On the seventh day of the Qing coalition's retreat, the Fourth Division officially crossed the Nakdong River and began to capture the city.
Like Li Shifang, Jin Zidian was also retained by Hauge to take charge of the rearguard.
And just like Li Shifang, Jin Zidian cherished his life so much, how could he put himself in danger?
He only left a thousand men behind, and he led the main army thirty miles behind the Qing army.
How could these one thousand men stop the Fourth Division's offensive?
In just one morning, the Fourth Division occupied the original Qing Dynasty coalition camp.
How to carry out the pursuit next will test the abilities of Liu Yiyuan and Bai Xiaoqi.
"The Qing army will definitely retain a back-up force during its retreat, so our main force must not be dispersed, otherwise it will be easy to be defeated individually."
Bai Xiaoqi had completely calmed down and was concentrating on thinking about the battle situation.
"Commander-in-Chief, why don't we march with all our strength to seize Daegu first? Then spread to the surrounding areas and consolidate the existing occupied areas. After the rear is stabilized, we can then pursue it."
Liu Yiyuan asked: "According to the intelligence, Li Shifang has withdrawn to Jeolla Province. How do you plan to deal with it?"
Bai Xiaoqi has obviously already thought about it.
"After occupying Daegu, separate a regiment and march to Jeolla Province. Even if Lee Si-bang cannot be eliminated, he can be forced away."
"After all, we still don't have enough troops."
Liu Yiyuan increasingly felt that the available troops of the Xia army were stretched thin. Otherwise, how could the Qing army be allowed to retreat calmly?
Once these 200,000 troops return to the northern front, there is no telling how much pressure the First Marine Division will bear.
"I plan to ask His Highness for your opinion and mobilize the Fifth Division to strengthen our military strength."
The Fifth Division is a newly established unit of the Xia Army. It is currently undergoing training in Shandong. The weapons, equipment and soldiers are in place and are enough to be put into the battlefield.
"This is best. With the reinforcements from the Fifth Division, we won't be tied up in the fight."
Bai Xiaoqi is not worried about someone coming to take credit.
The current situation is that the Xia Army's troops are seriously insufficient, and they cannot achieve much results. If there is one more division of troops, the pace of the march can be accelerated a lot.
With the withdrawal of the Qing Dynasty allied forces, the functions on the Busan side also completed their mission.
Jin Sangxian, Shen Qiyuan, Liu Zongzhou and others boarded the ship, preparing to detour to the northern route.
Hanyang is about to be recovered, and there is still no clue about government affairs. How the country should be governed next, Kim Sang-heon and others need to come up with a solution.
The Northern Line always maintains a set speed and cannot go faster even if it wants to.
Even if sufficient preparations were made before, when the landing operations actually began, problems still emerged one after another.
For example, fully half of the packhorses transporting supplies and artillery could not be put into use.
These horses set off from Jeju Island and after a long sea journey, all suffered from diseases, and one-third even died of the disease on the ship.
The specific reason is being investigated by the logistics department and veterinarians.
If this problem is not resolved, it will have a serious impact on future cross-sea operations.
The lack of packhorses resulted in a slow delivery of supplies and artillery, which also restricted the progress of the First Marine Division.
In addition, a large number of civilian workers are needed to support the logistics. Although some are brought from Busan and Jeju Island, more need to be recruited from the local area.
People from various places had already fled to the mountains and forests because of the war and fear. It took a lot of effort just to find these people back.
On the second day of May, the 1st Marine Division finally resumed its advance.
This time, their target is Gaoyang County.
Gaoyang County is located to the west of Hanyang and can be called the west gate of Hanyang.
By conquering this place, Hanyang has opened its arms.
Although ships can cross Gaoyang from the Han River, and the army can march eastward from the south bank of the Han River, directly to Hanyang, there seems to be no need to attack Gaoyang County.
But on the actual battlefield, this is impossible.
Gaoyang is lying there. If it is not pulled out, it may attack the logistics transportation at any time, and it will not be possible to connect Hanyang to Gimpo and Incheon.
The so-called siege of a city and territory means that you must attack a city before you can capture a territory.
There is absolutely no situation where if you just go around the fortified city, everything will be fine.
In order to capture Gaoyang, the First Marine Division deployed the third and fourth regiments, plus the artillery regiment and engineering regiment, totaling nearly 30,000 troops.
The army crossed the Han River from Gimpo, seized the high ground on the bank, and set up heavy artillery on it.
When Li Enze, the governor of Gaoyang County, heard the news that the Xia army was attacking, he was not very afraid, but seemed full of confidence.
His confidence comes from the army in his hands.
Although Li Zhu and Chosun Yangban had already escaped from Hanyang, Hanyang was the capital of North Korea anyway, and it would really be unsightly to lose it casually.
Therefore, Li Jie ordered Li Enze to hold on and never hand over Hanyang to the Xia army easily.
For this reason, Li Zhu gave all the reinforcements from the north to Li Enze.
Suddenly, more than 60,000 North Korean troops gathered inside and outside Gaoyang City.
Naturally, the small Gaoyang City cannot deploy so many troops, and it is impossible to defend the city alone.
Li Enze made full use of the terrain near Goyang and built fortifications on all the highlands first. Not only that, he also reserved 10,000 troops on Bukhan Mountain between Goyang and Hanyang.
The passage from Goyang to Hanyang is sandwiched between Bukhan Mountain and the Han River and is very narrow. If Bukhan Mountain is not captured, there is no way to pass through here smoothly.
Xia Jun still followed the old routine and sent people to persuade Li Enze to surrender before attacking.
There is no doubt that he was flatly rejected by Li Enze.
This Gaoyang County Governor had high hopes from Li Zhu and had been promoted to the rank of Observer of Gyeonggi Province. He was suddenly promoted from the fourth rank to the second rank, and he was dreaming of greater glory and wealth.
"Since Li Enze is so delusional, let's smash his turtle shell."
Zuo Yong and others personally surveyed the terrain and quickly formulated a combat plan.
Zuo Yong and Chang Ying personally led the third regiment to attack along the junction of Goyang County and Paju County on the northern line.
Tang Wenhuan and Gu Erzhong led the fourth regiment, and under the cover of naval warships, attacked and advanced along the Han River.
As the commander of the 1st Marine Division, Zuo Yong took on the most difficult combat tasks on himself.
His journey was all mountainous, and because he was far away from the Han River, he had no support from warships. He could only use the weapons at hand, so you can imagine how difficult the battle was.
Tang Wenhuan and Gu Erzhong naturally understood his painstaking efforts, but didn't say anything.
The only way to repay is to attack faster.
If we get to Gaoyang City one day earlier, Zuo Yong will be less stressed.
The battle plan was formulated, reported to Zuo Mengeng, and obtained his approval.
The First Marine Division, the dragon in the sea, is now turning into a tiger on land.