The speed of the advance of the Tang army made the armies of almost all countries in the world feel uncomfortable, so almost all the Tang troops marched normally, and the enemies of the Tang army would describe it in two words, that is, a surprise attack. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info The Tang Army's attack on the Beijing Division is called a raid, the Tang Army's attack on Siam is called a raid, and the Tang Army's attack on Mexico is called a raid, in short, it seems that all the military operations of the Tang Army have become raids, and this attack on Vietnam is no exception. The Xishan Dynasty did not consider that the Tang army would "raid" them at this time.

Ruan Hui actually considered the threat of the Tang Army in the early years, but after he eliminated Ruan Fuying, the Tang Dynasty did not move, and even trade was interrupted.

Even if Nguyen Hue coveted the two provinces and made unreasonable demands to the Qing Dynasty to declare his homeland, Nguyen Hue did not think that the Tang army would do anything to them at this time, because Nguyen Hue had received the fact that the Tang army had launched a war against the Spaniards in Luzon at the beginning of the year, and he thought that the Tang army should be busy for a while and would not have time to intervene in the situation in Vietnam.

In short, a series of miscalculations, coupled with Vietnam's long-term lack of complete coastal defense awareness, made it so easy for the Tang army from the sea to achieve a long drive.

Due to the geographical location of Vietnam, in fact, the Tang Army had many options for entering Vietnam. The Tang army could go directly south from Guangxi and attack Vietnam by land, which was also another actual direction of movement of the Qing army, but the Tang Dynasty did not want to mobilize troops on such a large scale in the territory of the Qing Dynasty, which touched the fragile nerves of the Qing court and made the Qing army launch an offensive in advance. Destroy the Tang Dynasty to monopolize the fruits of the war.

The Lao part of the Siamese Overseas Territory of the Tang Dynasty also borders Vietnam. The Siamese Corps trained by the Tang Dynasty in Siam has always been characterized by mountain and jungle warfare. The Laotians, who were familiar with the terrain, could also act as guides, allowing the Siamese corps to march from Laos and directly attack Vietnam from the west. However, this is obviously not a particularly good solution, because the terrain is bad, Datang may have to pay more logistical energy, and the actual effect and significance are limited. Therefore, even if only the regular Tang army marched in one direction from the sea, it would be enough to complete the goals set by the Tang Dynasty before the war.

The gunboats, which sailed at a speed of more than 20 knots, sailed directly into the Taiping River and the Red River from the mouth of the river, and the Vietnamese, who had neglected the water network and coastal defense, did not have any prediction. By the time they found the gunboats of the Don Army. He also immediately sent his own sailors to try to resist.

The gunboat formation where Wang Tao and others were located first encountered the sailors of the Xishan Army in the section of the Red River, which was mainly composed of small warships and large rowing boats, basically without guns, and had some relatively primitive Chinese-style firearms, such as carrying guns, firewater and the like, and this pirate was actually mainly Chinese. The commander of this naval army was named Chen Tianbao, and he was the leader of the South China Sea pirates who was recruited by the Xishan Dynasty. The incense thieves who had dominated the South China Sea with the support of the Tang Dynasty back then, after a short period of glory, one was transformed into the official force of the Tang Dynasty, and the other was led by Yang Zhen. In the end, after the Tiandihui uprising was destroyed, some of them escaped and continued to hide from the pursuit of the Tang army. Some of them accepted the invitation of the Xishan Dynasty, while robbing the soft persimmons on the sea, and on the other hand, they worked for the Xishan army. Chen Tianbao was originally a small pirate master under Yang Zhen's fleet, and now a member of the Xishan Dynasty Naval Army.

Chen Tianbao's heart hung high almost when he saw the white-gray ships on the water. He remembered exactly why he had fled to Annan. On that day many years ago, the same group of white-gray steel warships sailed to their waterfront and completely turned them into a sea of fire before their warships were prepared. Chen Tianbao jumped into the sea and survived by leaning on a wooden plank. Later, he found the pirate ship where the incense thieves were hiding on the island, and pulled up a group of brothers who also escaped, and continued to work as thieves.

The scene of being bombarded by the Datang Navy was the biggest nightmare of his life, and he was awakened by that terrible scene in countless midnight dreams. Although the ship in front of him was much smaller at this moment, it still made him uncontrollable fear.

The first thought that flashed to him was not to resist, but to flee immediately, but the gunboat formation of the Tang Army saw the enemy on the water, so they refused to give up, and immediately began to attack the Xishan Chaoshui army on the not spacious river.

The largest models of this small-scale gunboat formation are only the Qiulong class and the Xianhe class, and the caliber of the naval guns is mostly 57 mm fast guns, but the protection on the water surface is the large rowing boats and small warships with wooden hulls, which are extremely terrifying weapons. In addition, the artillery rate of the gunboat formation can fire dozens of rounds per minute, even if the ammunition consumption can be controlled, but the fierce Tang gunboats still rely on their superb artillery skills to eliminate this group of guys with the least number of shells.

The gunners on the ship aimed their muzzles directly at the waterline of these wooden hull ships, and the powerful shells directly and easily punched large holes in the wooden hulls, and some of them could not even withstand this kind of damage at all, not only large holes appeared, but even the structure was directly destroyed, and the whole ship fell apart.

The faster gunboats weaved back and forth in and around the ranks of these pirate ships, and the guns constantly roared abruptly, and there was nothing exciting about such an engagement, and the naval sailors of the Don Army seemed to have long been accustomed to acting as such harvesting machines. In a short period of time, they had formed the small fleet of more than a dozen ships on the opposite side into a plank floating on the water.

The marines on the gunboat mercilessly maneuvered small arms on the deck of the boat, shooting to death those who fell overboard. Yang Youguang saw those struggling guys and said to his partner Zhou Junbao: "See, many of them have braids, these are Qing people." ”

Zhou Junbao said: "This is natural, didn't you listen to the pre-war meeting?" The sailors of the Xishan Dynasty were mainly composed of pirates from the South China Sea, and naturally there were Qing people. ”

Yang Youguang hesitated: "Then are we so good?" ”

Wang Tao said: "Since we are our enemies on the battlefield, there is nothing good or bad. We'll go down and get a few of them, and we'll need some information. ”

In addition to this ship formation, other gunboats also encountered naval forces or ground forces at different river locations, and each formation used efficiency and speed to deal with its own enemy in front of them. At this time, the landing force, which was composed of the 5th and 6th Brigades of the Army and the Marine Corps, also began a landing operation and landed on the unobstructed coast. (To be continued.) )