Chapter 1810: Powerless

In the previous several raids ashore, the Portuguese had almost never encountered regular troops of the Qing army. Their opponents were basically local militia groups or even private guards of some large landowners, regardless of weapons, equipment or combat experience.

They were all extremely lacking, and naturally could not withstand the offensive of the Portuguese musketeers. Simang seemed to underestimate the enemy because of this, and underestimated the true strength of the Qing army. This landing operation still relied too much on luck and did not do enough reconnaissance.

, will lead to a head-on collision with the Qing army.

In the course of fighting against Daming year after year, the Qing army has transformed from tribal armed forces into a professional army, and has gradually accumulated rich combat experience. In the past two years, it has added a strong opponent, Haihan, for

The adaptability of musket tactics has become stronger and stronger, and some methods have been developed to defeat the enemy. Although these tactics may not be easy to use against the Haihan army with more sophisticated weapons and equipment, they have obvious advantages against the Portuguese, who have inferior combat capabilities.

Effect.

Because Simang was commanding on horseback, he became a very conspicuous target. In the chaos, his shoulder was hit by an arrow falling from the sky. Fortunately, he was wearing light armor. Although the arrow penetrated the armor

, but no muscles or bones were injured, just skin injuries. Simang angrily pulled out his bow and arrow, ordered a signal flare to be fired, and asked the fleet on the seaside to quickly organize manpower reinforcements.

The current location of the Portuguese is only three or four miles away from the seaside, and there are still hundreds of sailors left on the ship. They can organize another force to support Simang's retreat.

Soon a red flare shot into the air and exploded. This was equipment provided by the Haihan Army to the Portuguese in order to send distress signals to distant places in critical moments. Unexpectedly, it would actually come in handy. Now as long as we can

Withdrawing to the seaside and relying on the fire cover of the naval guns, the Portuguese could return to the ship and leave this dangerous area.

However, the Qing army obviously did not want to let go of the Portuguese who had caused chaos on the east coast of Liaoning. They still maintained an extremely oppressive offensive posture by virtue of their superior strength. Although the Portuguese had superior military strength, the musket array they used

The tactics also have very obvious shortcomings, that is, it is difficult to maneuver quickly on the battlefield, otherwise the advantages brought by intensive firepower will be lost.

Even if Ximang is determined to evacuate the battlefield as soon as possible, he still has to keep his troops in a neat formation and divide them into two teams to cover the retreat. Otherwise, as long as the formation is messed up, these hundreds of infantry will immediately become the enemy.

The target of the cavalry attack, and once the two sides engage in close combat, Simang does not have the confidence to command the troops to defeat an enemy force several times his own in hand-to-hand combat with just the bayonet on the rifle. Fortunately, these people under him are not.

They were not fledglings. Although the situation was passive, everyone knew that the more this happened, the less likely they were to lose their position. The two legs could not outrun the cavalry anyway, so they could only maintain the formation and retreat while firing guns.

The flintlock guns equipped by the Portuguese have a limited firing frequency, and the amount of ammunition they carry is not too much. In order to save ammunition and prevent the enemy from seizing the gap in loading ammunition and rushing nearby, they must try to ensure the killing of each round of firing.

Effect. To ensure the accuracy of shooting, Simang can only order the enemy to be placed at a closer distance before firing, but this will give the enemy's bows and arrows more opportunities to shoot into the Portuguese musket array.

, from time to time there were screams of pain after being hit by an arrow.

In just one mile after they ordered the retreat from Simang, the Portuguese consumed almost half of their ammunition, and there were more than 30 unlucky people who were hit by arrows and lost the ability to fight, which is equivalent to losing almost ten points.

This is a situation where the two sides are not in close combat. Once the ammunition is exhausted or the opponent rushes closer, the number of casualties may quickly increase several times.

Ximang was already aware of this danger, so he was also trying his best to command his troops to break through the Qing army's obstruction. However, the Qing army they bumped into this time seemed to have become violent. Even though some people continued to fall after being hit by muskets, they still could not

He was willing to stop the offensive momentum. Although the battle loss ratio between the two sides was still significantly different, Ximang knew that once his troops collapsed, they would most likely have to deal with it here. At the moment, he had no time to regret that this action was too much.

In a hurry, they could only step up their orders and direct the troops to break out south.

"Everyone, please work harder, I can already see the top of the mast!" Simang, who was riding on horseback, kept shouting loudly to cheer up the soldiers, so that they would not lose their will to fight because of the increasing casualties around them.

In fact, even if Simang could see the mast top of the sailing ship on the seaside from horseback, the distance was still at least one or two miles away. It seemed very close, but with the front and rear blockades, the Portuguese's escape route was not

flat.

After losing about a quarter of their men, another group of Portuguese musketeers who hurried from the coast to rescue finally helped them drive away the Qing cavalry. The unwilling Qing army tried several more attacks, but

The Portuguese had stabilized their position and repelled the cavalry's attempts with intensive volleys of gun fire. After paying the price of dozens of cavalry, the Qing army saw that the Portuguese had retreated within the range of the naval guns, so they did not dare

Continue to chase after him.

"God bless!" Ximang made the sign of the cross in shock after returning to the deck. He really didn't expect that this attack would be so unsatisfactory, and he was almost blocked by the Qing army on the shore and unable to retreat. It seems that it went smoothly some time ago.

It made everyone fall into a state of paralysis and carelessness, even ignoring that the current opponent was a strong man who made Ming Dynasty struggle to parry, and had already made Korea famous before sending troops. Although the Qing army could only remain humble in front of the Haihan army,

But their combat effectiveness is not bad. At least in today's battle, Ximang's troops were in a very embarrassed state and were almost unable to safely evacuate the battlefield.

"Weight the anchor! Raise the sail! Get out of this damn place quickly!" Simang didn't want to delay here any longer and quickly gave the order to the crew.

The Qing army stopped and watched less than a mile away from where the Portuguese fleet docked, watching as the fleet slowly sailed away from the coast. Although the Qing army itself suffered three-digit battle losses, the Portuguese also stayed near the coast.

More than twenty corpses were recovered, which was already the biggest result in the recent war against Portugal. Taking back the heads of these Portuguese and asking for rewards, there will definitely be generous rewards.

After leaving the coast, Simang no longer had to worry about the Qing army chasing them to the sea, so he began to count the losses of today's battle. Among the more than 400 people he led to land, the number of casualties was close to a quarter.

The number of dead exceeded forty, and the bodies of more than twenty of them could not be brought back. Ximang had heard people from Haihan mention the way the Qing army dealt with the corpses of enemy soldiers before. He thought that these unlucky ghosts who died on the shore were probably

It was difficult to preserve the whole body under the Qing army.

Xi Mang didn't feel too sorry for the death of these men. When he returns to Macau next time, it won't be difficult to recruit a group of desperadoes who are willing to go out to sea for adventure. But now it is too far away from his base camp, and it will be difficult to make up for the damage caused by the battle.

The strength of the troops will inevitably affect the subsequent actions. Moreover, after this small setback, the Haihan people know how they will view themselves, and whether it will affect the subsequent combat mission arrangements, which makes Ximang slightly uneasy.

Although he hit an iron plate outside Dazheng Town, Ximang had no intention of stopping there. The losses he suffered today must be recovered as soon as possible through the next action. Dozens of people died, and the pension alone was enough.

I got a lot of money, and I had to grab it at least two or three more times before I could make it.

Xi Mang thought for a while and decided to turn around and go to Zhuanghe - more than half of the more than 400 Han people sent to Guanglu Island were kidnapped from villages and towns near Zhuanghe.

Zhuanghe is actually a collective place name, referring to a seaside plain sandwiched between the two waterways of Zhuanghe and Xiaosihe, with several villages and towns scattered in between. Zhuanghe and Xiaosihe share an outlet, and Portuguese sailing ships can sail directly

Entering these two rivers and going upstream to nearby villages and towns is far safer than Dazheng Town, a target that requires landing and marching. Although he just visited this place a few days ago, Xi Mang believes that there is still oil and water to be exploited here, and there is still hope.

Worth another trip.

Zhuanghe is actually only thirty miles away from Dazheng Town, where the Qing army had previously fought, but Ximang believed that the enemy would not have expected that they would reach the next target so quickly. The so-called unprepared attack means that right now

An excellent opportunity for action. So the fleet turned around and headed northeast on the nearby sea. In order to avoid being noticed by the Qing troops on the shore, Ximang also specifically ordered the fleet to make an arc to avoid the sight of the shore.

When they arrived near Zhuang River, Xi Mang was very careful this time. He specially sent more than 20 cavalrymen with a limited fleet to land first to detect whether there were any traces of Qing army movements nearby. He only led the infantry to land after it was safe to ensure nothing went wrong.

The Portuguese even moved a few small cannons ashore and took the time to build several temporary forts near the coast to serve as fire cover for the troops as they retreated to the coast.

As expected, Ximang's attack did not encounter the established Qing army again. The village he commanded to attack only had four or five Manchu households, and it was already under control without any decent resistance. Then Ximang ordered

The whole village, old and young, was gathered together and escorted to the bank of the Zhuang River to board a boat. During this period, some people were unwilling to embark on a journey with an uncertain future, but Simang had already anticipated this and escorted the few Manchu households outside the village.

, shot several people directly in front of the people, and then there was no more dissent or resistance.

In addition to using this simple and crude method to quickly shock the people, Simang also wanted to vent his anger at being driven away by the Qing army. He is currently unable to fight with the Qing army on the frontal battlefield.

In the duel, for the time being, the only way to get revenge is through this method.

And this is just a mistake. Several households in the village are full of people. Who dares to stay? After that, the Qing army will come here and will definitely kill all the living people in the village. First, it is to keep it secret and avoid causing trouble.

A wider range of panic; secondly, it is easy to accuse these Han people of colluding with foreign traitors, and if they are killed, they can go back to report their merits, which is also killing two birds with one stone. These Han people have been oppressed for a long time, and they naturally know what will happen if they stay.

As a result, they had no choice but to accept Portugal's arrangement and board a ship to leave this place of right and wrong. As for the Chinese-speaking Portuguese who claimed that they would be sent to a safe place to be resettled by the Haihan people, these refugees were dismayed.

It's dubious.

The men and horses led by Simang captured two villages before dark and captured more than 400 people, more than 8,000 kilograms of grain, a large number of livestock, and a certain amount of gold and silver collected from the homes of several Manchu landlords. Although these gains do not seem to be enough to offset the previous battle losses, they have at least revived the morale of the fleet. Even those who were injured in the battle with the Qing army are screaming to fight back to give the Qing army some color. Take a look.

Of course it is impossible to fight back. Although Ximang is belligerent, he is still very self-aware. The fleet he leads can fight well at sea, but after landing, its combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced and it can only perform some raiding combat missions. It can be done, but if we start a fight with the enemy's regular army, it will almost replicate the previous battle in Dazheng Town. If we are not careful, we may even risk the entire army being annihilated.

The activities of the Portuguese fleet in this sea area are to recoup the cost of the expedition through plunder, and to brush up the record so that Haihan can give more trust. Naturally, Ximang has no need to gnaw on such a hard nut as the Qing army, and even He would take the initiative to avoid it. But he also knew that with the frequent activities of his own fleet in this area of ​​​​the sea, the Qing army's defenses would gradually shrink the relatively safe area. If he carries out landing operations in the future, the risk he will take will be greater than before. Much more.

After leaving Zhuanghe, the Portuguese did not dock again and sailed directly to Xindao at the mouth of the Yalu River to complete the handover of refugees. Fortunately, not long after they left, another group of Qing troops received the warning. They rushed to the local area, but of course they failed to catch this group of Portuguese people who were coming and going like the wind.

One day later, the Portuguese fleet arrived at Salido and unloaded the Han refugees here. These refugees will be identified and registered here, and then transferred by boat to their new destination at the mouth of the Datong River. More than a thousand Han refugees have been resettled there. As a refugee, the port project that worried Tom Wang was organized and started by Haihan himself before the official arrangement of North Korea. Of course, as for when the first phase of the project can be completed and the Haihan fleet can be stationed there, it is still unclear. An unknown quantity.

Qian Tiandun estimated that at least 3,000 laborers would have to be invested in the local area to allow the coalition forces to move the base from Ganghwa Island to the local area in time for this summer. North Korea is also trying to organize craftsmen and civilians to be sent to the area to receive sea support. Han command.
Chapter completed!