Pensacola is located west of Pensacola Bay, the bay is relatively closed, Santa Rosa Island will close the entire bay, so no big wind and waves can invade the interior of the bay, at the same time, to capture Pensacola, first of all, you must control the Santa Rosa Island on the outside of the bay, and master the mouth of Pensacola to the sea. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Somewhat unexpected, some unguarded, Santa Rosa Island was finally connected to the mainland two hundred years later due to silting up from the river's estuary, but now it is still an island, separated by a strait.

"Since there is no one to defend the island, then we don't need to be polite, order the second battalion and the first company of the Longxiang Regiment to rush to land on Santa Rosa Island, and after stabilizing the front line, we will start to lay artillery positions, and I want to completely block Pensacola Bay with artillery positions on this island." The method used by Liu Fangwu is very orthodox and effective, no matter how to fight next, it can be said that this deployment is necessary.

Hong Bao, who served as the captain of the Yangwei and the rank of colonel, was the highest-ranking one in the navy in the Ming Dynasty, and he suggested to Liu Fangwu at this time: "Commander, there are no large ships in Pensacola, only a few shrupp, it is not worth mentioning, our main fortress Fort George, is on the seashore, within the range of our naval guns, and I humbly request to lead two warships of the navy to bombard Fort George in Pensacola Bay to deter the enemy." Our army brothers can also go out to land and storm Fort George. ”

Hong Bao has also worked very hard to learn various combat knowledge of the Navy in the past few years, and the captains of Datang are no longer the same as they were at the beginning, and all captains need to pass the assessment before they can take office. Originally, among the people in the Ming Dynasty, only Hong Bao passed the exam. Originally, several great eunuchs retired from their front-line positions.

This tactic that he proposed. And there is no problem. The strength of the Tang army was not small. Moreover, with the superiority in firepower and mobility, it can be said that this battle can be won almost with closed eyes.

Liu Fangwu thought for a moment, he also wanted to see how the British garrison of Fort George was, if the 155mm cannon on the Yangwei could directly collapse this fortress, then he didn't need to fight conservatively, just destroy this fortress, and then order the army to sweep the tail.

"Hmm. The Navy will first conduct exploratory shooting, remember, don't fight too hard, our expeditionary force has traveled a long way, and every bullet and shell must be counted, otherwise the logistics will be under too much pressure. “

Hong Bao nodded and saluted: "I understand." ”

Hong Bao took his flagship Yangwei and Jiao Qiang's Li Wenzhong to sail past Santa Rosa Island and sail to a nearshore position, where there is a small dock built by the British army and several British ships anchored here. Because the Datang Navy came very quickly. The British have also been slack in their defenses, since they took control of the place since 1763. There have been no conflicts, but the Royal Navy here occasionally goes down to the Caribbean to deal with pirates, who dare not come here to be presumptuous.

When the Yangwei and Li Wenzhong approached, several Royal Navy warships had not even reacted.

"What kind of flag is that, and the shape of the ship is so strange." The Royal Navy sailor on duty wondered.

His officer snatched the telescope and was immediately shocked, the Royal Navy's fiasco in the Boston Sea in March had already reached Pensacola, and now all the Royal Navy officers in North America knew that the dragon flag on the red background was the national flag of the Tang Republic on the west coast, and their warships were characterized by a square head and two large chimneys stuck in their backs, which would keep emitting black smoke.

"It's the Datang Navy, enemy attack, enemy attack! Hurry up and sound the alarm! "At this time, there are no air raid sirens or anything like that, and the volume is not large, but the sound is very high-pitched alarm bells. When the alarm bells sounded, the British sailors began to hurriedly put on their dresses and rush to their respective ships, but some even fell into the water because of the confusion. However, no matter how fast they were, the sailing ships still took too long to sail, while the battleships of the Tang Navy had long-range naval guns.

Eventually, with the chirping of shells breaking through the air, several shells flew towards the Royal Navy warships, and two of them successfully hit their targets, blowing up a cloud of wood chips and even killing two sailors. If it was at sea, it might not be so easy to shoot, but at the moment, the warships of the Royal Navy are piled up in the harbor, and the target is obviously immobile, so the hit rate is naturally relatively high.

Hong Bao also quickly left Liu Fangwu's instructions to save ammunition behind, he needed to paralyze all the British warships in a short period of time so that they could not make trouble for themselves, but then Jiao Qiang said to Hong Bao through communication: "Colonel Hong, just leave us here, you go to bomb Fort George first, we will choose to focus on bombarding the waterline of the British ships at close range to paralyze their combat power." ”

Hong Bao thought that this was indeed not bad, they themselves were carrying out a surprise attack, and if they could take advantage of the chaos to attack Fort George earlier, the attack effect would be better. So he led the Yangwei out of the dock, continued north, to the open sea of Fort George, at this time the 76mm guns on the Yangwei had no effect, Hong Bao directly ordered the gunner to load the 155mm naval guns with shells, although the siege needs to break the city wall, but in fact will not use such shells as armor-piercing shells, but use blasting grenades.

The Younger, which had three heavy guns on one side of the board, began to bombard the stationary target, Fort George, after conducting a school fire. Fort George's defense was not bad, a cannonball smashed on the city wall, although the earth and stones were scattered, but only a hole was made, and no fatal damage was caused to the city wall. Instead, the explosion directly swept away several British soldiers on the castle.

Hong Bao pursed his lips, not satisfied with the effect of the shelling, and ordered: "Continue the shelling." ”

If possible, he wanted to shout something "hit a base number first", but after weighing the amount of ammunition stored by the expeditionary force, he still didn't dare to be so domineering, just let him fight a few rounds first and see.

And the commander of the British army on the other side already felt that the sky was falling apart.

"Heavy artillery, damn the enemy's battleship actually has siege artillery on it!" A fortress like Fort George, with sufficient ammunition and supplies, is basically not afraid of infantry sieges, ordinary 6, 8, 12, and even 18, 24-pounder artillery they are not very afraid, but those bulky but powerful siege artillery are the best way to deal with them.

From the point of view of caliber, 155 mm has just touched the threshold of heavy artillery, but because of the advantages of casting technology and design, the power of the 155 mm heavy gun fired by high-bore pressure is more powerful than almost all heavy guns of this era. Although Fort George was built extremely strong and sturdy, it could not withstand the continuous bombardment of the heavy artillery of the Tang Navy.

The British commander screamed: "Everyone comes down from the wall, you can't stand on the wall, you will be blown up!" ”

Fortunately, the British army did not find any enemy troops landing, and it was wiser to come down from the wall at this time, but when the British soldiers ran down from the wall tremblingly, and even some jumped directly in excitement, more than 50 lobster soldiers were already killed or blown up by the shelling.

The bad luck didn't end there, and when a cannonball missed its target and crashed over the walls into the castle, it hit the British arsenal where gunpowder was stored. In the era of any thermal weapons war, it is one of the most terrible things for an arsenal to be hit, even if the black powder is not very powerful, the moment it is hit by a shell, it bursts out in addition to the power of the shockwave of the amazing explosion and directly sweeps everyone within tens of meters nearby. Even the commander of the British army was swept down by the shock wave.

Then the next moment, the city wall, which had been subjected to artillery bombardment and the shock wave of an explosion, finally collapsed to a corner, and the lobster soldiers, who had no time to escape, were crushed to death in the rubble.

Hong Bao took a look, and finally was happy, "Boom, sure enough, how many rounds of shelling is this?" ”

The weapon said: "Not counting the school shooting, this is the seventh round." ”

"Yes, well, inform Commander Liu that we have successfully broken through the walls of Fort George, and ask him to give instructions for the next step."

When Liu Fangwu received this news, he couldn't help but have a wry smile on his face, in fact, he didn't want to attack the city today, the soldiers who had just arrived in Pensacola were somewhat tired, at least they needed to adapt a little on land, and then recover from their state.

However, as soon as Hong Bao came up, he eliminated the British navy and broke through Fort George, so that Liu Fangwu had to order the siege of the city.

"Captain Hong continued the shelling and covered our landing force. Commander Xu Daorun Xu, your Longxiang regiment is now starting to land, the artillery battalion will set up artillery positions on the beachhead, and the infantry will try to attack Fort George and the docks, don't fight too aggressively, be steady, and suffer as little battle damage as possible. ”

Xu Daorun was also just promoted to colonel before the expedition, commanding the Longxiang regiment. As soon as Liu Fangwu's order arrived, Xu Daorun immediately ordered the soldiers of the Longxiang Regiment on the transport ship to prepare for battle, and in fact, when they sailed into Pensacola Bay, logistics had already begun to distribute weapons and ammunition to the soldiers. The infantry boarded small sampans, which were not very numerous, and could only transport more than 100 people to land at a time.

After all, it was not the First and Second World War period, and the British army did not have any fortifications such as machine gun bunkers on the beachhead, so more than 100 people successfully grabbed the beach. The artillery support of the Yangwei was very good, and the British troops were in a mess by the artillery bombardment, and they could not spare their energy to deal with the landing Don troops.

The troops who arrived first began to stabilize the beachhead, and then the second and third waves arrived, and the beachhead suddenly gathered seven or eight hundred men. Xu Daorun also brought his regimental headquarters to the beachhead, and then commanded the soldiers to seize Fort George. Thanks to naval fire, most of the British troops at Fort George had lost the ability to resist, and when the Don troops rushed into Fort George's through the gap, they met almost no resistance, and the British commander had already been killed in the shelling just now. (To be continued.) )