1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2034
Since the establishment of the Marine Corps, almost all combat missions have been carried out in the Liaodong Peninsula area, and the main opponent is the Qing army.During this period, he was ordered to go back to the South China Sea to participate in the Battle of Manila, and then rushed to the north to join the Korean battlefield and continue to fight against the Qing army.Therefore, both warring parties are familiar with the enemy's situation, and can roughly predict the next measures the enemy will take.

Sun Bing knew that the Qing army would not just ignore the current situation. After receiving the warning, they would definitely send out troops to pursue them, and the number of troops they dispatched would definitely not be small. , so it must be withdrawn to sea as soon as possible.As soon as they boarded the ship and left the shore, the Qing army could not use any means. Even if tens of thousands of troops arrived, they could only stare blankly on the shore.

And Azig also knew that the usual tactic of the Haihan army was to send small groups of troops through the coast, carry out raids in areas controlled by the Qing army, plunder offshore villages and towns or attack nearby Qing army strongholds, and then quickly withdraw from the sea. Let the Qing army be hard to defend.After the main force of the Qing army entered North Korea last year, the Liaodong coastline was almost smashed into a sieve by the coalition forces organized by Haihan, and there are still many places that have not recovered their popularity.

This time, there were no civilian villages near the place where the Haihan army landed, so Azig judged that the opponent's target should be the fortress line of defense or the troops on the side of the camp that were changing defenses.Now that the opponent has been exposed and successfully attacked the Qing army, the next step is to evacuate according to its standard practice.If they are not stopped, they will land in other places in a few days, and a similar scene will be staged again.

The area of ​​the mountains and forests near the coast of Jinshitan is neither big nor small. There are still more than ten square kilometers. According to the reports of Bayano and other survivors, there are only about a hundred Haihan troops participating in the battle. And it is not so easy to find such a few people hiding in such a mountain forest.Therefore, in order to be safe, Azig mobilized a full four Jiala soldiers and horses, a total of about 5000 people, which is already two-thirds of the camp's garrison.

In order to ensure that no areas were missed during the mountain search, the five Niulu subordinates of each Jiala also moved forward at a certain distance, so that once something was found, the companions could quickly get a signal to gather and encircle.

Bayano, who had just narrowly escaped death, also took the initiative to participate in the pursuit.In his opinion, if he could grasp the timing well, there might be a real chance to intercept the Haihan army that had attacked earlier on the shore.At that time, thousands of people will surround a hundred or so people, even if they don't fight, how long can the opponent last?Maybe it will be a big victory.Moreover, Azig personally went out to direct the action. For the sake of future treatment, he naturally had to be brave at this time, and he couldn't let the Qing king look down on him.

When there were still about six or seven miles away from the scheduled meeting point, Sun Bing's team bumped into a group of Qing troops rushing into the mountain.Without hesitation, Sun Bing gave the order to open fire, and after knocking down several leaders, the Qing soldiers turned around and fled.But in this way, Sun Bing's team had already exposed their whereabouts. He could also imagine that there must be more than this group of Qing troops entering the mountain. Order to speed up the march, and at the same time abandon some of the supplies, such as the more seriously injured prisoners, and some of the weapons captured in the battle just now.

It was important to get away at this time. In order to be able to move forward lightly, I could only selectively take away part of the evidence.Fortunately, a batch of war horses were seized just now, otherwise it would be okay to take away the physical evidence, and the personal evidence might not be able to be taken back.

Although the small group of Qing troops were repelled smoothly, the speed at which the enemy appeared was actually faster than Sun Bing expected, which also made him smell the coming crisis.

Fortunately, in this mountain forest environment, it is also difficult for the opponent to use the mobility of the cavalry to quickly complete the encirclement.In the dense snow-covered forest, a four-legged horse can't walk faster than a two-legged man, it just has a higher carrying capacity.Therefore, as long as the Marine Corps is moving fast enough, it will be difficult for the Qing army to go around and intercept them, so they can only follow behind.

The sound of musket shooting can be heard far away in the mountains and forests, but after the gunshots are refracted and echoed by the mountains, it is not so easy to accurately judge the direction and location of the gunshots in the distance.By the time the large forces of the Qing army arrived at the battle site, the Haihan army had already passed through this area.However, the direction of the chaotic horseshoe prints and footprints on the ground gave the Qing army a clearer direction to pursue.

But soon they discovered that the footprints were divided into two, two into four, and four into eight, and then fanned to more directions.Obviously, the fleeing Haihan army had taken countermeasures to confuse them after discovering the pursuit of the Qing army.

However, this temporary measure cannot delay the Qing army for too long. A Jiala Ezhen with rich combat experience rushed here to check the scene later, and he can judge that the general direction of these footprints is to the east. On the coast, two cows were separated to track the leftmost and rightmost trails respectively, and the rest of the team directly chose a path in the middle that seemed to have more footprints to continue tracking.

Azig arrived here later, and after hearing that Jia Laerzhen had dispatched the front, he also agreed with it. At this time, there were gunshots again from the east.After Azig identified the direction, he commanded the troops to rush towards the gunshot.

Sun Bing also made some evacuation plans before the war, but he did not expect such a tense situation when he really wanted to retreat. The reason why the local environment is more adaptable is that the pursuit speed is extremely fast. After the Marine Corps exposed its whereabouts, it has been unable to completely get rid of it.

Sun Bing had no choice but to arrange three teams of horses to cover the team of horses carrying evidence to evacuate first.This kind of retreat plan is considered a traditional skill in the Haihan army, and basically all combat troops must master it, so even if they have not done corresponding training beforehand, they can still use this tactic proficiently at this time to block the chasing ones Qing army.

The Qing army has an absolute advantage in terms of military strength, but the problem is that it is difficult to gather a large number of troops to charge in the mountains and forests, and they have no time to wait for the follow-up troops to arrive before taking a stance to fight the Haihan army. There are differences in marching routes and speeds. It takes too long to wait for a group of troops, and it is very likely that the enemy will be released during this period.

Azig's order was to intercept and kill the Haihan army. If anyone found the enemy but did not step forward to fight bravely, he would be easily detained afterwards for "fearing the battle" or "fleeing the enemy" charges.So Azig arranged for the pursuit to become a refueling tactic in the current specific environment. Every time he chased to the front and fought with the Haihan army, it was a small group of Qing troops, which was difficult to discuss under the opponent's firepower. Well done.Seeing that the combat distance is only ten feet, but it is quite difficult for the Qing army to further shorten this distance.

Even though there are many brave Qing soldiers trying to use human charges to break through the firepower net of the Marine Corps, each team left behind has more than ten people, and the crossfire net formed is not so easy. breakthrough.Moreover, the shortening of the combat distance is not necessarily beneficial to the Qing army. At such a short distance, the shields in their hands and the light armor on their bodies can hardly resist the enemy's bullets, and the Haihan army's shooting accuracy will also be affected accordingly. Keep it at a relatively high level, and the chance of hitting with one hit is extremely high.Coupled with the fact that the burst rifles used can maintain a dense firing frequency, almost all the Qing soldiers who tried to charge became living targets.

About two miles away from the coastline, the Qing army chasing from multiple directions finally formed a fan-shaped encirclement of the marines.However, the increase in the attack surface did not achieve immediate results, because Sun Bing also adjusted his strategy in a timely manner, doubling the number of the post-break team, and almost half of the troops were invested in it, and the results were also very good. obviously.

But Sun Bing did not breathe a sigh of relief because of this. It is not difficult to find from the binoculars that densely packed Qing soldiers in the distant mountains and forests are rushing in this direction. It is not realistic to stop thousands of Qing troops in the middle.Moreover, the amount of ammunition carried by each soldier is limited. With the current combat intensity, the consumption rate of ammunition may not be able to support them to evacuate to the ship.

At this time, Sun Bing could only hope that the ships that came to meet him were already in place, otherwise the Marine Corps would not be able to last long on the empty beach.

At this time, Azig could already see the scene of firefights in the forest in the distance. Before the battle, he announced a high reward of "100 taels of silver for killing one person, and 500 taels of silver for capturing one alive". When the effect was reached, the soldiers of the Qing army who rushed to the battle site all charged forward, wishing they could immediately grab the money bags walking on the opposite side.

Although there were already a lot of casualties during the pursuit operation, Azig believed that as long as the Haihan army could be stopped and wiped out, it would be a rare big victory in recent years, and it would definitely boost the morale of the army Morale made Huang Taiji look at him with admiration.

But soon Azig discovered that something was wrong. His troops failed to successfully intercept the enemy, and the battle zone was still moving towards the east coast.This is obviously because the opponent is still fighting and retreating, and the pursuit of one's own side has not yet been able to form a dogfight with the enemy.

"Give me an order, whoever successfully intercepts and kills the enemy, in addition to the previously announced rewards, will also reward five coatmen and fifty acres of fertile land!" Obviously the Haihan people planned to evacuate this place from the sea. If the duck in the bowl flew away again, the unilateral loss of the Qing army would be too great.

There must be a brave man under a heavy reward. There were many ruthless people in the Qing army who did not hesitate to die.

But Sun Bing could only put the team's safe retreat first, save the injured if they could be saved, and give up if they couldn't be saved.After all, it is impossible to fight on the battlefield without casualties. Even if the individual combat effectiveness of the Marine Corps is much higher than that of the opponent, it is still difficult to resist the Qing army swarming like locusts in this wild environment.

Of course, if fortifications were available, the situation of the Haihan army would be much more relaxed than it is now, and it is entirely possible to block the offensive of the Qing army with sufficient ammunition.But the first priority at this time was to evacuate, not to mention that Sun Bing didn't know how many troops the Qing army was chasing from behind, so he didn't dare to fight under such circumstances, and only wanted to get out of the battlefield as soon as possible.

"Company commander, our ship is at the beach!"

This news lifted Sun Bing's spirits. The arrival of the ship meant that there was a way out, so he immediately settled down and dispatched manpower, so that the wounded would leave their ammunition and retreat first, and the rest of them would still cover each other and retreat in batches.

At this time, the soldiers who evacuated to the coast earlier handed over the captives and evidence to the sailors who rowed to the beach to meet them, and then some of them turned back to cover the retreat of their comrades.

At this time, they had already reached the open area on the beach, and the Qing army finally rushed out of the forest, pushing back the marines in a larger arc-shaped encirclement.At this time, they have realized that the effect of a hard charge is not good. The opponent's firepower is strong enough to suppress the charge at a distance of about ten feet, and the effect of using bows and arrows to kill the enemy is even better.

All of a sudden, bows and arrows flew from all directions, and the Marine Corps was basically naked for the convenience of movement. Once hit by an arrow, it would be a serious injury, and the firepower output intensity was also weakened compared to before.

At this time, the naval guns on the two Haihan battleships staying on the sea near the shore also opened fire. In order not to hurt the marines on the shore, they fired in the direction of the left and right wings of the marines, so as to relieve the marines. under attack.

Although the shelling from the sea was limited in intensity, its effect was significant. In the perception of the Qing army, artillery was an almost invincible weapon, and the Haihan army had fully proved this point in the battles of the past few years.Last year, the Haihan fleet blocked the Yalu River and set up a fort on the river bank to bombard Jiulian City. The battle was also widely circulated among the Qing army. The Qing army has always been afraid of the power of Haihan's warship bombardment tactics.

At this time, the sound of cannons rumbled, and then a few shells landed in the Qing army formation, plowing a bloody gully in the crowd, and many people couldn't even utter a pitiful scream, and they had already turned into A pile of minced meat, the impact of this scene is much more shocking than a rifle killing.

After a round of shelling, the casualties caused were not too great, but the Qing army's formation had automatically shrunk to the center to avoid serving as living targets in vain on the two wings.

(End of this chapter)