Episode 103 North and South Batteries

I didn't feel it when I overlooked Liandao from afar on the boat, but as soon as the soldiers approached Liandao, especially when they stepped on Liandao in person.

How small? So small that it's almost impossible to find a place that could be called a "beachhead".

The island is only 9 kilometers long from east to west and 1.8 kilometers wide from north to south, with a total area of only 7.6 square kilometers. Fire a cannon on the beach at the eastern end and the cannonballs will land in the water at the westernmost end. A shot is fired into the air on the beach to the south, and the bullet can go over the hill and into the water to the north. - An out-and-out projectile island.

The entire island is covered with mountains, and there are reefs along the entire perimeter, except for a 300-meter-long and 50-meter-wide stretch of sandy beach at the northwest end, which is the place where the "Dashawan Beach" was later called. It was also chosen as the original beach grabbing site. As soon as a battalion landed on the island, the small beach was filled. Especially those tanks, and now the battalion commander has only discovered how stupid those staff officers were to let 15 tanks flood the island in one go. The 15 tanks were like big hippos, humming and squeezing each other so hard that they couldn't turn their butts, squeezing the small beach and taking up half of the place that belonged to the infantry.

What's more serious is that if there is still one artillery gun on the mountain that can shoot at this time, then just one shot can even blow up two tanks. As long as a few shots come down like this, a company of tanks will be fully reimbursed. To make matters worse, the tanks were crammed together and unable to maneuver to dodge.

Tanks, which were supposed to be relied on by the infantry, have now become a burden.

The tank company commander was also in a hurry, his upper body was exposed outside the turret, holding a submachine gun and waving, cursing, driving the infantry up the hill and clearing all possible batteries, otherwise his tank would be a live target. The battalion commander was not idle, he had already set up a folding table behind a tank, and according to the map, he instructed his brothers in each company and platoon to go up the mountain in several ways.

Not only the tank company commander is in a hurry, but he, the battalion commander, is even more anxious. He knew that the soldiers had to hurry up the hill and not be crowded here. If you fire at the tank pile on the mountain, you can blow up at most one tank with one shot (of course, two is an exaggeration). But if you shoot at people, it will really be a double-digit number of casualties in one shot.

Fortunately, the quality of the Marine Corps is placed here, which largely compensates for the poor planning. By five minutes, the soldiers on the beach had been greatly reduced, and the tanks were moving. One platoon remained on the beach and spread out, raising the barrel to aim at the hill as close support artillery, while the other two platoons were also put into action. Five tanks covered the infantry to quickly clear the northwestern tip of the island, and five tanks covered the infantry's advance southeast along the roundabout path down the hill.

The main force of the assault battalion marched up the hill to clear the northern half of the island.

……

The preparation of fire seems to have been very successful, from the landing of the assault battalion to the present day, not a single return fire has been received. The mountains were littered with large craters, and the remnants of small trees and shrubs were dyingly smoking, some still on fire. Large swaths of rock were blown to the bare - exposed, boulders piled up underneath, and small boulders fell everywhere, like mines. The path around the island and in the water at the foot of the mountain are full of large and small gravel stones.

Several places on the roundabout path below the mountain have been completely blocked by rubble. Fortunately, it was tanks that covered the infantry, which could effortlessly flip over the rubble, and if it was a wheeled vehicle, it would be troublesome.

The mountains are not steep, and they are basically quite gentle. The highest point is only more than 300 meters above the sea. The infantry carried submachine guns, rifles, light machine guns, general-purpose machine guns, and flamethrowers dripping with fireballs...... Hundreds of people scattered and climbed the hillside, not only when they came across a sandbag machine gun point, but they had been completely removed. If it weren't for the remnants of tattered sandbags and scattered yellow sand, it would be impossible to tell that this was once a temporary fortification.

Even the island, including the entire Haizhou's coastal defense, was not strong in the first place. These are also some field fortifications that the Qing court temporarily added when it saw that Haizhou was in danger of being landed. As for the permanent fortifications on Lian Island, according to aerial reconnaissance and information obtained by the Ming army headquarters, there is only one closed cement battery in the north and south of the highest peak, the big mast, and 8-10 cement pillboxes. The North Battery had four 210-mm cannons, aimed at the open sea. The South Battery had six 150-mm cannons, aimed at the strait and the ports on the opposite shore.

Within half an hour, the assault battalion searched the northern slope of Liandao and had already found the firing port of the north fort of Damajian.

The North Battery received a total of five destroyer main gun shells and two heavy cruiser main gun shells. Two of the four large cement firing ports were opened, and two others were also emitting black smoke. - Almost crippled.

The commandos carefully climbed the rock, moved to the firing port, shouted inside, and ordered the remnants of the Qing army inside to surrender.

After a hellish shelling, the remnants of the Qing army apparently lost the will to resist completely, and came out with their hands raised very cooperatively. The Ming assault team rushed into the battery with submachine guns and quickly occupied all the space inside: the shooting room, the observation room, the rest room, the communication room, the utility room, the toilet...... And, of course, the innermost ammunition depot.

During the shelling, the Ming officers and men hoped that a single shell would go directly into the ammunition depot and tear off half of the hill, so as to completely eliminate the danger of their own landing. But now, when they occupied the largely intact battery, they were glad that the ammunition depot had not exploded. - It is still very rewarding to take over such a well-established battery.

……

There is a tunnel between the north and south forts of the big mast, which is about 40 meters long. Now that the Ming army has occupied the North Battery, the next step is how to occupy the South Battery.

According to the original plan of the General Staff of the Navy, after the assault battalion occupied the North Battery, it would enter the South Battery through the tunnel and attack from the inside out of the South Battery, so as to occupy the entire battery. However, when the battalion commander actually went to the mouth of the tunnel to take a look, he immediately made up his mind and overturned the original plan of the old men of the General Staff.

"Damn, you let him take a look for himself," the battalion commander was in the communication room of the North Battery, grabbing the field phone he had just connected, and roaring with the division staff officer, "The tunnel is dozens of meters long, with a height of up to two meters and a width of one meter five, and it is difficult for the two of them to run side by side...... Straight and straight, the wind is swishing, you can't see the end at a glance, the real one is the key, and you can't open it...... See for yourself, it's a dead man's alley! My brethren rushed in, halfway down the road, and if a machine gun were to be pushed out from the other end, the brethren would all be dead in the blink of an eye, and there would be no place to retreat......"

On the other end of the phone, the staff officer of the division headquarters also shouted:

"What are you yelling at me! What can I do! I didn't make the plan! You yelled at the General Staff Staff! …… Let me tell you, your mission is time-limited, and you must take the entire island before half past nine! Look, there's still a little over an hour! …… I don't care what method you use, whether you enter through the tunnel, go around to the south slope and enter from the outside, and even the island must be taken before nine o'clock! …… Today, our marines must at least take Yuntai Mountain, clear the port area, and ensure that the whole division lands in Haizhou before dusk! …… The army and the People's Guard are attacking the Haizhou defense line from the land, and they are still ten kilometers away from the southern suburbs! Those people say that if you break through, you will break through! At that time, if people have already begun to enter Haizhou, and our navy is still trapped on Liandao, it will be a shame! …… Then someone is going to be out of luck! ”

The battalion commander became even more angry and shouted:

"Who's going to be unlucky? Who do you say is going to be unlucky? Am I going to be unlucky? ”

This assault battalion is a unit directly under the division, and there is no regiment commander in the middle, and the immediate boss is the division commander. In addition, the rank of this battalion commander is major, and the rank of the division staff officer who is talking to him is also a major, and the two have equal ranks, and this battalion commander is even more unceremonious, and he has no scruples in shouting.

The staff officer on the opposite side was stunned for a moment, and his tone was a little loose:

"I didn't say you're going to be unlucky, I said someone is going to be unlucky! …… Maybe from the teacher's seat, to me, to you, we will all be unlucky! …… I'll tell you, it's useless to yell at me, you're the on-site commander, you can watch how suitable you are, anyway, the time limit is here. ”

"Well," said the battalion commander, "that's what you said!" Then I'll still use the old way to persuade you to surrender! ”

Staff Officer Says:

"Okay, if you have the ability to persuade you to surrender, you can persuade you! But remind you, that's half an island of Qing troops, and you have to persuade me to surrender within an hour! ”

"!"

The battalion commander hung up the phone and shouted to the communications soldiers around him:

"Can the phone from the South Fort get through?"

The communications soldier hurriedly tried each line one by one, and said helplessly:

"Report to the battalion commander, it's all broken. Probably let the shell blow up the ......"

The battalion commander waved his hand and asked people to carry the loudspeaker up.

The big horn was brought up, and the battalion commander asked the battalion commander to put the horn at the mouth of the tunnel, and then took the microphone and said:

"Listen up to the defenders of the South Battery! Listen up to the defenders of the South Battery! We're in the ammo depot right now, and it's going to be ready in about five minutes...... So you are given five minutes to surrender. When the five minutes are up, we will withdraw to the bottom of the hill and then detonate the ammunition depot and blow up the entire hill...... I've seen it, and the ammunition depot of the North Battery is still sufficient, enough to blow up the upper part of the mast! You South Fort are all dead and have no place to be buried! Think about it! …… Okay, I'll just say this once, and I won't talk about it...... It's time to start typing! ”

Then he turned his head and saw several people all looking at him dumbfounded.

…… It's too bold.

"Battalion...... Battalion commander," a communications soldier asked nervously, "if they don't surrender, are we going to blow up both the north and south batteries?" ”

The battalion commander glanced at him:

"What do you say?"

……

Five minutes passed.

The South Fort on the opposite side has not moved. Supposedly, it's time to blow up the mountain. However, no one knows what the battalion commander's sentence "what do you say" just now means, whether to bomb or not.

The battalion commander touched his chin and scolded:

"It's kind of there."

Another messenger next to him came up and asked in a low voice:

"Battalion commander, do you want to blow it up or not? I'm going to call the sappers up. ”

The battalion commander glared at him, touched his chin for a long time, and ordered a platoon to climb over from the top of the hill, and under the cover of small trees and shrubs, to touch the firing port of the south battery, and see if it could be attacked from there.

A platoon was ordered.

After a while, a few soldiers shouted from the other side of the tunnel below, apparently there was movement inside. The battalion commander hurriedly led people down the first floor to the mouth of the tunnel, where he heard footsteps in the distance and someone shouting.

"Hehe," he smiled, "are they scared, or have they surrendered?" Shout, let them put their hands on their heads, no need to run, come slowly! ”

The soldier hurriedly shouted into the tunnel and pulled the bolt of his gun in a threatening manner.

It worked, the people in the tunnel heard the shouting, and then heard the sound of the bolt, and sure enough, they didn't run away, and walked over slowly.

It wasn't until those "Qing soldiers" put their hands on their heads and slowly walked out that the Ming army here realized that they were the people who had just been sent from the top of the mountain.

This is ridiculous. The platoon of soldiers reported that they had been pondering outside the firing port on the other side of the hill for a long time, observing and probing, but there was no response from inside. They ventured in and "cleaned" room by room, but they didn't find a single person. The entire defenders of the South Battery have run out. Apparently the withdrawal was hasty, and the six 150-mm cannons were intact and did not have time to destroy them at all.

A row found the tunnel inside, and a few people followed the tunnel to report.

Now, the Ming army knows that the Qing army on the southern slope has abandoned the fort. The Qing army probably did not want to be captured and killed by the bombing, so they quietly withdrew from the south.

So, where to retreat?

……

At this time, sometimes a soldier in the tunnel came running quickly, shouting "my own people, don't shoot" as he ran. After running over, he panted and reported that he had just observed at the firing port of the South Fort that Qing troops were boarding small boats and retreating to the mainland on the other side of the island on the pier on the south shore of Liandao.

Hearing the news, the company commander immediately led people through the tunnel, came to the firing port of the South Battery, and looked at the pier down the mountain with a telescope.

Sure enough, in the strait between Liandao and Yuntai Mountain, several small boats were shuttling. The Ming army planes in the sky were still circling, because they couldn't figure out whether they were friends or enemies, so they didn't dare to attack.

The battalion commander cursed and immediately ordered the signal corps to call the division headquarters, report the situation, and contact the aviation to launch an attack.

At the sound of the order, a few minutes later, the fighters over the strait began to dive and strafe the boats on the surface.

……

Knowing that the Qing army had withdrawn from Liandao, the Ming assault battalion searched more boldly and faster.

Six machine-gun bunkers scattered on the northern slope have also been discovered. 3 were directly hit by the destroyer's 150mm main shells, the cement exploded, and the personnel died. Both were intact, but the defenders inside had already thrown them down and rushed out, waving a white shirt with a twig to signal surrender.

According to the information available to the Ming army, there should be at least one permanent machine-gun bunker on the northern slope. But the commandos on the mountain never found it. Suddenly, a radio call came from the bottom of the hill, and the platoon of tanks, searching east along the roundabout path, found a sixth machine-gun pillbox at the bottom of the hill. The small bunker was completely torn off the hill. Probably the rocks below it were blown down, and the heavy concrete bunker fell in its entirety, rolling down the hillside all the way to the sea, the bottom standing facing the sky, half submerged in the water. From afar, it looks like a reef. Of course, the three Qing machine gunners inside were also dead.

Four machine-gun pillboxes and ten makeshift sandbag machine-gun fortifications on the southern slope were also found intact. But it's all empty.

It seems that the Qing army's Haizhou defenders have decided to abandon Liandao and retreat to the mainland, relying on the fortifications of Yuntai Mountain to resist stubbornly.

……

It was not yet nine o'clock in the morning, and the Ming army occupied the entire island.

Subsequently, the artillery of the fortress, which was specially drawn from the army, also came up. They quickly took over the South Battery. The six 150-mm cannons of the South Battery had already pressed down the barrels in their hands, and the muzzles of the guns pointed at Yuntai Mountain on the opposite bank with black holes.