Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 173 The Attacking Fleet ([-])

There were originally 120 Chaluya residents and 120 French residents in the Fort in the River. After experiencing arduous land reclamation, fighting and disease attacks, there are now [-] or [-] people left.It was these [-] people who alone propped up the first stronghold of the East Coast Republic of China in Africa.

The task force stayed at the Fort in the River for three full days, supplemented with a large amount of fresh vegetables, meat and fresh water, and left some sick crew members there to recuperate, and will pick them up when they are ready to return (if any).In addition, due to the lack of sufficient manpower in the river fort, some captured Khoisan prisoners of war were handed over to the task force for processing.As for how the task force dealt with it, they were too lazy to take care of it.For them, who only had more than 100 people, these hundreds of Khoisan captives were like a time bomb. There is a clear difference between black people in general, the skin is reddish, and the face has more Mongolian features).

On June 6, the rested Guinea task force slowly opened the river fort, sailed into the vast South Atlantic Ocean, and headed north towards the Gulf of Guinea.

In late July, the task force finally arrived at the ocean near the mouth of the Gambia River after a long journey of more than a month.They sneaked secretly along the way. On the way, they encountered two ships from different countries (a Portuguese ship and a British ship), all of which were overtaken by the fast cruisers "Yangwu" and "Yangwei" and sunk. In case the news leaks.The officers of both ships were executed, the sailors were tied up and thrown into the hold, and all cargo was confiscated.

The position of the fleet at this time is still a certain distance from the mouth of the river, and it is out of range of the British fort artillery.After careful observation of the terrain and traffic conditions at the mouth of the Gambia, Lu Ming, the commander of the task force, found that only the area near the mouth of the Gambia was suitable for landing.

There is no way but to attack under the eyes of the British.

A large number of small boats were put down from the transport ships "Penglai" and "Yingzhou". Army soldiers in dark blue khaki military uniforms, black brim caps, and cowhide military boots walked down the rope ladder one by one under the command of the officers. down to the skiff; and on the deck behind them, the sailors were laboriously using pulleys and booms to hoist down the baggage they needed for battle, including artillery, powder barrels, cannonballs, buckshot, hand bombs, Armor, bandages, even horses.

After the first small boat carrying soldiers arrived at the tidal flat, the soldiers lined up to guard against the command of the platoon leader and other officers, guarding the landing site, and waiting for the follow-up troops to follow.

The British coastal defense batteries are mainly used to block the mouth of the Gambia River, so those heavy and powerful long-barreled cannons are all facing the north or east. For the task force landing on the west side, what they need to deal with is Some land defense batteries used by the British to protect the safety of the fort.But at this time they were still 700 meters away from the British fort, and the British army's short-barreled guns could not hit so far.

Two "Yangwu" class fast cruisers were cruising along the mouth of the Gambia River along the southwest wind. They carefully kept a distance from the British coastal defense batteries, and kept a close watch on any ships that might come out of the upper reaches of the Gambia River at any time.A merchant ship flying the Dutch flag near the estuary tried to break out, but turned back in embarrassment after being shelled by two cruisers.Since then, the vicinity of the mouth of the Gambia has been quiet.

The chaotic landing operation lasted for more than two hours. Only then did the army soldiers of the two companies line up on the landing field, and then they used the platoon as a unit, separated by a certain distance, and drove some Khoisan prisoners of war forward.

These Khoisan men were naked to the upper body, without any protective gear on their bodies. Each of them held a sharp wooden stick in his hand, and moved forward slowly under the threat of muskets from the army soldiers behind him.

"Boom!" An 8-pound gun fired, and the flying solid iron bullets bounced twice on the ground, knocking down two Khoisan men and falling to the ground after exhausting their kinetic energy.The ground near the landing site is relatively soft, which can absorb the kinetic energy of solid shells well, greatly reducing their power.

"Bang! Bang!" A platoon of Army soldiers opened fire, targeting the Khoisan who had shrunk before the British artillery.Some Khoisan fell to the ground screaming, and the rest ran forward like frightened rabbits.Their actions drew more shelling from the British, and British Army artillery bunkers hidden behind bushes and mounds opened fire one after another.

A group of trainee staff officers from the Dingyuan Military Academy who followed Zhu Liang, the leader of the Army Task Force, took out their pens and quickly recorded the enemy's firepower. sex arrangement.

Dozens of Khoisan suffered heavy casualties from the British artillery, and a dozen or so fell one after another, and the rest were also shot by the British Army guarding these firepower points.After a dozen or so people fell down again, the Khoisan people finally dispersed.They didn't dare to rush forward or back, so they ran to both sides one after another, and quickly disappeared into the jungle or river on both sides of the landing site.

"The firing density of muskets is not high. It is estimated that there should be 30-40 musketeers. There are 5 cannons, two 8-pound guns and three 6-pound guns. The specific positions are shown in the picture..." The intern staff gathered the latest information It was presented to Zhu Liang, the supreme commander of the army.

"Why isn't the artillery ready yet?" Zhu Liang frowned after reading it.

The trainee staff officer turned around and looked back, only to see a 12-pound steel cannon pulled by a horse, struggling to move forward on the soft sandy ground. A dozen or so Khoisan men with shackles were urged by the soldiers. He struggled to push the cannon carriage.The other three cannons of the artillery platoon (one 12-pounder and two 8-pounders) were also moving forward with difficulty while being carried by the horse-drawn men.

The artillery officer, who was accustomed to the good road traffic conditions of the East Coast Republic, frowned and looked at the artillery moving forward like a turtle, and couldn't help but sighed heavily. Next time, he must let the arsenal develop lighter artillery.

After working for a long time, the four cannons were finally in place.They opened fire on the nearest British artillery bunker outside the effective range of the British artillery, and the first shot was an explosive shell.Four explosive bombs flew out of the muzzle and flew over the semi-enclosed bunker of the British, but it was embarrassing that two of the shells exploded during the flight; Before it exploded, one flew directly into the jungle.

"Continue to launch!" Zhu Liang said expressionlessly while holding up the telescope.This is the case with explosive bombs in this era. The time of explosion can only be controlled by the length of the fuze, but the problem is that this thing is too unreliable.Because the burning speed of the fuze and even the wind on the battlefield may affect the time when the explosive bomb explodes, it is not efficient to use it.

However, there is plenty of time today, and the artillerymen have plenty of time to slowly find the target.Finally, after seven or eight rounds of test firing, the relatively well-trained artillerymen on the east bank finally delivered the shells to the enemy's head accurately for the first time, and it exploded perfectly in the air.Only the British semi-enclosed artillery bunkers with the front wall could not defend against the shell fragments splashing from above, and their gunners suddenly suffered casualties.

"Forward!" Zhu Liang waved his hand, and five platoons of army soldiers trotted towards the destroyed enemy artillery bunker with muskets in hand.Not far from the bunker, the grenadiers collectively threw a dozen or so hand-thrown bombs, and then the remaining riflemen rushed into the enemy bunker taking advantage of the black smoke from the explosion.

Inside the bunker lay the corpses of five British gunners and a dozen broken bodies of black men. Most of them were dead at this time, and the occasional few who were still moaning were stabbed to death by the riflemen with their sabers drawn out. on the ground.

"Boom!" A British Army artillery fired in this direction, but unfortunately it couldn't shoot to this position due to the limited angle.After destroying one of the enemy's forts, the army did not bother, and continued to move the artillery awkwardly, attacking the next British Army artillery bunker.

The battle continued uninterestingly like this. After being captured by two artillery bunkers again, the British Army finally gave up the last two land defense forts and withdrew towards the city built on the bank of the upstream river.In the whole process, the brothers of the East Coast Army Task Force only killed three people and injured eight people, but they caused the British to lose three artillery pieces, as well as a dozen gunners and several times the number of blacks Servant soldiers.

After solving the British land defense forts, their remaining coastal defense forts were exposed to the people on the east coast like shelled eggs.The eight coastal defense heavy artillery could not turn around to deal with the enemy from behind. The British gunners relied on the fort's buildings to put up a not very fierce resistance, and then hurriedly withdrew into the city.

Their decisive evacuation caused confusion among the dozens of black servant soldiers at the forefront. These barbarians with spears could not resist the dense volleys of guns fired by the soldiers on the east bank and the bombardment of shells fired from time to time. It's about to fall apart.Some people surrendered on the spot in desperation, while some jumped into Hanoi, Gambia, behind the coastal defense fort, hoping to escape.

"It's a completely boring battle in the style of 'infantry drills'." Standing on the captured British coastal defense fort, Zhu Liang shook his head and said, "But I still like this kind of battle, at least we don't have any casualties. Alright, staff officer Officer, signal for the naval fleet to come."

During the entire battle just now, there were no British ships on the Gambia River. Maybe they didn't have any powerful warships here at all, Zhu Liang thought.

Soon, the army soldiers lowered the British St. George's flag on the coastal defense battery and raised the flag of the East Coast Republic.

(End of this chapter)