Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 266

At the dawn of dawn, the naval fleet of the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army had already arrived outside the mouth of Dagu.

Standing on the front deck, the navy commander and fleet commander Shi Jie began to explain the battle plan of the National Restoration Army to Bai Mingxiu, she said: "Since we captured Jiangnan, the Qing court has been very afraid of our ability to fight across the sea. The defense of Dagukou has been strengthened, and some new forts have been set up here. However, in Beitang and other places, the defense of the Qing army is not particularly strict, so our strategy is to send troops to land directly in the Beitang area, and then directly Advance troops, cooperate with our naval fleet outside the Dagu mouth, attack both land and water, and take Dagu."

Bai Mingxiu touched his nose in embarrassment, and said, "During the Second Opium War, the British and French fought in the same way."

The Qing army never had a clear understanding of coastal defense and remained at the level of banning sea and moving borders.Due to repeated defeats in naval battles and the damage to its national power, the Qing army was no longer able to produce a decent fleet.The navy in the Bohai Sea area was even actively scuttled by the Manchus and placed outside the port as an obstacle to the Ming Dynasty's restoration army.

The effect of this approach is definitely not good, and even because of the tide and ocean currents, some piercing obstacles have been washed away.

Bai Mingxiu has gradually acquired a good military commander's vision and tactical ability. When he led the fleet into Bohai Bay, he first sent two troops, one to land at Lushunkou, and the other to capture Dengzhou Prefecture Penglai.Neither of these two places encountered too much resistance. In Penglai and even as soon as the Ming army arrived, the Qing army responsible for guarding the coastal defense automatically surrendered.

Controlling the entrance of the Bohai Bay can be regarded as maintaining a stable rear, after all, sea ships will arrive one after another in the future.

This time, Bai Mingxiu's fleet was extremely large, with a total of more than 50 ships. Except for the twelve main battleships, the rest were troop carriers and supply ships.But after all, it is still the post-sail era. Even troop carriers and supply ships are equipped with self-defense weapons. They are generally equipped with 4-10 cannons. Most of the main battleships use old-fashioned front-loading smoothbore guns.

Because the steam ironclad ship Donghai burns coal, there is a supply ship that transports coal for Donghai alone.In the southern region controlled by Nanming, Guizhou and Jiangnan (the Anhui part) are the main coal producing areas, but Guizhou's transportation is inconvenient, and it has not yet developed well.On the contrary, Nanming's coal mining enterprises have opened several small mines in Guangdong and Guangxi, and Huainan is also preparing to start the construction of coal mines.Cochin Province produces high-quality anthracite coal, but there is no action yet.

In fact, the main coal in Nanming is shipped from Australia.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, the landing troops of the Ming Dynasty's Restoration Army began to land in Beitang.Since the main defensive force of the Qing army was placed in Dagu, there were not many forts in Beitang. Ming ships could even drive directly to the mouth of the river and put down soldiers for landing.

Amida, the general of the Qing army guarding Beitang, saw a large number of Ming army warships appearing on the sea, and his heart was also gloomy: "Unexpectedly, this day has finally come!"

Amida drew out his waist knife and shouted at his soldiers: "Today is the day to be loyal to the emperor, let's fight to the death and never retreat!"

Amida and his soldiers had never fought against the Ming Dynasty's Restoration Army and had no idea what the Ming Army was like.Although everyone was faintly afraid, after all, the Ming army defeated so many Qing troops, but without this kind of experience, it is still impossible to experience this kind of horror.

"Maybe I can defeat these southerners in one fell swoop and make great contributions to the court!" Amida couldn't help but have this unrealistic idea.

"Fire gunners, archers, when the enemy troops land on the shore, attack me fiercely!"

Although the defense of Beitang is not as solid as that of Dagukou, at least there are basic fortifications. Although the Qing army does not have many artillery pieces, in order to deal with the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army, they have built many with the help of missionaries such as Nan Huairen. firecrackers.

At this time, the cannons on the troop carrier of the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army also had their gun coats removed.

"Fire!" Solid projectiles flew through the air and hit the fortress of Beitang.Although Beitang's firepower was insignificant compared to the main fleet, it still caused a lot of trouble for Beitang for a while.

The soldiers of the Qing army had no choice but to hide on the city, lying down carefully, feeling the shock caused by the bombardment. Some of the unlucky ones were directly killed by fragments caused by solid bullets hitting the city wall.

"The artillery fire of the Ming army is so fierce!" Amida was shocked, and he had no idea that this level of shelling was like an appetizer in the Ming army, it was nothing.However, this level of bombardment has already made the weakly defended Beitang Castle crumbling, and the Qing soldiers on the city could not effectively use their weapons to fight back.

Among the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty's Restoration Army who successfully landed in small sampans, there were two young officers. They were Li Wan and Gao Ning, Li Laiheng's son and adopted son.After joining the Ming Dynasty's Restoration Army system, they started as small soldiers and eventually climbed to the positions of company commander and deputy company commander.Gao Ning became the company commander and Li Wan became the deputy company commander, which made Li Wan very unhappy.

"The platoons are assembled!" Gao Ning no longer sees the banditry from the peasant bureau, but looks like a serious officer of the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army, professional and efficient.

Gao Ning called the platoon leaders and squad leaders of each platoon and ordered: "Our company has the most important task. Under the cover of the brothers' troops, we must place explosives under the wall of the fortress. Although the Qing army was hit, it was not We didn’t suffer any serious damage, although we had artillery fire and machine gun cover, but the danger was not small.”

Li Wan has a big-hearted personality. He patted his chest and said, "I, the deputy company commander, will lead the people myself!"

Gao Ning directly vetoed it, he said: "No, you are mainly responsible for holding the formation, according to the battle plan..."

Gao Ning took out a temporary map in great detail to explain it to the squad leaders, repeatedly confirmed that everyone understood, and then announced the start of action.

However, Li Wan looked awkwardly at Gao Ning and said, "Why don't you let me go, boy Gao?"

Gao Ning said: "Because you are too impulsive, the success or failure of this mission is related to whether our follow-up troops can successfully land, whether we can immediately launch an offensive to the south, and cooperate with the navy fleet to attack Dagukou, so there is no room for failure, we must fight steadily .”

Li Wan also knew this truth, he said helplessly: "Being a deputy company commander is not as enjoyable as being a non-commissioned officer."

(End of this chapter)