1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2337
But now it is not easy for Chen Yixin to launch a large-scale offensive against the Qing army in the direction of Jinzhou.Since Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom took their troops to North Korea last year, the strength of the troops staying in Jinzhou has been very limited. They have even recruited about 2000 people from the original Dongjiang Town to supplement the reconnaissance and logistics troops. among.

This kind of staffing, relying on the many fortifications of the isthmus defense line, is not difficult to keep the Qing army north of the isthmus, but there will be a certain risk in taking the initiative to attack the Qing army's defense line.

Chen Yixin knew very well that the troops under his command were definitely not as powerful as Qian Tiandun's special operations group, and their strength was not enough to wipe out the Daheishan area in the north, which was more than [-] miles deep.According to the reconnaissance of the Marine Corps in the enemy's rear at the beginning of the year, at least tens of thousands of Qing troops were stationed in the Dongdaying Camp at the foot of Dahei Mountain. It was difficult to continue pushing north regardless.

Therefore, Chen Yixin has great doubts about the effect of launching an offensive. He can only regard the arrangement of Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom as a feint attack to attract firepower, so that the North Korean troops can launch an attack on the Liaodong coast.

However, Chen Yixin was not worried about the morale of the army.The Haihan army has always used military merit as the basis for promotion. If you don't fight, you can't get military merit, and the combat troops' wartime salary is quite high, even if you don't get military merit, at least you can still get money.As for the people who originally belonged to Dongjiang Town, there was an endless feud with the Manchus, so there was no need to mobilize them.

However, when the war broke out on the front line, tens of thousands of local civilians in Jinzhou would inevitably be affected by the war.According to the local system, young and middle-aged people must join the logistics department as civilian husbands during wartime, and the supply of food and other living materials will also enter a state of wartime control.Therefore, in order to stabilize the hearts of the people, the propaganda work aimed at the local people must be carried out as soon as possible.

When Liu Shang received Chen Yixin's summoning order, he was dealing with the inventory and storage procedures of the batch of materials shipped from Fushan County.Now he is responsible for more than just propaganda in the Jinzhou area. After the anti-Qing war in North Korea ended last year, he was transferred to the Datongjiang base to resettle the local North Korean refugees. Due to his good performance during the period, After returning to Jinzhou, Chen Yixin entrusted him with a heavy responsibility and became a local civil affairs officer.

For Liu Shang, the work he is doing now is beyond his imagination.He should have been lurking in Sanya for a long time under the cover of a storyteller, collecting all kinds of military and political information about Haihan for the imperial court, but who knows that by mistake, he got mixed into Haihan's bureaucratic system, and his journey went smoothly. In just four years, the position has climbed step by step from the initial grassroots propaganda officer to the current position of Jinzhou Civil Affairs Officer.

It is almost impossible for an ordinary person like Liu Shang with no background to be promoted so quickly in the officialdom in Daming.If he had chosen to hide in Sanya as a spy, he might be promoted to a hundred households in five or ten years. If he wants to go up, he will not only depend on his qualifications and merits, but also have corresponding contacts.But now in Haihan, he has become a civil affairs officer in charge of local people's livelihood, which is much higher than that of hundreds of thousands of households in name only.

Liu Shang knows very well that as long as he continues to work, there will be opportunities for promotion in the future.There are too many vacancies in Haihan's bureaucratic system, and there are too few qualified officials. For example, he was promoted to a civil affairs officer in Jinzhou. A large part of the reason is that there are no suitable candidates here. People competed with him for the position.

Strictly speaking, he did not even undergo systematic civil affairs training when he took office. He was appreciated and promoted by Chen Yixin just because he performed well in managing North Korean refugees at the Datongjiang Base.

With such a good career prospect, Liu Shang gave up his previous identity a long time ago, and followed Hai Han wholeheartedly.As long as Haihan can continue to maintain the current momentum of development, he believes that as long as he works for a few more years, he has the hope of becoming the highest-ranking naturalized official in an overseas territory.

Specific to the current environment, Liu Weilai's promotion opportunity is in the hands of his boss, Chen Yixin, so after receiving the order, he handed over the work at hand to his deputy, and rushed to the headquarters to report to Chen Yixin as quickly as possible.

The combat operations of winter training are arranged almost every year, which can be regarded as a routine task of the Jinzhou Garrison every year. During this period, the civil affairs department is responsible for propaganda and material scheduling, so Liu Shang is no stranger to these matters. After listening to Chen Yixin's explanation of the situation, he immediately agreed.

"This year's action is a bit special, and it may last until the end of the year. When you publicize to the public, you should pay attention to emphasizing the timing of local military control." Chen Yixin added.

Liu Shangwen said: "It lasted so long? Could it be that we want to take the initiative to go forward and destroy the Qing army's Daheishan defense line?"

He has been in Jinzhou for a long time, dealing with the army every day, and under the influence of his ears and eyes, he has also mastered a lot of military knowledge without a teacher, and he also has a certain understanding of the external environment.Judging from the winter operations in previous years, it usually lasted for three to five or seven days, and the various training subjects were repeated, which had the effect of actual combat training, and it was almost time to withdraw the troops.

But if this year's action is to continue until the end of the year, it will take more than a month. This action arrangement is obviously different from previous years.In Liu Shang's view, the only plausible possibility is that the garrison is going to do something big.

Chen Yixin said with a smile: "Daheishan's defense line is not so easy to fight. With the troops currently stationed in Jinzhou, it probably won't be able to defeat it. But what we have to do is to prepare for a continuous battle with the opponent for a month."

Liu Shangdao: "If the period is one month, then the local material reserves may still be insufficient, and food and medicine will need to be replenished."

Chen Yixin said: "There will be ships arriving in Hong Kong in the next two days. The things you mentioned will be replenished in time. Don't worry. I need you to explain the necessity of this operation to the public, so that everyone in the local area can do their best to help support this year's winter combat operations."

Liu Shang has received special training on how to use propaganda methods to get the people to cooperate with the government's various arrangements during wartime. This matter still needs to focus on the big picture and start small.First of all, we must emphasize the justice of the war, which is the conquest of barbarians by civilized people, and is a necessary measure for Haihan to safeguard its own interests, so that the people have a sense of responsibility and pride for this, and then focus on what the people can do during the war Make specific publicity explanations on the role, such as why young and strong are recruited to serve as civilian husbands, why war control is implemented on food and other materials, and so on.

Of course, in actual operation, there are thousands of details to deal with, which is far more complicated than this basic framework.However, Liu Shang is no longer the time to fight alone. He also has a group of eloquent propaganda officers under him, who can help him deliver the propaganda content to every village and town at a faster speed.

After Liu Shang received the task, he returned to his yamen and immediately held a meeting to deploy the propaganda work, and clearly requested that these tasks be completed within three days, so as not to affect the military's big operation.

The news of the upcoming war with the Qing army quickly spread among the local people, and most people were very optimistic about the prospect of the battle, believing that the Haihan Navy would undisputedly defeat the opponent.People who really realize that this may be a different action from previous years are extremely rare.

On November [-], all kinds of heavy weapons belonging to the garrison began to gather at the front line. All units of the Jinzhou garrison also canceled their vacations and began to enter the final stage of combat preparation.

On November [-]th, Haihan suddenly expanded the strength of the patrol team to the north of the isthmus defense line by five times, and used this as a means to temporarily block the activity space of the Qing army in the middle zone and cut off its access to Source of intelligence on movements along the Isthmus Line.

On November [-], the Haihan army occupied a small hill called Dongshan on the north bank of Dalian Bay by night.Dongshan is already located outside the isthmus defense line, and there are still six or seven miles away from the positions of both sides. However, because it is adjacent to Dalian Bay, for the Haihan Army, it can be attacked, retreated and defended. If it is impossible, it can also withdraw from the sea. , can be regarded as occupying a valuable military target.

In fact, the battle around Dongshan had already been a repertoire of the Jinzhou Garrison's winter training before that.Since the Qing army did not set up defenses on this hill far away from its own defense line, the Haihan army was able to occupy it relatively smoothly every time, but the Qing army would also put on a siege accordingly, forcing Haihan to retreat by itself.After Haihan occupied Dongshan, there was actually no motivation to advance the front line northward. There was often a stalemate for a few days.

But this year's Haihan army's occupation of Dongshan was obviously different. A large number of combat materials were continuously transported into Dongshan by sea that night.Among them are also dismantled small-caliber field guns, which are transported into the mountains by pack horses.

In Chen Yixin's battle plan, Dongshan will serve as the bridgehead ahead.Since one side of Dongshan is close to the sea, it is definitely difficult for the opponent to make a clear judgment on how many Haihan troops are deployed in this small forest.If they still plan to lay a siege to this place like they did in the past few years, then Chen Yixin will seize this opportunity to do a big job.

At this time, the Liaodong Peninsula had already had a few snowfalls, and the field environment was very harsh. Whether it was troop projection or material transportation, it was very difficult for Haihan.Fortunately, military training operations like this are organized every year, and all the troops are familiar with it, but it takes a lot of effort to transport heavy weapons such as artillery into Dongshan.

The actions of the Haihan army did not deliberately hide their whereabouts, so the Qing army had already discovered Dongshan's abnormality the next day.However, this kind of situation happens every winter, and the Qing army was not too surprised. Azig ordered four Niulu soldiers and horses in the camp, and ordered them to slowly move south to the Dongshan Mountain, and surrounded the outside as in previous years. Living in this place will prevent the Haihan army on the hill from gaining space to move northward.

These Qing troops have dealt with the Haihan army in Jinzhou for several years, so they naturally know how powerful they are. The place where they stopped was quite far from the top of the mountain, and they were on the edge of the range of the Haihan army's rifles. Even if they fired, there was almost no accuracy at all. .

But they obviously underestimated the determination of the Haihan army for this operation. Chen Yixin dispatched the few local snipers and deployed them all to Dongshan. Fire and kill.

In order to ensure long-distance shooting efficiency, these snipers actually aimed at the same person in each round of shooting, and the same observer commanded the fire, using multiple aiming and focusing fire to increase the hit rate.

And this time their target was the leaders of these Niulu. These guys are not difficult to identify. After all, the armor in the Qing army is still not a large-scale equipment, and only officers are qualified to wear armor.In the Qing army formation full of big leather jackets, those wearing iron armor and iron helmets were either Ba Yala warriors or high-ranking officers with names and surnames. They were worthy of the bullets rewarded by the Haihan Army.

After shooting and killing two Niu Lu Ezhen in a row with focused fire, the Qing soldiers realized that they had stepped into the range of Haihan's precise firepower, and hurriedly continued to retreat to avoid the risk of being shot.

But they didn't know that the shooting range of sniper rifles was much higher than that of ordinary rifles. Even if they retreated a hundred or so steps, they were still within the shooting range.After more than ten people were shot and killed, finally a Niulu Qing army couldn't hold back his anger and launched an offensive against Dongshan.

When they rushed to about a hundred steps away from the forest, they saw dense gun barrels protruding from the forest, and they didn't know how many Haihan soldiers were hiding in them.

The forty or fifty riders who rushed to the front were all smashed into the sand amidst the dense gunfire, while the rest of the people immediately split up, some of them turned around and ran away immediately, and some who were not afraid of death continued to charge Dongshan.

Those who tried to continue the attack became living targets without any suspense. Only one round of shooting wiped out hundreds of Qing soldiers and completely disabled this Niu Lu.

Seeing that Dongshan's defensive attitude was so tough, Azig certainly couldn't give in, and immediately dispatched troops to launch a second wave of offensive.This time, the Qing army tried to outflank and attack the left and right sides of Dongshan respectively. If Haihan divides its forces, its firepower will inevitably be weakened.

Azig came up with an intuitive solution, and there was nothing wrong with his thinking, but Haihan's current force in Dongshan has far exceeded his imagination. Attack to break through Haihan's defenses.

So after a brief rest, the fighting continued.The Haihan army still did not show up, and only used intensive firepower to disperse the second wave of the Qing army's offensive, and easily harvested nearly a hundred lives on the left and right battlefields.

(End of this chapter)