Last year, when discussing a joint plan of action at Victory Harbor, the two sides jointly decided that the two armies would attack by sea and land, and that Hue City would be the meeting place. The Hai Han militia that launched the attack from the sea was the main force of the early attack, responsible for containing and attracting the main forces of the South Vietnamese, and the North Vietnamese army attacking by land from the north was the auxiliary, waiting for the South Vietnamese forces to start moving to Hue before launching the offensive. Judging from the course of the war so far, it can be said that both sides have successfully fulfilled their combat missions.

If we have to pick a bone in the egg, it is that the progress of the militia attack on Hue City has been delayed for three or four days because of the unexpectedly heavy rain, otherwise according to the predetermined pace of the front, the South Vietnamese positions outside the city should have been almost cleared at this time. Now that the two sides have met outside Hue, the next question to consider is how to annihilate the living forces of South Vietnam.

"General Zheng, please see, the east and south of Hue City are bordered by the river, and now the river has been controlled by our warships, and the rebels do not have enough surface capacity to maintain contact with the area south of the Xiangjiang River, and the north is our army's position, and the only loophole is the west. Yan Chujie put forward a battle plan to Zheng Bai on the topographic map that was hung up: "We hope that your army can move south from the current garrison position and cut off the passage from Hue City to the western mountains." ”

Ten miles west of Hue City is the northwest-southeast Truong Son Mountains, the main mountain range of the Indochina Peninsula parallel to the coast line for more than 2,000 miles, and also the natural border of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in later generations. There are a number of difficult passes in this mountain range, and the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War leads along the Truong Son mountain range to south-central Vietnam.

The Military Commission's side is fighting the idea of exterminating all the South Vietnamese elites in Hue, so naturally they don't want to keep such a back door to give them the possibility of escaping. However, the Hai Han militia has limited troops, and it is unlikely that they will divide their forces to the west of Hue City to carry out the siege. Now that the North Vietnamese army had arrived here, and there were as many as 30,000 men, it was only fitting that this low-tech menial work should be left to them.

Zheng Bai usually has a lot of contact with Feng Annan and Mu Xiabai stationed in the northern front of the Haihan, he is not unfamiliar with this Haihan military map, and he can also understand the terrain shown on the map, after listening to Yan Chujie's narration, he frowned and said: "I heard that the rebels have built a large area of fortifications outside Hue City, and there are also forts on the city wall, our army's artillery is not as strong as your army, and I am afraid that it will not be able to attack it alone." ”

Yan Chujie shook his head and said: "General Zheng don't have to worry about this problem, first of all, the defenders of Hue City have not built fortifications in the west, and the enemy positions outside the city are concentrated in the north, that is, the main direction of our army's attack, so there is no need for your army to worry." In addition, your army does not need to take the initiative to attack, and it does not matter if the location of the garrison is a little far away from Hue City, as long as it can intercept the rebels who break through to the west when the city is broken. ”

"So the siege of the city, is your army going to undertake it independently?" Zheng Bai asked.

Yan Chujie did not answer his question immediately, but asked rhetorically, "What is General Zheng's opinion?"

Zheng Bai hesitated for a moment before responding: "If I am not mistaken, with the military cooperation agreement signed before, we can send an observation team to your army in wartime, can this matter?"

Yan Chujie nodded and said, "If General Zheng has this plan, then just send someone over again." However, given the capacity of our forward camps, it is desirable that the number of observer missions should not exceed 20 people. ”

Zheng Bai brought the topic in this direction, but it was not entirely for the purpose of sending a military observation group to the Haihan army. If possible, he would prefer to send an army to the positions of the Haihan people to participate in the siege of the Haihan militia. In this way, when the city is broken, the North Vietnamese side can also enter the city at the first time and control some key departments, so as not to let the Haihan people take the lead.

However, this is also very risky, and if the troops sent are not strong, it will be difficult for them to take charge of the siege battle, let alone the tasks they will have to undertake after the city is breached. But if the elite troops in the formation are dispatched, Zheng Bai will be worried that when the defenders in the city break through to the west, the remaining tens of thousands of second-class troops and peasant soldiers will not be able to withstand the opponent who jumps over the wall in a hurry. Moreover, if the Haihan people send their own elite troops to the side of the Haihan, it is bound to accept the command of the Haihan people, if the Haihan people send their own elite to be cannon fodder for the siege, then the loss will be great, and the North Vietnamese can only knock out their teeth and swallow them in the stomach, and there is no reason to even ask the other party -- you applied to send troops to participate in the siege war yourself.

After weighing it repeatedly, Zheng Bai still did not dare to open his mouth to propose to send troops to the Haihan position, and finally compromised and sent an observation team composed of officers, on the one hand, to act as a liaison messenger, and on the other hand, to inspect the Haihan people, although the intensity and scope of such surveillance may be extremely limited, but it is better than doing nothing.

As for this kind of careful thinking of the North Vietnamese generals, Yan Chujie actually has some idea in his heart, if North Vietnam does not take the initiative to make similar requests, Yan Chujie will wonder if they are going to play some tricks. Although the two sides have the same position in this battle, it does not mean that the interests represented by the two armies are also the same, and both sides have their own small calculations.

Naturally, the Haihan militia was eager to demolish Hue City and move it back to Sanya with all the people and goods, and if possible, it would be better to directly occupy Hue City as a colony. The North Vietnamese side, on the other hand, had already anticipated some actions that the Haihan side might take after the city was broken, and it was probably impossible to completely stop the captivity of the Haihan people, after all, it was not because people sent troops across the sea to fight because they were idle, and if there was no benefit to be gained, who would die for you? However, in order to minimize the risk of the territory being plundered by the Haihan people in the future, the North Vietnamese military still had to take some necessary measures -- at least to let the Haihan military understand that I have been keeping an eye on you, so don't go too far.

Considering that the war has reached a critical moment, the two sides tacitly did not bring these private calculations to the table to bargain, but chose to compromise with each other. After a day's rest, the North Vietnamese army cut south and set up camp in an area four miles west of Hue City.

The North Vietnamese camp was set up in connection with its mission, from the northwest corner of Hue City to the bank of the Xiang River, the entire camp would stretch for nearly five miles after completion, completely blocking the escape route west of Hue City.

The presence of the North Vietnamese army on the city walls was naturally observed by the defenders, which made the atmosphere in the city even more tense. After all, before that, the defensive pressure was only concentrated in the Haihan position in the north, and if it really couldn't be defeated, the imperial court still had the opportunity to withdraw from the west into the Changshan mountain range, and then go to the south through the passage in the Guò mountain to continue to organize resistance. However, the appearance of the North Vietnamese army had completely blocked this retreat, and the only way to break through was to break through this line of defense of the North Vietnamese army.

The North Vietnamese Army's main focus was apparently on building this line of defense rather than attacking Hue City, and from the very beginning it was constantly digging trenches outside the built camps, and at the same time, with thousands of men in each squad taking turns, and it seemed that it would not take long for the North Vietnamese Army to open another moat on the plain west of Hue City.

The defenders of the city, of course, quickly understood the intentions of the North Vietnamese army, and also sent troops out of the city to harass them, but to no avail. There are also several thousand new troops in the North Vietnamese army who use firearms, and in terms of strength alone, they even exceed the number of combat units of the Hai Han militia, and there is not much pressure on relying on positions to deal with the cold weapons units of South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese Army still had a few musket units left, but the generals of the military did not dare to press out all this treasure, so the battle outside the city was basically a one-sided situation, and the South Vietnamese Army using primitive weapons could not even have direct contact with the North Vietnamese Army, and as soon as it entered the range of the muskets, it was quickly routed under the blow of lead bullets.

On 18 March, the Long Snake Formation built by the North Vietnamese Army outside the city finally took shape, and the Hai Han representative of the North Vietnamese Army immediately informed the militia by radio that it was ready to launch a formal attack on Hue City. During the truce period in the past few days, the militia also seized the time to adjust the battle plan, revised the original plan to start attacking the city after sweeping the enemy positions outside the city, and prepared to concentrate fire to open a breakthrough directly from the northeast corner.

In order to achieve complete fire suppression, Yan Chujie ordered all the army artillery to be mobilized to the position near the northeast corner, and the navy ships were also concentrated on this section of the river to provide auxiliary role for the next siege battle.

The moat outside Hue is divided into two sections, the inner and the outer river, which is connected to the Xiang River in the northeast corner, which provides convenient conditions for the attacking troops to cross the moat with a width of 40 meters. The military planned to let the navy bring in small boats from the Xiang River to build a pontoon bridge under the cover of artillery fire, so that the siege troops could pass the first moat along the city.

At 11 o'clock in the morning, Yan Chujie gave the order to attack. Dozens of artillery guns on the Haihan position suddenly let out an earth-shattering roar, and in an instant, a bunch of shells fell on the city wall in the northeast corner like rain, adding many scars to the city wall that was already full of holes.

While the army was covering this section of the city wall with artillery fire, the navy's boats had seized the opportunity to sail into the first moat and start building pontoon bridges. Under the cover of high-intensity artillery fire, the pontoon bridge was built at a record speed, and in less than twenty minutes, the vanguard of the militia infantry had quickly passed from the river to Guò and entered the narrow area between the two moats.

The area between the two moats outside Hue was mostly slums, but after the war, the inhabitants of these areas had already been cleared by the defenders, and they either went to the city to help defend the city as a civil servant, or left Hue to flee. At this time, the defenders at the head of the city did not even have a chance to probe, let alone counterattack, so the militia who arrived in this area could relatively safely clear an area from the abandoned houses and prepare for the subsequent large army to be stationed.

There were few obstacles to conquering the first moat, the artillery on the walls had long been cleared by concentrated fire, and the defenders had no better long-range weapons to cover the area occupied by the militia army, and a few arrows were scattered from the city, except for adding a little tension to the militia, the actual lethal effect was simply negligible. On the contrary, a few archers who had leaned out of the battlements of the city wall to aim were named by the hunters who had been waiting outside the city for a long time with Type 28 sniper rifles, and after the death of seven or eight archers, no one in the defenders dared to appear near the battlements.

The second moat is much more difficult, because the connection between the moat and the river is not in this direction, and the nearest gate is a kilometer away, and there are no drawbridges or other facilities to capture, so the only way is to build a pontoon bridge.

The attacking troops had already prepared for this, and each squad carried a well-tied wooden platoon to the second moat, ready to throw it into the river. Although the wooden pontoon bridge was not as strong as the boat bridge outside, which used small boats as piers, it did not have a problem carrying infantry.

However, before entering the city, the attacking troops must first make a gap in the wall here, otherwise the soldiers will need to climb the wall more than two feet high from the river, which is really a very difficult task.

At this time, Qian Tiandun, Qiao Zhiya, Wang Tom and others were all on the front line to command, preparing to overcome the last problem before breaking the city. Although the defenders at the head of the city did not dare to rise under the suppression of firepower, the defenders could still use some simple means such as throwing stones to kill and injure the attacking troops under the city wall, and the range of contact between the attacking troops and the city wall was only the width of a wooden platoon, which was almost unavoidable, so the combat risk of this link was very high.

"The explosives are ready, but how to place them is a big problem. Qiao Zhiya looked at the smooth city wall with a telescope, and said with distress: "If you want to achieve a good blasting effect, you must dig a hole in the city wall and fill it with explosives, but the question is how to dig such a hole now?"

"It seems that you are really stupid in the real room, such a simple question......" Tom Wang shook his head sympathetically, very dismissive of Qiao Zhiya's statement.

Qiao Zhiya looked at Wang Tom and then at Qian Tiandun, and saw that they were all calm, so he couldn't help but ask, "Then you have already figured out a solution?"

"It's not worth much, wait, it's right away. Qian Tiandun smiled and did not answer his question directly.

A moment later, Qiao Zhiya saw several small 6-pounder cannons being pushed to the bank of the river, aiming at the wall on the other side of the moat. He immediately realized: "You are planning to use a cannon to bombard a pit directly!"

Wang Tom nodded and said, "This wall is too thick, it is unlikely to be directly destroyed, but it should not be too difficult to blast out a pit to fill in the explosives." ”

After several small cannons were aimed at the same place, they opened fire on the city walls. The inner moat was slightly narrower than the outer moat, and the error of the landing point of the shelling at such a short distance was almost negligible, and all the shells accurately hit a small piece of the wall within a meter in diameter, and soon the bricks of the wall were scattered in all directions, and the defenders on the tower had little to think of for such a close shelling outside the city.

After several rounds of shelling, a large pit with a diameter of about one meter appeared in the wall, and the wall bricks had been broken to slag, revealing the adobe inside. While it still doesn't seem deep enough to fill the explosives, it's much easier to dig adobe than to make holes in wall tiles.

Two makeshift pontoon bridges made of rafts soon appeared on this section of the river, and a dozen sappers, under the cover of a wooden raft, rushed forward despite the sporadic stones and stakes on the city wall, and desperately expanded and deepened the pits in the city wall with iron pickaxes. However, the process was not all smooth sailing, as the defenders on the walls paid the price of three lives, pushing a tabletop-sized boulder down from the top of the battlement, hitting the sappers below. The wooden rafts carried by the sappers on their heads basically did not play much of a protective role under this blow, and they were immediately smashed over, and several sappers were directly planted in the river and did not react.

"Go on!" Qian Tiandun's reaction was the fastest, and he gave the order without hesitation.

A second group of sappers rushed forward, some carrying the survivors down the line of fire while others continued with the unfinished task of digging the pit. The defenders at the head of the city also continued to desperately throw all kinds of heavy objects under the city, trying to prevent the attackers from making seals on the city walls. After paying the price of more than two dozen dead and wounded, the sappers finally buried a whole barrel of more than 300 catties of explosives into the city wall.

"Special operations battalion, prepare to attack!" Qian Tiandun gave an order to his subordinates.

The Heitu Port Special Operations Battalion is the vanguard of this siege mission, and this is a mission that Qian Tiandun has won with great difficulty, and as long as this battle is fought well, the special operations battalion can almost be called a trump card force.

"Sir, please rest assured, we won't let you down!" Gao Qiao Nan saluted Qian Tiandun and said categorically.

"Your gang is very well trained!" Qiao Zhiya looked at this group of soldiers full of fighting spirit and praised with envy. With a loud bang, tens of thousands of catties of earth and stones flew into the sky together with nearly a hundred defenders on the city wall. Although the attacking troops had withdrawn nearly 100 meters ahead of schedule, the power of the explosion still made many people's faces change color. What they didn't know was that the earth shaking caused by the explosion caused chaos in the city, and the people who had been nervous for many days fell into a state of mental breakdown almost instantly. Many people shouted "the city is broken" and began to flee aimlessly, and this panic quickly spread among the unsuspecting people, and even directly affected the army defending the city.