1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Although the Haihan army has superior weapons and equipment, the troops deployed here are far inferior to their opponents. The soldiers are not iron men. After fighting for a long time, they have to stop to rest and eat after all.

Sun Zhen didn't have any appetite at all at this time, even if the attendant brought a big bowl of roasted meat and rice, his attention was still on the simple sand table in front of him.

Judging from the shelling effect, the attack point chosen by Sun Zhen is indeed the weak point of the Shanhaiguan defense line. If the shelling offensive in the morning can be continued, there is every chance that the gap on the Great Wall will be further expanded.

But the problem was that he didn't have more troops to launch feint attacks in other directions, and he couldn't restrain the defenders, so that the Ming army could organize attacks unscrupulously, attacking the positions of the Haihan army from the north and south flanks.

The Ming army's move was undoubtedly a very clever countermeasure. If Sun Zhen divided his troops to defend the flanks, it would also have the effect of delaying the offensive of the Haihan army.

If Sun Zhen just sits idly by, then this feint attack will turn into a real attack at any time. The Haihan cavalry on the flanks are limited in strength, and may not be able to stop the impact of the large Ming army.If the two armies form a situation of hand-to-hand combat, the Haihan army's weapon advantage will be greatly reduced.

Sun Zhen was not sure whether he would break through the Shanhaiguan defense line first, or if the Ming army broke through his flank first, so he still chose a safe countermeasure.

Although the half-day battle caused the Ming army a lot of losses, Sun Zhen understood that the opponent had actually taken the initiative in this round of confrontation.

If the commander of the Ming army pursued the combat ideology of "you have a mace, I have a celestial spirit cover" and didn't care about the number of casualties on their own side, then the tens of thousands of defenders in Shanhaiguan might really be exhausted with the Haihan army for a long time .

Sun Zhen made some calculations. Judging from the intensity of today's battle, if the defenders are determined to die and want to fight a war of attrition with him, they will spend at least a few days in this place.However, the combat supplies and ammunition he carried may not be able to last until that time.

Of course, the Haihan army is not without logistics, but since the Ming army can free up their hands to attack the flanks, it must not be difficult to send cavalry to cut off the land supply channel behind the Haihan army.The means of supply that can still be relied on at present can only be counted on the sea.

However, the position of the Sixth Army Division had to be adjusted for this, otherwise the Weihai city defenders near the coast would attack, which might affect the transfer of logistics materials from sea to land.

Sun Zhen researched and studied, and finally found that all the problems can be attributed to one point-insufficient troops.

If Sun Zhen had one more regiment in his hands, it would be enough to protect the flanks and logistics and transportation channels, and he could even carry out rotation operations in the main attack direction.

After Sun Zhen thought for a while, he called the messenger.Today's battlefield is not limited to Shanhaiguan, and the mobilization of troops needs to consider the overall situation. He has no say in this matter, and Chen Yixin must be consulted.

When Chen Yixin received the urgent call from Sun Zhen, the fleet he led was less than a hundred miles away from the mouth of the Haihe River.

At this time, the news of the war in the two directions of Shandong and Liaodong should have been rushed to the capital through eight hundred miles.The Ming court must have made preparations for the start of the war before this, but Haihan did not have much information about the specific level of preparations for the war and whether the relevant deployment and dispatch had been completed.

The direction of attack directed by Chen Yixin is currently a blind box to be opened.Perhaps the defense of Tianjin's three guards was as lax as ever, like a piece of thin paper that can be pierced through; perhaps the Ming court had anticipated the attack route of the Haihan army and deployed heavy troops there in advance.

But no matter what, from Dagukou to the capital, there is no natural danger to defend. Even if the Ming army gathers on this route to block the offensive of the Haihan army, Chen Yixin is determined to push it all the way.

The content of Sun Zhen's telegram made Chen Yixin a little disappointed. The battle in the direction of Shanhaiguan had only progressed to the second day, and Sun Zhen sent a report asking for additional troops, which was a bit too fast.

Of course, Chen Yixin was not unaware of how difficult Shanhaiguan was, and his deployment before the war did not require Sun Zhen to take Shanhaiguan within a certain amount of time.But at that time, Sun Zhen believed that breaking through Shanhaiguan was an inevitable result, and at least he had to advance his soldiers to Yongping Mansion or even Shuntian Mansion to effectively cooperate with Chen Yixin's offensive.

But the actual situation is obviously different from Sun Zhen's prediction. The Shanhaiguan defenders did not collapse at the first touch, and their fighting will was so tenacious that Sun Zhen could not carry out the offensive according to the original plan.

Judging from the wording in the telegram, Sun Zhen's current situation is to protect himself, but his offense is weak. If he wants to achieve some decent results, he must increase his troops.

Chen Yixin quickly made a decision to transfer the two infantry battalions currently stationed in the Jinzhou Camp to Shanhaiguan for reinforcements.

These two battalions were originally stationed at the Taedongjiang Base in North Korea, and they were transferred back to take over the defense of the Liaodong Peninsula only a few days before the war.However, since the battle in Shanhaiguan is tense, we can only deploy some troops to the front line.

After the large troops arrived at the coast of Dagukou and landed, Chen Yixin could also transfer some combat ships to go back to participate in the battle at Shanhaiguan.

For the two small seaside cities on the south side of the Shanhaiguan line of defense, the Haihan navy can completely bombard them from the sea, and if necessary, transfer some army troops to go around the line of defense and land behind the line of defense, which may also be a way to break the situation.

Compared with the fierce fighting on the northern front, Sun Bing's march on the southern front was much easier.

Just as Sun Bing expected, the Ming army in Qingzhou had no intention of fighting the Haihan army at all. The Fifth Lu Division completed the armed parade in Qingzhou calmly and entered Jinan Prefecture smoothly.

According to the battle plan, Sun Bing's troops would not stay in Jinan Prefecture to fight, but went north along the coastline to Hejian Prefecture, and finally arrived at Shuntian Prefecture.

However, the Ming court obviously had some deployments in Jinan Prefecture. When Sun Bing led his army to the Yellow River, the Military Intelligence Bureau sent news that there were signs of a large number of Ming troops stationed in Lijin County on the opposite bank, and all the civilian ships upstream and downstream had disappeared. It is a plan to guard against the river.

This was actually within Sun Bing's expectation. This place was one of the few natural dangers on the way for the Haihan army to go north. If the Ming army even abandoned this place, they would not be prepared to resist at all.

Of course, this didn't bother Sun Bing, he had already prepared a fleet to cross the Yellow River, but it only took a little time for the fleet to go upstream from the mouth of the sea and join the Fifth Army Division in Lijin County.

Although the Ming army made some deployments in Lijin County, it was difficult to prevent the Haihan army from crossing the river in the lower reaches of Lijin due to the lack of naval aid and the lack of ability to block the waterway.

During this period, a general of the Ming army led hundreds of cavalry, and chased all the way across the Yellow River to the crossing point downstream, hoping to attack the Haihan army halfway across the river.

But the ferry boats Sun Bing summoned were not civilian ships, and these boats were also equipped with small-caliber guns for self-defense.The Ming army cavalry on the river bank fired a cannon and dispersed them. It seems that the will to fight is not very firm, far inferior to the performance of their northern counterparts.