There is almost no need to elaborate on what happened after that. Basically, it developed according to the expectations before the war.
The seaport was the first to launch the attack. The mobile fleet handed over the captured Arakan warship to the Grand Fleet, which mobilized sailors and marines from three armed transport ships to pretend to be the Arakan warship and return to port.
Although the Arakanese people in the port were puzzled, they found that the fleet collectively displayed the "Encountering Hurricane" flag. They were relieved and shocked, and quickly and vigorously issued an emergency notification to the entire Hong Kong to prevent the hurricane, such as packing stalls and closing doors and windows. They all started to get things done quickly. For a moment, they didn't even care about what happened after the fleet arrived at the port.
This gives the Marines an excellent assault environment. The Marines quickly landed, fully armed and took over several forts and surrounding sentries in the port. They also collectively disarmed a military camp set up on the edge of the port.
At this time, the Marine Corps did not dare to neglect, and pretended to be in an emergency to take shelter from the wind and tried to enter the city from the port. Unfortunately, this time it failed because the Marine Corps' performance was too professional. The Arakan soldiers in Chittagong City were immediately confused. Knowing that this was definitely not the level of his own comrades, he quickly closed the city gate and immediately notified the city guard.
The Marines tried to launch an attack while the enemy troops were not fully in place. However, due to the lack of heavy weapons, they had neither enough breaking ability nor sufficient deterrence. Therefore, they fired two salvos with more than a dozen No. 3 field guns. After that, I had to give up and go to support the landing of large troops.
Gao Lian did not criticize the performance of the Marine Corps, but praised it. For him, it was a surprise enough to capture the Chittagong port so easily, and although the Marines failed to capture the city gate, there was obviously no problem in terms of tactical performance, and he had no reason to criticize them.
Immediately afterwards, Gao Lian launched a battle formation as quickly as possible and surrounded Chittagong City from the west, north, and south, leaving only the east side empty. This can be seen as encircling three and missing one, but it was mainly based on the plan before the war - forcing the defenders in the city to flee across the river eastward, and then ran into the blockade of Ercen on the river.
The city's defenders soon realized that they were in a dire situation. Although the army besieging the city outside has not yet launched a formal attack and has only conducted sporadic artillery test firings on three sides, the opponent's artillery is not only powerful, but judging from the number of artillery launched, the total of these three sides of the siege must be at least There are two hundred cannons, which is not something Chittagong City can resist. The reason is very simple. The real strength of Chittagong is the port defense, but now the port is given away for free. How can the remaining city do it?
The Chittagong garrison immediately prepared to abandon the city and flee, but some of his subordinates persuaded him, saying that the enemy army was so powerful, how could they forget to block the east side? There must be a fraud in this.
The guard was furious and said that the Go River was not far to the east. If we lost the port, we would have no ships. Of course, the other party thought that we could not cross the river and escape. However, none of us from Chittagong are good at swimming. How could we not be able to swim across it as long as we escape to the river? Without further ado, stop talking nonsense, we have to leave now.
So, the guard left two thousand old and weak men behind, fired up three thousand elites, opened the east city gate and began to flee. The two thousand old and weak men lost their backbone, and before Gao Lian could launch a full-scale attack, they simply raised the white flag and demanded to negotiate with Gao Lian about surrender.
Gao Lian had already learned from Tan Ma who was monitoring Dongcheng that the elites in the city had fled through the city. Of course, he knew that the old and weak people left behind were just trying their best to delay time for those who fled.
However, Gao Lian thought for a moment and agreed, allowing the other party to send people to negotiate. He just agreed in advance that there was only one chance to surrender. If they wanted to delay or play any tricks, then don't blame him, Chief of Staff Gao, for being rude.
Why do we do this? Because Gao Lian also knew that he could not take the credit alone, especially when Gao Yuan was still in charge of the river. If the city is taken over immediately, there is no doubt that troops must be immediately sent to pursue the Chittagong deserters. Otherwise, it will be difficult for Gao Yuan to pursue him when the time comes.
But if we pursue immediately, the deserters will have just touched Er Cen with their front feet, and the pursuers will arrive from behind. The whole army will definitely be annihilated or surrender on the spot. In this case, Er Cen, who was responsible for blocking the attack, would definitely feel that he had been robbed of his credit - oh, you took the port, you took the city, and you still have half of the credit for clearing out the fleeing enemies in the end, so we brothers are here to see the scenery. ?
Therefore, Gao Lian deliberately gave the defenders in the city some time to delay, and also gave Er Cen and even Gao Yuan the opportunity to block or annihilate the enemy in the river.
Go to the river side. Gao Yuan's attack time was also strictly calculated. In fact, because there were two big bends in the east river from the estuary to Chittagong City, their side took action a little earlier than the harbor side.
When the Marine Corps seized the port, the Army troops on Gaoyuan's side had already begun to disembark. There is no large dock next to the river, so getting off the boat is actually quite troublesome. It's easy for people to say that it's no big deal that they are covered in water, but gunpowder and cannons are not easy to handle. They have to be transported down one box and one door by small boat.
Fortunately, the pre-war plan gave enough time. When Er Cen and Er Huang built basic defense lines on the east and west banks of the river, three thousand people led by the Chittagong garrison had already rushed over.
The Arakan army in Chittagong can be considered the country's elite, but similar to other neighboring countries, they do not have cavalry worth mentioning - here refers to cavalry on horseback. However, they had twenty war elephants.
War elephants are actually also found in southern Xinjiang, but Gao Pragmatic has never liked to use them. The reason is that the inherent weaknesses of elephants are too obvious. Back then, he had several ways to defeat war elephants.
Same now.
The enemy general saw that there was a murderous army in front of him, waiting for him in a neat formation, and he already knew that something bad might happen today. However, although the weapons and equipment of our own army are obviously inferior to those of the other party, maybe the war elephant can create miracles?
So, he immediately ordered the mobilization of war elephants, trying to defeat the opponent's fools who dared to stand against the odds. This idea is actually not wrong, because not everyone can learn from Han Xin. In fact, no one who learned from Han Xin succeeded in fighting against the odds. There are a few cases, but there are many failures.
However, when the war elephants gathered to launch an attack, the roar of giant cannons immediately rang out from the opponent's battle formation. No, it wasn’t just the opponent’s battle formation, it was also the same on the river. At this time, the Arakan people noticed that there were many giant ships lined up on the river, with countless black gun barrels protruding from the side of the deck, and the light of fire flickered. It shoots deadly huge projectiles.
Under the simultaneous firing of land and sea artillery, the elephants were frightened and turned around to flee, instantly breaking up the originally unorganized formation of the Arakanese people. Many people died under the cannons, but more people were trampled to death by their own elephants. .
Cen Yunhan glanced at the "Tungyu City" on the river behind him and found that Gao Yuan did not display the various flags commanding operations.
He took a deep breath, ordered the rear team to raise the flag, and signaled the fleet not to continue firing. At the same time, he shouted: "The infantry is pressing forward, the cavalry is outflanking from both sides, and the surrender is allowed!"
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Thanks to book friends "Yun Fuyue Yu" and "book friend 20220623205459661" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: There will be another chapter to make up for yesterday’s post in the early hours of tonight.
(End of chapter)
