Chapter 1820 Delay the battle

Although the Fujian Navy does not have enough troops to completely blockade the Daning River, it is not difficult to guard against the Qing army organizing a large-scale crossing operation. After all, there are small troops of dozens or hundreds of people and large troops of tens of thousands of people.

The movement before crossing the river is quite different. The latter needs to gather in advance and arrange a large number of crossing vehicles on the riverside. This can easily be discovered by ships patrolling the river. Therefore, although the Qing troops have been zero in the past few days,

Scattered hundreds of people crossed the Daning River, but basically they failed to make any waves. When they reached the other side of the river, they were eliminated by the North Korean defenders who were waiting for work.

After this stalemate lasted for three days, the anxious Qing army even began to try to use rafts to cross the river at night to avoid the surveillance of the Fujian Navy. However, this method of crossing the river was also very risky. The visibility at night was poor, and the difficulty of crossing the river was

Rafts are inherently difficult to control, and they have to be set apart in order not to collide with each other on the river. In this way, even if they are lucky enough to successfully cross the river, the landing locations of the rafts will become quite scattered, and the team will still be unable to assemble in a short time.

The officer who led the team across the river didn't even know whether the small team that had not yet appeared had drifted to the downstream bank or simply flipped into the river.

Using this method to cross the river in the dark can send many people across the river overnight, but the price paid is also very high. Except for the unlucky ghosts who unfortunately fell into the river to feed the fish, it is difficult for the scattered Qing troops who landed in the river to cross the river in the early morning.

To contend with the large number of North Korean defenders who came to patrol the river bank, the situation was not much better than the previous sneak crossing during the day. As the North Korean army gradually became accustomed to such a fighting environment with more and less, they gradually became bolder, and even began to fight in a few days.

At the main crossing point, a Jingguan was built with the heads of Qing soldiers on the bank.

The Koreans had never dared to think about such an exciting operation as using human heads to build a Beijing temple. However, this time the Qing army invaded and flattened several small towns within a few hundred miles. Thousands of North Korean soldiers and civilians were killed and injured.

The number of people kidnapped was several times that, and the damage to property was impossible to estimate.

This situation has actually made the soldiers and civilians of Ping'an Road in northern North Korea realize that this time the Qing army is not here to grab some money, food and population and then withdraw, but to settle down and fight a war to destroy the country, and then try to avoid it with dignity.

War is no longer possible. Now that armies from other countries have arrived to help and effectively blocked the Qing army from moving south, some of the more bellicose Korean troops vented their anger after the battle by building the Jingguan Temple.

Long-simmering anger.

Of course, the heads of the Qing soldiers used to build the Jingguan have been counted and counted as military merits. In addition, according to the Ming army's initiative, the officers among the prisoners of the Qing army were also temporarily spared.

Prisoners with special identities will be handed over to the Ming army, who will conduct detailed interrogations to obtain more military intelligence.

In fact, these prisoners only stayed in the hands of the Fujian Navy for a short period of time before they were handed over to the Haihan people and brought back to the Datong River base. The person who was actually responsible for interrogating these prisoners was not the Ming army, but the Haihan Military Intelligence Department.

Professional torturers.

The intelligence obtained by the Military Intelligence Office from these prisoners far exceeded what was obtained during the earlier operation on the Yalu River. At that time, almost all the prisoners that could be captured were small soldiers with limited knowledge, and it was unclear whether the garrison strength or the strength of the troops.

Understand the deployment and action plan of the Qing army, and the people captured this time are all officers, so they will know some military secrets to a certain extent.

The Military Intelligence Office quickly determined several things from the confessions of these prisoners: First, Huang Taiji was indeed supervising the battle personally and was currently in North Korea. However, the status of these officers was not high enough and they did not know where their boss’s specific destination was.

; The second is that the Qing troops currently gathered on the banks of the Daning River have no specific plan for crossing the river, and are still trying to cross the river by feeling the stones, so they have arranged this tactic of spreading the troops across the river; the third is that

The Qing army was completely blind to the situation on the other side of the Daning River, which meant that they had no idea whether the people waiting for them on the other side were Koreans, Haihan people, or a coalition composed of multinational forces.

"The Qing army is also afraid that they will face a bigger trap after crossing the river." After reading the interrogation report sent by the Military Intelligence Office, Qian Tiandun said to his staff officers: "They are worried that they will be half-crossed.

However, we were afraid that we had already set up positions on the other side and were waiting for them to land and die, so we did not dare to organize a large-scale crossing operation, so we just sent people across the river piecemeal to test. At this rate, let alone

They may not be able to advance to Anzhou City in ten days or a month."

"If we have a month, we can add at least two more miles of trenches and protective walls to the base's defensive position, build ten more fixed forts, and build a few more berths in the port!"

"One month is enough for North Korea to mobilize troops from the south to garrison on the Tatong River in Pyongyang City. It will also relieve some of the pressure on us."

"By then, the Liaodong operation should have come to an end, and the navy can be withdrawn to assist in defense. The Qing army's life will be even more difficult than now!"

The staff officers all showed an optimistic attitude towards the trend of the war. Although the defense of Anzhou City itself may not be very strong, as long as the two water veins of Daning River and Qingchuan River can hold back the main force of the Qing army for a long enough time, North Korea will

Even if Anzhou is lost, it will not affect the overall situation. By then, the intensity of the coalition's blockade of the Datong River will definitely be much greater than the earlier actions on the Yalu River. It is basically impossible for the Qing army to safely cross the Datong River basin. To put it bluntly

To put it bluntly, the finish line drawn by Haihan for them is just here.

Of course, North Korea will still make great sacrifices during this process. Not only will it lose another Anju, it is even possible that the city of Pyongyang on the banks of the Datong River will have to abandon all parts of the north of the Yangtze River and evacuate personnel to the south of the Yangtze River.

To preserve their strength against the Qing army. However, as long as they can block the Qing army and protect Korea, the Haihan military believes that the Korean monarchs and ministers will eventually suffer this embarrassing loss in silence.

As for why the Datong River was chosen as the location to launch a counterattack, rather than the Daning River basin in the north, which also has an inland navigation environment, there are three main reasons. First, Haihan had already selected a suitable location for building a military port on the bank of the Datong River, and decided

Relying on the establishment of a military base in North Korea, the war here can make full use of the advantages of the home field to wait for work, without the need to mobilize the army to travel long distances to attack; secondly, Haihan needs more time to build defenses at his own base, and locating the position on the Datong River can

Gain more buffer time to complete the construction; third, there is still a distance of two hundred miles between the Daning River and the Datong River. When the Qing army was fighting smoothly, there was no serious problem, but when they needed to retreat,

After a long march, they had to cross the Daning River again, which would be the real nightmare for the Qing army.

But until now, Qian Tiandun has still not fully disclosed his combat plan to the North Korean military. On the one hand, he cannot trust the North Koreans and is worried that a traitor will leak the news. On the other hand, he also hopes that the North Koreans can attack as many people as possible in the north.

By consuming the Qing army's combat power, the counterattack launched on the Datong River will be easier.

According to the plan agreed between Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom, the follow-up combat arrangements will not be informed to the Korean military until the Qing army arrives at Anzhou City. To put it bluntly, it is to obtain the greatest results at the smallest cost. Of course, the price

The main body refers to the Haihan coalition forces, not North Korea. The role played by North Korea in this combat plan is actually almost cannon fodder. However, North Korea's own national and military strength is very weak in Haihan's view, not even comparable to that of Fujian.

This province also lacked outstanding performance in previous battles, so the Haihan military was naturally unwilling to bring the Koreans with it.

On the twelfth day when the Qing army stayed on the Daning River, a Qing army quietly attacked the Korean army's station from the upstream direction. After a hasty and chaotic resistance, the three troops responsible for guarding the river bank

Thousands of Korean troops were defeated and fled in all directions.

This Qing army with more than 2,000 men was able to successfully cross the river without any noise because their crossing point was not within the defense zone of the Fujian Navy and the Korean Army. The main force of the Qing army arrived at the first position on the Daning River.

Three days later, after realizing that they could not break through the blockade of the Fujian Navy, they sent an army to go upstream to bypass it. It took this army a full eight days to sneak across the river from the undefended area upstream.

, and then went around in circles to fight back. When they discovered that the troops stationed on the river bank were not the Haihan army, but the North Korean defenders, they decisively launched a surprise attack and defeated the poorly prepared North Korean army.

In fact, this kind of action of the Qing army had long been expected by the coalition forces. Xu Yuzhuo had even greeted the North Korean garrison a few days in advance, asking them to beware of Qing troops that might appear in the upstream areas. But the North Koreans were obviously right.

The results of the war during this period were too optimistic. They thought that sending people across the river to die every day was the limit of the Qing army's offensive. They did not think that the enemy would try to break through the mountainous areas and break through from the upper reaches of the Daning River. Encountered in a lack of preparation

The Qing army made a surprise attack and was defeated.

Without the assistance of the Korean army on the river bank, the section of the Daning River that the Fujian Navy could effectively control had to be further shortened. Especially at night, there was basically no way to prevent the small Qing army from crossing the river.

In the absence of reinforcements and the inability to further divide his troops, Xu Yuzhuo also realized that if he did not retreat to the Qingchuan River in the south, the Qing army would effortlessly break through the next natural moat and reach the foot of Anzhou City.

Therefore, the Fujian Navy had no choice but to evacuate the Daning River on its own initiative, and instead sailed into the Qingchuan River in the south to set up defenses, and asked the Anzhou garrison on the south bank to assist in defense on the shore to prevent the Qing army from quickly crossing the river.

Although there are thousands of defenders in Anzhou, after the situation took a turn for the worse, local civil and military officials were generally pessimistic about blocking the Qing army. They believed that since the Daning River defense line had been breached, it was only a matter of time before the Qingchuan River line was lost, unless

It was Haihan who sent infantry troops to help defend the city.

Letters for help from the front line were sent to Kim Sang-hyun almost every day, but Kim Sang-hyun had already learned the follow-up combat arrangements from Qian Tiandun, and it was absolutely impossible to dispatch troops to help two hundred miles away at this time.

Anzhou could only throw these letters for help into a brazier and burn them, pretending that they had never received any news.

Kim Sang-hyun has sent his right-hand man back to Seoul to report to King Li Jie the battle situation on the front line and the secret battle plan of the Haihan people. In order to win the support of the king, Kim Sang-heon has issued a military order and will stay at the Datong River base to supervise the war.

If this line of defense could not be defended, he would commit suicide on the banks of the Datong River and not return to Seoul.

Kim Sang-hyun's decision was basically a gamble with his life and fortune. Of course, the war situation had developed to this stage, and he couldn't do it without gambling. The Qing army went all the way south and defeated North Korea without the ability to fight back, and spent a lot of money to bring in

The Haihan Army has been refusing to take action by the Daedong River. Kim Sang-heon, the main war party, cannot absolve himself of the blame for this situation. At this time, the king has not yet issued an order to punish him, but he has already given him enough trust. But

This kind of trust will eventually be exhausted, and the pressure from domestic and foreign sources will probably not give the king the confidence to gamble all his family wealth on the table.

If they continue to lose and let the Qing army cross the Datong River, the last few hundred miles away from Seoul will probably not have a chance to make a comeback. Kim Sang-hyun believes that instead of letting the king push him out as a scapegoat, it would be better to

Now I have this last fight in the Datong River. If I lose, I will die here. It is much better to die for the country than to escape back to Seoul and be convicted and imprisoned.

Regarding the issuance of the military order, Kim Sang-hyun did not hide it from Qian Tiandun, but told him frankly, hoping that his bet would make the Haihan people pay attention to this battle, fight the Qing army well, and stop deliberately conserving their strength.

.

"Master Jin, attacking the Qing army is not only your country's wish, but also our country's long-term goal. Our country has traveled thousands of miles to station troops in Liaodong to fight against the Qing Dynasty for several years, and this is the purpose. Since we have agreed to your country's request, we will accept

With the military expenditure and land provided by your country, this battle will definitely be handled well. In fact, I have a bold request. I would like to ask His Majesty the King to come to the Datong River in person to supervise the battle and take a good look at how the arrogant Qing army is here.

The halberd is broken and sinks into the sand, and the army is defeated like a mountain!"

Qian Tiandun's reply was full of confidence and was not shaken at all by the fact that North Korea's current war situation was completely passive. This made Kim Sangxian a little bit suspicious that his previous distrust of the Haihan people was a bit too hasty.

Part of Qian Tiandun's confidence comes from the telegram he just received. The navy's operations in Liaodong have basically come to an end. After a short rest, they will send their troops south and return to the Korean Peninsula to participate in the final decisive battle. When the entire coalition fleet

After arriving in the Datong River Basin, the Qing army would not be able to break through this line of defense as easily as it had previously broken through the Daning River.
Chapter completed!