Chapter 3288
Sun Zhen has not experienced a hard battle of this level for many years. In his mind, the last time a battle was so difficult probably dates back to when he fought against the Qing army on the Korean battlefield many years ago.
Compared with the Qing army, which was not afraid of death, the performance of the Ming army did not seem to be that strong. However, with its strength several times greater than that of the Haihan army and the advantage of fighting at home, it could continuously launch wave after wave of offensives and survive. Drag the Sixth Division into a long war of attrition.
When fighting the Ming army a few years ago, it seemed that the opponent did not have such a mature strategy and would only blindly defend passively. It seems that the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty has not been idle in the past few years of the truce, and still found ways to practice some new things against Haihan.
Since the battle started in Shanhaiguan in the middle of last month, the Sixth Lu Division has not had much time to rest and recuperate. It has combat missions almost every day. After capturing a place, you can rest for one night at most, and either set off to the next target the next day, or there will be a counterattack by the Ming army.
In less than a month, the Sixth Lu Division had fought more than a hundred battles, large and small. Even if they are not defeated in these battles, their own casualties are still inevitable, and as time goes by, the troops have begun to show fatigue, the combat effectiveness of officers and soldiers is slowly declining, and the casualties in the battle are getting higher and higher. It's getting serious.
Sun Zhen looked at the wounded soldiers in the camp with a solemn expression. Most of these people were injured in the battle that just ended an hour ago, but they were all in good spirits.
Although they successfully repelled several waves of charges launched by the Ming cavalry, leaving hundreds of cavalry behind and leaving the field in embarrassment, the opponent also caused the loss of 20 to 30 people in the Sixth Lu Division through arrow throws.
The battle loss ratio between the two sides seemed to be very favorable to Haihan, but Sun Zhen could only complain secretly. Almost all of his capable troops have been brought to the battlefield, and the lost personnel can hardly be replaced in the short term. The number of capable troops will only decrease in the war of attrition.
Moreover, having wounded soldiers in the camp not only consumes more resources, but also affects morale to a certain extent. But what Sun Zhen can do now is to try his best to send some seriously injured personnel to the field hospital in Tianjin City.
Fortunately, the Haihan Army has basically controlled the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal section from Tianjin to Tongzhou, so the transportation of personnel and materials is relatively fast at this stage and is not easily disturbed by the Ming Army.
The medical officer who had just performed an operation on a wounded man hurried over and reported to Sun Zhen the casualties in today's battle.
The good news is that no one has been killed so far today. Most of the wounded have only flesh wounds. After treating the wounds in time, it will take ten days and a half to restore basic combat effectiveness. Only three of them were seriously injured and needed to be sent to the rear for better treatment as soon as possible, otherwise their injuries were likely to worsen.
The bad news is that the military's medical equipment and some medicinal materials are about to run out, and supplies from the rear are urgently needed.
Sun Zhen asked: "How long can you hold on here?"
The medical officer responded: "If the intensity of the battle is like today, the gauze and alcohol will probably last for two or three days, and the trauma medicine and tourniquet may be gone tomorrow."
Sun Zhen nodded and said: "I will remind you later when I send the battle report to the headquarters."
After that, he ordered his guards: "Pass my order to transfer all the medical kits at the division headquarters, as well as the medical kits issued by officers at battalion level and above, to the medical officer!"
Although these medical supplies distributed to senior officers for personal use are not very large, they are still better than nothing, and they may still come in handy at critical moments.
Even though the supply channels were relatively smooth, the shortage of medical supplies was actually somewhat beyond Sun Zhen's expectations. He saw in the internal battle report that the Cangzhou defenders encountered a counterattack by the Ming army and fought fiercely for several days with a large number of casualties. He thought that the medical supplies from the rear were given priority to the wounded in Cangzhou, causing the Sixth Lu Division in the north to also was affected.
However, Sun Zhen is still very confident in his country's material supply capabilities. The shortage should only be a temporary phenomenon. Chen Yixin will definitely not sit back and watch the Lu Sixth Division's combat effectiveness be affected by this kind of thing.
Before dark, several seriously injured people were carried onto carriages and sent to a canal not far away, where they were boarded and transferred to the field hospital in Tianjin.
However, the actions of the Ming army did not stop as night fell, and alarm signals would still sound loudly in the camp of the Haihan army from time to time.
Although he knew that his opponent was most likely just launching a feint attack, Sun Zhen did not dare to be careless. Whenever a hidden sentry outside the camp sent out a warning, he still had to mobilize all his ministries to prepare for the battle.
Since entering Shuntian Mansion, such night attacks have happened almost every day. If ignored, the feigned attack will most likely turn into a real offensive. If the Ming army is well prepared, the Ming army will break away from the battle after a trial, and then come back two hours later.
Sun Zhen understood that the opponent's purpose was not to break through the Haihan Army's camp or achieve other results, but to use this method to consume his own spirit and keep the Haihan Army in a state of high nervous tension.
This method is not clever, but it is very effective. Due to his limited military strength, it was difficult for Sun Zhen to expand the existing defense zone, and it was even less possible for him to dispatch troops to pursue the Ming army at night. He could only respond according to standard procedures.
That night, the Ming army carried out three more harassment tactics. In one of them, a group of cavalry even rushed to the fortification belt outside the camp and tried to use grapple hooks to destroy the barbed wire on the ground, forcing the defenders to shoot and fight back. This group of daring enemies.
However, judging from the combat experience in the past few days, Sun Zhen believed that the Ming army's harassment would not stop there, and there should be another wave of offensives at dawn.
Although he was exhausted that night, Sun Zhen still arranged a countermeasure and deployed more than ten artillery pieces in advance to the preset gun positions on the west side of the camp.
These gun positions are all sunken structures. The gun bodies are placed in pits below the ground level. Only the gun barrels are located on the ground. With a little cover, they can achieve an excellent concealment effect. When the Ming army attacks, it will be very difficult. It is difficult to detect the deployment of artillery in these places.
Sun Zhen ordered his engineers to dig these gun emplacements two days ago, and has been waiting for the right time to put them into action, catching the Ming army by surprise.
His deployment did not fail. As expected, the Ming army appeared on the west side of Haihan Camp at dawn and tried to launch a charge.
The Ming army invested hundreds of cavalry. If the Haihan camp did not respond in time, this group of cavalry could directly charge into the camp. If a gap can be opened in the defense line, the following infantry will rush into the camp and engage in close combat with the Haihan army.
Of course, what they didn't expect was that when they were less than fifty feet away from the west entrance of the camp, they suddenly encountered close range artillery fire. The dozens of horsemen and horses rushing at the front were taken away in a wave almost as soon as the cannon fired.
(End of chapter)