Chapter 1112 Harassment Operation
Among the combat personnel of the Navy, some are special combat units specially trained in amphibious operations, which is the Marine Corps conceived by Tom Wang. He has always wanted to form an infantry unit specifically for amphibious assault operations, but due to troop establishment and military investment, its scale is also very limited, and it cannot have infantry, artillery, reconnaissance, etc. like Qian Tiandun's special operations battalion. Comprehensive arms such as soldiers, engineers, and communications corps can at most only perform some near-shore reconnaissance missions or cooperate with the army's operations. However, because the main purpose of this operation was maritime reconnaissance, the fleet was not equipped with a dedicated army unit to accompany the expedition. Therefore, if there was to be a landing operation, Wang Tom would probably only have two companies of infantry available, and heavy weapons. There were only a few field three-pound guns, and their firepower output was relatively limited.
Although Wang Tom was confident, he did not want his soldiers to take unnecessary risks. At the moment, he could not help but hesitate whether to give up when the situation was good or continue to pursue the victory, so he ordered the fleet to cruise around the harbor to complete part of the task of surveying the terrain. Say it again. You might as well take this time to sort out your thoughts and weigh what should be done appropriately. Anyway, the opponent has no warships available in this area. It will definitely not be possible to mobilize warship reinforcements from elsewhere. There is no need to worry about what other tricks they can play at the moment.
Even if the Jin army can mobilize another batch of warships from elsewhere as quickly as possible, it will be difficult to retain the Haihan fleet. However, before leaving here, Wang Tom still hoped to learn as much detail as possible about Hou Jin's local garrison situation. If you want to obtain this information, you don't necessarily have to launch a real attack on the Zhongzuo Castle. Four enemy ships were destroyed in the previous battle, and there will be more or less some prisoners. I believe these people will be interrogated later. Pulled out a lot of valuable information.
Wang Tom quickly straightened out his thoughts and ordered the fleet to be stationed at Lushunkou today. However, he did not choose the coast near Zhongzuosuo City as his anchorage, but chose the coast of Laohwei Peninsula in the south, which is opposite Zhongzuosuo City across a bay. If the Hou Jin army wanted to detour from land to launch a sneak attack, then they would have to detour about twenty miles, during which they would have to cross rivers and climb mountains to reach the Laohwei Peninsula.
Wang Tom left a few ships to patrol outside the waterways in and out of the harbor, just in case the Jin army did have warships coming from other places later, and they could also block it a little to give the Haihan navy anchored in the harbor time to enter a fighting position. .
The logistics supply ship "Yugong No. 4" sent the first batch of 47 prisoners of war to the temporary camp in Laohwei in the afternoon. According to preliminary understanding, these people were all officers and soldiers of the former Dengzhou Navy, and the responsible The Houjin officer who was supervising the battle on the ship either died in the battle or jumped into the water to escape. So far, no one has been captured alive.
This result made Wang Tom a little disappointed. These surrendered troops who were subject to Houjin's monitoring and movement restrictions obviously did not have much authority, and the military information they knew was probably very limited. He personally went to see this group of prisoners. They were all disgraced, and it seemed that there were no senior officers in armor among them.
However, some sharp-eyed people realized that Wang Tom, who was cheering for him, had an extraordinary identity, and immediately shouted loudly in the queue of prisoners of war: "The villain has a military intelligence report!"
Wang Tom nodded, and immediately some of his men brought this man to him. Before the soldiers could kick his knees, the man knelt down on the ground: "Sir, this little man knows the military situation of the golden thief, please." Sir, give me a chance to live!”
Wang Tom said: "Who are you?"
The man responded quickly: "The villain is Pan Yan, the commander-in-chief of the Dengzhou Navy. Last year, he was kidnapped by the Confucian rebels and came to Liaodong. He only wanted to return home as soon as possible. He was forced to fight with the Wang Division before. In fact, It was not my intention, please forgive me!”
"Take him back to the headquarters for questioning!" Wang Tom gave the order concisely and concisely. Since this guy is a low-level officer, he may know more information than ordinary soldiers, but it would be interesting to hear what news he can get. As for his identity, he didn't plan to explain too much to the prisoner. It might be easier for him to tell the truth if he mistakenly thought he was a Ming army general.
Although the clothes and equipment of the Haihan Army are very different from those of the Ming Army, the standards are unified. A discerning person can tell at a glance that this is a regular army rather than a civilian armed force. Now that they have the ability to send troops to the Liaodong Sea to perform combat missions, in addition to Who else could there be in Ming Dynasty? Although Wang Tom's appearance was very different from that of ordinary Ming army generals who wore full armor, in Pan Yan's eyes, it was impossible to think of any other identity he could have.
The temporary headquarters is a large tent set up on the coast of Laohwei Peninsula, and there are dozens of tents being set up next to it for the soldiers who come ashore to live. The few Marine infantrymen in the fleet have been stationed on nearby highlands to map out the terrain and serve as security guards. Currently, the only ones left in this camp are Wang Tom's guard platoon and dozens of sailors who are setting up tents. Most of the people on the battleship have to stay on the ship so that they can quickly enter combat status if an unexpected situation occurs. After all, this place is still in enemy-occupied territory, so even if the current situation is advantageous, we cannot relax too much.
"Since you are also a soldier, then tell me what information you think is valuable! Whether you can make up for it depends on your performance!" Wang Tom said as he motioned to his subordinates to give Pan Yan a folded ponytail and let him sit on it. Let’s talk.
"Yes, yes, I understand, sir, thank you for the seat!" Pan Yan agreed tremblingly, and then began to tell the intelligence information he knew.
As Wang Tom saw, the small city on the north bank of Lushunkou, which originally belonged to the Liaodong Dusi Jinzhou Wei Zhongzuo Qianhu Station, was taken over by the Hou Jin Army last year, and it was here at the beginning of the year. Two armies, land and water, were deployed. Among them, the navy was dominated by those who were kidnapped and defected to Liaodong last year. Pan Yan was also one of them. However, because his family was not in Dengzhou, he came to Liaodong alone without any burdens and worries. He only worked for Hou Jin simply to survive.
These surrendered soldiers from the Ming Dynasty did not suffer any abuse, but their freedom of movement was extremely strictly controlled. They were usually confined to the military camp and were not allowed to go out at will, let alone sail a boat to the sea. Before the emergency military situation occurred today, these people had not been on a ship for about a month. If they were not required to go to sea to fight, then there would basically be a routine patrol mission at sea every thirty or forty days. And there will definitely be Hou Jin's supervising team accompanying him on the ship. Of course, this arrangement was not to reduce their burden, but the Hou Jin people simply could not trust these surrendered soldiers, and were afraid that they would flee back to Shandong regardless of whether they would sail out to sea. This unscientific training arrangement coupled with intentional dismantling and separate deployment made it impossible for the former Daming Navy who defected to Liaodong to maintain a high combat effectiveness. The hasty response just now has fully exposed their existing strength. According to Pan Yan, the naval force was divided into three or four parts and deployed in several ports on the Liaodong Peninsula, while the main force stayed near the Acropolis of Jinzhou, which would later become the waters of Dalian Bay. This news made Wang Tom feel a little relieved. The straight-line distance from Lushunkou to Jinzhou Guard was more than a hundred miles. Even if the local Jinzhou Guards wanted to ask for reinforcements from Jinzhou Guards, the reinforcements would definitely not be able to arrive in a short time. Before the Jinzhou Guard could react, the fleet he led should have already left here.
Almost all of the Ming Dynasty surrender troops deployed here at Lushunkou fought in the previous sea battles, and they were exhausted in one battle. This result will probably also panic the Hou Jin army in the city of Zhongzuo. After all, within a radius of a hundred miles, there is only such a stronghold where troops are stationed. Now that the opponent has killed about one-third of the local troops before they even get ashore, who would be faced with such a situation? It will inevitably be a little frightening.
"Your battalion of navy only has four Fu boats left. The Haicang boat and the Cangshan boat are gone. There are 510 people in the battalion, so there should be about 300 people in total. So, the people stationed in the city of Zhongzuo are The Hou Jin army only has six or seven hundred people?" Wang Tom noticed this detail keenly when he heard this. The four warships defeated by the Haihan Navy should have a rated crew of about 300 people. Pan Yan mentioned that they accounted for one-third of the local garrison. From this, we can quickly deduce the remaining local Houjin troops. .
When Pan Yan heard that Wang Tom was so familiar with the navy's establishment, he was more sure that the other party should be a Ming army general. He quickly responded: "Your Excellency, you are very knowledgeable. There are two golden men stationed in the city of Zhongzuo. According to records, there were about 600 soldiers, plus their family members and Han people, there should be about 2,000 people. Now that the navy was defeated, the gold thieves in the city must have driven everyone into the city to defend the city. ”
Niulu in Hou Jin Dynasty was a grassroots organization with three hundred men as a unit. It integrated military and political affairs, serving the people in peacetime and soldiers in wartime. Each Niulu is divided into four Dadan, and each Dadan is jointly managed by two officials, Zhang Jing and Boshiku, one Wen and one Wu. And these three hundred Ding are not generalized. According to their status, they are divided into three types: Aha, armored men and flag Ding. Aha are slaves, most of whom are Han and Koreans. Armored people are foreigners who submit to the Jurchens, and their status is slightly higher than the lower class Aha. As for Qiding, they are Jurchens with pure blood, and their status is relatively high.
In Wang Tom's eyes, this small number of troops is not a big threat. No wonder the opponent dare not deploy a defense line on the coast outside the city. Pulling out such a small number of people will not have much of a deterrent effect other than exposing one's own strength. . However, he did not forget the cavalry ambushing in the woods outside the city, and continued to ask Pan Yan: "How many cavalry do these two Niulu have?"
This time, Pan Yan was stumped. He shook his head in fear and said, "I really don't know the detailed number of the Golden Thieves' cavalry, but there is a horse farm in the north of the city. I heard from the local Han people who raised horses that there are at least three to four hundred horses."
Wang Tom thought that if he could find a way to get these horses back to Zhifu Island, Harugong would probably wake up laughing even if he fell asleep. It's just that this horse farm is located in the north of the city. If you want to capture the horse, you must first capture the center of the city. This operation is not easy. Judging from the number of horses, this place has the strength to pull out at least one or two hundred cavalry, which should not be underestimated. You must know that the cavalry battalion under Harugong only has more than 200 elite cavalry who can actually fight in battle. Of course, the Haihan cavalry relying on advanced weapons must far exceed the Houjin cavalry in terms of individual combat effectiveness.
There was no cavalry in the troops led by Wang Tom. Even if the cavalry deployed here by Hou Jin was small, it was still a big threat. Wang Tom did not dare to send infantry to land at will. Wang Tom thought for a moment and then continued to ask: "Then do you know what other post-Jin army strongholds are on the coast near here?"
Pan Yan responded: "According to what the villain heard, the Golden Thieves did not build their own strongholds in Jinzhou Guard. They all used the acropolis and forts left over from the Ming Dynasty. However, the villain was not from Liaodong and is not very familiar with this place. If If you capture the gold thieves, you may be able to ask for details. With your fleet, you can go anywhere on the Liaodong Sea, so there is another way. If you can contact the Ming army stationed on Pi Island, you can definitely find it. Ways to fight against gold thieves ”
"Pi Island? There are Ming troops there?" Wang Tom had heard of Pi Island, but after going north this time, he did not receive any information related to the local area.
Pi Island is located in the bay east of the mouth of the Yalu River, right at the intersection of the Liaodong Peninsula and the Korean Peninsula. Although this island is not large in area, its location is very important. In the late Ming Dynasty, it was an important military stronghold for the Ming army to contain the Hou Jin Dynasty in the northeastern region.
At the end of 1622, the Ming general Mao Wenlong led his army to Pi Island. The following year, the imperial court established Dongjiang Town here, which governed Shenmi Island, Guanglu Island, Zhangzi Island, Shicheng Island, Ludao and other areas to the east of Lushunkou centered on Pi. Islands controlled by the Ming Dynasty. "History of the Ming Dynasty: Biography of Mao Wenlong" records that the imperial court "accumulated Mao Wenlong to the position of governor of the left, gave him the seal of general, bestowed Shang Fangjian, and set up troops to control Pi Island like the mainland." After the fall of Liaodong during the Tianqi period, North Korean envoys were unable to travel to the Ming Dynasty by land, and they basically had to pass through Pidao if they took the sea route. After the Han people from Liaodong fled to North Korea, many people also flocked to Pidao, a place that was still nominally part of the Ming Dynasty, to take refuge. However, due to the limited cultivated land on the island, it is difficult to afford food supplies, so it can only rely on Denglai, Tianjin and North Korea to provide food support.
In 1629, Mao Wenlong was executed by Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of Jiliao, and was replaced by deputy general Chen Jisheng. The next year, Liu Xingzhi launched a mutiny to kill Chen Jisheng, and secretly formed an alliance with Emperor Taiji of the Later Jin Dynasty. But this guy was not able to achieve great success. A year later, there was another mutiny in Pidao, and Liu Xingzhi died in the rebellion. Later, the governor Huang Long went to Pidao to take over, but the mutiny did not stop there. The third mutiny occurred in the same year.
Afterwards, Huanglong moved to Lushun and cooperated with Shandong to attack Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, Li Jiucheng and others who launched a mutiny in Dengzhou. However, in 1633, Kong Youde led the Jin army to attack Lushun, and Huanglong was defeated and committed suicide. Shandong was too busy taking care of itself, so Pi Island became a forgotten place.
(End of chapter)