Chapter 514 Attacking Danzhou

October 3, 1630, Baimajing Wharf, Danzhou Bay.

More than a dozen sailboats crowded the pier here. If Haihan hadn't organized the pier expansion project here two months in advance, the number of ships that could dock might only be half of the current number. And there are still many ships in the huge fleet that can't dock.

To dock directly, you can only stop in a slightly distant water area, and then use a small boat to ferry the people on board to the shore.

The armed personnel on the ship landed one after another, quickly assembled the entire team on the shore, and then set off eastward one by one. The whole process was busy and not chaotic, and no one yelled to leave the team. Residents of the fishing village who witnessed the whole process were shocked.

Silently, even though they had little knowledge, they could tell that this group of people was definitely not a mob. The rules were much stricter than those of the guard army in Danzhou City, and the weapons they were equipped with were almost all of the same standard. They said they were pirates.

?As long as you are not blind, you can tell that these people must have received long-term military training.

As the saying goes, bandits go through like combs and soldiers go through like grates, but this group of pirates who looked more like regular armies did not loot the local residents after landing. Apart from blocking access to the village, they basically did nothing else.

Disturbing behavior.

This doesn't seem to be particularly accurate, because the only small restaurant at the entrance of the village was ransacked by this group of pirates with unknown origins. The shopkeeper and the waiters in the store did not escape, but were all captured and tied up with thick ropes.

, and even added shackles to form a long row, and knelt on the roadside at the entrance of the village.

This is not an act to scare the monkeys, but because this small restaurant is a secret sentry of the Danzhou Guards. When the fleet sailed into Danzhou Bay, the action team lurking here in the early stage took the lead in taking away this disguised

outpost to prevent them from sending warning signals to Danzhou City in advance. There are three other early warning outposts like this between Baimajing and Danzhou, but by this time they must have been captured by the advance team who took action at the same time.

Outside the Rouyuan Gate of Danzhou City, a Ming Army officer stood at the city gate with a gloomy face, looking at the far end of the official road. From early morning to now, except for a few farmers who came to sell vegetables, there were actually

There isn't even a trading house, it's already noon, and you've actually received more than a dozen copper coins. Can you still do this job?

The job of guarding the city gate is the most popular one in the city defense army, and in Danzhou City, the guarding of Rouyuan Gate has the most jobs, because the official road outside the city gate is the main road to Baimajing Pier, and all sea routes are

All the foreign merchants who came here came this way. It was hard for this officer to get this job, and every five days it would be his turn to lead this team to guard the city gate. If he didn't receive a few today,

Money, it's almost like a wasted opportunity.

"It's strange! Normally, the goods from Fu Maochang, Haifeng, and Zhan's Shipping Company all come to the city at this time of the month. Why are none of them showing up today?" The officer looked at the empty official message and couldn't bear to say.

He couldn't help complaining. Although the people from these trading houses were not as generous as Haihan, it would definitely be no problem for the caravan to go to the city and get a few taels of silver.

"Coming, coming, a caravan is coming!" Just as the officer hesitated, the soldiers on the tower shouted loudly to inform the people at the city gate below.

Sure enough, not long after, a convoy of horse-drawn carriages appeared in the field of vision of the Ming army guarding the gate. However, the style of these horse-drawn carriages looked a little strange, as if they were a little different from the usual horse-drawn carriages.

But before these Ming troops could see the clues, a huge convoy consisting of about twenty carriages had already arrived at the city gate. The officer finally discovered something was wrong - this convoy did not have any business name erected. flag, and he didn't find any familiar faces among the people driving the carriage.

"Stop, stop!" the officer shouted loudly, stepping forward to stop the car and signaling the soldiers behind him to move Juma and Luzhai from the side of the road to the middle of the road.

However, the leading carriage had no intention of stopping. The driver sitting in the front threw his right hand, and seven or eight shining coins flew to the roadside. The driver shouted loudly: "Everyone, give way. If there is an emergency, hurry in." city!"

When several soldiers who were about to move the roadblock saw the money flying out, they had already abandoned their work and rushed to pick up the money on the ground. When the officer saw this, he stopped stepping forward to stop it. He just stared at the convoy of carriages rushing towards the city gate and spat: "Damn, it's amazing to be rich!"

After the carriage entered the city, it did not continue forward. Instead, it turned to the left and right sides and stopped along the base of the city wall. As soon as the tarpaulin on the carriage was lifted, seven or eight people got out of each carriage. Men holding short-barreled muskets. These people didn't care about the surprised looks of the people on the streets around them, and they lined up and rushed towards the city gate.

This unit trained for three months on Cat Ba Island, which consisted of repeatedly practicing city capture battles on several specially replicated city gates in one-to-one size. Their mission was to dismantle the city gates in the shortest possible time. The defenders' armed forces suppressed all resistance measures and guarded the city gates, opening the way for subsequent reinforcements to enter the city.

When the Ming army at the bottom of the city was still gathering in a pile to count the total amount of silver they had just picked up, a crisp bang was heard from the city gate tower. The leading officer looked up at the city tower, then lowered his head and began to calculate how much money each person could share. How much money did you get? But soon there were several more similar noises from the city tower. The officer finally came to his senses and threw the money on the ground: "No! Something happened at the city gate! Go back quickly!"

However, when he led this group of people to rush to the city gate, he found two rows of people standing in the gate, one in front and one behind, holding firecrackers in their hands and silently aiming at them.

"It's pirates..." Someone finally remembered the recent rumors. It is said that the pirates who have been raging on the northern coast of Qiongzhou Island recently will send troops to attack the city on the island. Most people think this is just an unrealistic rumor, and no one I was worried that something like pirates would actually attack the city.

However, something beyond imagination seems to have happened. During this moment of silence, the Ming army officer led by the leader felt the slight trembling of the ground under his feet. When he slowly turned around, he found a larger A convoy of horse-drawn carriages is approaching from the official road.

Since there is nearly twenty miles from Baima Well to Danzhou City, in order to save the physical strength of the siege troops, the relevant departments not only transported personnel to Danzhou Bay by ship, but also transported a large number of horse-drawn carriages at the same time. However, these few days

Ten carriages could only carry a few hundred people, which was only about one-tenth of the total force used in this operation. Except for a few elite personnel who rode carriages to Danzhou City, most of the combatants still had to go on foot.

Go to the battle site.

Hundreds of soldiers from the Rouyuan Gate of Danzhou City who arrived early seized control of the city gate as quickly as possible, and using their carriages, they quickly erected a barricade inside the city gate, as well as four portable three-pounders.

The army artillery was aimed at the main road in the city that leads directly to the northern part of the city.

It has to be said that although the fighting power of Danzhou's defenders was poor, their response speed was still very fast. Only ten minutes after the incident at Rouyuan Gate, a team of about two hundred people hurried over from the avenue.

Reinforcements. However, this poorly prepared reinforcement was defeated on the spot by a dense barrage of bullets about fifty meters away from the barricade set up by the attackers.

When the officer commanding this unit tried to reorganize an offensive, four small cannons fired from the emplacement in the middle of the street. At this distance, the gunners did not even need to specifically aim, as every shell was fired on the opposite side.

A long trough of blood was torn out in the Ming army. After leaving about forty corpses, this wave of Ming troops who rushed to rescue fled the battlefield at the same speed.

Almost at the same time as the sound of cannons sounded, the residents in the city immediately closed their doors, fearing that the war would affect them. The defenders in the city were panicked and didn't know how to deal with it, because thousands of adults in the city had already left in the first battle just now.

Unfortunately, he was killed on the spot during a wave of fighting. Some people think that the pirates should take advantage of the unstable foothold to organize a counterattack immediately and retake the city gate, so that they can have hope of holding on. Others think that the pirates' artillery fire is fierce and irresistible, and the top priority is to send out

Envoys, please quickly seek help from nearby states, counties and prefectures.

The troops that captured the city gate were not in a hurry to expand their control area, nor did they pursue the fleeing Ming army. Their mission was to control the city gate first, and other troops would not take over the defense here until the large army entered the city.

This tactical arrangement is naturally not perfect in the eyes of the military's top brass. In another time and space, it can be said to be a delay in fighting. But in the battle to capture Danzhou City, arranging such tactics is also a helpless move.

In order to minimize the losses and consumption during the battle to seize the city, the military arranged a surprise attack. However, because the landing site of the large troops was too far away from Danzhou City, and the military lacked sufficient mobile transportation means,

Therefore, the large troops could only rush from the seaside to Danzhou City on foot. This time difference was a flaw that no matter how good the battle plan was, it was difficult to make up for it.

However, the Annan Militia Army has also practiced a lot in the armed cross-country project, so for them, this 10-kilometer cross-country is not particularly difficult. Moreover, in order to reduce the burden, their luggage has been reduced to the level of maintaining basic combat effectiveness.

, far less than the load during normal training.

The special service company of the Annan Militia Army, led by Qian Tiandun personally, rushed from the landing site to Rouyuan Gate, Danzhou in only 70 minutes, and more than 200 people in the establishment did not fall behind. This special service company can be regarded as an elite company.

It is an elite company. Everyone is personally selected and trained by Qian Tiandun. In his words, those who can enter this company must learn at least 60 to 70% of their own skills before they can be considered qualified. They arrived

At that time, it was only about ten minutes before the vanguard troops defeated the first counterattack of the Ming army.

The second wave of troops who rushed to Danzhou City were the other troops of the militia. This force, which was three battalions in size, had a much larger formation. Immediately after entering the city, troops took over the defense of the city gate, and some troops began to

Along the city wall, the Ming troops who were still participating in the city defense were cleared, and two companies of troops went directly around the city and continued to advance. Their destination was several traffic arteries to the west of Danzhou, where they would cooperate with the troops who had been lurking in the early stage.

The vanguard troops set up a defensive line to block the route of Danzhou's defeated troops fleeing to Fucheng.

The quality of the three thousand Annan soldiers borrowed was far inferior to those of Qian Tiandun's men. After marching for seven or eight miles, the Annan army began to gradually become disjointed, and some of them had to stop midway due to lack of physical strength.

Stop and rest, and the whole team will soon become in disarray.

The Annan officer in charge of commanding this unit was Zheng Ting, who was directly named by Qian Tiandun. When he saw the militia troops leaving without a trace, but his own troops marching so slowly, he felt a strong sense of powerlessness in his heart.

feel.

For a long time, Annan's domestic community generally believed that the main reason for the gap in combat effectiveness between its own army and the Haihan militia army was the power of weapons. Many Annan officers believed that as long as they could use the weapons of the Haihan militia, then both sides would be better off.

The combat effectiveness can be quickly narrowed, even without distinction. This is one of the reasons why Annan has been sparing no expense in recent years to purchase large quantities of Haihan standard weapons.

However, the new generation of officers like Zheng Ting, who has received formal military training from Haihan and has had several collaborative operations experience, is very clear that the gap between the two goes far beyond weapons and equipment. It also involves strategy, tactics, and maneuverability.

, logistics supplies, and even the most fundamental ideological construction of the army, there is a big gap between the two sides. Moreover, many of Haihan's practices cannot be simply imitated or copied.

For example, Haihan recently established a new organization, the Youth League, in the militia army this year. All combat units above the company level must be equipped with an officer qualified for the Youth League as the commander's deputy, who is responsible for the ideological development of soldiers and grassroots officers.

Work. This configuration makes many people confused about its function, but Zheng Ting quickly realized that its function is much more than what it seems.

Although Annan's soldiers who protect the country usually instill the idea of ​​loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, when it comes to fighting, most of them still rely on their blood. As for the soldiers of the Haihan Militia, they really do it for the executive committee to spare no effort.

Go out, this kind of brainwashing ability has always been envied by Zheng Ting, but now the Haihan people seem to think that the level is not enough, and have specially set up an officer position to do this. It can be imagined that the high-level officials of Haihan have no regard for the military.

The importance attached to thoughts.

The Annan Army also has arrangements for armed cross-country training. However, the training effect is far inferior to others. When they compete on the battlefield, they will show their superiority. Where is the difference? Zheng Ting can only understand this as the difference between the soldiers of both sides.

Their ideological level was completely different. He was even thinking about whether he should write to the Ministry of War after returning this time and learn Haihan's method of operation.
Chapter completed!