Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 311 Chongming Sand Attack and Defense (Part 3)
The Japanese ships began to charge forward bravely. During this process, many warships were certainly hit by a few shells. However, on the one hand, the distance between the two sides was still far, and the potential energy of the shells had been lost a lot in the air friction when they flew here. On the other hand, Yagyu Kanbei and Spain's Alfonso were very wise to put their own 600-700 ton second-class battleships in the rear, and only led the 1,200-ton first-class battleships forward. Therefore, the big ships could always withstand one or two shells.
As the Japanese fleet approached within one thousand meters of the shore, the naval guns on these warships began to pour shells onto the island shore.
Suddenly, the rumbling sound of artillery could be heard one after another on the sea surface, and the Ming army's positions on Nansha Island also began to suffer casualties.
"Marshal, it's dangerous here, why don't you go to the back?"
"Nonsense! Since I joined the army with Qi Shaobao, have I ever been hiding behind and watching my brothers fight? Don't say that! Seeing the bandits approaching and firing so recklessly, their troop transport ships may be approaching. Tell the brothers in the artillery to aim at those troop transport ships later!"
"yes!"
"Another order, soldiers of Wusong Town, no matter how fierce the artillery fire on the sea is, hide in the trenches! When the enemy comes ashore, I will give the order to kill them."
"Yes, sir!"
As if to prove what Qi Jin said, after only two rounds of shooting from the Japanese and Western fleets, the Siamese troop transports in the rear filled their sails, braved the artillery fire from the island, and began to desperately rush to the shore!
At this time, it was already 1:50 p.m. This time period was the time when the tide in Chongming Sea reached its peak. Riding on this wave of tide, the Siamese troop transport ship moved forward at a rapid speed and finally stopped less than 30 meters from the coast. Then it began to lower the small boat and let the soldiers on the ship prepare to land.
"Quick, quick, quick! Lower the guns and aim at those troop transports. Kill them!"
As the troop transport approached, the coastal defense guns began to lower their guns, and the Japanese and Western fleets on the sea finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Order our warships to get closer and extend the fire to the land!" The situation of the Japanese fleet was not very good at this time. Seven of the ten large ships participating in the battle were hit by artillery fire, and two of them were seriously injured. However, Yagyu Kanbei still gritted his teeth and persisted.
Not only him, the Spanish fleet in the south also started to fight. Although more than half of the 20 large ships participating in the battle were hit by coastal defense artillery, they also adjusted their hulls again under Alfonso's strict orders and fired at close range.
"Boom!" With a loud bang, a projectile fired from a 150mm cannon accurately hit a troop carrier that had already dropped anchor and was fixed on the sea surface to begin dropping soldiers. In an instant, the troop carrier, which had a displacement of only 300 tons, seemed to be pressed by a giant hand and plunged straight under the sea. Although it quickly jumped to the surface of the sea with its buoyancy, when it floated up, the people on the surrounding ships could no longer recognize the original appearance of the troop carrier.
From the deck to the bottom of the cabin, a huge hole was smashed in. Blood and broken limbs were everywhere around . And in the bottom of the cabin, a large amount of seawater was rushing in.
The captain quickly gave the order to abandon the ship, and the sailors on board no longer cared about the disembarkation of the army soldiers, who were not good at swimming. They rushed to grab the life-saving equipment on the ship, and then jumped into the sea like dumplings!
This tragic situation is by no means an isolated case. As the Ming defenders began to adjust their shooting parameters and focus on the troop transport ships closer to the coast, the pressure on the Japanese and Western fleets was significantly reduced, but the Siamese were in big trouble!
However, that was it. The hit rate of the muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons of this era was only about 10%. With so many Siamese troop transport ships rushing over at once, it was normal to destroy dozens of them. But in the end, at least more than 90% of the Siamese troops still managed to land, either smoothly or in a mess.
Because it was high tide, the Siamese did not need to wade through too many mudflats after landing. When they stepped on dry land, they were only about 300 to 500 meters away from the Ming army's defense line.
The troops that landed on the south bank of the Nansha Island were the Siamese New Army's Third Division, whose commander was a general who had been trained by Raja Buddha himself for many years and was specialized in commanding modern armies. Therefore, after he successfully landed on the island, he immediately issued the first order: the entire army should not charge for the time being, and immediately begin to reorganize combat units based on military ranks.
For beach landings, the organization of each regiment and battalion would definitely be in disarray. A regimental commander might have officers and soldiers from two other regiments around him. This order, coupled with the military rank system that the Siamese army had already fully promoted, played a huge role at this time.
The Siamese officers leaned on the military ranks on their shoulders and began to call the soldiers around them to come closer. After gathering a company of soldiers, they led these soldiers to attack the trenches of the Ming army.
"The thieves are coming! Brothers, use your muskets to greet them first!"
"Bang~Bang~" This bird gun was not the bird gun that the Ming army used to kill people, but the flintlock rifle that Fangshan Laboratory urgently provided to the Wusong Town soldiers. Unfortunately, the equipment was good, but this army obviously did not have enough training time. When the enemy was still relatively far away, they began to fire the flintlock rifles in their hands.
"Hahaha, what a bunch of idiots!" Although the enemy's volleys also caused some casualties to the soldiers who were charging, it was obvious that the Ming army's flintlock soldiers did not form a unified battle line and their firing time was inconsistent, so the casualties to the side were not great.
Moreover, Siam had been planning for this battle for a long time and had conducted many exercises for this purpose. Therefore, the Siamese soldiers at this time did not form neat battle lines as they usually did in land battles, but formed countless small combat units in squads and platoons.
They lowered their heads, bent over, and even crawled, quickly approaching the Ming army's battle line.
"Damn it, these Siamese thieves are so cunning!" Seeing that the several rounds of shooting from our side did not cause much casualties to the enemy, while the enemy was approaching rapidly, Qi Jin's face became solemn.
"Brothers, prepare the wooden-handled grenades!"
Then, when he just finished saying this, a temporary company of the Siamese army running in the front, led by its company commander, suddenly threw more than twenty black iron lumps at the Ming army in the trenches!
"Bastard!" Although the iron lump did not fly to Qi Jin's feet, he soon saw that an iron lump exploded not far away, and then two nearby soldiers fell down with blood all over their faces.
"Grenade, throw it at those thieves!"
Following Qi Jin's order, and because more Siamese troops began to approach the Ming army's trenches, countless wooden-handled grenades flew out from the three-mile-long trenches!
After the ping-pong explosions, many Ming soldiers were unable to get up from their trenches, while more Siamese soldiers fell on the ground a hundred or two hundred meters away from the trenches.
After both sides exchanged grenades, Qi Jin shouted, "Brothers, stand up and form a mandarin duck formation!"
