Chapter 1425 The war is coming

When Liu Shang was in Sanya, he had the honor to witness how the Haihan Navy defeated the invading Spanish fleet on the sea south of Sanya. Although several months had passed, the magnificent scene at that time has always been deeply imprinted in his mind.

He couldn't get it out of his mind. Now that he had arrived at another battlefield that was about to start, Liu Shang really wanted to find a reason to stay and see how Haihan dealt with the Houjin armed forces that had always been a headache for Ming Dynasty.

Among the generals in Liaodong, he was only slightly familiar with Chen Yixin, so if he wanted to stay in Liaodong and watch the excitement, Liu Shang thought it was best to start with Chen Yixin and see if he could

Stay as a temporary military secretary or something like that.

While Liu Shang was still formulating his words, it was Chen Yixin who spoke first: "You will have to work hard for a while, and you will have to wait until the operation here is over before you can return to Shandong."

Liu Shang didn't react for a moment and subconsciously asked: "Why is this?"

Chen Yixin explained: "Secrecy is needed to avoid leaks about the spring offensive."

Haihan is currently stationing troops and food in Lushun with great fanfare, and is not doing so covertly. However, the Hou Jin army stationed in the Jinzhou area in the north may not be able to receive the news in time and discover Haihan's actions. Naturally, it is difficult to do anything in advance.

Effective response arrangements.

The few maritime armed forces of the Hou Jin Dynasty had long been lost in the repeated raids by the Haihan Navy last year. The few remaining armed sailing ships that were lucky enough to escape the pursuit were retracted and hidden in the northern inland rivers, and they did not dare to return.

It is easy to go out to sea for activities. After the navy launched the wave of feint attacks in Dalian Bay before winter, it wiped out all the boats of all sizes on the coast near Dalian Bay. Now there are no fishing boats there. Even if the Jin Army wants to

It is also difficult to dress up as a fisherman and conduct reconnaissance near Lushun.

At the beginning, the Hou Jin Dynasty captured all the Han aborigines in the Lushun area, trying to make it difficult for Haihan to gain a foothold in Liaodong. It seemed to have the effect of strengthening the wall and clearing the country, but in fact, after Haihan occupied the area, the disadvantages gradually disappeared

The most direct effect is that Hou Jin can no longer send spies to carry out reconnaissance missions in the Haihan occupied area. Any outsider appearing in the Lushun area will be very conspicuous, and it is difficult not to attract attention.

In the past month or so, all the few people living south of the Jinzhou Isthmus have been sent to the south by Haihan ships for resettlement. Later Jin Dynasty sent many Han people to work for him to Lushun.

, tried to lurk after obtaining asylum from Haihan as refugees, but Haihan simply did not leave any chance for these people to develop. The military would rather spend more time immigrating from Pi Dao and Shandong than take risks

Let these Han people who are said to have escaped from the north stay and settle in Lushun.

No matter how many people came from the north, they would all be packed up and sent away. Hou Jin’s method was like beating a dog with a meat bun and they would never come back. Therefore, although Haihan has been continuously transporting people and materials to Lushun recently, for Hou Jin

Jin Lai said that the Lushun area was already shrouded in fog. They didn't know what Haihan was doing in Lushun, so they could only subconsciously increase the number of troops stationed in the Jinzhou Isthmus to prevent unknown things after the spring.

The next round of attacks will come soon.

In addition to launching intelligence shielding measures in Liaodong, Haihan also had similar measures in Shandong. Haihan's army only stayed on Zhifu Island for about a week. Except for a few well-informed outsiders, they more or less guessed that Haihan had

The purpose of the Han mobilization of the army and the spring offensive is still a secret to most people. Even among the naturalized people in the occupied areas, there are still many people who do not know where this army is going.

Of course Liu Shang is one of the insiders, and has witnessed with his own eyes the whole process of how Haihan transported people and materials to the Lushun area in winter. Because of this, Chen Yixin will not let him leave Lushun and return to Shandong now, because he will go back to Shandong.

Afterwards, what they know may be leaked. This has nothing to do with loyalty and trust, but is due to the confidentiality system. Even if Liu Shang's position is replaced by someone else, the arrangement will still be the same.

However, this came with no effort for Liu Shang. He had originally wanted to find a reason to stay in Liaodong to watch the battle. Chen Yixin's arrangement was just what he wanted. He quickly agreed, saying that he would abide by the arrangement and do his best.

Try your best.

As troops continued to arrive in Lushun, the headquarters began to dispatch additional troops to the scheduled fighting areas in order to set up camps on the front line before the start of the spring offensive. Otherwise, with thousands of people fighting on the front line, they would have to leave Lushun.

Moving the belongings bit by bit would be too much of a delay.

Naturally, the Army's ace force, the Special Operations Battalion, was responsible for this task. However, the special operations battalion was not mobilized by land this time because the mountainous area stretching for dozens of miles was not friendly enough for the transportation of large numbers of personnel and materials.

For the sake of efficiency, the command headquarters arranged for the navy to dispatch ships to transport them to the front line.

More than a dozen troop transport ships docked at a river mouth more than ten miles away from the Jinzhou Isthmus. Gao Qiaonan took the lead in jumping from the bow of the ship to the sandy ground on the river bank. By this time, ice had already formed near the shore, and the ground was extremely frozen.

Gao Qiaonan's short and sturdy body fell down with a crunching sound, but it was the leather boots on his feet that broke the layer of ice on the ground.

There was originally a small river called Shahe River here, but the boat could not sail into the upper reaches of Shahe River at this time of year, so we had to put down the men and horses of the special operations battalion at the mouth of the sea. After confirming that there were no Houjin troops in the nearby area as far as the eye could see,

After seeing traces of activity, several war horses disembarked from another troop carrier had been saddled and bridleed. The cavalry got on their horses and headed north separately. They wanted to determine the security situation in the area from the landing point to the Jinzhou Isthmus.

, and at the same time, a suitable marching route to the Jinzhou Isthmus must be found to facilitate the subsequent march of the large forces.

Although this place is still relatively far from the Jinzhou Isthmus, the headquarters plans to set up a material camp here, which will make it more convenient to supply the front line. Therefore, in addition to the scouts of the cavalry battalion, the people operating with the special operations battalion this time

, there is also an engineer company and more than 200 civilians. They will be responsible for building a simple camp here, and the task of the special operations battalion is to protect it during this period and establish a safe zone in the surrounding area.

Nearly twenty days have passed since the last time Morgan led the team to ambush the Jin patrol. After the special operations battalion completed the reconnaissance of the plain area south of the Jinzhou Isthmus a few days ago, it has shrunk its defense line to the mountainous area, so it is not possible to

To determine whether Hou Jin has resumed patrols in this area, one must be careful. Of course, if the other party's patrol team comes here by mistake, Takahashi Minami would not mind harvesting some heads before the battle.

Warm up.

Regarding the situation here, Takahashi Minami had already figured out the situation in the previous reconnaissance operation. He dispatched a small team to a hill in the northwest to serve as a guard. Although the highest point of the hill was only over 100 meters above sea level.

meters, but we already have an excellent field of vision on this plain. When the visibility is at its best during the day, we can monitor at least a ten-mile radius, which is enough for the camp to be prepared for battle.

Engineers and civilians transferred various construction tools and materials from the ship to the shore. They had to build a camp here in two or three days that could accommodate at least 500 people and store hundreds of tons of supplies. Of course, this

It also has to include the most basic defense facilities such as wooden walls, barbed wire, deer villages, and horse pits. The amount of this project is really not small, so they have to hurry up every minute and second from now on.

But after the camp is built, the special operations battalion will not be stationed here for too long. Before the war begins, they will go to an area closer to the Jinzhou Isthmus, where they will meet up with other army units and then act as the backbone of the frontal offensive on land.

Main force.

Takahashi Minami was convinced that after the war started, the enemy troops would no longer be able to go south to this place to raid the camp, so he ordered the engineers to only deploy one-time defenses outside the camp, and only to the north, in order to save engineering.

The time required. As for the south side of Linhai, Gaoqiao Nan is not worried at all. If Houjin can still have warships to come here, even if they come, they will not be able to go back.

In the evening, the cavalry who had gone out for reconnaissance came back. The news they brought back was not good, but it didn't seem to be too bad. The cavalry met a Houjin patrol about fifteen miles away from the camp.

, and a small-scale battle broke out between the two sides.

The cavalry wisely did not close the fighting distance with the opponent. Instead, they knocked down several people with volleys from a hundred meters away, and then decisively withdrew southward. The opponent, perhaps intimidated by the power of the rifle, did not pursue it.

Two things can be determined after this battle. One is that the Houjin Army has returned to the patrol range before the last attack by Morgan. The other is that the Houjin Army has learned its previous lessons and the current patrol has expanded to forty or fifty.

About a third of them are cavalry. Although such a team would still be uncomfortable if they ran into the Morgan team ambushing in the wild, at least the Haihan cavalry who were out for reconnaissance today did not dare to fight when facing them.

, after taking advantage, he decisively withdrew from the battle.

Gao Qiaonan marked the battle location on the map, and then ordered to strengthen the vigilance at night. Although the opponent did not follow his cavalry all the way, Gao Qiaonan knew that many people in the Hou Jin Army were from Orions, and these people were good at

When tracking in the wild, you might be able to find this way by following the horse's hoof prints or even smelling it. Takahashi Minami is not afraid of the opponent's strength, but he will not be careless enough to allow the opponent to take advantage of him.

Sure enough, just as he feared, after nightfall, Hou Jin soldiers actually found this place gropingly. However, after they discovered the Haihan camp where construction work was carried out, they did not dare to approach rashly. After watching it from a distance, they

He left on his own initiative, and some of the methods Takahashi Nan had arranged in advance failed to come into use.

After the sky lit up, Gao Qiaonan used his telescope to confirm that there were several Jin soldiers lingering on the edge of a forest a mile away. It seemed that it would take a lot of effort to drive them out of this area.

Okay. There are no snipers in the troops led by Takahashi Minami this time. Otherwise, they can try to deal with these annoying spies from a long distance.

For safety reasons, he could not send out his limited cavalry to fight the opponent head-on. After all, it was not easy to train his own cavalry, but he could not just randomly pull out thousands of cavalry to fight like Hou Jin did.

"Endure the calm for a while." In this situation, Takahashi Nan could only use Qian Tiandun's teachings to comfort himself. Although he was belligerent, he also knew that it was not the time to take action yet, even if Hou Jin found out

After knowing our own side's movements, we need to make adjustments now, or even mobilize troops to attack here, but it will probably be too late.

In the blink of an eye, another two days have passed. The camp has begun to take shape, and the number of Houjin cavalry monitoring from a distance has increased from the initial two or three to about ten times. However, this number of troops is still not enough to attack the Haihan camp.

, so these rear Jin cavalry still maintained a wait-and-see attitude and did not try to further shorten the distance from the Haihan camp. But Gao Qiaonan was certain that they should have sent people back to Jinzhou to report the news.

Gao Qiaonan looked at the sky and nodded with satisfaction. It has stopped snowing in the Liaodong Peninsula recently, and the ice at the mouth of the Shah River near the camp is also showing signs of thawing. This shows that the temperature has begun to warm up and the harsh winter is fading away.

Haihan's long-prepared spring offensive is about to have its best opportunity.

On March 2, more than a thousand Ming troops from Phi Island arrived at the camp where Gao Qiaonan is located, and they will take over the defense here. Although the spring offensive was carried out under the banner of the Phi Island Ming Army.

Implementation, but in fact the troops sent by Pidao are mainly responsible for tasks such as logistics and camp protection. Only Shen Zhixiang and his two hundred soldiers will actually go to the front line and participate in the spring offensive.

Shen Zhixiang had already arrived in Lushun earlier to participate in various preparations before the war. Only then did he meet up with his troops on the front line. The materials, food, grass, and even military pay for the troops participating in the Pidao war were basically provided by Haihan.

Therefore, this army is more appropriately said to be a mercenary than an auxiliary army. Of course, the purpose of Haihan paying to hire this army is not to expect them to perform extraordinary performance on the battlefield, but to borrow their name.

It's just an act, this is tacitly understood by both parties.

So after Shen Zhixiang arrived at the front line, he also behaved very respectfully in front of Gao Qiaonan, and took the initiative to direct his troops to participate in the camp expansion project. In addition, Pidao also sent more than 20 ships to participate in the battle here. Of course

The arrival of these ships is not to show off in front of Guan Gong. They are just responsible for the transportation tasks between Port Arthur and the front line. The Haihan Fleet is responsible for the real sea and land operations.
Chapter completed!