1627 Rise of the South China Sea

It is said that on several other fronts that started the war at the same time, there have been cases where local officials burned household registration deeds and other important information before the fall. This is bound to cause a lot of trouble for the local takeover after the war.

Yan Chujie didn't want to spend another year or two or even longer after taking Zhenjiang to re-calculate and create local basic files.

However, Yan Chujie did not believe his opponent's words. After negotiations, Haihan sent several people to enter the official office still controlled by the Ming army, inspected various important documents stored there, and confirmed that it was exactly what he needed. Conduct subsequent negotiations.

Finally, after half a day of negotiations, the two sides finally reached an agreement.

The Haihan Army will release all Ming official personnel trapped in the city, but they will not be able to carry any weapons and equipment when leaving the city.

In exchange, they will hand over to Haihan the archived documents in the official office and various materials stored in the official warehouse, and ensure that no chaos will be caused during the process of leaving the city.

In the afternoon of that day, the disarmed Ming army, escorted by the Haihan Army, lined up through the city, and then left the city through the Gold and Silver Gate in the west of the city.

The more than [-] civil and military officials who were held hostage could not regain their freedom until everyone else left the city safely.

Many people in the city witnessed the entire evacuation process with their own eyes. The unarmed Ming army was escorted out of the city by the Haihan army with live ammunition. Such a scene had a great visual impact on all bystanders.

Although the Ming army seems to have successfully preserved part of its strength, and there is no chance of fighting again in the future, people who saw this scene couldn't help but have the same thought in their hearts-after the change of ownership of Zhenjiang City, I am afraid they will never return to the city. under the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

On April 1657, [-], the Haihan army captured Zhenjiang City.

The garrisons in Dantu, Danyang, Jintan and other counties under Zhenjiang have long been mobilized, and it is impossible to organize armed forces to counterattack Zhenjiang City.

After Zhenjiang City was captured by Haihan, these places were almost determined by propaganda, and they were captured without much effort.

So far, Haihan has successfully controlled the Yangtze River section from the lower reaches of Zhenjiang to the outlet, as well as the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal section from Suzhou to Zhenjiang.In the past, several key nodes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang's inland shipping that were choked by the Ming Dynasty were basically resolved through this war.

The progress of the war was quickly reported to Hangzhou via telegraph.

When Shi Diwen and Yan Chujie led the troops on the expedition, Hangzhou served as the rear area, and all affairs were taken over by the Executive Committee.

Most of the various materials needed by the Haihan Army for combat had to be collected and distributed through Hangzhou, and then shipped to the front line.

The Executive Committee's office space has a dedicated hall dedicated to setting up a combat sandbox.The progress of each front will be displayed on the sand table in real time, and senior officials will use this as a reference to make various decisions.

A staff officer placed a small two-color flag on the fortress model symbolizing Zhenjiang City, while the ship model symbolizing the Haihan Fleet was pushed upstream near Qixia Mountain.

The distance between that location and Nanjing City is only a short distance away.

"Now that we have captured Zhenjiang, we no longer need to make a long trip to the sea to transport supplies to the front line. We can go directly to Zhenjiang via the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, which can save at least about three days one way."

Schneider said excitedly: "The transportation capacity will definitely be alleviated, and we don't need to invest in more cargo ships for the time being." Tao Donglai nodded and responded: "The saved transportation capacity can be used to invest in the post-war recovery of these areas. reconstruction."

Since the beginning of the war, logistics and transportation have become a headache for the Executive Committee.The Seventh Army Division on the front line plus the East China Sea Fleet, the number of people eating horses and chewing horses every day plus the supplies consumed in combat operations are quite huge.

Although the combat troops will recruit food and grass civilians from the state capitals along the route, a considerable proportion of combat materials still need to rely on the supply of Hangzhou.

In order to ensure that the supply of materials to the front line would not be interrupted, Haihan had to maintain a large logistics fleet.There are nearly a hundred cargo ships traveling between Hangzhou and the front line every day, and thousands of manpower are invested in this.

By saving the extra three days on the road on the original route, the current transportation capacity has become more than enough, and the savings thus made are considerable, which is why Schneider, who is accustomed to being careful with budgets, is so excited.

According to the sand table, the troops led by Shi Diwen on the southern route have advanced to Liyang.

The Ming army's local resistance only lasted for one day. After Liyang County was breached, the defenders quickly dispersed and fled towards Nanjing.

There are only more than a hundred miles left between the north and south routes from Nanjing City. According to the current advancement speed, it is estimated that the front troops will arrive at Nanjing City in another three to five days.

In comparison, progress in the northern battlefield seems to be slightly slower.To be precise, it was a group of people heading south from Liaodong along the Bohai Bay. The advance was not smooth and they were still blocked near Shanhaiguan a few days after the war started.

However, in the northern battlefield, the troops were divided into three routes to advance. If one of them was blocked, it would not have much impact on the entire battle situation.

The main offensive force led by Chen Yixin has successfully landed at Dagukou and is slowly advancing towards the capital.The troop configuration of the other two groups is slightly weaker, and the progress is a little slower, which is actually reasonable.

It's just that the war situation in the north is reflected on the sand table in front of the Executive Committee. When compared with the vigorously advancing battlefield in the south, it will inevitably appear to have no bright spots.

But in fact, the Sixth Lu Division led by Sun Zhen was not lazy or timid at all. They fought fiercely with the Ming army in Shanhaiguan in the past few days.

Although the Ming army was at a disadvantage in terms of weapons and equipment, and the Shanhaiguan defense line seemed shaky after being torn out by the Haihan army, its will to fight was quite tenacious. With the help of the deep defense fortifications of the defense line, it kept filling the front line with people. Almost human lives are being used to maintain the front line.

It was not until three days after the war began that the Northern Fleet, which had completed its task of transporting troops, began to assemble near Shanhaiguan and launch artillery attacks from the sea. This finally solved the problem of insufficient attack firepower for the Sixth Army Division.

Subsequently, the Haihan Army took advantage of the maritime transportation capacity to deliver some troops directly to the rear of the Shanhaiguan defense line, and then launched a three-sided attack on the coastal area of ​​the defense line. This finally broke the stalemate.

On the second day after Zhenjiang City was captured in the southern battlefield, a decisive breakthrough was finally achieved in the Shanhaiguan battlefield.

The Haihan army defeated the two castles on the coast, Weihai and Ninghai, and then turned around and captured Nanyi City, taking about a quarter of the area south of the Shanhaiguan defense line.

In this battle, more than [-] enemies were wiped out and more than [-] were captured. The Haihan Army also suffered considerable casualties.

Although most of the Shanhaiguan defense line was still under the control of the Ming army, the area occupied by the Haihan army at this time was enough to render the blocking function of this line of defense ineffective.