Chahar is not the largest but the most prosperous seaport city in the southwest of Sasan. At this moment, it is a thick smoke rising into the sky one after another in the urban area.
Smoke is not cooking smoke. It is a fire caused by shelling, buildings or other objects being burned by fire.
It has been two days since the expedition fleet of the Han Empire arrived at the coast of Chahar. On the first day, it launched heavy artillery, firing main and auxiliary guns. A total of more than 2000 shells were fired.
Most of the shells fell on residential areas. Nowadays, the buildings in residential areas of most cities, including streets, are not orderly at all. Most of them are one building over there and one building over here, and the sundries are piled up disorderly. In case of a fire, unless the fire is put out when it is too small, the probability of forming a fire is infinitely high.
After the fire, the people in the city did not try to put out the fire, but most of the passages were stacked with sundries, or the residents expanded indiscriminately. Except for the rich areas, Chahar did not have any fire-fighting transport vehicles or water pipelines. Relying on people to carry buckets to put out the fire, it was simply a cup of water. The fire could not be contained, and more and more buildings were ignited, Formed a large sea of fire.
In addition to the heavy inclined artillery fire at the beginning, the Han Army carried out a round of artillery fire every other hour. There is no fixed shelling area, and there is often indiscriminate shelling of the whole city.
The shelling was irregular, and no one knew how to determine whether they were safe. Under the extreme lack of security, citizens began to flee outside the city.
Fonda Dora is the city Lord of Chahar. He was prepared for the arrival of the Han fleet. It can't be said that he didn't take relevant measures, but he didn't see what gunship bombardment looked like and couldn't make targeted preparations.
"Clear a buffer belt at the edge of the fire." Fonda DOA was watching the sea of fire in the distance: "there is no salvation there."
Chahar is a prosperous coastal city. In today's era, how prosperous it is can almost determine how chaotic the city is, especially some slums.
It was confirmed that there was no rescue in a certain slum. The garrison in the city did not mobilize water tankers, but there was no access at all. After the fire that could be saved spread, coupled with the inability of water tankers to enter, it became a tragic situation that there was no need to save.
To say which area of each city will have the most people, there is no doubt that it will be trade areas and slums.
Fonda DOA specifically asked the patrolman how many people there were in the area that had fallen into the sea of fire, and the answer was no less than 2000.
Before the fire spread completely, some people wisely chose to stay away from it as soon as possible, but more people did futile fire fighting. About 100 people escaped from 2000 residents, most of them women and children. The rest will be trapped in the fire no matter how they look.
There is not only a seemingly hopeless fire site. If the whole slum looks at the past, fires are burning everywhere, but because the area of the slum is large enough to form a separate fire site after another. The number of people trapped in the fire site will never be less than 20000, accounting for about 45% of the population of Chahar slum.
It is not just the slums that are burning the fire. If calculated as a percentage, at least about 25% of the whole city is caught in the sea of fire, especially in the slums and storage areas.
Of course, the rich areas were also shelled by the gunboats of the Han Empire, only because the rich areas had wide channels, and there were more waterways prepared at ordinary times. In addition, the rich areas themselves had convenient water intake facilities, and some places were put out in time after the fire was found, so there was no more serious disaster.
The city Lord's mansion was built in the highest place in the city. It looked conspicuous enough, but it didn't encounter too many shelling. It can even be said that the Han Army didn't seem to see such a conspicuous place after it was bombarded with more than 20 guns at the beginning, and did not shelling the city Lord's mansion area again.
"The Han people still didn't attack the port?" Fonda DOA can maintain the greatest calm now, because the city Lord's house looks safe enough: "they are afraid of port damage and can't land?"
The port really didn't. Even if a shell fell, the storage area near it encountered heavy shelling.
There is no doubt that the most serious fire in the city is the storage area beside the port. From this point of view, Fonda DOA can confirm that the Han Army basically didn't come for looting, or it should leave the goods in the port?
The terrain of the city Lord's residence is high enough to see the situation on the sea.
Because of the arrival of the expedition fleet of the Han Empire, the non Han ships in the nearby sea areas were either sunk or captured, or ran away as soon as possible. Now, except for the Han ships floating in the huge sea area, there is no ship shadow of others.
Fonda DOA knew the most basic visual inspection. From the beginning, he found that there were more than 1000 ships of various types in the Han Empire. Eleven of them didn't seem to be the largest, but they looked much larger than other ships. In addition, they looked much more beautiful.
Gunboats are late products, which are relatively longer than other types of ships. In addition, the appearance looks more sharp, which will naturally look more beautiful.
Fonda DOA will think the gunboat is very beautiful. In fact, it is mainly out of the favor of powerful things. He wants to take it as his own under envy. Naturally, he loves it more.
The largest ship on the sea is definitely the Linzi during the period, followed by some transport ships.
The largest transport ships are not much smaller than Linzi. In terms of tonnage, they are actually larger than Linzi. They are fat and round, which is quite different from the slender hull of Linzi.
Now, the whole expedition fleet is spread out and stopped on the sea. Gunships are closest to the land. Next to them are two large transport ships. War boats will travel between gunships and transport ships, mainly to transport shells to supplement consumption.
The second echelon is a square shaped carrying ship. Many soldiers stand on the deck to watch the gunships that will launch shelling every other hour.
Except for the side facing the land, there are conventional warships cruising back and forth in the periphery of the other three directions.
The rest of the ships just anchor and line up in a straight line one after another. After many ships spread out on the sea, if they look down from a high enough height, a "land surface" composed of ships will be formed on the sea surface.
"Chaos is chaos..." Yuan Qiao observed the land through a telescope: "but the army is not chaos, the chaos is civilians."
Their gunships are still too few. If they want to make the city completely chaotic, the main artillery target is the residential area, and the inclined firepower to the barracks is not enough.
Of course, to create chaos is to bombard residential areas. Shelling barracks under the condition of serious lack of firepower will cause some casualties to the enemy, but there will not be too many enemy troops to destroy, or even the camp can not be destroyed at all. The most is to force the garrison to withdraw and camp again in another place.
Huan Wen looked at Wang Meng and said, "what advice does Chang Shi have?"
It was Wang Meng's suggestion not to attack the port for the time being. There were a large number of ships parked there. Due to the fire in the storage area, the evacuated personnel chose the port that had not been attacked, resulting in the port area being crowded with people.
Leaving the port is naturally for landing. No army landing from the sea will take shelling the port as the main goal. If a facility is destroyed, it will cause difficulties for its own landing.
"General." Wang Meng saluted and said, "my opinion is to continue shelling for another day, continue northward, and continue shelling every time I pass a coastal city."
The expeditionary fleet carried enough gunpowder and shells, even spare bronze guns.
The main gun of the gunship doesn't need to fire if necessary, so as to avoid failure while wearing the gun barrel, but the auxiliary gun doesn't matter. If it is broken, it can be replaced in time.
At present, Persian Sassanian has no long-range weapons to threaten the fleet, but gunships can launch artillery outside the firing range of enemy long-range weapons.
Persian Sassanian can counterattack also needs the Han Army to land. Once the Han Army does not land, it continues to carry out coastal shelling by taking advantage of long-range weapons. Unless Persian Sassanian sends a fleet to fight, it can only be attacked passively.
"If you have a chance, you can land..." Wang Meng kept saluting: "it's not necessary for the enemy to be ready."
They landed at the two satraps in order to support the Tianzhu shogunate. It is necessary to carry out a relatively dynamic landing war, otherwise they really can't attract the attention of the two satraps. But I didn't expect that it was just a landing war, but it made two satraps give in to the armistice.
Huan Wen accepted yuan Qiao's opinion and did not take the lead to negotiate the surrender with the two satraps. He handed it over to the Tianzhu shogunate.
Attacking Sasan is actually to accumulate more experience, not to log in. After all, the western expedition shogunate did not move westward for the time being. The emergence of the expeditionary fleet could attract enough attention of Saddam and force him to deploy heavy troops on the long coastline. Their current move is enough.
Landing is generally to reap benefits, such as the plunder of landing Lek. If there are many troops stationed in Sasan City, there will be a war after landing. Huan Wen knows that it is really unnecessary.
Within three years, the expeditionary fleet will not get the slightest replenishment of troops, which Huan Wen was told before he set out.
They also need to go on an expedition to Europa. In order to accumulate experience, they can lose some resources and troops in two satraps or Sassanids, but they really can't lose too much. Huanwen's bottom line is that they can't lose more than 2000 people, otherwise it will have an impact on the expedition to Europa.
"Well..." Huan Wen nodded, "as long history said."
In the back, Fonda DOA saw with his own eyes that as soon as the Han Army changed its normal, the port where none of the shells had fallen encountered heavy shelling. His first reaction after seeing the port shelled was joy.
"The Han people shelled the port!" Fonda DOA said to the left and right, "does that mean they want to give up landing?"
The port area is constantly bombarded by Persians or other ethnic groups who thought it was safe to stay here. They are running everywhere.
After the Han army began shelling the port, some ships in the port just moved.
At first, it was a civilian ship. They knew that moving would become a target, but they continued to stay where they were, waiting to be cremated, and began to flee with one in ten thousand hope.
Subsequently, some military warships also began to take action. They were ordered to attack the Han fleet.
On the Han side, the gunboats ignored the moving port ships and continued to attack the port, as if they would never stop until the port was completely destroyed.
The fact that the gunboat did not answer did not mean that the other Han warships did not respond.
In this expedition, on the premise that the enemy did not send warships, conventional warships always played the role of playing soy sauce. It was not easy to have a combat target, and the warships who got the battle order were full of joy.
"Elevation 25 degrees."
"Launch!"
What was fired was not a shell, but a crossbow with an explosive arrow.
Among the expeditionary fleets, the number of crossbow ships actually accounts for the most. The captain of each crossbow ship has long understood that the warships under their feet will be completely eliminated in about ten years, and it will be the world of gunships in the future.
This expedition to Europa is basically the last appearance of the crossbow ship, which can be called the most beautiful. Even if there is no war sinking in Europa, there is no possibility for the warship to return to the mainland.
It may be the last appearance of the scenery, but there has been no matching opponent. The sad thing is that it is so obvious that we can seize the opportunity to fight, even if we face an opponent who is not at the same level, any crew member, including the captain, is willing to fight with 100% enthusiasm.
Fonda DOA originally thought that sending out warships could attract the firepower of Han gunships. When he saw that Han gunships continued to bombard the port, it seemed that shells had fallen on the city master's house, and it seemed that the number of shells falling on the city master's house was increasing. It can be said that he was very disappointed.
In less than half an hour, or exactly 27 minutes, the non Han operated ships that started were wiped out on the sea by the dispatched Han Army crossbow ships.
Maybe they think they have a rare opportunity to attack. Instead of taking prisoners, they can vigorously launch crossbows and arrows. Even the small board boat can attract at least five crossbows and arrows.
"Which city is next?"
"Go back to general. It's Ludia thirty miles north. It's another city with a port in the nearby sea."
Huan Wen soon found the location called Ludia on the map.
The overseas map was painted by Wang Meng when he was an envoy. Last time, it was basically determined which cities would be more valuable to attack if he came to invade.