Chapter 1435: Trapped
Erhe had never been so aggrieved in his life. Although he was not of a distinguished family background or noble blood, he had made considerable contributions when Hou Jin attacked Jinzhou under the control of the Ming Dynasty. There were dozens of heads of Ming soldiers cut off with their own hands on the battlefield. His ability to be promoted from a Bagala warrior to the position of Jia La Ezhen was largely due to his previous heroic performance on the battlefield.
When fighting against the Ming army in the past, although Erhe would also feel that the enemy was a bit difficult to deal with, he knew that the Ming army would never be able to withstand Hou Jin's iron cavalry offensive in a field situation. As long as they fought in a wild environment, the Hou Jin army he led would An army rarely suffers defeat. But the current enemy seems to have broken this law. The cavalry is helpless in front of its defense line, and it is not as easy as it was against the Ming army before. This time he led three thousand soldiers and horses to challenge the Haihan army. His intention was to use the cavalry to break through the defenses, but he never thought that it would be fine if the high ground was not stormed down. Even the Haihan camp on the plain was not close to the border. Without touching it, the psychological impact on him was really great.
Until he returned to Jinzhou Fortress, Erhe still didn't understand what happened with the series of explosions when he attacked the Haihan camp. He only knew that the cavalry under his command were disrupted almost instantly. , and this method of fighting is something new that he has never heard of in the past, and it will be difficult to accept this reality for a while.
But Erhe knew that his mistakes would hardly escape the punishment of his superiors. He led his troops out for only two days, and half of them were lost on the battlefield. However, Haihan pushed the control area from the mountainous area to the north for more than ten years. Here, there is no way to explain such a record to the superiors supervising the war. Especially the two people who are currently supervising the war in Jinzhou, not only have high status, but also have extremely rich battlefield experience. It is almost impossible to get by in front of them. Although Erhe racked his brains to shirk responsibility, it was still extremely difficult to hide the true situation from these two big shots.
Azig, who was tall and powerful, stared at Erhe who was kneeling in front of him, and said with a sullen face: "Three thousand soldiers and horses, you only fought against the Haihan people twice and lost half of them. How dare you say This is because the road is slippery because of the rain, and the cavalry charge is ineffective! Erhe, are you so confused?”
Yangguli next to him also looked dissatisfied and said: "Erhe, you are just stupid. Do you think everyone is as stupid as you?"
Erhe did not dare to raise his head to look at the two men. He kowtowed to the ground and said: "Master Beile, Your Majesty the Duke, the Haihan people are extremely cunning. They have always avoided fighting and set many traps outside the camp. The charging horses cannot dodge." , they were all killed and fell to the ground. I dare not deceive the two adults. I will know this when I ask in the army. What I said is absolutely true."
Azig said: "On that hilltop by the sea, when you sent troops, the enemy only occupied the place for half a day. Tell me what traps they could set in such a short period of time to stop your three thousand troops!" ”
Obviously, Azig did not believe Erhe's so-called "lost in a trap" statement, and was very keen to find the loopholes in his previous narrative.
Erhe, who was lying on the ground, was trembling secretly. He had realized that it was difficult to fool him with his attempt to shirk responsibility, but he just didn't know what Azig and Yanguli planned to do with him. Both of them have bad tempers, so it wouldn't be unusual to push him out and kill him on the grounds of defeat.
"Your Majesty, Duke, you see Erhe's inability to supervise the battle, how should we punish him?" Azig turned his head and asked Yangu Li.
Yang Guli responded in a deep voice: "I, the Great Jin Erlang, are proud to die on the battlefield. Although Erhe was defeated, he has made many military exploits for the Great Jin Kingdom in the past. He should also be given a chance to atone for his sins."< br>
At this time, Azig had conferred the title of Baylor, and his status was one level higher than that of Yangu Li, and according to the original history, he would be conferred the title of Prince Wuying this year. However, he asked Yanguli for his opinion in front of Erhe, which actually meant that he wanted Yangguli to convict Erhe. And Yangu Li also knew that Azig was very dissatisfied with Erhe's record, but with the current enemy, killing this man directly might affect the morale of the army, so he thought of a compromise and kicked the ball back to Erhe. Azigh.
Azig pondered for a moment and then said: "Erhe, you led the army into battle without authorization and suffered defeats. According to military law, it would not be unfair to kill you. But for the sake of the Duke's willingness to intercede for you, I will continue Give you a chance. Since the Haihan Army is coming towards the Jinzhou Fortress, they will launch an attack soon. I will order you to defend the Jinzhou Fortress with E Tengyi. Either you win on the battlefield or you die. On the battlefield. If you die in battle, I will keep your people safe, but if you step back even half a step, I will personally cut off your head and send it back to Shengjing, so that all officials, big and small, can see how incompetent you are. Looks!”
Erhe fell on the ground and kowtowed, but kept thanking the two men for sparing his life. He actually knew that although he had not been severely punished, Azig's request was not simple. If the Haihan Army really came to attack the Jinzhou Fortress, it was still unclear whether his life could be saved. . But fortunately, Azig did not ask him to lead his troops out for a field battle with Haihan's army. If he huddled in the fortress to defend, Erhe would have some confidence in dealing with Haihan again.
After Erhe left, only Azig and Yanguli were left. They were relatives, but they no longer regarded their official positions in private situations. Yangguli said: "Although what Erhe said is not completely true, he said that the Haihan people can lay mines in the land. I'm afraid it is true. I have a nephew who lives in Erhe My subordinate was on duty and asked before. The cavalry charge arranged by Erhe was indeed trapped by the opponent's trap."
Azig responded calmly: "Even if what Erhe said is true, someone has to take responsibility for such a disastrous defeat. It is a fact that Erhe sent troops without authorization. This crime is no matter what." If he can defeat Haihan, it’s easy to say that he can overcome it, but since he lost so miserably, don’t blame me for settling the score.”
"So you must let Erhe die?" Yangu Li understood a little bit, but he still complained about Azig's actions.
Azig said: "The military order is like a mountain. If nothing happens to Erhe, in the future, whoever wants to go to war will be able to make his own decision? Seeing that we need people during the war, we didn't order his head to be chopped off. You don't have to do it anymore." Convinced. If he can survive the subsequent battle, then I will forgive his fault as promised."
"I'm afraid that he has lost two battles in a row against the Haihan people and has no confidence to fight against the Haihan people again." Yangguli was quite worried about this and took the initiative to ask for orders: "The defense line of Jinzhou Fortress should be left to me to command. Well, I feel a little uneasy about letting Erhe and Etenyi come to guard." Azig glanced at Yanguli and said, "Do you also think that the Haihan people will continue to fight north?"
Yangguli said: "Although I don't know the plans of the Haihan people, I don't think they will stop here. As long as the Jinzhou Fortress is there, the place they occupy in the south will not be peaceful. If they want to stay here for a long time, To gain a foothold, we must seize the Jinzhou Fortress and establish a blockade. This will prevent our cavalry from attacking southward.”
The Jinzhou Fortress under the control of Hou Jin was located at the narrowest part of the Jinzhou Isthmus. It was originally a military garrison fortress belonging to the Ming Dynasty. When the Hou Jin Dynasty attacked Jinzhou under the control of the Ming Dynasty from north to south, the Ming army built a defense line based on the fortress in the Jinzhou Isthmus, mainly made of adobe city wall fortifications. After Hou Jin captured Jinzhou, he did not dismantle the fortress defense line. Instead, he carried out certain reinforcements and renovations on the original basis, turning it into the most important defense line in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula.
As Azig said, losing the area south of the Jinzhou Isthmus is not a huge loss for Houjin. There is not much population there and there is not much farmland under cultivation. Houjin here There is no rush to take back the territory immediately. But if Haihan plans to seize the choke point of the Jinzhou Isthmus, then Jinke will no longer sit back and let Haihan do whatever he wants.
Azig and Yangguli mobilized nearly 10,000 troops from the area north of Jinzhou. Coupled with the deployment of Erhe and Etenyi, two Jia La Erzhen who were originally stationed here, the number of troops was at least about 13,400. . However, Erhe was impulsive and took the initiative to go out to fight with the Haihan Army. As a result, he lost nearly half of his troops in two days, which more or less affected the deployment of Azig and Yanguli.
Azig originally envisioned sending multiple cavalry units southward at the same time, relying on their strong land mobility to cut and surround the Haihan troops, and even try to cut off their southern land supply lines. But Erhe's recklessness suddenly increased the risk of this combat plan. No one could guarantee whether the Haihan people would use the magic of hiding thunder in the soil to deal with the Houjin Cavalry elsewhere. Therefore, Azig could only do the next best thing and let his troops retreat to the fortress defense line, trying to defend this place and rely on the advantage of city defense to deal with the Haihan Army's attack.
This battlefield situation is a long-lost passive situation for Hou Jin. In recent years of battles with the Ming Dynasty, Hou Jin rarely adopted this kind of defensive posture. In Azig's view, this was simply a humiliation to Hou Jin, so he hoped to give the Haihan Army a heavy counterattack in front of the defense line he controlled.
Azig did not object to Yangu Li's offer. After this battle, he indeed lost confidence in Erhe's military ability. Although Ertenyi did not make any mistakes, his combat experience and military literacy were not at the same level as Yanguli's. Yanguli personally came to Being on the defensive line will naturally give Azig a lot of peace of mind.
But there is another factor that is extremely unfavorable to Houjin, that is, they know very little information about the invading enemy forces. Erhe came back from two battles and did not even have a rough grasp of the opponent's strength in the war. Even this most basic information was in a blind spot. The generals of Houjin had to arrange their troops and formulate tactics, so naturally they were a little blind.
Azig and Yangu Li had no particularly effective solution to this problem. They could only send more reconnaissance cavalry out, hoping to detect the general strength and marching direction of the Haihan Army as it marched. But in this way, these reconnaissance cavalry will inevitably have to face those Haihan cavalry with strong individual firepower. If encountered in the wild, the Houjin reconnaissance cavalry can only try to avoid the opponent, otherwise after entering the combat distance, the Houjin cavalry will The disadvantage in weapons is likely to cost them their lives.
So after the two battles in early March, Golden State entered a short truce period, and both sides actually maintained restraint with a tacit understanding. Later Jin returned his troops to the fortress defense line, and at the same time deployed troops and generals in the rear, deploying thousands of troops to the defense line. Haihan, on the other hand, worked steadily, advancing slowly while turning the previous camp into a material transfer station, while maintaining two supply lines, water and land, to ensure that the supply of materials for the frontline troops was foolproof.
The continuous rain for several days has finally come to an end, and the temperature has begun to rise. The snow on the plains has basically melted, which means that the main battle of the spring offensive is about to begin.
Prior to this, the cavalry units of both sides fought for days, and small-scale armed conflicts could reach double digits a day. Although the Haihan Cavalry had more wins than losses, it was inevitable that casualties would begin to appear, which not only made Harugong feel distressed, but also made him hate Hou Jin even more. Fortunately, since the beginning of the operation, the horses Haihan captured from Hou Jin have far exceeded the number of horses owned by Haihan's cavalry battalion. This means that Harugong's cavalry battalion may be greatly improved after the war. Enrichment.
However, such sporadic confrontations could not organize the gradual advance of Haihan's army, and Jin did not dare to easily send out large groups of cavalry for charge attacks. Therefore, after several days of conflict, Haihan's camp still advanced to It was less than three miles away from the fortress defense line.
At this distance, you don't even need a telescope to see the adobe city wall that runs through the isthmus from east to west on the distant horizon. Although the strength of this thing is definitely not comparable to that of a real city wall, for infantry, this kind of fortification is still very useful. This line of defense cannot be conquered without paying a certain amount of casualties.
However, the Haihan Army is a special case, because this army is equipped with too many cross-era weapons, especially heavy long-range weapons such as artillery, which are centuries ahead of their opponents. Therefore, even though it is clear that the opponent will definitely defend the city, the Haihan Army does not feel too nervous - no matter what the strong city defense line is, as long as you set up the artillery and blast it hard, there will always be a few gaps. Come.
Of course, strategically, we should despise our opponents, but we should still pay attention to them tactically. The generals led by Haihan have been fighting in the south and north for several years at this time, so they will naturally not make low-level mistakes. So before the war started, they also observed the line of defense where the Jin army was stationed in their respective positions.
(End of chapter)