Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 656 The War Caused by Two Carrier Pigeons

In the early morning of June 1793, 6, before the sky turned white, several black drones quietly rose from a sugarcane forest on the east side of Bacheng into the sky tens of meters high, heading straight towards the VOC coalition forces two kilometers away. The line of defense flew over.

At the same time, various troops, including the five servant battalions, the Hui'an camp, and the marine battalion, have taken advantage of the darkness to hide in various sugarcane forests less than 500 meters away from the VOC and the Banten Sultanate coalition forces. ready to attack.

In the two clearings inside the first-line fortifications of the Beihai Navy, four grass-green armored vehicles are starting up. As the exhaust pipe on the right side above the vehicle emits a puff of gray-white smoke, the vehicle body roars. The driver, gunner, commander, and accompanying maintenance team were all in place, and they were all brought here from Beihai Town by Zhao Xin.

Ten minutes later, the long-range strike force consisting of forty 10mm guns and twenty 75 howitzers also took off the camouflage made of fishing nets and entered the firing position.Among these artillery, the 122mm guns are responsible for attacking the various field fortifications and artillery positions of the enemy's defense line, while the howitzers are responsible for attacking the camps and material warehouses behind the enemy's defense line.

"Report! All artillery positions have been prepared!"

In the frontline headquarters of Fort Noordwijk, a staff officer in charge of artillery liaison reported to Zhao Xin.Zhao Xin nodded immediately, and said to the staff officer indifferently: "Order all the benchmark guns to test fire."

"Yes!"

The reason why Zhao Xin launched a ground attack on the second day after the victory in the Qiandao naval battle was because Zheng Wenxian sent another telegram shortly after sending the telegram announcing the good news; it said that the Dutch flagship "William IV "Before surrendering, two pigeons flew from above.This news made Zhao Xin anxious. Without hesitation, he immediately ordered all troops to prepare for attack after dark.

Thanks to the preparations made for a week before, otherwise the departments would definitely be messed up and accidents would happen frequently.

You must know that since pigeons were brought back to Europe from the Middle East by the Crusaders, Westerners have spent hundreds of years building a very mature communication network.The busiest air communication route in Europe today runs from London across the English Channel to France, the Holy Roman Empire and Amsterdam.

The Dutch have long used carrier pigeons to convey trade information, obtain accurate and timely information, and thus win commercial opportunities. After VOC colonized Southeast Asia, it quickly established its own carrier pigeon communication network. At the beginning, Bacheng was the center, and it radiated castles in Ceylon, Malacca, Java, Banda Islands, and Liane Islands. In addition, it also included Each vassal sultanate with a resident presence.When Bacheng was lost, they transferred the communication center to Malacca city.

Zhao Xin has never raised pigeons, but because he lives in a bungalow, his neighbors have raised many, and he often goes to see them, so he still has some understanding of this animal.

A carrier pigeon can be released from its shell after 5 days, and then it can be trained from a short distance of 200 kilometers to a different long distance. Basically, it can be used as a carrier pigeon when it reaches 100 kilometers.The flying speed of general carrier pigeons is about 150 kilometers per hour, and the speed of individual pigeons can reach more than [-] kilometers per hour.According to this speed, whether it is Banten or the Dutch in Malacca, they can receive the news within two hours at the fastest.

Although the victory of the Thousand Islands Sea Battle means that VOC has lost more than half of its sea power, and can no longer blockade the waters north of Bacheng.But if the news alarms the coalition forces of the Dutch and the Banten Sultanate, causing them to retreat to various strongholds in advance, the battle of annihilation on the battlefield will become a siege battle; not to mention that the battle will be delayed, and the supply line of the troops will also be pulled very long.

When Zhao Xin's order was issued, the four standard guns on the artillery position fired a test shot on each of the north and south wings of the enemy's defense line according to the predetermined target.

boom!With the violent vibration of the gun body and the momentum of the recoil, the dust and weeds on the ground were rolled up, mixed with the gunpowder smoke from the muzzle, and filled the surroundings of the gun position.

According to the picture fed back by the drone, the headquarters slightly adjusted the coordinates, and after some calculations, they quickly notified the artillery position.In less than a minute, there was a roar from various artillery positions of the Beihai Navy, and at the predetermined breakthrough points on the north and south wings of the enemy's defense line, those fortifications built with wood and mud jumped up suddenly.

The field fortifications of the Europeans in this year. Well, they are basically composed of winding parapets. In addition to being built with compacted soil, they will also use wrapped wooden sticks or bundles of firewood on both sides. Reinforced, the thickness can reach 2~3 meters, which can effectively resist the shooting of solid bullets.

Under the fierce artillery fire, the first parapet fortification set up by the coalition forces was like paper. The fragments generated by the explosion dragged groups of lives into the steel storm, while the roaring air waves set off large pieces of mud debris. Stone and wood blocks, mixed with flesh and blood, kept splashing around.

Although Zhao Xin only took out [-] cannons, it was earth-shattering for the Dutch and the Banten Sultanate coalition forces three kilometers away; For the Prussian mercenaries and officers of the "War", it was also a lifetime experience.

Some courageous soldiers hid in the crater and observed for a while, and found that there were no soldiers on the other side attacking at all, and the shelling on the other side had been going on for 10 minutes, and it was still endless.

Thousands of people on the north and south flanks of the defense line immediately collapsed under the sudden blow, and the officers of the Sultanate on the front line quickly joined the fleeing army, only wanting to escape from this bloody hell, completely ignoring the orders of the VOC officers.

As for the VOC mercenaries, it's not that they are afraid to fight. The Prussians earn the money for their hard work, but they are not used to this kind of fighting.

Didn't say anything, retreat now!Gather at the rear, set up formation, and wait for the enemy's attack.However, because the escape was too hasty, many Prussian mercenaries wore underwear
Well, that's the rule of thumb these days.Due to the impressive fire rate and shooting distance of the flintlock, a European soldier from recruit training to the next company only receives shooting training, not individual aiming and shooting training.In addition, because gunpowder is very expensive, no country has so much money for soldiers to practice marksmanship.

All the training received by the infantrymen in the line was aimed at suppressing individual active thinking and performance. The firepower of the troops was only somewhat lethal when fired at close range and at a large group of soldiers.Therefore, no matter whether it is an officer or a soldier, except in strongholds such as villages and woodlands, no one knows how to conduct skirmish warfare in plain areas.Even fighting in scattered formations was scorned as nothing more than the usual practice of poorly disciplined and poorly trained troops.

However, when the VOC's allied forces retreated to the west of a village 800 meters away from the front line, and then began to assemble the whole team under the officer's whip, they were shocked to find that the enemy's artillery fire was actually chasing them.So after the bombing, the coalition forces left corpses all over the place, and started a hasty retreat again.Until they ran two kilometers away in one breath, and found that the rumbling guns behind them finally stopped, they slumped on the ground.

At this time, on the attacking position of the Beihai Navy, a red signal bomb rose into the air, and then a sharp whistle sounded in the sugarcane forest. The five battalions of Sendai Fan's servants rushed out of the sugarcane forest with excitement on their faces. They formed a group of five people, arranged a scattered formation, and attacked the dilapidated fortifications of the VOC coalition forces like a tide.

Speaking of these servants in Beihai Town, since they were issued with front-loading rifles, they still adopted line infantry tactics.However, what the North Navy adopted was based on the teachings of captured Tsarist Russian officers by Wang Yuanfang and others, and also referred to historical works on infantry tactics after the Napoleonic Wars, making the formation and combat mode of the troops more flexible and more dispersed. Military formation.

The most basic infantry organization unit in this tactic is "Wu", each row is composed of [-] "Wu", whether it is shooting or formation changes during combat, this is the unit.

When recruits receive queue training, they first learn to stand, and then learn to walk at a slow and fast pace.The stride of each step should be kept at 0.7 meters, the slow step is 75 steps per minute, and the fast step is 110 steps per minute.

Different from the ninety-degree turn of the marching ranks of later generations, soldiers under the line tactics not only need to learn to move straight forward, but also learn to use the diagonal marching method.That is to say, each soldier has to turn 45 degrees to the left or right, advance in a straight line for a certain distance, and then turn 45 degrees to restore the original orientation.

After the queue training is over, they will receive gun training.When individual training has progressed sufficiently, they form into squads and learn how to load and fire in close formation, while getting used to firing forward or diagonally to the left and right in units of corps.

After completing the shooting training, the recruits also need to learn to march in line with guns, not only to practice straight forward, but also to practice using two ways to march diagonally. They must learn to keep level, turn in platoons and march in teams.

After completing this series of training, the recruits will go to the camp. The training elements in the camp are still the same as the recruit training, but the focus is on training the loading steps, so that they can shoot at least 3 times per minute.Each platoon has to accept the training of the whole platoon salvo, column salvo, and team shooting.

To put it bluntly, in the era of line warfare, a single soldier is a piece of trash, and a single soldier with super combat capabilities is even more of a mess.This kind of person is either sent to be light infantry or sent to be a hunting soldier, and will never appear in the battle infantry.

The command center's requirement for the attacking troops is speed, and the penetration must be completed in one morning, while dividing and encircling the enemy.So no matter whether it was a soldier or a medical soldier, everyone turned a blind eye to the wounded and moaning enemy troops.

At this time, the sky was already bright, and a servant soldier suddenly saw something shining on the chest of a wailing guy in front of him. He quickly turned his head and looked behind him, feeling that no one was paying attention to him, so he slowed down. , intending to make a fortune.Unexpectedly, as soon as he stretched out his hand, before he touched something, he was kicked hard on the buttocks, and immediately fell into the mud.

Quan Baocai, the platoon leader, grabbed a standard rifle of the Beihai Navy with one hand, and cursed viciously: "Bastard! Who told you to stop! Get up and keep running!"

When the servant saw that it was his platoon leader, he was so frightened that he hurriedly got up, grabbed the dropped rifle, and ran away without daring to look back.

"waste!"

Only then did Quan Bao curse angrily. He glanced at the guy lying on the ground. His intestines were exposed and soiled. It was obviously hopeless; so he picked up his rifle and swung it vigorously without hesitation. Then he stabbed the sharp bayonet into the wounded man's chest fiercely, sending him off.

After he got the shiny chain in his hand, he realized that there was a golden and heavy round box attached to it.When I got it in my hand and opened it, I saw two black pointers on it, and there was a picture of a blonde woman inside the cover.

"It would be nice to take this thing back as a gift for A Bin, right?" Quan Bao thought so, and put it in his coat pocket casually.

This man made a big commotion by taking the villagers from Niudu Village to Beihai Town. After being expelled from the Intelligence Bureau by Li Ji, he took his wife to Heilongjiang City and became a leader again.Last year, because Quan Baocai wanted to recruit servants, because he was a naturalized citizen of an island country and had served in the army for many years in Beihai Town, the Military and Political Department transferred him from the garrison camp in Heilongjiang City to the teaching brigade of the servants.When the servant army finished training in Ganlingao, Quan Baocai naturally became a platoon leader in charge of 80 people.

Speaking of which, the Servant Army is different from the Qingye Battalion.The Aoba Camp is a mercenary army, and the officers will naturally use the vassals of the Sendai Domain, and the scale is only 500; the servant army is to be stationed in Southeast Asia for a long time, and it must not be sloppy, so the officers above the platoon leader are the Beihai Navy themselves people.

At 6 a.m. on June 28, after 11 hours of interspersed pursuit, Quan Baocai's battalion and friendly forces from the other two platoons, with the cooperation of an armored vehicle, blocked more than 6 Württemberg mercenaries in Lanzhou. In a town seventeen kilometers southeast of Gasbetong.

For obvious reasons, the VOC's mercenaries were unable to form formations and fought as skirmishers, hiding behind trees, fences, ditches and buildings in the town, ready to fight to the death.

As soon as the North Navy came up, they sent out four teams of five to carry out reconnaissance. After finally confirming where the enemy was hiding, they sent two platoons to launch a tentative attack. The two sides soon started shooting in the town.

After fighting for a while, the Prussian mercenaries found that the "flintlocks" used by these short enemies were obviously different from their own weapons; There is no bargain in shooting; that is, when shooting shot with a two-pounder, it can still do some damage.

The problem was that due to the hasty escape, the Prussian mercenaries hiding in the town only brought out two two-pound guns, and the ammunition was insufficient. After seven or eight shots, one of the two-pounder guns ran out of gunpowder.However, the experienced mercenaries are far better than the servants who have only been trained for more than half a year. The opponent often charges with a bayonet and beats a few teams of five to the ground.

In order not to waste time and turn the war of annihilation into a war of attrition, the battalion commander Quan Baocai was in found the commander of the armored vehicle. After some communication, the armored vehicle aggressively drove into the town. Several of the strongest buildings were reduced to ruins, and the Prussians who suffered heavy casualties immediately raised the white flag to surrender.

Although money is a good thing, it has to be earned, right?
(End of this chapter)