Chapter 1361 The troops are approaching the city
After this short but extremely fierce battle ended, Takahashi Minami ordered the troops to suspend their advance, rest on the spot first, gather the team to clean the battlefield, and send the wounded and prisoners to the beachhead on the seaside.
Although the special operations battalion cleanly defeated the Houjin Cavalry in the previous battle and caused great damage to them, their own side also suffered a small amount of battle losses. This was not because the Hou Jin cavalry broke through the firepower network composed of infantry, but that the enemy fired a round of arrows in a projectile manner from a distance. The Haihan Army did not have protective equipment such as armor. In this kind of situation In this case, several people were inevitably injured by arrows. Fortunately, the opponent was shooting arrows while riding on horseback, so there was not much accuracy. If he had been killed at a relatively close distance, the number of casualties might have been much higher.
In comparison, some of the Houjin cavalry equipped with armor were actually not much better. The safe distance for the Haihan infantry to fire is a standard established after precise calculations to ensure that the bullets are powerful enough to penetrate the armor that the Houjin Cavalry can equip. Moreover, the power of the almost non-stop intensive firepower output of the Haihan Army was completely different from the sparse mounted attack of the Houjin Cavalry.
Hou Jinbing, who was directly hit by bullets and fell from his horse, only had half his life left, even if he was not dead. Only a few Houjin soldiers who fell out because their horses were shot were saved. However, these soldiers believed that they still had the strength to fight. After falling from their horses, they still tried to fight, but what was waiting for them was not Haihan who rushed up to fight. infantry, but several rounds of hot bullets. The soldiers in the special operations battalion were instructed to kill as many enemy soldiers as possible, so when they saw the enemy soldiers trying to resist, they did not try to persuade them to surrender, but directly shot them according to the instructions they received before the war. Down the opponent.
For the seriously injured enemy soldiers, the special operations battalion did not intend to waste resources on treating them, and directly dealt with the prisoners who had lost the ability to move. In the end, there were not many survivors captured and taken away by Haihan, only about ten people in total. However, this was not the biggest gain of this battle. After hundreds of golden cavalrymen rushed out, they left nearly half of their intact horses. The cavalrymen quickly gathered these horses together, and then piled the bodies of the dead on the horses. Taken to the beachhead for resettlement.
The logistics force also quickly transported another batch of ammunition from the beachhead position to supplement the battle consumption. At the same time, Qian Tiandun sent dozens of soldiers to fill the vacancies left by the casualties. During the battle just now, he never put down his hands holding the telescope, paying attention to the battle situation throughout. Fortunately, this time the soldiers did not disappoint him as always, and they neatly dealt with the hundreds of cavalry soldiers.
The course of the battle was not much different from Qian Tiandun's expectation. Although the Houjin cavalry were brave, they still seemed unable to adapt to this new tactic that they had never seen before. The consequence of a blind charge was just to give the Haihan soldiers one more opportunity to practice shooting with live ammunition and targets. If it weren't for some masters of mounted archery among the Houjin Cavalry, this infantry-cavalry confrontation might even have resulted in zero casualties. The results come. For the special operations battalion, this tactic is applied to actual combat for the first time, and the current results are enough.
However, Qian Tiandun also noticed that the number of cavalry troops deployed by the Jin Army outside the city this time was significantly larger than before. This may be one of the reasons why the opponent came out from hiding in the forest with no fear. They probably thought that these cavalry troops were enough. To overwhelm the advancing Haihan infantry array, they did not expect that this in itself was a trick laid by the Haihan military to lure the enemy. And the other party dared to deploy so many cavalry outside the city, which shows that the number of Houjin troops stationed here should also have increased.
However, based on the city defense situation here, it is not practical for the Jin Army to station too many troops here. After all, what they want is to defend this armed stronghold on the north side of Lushunkou. If Haihan captures this fortress, then Even if they have several times the strength here, they will not be able to take back the place from the Haihan people - in terms of the ability to defend the city, the Hou Jin Army also knows that it is far behind the Haihan Army, which is equipped with a large number of firearms. , there is no chance of winning at all.
Winter is coming soon, and even if the Hou Jin army is cold-resistant, they will have to live in a fortress to shelter from the wind and rain in order to successfully survive the severe winter test. Considering the scale of winter supplies that can be stored here, Qian Tiandun judged based on this, the Hou Jin army The number of troops deployed by the army in Lushunkou should not exceed 2,000. Taking into account the logistics personnel and family members accompanying the army, the population of Houjin inside and outside the city where Zhongzuo is located is at most just over 3,000. The number of combatants on Haihan's expedition this time has exceeded 2,000. It can be said that they are basically guaranteed to defeat the opponent. It just depends on how many tricks are needed to achieve the goal.
However, Haihan did not carry many heavy artillery in this cross-sea battle, but mainly light field artillery. Even the artillery only came with one company. When Qian Tiandun was using the shooting tactics, he had no intention of using heavy artillery to destroy this stronghold, because after snatching it from Hou Jin, Haihan still had to rely on this place for defense, so he could not destroy it. It's amazing, otherwise you would have to spend time repairing it again afterwards.
The use of infantry to attack cities has been a customary method throughout the dynasties. However, Qian Tiandun did not intend to let his soldiers climb the walls on ladders and risk their lives to fight hand-to-hand with the Jin army. He planned to use other methods to attack the city. fortress.
After resting in the fighting zone for about an hour, the Haihan Army set off again and slowly continued to advance towards the center of Zhongzuo City. At the same time, behind the infantry, several artillery carriages also appeared in the sight of the Hou Jin Army, pulled by pack horses. Compared with the weird muskets that can be fired continuously in the hands of Haihan soldiers, the shocking effect of weapons like artillery is more direct. Even Muteb, who had always been calm, couldn't help but change his expression quickly after seeing the appearance of these artillery pieces. Gloomy.
Muteb did not have much experience fighting against the Haihan army, but his predecessors had spent many lives of soldiers summarizing the experience that the Haihan artillery was extremely powerful and could never be fought head-on. Although the Haihan Army took the initiative to leave the fire cover of the naval guns this time, they had already moved the artillery ashore and advanced with the infantry.
Originally, the Hou Jin army had no way of restraining this routine. During the battle against the Ming Dynasty, the Hou Jin cavalry was almost invincible in the wild. The Ming Dynasty had no idea of allowing artillery to advance so easily, and could only use a large number of armed forces to fight against it. It just needs to be protected. But the Haihan infantry had just proved that they were not inferior in the face of the Houjin Cavalry. If they wanted to break through their defenses and destroy these artillery vehicles, it might not be that easy to accomplish. Moreover, Muteb also suspected that the reason for the appearance of these artillery carts was to induce him to send out cavalry to actively attack, and then let the Haihan infantry take the opportunity to harvest a wave of heads.
Of course, Muteb was unwilling to be trapped in the city, but if he continued to send out cavalry, he would easily repeat the same mistakes and continue the tragedy just now. While he was hesitating, the Haihan Army was getting closer and closer to the city and within the range of the artillery. Of course, this artillery range refers to the artillery of the Haihan Army. There are only two earthen cannons symbolically set up on the top of Zhongzuo City. It is hard to say whether they can be fired.
Muteb did not dare to try to use these two cannons. There were clearly visible cracks and gaps everywhere on the cannons. If they were loaded with explosives, they might kill one of their own people first. When he came to take office, these two cannons were assigned to him by his superiors to stabilize the morale of the army, and he was also given very clear instructions not to use them unless absolutely necessary to avoid any trouble. Looking at the artillery carts getting closer and closer outside the city, Muteb could not help but utter a series of curse words in his heart. Apart from a group of archers, he had no other long-range attack methods at his disposal. This required How to deal with the Haihan Army? Do you use your flesh and blood to block the mouth of the cannon?
Muteb remembered that there were many muskets and artillery among the surrendered Han troops, but those Han troops, including their men and equipment, were transferred to the direction of Shanhaiguan to fight. On the Liaodong Peninsula, only people like him relied on old weapons to fight. defensive troops. This was enough to deal with the small-scale harassment battle in Dongjiang Town, but when facing an opponent of Haihan's level, Muteb also understood that the situation of his troops was really not good enough.
The Haihan Army had stopped advancing and began to set up a position a hundred feet outside the city. Even if Muteb used archers at this distance, it would be useless. Even if the bows and arrows in their hands were thrown, they would not be able to hit the opponent's position, and they would not be able to create any threat to the Haihan people. The opponent's infantry has begun to gather and gather. At this time, sending cavalry to charge into the formation will probably be more difficult than before.
Seeing the other party unhurriedly begin to unload the artillery truck and set up the artillery position, Muteb felt even more anxious, as if he was burning with impatience. Although he didn't quite understand Haihan's tactics, he also knew that as soon as the shelling started, the fortress he was responsible for guarding would probably become cold. In desperation, he could only order three hundred more cavalry and let them go out of the city to charge. However, this time Muteb specially told the leading officer that if the situation was not good, he should not attack the front and try to attack the flank or rear in a roundabout way.
But the ensuing battle once again poured cold water on Muteb. This group of cavalry who rushed into the battle encountered an extremely dense hail of bullets. Before they could figure out what was going on, they saw the cavalry at the forefront. The dozens of riders in front seemed to be blown down by a hurricane, and no one was spared. The cavalry that followed quickly changed direction and tried to go around the flank of Haihan's position.
There is nothing wrong with this method of handling, but the Houjin cavalry clearly did not judge the range of the Haihan rifle accurately enough, so they paid the price of dozens of cavalry when they passed by the flank. But even so, there was no chance to outflank the rear of Haihan's position, because there were hundreds of Haihan cavalry waiting for their arrival.
When Niu Lu'erzhen, who was leading the charge, realized that there was no hope of approaching the Haihan soldiers to fight, he decisively chose to leave the battlefield. Fortunately, the decision was made quickly enough. The more than 300 cavalrymen who went out to fight in the city only lost nearly 40% of their troops, and most of them did not fall in like the two previous cavalrymen.
Takahashi Nan observed the battle calmly and issued some simple instructions to the ordering soldiers from time to time. He did not order the cavalry to pursue the fleeing enemy troops. It was still a very dangerous move for Haihan to divide his troops. Moreover, the city controlled by his opponent was just a hundred feet away, and there might be another cavalry force in the opponent's city waiting for him. Divide your troops to pursue them, and then wait for an opportunity to leave the city and attack again.
Qian Tiandun's instruction to him was to consume the opponent's cavalry troops as much as possible. So far, this task has been completed quite well. After two battles, four to five hundred Houjin cavalrymen fell to Haihan's guns. under. In all the battles in the past year, the Haihan Army has never achieved such a large number of results.
The existence of the special operations battalion outside the city itself can play a role in attracting firepower. The first attack after the attack cannot withstand the temptation, and the second attack cannot withstand the pressure. Takahashi Nan wanted to see how they would react if they continued to put pressure on the Houjin Army in the city, and whether they would continue to send cavalry outside the city to carry out such near-death attacks.
Taking advantage of the time to clean the battlefield, Takahashi Nan came to the artillery position in the middle of the position and had a brief communication with the artillery company commander. Although these cannons on the battle line are all small-caliber artillery, their power cannot be underestimated if used properly. What Takahashi Minami has to do is to use small cannons to make big things happen.
The shooting accuracy of the Haihan artillery at this distance is quite good, so the artillery will directly target the south gate of Zhongzuosuo City opposite the position. The artillerymen lived up to their expectations, and the first artillery fire directly hit the city gate. Although the cannonball was too small to tear the city gate into pieces, the muffled sound made by hitting the city gate made the rearguard inside the city stunned. Jin Jun was all worried.
They really didn't know how many shells this three-inch-thick wooden city gate could withstand, but everyone understood that it was impossible for this city gate to withstand the constant bombardment of the Haihan Army. It was only a matter of time before the city gates were blown open. At that time, whether everyone should rush out together or stay in the city and wait for the Haihan people to attack and fight to the death. This is a difficult question to decide.
Muteb was standing in the square behind this city gate. Hundreds of horsemen and horses had gathered around him again, but now the south gate could not be opened. The city gates on the east and west sides had long been sealed with stone strips. If you go out of the city and go around from the north gate, you have to run at least two or three miles more, and the effect of the surprise attack is completely lost. If they don't go out of the city to fight, after the Haihan army blasts open the city gate, so many cavalry are crowded in the city, and they can't move at all. They can only dismount and fight on foot. This is undoubtedly a way to cut off one's arms. What should be done? Muteb couldn't help but once again fell into a dilemma.
(End of chapter)