Feng Anan still wanted to argue a few words, but Mu Xiabai stopped him with his eyes, it was more important to do the right thing first at this time, and there was no need to fight for these senseless things. Wearing a suit of armor is at best not very neat and not a big deal. However, Mu Xiabai did not forget to remind Zheng Bai that he must keep the secret of Haihan's military aid internally, and don't leak the news in advance.

Zheng Bai ordered to prepare carriages and horses, the Chinese army camp of the North Vietnamese Army is still ** miles away from the current defensive position, of course, you can't let friendly generals wear full armor and walk over on foot, Zheng Bai took out these two sets of armor are weighing more than 20 catties, wearing this thing over the mountains and mountains is not an easy job.

The armor of the lieutenant general of the North Vietnamese Army is very similar to the standard of the Ming Dynasty, it is all iron armor with a front placket, and the process of making zuò is quite passable, but the protective measures of ordinary soldiers are almost zero, they are all single-layer cloth clothes and even cotton armor, and the only equipment that can be called protective is probably a small hat made of bamboo or rattan on the head. Lower-ranking officers are slightly better, and can wear a two-piece tin vest to protect their chests and backs.

As for the weapons used, in addition to the regular army, which was relatively neat, the peasant soldiers who were temporarily conscripted to fight were really strange because almost all of them brought their own weapons. There are even many people who hold bamboo guns, that is, sharpen the end of the bamboo and roast it on the fire to harden.

Such an army is almost purely expendable, and when the war is unfavorable, the combat effectiveness declines extremely quickly. This is probably also an important reason why the North Vietnamese army led more than 100,000 subordinates to the southern expedition, and as a result, the number of troops was directly halved after several defeats were eaten in succession. Of course, for a country like Annan, which has been in the midst of war all year round, the lower the cost of maintaining the army, the better, so that it can have the capital to fight with the opponent for a long time, and the advantage of the peasant army is that the cost of maintenance and use is very low, and it can also withstand attrition. If you really want to maintain a combat force of 100,000 people all year round, then there is no need to fight at all, and military spending alone is enough to make those in power go bankrupt directly.

This situation also existed in South Vietnam, so when South Vietnam attacked the defense line here, it also used a large number of peasant soldiers, hoping to use the superiority of troops to wear down the will of the defenders to fight.

Zheng Bai personally accompanied him, explained the battle situation to Mu Feng and the others along the way, and it took about an hour to reach the combat position. The current defense line of the North Vietnamese army was built by means of a mountain ridge that ran from east to west leading to the sea, and on this mountain ridge about ten miles long, there was a simple fortification built by the North Vietnamese army almost every 100 meters, garrisoned by about 100 troops, and various roadblocks such as pits, trenches, and deer barricades were used to fill the gaps. Several key mountain passes were specially built to increase the defense. If you look down from the air, this line of defense is simply a miniature version of the Great Wall.

Mu Feng and the others noticed that although the average altitude of this mountain range was only a little more than 100 meters, the south-facing side of the mountain was relatively steep, and the South Vietnamese army almost had to use a 45° upward posture to attack the defenders on the mountain ridge. Even if the arquebus is used, it is quite limited to shoot at a large elevation angle, not to mention the limited lethality, and it will be covered by bows and arrows fired from above.

In fact, after the first few attacks, the South Vietnamese army saw that the effect was extremely limited, and basically gave up the idea of using musketeers to attack this front, intending to use peasant soldiers as cannon fodder to fill the pits.

Zheng Bai led them to a hill near the sea, which was the highest point of the entire defense line, about 200 meters above sea level. Although Mu Xiabai and Feng Anan were from military backgrounds, they were wearing more than 20 pounds of armor and carrying a large bag of equipment, and they were still a little out of breath when they climbed this mountain. Zheng Bai wanted his soldiers to carry the two bags of things for them, but Mu Feng and the others did not agree, one was for short-wave military radios and batteries, and the other was for guns and other military equipment, which must not be handed over to outsiders casually.

Due to the highest terrain, the possibility of direct attack is relatively small. However, the North Vietnamese army still built a small military station on this hill, and stationed seven or eight hundred people, and gathered some materials and weapons, which could support the nearby defense points in time according to the needs of the war. Judging from the deployment of defensive positions, Zheng Bai does still have two brushes as a commander.

After Mu Feng and the others rested for a few minutes, they asked Zheng Bai to let his soldiers retreat to a farther place first. Although Zheng Bai was a little puzzled, he thought that the document from the north asked him to cooperate with the Haihan people as much as possible, so he agreed to this request at the moment.

After the surrounding idle personnel retreated for a distance, Mu Xiabai opened his backpack, took out two military binoculars, and began to conduct visual reconnaissance of the south with Feng Anan.

The Military Police Department was similar to other departments before the crossing, purchasing a large amount of special equipment, and the telescope was naturally one of the important military materials. However, as professionals, there are still some people in the military police who have paid out of their own pockets for better personal equipment instead of using publicly procured stocks. For example, the local tyrants of the North American Gang, led by Wang Tom, are equipped with the all-round Nighthawk produced by Steiner. The one used by Mu Shabai and Feng Anan is the domestically produced Boguan, which is also a high-quality military version, and according to the evaluation of Morgan and Johnson Sr. after use, its quality is slightly better than that of the M22B telescope equipped by the US military.

Zheng Bai saw that the two of them were holding a strange thing in front of him, and he didn't know what he meant for a while. But the content of the conversation between the two, he can hear it almost the same.

"At two o'clock, at 1,500 meters, there is an enemy barracks, and judging by the size, it should be just an outpost camp. ”

"That's right, judging from the enemy's position, the enemy's large battalion should be arranged behind the hill to the left of the outpost, about ...... Around 2200 meters. ”

"Our army artillery is definitely out of luck at this distance, but this outpost camp has hope of hitting it. ”

"At such a distance, barely hitting it is not lethal. It seems that it is not enough to just hold on, but we still have to try to attack. ”

The two discussed for a while, then put down the binoculars and began to spread out the map for identification. Zheng Bai went up to look at it for a while, and found that the places they marked were the location of the enemy's military camp in the distance, and even the camp of the opponent's Chinese army seven or eight miles away was marked in detail, and he couldn't help but be surprised: "How did the two of you know the details of the other party's military formation?"

After Zheng Bai retreated to this place, of course, he did not blindly defend, but still sent many spies to go around the South Vietnamese garrison camp along the mountains to investigate, and it took a long time to find out the location of the opponent's Chinese army. And the two generals of Haihan have only been here for about half a pillar of incense, and they have already found out the location of the other party's military camp, what is the reason?

Mu Xiabai and Feng Anan exchanged glances before responding to Zheng Bai: "General Zheng can try our good things." ”

Feng Anan gave Zheng Bai a demonstration, and then handed him the telescope. Zheng Bai put the telescope in front of him according to Feng Anan's posture with some uneasiness, and soon his hands trembled uncontrollably: "This...... What kind of spell is this? You can see the grass and trees so clearly from miles away!"

Feng Anan was afraid that he would drop the telescope to the ground, so he quickly reached out and took it back: "This is not a spell, this is our telescope made by Haihan." ”

"Telescope, good thing, good thing......" Zheng Bai, as a general with troops, of course immediately realized the role that this thing could play on the battlefield, looked at the telescope in Feng Anan's hand, and muttered: "Your army has this sharp weapon, Ruan Rebellion will be defeated!"

"If you are undefeated, you will only know when you fight. Mu Xiabai was not confused by Zheng Bai's praise, and immediately brought the topic back to business: "General Zheng, please confirm and see if there is any missing enemy positions and barracks we have outlined?"

Zheng Bai's face turned red, but fortunately, he couldn't see it because of his dark skin: "I'm not afraid that the two generals will laugh, I'm afraid the military information that our side currently has is not as detailed as the two of them on this map." ”

Mu Shabai raised an eyebrow, but he didn't pay much attention to it. After all, the North Vietnamese Army's reconnaissance capabilities and means are very limited, and how much can they observe with the naked eye? Just as they were about to speak, they heard a burst of drums coming from the plains to the south.

"Ruan's army is about to launch an offensive again!" Zheng Bai immediately regained his solemnity when he heard the sound of drums, beckoned his own soldiers to come over, and gave the order to prepare for battle.

"If you want to go to the front to supervise the battle, please stay here and don't move around at will!" Zheng Bai hurriedly said goodbye to the two, and then left with a group of personal soldiers.

It was the first time for Mu Feng and the others to watch the large-scale battles of the army in this era up close, and they were also very curious at the moment, so they once again picked up the binoculars and began to observe the shape of the battlefield.

The gate of what they thought was an outpost opened, and soldiers ran out to remove the horses and deer bars at the door, and a wave of South Vietnamese soldiers poured out of the camp in a chaotic manner.

Then from behind the hill to the left of the camp, groups of soldiers also came out and began to line up beside the hill. It looks like there should be as many as three or four thousand. However, Feng Anan only looked at it for a moment, and then put down the telescope a little impatiently: "Won't this formation be too slow? When they line up and start attacking, I'm afraid the sun will go down!"

Mu Shabai replied with a smile: "Although the combat in the cold weapon era also pays attention to military formations, the requirements for queues are not so strict, these troops must not have received special training, how can they be like our militia group, they can line up in an attack formation in a short time." ”

It took about 10 or 20 minutes for the chaotic group of soldiers to finally form their formation, but from the inconsistent uniforms and weapons, it was inferred that these South Vietnamese soldiers were not regular soldiers, but temporary peasant soldiers.

"The regular army came out. Mu Xiabai said hello, and Feng Anan hurriedly picked up the binoculars again and began to check: "Where?"

"At the very back of the formation. ”

It wasn't for Mu Shabai's careful viewing, Feng Annan really didn't pay much attention to the small group of South Vietnamese soldiers lined up behind this group of peasant soldiers, but it seemed that this regular army did not seem to have the intention of leading the charge to lead.

"It's supposed to be the Warlords. Mu Shabai deduced: "These peasant soldiers should not have a strong will to fight, if there is no overseer to keep an eye on the back, I am afraid that they will run away after beating people." ”

As they spoke, the drums sounded again, and the cowering peasants finally began to advance towards the mountains where the North Vietnamese army was located. From the place where they had assembled to the foot of the mountain, a distance of only about a mile, the South Vietnamese army moved forward slowly, and was not in a hurry to launch a charge, and after reaching the foot of the mountain, they had to climb the slope for about four or five hundred meters to reach the North Vietnamese army's defensive line, and the charge too early would definitely be insufficient.

The North Vietnamese Army has also begun to deploy troops according to the enemy's advance route, gradually gathering troops to a section of the mountain that may be attacked. In particular, the archers stationed at the strongholds in various parts of the mountain range were rushing towards the assembly point in groups at this time, and they had always been a very important defensive force in the mountain position as long-range strike firepower.

"The South Vietnamese commander doesn't eat dry food!" Mu Shabai muttered as he held up his binoculars.

After the departure of the first wave of peasant troops, the second wave of troops that were being assembled had already appeared in the position where they had just assembled, and it seemed that the South Vietnamese did not hope that they would be able to flatten the mountain positions by relying on the peasants in waves, but planned to use the wheel warfare method to carry out the attack, and even if they could not be defeated, they would put enough pressure on the North Vietnamese army.

Seeing this, Feng Anan also muttered: "But the positional advantage of North Vietnam is too obvious, like them attacking from the bottom up, how many people will have to die to attack it!"

"Not necessarily. After carefully observing the terrain, Mu Shabai retorted: "Even if it is a city wall defense several feet high, there are times when it is breached, not to mention that there is no city wall here at all, just a hillside, and the defense line is long, if the opponent's troops are enough, and the multi-point attack is adopted, it will be very difficult for North Vietnam to defend it." ”

Before he could finish speaking, he saw a South Vietnamese force appear on the right side of the hill and began to advance slowly towards the mountain line.

"Old Mu, you are really a crow's mouth!" Feng Anan couldn't help but sigh when he saw this.

The two attack routes of the South Vietnamese Army were about two miles apart, so that the two sections of the attacked defense line could basically only take care of themselves, and had no time to take care of and support friendly forces that were far apart. However, standing on the highest hill, Mu Feng and the others could also see that there were also thousands of soldiers on the North Vietnamese side, who were advancing from the rear camp to the defensive position at the top of the mountain, and it was not so easy for the South Vietnamese army to break through this defensive line.

The South Vietnamese army, which arrived at the foot of the mountain first, did not stop to readjust its ranks, and the commander directly launched the order to attack, and thousands of soldiers quickened their pace and began to advance up the mountain.

At this time, the disadvantages of the North Vietnamese defensive positions began to appear: the slopes of the mountains were completely covered with dense forests, and the opponents had excellent natural protection at this distance. Only the trees that came within a distance of about thirty or forty meters from the last approach to the line of defense were cleared in advance by the North Vietnamese side, leaving an unhindered view of the attack. It was not that the North Vietnamese were lazy and unwilling to continue the clean-up, but that the South Vietnamese Army left many guerrilla posts in the dense forest to snipe the North Vietnamese loggers, and after several skirmishes, the final safe distance could only be maintained at the current level.

Although the North Vietnamese army could defend from a high position, due to the obstruction of dense forests, the effective range of long-range fire was only a small distance outside the defensive line. The South Vietnamese army also took full advantage of this feature, slowing down its advance at the edge of the dense forest, regrouping and placing a large number of archers behind the infantry.

Even miles away from the war zone, Mu Feng and his wife heard three drums very clearly, and then they saw through the telescope that South Vietnamese soldiers poured out of the woods and rushed towards the North Vietnamese line. Behind them, a large wave of archers filled their positions and began to launch projectile attacks on the North Vietnamese lines.

The priority target of the archers on the North Vietnamese side must have been the infantrymen who were rushing towards them, and a condescending rain of arrows shot from between the gaps in the walls and fortifications, knocking dozens of people rushing to the ground at the front. But at the same time, the bows and arrows fired by the South Vietnamese archers also fell from the sky, causing some damage to the defenders hiding behind the wall. The South Vietnamese infantry continued to charge upwards despite casualties, seemingly with the intention of attracting firepower.

"This is really a human life exchange!" Mu Shabai, who witnessed the cold weapon war for the first time, couldn't help but sigh.

At this time, Feng Anan was holding a digital camera that had been replaced with a telephoto lens, concentrating on shooting the battle scene in the distance. As an advance team, the reconnaissance content is not only to draw a map to see the enemy's situation, but also to have first-hand information about the battle between the two sides. When the front-line command wants to draw up a specific combat plan, these video materials are a very important reference basis.

At the same time as the first wave of South Vietnam's attack was launched, the second wave of attack forces had also reached the foot of the mountain and began to advance slowly up the mountain, while the third wave of attack forces had been assembled and ready to go. The South Vietnamese Army, which had another route of attack, had also arrived at the predetermined position at this time, and was adjusting its archer forces in preparation for an attack.

This pattern of attack undoubtedly caused more casualties to the South Vietnamese army, but the South Vietnamese commanders seemed to have recognized this method and intended to trade superiority in force for superiority in the battle situation. After three rounds of fire from the North Vietnamese archers on the defensive line, two or three hundred South Vietnamese infantry had fallen to the ground, but many more were still desperately rushing to the defensive line, because only by fighting face-to-face could they avoid a one-sided long-range attack and look for a chance to survive the battle.