Chapter Sixty-Nine: Striking at Annan's Soldiers The soldiers entered the city of Tokyo

The people of Annam are still very good at fighting, they have fought with the Ming Dynasty for decades, hundreds of years, and Champa (India) for many years, and the army is no stranger to fighting. After an emergency assembly of one day and one night, nearly 100,000 officers and soldiers who were eager to test Annam were assembled.

Before the army set off, they had already sent a large number of sharp soldiers to serve and go to Haiphong Port to inquire about the news, and the news they got was very inaccurate, but they knew that many soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were transported from the sea. Most of those soldiers collapsed on the beach as soon as they landed and could not get up, probably in the tens of thousands. However, some of their ships were smoking, so the guns on the ships were very powerful, and many of the batteries in Haiphong Harbor were destroyed by them.

The Ming Dynasty soldiers who have landed now have recovered their strength and are preparing to meet the Annam army coming from Hanoi.

There was very little useful information received, and Li Li wondered, since the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were spread on the beach as soon as they came ashore, who were the Annam soldiers guarding the port of Haiphong eliminated? Are those forts built at great expense papier-mâché? They were defeated by the Ming army so easily, and there was almost no sign of resistance, what was going on?

In any case, it is necessary to fight them as soon as possible before they have a firm foothold and drive them into the sea, otherwise it will be troublesome to let them gain a firm foothold and fight again after a long time. However, the information obtained shows that the Ming army is preparing to meet its own army, and there is no sign of taking the initiative to attack, indicating that the strength of the army that the Ming army landed on is still very limited, and now they are standing there and being beaten, which shows that they are very timid. All this strengthened Li Li's determination to drive out the Ming army in the first battle.

The tactics of the Le Lê and their methods of advancing by water and land were combined. Sailors marched along the Red River in tandem with the land army, concentrating all their efforts to deliver a fatal blow to the opponent.

However, the speed of the army on the road was too slow, and it was only half the way to Haiphong after a whole day. It was not easy for the navy to go down the river to control the speed of the ships, so many officers and men of the navy proposed to their commanders that our hundreds of ships should not care about the land army, and suddenly rushed down the river, taking a Ming army by surprise. Perhaps by the time the army arrives, we will have cut off the Ming army's retreat by sea. The generals of the navy army were also annoyed by the snail-like marching speed of the army, and they could no longer stand the constant suggestions of their subordinates. He also had a hot head and agreed to the suggestions of the officers and soldiers below.

Both the actions of the Annan Army and the Navy were under the supervision of the reconnaissance troops of the Yaogang Navy Marine Corps, and the situation was reported by the scouts to Mu Yi and Li Zicheng in Haiphong through the radio at any time.

When he learned that the Annan Navy gave up advancing with the army and rushed over at an accelerated pace, Mu Yi said to Li Zicheng and Zheng Zhilong: "Hehe! The Annamites made a mistake as soon as the war began, you see how our navy fights wild ducks! "Because there are many ships in the Red River, but the tonnage is very small, Mu Yi compares them to wild ducks.

Zheng Zhilong said: "It's a pity that our cannons are too wasteful to deal with those small boats. ”

"Huh! Mr. Zheng, don't worry, we won't waste those that are not worth our shells. The 12.7 mm heavy machine gun on our ship was enough for them. The gunboats we brought were enough to deal with them. Mu Yi smiled and said, "We don't do anything that suffers!" ”

This time more than twenty gunboats were transported on a five-thousand-ton ship, as well as ten gunboats driven by fans. Now they have all been hoisted off the ship and docked on the pier.

All the steam warships and diesel-powered gunboats in Yaogang came to the banks of the Red River according to the deployment, waiting for the arrival of the Annan warships.

When the Annan warship rushed down the river with its sails, the Yaogang warship suddenly sailed to the main channel in the Red River, most of the fierce Annan warships were small boats, and the first thing they saw was a big Yaogang ship like a mountain, and they were frightened that they rushed over at high speed, and it was not easy to stop.

But the first to be unlucky were the slightly larger warships, the cannons of the steel-hulled warships of the kiln gang, and they were the first to bombard.

These so-called big ships are larger than ordinary small ships, and they can't be compared with the warships of Yaogang at all. None of the ships could resist a single 130-mm shell. So the first unlucky ones were the big ships of Annam, and the 130-caliber cannons fired directly at the inland waterways, which was like a roll call. The warships were scattered as debris and finally floated on the Red River. It was too late for those boats to turn around. The gunboats of the Yaogang people were much more mobile than them, and they used 65 mm guns to shoot at them directly when they got up, just like shooting at the head, and the few artillery shells that were barely fired on the Annan warships were directly ignored by the Yaogang naval army. While the 65 mm guns on the gunboats were firing at targets, the 12.7 mm heavy machine guns on the boats could fire at other targets. As soon as a row of 12.7 mm heavy machine gun bullets hit, the small wooden boats either had their sails down or they were leaking, and they could be solved almost immediately.

A few small Annam boats evaded the gunboat attack, leaked over, and rushed close to the steel-hulled ships and steam ships in Yaogang. The warships in Yaogang were reluctant to use artillery shells against them, so they used the ship's 12.7 mm heavy machine gun to eliminate them.

The warships that kept coming along the Red River, hearing the sound of cannons in front of them, found that the situation was not right, and wanted to turn back, but the sky was not beautiful, the wind was not in the right direction, and they could not dock and pull back with a slender man. I had no choice but to follow the fleet to drill into the net opened by the kiln man.

In this battle, the naval army on the Red River in Annam was almost completely annihilated.

This news was sent to Li Li overnight, and Li Li felt that the situation was not good, how could his powerful naval army be wiped out so suddenly? Li Li calmed down at this time, he thought that if the Ming Dynasty had not been fully prepared, he would not have the confidence to win, and would not suddenly attack them after such a long time. It seems that the total annihilation of the naval army also indicates that the landing army will not go smoothly, and if the land army loses again, then Tokyo (Hanoi) will also be in danger, which is too close to Haiphong Port. The troops around Tokyo were all drawn out to attack the Ming army in Haiphong Port. Now Tokyo is an empty city with no defenders. Could it be that the Ming Dynasty army landed from the port of Haiphong, and the target was its own Tokyo (Hanoi). Thinking of this, Li Li's heart was cold, and he immediately called his cronies over and began to send his family and Xin Rou away quietly. It's prepared.

However, the Annan Army in front of it did not seem to be affected by the annihilation of the naval army at all, because the army generals turned around and could see the team far from the side. These are battle-hardened soldiers who believe that no one can defeat them. At noon the next day, the vanguard of their army had already arrived at the port of Haiphong. The brigade that followed up immediately began to encircle the area centered on Haiphong Port and the county seat of Haiphong Port.

Li Zicheng's army in the encirclement, which carried a large number of artillery, has now set up artillery on Haiphong City, and on several high places and batteries.

Just when the Annan army had surrounded the Ming Dynasty army and was preparing to attack tomorrow, they didn't expect the prey surrounded by them to strike first.

At night, after a day's march in the hot weather, most of the officers and soldiers of Annam, except for the sentries standing guard, fell asleep. How did they know that the Yaogang people and Li Zicheng's army had carefully measured all the areas near Haiphong, and all areas had been marked with shooting Zhuyuan. The camps of the Annam army were all within the range of the artillery fire of the Yaogang warships.

At night, Li Zicheng, Mu Yi, and Zheng Zhilong were all on the Hongze Lake with serious expressions, and a few people got up and stood up, Mu Yi picked up the radio microphone and said to the microphone: "The time has come, fire the cannon!" ”

The quiet port of Haiphong suddenly seemed to have a volcanic eruption, and the cannons on the Yaogang warship opened fire together.

Each of the five steel-hulled warships in Yaogang had four 130-caliber and one 293-caliber cannons, and each of the six steamers was equipped with a 130-caliber cannon and some infantry guns. This time there were five 203 mm cannons and twenty-six 130 mm cannons, and this time they took part in the shelling at the same time.

The Annam army surrounded the Ming Dynasty army in Haiphong Port and Haiphong City from the southeast, south, and west, and the artillery on the Yaogang warship first covered the camp of the Annamite people from the east. Then the artillery fire rolled towards the army of Annam to the south and west.

Although Annan's army is a battle-hardened army, their officers and soldiers never expected that there would be such a terrifying artillery fire. When a 203-mm shell falls into the camp, it will directly destroy the tent and people within a few tens of meters. Those who approached would also be knocked out of their internal organs and die, but the officers and soldiers of Annan in the camp who were bombarded by artillery fire did not have a chance to describe to others the horrors of being covered in such dense artillery fire. Few officers and soldiers in the covered area escaped the hellish catastrophe.

After the artillery fire covered the camp in the east, it fired at the camp in the south, then at the camp in the west, and then continued to cover the west of the camp from which the South Anan army came, because there were still many Annan troops stationed on the spot and they came to the road.

Li Zicheng's soldiers, who had long been holding back their strength, immediately rushed into the camp of the still somewhat blazing Annam people with a shout as soon as the artillery fire was covered and the artillery fire was extended, and completely eliminated those Annam soldiers who still had a breath of air. Kill the panicked Annan soldiers who were not covered by artillery fire. The artillery bombardment lasted until dawn, and Li Zicheng's army had chased out more than ten miles under the cover of the Yaogang warship. It wasn't until the Nan'an people came that many elephants came that Li Zicheng's officers and soldiers held their footsteps. But the guns on the Kiln Gang warships did not spare the elephants. Well-trained elephants are a great threat to ordinary soldiers, and even ordinary cavalry, but no matter how powerful they are, they are also flesh and blood under artillery bombardment. What's even more terrifying is that the frightened elephants are not controlled by the elephant soldiers at all, and they skewer around, trampling and trampling to death many of the Annan soldiers who are fleeing in a crowd.

Due to the long march of the Annam army, they all marched along the banks of the Red River and camped on the south side of the Red River. The front was hit, and the army behind did not know what was going on. Only the soldiers who escaped could tell them what was going on. But at daybreak, the warships and speedboats of Yaogang continued to advance along the Red River, faster than the fleeing soldiers. They fired at the Nan'an soldiers along the banks of the Red River with artillery fire and heavy machine guns, and informed them that we were coming.

The battle continued until noon, when it was over.

Li Zicheng's infantry dispatched more than 30,000 people, and everyone said that at least two Annamite soldiers were killed, plus the Annam soldiers killed and wounded by artillery fire. Li Zicheng, Mu Yi, and Zheng Zhilong all believed that this battle could also eliminate 70,000 or 80,000 officers and soldiers in Annan. There were also nearly 10,000 captured Annan soldiers.

However, after cleaning the battlefield, it was really pitiful to see what could be captured, and there was almost nothing that could be used. The Annan soldiers were all very simple to wear, and the swords and guns they used were also very simple.

Li Zicheng said disdainfully: "With such a soldier, can the Ming Dynasty army be defeated?" It's a joke, their combat power, that is, Lao Tzu's original refugee soldiers, is not as good as the combat ability. ”

Mu Yi said: "Lord Chuang, don't talk about this. Where have they seen such artillery fire, the soldiers of Annan have not fought with you at all. You've just killed people in the past, and that's a war? ”

Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but say, "King Chuang! You are bullying people, what is war? ”

"Haha! This battle is fought so that even you can't watch it! Li Zicheng laughed and said, "When we take down their capital, they should fight with us, right?" ”

Without waiting for others to speak, Li Zicheng himself said again: "Hey! You see them one by one, just like monkeys, and if they do it, they won't be able to beat one of us. ”

"King Chuang, don't underestimate them, they are small, but they are very capable of working hard." Zheng Zhilong said.

Li Zicheng's army, 30,000 soldiers who participated in the sortie to rest, and 20,000 soldiers who did not participate in the battle, had already set out to continue the pursuit of the defeated troops of Nan'an, and their goal was Hanoi.

Li Li never expected that his army would be defeated so quickly, and it was so badly defeated that less than 20,000 people escaped. What made Li Li even more sad was that his killer elephant army was also hit hard, and more than half of the elephants were killed or injured. It was an elephant army that could often turn the tide of battle on the battlefield, and with such heavy losses, Li Li really couldn't accept it. However, the ministers below reminded Li Li that now was not the time to be sad, and the Ming army had already chased after the defeated army. The army now gathered in Tokyo, plus the 20,000 who fled, was less than 50,000 soldiers. Li Li was heartbroken, ordered the troops from all over the country to move closer to Tokyo as soon as possible, and ordered all the men in the eastern city to participate in the defense of the city.

Li Zicheng's army, keeping pace with the warships of Yaogang, followed the rout of Annam to a place five miles away from Tokyo (Hanoi) under the cover of the warships, and stopped advancing after defeating the defense line of the blocked Annam soldiers. Wait for the trimmed army behind.

In fact, this is an arrangement that only Li Zicheng and Mu Yi and other leaders know, they want to approach Tokyo (Hanoi), but they don't want to force Li Li away, but they want to use Tokyo as a bait to attract Annan's troops to Tokyo, and destroy as many of their living forces here as possible.

The information that Li Li received was that the pursuing troops of the Ming army had been desperately blocked by our army, and had paid many casualties, and had stopped at a distance of five miles from Tokyo. Li Li judged that the Ming army must have been lightly attacked by his own army, and he needed to rest before he could continue the attack. It seems that the Ming army is not invincible, and its own army suffered a fiasco in coastal defense, and there are reasons why the weapons are inferior to people, and a big reason is that it was careless, and it was suddenly attacked by the Ming army, and the result was chaotic. The gap between the combat power of his own army and the Ming army is not so big. Therefore, Li Li strengthened his determination to hold on to Tokyo (Hanoi), and strictly ordered troops from all over the country to quickly assemble in Tokyo (Hanoi) to wait for an opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army. Li Li thought to himself that if the Ming army was defeated this time, the Ming army would no longer dare to move his thoughts.

At this point, a piece of information made Riley ignore and make a fatal mistake. There is intelligence that many Ming troops have assembled in Nanning Province, as if they are going to march to Annam. Li Li judged that the Ming army was deliberately attracting his attention, trying to contain himself from that side and prevent him from transferring troops to support Tokyo (Hanoi). Because the forces that the Ming Dynasty could mobilize in Haiphong Port were also very strong, there were no more troops to open up another battlefield.

However, what made Li Li strange was that the Ming army did not take advantage of the victory to march into Tokyo for several days. At this time, more and more troops were gathered to support Tokyo (Hanoi), and they were pouring into Tokyo (Hanoi) in a steady stream. There are probably nearly 200,000 people, and according to this trend, it will soon reach 300,000 or 400,000 people. Even Li Li himself felt that he could not use so many troops. Because they have determined that the Ming army came over with tens of thousands of people.

Just when the army had gathered 300,000 men, news came that the Ming army not only did not continue to march towards Tokyo (Hanoi), but also retreated to a mountain bag and set up camp and build fortifications.

When Le Le heard the news, he laughed to himself, he thought that the Ming army did not expect that he would gather so many troops in such a short time, not only did they not have enough troops to surround Tokyo (Hanoi), but they were also worried that when they returned to Haiphong Port, they would be killed by their own army. So we started to build positions for defense. Now we are in a situation where we have no strength to attack and dare not retreat.

Li Li was also very decisive, and once again commanded the army to suddenly surround the mountain that the Ming army was defending. In order to restrain the Ming warships, they drove many wooden stakes into the river above Tokyo (Hanoi) to prevent the warships from advancing upstream.

After encircling the Ming army, Li Li ordered all the artillery transported to be mounted and prepared to bombard the Ming army's camp. But before their artillery could fire, the warships on the Red River opened fire, and the powerful shells blew up their artillery and artillery into the sky.

After receiving the report, Li Li personally came to his artillery position that was shelled, and saw that the 203 shells had been blown out into pond craters, and he trembled and pointed to those craters and asked: "This is the Ming artillery shells blown up?" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, it's just terrible. Whether it is a person or a horse, if you are closer to the explosion point, you will be shocked to death if you are not killed. One of the generals replied.

Le Ly suddenly understood how his army had escaped from the bombing of Haiphong Harbor, which had caused countless casualties, and such artillery was simply terrifying. But we surrounded the Ming army this time, why didn't they shell again? Could it be that their shells are also limited, and they saw our artillery coming, and the threat was too great and they had to open fire?

After looking at the bombed artillery position, Li Li felt that he couldn't wait any longer, otherwise the Ming artillery would lose even more if he opened fire again.

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Mt. Fuji erupted, Japan was earthquaked. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".