Chapter 1416 Preparing for War in Liaodong
Occupying geographical advantages with fewer enemies and more enemies is one of the tactics that the Haihan Army is best at. After further receiving the bonus of weapon performance, the process of converting advantages into victory seems to be relatively smooth. The more than 20 people who participated in this battle were all elite members of the Haihan army, and the weapons they used were also the military's most advanced models. It was natural to ambush the Houjin army of three to four hundred people.
Morgan was not busy ordering the pursuit or counting the results of the battle. Instead, he first counted his own personnel to confirm whether anyone had been killed or injured in the battle. However, throughout the battle, Haihan's ambush positions were outside the killing radius of Houjin's long-range weapons, and it was difficult for the opponent's infantry to rush up the hill with the intensive firepower. Therefore, Haihan's side maintained zero casualties in this battle. of battle damage. The only soldier who was slightly injured was the one who lost his balance and fell down the hillside when he stood up to shoot. Fortunately, there was snow as a cushion, so he only injured one arm, which was not serious.
Such results naturally gave Morgan a lot of relief. The participants were all elite members of the military. The loss of any one person would be a big loss for the military. Even though the special operations battalion was not a unit directly under Morgan, he did not want these soldiers to suffer too much risk due to his own combat plan.
This is the difference in combat methods caused by the different command styles of the generals. Takahashi Minami will let the infantry directly face the impact of the cavalry when attacking Lushun, while Morgan prefers to hide in the dark and use killing moves against the enemy. If Minami Takahashi were to direct this ambush, then he would probably deploy his troops into a more three-dimensional firepower network in order to kill more enemies faster, instead of huddled on the top of a hill to lay an ambush for his own benefit. Safety.
For special operations battalions that are good at fighting tough battles, the number of battle losses is not as low as possible, but depends on whether the final battle result achieves the established battle objectives. But the training of Morgan's snipers was not easy. In addition to the combat objectives, a very important part of what he considered was ensuring that the combatants could escape unscathed.
After ensuring the safety of his own personnel, Morgan ordered an inventory of the results of the battle. As for the prisoners of war, Morgan didn't think much about it. After all, those with good arms and legs who could escape had already escaped. Those who could not escape were almost all because they were shot and lost the ability to move. To Haihan, these ordinary Houjin soldiers There is no value in treating them at all, and of course it is impossible to let them go, so the last hit becomes a sideshow after the battle.
The body count continued until the afternoon. Near this hillock, the Hou Jin Army paid a total of nearly 200 lives in the past two or three days. The number of casualties was not small during the truce period. There were too few men at Morgan's command, and it would be too troublesome to collect all these corpses. Although it was a bit inhumane, under this situation, the only choice was to abandon the corpses in the wilderness and let them become food for wild beasts.
Morgan also noticed the unsatisfied looks and expressions of his men. But he doesn't plan to stay here any longer. The enemy suffered so many casualties in this battle that even if they wanted to attack here again, they would have to go back to the Jinzhou Camp to bring in reinforcements, and when they came back there would definitely not be only a few hundred people. It would take eighty miles of snow to travel, and he might not be able to come back for three or four days. Morgan didn't want to wait here any longer.
Of course, after such a fuss, the benefit to Haihan was not just killing a group of enemies. At least in the past few days, there should be no more patrols in Houjin in the nearby area. Haihan could seize this rare opportunity to conduct more detailed reconnaissance and terrain survey of the nearby area so that updated military maps could be used in the spring offensive.
Naturally, Morgan would not ignore this, so he had already sent people on horseback to report the news to Gaoqiao Nan in the rear. Regarding the combat needs of large forces, the special operations battalion is definitely more familiar with it. It is more reliable to leave this reconnaissance mission to Takahashi Minami to organize and implement. Morgan does not want to overstep his way and steal the work of the special operations battalion.
After Morgan handed over this place to Gao Qiaonan, he led the team south back to the mountainous area, and then the guide took a different route back to Lushun Fort. Although this errand was not too long, it was still quite a bit of experience for these snipers who had lived in the south all year round. If conditions permit, Morgan actually hopes to lead this group of people to fight guerrillas in Liaodong for a while so that they can adapt to the environment here as soon as possible.
However, the spring offensive was scheduled to be launched in early March, and now it is almost the end of January. The time left for Haihan to prepare for the war in Liaodong is actually only twenty or thirty days. At this time, Qian Tiandun, Chen Yixin, Harugong and other generals were still busy in Shandong to raise supplies and mobilize transportation capacity. He was the only one sitting in Liaodong, so there were still many things that he had to organize and direct.
When Morgan returned to Port Arthur, he couldn't afford to rest, so he immediately convened a meeting with his medical staff to understand the situation of epidemic control. Fortunately, after strengthening isolation measures and supplementing with drug treatment, the epidemic that was raging in Lushun Fort was finally gradually brought under control. In recent days, the incidence rate has shown a clear downward trend. Some patients have recovered and returned to the army, and only a few have recovered. Those with more severe cases were transported to Shandong for more comprehensive treatment.
It has to be said that the cold climate in Liaodong has played a role in suppressing the outbreak of the epidemic to a certain extent. Otherwise, even if Morgan has various means, it may be difficult to stop the rapid spread of the epidemic in the military. However, taking this opportunity, Morgan can train the medical staff arriving in Liaodong in advance so that they can adapt to the environment here as soon as possible, so as to avoid confusion after the spring offensive begins.
Although the epidemic has been effectively controlled, the isolation measures in Lushun Fort still continue. Liu Shang, Qin Wei and others who were transferred from Shandong can only stay in the tent most of the time, writing and reading letters for the soldiers. However, when it was time for dinner that day, none of the doctors came back for dinner. Liu Shang couldn't help but feel strange. After asking the soldier who delivered the meal, he found out that it was Morgan who had summoned everyone to a meeting after returning.
Liu Shang didn't know where Morgan had gone during the past few days when he was away from Fort Lushun, but he could roughly think of some situations. After all, the news that there would be a war against Houjin after the beginning of spring had spread, and Morgan had not been in the fort these past few days. Then of course he went to the front line to observe the enemy's situation. However, Liu Shang certainly could not have imagined that the chief who was supposed to be in charge of medical affairs would be so itchy that he quietly led his troops to the front line to fight with the Jin army.
The day after Morgan returned to Fort Lushun, some of the previous isolation measures were lifted. Except for the camp where the patients lived, normal order was restored in other places. Liu Shang and Qin Wei were finally free and could go in and out on their own. Port Arthur camp.
Liu Shang's habit is to thoroughly explore the surrounding environment wherever he goes, but this time when he came to Lushun Fort, he was banned for several days due to the local epidemic, and he felt very depressed. After regaining his freedom, Liu Shang invited Qin Wei to relax outside the fort. Although Qin Wei felt that there was actually no unique scenery nearby, he was also a little depressed these days and wanted to go out for a walk, so he agreed to Liu Shang's invitation.
Sun Zhen, who was originally responsible for receiving them, is still on the front line, but the military still sent two soldiers to follow them as a means of protection. Although there are no Houjin armed activities nearby, various carnivorous beasts are not uncommon. Having armed personnel with guns and live ammunition following them can increase the safety factor to some extent.
Liu Shang didn't care about this. His intention to collect information had gradually faded away, and his curiosity was brought about by his many years of professional habits. Now that he came to Haihan's northernmost control area, he naturally wanted to have a good understanding of Haihan's business conditions and preparation progress here. After Haihan occupied Lushun Fort, apart from repairing the severely damaged city gate, he did not carry out large-scale renovations to the city walls and other defense facilities. All the limited manpower was invested in infrastructure projects, building barracks, warehouses, stables, digging reservoirs, sewers, etc. in the fort. To this day, many projects are still unfinished. For example, Liu Shang and others did not have decent barracks to live in here, so they could only live in tents temporarily.
Liu Shang had stayed in many places under Haihan's jurisdiction and naturally understood Haihan's persistence in infrastructure projects. Therefore, he was not surprised that after occupying this place, the military did not pursue Hou Jin's victory, but instead stopped to carry out large-scale construction projects. . This steady and steady development strategy is also one of the scary things about Haihan. The colonies that Haihan occupied in the Far East are quite scattered, but I have never heard of any place that was controlled by Haihan after it was occupied. Repeated alternation of power.
On the one hand, this is because Haihan is so powerful that it would be difficult for the original owner to take it back. On the other hand, Haihan can complete infrastructure construction in a very short time, stabilize the basic market, and allow the army and immigrants to move to the local area. Get your footing quickly.
However, this approach obviously encountered difficulties in Lushun, Liaodong, because this place was occupied by Hou Jin in the past few years. All the local Han residents who could escape have escaped, and those who did not escape were all captured by Hou Jin. Slaves moved away from this place, so after Haihan occupied it, they faced a serious shortage of labor. The special operations battalion had to deal with the Jin Army while also dedicating manpower to organize production and construction. Naturally, the efficiency was not much higher.
Although the road from Fort Lushun to the port has been repaired, there are still a lot of construction projects to be done here. The next month will be the spring offensive, and there will definitely be more Haihan troops gathering by then. At this point, with the current reception capacity of Fort Lushun, it may be difficult to play the role of a logistics base well by then.
Liu Shang and Qin Wei were chatting and taking a slow walk around Lushun Fort. Liu Shang noticed that there seemed to be many plots of land divided horizontally and vertically on the ground outside the fort, but it seemed that they were not intended to be cultivated land, so he casually asked the soldiers following him: "There are so many plots of land here." The wooden stakes are used as markers to mark the boundaries of the land?”
The soldier did not doubt that he was there, and nodded in response: "These are the places where barracks will be built next. The land circled with wooden stakes is a row of houses."
Liu Shang asked: "But the barracks in Lushun Fort have not been completed yet, so where can we allocate manpower to complete this project?"
The soldier was just an ordinary soldier and had no access to this information at all. He could only shake his head and claim that he didn't know. But Qin Wei took over the conversation at this time: "I know a little bit about this matter. The Ministry of Civil Affairs has assembled a group of immigrants on Zhifu Island. If it hadn't been for the outbreak, they should have been shipped to Lushun to start work. Now After the quarantine ban is lifted, this batch of people will be sent from Shandong soon.”
Liu Shang nodded and said: "I see, I don't know how many people there are, but whether they are enough for the construction here."
Qin Weiying said: "As far as I know, there are at least more than a thousand people, and after the spring, at least three to four thousand people will be transported from the direction of Pidao to settle in Lushun. The labor force should be enough, it just depends on how each department works. Arranged accordingly.”
Although Qin Wei was only a civilian officer responsible for political propaganda, Haihan's occupied area in Shandong was originally under military control, so the information he gave was quite credible.
Liu Shang added: "If we want to launch an offensive after the beginning of spring, it will not be enough to rely solely on the special operations battalion and the Shandong garrison. The Ministry of National Defense will have to mobilize troops from the south."
Qin Wei said: "Of course. Didn't the Northern Fleet of the Navy go south to Zhejiang before winter? When they return to the north, they will bring some of the troops participating in the war. However, the Shandong garrison and the special operations battalion should still be the main force. , After all, they have been in the north for such a long time, and they are definitely more adaptable to the environment in Liaodong than the troops from the south.”
Liu Shang wanted to ask how many troops the military had prepared for this battle, but he felt that such questions were too sensitive and would easily make Qin Wei suspicious, so he swallowed his words. He just secretly thought that this time Haihan seemed to be mobilizing a large army to fight in Liaodong. As a result, the garrison forces in Shandong, Zhejiang, and even Fuguang and Haihan might be weakened to varying degrees. Do the local officials of the Ming Dynasty have the courage to take this opportunity to take back the areas that were originally under the rule of the Ming Dynasty?
But Liu Shang then thought about it and realized that the officials of the coastal states and counties in Fuguang and Guangdong had long been colluding with Haihan. There was no need to expect them to stand up for the Ming Dynasty and fall out with Haihan. However, it seemed that there was still such a possibility in Zhejiang and Shandong. It's just that the Haihan people fought all the way from the south to the north, and they have accumulated great power along the coast of the Ming Dynasty. I don't know if the officials in those two provinces will have the courage to challenge the Haihan people.
The goal of the Haihan Spring Offensive is to capture the peninsula south of Jinzhou. If such a situation is achieved, it will certainly be able to delay Hou Jin's move south to invade the Ming Dynasty, but this will completely hand over control of the entire Bohai Bay to With Haihan in his hands, he didn’t know whether this was a blessing or a curse for Ming Dynasty.
(End of chapter)