Chapter 282 Fancy hanging

The South Vietnamese army's mobilization speed was much slower than the command expected. It was not until ten o'clock in the morning that the South Vietnamese army, which was finally ready for war, opened the camp gate, and groups of soldiers drove out of the camp and marched to the coalition positions in the east. Of course,

, when the South Vietnamese Army left camp, the headquarters had received a notification from the lookout post on the top of the mountain. To the coalition forces, there was no secret to the South Vietnamese Army's actions.

Tom Wang slowly slipped down from a big tree where three people were hugging each other, and said to Qiao Zhiya who was guarding under the tree: "Our rest time is over, it's our turn to exercise."

Qiao Zhiya stood up and said with a smile: "If I wait any longer, I'm going to get moldy!"

The South Vietnamese Army was able to defeat the North Vietnamese Army steadily. In addition to its superiority in weapons, its generals responsible for commanding operations also had some skills. They did not forget to send out reconnaissance troops to find out the opponent's military situation. Before the large forces were dispatched, they

A small number of infantry pounced on the two mountains on the north and south sides of the coalition position. It seemed that they planned to use the terrain to reconnoiter the deployment of the coalition position. Unfortunately, they arrived a little late. The North American gang was divided into two groups, each with a platoon.

The Haihan militiamen have been lurking on these two mountains for a long time, waiting for the other side's spies to deliver food. These South Vietnamese spies who want to reach the mountains basically end up with no return.

This group of troops that came out of the South Vietnamese camp numbered more than 5,000 people. However, according to the observation of the lookout post, only about one-third of them were regular South Vietnamese troops, and the rest were peasant soldiers with relatively low combat effectiveness.

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Of course, after watching the mountain position offensive and defensive battle recorded by Feng Annan and Mu Xiabai, no one will take these peasant soldiers lightly anymore. These ragged monkey soldiers who don't even have armor are not ambiguous in fighting. If

If the opponent breaks through the defense line, then the few people on the coalition position may not be enough for the opponent to massacre.

But what makes the command slightly disappointed is that there is still no trace of the musketeers in the South Vietnamese camp this time. It seems that the generals of the South Vietnamese army still have a little luck, hoping to use their superior strength to overwhelm the coalition positions. This seems to be

It's not a very strong line of defense.

In order to ensure the superiority in firepower, Mu Xiabai asked the musketeers of the two remaining standby phalanxes of the North Vietnamese Confederate Army to enter the fighting position behind the defensive wall. At this time, the first batch of artillerymen also pushed the newly assembled artillery into the

Arrive at the predetermined artillery position. However, Yan Chujie believes that since the opponent is still using cold-armed infantry as the main offensive force, the attack of the musket array is enough to destroy their offensive, and there should be no need to use heavy weapons such as artillery for the time being.

The South Vietnamese army did not wait too long after arriving at the offensive position, and immediately launched a wave of thousands of offensive attacks on the coalition positions. This time, the South Vietnamese infantry no longer fought alone, but with the cooperation of archers. According to

Observations from the observation tower at the rear of the position revealed that there were about three to four hundred archers following behind the enemy infantry formation.

However, the coalition forces are not very nervous about this. Not to mention that the effective range of the enemy's bows and arrows is not as good as their own muskets. The musketeers hiding behind the defensive wall will never suffer under the crossfire, even if the opponent can break into the range.

For long-distance ejection, the wooden ceiling extending seven or eight meters behind the defensive wall is enough to cover the heads of the musketeers, forming an effective protection.

After having the previous combat experience, the North Vietnamese Confederate Army also appeared relatively calm in the face of the new round of offensive. The soldiers were already very aware of the power of the weapons in their hands, and also knew that the opponent did not have the strength to attack their own front, and only needed to follow the orders of the officers

command, keep raising the gun, shooting, reloading, and repeating this process, you can defeat the opponent's offensive.

After entering a distance of 200 meters, the South Vietnamese army still used the sword and shield soldiers as the vanguard and launched a charge. It seems that they did not learn the lesson from the previous time and still planned to use the most primitive and direct combat method to deal with the enemy's advanced arms.

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Yan Chujie put down the telescope and said to Mu Xiabai who was watching the battle: "Although South Vietnam also has musketeers, it seems that they have not carefully considered how the cold weapon troops should deal with the musketeers."

Mu Xiabai said: "There are historical examples of cold weapon infantry defeating musketeers, but looking at the current environment, I think no matter how fierce the infantry is, it is impossible to easily break through our line of defense."

The example of the battle that Mu Xiabai mentioned refers to the counter-insurgency battle in the Scottish Highlands in the mid-18th century between British lobster soldiers who used muskets and Scottish soldiers who were mainly equipped with swords and shields. In 1745, in the northeastern area of ​​Edinburgh, the two sides were in a battle of strength.

Under comparable circumstances, the British army, which had more than 2,000 musketeers and six artillery pieces, suffered nearly half casualties and over a thousand prisoners. Less than 200 people successfully escaped from the battlefield, while the opponents who used cold weapons only suffered 100 casualties. The results were very good.

Great disparity.

In 1746, southwest of Falkirk, the 5,000-strong Scottish Highlanders led by Prince Charles once again defeated the 7,000-strong British Royal Army commanded by Hawley with cold weapons and equipment. However, in this battle, the Scottish Army had cavalry.

To help out, we cannot attribute all the victory to the infantry.

In these two battles in which cold weapons defeated hot weapons, one common feature was that the cold weapon troops adopted the tactic of large-scale maneuvers and roundabouts on the battlefield, and then took advantage of the fact that the array adjustment of the opponent's musketry troops was not completed after the turn.

They launched a charge during the interval and achieved the final victory. The battlefield chosen by the coalition forces was located at the angle between two mountains. The terrain was narrow, and the width of the battlefield of only two hundred meters was almost entirely within the range of musketry.

It is simply impossible to make any large-scale maneuvers, which is why Mu Xiabai said this.

Soon the South Vietnamese army proved this theory with facts. Amidst the crackling sounds of gunfire, charging South Vietnamese soldiers continued to fall into the dust. Whether it was shields or armors, they became

It is a dispensable thing, even if the hearts of these charging soldiers are full of fighting courage, in the end it is still not worth the lethality of a small lead bullet.

"What a one-sided massacre!" Mu Xiabai also put down his telescope.

Judging from the current battle progress, this attack by the South Vietnamese Army is just another round of killing people. Although these soldiers are not afraid of death, the effect of their charge is very unsatisfactory. The person who charged the farthest

When he fell, he was still more than ten meters away from the peripheral obstacles of the defensive position, and could not threaten the coalition forces behind the defensive wall at all.

As for the offensive launched by the South Vietnamese archers, just as the headquarters had anticipated, it did not cause much trouble to our side. A wave of arrows fell from the sky, and basically all of them were nailed to the wooden ceiling.

There was a crackling sound, like hail hitting the roof.

In this chaotic situation, no one noticed that one or two gunshots were heard from time to time on the mountains on both sides of the north and south. It was the troops lurking on the top of the mountains who were dealing with the spies sent by South Vietnam.

The South Vietnamese army lost at least 400 lives in this wave of charges. Perhaps the commander saw that his charge could not even reach the opponent's defense line, and finally had to succumb to reality and angrily chose to withdraw his troops. On the other hand, the commander

The morale of the coalition forces has been greatly boosted, and all the uneasiness before the war has now been forgotten.

"General Yan, Instructor Mu, was this battle alright?" Seeing the enemy troops retreating, Zheng Ting also happily asked the Haihan officers for credit.

"Good fight." Yan Chujie nodded and affirmed the performance of the North Vietnamese Army, but then changed the subject: "But isn't it a matter of course? Your opponents don't even have a chance to fight you head-on, they are just a group of living targets.

Don’t forget, they have an army just like yours!”

Zheng Ting's face became solemn, he raised his chest and raised his head in response. As a senior officer in the North Vietnamese Army, Zheng Ting also knew the purpose of this landing operation. Killing hundreds of South Vietnamese infantrymen was indeed not an ideal result.

"If we don't pull out this nail, the South Vietnamese Army will not be able to continue attacking the north with confidence. So there will still be a fight, so you should perform well!" Mu Xiabai still chose to give full encouragement to his students.

Seeing that the infantry attack failed, the South Vietnamese generals obviously did not intend to continue giving away lives in vain, and temporarily stopped the offensive. The coalition forces also took advantage of this time to distribute lunch to the front-line combat troops. These soldiers

I had eaten some dry food before landing in the early morning. It had been six or seven hours since I had been working hard. I was still in a state of high nervousness. I was already very hungry. So I sat on the ground and ate. The engineers ordered the civilians to quickly deal with those who were nailed to the defense.

arrows on the walls and ceiling, and began to lay a layer of floating soil on the ceiling to prevent opponents from using rocket attacks.

Taking advantage of this gap in the battle, hundreds of civilians went outside the defensive wall, seizing the time to continue digging trenches and strengthening defensive positions. Although the coalition forces had a huge advantage in weapons, the headquarters would rather spend more manpower than to

Make your defenses as watertight as possible.

Qian Tiandun and Mu Xiabai each brought a platoon of troops up the mountain to replace the two teams that had been busy in the forest for a long time. The two mountains in the south and north were completely primitive dense forests. This kind of environment was not suitable for large forces to fight.

But it is suitable for the combat method based on individual soldiers or small teams that the Black Earth Port Special Operations Company is good at.

Throughout the morning's battle, the coalition side did not suffer the large-scale casualties that had been feared beforehand. There were only less than ten wounded and no one was killed. However, the opponent's death toll was at least 500, and more than 30 were captured.

The loss ratio is simply huge.

After the news of the victory was transmitted to the North Vietnamese military camp on the mountain defense line via the radio, Zheng Bai finally breathed a sigh of relief. The coalition positions in the south had gained a firm foothold, which meant that the South Vietnamese army would not have the energy to continue desperately attacking this position in the north for the time being.

A mountain defense line was formed. The two positions in the south and one in the north echoed each other, and finally the battle situation was temporarily stabilized.

What was slightly unexpected by the command was that the South Vietnamese army was still quiet that afternoon and did not launch another attack on the coalition positions. The command suspected that the other side was secretly preparing for war, and perhaps new offensive methods would be used in the battle next -

—For example, the hidden musketry unit.

On the one hand, the headquarters took the opportunity to strengthen the defense facilities of the coalition positions, and on the other hand, it deployed more manpower at the commanding heights in the north and south. If there are any loopholes in the coalition positions, it is probably these two mountains. The coalition forces do not have any.

With enough manpower and resources to build two more mountain defense lines, we can only rely on elite skirmishers to carry out simple defenses on the two mountains. But the good news is that the opponent obviously does not have enough energy to slowly clear these two mountains - just

It had already taken them more than a month to deal with the mountain in the north. The senior leaders of the South Vietnamese Army would rather bet on attacking the middle pass than repeat this arduous process again.

The only gain that afternoon was that the USS Discovery captured a South Vietnamese reconnaissance ship in the waters south of the landing site. The reconnaissance ship was discovered a few nautical miles away from the landing site, and was close to the war zone.

There would be no civilian fishing boats or commercial ships in this area of ​​the sea. As soon as the "Discovery" approached, the ship immediately fled to the open sea. However, it was obviously unwise to rely on speed to escape the pursuit of the "Discovery".

As a result, his intention was exposed, so the "Discovery" approached the ship at full speed and launched a bombardment on the ship without hesitation.

However, what made the trainee gunners on the ship feel ashamed was that after three rounds of shooting at a distance of 200 meters, none of the shells directly hit the small boat. In the end, the South Vietnamese soldiers on the ship were frightened and jumped up and down.

After the soldiers signaled their surrender, Sun Changmi ordered to stop the useless bombardment and sent people to board the ship to take over the prisoners.

According to the results of the interrogation, the South Vietnamese Army has no more surface forces available from the current combat zone to Zhengjiang in the south. The small "water division" stationed in Dong Hoi currently has no more tasks to undertake.

It is just to maintain the supply line of the camp ahead. Even if the South Vietnamese army wants to mobilize the navy ship to the front coast to reconnoiter the military situation of the coalition positions, it will take at least a day or two to pass on the news.

The command obviously did not intend to give the other party this opportunity. That night, it issued an order to Qian Tiandun to start a raid behind enemy lines from now on. The entire crew of the "Discovery" would cooperate with the Black Earth Port Special Operations Company.

Early the next morning, the "Discovery" loaded with soldiers from the Special Operations Company sailed south from the seaside. The main task of this unit was to harass the South Vietnamese Army's logistics supply lines and strive to cut off the opponent's water transportation on the Zhengjiang River.

Wire.

In the battle this morning, the South Vietnamese army indeed used a new magic weapon - several rush-made shield vehicles. In front of this shield vehicle was a row of thick logs, enough to cover the infantry troops at the rear. Seven

After eight vehicles are lined up in parallel, the width of the shield reaches thirty to forty meters. Moreover, the thickness of these logs is at least five inches, and the lead bullets of the muskets cannot penetrate it at all. The only troublesome thing is the shield vehicles.

It weighs too much, and there is no road from the South Vietnamese camp to the coalition position. Soldiers even need to keep cutting down various bushes blocking the front. Therefore, the speed of this shield vehicle is extremely slow, no more than two miles.

Although the area was far away, it took the South Vietnamese army more than an hour to advance the shield formation to the front of the coalition position.

It wasn't until the shield truck advanced to 100 meters that the coalition forces opened the defensive wall in front of the gun position in a hurry, revealing the black muzzle. Of course, to deal with such a small battle, the headquarters had no intention of using its strength to

It was fully displayed, so only two 6-pound cannons, one on the left and one on the right, were exposed to launch the attack.

At this distance, it is not difficult to aim at a shield vehicle that is three to four meters wide and as tall as a person. There is no need to calculate the shooting angle. You can hit the target by shooting directly. Yan Chujie personally aimed and fired the first shot.

It accurately hit the front of a shield truck, punching a hole half a foot in diameter, and then plowed a bloody ditch in the middle of the South Vietnamese soldiers pushing the shield truck.

The four artillery pieces fired one after another, causing irrepressible chaos in the South Vietnamese army in an instant. The killing effect caused by the artillery was second to none. The four artillery pieces only killed and wounded twenty or thirty people, but this kind of

The huge noise made the already anxious South Vietnamese army lose their cool. Some people thought that the protective power of this wooden shield wall was no longer enough to cover themselves, so they simply rushed out.

There is no doubt that what greets these desperadoes is a row of hot lead bullets that have just been discharged from the barrel. Almost no one who rushes out of the shield wall can survive for ten seconds before falling to the ground in the dense rain of bullets.

When the South Vietnamese soldiers were pushed back to the shield wall and had to choose to push the shield cart to move forward, the second round of shelling began again.

Since the shielding surface of the shield wall is limited in width, the density of infantry behind it is quite high. At this distance, every artillery shell can cause a lot of damage in the South Vietnamese military formation. Some unlucky guys who had their hands and feet cut off by the artillery shells

, he didn’t die for a while, and fell to the ground rolling and screaming, which aggravated the fear in the hearts of others. The soldiers wanted to push the cart to the opponent’s formation quickly, but there were low and low vehicles everywhere.

There are bushes and uneven earth bags, and it’s hard to get up quickly even if you want to.

During the fourth round of shelling, a shield vehicle was finally blown apart, revealing the unshielded South Vietnamese infantry behind it. Without exception, they received hundreds of rounds of lead bullets from their opponents for free. At this time, the South Vietnamese infantry

The army is still at least seventy or eighty meters away from the defensive wall, which means that they are likely to have to withstand four to five rounds of artillery fire - provided that the shield wall in front of them has not completely collapsed by then.

Unfortunately, reality is often crueler than wishes. Less than ten meters away from the first barbed wire fence, the last shield vehicle completely fell apart under the concentrated attack of four artillery pieces. Although the last two hundred South Vietnamese infantrymen still chose They charged, but no one could escape under the intensive musket fire, and they were all knocked down in front of the formation.

Compared with yesterday's offensive, the greatest progress made by the South Vietnamese army today is probably that it has penetrated into the obstacle area outside the coalition position. About a dozen South Vietnamese soldiers rushed into the obstacle area combined with the barbed wire fence and Luzhai. Being knocked down by bullets may give the South Vietnamese generals a glimmer of hope of victory.
Chapter completed!