Chapter 1802 Blocking the way
More than two hours after the battle ended, the sky gradually became brighter, but the smell of blood in the air not only did not dissipate as time passed, but instead became stronger. As the vision gradually became clearer, the Marines stationed on the dock were finally able to see clearly the results of last night's brief confrontation.
The Qing army that attacked last night launched an offensive on the Jiang'an Wharf occupied by the Marines in two groups, but in the end it was stopped outside the wharf under the firepower of the Haihan Army. The Qing army had actually formed a breakthrough on both the left and right sides, and even broke through part of the iron mesh isolation zone temporarily deployed yesterday. However, in the end they were still unable to engage the Haihan army behind the bunker at hand-to-hand combat.
The corpses left behind by the Qing troops who rushed into the vicinity were only about ten meters away from the Marine position. However, the piles of corpses under the eyes of the Haihan soldiers also showed that the Qing army's offensive was indeed After exhausting all our efforts, the remaining distance of about ten meters could not be filled even if hundreds of people were to fill it.
On the outskirts of the Haihan position, most of the corpses of the Qing soldiers here were killed by artillery fire, often with broken bodies and broken arms, and few even with whole corpses. The large amount of blood flowing to the ground has begun to dry up, which will inevitably cause a lot of trouble in the battlefield cleanup work later. There are already flocks of crows circling in the sky, and from time to time, crows descend sporadically in the distance and begin to enjoy the freshly baked "meal" on the ground.
Wang Tom was also on the deck using a telescope to observe the results of last night's battle. The corpses of the Qing soldiers on the ground did not affect his appetite for breakfast. Although he has traveled through time for many years, he is still accustomed to eating Western-style breakfast such as bread, fried eggs, and milk in the morning. Although he is located on a battlefield, this special treatment has not been affected. After putting down the telescope, Tom Wang picked up the sandwich on the plate next to him and took a big bite, as if to show his pride.
Although there were some casualties on our own side in last night's battle, judging from the battle process, Wang Tom believed that the performance of the Marines was quite good. They still maintained efficient operation when engaging the enemy at night, and the final battle loss ratio was as high as Dozens of times. Wang Tom believed that even if Qian Tiandun's troops came to guard the dock position last night, they would not perform better than his own troops.
As for whether the Qing army will launch another offensive in a similar way during the day, Wang Tom believes that this possibility is extremely small. The Qing army paid at least hundreds of lives in the raid last night, but this is already what they can do. To the extreme. If the battle were to take place during the day, this number would have to be at least several times higher. The reason is also very simple. The terrain between the dock and Jiulian City is flat and open. Haihan can easily take advantage of the range of his weapons. It will be difficult for the Qing army to reach the sky if they want to shorten the combat distance to less than 100 meters. Even more so. Let alone a night attack that was only a few steps away from the Haihan position.
As long as the Qing commanders in Jiulian City were not dizzy, they probably would not choose to launch a large-scale offensive during the day, which would only repeat their many defeats in Liaodong. The dock position built by the combined fleet on the riverside was like a wedge firmly nailed in the direction of the Qing army's advance, preventing it from crossing the river smoothly to the south.
However, Wang Tom knew very well that the purpose of the fleet he led here was not to prevent the Qing army from moving south, but to confirm the Qing army's assembly progress and troop deployment status to provide reference for subsequent combat plans. Wang Tom believed that the Qing army's combat plan was already being implemented and it was difficult to stay on the Yalu River for too long, so he would definitely take the initiative to expose his strength in order to expel the Haihan fleet from this area. However, if the Qing army really chose to remain patient, If there is a war, then Wang Tom will order the withdrawal of troops sooner or later. Otherwise, it will be difficult for Haihan to have enough chips to bargain with North Korea for better conditions.
However, the Qing army sent troops to attack at night last night, which to a certain extent showed that their patience was extremely limited. This was naturally good news for Wang Tom in arranging his troops. As long as the Qing army is willing to take action, they can naturally make plans to lure them to attack again. For example, the deployment of the Marine Corps on the dock last night was actually intended to leave the Qing army an opportunity to launch a night attack, and the Qing army was also very cooperative on the ground. Take this for granted.
In order to be able to continue to deal with the Qing army more securely in this place, Wang Tom sent North Korean official Jin Sangjiu to the other side of the Yalu River early this morning and asked him to go to Yiju to contact the local government and provide supplies and civilians for the combined fleet. Although the fleet also brought a lot of supplies when it set off from Ganghwa Island, the fresher the ingredients such as poultry, eggs, vegetables and fruits, the better. Originally, one shouldn't be so particular during a war, but now that this logistics base is available, Wang Tom naturally won't be polite to the North Koreans. Where North Koreans should contribute their money and efforts, it is natural to make full use of it.
Jin Shangjiu was also awakened from his sleep by the sound of artillery last night, and was fortunate enough to witness this short but fierce battle. He now has a clearer understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Haihan Army, and the sense of awe in his heart has also increased. It has increased a lot. Wang Tom asked him to go to Yiju to organize logistics. Jin Sangjiu did not refuse at all, but agreed wholeheartedly, thinking that this would be an opportunity for North Korea to contribute to this war.
For North Korean officials like Kim Sang-jiu, being able to work for Haihan and being promoted and making a fortune are almost synonymous. He spent more than half a year in Zhejiang and has a very personal experience of this. . This time, Tom Wang took him north to the Yalu River. If he was just a bystander, he would not get any credit from the beginning to the end. But now that he has been assigned by Tom Wang, it is equivalent to having an opportunity to perform, so he will I took on this task very actively.
It was not until noon that several carriages requisitioned from farmers' homes on Waihua Island were transported to the dock position here, and the Haihan Army began to clean up the corpses of the Qing troops on the periphery. Because there were so many, Haihan had no intention of digging a hole to bury them. He just used horse-drawn carriages to transport them to an open space a hundred feet away, waiting for the Qing army to come to clean up and recover the dead bodies on their own.
Similar actions have been performed many times on the Liaodong battlefield in the past, and the two sides already have a certain tacit understanding. In the early days, after the victory of the Haihan Army, the Ming army in Dongjiang Town would beheaded to ask for credit from the court. However, since Dongjiang Town openly defected to the Haihan Army and moved back to Liaodong last year, it no longer does this kind of useless work. Although Dongjiang Town is still a military force of the Ming Dynasty in name, in fact it no longer listens to the instructions or propaganda, and only accepts the management of Haihan. The retention of this organization is only to facilitate Haihan to act in Liaodong. As for the rewards from the Ming court , naturally it is no longer what this overseas force cares about.
Sure enough, not long after Haihan removed hundreds of corpses, Jiulian City opened the city gate toward the river bank for the first time, and more than a dozen large carts filed out, followed by unarmed people. After arriving at the place where the corpses were piled, they carried the corpses of the soldiers onto carts and then transported them back to the city.
The Marine Corps only monitored the whole process of collecting corpses and did not disturb the other party's actions. Sun Bing confirmed that the opponent's manpower could no longer attack the dock position, and turned his attention to repairing the peripheral defenses that were destroyed yesterday. The Qing army paid hundreds of lives last night in an attempt to break through the fortifications outside the dock position. After cleaning up the corpses of the Qing soldiers today, Sun Bing discovered that about one-third of the Juma Iron Net deployed on the periphery yesterday had been destroyed in the war and had to be replaced and repaired.
Fortunately, the Haihan Army has already implemented modular deployment of this type of commonly used defenses. Both the horses and the corrugated iron nets wrapped around them can be quickly assembled and fixed, and the construction time does not need to be too long. In order to ensure that the defense of the dock position was foolproof, Sun Bing had already applied to Wang Tom for the deployment of more defenses after last night's battle.
What the soldiers are currently installing on the periphery of the position is an enlarged anti-horse that can be used against cavalry troops. This type of horse is composed of three strips of angle steel, with their sharp ends facing up and cross-buckled together. The other end has a movable claw nail, which is fixed to the ground with a hammer. In this way, the height is about It was difficult for the Juma, which was about 1.4 meters tall, to move easily. A barbed wire fence was placed between the Juma, so that the inner and outer layers were staggered. It was difficult for both cavalry and infantry to break through such obstacles. When you want to evacuate, you only need to put away the iron net, use a special crowbar to nail out the ground claws, and dismantle the angle steel to quickly dismantle these fortifications.
This type of anti-horse has been tested in actual combat on the battlefield of Liaodong, and the effect is quite satisfactory. Even a charge launched by heavy cavalry will be difficult to damage these solid-structured anti-horses. The only drawback is probably that it is very heavy, which makes transportation inconvenient. However, considering that the function of these large-scale horse-repelling horses is mainly to prevent cavalry assaults, if they are light, they will not be so reliable. Commanders will choose to ignore this small shortcoming.
Of course, this kind of simple structure can easily become the target of imitation by the enemy, but if Haihan uses angle steel as a material at any cost, it will be difficult for other countries, including the Ming Dynasty, to copy it. Therefore, the peers and opponents encountered by the Haihan Army generally used bamboo and wood structures, which were much inferior in strength and durability.
The Ming army in this era actually had quite a lot of experience in the use of Juma. Many frontier armies used a type of chariot called a sidecar. By the Wanli period, the improved version was already quite easy to use. Every two There is a horse gun in the middle of the vehicle, with twelve long guns fixed on it. The top and bottom of the vehicle frame are surrounded by cotton wool to prevent arrows and rocks. Each vehicle is loaded with two Frankie cannons and six quick guns. However, this thing is too heavy. Each vehicle weighs more than 600 kilograms. With weapons, ammunition and various spare parts, it can easily exceed 1,000 kilograms. It is not suitable for long-distance land marches. It also has high requirements on traffic conditions, and It can only be used as a defensive method and is difficult to use in offensive battles.
The Haihan Army only operates offshore and rarely goes deep into the inland. There is not much pressure to transport heavy equipment by ship. As long as rapid deployment can be completed, the structure is solid and durable, and the tactical purpose can be achieved, for the Haihan Army Words are a good tool. As for opponents who use Juma to defend their positions, Haihan of course cannot use precious soldiers or horses to attack. Instead, he directly uses artillery to clear the way. No matter how solid the Juma is, it will all be shattered by a bombardment.
It is precisely because of their superiority in armaments that Haihan officers like Sun Bing can not panic when facing an enemy force that is several times or even dozens of times their own, because they know very well that it is difficult for the enemy force to fill the gap with human lives. The gap between the combat effectiveness of the two sides meant that even the Qing army, which was not afraid of death, had no choice but to give in and not fight behind closed doors in the face of killing methods far beyond their capabilities. The enemy's war-avoidance attitude gave the Haihan Army more confidence, allowing them to be convinced of their own initiative on the battlefield and the resulting strategic advantages.
Sun Bing had no way of guessing when the Qing army would launch another offensive, but he knew that even if the Qing army stepped up its attack, it would be difficult to conquer this small dock position. According to his personal estimation, if the Qing army dispatches less than 5,000 troops, it will basically be difficult to truly threaten this position. However, if more troops are dispatched, the relatively narrow attack surface will make it difficult for them to fully spread their troops. The troops huddled together would only become targets for artillery fire from warships on the river.
If there were troops to be stationed in rotation, Sun Bing even felt that this place could become another nail position to break into the Qing-controlled areas just like the Haihan Army attacked Lushun. However, he also knew that his boss seemed to have other ideas, because When heading north this time, the independent special operations regiment with the strongest combat effectiveness on land did not go out together at all, but continued to be stationed on Ganghwa Island. Obviously, at this stage, there are no plans to station on the Yalu River for a long time.
However, as long as there is a battle at the moment, Sun Bing does not want to think about too many things that have nothing to do with the battlefield. Wang Tom orders him to strengthen his position, and he will do his best to turn this place into a fortress that is difficult for the enemy to conquer.
This gesture made by Haihan will undoubtedly make the Qing army in Jiulian City gradually become anxious. Their target should have been North Korea on the other side of the Yalu River, which had already cleaned its neck, not this group of people who suddenly appeared under their noses. of uninvited guests. Last night's attempt will make the Qing army realize that if they want to take back the dock they gave up so easily, the price they have to pay may be unbearable.
As for whether to continue the confrontation, try another way to attack the dock, or take a detour south to attack North Korea, no matter which choice they choose, it will give the Qing commander a big headache, because Haihan, a powerful opponent, is blocking their way. Even if we bypass this place and find another crossing point, we cannot completely get rid of Haihan's military threat.
(End of chapter)