Chapter 3241
The location of Shanhaiguan has been a choke point guarding the land passage between Northeast China and North China since ancient times. Starting from the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Central Plains Dynasty built Guancheng here as an important stronghold for external defense.
In the 14th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, King Xu Da of Zhongshan, on the order of Zhu Yuanzhang, rebuilt a larger Guancheng 60 miles east of the former Guancheng and connected it with the Great Wall, completely cutting off the connection between Yanshan and the Bohai Sea. land passage.
Because it is adjacent to Yanshan Mountain in the north and Bohai Sea in the south, it is named Shanhaiguan.
For more than two hundred years since then, Ming Dynasty has been continuously investing manpower, material and financial resources to expand the Shanhaiguan defense line. I'm afraid even officials from the Ministry of Works can't tell exactly how many phases of construction have been completed over the years.
But this coastal defense line has become an unbreakable iron gate on the northern border of the Ming Dynasty. Even if someone is as powerful as Haihan, if he wants to attack this powerful pass, he must plan carefully and spend several years slowly preparing for the battle.
The fortress group built east of Shanhaiguan is only one component of this defense line, but it is not the main body of the defense line.
The real line of defense is seven large and small cities with Shanhaiguan City as the center and connected by the north-south Great Wall.
Shanhaiguan Pass City has a circumference of nearly ten miles. The city wall is four feet six feet high and more than two feet thick. There are four gates in the east, west, north and south, namely Zhendong, Yingen, Wangyang and Weiyuan. In addition to Guancheng, Yanshan water veins are also diverted into the moat. There are towers on the city gates, and there are urns with side-opening doors outside the city gates.
The city wall on the east side of Guancheng is integrated with the Great Wall, and this section of the city wall is also the west wall of Dongluo City, one of the seven Guanchengs on the defense line. If viewed from the air, Dongluo City looks like a huge urn city on the east side of Guancheng, with an area almost a quarter of the size of Guancheng.
More than ten years ago, the Ming Dynasty originally planned to build a symmetrical Xilao City, but soon after the construction started, it was stopped due to funding problems, and in the end the project was abandoned.
In addition to Dongluo City, there are also Weiyuan City, which stands alone outside the Great Wall at the foot of Yanshan Mountain in the northeast of Guancheng, the North Wing City and South Wing City, which are located on the north and south sides of Guancheng, and Weihai City, which is crowded on the coast of the Bohai Sea. City and Ninghai City.
On the Shanhaiguan defense line, which is more than ten miles wide, there are seven cities of this size, and there is also a large group of fortresses outside the pass. The strength of the defense can be imagined. It was reasonable that the Qing army did not want to bite this hard nut.
In terms of hardware level alone, this line of defense is no less solid than the line of defense built by Haihan on the Jinzhou Isthmus to resist the Qing army's southward march.
In the first day of battle, the Haihan Army cleared most of the fortresses outside the pass, but this was only the beginning of the war. These seven well-fortified cities on the defensive line will be the real test next.
It is impossible to attack the entire line of defense at the same time. Even if Haihan's entire garrison in Liaodong is pulled over, it will not be an easy task.
With the troops currently available to Sun Zhen, he could only choose one or two attack points on this line of defense and try to concentrate his firepower to break through the city defenses.
Faced with such a combat goal, Sun Zhen would not expect to achieve a breakthrough by relying on infantry attacks. His hopes were placed on the weapons covered with tarpaulin behind the camp.
It was a new type of artillery that was shipped from the south just half a year ago. The Sixth Army Division has been conducting training in secret since receiving it. So far, it has never been used in a foreign war. Even in the attack on those Ming army fortresses yesterday, only the artillery equipped before was used. This powerful new artillery was hidden to catch the Ming army by surprise.
It is said that these artillery pieces were arranged to be unveiled at the National Day event held in Hangzhou. Such an appearance did not allow the Sixth Army Division to take the lead, which made Sun Zhen a little regretful. However, judging from the current progress of the battle, the Sixth Division is still expected to become the first unit to use this kind of artillery in actual combat. Once Shanhaiguan is captured, this will be an honor that will be written into military history. Thinking of this, Sun Zhen was immediately full of energy.
When the sun shines on the tower of Shanhaiguan, a new day of fighting begins.
With yesterday's devastating attack experience, today's battle flow was much smoother when attacking the remaining fortress groups.
However, when the infantry tried to break into the last few forts and clean the battlefield, the artillery deployed on the Shanhaiguan city wall took the initiative to open fire to prevent the Haihan Army's offensive from beyond its fire range.
The several guns that fired had obviously been calibrated before the war, and the shells fired accurately landed in the direction of the Haihan Army's attack, causing some casualties to the infantry.
But this is not entirely a bad thing. The Ming army exposed its firepower in advance, and Sun Zhen could adjust the direction of the attack based on this.
Sun Zhen discussed the combat plan with his operational staff yesterday and believed that attacking Shanhaiguan City, which was the most heavily fortified, was not the best option. On the east side of Guancheng are Dongluo City and Wengcheng. There are several layers of defenses inside and outside. Even the use of new artillery may not be able to achieve immediate results.
Judging from the firing situation in Guancheng at this time, it is obvious that the Ming army deployed the most powerful artillery to the core area of the defense line. If they bite the bullet and attack in this direction, they will inevitably suffer more casualties.
Sun Zhen decided to adopt another offensive plan, attacking the weakly defended areas south of Guancheng and between the southern city and the coastal cities of Weihai and Ninghai.
The two small towns of Weihai and Ninghai are arranged one behind the other along the coastline. From the direction of Haihan's attack, only Weihai City can be seen visually, while in the nearly two-mile long space between Nanyi City and Weihai City, Apart from the Great Wall, there are no other fortifications, and this is almost the most obvious weak point in the entire defense line.
Of course, the only Great Wall does not mean that this area is just a wall. The city wall here is as high and thick as Guancheng, and there are military piers every hundred feet, and various defensive weapons are also erected on them.
Daming did not ignore the weakness of this defense line. On the contrary, this was actually one of the traps set along the entire defense line.
If the enemy breaks through this section of city defense, they will soon find that behind this seemingly weak defense line is a narrow, unobstructed plain, located exactly between the three cities of Nanyi, Weihai, and Ninghai.
The artillery shells fired from these three cities can cover the triangular area in the middle. Regardless of whether it is infantry or cavalry who invade this area, they will pay a heavy price.
But for Sun Zhen, this is the easiest part of the entire defense line to break through. As for how to crack the Ming army's layout, we must first break through this line of defense.
Sun Zhen decisively issued the order: "Let the artillery roll out the new cannon, aim it at the predetermined location, and give me a hard blast!"
(End of chapter)