Chapter 1236
Rally Point
Chapter 1236 Rally Point
Leaving aside the whereabouts of the British, the Johor army found here matches the confession of the captives, and the information on the location and approximate size of the garrison is basically the same.The lives of the few spies caught by Hai Han earlier should be saved.
The size of an army of 3000 to [-] is not much. What Roger cares most about is not the combat effectiveness of these troops. What he pays more attention to now is how to ensure the logistics of the enemy troops. After all, the opponent's preset battlefield is on Xingdao , although there is only a narrow strait in the middle, the transportation of materials and personnel is much more complicated than simple land operations.If Johor intends to start a full-scale war with Haihan, transportation will be a major difficulty they cannot get around.
To deliver a large number of personnel and supplies to Xingdao in a short period of time, the required number of ships is not small, and this transportation route from land to sea and then to sea also puts the military's command and coordination ability to the test.Roger believes that a small country like Johor, which has no outstanding achievements in recent years, has relatively limited military strength and combat experience. It is likely that it is incapable of smoothly commanding such a complicated military operation. This link probably requires the British. Assisted.
The British had carried out many armed landing operations in the process of building colonies overseas, and their operational experience in this field must have far surpassed that of the Johor Army.According to the captives, they are serving as military advisers in the Johor Army, and they will also help in the field of shipping, which is relatively good.
Roger suddenly thought of something, and took out the map to check it carefully. Not far from their current location to the east is the mouth of a river, and the river there is relatively open, and there may be river alluvial The formed natural harbor exists.If the Johor Army wants to gather a large number of ships and prevent being detected by Haihan on the other side of the strait, mooring the ships in the mouth of the river is a very good means of concealment.And this place is not far from the Johor Army's garrison, and it is more convenient for materials and personnel to board the ship. The more Roger thought about it, the more reasonable he felt, so he decided to check out the place.
So the reconnaissance team set off again after a short rest and headed east.Roger’s map is drawn based on the satellite images stored in the Sanya big database, but the time is hundreds of years apart, and the topography will also have a certain gap, especially in places like the estuary where the topography changes almost every year , the reference value of the map is even more limited.Therefore, whenever Haihan went to a place, one of the things he had to do was to correct the map in hand.
And this time is no exception, the location of the estuary is closer than the standard distance on the map, which may be caused by the different flow direction of the river, but it also saves a lot of footwork for the scouting team.At a distance of tens of meters from the edge of the forest, Roger had already seen the faint traces of human activities outside the forest, and immediately stopped the team from advancing.After careful identification, Roger found that it should be a patrol team of the Johor Army, which made him more sure of his previous guess.
In order to prevent too many people from revealing their whereabouts, Roger asked the others to stop first, and led the two of them slowly to the edge of the woods. After making sure that the patrol team had gone far, he poked his head out to observe the situation outside.
On both sides of the river, which is about one mile wide, there are hundreds of sailboats docked densely.However, the shipbuilding technology of Johor is obviously quite primitive. These sailing boats are generally small in size, about the same size as the common fishing boats on Hainan Island, and a boat can hold a dozen people at most.Even so, it is unknown how many places were searched for these ships. Given Johor's national strength, it should be very difficult to recruit so many ships in a short period of time.
Among these small boats, there are also five or six sailboats with slightly larger hulls and more eye-catching shapes.Roger can be sure at a glance that this kind of Galen ship that only Western colonists will have is definitely not something that Johor can make.Roger took out the binoculars, and after careful observation, he finally saw the drooping three-color Union Jack on the mast of one of the sailing ships.There is no doubt that the British resident should be on the nearby river bank.
On the river bank not far from the British sailing ship, a small freight wharf has been built. You can see that a lot of packed materials have been piled up on the wharf, and a bamboo shed has been specially built to keep out the wind and rain. It seems that the opponent is preparing for war. Work has been going on for a while.There are still some migrant workers on the wharf who are continuously transporting the material resources, but it is obvious that the efficiency of this purely human transportation method is very low, and it is far inferior to the operation method of Haihan Wharf.
Roger quickly noticed that there were indeed a few blond and blue-eyed Westerners pointing at the pier, presumably they were the British who came to aid Johor.Seeing the patrol team in the distance slowly turning back, Roger quickly signaled his two men to retreat with him.The trees on the edge of the jungle were relatively sparse, and when the patrol team got close, the three of them couldn't hide their figures.
The reconnaissance team stayed here for a full two hours, changed several observation positions, and basically confirmed the frequency of the Johor patrol.It's just that the five hundred British militants claimed by the captives have not been confirmed so far.In addition to finding a few British sailing ships, the reconnaissance team observed fewer than 50 Westerners.
Roger looked at the time, and ordered to return to the station the same way.If you don't go back, you will definitely not be able to go to the place before dark, and it is not easy to walk in the dark in the forest.The enemy army is still gathering, so there is no need to rush to collect all the information in this hour and a half.
The reconnaissance team was familiar with the journey back, and the marching speed was much faster, and they finally returned to the temporary camp before dark.After this day of reconnaissance, the assembly point of the Johor Army on the coast and the actual participation of the British have basically been determined.However, it has not yet been confirmed how many troops Johor is going to actually put into combat, and whether the British have really sent hundreds of armed men to participate in this operation, so they still have tasks to complete in the next day or two.
The temporary camp is extremely peaceful. I haven't even seen a ghost in the whole day. It seems that there is indeed no human activity in the vicinity.The few people who stayed in the camp had been idle for a day. Seeing that Roger was leading the team back, they took the initiative to ask for a fight and asked to participate in the next day's operation.However, Roger had originally planned to let all his subordinates take turns to participate, but he did not reject their challenge, and readily agreed.
According to the agreed time, Roger used the radio to get in touch with the Xingdao base and briefed him on the progress of the current operation.He didn't forget to remind Tan Juren, who was in charge of Xingdao, to speed up the preparations for the war.Although the content of Johor’s war preparations seems crude, Roger will not underestimate his opponents in terms of tactics. After all, it is people who determine the direction of war, not just the difference in equipment.Advanced weapons and equipment and combat methods can certainly bring great advantages to the Haihan army, but to turn the advantage into victory, it still requires the soldiers to work together to fight.
In fact, the preparations for the Xingdao base have not stopped since the day when Roger led the troops to station. It is preparing for the war that may come one day.The Haihan Executive Committee won this important throat, and never thought that this place would remain peaceful forever, so after the occupation, it has not invested too much resources in commercial development of Xingdao, which may be one of the reasons why the Executive Committee has kept it secret. .
In the next day's operation, Marcus, who stayed in the camp to watch the house the day before, finally took a rotation and joined the team that went out for reconnaissance.Roger still followed the route of action that had been reconnaissed yesterday, and led the crowd straight to the assembly point of the Johor Army.The tall and burly Marcus walked in the front with a three-foot-long extra-large machete, and the road opened by him from the forest was enough for the teammates behind to pass easily.His dark complexion only needs to smear some green oil paint to have enough camouflage effect, which saves a lot of camouflage.And the backpack on his body is also one size bigger than the others. With him in the team, the overall combat load of the whole team can be slightly increased by one gear.
When there was still about a mile or two away from yesterday's observation point, Roger ordered to slow down the speed of advance, and carefully observed some secret marks deliberately planted on the way when evacuating yesterday, to confirm that the opponent did not notice that the scout team entered and exited here yesterday Actions.
Roger first sent people to yesterday's observation point to confirm whether there was any obvious change in the situation of the opponent's assembly point on the river bank, and then led the team from the forest to the upper reaches of the river.The observation point found yesterday is very close to the mouth of the sea. The surrounding area has been carefully observed, and no British camp has been found.Roger thought that if the British really sent a large number of men, then their camp might be set up a little further upstream, so that they could easily obtain supplies from nearby villages.
Roger's speculation was quickly confirmed. After the scouting team moved upstream for about two miles, they finally found the important target of the trip, the British camp.
There are also several galleons docked on the river bank here. Judging from the number of sailboats discovered so far, it is indeed possible that a large number of British armed personnel have arrived here.A sparse fence surrounds the camp, separating it from the outside world.Roger observed with the binoculars for a while, and there were indeed many armed men who looked like Aryan races in the camp practicing in formation.Judging from the matchlock guns they were equipped with, they should be mercenaries under the British.
"This group of bastards are still well practiced!" Roger muttered while observing the group of people with a telescope.Although the opponent is Haihan's opponent, Roger will not look down on the opponent's strength because of this. The training level of these mercenaries is not bad, at least the tactical actions made under the orders of the officers are very neat, according to the standards of this era It's pretty good by any measure.
It is not difficult to estimate the strength of the troops based on the number of barracks and tents in this camp, and the difference from the number given by the captives will not be too large. Moreover, the British should not have expected that the opponent would send people to lurk here for reconnaissance, so they are suspicious. This kind of advanced operation should also not exist, and the calculated troop strength has a high degree of credibility.
Of course, just finding the British camp does not mean that the mission has been successfully completed. Roger hopes to observe the opponent's pre-war training to confirm the main tactics he will use in combat, and it is best to confirm The size of the Johor Army trained by the British will make it more sure to deal with the attack launched by the other side.
Judging from what Roger observed, musketeers are almost always played by British mercenaries in uniform, while Johor soldiers are responsible for using spears and shields to provide cover for the advanced troops behind them.These shields, which are about four feet high, stood on the ground and connected together, almost providing a breast wall for the musketeers standing behind to cover most of their bodies.Musketeers can even put their muskets directly on the top of the shield to complete the firing action, and then remove them to make room for the musketeers in the next row to continue shooting.If the opponent rushes to a relatively close distance, the spear protruding between the shields will also have a certain lethality.
This is a relatively clever design. In fact, the Haihan Army has used similar methods in combat, but instead of using so much manpower, it has designed a trolley for transporting supplies on the battlefield that can be erected as a bunker. functions, in order to save manpower on the battlefield to the greatest extent.
Of course, the operational efficiency of the manpower bunkers of the Johor Army and the British is obviously higher and more flexible. Not only can this shield wall move freely before and after the battle, but even if the personnel at a certain position is damaged, it can The loopholes will be filled immediately by alternate personnel.From this point of view, it is indeed more flexible and convenient than Haihan's car bunker.
After Roger understood the opponent's tactics, he immediately began to think about how to crack the opponent's tactics.If the shield was not thick enough to block the bullets fired by the Haihan rifle, then all this would be in vain, and the shield wall, no matter how closely packed it was, would be useless.But if this shield is enough to block rifle bullets, then the Haihan Army's inherent tactics may need to be fine-tuned.
If it is the latter case, then the area where the enemy soldiers can be effectively killed by shooting is much smaller, at most only about one-third of the body, which requires the soldiers to aim more accurately when shooting. To be precise.But to achieve this, the firefighting distance must be further shortened to ensure shooting accuracy, and this will undoubtedly increase the risk of soldiers.
Of course, there is another solution that uses force to overcome ingenuity, and that is to push out the cannon, aim at the musket array and bombard him directly.
(End of this chapter)
Leaving aside the whereabouts of the British, the Johor army found here matches the confession of the captives, and the information on the location and approximate size of the garrison is basically the same.The lives of the few spies caught by Hai Han earlier should be saved.
The size of an army of 3000 to [-] is not much. What Roger cares most about is not the combat effectiveness of these troops. What he pays more attention to now is how to ensure the logistics of the enemy troops. After all, the opponent's preset battlefield is on Xingdao , although there is only a narrow strait in the middle, the transportation of materials and personnel is much more complicated than simple land operations.If Johor intends to start a full-scale war with Haihan, transportation will be a major difficulty they cannot get around.
To deliver a large number of personnel and supplies to Xingdao in a short period of time, the required number of ships is not small, and this transportation route from land to sea and then to sea also puts the military's command and coordination ability to the test.Roger believes that a small country like Johor, which has no outstanding achievements in recent years, has relatively limited military strength and combat experience. It is likely that it is incapable of smoothly commanding such a complicated military operation. This link probably requires the British. Assisted.
The British had carried out many armed landing operations in the process of building colonies overseas, and their operational experience in this field must have far surpassed that of the Johor Army.According to the captives, they are serving as military advisers in the Johor Army, and they will also help in the field of shipping, which is relatively good.
Roger suddenly thought of something, and took out the map to check it carefully. Not far from their current location to the east is the mouth of a river, and the river there is relatively open, and there may be river alluvial The formed natural harbor exists.If the Johor Army wants to gather a large number of ships and prevent being detected by Haihan on the other side of the strait, mooring the ships in the mouth of the river is a very good means of concealment.And this place is not far from the Johor Army's garrison, and it is more convenient for materials and personnel to board the ship. The more Roger thought about it, the more reasonable he felt, so he decided to check out the place.
So the reconnaissance team set off again after a short rest and headed east.Roger’s map is drawn based on the satellite images stored in the Sanya big database, but the time is hundreds of years apart, and the topography will also have a certain gap, especially in places like the estuary where the topography changes almost every year , the reference value of the map is even more limited.Therefore, whenever Haihan went to a place, one of the things he had to do was to correct the map in hand.
And this time is no exception, the location of the estuary is closer than the standard distance on the map, which may be caused by the different flow direction of the river, but it also saves a lot of footwork for the scouting team.At a distance of tens of meters from the edge of the forest, Roger had already seen the faint traces of human activities outside the forest, and immediately stopped the team from advancing.After careful identification, Roger found that it should be a patrol team of the Johor Army, which made him more sure of his previous guess.
In order to prevent too many people from revealing their whereabouts, Roger asked the others to stop first, and led the two of them slowly to the edge of the woods. After making sure that the patrol team had gone far, he poked his head out to observe the situation outside.
On both sides of the river, which is about one mile wide, there are hundreds of sailboats docked densely.However, the shipbuilding technology of Johor is obviously quite primitive. These sailing boats are generally small in size, about the same size as the common fishing boats on Hainan Island, and a boat can hold a dozen people at most.Even so, it is unknown how many places were searched for these ships. Given Johor's national strength, it should be very difficult to recruit so many ships in a short period of time.
Among these small boats, there are also five or six sailboats with slightly larger hulls and more eye-catching shapes.Roger can be sure at a glance that this kind of Galen ship that only Western colonists will have is definitely not something that Johor can make.Roger took out the binoculars, and after careful observation, he finally saw the drooping three-color Union Jack on the mast of one of the sailing ships.There is no doubt that the British resident should be on the nearby river bank.
On the river bank not far from the British sailing ship, a small freight wharf has been built. You can see that a lot of packed materials have been piled up on the wharf, and a bamboo shed has been specially built to keep out the wind and rain. It seems that the opponent is preparing for war. Work has been going on for a while.There are still some migrant workers on the wharf who are continuously transporting the material resources, but it is obvious that the efficiency of this purely human transportation method is very low, and it is far inferior to the operation method of Haihan Wharf.
Roger quickly noticed that there were indeed a few blond and blue-eyed Westerners pointing at the pier, presumably they were the British who came to aid Johor.Seeing the patrol team in the distance slowly turning back, Roger quickly signaled his two men to retreat with him.The trees on the edge of the jungle were relatively sparse, and when the patrol team got close, the three of them couldn't hide their figures.
The reconnaissance team stayed here for a full two hours, changed several observation positions, and basically confirmed the frequency of the Johor patrol.It's just that the five hundred British militants claimed by the captives have not been confirmed so far.In addition to finding a few British sailing ships, the reconnaissance team observed fewer than 50 Westerners.
Roger looked at the time, and ordered to return to the station the same way.If you don't go back, you will definitely not be able to go to the place before dark, and it is not easy to walk in the dark in the forest.The enemy army is still gathering, so there is no need to rush to collect all the information in this hour and a half.
The reconnaissance team was familiar with the journey back, and the marching speed was much faster, and they finally returned to the temporary camp before dark.After this day of reconnaissance, the assembly point of the Johor Army on the coast and the actual participation of the British have basically been determined.However, it has not yet been confirmed how many troops Johor is going to actually put into combat, and whether the British have really sent hundreds of armed men to participate in this operation, so they still have tasks to complete in the next day or two.
The temporary camp is extremely peaceful. I haven't even seen a ghost in the whole day. It seems that there is indeed no human activity in the vicinity.The few people who stayed in the camp had been idle for a day. Seeing that Roger was leading the team back, they took the initiative to ask for a fight and asked to participate in the next day's operation.However, Roger had originally planned to let all his subordinates take turns to participate, but he did not reject their challenge, and readily agreed.
According to the agreed time, Roger used the radio to get in touch with the Xingdao base and briefed him on the progress of the current operation.He didn't forget to remind Tan Juren, who was in charge of Xingdao, to speed up the preparations for the war.Although the content of Johor’s war preparations seems crude, Roger will not underestimate his opponents in terms of tactics. After all, it is people who determine the direction of war, not just the difference in equipment.Advanced weapons and equipment and combat methods can certainly bring great advantages to the Haihan army, but to turn the advantage into victory, it still requires the soldiers to work together to fight.
In fact, the preparations for the Xingdao base have not stopped since the day when Roger led the troops to station. It is preparing for the war that may come one day.The Haihan Executive Committee won this important throat, and never thought that this place would remain peaceful forever, so after the occupation, it has not invested too much resources in commercial development of Xingdao, which may be one of the reasons why the Executive Committee has kept it secret. .
In the next day's operation, Marcus, who stayed in the camp to watch the house the day before, finally took a rotation and joined the team that went out for reconnaissance.Roger still followed the route of action that had been reconnaissed yesterday, and led the crowd straight to the assembly point of the Johor Army.The tall and burly Marcus walked in the front with a three-foot-long extra-large machete, and the road opened by him from the forest was enough for the teammates behind to pass easily.His dark complexion only needs to smear some green oil paint to have enough camouflage effect, which saves a lot of camouflage.And the backpack on his body is also one size bigger than the others. With him in the team, the overall combat load of the whole team can be slightly increased by one gear.
When there was still about a mile or two away from yesterday's observation point, Roger ordered to slow down the speed of advance, and carefully observed some secret marks deliberately planted on the way when evacuating yesterday, to confirm that the opponent did not notice that the scout team entered and exited here yesterday Actions.
Roger first sent people to yesterday's observation point to confirm whether there was any obvious change in the situation of the opponent's assembly point on the river bank, and then led the team from the forest to the upper reaches of the river.The observation point found yesterday is very close to the mouth of the sea. The surrounding area has been carefully observed, and no British camp has been found.Roger thought that if the British really sent a large number of men, then their camp might be set up a little further upstream, so that they could easily obtain supplies from nearby villages.
Roger's speculation was quickly confirmed. After the scouting team moved upstream for about two miles, they finally found the important target of the trip, the British camp.
There are also several galleons docked on the river bank here. Judging from the number of sailboats discovered so far, it is indeed possible that a large number of British armed personnel have arrived here.A sparse fence surrounds the camp, separating it from the outside world.Roger observed with the binoculars for a while, and there were indeed many armed men who looked like Aryan races in the camp practicing in formation.Judging from the matchlock guns they were equipped with, they should be mercenaries under the British.
"This group of bastards are still well practiced!" Roger muttered while observing the group of people with a telescope.Although the opponent is Haihan's opponent, Roger will not look down on the opponent's strength because of this. The training level of these mercenaries is not bad, at least the tactical actions made under the orders of the officers are very neat, according to the standards of this era It's pretty good by any measure.
It is not difficult to estimate the strength of the troops based on the number of barracks and tents in this camp, and the difference from the number given by the captives will not be too large. Moreover, the British should not have expected that the opponent would send people to lurk here for reconnaissance, so they are suspicious. This kind of advanced operation should also not exist, and the calculated troop strength has a high degree of credibility.
Of course, just finding the British camp does not mean that the mission has been successfully completed. Roger hopes to observe the opponent's pre-war training to confirm the main tactics he will use in combat, and it is best to confirm The size of the Johor Army trained by the British will make it more sure to deal with the attack launched by the other side.
Judging from what Roger observed, musketeers are almost always played by British mercenaries in uniform, while Johor soldiers are responsible for using spears and shields to provide cover for the advanced troops behind them.These shields, which are about four feet high, stood on the ground and connected together, almost providing a breast wall for the musketeers standing behind to cover most of their bodies.Musketeers can even put their muskets directly on the top of the shield to complete the firing action, and then remove them to make room for the musketeers in the next row to continue shooting.If the opponent rushes to a relatively close distance, the spear protruding between the shields will also have a certain lethality.
This is a relatively clever design. In fact, the Haihan Army has used similar methods in combat, but instead of using so much manpower, it has designed a trolley for transporting supplies on the battlefield that can be erected as a bunker. functions, in order to save manpower on the battlefield to the greatest extent.
Of course, the operational efficiency of the manpower bunkers of the Johor Army and the British is obviously higher and more flexible. Not only can this shield wall move freely before and after the battle, but even if the personnel at a certain position is damaged, it can The loopholes will be filled immediately by alternate personnel.From this point of view, it is indeed more flexible and convenient than Haihan's car bunker.
After Roger understood the opponent's tactics, he immediately began to think about how to crack the opponent's tactics.If the shield was not thick enough to block the bullets fired by the Haihan rifle, then all this would be in vain, and the shield wall, no matter how closely packed it was, would be useless.But if this shield is enough to block rifle bullets, then the Haihan Army's inherent tactics may need to be fine-tuned.
If it is the latter case, then the area where the enemy soldiers can be effectively killed by shooting is much smaller, at most only about one-third of the body, which requires the soldiers to aim more accurately when shooting. To be precise.But to achieve this, the firefighting distance must be further shortened to ensure shooting accuracy, and this will undoubtedly increase the risk of soldiers.
Of course, there is another solution that uses force to overcome ingenuity, and that is to push out the cannon, aim at the musket array and bombard him directly.
(End of this chapter)