1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Dusk is approaching, and thousands of young and strong men are building a large number of shacks inside and outside the Tianjin Acropolis under the command of the Haihan Army, which has just changed hands.The battlefield where the two armies fought two days ago has now turned into a busy construction site.

These young men who are working hard on the construction are not soldiers and civilians, but a large number of Ming army prisoners of war captured by the Haihan Army in recent days of fighting.

Confused, the number of Tianjin guards who were ordered to surrender in Kaesong numbered as many as [-].Later, the two reinforcements lured by Sun Quanming from Dong'an and Wuqing added thousands of prisoners to the Haihan Army.

At this time, the total number of prisoners of war concentrated near Tianjin Acropolis exceeded [-].The Haihan Army was also responsible for the food, drink, toilet, and sleep of these prisoners of war during their detention.

Since the offensive in the Northern Region is launched simultaneously on three lines around the Bohai Bay, and all rely on maritime transport capacity to provide logistical support, the maritime transport capacity currently allocated to Tianjin is limited. At most, one or two thousand prisoners of war can be transported by sea every day.

There are so many young and strong, and they will not be transported away for a while, so we can only try to resettle them on the spot first.But the barracks in the Tianjin Acropolis had already been used to accommodate the Haihan army, and these thousands of captives could not be left outside like sheep.

Considering that the subsequent war would inevitably produce a large number of prisoners of war, Chen Yixin had to adjust his original plan and slow down the attack in advance. The top priority was to build a large prisoner of war camp in Tianjin that could accommodate more prisoners of war.

What the Haihan Army is good at is not just fighting. Civil engineering projects such as building positions and building camps are also one of the strengths of the Haihan Army.

Organizing these prisoners of war to build shacks can temporarily solve the accommodation problem in the prisoner of war camp, and on the other hand, it can also drain the energy of the prisoners of war, lest these young men still have the energy to cause trouble.

As for the whereabouts of these prisoners of war, Chen Yixin already has a rough plan.There are many large-scale mines under mining in Shandong and Liaodong, and there is a huge demand for miners' labor. It is perfect for these prisoners of war to be placed in the mines to serve as cheap miners.

It’s just that during the specific resettlement process, there must be some detailed measures.For example, the organization of prisoners of war needs to be completely broken up and then sent to different places.

The senior military attachés among the prisoners must also be relocated to prevent them from having any contact with their subordinates to prevent these prisoners of war from forming a clique in private.Sending these military attaches to the distant South China Sea and completely cutting off their original interpersonal relationships should be a good solution.

The north and the south send special prisoners of war to each other, which is considered a relatively traditional method among the Haihan Army.

The Northern Region under Chen Yixin's jurisdiction has also housed many prisoners of war from all over the South China Sea in recent years, including some Europeans.

Currently, the Military Intelligence Bureau is seizing the time to interrogate these Ming military attachés, and has also dug out a lot of valuable military intelligence from them.

Especially regarding the Ming Dynasty's current military deployment in North China, this is what the pre-war intelligence lacked.Having arrested so many military attachés in Tianjin in one fell swoop, we were able to obtain cross-corroboration from their confessions.

After the Hangzhou incident occurred at the beginning of the month and Haihan announced his intention to attack the Ming Dynasty, the Ming court also responded quickly.

The Ming court knew that its military force was far inferior to that of Haihan. If a full-scale war started, the Ming army would only fall into a situation where the Ming army would fight on its own and be annihilated by the Haihan army.Beijing and Nanjing are the places that Haihan must attack, and they are also symbols of Ming rule. As long as they concentrate their forces to defend these two cities, there will still be room for maneuver whether it is a counterattack or peace negotiation.

Based on this strategy, the Ming court ordered the Ming army troops in North China to gather at Shuntian Mansion, intending to build an iron wall around the capital.

In order to achieve this goal, the Ming Dynasty was even forced to give up rushing to Shanhaiguan in the north, and used the border troops stationed there as a tool to consume Haihan's troops.This has also caused, to a certain extent, the current uneven deployment of troops on the three fronts in North China.Among the three fronts launched in the northern region, the Sixth Lu Division on the northern front fought the hardest. It fought fiercely with the Ming Dynasty frontier troops in Shanhaiguan and advanced slowly.

The troops under the personal command of Chen Yixin in the middle line easily captured Tianjin, but then the offensive was slowed down by a large number of prisoners of war, which was an unexpected emergency.

In contrast, the Fifth Lu Division on the southern line should have been the smoothest. It was pushed all the way from Denglai to Lijin County by the Yellow River, and only then did it formally fight the Ming army once.

It was originally thought that the Ming army would deploy a defense line along the Yellow River. However, after the Haihan army arrived at the Yellow River, it was discovered that the local Ming army had assembled, but they did not have the ability to act in a unified manner. They were unable to organize a decent attack before the Haihan army arrived. Line of defense.

So Sun Bing, commander of the Fifth Lu Division, defeated the Ming army near Lijin without much effort, and then successfully crossed the Yellow River.

Then go all the way north, passing through Zhanhua, Haifeng, Qingyun, and enter Hejian Prefecture.The Ming army only watched and followed along the way, but they never dared to block the progress of the Haihan army.

Except for the occasional stranglehold between the scouts sent by both sides, there were almost no large-scale battles. Naturally, the march speed would not be slowed down by too many prisoners of war.

However, after entering Hejian Mansion, Sun Bing ordered to slow down the marching speed, because there was a big city ahead that the Haihan Army had to attack——Cangzhou.

The construction of the city of Cangzhou began in the Western Han Dynasty. However, in the early Ming Dynasty, during the war in which King Zhu Di of Yan seized power, Cangzhou City was destroyed in the war. The current Cangzhou City was rebuilt at a different location after that.Because it resembles the ancient Futou official hat, Cangzhou is also called Futou City.

There is Zhenhai Gate in the east of Cangzhou City, Gongji Gate in the north, Wangying Gate in the west, and two gates in the south, one large and one small, namely Fumin Gate and Yingxun Gate.

The east of Cangzhou City is a hundred miles away from the Bohai Sea coast, and the west of the city is adjacent to the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. If the Haihan Army wants to pass through this area and continue to march north, it must first remove the nail in Cangzhou.

The Ming Dynasty also knew very well that the strategic value of Cangzhou would inevitably lead Haihan to attack on his own initiative. He could not abandon the city to avoid the battle, and could only prepare to meet Haihan's army here.

Almost all the garrisons from Fucheng, Dongguang, Nanpi, Xingji, Qingxian and other places in Hejian Prefecture were mobilized near Cangzhou. Several battalions of Ming troops were also mobilized from Baoding Prefecture in the west, with a total strength of nearly [-].

However, there were no natural dangers to defend in Cangzhou, and the city's fortifications could only be considered average, which also caused difficulties for the Ming army in deploying defense lines.

The scattered troops will undoubtedly be eaten by the Haihan army one by one. If they want to gather in Cangzhou City, tens of thousands of people will only be huddled together, completely unable to free their hands and feet.

The final solution the Ming army came up with was that in addition to the nearly ten thousand defenders, the rest of the troops deployed along the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal in the west of the city.

In this way, troops can be quickly transferred with the help of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, and if necessary, the canal can be used as a defense to prevent the pursuit of the Haihan Army.