Chapter 2845
It took the group a whole day to complete the inspection of the defense line of the Golden State Isthmus. And this is just a quick tour. If you really want to understand all the details of this line of defense, you have to stay here for at least ten days and a half.
But even so, this line of defense, which can be called an engineering miracle, has greatly shocked visitors. For Bai Letong, Ning Zijing and others who came here for the first time, the written materials they had read in the past were far from enough to describe the majestic scene of the isthmus defense line and the visual impact brought by the fortress group stretching for more than ten miles. , giving them a more realistic understanding of war that they have never had personal contact with.
Although the last battle fought here was years ago, the smell of gunpowder smoke can still be faintly smelled in the air. This is not their illusion, but a unique phenomenon caused by the continuous erosion of gunpowder in this defense line every brick and every inch of land during many years of war.
The last stop of this trip is Jijiabao at the eastern end of the defense line, which is also one of the most important large fortresses on the isthmus defense line. The Martyrs' Shrine, which was specially set up for the defenders of the Isthmus Defense Line, was built on the south side of Jijiabao.
Compared with the Martyrs' Shrine built in Sanya, Zhoushan and other places, the scale of the building here is not too large. Including the yard outside the ancestral hall, it is less than two acres. It is even smaller than the Xianzhong Shrine outside Huanglong Mausoleum in Lushunkou a little. There are no gods enshrined in the ancestral hall, but densely packed spiritual tablets. The names and military positions of the Haihan soldiers who died here were engraved on the spiritual tablets, and they were offered incense by descendants.
Haihan and the Manchus had been in confrontation with the Qing Dynasty in the Jinzhou Isthmus for more than ten years. During this period, there were constant wars. Although the Haihan army was far more powerful than its opponents, it had no eyesight, and casualties were inevitable when the battle was fierce. Moreover, in the later period, the battlefield between the two sides actually expanded to the north of the defense line, and the Haihan Army took the initiative to attack many times. Without the cover of fortifications, the advantage of the Haihan Army was not that great.
There are more than 2,000 dead soldiers enshrined in this ancestral hall. It is the battlefield with the largest casualties of the Haihan Army in the past twenty years. If the large-scale defense fortifications allow visitors to feel the chilling atmosphere of the battlefield, then the Temple of Heroes allows them to experience the cruelty of war.
"Ever since our army captured the isthmus defense line, the army's front-line combat troops have been stationed here. All the elite troops you are familiar with have participated in battles here. Most of the spiritual tablets enshrined here are also from these elite troops. "
After offering incense, Chen Yixin explained the situation of these fallen soldiers to everyone. The number of casualties of the Haihan Army was more than ten times less than that of its opponents, but most of the combatants lost were elites in the army, so the cost was not small.
But it is precisely because of these more than ten years of fighting that a group of grassroots officers with rich combat experience and ability to fight hard and big battles have been forged on the Liaodong battlefield. This is an invisible wealth for the army. To this day, the Ministry of National Defense still dispatches troops to Liaodong for training from time to time to prevent the garrison troops from losing their due combat capabilities due to prolonged peace in some places.
After the inspection trip in Jinzhou ended, Bai Kesi and his party left Jinzhou by boat and traveled north along the west coast of the Liaodong Peninsula to the next stop, Gaizhou Guard. Chen Yixin, Chen Pingliao, Liu Shang and others also continued to accompany them.
Gaizhouwei is located in the northeastern corner of the Bohai Bay, on the west side of the connection between the Liaodong Peninsula and the mainland. It guards the land passage between the Liaodong Plain and the southern end of the peninsula. One of the estuaries of the Liaohe River, the main river in Liaodong, is also within Gaizhouwei. So the geographical location here is very important.
The Ming Dynasty established the Gaizhou Guard in the ninth year of Hongwu, which was subordinate to the Liaodong Capital Command and Envoy Division and had five thousand households under its jurisdiction. However, this place had fallen under the iron heel of the Manchus more than 20 years ago and was completely out of the control of the Ming Dynasty. It was not captured by Haihan until a few years ago. "It still took a lot of effort when we attacked Gaizhou Acropolis. It took several years just to prepare!"
With nothing to do during the voyage, Chen Yixin told the young people about the process of the Haihan Army's attack on Gaizhou Acropolis.
In fact, before the Haihan Army launched its Northern Expedition, the Gaizhou Guards were already one of the fixed targets for the Qing raids and harassment every year. However, the acropolis built in the Ming Dynasty was quite strong, and the Qing army defended the city. It was difficult to capture the city with only small-scale amphibious raids. The Haihan army often set up artillery after landing and bombarded the city for a while, so that the defenders in the city did not dare to go out to fight. Then they took the opportunity to plunder the surrounding countryside, taking away people and goods.
This is actually very similar to the Qing army's tactics of invading the Ming Dynasty and plundering places. They besieged large cities without attacking them, with the main purpose of robbing resources. However, the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not have such a strong family background. They were plundered by the Haihan army from time to time, and a batch of immigrants were robbed when they moved in. After a few years, the Manchu Qing Dynasty could only give up developing this area and build a Naturally, the area around Zhouweicheng gradually became a no-man's land.
As a result, the various materials needed by the Gaizhou Guard garrison cannot be self-sufficient and can only be imported from outside. The cost of maintaining this stronghold has also increased.
Haihan adopted this sausage-slicing tactic and spent several years weakening the Gaizhou Guard's defensive strength bit by bit. Later, during the Northern Expedition, Qian Tiandun formulated a combat plan specifically for the Gaizhou Guard, that is, skipping the Fuzhou Guard area between the Jinzhou Guard and the Gaizhou Guard and directly attacking the Gaizhou Guard.
As long as this area is broken, the most important land passage between the hinterland of the Qing Dynasty and the Liaodong Peninsula will be cut off, and the sea will be completely controlled by the Haihan Army. The defenders in the area south of Gaizhou Guard will be cut off from their sources of supplies and will inevitably be unable to survive for a long time. hold fast.
Qian Tiandun's troops undertook the combat mission of attacking the Gaizhou Acropolis. With many years of experience in raiding and harassing battles, more than 4,000 combat troops and a large number of artillery were dropped outside the Gaizhou Acropolis from the sea. This time the artillery bombardment of the city was no longer just a show, but bombarded Ninghai Gate to the west of the Acropolis and Guangen Gate to the south for two full days. Later, explosives were even used in order to breach the urn city of Guang'enmen.
After four days of fierce fighting, the Haihan Army wiped out more than 3,000 enemies inside and outside the Gaizhou Acropolis, and finally captured this important transportation pass. The subsequent reaction of the Qing army was just as Qian Tiandun expected. After organizing two counterattacks against the Acropolis and both failed, the Fuzhou Guard defenders south of Gaizhou Guard quickly attacked in order to avoid being attacked from the north and south. He voluntarily gave up his territory and fled eastward into the Qianshan Mountains. He used the complex terrain of the mountains to escape the pursuit of the Haihan army and retreated to the hinterland of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties in the north.
If we follow the traditional tactics and push all the way from Jinzhou to Gaizhou, there are many large and small cities and fortresses for the Qing army to fortify in this more than 300 miles. During this period, I don’t know how many tough battles it will take to clear this area. . However, Qian Tiandun's battle plan took less than half a month. He only fought a major battle in Gaizhou Acropolis and successfully drove the Qing army out of this area.
(End of chapter)