and battalion level.
The order was quickly conveyed from the headquarters to the front-line combat troops. At this time, the line of fire had actually advanced to the southern end of the port area, just one street away from the port terminal.
However, the old site of Hirado Castle, the feudal lord's mansion and some of the residences of retainers are also concentrated on the seaside highland on the south side of the port area. The Kaihan Army believes that most of Hirado's remaining resistance may be concentrated on this highland. Therefore, Instead of rushing to launch an attack on this area, they first bypassed this place and attacked the port where a large number of shore defenses were built. At this time, the port defense area commanded by Lu Yuanlong had actually lost most of its combat capabilities, with only about four or five guns left that could continue to fire at sea. However, it was difficult for these heavy artillery to turn around for a while, and there was an entire armed fleet watching outside the port, which might launch a landing operation at any time. Therefore, Lu Yuanlong did not dare to order people to turn the muzzles of these guns to deal with them first. Enemies attacking from land.
In fact, Lu Yuanlong knew very well that, whether on land or at sea, as long as one of the enemy forces captured the port, Hirado would definitely fall. But as the gunfire of the exchange of fire got closer and closer to the port, Lu Yuanlong's heart was sinking little by little. He knew that the last moment was coming soon, and the area he was responsible for guarding would face the sea. The Han army's frontal attack.
The last combat order issued by Tagawa Suke was delivered to him an hour ago. There was no warrant, just a message, ordering him to lead his troops to defend the port. If he still fell in the end, he could retreat to the mountains to the north.
North of Tasuke Bay where Shiro Amakusa swam ashore, the northernmost tip of Hirado Island is a mountain forest area of about six or seven square kilometers. There are not many people living in this area, and it is basically virgin forest, so it is also known as Tagawa Suke regarded it as the last possible retreat direction. The day before yesterday, when Tagawa Nanzaemon was quietly sent away, he walked through this mountain forest to a secret location on the northern coast of the island, and had the Hirado Navy ship pick him up.
Lu Yuanlong understood that Tagawasuke's purpose in asking him to defend the port was to buy more time for others to withdraw northward. When the enemy forces capture the port and then withdraw, they will definitely be unable to leave. But even if he knew this, he did not intend to abandon the port and escape early. Instead, he decided to make a complete break with the Haihan people here.
Lu Yuanlong ordered that the remaining gunpowder from each fort be collected and placed in a fort at the innermost side of the port, and the fuses were prepared. He planned to wait here for the Haihan army to attack. When the surrounding Haihan soldiers were surrounded, he would take the initiative to ignite the gunpowder and die together with his opponent.
When the Haihan Army and the Fujian Navy jointly attacked Miyako Island, Lu Yuanlong was the only one in his family who successfully escaped. The fate of his family was always uncertain, which made him always regret that he should have stayed on the island to share the difficulties with his family. What has supported him over the years is his belief in revenge. He has always thought about one day defeating the Haihan Army to avenge Shibazhi. However, when he fought against the Haihan Army again this time, he realized that his wish might not be realized at all. .
There was no other reason, just because he realized that the Kaihan Army today was stronger and more difficult to defeat than before. Even if the Hirado Domain could barely survive the current disaster, it would not be able to defeat the Kaihan Army on the battlefield, let alone Talk about revenge. After this battle, Hirado will definitely be looted by the Haihan people, and all the wealth that they have worked hard to save in the past few years will be lost. Even if they can start all over again, they still cannot defeat Haihan. Maybe in a few years, the strength of both sides will be The gap will become even greater, and fighting again will only mean being tortured by the Haihan Army again.
For Lu Yuanlong, the only thing he cared about in the world was revenge. But when he realized that revenge could not be achieved, his heart was filled with despair, and living became a very tiring thing. He thought that perhaps this would be his best destination after making a complete end to the battle in Hirado.
The first force to invade the port area was the battalion commanded by Sun Zhen. This was not a very difficult task for him. The reason why it took him an entire afternoon to get through the short mile from the southern defense line to the port area was In many places, the main purpose was to comply with the orders of the headquarters and avoid unnecessary casualties as much as possible, so it took more time to clean up the houses along the way.
However, the command also requested that the port be captured before dark, so Sun Zhen hurriedly hurried and finally reached this level. Sun Zhen was not too afraid of the coastal defense artillery in the port area mentioned in the intelligence. He knew very well how cumbersome these old-style coastal defense artillery were. As long as the attack area was slightly opened, the few coastal defense artillery batteries in the port area The anti-fort could not stop the infantry from rushing forward.
What Sun Zhen is interested in is who is the commander of his opponent. He can train so many gunners in Hirado, build a coastal defense fort at the port, and command this line of defense to block the East China Sea Fleet at sea for several days. These achievements It's not something ordinary people can accomplish. He really wanted to capture this person alive and take him back for a thorough interrogation. Maybe there would be some special gains.
The operation to capture the port went much smoother than Sun Zhen expected. The soldiers successfully captured several forts on the south side of the port with almost no effort. There are not many Hirado clan troops left stationed at these forts. Most of them are wounded soldiers who are unable to move easily, and those who can escape have probably escaped.
Then someone came to report that the enemy commander in charge of this area was found at another fort in the port. This news made Sun Zhen quite excited, and he immediately led the team there to meet this person.
But when he arrived at the place, he was shocked to find that this powerful man was already a corpse lying on the ground, with a row of prisoners kneeling next to him.
"What's going on?" Sun Zhen asked another officer who arrived before him.
The officer saluted Sun Zhen and then reported: "Battal Commander, according to these prisoners, this man is the officer commanding them, a Han Chinese named Lu Yuanlong. This man plans to ignite gunpowder and die with us. These people under him If you don’t want to die, try to kill him first!”
Lu Yuanlong wanted to die, but his men were unwilling to be buried with him. Therefore, after discovering his intention, several of his men wanted to survive, but Lu Yuanlong refused to let them go, so in desperation A few people simply acted cruelly and killed Lu Yuanlong. And they knew they couldn't escape Hirado, so they simply used this as a form of surrender, hoping to get a way out.
After listening to this, Sun Zhen looked at the barrels of gunpowder that had been placed in the fort. He couldn't help but feel a little nervous. If he hadn't been lucky enough, he might have already flown into the sky at this time.
(End of chapter)