Chapter 2038
In Chen Yixin's impression, the field hospital behind the Jinzhou Isthmus defense line has not been so busy for a long time. Even when the patrol was ambushed at the end of last year, there were actually only a few wounded soldiers who escaped, and they were quickly dealt with. And when he walked into the field hospital today, he saw a steady flow of medical staff coming in and out. The busyness was even comparable to wartime. If he hadn't just received the news and rushed back from the front line, he would definitely have thought that this was an outbreak on the Isthmus Defense Line. A large-scale battle, because only the Qing army launched a fierce attack, could it cause so many casualties to one's own side.
As soon as Chen Yixin arrived, someone immediately led him to see Sun Bing who was lying on the hospital bed. At this time, Wei Lin was still in front of the hospital bed. When he saw Chen Yixin coming, he immediately stood up and saluted. Although Sun Bing was injured, he immediately sat upright and raised his hands to salute.
Although Chen Yixin was a little worried, he had been leading troops for a long time after all, and he would never show uneasiness in front of his subordinates. After returning the greetings to the two of them, he asked Sun Bing with concern: "Is the injury on your body important? ?”
Sun Bing responded quickly: "Thank you for your concern, General. The military doctor has looked at it. It's just a flesh wound. It will take a while to recover. It should be okay."
"That's good. How is the progress of this operation?" There were no outsiders at the moment, so Chen Yixin asked directly.
Sun Bing did not dare to neglect, so he told Chen Yixin in detail how he launched a surprise attack on the Qing Army's musketeers yesterday and how he was chased by a large Qing army during the retreat.
Chen Yixin was slightly surprised after listening to his narration. After seeing the scene in the field hospital, he was already mentally prepared to accept the failure. He never thought that the results achieved by the Marine Corps were better than he expected. Much more, it can even be said that the task was overfulfilled.
However, the Marine Corps has obviously paid a relatively high price for this. It is very rare in the history of the Marine Corps to have dozens of casualties in a mission. When Wang Tom knows this news, he will definitely feel jealous. It hurts.
Wei Lin added next to him: "General, the prisoners brought back by Captain Sun and the evidence collected have been handed over to the Military Intelligence Bureau, and we are verifying this."
Chen Yixin nodded, turned around and called his secretary Zeng Xiaowen to his side and said: "You are responsible for following up on the aftermath and pension affairs of the brothers here, Captain Sun. Once the personal situation is determined, arrange it as soon as possible. Don't let the brothers' sacrifices be in vain. ! ”
Zeng Xiaowen responded understandingly: "I will do statistics now."
Now that the combat goal has been achieved, no matter how many casualties Sun Bing suffered, this operation of sneaking into enemy-occupied areas can be regarded as a great achievement, and the Ministry of National Defense will definitely reward him for his merits. Chen Yixin's words also represent the official attitude, which is to first provide compensation to the casualties and properly handle the funeral arrangements.
But Chen Yixin doesn't dare to let down his guard yet. There is currently no evidence to show that there is only that group of musketeers in the Qing army's formation, and the Marine Corps' actions have not ruled out other possibilities, at least from the prisoners' mouths. Only after obtaining a more credible confession can we confirm that this hidden danger has been eliminated.
Regarding the source of the weapons of the Qing army, in fact, through previous joint investigations of gun cases in various places, it has been roughly determined that they were provided by the Spanish. Another thing that needs to be investigated is still a mystery so far, and that is the true identity of these mysterious forces that bridged the gap between the Spaniards and the Qing army.
With a glimmer of hope, Chen Yixin carefully asked Sun Bing about what he saw and heard during his incubation, but only the translator beside the foreign instructor met the conditions of the middleman - he was dressed and looked like a Ming Han, and could interact with the Spaniards and Manchus. Language exchange. But according to what Sun Bing saw, this person behaved very humblely towards both parties. He seemed to be just a job seeker, not the real mastermind behind the matter.
Chen Yixin comforted Sun Bing with kind words, went to visit the other wounded, and then left the hospital and went to the Military Intelligence Bureau. The Marine Corps finally brought back four alive, but unfortunately they were not able to capture the key figures alive. These people they brought back were just ordinary soldiers in the Musketeers. The level of information they had access to was not too high, and its value Naturally, it is relatively limited.
However, the Marines brought back the muskets used by the Qing army, and Chen Yixin played with them for a while. Although he didn't know how to make guns, he had been in the army for so many years and was at least half a weapons expert. He could tell at a glance that this was a weapon made by the Spanish. The Latin characters engraved on some of the guns had not even been polished. It was obvious that these guns had been used by others before they were transferred to the Qing army. The Qing army no longer knew which owner they were.
These muskets are all front-loaded flintlock muskets. If Haihan is excluded first, the performance of this kind of muskets is actually considered superior in this era. The muskets owned by the Qing army before this were almost all more primitive matchlocks. The gun is naturally inferior to this imported product with a more complicated manufacturing process. As far as Chen Yixin knew, the Spanish colonial forces in the Philippines should also be equipped with similar weapons. It can be seen that the Spaniards did not hide this, and even took out their own goodies.
How could Chen Yixin imagine that the Spaniards did not hide their secrets? They really did not have enough production capacity to meet the needs of their partners, and they did not want to give up the opportunity to make overseas allies. They could only use some of the weapons they used as military aid. Provided to partners. Even though the Spaniards received a large sum of money for this, this kind of arms deal would inevitably weaken the colonial armed strength in the short term.
Even if a new arms workshop has been built in Cebu and the colonial authorities are determined to double their weapons production capacity in the next few years, establishing related industries and cultivating professional craftsmen will not be achieved overnight, and production capacity will still not be significantly improved in the short term. promote. What the Philippine colonial authorities were doing at this time was actually a bit like drinking poison to quench thirst. Once Haihan discovered that the essence of their provision of foreign military aid was to drain their own wealth, it would most likely lead to a new round of attacks from Haihan.
The muskets brought back by the Marine Corps are all old goods with obvious traces of long-term use. The Military Intelligence Bureau believes that this shows that the Qing army may not have the ability to manufacture such muskets on its own. Otherwise, the Qing army has no reason not to update the situation. Good weapons and equipment for this musketeer team with outstanding combat effectiveness. This is good news for Haihan. Since the opponent needs to rely on external input of weapons, it will be difficult for them to train a large number of musketeers in a short period of time.
Chen Yixin also agreed with this judgment, but he believed that if the channels for external military aid to the Qing Dynasty could not be cut off in time, it would only be a matter of time before the Qing army began to manufacture new muskets in batches. Although the performance of this front-loading flintlock rifle is still significantly different from the rifles currently used by the Haihan Army, the Haihan Army must take into account the strength gap between the two sides. They do not even need to defeat the Haihan Army on the battlefield, as long as they can Let the Haihan Army's casualties reach a certain proportion, which is enough to win this confrontation.
To achieve this goal, the Qing army probably only needs to train a firearms force of five to six thousand people to make Haihan dare not act rashly. Otherwise, once the casualties in Liaodong increase, the Haihan army may not be able to be transferred from the south. Ample troops were replenished.
In the past, the Qing army may not have understood the status of Haihan's overseas troop deployment, but now that there are intermediaries who can extend their tentacles to the South China Sea, it may not be so easy to continue to implement an intelligence blockade on the Qing army. If the opponent realizes that Haihan's weakness lies in its limited troops and long supply lines, then they will definitely try to attack these weaknesses. In fact, Haihan has long been aware of the shortcomings in the Liaodong ruling area and has been taking measures to improve them. The people from Dongjiang Town who were recruited in the past two years have now settled in Jinzhou, and some of the Ming troops have also changed their appearance and been dispersed into several Haihan troops stationed locally. Some of the more qualified personnel will be selected into front-line combat units after receiving special training to perform combat missions with the regular army.
In this way, although the Haihan Army stationed in Jinzhou has no obvious change in the organization, the actual strength has increased a lot, which greatly reduces the need to dispatch additional troops from the south when the situation is tense. But this supplement is limited after all. In addition to the Haihan Army's consistent requirements for the quality of its troops, pressure on military expenditures is also one of the reasons.
Haihan has always followed the route of elite troops. In addition, Liaodong is far away from the mainland, and the corresponding military expenditures are very high, so it is difficult to maintain an excessively large garrison in Liaodong. This puts the Liaodong ruling area in a dilemma. On the one hand, it cannot afford too many casualties because of its limited military strength. On the other hand, it cannot increase the size of its garrison because of issues such as military expenses.
Therefore, for Chen Yixin, the current long-term confrontation with the Qing army in the Jinzhou Isthmus is the most ideal situation. The Qing army was afraid of Haihan's solid defense line and did not dare to attack rashly. Haihan was also happy to use this situation to contain the Qing army's strength and at the same time gain more development time for his own side in Jinzhou.
But if the Qing army possesses a large number of firearms, which can significantly improve their combat effectiveness, then they will definitely no longer be content with the status quo, and will definitely take the initiative to break the current strategic balance. This is exactly the situation that the Jinzhou authorities are trying to avoid.
Only from now on, immediately cutting off the Qing army's channels for obtaining military resources from the outside world is the fundamental way to solve the problem. Chen Yixin secretly calculated that the maritime power he could command was probably not enough to block the hundreds of miles of coast from the Jinzhou Isthmus to the Yalu River Estuary. He would need greater assistance from the navy.
Navy Commander Tom Wang is currently stationed at the Taedong River Base in North Korea. If you want to take any action, you must first communicate with him. Chen Yixin drafted a telegram and gave it to the Signal Corps to send to the Datong River Base. The next step was to wait for a reply.
"Old Qian, look at this." Early the next morning, Wang Tom knocked on Qian Tiandun's door and showed him the telegram sent from Jinzhou last night.
The content of the message mainly reported to Wang Tom the results of the Marine Corps' operations and the situation after the evacuation to Jinzhou, and asked Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun for instructions on the next arrangements.
Qian Tiandun read the telegram, nodded and said: "It seems that the situation is better than expected. The target was directly eliminated by your people, and this advantage was taken away by your navy."
< br>
Tom Wang sighed and said: "What a tragic victory! You also saw what was said in the telegram. When the Marines retreated, they were chased by the Qing army and dozens of people were killed. It is not easy to get such military exploits!"
Qian Tiandun said: "Chen Yixin suggested blocking the Liaodong coast as soon as possible to prevent external forces from providing military resources to the Qing Dynasty. What do you think?"
Wang Tom said solemnly: "I think a blockade is not enough. We should completely cut off their channels before this kind of military cooperation has taken shape! I heard that after the Zhoushan side fought in Yangzhou, they have already We are planning further actions, intending to take advantage of this opportunity to start up the Golden Shield transport business locally, and forcefully promote Ningbo's salt business to the north of the Yangtze River Estuary. Although we have no business to do here, we still have to get some for ourselves. It’s all about the benefits.”
Qian Tiandun smiled and said: "Is this the real reason why you came to see me early in the morning?"
Tom Wang said sternly: "You and I have the strongest armed forces in Northeast Asia. If we want to plan a big move, I will definitely have to discuss it with you first."
Qian Tiandun responded noncommittally: "If you have any ideas, let's talk about it first."
Wang Tom walked quickly to the map hanging on the wall, raised his finger and pointed to the coast on the side of the Liaodong Peninsula facing the Yellow Sea and said: "In the past two or three years, we have carried out many sweeps and sweeps on the Liaodong coast. Basically, They have made it impossible to sail into the sea in these areas. But this still failed to prevent people from sneaking into the Qing-controlled areas by sea. In fact, I suspect that the other party's route is to cross the Bohai Strait and land on the west coast of the Liaodong Peninsula. "
Qian Tiandun nodded and said: "So you plan to use this excuse to let the navy enter the Bohai Sea?"
Wang Tom nodded and said: "If the time is right, we can also arrange several major combat operations, so that Ming Dynasty can also send troops to participate and show their muscles."
In fact, after completing the control of Zhifu Island and Lushunkou, Haihan has actually included the Bohai Strait into his own maritime jurisdiction. However, in order to avoid irritating the Ming court, the Haihan Navy seldom went deep into the Bohai Sea, and its attack on the west coast of the Liaodong Peninsula was far less powerful than the east coast. However, among the original three guards on the Liaodong Peninsula, except for the Jinzhou Guard at the southern end, which has been occupied by Haihan, the other two, Fuzhou Guard and Gaizhou Guard, have their acropolis located on the west coast, which is also the distance from Shenyang, the capital of the Qing Dynasty, to Jinzhou. Important transportation node.
(End of chapter)