If the combat effectiveness of a team is measured purely by the level of amphibious landing warfare, then the Haihan militia regiment, which has been trained in full accordance with the mature tactics of later generations, can be regarded as outstanding in the world in the current era. , the latest chapter of the visit wèn:. The officers of the North Vietnamese New Army, all of whom were trained in Hai Han, naturally learned and inherited this glorious tradition, and their combat capability in this field was much stronger than that of their opponents. When the second group of artillery was unloaded at the beachhead and pushed into the positional gun position by the soldiers, it was already a sign that the balance of victory in the battle was beginning to tilt in favor of the North Vietnamese.

Although the North Vietnamese court was burdened with heavy debts in order to arm the new army, the new army's performance on the battlefield proved that the previous efforts were still well worth it. After all, the new army, which was equipped with a large number of Haihan weapons and had received Haihan-style military training, was significantly superior to its opponents in terms of combat effectiveness, and withstood the attack of nearly 10,000 South Vietnamese troops with a beachhead of less than 1,000 men.

Although some units in the South Vietnamese army are equipped with muskets and artillery, and have also received training from Western-style troops, their weapons and equipment are indeed a grade worse than their counterparts in the north, after all, their support Portuguese are still far behind the Haihan group that has opened the golden finger in the field of military science and technology. Whether it was the number of weapons held or the 'sexuality' of the weapons themselves, the North Vietnamese army showed an overwhelming 'sexuality' advantage, so much so that the officers of the South Vietnamese army had to urge the infantry armed with cold weapons to launch a decisive charge to the beachhead, trying to make up for the disadvantage in weapons with the superiority of troops.

However, this attempt was obviously ineffective, and in the face of the new artillery shells that the North Vietnamese Army had 'spent' to buy, the infantry charge did not achieve any real results except for refreshing the opponent's record with their 'lives' in vain. Compared to the South Vietnamese soldiers, who fell in pieces during the charge, the North Vietnamese were hit by sporadic shells and lead in a much smaller proportion, with less than a tenth of the casualties of their opponents.

After an hour of high-intensity attack, the commander of the South Vietnamese side finally gave the order to suspend the offensive, and at this time, the South Vietnamese troops who had been killed by the North Vietnamese guns and artillery in front of the battle were probably as many as seven or eight hundred, and many wounded soldiers who were unable to return to the camp on their own because of their injuries were lying in the wilderness and letting out one after another 'groans' and screams, so that both sides of the 'warring' war could truly feel the cruelty of the war.

In contrast, the wounded soldiers on the North Vietnamese side were much luckier, at least they fell in their own positions, and they could be treated in a more timely manner. Most of the wounded soldiers who lost their mobility were carried onto the boats returning to the north bank of the Zhengjiang River, and this was not entirely due to the officers' compassion or the fear that the moaning of the wounded soldiers would affect the combat effectiveness of the troops, but a large part of the reason was that the beachhead area was limited and could not accommodate too many places for the wounded to be treated. If the wounded soldiers were not transported, then the newly landed troops would not even have enough space to complete the whole group.

The North Vietnamese army prepared nearly 100 boats for this crossing and landing, and each round trip could transport 2,000 soldiers to the south bank. By the time the South Vietnamese army suspended its offensive, nearly 3,000 North Vietnamese troops had landed on the south bank by ship, including 2,000 new troops with Hai Han arquebuses and sixteen '6-pounder guns' for fire support.

However, Zheng Ting, who commanded the landing operation on the front line, was not relieved that he had repelled the offensive of the South Vietnamese Army, and the South Vietnamese Army showed more tenacity in the battle than he expected, and despite the heavy casualties, it did not want to give up the intention of fighting for the river defense line so far, but seized the time to mobilize more troops in the rear to plan the next offensive.

Zheng Ting was not very distressed about the dead and wounded soldiers, and it was just that he had to 'spend' some more time to re-recruit and train, but after inspecting the artillery positions, Zheng Ting still inevitably had a headache -- the 200 new artillery shells he purchased had already lost two-thirds of them in the first round of 'engagement', and it was difficult for the stock to last another battle with greater intensity.

There were no Haihan military advisers on the beachhead, so Zheng Ting could only try to solve this embarrassing situation on his own. He did regret it now, and he should have listened to Qian Tiandun's advice at that time and 'spent' money to buy more shells. Of course, it is not that it is impossible to fight without new shells at present, and the old solid shells are still sufficient, but the killing efficiency at close range is far less than that of the new shells. Moreover, there are more than 10 'guns' of 12-pounder guns on the north bank of the river, and their 'firing' range can completely cover the front of the beachhead, and if necessary, it can also provide a certain amount of fire support across the river.

It's just that in this way, the efficiency of killing the enemy will be greatly reduced, and the effect that can be achieved by one shot of the new artillery shell at close range, I am afraid that ten rounds of the old solid artillery shell will be enough, which seems to save some in the procurement link, but it needs to consume more ammunition 'medicine' in actual combat. Zheng Ting's brain was also a little dizzy, which kind of ammunition 'medicine' would be more cost-effective to use in the future war.

In fact, when Zheng Ting went to Yong'an Port to buy a new type of ammunition 'medicine', Qian Tiandun had already discovered that Zheng Ting's understanding had a misunderstanding, but from his point of view, he did not point it out to Zheng Ting. This misunderstanding is that Zheng Ting regarded the fighting power of the Liukou besieging Lijiazhuang too high, which was directly equivalent to the army of South Vietnam. But in fact, there is still a certain gap in combat effectiveness between the two, after all, one is a regular army and the other is a bandit, and their endurance in the face of combat casualties is not at the same level.

The Liukou besieging Lijiazhuang were quickly defeated in the face of heavy artillery fire, which was directly related to their loose organization and combat experience. The South Vietnamese army had also undergone formal training and participated in battles all year round, and the troops deployed on the defense line of the Zhengjiang River were not weak, so naturally they would not lose their fighting courage as easily as Zheng Ting expected.

At noon on the same day, the South Vietnamese Army organized another attack, and Truong Dinh did not hesitate to order all the existing new artillery shells to be fired. After an hour of fighting, the South Vietnamese army was still unable to break through the firepower defense line of the beachhead, and retreated again after paying the lives of nearly 1,000 soldiers. The North Vietnamese Army inevitably suffered certain losses, and even two North Vietnamese officers who had gone to Victory Port with Trung Dinh for training were unfortunately hit by stray bullets fired by the South Vietnamese Army, and died of their wounds on the spot.

In the afternoon of the same day, the "South Vietnamese Naval Division," which had hurried from the upper reaches of the country, also participated in this 'chaotic' battle. Because in the battle half a year ago, the surface troops deployed on the front line by the South Vietnamese Imperial Court suffered a blow from the destruction of the Haihan warships, and then the South Vietnamese naval division collapsed, so far there are only six or seven boats, and in the face of nearly 100 North Vietnamese troop transports shuttling non-stop on the river, what the South Vietnamese naval division can do is somewhat weak.

As for the possibility that the troops crossing the river would be attacked and harassed by the South Vietnamese naval division on the river, the North Vietnamese officers had already had a plan for dealing with it when they drew up their battle plans before the war. After the operation began, several 'guns' had already been deployed on the north bank of the Zhengjiang River, about a mile upstream of the North Vietnamese crossing point. The goal of these 'guns' was clear, that is, to prevent South Vietnamese ships from coming down from the upper reaches to join the battle. The center of the river here is less than a hundred feet from the riverbank, and it is completely enveloped in artillery fire, which is enough to deal a fatal blow to the boats on the river. In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, after the artillery was in place, two rounds of calibration 'shooting' were even carried out to ensure the position of the impact point.

Sure enough, after the South Vietnamese naval division appeared on this section of the river, it was greeted by artillery fire from the north bank. Under the concentrated fire, the two South Vietnamese warships that rushed to the front were successively pierced through the belly of the ship and began to enter the water, while some of the ships following behind were blocked by it, and some tried to approach the south bank to avoid the artillery fire on the north bank, and the river was suddenly 'chaotic'.

In the midst of the chaos, two more ships were hit by shells and turned crookedly towards the south bank, seeing that they could no longer fight. In the end, there was only one warship that was able to break through the fire blockade line unscathed, and the North Vietnamese army was already prepared after receiving the early warning, and seven or eight ships quickly approached and surrounded the enemy ship in a sideboard battle, and there was basically no possibility of allowing it to escape.

After eliminating the threat from the water, it will be difficult for the South Vietnamese Army to have any practical means to prevent the opponent from expanding its position on the south bank of the Hung River. By the time it got dark, the North Vietnamese Army had transported nearly 5,000 combat troops across the river, basically completing the predetermined battle plan.

"The army after our training is still different!"

In the North Vietnamese camp on the north bank of the Zhengjiang River, Mu Xiabai and Feng Annan were 'exchanging' their experiences of watching today's battle. Because the two of them had the most time to 'deal' with the North Vietnamese military, this time they also naturally acted as military advisers, going to the front line to observe the battle of crossing the river initiated by the North Vietnamese.

Feng Annan said: "As long as the North Vietnamese army learns our tactics and is equipped with our weapons, it can almost have six or seven points of the militia group, and the peasant army of South Vietnam should be enough." ”

"Don't underestimate the peasant army of South Vietnam, they have been hard for a day. At least we can't afford to play this kind of casualty battle. Mucha sighed. Although they did not go to the beachhead on the south bank, they watched the battle through the telescope on the north bank, and they knew more or less about the course of today's battles. The fact that the South Vietnamese Army was able to withstand casualties without retreating was also a little unexpected.

"Or Qian Tiandun can see it accurately, he said that it will be at least two to three days to fight for the river before South Vietnam will withdraw its troops. Feng Anan remembered Qian Tiandun's prediction before they went south, and also sighed a little: "But if South Vietnam retreats here, it will be difficult for them to organize a defensive line." I wonder if North Vietnam really has a chance to go straight to Hue Province in one go!"

"Difficult!" Mu Shabai shook his head disappetively and said: "Fighting a war is not just about the victory or defeat of this battle, I am going to the extreme, even if South Vietnam adopts a policy of non-resistance from now on, you let the North Vietnamese army go directly south to try? It is nearly 400 miles from Zhengjiang to Hue, and it is difficult to solve the problem of the combat supply of tens of thousands of people alone." ”

"Didn't they borrow so many small boats from us? They could have used boats to transport grain and grass from the sea and follow the army south!" Feng Anan refuted Mu Xiabai's claim.

"It's so easy!" Mu Shabai shook his head and said, "If they can play amphibious warfare so well, then they don't need to ask us to teach them how to fight." The crossing point on this Zhengjiang River is only more than 300 meters wide, and some amateur sailors can also be qualified for rowing across the river. But if you want to go by sea and keep the fleet not too scattered, it's not a task that amateurs can do. In my opinion, the biggest change in the next battle situation is that the South Vietnamese army will gradually retreat, but it will be difficult for the North Vietnamese side to take advantage of the victory to pursue. ”

The next day, the sky was bright, and the fighting between the two sides resumed. Perhaps aware of the North Vietnam's superiority in artillery fire, today the South Vietnamese Army did not launch a brainless human 'flesh' charge again, but changed its combat methods, set up artillery at a distance of about one mile, and began to play long-range combat with the North Vietnamese Army. I don't know what means the South Vietnamese army used, but they even transferred more than a dozen 'guns' overnight, and the gap between long-range firepower and the opponent has also narrowed a lot.

In artillery training at this distance, the new artillery shells purchased by the North Vietnamese basically had no room to play -- in fact, they had already fired 200 rounds in the previous day's battle, and now they had no room to play at all. The artillery exported to North Vietnam through the group did not have a particularly great advantage over the artillery of the South Vietnamese army in terms of 'firing' range, and in terms of the current distance between the two sides, it can be said that the artillery of both sides was within the 'firing' range of the other side.

In this way, it is a real skill, and it depends on who can pull out the opponent's artillery position faster. The two sides invariably adopted the method of concentrating fire and launched a concentrated attack on a certain artillery position on the opponent's position. As a result, the artillerymen could almost always see the 'fired' shells coming from the air from their own gun positions, and the only thing they could do was to pray that their own 'shot' shells would be able to knock over the opponent as much as possible.

At this time, the superiority of the Haihan artillery in 'shooting' and 'precision' and 'accuracy' was revealed, and the North Vietnamese side only needed two or three rounds of 'shooting' to hit the enemy's artillery position on average, while the opponent's artillery position in North Vietnam needed at least five rounds of 'shooting' to hit it. It was not until the destruction of the fifth 'gun' gun in South Vietnam that one of the gun emplacements in the North Vietnamese position was finally hit by three shells at the same time, leaving the six gunners and the artillery scrapped together.

The commander of the South Vietnamese Army apparently realized that such a confrontation would not exhaust the enemy, so he could only order the artillery position to retreat further. Naturally, the North Vietnamese Army, which had won the victory, would not sit back and wait for the opportunity to slip by, and immediately let the sappers dig and arrange new gun emplacements in front of the defensive line, so that the artillery positions could continue to 'advance' to the south.

In the following days, this step-by-step advance was very difficult, and the North Vietnamese spent a lot of manpower and material resources to finally build a large battalion on the south bank of the mouth of the Zhengjiang River, and deployed 8,000 troops. However, a few miles south of the camp was the South Vietnamese army's barracks built on the side of the Heng Son mountain, which, according to the state of reconnaissance, was at least three times as large as the North Vietnamese battalion, and it seemed that the South Vietnamese still had no intention of abandoning this line of defense. Although the North Vietnamese army had the upper hand, the corresponding troubles also began to appear, and the suffering of grain and grass materials across the river half a year ago was now transferred to North Vietnam.

Due to the lack of the decisive external assistance of the Hai Han militia group, the southern expedition of the North Vietnamese Army was relatively smooth at the beginning, but after the actual battle for the river, it fell into a situation of stagnation due to the lack of mobility of the army itself. If we fight any further, we will have to enter the Hengshan Mountain Range, which runs from east to west and spans seven or eight miles from north to south, and if the army wants to enter the mountainous areas to fight, supply is an extremely troublesome problem. With the existing supply capacity of the North Vietnamese Army, it is obvious that this shortcoming cannot be satisfactorily resolved.

As the supreme commander of the front-line troops, Zheng Bai has also realized this situation, but since he has already made a move, he can only continue to fight even if the battle situation is not smooth, because it is impossible for the North Vietnamese Army to abandon its current position and retreat to the north bank of the Zhengjiang River again, nor can it maintain a costly outpost position on the south bank of the Zhengjiang River for a long time. At the very least, the South Vietnamese Army must be driven south of Heng Son to the south of Heng Son, and the North Vietnamese Army will take control of the key pass in the Heng Son Mountainous Area, so that the fighting can be stopped and recuperated.

On 8 September, the North Vietnamese Army launched its first offensive after crossing the river to the south, opening the way with artillery fire and supplemented by infantry phalanx, attacking the South Vietnamese army camp from the front. After paying nearly 1,000 casualties, the North Vietnamese army finally broke through the South Vietnamese camp and captured one of the largest strongholds of the South Vietnamese army in the region. However, the fighting did not end there, and nearly 20,000 South Vietnamese troops fled into the mountains south of Daying. Although most of these South Vietnamese troops had lost their formation and become 'rebel' troops, they still caused great trouble to the enemy who pursued them. It is difficult for infantry using muskets to form an effective firepower output formation in mountainous areas, and their combat effectiveness cannot be fully brought into play due to environmental influences, so the progress of the clean-up operation against the 'chaotic' soldiers in the mountainous areas is very slow. It was not until mid-September that the South Vietnamese troops that appeared in Heng Son became less and less, and the resistance gradually became sporadic and sporadic. The battalion of the North Vietnamese Army also moved from the north bank of the Zheng River to the foot of Heng Son Mountain, and controlled most of the key areas in the Heng Son area. Since there was no danger to defend, the large forces of the South Vietnamese Army were extremely reluctant to withdraw their troops south at this time, and their assembly point would be the harbor of 'Dong', forty miles south of Heng Son. And the North Vietnamese have basically no spare strength to continue to fight south. During the more than 10-day battle, although the North Vietnamese army successfully advanced the front to the south for more than 10 miles and broke through the defensive trench of Hengshan Zhengjiang, it also paid more than 2,000 casualties. The most critical thing is that the front-line troops are running out of food and military spending, and they have to stop for rest.