Chapter 2843
The last inspection site of Baikes and his party in the Jinzhou area was the most famous local isthmus defense line. It only takes less than an hour to ride a horse-drawn carriage from Jinzhou Camp to the Isthmus Defense Line. Moreover, in order to facilitate the transportation of combat supplies, this section of the official road was widened and the road surface was hardened several years ago. The road condition is very good, and it will not feel too bumpy on the carriage.
The narrowest part of the Jinzhou Isthmus is only about ten miles wide. It can be said to be the land chasm at the southern end of the Liaodong Peninsula. The fortifications built here are one of the most important military facilities in the entire Jinzhou region.
After the Haihan Army seized this key pass from the Manchu Qing in 1636, they launched a military confrontation with the Qing Army here for more than ten years. During this period, no less than a hundred major and minor battles broke out around the isthmus defense line, and the resources invested by both sides were countless.
However, due to the gap in military strength between the two sides, many counterattacks organized by the Manchu and Qing Dynasties failed to recapture this important military area. Haihan relied on this line of defense and firmly defended the southernmost point of the Liaodong Peninsula with a relatively small number of troops. This small area effectively contained the Qing Dynasty's momentum to attack the Ming Dynasty and North Korea.
For a long time in the past, the Jinzhou Isthmus was the northernmost point of the Haihan territory, and the battle line formed by this was the actual control border between Haihan and the Qing Dynasty. In the huge territory ruled by Haihan, this can be regarded as one of the areas with the highest density of war.
Because of this, the Jinzhou Isthmus not only has important military value to the Northern Region, but is also an object of great concern to all levels of Haihan. Every major victory achieved by the Haihan Army here will be reported in detail in official newspapers. For people of the generation like Bai Letong and Ning Zijing, in the textbooks they learned when they were young, there were articles about the heroic battles of the Haihan Army in the Jinzhou Isthmus. It can be said that almost no one of this generation who grew up under the Haihan Shuangse banner does not know the Jinzhou Isthmus.
Therefore, for these young people who came to the Jinzhou Isthmus for the first time, the significance of this trip was not just an inspection, but also a kind of pilgrimage.
However, Chen Pingliao, who acted as a guide, was obviously not included in this list. When he first started to remember, he had been led by his father across the Jinzhou Isthmus. After growing up, he would follow Chen Yixin on patrols here every year, and he was very familiar with the inside and outside of the isthmus defense line. In almost every position, he could introduce its origins and famous battle examples in detail.
"After our army's front advanced northward, the combat tasks undertaken by the isthmus defense line gradually decreased. In order to maintain smooth traffic between Jinzhou and the northern region, some defenses on the main roads have also been dismantled. However, more than 80% of the areas are still The wartime settings have been retained, and some troops are still stationed here, but they are mainly used for training tasks such as soil engineering and defense. ”
Chen Pingliao pointed to a nearby semi-underground fortification and said: "This tunnel may not look inconspicuous, but it is actually one of the main ammunition depots at the northern end of the Jinzhou Isthmus, and the space inside may be larger than you think. In wartime, the ammunition reserves here can provide the defenders of fourteen artillery batteries and an infantry battalion in the nearby area with five to seven days of combat needs. There are ten front-line ammunition depots of this size along the entire isthmus defense line. .”
The Jinzhou side of the isthmus defense line is full of various logistics facilities, including barracks, ammunition depots, field hospitals, canteens, warehouses, headquarters, etc. During wartime, there may be more personnel stationed in these facilities than there are soldiers fighting on the front line, and Almost all of them are semi-permanent fortifications made of masonry. When necessary, they can be transformed into fortresses on the spot to form a group of fortifications that protect each other.
In front of these logistics facilities is the tall Isthmus Great Wall. Although this wall fortification across the entire isthmus is only more than ten miles long, its defensive power is far beyond that of the traditional Great Wall. To be precise, this is a permanent defense line composed of dozens of large and small fortresses connected by city walls. Under the leadership of Chen Pingliao, everyone walked up to the city wall of the isthmus defense line. They immediately noticed that the city wall did not extend in a straight line, but had multiple obvious protrusions. The entire defense line was scattered and scattered like canines. on the ground. Rather than saying it is a line of defense, it is more like multiple fortresses connected together.
Outside these bastions, there are also defensive positions extending hundreds of feet outward. There are traditional fortifications such as trenches, horse-proofing, deer villages, and horse-trapping pits, as well as small bunkers, barbed wires, tunnels, and other unique defenses unique to Haihan. facility. According to Chen Pingliao, landmines will be laid near these fortifications during wartime.
The defensive positions formed by these various types of fortifications can effectively prevent large groups of enemy infantry and cavalry from directly attacking the isthmus defense line. The extended defensive positions are all within the coverage of the city wall's firepower, forming a three-dimensional defense from top to bottom. Once the enemy's offensive is blocked in this area, the city wall's firepower can attack the dense enemy formation from a high position.
Bai Letong couldn't help but sigh: "With so many methods, I think it would have been a headache for the Qing army when they attacked the isthmus defense line back then!"
Chen Pingliao responded: "I only know that in every major battle, the Qing army lost tens of thousands of people. They tried almost all combat methods, but they never failed to break through our defense lines."
Speaking of this topic, Chen Yixin also added: "The commander-in-chief of the Qing army changed seven or eight times, and all tactics were tried. However, the gap in strength between the two sides is on the table. If you can't beat them, you can't beat them."
Bai Letong said: "If this is the case, then why do the Qing army still admit death and attack this place?"
Chen Yixin said: "The reason is very simple. If we occupy Jinzhou, it is equivalent to having a foothold in Liaodong. We can send troops to attack any coast in Liaodong at any time. If the Manchus want to change this passive situation, they must take back Jinzhou , to drive us out of Liaodong. And since they have no way to project their troops through the sea, they can only concentrate their firepower on the Jinzhou Isthmus road. This is our preset battlefield, waiting for the Qing army to take the initiative to attack. ”
The location of Jinzhou completely restrained the Qing Dynasty's military deployment in the entire Liaodong Peninsula, but correspondingly, the Haihan side had an extremely small defense area. The Manchus and Qing Dynasties could either fortify the coastline, which was thousands of miles long, or they could break through Jinzhou and drive Haihan back to Shandong. In comparison, the latter option is obviously more proactive and has more substantial benefits.
It's just that Haihan is not the Ming Dynasty, and the combat power of the Haihan army is far better than that of the Ming army. Relying on the Jinzhou Isthmus, the Qing army was blocked in the north and could not take a step beyond the thunder pool for more than ten years.
(End of chapter)