Chapter Twenty-Eight: Prelude to the Decisive Battle

This kind of thousand-pound cannon, Cao Yi has not seen it.

The head of the city of Beijing has been above the head of the border gate, so there is never a shortage of cannons.

There may be advances in technology, but there is no great leap forward.

These cannons have been carefully built by Shaofu for so many years, and under the supervision of Liu Dingzhi, they have been carefully built, and there are some changes, such as the establishment of the cannon table, which was built by Zhu Qizhen under the order of Qin Tianjian and the transformation of the artillery car. Even then, one cannon requires four pack horses, and if the road conditions are bad, six pack horses.

This is also the reason why there are more than 5,000 people in the Shenji Battalion, and there are only a few hundred cannons, cannons pack horses, ammunition trucks, gunners' baggage, etc., and so on, an average of ten people need to serve a cannon.

Coupled with some escort logistics personnel, such a grouping is already the limit.

Cao Yi also did not expect that the concentrated use of artillery would have such power, I am afraid that even if it is a city, it will not be able to stop the bombardment of artillery, not to mention that the North Koreans are only wooden camps on Jiangxinzhou.

And Li Jin was also taken aback.

Li Yao's face changed slightly, and he knew from the situation that it was impossible to guard. Immediately ordered a retreat.

But it was too late, and as soon as the artillery stopped, countless soldiers came in small boats, and the river was one or two hundred paces away, not too far.

After a while, they landed on the shore.

Moreover, the North Korean army is panicking at the moment.

They had not yet recovered from the aftermath of the bombardment.

On the one hand, it is of course fierce firepower, but on the other hand, it is something that many North Korean soldiers never imagined, and it is unacceptable from the spiritual level.

In this way, as soon as the Ming army rushed up, the two sides were short of each other.

The Koreans received another order to retreat and retreated. It then turned into a rout, was chased and killed by the Ming army, and did not have time to get on the boat, and jumped into the Yalu River one after another.

The Ming army won the first battle.

A battle in which the total number of troops involved was only a few thousand, but it further undermined the morale of the North Korean soldiers.

Li Yao didn't dare to fight back, so he could only send people to guard the east bank of the Yalu River, with a long wall and a deep fortress, so as to wait for a long time.

Cao Yi laid a pontoon bridge overnight, which is the kind of pontoon bridge where countless ships are connected by iron chains, and found a way to transport the artillery to Jiangxinzhou.

The army took Jiangxinzhou as the starting point and went straight to the north bank.

It's just that Li Jin is not an idiot, after seeing the power of artillery, he retreated his position one or two hundred steps back, just out of the range of artillery.

As soon as the artillery fire stopped, a large number of muskets were sent to line up on the river bank to bombard the soldiers who were crossing the river.

The water here is narrow, and it is not easy to pass large ships, and the sailors of both sides have tacit understanding to fight downstream, and not upstream. Therefore, most of the boats used by the Ming army to cross the river were small boats.

These small boats are not strong, if they are bombarded with artillery, under one shot, they will fall apart, but the problem is that the DPRK does not have so many artillery, they are more firearms.

So the two sides began to shoot at each other.

However, after a while, the artillery of the Ming army rang out again, and the Korean departments retreated one after another, and the Ming army gained a firm foothold on the north bank of the Yalu River.

It's just that their progress has also been limited.

Li Yao waited for a long time, and put his team into it at once.

The two sides fought bloodily on the riverbank.

There were only 10,000 or 20,000 cavalry in the whole of Korea, and these cavalry were always soft-footed shrimp in front of the Ming cavalry. It's not worth mentioning at all.

But a cavalry is a cavalry after all. It was the elite of the North Korean army, and when the Ming army had an unstable foothold, it rushed over, and it may not be impossible to drive the vanguard of the Ming army down the Yalu River.

It's just that they underestimate the Ming army too much. The Ming army sent a battalion across the Yalu River, and only half a battalion stood here, more than 2,000 people. However, more than 2,000 people did not move in the face of the onslaught of the Korean cavalry, and the two sides launched a fierce battle.

It has to be said that Zhu Qizhen's will has been thoroughly implemented in the Beijing camp, and the quality of the soldiers, weapons and equipment, the level of officers, and even the level of generals have been greatly improved.

Six million taels of silver every year, the household department, the military department, the Jinyi Guard, and the East Factory are all staring at it, ensuring that every penny is used in practice, and there will be no such thing as embezzling military salaries.

Moreover, military training is also quite arduous, and most of the time is repeated in the army. Although it was not as intensive as the training of modern armies, it was also used less at the time.

At least the training intensity of the North Korean army is far from comparable.

Therefore, in the face of the impact of the Korean cavalry, the two thousand Ming soldiers actually firmly withstood it.

Cao Yi could only hear the opposite shore, shouting and killing to the sky, and immediately made a decision to send soldiers to reinforce him. However, the efficiency of reinforcements is quite slow, and it is estimated that at the end of the day, 10,000 or 20,000 people can be sent, which is already the limit.

The combat effectiveness of the Ming army was much higher than Li Jin's estimate, and when Li Jin saw this, he secretly said in his heart: "We must not let the Ming army gain a firm foothold on the east bank, otherwise there is no way to fight this battle." ”

Dozens of artillery pieces were bombarded with concentrated fire, almost using this to defeat the enemy, and they were invincible. Li Jin originally wanted to defend layer by layer, but as soon as he looked at the performance of the Ming army's artillery, he knew that as long as the Ming army let go of the Yalu River, there would be a helpless situation after that.

Although there are still some Datong rivers and other rivers in the future, Li Yao understands very well that his foundation is shallow, and once there is a tragic defeat on the front line, the great changes in politics will be fatal. He wouldn't know if his Zhang Liang could stand it.

He personally went into battle, led his own men and horses, and besieged and killed these Ming troops who crossed the river.

The Ming army defended the width of more than 100 steps on the shore, although there were not many reinforcements, but they continued to go into battle, and more than 10,000 people crossed the river in one day

Fang fought for the sun, and finally at sunset, the North Koreans had to withdraw their troops.

It was only after dark that the Ming army also withdrew and abandoned this beachhead.

It was a wise decision.

Because in the middle of the night, North Korea took a fireboat from upstream and crashed into the pontoon.

The pontoon bridge from the west bank to the river was set on fire, and after a night, it was reduced to ashes. The fire burned for the middle of the night. After this pontoon bridge was burned, the number of people who could cross the river in the Ming army was sharply reduced.

If the Ming army is still allowed to stay on the beachhead, then tomorrow there will be a massacre.

As for why they didn't retreat on the same day.

The reason is very simple, it is impossible to withdraw the troops in the immediate battle, and they can only hold out until dark.

However, in this battle, both sides suffered a lot of casualties, and in terms of casualties, the North Korean army was nearly twice that of the Ming army, which was not only the combat capability, but also various logistical treasures, as well as the reason for weapons and equipment.

After this battle, both sides were temporarily adding wounds, and Cao Yi found another breakthrough and tried to cross the river. After all, the Yalu River meanders in this area, and there is not only one place that can be selected as a breakthrough.

It's just that under Li Jin's defense, they all declared failure.

However, although Li Yao was on the defensive side, the casualties were still above the Ming army, if it were not for the danger of the Yalu River, the number of people who let the Ming army cross the river was very small, and every time he crossed the river, he had to face a big battle with fewer enemies and more enemies. A great battle was being fought on the plains, and the Koreans had long been crushed by the Gyeongyeong.

The two sides combined more than 200,000 soldiers and horses, spread out along the Yalu River for more than 100 miles, and the Ming army began to try to cross the river again and again, because of the strong fire support, Li Yao had to retreat about one or two hundred steps back along the defense line along the river.

Most of the battles were fought under 10,000 people, and in the east of the Yalu River, they lasted for one day or more than two days, and they simply went up and down.

On the one hand, Cao Yi was using North Korean soldiers to train his troops.

In Cao Yi's view, everything in Jingying is good, but he has not seen too much blood, and walking on the battlefield is better than training for more than a year. After really seeing blood, knowing what the battlefield is, the combat effectiveness can really be brought into play.

Second, Cao Yi really wants to break through.

Although he arranged a roundabout general strategy on both sides, it is not true that Cao Yi has a lively battle to destroy the country, but it is just a real war, which is like this, especially when one side occupies a favorable position and is bent on defending, and it is normal to fight for dozens of days and months.

Even in the Battle of Poyang Lake, both sides had the heart of a decisive battle, and they fought for more than a month.

Therefore, although Cao Yi left a back hand, but in dealing with Li Yao, he did not have the idea of preserving his strength, and broke through the vicious battles again and again, and it is estimated that he would fight like this for more than a month, when Cao Yi figured out Li Yao's situation. That's when the decisive battle will come.

It's just that I don't know if Cao Yi doesn't know if Li Yao can wait until the day of his decisive battle.