Chapter 269 Attack and Defense Battle

Feng Anan still wanted to argue, but Mu Xiabai stopped him with his eyes. At this time, it was more important to do business first, and there was no need to argue about these meaningless things. At most, wearing a suit of armor means that he can't move easily, so that's okay.

No big deal. However, Mu Xiabai did not forget to remind Zheng Bai that he must keep the secret of Haihan military aid internally and not let the news out in advance.

Zheng Bai also ordered the preparation of carriages and horses. The North Vietnamese Army's Chinese camp was still eight or nine miles away from the current defensive position. Of course, friendly generals could not be allowed to walk over on foot wearing full armor - Zheng Bai took out the two sets of armor.

Weighing more than twenty kilograms, wearing this thing over mountains and ridges is no easy task.

The armor of the North Vietnamese Army lieutenant generals is very similar to the Ming Dynasty's standard. They are all iron armor with a front placket. The workmanship is not bad, but the protective measures for ordinary soldiers are almost zero. They are all single-layer cloth and cotton.

They don’t even have armor, and the only equipment that can be called protective is probably a small bamboo or rattan hat on the head. Lower-level officers are slightly better and can wear a two-piece iron vest to protect the chest and back.

.

As for the weapons used, in addition to the regular army, which was relatively well-organized, the peasants and soldiers who were temporarily recruited to fight almost all brought their own weapons, so there were all kinds of strange things. There were even many people who used weapons.

To use a bamboo spear, you just need to sharpen one end of the bamboo and bake it on the fire to harden it.

Such an army is almost a pure consumable. When the war is unfavorable, its combat effectiveness drops very quickly. This is probably because the North Vietnamese army brought more than 100,000 subordinates to the southern expedition. As a result, after losing several battles in succession, the number of troops was reduced directly.

An important reason for half. Of course, for a country like Annan that has been in war all year round, the lower the cost of maintaining the army, the better. Only in this way can we have the capital to fight the opponent for a long time. The advantage of farmers and soldiers is to maintain peace.

The cost of use is very low, and it can withstand consumption - anyway, after the war, you can just levy it again. If you really want to maintain a combat force of 100,000 people all year round, there is no need to fight at all. The military expenditure alone is enough.

Those in power went bankrupt.

This situation also existed in South Vietnam, so when South Vietnam attacked the defense line here, it also used a large number of peasant soldiers, hoping to use its strength advantage to weaken the defenders' will to fight.

Zheng Bai personally accompanied him and explained the battle situation to Mu and Feng along the way. It took about an hour to arrive at the combat position. The current defense line of the North Vietnamese Army is built on a mountain range that runs east-west and leads directly to the sea. It is about ten miles away.

On the long mountain ridge, there are simple fortifications built by the North Vietnamese army almost every 100 meters, and about a hundred troops are stationed there. Various roadblocks such as pits, trenches, and deer villages are used to fill the gaps. Several key mountain passes are even more important.

A walled city was specially built to increase defense strength. If viewed from the air, this line of defense is simply a miniature version of the Great Wall.

Mu and Feng noticed that although the average altitude of this mountain range was only a little over a hundred meters above sea level, the south-facing side of the mountain was steeper. The South Vietnamese army almost had to look up at a 45° angle to launch an attack on the defenders on the mountain range.

The difficulty of combat is self-evident. Even troops using matchlock guns are quite restricted when they arrive here - the shooting angle is large, the lethality is limited, and they will also be covered by bows and arrows shot from top to bottom.

In fact, after the first few attacks, the South Vietnamese army saw extremely limited results, and basically gave up the idea of ​​using musketeers to attack this front, and planned to use peasant soldiers as cannon fodder to fill the holes.

Zheng Bai took them to a hill near the sea. This is the highest point of the entire defense line, with an altitude of about 200 meters. Although Mu Xiabai and Feng Annan were soldiers, they wore more than 20 kilograms of armor and carried heavy weights on their backs.

After carrying a large bag of equipment, they were still a little out of breath when climbing up the mountain. Zheng Bai wanted his soldiers to carry the two bags of things for them, but Mu and Feng did not agree - one of the two backpacks was filled with shortwave military equipment.

Radios and batteries, one containing firearms and other military equipment, must not be handed over to outsiders casually.

Due to the highest terrain, the possibility of being directly attacked here is relatively small. However, the North Vietnamese army still built a small military station on this mountain, stationed seven or eight hundred people, and gathered some supplies and weapons, which can be used according to war needs.

, provide timely support to nearby defense points. Judging from the deployment of defensive positions, Zheng Bai does have two skills as a commander.

After Mu and Feng rested for a few minutes, they asked Zheng Bai to let his soldiers retreat to a farther place first. Although Zheng Bai was a little confused, he thought that the document from the north asked him to cooperate with the Haihan people as much as possible, so he agreed at the same time.

Require.

After all the idle personnel around him had retreated a distance, Mu Xiabai opened his backpack, took out two military binoculars, and started visual reconnaissance to the south with Feng Annan.

Before the time travel, the Military and Police Department, like other departments, purchased a large amount of special equipment, and binoculars were naturally one of the important military supplies. However, as professionals, some people in the Military and Police Department spent their own money to buy better ones.

Personal equipment, instead of choosing to use stocks purchased at public expense. For example, the wealthy North American gang headed by Wang Tom are equipped with all-purpose Nighthawks produced by Steiner. Mu Xiabai and Feng Annan use

The domestically produced Boguan is also a high-quality military version. According to the evaluation of senior Morgan and Johnson after use, its quality is slightly better than the M22B telescope equipped by the US military.

Zheng Bai saw the two of them holding a strange object in front of his eyes, and was confused for a moment. However, he could roughly understand the content of the conversation between the two.

"At two o'clock, 1,500 meters away, there is an enemy military camp. Judging from the size, it should be just an outpost camp."

"That's right, judging from the enemy's position layout, the enemy's camp should be behind the hill on the left side of the outpost camp, about... about 2,200 meters away from our location."

"Our army artillery is definitely out of reach at this distance, but there is hope that we can hit this outpost camp."

"At such a long distance, there is no lethality if you barely hit them. It seems that just holding on is not enough, you still have to find a way to attack."

The two discussed for a while, then put down the binoculars and began to spread out the map to mark. Zheng Bai looked at it for a while and found that the places they marked were the enemy's military camps in the distance, even seven or eight miles away.

The opponent's Chinese army camp was marked out in detail, and he couldn't help but asked in surprise: "How did you two know the details of the opponent's military formation?"

After Zheng Bai retreated here, of course he did not blindly defend. He still sent many spies along the western mountains to explore the vicinity of the South Vietnamese garrison camp. It took him a long time to figure out the location of the opponent's Chinese army. And Hai

The two generals of the Han Dynasty had only arrived here for only about half a stick of incense, but they had already discovered the location of the opponent's military camp. What is the reason for this?

After Mu Xiabai and Feng Annan exchanged glances, they responded to Zheng Bai: "General Zheng can try our good stuff."

Feng Annan gave Zheng Bai a demonstration and handed him the telescope. Zheng Bai followed Feng Annan's posture and put the telescope in front of his eyes with some uneasiness. Soon his hands began to tremble uncontrollably: "This... what kind of thing is this?"

Spell? You can actually see the vegetation miles away so clearly!"

Feng Annan was afraid that he would drop the telescope on the ground, so he quickly reached out and took it back: "This is not a magic spell, this is a telescope made in Haihan."

"Telescope? A good thing, a good thing..." Zheng Bai, as a general who led troops, of course immediately realized the role this thing could play on the battlefield. He looked at the telescope in Feng Annan's hand eagerly and muttered.

: "Your army has such a sharp weapon, Ruan Ni will definitely be defeated!"

"You will know who is invincible only after fighting." Mu Xiabai was not fooled by Zheng Bai's flattery and immediately brought the topic back to business: "General Zheng, please confirm and take a look at the enemy's positions and positions we have sketched.

Is there anything missing in the military camp?”

Zheng Bai's face turned red, but luckily he couldn't tell because of his dark skin: "I'm not afraid that the two generals will laugh at me. I'm afraid the military information we currently have is not as detailed as the two generals on this picture."

Mu Xiabai raised his eyebrows, but he didn't care too much. After all, the North Vietnamese Army's reconnaissance capabilities and methods were very limited. How much could they observe with the naked eye? Just as he was about to speak, he heard coming from the plains to the south.

There was a sound of drums.

"Ruan Ni's army is about to launch an offensive again!" Zheng Bai immediately regained his composure when he heard the sound of drums, called his soldiers over, and gave orders to prepare for war.

"I want to go to the front to supervise the battle. Please stay here and don't move around at will!" Zheng Bai hurriedly said goodbye to the two of them, and then left with a group of soldiers.

It was the first time for both Mu and Feng to watch the large-scale military operations of this era at close range. They were very curious and picked up the telescope again to observe the battlefield situation.

The gate of the camp they considered to be an outpost camp opened, and soldiers ran out and moved Juma and Luzhai away from the door. Then a wave of South Vietnamese soldiers poured out of the camp in a chaotic manner.

Then groups of soldiers came out from behind the hills on the left side of the camp and began to form an array beside the hills. It looked like there should be as many as three to four thousand people. However, Feng Anan only looked at it for a moment, and then put down the telescope impatiently:

"Is this formation too slow? By the time they line up and start attacking, I'm afraid the sun will go down!"

Mu Xiabai responded with a smile: "Although combat in the cold weapon era also paid attention to military formations, the requirements for formations were not so strict. These armies must have not received special training. How could they be like our militia?

We formed an attack formation in a short time."

It took about ten or twenty minutes before this chaotic group of soldiers finally formed a military formation. However, judging from the inconsistent military uniforms and weapons, it was inferred that these South Vietnamese soldiers were not regular troops, but temporary peasant soldiers.

"The regular army is coming out." Mu Xiabai greeted, and Feng Annan quickly picked up the telescope again and started to look: "Where are they?"

"At the very back of the military formation."

Unless Mu Xiabai looked carefully, Feng Annan really didn't pay much attention to the small group of South Vietnamese soldiers arrayed behind the peasant soldiers, but it seemed that this regular army had no intention of leading the charge.

"It should be the war supervisory team." Mu Xiabai deduced: "These farmers and soldiers should not have a strong will to fight. If there is no supervising team watching from behind, they will just hit people and run away."

As they spoke, the drums sounded again, and the cowering peasants and soldiers finally began to advance towards the mountain ridge where the North Vietnamese Army was located. From the place where they gathered to the foot of the mountain, there was only a distance of about one mile. The South Vietnamese army slowly moved forward, and

There is no rush to launch a charge - after reaching the foot of the mountain, they still have to climb uphill for about four to five hundred meters before they can reach the North Vietnamese Army's defense line. If they charge too early, they will definitely lose their physical strength.

The North Vietnamese Army has also begun to mobilize troops according to the opponent's advance route, gradually gathering troops to a section of the mountain that may be attacked. In particular, the archers stationed at various strongholds in the mountains are all in groups at this time.

Racing towards the assembly point, as long-range strike firepower, they have always been a very important defensive force in the mountain position.

"The commanders in South Vietnam are not just for a living!" Mu Xiabai couldn't help but muttered as he held up his binoculars.

After the first wave of farmers and soldiers set off, a second wave of troops was already gathering at the location where they had just assembled. It seemed that South Vietnam did not place its hope on being able to push back the mountainous positions with a wave of farmers, but

We planned to use wheel tactics to carry out the attack, and even if we couldn't defeat them, we still had to put enough pressure on the North Vietnamese Army.

When Feng Annan saw this, he also muttered: "But North Vietnam's position advantage is too obvious. If they attack from bottom to top like they do, how many people will have to die before they can attack!"

"That's not necessarily the case." Mu Xiabai retorted after carefully observing the terrain: "Even the defense of a city wall several feet high can sometimes be breached. What's more, there is no city wall here at all, it's just a hillside, and the defense line is long.

If the opponent has enough troops and uses multiple points of attack, it will be very difficult for North Vietnam to defend it."

Before Mu Xiabai finished speaking, he saw a South Vietnamese troop appearing on the right side of the hill, and began to advance slowly towards the mountain defense line.

"Old Mu, you really have a crow's mouth!" Feng Annan couldn't help but sigh when he saw this.

The two attack routes of the South Vietnamese Army are about two miles apart. In this way, the two defense lines under attack can basically only take care of themselves, and have no time to take care of and support friendly forces far away. However, standing on the highest

On the top of the mountain, Mu and Feng could also see thousands of soldiers from the North Vietnamese Army moving from the camp in the rear to the defensive position on the top of the mountain. It was not easy for the South Vietnamese Army to break through this line of defense.

things.

The South Vietnamese army that first arrived at the foot of the mountain did not stop to readjust the team. The commander directly issued the order to attack. Thousands of soldiers accelerated their pace and began to advance up the mountain.

At this time, the shortcomings of North Vietnam's defensive positions began to appear - the hillside was completely covered by dense forests, and the opponent had excellent natural protection at this distance. Only within the final distance of about thirty or forty meters close to the defense line

The trees were cleared in advance by the North Vietnamese, leaving an unhindered attack field. This was not because the North Vietnamese were lazy and unwilling to continue clearing, but because the South Vietnamese army left many guerrilla posts to snipe the North Vietnamese sent out in the dense forest.

After several small-scale tug-of-wars, the logging crews were finally able to maintain the safe distance at the current level.

Although the North Vietnamese Army could defend from a high position, due to the obstruction of the dense forest, the effective range of long-range firepower was only a short distance outside the defense line. The South Vietnamese Army also made full use of this feature and slowed down its advance at the edge of the dense forest.

, regrouped - placing a large number of archers behind the infantry who were about to charge into the battle.

Even though they were several miles away from the battle zone, Mu and Feng heard three very clear drum sounds, and then saw through the telescope that South Vietnamese soldiers poured out of the woods and rushed towards the North Vietnamese defense line. Behind them,

A large wave of archers took up position and began to launch projectile attacks towards the North Vietnamese defense line.
To be continued...