1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1974
The Nanguanling Barracks is the largest garrison camp behind the Jinzhou Isthmus defense line. About two-thirds of the troops stationed in the Jinzhou Isthmus use it as a rotation station.When there is no war, the troops deployed on the defense line basically rotate every ten to fifteen days, and the replaced troops will return to the Nanguanling camp to rest.

However, the distance between the Nanguanling military camp and the defense line of the Jinzhou Isthmus is not very close. In fact, the two places are separated by about ten miles.Therefore, this is not only the main camp of the Jinzhou garrison, but also a logistics center that provides various military supplies to the isthmus defense line.All kinds of weapons and ammunition, clothing and tents, food and medicinal materials, etc. are distributed from here to the military supply offices of various strongholds on the isthmus defense line, and then distributed to the front-line troops at the company and platoon level.

In fact, there is another function here in Nanguanling that has not attracted much attention from the outside world, which is to undertake the tasks of medical treatment and aftermath for casualties.The largest field hospital in the Jinzhou area is located next to the Nanguanling barracks. The wounded soldiers who retreated from the front line and the remains of the soldiers who died in battle were basically received and processed here.

After Chen Yixin rushed to Nanguanling, he went directly to the field hospital, where he saw seven or eight bullets taken out by the military doctor from the dead soldiers.

"These are the only projectiles we have collected so far. Through a simple comparison, we found that the caliber and weight of these projectiles are almost the same. This obviously follows a certain production standard. The muskets equipped in the Qing army before Most of them have different standards and there is no uniform system. The most important thing is that we compared with the Qing army musket bullets collected before, and we did not find the same bullets, which means that what we found this time is very likely to be Qing army gun bullets. A new weapon that has just begun to be installed."

The person in charge of explaining the situation to Chen Yixin was Wei Lin, a lieutenant intelligence officer of the Military Intelligence Bureau, one of the first batch of graduates of the intelligence major of the Sanya Army Academy. At present, the Military Intelligence Bureau is focusing on training objects.After the attacked patrol team withdrew, he quickly discovered the suspicious points in the battle report, organized follow-up investigations, and immediately notified the rear of this unusual situation.

Chen Yixin took a look at the small projectiles, and then told Wei Lin: "Send the samples back to the south as soon as possible, and compare them in a larger area."

Chen Yixin is more cautious about this, because he does not think that the Qing Dynasty has enough technical strength to develop and manufacture new weapons. Even if Huang Taiji has some craftsmen who have mastered the technology of making firearms, their level is far from reaching mass production. The height of standard weapons.

Unless, the Qing Dynasty obtained relevant technology and production equipment through some special channels, or directly bought ready-made equipment with money.To put it bluntly, Chen Yixin believed that this sudden increase in weapon performance did not come from the Qing Dynasty's own capabilities, but might come from external sources.

As for related tactics, since 1635, the experience of the Qing army fighting Haihan has been countless. As for the basic tactics of the Musketeers, no matter how stupid the Qing army is, after paying so much tuition with their lives, you should look at it. More than half of the meeting.Although the Haihan army is still helpless on the frontal battlefield, if there are weapons with comparable performance, it is not difficult for the Qing army to imitate Haihan's Musketeer tactics.

The Qing army has always been at a disadvantage in terms of weapons, and it goes without saying that it must find ways to overcome this difficulty.Since Chen Yixin believed that the opponent did not have enough technical level to manufacture flintlock rifles by himself, it was necessary to find the source.Although there is no concrete evidence for the time being, he tends to believe that the Qing Dynasty should have obtained batches of standard weapons through some channel.So he hopes to find out the real manufacturers of these rifles through comparison of projectiles.

Only after knowing where these rifles came from can we try to cut off their import into the Qing Dynasty.However, sending these bullets back to the south for further inspection is not something that can be completed in ten and a half months, so before that, the Golden State Garrison probably has to make adjustments to the recent patrol arrangements, so as not to give the opponent any more bullets. opportunity to launch such a sneak attack.

After listening to Wei Lin's investigation report, Chen Yixin set out to visit the five patrol soldiers who escaped by chance, and listened to the descriptions of the parties.

"At that time, the sound of gunfire was very dense. The villain could hear the whizzing sound of bullets flying past his ears. Wang Erzhu glanced back and was shot and fell off his horse..."

"The enemy is all hiding in the woods. It is impossible to see how many people they have and how many guns they have from the outside, but the captain ordered to evacuate immediately... Alas! It's a pity that the captain couldn't withdraw with us..."

"The villain has been in the isthmus defense line for more than half a year. I have never seen such firepower from the Qing army. This time it is really a hell..."

Everyone's statement has their own position, but their common view is that the firepower displayed by the Qing army in this raid should far exceed their cognition.One of the cavalrymen originally belonged to Dongjiang Town even thought that such firepower could at least compete with the firearms troops of the Ming Army.

After talking with the survivors, Chen Yixin returned to the Nanguanling Barracks, and immediately called several senior officers in the camp to discuss countermeasures.

"About the specific details of the combat and the suspicious points in the attack on the patrol team, please explain it to everyone." Chen Yixin knew that most of these officers still didn't know why he rushed to the front line for this small-scale conflict. Such an emergency meeting was specially called to discuss countermeasures, so he simply brought Wei Lin over and asked him to tell the officers the key points.

After Wei Lin explained the situation, Chen Yixin added: "With regard to the weapons of the Qing army, there is no further evidence to prove that they have begun to deploy muskets on a large scale, so please do not pass unconfirmed information to your subordinates for the time being." Spread out. But out of prudence, the existing patrol arrangement must be adjusted immediately, especially the patrol route, which should be kept at a relatively safe distance from woods, hillsides, forts and other sheltered areas, not too close!"

Before this incident happened, the Haihan Army patrols often took some provocative actions when performing patrol tasks, such as deliberately approaching areas controlled by the enemy to lure the enemy to take the initiative to attack, and then use their weapons to attack the enemy. Shoot and kill before approaching, and evacuate immediately after firing a round of guns regardless of the outcome.Although doing so may not necessarily cause effective damage to the Qing army every time, it can kill dozens of people more or less in a month, so that the Qing army has learned to ignore the provocations of the Haihan patrol team and let the patrol The difficulty for the team to achieve a record has further increased.

In this case, some patrols will become more courageous and move closer to the enemy's controlled area.The patrol team that was attacked this time was actually nearly a mile north of the scheduled patrol route, and one foot had already set foot in the Qing Dynasty's control area.And this bold action was also seized by the Qing army, and carried out a surprise attack that the Haihan army did not expect.

Losing ten men in an armed conflict was the deadliest combat operation for the Golden State Garrison this year.The captain and deputy of the team were undoubtedly responsible for this, but they failed to return to the Haihan control area alive, so this responsibility should not be pursued to specific people.On the other hand, Chen Yixin specifically told him to make arrangements for the corresponding funeral arrangements and the payment of pensions as soon as possible.

The officers did not seem too nervous about this matter, because they knew that even if the Qing army was equipped with a certain number of standard muskets, it would be difficult to confront the Haihan army on the frontal battlefield. More importantly, the defense system built by Haihan relying on the isthmus line of defense is very solid. Even if the Qing army is willing to use human lives to fill it, it may not be useful. This point has been reaffirmed when the Qing army attacked the Datongjiang base this year Proof once.

Compared with the Datongjiang base that was hastily put into use, the Haihan Army has operated the defense line of the Jinzhou Isthmus for a longer period of time, with more reliable fortifications and more complete combat readiness measures.If the Qing army felt that it could challenge this line of defense with new weapons, then the garrison troops would not mind teaching them a lesson, letting them understand that the gap in the combat effectiveness of the two sides is not so easy to bridge.

Of course, the most reassuring thing for the officers is the numerous artillery deployed on the ground line of defense.At present, there are more than 150 heavy artillery with a caliber above [-]mm and a fixed turret, and there are more than [-] on the defense line. In addition to various small-caliber artillery and army field artillery that can be flexibly deployed, the Haihan Army can be deployed in a short period of time. Deploy hundreds of artillery pieces to the isthmus defense line.With such a powerful output of firepower, even if the Qing army launched a battle with a scale of [-] people, it would be difficult for the Qing army to break through the firepower network built by Haihan.

When necessary, the Haihan army can even dispatch naval warships to act as mobile forts near the shore to cover the weak coastal areas at both ends of the defense line, or to deploy troops behind the enemy by sea to catch them off guard.So even if the Qing army has new equipment, it is still impossible to change the situation on the Jinzhou Peninsula through combat.

In fact, the officers were even vaguely looking forward to the Qing army's next move. After all, this place had allowed many soldiers stationed here to win dazzling military exploits in the past two years.And most of them have not really fought a big battle here after they switched defenses from other places to the front line of Golden State.This is quite different from their original intention of coming to Jinzhou to take military exploits. Some patrols will deliberately provoke the Qing army during their missions, and it may not be without the acquiescence or even instigation from their superiors.

If there is no war, where does military merit come from?Everyone has traveled thousands of miles to this bitterly cold place. Could it be that they left quietly after two years of garrison?For aspiring military officers, the purpose of coming to Liaodong is to fight against the Qing army, gain military merit by attacking the enemy, and gain more capital for their future promotion.But if the two armies continue to confront each other without fighting, then they will have no way to show their abilities, and they will have no chance to win the military merits they dream of.

But Chen Yixin has led soldiers for so many years in the army, so he naturally knows that the little Jiujiu in the stomachs of these officers is just something that Chen Yixin is worried about, but these people under him may not really understand it.The only person who knew the stakes at all was probably Wei Lin from the Military Intelligence Bureau.

What Chen Yixin was worried about was not the equipment of the Qing army, but who let the Qing army possess these equipment.Whether it is buying or manufacturing, he believes that there must be the intervention of external forces to give the Qing army the opportunity to use weapons.

Da Ming obviously wouldn't do such a stupid thing like shooting himself in the foot. The Qing army still goes south every year to knock down the customs and plunder the products and population of the border area of ​​Da Ming. This is much bigger than the conflict between Haihan and Qing.If one wanted to curb Haihan's development in Liaodong by providing weapons to the Qing army, it would be tantamount to leading a wolf into the house, and the high-level officials of the Ming Dynasty should not be so confused that they could not distinguish between the serious and the serious.

Needless to say, North Korea does not have the ability to do so, nor does it have the intention.After all, they had just finished a big battle with the Qing Dynasty this year. At this time, North Korea wished to hug Haihan's thigh as tightly as possible.What's more, the old muskets that Haihan provided to North Korea were all provided according to the size of the new army it was preparing for. If Han catches the handle, it will be a big deal.

As for the Raksha Kingdom far to the north of the Qing Kingdom, Chen Yixin didn't know much about its situation, but he knew that the Qing Kingdom and the Raksha Kingdom had fought several times in the border area in history, so the relationship should not be too harmonious.

If it wasn't for the countries bordering it to provide it with new weapons, then this matter would be more complicated.From the standpoint of Haihan, Chen Yixin certainly does not want other forces outside the region to intervene in the Liaodong war.Because no matter which side did this, its real purpose is definitely not to help the Qing Dynasty, but to use it to contain and attack Haihan—because only Haihan is the Qing Dynasty who is completely invincible with swords, bows and horses. opponent.

It is difficult for the military officers present to imagine that this kind of secret will involve changes in the international situation. Even if Wei Lin explained the doubts about the new weapons of the Qing army, all they thought was whether this would cause harm to the Haihan army. direct threat.If Chen Yixin explained this in detail, some of them might think that Chen Yixin was thinking too much and was purely worrying.

All Chen Yixin can do now is to adjust the patrol method first, and emphasize to the officers not to take rash actions in the area north of the isthmus defense line during this period.

(End of this chapter)