Chapter 1836
Intercepting the Qing Army
Chapter 1836 Intercepting the Qing Army
The Haihan army was able to rush to the destination of the main force of the Qing army to ambush so quickly. On the one hand, it was due to the timely transmission of military information and the well-organized march of the troops. On the other hand, it was also thanks to the terrain of this area in North Korea.
The upper reaches of the Taedong River to the north of Pyongyang are all in mountainous areas. There are no roads in this area, and basically only have water navigation capabilities. It is extremely difficult for large army troops to pass through this area by land, so the Qing army also voluntarily gave up. The plan to cross the river from the upper reaches.However, the area that the Qing army could not pass through was free for the coalition forces with a large number of ships to come and go.The Qing army's grasp of geographical information is far less comprehensive than that of Haihan, and they didn't even realize that a certain section of the upper reaches of the Datong River was only a few dozen miles away from the crossing point they chose on the Qingchuan River, otherwise they would definitely not After looting the town of Jiachuan, they hurriedly evacuated. At least a small team should be stationed here to guard against the Haihan people who might suddenly appear from the nearby forests.
After Gao Qiaonan arrived at Xichuan Town, he did not immediately order to launch an attack on the Qing army. Instead, he first built basic fortifications in the outskirts of the town, and set up the four field artillery that had been transported here with great difficulty.Although Gao Qiaonan was very confident in the First Battalion of the Independent Regiment he led, he didn't dare to be too big. If the Qing army besieged this small town with heavy troops, the First Battalion lacked heavy weapons and fortifications. Together with the hundreds of coalition soldiers and a thousand North Korean soldiers temporarily transferred, they may not be able to hold on to this windy town on all sides.
From Gao Qiaonan's point of view, the current environment is not suitable for launching a confrontation with the main force of the Qing army. Even if they want to fight, it is best to wait for the follow-up troops to come and form a joint force.He now has full command of the front-line troops, such decisions as to whether to fight or not, and how to fight, can make decisions by himself without asking Qian Tiandun for everything.
After mastering such power, the combat efficiency of the independent regiment has undoubtedly been greatly improved, especially in the current environment, where the coalition headquarters and the frontline troops are two to three hundred miles away, even with black technology such as radio, it is still unavoidable There is a possibility of delaying the fighter plane.
Of course, for Takahashi Nan personally, he feels more that his boss has given him full trust, and this kind of trust means that he cannot afford to make mistakes in the process of commanding operations. Qian Tiandun's trust is unforgivable.Therefore, he would rather be a little more cautious in the command process, and he would not give the enemy a chance to come back because of greed.
However, the Qing army was not stupid enough to decide to withdraw without even considering the basic principles of combat. Build an outer security circle.As a result, Qing army rangers soon discovered the abnormal situation in Xichuan Town. This town that had just been plundered seemed to be still inhabited by people. Immediately, a group of people gathered to try to enter the town to check.
In fact, when the cavalry was about half a mile away from the village, someone on horseback noticed something was wrong. The main passage into and out of the town seemed to be blocked by tree trunks and rocks. It was done by the Qing troops who had withdrawn after the looting.On the way they drew out their sabers and tried to rush into the town to see what happened, there was a familiar gunshot ahead, and then the few people who rushed to the front were shot and fell off their horses.Seeing this, the others didn't dare to charge any more, and hurriedly reined in and turned away from the place where the Haihan army might be ambushing.
There were only a dozen casualties in this short-term contact, and all of them were on the Qing side.But this quickly attracted the attention of the Qing army, because when the Qing army cleared Qichuan Town just half a day ago, they did not find any clues related to Haihan, and the local Koreans also uniformly claimed that they had never seen Haihan. Han people.If the Haihan soldiers in this town didn't fall from the sky, then they just arrived here.
Abate, who was in charge of commanding the peripheral security, did not dare to neglect, and immediately dispatched two Niulu cavalry to investigate.If there are not many Haihan soldiers in the town, then naturally they must eat them decisively.
It didn't take long for the Qing army to find out that the enemy in the town was not just a small group of troops. When the two cavalry of Niulu decisively charged, there was a cannon sound from a temporary fortification in the town, and it was obvious that several The cannons fired one after another, which was obviously not a weapon that a small team would carry on a march in the field.The officer leading the team immediately issued a signal to let the cavalry under his command change directions and bypass them, instead of rushing towards the town head-on.
The only four cannons were fired one after the other, Gao Qiaonan also did it on purpose, the purpose was to let the Qing army realize that there were a lot of Haihan troops in the town, so as to prevent these barbarians from jumping over the wall in a hurry and directly dispatching thousands of cavalry to charge , then this temporarily deployed defense line may not be able to stop it, and once the cavalry breaks through, the more than 2000 troops piled up in the town will no longer be able to maintain an advantageous combat distance, and they will not even be able to withdraw. dangerous situation.
Sure enough, once bitten by a snake for ten years, they were afraid of well ropes. When the Qing army found that there were artillery in the town participating in the battle, they immediately retreated, lest they would be caught in the firepower of Haihan like the cavalry charge on the banks of the Datong River and would be difficult to escape.But even so, this round of artillery fire still killed more than a dozen cavalry Qing soldiers.
The sound of the cannons naturally alarmed the Qing army barracks by the Qingchuan River. Many soldiers reacted subconsciously that the Haihan fleet had already chased them from the river, but when they rushed out of the tents and saw the river was empty, many people Immediately fell into a state of bewilderment.
"Where did the cannon fire?" Huang Taiji was also startled by the sudden cannon sound in the big tent, and quickly got up and asked.
Soon there was a report from the front, saying that an enemy army of unknown strength had appeared in a nearby town. Although no identification marks such as banners and flags had been seen, it could be basically determined from the firepower of their guns that it was the Haihan Army.In addition, considering that there are several artillery pieces deployed in the enemy's formation, it can be preliminarily determined that the enemy's strength will not be less than a thousand.
Huang Taiji's heart sank when he heard such news. At this time, he didn't expect that the Haihan army would come nearby by boat and then landed and marched. His first reaction was that Haihan had already predicted the trend of the battle, so he moved ahead of time. Set up an ambush in the upper reaches of the Qingchuan River, waiting for the main force of the Qing army to fall into the trap.
Since the Haihan army took the initiative to enter Xichuan Town to deploy defenses without revealing their whereabouts, it can be inferred that they were not afraid of the main force of the Qing army appearing on the nearby river bank. The town launches a massive offensive.Combined with the deployment of artillery in the town, Huang Taiji can only estimate the situation in a bad direction, thinking that the town and the surrounding forests are likely to have ambushed thousands of enemy troops, perhaps waiting for the Qing army to attack the town. It's time to cooperate inside and outside.
If the North Koreans wanted to play this kind of trick, then Huang Taiji ordered the attack without even thinking about it, and a wave of cavalry pushed past him, and any plots and schemes by him would come to naught.But the opponent of Haihan is different. The Qing army has almost never taken advantage of any previous confrontations. Whether it is tactics or strategy, the Qing army is everywhere. It turned out to be a trap set by Hai Han.And whether the Haihan army that suddenly appeared nearby, whether it was a mistake or premeditated, this really gave Huang Taiji a headache.
After thinking about it for a while, Huang Taiji thought it would be better not to take the initiative to touch this trouble. If the Haihan army dragged this place for another three to five or seven days, then the main force of the Haihan army in the south would rush over, plus the Qingchuan River. If they are attacked by the armed fleet, they will not be able to safely withdraw back to the country.
But the problem is that now the whereabouts of the Qing army have been exposed, and based on the degree of control of the Haihan people on the battle situation, it should not be difficult to judge the next step of the Qing army. It is certainly impossible to watch the Qing army cross the river here, and they will definitely take action. to hinder.
"Notify Abatai to order [-] soldiers and horses to separate Xichuan Town from our army camp. The soldiers and horses in the camp must gather after dark and continue to go northward along the river without leaking the news!" Huang Taiji thought for a moment and then decided. A decision was made to abandon the camp that had just settled down and continue to the upper reaches of the Qingchuan River.Abatai's troops are actually used to cut off the rear. If the Haihan army takes the initiative to attack, then Abate's troops will be responsible for biting them so that the main force can get out of its attack range as soon as possible.
Of course, this kind of countermeasure may ruin the thousands of soldiers left behind, and there may not be other Haihan troops lurking in the upper reaches of the Qingchuan River, but now the options before Huang Taiji are getting less and less day by day, and the decision-making The time limit is getting shorter and shorter, forcing him to find a way out from the cracks.He no longer dared to think about how to defeat the Haihan army. The real and more realistic goal was to bring as many of these tens of thousands of troops back to the country as possible and keep a little more fresh troops for the Qing Dynasty.
The Qing army dispatched thousands of soldiers and horses to separate the connection between Xichuan Town and the Qingchuan River from the west and north. Gao Qiaonan noticed that the Qing army's troops were mainly cavalry and did not dare to take the initiative to attack easily. We can only try our best to defend this town first, and we have to beware of night raids by the Qing army.
But nothing happened all night, until early in the morning, when Takahashi Nan was observing the Qing army camp in the distance with a telescope, he suddenly noticed the enemy's true intentions - there was no smoke in the direction of the Qing army camp, obviously He left this place overnight.And the only direction they can go is to continue inland along the Qingchuan River to the northeast.
The further upstream you go, the worse the navigability of the river, and Haihan's huge armed ships may not be able to reach these places. The Qing army will not have to worry about interception from the river when they cross the river.However, after going deep into the interior of North Korea, the surrounding area is full of rugged and inconvenient mountainous areas, and there are often no people within a radius of tens of miles, and it is difficult to obtain supplies. This is not a small problem for the huge Qing army.
Takahashi Nan realized that the main force of the Qing army might have escaped his surveillance range, and the terrain of these inland mountains was quite complicated. At this time, it might be the best way to fight guerrillas in the mountains and forests. A brief combat meeting was held before the battle, and then the heavy equipment and logistics troops were ordered to withdraw back to the direction of the Datong River and join the transport fleet.The combat troops brought enough supplies, first went south to withdraw from Jiachuan Town, and then turned northeast into the mountains and forests to pursue the main force of the Qing army with the help of terrain cover.
At this time, the North Korean troops sent to do miscellaneous work came in handy. Their familiarity with the local geographical environment was unmatched by the Haihan army who had just arrived. If you want to work out the best marching route in a mountainous environment with complex terrain, you must have the help of a local guide.
Gao Qiaonan asked the North Korean military officer to select a group of guides early on the way to Qichuan by boat. At this time, he assigned these guides who were familiar with the environment and could speak fluent Chinese to the first-level unit of the platoon. Each platoon is staffed with at least three guides.
Although the Qing army led by Abatai also noticed the withdrawal of the Haihan army from the town, they did not pursue it with great fanfare. The Han army disappeared into the mountains and forests.Abatai thought that this mission was completed satisfactorily, there were no casualties, and the effect of driving away the Haihan army was achieved. He left a thousand soldiers and horses to garrison near Xichuan Town in case there was any change, and he led the The Ministry went northeast to catch up with the main force.
Although the Qing army had a large number of cavalry, the actual marching speed did not have much advantage over the First Battalion of the Independent Regiment, which was dominated by infantry. They set off one night earlier and only traveled an extra [-] miles.The Haihan army led by local guides did not need to march along the winding river bank, but could choose a straighter marching route to the upper reaches of the Qingchuan River.
In the evening of the same day, the soldiers of the first battalion finally caught up with the main force of the Qing army in Xiangshan, more than [-] miles away from Jiachuan.The narrowest part of the Qingchuan River here is only a few tens of feet wide, and a large area of rocky beach is exposed in the center of the river, and the flow rate of the river is relatively slow. As long as wooden bridges of a few feet are built on both sides of the rocky beach, you can Let the army quickly cross the river.
When Gao Qiaonan led his troops to arrive, the Qing army had dispatched more than [-] people to participate in building the bridge. The thick logs cut down from the nearby riverside were quickly carried to the construction site. Hundreds of soldiers stood in the knee-high river. In the process, the log is carried or lifted, and the work of building the wooden bridge is completed with joint efforts.Naturally, a nearby village was not spared either. The whole village, young and old, were driven to work as coolies on the construction site.
After looking at the geographical environment here, Gao Qiaonan knew that the naval ships were unlikely to arrive here, and don't expect reinforcements to arrive quickly for the time being. Right now, he can only rely on his own battalion to try his best to create more for the Qing army. Some confusion and casualties.
(End of this chapter)
The Haihan army was able to rush to the destination of the main force of the Qing army to ambush so quickly. On the one hand, it was due to the timely transmission of military information and the well-organized march of the troops. On the other hand, it was also thanks to the terrain of this area in North Korea.
The upper reaches of the Taedong River to the north of Pyongyang are all in mountainous areas. There are no roads in this area, and basically only have water navigation capabilities. It is extremely difficult for large army troops to pass through this area by land, so the Qing army also voluntarily gave up. The plan to cross the river from the upper reaches.However, the area that the Qing army could not pass through was free for the coalition forces with a large number of ships to come and go.The Qing army's grasp of geographical information is far less comprehensive than that of Haihan, and they didn't even realize that a certain section of the upper reaches of the Datong River was only a few dozen miles away from the crossing point they chose on the Qingchuan River, otherwise they would definitely not After looting the town of Jiachuan, they hurriedly evacuated. At least a small team should be stationed here to guard against the Haihan people who might suddenly appear from the nearby forests.
After Gao Qiaonan arrived at Xichuan Town, he did not immediately order to launch an attack on the Qing army. Instead, he first built basic fortifications in the outskirts of the town, and set up the four field artillery that had been transported here with great difficulty.Although Gao Qiaonan was very confident in the First Battalion of the Independent Regiment he led, he didn't dare to be too big. If the Qing army besieged this small town with heavy troops, the First Battalion lacked heavy weapons and fortifications. Together with the hundreds of coalition soldiers and a thousand North Korean soldiers temporarily transferred, they may not be able to hold on to this windy town on all sides.
From Gao Qiaonan's point of view, the current environment is not suitable for launching a confrontation with the main force of the Qing army. Even if they want to fight, it is best to wait for the follow-up troops to come and form a joint force.He now has full command of the front-line troops, such decisions as to whether to fight or not, and how to fight, can make decisions by himself without asking Qian Tiandun for everything.
After mastering such power, the combat efficiency of the independent regiment has undoubtedly been greatly improved, especially in the current environment, where the coalition headquarters and the frontline troops are two to three hundred miles away, even with black technology such as radio, it is still unavoidable There is a possibility of delaying the fighter plane.
Of course, for Takahashi Nan personally, he feels more that his boss has given him full trust, and this kind of trust means that he cannot afford to make mistakes in the process of commanding operations. Qian Tiandun's trust is unforgivable.Therefore, he would rather be a little more cautious in the command process, and he would not give the enemy a chance to come back because of greed.
However, the Qing army was not stupid enough to decide to withdraw without even considering the basic principles of combat. Build an outer security circle.As a result, Qing army rangers soon discovered the abnormal situation in Xichuan Town. This town that had just been plundered seemed to be still inhabited by people. Immediately, a group of people gathered to try to enter the town to check.
In fact, when the cavalry was about half a mile away from the village, someone on horseback noticed something was wrong. The main passage into and out of the town seemed to be blocked by tree trunks and rocks. It was done by the Qing troops who had withdrawn after the looting.On the way they drew out their sabers and tried to rush into the town to see what happened, there was a familiar gunshot ahead, and then the few people who rushed to the front were shot and fell off their horses.Seeing this, the others didn't dare to charge any more, and hurriedly reined in and turned away from the place where the Haihan army might be ambushing.
There were only a dozen casualties in this short-term contact, and all of them were on the Qing side.But this quickly attracted the attention of the Qing army, because when the Qing army cleared Qichuan Town just half a day ago, they did not find any clues related to Haihan, and the local Koreans also uniformly claimed that they had never seen Haihan. Han people.If the Haihan soldiers in this town didn't fall from the sky, then they just arrived here.
Abate, who was in charge of commanding the peripheral security, did not dare to neglect, and immediately dispatched two Niulu cavalry to investigate.If there are not many Haihan soldiers in the town, then naturally they must eat them decisively.
It didn't take long for the Qing army to find out that the enemy in the town was not just a small group of troops. When the two cavalry of Niulu decisively charged, there was a cannon sound from a temporary fortification in the town, and it was obvious that several The cannons fired one after another, which was obviously not a weapon that a small team would carry on a march in the field.The officer leading the team immediately issued a signal to let the cavalry under his command change directions and bypass them, instead of rushing towards the town head-on.
The only four cannons were fired one after the other, Gao Qiaonan also did it on purpose, the purpose was to let the Qing army realize that there were a lot of Haihan troops in the town, so as to prevent these barbarians from jumping over the wall in a hurry and directly dispatching thousands of cavalry to charge , then this temporarily deployed defense line may not be able to stop it, and once the cavalry breaks through, the more than 2000 troops piled up in the town will no longer be able to maintain an advantageous combat distance, and they will not even be able to withdraw. dangerous situation.
Sure enough, once bitten by a snake for ten years, they were afraid of well ropes. When the Qing army found that there were artillery in the town participating in the battle, they immediately retreated, lest they would be caught in the firepower of Haihan like the cavalry charge on the banks of the Datong River and would be difficult to escape.But even so, this round of artillery fire still killed more than a dozen cavalry Qing soldiers.
The sound of the cannons naturally alarmed the Qing army barracks by the Qingchuan River. Many soldiers reacted subconsciously that the Haihan fleet had already chased them from the river, but when they rushed out of the tents and saw the river was empty, many people Immediately fell into a state of bewilderment.
"Where did the cannon fire?" Huang Taiji was also startled by the sudden cannon sound in the big tent, and quickly got up and asked.
Soon there was a report from the front, saying that an enemy army of unknown strength had appeared in a nearby town. Although no identification marks such as banners and flags had been seen, it could be basically determined from the firepower of their guns that it was the Haihan Army.In addition, considering that there are several artillery pieces deployed in the enemy's formation, it can be preliminarily determined that the enemy's strength will not be less than a thousand.
Huang Taiji's heart sank when he heard such news. At this time, he didn't expect that the Haihan army would come nearby by boat and then landed and marched. His first reaction was that Haihan had already predicted the trend of the battle, so he moved ahead of time. Set up an ambush in the upper reaches of the Qingchuan River, waiting for the main force of the Qing army to fall into the trap.
Since the Haihan army took the initiative to enter Xichuan Town to deploy defenses without revealing their whereabouts, it can be inferred that they were not afraid of the main force of the Qing army appearing on the nearby river bank. The town launches a massive offensive.Combined with the deployment of artillery in the town, Huang Taiji can only estimate the situation in a bad direction, thinking that the town and the surrounding forests are likely to have ambushed thousands of enemy troops, perhaps waiting for the Qing army to attack the town. It's time to cooperate inside and outside.
If the North Koreans wanted to play this kind of trick, then Huang Taiji ordered the attack without even thinking about it, and a wave of cavalry pushed past him, and any plots and schemes by him would come to naught.But the opponent of Haihan is different. The Qing army has almost never taken advantage of any previous confrontations. Whether it is tactics or strategy, the Qing army is everywhere. It turned out to be a trap set by Hai Han.And whether the Haihan army that suddenly appeared nearby, whether it was a mistake or premeditated, this really gave Huang Taiji a headache.
After thinking about it for a while, Huang Taiji thought it would be better not to take the initiative to touch this trouble. If the Haihan army dragged this place for another three to five or seven days, then the main force of the Haihan army in the south would rush over, plus the Qingchuan River. If they are attacked by the armed fleet, they will not be able to safely withdraw back to the country.
But the problem is that now the whereabouts of the Qing army have been exposed, and based on the degree of control of the Haihan people on the battle situation, it should not be difficult to judge the next step of the Qing army. It is certainly impossible to watch the Qing army cross the river here, and they will definitely take action. to hinder.
"Notify Abatai to order [-] soldiers and horses to separate Xichuan Town from our army camp. The soldiers and horses in the camp must gather after dark and continue to go northward along the river without leaking the news!" Huang Taiji thought for a moment and then decided. A decision was made to abandon the camp that had just settled down and continue to the upper reaches of the Qingchuan River.Abatai's troops are actually used to cut off the rear. If the Haihan army takes the initiative to attack, then Abate's troops will be responsible for biting them so that the main force can get out of its attack range as soon as possible.
Of course, this kind of countermeasure may ruin the thousands of soldiers left behind, and there may not be other Haihan troops lurking in the upper reaches of the Qingchuan River, but now the options before Huang Taiji are getting less and less day by day, and the decision-making The time limit is getting shorter and shorter, forcing him to find a way out from the cracks.He no longer dared to think about how to defeat the Haihan army. The real and more realistic goal was to bring as many of these tens of thousands of troops back to the country as possible and keep a little more fresh troops for the Qing Dynasty.
The Qing army dispatched thousands of soldiers and horses to separate the connection between Xichuan Town and the Qingchuan River from the west and north. Gao Qiaonan noticed that the Qing army's troops were mainly cavalry and did not dare to take the initiative to attack easily. We can only try our best to defend this town first, and we have to beware of night raids by the Qing army.
But nothing happened all night, until early in the morning, when Takahashi Nan was observing the Qing army camp in the distance with a telescope, he suddenly noticed the enemy's true intentions - there was no smoke in the direction of the Qing army camp, obviously He left this place overnight.And the only direction they can go is to continue inland along the Qingchuan River to the northeast.
The further upstream you go, the worse the navigability of the river, and Haihan's huge armed ships may not be able to reach these places. The Qing army will not have to worry about interception from the river when they cross the river.However, after going deep into the interior of North Korea, the surrounding area is full of rugged and inconvenient mountainous areas, and there are often no people within a radius of tens of miles, and it is difficult to obtain supplies. This is not a small problem for the huge Qing army.
Takahashi Nan realized that the main force of the Qing army might have escaped his surveillance range, and the terrain of these inland mountains was quite complicated. At this time, it might be the best way to fight guerrillas in the mountains and forests. A brief combat meeting was held before the battle, and then the heavy equipment and logistics troops were ordered to withdraw back to the direction of the Datong River and join the transport fleet.The combat troops brought enough supplies, first went south to withdraw from Jiachuan Town, and then turned northeast into the mountains and forests to pursue the main force of the Qing army with the help of terrain cover.
At this time, the North Korean troops sent to do miscellaneous work came in handy. Their familiarity with the local geographical environment was unmatched by the Haihan army who had just arrived. If you want to work out the best marching route in a mountainous environment with complex terrain, you must have the help of a local guide.
Gao Qiaonan asked the North Korean military officer to select a group of guides early on the way to Qichuan by boat. At this time, he assigned these guides who were familiar with the environment and could speak fluent Chinese to the first-level unit of the platoon. Each platoon is staffed with at least three guides.
Although the Qing army led by Abatai also noticed the withdrawal of the Haihan army from the town, they did not pursue it with great fanfare. The Han army disappeared into the mountains and forests.Abatai thought that this mission was completed satisfactorily, there were no casualties, and the effect of driving away the Haihan army was achieved. He left a thousand soldiers and horses to garrison near Xichuan Town in case there was any change, and he led the The Ministry went northeast to catch up with the main force.
Although the Qing army had a large number of cavalry, the actual marching speed did not have much advantage over the First Battalion of the Independent Regiment, which was dominated by infantry. They set off one night earlier and only traveled an extra [-] miles.The Haihan army led by local guides did not need to march along the winding river bank, but could choose a straighter marching route to the upper reaches of the Qingchuan River.
In the evening of the same day, the soldiers of the first battalion finally caught up with the main force of the Qing army in Xiangshan, more than [-] miles away from Jiachuan.The narrowest part of the Qingchuan River here is only a few tens of feet wide, and a large area of rocky beach is exposed in the center of the river, and the flow rate of the river is relatively slow. As long as wooden bridges of a few feet are built on both sides of the rocky beach, you can Let the army quickly cross the river.
When Gao Qiaonan led his troops to arrive, the Qing army had dispatched more than [-] people to participate in building the bridge. The thick logs cut down from the nearby riverside were quickly carried to the construction site. Hundreds of soldiers stood in the knee-high river. In the process, the log is carried or lifted, and the work of building the wooden bridge is completed with joint efforts.Naturally, a nearby village was not spared either. The whole village, young and old, were driven to work as coolies on the construction site.
After looking at the geographical environment here, Gao Qiaonan knew that the naval ships were unlikely to arrive here, and don't expect reinforcements to arrive quickly for the time being. Right now, he can only rely on his own battalion to try his best to create more for the Qing army. Some confusion and casualties.
(End of this chapter)