Chapter 355 Attack Zhengjiang

At the end of August 1628, Annan Yongan Port.

"So your army is planning to let us sell new artillery shells to use in attacking the Zhengjiang defense line?" Qian Tiandun put down the tea cup in his hand and looked meaningfully at Zheng Ting sitting opposite: "Sending troops to attack South Vietnam is not the same as sending troops to attack South Vietnam.

The battle plan we agreed upon beforehand doesn’t match!”

After Qian Tiandun cooperated with the main force from the base camp to complete the Battle of Hoi An, he led his troops back to Yong'an Port in North Vietnam to rest. However, he did not rest for two days, but Zheng Ting came to the door hurriedly, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he

They want to buy new artillery shells that have just begun to be equipped to militia groups.

When the Crossing Group formulated its action plan in June, it asked the North Vietnamese to send troops to feign an attack to attract the attention of the South Vietnamese Army, so as to cooperate with the militia army to launch a breakthrough campaign behind enemy lines. However, at that time, the North Vietnamese side suffered from lack of military spending to carry out large-scale military operations.

There was still some reluctance. If it hadn't been later blocked by the Hai Han Executive Committee on the arms trade, North Vietnam would have been reluctant to participate.

But now that North Vietnam learned that the Hai Han militia had overwhelmingly destroyed Hoi An City in the south, and had attracted a large number of South Vietnamese troops to withdraw from the Jiangjiang defense line to defend Hue Prefecture, they decided to take advantage of the chaos in the south to fight.

This is something that the North Vietnamese military takes for granted, but in Qian Tiandun's eyes, it is somewhat arrogant and respectful - I have long persuaded you to send troops to attack together, but you have tried to shirk it, but now you see an advantage.

He jumped out immediately, which was a bit too arbitrary.

Zheng Ting had been a student under Qian Tiandun when he was in the Tushan training camp. Although the two were about the same age, Zheng Ting still respectfully accepted the discipleship ceremony: "Instructor Qian, Sun Tzu's Art of War says

, Soldiers have no constant momentum, and water has no shape. He who can win due to changes in the enemy is called a god. The use of troops must make corresponding changes according to changes in the battlefield situation and the external environment. This is also the combat principle that you, the instructor, taught us back then.

We decided not to fight because the South Vietnamese rebels were well positioned on the line of defense for Jiang, and our army did not have an advantage in terms of military strength. Even if we fought, it would be difficult to win. Now the South Vietnamese rebels have withdrawn nearly half of them, and Hoi An has fallen.

The news has caused panic among the people in his camp. It is a good time to launch an attack. If it were instructor Qian commanding our army, he would definitely not miss this great opportunity."

"It's not bad. After staying in Victory Port for a few months, I have become eloquent." Qian Tiandun said with a chuckle.

"It's all because of the good guidance of the instructors." Zheng Ting responded quickly.

"The price of our new artillery shells is not cheap, as you probably know." Qian Tiandun said calmly. He also knew that Zheng Ting went to Panyu to participate in the Lijiazhuang battle with other military officers during his training period——

Perhaps it is more appropriate to say observation. Almost all foreign officers and students showed great interest in the new shotguns used by the militia army in battle at that time. Zheng Ting was not the only one who asked Officer Haihan about the price of the new shells.

One person. However, because the price quoted for the new artillery shells is too high, the only one who has clearly placed an order with "Haihan Military Industry" is Xu Xinsu, a local tycoon from Fujian who is not short of money.

Since the Xu Xinsu Group was equipped with Haihan's arms, it has gradually regained its disadvantage in the fight against the "Eighteen Zhi". For Xu Xinsu, the price of Haihan's arms is not a problem. The only thing to worry about is the supply.

Can't keep up with consumption. Because there are often some inexplicable situations here in Haihan, this kind of gun is temporarily suspended, and that kind of gun needs to be purchased in limited quantities, and several times Fujian has shipped cash there and ended up not being able to buy anything, so

Later, Xu Xinsu simply ordered someone to deposit 100,000 taels of silver in the "Haihan Bank" in Guangzhou, which was specially used to purchase Haihan arms. Not long after the new artillery shells appeared in Lijiazhuang, Xu Xinsu had someone deposit 100,000 taels of silver in it.

I set aside half of my taels of silver to purchase Haihan's new artillery shells. No matter the unit price, I could buy as many as I could afford for 50,000 taels.

Compared with the big tycoons in Fujian, North Vietnam's economic situation can only be described as appalling. Even though they won a rare victory with the help of the Haihan militia, they did not enjoy the victory like Haihan.

Instead of receiving war dividends, they owed the Haihan people a huge war debt. It took half a year to finally repay it, but a new round of fighting, or a wave of money-burning, was about to come.

"I have inquired before, and Mr. Bai from Haihan Military Industry said that each round of this kind of shells costs twenty taels of silver, and one hundred rounds are not sold in retail." Zheng Ting responded honestly.

Qian Tiandun laughed secretly when he heard this. He was also involved in the development of this kind of artillery shells, so he was well aware of its manufacturing costs. Although this kind of shotshells has a higher technical content than the original cast iron solid bullets,

However, its production cost is not so exaggerated as it has increased to ten times. The price quoted by Baikes for twenty-two rounds feels a bit like a fool. And due to the limited production capacity and the large order placed by Fujian, Baikes

That's why there is such a saying as "hundreds of products are on sale".

"I do have some inventory here, but the quantity is limited. I wonder how many you plan to buy?" Qian Tiandun saw that Zheng Ting's attitude was very sincere, so he gave up the idea of ​​continuing to talk to him and returned to the main business.

Zheng Ting cautiously said: "One hundred rounds..."

"I'm afraid one hundred rounds won't be enough." Before Zheng Ting could finish his words, Qian Tiandun shook his head and interrupted him: "Let me ask you, in your battle plan, how many doors are needed for the width of the landing site?

Artillery, have you done any calculations?"

"Of course this needs to be calculated." When talking about the war, Zheng Ting also regained some confidence and began to discuss with Qian Tiandun: "The South Vietnamese rebels still have nearly 20,000 troops fighting for the south bank of the Yangtze River. Our side

If we want to establish a strong beachhead on the south bank, we must land enough troops in a short period of time. According to our calculations, the landing site must be able to accommodate at least 3,000 advance troops. As for the artillery required,

Mainly based on the lightweight Type 27 Army six-pounder artillery. According to the combat rules learned at the Victory Port Military Academy, based on the scale of 3,000 people, each thousand-man army is equipped with four to six artillery pieces, and a total of 12 to 16 artillery pieces are needed.

gun."

"It's quite logical. It seems that I have learned something in the past few months. But have you ever thought that if one hundred rounds of new artillery shells are allocated, each gun will only have seven or eight shells, and it will be destroyed by a quick shot.

If the war goes unfavorably and the enemy army does not retreat after the new artillery shells are fired, how do you ask the beachhead troops to deal with an enemy with several times the strength?" Qian Tiandun asked rhetorically while analyzing.

"This..." Zheng Ting was speechless for a moment. What he actually wanted to say was that with the power of the new artillery shells, no army could withstand three rounds of artillery bombardment at close range without collapsing. There was no need to issue too many artillery shells.

But Qian Tiandun said this, but he did not dare to refute. After all, the initiative of whether to sell or not was in the hands of the other party. If he offended the other party with words, he would not be able to buy back the shells. This cross-river attack was

The battle can only remain on paper.

"In my opinion, at least three hundred rounds are enough." Qian Tiandun tripled the order quantity in one sentence.

"But this..." Zheng Ting was shocked. Two thousand taels of silver even made his father Zheng Bai unhappy. He spent six thousand taels in one go. He couldn't imagine the consequences.

"It's nothing. Think about it, even if you don't use up the shells when crossing the river, you can keep these shells for future battles! If you encounter a similar situation again in the future, do you have to come to me to buy them temporarily every time?

"Be prepared for any trouble!" Qian Tiandun persuaded with "kindness".

It’s not that Qian Tiandun wanted to be an arms dealer when he was full and had nothing to do. In fact, when he returned to the base camp to report on his work on the anniversary, Qian Tiandun had already submitted a request to the Executive Committee to increase the military budget of the Black Tu Port Military Region to meet the needs of the army.

Prepare the daily expenses of the growing Black Earth Port Army. This proposal was ultimately not approved by the Executive Committee, because the original plan to expand the army was approved by the Executive Committee after the Black Earth Port Management Committee proposed to bear the military expenses.

.However, this did not trouble Qian Tiandun. Under the coordination of the Military Commission, "Haihan Military Industry" later proposed a compromise method.

Considering that the Black Tu Port Military Region is located in Annan, and the "Haihan Military Industry" responsible for the manufacturing and sales of military products does not have a special marketing agency in the local area, Bai Kesi proposed that the Black Tu Port Military Region should be responsible for part of the military product sales tasks, and part of the profits

It was used as a military subsidy for the Black Tu Port Military Region. The first batch of test products were new artillery shells that attracted the attention of many foreign military officers and students.

Like various exported weapons and ammunition in the past, "Haihan Military Industry" has also designed a special export model for this high-end artillery shell with promising market prospects. Its power and range are slightly weaker than the artillery shells used by the militia in Lijiazhuang. First of all,

The export models produced in batches have been sent to Fujian for use by Xu Xinsu's troops. The ones transported to Yong'an Port were brought by ships from the base camp of Hoi An. The number was not large, and only less than

Just five hundred rounds.

Because it plays the role of a distributor, the price that "Haihan Military Industry" supplies to the Heitu Port Military Region is naturally much lower than the external sales price. For every artillery shell sold, the Heitu Port Military Region has a profit of ten yuan, and

This is basically a month's military expenditure for a militiaman. Under such stimulation, Qian Tiandun naturally became an amateur arms dealer, sparing no effort to sell new ammunition to Zheng Ting. Qian Tiandun's calculations are intuitive and intuitive

Simple - every hundred rounds of artillery shells sold are basically enough to cover the expenses of a company of militiamen for a month. The more sold, the less pressure on the military expenditure of the Black Tu Port Military Region.

Qian Tiandun is sparing no effort to sell in order to reduce the pressure on his own military expenditure, but Zheng Ting has to face his own military budget deficit. Currently, North Vietnam has nearly 20,000 troops stationed on the front line of Zhengjiang, and Thang Long Province

The military expenditure allocated to the front line is only 20,000 taels per month, which also includes the military pay to the soldiers. If there were not a large number of cheap peasants and soldiers to fill the camp, such a small amount of money would not be enough to cover the military expenditure. And think about it.

It is not easy to squeeze out several thousand taels of silver to purchase arms from such scarce funds.

How much money is given to the Haihan people here will be deducted from their own military expenditures. If nearly one-third of the monthly military expenditures are to be deducted at once, I am afraid that it will cause even greater problems before the war begins.

Not only did Zheng Ting dare not bear the blame, but his old man Zheng Bai couldn't bear it either. Therefore, Zheng Ting did not agree to Qian Tiandun's slightly rough sales pitch, but began to negotiate in circles with the other party.

The two discussed for half an hour, and finally reached an agreement to purchase 200 rounds of new artillery shells for 3,800 taels of silver. In addition, as a subsidy in the agreement and the goodwill of the Haihan military, the North Vietnamese military could purchase 200 rounds of new artillery shells from Yong'an Port.

Borrow a group of small offshore boats to participate in the cross-river operation - of course the sailors need to be provided by the North Vietnamese military. This does not even need to be noted in the agreement by both parties. This is not because Yongan Port does not have enough sailors, but from Haihan.

Every manpower costs money. If you are injured or killed in battle, you will have to bear the cost of treatment and pension. This is not a situation that the North Vietnamese military wants to see. Although these ships borrowed from Victory Port have not been

Additional rent is charged, but if it is damaged or even sunk during the battle, the North Vietnamese military will still have to pay for it.

There is nothing that can be done about it. The North Vietnamese military does not have many ships to begin with, so it is somewhat reluctant to use them for cross-river operations. However, the Haihan people have recently captured hundreds of large and small ships from Hoi An, and they are the only ones who can borrow them.

The target of the ship. Zheng Ting almost left Yong'an Port by escaping, because after talking about it, Qian Tiandun actually took the initiative to bring up the plan of sending troops to assist the North Vietnamese military in combat. Zheng Ting was frightened and hurriedly left Yong'an Port because of military expenses.

We can no longer afford the expenses of this sky-high price mercenary.

Zheng Ting was speechless about the money-obsessed style of the Haihan people. Fortunately, the visit finally achieved its goal, buying new artillery shells and borrowing ships needed for crossing the river. Although Qian Tiandun gave him a small knock

It's a rip-off, but if this battle can successfully break the natural chasm of Zhengjiang and allow the North Vietnamese troops to re-enter the border south of Zhengjiang, it will be a great achievement, and the imperial court will not care about this small military expenditure of several thousand taels.

It's hard to get along with the generals leading the front line.

However, as part of the military assistance plan, the Haihan Militia also sent an advisory group to the Zhengjiang front line as military observers. This advisory group did not directly participate in the battle, but only provided reference opinions on the military operations of the North Vietnamese Army - of course the most important thing

The task is to more intuitively grasp the current military strength and changes in battlefield trends of both warring parties in order to provide information for the Central Military Commission's future decision-making.

After five days of careful preparation, on September 2, the North Vietnamese army launched a cross-river attack southward without warning.

Hundreds of large and small ships loaded with more than 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers on the coast a few miles north of the Zhengjiang estuary. They sailed into the Zhengjiang estuary when the sky was dark and rushed directly to the south bank. Here

The width of the river was only about a hundred feet, and before the South Vietnamese army sentries could fully react, the flat-bottomed boats of the vanguard had already washed up on the beach.

The soldiers scrambled to lift off the six-pound guns and shells loaded on the ship, and began to set up a beachhead position according to the predetermined battle plan. Only then did the South Vietnamese defenders realize that it was the North Vietnamese army that had launched a landing battle.

As a warning, a small force was dispatched to attack the North Vietnamese Army's beachhead, trying to drive the North Vietnamese Army, whose foothold was not stable, into the sea.

The South Vietnamese troops who rashly stepped forward to fight were attacked by muskets and sporadic artillery shells some 70 to 80 feet away from the beachhead, and quickly retreated after leaving more than 30 corpses behind. At this time, the third

A group of docked ships have begun to leave the shore and return to the north of the Yangtze River to pick up the next group of troops crossing the river.

Of course, the South Vietnamese defenders knew what it would mean to lose the Zhengjiang defense line, so they mobilized the elite troops of the defenders in a very short period of time and launched another attack on the beachhead troops. This time, muskets were used among the troops.

A new army of artillery combat appeared.

At this time, the number of North Vietnamese troops on the river bank was only three to four hundred. They had no firepower advantage at all when facing an enemy ten times their size. Fortunately, their commander was also someone who had studied in Victory Port.

At the beginning of the landing, we used the terrain and some wooden planks carried on the ship to set up a simple parapet as a cover.

Although this kind of simple cover facility is completely unable to block artillery shells and close-range musket fire, it can still play a certain protective role at a longer distance - at least it will provide some psychological comfort to the soldiers. And in this

At this critical moment, the new artillery shells purchased from the Haihan people by the North Vietnamese Army at a large price finally began to play their due role.

Although there were only four six-pound cannons in the first batch to land, when these four cannons were loaded with new artillery shells and fired one after another at the rushing enemy troops, they effectively eased the opponent's offensive. Just as Zheng Ting expected

In that way, in the face of such artillery shells with a huge killing area, it is difficult for an army to maintain a dense formation and rush within a distance of thirty to forty feet.

The vast majority of South Vietnamese soldiers fell down at a distance of about fifty feet, and they fell in pieces with the roar of artillery. Even the South Vietnamese soldiers who rushed over sporadically between artillery firings could not escape the hundreds of muskets.

A horizontal volley of fire. Although the South Vietnamese Army invested a large amount of troops to attack this small beachhead from the beginning, it did not achieve the desired results. The muskets used by the South Vietnamese Army wanted to hit an individual soldier at this distance.

The target can only rely on luck. There are only two small cannons with a firing frequency of once every two minutes. The shells fired will occasionally penetrate the simple parapet on the beachhead, taking away the lives of a few unlucky people.

However, the development of the war situation did not give the South Vietnamese army the opportunity to slowly wear down the opponent's strength. As the number of ships docked continued to increase, the strength of the beachhead quickly doubled from three to four hundred people. The soldiers carried their hands and shoulders, carrying

More artillery pieces were unloaded from the ships and pushed to gun emplacements on the beachhead.
Chapter completed!