Chapter 1826 Dilemma
Although Pyongyang City has been abandoned by the North Korean defenders, the various buildings and infrastructure in the city have been completely preserved. After Huang Taiji arrived at the front line, he requisitioned an official office in the city as a temporary palace and headquarters.
Although Huang Taiji had proclaimed himself emperor, he still carried on most of the Manchu living habits. He was not as particular about food, clothing, and travel as the Han royal family. He was more willing to focus on commanding and fighting. After settling down, he ordered people to clear out a flower hall in the government office, and then asked craftsmen to make a sand table about one foot square in it.
This command technique was learned by Huang Taiji from the Han generals. It is simple and easy to use, and is far better than the crude map research strategy used to issue orders in the past. Huang Taiji specially selected several Koreans from the prisoners of war who knew the nearby geographical environment better, and asked them to help the craftsmen build this sand table based on the map.
The content of this sand table is the area from Anju to Seoul. The coastline, mountains, and rivers are basically reduced and restored according to the actual topography. Huang Taiji originally wanted to plan the route of the next southward march on the sand table, but after receiving the latest battle reports from the front line, he found that he might have considered the war south of the Datong River too early. Crossing the river right under our noses doesn't look easy.
According to the battle report sent back by Azig, the Haihan people built a sizable military stronghold in the lower reaches of the Datong River. Except that they did not have time to build fortresses and walls, other defenses were basically in place, and they were ready to fight a protracted war. appearance. If Azig's description is true, then there is no doubt that the statement that the Haihan Army withdrew from the Korean War some time ago is false. The Haihan people were just pretending to confuse the Qing army, but were secretly building strongholds to prepare for war. Judging from the North Koreans' move to evacuate Pyongyang City, it should have been with Haihan's permission, or even his instruction.
Haihan asked the North Korean army to withdraw to the south of the Datong River for defense, but he built such a military stronghold on the north bank of the Datong River. The meaning of provocation is quite strong. Of course, the Qing army could choose to ignore Haihan's stronghold in the lower reaches of the Datong River and try to carry out cross-river operations in the upper reaches at its own pace. As long as the main force can cross the river, this stronghold will naturally be useless.
But there is a problem that must be solved in doing so, and that is to first defeat the armed fleet on the river. Judging from the situation detected so far, the force of the fleet led by Haihan to blockade the Datong River far exceeded the previous operations. However, what frustrated Huang Taiji and the Qing generals was that after arriving in Pyongyang, they searched back and forth for a long time and found no available ships on the river banks upstream and downstream of Pyongyang.
The only place with a boat is probably the newly built Haihan stronghold downstream. Huang Taiji even had reason to believe that the dock there was the supply station for the Haihan fleet.
If they can't find enough vehicles, how will the Qing army cross the Datong River, which is closely monitored by their opponents? This seems to be back to the Yalu River two months ago, when the Qing army could abandon Jiulian City and find another place to cross the river. point, but changing the original march plan means a setback in morale, and the subsequent combat plan will also have to be adjusted accordingly. If the Haihan Army had not withdrawn from the Yalu River on its own initiative, the Qing Army might have had to go upstream to find another crossing point.
But the situation here in the Datong River is far more complicated than that in the Yalu River. Even if the Qing army is willing to spend time to cross the river to the upper reaches of the river that the opponent's fleet cannot reach, they will eventually have to go south along the river again and return to the Datong River basin. Moreover, the scale of the armed fleet deployed by Haihan on the Datong River is far larger than that of the Yalu River. It is not easy to bypass the entire Datong River basin.
Huang Taiji stared blankly at the sand table in the flower hall and remained silent for a long time. He didn't even ask for the opinions of his civil and military officials, because he knew very well that no one would be able to come up with any proper solution to this matter. Either he would be detained in the Datong River for another month or even longer, or he would just We can only use the army to defeat the armed stronghold downstream.
To knock down the defense line that the Haihan people had carefully prepared for two months, it would be difficult for Huang Taiji to have a clear estimate of how many casualties the Qing army would have to pay during the attack. However, as the commander-in-chief of this operation, he must do it in advance. Prepare for the worst, that is, the situation in Jinzhou, Liaodong will happen again on the banks of the Datong River. Although the Qing army had an absolute advantage in terms of force size, no one could guarantee that they would be able to defeat this target in the lower reaches of the Datong River.
Although Azig himself did not come back in person, Huang Taiji could feel Azig's helplessness from the report sent back. If Huang Taiji ordered Azig's troops to attack the target by force, then of course Azig would do so, but if there were heavy casualties in the battle, then sending other troops to fight in the area would inevitably be affected by the previous results.
Moreover, Haihan had only sent a fleet to fight before, and the army troops had only briefly appeared in Jiulian City. Huang Taiji did not think that the opponent's military strength was only the troops on the Yalu River, and this stronghold was said to be quite large, and a lot of manpower was used to attack it. During construction, there will definitely be no shortage of army troops stationed there. Azig only brought five thousand soldiers and horses to that place. If he really wanted to launch a strong attack, these troops would probably all be lost there.
Although Huang Taiji was not a soft-hearted person, he did not want to let his troops die in vain, so the idea of immediately ordering a strong attack only flashed through his mind and was abandoned.
Since there is no immediate solution at the moment, Huang Taiji can only take a more prudent approach and continue to send more scouts upstream and downstream to find a suitable place to cross the river. The so-called suitability no longer refers to the geographical environment being convenient for crossing the river, but to finding the blind spots in the surveillance of the Haihan fleet on the river. But this possibility is indeed unlikely. Huang Taiji knows that his opponents have many ways to eliminate these blind spots, such as asking North Koreans who are familiar with the hydrological conditions of the Datong River to designate the sections of the river that need to be monitored intensively, and some locations where it is extremely difficult to cross the river, It is enough to station a small number of troops on the other side to guard the river bank.
Under the current situation, even if the Qing army can send one or two thousand people across the river at one time, it is of little significance. The North Korean army must have completed defense on the other side. Even if the Qing army does not pay much attention to its combat effectiveness, if it wants to deal with the crossing Jiang's small Qing army, the North Korean army can still fight.
"Is the Qing army retreating now?" On a newly built watchtower about 100 feet behind the defense line, Jin Sangxian, who witnessed the entire battle, still couldn't believe it. The arrogant Qing army only launched one attack. , after hitting a snag, he decisively called for gold and retreated his troops.
"What can we do if we don't retreat? Although they are barbarians who have not yet been truly civilized, they are not fools. They know that they cannot attack this line of defense with their abilities, so they can only watch the excitement from a distance." Qian Tiandun said calmly Putting down the telescope, he explained to Jin Sangxian: "The charge they launched was to test the defensive strength of this line of defense. Now that it has been tested, they stopped." Jin Sangxian was slightly disappointed with the Qing army's bullying of the weak and fear of the strong. , but at the moment he still boasted skillfully about the stable output of the Haihan Independent Regiment. He saw clearly the battle between the two armies just now. The Qing army failed to create any actual trouble for the Haihan troops on the position, and was repulsed without even crossing the outer Haogou.
After the Qing army retreated, the Haihan formation calmly sent out a company of infantry and hundreds of civilians to clean up the battlefield. Some horses that had lost their owners stopped on the battlefield and did not retreat with the Qing army. Naturally, they became Haihan's trophies. The weapons, flags, and personal belongings left on the battlefield were all picked up one by one and loaded into the carts. Transported back to base.
As for the wounded soldiers of the Qing army who had lost the ability to move, if they still showed the intention of resisting, the Haihan soldiers would stand at a distance and shoot them to death. Those who gave up resistance asked the civilians to carry them to the cart and transport them back to the base to see if they could find out any useful information.
Jin Sangxian has no interest in cleaning the battlefield anymore, but it is not easy to get up to this six-foot-high watchtower, and it will make your legs weak when you get down. Jin Sangxian hesitated for a long time but still didn't dare to let go. Qian Tiandun could only have someone tie a rope around his waist, fix the other end to the railing at the top of the observation tower, and then arrange for someone to hold Jin Sangxian underneath. With trembling legs, I slowly put him down.
There are several watchtowers like this used to monitor enemy movements in the base. This kind of wooden tower is not complicated to build, but its sturdiness is not very ideal. It can only be regarded as a temporary facility. When there is a strong wind, no one dares to send people up there. Kim Sang-hyun requested to go up to watch the battle. As a last resort, Qian Tiandun came to accompany him in person. Unexpectedly, the North Koreans could not come down after going up, and had to slip down in such a shameful way.
Jin Sangxian finally managed to slip to the ground. If his subordinates hadn't been holding him up from the side, he might have been a little unsteady on his feet. However, he is now in a much more relaxed mood than he was a few days ago, and he doesn't care about being embarrassed in public. As long as the Qing army can be blocked on the north bank of the Datong River, what does this little humiliation matter? If the Qing army can be driven back to Liaodong, Kim Sang-heon will have no problem climbing this watchtower every day.
Jin Sangxian rested for a while. Qian Tiandun had also come down from the watchtower. Jin Sangxian waved his hand and dismissed his men. He stood up and walked to Qian Tiandun. He asked kindly: "General Qian, the Qing army cannot attack this place." Will the defense turn to other places to find solutions?”
In fact, this issue had already been explained to Jin Sangxian when he explained the battle plan to him earlier. Qian Tiandun knew that Jin Sangxian was not unaware of the secret, but he just wanted to use it to gain peace of mind for himself.
Qian Tiandun said with a smile: "Since they have found out that this place is easy to defend and difficult to attack, they will definitely try to find opportunities to cross the river from other places. If nothing else happens, the Qing army will probably not attack here again in the next two or three days. , but our coalition fleet should have some door-to-door deals to do.”
The coalition fleet on the Datong River has recently added a new member, the North Korean Navy as the master. The wooden house ships and turtle ships, which are crude in appearance but have strong defense, are the main warships of the Korean navy. Of course, this defense is compared to the warships of other countries in East Asia in this era. For the Haehan who uses large-caliber naval guns, As far as warships are concerned, it doesn't matter whether they are strong or not. The result of one shot is almost the same.
While the Qing army was being dragged in Anzhou, North Korea mobilized most of its warships from the south and rushed to the Datong River to join the coalition fleet led by Haihan. Although the weapons used by Korean warships are slightly outdated compared to other fleets, their number is quite large. There are more than 40 warships with a displacement of more than 100 tons, and three of them even have a shell attached to them. According to Wang Tom's estimation, the displacement of the armored turtle ship should be equivalent to that of an expedition-class warship.
Although the combat effectiveness of the North Korean fleet is one level lower, its complementary role in controlling the Datong River is very obvious. With the addition of these dozens of warships, the coalition fleet's control of the river can be increased by at least fifty miles. In addition, at Wang Tom's request, the North Korean authorities mobilized 60 to 70 civilian ships in good condition and fast speed. Each ship was equipped with a number of North Korean soldiers, and they were deployed to some surveillance blind spots that were not suitable for crossing the river. The duties of a surface sentinel. As long as the enemy is detected and a signal is sent out, allied warships will arrive within an hour to assist.
After being supplemented by the North Korean navy, the coalition fleet can deploy its main force to the river near Pyongyang and wait for the Qing army to try to cross the river. The Haihan fleet led by Wang Tom was even hidden on the south bank of Yanggak Island. If the Qing army wanted to use Yanggak Island as a springboard to cross the river, it would probably have no choice but to come back.
With such a simple method of crossing the river, the Qing army naturally thought of it. The plan they made for crossing the river was to use rafts to transport troops to Yangjiao Island in the middle of the river at night. After the troops hidden on the island reached a certain size, they could then use them to cross the river. Complete the trip from Yanggakdo to the south bank of the Daedong River in the same way. Of course, this river-crossing plan has a prerequisite, which is the absolute control of Yangjiao Island. Otherwise, once the opponent discovers that the well-established Qing army is hiding on Yangjiao Island, even the retreat may be cut off.
Although the operational risks of this plan are extremely high, for the Qing army who could not come up with a better way, they could only use a dead horse as a living doctor and try it first. It's just that their little move couldn't be hidden from the well-prepared Haihan fleet. Wang Tom even climbed up the mast at night and used a telescope with night vision function to confirm that the Qing army had boarded this area of only 1.2 square meters. kilometers of island.
Of course, the Qing army did not intend to hang themselves on this tree. Almost at the same time, Qing troops also crossed the river and landed on the Lingluo Island and Toulao Island in the Pyongyang River section at night.
(End of chapter)