Chapter 1829
Chapter 1829
Chapter 1829
Before setting off from Pyongyang, Huang Taiji had already more or less expected that the terrain of this battlefield would be unfavorable to his side. After all, the Haihan people had chosen this place several months in advance. The manpower was rushing to build the stronghold, and then arranged for the Korean army to abandon the defense north of the Datong River, making it clear that it was planning to fight the Qing army in this place.The Haihan people always make decisions before moving, and it must be something to rely on to be able to put on such a posture. He sent scouts to scout the terrain, but he just wanted to try his luck to see if the Haihan people would miss anything in the line of defense. But the situation seems to be worse than he expected.
Not only the trees near this Haihan stronghold have been cut clean, but there are not many large stones on the ground, and the nearest place where stones can be quarried is also six or seven miles away from the Haihan defense line. Obviously, the surrounding area can be used. All kinds of natural materials used in offensive and defensive operations have been collected by Haihan early on.If the Qing army had no wood and stone to use, the tactical means it could use would be greatly limited, and the difficulty of attacking this line of defense would inevitably rise sharply.
Although the two small rivers on the east and west sides of the Haihan position are not too wide, there are no water vehicles available in this place, and it may be difficult for the Qing army who is not good at water to carry out armed swimming against the gunfire from the opposite bank. It is even more terrifying to attack Haihan's position head-on, so it was not included in the options by Huang Taiji.
Therefore, the only defense left for the Qing army is the northern line of defense, but this is obviously a situation that Haihan had planned long ago. It is not difficult for Huang Taiji to imagine how many powerful killing methods Haihan deployed on this line of defense. , Waiting for the Qing army to send it to the door.Azig had lost hundreds of cavalry here before. Realizing that this place was not easy to break through, he hastily withdrew his troops and did not try to attack again. After Huang Taiji came here to understand the surrounding environment, he actually thought the same as Azig. , thinking that this place is the big killing array that Hai Han intentionally set up.
Even if the Qing army has an absolute advantage in military strength, the offensive surface on which troops can be deployed on this battlefield is too narrow, and the consequences of launching an intensive charge in the face of the Haihan position with a large number of guns have been seen many times in the past. Proven in battles.
If Seoul is the target of this war, the Qing army has almost completed half of the journey, and retreating at this time will naturally not be an option for the Qing army.Even though Huang Taiji and most of the generals of the Qing army did not want to stage a head-to-head confrontation with the Haihan army again, it is even more impossible for them to accept the way of retreating without a fight on the banks of the Datong River. call taxi.
However, since the advance process had been delayed for too much time due to the existence of the Haihan army, the Qing army did not need to rush to launch an attack on the Datong River for a day and a half.Huang Taiji studied the collected environmental information for a long time, and finally decided to be a little more patient, spend more time to figure out the deployment of the enemy's defense line, and then try to find a reasonable and effective tactic to launch an attack.
Wang Tom returned to the Datongjiang base by boat almost at the same time as the main force of the Qing army arrived. He had already learned through the radio that the main force of the Qing army had left Pyongyang and went south. Annan's fleet stayed near Pyongyang to assist the North Korean navy's defense, while he hurried back with the fleets of the Haihan Navy and the Fujian Navy.
Wang Tom came back with his troops not to compete with Qian Tiandun, but at most to let the marines participate in the defense of the base. What he cared more about was the reaction of the Qing army after hitting a wall at the Datongjiang base.
According to the combat plan designed by the headquarters before the war, after Haihan succeeded in blocking the Qing army at the Datong River base, the coalition fleet will detour from the sea and rush to the Qingchuan River and Daning River in the north. Qing army.Considering that there are a large number of cavalry troops in the Qing army, in order to achieve the best combat effect, the coalition fleet must arrive at the predetermined location before the opponent, so Wang Tom brought the main force of the fleet back to the Datongjiang base early. To support the army to fight, secondly, when the situation is clear, we can immediately go to sea and rush to the north.Even if the effect of doing so may be to shorten the operation time by half a day, there may be completely different results in the actual combat process.
"Huang Taiji has calmed down this time!" Tom Wang put down the binoculars, and said to Qian Tiandun next to him, "You said they arrived this morning, but they haven't launched an offensive all day. It's not like they used to Fighting style!"
"If you suffer a lot, you will naturally learn to be smart." Qian Tiandun seemed very calm about this, and explained to Tom Wang the reconnaissance operations carried out after the Qing army arrived here.The watchtowers built by Haihan were not in vain. Every move of the cavalry of the Qing army on the plain outside the base could hardly be hidden from Haihan's surveillance.
After listening to the introduction, Tom Wang nodded and said, "They probably need some time to figure out how to attack, so we have to find a way to put more pressure on them."
There were many ways to put pressure on the Qing army, but the commanders did not intend to let their troops take the risk of provoking the Qing army outside the defense line. They had better ways to urge the Qing army to launch an offensive as soon as possible.
Liu Shang had already rested, but suddenly a messenger came and sent a warrant from the headquarters, asking him to immediately gather [-] civilians and bring labor tools to the northern defense line for construction.Liu Shang was also a little dazed when he received the order. Yesterday evening he received the order from the headquarters because the Qing army would soon arrive nearby, so all the civilians on the construction site were asked to evacuate.But today, after the arrival of the Qing army, the two armies have not yet started fighting. Why did the headquarters come with a completely opposite order and asked for overnight construction. Could it be that there has been a quiet fight in the north.
But the construction of the defense line was a military secret, and it was inconvenient for Liu Shang to ask the messengers what happened on the front line, so he quickly summoned a few of his men and assigned tasks to them.Although the order was issued from the headquarters to Liu Shang, he did not need to personally organize and implement it. He had a helper to run errands.However, it was already dark at this time, and it took a lot of hard work to organize [-] civilians from the camp by the river, and then go through the entire base to the northern defense line.
Liu Shang was a little curious about the battle situation on the front line, and he was also a little worried about the temporary arrangement at night, so he personally led the team to the northern defense line to handover with the military, hoping to learn about the current battle situation by the way.He has a pretty good relationship with Gao Qiaonan and other senior officers now, so it is not difficult to inquire about some news.
It wasn't just Liu Shang and other civil affairs officials who couldn't sleep peacefully that night, as well as the [-] civilian husbands temporarily organized. Huang Taiji, who had already entered the tent to rest, was also dispelled from sleepiness by his subordinates' military report.
On the Haihan position in the south, a large number of fires began to be lit after nightfall, and the entire defense line was lit up one after another. At first, the Qing army who was in charge of monitoring thought that this might be a means for the opponent to prevent its own from launching a night attack, but soon It turns out that things are not that simple.
There was a large flow of people on the Haihan position, but these people were not soldiers with live ammunition, but civilians with various tools, and they seemed to be expanding and strengthening the fortifications on the periphery of the position.The Haihan position was constructed overnight, and this kind of action contained a lot of information. The subordinates who discovered this situation did not dare to make decisions without authorization, and immediately reported it to Huang Taiji.
When Huang Taiji heard the news, he naturally didn't dare to be negligent, so he quickly dispatched two teams of elite cavalry to go south again to confirm the new trend in Haihan's position.
If the news is true, then there must still be some weak links in the fortifications on the Haihan position, which made the Haihan people so eager to organize the construction overnight.Of course, Huang Taiji also knew very well that the Haihan people were full of tricks, so what they saw and heard might not be the truth.You must know that just over two months ago, the Haihan fleet voluntarily withdrew from the Yalu River. At that time, it was rumored that Haihan had fallen out with North Korea and gave up military aid to North Korea.But judging from the size of the military base on the banks of the Datong River, the original rumors were obviously false, and the Haihan people were just playing tricks to cover up their real battle plan.
Of course, the overnight construction arrangement may have been deliberately done by the Haihan people, as a pretense to lure the Qing army to take the initiative to launch an offensive.The Qing army could ignore this, but no matter whether there were real loopholes in the Haihan position or it was deliberately used to lure the Qing army, if these thousands of people continued to work day and night, it would undoubtedly make the defense line that was already difficult to break through stronger.
Why did the opponent start construction after nightfall? Huang Taiji thought very clearly. It should be because he was worried that the Qing army would launch an offensive during the day, and it would be too late to withdraw the large number of civilians from the position in time, which would lead to chaos in the defense line and weaken the combat effectiveness of the defenders.After nightfall, due to limited visibility and lack of familiarity with the environment, it was difficult for the Qing army to organize and direct large-scale night raids.
The Jingqi sent out soon came back to report, saying that construction was indeed going on in the Haihan position, and there were at least two to three thousand people.In addition, Haihan still deployed a lot of musketeers on the ground, and when the fine cavalry he sent approached to about a hundred feet, they had already attracted gunshots from the opponent.Fortunately, the field of vision is limited at night, and it is estimated that the other party can't see clearly. These random shootings did not cause casualties to these fine cavalry of the Qing army.
Just sit back and watch Haihan strengthen his position?Huang Taiji's answer is obviously no, even if this is really a trap set by Hai Han, he can't let the other party build this line of defense under his nose.
About half an hour later, two thousand-man cavalry units quietly left the Qing army's position, and slowly outflanked the Haihan position in the south in two routes from east to west.
According to the information obtained from the previous reconnaissance, there are not only Haogou outside the Haihan position, but also iron nets specially deployed to prevent the cavalry from attacking the horses. Therefore, Huang Taiji does not expect these two cavalry to directly break through the Haihan defense line. They harassed with bows and arrows on the periphery, making it impossible for Haihan's position to be constructed.
Of course, with the light bows equipped by the cavalry, if you want to shoot an arrow into Haihan's position, you have to shorten the distance to about [-] feet, which is actually within the range of Haihan's rifle.If it was during the day, such a dangerous distance would definitely cause a lot of casualties to the Qing cavalry, but at this time there are thousands of civilians in the Haihan position, so you can try this unadvanced tactic.
However, the tactics of the Qing army were not without technical content. The cavalry charged at night and carried out cavalry and shooting attacks during the charge. This in itself already reflected the well-trained cavalry of the Qing army.If it is against other opponents of the same era, this kind of combat ability is already clearly superior, but their opponent is the unbelievably powerful Haihan Army. gain an advantage in.
Not long after the cavalry of the Qing army entered the battle, Haihan had already noticed their movements.So Liu Shang, who had just assigned the civilian husbands to various construction sites, received a new order to immediately organize the civilian husbands to withdraw from the position.Liu Shangzhen was a little dumbfounded, but he immediately followed the instructions of the military to execute the order.He himself also retreated half a mile with the civilian team and stood by in the safe zone.
Liu Shang had already inquired with military officers he knew before. It turned out that the overnight construction was arranged to lure the Qing army to take the initiative to attack. Now that the military ordered the civilians to withdraw from the position, it was obvious that they had successfully lured the enemy.However, the military just asked the civilians to evacuate their positions and continue to stand by. It seems that the Qing army may not be aggressively attacking, maybe it is just harassment.
But he still can't watch the fun with peace of mind now, so he has to quickly appease the emotions of these civilian husbands. After all, he was sent here and there at such a late hour, and he heard that there was an attack from the Qing army outside, which would make these civilian husbands feel uneasy to some extent.
Naturally, the military's arrangements cannot be revealed to these civilians, but Liu Shang has rich experience in dealing with such situations.After all, when he first occupied the Jinzhou Isthmus, Haihan was rebuilding the defense line against the intermittent offensive of the Houjin army. It was common for him to appease the emotions of the peasants while supervising the work.
When the cavalry of the Qing army marched near the Haihan position, they reacted in advance and basically completed the retreat of the civilian husbands, but the Qing army followed the previous order and launched a charge and a feint attack.
What greeted them was musket fire from the Haihan position, but the hit rate obviously could not be compared with the level during the daytime battle. The Qing cavalry was able to rush to the vicinity with relatively small casualties, and fired a round at the Haihan position while turning. arrows.However, wooden roofs were built above the infantry trenches in the Haihan position, and the lethal effect of such projectiles was extremely limited.
After a brief confrontation between the two sides, perhaps thinking that the night attack had already received the effect of stopping the construction, the Qing cavalry disappeared into the darkness again.
(End of this chapter)
Before setting off from Pyongyang, Huang Taiji had already more or less expected that the terrain of this battlefield would be unfavorable to his side. After all, the Haihan people had chosen this place several months in advance. The manpower was rushing to build the stronghold, and then arranged for the Korean army to abandon the defense north of the Datong River, making it clear that it was planning to fight the Qing army in this place.The Haihan people always make decisions before moving, and it must be something to rely on to be able to put on such a posture. He sent scouts to scout the terrain, but he just wanted to try his luck to see if the Haihan people would miss anything in the line of defense. But the situation seems to be worse than he expected.
Not only the trees near this Haihan stronghold have been cut clean, but there are not many large stones on the ground, and the nearest place where stones can be quarried is also six or seven miles away from the Haihan defense line. Obviously, the surrounding area can be used. All kinds of natural materials used in offensive and defensive operations have been collected by Haihan early on.If the Qing army had no wood and stone to use, the tactical means it could use would be greatly limited, and the difficulty of attacking this line of defense would inevitably rise sharply.
Although the two small rivers on the east and west sides of the Haihan position are not too wide, there are no water vehicles available in this place, and it may be difficult for the Qing army who is not good at water to carry out armed swimming against the gunfire from the opposite bank. It is even more terrifying to attack Haihan's position head-on, so it was not included in the options by Huang Taiji.
Therefore, the only defense left for the Qing army is the northern line of defense, but this is obviously a situation that Haihan had planned long ago. It is not difficult for Huang Taiji to imagine how many powerful killing methods Haihan deployed on this line of defense. , Waiting for the Qing army to send it to the door.Azig had lost hundreds of cavalry here before. Realizing that this place was not easy to break through, he hastily withdrew his troops and did not try to attack again. After Huang Taiji came here to understand the surrounding environment, he actually thought the same as Azig. , thinking that this place is the big killing array that Hai Han intentionally set up.
Even if the Qing army has an absolute advantage in military strength, the offensive surface on which troops can be deployed on this battlefield is too narrow, and the consequences of launching an intensive charge in the face of the Haihan position with a large number of guns have been seen many times in the past. Proven in battles.
If Seoul is the target of this war, the Qing army has almost completed half of the journey, and retreating at this time will naturally not be an option for the Qing army.Even though Huang Taiji and most of the generals of the Qing army did not want to stage a head-to-head confrontation with the Haihan army again, it is even more impossible for them to accept the way of retreating without a fight on the banks of the Datong River. call taxi.
However, since the advance process had been delayed for too much time due to the existence of the Haihan army, the Qing army did not need to rush to launch an attack on the Datong River for a day and a half.Huang Taiji studied the collected environmental information for a long time, and finally decided to be a little more patient, spend more time to figure out the deployment of the enemy's defense line, and then try to find a reasonable and effective tactic to launch an attack.
Wang Tom returned to the Datongjiang base by boat almost at the same time as the main force of the Qing army arrived. He had already learned through the radio that the main force of the Qing army had left Pyongyang and went south. Annan's fleet stayed near Pyongyang to assist the North Korean navy's defense, while he hurried back with the fleets of the Haihan Navy and the Fujian Navy.
Wang Tom came back with his troops not to compete with Qian Tiandun, but at most to let the marines participate in the defense of the base. What he cared more about was the reaction of the Qing army after hitting a wall at the Datongjiang base.
According to the combat plan designed by the headquarters before the war, after Haihan succeeded in blocking the Qing army at the Datong River base, the coalition fleet will detour from the sea and rush to the Qingchuan River and Daning River in the north. Qing army.Considering that there are a large number of cavalry troops in the Qing army, in order to achieve the best combat effect, the coalition fleet must arrive at the predetermined location before the opponent, so Wang Tom brought the main force of the fleet back to the Datongjiang base early. To support the army to fight, secondly, when the situation is clear, we can immediately go to sea and rush to the north.Even if the effect of doing so may be to shorten the operation time by half a day, there may be completely different results in the actual combat process.
"Huang Taiji has calmed down this time!" Tom Wang put down the binoculars, and said to Qian Tiandun next to him, "You said they arrived this morning, but they haven't launched an offensive all day. It's not like they used to Fighting style!"
"If you suffer a lot, you will naturally learn to be smart." Qian Tiandun seemed very calm about this, and explained to Tom Wang the reconnaissance operations carried out after the Qing army arrived here.The watchtowers built by Haihan were not in vain. Every move of the cavalry of the Qing army on the plain outside the base could hardly be hidden from Haihan's surveillance.
After listening to the introduction, Tom Wang nodded and said, "They probably need some time to figure out how to attack, so we have to find a way to put more pressure on them."
There were many ways to put pressure on the Qing army, but the commanders did not intend to let their troops take the risk of provoking the Qing army outside the defense line. They had better ways to urge the Qing army to launch an offensive as soon as possible.
Liu Shang had already rested, but suddenly a messenger came and sent a warrant from the headquarters, asking him to immediately gather [-] civilians and bring labor tools to the northern defense line for construction.Liu Shang was also a little dazed when he received the order. Yesterday evening he received the order from the headquarters because the Qing army would soon arrive nearby, so all the civilians on the construction site were asked to evacuate.But today, after the arrival of the Qing army, the two armies have not yet started fighting. Why did the headquarters come with a completely opposite order and asked for overnight construction. Could it be that there has been a quiet fight in the north.
But the construction of the defense line was a military secret, and it was inconvenient for Liu Shang to ask the messengers what happened on the front line, so he quickly summoned a few of his men and assigned tasks to them.Although the order was issued from the headquarters to Liu Shang, he did not need to personally organize and implement it. He had a helper to run errands.However, it was already dark at this time, and it took a lot of hard work to organize [-] civilians from the camp by the river, and then go through the entire base to the northern defense line.
Liu Shang was a little curious about the battle situation on the front line, and he was also a little worried about the temporary arrangement at night, so he personally led the team to the northern defense line to handover with the military, hoping to learn about the current battle situation by the way.He has a pretty good relationship with Gao Qiaonan and other senior officers now, so it is not difficult to inquire about some news.
It wasn't just Liu Shang and other civil affairs officials who couldn't sleep peacefully that night, as well as the [-] civilian husbands temporarily organized. Huang Taiji, who had already entered the tent to rest, was also dispelled from sleepiness by his subordinates' military report.
On the Haihan position in the south, a large number of fires began to be lit after nightfall, and the entire defense line was lit up one after another. At first, the Qing army who was in charge of monitoring thought that this might be a means for the opponent to prevent its own from launching a night attack, but soon It turns out that things are not that simple.
There was a large flow of people on the Haihan position, but these people were not soldiers with live ammunition, but civilians with various tools, and they seemed to be expanding and strengthening the fortifications on the periphery of the position.The Haihan position was constructed overnight, and this kind of action contained a lot of information. The subordinates who discovered this situation did not dare to make decisions without authorization, and immediately reported it to Huang Taiji.
When Huang Taiji heard the news, he naturally didn't dare to be negligent, so he quickly dispatched two teams of elite cavalry to go south again to confirm the new trend in Haihan's position.
If the news is true, then there must still be some weak links in the fortifications on the Haihan position, which made the Haihan people so eager to organize the construction overnight.Of course, Huang Taiji also knew very well that the Haihan people were full of tricks, so what they saw and heard might not be the truth.You must know that just over two months ago, the Haihan fleet voluntarily withdrew from the Yalu River. At that time, it was rumored that Haihan had fallen out with North Korea and gave up military aid to North Korea.But judging from the size of the military base on the banks of the Datong River, the original rumors were obviously false, and the Haihan people were just playing tricks to cover up their real battle plan.
Of course, the overnight construction arrangement may have been deliberately done by the Haihan people, as a pretense to lure the Qing army to take the initiative to launch an offensive.The Qing army could ignore this, but no matter whether there were real loopholes in the Haihan position or it was deliberately used to lure the Qing army, if these thousands of people continued to work day and night, it would undoubtedly make the defense line that was already difficult to break through stronger.
Why did the opponent start construction after nightfall? Huang Taiji thought very clearly. It should be because he was worried that the Qing army would launch an offensive during the day, and it would be too late to withdraw the large number of civilians from the position in time, which would lead to chaos in the defense line and weaken the combat effectiveness of the defenders.After nightfall, due to limited visibility and lack of familiarity with the environment, it was difficult for the Qing army to organize and direct large-scale night raids.
The Jingqi sent out soon came back to report, saying that construction was indeed going on in the Haihan position, and there were at least two to three thousand people.In addition, Haihan still deployed a lot of musketeers on the ground, and when the fine cavalry he sent approached to about a hundred feet, they had already attracted gunshots from the opponent.Fortunately, the field of vision is limited at night, and it is estimated that the other party can't see clearly. These random shootings did not cause casualties to these fine cavalry of the Qing army.
Just sit back and watch Haihan strengthen his position?Huang Taiji's answer is obviously no, even if this is really a trap set by Hai Han, he can't let the other party build this line of defense under his nose.
About half an hour later, two thousand-man cavalry units quietly left the Qing army's position, and slowly outflanked the Haihan position in the south in two routes from east to west.
According to the information obtained from the previous reconnaissance, there are not only Haogou outside the Haihan position, but also iron nets specially deployed to prevent the cavalry from attacking the horses. Therefore, Huang Taiji does not expect these two cavalry to directly break through the Haihan defense line. They harassed with bows and arrows on the periphery, making it impossible for Haihan's position to be constructed.
Of course, with the light bows equipped by the cavalry, if you want to shoot an arrow into Haihan's position, you have to shorten the distance to about [-] feet, which is actually within the range of Haihan's rifle.If it was during the day, such a dangerous distance would definitely cause a lot of casualties to the Qing cavalry, but at this time there are thousands of civilians in the Haihan position, so you can try this unadvanced tactic.
However, the tactics of the Qing army were not without technical content. The cavalry charged at night and carried out cavalry and shooting attacks during the charge. This in itself already reflected the well-trained cavalry of the Qing army.If it is against other opponents of the same era, this kind of combat ability is already clearly superior, but their opponent is the unbelievably powerful Haihan Army. gain an advantage in.
Not long after the cavalry of the Qing army entered the battle, Haihan had already noticed their movements.So Liu Shang, who had just assigned the civilian husbands to various construction sites, received a new order to immediately organize the civilian husbands to withdraw from the position.Liu Shangzhen was a little dumbfounded, but he immediately followed the instructions of the military to execute the order.He himself also retreated half a mile with the civilian team and stood by in the safe zone.
Liu Shang had already inquired with military officers he knew before. It turned out that the overnight construction was arranged to lure the Qing army to take the initiative to attack. Now that the military ordered the civilians to withdraw from the position, it was obvious that they had successfully lured the enemy.However, the military just asked the civilians to evacuate their positions and continue to stand by. It seems that the Qing army may not be aggressively attacking, maybe it is just harassment.
But he still can't watch the fun with peace of mind now, so he has to quickly appease the emotions of these civilian husbands. After all, he was sent here and there at such a late hour, and he heard that there was an attack from the Qing army outside, which would make these civilian husbands feel uneasy to some extent.
Naturally, the military's arrangements cannot be revealed to these civilians, but Liu Shang has rich experience in dealing with such situations.After all, when he first occupied the Jinzhou Isthmus, Haihan was rebuilding the defense line against the intermittent offensive of the Houjin army. It was common for him to appease the emotions of the peasants while supervising the work.
When the cavalry of the Qing army marched near the Haihan position, they reacted in advance and basically completed the retreat of the civilian husbands, but the Qing army followed the previous order and launched a charge and a feint attack.
What greeted them was musket fire from the Haihan position, but the hit rate obviously could not be compared with the level during the daytime battle. The Qing cavalry was able to rush to the vicinity with relatively small casualties, and fired a round at the Haihan position while turning. arrows.However, wooden roofs were built above the infantry trenches in the Haihan position, and the lethal effect of such projectiles was extremely limited.
After a brief confrontation between the two sides, perhaps thinking that the night attack had already received the effect of stopping the construction, the Qing cavalry disappeared into the darkness again.
(End of this chapter)