Chapter 1437 Bombardment of Jijiabao
Artillery is a very important branch of the Haihan Army. Although due to various conditions, the establishment of the artillery force has not been able to keep up with the overall development of the army, no matter which army general he is, the importance he attaches to artillery There is no doubt about it. For the army and navy, artillery is a scarce resource that needs to be fought for. The organic artillery unit is even more valuable in the hands of the Ministry of National Defense. This time, several artillery companies were mobilized from the south to participate in the war in Liaodong. During the period, troops were mobilized The arrangement of sending generals is also quite difficult.
As for the artillery units assembled on the front line during this spring offensive, 80% of them are currently under Qian Tiandun's command. This is because the eastern and western armies can at least rely on sea gunboats to provide near-shore fire cover and assume the main offensive mission. The middle route army could only rely on the firepower output of artillery to attack the Houjin defense line.
Qian Tiandun and the commanders of the artillery unit designed an arc-shaped artillery position specifically for Jijiabao to ensure that the firepower was concentrated on the south gate of Jijiabao facing Haihan to the greatest extent. In order to ensure that this artillery position will not be attacked by the Houjin Cavalry and coordinate with the artillery offensive, the special operations battalion must also formulate a corresponding cover plan for this purpose.
This battlefield may have been farmland a few years ago, but now it is just a wasteland for both warring parties. Fighting in this environment, Haihan does not have to worry about Houjin spies getting mixed up in the refugee flow. If you go to your own rear, the other party has already cleared the southern area of Jinzhou and moved away all the Han people. Although this has caused great difficulties for Haihan to supply local supplies, this way there will be no worries during the war. , but it also saves a lot of trouble in dealing with refugees.
March 13th, sunny and windless. Camp Haihan was in action at dawn. The Pidao Army who was assigned to fight also got up early and made preparations. Shen Zhixiang personally led the troops and filed out from the north gate of the camp. Their task was to hold an area demarcated in advance and provide protection for the right wing of the artillery position.
In the previous military operations last year, the Pidao Army actually had the experience of accompanying Haihan on many expeditions to Liaodong. However, in the past, most of the battles were at sea. The Pidao Army was mainly responsible for transportation tasks. Those who actually participated in the war Not much opportunity. This time he got the opportunity to fight side by side with the special operations battalion. Shen Zhixiang naturally wanted to take this opportunity to perform well and use his record to prove that Haihan's many aids to Pi Dao were not in vain.
In the past, the Dongjiang Army had many victories in the battles between Liaodong and Hou Jin. However, due to various reasons, it failed to receive full support from the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, it lost Liaodong under the continuous offensive of Hou Jin. In the end, it was suppressed and could only escape to The overseas Phi Islands are still surviving. Judging from past performance, this unit does not have much psychological disadvantage against Hou Jin. In addition, it has followed the Haihan Army in operations for the past year and has seen how the arrogant Hou Jin Army was beaten to the point where it was unable to fight back. Therefore, when Shen Zhixiang led his troops to the wilderness, the soldiers did not appear too nervous because of the identity of their opponents. Instead, many people were quite excited, thinking that the chance to restore the former glory of the Dongjiang Army was today.
However, in order to ensure that the Pi Island Army would not lose its position during the battle, Qian Tiandun still sent a company of infantry to act with the Pi Island Army, and closer to the artillery position on the inside to provide it with the final layer of protection. .
After the troops on the east and west sides were in place, the artillery carts finally came out of the camp one after another. These artillery carts pulled by packhorses were all produced after the founding of Haihan in 1634, so they all had newer breech models. gun. As for the old muzzle-loading guns produced in the early stages that were bulky and inconvenient to use, they were either transferred to local areas for use as port and coastal defense guns, or they were simply sold cheaply to Fujian or Annan for use by allies.
The Houjin Army in Jijiabao naturally noticed this trend. While the Pidao Army was still lining up in the field, someone had already reported it to Erhe and Yangguli, who was supervising the battle. When they saw artillery carts continuously appearing from the Haihan camp, the faces of Houjin generals became very ugly. They are not afraid of the most brutal fight with the Haihan Army, but if they cannot effectively shorten the fighting distance on the battlefield, then no matter how brave the warriors are, their lives will be in vain.
According to the information obtained in previous battles, the range of Haihan artillery is almost one mile or more. This type of heavy artillery is extremely rare in Houjin and is almost always used for city defenses in large cities or passes. For example, the two large fortresses on the fortress defense line each have a cannon that was originally brought over from Shandong by Kong Youde. It is said that the range can reach more than one mile.
The reason why it is "reportedly" is because these two guns have never been fired after being deployed on the defense line. Even the gunners who operated these two guns were the same people who defected to Liaodong with Kong Youde, so for the time being. We can only use Kong Youde's statement as a reference. The military generals of the Later Jin Dynasty naturally had high hopes for these two cannons, and even regarded them as treasures like a magic needle to fix the sea. But now they found that when facing the Haihan army coming across the sea, their treasures suddenly changed. So shabby.
Yangu Li didn't have the patience to wait for Haihan to deploy the artillery positions. He called Erhe to him and asked him to immediately assemble his troops out of the fort and charge. He must prevent Haihan from deploying the artillery outside.
Erhe felt cold in his heart, but he could only follow Yangu Li's instructions. He knew that it would be a dangerous journey, so after a few words of explanation to his trusted servants, he led hundreds of cavalrymen under his direct command out of Jijiabao. Most of these cavalry are from the same tribe as Erhe. They can be said to be prosperous and withered. Even if they know that they are likely to die in battle, they still have to bite the bullet.
Erhe led his troops to launch a desperate charge towards Haihan. He did not expect that his few hundred cavalry would be able to overwhelm the opponent's position. He only hoped to break through Haihan's line of fire and close the fighting distance enough to kill the opponent. degree. Even if he kills a hundred or so Haihan soldiers, his few hundred cavalry can at least die with dignity.
But this was of course only Erhe's unilateral wish, and the special operations battalion responsible for the front line had no intention of letting him succeed. As soon as Erhe's cavalry troops came out of Jijiabao, Gao Qiaonan, who was directing the battle on the front line, ordered all personnel to enter combat positions. Although the infantry had no time to set up roadblocks and bunkers in the wilderness, they were all convinced that the weapons in their hands were enough to deal with these cavalry, because a similar battle situation had already occurred when they attacked Lushun Fort at the end of last year. At that time, the Houjin Cavalry led the charge. Muteb also had a similar plan to Erhe, but the Haihan Special War Battalion used a tough counterattack to achieve a terrible record of defeating the cavalry with foot.
After that, the special operations battalion made further modifications to the corresponding tactics, and had more methods for cavalry units in terms of formation layout and firing rhythm. They were waiting for this opportunity to verify their effects.
Taking into account the weak firepower of the Pidao Army, Takahashi Nan ordered the troops originally stationed on both wings of the predetermined artillery position to quickly move closer to the center and assemble. The artillery vehicles that had already left the camp immediately moved closer to the special operations battalion, and the artillery vehicles that had not yet left the camp moved closer. It is to pause the action and try not to give the opponent a chance to attack.
When Erhe's troops completed their assembly outside Jijiabao and began to march in formation, Haihan was already ready to fight. Looking at the hedgehog-like Haihan position in the distance, Erhe couldn't help but feel a headache, but at the moment, other than rushing over directly, he couldn't seem to find a better tactic. He drew his saber, shouted and carried out a brief mobilization, then took the lead in lifting the reins and rushed forward. Hundreds of cavalry followed, waving their sabers and charging towards Haihan's position.
"There is nothing new!" Takahashi Nan was relieved when he saw the opponent's formation. He rushed towards the special operations camp with his head down like this. Unless there were several times more troops, he would not be able to break through the special operations camp. Terrible long-range firepower network. The killing started when the two sides were hundreds of feet away. Although the bullets fired from the Haihan position were difficult to aim at specific targets, the intensive firepower caused sporadic personnel in the Houjin Cavalry to be shot and killed. Then, at this distance, the Golden Cavalry only relied on the light bows and arrows they carried, and it was difficult to hurt their opponents no matter how they shot. Apart from lowering themselves on horseback to reduce the target and holding their hand shields in front of their heads to protect their vitals, the Houjin cavalry had no better way to deal with this terrible long-range strike.
However, this kind of shield tied to the arm can protect people but cannot protect the horses with larger targets. Therefore, during the cavalry charge, there was a scene of people falling on their backs with the sound of gunfire almost every moment. The soldiers who followed Erhe into the battle The number of hundreds of riders is decreasing rapidly at a speed that is almost visible to the naked eye.
As the distance between the two sides continued to shorten, the originally sparse gunshots became more intensive. This made the cavalry who charged towards the Haihan position for the first time a little confused-could it be that the Haihan people didn't use their muskets? Did you stop to reload?
Of course they didn't expect that the rifles equipped by the special operations battalion were equipped with seven rounds. Reasonable arrangement of rotation shooting could form uninterrupted firepower output. The real shortcoming is actually on the Pidao Army. The rifles they use are old matchlocks and flintlocks provided by Haihan. Although these are much more powerful than the muskets they used before, But compared to the repeating rifles of the Haihan troops next to them, the level of firepower output they can achieve is obviously lagging behind.
But the more this happened, the more Shen Zhixiang refused to show weakness. He wanted to show the Haihan Army that even if his troops were lagging behind in equipment, their fighting spirit would be no worse than anyone else's.
During the charge, Erhe also observed the imbalance of firepower on the opposite side. As soon as the saber pointed at the area where the Pidao Army was located, he took the lead in charging over.
Shen Zhixiang did not panic when he saw this. In addition to the musketeers, his troops also had 200 spearmen specially equipped according to the advice of Haihan's military adviser. The spears in the hands of these soldiers are five meters long. As long as one end is pressed to the ground and the other end is lifted, it immediately becomes the simplest way to resist the horse. Hundreds of spears were arranged in three deep rows in front of the formation, and a spear formation suddenly emerged from the ground, tightly protecting the front of the Pidao Army.
After the horses at the front crashed into them and were stabbed into skewers with their horses and men, the horses behind them subconsciously slowed down, not wanting to crash into the densely packed spear points and die. However, they could not escape death even if they stopped outside the spear array. The shooting targets of the special operations battalion quickly focused their fire on this side, knocking down the Houjin cavalry who tried to cut off the spears with their sabers and rush in one by one.
Erhe did not try to go around this position to outflank Haihan's retreat, because he knew that he had no way to go. After angrily breaking several spears, he did not know which barrel flew out of the spear. One of his bullets accurately hit his right eye, and then a ball of blood exploded in the back of his head. Before Erhe could even scream, he fell straight down from his horse and fell less than five meters in front of Pidao's military formation.
However, few among the rebels realized that the leader of Houjin's side was dead. The two sides continued to engage in selfless fighting until the last Houjin cavalryman on horseback was shot dead.
Shen Zhixiang felt his throat was extremely dry. Just now, the Jin Army had actually broken through the Pidao Army's defense line. However, the enemy troops that rushed in were too scattered and were killed before the defense line was completely torn apart. He personally supervised the battle in front of the formation and killed five or six soldiers who threw their guns and fled back, and finally stopped these soldiers from trying to abandon the formation and flee. If he had not made a prompt decision, I am afraid that the Pidao Army's position would have been overwhelmed by the enemy.
But before he could recover, a new order from Takahashi Nan had been sent, requiring the Pidao Army to immediately return to its original combat position and make room for the artillery to enter. At that moment, Shen Zhixiang had no time to count his own battle losses, so he quickly gathered his troops and made room for the artillery unit that had been waiting for a long time.
"They sent a cavalry to rush into the formation, probably to prevent our army from deploying artillery outside Jijiabao. But the more afraid they are, the faster we have to launch an offensive." Qian Tiandun seemed to be talking to himself. , and seemed to be interpreting the battlefield situation for Chen Yixin.
Chen Yixin responded: "But it will take a while until all the artillery is in place."
Qian Tiandun shook his head and said: "One step is slow, one step is slow. There is no need to wait for everyone to be in place. The artillery that is in place immediately launches an offensive and suppresses the gates of Jijiabao with firepower, preventing their cavalry from coming out."
"But it is difficult to cause much damage to the defenders inside." Chen Yixin did not understand Qian Tiandun's tactical adjustment.
Qian Tiandun said: "The Pidao Army has a shortcoming, and the other side has realized this. If the Golden Cavalry comes out to charge again, they will definitely take Shen Zhixiang's troops as their primary target. I don't think the Pidao Army can handle it. , if the casualties are too heavy, it will violate our original intention of letting the Pi Island Army participate in the war.”
A moment later, there was a deafening sound of artillery, and a six-pound shell roared through the air and hit the outer wall of Jijiabao hard, causing a cry of surprise from the Hou Jin army.
(End of chapter)