Chapter 1440: Attack from front and back
The two Niu Lu who came for reinforcements received the news when they set off that Haihan had sent a small force to land in the rear to harass them. According to their understanding, a small force could only be two to three hundred people at most. Not to mention that Ge Niulu's troops can completely annihilate the opponent, at least they have a clear advantage in terms of strength. It should not be a big problem to restrict the opponent's further actions.
But halfway through, they received news that groups of cavalry from the other side had also landed, and the two Niu Lu'er who led the team could only curse in secret. The Haihan Cavalry is a nightmare for the Hou Jin Army. Although this cavalry is not large in size, its individual firepower will give every Hou Jin Cavalry that encounters them a headache and fear. The Houjin cavalry, which uses traditional weapons such as sabers, bows and shields, are at a very passive disadvantage in almost every encounter with the Haihan cavalry. If they encounter a Haihan cavalry with dozens or hundreds of cavalry, then Even if there are two or three times more troops, they can only avoid it.
The Haihan cavalry they saw at this time, numbering at least two hundred, were forming a column and marching slowly along the coastline from north to south. Behind it is a beachhead that is beginning to take shape. In addition to decent bunkers and fortifications, there are even two forts built with sandbags on the position. God knows how these Haihan troops who had just landed recently managed to attack the enemy in such a short time. Fortifications were built inside. People with good eyesight can faintly see that some tents have been erected behind the fortifications, and it is obvious that they plan to stay here.
On the sea behind the beachhead, several large sail warships were moored near the shore, with all the gun windows facing the coast opened and aimed inland. This kind of fire cover method is not unfamiliar to the Houjin Army. In the past year, the Haihan Army has used similar methods several times to complete landings in many places on the Liaodong Peninsula. The Houjin Army, which once tried to prevent the Haihan Army from landing, was all bombarded by the Haihan warships after approaching, and many people died. It can be said that they all learned a bloody lesson.
Now seeing this familiar scene again, Niu Luezhen, one of the people who had suffered a loss before, quickly reminded his companions not to rush up in a hurry, because the faster you rush up at this time, the faster you will die.
However, they did not take the initiative to attack. The Haihan cavalry did not intend to wait for the Hou Jin army to see that they were full. They quickly adjusted their direction and killed the Hou Jin army who came for reinforcements.
Of course, the battle did not involve the close combat that Hou Jin expected. When the two sides were still a hundred meters apart, the Haihan cavalry on horseback opened fire, using their firepower advantage to form the first attack on Hou Jin's army. Wave blow. The repeating rifles equipped by the Haihan cavalry have high firepower and a high rate of fire. Even the Jin Army is aware of this feature. However, in this case, they cannot avoid fighting, otherwise they will definitely be sentenced to death by the ruthless Yangu Li. , I can only bite the bullet and rush upward.
When the Haihan cavalry saw the enemy move, they immediately adjusted their direction of travel and kept the combat distance beyond the range of the Houjin cavalry's light hunting bow. Although this tactic will slow down the speed of killing the enemy, it will make the rear golden cavalry very uncomfortable. In this situation, whether fighting or escaping is not an easy task.
If you want to fight, you have to keep up with Shanghai Han's rhythm and try to close the distance. However, only about one-third of Niu Lu's Houjin army were cavalry. With such a small number of troops, they could not compete head-on with the Haihan cavalry of more than 200 cavalry. Moreover, if the cavalry wants to pursue them, they will inevitably have to abandon the infantry. This is undoubtedly a very dangerous move, but if you want to leave the battlefield, you will inevitably face the same problem. The Houjin infantry are not as capable as the Haihan infantry. They can rely on their weapons and tactical advantages to fight against the cavalry. If they are alone, what awaits them is bound to be shot by the Haihan cavalry as prey.
Under the dilemma, Commander Houjin could only order the infantry to cover themselves with shields as much as possible, and the archers to use projectile attacks at the rear when they saw the opportunity, while the cavalry provided support from the outside and tried to prevent the Haihan army from directly attacking the infantry. .
But this kind of countermeasure was also expected by the Haihan Army. The cavalry kept their distance and surrounded the rear Jin army from the outside. They circled calmly, but the sound of shooting never stopped. Been down. Amidst the shouts of the Haihan cavalry, Hou Jin soldiers kept falling off their horses and falling to the ground with the sound of gunfire. Although there seemed to be not many scattered ones, they were subjected to continuous attacks all the time. Only then did the Hou Jin soldiers realize that they were actually Trapped.
After killing and wounding dozens of people one after another, the commander of the Hou Jin Army finally made up his mind to break through the encirclement along the way. However, in order to reduce the risk after dividing the troops, he still did not dare to let the cavalry break away from the infantry on their own. There was nothing wrong with this idea, but unfortunately the Haihan cavalry they encountered happened to be good at handling this situation, and the Jin army's caution brought them greater casualties.
Due to the limited marching speed of the infantry, this post-Jin army could only bear the bullets constantly fired from the surroundings during the march. The cavalry, which could have tried to quickly leave the battlefield, still had to bear the burden in order to provide mobile cover for the infantry. Casualties continued.
Fortunately, Commander Houjin quickly realized his stupidity and quickly adjusted his strategy to allow the cavalry to break out immediately. After fighting for a long time, he realized that only when the cavalry became active could Haihan's army have some scruples. Otherwise, if they just got together with the infantry, the end result would be more people dying to improve Haihan's record.
After the Jin army finally got rid of the entanglement of the Haihan cavalry, they had lost nearly a quarter of their troops. And the trouble they caused to their opponents was just a few scattered arrows. Realizing the disparity in strength between the two sides, the Hou Jin Army did not dare to fight, and withdrew all the way south from the range of activities of the Haihan Cavalry.
At this time, on the beachhead at the seaside, Wang Tom was complaining to Harugong, who had just returned: "It took a lot of effort to see a group of people coming, but you and your troops drove them away in a few seconds... You should put it nearby and let my brothers practice shooting!”
Harugong said disapprovingly: "What kind of spear training? Don't improvise at this time! Drive them out so that they can retreat and bring more reinforcements to fill the hole!"
Of course, Harugong also knew that Wang Tom was just joking. The division of labor between infantry and cavalry was different. However, the infantry did not have anything to do in the battle just now. Harugong and his men dispatched the opponent without much effort. They could not intervene. Tom Wang, who got started, naturally complained casually.
When Yangguli received the report for the second time, he learned that there were well-established cavalry among the troops Haihan landed in the rear. He knew that the two Niulu he sent over were more likely to be in danger, but he did not want to play the tactic of adding fuel to the fire. After patiently waiting for news of the defeat to come back, he ordered again and sent a thousand-man cavalry team to the area to limit the opponent's scope of activities. At this time, he still did not think that the Haihan army landing at the rear would be the main direction of attack, and he did not want to allocate too many troops to encircle and suppress this enemy army that might retreat to the sea at any time.
If he could go and take a look in person and see the beachhead that is constantly expanding and extending inland, as well as the heavy weapons and combat supplies that are constantly being transported ashore, he might immediately change his views and send more troops there. However, it was getting dark now, and even if they rushed over, it would be too late to launch another round of offensive.
Of course, another reason why Yangguli did not pay attention to the landing troops in the north was that the Haihan Army's artillery attacks outside Sujiapu and Jijiapu did not stop. Considering the expensive ammunition cost and the firing life of the artillery, Qian Tiandun suspended the use of the four new artillery and handed over the task of attacking Jijiabao City Gate Tower to ordinary artillery. Although the power and accuracy of these cannons are not as good as the new rifled cannons, they are better in number. After one round of bombardment by more than a dozen cannons, part of Jijiabao's gatehouse will collapse. Before dark, the gate will collapse. The two-story gate tower above had completely collapsed, losing its role as a lookout and arrow tower.
During this period, all the Houjin officers who tried to command the counterattack on the city wall were invariably hit by bullets from the sniper team, and even if they climbed up with a few shields, they could not survive. After losing four or five officers one after another, Yangu Li finally realized that this was a targeted attack method and stopped forcing the officers to die on the city wall.
Fortunately, it was getting late at this time, and Haihan took the initiative to stop the bombardment and showed no intention of taking advantage of the night to attack the fortress defense line. This made Yanguli breathe a little sigh of relief. Looking back on the day's confrontation, Houjin was completely on the defensive. Several attempts to counterattack failed to achieve the desired results, but he lost a lot of troops. Haihan was obviously more prepared for such a situation. After taking control of the situation, he did not rashly launch a close combat offensive. He also leisurely sent a force from the sea to land behind the Jin army.
Yanguli sent his cronies to send today's fighting situation to Azig in the rear, hoping to hear Azig's views on the current battlefield situation. But he had been away for several hours, and when he was about to go to sleep, his cronies finally brought back Azig's message.
Azig’s opinion was simple. He asked him to try to re-block the city gate overnight, and send heavy troops early the next morning to drive away the Haihan army behind the defense line, and be sure to drive it away from the Houjin controlled area. .
Azig did not explain in detail the reasons for doing so, but Yanguli decided to trust Azig's opinion because he could not think of any better solution for a while. Compared with the thousands of Haihan soldiers and horses on the plain south of the defense line, it is indeed easier to deal with the Haihan army in the rear with less than a thousand soldiers.
Blocking the doorways that had been blown to pieces by Haihan artillery fire was also a laborious task. For this purpose, Yanguli mobilized hundreds of army laborers to carry large rocks, sandbags, tree trunks and other building materials dismantled from the houses in the fort. , filling in the empty doorway. In order to avoid another artillery attack from Haihan, Yangu Li also specifically ordered not to light lights in the doorway, so he could only carry out construction in the dark, which was naturally not very efficient.
By dawn, most of the door-blocking project was finally completed, but before Yangguli could relax, the Haihan Army fired another burst of shelling into the doorway early in the morning.
After the smoke and dust dissipated, Yang Guli almost went crazy when he saw the scene inside. After finally blocking most of the doorway, it was blown to pieces. Dozens of people who were still working on the doorway were killed or injured. Many people were injured, and many people were trapped in the ruins of broken walls. They were unable to escape and were unable to die for a while, and kept making miserable screams.
"I think these southern barbarians are just trying to get in trouble with Yangguli!" Yangguli was furious and was about to order the entire army to attack. If it hadn't been for the desperate efforts of his officers to dissuade him, the Hou Jin Army would probably have become the first garrison in the Far East to block the city gate with their own bodies.
"What do you think the other side will do next?" Qian Tiandun put down his telescope with satisfaction and asked Chen Yixin and Morgan who were watching the battle together.
Chen Yixin was the first to respond: "Now the only entrance and exit channel is tightly targeted by our artillery. The Hou Jin army inside will definitely not be able to get out, but it will not be easy for us to break in. After all, their effective strength is not too big yet." I think the variables still have to fall on Commander Wang’s side, and only if he does well can Hou Jin truly be in chaos.”
Morgan continued: "I think so too. If the Houjin army wants to defend this line of defense, it must try to solve its worries first. The harder Tom's side fights, the more at a loss what Houjin will do. However, Tom's troops are limited. There is a limit to the waves that can be set off, and we still have to control the main direction of attack. Having said that, this new cannon is powerful, but it can't destroy all the walls outside Jijiabao, right? If we delay for one more day, it’s time to use some new tactics on the enemy!”
Qian Tiandun said: "We sent out all the engineers to carry out the construction last night. If everything goes well, it should be enough in one night. However, this demolition operation is relatively large. I am not sure of the final effect."< br>
Morgan said nonchalantly: "Even the city of Hue was demolished back then. How difficult can it be to demolish an adobe wall? Besides, the technology we have today is much better than it was back then. I played with them for two or three times. God, it’s interesting enough, it’s time to get serious.”
At this time, Yangu Li had no intention of wondering what other hidden tricks were in the Haihan people's combat plan. He was now having a headache dealing with the Haihan army that had landed in the rear.
According to the report from the scouts, the army was gradually advancing southward along the coastline, thus forming a pincer attack on Jijiabao from the north and south. If left alone, the opponent will appear in the sight of the Jijiabao defenders from the north in a day or two at the latest.
(End of chapter)