From Haiphong to Hanoi, along the Ao River all the way up, but more than 100 kilometers. Lin Xiao and the others braved the scorching sun, traveled day and night, and walked for six days. There's no way, it's not fast.

Early in the morning of the seventh day, the "unicorn" sailed out of the river with a few small boats, entered the Red River, and traveled down the Red River for less than seven or eight miles, which is the Imperial City of Thang Long, of course, Thang Long is now called the ghost name of Tokyo.

When the "Unicorn" first appeared in the Red River, the soldiers defending the north gate of the Tokyo Imperial City discovered the huge battleship.

When Zheng Nahu received the news, the "unicorn" had already docked and was receiving heavy supplies ashore.

Lin Xiao chose to camp on a river embankment on the edge of the West Lake outside the north gate of the imperial city, about three miles away from the north gate.

According to He Shouxin's reconnaissance report, the imperial city was a square inner city, with a city wall, and there were many residential bazaars outside the other three gates, constituting the outer city. There is only the north gate, because it is close to the West Lake, it cannot be expanded, there are almost no buildings outside the city gate, and the camp here can directly face the imperial city gate, and the view is relatively wide.

More importantly, this place is adjacent to the Red River in the east and the West Lake in the west, which is a narrow Yangtze River embankment that is less than ten miles long from north to south and about four miles wide from east to west, and it is difficult to be besieged from all sides.

The soldiers were sweating profusely, and they were busy camping in the sun, and Lin Xiao took Xiao Kaifeng to the shore of the West Lake to observe the terrain.

Yesterday there was just a shower, today the sun is scorching, there is not a trace of clouds in the sky, there is not a little wind, the grass and reeds and the red, white and purple wildflowers are steamed by the hot sun, all the trees on the shore of the West Lake are listless, lazily standing there, knowing that the long voice does not stop, adding a layer of irritation to the sultry weather, the weather is so hot that even the dragonflies dare to fly against the shade of the trees, as if they are afraid that the blazing sun will burn their wings.

In the field of vision, the length of the northern wall of the imperial city is about less than three miles, the city wall is relatively low but relatively strong, and there are a few low houses outside the city gate, which are estimated to be empty. About 500 meters away from the city wall, there are several small forests on the shore of the West Lake, and there are not many trees, but most of them are relatively tall ancient trees.

There are many people on the city wall, and through the binoculars, you can see that there are artillery cannons placed between the battlements, and there are almost a dozen doors, Lin Xiao teased lightly: "It's quite like it." ”

"It's not easy to attack without artillery." Xiao Kaifeng answered.

"Who said there were no guns?" Lin Xiao said with a grin, glancing at the battleship "Unicorn" anchored in the Red River.

"Unicorns? The river is a little far from the city gate, can't you reach it? Xiao Kaifeng said confusedly.

"Let's go, let's go back. Gather the brothers for a pre-war meeting. Lin Xiao squinted and looked at the head of the city and said.

……

When he received the news that the enemy ship had sailed to the Red River, Zheng Nahu was so frightened that his face was like dirt, his eyes were straight, his tongue froze, and he couldn't speak for a long time.

The army is gathered in Hai Duong, but the bandits have actually come under their noses!

This still doesn't let people live!

……

After a long time of chaos, it was finally clear that the bandits only had one warship, and the number of people was really only a few hundred, Zheng Nahu was a little calm, and hurriedly sent people to Haiyang to deliver the letter, and then took several leaders of the Praetorian Guard to the head of the northern city wall to observe the enemy's situation.

By the time Zheng Nahu ascended the city tower, the camp of the old port camp had been erected.

Although there were not many people, Lin Xiao set up a very large camp, the square camp was more than 500 meters long on each side, and the camp tents were set up not far from the fence around them, and some empty tents were set up separately in the center of the camp, and only a few were stacked with food and ammunition and other logistics materials, most of which were empty, which was specially prepared for prisoners.

There are a few flags in the camp, because there is no wind, the flags only occasionally flutter, and a team of sentries in strange clothes and tight-fitting clothes at the gate of the village are cruising under the scorching sun, holding a fire gun with a short sword in their hands.

"Da Ming?" The distance is a little far, the words on the flag are looming in the heat wave, and after looking at it for a long time, it is still not clear, Zheng Nahu is a little puzzled.

"Yes, it's Da Ming, my lord." A leader beside him had seen it clearly and said in a panic.

It turned out that it was not a bandit, and it was not an invasion of the Southern Dynasties!

Is it the Ming Army?

Isn't Da Ming dying? If you can't beat the Jurchen cavalry, will you beat me Annan?

Zheng Nahu's eyebrows were twisted into pimples, his teeth clenched and "gurgling", his face swelled like a purple eggplant, and beads of sweat the size of beans flowed down his forehead.

He hated and feared, and hatred was accompanied by fear, eating away at his heart like a monster......

He hated the Ming army's many expeditions to Annam, most of which were defeated by the Annamite people, and almost every time they would depose the original ruler and support new puppets.

I'm afraid that the Ming army is coming at him this time, and I'm afraid that his good life is really coming to an end, and it will be difficult to save his life.

……

The Old Port Camp showed no signs of attacking the city all day, but near evening, a squad of sailors pushed five 12-pounder naval guns close to the city wall, which Lin Xiao had people move down from the "unicorn".

Each naval gun had gun lugs, which were fixed to a wooden gun mount. Iron wheels were installed under the gun carriage, and each time the gun was fired, the recoil was counteracted by the gun carriage retreating.

Twenty-five sailors with rifles slowly pushed the guns to about 300 meters from the city wall in five groups, began to adjust the angle of fire, loaded the gunpowder packs and iron shells into the muzzles, and then stabbed them with wooden poles.

Then a conical iron drill is inserted into the gun chamber through the fire door, piercing the gunpowder package, and finally a red-hot iron drill is taken out of a small stove and extended into the fire door.

"Boom! Boom! The five cannons made a loud noise in succession, and the heavy barrels jumped back......

The solid cannonballs that flew out did not hit the city, and most of them hit the base of the city wall.

This kind of light cast iron cannon in the 17th century is not the most advanced, according to the amount of charge and the difference in the angle of fire, the firing range is generally only more than 200 meters, the farthest is less than 300 meters, and it is not accurate, and the gun operation procedure is extremely cumbersome, originally mainly used to kill and damage the superstructure of the enemy ship at close range during naval warfare.

Lin Xiao and his special combat team members, who were standing at the gate of the camp to watch the battle, watched the busy sailors operate the artillery, and they secretly laughed in their hearts when they saw the artillery operation in the 17th century for the first time.

"Boom! Rumble! Boom! "The Vietnamese army in the city began to return fire, even if the artillery was condescending, the artillery only flew about 200 steps, and neither side could hit the other.

Seeing this, the corners of Lin Xiao's mouth turned up slightly.

The artillery of the Vietnamese army, regardless of range and accuracy, is inferior to the "Unicorn" naval gun.

As for the arquebuses of the defenders of the city, he knew that the most advanced arquebuses of this era had an effective range of no more than 100 meters, and they could only be fired once in almost two or three minutes, and in front of the M16 rifle, they were simply scum.

The purpose of fire reconnaissance was achieved, and Lin Xiao ordered the team to be closed.

The brothers of the special combat team behind him also followed back to the camp with relaxed expressions, except for the company commanders who led the team, the others happily prepared to swim in the Red River.

Since they had to go down to the river every night to bathe, the special combat team members took swimming as a training subject and challenged each other.

Today, Zhang Chenfeng gave Li Han a battle letter, which was better than the 1000-meter long-distance freestyle, and invited Xiao Kaifeng to be the referee, and Li Hanzhi naturally responded. As a result, Duan Zhenghong and Xu Tianshi rushed up, got into the dinghy in front of the three company commanders, and went straight to Jiangxin, so angry that Ding Shuai rolled his eyes at their backs......