afterglow

Chapter 361: The king is anxious; divine soldiers descend from the sky
"Boom—boom—"

Depth charges continued to explode one after another, and huge shock waves affected the old submarine.

Valves were constantly being shaken loose, pipes were cracked, and seawater was spurting out from the joints of the pipes. At least a dozen places were spraying water at one time.

The Dutch sailors were horrified, and Gerde shouted sternly, ordering the bewildered mob to repair the submarine.

There was a squeaking sound of metal twisting in my ears, as uncomfortable as a cat scratching my heart, and what followed was a death warning - God knows whether the next depth charge will fall next to the submarine!

Once it sinks, it is almost 100% dead, and it will be drowned alive in a dark and small cabin.

The psychological pressure endured by submarine soldiers is far greater than that of ordinary sailors. Faced with such a desperate situation, one can imagine the performance of a group of hastily put together shrimp soldiers and crab generals.

"Sir, we should come up, otherwise we will die!" Someone was so frightened that his voice trembled.

"No, calm down and go back to your posts!" Gerd immediately refused.

"Sir!"

"We can't hold on!"

"I don't want to die..."

Suddenly, the sonar soldier's eyes widened and he shouted: "The depth charges are coming again!"

The sailors, who were highly nervous and on the verge of collapse, were in a mess. Some screamed to come up immediately, while others cried and called their mothers.

"Cowards will be despised no matter where they are. They surrender without trying their best. There are no such soldiers in the Netherlands!" Gerd said solemnly with a stern look: "We will not die, we will definitely be able to escape!"

The Ming fleet could not be pinned down by a submarine here, so the fleet commander ordered the destroyer Linying to continue dealing with the hiding enemy submarine, while other ships continued to move towards Dalagan.

The heavily damaged transport ship sank slowly. The crew and Marine infantry had enough time to evacuate in an orderly manner, but some equipment was too late to be transferred and sank into the sea.

In the afternoon of the same day, the fleet arrived off the coast of Lagan.

"It's similar to the photos taken from the plane. Let's finish the identified fortifications first."

"Row."

Yan Chenwu stood on the bridge of the heavy cruiser Yinshan, looking at the beachhead and deep positions shrouded in fleet artillery fire in the distance.

The Yinshan class is the earliest first-class treaty-type heavy cruiser of the Ming Dynasty. It still uses twin-mounted 192mm naval guns. There are many unsatisfactory aspects in the design.Fortunately, the Ming Navy is a special case in terms of displacement restrictions, so the overall level of the Yinshan class with a standard displacement of [-] tons is not bad.

The four twin-mounted naval guns roared together, and the 103-kg anti-explosive bombs hit the semi-permanent fortifications, tearing the reinforced concrete to pieces.

All kinds of debris were blown away by the shock wave. Cement fragments, twisted steel bars, and broken wood flew around in the air for several times before scattering.

Yan Chenwu has long been somewhat dissatisfied with Zhou Changfeng. He admitted that the latter's theoretical level was indeed very high, but he did not think that he would be worse than him when leading troops in actual combat.

However, as the saying goes, "It's a mule or a horse that comes out to run around." The Battle of the Malayan Peninsula almost made Zhou Changfeng famous in one battle - at least within the Ming army.

The assault group he led penetrated three lines of defense in three days and marched nearly [-] miles. It was really appalling.

For laymen to see the excitement and for experts to see the secrets, the focus is on "temporary transfer", "piecemeal formation" and "various arms". It is undoubtedly difficult to command such a temporary formation of a mixed force of various arms.

First of all, you must have a detailed understanding of the advantages, disadvantages and tactics of the marines, motorized infantry, motorized artillery, heavy tanks, medium tanks, and amphibious tank units involved.

If you know yourself and your enemy, you can fight a hundred battles. If you don't know your enemy well, and you don't even know the details of your subordinates, why fight?

But the problem is that everyone has limitations. For example, how can an Army infantry officer understand the tactics of a Marine Corps amphibious tank unit?
Another more important thing is that the military is a place where mountainous doctrine exists more or less. If a general cannot convince the public, he will eventually have to leave office in despair.

The brigade commander of the [-]nd Motorized Infantry Brigade and Zhou Changfeng were both colonels, but the former was happy to obey the latter's command, which had to be said to be a skill.

So even though Yan Chenwu didn't want to admit it, he clearly realized that Zhou was indeed at least one level better than him.

My uncle is right. Can a person recognized by the Emperor and His Majesty be a mediocre person?

At 17:33 that afternoon, as the mines were cleared, the Second Marine Brigade hurriedly began the landing operation.

The soldiers of the Ming Army took landing craft and landed at two landing sites southwest of Dalagan. The Dutch and Indian troops defending the area put up fierce resistance, which surprised the soldiers participating in the battle.

The remaining bunkers, fortifications, and bunkers were all spitting out the flames, and dense bullets and artillery shells seemed to be shooting from all directions.

The Marine infantry and amphibious tanks worked together to advance, removing the firepower points one by one, and successfully broke through the outer defense line.

However, the Bailuk M35 47mm anti-tank gun deployed by the Dutch and Indian troops in the second-line position caused a great obstacle to them. Due to the well-camouflaged firing position, the floating tank battalion of the Second Marine Brigade lost four Type [-] amphibious vehicles one after another. Tank, but still unable to determine the opponent's location.

So Yan Chenwu ordered not to rush forward for the time being, waiting for his own follow-up troops to disembark and land, and then continue the attack tonight or tomorrow morning.

That night, he sent two teams to make a large circle to implement a detour, and began to attack together early the next morning.

The defenders, who were attacked from both sides, suddenly panicked and were no longer as strong as before.

The Yinshan patrol launched its seaplane, then hovered near the battle area, constantly guiding and calibrating the fleet's firepower to bombard any exposed enemy positions.

After a fierce battle for most of the day, the Dutch and Indian troops defending Daragon suffered numerous casualties. Wounded soldiers missing arms and legs almost filled the hospital, and the busy military doctors were overwhelmed.

By dusk that day, all the defenders' positions were captured by the Ming army, with only one supporting point still barely resisting.

With the mentality of giving it a try, the Ming army formed a partial division with a dozen tanks and more than [-] infantry, and launched an assault on the Dalagan oil well, trying to capture it as intact as possible.

They attacked boldly all the way, completely ignoring the risk of being cut off.

At night, when the defense unit of Daragan Airport was defeated, flames surged into the sky from the direction of the oil well in the distance, almost dyeing the night sky red.

Knowing that they were defeated by the Ming army, the Dutch and Indian troops were ordered to burn oil storage depots and blow up refineries. The order from the headquarters was "Don't leave even a drop of oil to them."

The 14 tons of crude oil stored here were burned to the ground. Fires near the oil field soared into the sky, lighting up the night. Thick smoke shot straight into the sky like a volcanic eruption. The billowing heat wave made the officers and soldiers on both sides of the war feel uncomfortable every time they breathed.

"Unfortunately, it is easier to set fire after all." Yan Chenwu regretted, "Let the captured Dutch soldiers work and repair the airport and dock as soon as possible. If you find those who are dawdling, kill them first to scare the monkeys."

The Dutch and Indian troops defending Daragan formally surrendered the next morning, but as soon as they disarmed they were ordered to clean up the mess they had made.There are many aftermath tasks such as repairing port facilities, filling runway craters, cleaning up tank wreckage, etc. However, the large amount of burning crude oil cannot be extinguished and can only be allowed to burn out.

After the initial repairs to the airport, some units of the Air Force's Second Light Bombing Detachment and the Third Transport Detachment gradually moved to Daragan Airport.

The Second Parachute Regiment also began to make pre-war preparations. Compared with the core goal of Balikpapan, the quality of the Daragan Oil Field seemed insignificant.

Balikpapan is located 500km south of Dalagan. It is the largest port city on the east coast of Borneo. It is also a world-famous oil producing area with a prosperous economy and a large coal mine in the north.

The crude oil production in this place alone is several million tons. The annual crude oil production in Daming is 400 million tons. If you want to meet the actual consumption of more than 1000 million tons, you have to fill the gap of 800 to [-] million tons. .

Not only the Balikpapan oil field in Borneo, but also the Old Port oil field in Sumudara must be kept in hand.

In order to achieve the suddenness of the airborne raid, the Ming court and the military made careful arrangements involving all aspects.

Starting from the 25th, the Foreign Affairs Department of the Ministry of Rites sent several notes to the Dutch Embassy, ​​indicating that it could consider "compensating" Shell Oil Company's assets in the Nanyang region.

At first the Dutch politely declined, but the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Foreign Affairs successively summoned the Dutch minister and proposed that the payment could be made in gold instead of pounds.

After that, Zhu Lingjing even personally called the Royal Palace in Amsterdam and talked to Wilhelmina on the phone.

The 59-year-old latter can be said to be of the mother's generation. The two talked for more than ten minutes. In diplomatic terms, they had a frank conversation and exchanged opinions.

The Nanyang Ming Army released a group of Dutch prisoners and deliberately let them see some half-covered boxes when passing by the dock. These large wooden boxes had the words "Aviation Foam Fire Extinguishing Agent" printed on the outside.

Reconnaissance aircraft also flew over Balikpapan and the Old Port many times, dropping a large number of leaflets while conducting aerial reconnaissance.

The content of the leaflet roughly warned the local defenders not to destroy any oil extraction and refining facilities, otherwise the relevant personnel would be severely punished.

This series of actions on the part of Ming Dynasty is very abnormal, giving people the feeling of "Jijiji, I am the King of Jiji".

The Dutch, who thought they had figured out Akito's weakness, were very proud - you can be strong as long as I blow up the oil field, and you will get nothing.

They made two preparations and planned to take the opportunity to play a trick to gain more time for the BDA coalition to prepare for defense.

At the same time, try to see if you can use this as a bargaining chip to carry out peace talks, such as expanding preferential fuel exports to the Ming Dynasty at the expense of allowing the Ming army to retreat.

"...These airdrops are the most suitable, but the risk of parachuting at dawn is not small. You have to pay more attention in this regard. The local authorities will try to mark the location, but if something goes wrong, you can only rely on your ability, Yi Luan Si landed two hours ahead of the main force..."

At Lanfang Dingyang Fort, Zhou Changfeng and a group of generals were discussing the most critical actions.

They are currently a large sand table, or model, which was handmade by the staff of the Third Army General Office based on aerial reconnaissance photos.

Oil production wells, refineries, oil storage depots, runways, hangars, barracks, etc. are all very detailed.

Diplomatic and military deception operations are certainly effective, all in the service of surprise surprise.

Zhou Changfeng pointed to a corner of the sand table with a slender wooden stick, "But the enemy will definitely counterattack. At present, it has been found that there is at least one infantry regiment and two battalions of militia nearby, and there is another regiment outside, and various armored vehicles. There are thirty vehicles. The pressure on you is still quite high, are you confident?"

As he spoke, he put down the long stick in his hand and raised his eyes to look at Lei Jiecheng, the commander of the [-]st Paratrooper Regiment.

The latter first clasped his fists, and then replied half-jokingly: "It's come to this, even if you don't have confidence, you have to force yourself. Please rest assured, I dare to issue a military order, and I will definitely stay in place for three days and three nights, Commander Zhou You can be a day late."

Paratroopers are born to be surrounded, but there is no such thing as being punished for being defeated. Either they will succeed or the entire army will be destroyed.

Zhou Changfeng, who looked calm, smiled and waved his hands: "I never break my promise. I can only be early and never be late."

"More than 300 million tons of oil a year, it all depends on you." said the captain of the battleship Yonghui.

The staff officer of the Third Army General Department glanced at him and said, "Of course I know how heavy the burden is. It's useless to talk more."

a day later.

At midnight on March 26, the sky and sea were still shrouded in darkness, and the faint moonlight reflected by the waning moon was too weak to dispel the darkness of the night.

In Batavia, Bunir was woken up by the ringing of the alarm clock. With sleepy eyes, he got out of bed and got dressed.

Bunir was an administrative officer of the colonial authorities and had served in the Consulate in Guangzhou for eight years, so he was now known as a China expert in Batavia.

This time he will fly to Singapore as a peace negotiator to discuss a temporary ceasefire with the Ming army as a delaying strategy to buy more time.

The Ming Dynasty used clever psychological tactics to make the Dutch side relax their vigilance, thinking that they could make the Ming army take advantage of the situation and not dare to attack the two major oil fields.

It’s 5:57 in the morning, it’s still dark and the sun is about to rise.

Two Type [-]A transport planes with jet-black night paint were approaching the outskirts of Old Port.

The jet-black plane almost blended into the starry night sky, like a ghost.

The pilot saw the flashlight flashing regularly on the ground and immediately pressed the skydiving indicator light.

The red signal light in the cabin came on, and Cai Zhichen, who personally led the team, forcefully opened the cabin door.

The cool air blew over the face, making people feel refreshed. More than 40 officers and soldiers from the first combat team of Yiluan Division and the first detachment of the fourth combat team jumped out one after another.

Cai Zhichen glanced into the distance and saw that the white fish belly was already exposed at the sea level in the east.

Then, he jumped out of the cabin last.

Later, a telegram was sent back to Dingyang Fort - "Geng [-] [-] has left, everything goes well."

The boarding order was immediately issued, and the heavily armed paratroopers had been waiting on the runway for a long time. After hearing the order, they stood up in unison and stepped onto the boarding ladder one after another and got into the transport plane.

The first thing to take off was neither a transport plane nor an escorting fighter jet, but three Type [-] gunships.

Although the gunship is extremely vulnerable when facing anti-aircraft fire, there is currently no better fire support platform that can stay in the air for a long time, so it can only do so with reluctance.

　The Easter Egg Zhang Lanfang map has been updated.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)