Chapter 1830: Head-on blow
"The opponents are smarter now!" Seeing that this arrangement still failed to draw out the main force of the Qing army, Wang Tom felt a little regretful: "They did not feel at ease to launch a charge, they just wanted to interrupt our construction through harassment."
Qian Tiandun nodded and said: "But allowing the Qing army to take the initiative proves that your method is effective. I think we can continue to use it during the day."
At present, in addition to thousands of Han refugees, the Datong River base also retains more than 2,000 Korean civilians. Thousands of laborers can be mobilized at any time to continue construction on the defense line. Anyway, as long as the Qing army stops and waits and watches, Haihan can send civilian workers to carry out construction. Such repeated small battles will not cause any loss to Haihan, but it will keep the Qing army exhausted from running back and forth. If the Qing army could not withstand such stimulation, it would have no choice but to launch a massive attack or decisively evacuate the area, and no matter which one it was, Haihan would definitely be happy to see the result.
Liu Shang soon received the news from the headquarters, and he would arrange for the civilian workers to resume work after dawn. Knowing that this was the end of the night, he immediately went back to his residence to rest. When I was stationed in Liaodong, I had seen many small-scale conflicts like this, and I gradually got used to not worrying about the battle situation. I just took the time to rest when there was no mission, so that I could complete the tasks assigned by my superiors in the best condition. given tasks.
Of course, the refugees in the base who have not yet been formally resettled definitely do not have such a peaceful mentality as Liu Shang. They only know that tens of thousands of Qing troops are watching outside the base and will launch an attack on this armed stronghold without city walls at any time. Even though propaganda officers and civil affairs officials did some comfort work, many people still couldn't sleep at all, for fear that the Qing army would launch another night attack.
Huang Taiji and his large group of generals also did not sleep well. Although they held a combat meeting overnight, the generals still had difficulty reaching an agreement on tactical arrangements. The group headed by Azig believed that Haihan had spent several months laying out this area and must have set up a trap long ago to wait for the Qing army to launch an offensive. They should now find another breakthrough across the river. The opposition believes that it will take a lot of time and materials to send tens of thousands of Qing troops to the upper reaches of the Datong River to find a crossing point beyond the control of Haihan. This is a problem that the Qing army, which has begun to expose logistical problems, cannot solve.
After dawn, the Qing army suddenly discovered that work had begun to resume on the Haihan position. A dense flow of people like ants moving food were continuously transporting linen bags filled with soil to the position, and then stacking them layer by layer, visible to the naked eye. Several simple forts were quickly built at the front of the position.
If we continue to wait and see, it will be only a matter of time before the Haihan army turns the entire defense line into an artillery position. By then, if the Qing army wants to attack this position again, the price to pay will probably double. Either decisively withdraw the troops and abandon this target, or take action immediately to prevent Haihan from continuing to build fortifications.
It was not easy for the Qing army to make such a choice between the two. The former meant a huge setback in morale and a forced strategic change, while the latter meant thousands of casualties. Whether to preserve strength or to fight desperately was indeed an extremely difficult decision for the Qing army commander Huang Taiji.
Huang Taiji dismissed everyone in the big tent and stayed alone with a senior shaman for a long time before finally announcing his decision to the generals - fight!
Since this is the final decision, there is no need to consider the outcome for the time being. Even if there were many differences of opinion before, when it comes time to actually go to the battlefield, these Qing generals will not push the blame with each other. Abatai, Azig, Jilhalang, Amin and other leading generals immediately returned to their camps and ordered their men to prepare for battle.
When the Qing army camp began to gather troops on a large scale, some movement could be seen from the watchtower of the Haihan position, and a warning was issued. The civilians on the position were once again evacuated urgently, and the combat troops of the independent regiment and artillery immediately entered the combat position, preparing to meet the Qing troops that might appear.
However, the gathering speed of the Qing army was obviously much slower than Haihan expected. After two full hours, the Qing army completed the assembly of most of its troops near its camp and began to slowly advance southward.
Perhaps learning from the lessons of the previous battle with Haihan, the Qing army did not rush the cavalry to charge at the Haihan position. Instead, they patiently set up artillery positions on the periphery, and the positions were quite far away from the forts on the Haihan position. , almost at the limit of its artillery range, and it seems that it has also made targeted preparations.
"Old Qian, have you noticed that the Qing army's tactics will make some adjustments every time... or evolution may be more accurate. It is getting more and more difficult for us to rely on traditional tactics to deal with them. !" After Wang Tom used a telescope to confirm the movements of the Qing army in the distance, he put forward his own opinions on Qian Tiandun.
Qian Tiandun said: "This is also an inevitable trend! The commanders of the Qing army are not stupid, and they will learn from their defeats to improve their tactics. But after all, they will still be limited by social productivity and military technology, and they will not be able to figure out better strategies. Advanced tactics.”
This problem was not encountered by the Qing army. In fact, competitors at the same time had this problem. Although they tried their best to imitate Haihan's advanced tactics, they soon discovered that some things simply did not work by imitation. Most of the tactics of the Haihan Army are complementary to the weapons and equipment installed by the troops. It is extremely difficult for foreign armies to imitate them. For example, the Qing Army, which mainly uses bows and arrows as individual long-distance killing weapons, must gather a large number of archers together. Shooting ability can exert the greatest effect, and it is impossible to fully exert its combat effectiveness by hiding in a trench like the Haihan infantry.
The only foreign armies that can truly learn part of the essence of Haihan tactics are the Fujian Ming Army and the Annan Army, which have installed a large number of Haihan weapons. Moreover, senior military commanders have accepted military training provided by Haihan. training, and even accompanying Haihan on various combat missions overseas all year round. But after all, there are very few foreign armies with such conditions. Like the Qing army, they can only learn lessons from continuous defeats and improve their tactics. Although it has a certain effect, it is still difficult to fill the huge gap in the strength of the two armies. gap.
The Qing army realized the power of artillery and guns in its past battles with the Ming and Haihan armies. In recent years, it has made great efforts to manufacture these advanced weapons that are more lethal than cold weapons. However, in terms of ordnance technology, The progress of research is very slow, and it cannot even surpass the current level of Ming Dynasty, let alone catch up with Haihan. However, the number of artillery equipped in the Qing army has indeed increased significantly compared with previous years. Artillery has also increasingly begun to be used as a long-range attack method in foreign operations, and it has tasted a lot of benefits. Although they did not have an advantage when fighting Haihan in Jiuliancheng, the Qing generals believed that using artillery might be the only way to fight Haihan on a frontal battlefield without being obviously at a disadvantage. Therefore, in the battle to attack the Datongjiang base, the Qing army decisively moved out all the artillery in the generals, intending to use this to blast a way through the Haihan position.
The idea is beautiful, but the reality is very cruel. If the Qing army wants to ensure the safety of its own artillery and artillery, they don't dare to put too much pressure on it. They can only deploy the artillery at the upper limit of the range. In this way, Haihan's artillery Although it is superior in performance, the accuracy and power will naturally decrease when the distance is far away, which can reduce the combat losses of your own artillery unit. But in this way, the power of the Qing army's artillery was also greatly affected. When the shells fired exhausted and landed, they were often still some distance from the garrison area of the Haihan position, making it difficult to cause effective damage.
Although the accuracy and lethality of Haihan's artillery at long distances have also been severely reduced, it has also changed from 45 out of 10 to 1 out of 10. On the contrary, it presents a situation where the Qing army is being beaten unilaterally.
The Qing generals quickly realized this and ordered to focus fire on the flattest area in front of the Haihan position. Since there is no way to cause effective damage to the Haihan troops in the trenches and forts, they can simply use artillery bombardment to destroy the iron mesh and horse defenses on the periphery of the position, and then let the cavalry charge. The Haihan position does not have a well-formed city wall, and the discontinuous low protective walls will definitely not be able to stop the cavalry assault. As long as a gap can be opened to allow the cavalry to rush in, Haihan's defense line may be able to collapse.
This tactic of the Qing army is very simple, but it is indeed effective. Although artillery pieces were constantly being destroyed by shells fired from the Haihan position, the shells fired by these artillery pieces indeed plowed out an open space outside the Haihan position, knocking all the defenses outside the position to pieces. , a passage about three to four feet wide appeared in it.
Huang Taiji seized this opportunity and quickly sent out two thousand elite cavalry to charge into the gap. The vanguard of these elite cavalry are more than two hundred Bajala warriors in full armor, and the horses they ride are also the best horses in a hundred.
Viewed from a distance, the shelled outer area seemed to have lost its ability to block the incoming cavalry. However, when the Qing cavalry shouted and rushed closer to cross the Haogou, ready to kill, they discovered that Several rows of anti-horse guns suddenly appeared on this temporary passage that had been cleared by artillery shells. Where did this thing come out from?
In fact, these entire rows of anti-horse rifles had been deployed on the position earlier, but they were just laid flat on the ground and could not be seen clearly from a distance. When the original iron fence horse-rejection guns were destroyed by shelling, these horse-rejection guns were immediately activated by the machine springs pulled by the ropes, and bounced up from the flat state, with the gun heads pointed upward at a 45-degree angle, forming a new defense. Each of these anti-horse guns was composed of a row of ten guns, about one foot wide, and the temporary passage was quickly re-blocked.
Although the first dozen riders rushed forward almost without hesitation, hoping to destroy these seemingly not too strong roadblocks with their collision force, they soon discovered that their desperate actions were in vain. Even the gun barrel was made of fine steel. Not only did it penetrate the war horse, but it also pierced the heavily armored cavalry on the horse. However, the gun body did not bend, and its base was fixed by ground nails. On the ground, this charge failed to overturn the entire row of horse-repelling guns.
After several cavalry in a row were pierced by this terrifying horse-repelling gun, the passage was blocked firmly, making it difficult for the following cavalry to move forward near Haogou. The dense iron nets on both sides were even more difficult for horses to cross. The Qing cavalry who charged in front of the Haihan formation did not know what to do for a moment.
But the defenders on the Haihan position would not leave them any more time to react. The crackling gunshots immediately rang out on the position, and the Qing cavalry, who had almost nowhere to hide, fell off their horses in response. In the meantime, hundreds of horsemen and horses were shot and fell to the ground. Seeing this, some Bagala warriors who were rushing forward could only choose to dismount and fight on foot, trying to directly attack the Haihan position after bypassing the anti-horse guns.
They didn't take a few steps before they discovered that the firepower they faced was not just coming from the front, but there were also stray bullets flying from the left and right sides. The Haihan position was not a straight line of defense. Although there was no time to build serious bastion fortifications, the infantry trenches and forts on the position were built and deployed completely in accordance with the bastion system. Therefore, this flattest area seems easy to invade, but the Qing army inside will find that the crossfire attacks they face are almost impossible to avoid. Just a few minutes later, all the dozens of Bagala warriors who first invaded this area were killed.
At this time, there were at least a thousand more Qing cavalry who were blocked by Haogou. However, before receiving new instructions, they could not take the initiative to retreat and could only continue to move forward. So more cavalry had no choice but to dismount and fight on foot, trying to rush through this area, but they obviously did not realize that this special battle situation was also designed by the Haihan Army, with the purpose of defeating the Qing Army. Thinking that this area can form a breakthrough, people will continue to flock here to shoot and die.
It was difficult for the Qing generals who were in the safe zone a few miles away to confirm the actual battle situation on the front line. They could only vaguely see that the cavalry rushing past seemed to have indeed occupied the gap in the Haihan defense line, but they did not break through the enemy. The army's defense line seemed to be in a stalemate.
So after giving the order, two thousand cavalry teams and three thousand infantry were thrown into the battlefield. The reason why more troops were not dispatched at once was because the fighting area of this battlefield was too narrow, making it difficult for the Qing army to effectively send more combat troops to the front. Even if tens of thousands of troops swarm forward, 90% of the troops can only stand behind and watch the fun, unable to participate in the battle at all.
"Let's start playing for real." Qian Tiandun couldn't sit still when he saw this. He stood up and patted Wang Tom on the shoulder and said: "You sit down first, I have to go and keep an eye on it."
(End of chapter)