Chapter 386 Southern Expedition and Northern War 51 North Korea Liaodong Seven
On the road from Sanlipu to Pulandian in Liaodong Peninsula, Lu Xiaoyi led his cavalry battalion to gallop northward.
Soon, the sparse refugees had disappeared in the wilderness. The land of the Liaodong Peninsula was divided into two halves by the flat wilderness in the west and the mountainous forests in the east. Except for the devastated wilderness and uninhabited villages, there was no one. In the cavalry battalion, the brothers In my eyes, this is simply a world without people.
Soon, they heard the faint sound of firearms firing and explosions.
The Manchus can only be considered a newborn in the land of China. Some of the high-level decision-makers in the Houjin Eight Banners knew about the existence of the Zhonghua Company and Yin Feng, but they were completely ignorant of the general trend of the world. Compared with the Ming Dynasty authorities, they were just brothers and sisters. The difference between Niu Lu, the pioneer of Xianglan Banner, from Niu Lu Ezhen Alaqi, who only knew the affairs within his own tribe, to an ordinary Xianglan Banner cavalryman, in their hearts, the Chinese Army and the Ming Dynasty officials There is no distinction between the army and the army, so they just buried their heads and launched a charge. As a result, they were shot by Li Xiao's personal guards with flintlock pistols and then were killed by a round of sabers. They were caught off guard and suffered a big loss. No. 300 People lose half of their lives.
The excellent quality of the Eight Banners cavalry was reflected at this time. The cavalrymen of Niu Lu, the pioneer of the Blue Flag, who were frustrated in the first battle, did not panic. Each of them quickly stabilized their position and took Li Xiao, who had come back to charge at them. The guards gathered around, and after a struggle, Li Xiao's guard was defeated.
Then, all the cavalrymen with blue flags rushed towards Li Xiao's guards who were forming a team, but this time they no longer approached the enemy for close combat, but fired arrows fifty steps away from the enemy.
The members of Li Xiao's guard were hurriedly reloading their flintlock pistols, but they saw that the enemy no longer charged straight at them, but instead played a trick of spinning wheels, shooting arrows at them in circles, although the sophisticated plate armor of the Chinese cavalry blocked them. Most of the arrows were fired, but more than ten people were still shot in the vital points and fell off their horses.
Li Xiao had no choice but to urge the horses to charge again, but the Eight Banners soldiers did not wait for them to rush closer and ran backwards away from them. Although the Chinese cavalry fired two more rounds of musket fire, the effective range of the flintlock pistols was only twenty or thirty steps. , this time only a few cavalrymen with blue flags were defeated.
The Eight Banners soldiers made a circle, but turned right to the side of Li Xiao's guard, and once again used their mounted shooting skills to shoot more than ten Chinese army cavalry off their horses.
Li Xiao was so angry that he ignored the fact that he had already been hit by two arrows. He roared and chased the enemy. The guards on his left and right tried their best to protect him. A group of Liaodong men were already firing with real fire.
Finally, the Chinese army's Arabian horses charged faster than the Eight Banners' Mongolian horses. Li Xiao's team soon caught up with the enemy again. This time they clung to the blue-flag cavalry, no matter how they circled around, they would not let go. After two rounds of flintlock musket fire, more than a dozen Eight Banners soldiers were finally knocked down. This time, the Eight Banners soldiers used their "Mongolian evil" stunt to shoot down several Chinese cavalrymen who were chasing too far forward.
Hundreds of knights in blue and knights in black were fighting relentlessly like a duel in the wilderness of the Liaodong Peninsula. There were fewer and fewer warriors on horseback, but the unrelenting fighting between the two sides continued. , no one on either side intends to stop, and there is no way to stop.
At this time, Lu Xiaoyi arrived with the cavalry battalion of the Second Division. He was ordered to meet Li Xiao's guards who were out for reconnaissance. On the way, they met the messenger sent back by Li Xiao and immediately rushed over at full speed.
The four sentries of the cavalry battalion spread out in four rows and rushed towards this battlefield. The Eight Banners cavalry were shocked when they saw this scene, but they had no intention of running away. They separated into two teams, one team of more than 30 people. They spurred their horses to run wildly and fled to the north; the remaining group, which consisted of about 50 people, turned their horses and rushed toward the Chinese army desperately, intending to use their desperate assault to cover the retreat of their comrades.
…
This outpost cavalry battle between the Chinese Army and the Eight Banners Soldiers was the first time the two armies fought. The scale was small, but the casualties were extremely tragic. There were more than 400 participants on both sides, and less than 80 people survived in the end. Members of Li Xiao's Guards More than half of them were killed in the battle, and he himself suffered five arrow wounds, and almost everyone else was wounded as well.
That night, almost all the officers of the cavalry brigade and the cavalry battalion of the second division gathered around Li Xiao, who was injured and lying on the kang in Sanlipu Fort.
After listening to Li Xiao's story, all the cavalry officers had some understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners soldiers, but Lu Xiaotian kept frowning and looking worried.
Lu Xiaoyi and he were brothers from the same hometown and clan. Seeing his frown, he asked tentatively: "Brother Tian, what are you worried about? Our second division cavalry battalion will be under your command tomorrow. We two brothers will work together. How much will it cost?" The Eight Banners soldiers don’t have to worry!”
Lu Xiaotian smiled bitterly: "I'm not worried about the war, but the refugees. There are 50,000 people on the beach who have not yet boarded the boat. There are still more than 10,000 refugees here who have not left. If the Eight Banners soldiers rush over, They are going to be in trouble, and we don't have the extra troops to protect them,"
"Let the Marine Corps handle this matter. After all, we are cavalry..."
Lu Xiaotian nodded: "That can only be it. As for tomorrow's battle, we only need to fight according to the daily training requirements. That's it. You go back to your army and prepare for tomorrow's battle. I predict that tomorrow’s battle will be as brutal as today’s, Brother Li Xiao,”
…
On the same day that the Chinese Army and the Eight Banners Soldiers first clashed, the Chinese Navy's flat-bottomed artillery boat approached the shore of Ganghwa Island in North Korea and bombarded the Koryo Palace and Ganghwasan Fortress on Ganghwa Island with fierce artillery fire. At the same time, a battleship Feizi and five three-masted cruisers were constantly cruising around Ganghwa Island. The total of 300 naval guns they carried were also bombarding every place on the island such as Ganghwasanseong, Gwangseong, Mani Mountain and Goseongdan. corner.
Fan Tao, the commander of the First Fleet, stood on the bow of the ship, looking impatiently at the shelling scene ahead. From time to time, he looked back at the clock held in the hands of a messenger behind him. (No way, before the invention of watches, the Chinese military only had timekeeping tools. It can be like this)
The commander-in-chief of the First Fleet in red uniform said considerately to the side: "The bombardment time has only passed an hour. According to the scheduled plan, it will take another hour before the Marines will launch the landing."
"The infantry gang only sent one regiment to open the city, and only relied on us Marines to attack Wang Jing. Who came up with this idea? What the Marine Corps is good at is surprise attacks, field battles, and fortifications have always been the skills of the infantry. This What happened once,"
The supervisory officer smiled and said: "I heard it was the idea of the president, our King Jinghai,"
Fan Tao was surprised: "What, you said..."
"Yes, the king said that as long as we capture Ganghwa Island, the North Korean capital can be conquered without a fight. The Marine Corps only needs to take over the city defense."
Fan Tao smiled bitterly: "Our king can always anticipate the enemy's opportunities. We just need to trust him. Okay, after the bombardment is over, we will land."
Yin Feng, who had a rough understanding of Korean history, had already selected Ganghwa Island as the attack target for the Korean strategy.
This island is roughly rectangular in shape, with an area of only 800 square miles. It has many hills and fertile land. It produces rice and other agricultural products. It is also a major ginseng planting area. It is about 100 miles away from the King of Korea and about 2 miles across the strait. Due to its It is famous for its dangerous geographical location. The Han River and Imjin River end at Ganghwa Island and merge into the sea. They have experienced strong winds and waves over the long years. Therefore, Ganghwa Island’s coastline is steep and precipitous. Since the Goryeo Dynasty, North Koreans believed that as long as they defended it Ganghwa Island's gateway 'Gapchu' (??) is impregnable and cannot be broken.
In order to fight against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, the King of Goryeo hid here from 1232 to 1270, leaving the Goryeo Palace. Therefore, during the Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties, whenever the Korean country faced danger, the Joseon king would take refuge along the Han River to Ganghwa or Ganghwa. When the capital was moved to Ganghwa, in another historical time and space, the Eight Banners of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties attacked Wangjing City twice. The king of Korea also fled to Ganghwa Island twice as usual, and finally the whole country surrendered. This is the nature of the Korean royal family, Yin Feng Very confident about this.
At this time, the Chinese army fought from the Daedong River basin to Kaesong. The Chinese navy fleet came to Ganghwa Island unstoppably and strangled the North Korean king's escape route. If Ganghwa Island was occupied by the Chinese army, in this case, the North Korean king would still be able to escape. It would be strange not to surrender to Yin Feng.
It would be a piece of cake to deal with North Korea with the superior strength of the Chinese army on land and water. Yin Feng was not worried at all. At this moment, Yin Feng was fully focused on dealing with the first official confrontation with the Eight Banners soldiers.
However, he is currently inspecting the construction results of the military port's fort defense system at Lushunkou. This is the preliminary fort system of Lushun Military Port. This future first military port in the Far East has now opened the first page of its glorious history.
The future main base of the First Fleet (Northern Fleet) will be moved here from Naha Port in Ryukyu. Now, after two years of construction, the Port Arthur fort defense system has been initially established. The forts at Mantou Mountain, Gold Mountain, Laohuwei and other places have been established. A thousand-pound cannon that can adjust the pitch in the left and right directions was installed. In order to prevent attacks from the land direction, ten sea and land forts were built at Chair Mountain, Case Mountain, Pine Tree Mountain and other places on the back road of Lushun, all equipped with thousand-jin cannons made in Luzon Island. level heavy bronze cannon, with a total number of more than 60.
After inspecting the surrounding terrain, a group of staff officers from the Operation Department and the Weapons Research Department found that Dalian Bay was dangerous, deep, and mountainous, so they suggested building a Dalian Bay Fort. Today, the Monk Island Fort on Dalian Bay Middle Road and the Old Dragon Head Fort on the West Road have begun. A large number of Japanese laborers are already working on the Huangshan Fort and the Xujiashan Fort on the East Road. Dozens of surrounding forts and fortresses form a tight defense system for the entire Lushunkou and Dalian Bay. Any hostile army in the surrounding area is unstoppable. Fan Tao and all the officers of the First Fleet were extremely happy about the possibility of capture. After a military port of this size is completed, there will be no problem even if the entire three fleets of the Chinese Navy and Navy are put in.
A large number of refugees from Liaodong have been transformed into labor forces on the spot and invested in the construction of the Lushun military port defense system. Today, more than 50,000 laborers are constructing various military buildings in Lushun and surrounding areas every day. This is the legacy of the Liaodong War to China. Unexpected benefits brought by the Chinese Army: In the short term, the Chinese Army’s combat operations in Liaodong will not lack logistics personnel.
Yin Feng stood at the highest point of the Chair Mountain fort. On the hillside at his feet, thousands of migrant workers were carrying a 3,000-pound bronze cannon. He looked at a middle-aged man next to him who was not tall but looked very capable and smiled. He said: "Brother Han, someone on the board of directors asked me where the large expenditures on Liaodong's military affairs were spent in the past two years. Now you have seen it with your own eyes, right?"