From Liaonan to Liaodong, the general offensive launched by Dongjiang Army caught Jianlu by surprise and was exhausted.
As the saying goes: Know yourself and the enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles without danger. Jianlu's lack of intelligence and the success of the Dongjiang Army's deception strategy put Jianlu into a comprehensive passive position.
The biggest mistake was to underestimate the population growth rate of Dongjiang Town. This caused Jianlu to misjudge and believed that the Dongjiang Army would not launch a major offensive before the autumn harvest.
Of course, this also has the advantage of crops grown by the military and civilians of Dongjiang Town, which can be harvested earlier than traditional crops.
Faced with the grain and grass that could be harvested in more than a month, Jianlu could only grit his teeth and hold on, reluctant to give up the hard work he had gained over the past year.
At the same time, the importance of food and grass supplies to the Jianlu people also prevented them from giving up easily. After all, if they could not harvest in the autumn, even if they could escape unscathed, hunger would prevent them from surviving for a few months.
In other words, Jianlu's current food and grass can only sustain food and drink for less than 100,000 horses, for half a year at most. Half a year, that is, next spring, it will definitely be too late to cultivate the wasteland.
"If we make precise calculations and comparisons, Jianlu probably doesn't know which one is more suitable: the loss of troops who can survive until the autumn harvest, or the population that can be preserved after fleeing north."
Guo Dajing sat in the big tent, discussing with the generals the battle to attack Liaoyang, and also analyzed the entire current battle situation, as well as the psychological state of both the enemy and ourselves.
With vehicles and artillery at the forefront, the elite Zuo Xie opened the way. With an unstoppable momentum, the army of nearly 50,000 infantry, cavalry and artillery drove to the vicinity of Liaoyang City in more than three days.
The Jianlu's obstruction and harassment along the way were all crushed one by one under the attack of artillery and artillery and the heroic attack of the flying cavalry, and did not cause much trouble to the Dongjiang Army.
Of course, the main force of the Jianlu troops had already been assembled in Liaoyang, and the attack on the Dongjiang Army was just to delay the attack, and had no intention or intention of a decisive battle.
"As far as the current situation is concerned, time is in our army's favor, while Jianlu is struggling to hold on. We hope that we can decide on specific actions based on the situation after the autumn harvest."
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Guo Dajing sneered indifferently and continued: "Liaoyang City is indeed very strong and tall, but if our army wants to break it, we still have ways and confidence."
Liaoyang City is an ancient city built on the ancient city of the Yuan Dynasty. The Taizi River flows northward from outside the east wall of Nanshun. The city has a circumference of 24 miles and is divided into two cities, the north and the south. The two cities are connected in the shape of a "sun".
Nancheng has a circumference of sixteen miles, more than three miles long from north to south, and four and a half miles wide from east to west. The city wall is made of masonry, with stone inside and brick outside, and rammed earth in the core. It is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. It is trapezoidal and the bottom of the wall is more than eight meters wide.
Ten meters high.
There are turrets at each of the four corners of the city, Chibian in the southeast, Zhenyuan in the northeast, Pinghu in the northwest, and Wangjing Tower in the southwest. There are six gates in the city: Anding and Taihe in the south, Pingyi and Guangshun in the east, Suqing in the west, and Zhenyuan in the north.
There is an urn city outside the east gate. There is a moat outside the city. In the city, there are bells, drums on the second floor and Chinese watch columns on the east and west sides. It turns out that the Liaodong Dusi and the General Military Office of the Ming Dynasty were all located in Nancheng.
The North City is two miles wide from north to south and four miles long from east to west. The city wall is first built with earth and then covered with bricks. There are three gates: Yongzhi in the east, Wujing in the west and Wudi in the north.
After Jianlu occupied Liaoyang, Laonu first set the capital in this city and then moved to Shenyang.
As an important town in Liaodong, Liaoyang City has been repaired and reinforced last year. Traditional offensive tactics may be very difficult.
But for the current Dongjiang Army, they can use Hongyi cannons to blast holes in the city wall, or they can use tunnel blasts to collapse the city wall. These are all methods of city destruction that are difficult for the captives to prevent.
"Jianlu obviously hopes that our army will divide its forces and besiege them, so that they can cooperate with each other inside and outside the city to form a flanking attack."
Guo Dajing showed contempt and said: "The Jianlu are trying to hold on for a while, but our army is not in a hurry to conquer Liaoyang. We should follow the original battle plan and attack from the south to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of it."
To fight a battle of annihilation, he did not just rely on these 50,000 troops, and the encirclement was larger than Jianlu expected. The battle in Liaoyang was not limited to Liaoyang City. Guo Dajing's appetite was not small.
"Commander Guo, the last general's department has accumulated experience in the trench warfare outside Anshan Fort. This time we attack Liaoyang, the new editor is invited to be the vanguard." He Kegang bowed and handed over, taking the initiative to volunteer.
Although the New Association suffered some casualties during the battle at Anshan Fort, its strength was still there and it was not satisfied with just fighting one battle and then becoming a reserve army.
Guo Dajing slightly chinned his head, raised his hand to signal other generals not to fight for it, and said with a smile: "This is what I mean, too. The ground positions south of Liaoyang City will be occupied and handed over to General He."
But with the new editors' association fighting on the ground, Guo Dajing naturally had his considerations in mind. Since each unit suffered average casualties, resulting in a decrease in combat effectiveness, more considerations must be made for future operations.
But if the casualties of the New Editorial Association are relatively large, Guo Dajing can arrange for the New Editorial Association to rest and reorganize, such as defending the city, without affecting the combat effectiveness of other associations.
Moreover, what He Kegang said makes sense, and actual combat experience is indeed crucial. Although each association has carried out equipment and training for close combat combat around trenches.
"Shuai Guo, can we start the attack tomorrow?" He Kegang showed his eagerness after understanding the task.
Guo Dajing pondered for a moment and said: "First strengthen the camp to ensure that everything is safe, and then attack Liaoyang the day after tomorrow."
Attacking one day late would not affect the entire battle plan. Guo Dajing was still waiting for news from the Navy.
As long as the navy arrives around Liaoyang, it will not only be able to contain Jianlu's mobile corps, but also join forces with the two flying cavalry regiments to attack in an effort to completely annihilate or cripple Jianlu's fine cavalry.
Although the Battle of Liaoyang was a turning point in the victory or defeat of the Ping-Liao War, Guo Dajing was not in a hurry.
If Liaoyang is not lost, the Jianlu will be less likely to flee north on a large scale, which will be very beneficial to eliminate more of the Jianlu's effective forces.
Judging from the current progress of the battles in various places, rushing to break through Liaoyang is not the best choice. The retreat has not been cut off, the encirclement has not yet been formed, and even the enemies of Liaoyang may abandon the city and flee north.
"General Shang's Central Association will be responsible for the task of siege." Guo Dajing turned to look at Shang Kexi and said with a smile: "Of course, there will be assistance from the soldiers of the Zuo Association."
The approximately 30,000 defenders may suffer four to five thousand casualties in the trench warfare outside the city. During the siege, the casualties will increase. In this way, the battle inside the city will be almost a fight of equal strength.
But don't forget that the Dongjiang Army's greatest firepower is artillery, and the psychological defense line of the prisoners is the tall and solid city wall.
Once the city is breached, the Jianlu's psychology will be severely hit. Moreover, the buildings in Liaoyang City, or the ancient architectural characteristics, determine the difficulty of street fighting.
In order to reduce casualties, Guo Dajing was not afraid to burn Liaoyang City into ashes and destroy it into ruins.