On October 29, Annan Grand Zhengtai led an army of 30,000 to take the initiative to fight against the French army.
Although the French only had 5,000 infantry this time, they carried more than 200 artillery pieces.
Since the Napoleonic era, French artillery technology has been at the forefront of Europe.
Artillery has also become the god of war among people in Europe.
Only in recent years has there been a faint tendency to be surpassed by the Prussians.
But the French have always felt that the Prussians were thieves. Their artillery casting technology was stolen from France.
This time the artillery carried by the French was much more advanced than the artillery they used on the Crimean battlefield.
A large part of them are breech-loading guns, and the ammunition they are equipped with are powerful explosive shells.
After the Annan soldiers left the city, they divided the soldiers into square formations, preparing to move forward in a stable formation imitating the way the Europeans fought.
The French were not so gentlemanly in fighting. Before the Annamese formation was finished, they began to launch intensive artillery fire on the Annamese phalanx.
In the artillery fire, countless Annan soldiers died senselessly.
Immediately, Annan's southern conquering general Zheng Tai ordered his troops to attack, and Annan's artillery also launched a counterattack against the French.
Annan's artillery was obviously slightly inferior to that of the French.
Although they also purchased some front-loading steel cannons from the Renaissance Army, the stingy Annan people were unwilling to spend money on expensive explosive ammunition.
In this way, their artillery still uses solid bullets produced by themselves.
The French artillery used several volleys to silence the Annamite artillery.
Immediately, their infantry and artillery coordinated to block the Annamite attack.
The Annamite attack regardless of casualties also caused the French army to suffer a lot.
Because the Renaissance Army aggressively exported equipment to surrounding vassal countries after changing its equipment, the Annan Army was also equipped with many rifled guns.
Soon the casualties of the French army reached more than a thousand. However, the French army's will to fight was still very strong.
When the battle between the two sides was getting intense, a Nanqi rebel army of more than 20,000 people came over and killed them.
These people are not here to help their compatriots, they are here to help the French fight against the Annan army.
Although these rebels lack training, their combat effectiveness has improved a lot after supplementing the weapons provided by the French.
The appearance of these people caught Annan's army off guard. Originally, they looked down upon these rebels at all.
But now that these people are added together with the French, it's different.
The numerical disadvantage of the French army was made up for.
When these Nanqi troops saw that their fathers, the French, were so brave and could defeat tens of thousands of Annan troops with a few thousand men, their morale was greatly shaken.
Under the attack from both sides, Annan's army failed, and General Zheng Tai quickly ordered the army to withdraw into the city.
However, the fighting between the two sides was too intense, and the retreat turned into a rout.
The Nanqi army and the French army took the opportunity to pursue and kill him.
In the end, only one out of ten Annan troops retreated into the city.
Zheng Tai knew that he would not be able to escape punishment for losing so many troops.
He wanted to use Saigon's strong fortifications to severely defeat the opponent, make up for his mistakes, and then report the matter to the authorities.
At this time, King Nguyen Phuc Si of Annam, who was far away in Hue Province in the north, did not know the news of the defeat in the south.
On October 30, the French and Nanqi troops joined forces and surrounded Saigon-Jiading City.
General Zheng Tai deployed his army along the city wall. The Nanqi army made several tentative attacks, but was easily repelled by the Annan army.
Originally, Saigon city had provisions for 50,000 people, but now that Zheng Tai had lost a large number of troops, he only had more than 20,000 people left in total.
The time these grains can last has been doubled.
The Annamites had dealings with the French. These French people had traveled across the ocean and could not stay here long.
As long as the French are driven away, he is confident that he can still handle the remaining Nanqi rebels.
But things went against their expectations. On November 5, the French transported heavy artillery through the river.
Under the bombardment of heavy artillery, the sturdy city wall that Annan was originally proud of became fragile.
On November 6, the coalition forces of France and Nanqi captured Saigon City.
Zheng Tai fled to Dong Nai under the protection of his own soldiers. Only then did he send the news of the defeat back to the royal capital Hue.
After the Nanqi rebels and the French army entered Saigon, they looted the city for three consecutive days.
Many people in the Annan government were purged.
The courtyard city of a wealthy family was used as a place for these rebels to vent their anger. The most precious treasures, as well as the most beautiful women, were given to Father France to enjoy first.
Every French soldier who survived made a lot of money.
This also made them no longer satisfied with capturing this place.
After a few days of repairs, the French army led the rebels from Nanqi to the north.
They were unstoppable along the way, and all the 50,000 Annan army in the south had been wiped out.
Under the artillery fire of the French army, the cities in southern Annam fell one after another.
After the news reached Hue Prefecture, the Annan court was shaken up and down.
King Nguyen Phuc of Annam sent his guards to arrest Zheng Tai for questioning, and re-sent Privy Councilor Zhang Dong with 10,000 Hue soldiers to meet the defeated army and stabilize the defense line. At the same time, he finally couldn't help but move reinforcements to the Celestial Empire.
The news was passed directly to Dong Shuheng who was based in Phnom Penh.
In fact, Dong Shuheng has been paying attention to the situation in Annan. He has long known the battle situation in Annan.
Secret spies from the Military Intelligence Bureau have spread to the Nanqi area.
What surprised Dong Shuheng was that the 50,000-strong army of the Annan Kingdom could be defeated so quickly.
Saigon, which was heavily guarded by troops, was lost like this, and Annan also lost half of the entire southern country at once.
Dong Shuheng didn't even have time to send someone to negotiate with the French.
On October 15th, Nguyen Phuoc Hong Bao, the brother of King Nguyen Phuoc of Annam, defected to the south and was supported by the rebels in Nanqi as the new king, establishing the Kingdom of South Vietnam.
The Kingdom of South Vietnam announced that it would become a protectorate of the French Empire. At the same time, it announced that it had severed diplomatic relations with China. They claimed that Nguyen Phuc Thi's surrender to the Renaissance Army and abandoning Bei Qi was a traitorous act, and they announced the Northern Expedition.
There is still a certain market for such a declaration within Annan.
When they achieved a huge victory on land, France's navy was not idle either. They fought northward along the coastline.
But not far away, they encountered the combined fleet composed of the First Fleet and the Second Fleet of the Renaissance Army in the southeastern waters of Cam Ranh Bay.
The combined fleet of the Renaissance Army clearly has an advantage in size.
But soon the Far East Fleet of the Great Empire also came to join in the fun. The timing was chosen very well.
The strange thing is that the two sides did not fight.
In this way, nearly fifty main warships came to a stalemate at sea.
Dong Shuheng analyzed that there was no fighting at sea because the French were unwilling to go to war directly with the Renaissance Army.
Especially now that they have gained a huge advantage on land.
Originally, the French navy went north just to threaten the Annan court in Hue and make them compromise as soon as possible.
Now that we are advancing rapidly on land, there seems to be no need to use the navy as the icing on the cake.
The key is that if a war begins with the Renaissance Army's navy at this time, the French Navy will inevitably suffer heavy losses.
Doesn't seem cost-effective.
The army of the Kingdom of South Vietnam marched north with all its strength, and many cities surrendered directly along the way.
Nguyen Phuc Thi had been the puppet emperor for many years and indeed lacked local prestige.
Not even as good as his brother who was born as a concubine.
The army of the Kingdom of South Vietnam quickly passed through the Duo Lak Plateau.
The local forces in Nanqi couldn't help but feel relieved when they saw that the Renaissance Army had not taken any action.
But while the army was heading north, they still withdrew some of their troops to prevent the Renaissance Army from coming from Phnom Penh and stealing their rear base.
They have a certain understanding of the combat power of the Renaissance Army.
But they found that the Renaissance Army did not put down many troops here.
After all, with such a large territory, how could they place heavy troops in every place?
When Annan's situation took a turn for the worse.
Dong Shuheng was making plans with his temporary staff to enter Annan, and was also gathering troops.
"President, the rebels in Nanqi have approached Pingding Mansion." Peng Yulin walked in and said.
This is a small town called Banan located on the lower reaches of the Lancang River, east of Phnom Penh.
It is less than fifty kilometers away from the Nanqi area of Annan to the east.
Dong Shuheng used this place as the headquarters of the general headquarters and also as the base camp for the army to set out.
Now the town has been completely sealed off, and the surrounding checkpoints are set up 30 kilometers away.
On the wide river on the side, the gunboats of the Lancang River Navy were patrolling back and forth.
A large number of transport ships are docked at the pier.
Even the patrol gunboats of the Siam Navy were temporarily mobilized.
At this time, the number of gunboats assembled at the base camp had reached twenty. There were also field guns installed on some transport ships.
The Nanqi area is densely covered with water networks, and marching on land with artillery will be a huge disaster for the engineers.
Therefore, Dong Shuheng decided to use gunboats as mobile forts as fire support for the army.
Nearly 30,000 troops are stationed in such a small town, and there are camps and tents everywhere at a glance. This scene is very spectacular, and it makes people feel like their blood is pumping just by looking at it.
"Xue Qin, don't worry, let them fight. What if they hit Hue? I have asked Yang Bingchun to go south from Jiaozhou to Hue, as long as Ruan Phuc Shi is not captured by others." Dong Shuheng said calmly.
"President, you want them to continue to go deeper north, without caring about each other, and create space for us to clean up the south. However, people in Annan are panicked now. There are many people from various places surrendering to the south. If it takes too long, the opponent will have
There will definitely be more troops." Peng Yulin was worried that the opponent would continue to grow bigger and it would be more troublesome to deal with it.
"It doesn't matter. At worst, we can capture more prisoners of war. I have already contacted the Westpac Company and we will sell these prisoners of war to them. They will send ships to transport them themselves."
"Hiss..." Peng Yulin took a breath. It turned out that Dong Shuheng had this idea. It turned out that the president had taken a liking to these young men in Annan.
The Renaissance Army does not do things like human trafficking. It would damage its reputation too much.
But if these people were all prisoners of war captured by the Renaissance Army, this problem would not exist, and Nguyen Phuc Thi would not be able to say anything.
After all, these people are resisting him, so he can still speak for these people.
It's just that as a result, Annan's population, especially young and middle-aged men, will decrease by an unknown amount.
Dong Shuheng had already thought about it. When he attacked Nanqi, if the South Vietnamese troops who went north wanted to fight back, they would have to recruit a large number of troops in the newly occupied northern area.
At such a critical moment, these people don't mind taking advantage of the situation.
After all, if they don't recruit these young men, the Annan court will have to recruit them when they counterattack.
Then when the Renaissance Army goes north, they can capture a large number of prisoners. These people who join the rebel army, whether they are forced or not, will be treated as rebels.
Then, finally adding the prisoners captured in Nanqi, Dong Shuheng could at least hire 500,000 workers for the West Pacific Company.
After sending these people to Papua, the development speed there will definitely be on the fast track.
Westpac has been developing in Papua for more than a year.
No country has ever claimed colonization of the eastern half of the island.
After defeating the Spanish, the Renaissance Army took advantage of the situation and announced the development (colonization) of the eastern half of Papua.
The biggest problem in developing this place now is the lack of infrastructure. It is basically still in a primitive state, with almost no roads.
Danger is everywhere in the dense virgin jungle.
Therefore, the main problem of West Pacific Company now is road construction.
But building roads in places like that really costs lives.
Road construction workers not only have to endure the intrusion of diseases, but also have natives who come out to attack them from time to time.
The laborers originally transported from Fuso and North Korea were not adapted to the environment there at all, and the mortality rate was very high.
These workers are hired with money. Even if they die, it will be a cost.
The company's board of directors feels that the indigenous people here in Nanyang should be more adaptable to the environment there.
Before, Xitai Company had sent people to Annan to recruit workers, but the Annan court was not very cooperative.
When West Pacific Company came to recruit people, many rumors suddenly emerged among the Annan people, so West Pacific Company's recruitment activities did not go smoothly at all.
This issue was also reported to Dong Shuheng.
This war allowed Dong Shuheng to see an opportunity.
It has been said that Dong Shuheng never fights an unprepared battle.
Helping Annan put down the chaos this time was not only to safeguard the dignity of the overlord country.
Dong Shuheng definitely wants to get some benefits as well.
But after Annan experienced this large-scale turmoil, it was obvious that he had no luck.
Maybe Dong Shuheng will help them in the end!
Therefore, Dong Shuheng set his sights on their population.
Annan is located in the Indochina Peninsula and is a relatively densely populated place.
These populations were the basis for Annan's previous dominance in Indochina.
Without this person, Annan's strength will be greatly reduced, and he will have no choice but to be the younger brother of the Renaissance Army.
"Xueqin, please make arrangements. The Northern Route Army will be left to you to lead. Take Hans with you. Maybe we will have a fight with the French army."
"Yes, President!" Peng Yulin felt happy when he heard this arrangement.
Originally, this was my home court, so of course I had to fight the most important battle for myself.
Dong Shuheng divided the entire battlefield into north and south. The Renaissance Army on the southern line and the servant army sent by Siam will advance eastward along the waterway to control the entire Nanqi area.
This is the base camp of the rebels. If they occupy this place, the main force of the rebels in the north will definitely be shaken, because their hometown is here.
Most of these rebels are controlled by big families. The roots of these families are in the Nanqi area.
The North Road is the main force of the Renaissance Army. Dong Shuheng placed two divisions here, and the only main division was also placed here. After entering Nanqi, they will quickly move north to recapture Saigon.
Block the rebels' southward path. Then join forces with Annan's army to attack the rebels from north to south.
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