Dragon Sea Empire

Huang Taiji looked again at the so-called "Commercial Daily" issued by the Chinese Army's ruled area. Faced with those commercial advertisements, he suppressed his irritability and read them carefully. There were some sentences that he couldn't understand. Huang Taiji turned his head and looked behind him A tall young Han scholar asked.

Reluctantly, this burly scholar with a half-length braid on his head but wearing a Confucian robe looked at it for a long time, but he couldn't understand it.

He bowed to Huang Taiji and said: "Fourth prince, please forgive me for my lack of knowledge. Most of the articles published in the so-called newspapers are vulgar, and most of the reasons mentioned are about business and sailing...The villain is ignorant about this, so I need to be more careful." It takes a little research to find out.”

When Huang Taiji was studying these "newspapers" carefully, the three incompetent secret agents kept kneeling in front of him, bowing their heads in silence. Huang Taiji was very polite to the Han literati behind him, and handed him a pile of newspapers Said: "Mr. Fan has a great talent for governing the country, and Father Khan highly admires it. You don't have to be too modest. I leave these things to you to study carefully. I don't know how you think about the Chinese Army."

Mr. Fan is Fan Wencheng, one of the first Ming Dynasty imperial examination literati who took the initiative to seek refuge in Nurhaci. After the war, the Eight Banners broke through and plundered Liaodong. Together with his brother Fan Wencai, he took the initiative to seek refuge in Nurhachi.

At this time, Nurhachi treated scribes preferentially. Although he did not give Fan Wencheng any official title, he regarded him as a consultant and often took Fan Wencheng with him on expeditions. Responding to Huang Taiji's question, he thought for a while and said, "When the villain was a student in Shenyang County, he heard that the Huaxing Lianhao store was open all over the Ming Dynasty, and they were the eyes and ears of the Chinese navy pirates. , the pirates shuttled across the sea with ships, and at the same time approached the northern and southern capitals. They used sharp firearms and convenient shipping as their long skills. In the current situation in Liaodong, the pirates are entrenched in southern Liaoning and the north of North Korea. Send troops from the two places, relying on the advantages of firearms to attack the city and plunder the land, "

Listening to Fan Wencheng's words, Huang Taiji didn't think there was anything special about Fan Wencheng's analysis, so he nodded politely: "Mr. The yellow and red flags conquered Chahar and returned with great victories. The morale of the soldiers was high, and the inlaid blue flag fell into the hands of the pirate army. This great hatred must be avenged. Please return to Shenyang to report to the Great Khan, Mr. Fan, and ask Father Khan to send troops to attack southern Liaoning. I would like to be the vanguard of the army,"

……

The "August Offensive" that Yin Feng publicly declared was a plan he had made with the advice of Xu Hongji and others. However, in fact, the Chinese Army, which attaches great importance to logistical support, has been building roads. Manually transform the dirt and sand roads in North Korea and Liaodong into cement and stone roads. The Chinese Army has been doing this in northern North Korea and southern Liaoning for more than half a year. The Chinese army, which originally had the advantage of maneuvering at sea, had to advance to the base to build roads in the rear and hoard a large amount of supplies at the same time.

The combat department of the Chinese Army originally planned to launch an attack in June, but the front-line field commanders Zhao Tie, Yan Siqi and others repeatedly requested to postpone the date of the attack because the logistics supply was not yet complete, and Yin Feng did not want to rush to send troops. Before the preparatory work was completed, he rushed to attack. On the one hand, he ordered the logistics department to strengthen the transportation of materials, and on the other hand, he transferred 200 merchant ships from the huge merchant fleet of Zhonghua Company and allocated them to the logistics department.

Yin Feng finally discovered that his so-called "August Offensive" strategic deception had actually become a reality.

When the Chinese Army on the front line completed its combat preparations, it was really August.

However, the first assault force set out from Port Arthur as early as June.

The new battleship Chang Yuan of the Northern Fleet led by Fan Tao is the flagship of the fleet. More than 300 other ships followed the Chang Yuan across the Tsushima Strait and detoured the Sea of ​​Japan to the mouth of the Tumen River. The leader who discovered the Northwest The red-haired captain of the Pacific route and Hokkaido, the captain of the Dutch expedition ship Tulip. William Cornelis Schauzing.

In the Tsushima Strait, the Northern Fleet was intercepted by the Jeollado Navy of the Korean State. In the previous year's war, the Korean Army had not had time to gather the main force to fight against the enemy. The Chinese Army had already reached the city of Seoul, forcing King Gwanghae to sign an alliance under the city.

Unwilling to fail, Li Jiayu, the commander of the Jeolla-do water army, is a member of the "Great Northern Faction". The army suddenly attacked the rear of the fleet transport fleet.

The "turtle ship" invented by Yi Sun-shin was used by the Korean Navy: a low-deck iron-clad galleon, the hull of which was entirely covered with iron plates, and the ship was equipped with pointed iron to protect the warship. The iron armor protected the oars and rowers. This iron-clad ship is also equipped with a heavy iron ram and two or more small cannons fired from the iron-clad gunholes: Frangji or bowl-mouth guns used by the Ming army, while other side holes are used to launch flaming rockets. , to deceive the enemy ships.

At that time, Yi sun-shin made full use of his ingenuity to invent the turtle ship, but the turtle ship could only fight in the coastal waters. Li sun-shin also realized that the ship he designed needed more advanced power than wind. It is rare, but North Korea has no ability to improve the turtle boats, so in this attack, the North Korean navy used 20-year-old turtle boats.

The Chinese navy did not take the turtle ships seriously. Regardless of the maneuverability or firepower of the ships, the four-masted battleships, three-masted cruisers, and schooners all surpassed the turtle ships, and their artillery fire could hit at close range. Wearing turtle ship armor: The firepower of the turtle ship is basically unable to cause damage to the Chinese warships within the same distance. The armor of the turtle ship was not intended to resist the bombardment of heavy artillery and large naval guns, but to protect soldiers against bows and arrows The North Koreans in the Yi sun-shin era never dreamed that there were such weapons as large cannons.

More than 30 turtle ship warships of Li Jiayu's turtle ship fleet were all sunk by the Chinese army fleet in one morning.

The takeaway result of the naval battle off the coast of Busan was that a detachment of the Marine Corps landed in Busan Port and burned the entire port, and the reckless naval commander Li Jiayu committed suicide on the sunken ship in the port.

The Northern Fleet of the Chinese Army was delayed for ten days because of the Pusan ​​incident, and then continued northward, landing at the mouth of the Tumen River in early August.

The south bank of the Tumen River is the territory of Korea, and the north bank is now under the jurisdiction of the Houjin Kingdom. In fact, the banks of the Tumen River were originally the land of the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Koryo, which had entered the end of the world, proposed to the Ming court to transfer Tieling (now Korea) The land north of the junction of South Hamgyong-do and Gangwon-do) was assigned to it, but was rejected by the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, pointed out that the Central Plains Dynasty "had set up a guard in Tieling", and Koryo's move was a "self-provoked provocation". The Ministry of Etiquette told the King of Goryeo to "be peaceful and not provoke trouble."

In fact, during the Goryeo Dynasty, the northern border of Korea was still in the area south of Hamhung, North Korea today. After the establishment of the Joseon Dynasty, the Jurchens were expelled, and the territory of the country continued to advance northward, extending to the Yalu River and the Tumen River. Although the Ming court appeased the Jurchen tribes in the Tumen River Basin, they did not protect the interests of the Jurchens. They were satisfied with North Korea's "great sincerity" and were busy appeasing the surrounding areas. In the end, Jianzhou Zuowei moved from the south bank of the Tumen River to the north bank of the Tumen River, causing the Ming Dynasty to lose all of its territory on the south bank of the Tumen River. In the south bank area of ​​the middle and lower reaches, six towns of Huining, Funing, Zhongcheng, Wencheng, Qingyuan, and Qingxing were set up successively. The Ming Dynasty gave a large area of ​​land to North Korea for nothing, and what they got in exchange was only a nominal tribute from North Korea. .

Now the Chinese army has not entered the range of the six towns in the northeast of North Korea, but Wonsan, the transportation center in this area, has been controlled by the Chinese army, and King Gwanghae of North Korea ordered the towns in the northeast to support the Chinese army in combat. A total of 10000 members of the northern corps and the infantry Ryukyu regiment landed at the mouth of the Tumen River, and immediately marched inland along the Tumen River with the assistance of the Koreans.

At the same time, the main force of the first and fifth divisions of the Chinese Army crossed the Yalu River in Yizhou and went north; the second and sixth divisions, cavalry brigade, and artillery brigade of the Chinese Army went north to attack Liaoyang. To exterminate the Jurchen rebels for the Ming Dynasty, a reward of 5000 taels of silver and 1000 acres of land in Liaodong was offered to Nurhachi's head. The low price made Nurhachi very annoyed.

After the war started, the Chinese army pushed slowly and steadily from Kuandian to Sarhu, from Haizhou and Gaizhou to Liaoyang. Mountains opened the way, and a large number of rafts were made to be pushed along the Jiajiang River on both sides of the Tumen River. This road trekked hard in the primitive dense forest. Most of the scattered Jurchen tribe villages encountered had no more than a hundred people, and they hardly encountered any resistance. The biggest difficulty is the virgin forest. The thick leaves in the dense forest with almost no roads can almost bury an adult. Numerous streams and criss-crossing trees block the way of the marines. They can march for a few miles, at most no more than ten miles, and almost all of them have become lumberjacks and road builders.

On the front line of Liaodong, the Eight Banners soldiers seem to have no intention of confronting the Chinese army at all. Sanhe, Dongsheng, Changjing, Changning, Changding, Xin'an, Xindian, Kuandian, Dadian, Yongdian, and Weining in the east of Liaoyang Dozens of fortified towns such as Wujingying, Anshan, Haizhou, Dongchang, Yaozhou, and Gaizhou were voluntarily abandoned by the Eight Banners soldiers one after another.

The Chinese Army maintained a strict front and advanced northward. Zeng Shan and Zhao Tie used locals in the recovery area to form a Liaodong security regiment, and placed some Chinese Army soldiers recruited locally in the previous year as officers in the security regiment. After recovering towns, the Chinese Army Basically, there are no garrisoned combat troops, only civilian officials stationed in the Taiwan Institute of Political Affairs to manage general affairs, and the Chinese Army only stationed troops in Haizhou, Gaizhou, Anshan, Wujingying and other traffic gateways to build fortifications and protect logistics routes.

One month after the North Road Tumen River Task Force took the lead in fighting, the Chinese Army’s West Route Army came to Liaoyang, and the East Route Army broke through the border wall and entered the mainland of Jin Kingdom. The Marine Corps Task Force of the Northern Fleet was still trekking in the dense forest. The army and the main force of the Eight Banners basically did not meet face to face. What happened between the two armies was mostly intense, short, and small-scale cavalry outposts, raids, and scouting cavalry battles between the two sides. In the face of the fierce firepower of the Chinese army, the Manchus The Eight Banners soldiers basically gave up all attempts at urban defense warfare.

"The soldiers of the Eight Banners retreated across the board, don't they dare to fight us?"

In the camp of the West Route Army of the Chinese Army outside Liaoyang City, Yang Dacheng, the deputy chief of the Liaodong March, looked at the staff officers in the tent seriously, pointed to the map hanging in the tent and said: "Our army marched northward for eleven days and killed and wounded the Eight Banners soldiers. But there are more than a hundred people, and we haven't fought a decent battle. Is it necessary for us to advance steadily ten miles a day?"