Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 332 Maginot Line Vietnam Limited Edition
"Report!"

"Commander, our soldiers have successfully captured the Red River Mouth Fort!"

"1134 enemies were killed and 5220 captured, including nearly mercenaries from Western countries such as Britain, France, the Netherlands and Spain."

After the war, Fang Haiyang and Zhang Guoliang came to Chen Yucheng to report the results of the battle.

Chen Yucheng closed the military newspaper that was delivered to him and nodded slightly.

"Our army won a great victory in this battle. The Red River Mouth changed hands and the passage to Hanoi was opened."

"All the generals have made great contributions!"

"Afterwards, this commander will report the results of this battle to His Majesty. I believe His Majesty will certainly reward you generously."

Upon hearing this, all the generals couldn't help but get excited and shouted in unison.

After everyone finished cheering, Chen Yucheng began to give instructions on the treatment of the prisoners of war.

"The Vietnamese prisoners of war were organized into a vassal army to assist our Tang Dynasty soldiers in combat."

"As for the prisoners of war from Britain, France and other Western countries, we need to take good care of them. Later, the court may be able to do something with them."

These prisoners of war are the leverage that the Tang Dynasty has over Britain, France and other countries. Although we cannot say that these prisoners of war can make Britain and France turn against the Tang Dynasty and stand on the side of the Tang Dynasty to deal with Vietnam.

But it is definitely enough to cause trouble for Britain and France.

Upon hearing this, the generals nodded to show that they understood.

Chen Yucheng continued.

"Now that the Red River Fort has been captured, all the conditions for our fleet to enter the Red River and drive straight to Hanoi are in place."

"In that case, don't delay any further!"

"Order the entire army to march immediately and head straight to Hanoi!"

Upon hearing this, all the generals responded in unison.

……

On the 20th of the first month of the fourth year of Zhaowu, the Tang army set out from Guangzhou.

On the 29th day of the first lunar month, the Tang army fleet arrived at the mouth of the Red River.

After a day of fierce fighting, the Red River Fort fell, and the Tang army fleet sailed into the Red River, went upstream, and headed towards Hanoi.

On the first day of February, the Tang army attacked Shouyu.

The third day of the lunar year breaks the peace.

On just the fifth day, the Tang army reached Nanding.

The Vietnamese army fought desperately to hold out in Nam Dinh. The Tang army first bombarded the city with naval artillery and then organized an army charge. In one day, Nam Dinh fell and the stubborn defenders were all killed.

After conquering Nanding, the Tang army rested for a while and then continued to attack Xing'an.

The defenders of Xing'an were frightened by the fate of the defenders of Nam Dinh and surrendered without a fight.

The Tang fleet continued to move westward. On the evening of the tenth day, the Tang soldiers standing on the deck of the ship could see the outline of the Hanoi city wall.

At this time, the news of the Tang army's attack on Vietnam was officially spread.

The whole of Vietnam was shocked!
……

Royal Palace in Hue, Vietnam.

After receiving the news of the Tang army's invasion, Nguyen Phuc Thi realized that this day would come sooner or later, even though he had cut off grain trade with Tang merchants.

But when the Tang army really attacked, he couldn't help but feel terrified.

He immediately ordered the gathering of important court officials including Minister of War Zhang Denggui, Grand Secretary of the Dongge Ruan Zhifang, and envoy to the Tang Dynasty Hu Longshan to discuss the matter.

"I just received an urgent report from Hanoi that the Tang fleet invaded the Red River estuary, the Red River fort fell, and our navy was almost annihilated."

"Soon the Tang fleet advanced westward along the Red River. Shouyu, Nam Dinh, Xing'an and other prefectures along the coast fell one after another, and Hanoi was in danger."

"Please tell me, my lords. How should we deal with this next?"

Nguyen Phuc Thi is a little panicked now. The Tang army's attack by sea really caught him off guard!
When Nguyen Phuc Thi ordered the severance of trade, he realized that the Tang Dynasty might launch military retaliation against Vietnam.

Therefore, he also mobilized heavy troops to the Sino-Vietnamese border in advance to guard against the possible southward advance of the Tang army.

However, when Nguyen Phuc mobilized heavy troops, he still thought that the Tang army would invade Vietnam by land like the previous dynasties in the Central Plains.

That is to say, send troops to Vietnam along the line of Lang Son and Bac Giang, or the line of Cao Bang, Bac Jian and Taiyuan.

Therefore, Nguyen Phuc Shi deployed all the Vietnamese troops in important northern cities such as Cao Bang, Lang Son, and Thai Nguyen.

In his opinion, northern Vietnam is all mountainous with rugged terrain and difficult transportation. In addition, the Vietnamese army has deployed heavy defenses in northern Vietnam. Even if the Tang army sends troops, it will not be able to threaten the core of Vietnam, the Red River Delta, in a short time!
Therefore, the Vietnamese army did not deploy many troops in Hanoi, a city located in the rear, and it was quite empty.

But now, the Tang army is not playing by the rules.

Instead of invading Vietnam by land to attack important cities such as Lang Son, Taiyuan, Cao Ping, etc., they took the sea route, passed the Red River estuary, and drove straight to Hanoi.

Now, Vietnam is really in trouble!
The defense of your important cities in the north is indeed good, but the Tang army has no intention of attacking your important cities in the north at all.

Instead, we went directly to Hanoi by sea.

Once Hanoi is lost, the whole of northern Vietnam will be doomed.

Moreover, the heavy Vietnamese troops deployed in northern Vietnam are also expected to be surrounded.

You know, those who are now sent to northern Vietnam to set up defenses are all elite Vietnamese troops.

If these elite Vietnamese troops were wiped out, the Nguyen family's rule would really be shaken.

This is simply the Vietnam limited edition of the Maginot Line.

Upon hearing this, Minister of War Zhang Denggui spoke up.

"Your Majesty, I believe that our army must send troops to reinforce Hanoi."

"The important city of Hanoi must not be lost!"

"If Hanoi is lost, the consequences will be disastrous!"

Upon hearing this, Nguyen Phuc Thi frowned.

"I know that I should send troops to reinforce Hanoi, but where should my Dai Viet get the troops from?"

The Vietnamese army does not have a lot of manpower now, and most of its elite troops have been transferred to northern Vietnam.

It's not to the point where no reinforcements can be gathered, but it will take time.

But what Hanoi lacks most now is time, Nguyen Tri Phuong suggested.

"Your Majesty, my humble suggestion is to dispatch troops from Taiyuan to reinforce Hanoi."

"First, Taiyuan is the closest to Hanoi. The time difference between the two is only a hundred miles. If Taiyuan sends troops to help, perhaps they can make it in time to reinforce the war in Hanoi."

"Secondly, the people in charge of the army in Henei now are the Governor-General of Hening, Lin Weijia, and the Governor Pan Qingjian. Both of them are from Ming country. It is not safe to let them take charge of the army in Henei to resist the attack of the Tang army."

"Therefore, let Huang Weiqi, who is in charge of the troops in Taiyuan, lead his troops to reinforce Hanoi and take control of the military power in Hanoi to ensure safety."

The meaning of Ruan Zhifang's words was very clear.

Mingxiang people like Lin Weijia and Pan Qingjian are unreliable.

The so-called Mingxiang people are actually the descendants of the Ming loyalists.

When the Qing Dynasty first entered the mainland, a considerable number of Ming loyalists were unwilling to accept its rule, so they left the mainland with their families and headed for Southeast Asia to escape the war.

These people were called Mingxiang people.

In other words, most of these people only recognized the Han Dynasty from the bottom of their hearts.

The reason why they worked for Dai Viet was simply because they had no choice after their homeland was invaded by the Tartars.

But now that the Tang army has sent troops to Vietnam, these Ming people are very likely to choose to return to the rule of the Han Dynasty in order to return to their roots.

The Han people's longing for their homeland comes from the bottom of their hearts.

In Nguyen Tri Phuong's eyes, the people of Ming Township were basically traitors who were about to betray Dai Viet and were completely unreliable.

If it weren't for the fact that the Minh Xiang people now occupy many high positions in the Vietnamese court and have huge influence, Nguyen Tri Fang would even want to take down all of the Minh Xiang people directly instead of just sending people to share power and check and balance.

Upon hearing this, Nguyen Phuc Thi nodded slightly.

"That's okay!"

"In addition, notify the garrisons in Cao Bang and Lang Son and ask them to dispatch troops to reinforce the war in Hanoi. There must be no mistakes."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Denggui immediately bowed and accepted the order.

"Your Majesty, rest assured. I understand."

Of course, the matter of mobilizing troops was the responsibility of him as the Minister of War.

Nguyen Phuc Thi nodded slightly, then looked at Hu Longshan and began to explain.

"Thank you for taking the trouble to meet with the ambassadors and consuls of Britain, France and other Western countries and ask them to send troops to reinforce Dai Viet."

"The reason why Dai Viet chose to turn against Tang was because they were behind the scenes. Now that Dai Viet and Tang are at war, they naturally cannot stay out of it."

Upon hearing this, Hu Longshan immediately bowed down.

"Your Majesty, rest assured. I understand!"

Nguyen Phuc Thi continued to give orders.

"In addition, we will send people to borrow troops from Laos, Cambodia, Siam and other countries."

"Request them to send troops to reinforce Dai Viet to fight against the Tang army."

"Tell them that if one is alone, the other will be alone."

"Once our Dai Viet is conquered by the Tang army, they will not be able to escape."

Hu Longshan agreed again.

……

While the Vietnamese were discussing their response, the Tang army was also discussing an offensive against Hanoi.

Chen Yucheng stood in front of a map, holding a baton in his hand, pointing on the map while speaking.

"According to the information currently obtained by our Military Intelligence Department."

"The Vietnamese army currently has 7,000 troops stationed in Hanoi. There are 32 city defense cannons on the city walls, and the army is equipped with about 2,000 muskets, mostly bird guns."

"Other than that, they are all cold weapons."

People always say that the military of the Qing Dynasty is in disrepair, but we have to differentiate between them and whom we are comparing them with.

Compared with Western powers, the Qing army's armaments were naturally lax.

But compared with Asian countries such as Vietnam and North Korea, the Qing Dynasty's military equipment was actually quite good.

Apart from anything else, at least before and after the Opium War, the rate of firearms equipment among the Green Camp soldiers of the Qing army could reach more than half.

However, Vietnam, known as the little overlord of Southeast Asia, has a firearms equipment rate of just over 20% of its troops.

Not even as good as the Qing Dynasty.

Everyone was excited when they heard this.

Zhang Guoliang was the first to jump out and volunteer to fight.

"Please give the order, Commander. I am willing to lead the troops to conquer Hanoi."

Upon hearing this, Chen Yucheng raised his hand and refused.

"No no no!"

"Don't worry!"

"As far as I know, although the Vietnamese army does not have many troops in Hanoi, they have stationed large troops in important cities in the north, such as Lang Son, Cao Bang, and Taiyuan."

"Among them, there are 15,000 Vietnamese troops in Lang Son, led by Gao Rui."

"There are 20,000 Vietnamese soldiers in Gaoping, led by Wan Yuanzhi."

"There are 17,000 Vietnamese troops in Taiyuan, led by Huang Weiqi."

"In addition to these three important towns, the Vietnamese army also has heavy troops stationed in Yong'an, Bac Ninh, Haiphong, Haiyang and other places."

"About 20,000 people in total!"

"For our Tang Dynasty, capturing Hanoi is very important, but defeating these 60,000 to 70,000 elite Vietnamese troops is also very important."

"Therefore, I have decided that our army will temporarily surround Hanoi without attacking it, in order to attract the Vietnamese reinforcements stationed in various places to come to Hanoi for assistance."

"Take this opportunity to surround the enemy and attack their reinforcements!"

(End of this chapter)