Chapter 1823 Datong River Defense Line

Anju City faces the Cheongcheon River to the north, and is surrounded by rugged mountainous areas in the southeast. Only the west is a plain formed by river alluvial over millions of years. Therefore, if you judge the environment of Anju City from a strategic perspective, it is actually an easy-to-defend but difficult-to-defend area.

The stronghold to attack. Foreign enemies attacking Anzhou City can only put their own forces in a relatively small area to the west of Anzhou City, and the defenders do not have to worry too much about the city being besieged on all sides. As long as they hold on to this direction, they can be saved.

Safety.

However, under the suppression of the Qing army, the situation in Anzhou City was not as calm as imagined. On the plain two miles away from the west gate of Anzhou City was the Qing army camp. The densely packed tents made the defenders at the city head frightened.

The order they received was to defend Anju and try to delay preparations for Pyongyang in the south.

Only a handful of senior officials knew the inside story. The southern defense line was not centered around Pyongyang City, but around the Haihan military base being built on the banks of the Datong River. The main force responsible for defense tasks was composed of Haihan people.

The multinational coalition commanded by Haihan. As for whether this line of defense led by Haihan can stop the overwhelming Qing army, no one can say. After all, the coalition fleet has taken the initiative to withdraw from the battlefield twice since the war began. Maybe next time

They will also repeat their old tricks and play the trick of the golden cicada escaping from its shell again on the banks of the Datong River.

Huang Taiji, who had just arrived at the south bank of the Qingchuan River to supervise the battle, did not feel relieved because of the active withdrawal of the Ming fleet.

The confrontation with the opponent in the area of ​​​​the Qingchuan River and the Qingchuan River will not be the last confrontation during this expedition to North Korea. They will meet again somewhere in the future.

As for the rumors that Haihan had a falling out with North Korea and withdrew military aid, Huang Taiji was still dubious. Although the fleet that had sent troops to stop the Qing army from going south for more than half a month did not belong to Haihan, but the genuine Ming Navy, this method of combat was extremely

It is possible that they were assigned by the Haihan people. There is no telling when the Haihan people will return to the battlefield.

According to the original plan of the Qing Dynasty, the attack on North Korea was to achieve a quick victory. However, the appearance of foreign coalition forces completely ruined the battle plan. The two actions of blocking the river channel delayed the Qing army for more than a month.

The results harvested from North Korea since the beginning of the war are far from enough to make up for the additional consumption during this period. If the gains and losses of this expedition are calculated from an economic perspective, then the Qing army has still been doing business at a loss so far. Of course, if it can finally win

It is another matter to force the Koreans to surrender in Seoul.

Huang Taiji has full confidence in defeating North Korea, but if Haihan intervenes, the situation will become very complicated. The Qing army has basically no way to deal with surface warfare, and on the Korean battlefield, this is equivalent to letting Haihan

This formidable opponent has the natural advantage of being able to advance, attack, retreat and defend.

There are several types of maps in Huang Taiji's hands, the most accurate and detailed version of which was captured from the North Korean military. According to the map, there are several rivers between Anju and Seoul, and Haihan's fleet may

It would appear anywhere among them. This potential threat made it difficult for Huang Taiji to issue combat orders with confidence and boldness.

Originally, after the Ming fleet withdrew, it was indeed possible to bypass Anzhou City without fighting. However, Huang Taiji considered that his troops had been blocked by the Ming fleet in this area for more than 20 days, and his morale would inevitably be greatly affected.

There must be a hearty victory to revive morale, and the only target nearby is Anju City.

In addition, Huang Taiji was also a little worried that the coalition forces headed by Haihan had an ambush in Anzhou City. He deliberately let the fleet withdraw to show weakness and let the Qing army cross the river south. But if the main force of the Qing army went south, it would kill them from Anzhou City.

The consequences of sending out a surprise force to cut off the supplies of the Qing army would be really unimaginable. Therefore, before taking the next step, Huang Taiji still had to try to clean up Anzhou and ensure that there were no enemy ambushes in this area before he could safely order his troops to march south.

So Anzhou City, which could be fought or not, became a target that the Qing army must capture. Huang Taiji didn't even wait for the main force to cross the river before he ordered an offensive. However, it was already getting late when the battle started yesterday.

, the hasty attack on the city did not achieve very good results. After the two offensives were repulsed by the defenders, the Qing army hastily withdrew its troops when they saw no opportunity to take advantage.

However, the Qing army launched another offensive today and did not intend to leave any room. Huang Taiji had given a death order. The city must be captured before dark, and Anzhou City would be cleared tomorrow at the latest.

Perhaps because after being taught a lesson by the Haihan Army in Liaodong two years ago, the Qing Dynasty truly realized the power of artillery on the battlefield. The Qing Dynasty spent a lot of resources on casting cannons in the past two years, and the number of artillery equipped in the army was far greater.

More than the original history is one of Haihan's influences on this time and space.

However, although this kind of militaristic change of equipment made the Qing army much stronger on paper, the strength of the artillery force is not only the number of artillery, but more importantly the people who use these weapons. Since the level of military industry and military expenditure are relatively high

Limited, the artillery in the Qing army actually did not have many opportunities for live-fire training. Since it was not easy to form an army, the generals of the Qing army were generally reluctant to send these precious soldiers into battle to fight against the Ming army. But this time in the attack on North Korea, the strength of the opponent

Relatively weak, the Qing army specially brought a large number of artillery to give the artillery the opportunity for actual combat training.

A city like Anzhou with certain defensive capabilities but not particularly strong was used to practice artillery and artillery siege tactics, so Huang Taiji gave an order, and dozens of artillery lined up outside the city to bombard Anzhou.

Zhouchengtou.

Although the accuracy and destructive power of the Qing army's artillery bombardment were relatively limited, the deterrent effect was very significant. After two rounds of shelling, there was no trace of the defenders on the city. The Qing army infantry took advantage of the defenders to withdraw from the city.

As soon as the bombardment stopped, the defenders began to return to the top of the city to defend, but they still could not prevent the Qing army from ascending to the top of the city.

Once the hand-to-hand contact began, the gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides became apparent at a faster rate. Facing the heavily armored Baya soldiers, the North Korean defenders were like facing invulnerable monsters. It was simply difficult to parry. Not yet.

At noon, the Qing army had occupied the west gate of the city. If the defenders had not blocked the city gate with earth and rocks in advance, the Qing army would have directly entered the city from the west gate.

Anzhou City has only four artillery pieces in total, all of which were purchased from Haihan last year. The defenders deployed them at the top of the city, but two of them had been destroyed by Qing artillery fire in the previous artillery battle. After the Qing army attacked the city head

, seeing that the other two cannons could no longer be saved, and because the cannons were too heavy to evacuate quickly, the defenders had no choice but to fill the cannons with explosives and destroy the two cannons.

At the cost of more than 300 men, the Qing army occupied a five- to six-foot-wide territory on the city head. Then the troops outside the city quickly climbed to the city head with the help of siege ladders and expanded to both sides along the city wall.

After the defenders in the city realized that the Qing army had opened a gap in the city defense, not only did they not seize the time to launch a counterattack to expel the enemy, but some of the troops lost the will to continue fighting and began to fight and retreat in search of a way out.

A chance to escape on the battlefield.

An hour after attacking the city head, the Qing army had completed the clearing of the west wall and repelled several counterattacks launched by the defenders from inside the city. After more Qing troops climbed over the city wall and entered the city, the two

The army began to launch more brutal street fighting in Anzhou City.

By nightfall, the defenders barely held the eastern part of the city, but the control area had been reduced to less than one-third of the city. At this time, the number of Qing troops entering the city had exceeded 3,000. Although it was not as good as the defenders, it

It was already difficult to overturn the situation. Fortunately, the civilians in the city had been released to take refuge in the mountains a few days ago, so the war in the city did not harm too many innocent civilians.

After the garrison generals met to discuss at night, they could no longer agree on the same opinion. Some people believed that the situation was over now that the situation was over, so they should avoid direct confrontation and continue to die, and withdraw from the city as soon as possible to preserve their strength. Others thought that the situation was over.

He believed that the order he received was to defend Anzhou City and delay the Qing army's southward march as much as possible. He retreated again and again until the end of his retreat was reached. He would rather die in the civil war in Anzhou City than admit defeat.

In the end, most of the defenders chose to evacuate Anju City from the East Gate at night, and only more than a thousand North Korean officers and soldiers still wanted to defend Anzhou and not evacuate.

After dawn, the Qing army began to clean up the city step by step, and encountered the last Korean soldiers holding Anzhou near the east gate. Needless to say, the result was that there were only more than a hundred Korean soldiers left in the city.

He was captured, and all the rest of the men and horses died in the battle. All the captives were injured, but they still refused to surrender.

This situation also alarmed Huang Taiji. After he entered the city and inspected the bloody battlefield in the east of the city, he thought that he might have underestimated the Korean people's fighting will. But fortunately, there are only a very small number of Koreans who dare to die generously, and

If you eliminate one group, you will lose another group.

Huang Taiji finally ordered that all the prisoners who were unwilling to surrender be executed at the East Gate. However, out of respect for these warriors, he ordered that these prisoners should be kept intact without beheading to show his "mercy".

In the battle of Anzhou City, the North Korean side suffered nearly 3,000 casualties, and the Qing army finally encountered the heaviest siege since entering Korea, with more than 1,000 casualties. Although the battle loss ratio still had a large advantage,

For the Qing generals who had vowed before the siege to capture Anzhou City at the minimum cost, such battle losses were enough to bring shame on their faces.

The Qing army spent three days and two nights here in Anzhou, which coincided with the prediction made by Xu Yuzhuo to Jin Sangxian. The news of the fall of Anzhou did not reach the Datong River base until two days later, and Jin Sangxian calculated

When the battle lasted, I had to admire the vision and calculation ability of the Ming army generals. As for the North Korean officers and soldiers who died in Anju City, although Kim Sang-hyun felt sorry for it, because of the previous series of failures as a foreshadowing, he no longer felt too much

I felt so much grief.

The troops who withdrew from Anju met thousands of refugees who had fled in advance in the mountainous area, and then evacuated together through the mountainous area toward Pyongyang City in the south.

At the same time, the main force of the coalition fleet returning from Liaodong has arrived at the Datong River base and began to coordinate with the army troops to deploy defenses in the Datong River basin.

According to the hydrological data provided by North Korea, the coalition divided the more than 200 miles of river surface that needed to be monitored into three levels according to the degree of suitability for crossing the river, and then divided several river sections that needed to be focused on monitoring, and stationed a number of warships respectively.

In accordance with the requirements of the coalition forces, the North Korean army focused on the Nanjiang River bank in Pyongyang and mobilized more than 70% of the remaining troops on Ping'an Road to this area. Qian Tiandun's request to them was very simple, that is, to guard the areas they were responsible for.

In the defense area, do not allow the Qing army to easily board the south bank of the Datong River.

Although Qian Tiandun's request was simple, it was a big test for the Korean army. Whether it was in the Yalu River, or later the Daning River and Qingchuan River, the Korean army was not able to completely defend the river bank and block the Qing army.

On the other side, if the North Korean army still cannot hold on this time, Qian Tiandun may really consider whether he should continue to cooperate with the North Koreans.

Naturally, Kim Sang-hyun also felt the Haihan people's distrust of their own army from Qian Tiandun's deployment. For this reason, he even made a special trip to Pyongyang, gathered the local garrison commanders, and asked them to treat the Datong River Blockade as a

The final decisive battle that will determine the fate of the country is coming. No matter what, we must not take another half step back. We must hold on to the defense line of the Datong River.

Qian Tiandun actually didn't have high hopes for how effective the pre-war mobilization done by Kim Sang-heon would be. According to Haihan's deployment, Wang Tom would personally lead the main force of the fleet to Pyongyang to blockade that section of the river. Compared with Lien Chan and Lien Lien,

If the Koreans are defeated, then our own people are more reliable.

The main part of the defense line in the northern part of the Datong River base is basically completed. Although most of it is only built according to the standards of temporary projects, Qian Tiandun believes that it is enough to defend against the offensive of the main force of the Qing army. Of course, before the Qing army attacked here, the construction site

The thousands of laborers on board still have at least three or four days to further improve these fortifications.

More than a dozen forts on the defense line have gradually deployed artillery in place, and conducted fire calibrations in advance. The firing range has been marked in advance on the plain north of the defense line. If the Qing army wants to start a gun-to-gun showdown here,

, then the defenders can take the upper hand.

Before the war, Qian Tiandun called together the generals of the coalition forces and prepared a sumptuous banquet for mobilization before the war.

"If this war is fought successfully, we won't have to worry about the threat of the Qing Dynasty for at least one or two years." Qian Tiandun unabashedly revealed the benefits that can be obtained after the war: "The entire North Korea will be interested in

It is easier for us to open the country and get what we want than to use force to conquer this country. I hope that everyone can seize this opportunity to perform well and show a record that convinces the North Koreans!"
Chapter completed!