Chapter 1820
Delaying Operations
Chapter 1820 Delaying Operations
Although the Fujian navy does not have enough troops to completely block the Daning River, it is not difficult to beware of large-scale crossing operations organized by the Qing army. After all, small troops of tens of hundreds of people and large troops of tens of millions The movement before crossing the river is very different. The latter needs to assemble in advance and arrange a large number of crossing vehicles on the riverside, which will be easily spotted by the patrolling ships on the river.So in a few days, although the Qing army was scattered and hundreds of people crossed the Daning River, they basically failed to make any waves. When they reached the other side of the river, they were wiped out by the North Korean defenders who were waiting for work.
After such a stalemate lasted for three days, the anxious Qing army even began to try to cross the river on rafts at night to avoid the monitoring of the Fujian navy.But this way of crossing the river is also quite risky. The visibility at night is poor. The rafts crossing the river are not easy to control. In order not to collide with each other on the river, they have to set off at a distance. The location will also become quite scattered, and the squad still cannot complete the assembly in a short time.The officers who led the team across the river didn't even know whether the teams that hadn't yet appeared drifted to the lower river bank or fell directly into the river.
Using this method to cross the river in the dark, many people can be sent across the river overnight, but the price paid is also very high. Except for the unlucky ghosts who unfortunately turned over in the river to feed the fish, it is also difficult for the scattered Qing troops who landed in the early morning. Against the large group of North Korean defenders who came to patrol the river bank, the situation of smuggling during the day was not much better than before.After the North Korean army gradually got used to such a fighting environment of fighting more and fighting less, it gradually became more courageous, and even began to build Jingguan with the heads of Qing soldiers on the banks of several major river crossing points.
The Korean people did not dare to think about such an exciting operation of building a Beijing temple with human heads, but this time the Qing army invaded and pushed several small cities within hundreds of miles in one breath. Thousands of Korean soldiers and civilians were killed and injured. The number of people kidnapped is several times that, and the loss of property has been impossible to estimate.
Such a situation has actually made the soldiers and civilians in Pyongan Province in northern North Korea realize that this time the Qing army did not come to grab some money and food and then withdraw the population, but to fight a war of annihilation with peace of mind, and then wanted to swallow their anger to avoid this. War is no longer possible.Now that troops from other countries have come to help in the battle, and they have effectively blocked the pace of the Qing army going south, some of the more belligerent North Korean troops vented their long-stored anger by means of Zhujingguan after the battle.
Of course, the heads of the Qing army used to build the Beijing Temple have already been counted and counted as military merits.In addition, according to the request made by the Ming army, the officers among the Qing army's captives were also temporarily spared. These prisoners with special identities would be handed over to the Ming army for detailed interrogation to obtain more military intelligence.
In fact, these captives only stayed in the hands of the Fujian Navy for a short time before they were handed over to the Haihan people and brought back to the Datong River base. It was not the Ming army who was actually in charge of interrogating these prisoners, but the Haihan military intelligence department. Professional torturers.
The information obtained by the Military Intelligence Department from these prisoners is far better than what was obtained during the previous Yalu River operation. At that time, the prisoners that could be captured were almost all small soldiers with limited knowledge. Understand the deployment and action plan of the Qing army, and this time all the officers were arrested, and they would more or less know some military secrets.
The Military Intelligence Department quickly determined a few things from the confessions of these prisoners: First, Huang Taiji really personally supervised the battle, and he is already in North Korea, but these officers are not high enough, and they don’t know where his boss is staying. The second is that the Qing army currently assembled on the banks of the Daning River has no specific plan for crossing the river. The Qing army was completely blind to the situation on the other side of the Daning River, that is to say, they had no idea whether it was Koreans, Haihans, or a coalition of multinational troops waiting for them on the other side.
"The Qing army is also afraid that they will face a bigger trap after crossing the river." After reading the interrogation report sent by the Military Intelligence Department, Qian Tiandun said to his staff officers: "They are worried that they will be half-crossed." But Zh was also afraid that we had already set up positions on the other side and waited for them to land and die, so we did not dare to organize a large-scale crossing operation, so we just sent people across the river here and there to test things out. According to this progress, let alone They may not be able to advance to the city of Anzhou in ten days or a month."
"If there is a month, then at least two miles of trenches and parapets can be added to the defensive position of the base, ten more fixed forts can be built, and a few more berths can be built in the port!"
"A month's time is enough for North Korea to mobilize troops from the south to garrison the front line of Pyongyang City on the Datong River, and it will also relieve us of some pressure at that time."
"By then, the Liaodong operation should have come to an end, and the navy can withdraw to assist in the defense. The life of the Qing army will be even more difficult than it is now!"
The staff officers all expressed an optimistic attitude towards the trend of the battle situation. Although the defense of Anzhou City itself may not be very strong, as long as the two water channels of the Daning River and the Qingchuan River hold the main force of the Qing army for a long enough time, the North Korean Even if Anzhou is lost, it will not affect the overall situation.At that time, the strength of the coalition forces to block the Datong River will definitely exceed the previous actions on the Yalu River. It is basically impossible for the Qing army to cross the Datong River Basin safely.To put it bluntly, this is the end of the finish line that Haihan set for them.
Of course, the North Korean side will still pay a lot of sacrifices in the process, not only losing another Anju, but even the city of Pyongyang on the banks of the Datong River may have to abandon all parts of the north of the river and evacuate its personnel to areas beyond the south of the Yangtze River. Preserve forces against the Qing army.But as long as they can stop the Qing army and keep North Korea, the Haihan military believes that the North Korean monarchs and ministers will eventually suffer this dull loss in silence.
As for why the Datong River was chosen as the place to launch a counterattack, instead of the Daning River Basin in the north, which also has an inland navigation environment, there are three main reasons. Relying on here to establish a military base stationed in North Korea, you can make full use of the benefits of the home field to wait for work here, without mobilizing troops to travel long distances to attack; second, Haihan needs more time to build fortifications at its own base, and setting up positions on the Datong River can Win more buffer time to complete the construction; third, there is still a distance of two hundred miles between the Daning River and the Datong River. After the long march, they had to cross the Daning River again, and that would be the real nightmare for the Qing army.
But until now, Qian Tiandun has still not fully disclosed his battle plan to the North Korean military. On the one hand, he does not trust the North Koreans, and is worried that there will be internal traitors who will leak the news; Consuming the strength of the Qing army, the counterattack on the Datong River will be easier at that time.
According to the plan agreed between Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom, the North Korean military will not be notified of the follow-up combat arrangements until the Qing army enters the city of Anzhou.To put it bluntly, it is necessary to exchange the smallest price for the greatest victory. Of course, the main body of the price refers to the Haihan coalition forces, not the North Korean country.North Korea's role in this battle plan is actually almost cannon fodder, but North Korea's own national and military strength is very weak in Haihan's view, not even comparable to the province of Fujian, which was also lacking in previous battles. With such a brilliant performance, the Haihan military is naturally reluctant to bring the North Koreans to play together.
On No. 12 days when the Qing army was stranded on the banks of the Daning River, a Qing army unit quietly attacked the Korean army's garrison from the upper reaches.After a hasty and chaotic resistance, the [-] North Korean troops in charge of defending the river bank were defeated, and immediately scattered and fled.
This Qing army of more than 2000 men was able to cross the river without making a sound, because their crossing point was not within the defense zone of the Fujian Navy and the Korean Army.On the third day after the main force of the Qing army arrived on the banks of the Daning River, after realizing that they could not break through the blockade of the Fujian Navy, they sent a force to go around the upper reaches, and this army spent a full eight days , sneak across the river from the undefended area upstream, and then go around and kill back.When they discovered that the troops stationed on the river bank were not the Haihan army, but the Korean defenders, they decisively launched a surprise attack and defeated the unprepared North Korean army.
In fact, this way of action of the Qing army had long been expected by the coalition forces. Xu Yuzhuo had even greeted the North Korean garrison a few days in advance, asking them to beware of Qing troops that might appear in the upper reaches.However, the Koreans were obviously overly optimistic about the results of the battle during this period. They believed that the Qing army’s sending people across the river to die every day was the limit of the offensive, and they did not think that the enemy would try to cross the mountainous area and break through from the upper reaches of the Daning River.When encountering a surprise attack by the Qing army without preparation, defeat is inevitable.
Without the North Korean Army's defense on the river bank, the section of the Daning River that the Fujian Navy could effectively control had to be further shortened. Especially at night, there was basically no way to stop the small Qing army from crossing the river.In the absence of reinforcements and the inability to further divide the troops, Xu Yuzhuo also realized that if the Qingchuan River in the south was not retreated, the Qing army would break through the next natural barrier and reach the city of Anzhou without any difficulty.
As a result, the Fujian Navy had no choice but to voluntarily withdraw from the Daning River, and instead sailed into the Qingchuan River in the south to deploy defenses, and asked the Anzhou defenders on the south bank to help defend on the shore to prevent the Qing army from crossing the river quickly.
Although there were thousands of defenders in Anzhou, after the situation took a turn for the worse, local civil and military officials were generally pessimistic about blocking the Qing army. It was Haihan who sent infantry troops to help defend the city.
Almost every day, requests for help from the front were sent to Jin Shangxian, but Jin Shangxian had already learned about the follow-up combat arrangements from Qian Tiandun at this time, and it was absolutely impossible to deploy troops two hundred miles away to help at this time. In Anzhou, he could only throw all these letters of appeal into the brazier and burn them, as if he had never received any news.
Kim Sang-heon has sent his right-hand man back to Seoul to report the front-line battle situation and the secret battle plan of the Haihan people to King Li Ji.In order to win the king's support, Kim Sang-heon has issued a military order and will stay at the base of the Datong River to supervise the battle. If this line of defense cannot be defended, he will commit suicide by the banks of the Datong River and will not return to Seoul to return to his command.
Kim Sang-heon's decision is basically a bet on his own wealth and life.Of course, the war situation has developed to the current stage, and he can't do without gambling. The Qing army went all the way south and beat North Korea with no power to fight back, and the Haihan army, which was hired with a lot of money, has been refusing to make a move by the Datong River. The main battle faction cannot shirk the blame for this situation. At this time, the king has not ordered him to punish him, but he has already given him enough trust.But this kind of trust will be exhausted after all, and the pressure from home and abroad will probably not give the king the confidence to put all his family money on the table and gamble cleanly.
If they continue to lose and let the Qing army cross the Datong River, then the last few hundred miles away from Seoul probably won't have a chance to stand up again.Kim Sang-heon believes that instead of letting the king push himself out as a scapegoat, it is better to fight the last one at the Daedong River now. If you lose, you will die here. It is better to die for the country than to flee back to Seoul and be sentenced to prison. many.
Regarding the establishment of the military order, Jin Shangxian did not hide it from Qian Tiandun, but told him frankly that he hoped that his bet would make the Haihan people pay attention to this battle, fight the Qing army well, and stop deliberately saving their strength .
"Lord Jin, it is not only your country's desire to strike the Qing army, but also our country's long-term goal. Our country sent troops far away in Liaodong to fight against the Qing country for several years. This is also the purpose. Now that you have agreed to your country's request, accept With the military expenses and land provided by your country, this battle will definitely be handled well. In fact, I have a bold request. I would like to ask His Majesty the King to come to the Datong River to supervise the battle in person, and take a good look at how the mighty Qing army is here. The halberd is smashed into the sand, and the army is defeated like a mountain!"
Qian Tiandun's reply was full of confidence, and he was not at all shaken by the fact that North Korea's current war situation was completely passive. This made Jin Shangxian wonder whether his previous distrust of the Haihan people was a bit too hasty.
Part of Qian Tiandun's confidence comes from the telegram he just received. The navy's operations in Liaodong have basically come to an end. After a short rest, they will move south and return to the Korean peninsula to participate in the final decisive battle.When the entire coalition fleet came to the Datong River Basin, it would not be as easy for the Qing army to break through this line of defense as it had previously broken through the Daning River.
(End of this chapter)
Although the Fujian navy does not have enough troops to completely block the Daning River, it is not difficult to beware of large-scale crossing operations organized by the Qing army. After all, small troops of tens of hundreds of people and large troops of tens of millions The movement before crossing the river is very different. The latter needs to assemble in advance and arrange a large number of crossing vehicles on the riverside, which will be easily spotted by the patrolling ships on the river.So in a few days, although the Qing army was scattered and hundreds of people crossed the Daning River, they basically failed to make any waves. When they reached the other side of the river, they were wiped out by the North Korean defenders who were waiting for work.
After such a stalemate lasted for three days, the anxious Qing army even began to try to cross the river on rafts at night to avoid the monitoring of the Fujian navy.But this way of crossing the river is also quite risky. The visibility at night is poor. The rafts crossing the river are not easy to control. In order not to collide with each other on the river, they have to set off at a distance. The location will also become quite scattered, and the squad still cannot complete the assembly in a short time.The officers who led the team across the river didn't even know whether the teams that hadn't yet appeared drifted to the lower river bank or fell directly into the river.
Using this method to cross the river in the dark, many people can be sent across the river overnight, but the price paid is also very high. Except for the unlucky ghosts who unfortunately turned over in the river to feed the fish, it is also difficult for the scattered Qing troops who landed in the early morning. Against the large group of North Korean defenders who came to patrol the river bank, the situation of smuggling during the day was not much better than before.After the North Korean army gradually got used to such a fighting environment of fighting more and fighting less, it gradually became more courageous, and even began to build Jingguan with the heads of Qing soldiers on the banks of several major river crossing points.
The Korean people did not dare to think about such an exciting operation of building a Beijing temple with human heads, but this time the Qing army invaded and pushed several small cities within hundreds of miles in one breath. Thousands of Korean soldiers and civilians were killed and injured. The number of people kidnapped is several times that, and the loss of property has been impossible to estimate.
Such a situation has actually made the soldiers and civilians in Pyongan Province in northern North Korea realize that this time the Qing army did not come to grab some money and food and then withdraw the population, but to fight a war of annihilation with peace of mind, and then wanted to swallow their anger to avoid this. War is no longer possible.Now that troops from other countries have come to help in the battle, and they have effectively blocked the pace of the Qing army going south, some of the more belligerent North Korean troops vented their long-stored anger by means of Zhujingguan after the battle.
Of course, the heads of the Qing army used to build the Beijing Temple have already been counted and counted as military merits.In addition, according to the request made by the Ming army, the officers among the Qing army's captives were also temporarily spared. These prisoners with special identities would be handed over to the Ming army for detailed interrogation to obtain more military intelligence.
In fact, these captives only stayed in the hands of the Fujian Navy for a short time before they were handed over to the Haihan people and brought back to the Datong River base. It was not the Ming army who was actually in charge of interrogating these prisoners, but the Haihan military intelligence department. Professional torturers.
The information obtained by the Military Intelligence Department from these prisoners is far better than what was obtained during the previous Yalu River operation. At that time, the prisoners that could be captured were almost all small soldiers with limited knowledge. Understand the deployment and action plan of the Qing army, and this time all the officers were arrested, and they would more or less know some military secrets.
The Military Intelligence Department quickly determined a few things from the confessions of these prisoners: First, Huang Taiji really personally supervised the battle, and he is already in North Korea, but these officers are not high enough, and they don’t know where his boss is staying. The second is that the Qing army currently assembled on the banks of the Daning River has no specific plan for crossing the river. The Qing army was completely blind to the situation on the other side of the Daning River, that is to say, they had no idea whether it was Koreans, Haihans, or a coalition of multinational troops waiting for them on the other side.
"The Qing army is also afraid that they will face a bigger trap after crossing the river." After reading the interrogation report sent by the Military Intelligence Department, Qian Tiandun said to his staff officers: "They are worried that they will be half-crossed." But Zh was also afraid that we had already set up positions on the other side and waited for them to land and die, so we did not dare to organize a large-scale crossing operation, so we just sent people across the river here and there to test things out. According to this progress, let alone They may not be able to advance to the city of Anzhou in ten days or a month."
"If there is a month, then at least two miles of trenches and parapets can be added to the defensive position of the base, ten more fixed forts can be built, and a few more berths can be built in the port!"
"A month's time is enough for North Korea to mobilize troops from the south to garrison the front line of Pyongyang City on the Datong River, and it will also relieve us of some pressure at that time."
"By then, the Liaodong operation should have come to an end, and the navy can withdraw to assist in the defense. The life of the Qing army will be even more difficult than it is now!"
The staff officers all expressed an optimistic attitude towards the trend of the battle situation. Although the defense of Anzhou City itself may not be very strong, as long as the two water channels of the Daning River and the Qingchuan River hold the main force of the Qing army for a long enough time, the North Korean Even if Anzhou is lost, it will not affect the overall situation.At that time, the strength of the coalition forces to block the Datong River will definitely exceed the previous actions on the Yalu River. It is basically impossible for the Qing army to cross the Datong River Basin safely.To put it bluntly, this is the end of the finish line that Haihan set for them.
Of course, the North Korean side will still pay a lot of sacrifices in the process, not only losing another Anju, but even the city of Pyongyang on the banks of the Datong River may have to abandon all parts of the north of the river and evacuate its personnel to areas beyond the south of the Yangtze River. Preserve forces against the Qing army.But as long as they can stop the Qing army and keep North Korea, the Haihan military believes that the North Korean monarchs and ministers will eventually suffer this dull loss in silence.
As for why the Datong River was chosen as the place to launch a counterattack, instead of the Daning River Basin in the north, which also has an inland navigation environment, there are three main reasons. Relying on here to establish a military base stationed in North Korea, you can make full use of the benefits of the home field to wait for work here, without mobilizing troops to travel long distances to attack; second, Haihan needs more time to build fortifications at its own base, and setting up positions on the Datong River can Win more buffer time to complete the construction; third, there is still a distance of two hundred miles between the Daning River and the Datong River. After the long march, they had to cross the Daning River again, and that would be the real nightmare for the Qing army.
But until now, Qian Tiandun has still not fully disclosed his battle plan to the North Korean military. On the one hand, he does not trust the North Koreans, and is worried that there will be internal traitors who will leak the news; Consuming the strength of the Qing army, the counterattack on the Datong River will be easier at that time.
According to the plan agreed between Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom, the North Korean military will not be notified of the follow-up combat arrangements until the Qing army enters the city of Anzhou.To put it bluntly, it is necessary to exchange the smallest price for the greatest victory. Of course, the main body of the price refers to the Haihan coalition forces, not the North Korean country.North Korea's role in this battle plan is actually almost cannon fodder, but North Korea's own national and military strength is very weak in Haihan's view, not even comparable to the province of Fujian, which was also lacking in previous battles. With such a brilliant performance, the Haihan military is naturally reluctant to bring the North Koreans to play together.
On No. 12 days when the Qing army was stranded on the banks of the Daning River, a Qing army unit quietly attacked the Korean army's garrison from the upper reaches.After a hasty and chaotic resistance, the [-] North Korean troops in charge of defending the river bank were defeated, and immediately scattered and fled.
This Qing army of more than 2000 men was able to cross the river without making a sound, because their crossing point was not within the defense zone of the Fujian Navy and the Korean Army.On the third day after the main force of the Qing army arrived on the banks of the Daning River, after realizing that they could not break through the blockade of the Fujian Navy, they sent a force to go around the upper reaches, and this army spent a full eight days , sneak across the river from the undefended area upstream, and then go around and kill back.When they discovered that the troops stationed on the river bank were not the Haihan army, but the Korean defenders, they decisively launched a surprise attack and defeated the unprepared North Korean army.
In fact, this way of action of the Qing army had long been expected by the coalition forces. Xu Yuzhuo had even greeted the North Korean garrison a few days in advance, asking them to beware of Qing troops that might appear in the upper reaches.However, the Koreans were obviously overly optimistic about the results of the battle during this period. They believed that the Qing army’s sending people across the river to die every day was the limit of the offensive, and they did not think that the enemy would try to cross the mountainous area and break through from the upper reaches of the Daning River.When encountering a surprise attack by the Qing army without preparation, defeat is inevitable.
Without the North Korean Army's defense on the river bank, the section of the Daning River that the Fujian Navy could effectively control had to be further shortened. Especially at night, there was basically no way to stop the small Qing army from crossing the river.In the absence of reinforcements and the inability to further divide the troops, Xu Yuzhuo also realized that if the Qingchuan River in the south was not retreated, the Qing army would break through the next natural barrier and reach the city of Anzhou without any difficulty.
As a result, the Fujian Navy had no choice but to voluntarily withdraw from the Daning River, and instead sailed into the Qingchuan River in the south to deploy defenses, and asked the Anzhou defenders on the south bank to help defend on the shore to prevent the Qing army from crossing the river quickly.
Although there were thousands of defenders in Anzhou, after the situation took a turn for the worse, local civil and military officials were generally pessimistic about blocking the Qing army. It was Haihan who sent infantry troops to help defend the city.
Almost every day, requests for help from the front were sent to Jin Shangxian, but Jin Shangxian had already learned about the follow-up combat arrangements from Qian Tiandun at this time, and it was absolutely impossible to deploy troops two hundred miles away to help at this time. In Anzhou, he could only throw all these letters of appeal into the brazier and burn them, as if he had never received any news.
Kim Sang-heon has sent his right-hand man back to Seoul to report the front-line battle situation and the secret battle plan of the Haihan people to King Li Ji.In order to win the king's support, Kim Sang-heon has issued a military order and will stay at the base of the Datong River to supervise the battle. If this line of defense cannot be defended, he will commit suicide by the banks of the Datong River and will not return to Seoul to return to his command.
Kim Sang-heon's decision is basically a bet on his own wealth and life.Of course, the war situation has developed to the current stage, and he can't do without gambling. The Qing army went all the way south and beat North Korea with no power to fight back, and the Haihan army, which was hired with a lot of money, has been refusing to make a move by the Datong River. The main battle faction cannot shirk the blame for this situation. At this time, the king has not ordered him to punish him, but he has already given him enough trust.But this kind of trust will be exhausted after all, and the pressure from home and abroad will probably not give the king the confidence to put all his family money on the table and gamble cleanly.
If they continue to lose and let the Qing army cross the Datong River, then the last few hundred miles away from Seoul probably won't have a chance to stand up again.Kim Sang-heon believes that instead of letting the king push himself out as a scapegoat, it is better to fight the last one at the Daedong River now. If you lose, you will die here. It is better to die for the country than to flee back to Seoul and be sentenced to prison. many.
Regarding the establishment of the military order, Jin Shangxian did not hide it from Qian Tiandun, but told him frankly that he hoped that his bet would make the Haihan people pay attention to this battle, fight the Qing army well, and stop deliberately saving their strength .
"Lord Jin, it is not only your country's desire to strike the Qing army, but also our country's long-term goal. Our country sent troops far away in Liaodong to fight against the Qing country for several years. This is also the purpose. Now that you have agreed to your country's request, accept With the military expenses and land provided by your country, this battle will definitely be handled well. In fact, I have a bold request. I would like to ask His Majesty the King to come to the Datong River to supervise the battle in person, and take a good look at how the mighty Qing army is here. The halberd is smashed into the sand, and the army is defeated like a mountain!"
Qian Tiandun's reply was full of confidence, and he was not at all shaken by the fact that North Korea's current war situation was completely passive. This made Jin Shangxian wonder whether his previous distrust of the Haihan people was a bit too hasty.
Part of Qian Tiandun's confidence comes from the telegram he just received. The navy's operations in Liaodong have basically come to an end. After a short rest, they will move south and return to the Korean peninsula to participate in the final decisive battle.When the entire coalition fleet came to the Datong River Basin, it would not be as easy for the Qing army to break through this line of defense as it had previously broken through the Daning River.
(End of this chapter)