Chapter 2341
With the current combat power of the Haihan Army, it is certainly not a problem to defeat the Qing Army on the frontal battlefield, but after more than two years of confrontation, the Qing Army has also learned a lot of wisdom in the process of repeated defeats. Try to avoid frontal battles with the Haihan Army on open battlefields as much as possible, and increase the depth of the position by building a large number of forts and other fortifications, thereby forming a long-term confrontation with the Haihan Army.
Under such circumstances, if Haihan wanted to weaken the Qing army through combat operations on the frontal battlefield, the price he had to pay was not very cost-effective. Moreover, the Haihan Army's troops deployed in the Liaodong region are limited. Even if they are able to significantly advance the front to the north, it will be difficult to maintain a larger area of control.
Therefore, Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun sized up the situation and no longer launched an offensive on the frontal battlefield. Instead, they prepared to use Operation Snow Stepping as an opportunity to strike at the foundation of Manchu rule in the Liaodong Peninsula.
The terrain of the Liaodong Peninsula is wide in the north and narrow in the south. Thousands of mountains run through the entire peninsula from south to north. Only the coastline is a livable plain area. Therefore, as long as the Haihan Army concentrates its forces to intensify the raids on settlements in the coastal areas, take away as many civilians as possible in these areas, and create hundreds of miles of no-man's land, it will make it difficult for the Qing Army to obtain food and grass nearby. material supplies, thus achieving the effect of weakening its combat power.
The difficulty in implementing this plan was that the Manchus also realized that they could not completely eliminate this risk, so they gradually moved the population settlements along the Liaodong Peninsula to inland twenty or thirty miles away from the coast in order to increase the number of Haihan people. It is difficult for the army to plunder the population in these areas. As for the comprehensive deployment of defenses in these areas, it is really beyond the capabilities of the Qing army.
Therefore, the Qing army stationed in the Liaodong Peninsula did not have a particularly effective response to the harassment wars launched from time to time by the Haihan Army. They often had to mobilize troops from nearby areas and rush to the area after receiving warnings. Moreover, the first task of these Qing troops after arriving there was often not to drive away the Haihan troops who landed ashore, but to drive the local people inland away from the coast to prevent these people from being easily abducted by the Haihan troops.
Since there are basically no large cities in these areas, there are no so-called official roads between towns and villages. The traffic conditions are not ideal, especially after the snow begins to fall in winter. Even if the Qing army receives a warning, it is often necessary to rush to the scene of the accident. It is also quite time consuming. If you want to rush from the East-West Camp near Jinzhou to a township hundreds of miles away, even the cavalry will take three or four days, and such a slow response is often unable to stop the Haihan Army's local actions.
Donggang Town, which was first looted by the Haihan Army during this snow-stepping operation, had no Qing troops stationed nearby. It was not until three days later that the armed patrol from the upper reaches of the Yalu River learned of what happened here.
When the Qing army patrol entered here, the entire town was already deserted. No one in the town, whether it was landowners or poor people, was missing. Food, poultry, livestock, and valuable household items were all moved away. . A large number of footprints and ruts were found near the seaside fishing port outside the town, as well as destroyed carriages. It seemed that everything that could be moved, including the residents here, had been shipped away.
Donggang Town, with a population of thousands, suddenly disappeared out of thin air. It was naturally the work of the Haihan Army. While the patrol team sent people to report to the strongholds upstream, they also sent out troops to check nearby towns and villages to see if there were any traces of Haihan Army activities.
It is not difficult at all to verify this guess. After leaving the town and heading west, you can see the traces left by a large number of people passing by on the ground. Although part of them has been covered by the snowfall of the past two days, it can still be seen that these footprints are not as messy as the footprints on the beach in Donggang Town. They are most likely the footprints left by the march of the Haihan Army.
The Qing cavalry followed these traces all the way to Changshan Town, which was twenty miles away, and found that the same thing had been done here. The most terrible thing was that they discovered that the attacker did not leave by boat after winning the battle. The traces of the march continued westward from outside Changshan Town, obviously heading to the next destination.
Another day later, the pursuers crossed the Dayang River and pursued them to Gushan Town, where they found another Qing army that had been annihilated in the battle. The bullet holes on these corpses showed that they died from musket fire, and of course the only army that used this method of fighting was the Haihan Army.
The pursuit here was actually beyond the defense area to which this patrol belonged. However, after checking inside and outside Gushan Town, the Qing army suddenly discovered that this was still not the last stop for the Haihan Army. The opponent was still there after looting the town. Continuing to head west, it was obvious that he had no intention of stopping here.
This patrol only has a few dozen men and horses, and its strength is smaller than the garrison that was annihilated in Gushan Town. Even if it catches up, it is just a moth flying into the flame, which is obviously not a wise move. It is also not easy to move reinforcements from other places to stop the actions of the Haihan Army.
Gushan Town is nearly 200 miles away from their garrison stronghold. It will probably take four or five days at the earliest to go back to bring in reinforcements and rush back. And where the Haihan Army will be marching by then is impossible to guess. . As for the Qing army camp located at the western end of the Liaodong Peninsula, it is even further away. It is still more than 300 miles away. In order to avoid running into the Shanghai and Han army on the way, we have to take a detour. The reaction time required to move reinforcements will only be longer. .
During the period when the Qing army had not yet responded, the Haihan army had already evacuated thousands of people from the coast of the Liaodong Peninsula. In order to improve shipping efficiency, the civilians who were shipped out by ship were not sent directly to Jinzhou, but were unloaded at Changshan Islands, which was more than a hundred miles away from Jinzhou. In this way, the time required for the more than two hundred miles of voyage can be temporarily saved, so that civilians can be transported out of the areas controlled by the Manchus more quickly.
These islands off the coast of the Liaodong Peninsula have long been cleared by the Haihan Army. Several large islands in the Changshan Archipelago have also temporarily housed immigrants transported from the Manchu and Qing-controlled areas. Just to facilitate management, these people will be slowly removed later. Moved to Jinzhou and settled down.
There are some private houses on these islands. The Haihan Army only needs to leave some tents and food to allow the people to live temporarily on the islands for a few days. During this period, ships will also be dispatched from the direction of Jinzhou to pick up people on the island one after another.
As for the safety of these islands, there is no need to worry. After years of raids by the Haihan, there have long been no ships on the coastline controlled by the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, although the Changshan Islands are only twenty or thirty miles away from the coast, they are already full of Clear out the unreachable areas.
Relying on such an efficient transfer method, the Haihan Army moved from east to west while relocating all the villages and towns along the way. These villages and towns were small in size, and there were no Qing troops stationed there. Occasionally, a few Manchu landowners who tried to resist would be quickly suppressed, so the process of population relocation went very smoothly.
In this operation, many people from Dongjiang Town were specially appointed to carry out propaganda work for the people, so that they would understand that they were being rescued and not kidnapped when they were escorted away from here. The vast majority of the Han people were not willing to be enslaved by the Manchus. Since they had the opportunity to escape here and had Dongjiang Town as a guarantee, they were still willing to cooperate.
"I took a look at the people who were shipped away. Most of them were not natives of Liaodong, but from Shanxi, Hebei and other areas within the Pass." As soon as Wang Tom returned to the flagship from the coast, he asked Qian Tian Atsushi talked about his feelings.
Qian Tiandun responded: "The Manchu Qing settled these Han people from the pass so far away, probably to stop them from thinking about escaping and resisting."
Wang Tom nodded and said: "I think so too, but this time a strange combination of circumstances has made it easier for us." Qian Tiandun said: "But after we finish this round of fishing, I estimate that we will not go to these places again after the Qing Dynasty." There has been a large-scale immigration into the area.”
Tom Wang laughed and said: "We are not just catching fish now, we are simply draining the pond."
No matter where these Han people come from, since they are in the hands of Haihan, there is a high probability that they will be included in Haihan's overseas colonial population in the future. Haihan has never found a suitable channel to introduce a large number of immigrants from the inland areas of the Ming Dynasty, but now the autumn wind on the territory of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties has indirectly realized this wish. However, this blow was really cruel. I think the Qing court must have been shocked and angry when they learned about the situation here. It is indeed difficult to say whether they will continue to immigrate people to these areas in the future.
Of course, Haihan's purpose was to weaken the Manchu Qing in this way, and plundering the population was just a means to achieve the goal. If the Qing government was affected by this and stopped moving people into these areas, it would be bad for Haihan. There was no loss to speak of, it was just a move by the Manchus to cut off their tail and survive.
When the Qing army patrol arrived at Gushan Town, the Haihan army had already captured Lizifang Town and Bodhisattva Temple Town, and continued westward across the Shizui River to capture Qingdui Town.
It is worth mentioning that there are many villages in the southwest of Qingdui Town that are controlled by Manchus. They tried to unite with militia to resist the Haihan Army, and even attacked the immigrant team that was transferred to the sea from Qingdui Town. Such a life-or-death attitude was naturally Incurred a military attack from the special operations group.
From north to south, the special battle group conquered Dakontun, Xiaoqiaotun, Shengjiatun, Litun, Luanjiatun and other villages, killing and wounding more than 300 armed personnel of the militia. After this series of battles, the special operations team finally got their energy up and dealt with it seriously.
Of course, the Manchu landlords who organized the militia to fight against the Haihan Army would not be let off easily. The culprits were all executed in public, and their families were sent to do hard labor in the Fushan Copper Mine.
After completing the clearing of Qingdui Town and nearby areas, the Haihan Army stopped for a short rest, because Zhuanghe County, the next stop to be attacked, is the place with the most complete fortifications so far in this operation. .
In fact, this is not the first time that the Haihan Army has taken action against Zhuanghe, and has kidnapped many people from here. However, the Manchu Qing Dynasty obviously did not want to give up this place where the city was originally built. In the past two years, they have been continuously reinforcing the county seat, seeming to hope that it can become a bridgehead against the harassment of the Haihan army.
But this is obviously not an easy goal to achieve. One of the purposes of the Haihan Army's dispatch of elite troops this time is to wipe out places like Zhuanghe in one fell swoop.
On the east and west sides of Zhuanghe County are two rivers, Zhuang River and Xiaosi River, which flow into the Yellow Sea from north to south. This terrain could originally be regarded as a natural barrier for the county, but for the Haihan Army, which dispatched a large number of combat ships, it was completely There is no substantial blocking effect.
The special battle group landed on the river bank south of the county seat. The Qing army defending the city did not dare to leave the city easily to fight, so they could only watch helplessly as the Haihan army slowly prepared after landing, and fired the artillery one by one. It was unloaded on the ship and then transported to the outside of the city for display.
There are a few squatting tiger cannons deployed on the city walls of this county, but compared to the equipment of the Haihan Army, they are really inconspicuous. Rather than saying it is a weapon used to attack the opponent, it is better to say that it makes some noise to embolden oneself.
The Haihan Army was basically undisturbed. It took its time to set up artillery positions outside the city. After calibration, it launched a bombardment of the area near the city gate.
Although the walls and gates of the county town had been reinforced, it was only for conventional combat situations. It was unexpected that the Haihan Army, which always came and went like the wind, would go to the trouble of setting up artillery outside the city in a posture of storming. Start bombarding the city walls.
For a time, the shells blasted stone debris from the top of the city, so that the defenders did not dare to show up. The wooden city gate obviously couldn't withstand such bombardment and was quickly destroyed.
Immediately, the musketeers, under the cover of large shields, slowly advanced towards the county town. During this period, some Qing troops on the city wall tried to shoot arrows outside the city. They were almost always fired upon as soon as they appeared, and they had not had time to aim outside the city. The target has been shot.
When the infantry advanced to only twenty or thirty steps away from the city wall, they threw several grenades at the city wall, which exploded into a howl of ghosts and wolves on the top of the city. When they entered the city through the city gate, they no longer encountered strong resistance.
The remaining Qing troops and militia forces in the city only resisted for a moment before being defeated due to the huge disparity in combat power. Those with quick legs could escape through the north gate of the county seat and save their lives, but those who didn't have time to escape would most likely become dead souls shot.
The Haihan Army spent a day taking over the county seat and cleaning up inside and outside the city. They escorted the prisoners and local people onto ships and transported them away. Then they planted explosives under the north and south city gates and destroyed the two city gates of the county seat together with the ones above. All the towers were blown down. If the Qing army wants to restore the defenses here in the future, it will have to carry out a major project.
The two blasts against the county seat were so loud that they could be heard more than ten miles away. Those people who had just boarded the ship heard that the Haihan Army had blown up the county town, and they were secretly glad that they could still leave Zhuanghe alive and safely. As for the Manchus, they all looked ashen, knowing that they might never have the chance to come back here again.
(End of chapter)