Chapter 285 The Little Marquis (Twenty-Five) Seizes the City
There is almost no need to go into details about what happened after that. Basically, it developed in accordance with the expectations before the war.
The harbor side was the first to launch the operation. The mobile fleet handed over the captured Arakan warship to the Grand Fleet, which mobilized sailors and marines from three armed transport ships to pretend to be the Arakan warship and return to the port.
Although the Arakanese people in the port were puzzled, they found that the fleet had collectively raised the flag of "encountering a hurricane". They were relieved and shocked, and quickly and vigorously issued an emergency notification to the entire Hong Kong to prevent the hurricane, such as packing up stalls, closing doors and windows, etc.
They all started to get things done quickly. For a while, they didn't even bother to take care of what would happen after the fleet arrived at the port.
This gave the Marines an excellent environment for a surprise attack. The Marines quickly landed ashore, fully armed and took over several forts and surrounding sentries at the port. They also collectively disarmed a military camp set up on the edge of the port.
At this time, the Marine Corps did not dare to neglect, and pretended to be in an emergency to take shelter from the wind, trying to enter the city from the port. Unfortunately, this time it failed because the Marine Corps' performance was too professional, and the Arakan soldiers in Chittagong City were immediately confused.
Knowing that this was definitely not the level of his colleagues, he quickly closed the city gate and immediately notified the city guard.
The Marines tried to launch an attack while the enemy troops were not fully in place. However, due to the lack of heavy weapons, they had neither enough breaking ability nor sufficient deterrence. Therefore, they fired two salvos with more than a dozen No. 3 field guns.
After that, we had to give up and instead go to support the landing of large troops.
Gao Lian did not criticize the performance of the Marine Corps, but instead praised it. For him, it was a surprise enough to capture the Chittagong port so easily, and although the Marine Corps failed to capture the city gate, it was obviously not possible in terms of tactical performance.
problem, I have no reason to criticize them.
Immediately afterwards, Gao Lian launched a battle formation as quickly as possible, surrounding Chittagong City from the west, north, and south, leaving only the east side empty. This can be regarded as encircling three and missing one, but it is mainly based on the
The plan before the war was carried out - forcing the defenders in the city to flee eastward across the river, and then ran into Ercen's blockade on the river.
The defenders in the city quickly realized that they were in a dire situation. Although the army besieging the city outside had not yet launched a formal attack, they had only conducted sporadic artillery test firings on three fronts. However, the opponent's artillery was not only powerful, but also had an unprecedented number of artillery launches.
It seems that the three sides of the siege must have at least two hundred cannons in total. It is not something that the Chittagong city can resist. The reason is very simple. The real strength of Chittagong is the port defense, but now the port is given away for free, and the rest
Where can I get to this city?
The garrison of Chittagong immediately prepared to abandon the city and flee, but some of his subordinates persuaded him, saying that the enemy army was so powerful, how could they forget to block the east side? There must be some fraud involved.
The guard general was furious and said that the Go River was not far to the east. If we lost the port, we would have no ships. Of course, the other party thought that we could not escape across the river. However, none of us Chittagong people are good at water. As long as we escape to the river, what will happen?
Maybe we can’t swim across? Without further ado, don’t talk nonsense, we have to leave now.
Therefore, the guard left two thousand old and weak men behind, and opened the east city gate with the help of three thousand elites and began to flee. The two thousand old and weak men lost their backbone, and before Gao Lian could launch a full-scale attack, they simply waved the white flag and demanded
Negotiate with Gao Lian to discuss surrender.
Gao Lian had already learned from Tan Ma who was monitoring Dongcheng that the elites in the city had fled through the city. Of course, he knew that the old and weak people left behind were just trying their best to delay time for the fleeing people.
However, Gao Lian thought for a moment and agreed, allowing the other party to send people over to negotiate. He just agreed in advance that there was only one chance to surrender. If they wanted to delay or play any tricks, then don't blame him, Chief of Staff Gao, for being rude.
Why do you do this? Because Gao Lian also knows that he cannot take the credit alone, especially when Gao Yuan is still in charge of the river. If the city is taken over immediately, then troops must be sent to pursue it immediately.
Chittagong deserted, otherwise it would be difficult for Gao Yuan to pursue him when the time came.
However, if we pursue immediately, the deserters will have just touched Er Cen with their front feet, and the pursuers will arrive. The whole army will definitely be annihilated or surrender on the spot. In this case, Er Cen, who is responsible for blocking the attack, will definitely feel that the credit has been taken away - oh, it's you in Hong Kong.
You also captured the city. You still have half of the credit for clearing out the fleeing enemies in the end. So, are our brothers here to see the scenery?
Therefore, Gao Lian deliberately gave the defenders in the city some time to delay, and also gave Er Cen and even Gao Yuan the opportunity to block or annihilate the enemy in the river.
Turning to the river. The attack time on Gaoyuan's side was also strictly calculated. In fact, because there are two big bends in the river from the estuary to the east of Chittagong City, their side was earlier than the harbor side.
time action.
When the Marine Corps seized the port, the Army troops on the Gaoyuan side had already begun to disembark. There was no large dock on the riverside, so disembarking from the ship was actually quite troublesome. It was easy to say that it was not a big deal to be covered in water, but gunpowder and cannons were not so good.
To do it, we have to use small boats to transport boxes one by one, door by door.
Fortunately, the pre-war plan gave enough time. When Er Cen and Er Huang built basic defense lines on the east and west banks of the river, 3,000 people led by the Chittagong garrison had already rushed over.
The Arakan army in Chittagong can be considered the country's elite, but similar to other neighboring countries, they do not have cavalry worth mentioning - here refers to cavalry on horseback. However, they have twenty war elephants.
War elephants actually exist in southern Xinjiang, but Gao Pragmatic never likes to use them. The reason is that the inherent weaknesses of elephants are too obvious. Back then, he had several ways to defeat war elephants.
It's the same now.
When the enemy general saw that there was a murderous army in front of him in neat formation waiting for him, he already knew that something bad might happen today. However, although the weapons and equipment of his own army were obviously inferior to those of his opponent, maybe the war elephants could
What about creating miracles?
So, he immediately ordered the mobilization of war elephants, trying to defeat the opponent's fools who dared to stand against the odds. This idea is actually not wrong, because not everyone can learn from Han Xin. In fact, no one who has learned from Han Xin has succeeded in fighting against the odds.
There are only a few cases, but there are many failures.
However, when the war elephants gathered to launch an attack, the roar of giant cannons immediately rang out from the opponent's battle formation. No, not just the opponent's battle formation, but also the river. At this time, the Arakanese people noticed that there was a gunfire on the river.
Many giant ships were lined up, and countless black gun barrels protruded from the side of the deck, firing huge and deadly projectiles in the flickering light of fire.
Under the simultaneous firing of artillery from both sea and land, the elephants were frightened and turned around to flee, instantly breaking up the originally unorganized formation of the Arakanese people. Many people died under the cannons, but more people were trampled to death by their own elephants.
.
Cen Yunhan glanced at the "Tungyu City" on the river behind him and found that Gao Yuan did not display the various flags commanding operations.
He took a deep breath, ordered the rear team to raise the flag, and signaled the fleet not to continue firing. At the same time, he shouted: "The infantry is pressing forward, the cavalry is outflanking from both sides, and the surrender is allowed!"
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PS: There will be another chapter to make up for yesterday’s post in the early hours of tonight.