Chapter 1826
Chapter 1826
Chapter 1826 Dilemma
Although the city of Pyongyang had been abandoned by the North Korean defenders, the various buildings and infrastructure in the city remained intact. After Huang Taiji arrived at the front line, he requisitioned an official office in the city as a temporary palace and headquarters.
Although Huang Taiji has proclaimed himself emperor, he still carried on most of the living habits of the Manchus. He was not as particular about food, clothing and travel as the Han royal family, and he was more willing to focus on commanding and fighting.After settling down, he ordered someone to clear out a flower hall in the government office, and then asked the craftsmen to make a sand table about one foot square in it.
This command technique was learned by Huang Taiji from the Han generals. It is simple and easy to use, and it is far better than using crude maps to study strategies and give orders in the past.Huang Taiji specially asked a few Koreans who were more familiar with the geographical environment in the vicinity to be selected from the prisoners of war, and asked them to combine maps to help craftsmen build this sand table.
The content of this sand table is the area from Anju to Seoul, and the coastlines, mountains, and rivers in between are basically reduced and restored according to the actual topography.Huang Taiji originally wanted to plan the route for the next southward march on the sand table, but after receiving the latest battle report from the front line, he realized that he might have considered the battle south of the Datong River too early, and he had to fight against the Haihan people. Crossing this river under the nose does not seem to be an easy task.
According to the battle report sent back by Azig, the Haihan people built a fairly large-scale military stronghold in the lower reaches of the Datong River. Except that they did not have time to build forts and city walls, other fortifications were basically available. look like.If Azig's description is true, then there is no doubt that the statement that the Haihan army withdrew from the Korean War some time ago is false. The Haihan people are just pretending to confuse the Qing army, but they are secretly building strongholds to prepare for the war.Judging from the move of the North Koreans to evacuate the city of Pyongyang, it should have been allowed by Haihan, or even at the behest of Haihan.
Haihan asked the North Korean army to withdraw to the south of the Datong River for defense, but he built such a military stronghold on the north bank of the Datong River, which is quite provocative.Of course, the Qing army could choose to ignore Haihan's stronghold on the lower reaches of the Datong River, and try to carry out crossing operations upstream at its own pace. As long as the main force can cross the river, this stronghold will naturally be useless.
But there is a problem that must be solved in this way, that is, to defeat the armed fleet on the river first.Judging from the current reconnaissance situation, the force of the fleet led by Haihan to block the Datong River has far exceeded the previous few operations.However, to the dismay of Huang Taiji and the generals of the Qing army, they searched back and forth for a long time after arriving in Pyongyang, but they did not find any available ships on the riverbanks upstream and downstream of Pyongyang.
The only place with a boat is probably the newly built Haihan stronghold downstream.Huang Taiji even had reasons to believe that the pier there was the supply station for the Haihan Fleet.
If there are not enough vehicles, how will the Qing army cross the Datong River, which is closely monitored by the opponent? This seems to be back to the banks of the Yalu River two months ago. At that time, the Qing army could abandon Jiulian City and find another place to cross the river. point, but changing the original marching plan means that morale will be frustrated, and the follow-up combat plan must be adjusted accordingly.At that time, if the Haihan army hadn't taken the initiative to withdraw from the Yalu River, the Qing army might have to go upstream to find another point to cross the river.
However, the situation here on the Datong River was far more complicated than that on the Yalu River. Even if the Qing army was willing to take the time to go to the upper reaches of the river where the opponent's fleet could not reach, they would still have to go down the south again and return to the Datong River basin.Moreover, the scale of the armed fleet deployed by Haihan on the Datong River is far greater than that of the Yalu River period. It is not easy to go around the entire Datong River Basin.
Huang Taiji stared blankly at the sand table in the flower hall, without making a sound for a long time.He didn't even seek the opinions of the civil and military officials under his command, because he knew very well that no one could come up with a proper solution to this matter, or he would be stopped here in Datong River for a month or even longer, or You can only use a large army to attack the armed stronghold downstream.
It is difficult for Huang Taiji to have a clear estimate of how many casualties the Qing army would have to suffer during the offensive to destroy the line of defense that the Haihan people had carefully prepared for two months, but as the commander of this operation, he must do so in advance. In the worst case, the situation in Liaodong Jinzhou will be repeated on the banks of the Datong River.Although the Qing army has an absolute advantage in terms of troop size, no one can guarantee that it will be able to break through this target in the lower reaches of the Datong River.
Although Azige himself did not come back in person, Huang Taiji could feel Azige's helplessness from the report sent back.If Huang Taiji ordered Azig's troops to forcibly attack the target, then of course Azig would follow suit, but if there were heavy casualties in the battle, then sending other troops to fight in the area would inevitably be affected by the previous record.
Moreover, Haihan only sent a fleet to fight before, and the army troops only showed up briefly in Jiulian City. Huang Taiji didn't think that the opponent's troops were only those on the banks of the Yalu River. For construction, the army troops stationed there will definitely have a lot of troops.Azig only brought [-] soldiers to the place. If a strong attack were to be launched, all of these troops would probably be lost there.
Although Huang Taiji was not a soft-hearted person, he was unwilling to let his troops die in vain, so the idea of immediately ordering a strong attack only flashed in his mind and was abandoned.
Since there is no immediate solution, Huang Taiji can only take a more secure approach and continue to send more scouts up and down the river to find a suitable place to cross the river.The so-called suitability no longer means that the geographical environment is convenient for crossing the river, but to find the monitoring blind spots of the Haihan Fleet on the river.But this possibility is indeed very small. Huang Taiji knew that the opponent had many ways to eliminate these blind spots. For example, the North Koreans who were familiar with the hydrology of the Taedong River were allowed to designate the sections of the river that needed to be monitored, and some places where crossing the river was extremely difficult, It is enough to station a small number of troops on the opposite bank to guard the river bank.
Given the current situation, even if the Qing army can send 2000 people across the river at one time, it doesn't make much sense. The North Korean army must have completed its defense on the opposite bank. If there is a small force of the Qing army, the North Korean army can still fight.
"The Qing army is retreating now?" Jin Shangxian, who witnessed the whole battle process with his own eyes on a newly built watchtower about [-] feet behind the defense line, still couldn't believe it. The mighty Qing army only launched an attack. , After hitting a snag, he decisively called for gold and withdrew.
"What can we do if we don't retreat? Although they are uncivilized barbarians, they are not idiots. They know that they can't attack this line of defense with their abilities, so they can only watch the excitement from a distance." Qian Tiandun said calmly. Putting down the binoculars, he explained to Jin Shangxian: "The charge they launched was to test the defense strength of this line of defense. Now that they have tested it, they will stop."
Jin Shangxian was slightly disappointed with the performance of the Qing army's bullying and fearing the hard, but he still skillfully boasted about the stable output of the Haihan Independence Group.He saw very clearly the battle between the two armies just now. The Qing army hadn't been able to cause any real trouble to the Haihan troops on the ground at all.
After the Qing army retreated, the Haihan formation calmly dispatched a company of infantry and hundreds of civilians to clean up the battlefield.Some war horses that lost their owners stopped on the battlefield and did not retreat with the Qing army, so they naturally became Haihan's spoils of war, and all the weapons, banners, and personal belongings left on the battlefield were picked up one by one and loaded into the cart Transported back to the base.
As for the wounded Qing soldiers who had lost their ability to move, if they still showed the intention to resist, the Haihan soldiers would stand far away and shoot them to death.Those who gave up resistance were asked to be carried by civilian husbands to the cart and transported back to the base to see if they could find any useful information.
Jin Shangxian has no interest in cleaning the battlefield anymore, but it is not easy to go up the six-foot-high watchtower, and it will make people's legs weak when they go down.Jin Shangxian dawdled for a while and still didn't dare to let go of his hands and feet. Qian Tiandun had to have a rope tied around his waist, and the other end was fixed to the railing on the top of the watchtower, and then another person was arranged to support Jin Shangxian below. With trembling legs, slowly put him down.
There are several watchtowers like this used to monitor enemy movements in the base.This kind of wooden tower is not complicated to build, but its strength is not ideal. It can only be regarded as a temporary facility. When there is a strong wind, I dare not send people to it.Jin Shangxian applied to go up to watch the battle. As a last resort, Qian Tiandun came out to accompany him in person. He didn't expect that the North Koreans would not be able to get down when they went up, and they had to use such a shameful way to slip down.
Jin Shangxian slipped to the ground with great difficulty, if not for his subordinates supporting him from the side, he might have been a little unstable.However, he is now in a much more relaxed mood than he was a few days ago, and he doesn't care about embarrassing himself in public.As long as the Qing army can be kept on the north bank of the Datong River, this little embarrassment will have nothing to do with it. If the Qing army can be driven back to Liaodong, Jin Shangxian will be fine even if he climbs this watchtower every day.
Jin Shangxian rested for a while, and Qian Tiandun had already come down from the watchtower. Jin Shangxian waved his hand to screen his subordinates, got up and walked to Qian Tiandun, and asked with a pleasant face: "General Qian, the Qing army can't capture this place." Will the line of defense turn to other places to find a solution?"
In fact, this issue was already explained to Kim Sang-hyun when he explained the battle plan to him earlier. Qian Tiandun knew that it was not that Kim Sang-hyun didn't know the secret, but he just wanted to use this to seek peace of mind for himself.
Qian Tiandun said with a smile: "Since they have found out that this place is easy to defend and difficult to attack, they will definitely try to find opportunities to cross the river from other places. If there is no accident, the Qing army will probably not attack here again in the next two or three days. Now, but there should be some door-to-door deals for our coalition fleet."
The coalition fleet on the Datong River has recently added another member, the North Korean navy as the master.The wooden houseboats and turtle ships, which are clumsy in shape but have strong defenses, are the main warships of the Korean navy. Of course, this defense is compared to the warships of other countries in East Asia in this era. For Haihan who uses large-caliber naval guns As far as warships are concerned, it doesn't matter whether they are strong or not, the result is the same after one shot.
During the period when the Qing army was dragged in Anzhou, North Korea mobilized most of its warships from the south and rushed to the Datong River to join the coalition fleet led by Haihan.Although the weapons used by the Korean warships are slightly outdated compared to the other fleets, there are quite a few of them. There are as many as forty warships with a displacement of more than [-] tons, and three of them even have a According to Wang Tom's estimation, the turtle ship with a layer of iron armor should have a displacement equivalent to that of an expedition-class warship.
Although the combat effectiveness of the North Korean fleet was a notch lower, its supplementary effect on controlling the Datong River was very obvious. With the addition of these dozens of warships, the coalition fleet's control of the river could be increased by at least another fifty miles or more.Moreover, at the request of Wang Tom, the North Korean authorities also mobilized sixty or seventy civilian ships with better conditions and faster speeds. The duties of the surface sentinel.As long as the enemy's situation is detected and the signal is sent out, warships from the coalition forces will come to rescue within an hour.
After being supplemented by the North Korean navy, the coalition fleet can deploy its main force to the river near Pyongyang, waiting for the Qing army to try to cross the river.The Haihan Fleet led by Wang Tom even hid on the south bank of Yanggakdo. If the Qing army wanted to use Yanggakdo as a springboard to cross the river, there would probably be no return.
The Qing army naturally thought of such a simple way of crossing the river. The plan they formulated for crossing the river was to use rafts to transport troops to Yangjiao Island in the middle of the river at night. In the same way, complete the itinerary from Yanggakdo to the south bank of the Daedong River.Of course, this river crossing plan has a premise, that is, absolute control of Yangjiao Island, otherwise, once the opponent finds out that the well-organized Qing army is hiding on Yangjiao Island, it may even cut off the back road.
Although the action of this plan is extremely risky, for the Qing army who can't come up with a better solution, it can only be a dead horse as a living horse doctor, so let's try it first.It’s just that their small actions couldn’t be hidden from the prepared Haihan Fleet. Tom Wang even climbed up the mast at night and used binoculars with night vision to confirm that the Qing army had boarded this 1.2-square-meter km of the island.
Of course, the Qing army did not intend to hang on this tree. Almost at the same time, the Qing army also crossed the river to land on the island at night in the Pyongyang section of the river.
(End of this chapter)
Although the city of Pyongyang had been abandoned by the North Korean defenders, the various buildings and infrastructure in the city remained intact. After Huang Taiji arrived at the front line, he requisitioned an official office in the city as a temporary palace and headquarters.
Although Huang Taiji has proclaimed himself emperor, he still carried on most of the living habits of the Manchus. He was not as particular about food, clothing and travel as the Han royal family, and he was more willing to focus on commanding and fighting.After settling down, he ordered someone to clear out a flower hall in the government office, and then asked the craftsmen to make a sand table about one foot square in it.
This command technique was learned by Huang Taiji from the Han generals. It is simple and easy to use, and it is far better than using crude maps to study strategies and give orders in the past.Huang Taiji specially asked a few Koreans who were more familiar with the geographical environment in the vicinity to be selected from the prisoners of war, and asked them to combine maps to help craftsmen build this sand table.
The content of this sand table is the area from Anju to Seoul, and the coastlines, mountains, and rivers in between are basically reduced and restored according to the actual topography.Huang Taiji originally wanted to plan the route for the next southward march on the sand table, but after receiving the latest battle report from the front line, he realized that he might have considered the battle south of the Datong River too early, and he had to fight against the Haihan people. Crossing this river under the nose does not seem to be an easy task.
According to the battle report sent back by Azig, the Haihan people built a fairly large-scale military stronghold in the lower reaches of the Datong River. Except that they did not have time to build forts and city walls, other fortifications were basically available. look like.If Azig's description is true, then there is no doubt that the statement that the Haihan army withdrew from the Korean War some time ago is false. The Haihan people are just pretending to confuse the Qing army, but they are secretly building strongholds to prepare for the war.Judging from the move of the North Koreans to evacuate the city of Pyongyang, it should have been allowed by Haihan, or even at the behest of Haihan.
Haihan asked the North Korean army to withdraw to the south of the Datong River for defense, but he built such a military stronghold on the north bank of the Datong River, which is quite provocative.Of course, the Qing army could choose to ignore Haihan's stronghold on the lower reaches of the Datong River, and try to carry out crossing operations upstream at its own pace. As long as the main force can cross the river, this stronghold will naturally be useless.
But there is a problem that must be solved in this way, that is, to defeat the armed fleet on the river first.Judging from the current reconnaissance situation, the force of the fleet led by Haihan to block the Datong River has far exceeded the previous few operations.However, to the dismay of Huang Taiji and the generals of the Qing army, they searched back and forth for a long time after arriving in Pyongyang, but they did not find any available ships on the riverbanks upstream and downstream of Pyongyang.
The only place with a boat is probably the newly built Haihan stronghold downstream.Huang Taiji even had reasons to believe that the pier there was the supply station for the Haihan Fleet.
If there are not enough vehicles, how will the Qing army cross the Datong River, which is closely monitored by the opponent? This seems to be back to the banks of the Yalu River two months ago. At that time, the Qing army could abandon Jiulian City and find another place to cross the river. point, but changing the original marching plan means that morale will be frustrated, and the follow-up combat plan must be adjusted accordingly.At that time, if the Haihan army hadn't taken the initiative to withdraw from the Yalu River, the Qing army might have to go upstream to find another point to cross the river.
However, the situation here on the Datong River was far more complicated than that on the Yalu River. Even if the Qing army was willing to take the time to go to the upper reaches of the river where the opponent's fleet could not reach, they would still have to go down the south again and return to the Datong River basin.Moreover, the scale of the armed fleet deployed by Haihan on the Datong River is far greater than that of the Yalu River period. It is not easy to go around the entire Datong River Basin.
Huang Taiji stared blankly at the sand table in the flower hall, without making a sound for a long time.He didn't even seek the opinions of the civil and military officials under his command, because he knew very well that no one could come up with a proper solution to this matter, or he would be stopped here in Datong River for a month or even longer, or You can only use a large army to attack the armed stronghold downstream.
It is difficult for Huang Taiji to have a clear estimate of how many casualties the Qing army would have to suffer during the offensive to destroy the line of defense that the Haihan people had carefully prepared for two months, but as the commander of this operation, he must do so in advance. In the worst case, the situation in Liaodong Jinzhou will be repeated on the banks of the Datong River.Although the Qing army has an absolute advantage in terms of troop size, no one can guarantee that it will be able to break through this target in the lower reaches of the Datong River.
Although Azige himself did not come back in person, Huang Taiji could feel Azige's helplessness from the report sent back.If Huang Taiji ordered Azig's troops to forcibly attack the target, then of course Azig would follow suit, but if there were heavy casualties in the battle, then sending other troops to fight in the area would inevitably be affected by the previous record.
Moreover, Haihan only sent a fleet to fight before, and the army troops only showed up briefly in Jiulian City. Huang Taiji didn't think that the opponent's troops were only those on the banks of the Yalu River. For construction, the army troops stationed there will definitely have a lot of troops.Azig only brought [-] soldiers to the place. If a strong attack were to be launched, all of these troops would probably be lost there.
Although Huang Taiji was not a soft-hearted person, he was unwilling to let his troops die in vain, so the idea of immediately ordering a strong attack only flashed in his mind and was abandoned.
Since there is no immediate solution, Huang Taiji can only take a more secure approach and continue to send more scouts up and down the river to find a suitable place to cross the river.The so-called suitability no longer means that the geographical environment is convenient for crossing the river, but to find the monitoring blind spots of the Haihan Fleet on the river.But this possibility is indeed very small. Huang Taiji knew that the opponent had many ways to eliminate these blind spots. For example, the North Koreans who were familiar with the hydrology of the Taedong River were allowed to designate the sections of the river that needed to be monitored, and some places where crossing the river was extremely difficult, It is enough to station a small number of troops on the opposite bank to guard the river bank.
Given the current situation, even if the Qing army can send 2000 people across the river at one time, it doesn't make much sense. The North Korean army must have completed its defense on the opposite bank. If there is a small force of the Qing army, the North Korean army can still fight.
"The Qing army is retreating now?" Jin Shangxian, who witnessed the whole battle process with his own eyes on a newly built watchtower about [-] feet behind the defense line, still couldn't believe it. The mighty Qing army only launched an attack. , After hitting a snag, he decisively called for gold and withdrew.
"What can we do if we don't retreat? Although they are uncivilized barbarians, they are not idiots. They know that they can't attack this line of defense with their abilities, so they can only watch the excitement from a distance." Qian Tiandun said calmly. Putting down the binoculars, he explained to Jin Shangxian: "The charge they launched was to test the defense strength of this line of defense. Now that they have tested it, they will stop."
Jin Shangxian was slightly disappointed with the performance of the Qing army's bullying and fearing the hard, but he still skillfully boasted about the stable output of the Haihan Independence Group.He saw very clearly the battle between the two armies just now. The Qing army hadn't been able to cause any real trouble to the Haihan troops on the ground at all.
After the Qing army retreated, the Haihan formation calmly dispatched a company of infantry and hundreds of civilians to clean up the battlefield.Some war horses that lost their owners stopped on the battlefield and did not retreat with the Qing army, so they naturally became Haihan's spoils of war, and all the weapons, banners, and personal belongings left on the battlefield were picked up one by one and loaded into the cart Transported back to the base.
As for the wounded Qing soldiers who had lost their ability to move, if they still showed the intention to resist, the Haihan soldiers would stand far away and shoot them to death.Those who gave up resistance were asked to be carried by civilian husbands to the cart and transported back to the base to see if they could find any useful information.
Jin Shangxian has no interest in cleaning the battlefield anymore, but it is not easy to go up the six-foot-high watchtower, and it will make people's legs weak when they go down.Jin Shangxian dawdled for a while and still didn't dare to let go of his hands and feet. Qian Tiandun had to have a rope tied around his waist, and the other end was fixed to the railing on the top of the watchtower, and then another person was arranged to support Jin Shangxian below. With trembling legs, slowly put him down.
There are several watchtowers like this used to monitor enemy movements in the base.This kind of wooden tower is not complicated to build, but its strength is not ideal. It can only be regarded as a temporary facility. When there is a strong wind, I dare not send people to it.Jin Shangxian applied to go up to watch the battle. As a last resort, Qian Tiandun came out to accompany him in person. He didn't expect that the North Koreans would not be able to get down when they went up, and they had to use such a shameful way to slip down.
Jin Shangxian slipped to the ground with great difficulty, if not for his subordinates supporting him from the side, he might have been a little unstable.However, he is now in a much more relaxed mood than he was a few days ago, and he doesn't care about embarrassing himself in public.As long as the Qing army can be kept on the north bank of the Datong River, this little embarrassment will have nothing to do with it. If the Qing army can be driven back to Liaodong, Jin Shangxian will be fine even if he climbs this watchtower every day.
Jin Shangxian rested for a while, and Qian Tiandun had already come down from the watchtower. Jin Shangxian waved his hand to screen his subordinates, got up and walked to Qian Tiandun, and asked with a pleasant face: "General Qian, the Qing army can't capture this place." Will the line of defense turn to other places to find a solution?"
In fact, this issue was already explained to Kim Sang-hyun when he explained the battle plan to him earlier. Qian Tiandun knew that it was not that Kim Sang-hyun didn't know the secret, but he just wanted to use this to seek peace of mind for himself.
Qian Tiandun said with a smile: "Since they have found out that this place is easy to defend and difficult to attack, they will definitely try to find opportunities to cross the river from other places. If there is no accident, the Qing army will probably not attack here again in the next two or three days. Now, but there should be some door-to-door deals for our coalition fleet."
The coalition fleet on the Datong River has recently added another member, the North Korean navy as the master.The wooden houseboats and turtle ships, which are clumsy in shape but have strong defenses, are the main warships of the Korean navy. Of course, this defense is compared to the warships of other countries in East Asia in this era. For Haihan who uses large-caliber naval guns As far as warships are concerned, it doesn't matter whether they are strong or not, the result is the same after one shot.
During the period when the Qing army was dragged in Anzhou, North Korea mobilized most of its warships from the south and rushed to the Datong River to join the coalition fleet led by Haihan.Although the weapons used by the Korean warships are slightly outdated compared to the other fleets, there are quite a few of them. There are as many as forty warships with a displacement of more than [-] tons, and three of them even have a According to Wang Tom's estimation, the turtle ship with a layer of iron armor should have a displacement equivalent to that of an expedition-class warship.
Although the combat effectiveness of the North Korean fleet was a notch lower, its supplementary effect on controlling the Datong River was very obvious. With the addition of these dozens of warships, the coalition fleet's control of the river could be increased by at least another fifty miles or more.Moreover, at the request of Wang Tom, the North Korean authorities also mobilized sixty or seventy civilian ships with better conditions and faster speeds. The duties of the surface sentinel.As long as the enemy's situation is detected and the signal is sent out, warships from the coalition forces will come to rescue within an hour.
After being supplemented by the North Korean navy, the coalition fleet can deploy its main force to the river near Pyongyang, waiting for the Qing army to try to cross the river.The Haihan Fleet led by Wang Tom even hid on the south bank of Yanggakdo. If the Qing army wanted to use Yanggakdo as a springboard to cross the river, there would probably be no return.
The Qing army naturally thought of such a simple way of crossing the river. The plan they formulated for crossing the river was to use rafts to transport troops to Yangjiao Island in the middle of the river at night. In the same way, complete the itinerary from Yanggakdo to the south bank of the Daedong River.Of course, this river crossing plan has a premise, that is, absolute control of Yangjiao Island, otherwise, once the opponent finds out that the well-organized Qing army is hiding on Yangjiao Island, it may even cut off the back road.
Although the action of this plan is extremely risky, for the Qing army who can't come up with a better solution, it can only be a dead horse as a living horse doctor, so let's try it first.It’s just that their small actions couldn’t be hidden from the prepared Haihan Fleet. Tom Wang even climbed up the mast at night and used binoculars with night vision to confirm that the Qing army had boarded this 1.2-square-meter km of the island.
Of course, the Qing army did not intend to hang on this tree. Almost at the same time, the Qing army also crossed the river to land on the island at night in the Pyongyang section of the river.
(End of this chapter)