Chapter 911 Flying Thunder Cannon

As of noon, the Haihan Army had destroyed five forts on the way forward, killed 71 bandits, captured more than 200 people, and seized various weapons. Although the results were good, from morning to noon, the Haihan Army only

They just pushed seven or eight miles inland from the camp at the landing point, and the speed was not ideal.

Just as Shibazhi designed, the numerous fortresses they built on the island did effectively slow down the advancement of the Haihan militia. In this era, there were no weapons like tanks to attack fortresses. When encountering fortresses, they could only stop and erect them.

The position uses artillery bombardment tactics, and a company often has to stop after marching two or three miles to carry out operations. During this period, it also has to guard against uninvited guests who suddenly appear from other nearby strongholds.

For the Haihan militia, attacking these strongholds is not too difficult, but they cannot be careless at all. When a company attacked a certain stronghold in the morning, they were almost cut off by bandits ambushing in the nearby mountains and forests.

.Although the officer commanding this company adjusted the formation in time after discovering the abnormal situation, and the reinforcements arrived in time, and successfully repelled hundreds of bandits who came from behind to cover up the enemy, our side still suffered four casualties and eleven injuries.

This was the most serious and concentrated casualty loss since the war began on Miyakojima.

Yu Tiezhu's luck was quite good. He also commanded the offensive outside a fortress that morning. The three-entry courtyard was transformed to be extremely strong. It took the artillery more than half an hour to clear a front.

passage, and after the Haihan Army entered, they found that there were still people resisting in the two courtyards behind, with no sign of surrender. So Yu Tiezhu commanded the artillery to clamp the artillery at the gate of the courtyard.

Outside, they continued to bombard the second courtyard inside.

After advancing in this way, it was already noon when they finally entered the courtyard. After the soldiers entered and counted the prisoners, they discovered that the person commanding the battle at this stronghold was Hong Xu, one of the leaders of Shibazhi.

He was a native of Tong'an, Fujian Province. He was considered a fierce general under Zheng Zhilong in the original history. After Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he joined the service of Zheng Chenggong. Later, he was an official at least Fu and the prince's military officer Zhong Zhenhou. It was not until the Kangxi period that he fell ill due to illness.

passed away.

However, in this time and space, Hong Xu has no chance to become an important minister in the Ming and Zheng Dynasties. It is even hard to say whether he can leave Miyako Island alive. In the battle just now, he was hit by a stray bullet under his right shoulder.

Judging from the position, he may have injured his lungs, and his mouth was full of blood and he was unable to speak. With the current medical conditions on the island, it may not be possible to save his life.

"Send him to the camp on a flatbed truck as soon as possible!" After Yu Tiezhu confirmed Hong Xu's identity from the prisoners, he immediately ordered him to be sent to the camp for treatment. Regardless of whether Hong Xu's life could be saved in the end, this military achievement

But he was actually recorded on the head of Yu Tiezhu. Among the surviving leaders of Shibazhi, there were only a few people who followed Zheng Zhilong to evacuate to Miyako Island. As long as he captured one of them and had military merit, Yu Tiezhu would naturally not let him go.

Such an opportunity. He only hoped that Hong Xu could survive until he was sent to the camp to verify his identity. If he died on the way, it would be another hassle to verify his identity again.

However, at this time, the frontline headquarters was not very satisfied with the current speed of advancement. It only took half a day to advance a few miles. If the attack continues like this, it will only take half a month to clear the entire Miyako Island. Although this time the military

The ammunition and materials prepared were sufficient, but the planned operation was not planned to take so long. The attack on Penghu originally only took two or three days. The Military Commission and the General Staff had fully planned to leave Miyako Island for a week at most.

In terms of combat time, if the action is too slow, even if the Eighteen Zhiyu Party here can be successfully captured in the end, the battle achievements will be compromised as a result.

After consulting with the navy, Wang Tom decided to send some navy soldiers to participate in land battles in order to clear these scattered fortresses on the island as quickly as possible. As for the artillery unit responsible for attacking the fortress, it needs to be divided in more detail.

In order to allow more troops to attack the fortress. In addition, Wang Tom decided to put the secret weapon to use in advance, that is, the thunder cannon that uses the projectile principle to launch explosive packets.

This kind of thunder cannon is an earth mortar invented during the Liberation War in time and space before time travel. It uses a gasoline barrel as a ejector, puts a disc-shaped explosive package into it, and uses gunpowder to project it to a distance of one or two hundred meters.

It was detonated somewhere outside. At that time, there was a very famous name called "heartless cannon". This kind of cannon was actually very similar to the mortars that had appeared in this era, except that the shells of the mortars did not explode.

The reason why the Haihan Army started to build this kind of weapon is that on the one hand, the advancement of forging technology has allowed it to mass-produce various types of iron barrels, and the output of gunpowder has also been able to meet the needs of the army in combat. On the other hand, the Army has

Various inconveniences in transportation, deployment, and use of traditional artillery have also been discovered. There is an urgent need for a simple artillery that does not require professional artillery operations and can be used immediately by ordinary soldiers after a short period of training.

Although this kind of gun has a limited range and its accuracy cannot be compared with regular artillery, it is easy to deploy, simple to operate, and its power is really not small. Similar to the situation on Miyako Island with fortresses everywhere, it is very

It is suitable to use flying thunder cannons to carry out critical battles. Among the equipment transported to Miyako Island with the army this time were twenty newly built flying thunder cannons. Wang Tom decisively ordered these guns to be immediately distributed to each company, and to be deployed as soon as possible in the battle

Put into use.

That afternoon, two thunder cannons were loaded on flatbed trucks and delivered to Yu Tiezhu's company. The barrel of this gun was ten times lighter than the traditional iron cannon, and the shells were made of disc-shaped gunpowder and

Explosive packs, loading and transportation are more convenient and faster than traditional iron cannons.

Yu Tiezhu had also received relevant training when he was in Sanya, and was no stranger to the use of thunder cannons. He immediately ordered people to dig a pit a hundred meters away from the next target and set up the thunder cannon. This kind of

The weapon only needs to bury the bottom of the iron barrel in the pit to adjust the launch angle according to the target distance.

Yu Tiezhu personally checked the placement and angle of the two thunder cannons, and then ordered people to load the gunpowder bags. There is a layer of wood between the gunpowder bags and the explosive bags, so that when launched, the top of the board can be pushed with huge thrust.

The explosive package is thrown out, and the detonation time will adjust the length of the fuze according to the approximate flight distance, so that the explosive package detonates when it is close to the ground. Iron nails and iron pieces are also added to this explosive package to increase the risk of explosion.

It has great lethality. If it explodes in the air two to ten meters above the ground, its damage range can reach twenty to thirty meters in radius.

Compared with traditional artillery, this kind of thunder cannon is more suitable for the current combat environment. To blast open the wall outside the fortress, the artillery will have to blast at least several rounds, and after the wall is destroyed, it may not be able to damage the weapons inside.

When the personnel and infantry come forward to attack, they still need to fight. The thunder cannon throws the explosive package into the fortress by ejecting it, directly killing the personnel inside. In this way, when the artillery outside destroys the wall bunker, the infantry can move forward.

When launching an attack, the resistance you will encounter will be much smaller, thus reducing the time required to attack a fortress.

"Fire!" After Yu Tiezhu confirmed that the layout of the flying thunder cannon was correct, he immediately issued the attack order.

Following two booms, one after the other, two ten-pound explosive packets drew an arc in the air, flew over the fortifications outside the stronghold, and then heard two explosions inside.

"Charge, fire another round!" Yu Tiezhu was not in a hurry to let the infantry launch an offensive. He had no relevant experience with the power of this new weapon. He could only try to fire a few rounds to see how effective it was, and then

Make adjustments to tactics according to actual conditions.

After firing three rounds of thunder cannons, the artillery had already blasted open the gate of this stronghold. Under the command of Yu Tiezhu, a platoon of army soldiers rushed to the gap in the gate and quickly went straight in. The area of ​​this stronghold is not large.

Yu Tiezhu estimated that there could be at most forty or fifty people inside. After three rounds of thunder cannons, many people should have been injured.

Soon after the commander gave the signal and the situation was under control, Yu Tiezhu led the team forward to review the results. It has to be said that the power of the flying thunder cannon was far beyond Yu Tiezhu's expectation. According to the leader

The platoon leader who entered the team said that when they came in, it was already a mess, and most of the people had fallen to the ground. Most of them were killed by the fragments of the explosive packs that were thrown in, and some of them were injured.

Some of them were stunned by the air wave of the explosion. When the soldiers entered the battlefield, they encountered no decent resistance and basically just took on the task of cleaning the battlefield.

Yu Tiezhu looked through several corpses on the ground to confirm that the injuries on these corpses were caused by the explosion of the explosive package just now. He then ordered people to take the center of the explosion as the center of the circle, check the range of power in all directions, and conduct measurements and

Records. These actual combat data will be fed back to Sanya, and then the military equipment department will communicate with the ordnance industry units to gradually improve this new weapon. However, judging from the current actual combat effects, this weapon is in a small range

The destructive power is quite good, and it is extremely convenient to use. It is more suitable than traditional artillery for the attack on such small fortresses.

After twenty thunder cannons were put into the battlefield, the speed at which each company cleared these fortress strongholds suddenly accelerated. By evening, more than a dozen strongholds had been destroyed, and the Haihan control area had advanced several miles further to the south of the island.

.However, judging from the overall trend of the war, it is unlikely that the Haihan Militia will end the war within a day or two.

However, the Eighteen Zhiyu Party, who were full of hope for a turning point, did not see any hope after the end of the day's battle. The result of fighting hard for a day was just the loss of hundreds more men. The Haihan Army

Instead of retreating, he advanced, but his own space for movement was compressed even smaller. Zheng Zhilong still did not make a clear statement on this, and still asked his subordinates to continue to resist and wait for a turning point.

The only time-delaying tactic Zheng Zhilong could think of at the moment was this. If all the people on the island were to gather together to fight the Haihan people head-on, it would probably not last even half a day and they would be completely defeated. He originally planned to do this if the Haihan people were to fight head-on.

The Han people captured these fortresses with overwhelming force, so they decided to surrender decisively. However, the fortress tactics seemed to have achieved good results at the end of the day, which made Zheng Zhilong hesitate about his original decision. Even if he knew that the Haihan people were coming this time

Most likely, Miyakojima would not give up until they reached their goal, and still refused to give up their sense of luck. Perhaps if they held on for one more day, the Haihan people would choose to retreat due to too many casualties or lack of urgent supplies.

But ideals are full, and reality is skinny. Although Zheng Zhilong is full of expectations for the variables of the battle, the strength gap between the two sides is difficult to change because of this targeted deployment. Even the Shiba Zhi on Miyako Island

Even if the number of participants doubled, they would still not be able to match the Haihan Militia. The complete defeat of Shibazhi was only a matter of time, and there would not be any suspense or unexpected ending.

The next day, the fighting continued. The Haihan militia, equipped with thunder cannons, significantly accelerated their advance, and Shibazhi, whose military morale became increasingly disorganized, began to flee without fighting, and some personnel stationed at the stronghold even surrendered en masse.

This happened. Although Zheng Zhilong and other leaders have not yet been captured, the fighting will of Shibazhi has declined significantly. The number of fortresses captured by the Haihan Army in this day was more than double that of the previous day.

In the evening, the headquarters ordered Ming Jin to retreat. The Haihan Army had advanced to a position less than three miles away from Shiba Zhi's base camp on the island. As expected, Shiba Zhi would be cornered in the next day.

And Zheng Zhilong seems to have realized that his previous thoughts were too wishful thinking. The Haihan people have no intention of retreating despite the difficulties. Seeing that this posture will not completely wipe out the Eighteen Zhi, it is impossible to withdraw. Although Zheng Zhilong had previously thought about simply retreating when he was cornered.

He took his own life, but it was still difficult to suppress his inner desire to survive when things came to pass. Under the current circumstances, escape was impossible, and the only way to survive was to surrender.

Although this choice would make Zheng Zhilong very unwilling, but today, there is no other option for him to choose. Either die in battle or surrender, there are only two roads before Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong finally decided to choose the latter. On the morning of September 5th, he sent Gan Hui, one of the leaders of the Eighteen Zhizhi, as a representative to discuss the surrender with the Haihan people. But there was really nothing that the Eighteenzhi could do that was already in dire straits.

He used the capital to bargain with his opponents, so the conditions given by Haihan were also very ruthless, requiring all the Shibazhi personnel on the island to surrender unconditionally, otherwise they would be regarded as stubbornly resisting, and they would be killed without mercy.
Chapter completed!