Chapter 1365 Cavalry Confrontation
The Haihan Army has carried out a lot of amphibious landing operations in the past few years, and has already had mature implementation plans on how to quickly build ports and camps on the coast. The topography of Lushunkou fully meets the Haihan military's long-standing requirements for the location of a military port. It has a narrow and easy-to-control entrance and exit channel and a relatively wide and calm harbor. It is surrounded by abundant forest resources and can easily obtain the wood needed for construction.
There are some port facilities left over from the Ming Dynasty in the Lushun Port. However, the warships of the Haihan Navy are generally larger in tonnage, and the required port facilities also have certain technical standards. These exist as supporting facilities for the Ming Navy. The piers and piers are a bit demanding, and they must be renovated and expanded to meet the needs of the navy.
As for the indispensable coastal defense artillery fortifications in other military ports, several senior officials believe that the local area is not in a hurry to build massive defense fortifications such as forts, because Haihan is already the most powerful maritime armed force in the entire Yellow and Bohai Sea region. , all parties including Houjin and Ming Dynasty basically did not have enough strength to threaten Haihan. Hou Jin has suffered from the Haihan Navy many times in the past year. Now he has already withdrawn all the armed ships from the east coast of the Liaodong Peninsula out of fear of avoiding it. It is impossible for him to have the courage to choose the sea as a way to fight with the navy now. The battleground between Hai and Han.
The fort does not need to be repaired for the time being, and will be replaced by a lookout post on the Tiger Tail Peninsula. The Navy is planning to build a four-story wooden structure tower on the highest hill on the peninsula. When the weather is fine, it can have an unobstructed view of the sea outside the harbor. Coupled with the effectiveness of the telescope, an area of about 20 nautical miles can be included. Within the surveillance range of the outpost. If there are bold Houjin armed ships trying to break into this sea area, then the existence of the observation tower can also provide timely early warning to the garrison in the harbor.
During this period, the only unit that did not participate in the construction project was probably the cavalry battalion led by Harugong. This is not because Harugong wants any special treatment, but because the cavalry battalion is responsible for the peripheral realm tasks during this period, monitoring the movements in the north at the traffic pass thirty miles north of Lushun Fort around the clock. If the Jin army launches a large-scale counterattack during this period, the cavalry battalion must send the news back to Lushun Fort as soon as possible so that the rear can organize a timely response.
However, the response of the Houjin Army was obviously not as intense as Haihan expected, or the opponent's preparation speed was far slower than Haihan. It was not until five days later that the cavalry battalion finally discovered that the Houjin Cavalry appeared sporadically and began to operate in this area. But both sides carefully kept their distance and there was no direct conflict.
Harugong believed that this was a test by Hou Jin to understand how big the area Haihan controlled in the Lushun area. However, these Houjin cavalry were very careful in their actions and deliberately avoided Haihan's sharp edge. It was not easy to capture or kill them. Moreover, Harugong did not dare to easily allow his cavalry to carry out combat missions in unfamiliar areas. No one knew how many ambushes and traps the hunter-born cavalry like Houjin would set in the nearby mountains and forests. Given the preciousness of the Haihan Cavalry, it would be very unwise to fight with the opponent in a complex geographical environment. Harugong would naturally not make such a low-level mistake.
After several days of testing, the cavalry from both sides finally began to have substantial contact.
Wang Jinmin's current military position in the cavalry battalion is the same as that of his fellow soldier Sun Zhen in the special operations camp, and he also holds the position of platoon leader. However, compared to Sun Zhen's numerous military exploits, Wang Jinmin's combat experience seems much duller. Most of the time, the missions performed by the cavalry battalion are auxiliary, such as reconnaissance, harassment, messaging, eviction, etc., and there are very few real combat missions. Although combat achievements will still be accumulated after completing these tasks, compared with the actual enemy-killing achievements of the special operations battalion, the performance of the cavalry battalion is indeed a bit lacking.
As a soldier, Wang Jinmin would naturally not be reconciled to this situation, but combat missions were not something he could just dream of, and he had to obey the overall situation. The headquarters is extremely cautious about the use of cavalry. This is also an objective status quo determined by the general environment and cannot be changed by him alone. However, in his heart, he still longed to use combat to prove his worth, especially fighting against the cavalry of other armed forces, which was an obsession in Wang Jinmin's heart.
The cavalry battalion's attendance rate while stationed in Dengzhou, Shandong Province was still quite high. Especially the battle across Dengzhou to raid the Ming Army's racecourse a few days ago earned the cavalry unit unanimous praise. In the first battle after coming to Lushunkou this time, the cavalry battalion harvested more than 200 horses. Combined with the two battles in these two places, the cavalry battalion had already harvested four to five hundred horses, and these horses Most of them will be divided into cavalry battalions, which can be regarded as a considerable amount of income.
The high proportion of cavalry in the Hou Jin Army made Wang Jinmin's desire to fight even stronger. In addition to defeating the opponent to prove his own strength, capturing the horses of the Hou Jin Cavalry also became one of the combat goals. Although these horses may not necessarily have better bloodlines than Haihan's own war horses, they have an incomparable advantage, which is their adaptability to the environment in the Northeast.
Most of Haihan's war horses are cultivated in southern areas such as Hainan Island and Taiwan Island, and their environmental adaptability to high latitudes is definitely not as good as these native horse breeds. For the cavalry battalion, if it can be equipped with a certain proportion of local horses, it will definitely play a bonus role in carrying out combat missions. After Harugong returned from the meeting with Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom, he also made this request to Wang Jinmin and other officers at the combat meeting, that is, while killing the enemy, he also tried his best to capture the opponent's war horse and weaken the enemy. The enemy's army also strengthens its own strength.
Wang Jinmin led a group of cavalry to hide in the mountains and forests more than ten miles north of Lushun Fort. After several days of hiding from Houjin's cavalry, they finally encountered an unexpected encounter early one morning.
For tasks like this that require stationing in the wild for many days, the control of water sources is very important. The cavalry team led by Wang Jinmin was active around a wild spring. While ensuring the supply of drinking water for his own team, he also guarded this place to attack the Houjin Cavalry who came here to drink water.
Of course, Wang Jinmin knew very well that the Houjin Cavalry must be more familiar with the local environment than his own team, so he very carefully deployed the team about a hundred meters away from the spring. On the one hand, he deliberately left a bait The enemy's environment is to seize the enemy's opportunity to attack. On the other hand, it is to leave enough room for one's own team to move to prevent the opponent from taking advantage of the situation and adopting counter-encirclement tactics.
There is naturally not only such a water source within a radius of dozens of miles, and no one can guarantee that the Hou Golden Cavalry will definitely appear here, so this kind of squatting feels like waiting for a rabbit most of the time, and one must have extreme patience. OK.
And just when the Haihan cavalry was changing guard early that morning, more than ten golden cavalrymen appeared near the spring not far away without any warning. The sentry discovered the enemy's traces at the first opportunity and immediately alerted his companions lurking in the forest with bird calls.
After receiving the report, Wang Jinmin rushed to the front line for observation and found that the enemy troops had begun to drink horses near the spring and filled the cowhide water bags with water. It seemed that they were not aware of the presence of the Haihan Army nearby. "Everyone mount up and prepare to fight!" Wang Jinmin did not want to miss this opportunity. After determining the strength of the opponent's troops, he immediately issued a combat order.
The cavalrymen who had just woken up from their sleep quickly packed their bags, picked up their weapons and equipment and mounted their horses to prepare for battle. Although this kind of outdoor battle came very suddenly, fortunately, they were on high alert these days and were ready to fight the Houjin Army at any time. All the firearms were loaded with ammunition and could be fired by removing the safety guard. . However, the cavalry on guard had just removed the saddles and bridles from their mounts after the change of guard, and it would take some time to put them back on again.
Wang Jinmin was worried that the opponent would leave after drinking the horse for a while, so he led a group of troops who were already ready to attack first. Although the military strength is almost the same as that of the opponent, Wang Jinmin relies on his obvious advantages in weapons and equipment, so he seems confident in this kind of confrontation.
The reaction of the Houjin Cavalry was faster than Wang Jinmin expected. When the Haihan Cavalry just emerged from the forest, the Houjin Cavalry who was in charge of looking out at the spring whistled, and the Houjin Cavalry who was still squatting by the water immediately They got up and mounted their horses, each drew their weapons, and quickly entered combat mode.
Wang Jinmin secretly increased his vigilance when he saw the other party's reaction. Although these Houjin soldiers did not seem to have uniform military uniforms and standard weapons, their fighting skills honed in long-term field activities were no worse than any cavalry. . Seeing the bows and arrows in the hands of Houjin Cavalry, Wang Jinmin thought of the casualties that occurred when the special operations battalion fought with Houjin Cavalry a few days ago. Almost all of them were due to their bows and arrows. Even if he decided to fight more steadily, he could not Easily enter the killing radius of the opponent's long-range weapon.
"Stop your horse and raise your gun!" Wang Jinmin estimated the distance to the enemy and then immediately issued a new combat order. If you rush forward further, you may be within the range of the opponent's bow and arrow. Even if the Hou Jin soldiers' shooting at this distance is not accurate, Wang Jinmin does not intend to take risks in this kind of battle. The casualties caused by the special operations battalion infantrymen being attacked by bows and arrows were also caused by projectiles. Wang Jinmin did not want his team to gamble their luck.
The power of Haihan's rifles has obviously been deeply rooted in the hearts of the Houjin Army. As soon as they saw Haihan stopping their horses and raising their guns, the Houjin Cavalry immediately turned around and seemed to be retreating without a fight. However, Wang Jinmin would not let them get away so easily and immediately gave the order to fire.
After a burst of gunfire, three or four of the Houjin cavalrymen who had begun to evacuate fell. The other riders who originally ran away came back and tried to take away the injured companion who had been shot and fell to the ground. However, this seemingly heroic behavior only triggered another round of shooting, and more people fell. Double.
At this time, another group of Haihan cavalry who had re-saddled their horses finally arrived on the battlefield and, under Wang Jinmin's command, outflanked the opponent from the flanks. The few remaining lucky ones who had not been shot saw that the situation was not good, so they had no choice but to abandon their companions and flee far away.
Wang Jinmin did not issue an order to pursue, but asked his men to clean the battlefield first and collect the results. A similar situation occurred at another water source two days ago. The chasing cavalry platoon ran into the entire Niulu cavalry of Houjin. As a result, three soldiers died unfortunately. Fortunately, the main force of the Haihan cavalry arrived later, forced the enemy back and took back the soldiers' bodies and weapons, preventing them from falling into the hands of the enemy.
After that, Harugong specifically emphasized that he should not pursue the poor enemy and try his best to control the battle situation within the area that he could control. Although Wang Jinmin was eager to fight, he also understood the need to deal with the Hou Jin army cautiously, so he did not rush forward greedily for credit.
This time, a total of eight people were killed and wounded, and four horses were captured. The harvest was not bad. Wang Jinmin asked the soldiers who knew Manchu to immediately ask for confessions, hoping to get more information about the deployment of the enemy's cavalry units. However, several of the injured were extremely stubborn and refused to reveal any information. Wang Jinmin didn't have the patience to slowly grind with these barbarians who didn't understand the language, and he even asked his men to execute these prisoners.
Wang Jinmin himself was from Shandong. A large number of Han people from Liaodong fled to Shandong in the past few years. He was also quite familiar with the man-made disasters caused by the Later Jin Dynasty in the Liaodong area. He also knew that these soldiers of the Later Jin Dynasty regarded the Han people as cattle and would not give in. If you are a slave, you will kill indiscriminately. And this time when Haihan marched into Liaodong, the grassroots commanders of the front-line combat troops were given great authority, giving them the power to decide the life and death of prisoners on their own.
In other words, the Haihan military leaders did not intend to receive a large number of Houjin prisoners of war, especially those with injuries. Although this intention was not clearly expressed, as a junior officer, Wang Jinmin clearly understood it. Spirit. Especially after he saw the way the special operations battalion executed prisoners of war a few days ago, he completely gave up all his scruples - the commander of the special operations battalion Gao Qiaonan personally shot the Houjin Army who was the commander of Zhongzuo Castle. Jia La E Zhen Mute Bu, this attitude can already explain everything.
Wang Jinmin didn't know why the top military officials had so much hatred for Houjin, even more so than their hostile attitude towards Western countries such as the Netherlands and Spain, but he knew very well that his attitude towards this was 100% support. The hands of these Houjin soldiers were stained with the blood of many Han people, so Wang Jinmin did not have any psychological burden for executing the injured prisoners of war. If doing so could avenge the dead Han compatriots, then he would not mind acting as an executioner.
(End of chapter)