In the early morning of 28 May, the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Companies of the Haihan People's Regiment boarded three "exploratory-class" warships -- Shuhaha -- at the wharf of Wanshan Port in full armor, and under the watchful eyes of hundreds of temporary residents on the island, the fleet slowly sailed out of the harbor, circled the cape to the south, turned east, and headed for the Dangan Islands, which were more than 30 nautical miles away.

This battle was qualitatively different from the previous battles in which the Haihan militia had participated, and the previous battles were all due to direct or indirect conflicts of interest between the opponent and the crossing group, which forced the executive committee and the military to make the choice of force to resolve the issue. As for the pirate gangs on the Dangan Islands, so far they have not posed a substantial 'sexual' threat to the crossing group, and it is not even certain whether they have such an attempt, so the military and the Executive Committee have decided to take the initiative to send troops to eliminate this "potential" threat.

It can be said that this combat operation means that the foreign military expansion policy of the Crossing Group has begun to change from a cautious passive reaction to an attitude of taking the initiative to attack, and the scope of targets has also expanded from "direct threats" to "potential threats." Of course, there are only a few officers who can realize this change, and there are only a few officers who have seen more than a few hundred years of experience, and as for the militia at the grassroots level, and even naturalized civilian officers like Takahashi Nan and Yu Tiezhu, they cannot understand what this change in attitude means in the short term. For them, every battle means the accumulation of military merits and the opportunity for promotion, so although they have just retired from the battlefield in Panyu County and have not rested for a few days, the grassroots personnel are still full of fighting. Three and a half hours later, the fleet reached the waters of the Dangan Islands, and small fishing boats began to be observed near the shore. However, when the people on the boats spotted the strange fleet coming from the west, they immediately chose to row and flee to the shore. However, Wang Tom was not afraid of exposing his whereabouts in advance, and this plan set the time of the battle during the day, so he did not plan to hide his traces and carry out a sneak attack, but was ready to rely on strong force to take down the bandit den on Dangan Island head-on. Even if these pirates discovered the attack of the Haihan militia a longer time in advance, at most they would have a little more chance of escaping, which would not hinder the overall situation. According to the information obtained after the interrogation of the captives, the bandit den on Dangan Island is located in a small bay at the eastern end of the island. When the fleet approached along the shore of the island, it was discovered that this so-called bay was actually just a concave V-shaped island shore, and its harbor conditions were not even comparable to that of Wanshan Port.

At this time, there was a lot of chaos on the harbor wharf, and many people could be seen running non-stop. There were quite a few people on the deck who were hurriedly unmooring and hoisting the sails, apparently intending to sail the ship out for a naval battle with the incoming uninvited guests. However, it was too difficult to complete this idea, and three Haihan warships sailed into the harbor and aimed their sides at several ships docked by the dock. When the people on the shore were still at a loss for this move, they saw the gun windows on the side of the ship open one by one, and the black "hole" and "hole" gun muzzle were 'exposed'.

"Aim at the outermost ship, open fire, and fire three quick 'shots'!" Wang Tom Tong guò walkie-talkie gave the order to fire simultaneously to the artillerymen on the three warships.

Although the second and third ships had only two 'guns' on their sides, the three ships together fired nine 'guns' in a very striking manner. Although these broadside guns were only 6-pounder guns, they were not to be underestimated. The ship was less than 100 meters away from the target, and the cannonball smashed through the hull of the ship that had just left the pier trestle at almost maximum speed, and in an instant, there were many holes in the hull of the ship.

For Chinese sailing ships that have begun to use watertight cabins in this era, although the penetration effect of this solid cannonball looks dazzling, it does not have such a great impact on the overall 'sexuality' of the ship, and the hull will not disintegrate or sink into the water immediately after the sawdust flies. However, the pirates had apparently not withstood this intensity of shelling, and no sooner had the first round of gunfire than sailors on the deck of the ship had already begun to jump for their lives.

After the second round of naval gun salvo fire, the trajectory of the corrected shells decreased, and five or six large holes were made in succession above and below the waterline of the hull, and the effect was more obvious, and the hull began to tilt to the left, losing forward momentum. As soon as the ship stopped, it blocked the departure route of the following ships, so that the dock was in chaos, some people wanted to get on the ship and flee, and some crew members wanted to abandon the ship and flee to the camp on the island to hide, but no one organized to fight back against these large ships that were still floating on the sea -- of course, this was also very likely because they had no effective means of counterattack.

After the third salvo, the target ship had begun to capsize due to too much water in its hold, and the sailors on board finally gave up their struggle and jumped into the sea to swim to the shore. As for the ships that had not yet left the dock, they all gave up their desperate intentions, and the sailors abandoned their ships and went ashore, trying to resist by relying on the walled forts on the shore.

"Slowly go around and dock, pay attention to the fire cover!" Wang Tom was very satisfied with the results of the first phase of the operation, the pirate ship that capsized in the center of the harbor happened to block the main navigation route in and out of the dock, and the pirates were probably hopeless to escape by boat. And the Haihan militia with the advantage of mobility can slowly give full play to its firepower advantage and carry out long-range strikes against the pirates who are still resisting on the shore.

The pirates' camp was built near the shore, with a radius of only a dozen acres, and the periphery was a wall made of 'flower' granite from the island, but perhaps due to the limited labor on the island, the highest part of the wall was only five or six feet, and it could only cover the people behind the wall. If the pirates were counting on this wall to stop the attack of the Haihan militia, they would be very mistaken.

The warships slowly approached the harbor and did not shell the other ships docked by the trestle, which were a little worn-out, but they were not much of a problem to be towed back for repair, and to be used as fishing boats or short-distance offshore transports.

At this time, the pirates who had recovered from their senses on the shore finally began to organize sporadic counterattacks, trying to use bows and arrows to fight the militia at a distance. Tom Wang was not worried about how lethal the bamboo arrows used by these pirates could be, but after seeing that some pirates began to 'shoot' arrows that ignited the fire, Tom Wang's face finally changed color, and he commanded the musketeers to aim at the few archers on the shore and began to roll call.

Whether it was 'firing' range, 'precision' accuracy, or firepower density, the militia were far stronger than their opponents, so the few archers who dared to stand on the dock and put up sporadic resistance soon became live targets, and after a few rounds of guns, no one could stand up. The officers did not devote much enthusiasm to this lackluster course of battle, because the battle that followed after the landing was the main part of the battle.

Regarding the tactical arrangement of amphibious operations, if the Haihan militia is called second, then it will be difficult to find another army in the world that can be called first in this period. As the military, which regards sea supremacy as the main means of expanding its territory of influence in the future, it has always attached great importance to the 'drill' training of amphibious operations, and landing and anti-landing tactics are a compulsory course for almost every militia soldier after joining the army, and the tactics of long-range fire cover and the construction of beachhead positions are all trained in strict accordance with the standards of later generations. The results of this training had already been verified during the Battle of Annam, when the armed forces numbered nearly 3,000 men with heavy logistical baggage, and the current battle of such a company-level unit was obviously a child.

After the three warships approached the trestle, they began to bombard the pirate fort on the shore with 12-pounder long-barreled naval guns on the second deck of the bow. Although the number of guns was reduced to three 'guns', they were more powerful than the previous 6-pounder gun. The ten-pound cast-iron cannon was ejected and slashed through the air, slamming into the stone wall, nearly collapsing one section of the wall with the first shot.

Under this terrifying force, no one dared to lean out from behind the wall to counterattack, and the infantry quickly landed on the pier trestle through the movable gangway on the side of the guò ship, and then surrounded the pirate fortress on the shore in platoons.

"Try to catch them alive, don't kill innocents indiscriminately!" Tom Wang gave a concise order to the cadets of the military academy, and at the same time issued them a batch of specially made firearms that had been prepared.

This new gun is a modified version of the existing flintlock pistol designed by the Ministry of Military Industry in accordance with Qian Tiandun's previous opinions. The main features of this gun are the shortening of the barrel and body length, the enlargement of the caliber, and the use of a new type of paper shell cartridge. To put it simply, this is a weapon similar to the short-barreled shotgun of later generations, which is deliberately made short, and is suitable for use in jungles or street battles and other places where the 27 flintlock pistol is not easy to use. In order to make up for this shortcoming, the design unit increased the caliber to increase the lethality within the effective range, and the paper shell was also filled with a small shotgun instead of a single lead bullet for a flintlock pistol.

At a distance of 10 to 30 meters, this gun has a very large killing area, and basically does not need to be particularly 'precise' to target the opponent. If it happens that the opponent's formation is very dense, then the fun will be great, dozens of iron will turn into a barrage at the moment of disemboweling, such a shotgun is enough to kill and injure a person at close range. The gunner, who is skilled in tactical movements, can even complete five shots in one minute with a fixed cartridge, and its 'firing' frequency has proven the usability of this gun in actual combat.

The purpose of the Ministry of Military Industry's 'door' to develop this "Type 28 shotgun" is to provide special weapons for the special operations forces in the Heitugang mountain area led by Qian Tiandun, but before that, it can be used on the battlefield, which is of course an excellent arrangement. Wang Tom brought out more than 40 prototypes this time, but they didn't come in handy at all in Lijiazhuang, and those rogues were all put down by artillery fire before they even had the 'firing' range of the shotguns. However, today he came to attack the pirate den on Dangan Island, and Tom Wang felt that it was a good opportunity to try this gun. The trainees had already learned how to use the new rifle in Victory Harbor, so it was only fitting to 'hand' it over to them to try it out on the battlefield.

Although Takahashi Minami did not understand Tom Wang's order very well, he pouted his lips and finally said nothing, saluted Tom Wang, and disembarked with a musket. Of course, in addition to the gun, he did not forget to carry his precious katana on his back.

Zheng Ting was not to be outdone, and hurried to follow, if he still lost to this Dongying dwarf today, then the position of the Annan soldiers in the Shengli Port Military Academy in the future may also be greatly reduced. Nowadays, there are more and more trainees at the Shengli Port Military Academy, not only from Annan, but also from the mainland, and the Li Jiamin Tuan is no longer the only one, Zheng Ting knows that several students from Fujian who arrived at Shengli Port before this departure are said to be affiliated with the Ming military.

How the Haihan people got involved with the Ming military again, Zheng Ting didn't know and didn't dare to inquire, after all, it was too sensitive to inquire about this fact from his point of view. But after there were more foreign trainees in the military academy, Zheng Ting also faintly felt the pressure of competition, in this place he was not only representing himself, in a sense he was already a symbol of his country.

After the fifth round of bow bombardment, a section of the wall finally collapsed, and a gap of two feet wide was 'exposed'. Wang Tom, who was observing the battle from the ship, immediately ordered the shelling to stop, the defensive line had been torn open by artillery fire, and the rest of the matter was to be 'handed over' to the infantry.

Takahashinan rushed to the gap in the wall, and shot at the crowd who were trying to repair the wall. His shot was only three or five meters away from the target, and it directly collapsed a group of people. Zheng Ting followed up and fired a shot, and then the group of pirates surrounding the gap immediately turned their heads and scattered, and no one looked at the pile of wounds lying on the ground. The two of them just fired two shots, and it seemed that they actually took down this gap.

The ensuing battle went somewhat in order, with the infantry swarming through the gap, unhurriedly regrouping, and striking a very fluid three-stage strike at the last of the pirates who tried to resist. After putting down these people, the whole battle situation has been basically stabilized. Seeing that the resistance was fruitless, some of them had already knelt down and chose to surrender. The infantry entered the fort in an orderly manner and began to count the prisoners and supplies.

"That's too fast, isn't it!" The only person who was dissatisfied with this result was probably Minami Takahashi, who was bent on making some achievements. Since King Tom had explicitly forbidden indiscriminate killing before this, Takahashi's sword didn't even have time to get bloody, and the battle was already over. If it weren't for the capture of the gap and a single shot that knocked out a few pirates, it would have been a nowhere for nowhere.

Zheng Ting breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, if he really wanted to engage in a hand-to-hand battle, he would not be afraid, but he knew that his ability to fight alone was indeed inferior to Takahashi Nan, and if he tore it apart, he would inevitably be robbed of the limelight by this short man.

The militia soldiers suffered only five minor injuries during the attack, which finally calmed down the officers' somewhat uneasy minds beforehand. If there are still many casualties in dealing with an opponent of this grade, then I am afraid that it will be difficult to 'hand' over to the Executive Committee and the Military Commission after returning home, because after all, when formulating the battle plan, they jointly pledged to "take Dangan Island with zero casualties."

The process of counting the pirates took a long time - because some of the missing people did not know whether they had fled to the rest of the island or sank into the harbor with the hapless ship after the first hit. Another number of pirates who were killed in the course of the battle also needed to be checked again.

It is also said that this group of pirates is unlucky, in the volley two days ago, the big boss and the second leader of this group of pirates died under the muskets of the Haihan militia, and there is only one third boss left on the island. The night before, he was very drunk, but it was not until the Haihan militia began to land that he was awakened from his sleep by the sound of artillery coming from the seaside. The pirate gang, which lacked command, barely put up any decent resistance, and was breached by the well-armed Haihan militia, and the three masters became a prisoner of the Haihan people in a daze. By this time, he hadn't even 'figured' what was going on.

Wang Tom ordered the nearly 300 captives to be gathered together, and then shouted to them with an iron microphone: "We are the Haihan militia from Shengli Harbor on Qiongzhou Island, from now on all of you who have reached the age of fourteen will become prisoners under the name of the Haihan Executive Committee, if you want to regain your freedom, then you must first complete at least one year of hard labor!"

Wang Tom looked around at the trembling captives kneeling on the ground, and continued: "Any rebellion in words or actions will be treated as a rebellion! If you want to live well until the day when you are free, then from now on you should be careful in your words and deeds, and do not make any mistakes! Do not be caught by your superiors who supervise you! If anyone has any doubts about this, then he is welcome to try to see if what I just said works!" Compared with Xu Xinsu, Zheng Yiguan, a wealthy pirate leader, the family background of this group of pirates on Dangan Island can be called pitiful, more than 5,000 catties of grain, more than 3,000 taels of silver of different colors, a pile of rusty knives and guns, and more than a dozen pieces of jewelry with slightly rough craftsmanship, which is basically all the harvest after the militia raided their homes. According to the unfortunate third-master's 'handover' generation, the island's assets were originally more than this, but a few days ago, the big boss and the second boss went to Guangzhou to buy goods, and took away thousands of taels of silver - of course, the goods exchanged for that batch of silver, as well as the ships that transported the goods, have become the spoils of war of the Haihan people. However, the third master inadvertently revealed a piece of information that attracted the attention of Wang Tom.