Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1469 French Santo Domingo ([-])

Tropical innocence is always changing. The sun was scorching just now, but in a blink of an eye, the sun was covered with thick clouds and the sky was full of haze, but this did not affect the fierce battle between thousands of French and Eastern soldiers on the coast outside Cape-de-France. .

Captain Lan Fei, who directed the attack, stood on a small wooden roof where fishermen rested by the sea, holding up a telescope to observe the situation ahead.The artillery on the east bank has already opened fire, and the eight black steel pipes of the first company of the Independent Field Artillery are all pointing at a small dirt bag with a top of only about [-] square meters somewhere ahead. A group of Frenchmen in uniform have already occupied the place panting. , seems to want to rely on the terrain to attack the army on the east bank condescendingly.

Their idea is not incorrect, because the people on the east bank bypassed the tight fortress and chose to land from the side.This originally unremarkable, unnoticed little soil bag has become a battleground between the enemy and us. Just now, more than a hundred vanguards of the Fengguo Army planned to seize this key node while the French did not have a firm foothold. As a result, Miserably failed.There is no other way now, but to attack by force, unless the people on the east bank give up this probe position and the large amount of supplies that have already been transported ashore.

One explosion after another sounded, it was the explosive bombs fired by the artillery brothers.Although the reliability of this type of shell is extremely low, it is still the first choice for tough battles in many situations, because the scattered shell casings, broken iron pieces, and nails can cause considerable damage to the enemy, although its explosion rate is about It only looks like [-]%, but who makes us have more money?Just hit it hard!I don't believe that the French can survive a few hundred rounds of shells!What?Cannons are expensive and have a limited lifespan?Come on, that's your old continent. On our east coast, there are many smoothbore gun barrels processed by hydraulic presses in batches. Didn't you see what is being unloaded on the deck of the transport ship with a pulley boom?It's the barrel!So hit me hard and don't worry about ammo and barrel life!

"I hope to see that little dirt bag turned into a French grave bag within an hour." Lan Fei put down his binoculars and said to the staff officers around him.There is nothing to watch in the battle anymore. The French army stationed on the small soil bag has more than 200 people, it is very dense, and they come in a hurry. Under the uninterrupted bombardment, his life must be very difficult, and it will be a matter of time before he retreats or is wiped out.The only suspense is probably how long it will take for the people on the east bank to overcome this first obstacle.

"Pujie boy!" After contemptuously spitting at the Frenchman on the opposite soil bag, the artillery company commander continued to hover behind each artillery position with a command knife, discussing each ballistic drop point with the artillery commanders, And how to make a break so that you can hit the enemy's head more accurately.Artillery has always been a technical arm. Officers and non-commissioned officers (usually gunners) must have a certain knowledge of mathematics. Trigonometry and parabolas are simply compulsory subjects. Otherwise, how can you hit the enemy?You know, this is the era of smoothbore guns, and the ballistic bullets are still very unstable. If you are not good at learning skills, then is it just a matter of fate?

The independent field artillery company has been bombarding for more than half an hour, and sent more than 100 shells to the front, most of which fell on the small soil bag, showing the superb shooting skills of the artillery on the east coast. related to the larger target. Among the more than 100 shells, about [-] shells successfully exploded and caused a certain amount of damage to the French, but the effect of this damage remains to be seen and tested.

The dull explosion sound gradually faded away, and the smoke formed by the explosion of the black powder slowly left the ground inch by inch, and was then blown away by the sea breeze, revealing the surface of the small dirt bag bombed by shells, and there was almost no French standing on it. people.They were either killed or injured by the bombing, or lay down to avoid the flying shrapnel. In short, Lan Fei couldn't see any brave French soldiers standing there in the binoculars at the moment.

"It seems that the mountain is a little shorter." Lieutenant Zheng Dalin looked at the front with some doubts, and then waved his hand. More than 100 soldiers of the Fengguo Army held rifles with good ammunition and lined up in a dense battle formation, cautiously It was a tentative attack and launched an attack towards the small dirt bag on the opposite side.

They walked very fast at first, because they were still out of the range of the French muskets, but after reaching a distance of more than 100 meters, they stopped for a whole team, and then cautiously slowed down like crossing a river with stones. Go slow.

"A group of ghosts who are afraid of death, what are they thinking about all day long? Don't they rush up at this time? Fuck, what a pig's brain. If we change to the regular army on the east bank, we will charge up with bayonets in the morning The battle is settled, how can you be ashamed like them!" Lieutenant Zheng Dalin, who witnessed this spectacle behind him, was a little out of breath, and was about to send someone to urge them to quickly grab the small bag of soil, and then let the artillery put the artillery up. There was a sudden movement.

I saw a large group of French soldiers lined up in a dense formation under the command of the officer on the small soil bag that was not moving at first, and fired at the officers and soldiers of the Fengguo Army who had entered the range with a standard volley of guns, causing It caused a large number of casualties in the first row, and at the same time shook the position of the people behind.

Fortunately, the rigorous training over the past year gave them the instinct to fight. Under the hoarse roar of some officers, the soldiers stopped the chaos, and then formed a loose formation to shoot at the French.This kind of shooting is very disadvantageous. First, the French are condescending and have an advantage. Second, they have more or less objects to hide and cover, which is much better than the "naked" people on the east coast outside. After shooting at each other for a while, more than 100 people from the army soon couldn't hold back and retreated.Many people thought, anyway, we are doing a tentative attack this time, to see the effect of the shelling just now, there is no need to go all out, so we retreated in a hurry, running faster than a rabbit.

The first tentative attack ended without a problem.

"Fire, keep firing, ****!" Lieutenant Zheng Dalin waved his saber and gave the order. At the same time, he was very dissatisfied with the team that made a tentative attack just now. He grabbed a few leading officers and came over and scolded them. .The general idea is that there is no one who makes a tentative attack like this. Next time, I will open up and work in the coal mines like this next time. I will never see the sun for the rest of my life. The officers and soldiers of the Fengguo Army are ashen-faced and don't know what to do. It's good to do it.

After the artillery bombarded the infantry, they rushed, and the infantry rushed after the artillery. This has almost become the routine of the East Coast Army with more and more artillery!

And the performance of the artillerymen is indeed the most comfortable!They fired with the same accuracy as ever, and kept sending shells to the top of the French on the small dirt bag.Just now, the French who had fired off a volley of muskets to repel the tentative attack on the east bank suffered a great disaster in the raging artillery fire. Many people who were unable to dodge or had no such consciousness were massacred by shrapnel. Once again submerged in black smoke, especially after the navy also brought in four spare artillery pieces to help.

The shelling lasted for another half an hour, and just after Lan Fei felt a little heartbroken after the consumption of shells and gunpowder (people on the east bank had stored a large amount of weapons and ammunition on Huaiyuan Island in advance), the second infantry attack began.This time, Lieutenant Zheng Dalin stepped forward to supervise the battle in person. Holding a command knife, he forcefully ordered [-] soldiers of the Fengguo Army who had been carefully selected to step forward, and suppressed the sparse firepower of the French with a volley of guns. Finally, he ordered everyone to mount bayonets, and launched a hand-to-hand assault that people on the east coast have always been proud of. The French on the top of the mountain were driven off with only one charge-in fact, there were not many left.

The reason for this situation is that in the two intensive artillery bombardments, the casualties of the French were generally not small. In addition, during the second charge, the Fengguo Army dispatched 400 people, and most of them were daring to fight. So much so that they only made a little resistance, and after knocking down more than a dozen officers and soldiers on the east bank, they were overwhelmed by the swarming tide of bayonets.

In fact, the French are not to blame for this, it is because they are extremely uncomfortable with the tactics of the people on the east coast.My God, in the old continent at this time, what country's army would be so extravagant that a few hundred people would mobilize more than a dozen cannons—and they were more powerful [-]-pound and [-]-pound cannons—to help in the battle? ?Moreover, these more than ten cannons bombarded a small hill indiscriminately back and forth for nearly an hour. I can't stand it!What's more, they came in a hurry, and they didn't have time to dig out hidden facilities. If the explosion rate of the shells of the people on the east coast was not really a problem, and the unpredictable sea breeze had deflected a lot of shells, the French would have been blasted down long ago. There is no need for the east bank infantry to charge.

The battle is over, the mountain bag has changed hands, and the first obstacle to the attack on Cape de France has been removed.Moreover, as the people on the east coast put their artillery on the mountain bag they snatched from the French, the next battle will become much easier until they advance to the city of Cape France.

And while the battle on the shore was in full swing, the battle at sea was drawing to a close.The two sides in the battle were two "Star"-class light cruisers commanded by Captain Cai Anguo and a French armed merchant ship with a tonnage of less than 100 tons. Perhaps it was due to the coercion of the chiefs in the city. The ship actually wanted to take advantage of the favorable opportunity when the two warships on the east coast could not turn (they were in the leeward position at the time), so they escaped directly from the port and reported to other places.

In fact, it is no wonder that the French think so, because generally speaking, the only two warships on the east coast cannot seal the huge Cape-de-France port. It is no wonder that the French have the idea of ​​fleeing, because they Eager to send the news to neighboring Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Christopher and French Guiana, etc., of course, will eventually bring the news back to Bordeaux or Nantes to remind His Majesty the king of his Territory and people have been blatantly attacked by the heretics of the east coast.

But the French underestimated the good maneuverability and fast speed of the "Star" class light cruiser. In fact, they had been watching the French's every move for a long time. went up and eventually blocked its way two hours later.

The ensuing battle was very boring. Dozens of cannons from the two ships bullied the only 12 small-caliber light cannons on the armed merchant ship. Naturally, the French parents didn't even know each other.However, perhaps because there were important people on board, the French insisted on refusing to surrender. They lingered until the last moment when a big hole was punched in the side of the hull and the seawater poured into the bilge frantically. After arguing, a small boat was finally lowered and surrendered to the East Coasters with a white flag.Their luck was good. Qi Jiang finally got the permission of Captain Cai Anguo, and then they were all escorted to the bilge of the "Southern Cross" and detained. They conducted surprise interrogations.

The information obtained from the interrogation did not exceed the expectations of the people on the east coast, because according to the French, the number of French troops stationed in the Cape de France is not large, about 600, and most of them are unpopular in the country. Huguenot Soldiers - these days Louis seemed to have a particular distaste for these Protestants, sent to Portugal to fight the Spaniards, to Austria to fight the Ottomans, to Crete to aid the Venetians, and to the New World as cannon fodder Most of them are these Huguenot soldiers, and they seem to have made up their minds to let these Protestants consume them outside, so as not to be bored at home.

The navy immediately passed the information it received to the army's commander-in-chief, Lan Fei. At this time, he had already set up his headquarters on the small soil bag that he had just seized from the French with a cannon, and then observed the front with a telescope. The situation in the city.At this distance, the 120 mm caliber (the shell is slightly heavier than the European 12 pound) smoothbore gun of the first company of the Independent Field Artillery can already bombard a corner of the city, but it can only use hollow iron bullets, and the shells have already become At the end of the crossbow, it will not pose much threat, at best it will frighten the French.

Still have to use naval heavy artillery to bombard!Having gone through the battle with the little soil bag just now, he has lost confidence in persuading these die-hard Frenchmen to surrender, so he feels that he still has to do a fight!However, fortified battles and street battles have always been the most annoying and casual forms of battle. Therefore, after careful consideration, he decided to fight steadily, that is, rely on small hills to build fortifications, and then borrow heavy artillery from the navy to destroy them. After being mounted on the hill, they bombarded the corner of France from a high position to force the French to come out for a decisive battle or simply surrender.

However, when the navy reported to him the information obtained from the interrogation, and he learned that there were only three or four hundred French regular soldiers in the city (maybe more than that if you count the militia), he felt that he could make a tentative attack first, anyway. It is also time-consuming to transport heavy artillery and install it. The two can go hand in hand!

(End of this chapter)