Chapter 1447: The aftermath
The Haihan Army did not continue to pursue and attack the enemy troops who had fled the battlefield in panic. This was partly because the main force of the Haihan Cavalry was not deployed here. It was obviously not a wise move to pursue the cavalry on foot on the plains. On the other hand, this fierce battle has made the Haihan Army exhausted, and there is not much spare power to pursue the enemy.
When Chen Yixin appeared in front of Qian Tiandun, Qian Tiandun was shocked. There were blood stains all over his face and body. At first glance, he seemed to be seriously injured. When Chen Yixin saw the strange look in Qian Tiandun's eyes, he knew that the other party might have misunderstood. He wiped the blood on his face nonchalantly and said, "It's not my blood. Several Hou Jin soldiers jumped in from the artillery position earlier. One of them jumped right in front of me and shot him in the head, leaving himself covered in blood.”
Qian Tiandun nodded and said: "It's fine as long as everything is fine. If you are injured, go to the back and bandage it immediately. Don't delay."
Chen Yixin said: "They are just minor skin injuries, not a big problem. However, Gao Qiaonan was hit by an arrow in his arm. He may not be able to recover for ten days and a half."
Qian Tiandun frowned slightly when he heard this: "Then I'll go see him."
Gao Qiaonan is nominally Qian Tiandun's subordinate, but the two have fought side by side on the battlefield and have maintained a relationship of mentor and friend in private for many years. Qian Tiandun really doesn't regard him as an outsider. When he heard that Gao Qiaonan was injured, Naturally, you have to take a look in person to be reassured.
A moment later, Qian Tiandun saw Gao Qiaonan among a group of wounded soldiers. He was sitting on a pile of empty ammunition boxes, spitting and bragging to his subordinates about how he had just killed several Baya Laks who had invaded the position. warrior. The injury on his right arm had been wrapped with gauze, and it didn't seem to cause much hindrance to him. It was just that when he stood up and saluted Qian Tiandun, he seemed to have forgotten his injury, and he felt pain as soon as he raised his hand. Grinning his teeth.
"Okay, sit down." Qian Tiandun raised his hand and saluted the soldiers around him, then asked Gao Qiaonan to sit down and reply.
When Qian Tiandun was supervising the battle just now, he focused on the control and command of the overall situation on the battlefield. The response to local areas was left to commanders at all levels to handle. Therefore, many battle details still need to be listened to by front-line leaders like Gao Qiaonan. An officer's post-war debriefing.
Haihan's head-on collision with the Jin Army was not a temporary one. He had been preparing for this for a long time. However, during the battle, it was not always possible to suppress the opponent as expected. If the frontline soldiers did not work hard to support and even risk their lives, this temporary defense line would probably not be able to withstand the desperate attacks of thousands of enemy troops. To completely rely on the advantages of terrain and weapons to offset the disadvantages in military strength is still a problem that requires a certain price to be solved.
Haihan won, but the victory was quite thrilling. Even Qian Tiandun, who was always calm and calm, actually clenched his fists silently several times during the battle, fearing that a failure in the defense line would cause the entire position to collapse. For the special operations battalion, which is accustomed to winning battles, it has indeed been too long since it has encountered such a tough battle. Many problems that arise during the battle require lessons learned after the war. Of course, the soldiers who fought bravely in this battle and even sacrificed their lives will definitely be rewarded based on their merits and additional pensions after the war.
The area behind the position and south of the fortress defense line has been turned into a large first aid center. The number of Haihan casualties in this battle reached three digits, and the camp was full of wounded people who needed to deal with their wounds. The soldiers who died in the battle were carried onto several trucks that had been vacated in the rear, and their remains would be transported to the rear as soon as possible. Although it may not be possible to transport him back to Hainan Island in a coffin due to the long distance, there will at least be a collective mourning ceremony before cremation. Being able to be covered with a national flag after death is an honor for these soldiers who fought for the country.
However, it is quite troublesome to clean up the remains of the Hou Jin Army on the periphery of the position. The enemy corpses within a hundred meters outside the position were piled on top of each other, soaked in plasma mud, emitting a pungent stench. The crows in the sky have each chosen their target to land on, and start enjoying the feast without any scruples. Groups of wild wolves also appeared faintly in the distance. They were obviously attracted by the smell of blood. They were just afraid of the smell of gunpowder smoke and did not dare to get too close yet. If these corpses are not disposed of as soon as possible, they will begin to rot in a few days, and by then there will probably be no one left in the area.
Thousands of soldiers died in this battle of Houjin. It is probably unrealistic to burn so many corpses, so we can only dig a few large pits in the wilderness and bury them. Fortunately, there were hundreds of engineers and civilians in Camp Haihan, so there was enough labor to complete this arduous task. It's just that the smell of blood in this place is too strong, and body parts and pieces of meat are everywhere. The person who does this job may not have the appetite to eat any more food in a short period of time.
Since Haihan began to cross the sea and enter the Liaodong area, the intermittent confrontation with Houjin has lasted for more than a year. During this period, the results have basically been the upper hand, but being able to eliminate such a number of enemies in one battle is Something that was simply impossible to do before. The combined results of the previous year and more are actually not worth today's battle in which the Haihan Army fought with all its strength. In terms of results, this decisive battle did basically meet the pre-war assumptions and severely damaged the army. Later Jin established its military power in the Jinzhou area and successfully captured the most critical line of defense on the Jinzhou Peninsula.
Haihan has already taken the absolute initiative at sea, and it is difficult for Houjin to cause any trouble for Haihan on the maritime battlefield. Therefore, as long as the natural pass of the Jinzhou Isthmus is controlled on land, the southern tip of the Jinzhou Peninsula can be controlled. More than 100 square kilometers of land were abruptly separated from the Liaodong Peninsula and included in Haihan's ruling area.
Of course, this factual occupation will not be made public in the near future. The credit for recovering most of Jinzhou will be given to the Pidao Army, who will ask the Ming court for credit and rewards. Anyway, now the Pidao Army can be regarded as half of our own people. This kind of benefit will not be reaped in vain, and it will also have many benefits for Haihan's subsequent layout in Liaodong. The area south of the Jinzhou Isthmus is nominally taken over by Dongjiang Town, and some The shady means can be carried out under the guise of Ming Dynasty.
Regarding the intervening interests, the military had already discussed with Shen's uncle and nephew. The other party was currently bent on relying on Haihan to make a living, so naturally they would not object to this arrangement. Shen Zhixiang even made it clear to Qian Tiandun that as long as Haihan said a word, it would be easy for the Pidao Army to change its flag. It's just that Qian Tiandun believed that the time had not yet come to incorporate Dongjiang Town, or that the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers in Dongjiang Town still had certain value, so he did not adopt Shen Zhixiang's suggestion.
It didn't matter to Haihan what kind of rewards Shen's uncle and nephew could get from the Ming Dynasty. It was certainly a good thing to be promoted to a higher position, and he might also be able to help the Ming Dynasty's official circles in the future. If the senior officials in the Ming Dynasty were afraid of the relationship between Dongjiang Town and Haihan and did not provide them with substantial benefits, it would be equivalent to pushing Dongjiang Town towards Haihan. Shen's uncle and nephew knew very well that Haihan could also give them the benefits that Ming Dynasty could give them, but the benefits that Haihan could give them could not necessarily be given by Daming Dynasty. What's more, today's Ming Dynasty is constantly suffering from internal and external troubles. In fact, everyone knows what kind of rewards can be given to Dongjiang Town, which is isolated overseas. Apart from official posts that are not worthy of the name, money, food, weapons and soldiers, Dongjiang Town can't give anything it really wants. . This military group that is independent from the Ming Dynasty needs more than just a false name. If they want to survive, they must hold on to a certain thigh. At this stage, if they have people who are willing to contribute money and effort and are willing to lead the Pidao Army Haihan, who worked together with the Jin Dynasty, was obviously much more reliable than Ming Dynasty, who only issued empty edicts.
After the fighting here ended, Qian Tiandun had sent a message to the Pidao Army, asking them to try to attack Jijiabao. According to the speed of the Jin army's retreat, Qian Tiandun estimated that the defenders of Jijiabao would soon realize that the defense line had been breached, then give up resistance and evacuate Jijiabao voluntarily. As for Sujiapu on the other side, Qian Tiandun didn't need to worry too much. Harugong would naturally assess the situation and attack there, and would not give the enemy a chance to escape cleanly.
Although this large gap opened by the blast was the most obvious weakness in the Jinzhou Isthmus defense line, Qian Tiandun no longer had to worry that Hou Jin's next counterattack would be directed at this place. At least until they can build long-range attack weapons such as giant trebuchets with ultra-long range in batches, it will be difficult to truly pose an effective threat to this position, unless they are willing to try their luck with thousands more lives.
However, after counting the ammunition consumption, Qian Tiandun's optimism was slightly dampened. All the landmines sent to the Northeast this time have been used up, and we cannot count on such a powerful weapon in subsequent positional battles. The four new artillery pieces also had very little standard ammunition left, and they would be gone after just one more small-scale battle. The grenades, which were also used as new weapons, were also used up in this battle.
The infantry's ammunition inventory seems to be quite large, but if we measure it based on the ammunition consumption rate in this battle just now, I'm afraid it won't last long. After all, the special operations battalion only uses seven-shot rifles, and the ammunition consumption is quite astonishing. An infantry company fired at least thousands of rounds in the battle just now.
And this kind of consumption of combat materials cannot be considered in detail at the moment, otherwise the military expenditure will be a terrifying figure, dozens or hundreds of times more than the post-Jin army that mainly uses cold weapons. If the commander-in-chief of the Hou Jin Army knew the comparison of expenses between the two sides in this battle, Yangguliquan would probably be convinced of the defeat.
Due to the extremely limited production of several experimental new weapons, it is difficult to obtain a large amount of replenishment in the short term. However, a lot of accessories and ammunition for the current standard weapons are gathered in Port Arthur in the rear. A telegram can be sent back and they can be transported to the front line by sea the next day at the latest.
At this time, the aroma of food finally floated in the air, slightly diluting the smell of blood inside and outside the position. Haihan started the blasting in the early morning, and then took the time to build fortifications. After another fierce battle, it was already the afternoon. Most people are in a fighting state at noon and have no time to eat. At this time, they are already ravenous.
Today's main dish of the cooking class is beef stew with potatoes, which is heavily seasoned with various spices. The aroma rekindles the appetite of those soldiers who had lost their appetite because they had seen too much blood or were exhausted from the battle.
Qian Tiandun sat around with Morgan, Chen Yixin, and Gao Qiaonan. As senior military officials, the food they had was naturally a little richer than that of ordinary soldiers. Morgan even opened a bottle of wine and poured a bowl for everyone. To celebrate the victory of this battle. Although Takahashi Minami is a naturalized officer, he has served in the Haihan Army for many years and is very loyal to Haihan. The military generals have not treated him as an outsider for a long time, so he is also given informal occasions like this. a chair to sit on.
"Tell me, after this battle, will the enemy counterattack again?" Chen Yixin asked a question that everyone cared about while eating.
"There will definitely be attempts, but a battle on the scale of today probably won't happen in the short term." Qian Tiandun took over and said, "Even if they can gather enough troops to attack here, it will be difficult. The Houjin Dynasty is not the Ming Dynasty. With such a large population, the loss of a few thousand soldiers is enough to break their bones. We defeated at least ten of their troops in this battle. , if you want to take revenge, you have to weigh your own weight first.”
Morgan responded: "More than that, the most critical point is that they don't know the status of our troop deployment. We have only deployed a thousand people to fight them on this position, but how many rotating troops are behind us, the entire defense line How many troops have been deployed on the sea, and whether there are still troops at sea waiting to take advantage of the situation and flank them from behind, they simply cannot figure out this risk. Any commander with a clear mind should be aware of this risk, so I think. They will no longer launch a large-scale counterattack recklessly."
Qian Tiandun said: "Speaking of the sea, I don't know if Wang Tom's ambush troops have obtained any oil or water. I sent him a telegram when the battle started here today and let him take advantage of the opportunity."
Morgan smiled and said: "Then don't worry. Tom Wang was almost defeated yesterday, and he must be full of anger today. Unless the Jin army in Jijiabao sticks to the end, as long as they dare to leave Jijiabao and go to Jin If the state withdraws, Tom Wang will definitely command the Marines to intercept them halfway. Maybe a fight will begin at this time. We just have to wait patiently for news. If Tom Wang can't even deal with this kind of leftovers, then he, the navy commander, should not do it in the future. Let’s go ashore again to show off.”
(End of chapter)