Chapter 36: Raid on Zhenjiang and Capture of Hetuala

Huang Xin knew that now was not the time to gossip with Wei Xiang, so he took out a picture from his arms and spread it on the desk, and said to Wei Xiang: "General Wei, look! After our on-site investigation, the city defense structure here is similar to that given to us by the Ming Dynasty. Here's a more detailed picture that we've drawn. Here is the east mountain of the town in the north, and there are the Danghe River and the Yalu River in the east, and the terrain is dangerous. It is made up of nine castles connected by nine castles, also called Jiulian City (Jiulian City). This Zhenjiang City was built later. They were a complete defense system built along the river. Now they have strengthened their defenses, with more than 2,000 Qing soldiers and more than 3,000 Han troops. After speaking, Huang Xinyi patted his head and said, "That's right! Their cities were full of cannons. ”

Wei Xiang didn't pay much attention to the defense system here, and asked, "How are the Koreans on the other side of the river?" Is there any movement? ”

"My people are gone!" Huang Xin said, "Their side already knows that we are attacking Liaodong and has made preparations. But they didn't expect me to come straight from here, and they weren't well prepared. They signed a treaty with the Qing to deal with us, but I thought they were scared by the Manchus, and they wouldn't cross the river to help. ”

"Huh! The question now is not that they can't beat us, but that our mission has changed. Wei Xiang pointed to the map and said, "The command center has called us to restore the border with North Korea to the border of the Yuan Dynasty. We have to fight over and restore Tielingwei to Wonsan. This Yalu River has been restored to our inland river! In this way, we can properly develop the resources of the Yalu River. ”

"Oops! That's great! Huang Xin was also excited when he heard this, "In this case, we should quickly solve Zhenjiang Fort (Dandong), don't wait for the North Koreans to react, we will cross the river first!" ”

"I don't think the same way as you," Wei Xiang said, "I still want to clean up these places west of the Yalu River as soon as possible, such as Tangzhan, Dangerous Mountain Fort, Changdian, Kuandian, Yongdian, Dadian, Xindian, and Phoenix, and then deal with the North Korean side." ”

"Then the preparations for the war on the North Korean side will be completed, and they will mobilize more than 100,000 people!" Huang Xin knew that the Koreans had mobilized a lot of people, and the army brought by Wei Xiang had only one reinforced division, and the total number of troops was more than 10,000.

"It's best to attract them all to the edge of the Yalu River, and use our artillery fire to kill and injure them in large numbers," Wei Xiang said, pointing to the map, "We can take advantage of the naval army, we can land from behind them, and we will inevitably cause them to be in chaos." ”

"Hmmm! Good way! Huang Xin said, "North Korea is fucking capricious, the battle of Salhu in the Ming Dynasty, they should have sent troops to help, and after repeated excuses, more than 13,000 people were sent, and they were half-hearted, and later surrendered." Now it's uniting with the Qing Dynasty again, it's really not a fucking thing, and if North Korea is not convinced this time, we will destroy them. ”

"That's what the family means," Wei Xiang said, "I think we should take Zhenjiang as soon as possible, and this time we are not afraid of destroying the city." We used to bombard it directly with heavy artillery, and then send troops to occupy it as soon as possible. Now the infantry is moving to the barges, and supplies are being moved. Okay, let's go into the Yalu River right away. We have already occupied Deer Island and Zhangzi Island next to it, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not send a few people on the island. ”

When the fleet arrived at the mouth of the Yalu River, at dawn, the barges and speedboats were hoisted up and lowered into the sea, the barges were connected to the tugboats, and then the weapons and combat materials such as cannons and tractors were hoisted onto the barges. The infantry descended the rope ladder and then down to the barge, which was a very heavy workload. Although these tasks have been trained many times, it is not until noon that the preparations for the attack can be regarded as complete.

Wei Xiang discussed with his generals and decided to march towards the Yalu River immediately, because after a long time, the suddenness of the raid on Zhenjiang would be gone. Thus, five speedboats were at the head, followed by one warship, followed by two landing craft and two barges towed by tugboats, and at the back was a warship. The fleet entered the mouth of the Yalu River and went upstream. Along the way, I was stunned by the boatmen on various boats in the Yalu River, and the people working on both sides of the river. They had never seen a ship that could sail so fast without a slender man in black smoke upstream, and it was a strange ship that they had never seen before.

Zhenjiang was not far from the mouth of the Yalu River, and it was about to reach Zhenjiang soon, and the warship behind the hall quickly caught up, and they followed the speedboat one after the other, but the live ammunition of their cannons was already loaded, pointing in the direction of the left bank. When they saw the water surface of Zhenjiang Castle, they began to track and aim.

When the speedboat in front came to the Zhenjiangbao wharf, some Qing soldiers were collecting money on the wharf, and they were stunned by the sudden appearance of the speedboat and warship. They had never seen such a speedboat speeding against the current and humming black smoke, let alone such a large warship, but they soon understood that this was the legendary Kiln Man, and this time it was really here. They shouted and ran back, trying to tell the castle, but the ship came to the castle, stabilized its hull and began to aim. Without waiting for the Qing soldiers to return to report the news, and before the defenders of the city could inform their leaders of the situation, the cannons on the Yaogang warship opened fire. Two warships, eight 130 cannons, two 203 caliber cannons, fired at the same time. At such a close distance, you can shoot at Zhenjiang Castle without aiming.

The sound of "knock knock" and "knock knock" shooting, and the sound of "boom" explosions echoed on both sides of the Yalu River. Zhenjiang Castle continued to collapse under this heavy artillery bombardment. The defenders of the castle were powerless to fight back under this sudden blow, and no soldier dared to brave the fierce artillery fire they had never seen before.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the tugboat docked at the Zhenjiang pier. Immediately after the infantry landed on the shore, mortars and infantry batteries also took part in the shelling operation. The landing craft approached the shore, and after the four gun trucks landed, they also took part in the shelling with the 65-mm cannons on the gun trucks.

At the same time, the sappers disembarked and began to strengthen the wharf, and the tractor also drove from the barge to the wharf, pulled the cannons on the barge with wire ropes on the shore, and with the support of the artillerymen, pulled the 130 cannons onto the wharf.

Due to the large number of heavy weapons in this first bola, only two infantry battalions of infantry were brought in. However, as soon as the infantry landed, four artillery wagons took the lead in front to cover the infantry's attack.

The defenders had not yet recovered from the shock of the shelling, and the infantry had already stormed the castles that had not been blown up. Only a few stubborn Qing soldiers tried to use broadswords and spears to make a few gestures to the incoming kiln infantry, and of course they were beaten into a sieve by bullets.

In fact, as long as the artillery smashed the shell of the castle, all the infantry in the kiln could do was slaughter.

The battle ended very quickly, and in the end more than 1,000 Qing soldiers and more than 1,500 Han soldiers were captured, and most of the defenders' casualties were caused by artillery fire.

Just as Wei Xiang was about to land, from the east bank of the Yalu River, he suddenly fired a lot of cannonballs at them, and one shell happened to land on a barge, killing several kiln soldiers who were carrying supplies.

Wei Xiang is so angry! The heart said that I did not kill so many soldiers in this Zhenjiang, Wei Xiang gritted his teeth and ordered the artillery on the ship to turn the muzzle and shoot at the east bank of the river. The ship's artillery lookout immediately reported the position of the artillery position on the opposite bank, and the 203-caliber shells and 130-caliber shells of the kiln gang were fired at the opposite position at the same time. Through the telescope, Wei Xiang saw that the opponent's position was immediately covered with thick smoke, and then the ammunition exploded. The commander of the artillery regiment that had already landed came to ask them if they wanted to participate in the battle. Wei Xiang calmed down for a moment, felt that now was not the time to show strength to the Koreans, stopped the artillery regiment from entering the battle, and at the same time ordered the ship's artillery to also stop shelling.

After the artillery attack, the North Korean artillery on the east bank of the Yalu River did not fire any more to provoke the Yaogang army, Huang Xin smiled and said to Wei Xiang: "General Wei, these Koreans really don't know whether they are alive or dead, we are worried that there is no reason to attack them, they have sent them to the door." ”

In fact, the Koreans had to surrender to the Manchus only after being defeated by the Manchus, promising to cooperate with the Manchus to deal with the Ming Dynasty. Seeing the decline of the Ming Dynasty, Joseon knew that the Ming Dynasty could no longer be counted on, so he leaned towards the Manchus. The Yaogang people marched to Liaodong, and the Manchus also informed Korea that they were also ready for battle. The North Koreans knew that the Ming Dynasty had failed to attack Liaodong several times, and they thought that this time the Ming Dynasty was also to take care of the face of the big country, and there would be no good results, so they promised to prepare for war and cooperate with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, in fact, the Koreans never thought that the Ming Dynasty would really hit the Yalu River. But they had to put part of the army on the banks of the Yalu River, in fact, just to show the Manchus. Today, suddenly on the other side of the Yalu River, the cannon on the Zhenjiang side of the river rumbled, and the generals of the Korean army on the side of the Yalu River discussed and felt that if they did not help, the Manchus would blame them after the battle, and they decided to use their largest long-range artillery to fire at the ships on the Yalu River. Their artillery really achieved what the Manchus did not achieve, and blew up a barge in Yaogang and killed several soldiers in Yaogang. The unfinished materials on the barge were also wet, but fortunately, the barges were connected and leaned against the shore, and the materials on the ship were still snatched back by the kiln soldiers. However, the officers and men of Yaogang hated the Koreans on the other side of the river to the root of their teeth. None of them expected to suffer their loss.

After Wei Xiang landed on the shore, he immediately ordered to speed up the unloading of materials, so that the barge could go back as soon as possible to unload all the personnel and materials on the big ship. Big ships can't stay at this estuary for too long, and the whole Liaodong needs a lot of supplies, and most of them need to be transported by big ships.

After cleaning up the battlefields of Zhenjiang Fort and Jiulian City, it was dark.

After dinner, Wei Xiang convened a meeting of the main officers who had come over on the warship, and summed up today's battle, "Our battle was quite smooth, but we were attacked by the Koreans behind and suffered a little loss. But don't be afraid, let's remember first, after we have cleaned up the various castles of the Manchu Qing in this area, we will turn around and clean up the Koreans. ”

There was no problem with everyone, and Wei Xiang announced that the meeting would be dismissed, because everyone's tasks had been arranged a long time ago, and there was no need to say more.

When Wei Xiang sent a telegram to the command center to report the situation, he focused on the fact that the North Koreans took the initiative to attack us.

Ouyang He called Wei Xiang back and said: "You can solve the Manchu matter as soon as possible, and leave a small number of police officers and Koreans." It is likely that the Koreans, after receiving your complete victory over the Manchus, will send someone to contact you and say that the shelling was a misunderstanding. At that time, you can propose to them to restore the conditions of the original border of the Yuan Dynasty. You will act accordingly, and we will immediately prepare operational preparations for landing from Korea. ”

With Ouyang He's callback, Wei Xiang's heart became more steady.

When Li Wei and Li Jing followed Jiang Pai and their brigade to cross the Liao River and came to Shengjing (Shenyang), there happened to be a good news that the Manchu Dynasty's old village Hetuala (Xinbin County) was called. It's not much militarily, but it's a landmark victory.

Hetuara (Xinbin) was the capital of the Later Jin regime in Manchuria, also known as Xingjing. The city of Hetuara is divided into two walls, the inner city and the outer city, and the inner city has a circumference of four miles. The main ancient buildings include Zhengbaiqi Yamen, Guandi Temple, Folk Residence, Khan Wangjing, Khan Palace Yamen, Eight Banners Yamen, Co-leader Yamen, Confucian Temple, Zhaozhong Temple, Liu Gong Ancestral Hall, Qiyun Academy, Chenghuang Temple, etc. The circumference of the outer city is ten miles, and it is inhabited by elite soldiers. Outside the north gate of the outer city, blacksmiths and bowsmiths live in different divisions.

The commander of the 11th Infantry Corps, who remained in Shengjing (Shenyang), sent three regiments to sweep upstream along the Hunhe River. First of all, they conquered Fushun Pass, and then took Salhu, and the two regiments went straight to the Manchu old village Hetuala (Xinbin). Dolgon's troops in Xingjing were mainly soldiers and horses with white flags, because the nobles and princes moved from here to Liaoyang, and later to Shengjing (Shenyang), the main political role here was gone, and sending troops to guard here meant to show the Manchu Qing hometown. However, the Qing officers and soldiers guarding the old village of Hetuala are all selected elite soldiers, most of them are white flags, and most of their hometowns are also here.

The army of Yaogang didn't dare to be careless when they came here, they knew before they came here that the officers and soldiers of the Zhengbai Banner guarding here would fight to the death and would not surrender. Therefore, they did not launch a psychological offensive to persuade their opponents to surrender before attacking elsewhere. As soon as they surrounded the city of Hetuala, before they could open fire, the soldiers with white flags on the city opened fire first. Now there are more than 3,000 soldiers with white flags gathered here, and the number of people besieging the city is slightly less than them. In terms of the will to fight, the soldiers in the city of Hetuara were ready to die in battle. So this battle is destined to be fierce. However, it was the chief of staff of the Second Division of the 11th Army who led the attack here, and he was a veteran of Yaogang, and he knew that if he fought to the death and killed 10,000 enemies and lost 8,000 himself, he would also go to court martial when he returned. Therefore, he did not take such a stupid method, and after suppressing the opponent's artillery with mortars, he blasted the city gates open with heavy artillery. It gives the impression that the city is about to be attacked, attracting a large number of defenders to ambush both sides of the city gates. The kiln men also used mortars to shoot shells on both sides of the city gates, causing the shells to explode in their crowd. Anyway, the cat-and-mouse game is pretty much played.

They fired *** into the city again, burning the city into a sea of fire, and some soldiers couldn't stand it anymore and rushed out of the city gate. These soldiers, covered in fire, were themselves the source of fire, and the kiln soldiers knew that they would not survive, so they overtook them with rifles.

The attack on the old village of Hetuara was not a great result, nor was it fierce, but it was definitely tragic. Most of the soldiers with white flags were burned. After the war, the old village of Hetuara became a dark ruined city.

However, the political occupation of Lao Zhai can be promoted. The radio station in Yaogang broadcast the capture of the old village of Hetuala, which caused a great sensation. The people believe that this shows that the old nest of the Manchu Qing has been ended. The sound of firecrackers even sounded in the city of Beijing as a result.

Emperor Chongzhen also listened to this news, but the people of Yaogang did not send a telegram to him because of this, indicating that the people of Yaogang did not take the occupation of Hetualatai, the old nest of the Manchu Dynasty, seriously.

However, Emperor Chongzhen took the initiative to send a telegram to Zhang Zhimu of Yaogang, saying that the occupation of the Manchu nest had greatly boosted the morale of the army and the people, and that the officers and soldiers at the front should be rewarded.

Zhang Zhimu immediately broadcast Emperor Chongzhen's telegram as important news.

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this news, his heart was so comfortable! The heart said, it's okay now, everyone in the world knows that I sent a telegram to the kiln gang people, and the kiln gang people will broadcast it immediately, so that everyone in the world will know that I want to listen to the kiln gang people.

The ministers in the court also couldn't understand why the people of Yaogang were so elevated to the emperor. They knew that Zhang Zhimu just wanted Emperor Chongzhen to get used to such vanity.

Then, Emperor Chongzhen received a secret message from Zhang Zhimu. The secret telegram told Emperor Chongzhen:

Emperor! The occupation of Hetuara is only symbolic. The emperor should be happy that our main army, two infantry corps, two cavalry corps and special forces, has arrived in Shengjing. The actions they will take immediately will be meaningful to the Chinese nation for generations to come.

Their immediate actions include restoring our border with Korea to the position it was in during the Yuan Dynasty, and we are also going to take back the Nuer Gandusi, which has gradually lost control, to govern it more closely, to send troops, and to set up administrative structures at all levels. A large number of people were sent to emigrate, and even a large number of prisoners of war were sent there for development. Make full use of the deep forest mineral and fishery resources there, and build it into a new economic growth point. Through there as a foothold, continue to develop northward, and at the same time cooperate with our Datong Hetao area from there from east to west, encircle and suppress the Mongols in Mobei. This is the ultimate goal of our march into Liaodong.

The defeat of the Manchus was only the first step. Of course, the first step is also very important, this first step has reached the closing stage, and we will try to do the closing stage well. We also have a lot of work to do to govern and stabilize Liaodong. First of all, we must do a good job in the transportation and communication facilities of Liaodong, so that it will never be an area independent of our door, and we will use our culture to influence it at any time, and slowly it will be completely assimilated with us. Specifically, we have to build a lot of high-grade highways, and the original post road in Liaodong is too simple to meet our needs in building Liaodong. In addition, before we can build a railway in eastern Liaoning, we are ready to connect the two rivers of Songliao and build the Songliao Grand Canal, so that the entire northeast region will be connected with water canals and become an inseparable part.

After Shengjing stabilizes a little more, we will discharge technicians to do the canal design. More than 100,000 of our prisoners from Annam were ready to be sent to Liaodong to build a canal. We feel that it is better to build roads and canals than to have the strength to build the Great Wall.

Emperor Chongzhen read the telegram sent by Zhang Zhimu, and was a little excited that he couldn't sit still, and turned straight on the ground.

Empress Zhou smiled and said, "Your Majesty! It's been a long time since I've seen you so happy! You read the telegram from the kiln man, right? ”

Princess Changping smiled and said, "Hehe! I don't think my father would be so happy except for reading the battle report of Yaogang! ”

"Huh! Oh, yes! The kiln gang people are really generous! Emperor Chongzhen smiled and said, "After reading Zhang Dongjia's telegram, I was a little excited. I didn't even think of what they did, but they had the courage to think far. It seemed to us how difficult it was to defeat the Manchus, but for them it was only the first step in their march into Liaodong. They've got big plans! "Emperor Chongzhen knew that it was better not to talk about specific things, so he didn't talk about it.

Seeing that the emperor was happy, Princess Changping asked, "Father! Last time, you said that the ship of the kiln gang people was sent out, I don't know when it will arrive? ”

"Haha!" Emperor Chongzhen laughed, "It seems that my princess is more anxious than me!" However, I didn't promise to take you to the kiln this time! ”

"Hey! Father must take me! "Princess Changping is gone.

"Oops! Your Majesty, don't tease our princess. Her soul has already flown to the kiln! Empress Zhou hurriedly said.

"It's a pity!" Emperor Chongzhen said, "This Zhang Zhimu has three wives, and they are all very amazing. Otherwise, I will marry my princess to Zhang Zhimu, how good would that be! It's not in vain that my daughter is infatuated! ”

"Oops! Father is not allowed to talk nonsense. Princess Changping ran out in shame.

Empress Zhou smiled and said, "Hehe! Your Majesty! You shouldn't have let her see that Zhang Zhimu. Princess Anping said that it was a man who had magic powers for girls. ”

"Yes! A genius of the ages! Who is not moved by it? Emperor Chongzhen also sighed. However, Emperor Chongzhen was already thinking about which ministers would follow him to the kiln. Also, there are some things that must be discussed with Zhang Zhimu this time.

For the Yaogang side, the big war on the Liaodong side has basically ended. However, Qin Peng in the southwest is better in Yunnan. Zhang Xianzhong's progress in western Sichuan is very slow, and every step is to kill many people. The toasts over there are really desperate. They are very united, and there is assistance on all sides when they are attacked. However, as soon as the team was surrounded and suppressed, they all scattered and disappeared. Zhao Jinli's team pressed up, and the effect was not very good.

There was no way, Zhao Jinli reported the situation to his family. Chen Yufeng decided to transfer Qin Peng's mountain jungle army to support Zhang Xianzhong and them. Because the Mountain Jungle Army has done mountain and jungle combat training.

----------

New progress in "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty": the Battle of Yashan, the defeat of the Yuan army, the counterattack of the Song army, and the landing in Fuzhou.